Marketing Advice: How You Can Survive and Thrive This Holiday Season!

Do you go through the same slump every year? It begins somewhere in November. Your business slacks and you realize that your income is going to come way down at the very time when you want to be spending and buying. You get sad and then you get scared and before you know it, you’re in a full blown depression. Somehow the thought ,” Desperation doesn’t sell” finds a way into your already crowded brain. How can you turn this around, or better yet, nip it in the bud? Here is a way to survive, even thrive this Holiday Season:

Think outside the box:

Here’s an example:

It’s Tuesday afternoon and I’m giving a coaching session to one of my clients, Sandy. I ask her how she is doing and she admits to not only being nervous about money but being downright panicked. Her fear was real. She wasn’t even sure how she was going to cover her rent in January.

Sandy is a new real estate agent and had planned to have some escrows to get her through the holidays which never materialized. When I questioned her on marketing strategies she said , “I really think I’m doing everything I can do.”

The voice of fear:

When we dialogued with the nervous, scared part of her , we found out some useful information. Basically this was a very practical part of her. It wanted bottom line results. Nothing vague would do. It said loud and clear, “Show me the money!”

Now Sandy had something valuable to work with—the only solution to calming down her fear was to manifest money and do it quickly.

She looked at me, stumped. “I’m using every real estate strategy that I know and I’m getting desperate. “ So I asked her what other skills, talents and abilities she had. “Well , I used to do waitressing in the past.” So I asked her about doing that temporarily to get her through the slump. “Oh, I can’t possibility do that, because everyone in my town would see me and think I was a failure in real estate.” When I suggested that she find work out of her immediate vicinity she remembered she had some restaurant connections in a nearby city.

Transforming fear into action:

Her mood lightened and the worried expression changed to a smile. “ Yeah maybe I can do that but how do I keep from feeling like I’ve failed at my major career?” So I asked her, “How many actors and actresses do you think waited tables in Hollywood before becoming famous?” We put our heads together and figured more than 80%.

So I said, “What if they looked at their waiter or waitress job and labled themselves as failures because they had to do socalled menial work to survive?” Sandy carefully considered what I said and decided that she would adopt the same attitude. Further she decided that this meant she really was successful because she was committed to success. She was willing to do whatever it took to succeed in her chosen career.

Look for immediate feedback:

When our session ended, Sandy was looking quite pleased with herself and I knew she was on the right track. What I wasn’t expecting was immediate feedback. She called me about 10 minutes after the session , and very excitedly told me , “I did it, I called my restaurant connections and I already have 3 jobs at 3 parties. They all sound like a blast! The last one is a masquerade party and I’m really looking forward to it.”

She proved my point , you can always turn fear into action. Furthermore, if you focus on what gives you joy, you’ll find a way to get paid for what you love to do.