How To Handle Sales Rejection With Grace

April 21, 2015 by admin

by Ariana Newcomer

Have you ever gone into a sales conversation with a prospective client DREADING the whole thing? I have.

The fear of rejection is a powerful one, and it is what stops most women entrepreneurs from getting more clients.

Rejection can trigger deep, core emotions, and even make us feel our survival is in question. We learned to avoid situations that could cause us to feel threatened this way – to protect our tender, inner selves.

As entrepreneurs, however, we have to grow past these self-imposed limitations. I’ve written before about “Business As A Transformational Journey.” Getting past and transforming our fear of rejection in sales conversations is crucial to our success.

We need to let go of what one of my mentors calls “spiritual stubbornness,” too. For spirit-driven entrepreneurs, fear of rejection mingles with the story that money shouldn’t even be part of what we do, which can cause almost total paralysis, along with big time resentment and the pain of not succeeding in our deep purpose.

I can’t tell you how many times I hear these stories from my clients: “I shouldn’t charge for what I do because it’s my calling,” or “my gift” or “I should just be giving this away if I’m really spiritual.”

As we shift into embracing money as part of our spiritual path, along with using the strategies I’m going to give you today, we open up wonderful possibilities for ourselves – not just in our businesses, but in all our relationships, and in our spiritual dimension as well.

Growing in this specific area helps us let go of old patterns of self doubt and feeling unworthy that we definitely don’t need to carry around anymore!

Would you like to handle sales rejection with grace?

Great! I’ve got 3 strategies for you to step into your power in sales conversations when you feel threatened by rejection.Continue Reading

Why You Need To Add VIP Days To Your Business

March 25, 2015 by admin

by Ariana Newcomer

I love doing VIP days with my clients. Here’s why YOU need to add them to your biz:

You can implement them immediately, and use them over and over again.
Give your business a quick infusion of cash anytime you need it.
They are flexible – they give you so many different ways to offer services that are easy to deliver, and that clients will pay for.
Use them to increase the value of your programs and trainings, by offering them as a bonus.
Get a specific result FAST.
Increase your credibility and status as an expert.
Make more for your time.
A VIP Day is something that’s easy for clients to say yes to.

What is a VIP Day?

It is concentrated time – just one day – with one person (or a group), focusing on a specific topic with very structured content.

A VIP Day can go in-depth on your topic, or you can do an overview. You have the time to deep-dive and co-create with your client(s) in a way that is magical and transformational.

VIP Days can be in person or virtual. Each has its benefits.Continue Reading

Sorry! Do Women Need To Stop Saying It?

March 19, 2015 by admin

by Ariana Newcomer

We say it all the time.

A lot of the times we say “sorry,” it’s just a reflex, and not really needed. Sometimes it’s actually appropriate.

Do you know the difference?

I have a colleague who says it all the time, even when she’s doing what she’s supposed to be doing! She says it’s a thing the English do, and perhaps they do it more than Americans, but frankly, it’s a thing many WOMEN do all the time. How many times a day do you say “sorry?”

We grew up with our mothers saying it. We learned to be NICE and to please others. Part of being nice was learning to apologize all the time – for anything that made others uncomfortable, or might possibly make someone uncomfortable. We learned to take care of others first, and to apologize for taking care of ourselves.

We also tend to “talk down” or deprecate ourselves, rather than acknowledge our successes, to make others feel more comfortable. When someone compliments our dress, we say “Oh, this old thing?” or “Oh, yours is so much nicer.” When someone congratulates us, we say “I couldn’t have done it without help.”

Some self-deprecation, especially done with humor, DOES help make others feel comfortable, and can help us connect. But we can overdo it to the point where it becomes self-sabotaging.Continue Reading

Making Money Wrong

February 25, 2015 by admin

I’ve done my share of it. Spirit-driven and service-oriented women are especially likely to make money wrong.

We have stories we grew up with, that came from religions, that we absorbed from our culture. Money is the root of all evil. It’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven. Rich people are selfish and greedy. Caring about money makes me a bad person. I can’t be a spiritual person and be wealthy.

Here’s one of mine I uncovered last year: If I make a lot of money, I’ll no longer be an artist. (This is of a piece with the mentality that if I go for lots of money as an artist, I’m “selling out.”) That was really holding me back!

There are plenty more of them, too. Some people believe that we need to get rid of money entirely and have a “gift economy” where people give and receive freely, sharing and taking care of each other.

If you’re making money wrong, you won’t allow yourself to get much of it, which means you won’t be working with (serving) many people. Your impact in the world will be small.

What is money, really? It’s a medium of exchange. The coins and pieces of paper don’t have any value in and of themselves. They have value because we say they do, and because everyone agrees. We give it in exchange for things and services.

Money makes it easier for us than if we had to exchange actual stuff for everything. This is the barter or trade system. It works well if you want chickens and your client wants to trade you her chickens for your services. It breaks down when you don’t want chickens and that’s all she has to barter with. (You also don’t want to have to take her chickens, then trade them for something else you really do want, because you have no place to keep chickens in the meantime.)

If you got chickens for your services, would the chickens then be “the root of all evil?” Of course not.

Perspective is Everything

February 18, 2015 by admin

Perhaps the most important lesson I’ve learned in my personal growth journey (and my transformational business journey) is that perspective is everything.

There’s what happens to me, and there’s my perspective (my story) about what happens, and the two are not the same. I don’t always get to choose what happens, but I get to choose my perspective.

I’ve had to learn this profound lesson over and over. When I forget to check in about my perspective, I can get into some deep doo-doo. When I remember to ask, “Is this perspective useful to me or not,” I have the option to choose. If the perspective is not useful (would make things worse, keep things stuck, or make me or someone else miserable), I’ve learned to shift my story about what happened.Continue Reading

Your Voice In The World

February 11, 2015 by admin

We’ve just recently celebrated one of our country’s most extraordinary leaders, Martin Luther King, Jr. I’m proud to say that my Dad was on the famous march with MLK from Selma to Montgomery. He and several others went from our town in Connecticut to be part of one of the seminal events of their time.

My Dad was a minister and a charismatic, compelling speaker. My Mom worked for change by supporting my Dad, and by also being a passionate voice for change with us kids, her students, friends and her communities.

One of my parents’ gifts to me was this legacy of passionate engagement, of speaking up and speaking out for change. It’s natural to me to be a voice for change. That’s what I grew up with. When I got older, I was involved in protests against the Vietnam war.

I’m now speaking out for change in the way we run our world. I speak for true partnership between men and women, rather than domination of one over the other (traditionally male over female). I speak out for change in our economy so we can have a planet we can continue to live on.Continue Reading