Category: what to sell

Let’s Get You Sellin’ | new offer 2024 – 2027

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

We really have only one job.
As artists, as entrepreneurs, but also in ANY job whether in the commercial market or the public sector.

And it is, you guessed it, it is to sell.

And although life would get much easier if we all learned this, or were aware of this, that this is the key thing required to get through life smoothly whether you have a payroll job or not;
Let’s just limit it to a professional context.

So that’s all payroll jobs, but also the independents of artist, writer, or  otherwise hopefully madly passionate about what it is you do- person.

We are all basically paid to the degree at which we are successful at selling. Not “selling ourselves”, no, “selling”.
Sec.
But some of us are more comfortable selling products, and we show up daily on the socials to sell those.
Others also prefer something tangible, but have a business-to-business strategy where they strive for making one bigger deal a week.

As employees we need to work out an income strategy, how we are going to navigate our career.
And as independent service providers (so we don’t sell tangible products), we should answer these two questions;
“What do I want to sell?”
“Who do I want to sell it to?”

So if I’m a writer, the answer can be selling my time, selling copy, articles, manuscripts, printed books, my body of work, one new novel a year etc.
And to whom the answers can be selling to businesses, or to Instagram users, to book publishers, to Hollywood producers, to collectors and so on.

In all cases, whether we’re selling products, are employed, or selling services;
It’s not the quality of your work, that determines its financial success.
It’s whether we’re able to sell the work successfully.

We can only sell successfully to an audience that is a match with how we want to sell. There are transactions and markets where buyers feel insecure and aggressive selling is a big No.
These buyers are, often entirely justified, very uncomfortable being sold to because they recognize their vulnerability here.

But this is a perfect market for you, if you have a lot of patience, love giving explanation and even coaching your clients through their buying experience. Your ethical way of serving this particular audience, could make you a very successful seller there.

But that’s not for everybody!
Many of us like a little bit more speed!
And love creating easy grab-click-pay offers, that buzz with excitement.

Here too, if you like the high-energy of having a lot of clients and an avalanche of sales?
This is your thing!

But get this;
Although Let’s Get You Sellin’ is inspired by my realization that so many qualified professionals fail to make any money because their industry just doesn’t have a healthy financial practice;
The problem underpinning it all?
Is a cultural one.

It’s not specific to running a business, but just as problematic with salary conversations. And it’s also not limited to money, and could just as easily be applied to dating.

The cultural problem is a coded in limit on how much space we are allowed to take up.
How much sex and more specifically how many partners we’re allowed to have?
How much money we’re allowed to make?
How much power they’re comfortable with?
It’s all the same.

And it’s how you’re cock blocked from your own good fortune.

In all those areas, our culture has us moving within invisible lines of shame and internalized aggression. And it is that electric fence that we cross if we start selling. Whether selling is a salary conversation, selling our digital products on Instagram, or making our move or planting our flag, in any of the above mentioned areas;
You will feel the presence of the fence.
And the sting if you cross the line.

If you get a shock, that was culture aggressively indicating how far you are allowed to go.

THAT, is the reason I want you to start selling.

Not because it is the only way to make money, and not even as a way to liberate yourself.
BUT I WANT YOU TO KNOW WHERE YOU ARE.

Selling is like the smoke that makes invisible radar or laser beams, visible to the naked eye.
Do it, and you will see the tripwires, externally as well as internally.

Catacombe is my business created for ROCK STARS.
So of course my vision for you is that you do liberate yourself.

These invisible constraints are toxic as hell, yet cloaked as love and worry about your well being.
By the people that are closest to you.
It is crucial that you understand what has happened to you. And why this shaming of selling is so particularly debilitating.

And there is more.
Because you are not just, selling.
You are also an artist, a creative, meaning your work itself has a destabilizing edge to it.

Even if you make the most lovely nature pencil drawings, simply the amount of time you’d spend on them, the dedication to your craft and the prolific sharing of your work, would be more than enough to draw out snarky and discouraging remarks.

I wish for you to open your eyes and to see what the forces are you are actually dealing with here.
Because even if you decide staying within the lines of other people’s comfort zones is at least for now your best strategy;
You need to know that, is what you’re doing.

Otherwise the first shock of electric fence will have you floored.

I believe we should aspire to step on that for many of us new path, of standing up for ourselves and for our work;
Promoting ourselves and making ourselves or our work visible;
And the endgame of starting to sell, like you own it!

It is one of the most actionable and liberating things we as human beings can do for ourselves.

Maybe this post is more than enough for you to understand the forces at play here, and to start leaning into them.
Let them feed you, call them out, draw a line in the sand as to how far from now on your life will be influenced by so called well-meaning advice about what you can or cannot create;
How or where you show up;
And who you sell to and how you sell.

Then go forth and start selling in any way you see fit.
Create and boldly stand by it.
Yes, you are in integrity selling.
And No, you do not need mine or anybody’s approval.

If you’d like to have a conversation with me, then you can book

Let’s Get You Sellin’

It will be available until 7 July 2027.

The costs are € 297.
And what you get is a two hour call with me.
And the invitation to send me all your thoughts on the subject, in writing, in the week before our call.

Until mid-March 2025, I have options available until 8 PM Central European Time.
After this I expect to be scaling down, so if you are on a different continent (like East Coast USA) this might be the better time to book.

You’re welcome to take the call on repeat, for example once a year. And after the workshop you are also eligible for a second workshop at a similar price point, where we take a look at what you would like to sell.
What would make your heart sing, if you’d wake up everyday to that being your work.

But first we get you sellin’.

Because that is how we show the world where we are, and who we are.

Unconsciously, or perhaps after this post consciously, allowing other people to stand up into their power too.

And become the Rock Star they were born to be.

~Suzanne Beenackers
Catacombe
become the Rock Star you were born to be

Apply

By sending an email to
s_beenackers@hotmail.com
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/. 

Catacombe is email-list free!!

Yes – you can subscribe to receive new blogposts;

But no additional or promotional emails are sent – just the blog, sec.

Promotions are very rare, but if available, they’re posted on Instagram and Rock Star Writer Facebook.

If you don’t use social media, feel free to say so with your application. If there is a special offer I will email it to you. .

NEW founded in MAY 2024: SUBSTACK

other socials:
Instagram – Twitter – Rock Star Writer Facebook – Facebook Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver – LinkedIn

creativity flows where the heart goes | What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today 2024 09 24

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

creativity flows where the heart goes

It’s why an author’s debut novel has the most urgency.
And why a band’s first album makes the deepest cut.

Pursue the topics that set your soul on fire, and your best work will come.
Without even trying.

—

At least once a week I used to lose myself in unbridled fantasies about how orderly and powerful my life would look, if I was a normal person who calmly ran and built her service company where all would find peace and solace in yoga, mentoring, and read articles that lifted the heaviness of their burdened souls.

All the while knowing perfectly well that I am ruled by my creativity.
And that merely the act of fantasizing that way, is already a testament to how deep the rabbit hole goes.
When topics most people are drawn to or emotionally invested in, get visited by me:
Never.

All popular Dutch television shows from the past ten years or so?
Watched zero episodes.
Because if you have your own television set in your head, things just work differently.

The thing doesn’t have an Off button though.
Which is why The Inner-World tv series is playing pretty much all day and, if all goes well, automatically switches to one of the After Dark Channels, at night.
Shifting to a mellower mood, more suitable for the time of day and ending active thinking mode.

Although my ability to really dive into a topic did not become apparent until the topic became yoga, earlier adaptations of my desire to study things I am interested in would be Brad Pitt, Bon Jovi, or the person I was in love with at the time.
I also did a lot of work studying Madonna, in particular (as far as we’re talking about the first expressions of my artistic roots) from 1990 to 1994, what I would call her Erotica Era.
After her True Blue/ Like a Prayer albums, which I didn’t even own, I could feel her work was changing in 1990, and becoming more aligned for me.

My interests dominating my thinking, has been a lifelong fact.

However the walls of where we are called out to take responsibility for how we spend our time, and to work towards our goals or at the very least to do  something productive, useful, and in service of someone or something;
Well, sooner or later those walls will have closed in.

At some point, on a cognitive level, you will have started believing your creativity is a self-care activity with which you can reward yourself after you have fulfilled your worldly duties.

Only to see yourself sacrificing sleep, relationships, being on time, exercising, daylight, meals, and keeping the house clean or at least above the level of a stable;
In order to attend to your creative flow.

My personal boundary was that I never sacrificed personal hygiene, but the rest went overboard in a heartbeat.
All, to follow creative flow.

So if that’s you, I hear you. I know this is madness, and that you (like me) are probably wishing that you still had that luxury of being able to cut watching tv, to get more creative time.
Instead of cutting the parts that would have been so nice to have in your life.

And also the moment that you start doing your version of fantasizing about how beautifully organized and contained your life would look, if you did not have this Passion ravaging anything that looks like control, intention and just general Life Together-ness.

I got you, and I understand.

But you know as well as I do that your creativity is the real thing. And that wishing for a less chaotic life would mean cutting yourself off from everything that inspires you. Meaning from everything you love.

Even though I loved fantasizing about my creativity to go, deep down I knew that to wish for creativity to go, means closing your heart and no longer being able to be in meaningful relationships.
Not with my work, and not with other people.

Ultimately?
All those moments fantasizing about how life would look without creativity, or maybe it were all the hours thinking about marketing and business, who is to say;
But ultimately, it paid off.
Big time.

And maybe this is what will help you too in staying true to what your creative heart wants, while also having the satisfaction of being productive.

I will be speaking about this in the upcoming years as well, but today is the first time I mention it.
Because it’s really fresh!
But what I am about to tell you has silenced the ongoing battle in my head.
I no longer fantasize about how clean my life would look without creativity.

If you are a creative who loses hours in their creative work, but also wants to be in their business.
Someone who understands that in 2024 and probably for the rest of our lives, being an artist is about being visible as much as it is about creating the art?
And that our real job is to sell it? Not to create it, since that, give or take,  goes automatically.

I have found the way to silence the voices of doubt, and to let your art work for you. Not against you.

I call it Portfolio Marketing, and I will speak about it frequently.
This is how it works;

You let your marketing, your daily messaging -> BE <- your creative work.

So for some of you, the creative work already is the marketing.
Like Andy Warhol used to be an illustrator of fashion, early on in his career.  These drawings are now art of course, just like all his other art that was  immediately created as such.
If, in 2024, making reels is your actual creative expression, then that is your marketing.
Every reel is then not just content, but providing you save or post them where they are preserved, they also build your portfolio.
Naturally, you can also be an artist who includes temporality in their art. Then the art having vanished after 24 hours becomes part of the art, and although the piece itself is not preserved and not added to a physical portfolio, the art has existed.
The immaterial art portfolio is still being built, but more in the way like performance art.

So you stick with your own dominant creative expression, and that is your marketing.

Contrary to how normal businesses do marketing, where what they post is tailored to building the audience, and therefor repurposing and even buying other people’s content (365 Days of Content bundles etc.) in order to get the job done;
What I call Portfolio Marketing means what you create to post should be Art in itself, or it should be related to things that were already in your portfolio.
For example a quote from one of your books, with a sales link to the book.

Now this is not rigid of course.
There can still be services you sell, or areas that you speak on, where you create a different sort of content that is not part of your dominant creative expression.
For example a written post on YouTube, when your dominant expression is being a videographer.
These written posts will never be collected and studied, and mused over what you meant, and so on.
But your videos could end up in a museum in 2060.

In this case the videos are the core part of Portfolio Marketing, and the post is not.

Working from the concept of Portfolio Marketing, gives direction to your creative inspiration (and you can engage guilt free)
And at the same time makes sure you do not spent your creative hours on marketing that ultimately does not have your heart in it.

Naturally creativity can also express in the service or product you are offering. 
This is definitely a more daredevil thing to do, and the stakes are a lot higher -leading your creative vein into art that can serve “just” as marketing is definitely less risky-
but it can be done.

What you then get, is that you are allowing the actual thing you are selling to change.
And the only thing constant?
Is you.

This is by far the most Rock Star thing anyone can do.
And I invite you to get comfortable with that idea as well.
To give it time to grow on you, that in the end, one day, you’re ONLY going to create whatever it is you want to create.
And sell it.

Then the whole marketing layer has dropped and it becomes to be building your Portfolio.

And this can be art (as in a painting f.e.) but it can also be a service.
Selling a new course every few weeks.

When your audience has grown accustomed to knowing you as a creator, a gate to another level has opened, where they are starting to come for you.
No longer your work.
This is what I call the Rock Star level, no longer Artist level.

It’s not a hierarchy, both models come with their advantages and disadvantages.

A business sells a generic service or product;
An Artist or a company with an “Art based” strategy, sells a unique service or product, brand or system;
But a Rock Star sells whatever they want.

This is the level where you have truly outgrown your business owner- service provider-jacket, and are now completely free to cross over to any other industry, at will.
You can do and sell whatever you please, as long as it is consistent with the values you stand for.

It is an interesting exercise to feel if that brings up any resistance and if you can bypass that.

Can you give yourself permission to let the art come out, in whatever way it wants?
And accept that you should perhaps resist calling yourself a * fill in any craft * because there is no way of telling what your medium will be in the future?

Can you let the art be the art?

And accept the possibility that the art was something else all along.
You. 

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

Subscribe to receive
What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today
in your Inbox.

signature offer:  The Rock Star 2024

brand new monthly mentoring:
THE COUNCIL

until 4 Dec 2024:
Specify. Sell. Repeat..
Updated sales page, including how to start selling internationally today!

THE ROCK STAR

.
THE ROCK STAR, is Catacombe’s signature 3 hour session.

THE ROCK STAR is a one-time investment, and our conversation is confidential.

To book, email me at:
s_beenackers@hotmail.com

Terms and conditions at:
https://catacombenijmegen.com/terms-conditions/

Once we know we are a good fit, my price is accepted by you and you choose to make a booking;
We move.

It is possible the above story has already given you an outline of what you want to discuss.

If you think you would benefit from a broader approach, my suggestion will be to sort your story into:

1. the earthly plane
Your possessions, worldly matters, income streams, worries and responsibilities you fear you can’t meet.
A helpful term could be how do things look from the perspective of financial freedom, or worldly freedom.

2. your purpose
What is the work you love doing, what are the moments big or small, that you know you are aligned. Has God told you, what you’re here for?
This is about creative freedom, or even karmic freedom.
Are you free to do the work, that is yours?

3. your Rock Star expansion
What is the fullest expression you are here to bring?
And what are the areas you’re playing small, as if cut off from your powers?
We investigate if in those areas, the rules you play by are yours, or society’s.
“3” is related to sexual freedom.
Like anything, it is up to you if that is part of our conversation or not.

Because all three points are just a suggestion, they offer a good framework providing one hour for every topic, to go deeper looking for answers.
But the setlist is not fixed.

I have merely built the stage for us, and we have three hours.

It is up for you to take it.

————-.

Catacombe is email-list free!!

Yes – you can subscribe to receive new blogposts;
But no additional or promotional emails are sent – just the blog, sec.

Promotions are very rare, but if available, they’re posted on Instagram and Rock Star Writer Facebook.
If you don’t use social media, feel free to say so with your application.
If there is a special offer I will email it to you.

.

NEW founded in MAY 2024: SUBSTACK
free memberships provided
other socials:
Instagram – Twitter – Rock Star Writer Facebook – Facebook Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver – LinkedIn

find your North Star | What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today 2024 08 06

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

find your North Star

Like the Cheshire Cat said to Alice:
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”

But it’s not just about where you go, but also how, you go.

What guiding principle have you chosen?

—

I have a stack of old collectable cards here on my desk, all famous people from the first half of the 20th century. I bought them ten days ago, at a shop called Erix Collectables in Waalre, The Netherlands.
At a bargain price because Eric had ultimately decided this collection will not be part of his core business, and that they should be priced accessibly.

Erix Collectables in Waalre, The Netherlands: Sorted collectable cards for € 2 a pack. The stack on the right is Famous People, from Brooke Bond tea (1969)

Making the box of assorted cards a true gem for anyone curious, wanting
to be surprised!
Anyone who loves nostalgia, and being a part of history.

The idea that these cards have been going through the hands of dozens of people, for decades, is absolutely irresistible to me.

I bought three of them:
Famous People, Brooke Bond Tea (1969)
Red Riding Hood by Victoria Biscuits (complete set, est 1910)
Submarines from Chocolat l’Aiglon (1940)

But perhaps it was telling, for my relationship to this store and why I was there, that the cards appealed to me so much.
Because I do not consider myself the right or target audience for the store.

Erix Collectables specializes in vintage Lego- and Playmobil sets, Fischertechnik, action figures and vintage computers and rarities.

It’s tempting to say I was “tagging along”, because I was there with a friend who fits the niche of the shop perfectly.
My friend can recognize a € 160 euro computer game and can tell me why it is so expensive in a heartbeat.
Which was because it was the very first game brought about by famous movie producers, and it would later spin into a whole gaming franchise, where this first game was then included in one of the later editions.
As sort of a gadget, a game in a game.

So I can’t remember what the name of the game was but let’s say the name of this illustrious game was Trading Card (TC for fans!) then TC IX would have a level where you would encounter the original TC and play it.
A game within a game.

And a game within a box waiting at Erix Collectables for those who obviously have at least some knowledge about computer games.
Because I probably just gave the worst description of a video game since 1969.

So anyway, it is tempting to say I was tagging along, and not really the right audience for the shop, but this is not true because
A. I found the shop first, and was the one who introduced my friend
And
B. I absolutely love it there.

I usually go heavily over budget and come home with the weirdest things, and a singing heart!
I also buy a lot of cds there, typically.

Anyway, what I want to point out is that Erix Collectables, despite having a collection of rare trading cards, decided they were not his core business.
He has guiding principles, and this is one of them.
Which once the decision was made, must have made it relatively easy for him to let go of this collection in the form of packaging them as an impulse purchase near the exit.

Eric also has other principles of course:
To take really good care of things (hence the carefully crafted and packaged stacks) and to make the shop as attractive as possible in particular for the people outside of the target audience.
To have plenty of things on sale that do not require decades of inside knowledge and that come at a Hell Yes price!

Partners, children, friends of clients, and also for the people of the village, who can just walk into the shop without having a clear expectation;
He tries to have something there for everybody. 

He has a North Star;
He knows what he wants.
And then everything else can fall in line with that.

So instead of fussing over what you should be selling, or how to run your business, how to get your work in front of people and what your end game is;
Shift your perspective.
Take it up a notch and wonder;

What is the core, of what I want to be known for?

And then afterwards, everything else can fall in line with that.

Because as fun as surprise customers are, who come to your shop to be surprised and entertained, and who can’t wait to fearlessly jump down your rabbit hole;
It really works even better if you know what your € 160 game is!

If you know what the beacons are in your Wonderland, and you are the person holding the map;
Knowing how to navigate.

And how to get “there”.

.
~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer.

This blog
What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today
started going out daily, on 28 July 2024.

Subscribe to receive them in your Inbox.
The subscribe button should be somewhere on this page, probably on the top right.

signature offer:  The Rock Star 2024

brand new monthly mentoring:
THE COUNCIL

until 4 Dec 2024:
Specify. Sell. Repeat..

THE ROCK STAR

.
THE ROCK STAR, is Catacombe’s signature 3 hour session.

THE ROCK STAR is a one-time investment, and our conversation is confidential.

To book, email me at:
s_beenackers@hotmail.com

Terms and conditions at:
https://catacombenijmegen.com/terms-conditions/

Once we know we are a good fit, my price is accepted by you and you choose to make a booking;
We move.

It is possible the above story has already given you an outline of what you want to discuss.

If you think you would benefit from a broader approach, my suggestion will be to sort your story into:

1. the earthly plane
Your possessions, worldly matters, income streams, worries and responsibilities you fear you can’t meet.
A helpful term could be how do things look from the perspective of financial freedom, or worldly freedom.

2. your purpose
What is the work you love doing, what are the moments big or small, that you know you are aligned. Has God told you, what you’re here for?
This is about creative freedom, or even karmic freedom.
Are you free to do the work, that is yours?

3. your Rock Star expansion
What is the fullest expression you are here to bring?
And what are the areas you’re playing small, as if cut off from your powers?
We investigate if in those areas, the rules you play by are yours, or society’s.
“3” is related to sexual freedom.
Like anything, it is up to you if that is part of our conversation or not.

Because all three points are just a suggestion, they offer a good framework providing one hour for every topic, to go deeper looking for answers.
But the setlist is not fixed.

I have merely built the stage for us, and we have three hours.

It is up for you to take it.

————-.

Catacombe is email-list free!!

Yes – you can subscribe to receive new blogposts;
But no additional or promotional emails are sent – just the blog, sec.

Promotions are very rare, but if available, they’re posted on Instagram and Rock Star Writer Facebook.
If you don’t use social media, feel free to say so with your application.
If there is a special offer I will email it to you.

.

NEW founded in MAY 2024: SUBSTACK
free memberships provided
other socials:
Instagram – Twitter – Rock Star Writer Facebook – Facebook Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver – LinkedIn

*your name here* unplugged | What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today 2024 07 23

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

*your name here* unplugged

Strip your work to its barest parts.
Your marketing.
Packaging.
Pricing.
Your tactics, formulas, methods, the endless generation and chasing of new things.

Stop.

Let it all go, down to the very essence of what people pay you for.
You.

—

As creatives we are born with problems in this capitalist world which no one, and I mean no one, needs to envy;
The endless stream of new and exciting things to do.

I have said on more than one occasion, if writer’s block came in a bottle, I’d pay for that. A lot.

Now maybe you noticed the little adjective there; capitalist, world.
Which is the place where we make money because we sell whatever it is we have to sell. And this needs to be predictable, and not something new every week, unless you know a way to make that something new predictable.

From 2016 to 2023 I followed business coach Katrina Ruth, and I keep reading her books and keep studying the courses I bought.
And she was highly prolific at creating her offers.

Instead of heaving long, carefully planned launches, she’d be launching, meaning selling a new program, every week.
“And two if it’s a Sunday” she’d sometimes cheekily add.

Sunday would then be the closing day for the “old” offer, and she’d drop her new one as well.

Offers could range from new courses – for which she had only written the sales page because the whole program would actually be created on the go!- to reopening an old program and running it again.
From home study courses, to group programs with live calls, to six week one-on-ones and so on.
Prices ranged from under a hundred dollar to a thousand, to ones you could DM her for, to get the price and see if it’s right for you.

Her highest paying group wasn’t even launched, and hardly ever talked about but  from the rare moments she did I understood it was € 10.000 per month or € 100.000 per year.
And that was 4, 5 years ago.

Just to illustrate that when I say to strip away all the extras, and to reinvent an Unplugged version of your “show” where you are bringing it down to the bare essentials, I do not mean we’re all going minimalist here.
Just that we should ONLY be doing the part, that is really us.

Clearly, in the example of Katrina Ruth, launching a new thing every week, was the very essence of who she was.
She works in a different way now.

Who you are is susceptible to change.

You may be someone who offers only one program or one service in 2024, and have twenty different things on your plate in 2034.

But back to that adjective:
Capitalist.
Why did I even bring that up, because it is a bit sour don’t you think?
Couldn’t I just have stuck with writing something inspirational, sweet and short?

The reason I brought it up, is because it is important to understand that capitalism thrives on predictability, which is opposite to the nature of what creativity is.
So if you allow yourself to act on every thought and inspiration, but also on every fear and insecurity, you are undermining your work as a business owner because that is tied to:
“How predictable can you be?”

And many of us, like me, have a lot of creativity but little consistency, which is why I started dreaming of a syrup to end the flow of creativity.
Consistency pays more than creativity.
Yes ouch, I know.

So the very least you can do, is to not engage in things you are neither consistent at, that are not soul-fulfillingly creative, and also, not something you get paid for.

And that also gives you the three reasons to DO things:
-you can do them consistently
-they are soul-fulfillingly creative
-you get paid for them

And the best news is of course that the absolute highest paying, most resilient business model you could possibly come up with, is this;
-something you can do consistently
-AND it is soul-fulfillingly creative!

That, is *your name here* unplugged.

.
~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer.

signature offer:  The Rock Star 2024

brand new monthly mentoring:
THE COUNCIL

.

THE ROCK STAR

.
THE ROCK STAR, is Catacombe’s signature 3 hour session.

THE ROCK STAR is a one-time investment, and our conversation is confidential.

To book, email me at:
s_beenackers@hotmail.com

Terms and conditions at:
https://catacombenijmegen.com/terms-conditions/

Once we know we are a good fit, my price is accepted by you and you choose to make a booking;
We move.

It is possible the above story has already given you an outline of what you want to discuss.

If you think you would benefit from a broader approach, my suggestion will be to sort your story into:

1. the earthly plane
Your possessions, worldly matters, income streams, worries and responsibilities you fear you can’t meet.
A helpful term could be how do things look from the perspective of financial freedom, or worldly freedom.

2. your purpose
What is the work you love doing, what are the moments big or small, that you know you are aligned. Has God told you, what you’re here for?
This is about creative freedom, or even karmic freedom.
Are you free to do the work, that is yours?

3. your Rock Star expansion
What is the fullest expression you are here to bring?
And what are the areas you’re playing small, as if cut off from your powers?
We investigate if in those areas, the rules you play by are yours, or society’s.
“3” is related to sexual freedom.
Like anything, it is up to you if that is part of our conversation or not.

Because all three points are just a suggestion, they offer a good framework providing one hour for every topic, to go deeper looking for answers.
But the setlist is not fixed.

I have merely built the stage for us, and we have three hours.

It is up for you to take it.

————-.

This blog
What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today
goes out as often as needed!

Subscribe to receive them in your Inbox.
The subscribe button should be somewhere on this page, probably on the top right.

Catacombe is email-list free!!

Yes – you can subscribe to receive new blogposts;
But no additional or promotional emails are sent – just the blog, sec.

Promotions are very rare, but if available, they’re posted on Instagram and Rock Star Writer Facebook.
If you don’t use social media, feel free to say so with your application.
If there is a special offer I will email it to you.

.

NEW founded in MAY 2024: SUBSTACK
free memberships provided
other socials:
Instagram – Twitter – Rock Star Writer Facebook – Facebook Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver – LinkedIn

sell the mystery| What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today 2024 06 10

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

sell the mystery

In the age of social media there are two options;
One is to message anywhere between daily and all day or at least consistently.

But if your energy is heavier and slower, more grounded;
Let your absence do the seducing.

—

I absolutely adore professionals who are on the socials every day.
Or who launch their new thing visiting every podcast that will have them, and do whatever it takes getting their foot in the door, with the ones that don’t want them!
Yet.

Scanning their search results or visiting these people’s timeline comes with a sense of anticipation and excitement!
It’s often, and perhaps even preferably, predictable content. The exact same message, day after day.
Week after week.
Season in, season out.
But always presented with an aliveness that has brought them where they are today.

Sometimes you know them so well, you even know their specials by heart.
And yet, it never ceases to mesmerize you.
I love everything about those professionals;
Their drive.
Their energy.
Their stories and their current offer wrapping you up, like a blanket.

For a few minutes, you’re in their world, and whether you buy something or not, it doesn’t really matter.
You feel refreshed.
Ready to take on whatever it is, you were procrastinating on.

But if being such a powerhouse Rock Star messenger is not you, then cultivate the not being on social media.
Being offline.
Having adventures of which you show us, but a sliver.
Post your photo quoting Rilke or Axl Rose, or both.

Enchant us with your absence, and feed our voracious minds tiny little things to chew on.
Starve us.
Be cruel to us.
Draw us into your Theater of the Unknown,
Your Dome of the Desired.
Promise us every dream and unfulfilled passion coming true.

Or at least hint, boldly, at its possibility.

Leaving all options wide open, wink, and sell us a ticket first row.

.
~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer

.
“Every heightening is good if it occurs in the quick of your bloodstream, if it is not an intoxication, not a troubling but a joy one can see right to the bottom of.”
Rainer Maria Rilke


https://catacombenijmegen.com/current-offer/
All offers valid throughout 2024.

+ final weeks for femme Rock Stars to use this special offer
Sara’s Love | business coaching for women
{ 8 January to June 23, 2024 }

.

“Sometimes your friends are your lovers, or have been at one time, or are at some time or are at different times.”
Axl Rose

.

THE ROCK STAR

.
THE ROCK STAR, is Catacombe’s signature 3 hour session.

THE ROCK STAR is a one-time investment, and our conversation is confidential.

To book, email me at:
s_beenackers@hotmail.com

Terms and conditions at:
https://catacombenijmegen.com/terms-conditions/

Once we know we are a good fit, my price is accepted by you and you choose to make a booking;
We move.

It is possible the above story has already given you an outline of what you want to discuss.

If you think you would benefit from a broader approach, my suggestion will be to sort your story into:

1. the earthly plane
Your possessions, worldly matters, income streams, worries and responsibilities you fear you can’t meet.
A helpful term could be how do things look from the perspective of financial freedom, or worldly freedom.

2. your purpose
What is the work you love doing, what are the moments big or small, that you know you are aligned. Has God told you, what you’re here for?
This is about creative freedom, or even karmic freedom.
Are you free to do the work, that is yours?

3. your Rock Star expansion
What is the fullest expression you are here to bring?
And what are the areas you’re playing small, as if cut off from your powers?
We investigate if in those areas, the rules you play by are yours, or society’s.
“3” is related to sexual freedom.
Like anything, it is up to you if that is part of our conversation or not.

Because all three points are just a suggestion, they offer a good framework providing one hour for every topic, to go deeper looking for answers.
But the setlist is not fixed.

I have merely built the stage for us, and we have three hours.

It is up for you to take it.

————-.

This blog
What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today
goes out as often as needed!

Subscribe to receive them in your Inbox.
The subscribe button should be somewhere on this page, probably on the top right.

Catacombe is email-list free!!

Yes – you can subscribe to receive new blogposts;
But no additional or promotional emails are sent – just the blog, sec.

Promotions are very rare, but if available, they’re posted on Instagram and Rock Star Writer Facebook.
If you don’t use social media, feel free to say so with your application.
If there is a special offer I will email it to you.

.

NEW founded in MAY 2024: SUBSTACK
free memberships provided
other socials:
Instagram – Twitter – Rock Star Writer Facebook – Facebook Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver – LinkedIn

you need to know this! to thrive in any industry | Specify. Sell. Repeat. { March offer }

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

If I would have to pinpoint when I became a “marketing addict”, I would say 2015 at the absolute latest.
And 2008 at the earliest, because I have memories of taking a course and finding a business coach when I was living in a house I left January 2009.
So I know it was that early.

And I remember vividly, the feeling of having been introduced to a circle of knowledgeable entrepreneurs…
Who knew something that was unheard of in the Netherlands, or at least almost never practiced.

But above all;
I felt it was something I needed, to make my yoga business a success.

I was wrong about one thing;
It was not a secret to making my yoga business a success.

But right about something else;
It was something local businesses could profit from tremendously!

The “something” I found, is known as marketing for small businesses.
And I was right in suspecting as early as 2008 that it was not applied by independent professionals and small businesses in The Netherlands.
Which holds true to this day.

In fact it is shocking in how many industries – where industry stands for a branche of professionals who all sell a specific type of work – still have a taboo on actually actively selling.
You can share what you’re doing, you can network with professionals from other industries telling what your work is, and you can join trade unions and do anything from taking extra courses to working according to protocols to earn extra credentials;
But woe betide, should you actually show up to sell your work!

The audacity.

In fact, before I continue, I can already make it really simple that IF you are in an industry where it is spoken about in hushed tones if you actually show up and sell;
You already know that you are in an industry where something is at play that marketing alone, including marketing for small businesses, is not going to fix.

So let me just name a few independents who might have experienced being frowned upon asking for the sale, and in particular when asking premium prices:
– historians
– artists
– independent healthcare workers
and of course:
– yoga teachers

If you too experience resistance to:
– freely determine what service you offer
and
– how you want to price them
Then you too are in one of these industries, that needs a closer look, before you can benefit from marketing.

To understand where this resistance to you stepping into your bigger professional boots comes from, we should look at industries everyone understands what they entail;
AND they are commercially funded.
So although they may be essential workers, they are not publicly funded.

Examples of independent professionals, working in the commercial sector, where everybody understands what their work entails are:
-mechanics
and
-lawyers

We all
-know when we need a mechanic or a lawyer
and
-we all know it is going to cost us.
These are not services which are government funded.

So!
If you experience resistance selling your services, and/or have experienced resistance from your audience or peers thinking you selling is inappropriate?
Then either:
-it is unclear what your service is, compared to the clarity a lawyer or mechanic can offer
Or
-people are not used to paying for it, usually because it is part of the public service industry or because the market is rigged and the service is being delivered cheaper elsewhere using underpaid labor and/or resources from unregulated countries. 

This means that your industry, is either:
– immature (it is not clear what your offer)
Or
– not on a free market
In this second case (your industry not being on the free market) it is actually the case that, the free market of your industry, is immature.
So people are used to seeing the service, but only in a publicly funded context.
The free-market portion of your industry, is hardly developed (immature).

In both cases we’re dealing with immature industries, which are always recognized by ONE characteristic:
1.All pricing is similar
This is actually a result of the broader taboo on selling.
But your industry is immature if there is no diversification in offers.
If there are no VIP offers, premium pricing, or professionals who only operate at this higher price point, then your industry is immature.

If your industry is not a public one, so you’re not an independent working in health care industry or education, then there is a second characteristic your industry is not mature:

2. There are no fulltime jobs doing your work
You can be a lawyer or a mechanic on a salary, but you can hardly be a writer doing a 40 hour job, nor a yoga teacher or an artist.

So to loop this whole thing back to the beginning of this story:
Where small business marketing absolutely has the potential to work like a charm, if you are in an immature industry?
It is definitely more difficult than it should let’s say “logically” be, at first glance.
Because you “also” or “first” have to overcome the price-dampening characteristics of your industry.

Overcoming this price dampening effect can be done in TWO ways;

1.You increase the clarity of what it is you do.

So you “coin” your industry, until people understand it the way they understand what a lawyer or a mechanic does.

For example, you SELL your paintings in an easy, fun, pret-a-porter manner, “as if” you are running a Go-to House Decoration account  on Instagram.

“As if” between quotation marks because you will soon actually become, the Go-to House Decoration account on Instagram.

You have now successfully turned
my car broke -> mechanic needed
Into:
I need to decorate my house -> artist needed

In this first scenario, WHAT you sell stays the same. 

Or, you can overcome the flat-priced industry by:

2.Diversifying your offering!

Just because all the others in your industry do not have monthly subscriptions, premium pricing, temporary offers, exhilarating launches, Inner Circles, private client work, group courses that have “Doors Open!” and “Doors closing!” dates?
Does not mean you can’t!

A healthy, mature industry, is one where everyone immediately understands what’s on offer, and when it is needed.

Ideally, every industry should provide clarity around this, so that any professional can open shop, and make a living with zero marketing.
Every industry, ideally, should be as clear cut as the work of mechanics or lawyers.

But if that is not your industry, you can still make a living:

-making your work just as clear as that of a lawyer or a mechanic
But you will need to keep communicating this, because your industry has failed to provide it for you.

And/or
-you can diversify your work by, quoted from above
“monthly subscriptions, premium pricing, temporary offers, exhilarating launches, Inner Circles, private client work, group courses that have  “Doors Open!” and “Doors closing!” dates” 

As a yoga teacher back in 2008 or 2015, this meant I had the choice between:
-offering my yoga classes in a very clear way
For example I could have called it: 

Yoga
exercise for health

Have a website, some flyers and otherwise zero marketing.

-making my yoga services exciting
By offering 6 week – beginner courses, a monthly study group, private yoga packages, 1-on-1 yoga membership, and an annual group program that started in September and ran through June the following year.

And that, would have been the only thing I needed to know about marketing.
It would have last me, a lifetime.

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

 

Specify. Sell. Repeat.
{ March 2024 exclusive}

 

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.

The price of “Specify. Sell. Repeat.” is € 297, the same as in 2023, when I also ran this workshop.

It demonstrates what it looks like to make your offers specific;
Specify a what (a 2 hour session), when (in March 2024), 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/

you need to know this! to thrive in any industry
| Specify. Sell. Repeat. { March offer }
was posted on the Catacombe Rock Star blog

Subscribe to this blog to receive them in your Inbox

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

 

don’t change the show, change your audience | What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today 2024 01 08

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

don’t change the show, change your audience

You know whom you’re here to serve.

The ones excited by their good fortune to be walking this earth in the same tiny interval of human life you are.

Which is exactly how you feel about them.

—

The title of today’s post is probably widespread wisdom, but I did not encounter it until I started studying small business marketing.
It must have been around 2012-ish.

I don’t know the exact date, because it wasn’t a conscious choice to start studying marketing, as opposed to my academic business studies, in the early 90s. 
If you pick up studying a topic on internet, no starting dates are saved usually!
Nor do we know it will end up being THE topic! Or one of multiple, you will end up loving the most.

But I do know that the moment a business coach I followed (I think it was Marie Forleo) shared this wisdom:
“Don’t change the show, change your audience.”
It clicked.

It meant don’t change what you sell, change the people you sell it to.

There was something mesmerizing, about this idea of taking the bird’s view perspective of someone filling stadiums (which is my association with your “show”) and applying it to your small business.

It was a shift in perspective that not just gave you more confidence, and planted you firmly into your bigger entrepreneurial boots;
It was also an important time-saving, frustration-preventing, highest-work invoking guideline, for both the entrepreneur, or artist;
As well as for their ideal customer or fan!!

So do your work like people are defying waiting lines and dynamic pricing systems, to get hold of your services.

And give them what they came for;
A show to remember.

~Suzanne

Let’s get your tour posters in order:
->
https://catacombenijmegen.com/current-offer/

All offers valid throughout 2024.

+ a new offer just dropped
Sara’s Love | business coaching for women
{ 8 January to June 23, 2024 }

—
What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today
goes out every two days.
Subscribe to receive them in your Inbox.
The subscribe button should be somewhere on this page, probably on the top right.

THE ROCK STAR

.
THE ROCK STAR, is Catacombe’s signature 3 hour session, for those who  know that everything that is NOT part of the show you’re actually here to give?
Needs to go.
So that your true fans can find you.

THE ROCK STAR is a one-time investment, and our conversation is confidential.

To book, email me at:
s_beenackers@hotmail.com

Terms and conditions at:
https://catacombenijmegen.com/terms-conditions/

Once we know we are a good fit, my price is accepted by you and you choose to make a booking;
We move.

It is possible the above story has already given you an outline of what you want to discuss.

If you think you would benefit from a broader approach, my suggestion will be to sort your story into:

1. the earthly plane
Your possessions, worldly matters, income streams, worries and responsibilities you fear you can’t meet.
A helpful term could be how do things look from the perspective of financial freedom, or worldly freedom.

2. your purpose
What is the work you love doing, what are the moments big or small, that you know you are aligned. Has God told you, what you’re here for?
This is about creative freedom, or even karmic freedom.
Are you free to do the work, that is yours?

3. your Rock Star expansion
What is the fullest expression you are here to bring?
And what are the areas you’re playing small, as if cut off from your powers?
We investigate if in those areas, the rules you play by are yours, or society’s.
“3” is related to sexual freedom.
Like anything, it is up to you if that is part of our conversation or not.

Because all three points are just a suggestion, they offer a good framework providing one hour for every topic, to go deeper looking for answers.
But the setlist is not fixed.

I have merely built the stage for us, and we have three hours.

It is up for you to take it.

.

Instagram – Twitter – Rock Star Writer Facebook – Facebook Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver – LinkedIn

the only thing it needs is selling | What Do Rock Stars Need To Hear Today 2023 11 30

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

the only thing it needs is selling

Everything you invest in supporting systems, in platforms, and even in marketing, that does not make your heart sing?

One more thing you can trip over.
One more thing keeping you from living the life you want.
—

Herman Brood was a rock star in the Netherlands, and he maintained his public persona really well. He struggled with drugs and alcohol throughout his life, yet he kept taking care of the way he presented himself.

Dying his hair, choosing the right clothes, taking care of his teeth.
He was also soft-spoken and friendly, you would have been hard-pressed to find anybody who did not like him.

I consider the way he showed up for his audience, which in his case was almost everybody because he was so famous and he was recognized in the streets like any celebrity; I consider that, the ideal way each and everyone of us should show up in our business.
It was, although I doubt he would have called it that, amazing marketing.

We were all in love with him, and he could have sold us anything.
And he did.

Because Herman Brood was a painter. And he had been to art school too, just that his music career had taken off before the art did. But later in his life he got back to painting and drawing.

Now here’s why Herman Brood is such a great example of learning how to get back to the barebones of doing business;

Herman Brood could paint something, walk out on the streets, and sell it. 

-> Zero <- systems.

I believe that ideally we should be able to sell like that.

And sure.
If Herman Brood had had a website, an Etsy account, a PayPal and an Instagram?
He would have sold MORE.

But he was an example of what pure, virtuoze selling looked like.

~Suzanne

The story of
“the only thing it needs is selling”
are paragraphs cut from yesterday’s longread
“Lessons from losing access to my website | We’re back!! 2023 11 29”

Specify. Sell. Repeat

{ offer 30 Nov – 11 Dec 2023 }

If you want to step into easy, no-tech required, selling of whatever it is you sell as an independent or small business?
I brought back my offer
Specify. Sell. Repeat.
in the “My site is down” hacked version!
->
https://declubyoga.com/2023/11/14/specify-sell-repeat-in-particular-when-your-tech-goes-down-your-industry-collapses-and-you-just-lost-money/

“Specify. Sell. Repeat.
In particular when your tech goes down, your industry collapses, and you just lost money.”

This offer would originally expire 30 November 2023;
but I am extending it, to December 11, the one year anniversary of this website!

 

THE ROCK STAR

.
THE ROCK STAR, is Catacombe’s signature 3 hour session, for anyone who knows they require freedom, more than anything else.
And their gold, is their message.

THE ROCK STAR is a one-time investment, and our conversation is confidential.

To book, email me at:
s_beenackers@hotmail.com

Terms and conditions at:
https://catacombenijmegen.com/terms-conditions/

Once we know we are a good fit, my price is accepted by you and you choose to make a booking;
We move.

It is possible the above story has already given you an outline of what you want to discuss.

If you think you would benefit from a broader approach, my suggestion will be to sort your story into:

1. the earthly plane
Your possessions, worldly matters, income streams, worries and responsibilities you fear you can’t meet.
A helpful term could be how do things look from the perspective of financial freedom, or worldly freedom.

2. your purpose
What is the work you love doing, what are the moments big or small, that you know you are aligned. Has God told you, what you’re here for?
This is about creative freedom, or even karmic freedom.
Are you free to do the work, that is yours?

3. your Rock Star expansion
What is the fullest expression you are here to bring?
And what are the areas you’re playing small, as if cut off from your powers?
We investigate if in those areas, the rules you play by are yours, or society’s.
“3” is related to sexual freedom.
Like anything, it is up to you if that is part of our conversation or not.

Because all three points are just a suggestion, they offer a good framework providing one hour for every topic, to go deeper looking for answers.
But the setlist is not fixed.

I have merely built the stage for us, and we have three hours.

It is up for you to take it.

.

Instagram – Twitter – Rock Star Writer Facebook – Facebook Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver – LinkedIn

Permission to sell granted, Rock Star | 2023 05 23: Specify. Sell. Repeat.

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

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/

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

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

photo “Animal Crossing” by Katrina Cooper-Hinton https://somerandomchick.picfair.com/

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/