Episode Transcript:

Lindsay (00:01):

Welcome back to another episode of the book, your dream plants podcast. We have Henriette with us. She's a strategic business coach and she works with professional female entrepreneurs and she helps them attract more clients, which is exactly why you're here. So you are going to love this episode, sit back, relax, and enjoy Henriette. Thank you so much for being on the Booker gym clients podcast. I am super excited to have you on today.

Henriette (00:54):

Thank you so much for having me here, Lindsay. It's such an honor to be here and just talking to you on your podcast and obviously sharing everything with your audience.

Lindsay (01:02):

We're going to have a fun time together. Everyone is going to love this. So make sure you stick around for the whole episode and then you follow Henriette because you guys are going to love her work. Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself and tell everyone about what you do and who you are.

Henriette (01:21):

Thank you so much. So I am a strategic business coach and I primarily work with professional female entrepreneurs in order to help them attract more clients in particularly using or enhancing their visibility. So these days is a lot more to do with visibility online. So that's primarily where I focus.

Lindsay (01:42):

How did you get into this? Have you been coaching for quite a while, or how did you get into the space where you help people and with the visibility aspect?

Henriette (01:52):

Okay. So, Oh my gosh, I've been a strategic business coach for just over three years. Obviously started in the corporate world. I was an interior designer or in the interior design industry for over 15 years. And so with a lot of project management strategy planning, those kinds of things, it was just one of those skills that I had. And in particular I found that one of my biggest skills I had since I was a kid was really just to take things that were very complicated and dissected and then put them back together in a way where it was just so much easier to understand and to implement. So knowing that I had that skill, it just made so much sense to become a strategic business coach. And it was always something that I wanted to do. So from many years of thinking, I want to start my own business. I finally decided to take that leap of faith and while working full-time in the interior design industry, I started my business along the side, testing the waters, making sure it is really what I wanted and I just fell in love with it. I started getting clients. I started meeting people from all over the world and I just realized my gut. I knew that's where I wanted to go. So quit my full-time job. And here I am over three, three years on.

Lindsay (03:04):

That's amazing. So when you, when clients come to you, what are their, what are their primary struggles? What are their pain points?

Henriette (03:12):

I think the F the first thing is, is,uI work with women in the service-based industry. So obviously they come to me, first of all, and say, they are struggling to get more clients. They might have a client here or there. And then obviously that contract expires, or they finished helping that client out, but then they don't have any more clients lined up. And it was all to do with how they can attract more clients? Because everybody's got this notion that we need to go and chase after clients, but there's the opposite, which is really the best way of attracting your ideal client. And again, people who know about the law of attraction, they know exactly what I'm talking about, but you can't attract your ideal client if they didn't know you accessed it. So this comes back to your visibility. How visible are you? How consistent are you in showing up for your clients?

Henriette (04:01):

What is your strategy? And we're going to talk maybe about this in a little bit, but there are so many strategies available for you to become visible in particular, online. That so many of my clients stretch themselves to send, to try and do everything. And that's where I say, no, we need to regain focus. You choose one or two strategies at the most, and you run with it over and over again. So the problem really starts with not having clients and being stretched too thin, being overwhelmed, feeling that they're not getting the results. And then some of them felt to the point where they just go, I give up, this is not for me.

Lindsay (04:37):

Hmm. Okay. Yeah. So important. And I think another pain point is when you do have clients, or when you sign on a client, there's that high that lasts about a minute. And then you're wondering, how, how am I going to do this again? It's like that scarcity mindset. Do you find that that scarcity mindset is really common in people who are having troubles finding attracting clients?

Henriette (05:01):

[Inaudible] Yeah, absolutely. And again, it comes back to your own beliefs. How do you feel about yourself? How do you believe you can attract that client? You know there are so many beliefs and so many obstacles where we kind of stop ourselves from attracting more clients. And it's, it's just something that we're not even conscious about. It's all in our subconscious. So I always talk about the three stages for, for business success. And it always starts with number one, your mindset. Then it goes over to your strategy because if your mindset is not right, your strategy won't be correct. And then once your strategy is correct, then obviously you've got a lead on to action, which is the third element. Uso yeah, I mean, mindset is the number one thing. And in order to know why you are not attracting clients, I think is so important, because once you understand that you can change that belief. And once you've changed that belief, everything starts making sense. Um think so many

Lindsay (05:58):

People think that once they put up a website and they post on social media consistently, and they don't start booking clients that they're doing something wrong and they get really discouraged because they completely skipped over the mindset part. Yes. Because mindset can be boring when you're just starting. Cause you're, you're so hungry for action and for things to happen and mindset, what do you mean I have to sit and do nothing. What does that even mean? And you ignore it. So what are some things that you see your clients get really great results when they do pay attention to mindset? What are some things they can start with?

Henriette (06:35):

Oh gosh. Okay. So I think the one thing that I would always say is when it comes to mindset, it starts about, let me rephrase that. When you sign up for entrepreneurship, you sign up actually for a lot of self-development. Okay. So mostly people think that when they have, or when they start a business, you, you know, it's going to be this amazing thing and they're going to run it and they're going to grow it. But there's so much self-development that you go through as an individual and only going only once you go through that, self-development can you implement what you learn into your business? So from a mindset aspect, if anybody's listening to this now and they wonder where they should start, just start developing yourself by maybe understanding, first of all, what your skills are, what your strengths are, and start focusing on that and building on that, because that's going to open up doors for you as to which direction you're going to head and how your business is going to evolve, how much more clients and what kind of clients you're going to attract to you. So I think getting clarity on what your strengths are and how you can expand on that, that will be the first step when it comes to mindset.

Lindsay (07:43):

That's a great first step, because I think we disregard all of our things are powerful, positive things that make us who we are, because we're constantly comparing ourselves to everyone else. And we don't even realize how amazing we actually are. We don't give ourselves any credit sometimes. Yeah,

Henriette (08:01):

Absolutely. And I think the second thing, if I can add to that as well is then just to go and think about your own kind of beliefs. If you feeling that you are not attracting clients and you can't attract clients, then why is that? What are you telling yourself? We have so many stories that we tell ourselves sometimes verbally, or even just subconsciously. And those stories are just made up and most of the times that even excuses. So you'll be very surprised if you really zone in and listen to how you talk to yourself,

Lindsay (08:31):

How do people figure out that? Why when they know that they have everything else going for them and they know it's somewhere, back in the mind, how do they figure that out? 

Henriette (08:43):

I think it all comes back to just taking time for yourself and becoming still. Now I do a lot of meditation. I do meditating meditation every single morning. And it's just about having that moment of stillness, where you can just really collect your thoughts and just kind of discover a little bit more about you and yourself, what you can do, who you are and having those moments of just calmness and mindfulness is honestly is one of the best things you can do. Most people even do it through yoga, or they go for a morning walk or whatever it is that they do, but you do need that moment and it needs to be consistent. It needs to be something that you do every single day. I know some people do journaling, but it's just something where you are just concentrating on yourself and you're just becoming still. And you just trying to figure out who you really are and where you're heading.

Lindsay (09:40):

Yeah. It had such a great example of that this morning. You know, sometimes you wake up in the morning and your head just feels really heavy. It's like, did I sleep? Or what was it? What was my mind so busy doing last night? Goodness. And I, it wasn't that I needed coffee. It just felt really heavy. And I sat down and I, I looked at my devotional book and I read and I still felt heavy. And I told myself, maybe you just need to not read or journal right now. Maybe you just need to sit there. And so I, I journaled, of course I didn't listen to myself and I still felt heavy. So then I just closed my eyes and it just sat there for a couple of minutes. And when I opened up my eyes, I felt like, wow, what's just happened. And I didn't do it for an hour, not even 20 minutes, not even five, but sometimes your mind just needs two minutes. And why do we, why do we shortchange ourselves into giving ourselves two minutes to just do nothing? Why do you think entrepreneurs think that sitting and doing nothing is so scary?

Henriette (10:47):

I think a lot of entrepreneurs are very much that there's kind of like a scale. If you want to look at a scale. So on one end of the scale, there is the planning, the strategizing, and on the other end of the scale, there's the action taking. So, so many entrepreneurs sit on the one end of the scale, where they either just planning and, you know, they're doing things, but they not really taking the action. So they they're just planning and they writing things down and they have it all in their head. But then you get some entrepreneurs who are very much the action taker. So they're constantly just doing things without planning or seeing it through. So if you're on either end of the scale, then obviously it's off balance. You need to find a balance between taking action and strategizing and planning. And I think for entrepreneurs, we always feel that we need to keep busy, whether it's on one end or both ends of the scale.

Henriette (11:37):

We always need to keep busy because if we're not busy, we feel that something's not going to happen. And we know that for a fact, but that also is kind of what it has been ingrained in us in, you know, if you're coming from a corporate world, because if you're not busy the office, then nothing's going to happen. If you're not replying to emails, nothing's going to happen. If you're not going into meetings, nothing's going to happen. You need to constantly show up and be busy. But I think for entrepreneurs, we've got to understand that there's a difference between being busy and being productive. But if you want to be productive, you need to take some time out for yourself as well, in order to just, you know, kind of like get aligned with, with, with yourself and with yourself.

Lindsay (12:22):

Yeah. I think so many of us think we need to man the station and make sure we're in front of the screen all the time in order for things to happen. And last weekend I took the whole weekend off from the internet and it felt glorious. And I don't even know last time I've ever done that. And I didn't even check my email, no Instagram, nothing. I just focused on my family for two whole days. And I said, you know what? Saturday mornings, I usually do a lot of work with clients and podcasts. But then after that, from now on every weekend is going to be like that. Cause it felt so good. It felt like I filled my cup. I think it's something that everybody needs to do because if we're not filling our cup and I'm speaking to the coaches out there who are working with other people who have to give energy to other people, you have to fill your cup. Otherwise you're not going to have anything to give. When you hop on that call,uwhat do you do to fill your cup?

Henriette (13:16):

Oh my gosh. I normally on Friday afternoons from about 1:00 PM. I take the rest of the day off, so my calendar's always booked out for Fridays. And what I do is I use that Friday afternoon either to educate myself whether it's a course that I'm doing or it's the fact that I'm doing a coaching call with my own mentors or my own coaches or whether it is that I'm just, you know reading books or anything where I find I really can educate myself. So that is Friday afternoons for me. And then once I've done that, I feel so, so good for just giving myself that time and concentrating on myself in order to make sure that I can kind of complete the week by educating myself and not just giving the whole time to my clients during the week. But I'm giving back to myself and then again, same Saturdays, Sundays. That's the time I relax. I spend with my family go in the garden. If the weather permits it here in London and I just enjoy it. And again, yes, sometimes I check my emails. Yes. Sometimes I do a couple of calls on a Saturday, but it will be one or two calls at the most. And the rest of the time I'm always available for my family. And we always make sure that we spend that time together.

Lindsay (14:32):

So important, so important. Okay. So we talked about when you work on your mindset, the strategy, and then you said, step three, what is step three? And can we kind of dig into that a little bit?

Henriette (14:47):

Yes. So I always talk about action. As you need to see action or taking any steps in a direction as if you aren't getting a reward and it's not as if you are getting a rule because you actually do get rewarded for every actionable step you take forward. It doesn't matter how big or how small that step is. But as an example, say for instance, that you want to show up and you want to become more visible online, but you're scared of doing videos. And now you decide, okay, I'm going to do videos. I'm going to start showing up more. So the first actionable step that you would take is obviously just do a quick little video and just start talking about a topic and then try and get a little bit more comfortable with doing that first video. And as soon as you've done that video, you go, Oh my gosh, that feels actually quite good.

Henriette (15:35):

That wasn't so bad. You know, I really enjoy doing this video. And that reward really is then just confidence. So I always say every small, actionable step you take forward, you get rewarded with confidence. The more you do it, the more you get confident. So when it comes to taking action, it is not something that we should fear. It is not something that you should just go head on and just go crazy without thinking that now everything is going to happen. Every small step leads to bigger things. So don't think about action as if it is this one thing you've got to take and it's going to change everything for you immediately. It's small things changes, bigger things. So taking small steps, you know, it's a baby, doesn't just start walking and running around on the first day that it's born. Uit takes time to grow.

Henriette (16:23):

It takes time to develop it. The muscles need to get stronger. The bones need to develop. They need to learn how to walk, how to balance. And that's the same for any entrepreneur in business. If you want to attract more clients, if you want to be more visible, it starts with those tiny little steps later on your walk and you'll run and that'll be fine. You can jump as fast as you want and can. But it wouldn't be possible if you don't start walking first. And if you think about steps as if you if you think about action with the fact that you're getting rewarded for it, it makes more sense because who wouldn't want to take actionable steps, knowing that you actually get a reward for it out of the end of the day.

Lindsay (17:04):

Okay. So I'm thinking video. So many people are so scared to go on video. What are some other options that they can do to show up in a small way,

Henriette (17:15):

In a small way? I always talk about the pyramid. There's so many ways of becoming visible. And when you look at a pyramid at the bottom of the pyramid is obviously your website or your blog. Most people create a website and a blog because it's safe. They can stay there. That's a platform that's visible, but they not showing up the next step up on that pyramid is obviously social media. So whether it's Instagram, Facebook, et cetera. And then the step up from there would be to get featured featured in other podcasts, like we're having a discussion now featured online magazines shows. And then the top of that pyramid is obviously public speaking. So that would be the top pinnacle part of how to become more visible. So if we go back to your website, showing up consistently on your website would be the easiest thing to do because it's that constant.

Henriette (18:07):

But again, you're hiding, showing up on social media. So the next step that you would want to do and video is becoming a lot more of a, of a attraction for clients than just posts. Posts are becoming kind of the norm. And almost people ignore it a lot more. So I would think video is definitely the one to, to, you know, on social media in order to start building your visibility. But then from there, the next step up would definitely be to get featured on other podcasts on, in other magazines shows and those kinds of things, because what happens then is you get put in front of other audiences and you get seen there as the expert where you can then also attract your ideal clients.

Lindsay (18:54):

Yes, I, I could just talk forever about how we hide behind our websites because it's safe and we do the busy work because it's safe and people don't want to understand that that is what they're doing. And what do you say to that person who doesn't believe that they need to show up consistently and that if they have a good website and a good funnel, that they're good to go. What do you say to that person to kind of give them some confidence? You can't give confidence, but infuse the inspiration to reach inside and know that they're worth showing up.

Henriette (19:29):

Yes. Do you mind if I tell a story here?

Lindsay (19:31):

Yeah, please do.

Henriette (19:33):

I actually had an email that I sent out to my audience the other day, and I had such a great feedback on that email, but it all comes to, to the fact that you need to show up. So I was talking about I was telling the story on the email about, we had a couple of blustery days in London, a few weeks ago. And with that, my house is kind of there. The corner of my house is kind of backed up onto a school yard. And then between me and my neighbor, there's this little alleyway that is like an emergency exit for the school yard. But luckily they haven't had to use it. So it's completely overgrown with shrubs and there's locked Gates. So you can't even access it on the other side. And as this wind was blowing, this big blue ball started coming down towards my yard and then coming down the alleyway and my dog Cooper is so excited seeing this ball coming his way.

Henriette (20:26):

And he started running towards it, tail wagging fixated on this ball. And then obviously the ball hit the fence and he couldn't play with a ball. So we're standing there, you know, going, getting all excited, but he realized that it couldn't reach the ball. Me obviously trying to get the ball over the fence, no avail that didn't work. So at the end, the board is just on the other side of the fence and it's just lying there deflating. So I kind of use that story in order to explain to the audience that that's, you are really representing that big blue ball. You get blown around by the wind and so many directions. And then finally, when you get to your audience, when you get to the ones who really need you, who wants you to come over and play a big game in the stay on the other side of the fence, because you're too scared, you're too scared of, you know, what, if I go over and pay a bigger game and people are going to judge me, um, onow, I'd rather, I'd rather want to hide behind my computer screen.

Henriette (21:22):

I'd rather stay safe and stay on the other side of the fence. And, and hopefully, you know, I can get my message through. And, and that's exactly it because now as soon as that ball hit the fence and Cooper realized he couldn't play with the ball, he lost interest and he went away and he found another toy. And that's exactly what your audience do. So when you finally reach your audience and you're there and you want to share your message with them, but you don't want to play a bigger game, they're going to lose interest and they're going to go find somebody else who can help them out. So your audience need you. You, you know, it, you're just too scared to show up and be visible. It's time for you to jump over that fence and play a bigger game because that's where the magic hat,

Lindsay (22:03):

Honestly, I love analogies and I love stories. So that was, that was such a good one. And then when you said you're afraid of being judged, that hits it right there. Like that hurts when you say that to some clients, because as a, you know, as a coach, like you want to crack them. And it's like, my job is to crack you not to show you the secret on your website. There's no secret by the way you have, we have to crack you. So why are, why are people so afraid of being judged online?

Henriette (22:33):

Actually something I I'm a public speaker as well. So when I started doing public speaker, I had a great mentor and she really helped me. And I did say to her, I was honest. And I said, listen, I'm scared. When I show up in front of these people, I'm scared that they're going to judge me. And she laughed. And she said, you know what? People judge you every single day. You just don't even know it. People judge you, they don't even know that they judging you because they're doing a subconsciously even sometimes. And when she said that, and you said, why, why do you need to worry about people judging you? If you do great, they're going to judge you. If you don't agree, they're going to judge you. So it doesn't matter for the audience or for you to think about how are they going to judge you because they're gonna judge you regardless if you are open-minded to the fact that, yeah, that's fine.

Henriette (23:22):

I'm okay with it. Because at the end of the day, you are there to deliver a message to them. It's all about them. It's not about you. And if they judge you, that's fine. It's about those who are listening, who are actually getting your message, who wants to hear from you. That's where it's really important. So showing up in front of a camera, people think, Oh my gosh, it's my hair. Okay. How am I talking? Can people understand me? It's not about you. You always have to make it about your audience. And if you show up in order to think about how you can serve them, then you don't care anymore about, you know, does your hair look okay? Is your makeup okay? How are people gonna think if you say things wrong? Oh my gosh. I say things wrong all the time. My tenses are never perfect. And yeah, sometimes I use the wrong words and I'm okay with that. It's, it's, it's about the message at the end of the day. And it's about my audience and what they can get from me. That's what matters

Lindsay (24:21):

For me. I love that. You said it's not about you. And that's so important to know it's not about you. And I can just pound my fist because it's not, we're here to help people. And I think it starts with your why, why did you even start your business? Did you start it to hide it or did you start it to serve? And you have to go from the mindset of generosity, serving others, helping people, and then everything will kind of totally change around for you when you, when you adapt that. But I know it can be hard to get to that point some times, and you just need to have it told different ways and heard you have to hear it in a way that comes from your heart, not in a defensive way. Because when you start getting defensive, you know, that's where it's, that's, you know, that's where you hit, where you hit the target. So, okay. Such a good conversation. I'm I feel like we could talk for another five hours probably. Where can people find more about you so they can dig into how you can help them more with their business?

Henriette (25:21):

Yes. So my website is Henriette darnell.com, just my name and my last name. And I'm also available on Instagram. My handle, there is just again, Henry had Danelle and I'm also available on Facebook, same handle and on LinkedIn.

Lindsay (25:37):

Amazing. And we have a freebie from Henriette it's 30 resources on how to attract more clients, which I know everyone's going to want that. I mentioned it at the beginning. So go into the show notes and download that because we know we're always looking for more ways, but you've heard the thing, the three things that we need to do. So just want to do a little recap and then we can close out the show.

Henriette (26:04):

Yeah, certainly. So the three elements for business success always starts with your mindset, which is number one. Uyou know, start thinking about how you can start changing your mindset about attracting clients. Then the second thing is your strategies, think about your strategy and particularly your visibility strategy. How are you showing up in order to be visible for those ideal clients who are actually looking for you? They're out there, they're looking for you. You've just got to show up and say, here I am, this is me, and this is what I do. And I promise you, you're going to attract a lot more clients. And then the last thing is just to take the action. So whatever strategy you've got in place, take the action, consistent with it and commit yourself to it. 100%. Don't stretch yourself too thin and try and do too many things. Just stay consistent with one or two strategies and you will see the results.

Lindsay (26:56):

Amazing. Thank you so much for spending time with us today. I'm sure everyone loved this episode and I'm so grateful you chose to be on our show. You have shared so many golden nuggets, so thank you.

Henriette (27:08):

Thank you so much, Lindsay. I really appreciate it. And thank you so much for just, you know, letting me share my story as well.

Lindsay (27:14):

Yeah, absolutely.

Henriette Danel is a Strategic Business Coach and work with professional female entrepreneurs, to help them attract more clients and grow their businesses.
She’s a born South African and always jokes, saying she’d been “plugged from the bush” to make a difference in the world.

Links:
Freebie: 30 Resources on How To Attract More Clients