Mindset to Market: Holistic Business Tools for Solopreneurs with Deborah C. Smith

#137 - The 5 Foundations of a Sustainable Solopreneur Business

Deborah C. Smith Season 1 Episode 137

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0:00 | 37:29

You got trained to do the work you love.

Now apparently you also need to become a marketer, salesperson and content creator?

If the thought of constantly creating content and selling yourself online makes you question whether you even WANT to run a business, this episode is for you.

A recent conversation with a friend graduating from a three-year Yoga Therapy program at Kripalu brought me straight back to 2006, when I graduated from my own health coaching program.

I knew how to help people.

What I didn't know was how the heck I was supposed to FIND enough of those people to build a viable business.

Almost 20 years later, helping other women solve that exact problem has become a huge part of my work.

In this episode, I'm breaking down the five foundational pillars I believe every expertise-based solopreneur needs to build a sustainable business — and why I recently added an entirely new fifth pillar to my Foundations program after watching what my clients needed AFTER successfully launching their offers.

Because yes, you need marketing.

Yes, you need sales.

And yes, if you're building a personal brand, creating content is probably going to be part of the job.

But it doesn't have to suck.

In this episode, you'll learn:

  • Why your marketing strategy should start with your life and capacity — not Instagram
  • How a signature offer gives your entire marketing system something to organize around
  • Why understanding real humans is more useful than creating a fictional "ideal client"
  • How to develop messaging that sells without sounding salesy
  • What a simple customer journey looks like for a solopreneur
  • Why launching your offer is really a data-collection opportunity
  • The missing piece I discovered after helping clients build and successfully launch their offers
  • Why I've added sustainable sales + content planning as the fifth pillar of Foundations
  • How to make content easier (and even fun) by building it around your offer, expertise, personality and strengths
  • Why you don't need the biggest audience — you need enough of the RIGHT people consistently discovering your work

The 5 Foundations

1. YOU
Build around your capacity, strengths, wellness, lifestyle and the way you actually want to work.

2. YOUR SIGNATURE OFFER
Turn your expertise into a clear offer that people can understand, want and buy.

3. YOUR AUDIENCE + MESSAGING
Understand the real people who need your work and develop a voice and message that helps them recognize, "This is for me."

4. YOUR CUSTOMER JOURNEY
Create a clear path from discovering you → becoming interested → building trust → becoming a client.

5. YOUR SUSTAINABLE SALES + CONTENT PLAN
Build an ongoing visibility, audience-growth, content and sales strategy that keeps working after your launch ends.

Join Me September 22

If you're a health coach, yoga professional, holistic practitioner, healer, wellness educator, service provider or other expertise-based solopreneur thinking:

"I know how to help people. I just don't know how to turn all of this into a business without marketing becoming the part of my life I dread."

I'm teaching a free live class on September 22 at 7 PM ET:

The Solopreneur Sales System

I'll show you how these pieces fit together so you can build a marketing and sales system around YOUR expertise, YOUR strengths and the business you actually want to run.

[REGISTER FOR THE SOLPRENEUR SALES SYSTEM]

Marketing isn't separate from serving people!

It's how the people you can serve find you.

Mindset to Market is a Luminous Creative Production. If you'd like to learn more about our business coaching program and group coaching container, please visit us online at DeborahcSmith.com.

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Mindset to Market is produced by Deborah C. Smith and designed to inspire and support big-hearted creatives in finding their own unique path, building a sustainable business, and creating financial, spiritual, mental wellness and abundance.

🎉 Work with Deborah Learn More
💕 Visit Deborah online at DeborahCSmith.com
💕 Follow on the 'Gram. @deborah_smith_coaching