3 Key Elements of Business

I love simplicity. I appreciate how things that may seem overwhelming and complex can become profoundly simple and practical when broken down. The concept of building a business may seem like a complicated process. However, as a solopreneur, there are only three key elements that you need to understand and consistently develop your skills in to produce amazing results in business.

Maybe it's wise to mention that I'm not talking about a path to "get rich quick." I'm talking about a heartfelt decision that wants to honor your life and human journey and devote yourself to a form of service that accomplishes two very important things. First, you find a way to do work that you find enjoyable, meaningful, and profitable. Second, the work you do actually contributes heart-based value to other people's lives.

I don't mean that it's important to help a million people. I mean, it's important to spend your life in an attitude of joyful service. Whether you make a living helping 100 people per year or a million doesn't matter. What matters is that you can do it in a way that is genuine and that the value you give comes back to you. This way, you can be financially taken care of.

The three key elements of a solopreneur business are messaging, marketing, and sales. Throughout your entire business journey, you will improve in these areas. Before you start thinking that you are not interested in these things, I would suggest that you actually are. These skills are also profound life skills that will add value to every area of your life. Let's dive in and take a look at how this applies to the path of being a Heart-Based Solopreneur.

1. Messaging | Clear Communication of Intention

Most people intuitively think they should speak broadly about the people they want to support and the problem they solve. However, if you speak broadly, then as people read your intention for support, the message doesn't speak directly to them. The assumption here is that the broader the message is, the more people I can reach. What we are not seeing here is that a broad message doesn't reach anybody.

Messaging is about communicating in a way that speaks directly to the person or people whom you can help and support.

Proper messaging is very clear and specific, making it obvious to the world what problem you are interested in solving and what type of person you can offer the most value to. In most cases, the type of person is going to be someone similar to yourself.

Think about it this way. You have experienced more value in a particular area of your life because you went through a growth process. You took the time to learn something as you traveled through a specific challenge (a problem) and learned how to navigate it. This journey has given you specific knowledge and experience that would make it much easier to navigate through the problem again, if you had to go through it again.

The people you are supporting are people like you who are going through the same problem. In the same way that you could make it easier for yourself, you can now make it easier for them. This is the value you are offering.

The question here is: can I constantly improve my ability to communicate this problem, the type of person I can help, and why it’s important to grow and solve this problem? The more clearly you communicate this, the more likely it is that someone reading your message will either feel a profound resonance with you or realize that it's not for them.

2. Marketing | Build Relationships & Expand Your Reach

Marketing is simply about finding ways to efficiently get your message to the right people. For the heart-based solopreneur, this doesn't have to be about building a huge audience, even though that could be an option. More so, it's about building relationships with the right people.

It is entirely possible to support yourself financially, and abundantly, with a small audience of the right people. This is probably one of the biggest misconceptions about being a solopreneur: the assumption that you have to be famous or super well-known. It's just not true at all.

The approach I teach for marketing is more about creating opportunities for authentic connections with other human beings. This is an extension of having a well-crafted message, combined with a genuine interest in learning more about the struggles people are having. We have to be willing to connect with people directly, be curious about their lives, and discern if they are someone who matches the very specific type of person you can genuinely support.

Marketing, for me, is more like having the attitude of a researcher who is on a mission to understand the problem(s) that you are most interested in helping people solve. This attitude, when genuine, shows people that you care and that your heart is in the right place. Whether you can actually help them or not, if people see that you care, then they know people who you might be able to support, and they will help carry your message to the right people.

As a way of getting started, I invite people to take on the attitude of a researcher and connect with others online or in person, one-on-one, to seek to understand the problem they are struggling with. The amazing thing that happens here is that I learn more about the struggles and benefits surrounding that problem. I learn how to better communicate what the real problem is, the damage it causes, and why it’s so important to address it. This, of course, just ties back into my messaging and communicates more and more to people and the world that "I understand this problem."

These research calls are also what fuel my social media content ideas. They give me something to write about, make videos about, etc. Furthermore, the content I end up creating speaks more and more to the social awareness that I’m interested in, in order to solve this particular problem.

3. Sales | The Art & Ability to Communicate Value

For many, the concept of "Sales" is off-putting, which is understandable; it used to be for me as well. However, what I learned is that the concept of sales isn't the same as how most people engage in sales.

The common assumption about sales is: "a means of convincing or tricking someone else to give me what I want." This isn't sales at all; that's manipulation.

Let's simplify the concept of sales:

1. Someone has a genuine problem.
   
   
2. You have a genuine solution to that problem.
   
   
3. (SALES) You find common ground to create a fair exchange.

Sales is the process of exchanging value. From the customer's perspective, they have a problem that diminishes the value or quality of their life. As a heart-based solopreneur, you can help them connect with the value they desire to experience.

Since you are providing a service that takes up your valuable time, you need to receive value in exchange. To provide the service practically, you require resources such as time, tools, and attention, which cost money (value). In effect, if you are helping someone solve a problem (offering value), you have to pay for things to help them solve that problem (receiving value).

This applies even if you were a business that created a silly product to solve a problem. The creation and development of that product require resources (value), which can be obtained by offering value. This is a beautiful exchange of value between the provider and the customer.

Yes, it's pretty basic, but it's important to understand just how basic this is. For myself and the people I support on this journey, we unknowingly have massive misconceptions about messaging, marketing, and sales, which push away the real-life opportunities we have to increase the value we both give and receive. It's actually quite mind-blowing. We assume the problem or obstacle is in the world, but really, the obstacle is in our own mindset and beliefs, which dramatically distort reality and create a life experience full of unnecessary lack and limitation.

Sales, real sales, is an art form; it's the ability to help other people clarify the problem they are having within themselves and to help them clearly understand the value you can provide. If these things are agreed upon, the next step is to explore a fair exchange of value.

Here's the beautiful thing about it: If the exchange doesn't work, then it's perfectly fine. It's not rejection (for you or for them). It doesn't mean you charge too much or that you're withholding something from people. It just means… it's not a good fit. All that other stuff is mindset blocks that only create frustration, limitation, and lack.

I might have a desire to travel across the country in a way that's faster than walking. If I see that there is an option to fly on an airplane, that might seem like a beautiful solution. However, for the airline to provide that service, it costs them money. They created a value exchange that says, "We can take you there for $500." Whether I spend $500 is entirely based on the value proposition. How valuable is that solution to me?

What if I tell the airline, “Hey, but this is really important to me, and I only have
$100. You should let me fly for less.”

If the airline were to allow people to fly for less than the price they have determined is necessary for them to provide their best service, then they would eventually be unable to provide their best service. Remember, they are charging what they are charging so that they can provide a specific quality of service, and for them to do that, it costs them money. The price has to be what it is for the service they are providing.

This also explains why it's important to be well-paid for your time and attention because it allows you to do a really good job. If you try to charge less and less, then you'll be overwhelmed and stressed out, unable to joyfully show up for people.

Here's the thing. As someone who provides a service, and as I get better at the art of communicating value, I can help people better understand the value I provide. Here's an example comparing two statements of value.

Statement One: “Pay me money and I will help you!”

Statement Two: “I understand your struggle with the XYZ problem and its impact on your life and relationships. Let's work together to find the perfect solution to bring balance and joy back to your life.”

Make a decision to grow in your capacity to communicate value, and it will undoubtedly add value to many areas of your life.