Since my last blog, I’ve had at least ten conversations with ‘mature’ professionals who’ve been running their own business for a number of years.
I’m starting to notice a pattern.
I’ve noticed that just about every person has incredible expertise acquired over a long period of time and a solid list of satisfied clients and successful projects completed. They also have numerous qualifications, a raft of products or services (books, workshops, keynote presentations, research and so on), some pretty unique IP and a strong list of networks and contacts. They appear to be incredibly successful at what they do.
Eventually I get around to the question of ‘so what income do you expect to earn this year?’
Each time the answer surprises me. It’s always way below what I’d expect it to be, given their time in business and experience. It saddens me that these highly successful people are not expecting to earn at least double, if not triple the amount they tell me.
Somewhere along the line, after many years in business, they’ve become conditioned to ‘under-earning’ and ‘under-valuing’ themselves and this has created a ‘pain gap’.
‘The pain gap’ occurs when despite your hard work and expertise, your income reality doesn’t match where you really thought you should be after all these years of hard work.
Most often ‘the pain gap’ is caused by a wildly fluctuating yearly income as a result of taking reactive steps to grow the business in many different directions instead of moving forward steadily with a solid vision and strategy.
‘The pain gap’ causes great stress and confusion and can make you feel like you’re going round and round in circles. Rather than feeling passion and joy for your business (which you had in spades when you first started), the business starts to feel like a millstone around your neck.
How do I know this? Because that was me two years ago. I’ve worked tirelessly to eliminate ‘the pain gap’ over the last 10 months in order to capitalise on the hard work of the previous 10 years. I’ve finally cracked the code and created a method that is reaping rewards and earning me the income that I expect and deserve.
If your interested in finding out how, I’d be happy to share my wisdom. Just drop me a line.
Till next time!
Yours in conscious marketing
