“I am embarrassed to be a weight loss coach.”

“I do way more with people than _______.”

“I don’t want to be just another weight loss coach.”

We had a great conversation about this recently. Wendy said, “I help women over 40 with movement, food, stress, and sleep. I don’t want to be known just for weight loss.”

Another woman is in the same boat. An athlete, trainer, and champion of women, Jen admits that she’s a bit embarrassed to really own that she helps women lose weight. Like, 50 pounds or more. Even though she is really amazing at it.

It’s not just people in the weight loss camp who are wrestling with this issue.

What’s interesting is how much pressure we put on ourselves to say the “perfect thing” about who we are and what we do in business.

And on top of that, how much we are making things harder on ourselves than they need to be.

Whether you help people in corporate reinvigorate their careers (and make time for their own personal projects), help people get their finances in order, or help excavate their purpose in life (and then go be it)… it’s sometime tough to make a decision about the main benefit of your work.

If you find yourself wrestling with this, here are some tips:

• What’s the judgment? Often I notice that people have a judgment about the main benefit they know they “should” choose… but are resisting. As Jen the reluctant weight loss coach says: “I’ve never met a woman with a weight problem. It’s always something deeper.” Maybe you think weight loss is overdone. Maybe you think it’s kinda tacky. Maybe you know its just the tip of the iceberg. Just notice what judgment you have around the result.

• What’s the payoff for resisting traditional marketing advice? Maybe some guru told you you HAD to pick that benefit. Maybe you are, like me, a contrarian with just a kiss of oppositional defiance thrown in, just for fun. Look underneath your resistance to being someone who helps people _____. What’s there?

• Get them in the door. Ask yourself: what is it that potential clients always want to talk to you about? And then let me ask you: are you willing to pretend that that is the #1 result you get for your clients (even though you and I know you are doing WAY more?) It can be as simple as telling people you help people lose weight, get their business online, develop a new profit stream, or let go of a job they don’t love to do work that makes them feel alive.

Hint: one of the things that we kept saying to each other on the call yesterday is “well, that is what gets them in the door.” I don’t mean to sound callous or like the hooker who, when asked her name, says “whatever you want it to be.”

(Hookers!)

But I do mean to tell you that every business owner needs to know what issue gets their people in the door. Period.

“I contain multitudes,” wrote the poet Walt Whitman. I bet you do, too. But don’t let that stop you from picking ONE main benefit in your work – and letting that be the thread that runs through your message. It doesn’t need to be cute, clever, or even original for it to work.

I’m all for putting more personality in your projects and campaigns, but that’s frosting. Make sure your foundation is clear, single-pointed, and a benefit that people really want.

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February 2015 Issue