I'm proud of myself. I set a goal and a timeline to do my first webinar from start to finish by September 19th, and you'll be happy to know I completed that goal yesterday! Man was I nervous. All the professionals make it look so easy with their smooth transitions and skill. Little did I know how hard it is to maintain high energy AND talk for that long with no breaks! (No washroom breaks AT ALL lol). Also, my voice went midway. So, note to self, bring water next time. But all in all it was a great experience and I look forward to repeating it next week!

One of the hardest questions you'll ever answer as a business owner is this.. What is the core problem I actually solve? Not the surface problem. Not the symptom. The real one underneath everything else. Most people never get there. They describe what they do -- "I help people build funnels" or "I help coaches get clients" -- and stop at the first layer. Which means their messaging sounds like everyone else's. Because everyone else stopped at the first layer too. Here's a technique I picked up today that I think is genuinely useful. Start with any problem you solve. Just pick one. Doesn't have to be the most important one. Just one you're confident about. Then go upstream. Ask: what caused that problem? What's the problem that created this problem? Write it down. Then ask again. What caused that? Keep going as many iterations as you can until you genuinely can't go further. Then go back to your original problem and go downstream. Ask: what does this problem create? What's the new problem that this problem causes if it isn't solved? Write that down. Then ask again. What does that create? Keep going as many iterations as you can. Now do the same thing for two or three other problems you solve. Go upstream and downstream on each one. Here's what happens when you do this properly.. One problem keeps appearing in multiple chains. It shows up as an upstream cause of several different problems. It shows up as a downstream consequence of several others. It sits at the center of everything. That's your root. That's the real problem your business exists to solve. Not because you decided it was -- because the chains led you there independently. When you find it, your messaging changes completely. Because you're no longer describing a symptom. You're naming the thing underneath the symptoms that your ideal client has been feeling for years without being able to articulate it. When you put words to someone's unspoken problem before they do.. they stop scrolling.

I am working to overcome my fear, which I hear echoed by so many coaches. So I WROTE A POEM (copyrighted) about it that I hope can help others too. The Convincing Impostor Do you ever feel like an imposter, a fake, Like you don’t deserve the difference you make? Like someone will stand up and finally say, She doesn’t really belong here, no way! Think of the imposter on screen and in books, So convincing because of their duplicate looks, The fake one eventually has their cover blown, They’re exposed only by intimate knowledge unknown. But you — you have lived it, you know every part, The struggle, the breaking, the healing, the heart, Your life is the knowledge, your own living proof, You have personal experience — you’re just sharing the truth. To you it feels obvious from inside looking out, But someone needs exactly what you’re teaching about, What feels so familiar, so simple to you, Is a breakthrough for someone that’s long overdue. Do you really think you’re an imposter who schemes, Manufacturing credentials nobody believes? You’re just trying to help people, to let their pain go, Because now you have a map and only share what you know. You are not an imposter, a fake, or a fraud, Your experience is real and your knowledge is broad, The most qualified voice in the room today, Is the one who has lived what they’re trying to say. Not everyone will need the wisdom you teach, If they aren’t in that pain, then they aren’t in your reach, Not everyone wants you — that’s not rejection, It’s just marketing, pointing you in the right direction. You’re legitimate, valuable, and a little defiant, You dare to not shrink and you dare to feel confident, So stand up, show up, speak out, be seen, The real you is who you were always meant to be. Copyright © Jennifer K. Hughes. All rights reserved.