Why I pivoted

You can listen to this story here:

On March 9th, 2020 New York got locked down because of the pandemic.

I arrived to NY on March 1st like always, had a few trips to Florida and was going to stay in NY until June... My old life... I would spend 5 months of the year in New York, and the rest in Europe.

At the time, I was an Image Consultant, doing YouTube and had a Podcast called Personal Image Branding.

Life was good or so I thought...

just finished a course with Amy Porterfield to learn how to create courses, even enrolled on her private Membership Momentum because I wanted to impact more people rather than have private clients.

What I came to realize then, was that most of my private clients, although they did want the image consultant services, had “issues” to resolve about their image. This wasn't a straight forward service.

Their underlying problems were because of how they saw themselves in the mirror, self love, their beliefs about was trendy or not, imposter syndrome with their body, and their

weight.

You could say I was more their body confident & psychologist rather than their stylist.

Most of them have high level jobs, and are very active in social gatherings. They don't have time to sit around and go shopping or organize their wardrobe.

What really made me change from image consultant to personal branding was because they wanted more exposure, needed to look good doing it, but also wanted to increase their presence on social media, remain top of mind, to be perceived as leaders in the industry, get on speaking engagements or how to work a room during networking events to improve their personal brand.

I felt that because of my marketing background, mixed with styling and all my years organizing events, going to trade shows, that I could help them. Plus I had gone through a mental breakdown 7 years back... I felt I had the tools to help them.

So, I sat down and outlined a great program to learn about image styling based on your body, how to find your unique style not the copy version, and also added my own flair to learn etiquette & protocol (something I learned working with house of states from various countries while doing events), teach them how to find their story, how they wanted to be perceived, networking techniques in public and also on social media, design their brand and give them the tools to promote their knowhow with ads.

It all sounded amazing then! But when I sat down to hear the news, we’ve been put on lock down… my brain said.

“ I can’t create this course” .

It's ridiculous to create a course about networking and elevator pitches when we can leave the house.

So, I turned off my mobile for 72 hours, and brainstormed like crazy.

I pivoted backwards…

Went back to what I knew how to do, events.

Everybody was online, and my other company needed to make money with events. I mentioned it to my business partners in Panama and they liked the idea… Because by that time, I was spending my days stuck in my apartment giving my partners a crash course how to survive with webinars, explaining them what a sales funnel was, what's an ideal client, so that they could implement that with our clients in Latin America.

That course was called the Online Project Planner Box. A course to teach how to create online projects (events) and plan them from start to finish, with the added bonus to teach them how to get sponsorships to monetize these virtual events.

By the time I had finished writing the entire course, I was already back in Madrid (where I used to live) End of May 20220.

In July , I decided to launched and although a lot of people were very interested, and more than 500 people had attended my webinars I encountered 2 major problems:

My pricing was high 997 euros
My messaging was off

Definitely the timing and pricing was way off... but in retrospect the price should have been higher. I was spilling all my tactics and strategies!

The reality is that people believe that creating events is easy... when in fact when you want brands and companies to back your event whether if its medical or corporate it takes time, planning and effort and that creates a different dynamic and type of events - To make money.

In Congrex Americas ( one of my other businesses) We have organized world events that take 5 years to coordinate!

Thankfully, I never got to present the course, because the moment I finished writing the program I knew I was not happy with it. Still, I went ahead to promote it, to say at least I’ve given it a try.

It drained me mentally the failure, I had pivoted TWICE in 6 months… so I really needed a mental break to rethink everything.

…and that’s how I got to where I live right now in Moraira.

By August 2020 I came down here looking to be near the sea, because I really missed it and because I needed the rest .

The 15 days I spent here, I stayed in the house I had rented laying all day in the pool, listening to music. I didn't want to think about the future, or dwell on the past, only what’s for breakfast, what’s for lunch, what's for dinner? What kind of wine I want to drink.

It was on vacation and I needed to treat it like that, no thinking.

When I went back to Madrid, I still had no clue what to do. I had to start from scratch, find a new VA and reboot the business.

Reinvent myself once again.

The only logical pivot at the time was to go back to basics Pivot to Marketing.

My background in marketing was 100% oriented towards events, how to promote events, get new leads for events, traveling to trade shows and networking to get new leads for our business.

I knew from my previous experience with the Online Project Box I needed to work on my communication skills and messaging because what I was saying wasn't landing with people. They wanted it, but they didn't buy it.

I figured that if I have a communication problem, maybe more people have that same struggle.

With that thinking... I understood that what we say, should impact and change people's perspective for them to really invest in our services.

That we should not preach/lecture and sound like a car salesperson when we’re trying to promote our business.

People are not going to buy if you have a pretty face, nice branding or a great website.

People are going to buy if you:

Promote your business to remain top of mind that you are the expert in what you do, so that the word of mouth effect is easier
Promote your business by touching their heart and connecting with them.
Promote your business because your business values are aligned with your ideal potential client.
Promote your business consistently, if people don't know what you do, how can they buy your stuff?
Promote your business as to what would you change in your industry today, what do you think is the old way, and show them the new way.
Promote your business by showing them how your services can stop their suffering.
Promote your business by repeating your messaging. - people need to hear information more than 7-14 times to know and understand what you do.
Promote your business by documenting content not by creating it.
Promote your business by not promoting yourself but the emotion.
Promote your business not by pushing people, when you sound like a salesperson people tend to pull away.

Bottom line, to make a business work and have people to buy from you. Solve a problem that YOU have.

I hope this insight into my pivoting helps you better understand that failure doesn't define us, what we do with it, is what will set you and your business apart.

Love,

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Let's Be honest... How many hours do you spend building a marketing strategy that is right for your biz, systems, procedures, checklists, tools that make your life easier and learning what your clients want to give them what they need?

I get it! Way too many hours with very little time!

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