I work alone and for myself and have done since Find me the Leads® started in May 2018. I have always been proud to be the face, voice and personality behind my brand as this is what makes my Business unique and is a big part of what my Clients buy in to.
In the Summer of 2020, I started working with a Business Coach who advised me that in order to attract bigger, higher paying Clients I needed to start speaking in the third person rather than the first person. So, “I support Food & Drink Brands with…” became “We support Food & Drink Brands with…”
The reason behind this advice, perception! If I gave the impression that my Business is bigger than it is and that I have a team around me supporting the delivery of Client work, Clients with deeper pockets and more money to spend would come flooding in.
I totally bought into this and on all my social media posts, email marketing and New Client Meetings I started talking “we” instead of “I” – I even had a new pop up banner designed and printed with the words “We support Food & Drink Brands…”
Whilst I can see the value in this advice and the sentiment behind it, it hasn’t quite played out in practise. My existing audience have become confused about the “Royal We” I am referring to all of a sudden, I’m confused about which person I should be speaking in and most importantly I feel like I am being dishonest when communicating with Prospective Clients. Truth is, it’s me and only me that does all the work and my Clients know and like that.
A few weeks ago, I spoke to a Friend and fellow Small Business Owner who said to me:
“it’s just you in the business, right? Why don’t you embrace that!”
At the time I defended my decision as in some way by reverting back to I, I would be accepting that my Business hasn’t grown at the rate I wanted it to over the past 12 months BUT now I have embraced the advice 100% and from now on and until my Business is more than “just me” I will be:
DITCHING THE WE AND EMBRACING THE I!!
Thank you to Lauren Clark at Social on Toast who challenged my thinking and reminded me that “people buy from people” Check her out here: http://socialontoast.co.uk/