57: Pivoting and Growing with Caitlin Iles

This past year has been extremely hard for the service industry. Going from in person experience to offering your services online can be very difficult. But this is a pivot that many entrepreneurs had to make.

Balance between serving and selling

When promoting your service business, it can be difficult to find the balance between serving and selling. You want to offer free beneficial content because you are in a kind of business where people need to know who you are, they need to trust you. Also, some people can’t afford to work with a coach at a specific time and by sharing your content, you can provide some of that support, some of that guidance, and then when they are in a position to work with someone or want to work with someone, you’ll be the person that they think of.

Giving away free content

But you need to be careful when it comes to giving away free content. You don’t go giving away huge, big programs that you’ve put weeks and weeks of work into. But, doing an hour free demo or free cooking class can really be a great way for people to get to know you. And then from those experiences, you will also get some requests and potential clients. Just being out there and being visible, letting your passion shine through, it comes back to you. When you’re generous in what you give, it comes back to you in a way that’s really powerful and really meaningful. 

This doesn’t mean go help every single person one-on-one, because you’re not going to have any time left over for your business. Instead, you are doing something that’s more visible, that’s more public, that still allows others to access your knowledge, but in a way that is one to many. You do it only once and impact multiple people.

Listen to your audience

An important thing when it comes to pivoting in your business is to listen to your audience. Asking questions and engaging with your audience to make sure what you are offering is something that they want is extremely important. Having those conversations with people and getting that feedback is simplifying because you’re not wasting your time doing something people don’t care about. So, think about who those people are, where they are now and where they want to be, and how can you get them there.