The Desert of Arizona
Sunny 46 Degrees
When you are new to the Platform approach to attracting clients, readjusting your timeline for when YOU think clients should show up is sometimes a challenge.
Most service providers want to “get” clients. When you use a word like that, it kind of implies that you do a certain activity that generates a certain result.
You send out postcards, you get clients. It’s a simple and linear relationship.
When you get your Platform off the ground and start publishing your newsletter, or your podcast (or whatever it is), you have to blast your linear thinking model to pieces and choose a new one.
We’re not getting clients, we’re not attracting clients, we’re GROWING them.
The quickest way to realign your thinking about this is to view yourself as a farmer. A farmer doesn’t just throw water on the field and get corn. It’s not a linear relationship like that. Other things are needed at various times.
You don’t “get” corn, you grow it.
You invest in the right ingredients, you nurture the soil, you get some sun, you throw in time, and voila, you’ve got corn.
If you’re impatient that your Platform isn’t producing, is it because it’s not working or because you went in with unrealistic expectations about how it’s supposed to work?
It takes time. You get the corn MONTHS after you plant it. And it’s the same with the Platform. The farmer doesn’t go out after month 1 and wonder why there’s no corn to eat. That would be a recipe for misery. Every day, expecting corn and seeing no corn. That’d be enough to drive someone nuts!
You need to be in it for the long term. If that’s not what you want, then why don’t you do something where making a longer term commitment seems right?
To me, this Platform stuff is work worth doing. You can forget about “getting clients” and you can just start “living off the land.”
You might be able to “get” clients other ways. But you won’t get better clients. The Platform approach will grow you a client who views YOU as their only logical choice.