Embrace the Shift: Strategies for Thriving as an Entrepreneur in a Changing Market
The Power of Market Research
Market research is often overlooked or begrudgingly undertaken by entrepreneurs. However, it is a fundamental step in understanding your current position and identifying future opportunities. Amy emphasizes the importance of curiosity—adopting a mindset that seeks to understand your audience deeply.
1. Identify Client Desires: Start by examining what your audience wants. This isn’t just about guessing but actively engaging with them through surveys, polls, and direct interactions. Are your products or services aligning with their needs? Use social media platforms to conduct informal polls or ask for feedback.
2. Leverage Personal Experience: Often, your ideal client may be a past version of yourself. Reflect on what content, emails, or offers drew you in when you were in their shoes. This self-awareness can guide your current strategies to resonate more deeply with your audience.
3. Analyze the Data: When you collect feedback, go beyond the surface. Don’t just count the votes in a poll—analyze who is saying what. Are the responders your ideal clients? This granular analysis helps refine your messaging and ensure it speaks directly to your target audience.
Market research is about staying ahead of the curve. It allows you to identify gaps and position your offerings uniquely, rather than blending into the market noise.
Reconnect with Your Network
Your network is one of your greatest assets, especially in times of market shifts. Reconnecting with referral partners and industry contacts can yield incredible benefits.
1. Seek to Serve: Amy advocates for approaching your network with a service mindset. Instead of reaching out with a pitch, ask how you can support them. This genuine attempt to help often results in reciprocity. People remember those who assisted them, creating a natural referral and support system.
2. Maintain Regular Contact: Check in with past clients and referral partners periodically. This doesn’t have to be about business—sometimes a simple “How are you doing?” can reignite a relationship. Amy stresses that building these connections keeps you top of mind without appearing desperate.
3. Collaborate and Share: Offer to share your network’s content, recommend their services, or collaborate on projects. Such actions reinforce partnerships and show you value the relationship beyond immediate gains.
Investing in these relationships doesn't just build goodwill; it can also be a direct line to new opportunities and insights that you may not discover on your own.
Nurture Existing Relationships
While it’s human nature to chase new opportunities, nurturing your existing relationships can offer substantial returns. Amy emphasizes three areas to focus on: past clients, current followers, and long-term connections.
1. Engage Past Clients: Regularly check in with past clients. Offer them value, whether it’s a free consultation, a discount on a future purchase, or simply asking for their feedback. This can lead to repeat business and valuable testimonials.
2. Appreciate Current Followers: A common mistake is to overlook your current audience while chasing new followers. Engage with those who are already in your world by creating interactive content, responding to their comments, and showing appreciation for their support.
3. Leverage Testimonials and Referrals: Actively request testimonials from satisfied clients and encourage them to refer others. These personal endorsements can be powerful marketing tools. Additionally, consider creating a referral incentive program to reward clients who bring in new business.
Focusing on these relationships ensures you build a loyal customer base that can sustain and grow your business, even in uncertain times.
Conclusion
Navigating a shifting market requires a strategic approach that encompasses understanding your audience through rigorous market research, reconnecting with your network, and nurturing existing relationships. By focusing on these three strategies, you can transform obstacles into opportunities, maintain momentum, and achieve the business growth you desire. Remember, action creates momentum, and momentum creates results. Embrace the shift, get curious, and start focusing on the opportunities that lie ahead. Cheers to making the money you want and creating the impact you desire!
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Transcript for Episode 338. 3 Simple Ways to Navigate a Shift in the Market
Amy [00:00:02]:
Can we all agree that the market is shifting? And for a lot of entrepreneurs that I've been talking to lately, this is scary, because we don't know what the future holds. If you are one of those entrepreneurs that's burnt out, stressed out, and considering going back to your nine to five, realize this is an opportunity. This is a beautiful opportunity right in front of you. And in this episode of the Motivated CEO podcast, we are breaking down three strategies, three ways to navigate this shift. Simple things that you can do to take advantage of this amazing opportunity that is at hand. So, first of all, if you're, like, raising your hand going, this is me, you're not alone. You're not alone. I am hearing this from countless entrepreneurs in different networking groups, from my referral partners all over the place.
Amy [00:01:09]:
But there's something so simple that we can do three things. Actually. The first thing, before we even dive into those, I want you to stop for a minute and just take a really deep breath. I want you to breathe in through your nose. Hold that deep breath and let it out. What that does is it instantly calms down our nervous systems. Anytime we're feeling stressed, anytime those stress hormones that cortisol is pumping, we forget to breathe. And that suppresses our ability to critically think, that higher level thinking pattern is disrupted.
Amy [00:01:52]:
So realize that this is an opportunity. Right now, you may be focused on all the obstacles that you're facing, and that's a very real thing. That is simply your brain trying to keep you safe. Your brain is designed for survival, but this is an opportunity. When we're so focused on what's not working, a lot of times what's happening is we're missing these opportunities that are right in front of us. But this is an opportunity to refocus and grow, grow our business exponentially. When everybody else is focused on what's not working, how can we, as entrepreneurs, keep the ball rolling, keep that momentum going, and use this as information to make slight little adjustments in our program services and offers so that we can continue to see the growth, the trajectory of our business going in the direction that we want. So, my first way to navigate this is market research.
Amy [00:03:00]:
And I know this is not a fun part of business. We hear this all the time. You give your people what they want, but by taking the time to reach out and actually see what do people desire? Are your products, are your services filling that need for those people that are in your audience? That's huge. That's huge. And it all starts with curiosity. You're gathering information. You're getting curious. Even use yourself as an example.
Amy [00:03:37]:
Many times in business, we're actually a past version. Our ideal clients are a past version of ourselves. So get curious and see. Okay, what email headlines caused me to open up the email? What podcast episodes make me hit play? Which social media posts do I find myself really resonating with and leverage social media to get this information? I put polls on social media all of the time because I am here to serve you. It's not about me. It's not about what I want to build. It's okay, where are the gaps? What are you dealing with? And how can I position myself as the solution to help you achieve your goals? That's the key. How can I help you achieve your goals? That information right there is gold.
Amy [00:04:39]:
Because what we think and the reality, there can often be a disconnect between the two. So once you gather this information, let's use polls for an example. I want you to go in and not just look at the number of people that said a or b. I want you to look at who exactly said one or the other, who said yes or no. Because that right there is an often overlooked step. We're taking the time to gather the data, but what we're doing is like, okay, are these people actually the people that this program would be intended for this service? Are those people responding in a certain way? My ideal clients. So always make sure to, again, get curious, go that level deeper, and ask yourself, are these the people that I am trying to target? That gives you a really good indicator as to, is your messaging actually working? Is it leading to those conversions? Are you moving your business in the trajectory that you want? But this market research, it helps you find where those gaps are and stay ahead of the curve and learn how you can stand out, how you can develop something new versus blending in and doing what everyone else is doing. So listening, getting curious and listening to what people are saying is step number one.
Amy [00:06:22]:
Another way that you can navigate this shift is to reconnect to with your network, reconnect with your referral partners, seek to serve, check in with them. Don't go and just pitch yourself and be like, hey, I need you to refer my people. No, don't come across with this desperate energy. What I encourage you to do is check in with them. And, hey, how are you doing? Is there anything I can do to support you? Can I share anything out for you? What can I do to help you? Because, my friend, the law of reciprocity is real. It is real. And when you seek to serve others. You're staying top of mind.
Amy [00:07:08]:
You're not having to be desperate and exude that desperate energy. People can totally pick up on it, like, hey, buy my thing. I need you to send more people to my paid program. No, what can I do to support you? Because what that's going to do is then they will go, well, wait a minute, I want to support you too. You know, people don't want it to be just a one way street. Yes, there's those situations where that occurs, but people want to genuinely help. So take the time to check in with your referral partners. Check in with people that you've worked with in the past and seek to serve and finally nurture.
Amy [00:07:53]:
Nurture those that are already in your world. This feels counterintuitive, right? A lot of times we're so focused on more. I need more followers. I need more of this. I need more of that. Okay, more is great. I want you to have goals. I want you to be getting yourself out there, being visible, being loud.
Amy [00:08:16]:
But when things really slow down, take the time to really be intentional with those that have already opted into your world. And this looks several different ways. This could be past clients. Check in with them. Hey, is there anything you need? Would you like a refresher? What can I do to support you? And even asking them, hey, if you know of someone, I would love an introduction. I would love a referral. Again, you're positioning yourself top of mind. Have a referral incentive program in place.
Amy [00:09:02]:
Or ask them for testimonials. Ask them for reviews that you can use to leverage, especially if you are a local service based business. Those reviews on Google are gold. Your Google business listing is going to help bump you up to the top of search. If you are an online service provider, really leverage those testimonials in your marketing, throughout your copy on your website. Leverage them to show people the transformation. Show them what is possible. There's so many different ways you can do this.
Amy [00:09:42]:
And even for products, check back in with people and ask them, hey, you bought this. How was it? What did you think? How can we improve this? Maybe offer them 10% off their next purchase? Again, bumping that awareness up and seeking to massively serve them, provide them value. They've already said, yeah, I like what you do and I want your thing. So they're already in your world, they're already on your email list, they're already bought into you. So if you continue to serve them, taking the time to check in with them, here's a good question. Ask yourself, when's the last time you actually connected with someone that started following you on social media. I'm not saying, hey, you need to pitch them when they can drop into your dm's. You know, when they start to follow you.
Amy [00:10:36]:
Please, please, please, please do not go, hey, buy my thing. No, just start a conversation. Show them that you see them. Ask them what they need. That's something I've started doing here on the podcast. We are going to be introducing a series called ask me anything. And what I want is I want this to be a way to serve you. This podcast.
Amy [00:11:07]:
I have topics I could talk about all day, but I am here to serve you. And I want to know, if you could pick my brain, what would your question be? And I want you to submit it to me. If you just go to the link in the show notes, you can take any business question, submit it to me, and what I'll do is I'll shout you out. I'll shout you out on your episode when it drops. If you are selected, there's a simple form to fill out. But what I'm doing is I'm using this as an avenue to further connect with you, to provide value to you. Because it doesn't matter if down the road, you never buy anything from me. That is totally fine.
Amy [00:11:50]:
I am here to serve. And when you seek to serve, what that does is it amplifies your authority, it builds that connection, and it really allows you to stay top of mind. It is a win win. So take the time. Say hello to your new connections on LinkedIn. Say hello to your new followers. Be a human. At the end of the day, that's what this comes down to.
Amy [00:12:23]:
So if you have hit that plateau, if you feel stuck, like nothing is working, I want you to take this as an opportunity to do those three things, to do your market research, to reconnect with your network, and to nurture those that are already in your world. When you implement those three things, you'll see results. That needle will start moving. That ball will start rolling. Action creates momentum, and momentum creates results. Shift. Get curious and start focusing on the opportunities instead of the obstacles. I am here cheering for you.
Amy [00:13:17]:
And until next time, cheers to making the money you want so that you can create the impact you desire.
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