In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to business coach and mentor, Leah Gervais. 

Leah has a mentorship business, a coaching platform, and she and her team help budding entrepreneurs get their start and scale to their goals. They work with service-based entrepreneurs throughout various verticals. Leah and her team specialize in entrepreneurial mindset and marketing. 

Leah explains how social media marketing isn’t necessarily controlled by platforms like Facebook. Her principle to address this is that you should ensure your marketing isn’t reliant on other algorithms or platforms. You should focus on fostering prospect relationships on platforms where you retain full ownership of your digital assets. Don’t stake your success on a platform’s algorithms and guidelines. 

Leah also stresses that service-based business owners need to focus their efforts on sending their prospects through three different phases before prospects will buy from them. 

Consumers need to know you first, then like you, and then finally they will trust you. She also reminds service-based business owners not to forget about their existing client base (you can work with them again and again when they know, like, and trust you and your work.)

Don’t overlook the opportunities available within the client base that already trusts you. You shouldn’t ignore the top of your funnel – but don’t neglect the connections you’ve already made. You can expand and build out the funnel of nurturing new prospects without forgetting to explore your friends, family, and clients for opportunities. 

Leah believes that nurturing prospects is the most fun, creative, and unique way an entrepreneur can express who they are to prospects. Generate content that’s true to you that offers value and exists in a place where your target audience will consume it. You can explore various marketing strategies here, whether that’s video media, podcasting, micro-content with creative captions, or whatever else draws in your prospects. There is not one “best” marketing funnel, and every business is different, so be creative with your nurturing. 

Josh and Leah also explore how an entrepreneur goes from six-figures to seven-figures. Leah says she and her team suggest a three phase approach to tackle this.

First of all, raise your rates and don’t charge hourly. Do things on a project and result-driven basis. Next, say NO when necessary. You have to be exclusive and it might seem scary to “turn away money”, but the reality is that you have to be willing to say no when it’s appropriate. Finally, be ready to shift from a one-to-one model to a one-to-many model. Get to a place where your business doesn’t rely on how many hours a day you work on it. 

Learn more about Leah and her work at https://leahgervais.com/. 

Check out Leah on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/urban-20-something/about/. 

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