I’ve spoken before about why you need to find your soul marketing message, especially as a coach – or if you help others empower themselves in any way. So hopefully you’re already on message and are ready to find yours.
If you haven’t, it’s probably worth a read to get firm in your reasons why you need one before you read on. So go read part 1. It’s okay, I can wait…
So, now you’re clear on why you need your ‘why’, let’s take a look at one method I use with my clients to dig deep and find their soul marketing message.
Ingredients
To find your soul marketing message you need to get honest and vulnerable with yourself (if you’re not familiar with the work of the brilliant Brené Brown, I suggest you go look her up!). And it really helps to look after yourself properly with healthy habits so you feel healthy and clear-minded when you do this.
True self-care is about more than face masks and pedicures – it’s about nourishing your body with water, sleep and good, nutritious food. It’s about feeding your brain with fresh oxygen and good information. It’s about giving your liver less work in detoxing your body by limiting (or preferably avoiding altogether) alcohol, processed food and tobacco smoke.
Essential wellness steps include making sure you are well-rested, well-nourished, managing your stress levels and getting plenty of exercise and fresh air.
Without these things in place, it can be a struggle to have the clarity and presence of mind to tap in to hear the messages your intuition has for you and to trust that you’re listening to the right inner voice (Clue – everyone has at least 2 – my husband is convinced that I hire out an exhibition centre in my mind to make important decisions, just so that all the versions of me can have their say…)
Method
Personally, I always start by just getting myself spiritually centred and mentally prepared. I always recommend doing this before you head into any kind of creative work.
Some people like to light a candle and have a pre-creation session ritual, maybe burn a little sage around their creative space. You can do this if you want, but you don’t have to. Do what works for you. The point is to get yourself into a good head space to create.
One great way to begin a session is with something called ‘Box Breathing’ It really calms the mind and gets you in the zone. Close your eyes, then breathe… In… 2… 3… 4… Hold… 2… 3… 4… Out… 2… 3… 4… Hold… 2… 3… 4… repeat this four times. When you open your eyes again you should feel much calmer and ‘in the zone’.
The purpose of this is to quieten those loud, obtrusive, self-sabotaging voices and tune into the quiet, kind, helpful voice deep within. The voice that tells you that you are good enough, the one that tells you that you can be successful, that you are powerful and can do anything you want – be anything you want.
Now the real work begins.
1. Go back to the beginning of your business story
Take your mind back to when you first decided to start your business. What were your reasons? Were you solving your own problem/scratching your own itch? Or was it something you’d done for many years before as an employee? If that’s the case, think back to when you decided to learn that skill or do your particular thing.
What were your reasons for doing it? Have you always loved it or wanted to do it? It’s really important to remind yourself why you chose to do what you do, because it helps to reignite that sense of passion into what you go on to write.
If that passion is absent, you have to ask yourself other questions, because if we’ve learned anything since the start of 2020, it’s that life truly is too short.
Now open your eyes and write down everything that came to mind.
2. Think about who you help
Now think of those people you most want to help in your business. Consider these questions:
- Who are they?
- Are they you a few years ago?
- What’s their pain point?
- What do they struggle with most?
- How can you relate to them?
- What is the solution you are going to offer them?
Think also about the kinds of people you WANT to work with. Which personality types do you resonate with? What sort of people give you energy? Who drains you?
This is not necessarily about their business or occupation, but their personality traits. The kind of people you click with, that you resonate with. Who are they?
So, just give some thought to those questions, and write down what comes to mind.
3. Picture these people in your mind’s eye
Spend a few minutes reading over these notes. Form an image in your mind of the type of person you really love and want to work with. Picture someone in your mind – this might be a current client who fits your criteria perfectly or somebody you know already who you would love to work with.
Imagine that person as a ball of energy in your mind and move the consciousness of that person down from your head to your heart and connect with their soul. This hypothetical client is a sort of composite character created in your head but who very much exist out there in many different people. This is who you will be speaking to in your marketing.
So now, ask them:
- How are you suffering…?
- What is your pain…?
- What do you need from me…?
And just sit quietly in meditation and see what comes to you. Give yourself some time to really feel what they are telling you. Write down what comes to you.
Really FEEL the answers, don’t think them. Write down what comes to you naturally, don’t question it. Spend a bit of time on this, really listen to what they have to tell you.
Write down everything – don’t be afraid of the messages that come to you.
This is your intuition. Trust it. Trust yourself.
4. Putting it all together
Now, using the answers your soul client has given you, create a mind map – or whatever works best for you – to collate these ideas.
Using these answers at the centre of the map, brainstorm things you can write about that speak directly to them, that answers their questions. Any words or sentences that come to mind, get it all down on paper.
I love to use mind maps for this and I’m an old school pen and paper kind of gal. Coloured pens really float my boat as I’ve mentioned before!
Write your niche or business name in the middle and fill the page with your ideas, connecting those that flow together.
So what do we do with all of this?
These are the beginnings of your keywords that you can use in your blog strategy. There are then ways that you can go on to check what people are Googling around these terms so you can write posts that correspond with the language people are using around your niche.
Don’t obsess about whether this is ‘right or wrong’. There is no right or wrong here and no police are coming to arrest you if you write something that doesn’t end up getting used!
The point with creativity is that you write down more than you need and pick out the best stuff. The more you write down at this stage, the more ideas you will have when you look for content ideas. You should end up with enough content ideas to last you 6 months or more.
As a dearly departed friend used to say, ‘I’d rather be looking at it than looking for it.’
You cannot write too much at this stage. Cutting down and editing comes later.
The important thing here is that it feels right to you. That it feels aligned with what you aim to achieve with your business. If nobody else is saying these things, so much the better… Maybe you’ve hit upon a new way of looking at something, and that’s fantastic! It will resonate with somebody, and those people are your tribe.
You may have just stumbled upon your legacy to the world!
So did you find your soul marketing message?
I hope this helped you to tap into and trust your intuition better. It’s something that I believe more people need to learn to do.
Let me know in the comments, and I invite you to book a FREE half-hour discovery call with me if you feel you need more help with this. Or sign up to my newsletter to be informed of upcoming workshops I run on this topic.
Or we really dig deep on the subject in my mentorship program, Business Embodiment.