Invitations vs results

Because there is never one right perfect way to do things in business...

Photo credit: Unsplash

I’ve been thinking a lot about some advice I stumbled across recently.

It was all about how to craft our offers in a way that really hones in on the result we offer and really designing our containers in a way that very clearly leads to a a specific outcome and result.

Now, of course, in many ways this approach makes sense - the clearer the result the easier and more persuasive it is for someone to hit that buy button and the clearer the journey is to create for them inside too.

I don’t believe that this is bad advice or a bad approach to business.

It just isn’t the most aligned approach for me.

I’ve been doing this work for a decade now, walking with hundreds of humans in their business journey, and the lesson I’ve learned is this: I can’t promise any specific result from my offerings.

My clients and customers journeys belong to them and those journeys are beautiful at times and messy and challenging at times too - because business is messy and being a human being is messy too.

It feels deeply disingenuous for me to promise a specific result in my business when I know that this road is far too winding to ever clearly predict a specific outcome.

And I’m not teaching a specific skill or process in my business, instead through my work I offer to guide, encourage, crack open deeper alignment and intentional growth, and walk with my clients and customers in their journey every step of the way.

So in my messaging and marketing, instead of focusing on results I focus on invitations.

The invitation to explore and embrace your own version of a simple and spacious business, of carving out a path for yourself that honours your humanness and your desires and goals for your work too, and to move towards those desires and goal in an intentional and sustainable way that truly works best for you.

I’m here for the messy middle, beautiful nuance of navigating this wild ride that we call entrepreneurship and the thought of trying to fit myself into a neat and tidy box of promising a specific outcome in my business feels so claustrophobic to me.

(And if this is the support you’re craving in your business right now there’s just a few days left to join us inside my group program Your Simple & Spacious Business before the doors close for this enrolment!)

And I don’t share all of this to say that you’re doing it wrong if you’re leaning into results based messaging in your business - if that’s what feels aligned to you that’s a beautiful and a wonderful thing.

But if that approach doesn’t feel aligned for you?

If leaning into invitations instead of results in your messaging and marketing feels more like home to you?

This is just my encouragement to say that is a beautiful path to choose for yourself in your work too.

I’m still here, ten years in, continuing to gently thrive in my work by embracing this approach in my business.

And more than anything, I hope you know that there is never one right perfect way to do things in business.

Just because something works for someone else doesn’t mean that it has to be the path for you too if it doesn’t feel aligned for you in your work.

You can opt out of any marketing trend, productivity hack, or business ‘norm’ that doesn’t feel like home to you.

And isn’t that a beautiful thing? That we aren’t all just running our businesses in the exact same way as each other? That we can give ourselves permission to lean into what feels aligned and true and intuitive to us every step of the way?

So here’s to running our business in a way that feels like home, to leaning into whatever approach and direction truly feels aligned to us.

Until next time,

Jen