The past couple of weeks, I have been coasting.
Hiding.
I’ve been absent here.

I have been doing the exact thing I always say you should not be doing, if you want to build a business, which is;
To not show up.

Or, to simplify:
Show up -> builds business
Not show up -> does not build business

And I’m not talking about showing up for already paying clients and for already running programs and projects, but specifically about showing up PUBLICLY.
And show up SELLING.

Most independents have not build their business around the act of selling.
They are built around the practice of doing, of executing the work.
A yoga teacher has built their business around teaching yoga, not selling it.
A graphic designer around designing, not selling it.
And even many “real” businesses, meaning not one person but multiple people working there, are designed around offering the opportunity to buy a product, not around selling them.

Or the independents or businesses work around very lengthy, complicated , political, behind-the-scenes projects that run for months before any deal is sealed, let alone before anyone gets paid.

The art of selling, and of investing in something you can easily and happily sell everyday, is an underrated one.
But it is one of the very few things that will guarantee your success and even survival under the most radically changing conditions.
Because the time it will take before you find out your average monthly sales are not made, or your year total has severely dropped, will always be a lot longer than if you are used to handling daily or weekly sales totals.

And if you have long lead times, the number of things you have tried to adapt to the new circumstances, and get your business up and running again, will always be significantly lower than if you get feedback from your sales numbers every day.

Having monthly or quarterly sales (instead of daily sales) means you do not have your fingers in the pie;
It puts you at incredible financial risk.

Now, I know there are entire industries based on these long, business-to-business processes of selling one-million dollar software systems and so on.
I know.
Not going to get into that, just hope I made my point that it is worth giving it your best shot to find something that allows you to break away from that, and get cash-flow you can manage daily.
Instead of praying to the Gods your five big clients will do their side of the deal this year.

If not selling daily because you are partial to only having a few big clients  is “big player syndrome”, then there is another reason not to sell daily which can be found in particular with service providers on the consumer market:
Small player syndrome.

The idea that you are not allowed to ask more than others in your industry, and that you are there primarily to serve your clients, and not to sell or make money.

Aside from the psychological reasons behind small player syndrome- which are understandable because it does require you to be visible and stand out from “the tribe”- it is important to realize that not providing for “your company” financially, is a dangerous game.
If your business does not survive, you cannot serve your clients either. So you may want to reconsider, or think of other ways to fund your business f.e. patrons & donations.

But there is more at stake.

Money is the bloodline not just of your business, but of your industry as a whole.
Everything your industry stands for, the message it is here to bring, the  good you are here to do, the lineage you are here to continue from the teachers or artists who came before you and everybody you personally owe for what it is you know, or everybody who has built the business or industry before you;
You are putting it all in jeopardy.

The voice that is going to survive, the system that is going to survive, the skillsets that are going to survive, the craftmanship that is going to survive, the businesses and the industries that will stand the test of time;
Are the ones that make money.

And to do that, for you to have a healthy business or for an industry to stand the test of time, you/ your industry needs to do two things:
1. it needs to sell things
and
2. it needs to sell different things when the market changes.
This second point is what is referred to as a change in business model. For example taking a service from brick and mortar business to online.

If you or your industry have “small business syndrome” you’re not taking selling under (1) seriously.
You’re facilitating that people can buy from you, if they would really look into it, but you’re not creating opportunities for them to see you and immediately making it clear what they can buy or how they can work with you.
You’re not actively and creatively engaging in the act of selling.

And if you or your industry are “big player syndrome” sufferers, with only a few big clients, you are not hands-on enough in your sales to notice your current offer is no longer selling.
That something has changed and that you should be finding out what, and adjust accordingly.

Having a daily sales routine is a healthy habit, and very effective to combat both small- as well as big player syndrome.

Daily selling puts you in that driver’s seat, with your eyes on the road and you’ll build your feel for the market each day, every day.
Instead of putting it on autopilot and finding out months or years later.

The reason I was absent from selling, and from this site, is because I am starting a new Dutch business. For my yoga no less!
An industry where even the biggest players have fallen, and most never even get started to begin with.
If I would get a penny out of every dollar spent on unused yoga teacher training certificates, word wide?
I would never have to work again.

So it took some time to figure out, how to get it right this time. How to build a yoga business that will be profitable.
A business with a healthy flow of money, that will survive anything that is thrown at it.

But it all came down to one thing. And it’s the same thing that will guarantee your success, regardless of what industry you are in;
Find something you can sell.

Not four times a year to four big clients.
Not by opening your doors and waiting for people to walk in who are exactly looking for your service or product. 
Not by being a friendly neighborhood whatever, who is uncomfortable wearing their professional boots.

Find something you can sell;
And sell it every day.

Repeat.

.
~Suzanne
become the Rock Star you were born to be

Every week I offer 1 or 2 spots to an entrepreneur, artist or Rock Star who wants to break the chains of their industry and design their own unique offer; NOW!
It is called Specify. Sell. Repeat. and I sell it every week, on my socials:
Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn

Specify. Sell. Repeat.

A SESSION JUST FOR YOU

A one-on-one workshop for you, artist, professional, creative or entrepreneur.
You are already deeply in love with what you do, but the financial result?
Not so much.
Yet!

In one 2 hour session, we’re going to extract the service or product you would love to sell, and under the conditions that suite your agenda.

It is called:
Specify. Sell. Repeat.
And it is not in my standard offerings- it will be scheduled weekly, on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

The introductory price of “Specify. Sell. Repeat.” is € 297, which is again not something I usually share because Catacombe works with full confidentiality, including its prices.

But it demonstrates what it looks like to make your offers specific;
Specify a what (a 2 hour session), when (next week), and the price.

For your business we’re going to look for something that’s:
🎯 in your zone of genius
📏 can be made specific (what, when, how)
💎delivers clear value to your client
🌊And is powerful yet effortless

In “Specify. Sell. Repeat.” we’re taking what it is you love doing, and design it into a service or product.
A true gem, that you would love to sell daily;
Creating happy customers, and a happy you!

Let’s create your ready-to-sell offer, and email me at
s_beenackers@hotmail.com
Include a link to your current company website, or website as an independent; or a social platform you actively use for business.

Your application always remains confidential and if I can help you, we start right away.
All applications are treated with respect and dignity.

I look forward to seeing you.

You got this!

~Suzanne
https://catacombenijmegen.com/terms-conditions/

Permission to sell granted, Rock Star
| 2023 05 23: Specify. Sell. Repeat.
is the eleventh Catacombe Rock Star post
Subscribe to this blog to receive them in your Inbox

Catacombe offers international Rock Star mentoring & business coaching:
https://catacombenijmegen.com/current-offer/

& I offer in-person business coaching in Nijmegen.
https://catacombenijmegen.com/nederlands-dutch/

A few days ago, I had a business event. Something that I could not not go to, if I considered myself a professional who could help business owners, artists and Rock Stars.
It was a unique opportunity to get an understanding of what it was they had to deal with on a daily basis.
Things specific to their industry.

From what I have seen so far – and feel free to optimistically disagree with me but –
So far I have seen every industry being some variation of totally fucked up. Just that the party ending up with the short end of the stick, differs.

The first option is that the short end of the stick goes to the independent or the entrepreneur/ business. Depending on how they identify.
This is by far the most common one, in terms of numbers because there is an array of professions you would not even be able to land a payroll job, even if you moved heaven and earth. And hell.
You simply have no other option than to do your work as an independent professional, and in all probability while having close to zero training, knowledge nor affinity with running a business and making money.
If I was sarcastic I would say: “Good luck with that one.”
But actually, it is easy to tackle.

The key to stepping up your game if you have an identifiable profession in a certain field (with diplomas, a professional association, and the same one business model 99.9 of the industry uses) is to stop seeing yourself as that profession, and start seeing yourself as:
Independent.
Business owner.
Entrepreneur.

And also to start (if you had not already) seeing yourself as the breadwinner for yourself, your family, your cats, pets and others dependent on you, but also;
Start seeing yourself as the breadwinner for your future self.

What would 88 year old you wish they had made in 2023?

So the majority of “business-owners” working in fucked-up industries comes from professionals who really had no other choice than to work as an independent.
But they never got the blessing, the freedom, the inspiration, to really rock their business. And they are tied down by rules (spoken and unspoken) that keep them and their business small.

The other part of fucked-up-ness comes from industries who either run entirely on the financial market, meaning no actual value is created, and from industries who work around loop holes in legislation and the exploitation of workers, use of natural resources, and producing toxins and waste.
Nothing stops you from letting your product be manufactured in countries where less strict rules apply.
In this case the true costs, the short end of the stick, is passed on to workers, poor countries, and onto pollution of the earth as a whole.

And more long-stick/short-stick areas are created due to privatization of public services.

This could be a situation limited to the Netherlands but in the 20th century, many professionals in the Netherlands still had a job for, or were compensated by, government organizations.
However, government sold off our public services, which first showed in  commercial insurance companies being in charge of public health care  (what could possibly go wrong) and foreign companies owning our utilities (water, gas, electricity).
So far for the long end of the stick.

Because now, 25 years later, the short end off the stick has also developed in the Netherlands;
Professionals who can no longer rely on government organizations paying their bills. They now have to juggle allowances, patient-budgets, and are dependent on a myriad of organizations to come up with the funding for what used to be a payroll job or clear and reliable funding structures, for health care professionals.
In 25 years, waiting lists and people not getting the care they need, have become standard, in Dutch health care and social services. 

So when I say every industry is rigged, I mean there are two categories.

The long end of the stick of an industry understands how to make money from it.
And how to draw all that money flow, straight into their pockets.
Within these industries, the white dove companies are the ones who restrain  and regulate their own business, put clients first, and do not suck dry every pocket at every opportunity.

The short end of the stick are professionals who have internalized being responsible, dutiful, in service and of service.
Those who want to be part of the community and create a better world.
Yet, in the process they are keeping themselves and each other small and accept, and to an extend create, financial risks for themselves and their loved ones.

There are more reasons and ample examples, explaining why “an industry” is rarely a healthy starting point, if you want to build a business. 
But I think you get the point.

But there are also plenty of keys, to unlock the gates to greener pastures.
Ways, to create your own green meadows.

No one deserves to be bound by the small-thinking of their industry. Where the yoke of being dutiful, would have you struggling in circles forever.

But we should also have an understanding of how evil is created. An understanding how to keep our business from becoming  a monster that sucks dry or burns down once luscious lands.

And the way to do that, to prevent both undercharging as well as financially destructive behavior, is by seeing your business through the eyes of your 88 year old self.
Have you taken care of them?
Are you making money in a way that supports them?
But also:
Have you created a world they want to live in?
Do they look back on their company, their career, proudly?

Maybe they are still in business!
Your 2023 self could design a business so that it can both financially support your 88 year old self;
As well as be a source of joy and connection, for the rest of your life.

I didn’t go to the business event. I wanted to, and a two hour afternoon nap and 7 fudge chunks later, I still did not see I was resenting it.
Until the hour drew near, and I wondered;
“What do I want more, cleaning my house or going to the business event?”
And then (this could have saved me xxx calories and 2 hours) I realized I didn’t want to go.
So I didn’t.

But I kept thinking about it; Why?
Why didn’t I want to go?
And I realized it is because I started Catacombe, this company for Rock Stars, artists and business owners, not because I don’t know how problematic most if not all industries are.
I started it because I think that’s looking in the wrong place.

We are not our industries.
We are artists, Rock Stars, business owners, and we need to start thinking and acting for ourselves.
And start being here for our clients, our customers, and our fans.

The way to do this is to ask yourself;
“How can I create a product or service, that I would love to sell everyday?”

Not, whatever it is that is common for your industry to sell.
Not, what you think you should sell, or what would sell.
No.
But instead ask yourself:

What is the thing, delivered in the easiest, most fun way for me personally, that would excite me to be in business?*

So that next time you get an invitation to an event in your industry?
You can go if you want to, but you never have to.

Because you are now what we all desire to be;
Free.

.
~Suzanne
become the Rock Star you were born to be

* Every week I offer 1 or 2 spots to an entrepreneur, artist or Rock Star who wants to break the chains of their industry and design their own unique offer; NOW!
It is called Specify. Sell. Repeat. and I sell it every week, on my socials:
Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn

 

Specify. Sell. Repeat.

 

A SESSION JUST FOR YOU

A one-on-one workshop for you, artist, professional, creative or entrepreneur.
You are already deeply in love with what you do, but the financial result?
Not so much.
Yet!

In one 2 hour session, we’re going to extract the service or product you would love to sell, and under the conditions that suite your agenda.

It is called:
Specify. Sell. Repeat.
And it is not in my standard offerings- it will be scheduled weekly, on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

The introductory price of “Specify. Sell. Repeat.” is € 297, which is again not something I usually share because Catacombe works with full confidentiality, including its prices.

But it demonstrates what it looks like to make your offers specific;
Specify a what (a 2 hour session), when (next week), and the price.

For your business we’re going to look for something that’s:
🎯 in your zone of genius
📏 can be made specific (what, when, how)
💎delivers clear value to your client
🌊And is powerful yet effortless

In “Specify. Sell. Repeat.” we’re taking what it is you love doing, and design it into a service or product.
A true gem, that you would love to sell daily;
Creating happy customers, and a happy you!

Let’s create your ready-to-sell offer, and email me at
s_beenackers@hotmail.com
Include a link to your current company website, or website as an independent; or a social platform you actively use for business.

Your application always remains confidential and if I can help you, we start right away.
All applications are treated with respect and dignity.

I look forward to seeing you.

You got this!

~Suzanne
https://catacombenijmegen.com/terms-conditions/

That strong, need-them-on-board professional who sets the rules of your industry?
You, Rock Star. You.
| 2023 05 02 : Specify. Sell. Repeat.
is the tenth Catacombe Rock Star post

Subscribe to this blog to receive them in your Inbox

Catacombe offers international Rock Star mentoring & business coaching:
https://catacombenijmegen.com/current-offer/

& I offer in-person business coaching in Nijmegen.
https://catacombenijmegen.com/nederlands-dutch/

In 2019 I got a vision. It was a three-part vision with regard to my career.  At the time I was a yoga teacher, and I had just started a new blog, Rock Star Yoga, because I was on my way to reinvent yoga to something that rocked.
Although since then I have thought many times that Rock Star Yoga was not for me, I never -not once -thought the vision I received was not for me.

From this three-part vision, I understood the first two points , but I had no idea what the final point meant. 
And yet I had immediately recognized it as “true”.

Which is significantly better than understanding something intellectually, but your gut tells you this is not for you.
Your gut tells you, you will make your business a living hell, if you were to implement even the tiniest amount of this devilry.

Knowing something is true, and not having a clue what it is about, is what I would call entrepreneurial gold.

It is a question you get to chew on, try on a few things.
Until then one day, when you least expect it, the reality drops in and you know it!
After four years, I now know what the third part of the vision meant.

For the record I will also share the first two messages, which clicked right away. And then we’ll have a look at the third.

The first message was:
“Get in front of as many people as possible.”

Oh, had I mentioned it was a Rock Star message?
I got the message when I was developing Rock Star yoga, something that is still in a stage of experiment and does not have a final form.
So ultimately I had to let go of the idea of making this into this giant thing! Instead I am keeping it in my yoga lab, or even business lab or mental concept art studio, where I mix and match things, and just toy around with ideas.
Test drive a few things.

So the first part of this Rock Star message I received (meaning: the words and sentences just formed themselves, for no apparent reason) was:
Get in front of as many people as possible.
So true!
Get your story, whatever it is you do or sell, in front of as many people as possible.

The second part was:
Yoga is my art.
This was also an easy one, because the moment you take the yoga that was taught to you, and you bring it to your mental lab to dissect it, mix it up with other things, and start painting something new with it?
Of course you’re no longer a yoga teacher.

You are an artist, and you are expressing yourself through yoga.

The “Yoga is my art” message,  was loud and clear.

But the third one was the strange message:
“Album, tour. Album, tour.”

At first I was convinced it was not a message, but the echo of the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, which I saw 14 times in cinema between October 2018 and early 2019.
I thought the dialogue had ingrained itself in my psyche so deeply, that I was no longer thinking authentic thoughts but regurgitating. 
“Album, tour! Album, tour!” Freddie cries out, when he makes a point of how monotonous his life has become.

But at the same time I was intrigued by the riddle.
Had I really received a three part vision, where the third part was the result of mental short circuit?

The closest I came to thinking I knew where this puzzle piece went, was in my work for YouTube, where I recorded Bon Jovi inspired videos and yoga videos.
I thought maybe I would make a series inspired on a tour, and then a series inspired on an album, and so on.
But it never really took off. 

Just like my idea of developing Rock Star Yoga, creating Bon Jovi inspired videos and articles, has proven to be way more difficult than I expected. The material is absolutely not as light and pliable as one might expect.

Telling Bon Jovi stories, through video, writing or through yoga, requires a high level of understanding both their meaning as well as a good part of their material and its chronology.
Just like Rock Star Yoga, I suspect it’s simply a matter of requiring X to the X amount of time before the full mental framework to back it up, is finished.

So although there were times when I thought I knew how “Album, tour. Album, tour.” was to be interpreted, it ultimately remained a riddle.

But now I know.

Because after years of only being a writer and not having a company, I have started a new one: Catacombe. 
And instead of putting all my skills in there, and counting all my maker hours, blogging hours, as worktime, and all my blogs as work expenses and so on, I made a last minute decision to pull all those services out, and to just go with one service;
coaching.

I offer my Rock Star mentorship and I offer business coaching.

After years of juggling, and trying, I have thrown yoga out of my offerings, thrown my creative ambitions out of it, thrown my publishing ambitions out of it, and simplified it to one thing!
Just coaching, and it feels great.

And not only does it feel great, but I also feel that all the hours I don’t coach are free to do whatever I want.
It is playtime, and includes time in my “lab” where I develop new things.

In Catacombe, my only real work hours are the hours that I actually coach people.

And do you know why?
Because I have had entrepreneurship and running a business in my mental lab since 2013, 2014.
And I have studied marketing and personal development for business owners extensively, since 2017.
I also have a degree in business, but in my lab I just had theories and concepts I encountered later in life.

So the reason I feel so light and free, and excited to talk to people about their business, is because I have been nurturing, creating, researching and designing “this thing” of running a business and what makes a good entrepreneur, for almost ten years!
My business coaching is ready to rock!

For the past decade, my business coaching has been like writing, composing, and recording an album, wrapping it up and bringing it to the market.
After that, you want to take it on the road.
In front of a live audience the songs take on a different meaning. Working with my clients the theories I work with, take on new shapes. They start coming to life.

When you have mastered the thing you are good at, you have finished your album. The only way it can become even more, is through interaction with others.

The business you started is not a career;
That was only your first album.
And the first year or years in business, they are your first tour.

Maybe it is a success, maybe not.
But just like artists who have their eyes on the entirety of a career;
Don’t let it crush you if the first years are not a success. 
Nor let it blind you when it is.

You’re not here for one album, and you’re not here for one tour.

My first album was my yoga career.
Then I thought my second album was Rock Star Yoga, and it didn’t take off… I just couldn’t let it out of the lab. It wasn’t ready.
Then I concentrated on being a Rock Star Writer and started Bon Jovi inspired videos on YouTube but that too…. No.
Haven’t found a final form. This is not my second album.

Then I realized that I had my second album on the shelves!
Business coaching.
And not only is the album finished, and am I dying to take it on the road;
That really is the ONLY way this album can grow!

My business coaching (and Rock Star mentoring) really, and I mean really,  does not belong in the lab anymore. 
Its value is now in sharing it with my clients and in the joy of interpreting the songs together, and make it into a song they like to sing.

I am on tour with my double album “Rock Star Mentoring”  and “Business Coaching”.

And Rock Star Yoga?
I have that scheduled as the next album.
Followed by an opportunity to hire me for yoga events, or organize them myself. Maybe teach private yoga.

And Rock Star Writer?
I think my 2025 album! The skill I will take out of the lab in 2025, and share it with the world.
Maybe I will be hired by Bon Jovi to write their biography, or maybe I will be giving Bon Jovi inspired talks.
Maybe it will be more than Bon Jovi, and it will be the Rock Star philosophy I am sharing on this blog, but applicable to everyone.
Not just to business owners.

So what does this mean for you?
Whatever it is you do in your business, see it as your LATEST album and your CURRENT tour.

You probably won’t believe me, but the majority of your clients are there for you. Not for what it is you have to sell, but they are there to see you in action. They like to be in a relationship with you.
Even when it is a working relationship.

Just like many of my former yoga students turned into friends, or took my Yoga for friends class when I quit my formal teachings.
And many of my business coaching clients will also become my future yoga clients.

KEEP PLAYING YOUR OLD ALBUMS!
Keep offering whatever it is you are selling now, just like a band will keep playing their hits.
But add new things, keep making new albums.

In the future, as a Rock Star Yoga Mentor, I will never turn away people who want my business coaching. In fact I see a 50/50 offering of yoga as well as business coaching and Rock Star Mentoring.
Catacombe will be a place for both.

But even if I would become only a yoga teacher, I would always offer ways to keep working with me, to my existing clientele.
Just like a Rock Star will always respect the fans who like their older albums!

But as soon as you, business owner, release an album, which means as soon as it is a business model, start working on the next.
This can be the next program, the next product, or it can be something else entirely.

As soon as this work, your current work, is out in the world, it will develop on its own.
It develops because of you and your clients are developing it in relationship with each other.
It is no longer just your thing, that is in your lab.

Your last album, the album that is now out, already belongs to the world.
Let it go.
Just meet the people who come to you, and be there for them.
Like a Rock Star is there for the people in front of them, and for the joy of singing the songs together.

But start writing, start composing, start thinking about your new album.
What is it that you want to be making in your lab of experimentation, and things and concepts that you like to toy around with?
My current lab has a yoga mat in it and a playlist I created on YouTube, months ago:
369 Days Catacombe Rock Star Yoga
My current lab revolves entirely around yoga.

But my lab could also have been about the development of membership programs, funnels, setting up a mastermind program, an academy, or studying the work and biographies of the 6 most famous Rock Stars on earth.
You decide what your next album is. You decide what the next phase in your business, is about. 

Just like a Rock Star on tour, you too can start writing your new album while you are on tour.

But you could also go all in, and not think about your next album. But then my suggestion would be to plan for time off at a specific point in the future.
Plan for it, every 18 months or so, to let your next offer come through.
Your next album. 

And then you go on tour again. You take your new offer on the road, and meet your clients old and new. You set your offer, your album, free and hand it over to the world.

Album.
Tour.
Album.
Tour.

That, is the pulse of a Rock Star.

.
~Suzanne
become the Rock Star you were born to be

Album, tour. Album, tour. How to build your business like a Rock Star
| 2022 02 18
is the fifth Catacombe Rock Star post

Subscribe to this blog to receive them in your Inbox

Catacombe offers international Rock Star mentoring & business coaching:
https://catacombenijmegen.com/current-offer/

& in-person business coaching in Nijmegen.
https://catacombenijmegen.com/nederlands-dutch/