SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hello and welcome to Marketing Your Truth, the podcast that transmutes the noise of typical generic marketing BS into a method that mirrors the depth of your passion and honors who you truly are. I'm Ellen Solley, and if you've been searching for a way for your message to be felt, not just heard, you found the right place. This is your sanctuary where we value and amplify the unique wisdom that only you possess. I'm glad you're here. Let's get started. Hello and welcome back to another episode of Marketing Your Truth. So if you've ever been in a place where your business just feels really, really heavy, when you're doing everything that you're being told to do, you're supposed to do, but just nothing seems to be working for you. Today's conversation will feel like something that is gonna turn the lights back on for you. I'm talking with my friend Wendy Wahan, a heart-centered business success coach with nearly three decades of experience in business development. Now, what I love about Wendy is that her work was actually born from a moment when she was literally on the edge of quitting, of giving up. And what she discovered turned everything around for her. Hmm. I wonder what happened. What did she discover? We're gonna get into it today. But since then, her mission has been to help entrepreneurs like you serve from the place of their truth to reconnect with the difference they're here to make and build a business that actually feels good. Welcome, Wendy. So glad to have you here.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Thank you so much, Ellie. I'm super excited to be here. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Awesome. Awesome. All right. So before we get into the nitty-gritty of your framework and your methodologies, I want to start with that moment that we just talked about, right? The one that you were really struggling, that you were on the edge of almost giving up and walking away from entrepreneurship altogether. Can you take us back to that moment? What was happening and what did you discover?

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Yeah, absolutely. I would love to. Do you have about two hours? No, kidding. So this is the compressed version. So I was fresh out of college, having gotten my master's degree in music. You think music, entrepreneurship? Wait a second. First ding ding ding, yellow flag, right? It's not in business, it's in music. But I had set the intention that I wanted to be a professional musician. And so that's hence the music degree. Well, fell flat. So starting my own business was plan B. Since it was plan B, well, I had zero business skills, I had zero marketing skills, I had zero sales skills, I had basically lived in a practice room practicing. I had social skills, no. Charisma, no, none of that. Hmm, gee, Wendy, it's not looking too good, right? Most people were saying, Yeah, I don't know. I don't, I don't think this is a good move for you. I don't know if any of you of the listeners can relate to the helpful friends, right? Saying, Oh, I don't know, Wendy, maybe you ought to be a music teacher instead. Well, that wasn't my passion, right? I thought, how hard could it be? I'm an expert. You know, I'm an expert in music. So the business that I started was providing live music for events. You know, we were in Scottsdale, Arizona. Well, there's a lot of events. There's lots of conferences, conventions, weddings. It's weddings, weddings, weddings. So I landed in that kind of space of wow, there's lots, lots of people that need me. Right. So I there I was sitting in my my home office. Back then it wasn't cool. Back then it was like, you know, you need a legitimate office space. But there I was, orange shag carpet, kind of a beat-up desk and a creaky chair. And I was thinking to myself, I wonder what I should be doing. Okay, I'm in business. How do I find people? How do I get clients? How do I how do I do this? You know, now the reality was setting in. So I hired somebody like you. This was a long time ago before I knew you. So um, so I hired somebody like you, and I then was getting the phone ring ringing. People, and that's what people did. We didn't have internet, uh, email. It was not, it was, yeah, we're three decades plus ago. All right, because I took a gap year out, decade to raise kids. So anyway, this was back in the uh you know, early 90s, late 80s. And um, so the phone was ringing and people were excited and they were wanting to meet with me because of the great marketing messaging that I had put out. And so they would come in and they would meet, and I would tell them all about this group and that group and and the you know, the string quartet and the brass quintet and the harpists and all this, and I'd say, this is great, Wendy. Thank you so much. We'll get back to you out they'd go. Okay, all right, that happened over and over and over and over. And I'm like, my God, what is going on? Nobody's buying. I mean, this isn't sustainable. This is like everybody was saying, you know, Wendy, maybe you had to just become a music teacher. And that truth was starting to like haunt me. It's like this isn't this isn't this isn't working. I don't know. I mean, I don't know what to say to these people. They're leaving, they're not buying, not hiring me, you know. And the thing is, though, I have a very analytical brain, and I'm an empath. And so all those opportunities of meeting with my potential clients, I was I was sensing where they were with me and then where they would kind of drop off, where they were with me a little longer and what I would say that would keep them a little bit. And my brain was like analyzing, analyzing, analyzing. Sorry, my husband nuts. But over the course of about six months of no, no, no, no, no, my brain was busy at work and my heart as well, just feeling. And I made a discovery, literally at the brink of failure, at the brink of like, this is just not working. I'm wasting my time, I'm spinning my my wheels, I don't know what I was thinking. This is stupid. It was just like everybody said, but then I got really clear on four different like psychological states. I call them emotional, but it's actually a combination of intellectual and emotion that create that that space, the feeling that people need to achieve. Um, it's always kind of the weird word to say, but that I need to create the space for people to feel into this so that they have clarity and um confidence about making a decision instead of I need to think about it. Because if they need to think about it, there's uncertainty. Right? There's just they're just uncertain. It's not because they were like, Yeah, this sounds great. I need to think about it. So there was the gap, right? And so as my brain and my heart discovered and I started tweaking things, I started getting a yes. Like almost every time, people like, you know what, Wendy? This sounds this sounds really great. Let's go ahead and do this. And it just started happening over and over and over. That switch was flipped, and I was like, Oh my god, this is working. This is it's happening, it's happening. And we were providing music for weddings, and I was going out on weekends and watching these beautiful weddings unfold, and people were living their fairy tale day, you know, of dream come true, you know, and it was just happening. There's my group, there's the musician. I walked up to the brides, oh my god, this is the worst winning ever. And it was happy, everything that I envisioned was coming to reality because of that. What I discovered. So I'll share with you and your audience what those four things are.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

I'm sitting at the edge of my seat right now. Tell me.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

So conversationally, authentically, purely you create this state of personal connection. There are four, like I said, the first one is a genuine personal connection with the other person, with the potential client. I mean genuine. Second is to establish trust. And there are there are various different ways. I've actually dialed this down into very specific ways to do this, but uh activate trust, that feeling of, you know what, I think you're really you're you're legit. You're you're in this to help me to succeed. I get it. The third psychological state to activate is actually a little bit complex because there's different perspectives here, but it's belief. Belief. The belief that first off, what you're saying is gonna happen. What you're promising is gonna happen. Secondly, for me. So belief that I, the client, is going to achieve not just what others have achieved or the land of possibilities, but I personally will, I can see that happening. And then, of course, the fourth is desire, and that just that, but desire at a level of, oh my god, this is this is exactly it. This is this is like a a glove that was made for my hand. This is a perfect fit. So we and this is what I love helping my clients to to embody and embrace because a lot of this, because I work with coaches and healers, and they they do a lot of these things naturally with their clients. Um, just in building belief in themselves, building belief in the possibilities, establishing that trusting, you know, I got you. All right, you know, we're in this space together, I got you. And of course, that personal connection, um, you know, on that on that level of just genuine, genuine care and concern. So I call that compassion-based selling, where it's just it's those four being intentional about activating those four psychological states within either sales copy or that uh you know enrollment conversation. So when I dialed that in, just purely by discovery of being an empath and totally you know very analytical, literally my my business changed practically overnight.

unknown 11:27

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

And so that was the gift that I gave myself, that I give others now that that gift of that transformation between just like, you know, I'm putting all this effort out there, I'm doing all these things, but it's still not working. And so that experience of taking that passion and purpose to profitability.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

That's amazing. So connection, trust, belief, and desire. These are the four psychological triggers that you build into each of your marketing pieces.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

So just act, you know, just being intentional, you know, it's it's just being intentional to make sure that each of those are established or activated.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

Yeah, yeah, I love that. So are they um is there a work that needs to happen prior for them to understand how to because when I talk about, for example, connection to people, like we need to have uh a connection with our audience, or they need to be connected to us. It could be something that's um on some level, it could sound very vague to people. Like, how do I do that? How do I build that connection? And similarly with belief, with trust. And and ironically, um, and I'm not surprised that these are the things that you're embedding psychologically into all the marketing pieces because those are part of also my clients' uh flywheel as well, because they're nice, these are necessary pieces. But um, are there like what type of a work does someone need to do prior to even understanding themselves and then bring all of those pieces into their marketing um initiatives?

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Yeah, and and it's just so that we're clear, it's not just the marketing, but it's the actual offers and you know that sales, the you know, asking for the business, right? And getting to that transition where it feels um like that easy next step for somebody to just say, yes, let's do this. I'm excited. Let's so to answer your question, um yeah, it it comes down to for each of those four psychological states, um, understanding what does activate a personal level of connection. And of course, being a total analytical geek, I have unpacked each of those to, you know, and that's you know the work that I love doing with my client, but clients, but in terms of personal connection, it always comes down to uh asking questions, discovering what it is that matters most and what's at stake and what are they struggling with and and why is that, and then relate, relate. Oh my gosh, I understand. I, you know, and I experienced that same thing, and I that can be so devastating, or that can be so you know, frightening, or you know, that relate ability to under to share with them that you know what they're going through, but then not just say it, but validate it in terms of like, oh yeah, I hear what you say, um, I felt the same way, and here's what I found. You know, some people like to do that by rote, you know, it's just the feel-felt, you know, found formula. And the the why I love working with heart-centered coaches, healers, you know, energy workers is because they genuinely do care about people, you know, it really is important for them to get to know the other person. Whereas in a lot of other different areas or or um professions, it can be more transactional, right? It's all about just all right, let's get five clients this week. And that's the transactional approach versus the um truly, you know, heart-centered approach.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

If I understood it correctly, which I'm in 100% in agreement with you, um, I mean, that if that there's no common ground there in terms of the other person on the other side of the transaction knowing that this person can understand my world is really about creating that relatability. Like I relate to your situation, I understand your situation. So is it just helping them under helping them know that we understand their situation, or does it go deeper than that? And um, and the second part of that question is um a lot of times when you tell that to people, like, you know, you need to create a common ground, they're like, Well, what if um what they're going through is not something that I have gone through? How do I create that common ground?

SPEAKER_01 16:29

Yeah, well, um, you know, life is is usually lived at a certain level that we all can relate to each other at some at some level, right? You know, whether it's just simply achieving a goal, you know, it we all know what that space is like, right? Or not achieving a goal, or so pulling back the lens in terms of okay, where is the common ground here? Where can I relate to what they're going through? Because we're human and so life has a way of delivering those opportunities, you know, for pain and growth. And it might look different for everybody, but at the end of the day, it's it's something that we're all experiencing at some level, you know, that either loss or achievement, love or you know, fear. Um so it's just a matter of finding that even if a person is selling, like uh, you know, uh you know, earbuds, you know, what you want earbuds for might be different than what I want earbuds for, but at the end of the day, what does it result in, you know, happiness? You know, so of course that's a little generic, but I'm just saying there are elements of our lives that do cross.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

Yeah, for sure, 100%. Now, um, you did mention we were talking about those four elements, you said it's not just about marketing pieces or initiatives, it's also how it shows up in your offers. So, is or in your opinion or in your experience of helping clients and for yourself, do you is there like an order that you do these? I'm assuming it goes from connection to trust to belief to desire. Is that like, is there a certain path that people need to go through to be able to um basically ding ding ding those four psychological triggers?

SPEAKER_01 18:32

You know, I encourage people to be um just authentic, right? Obviously, we're not gonna present the offer before um, you know, it's just feeling into it, right? Uh there's no rigid process, it's more like feeling into it. I will say though, this that desire, you know, the the want for something does not sustain if there isn't belief.

unknown 18:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

And belief does not occur if there's not trust. And trust doesn't happen if there isn't that level of personal connection. So, in that regard, that's kind of the you know, how it naturally unfolds. But, you know, it's it's just like you were mentioning, well, so is there a different level of personal connection? Well, right away you can go into uh activating trust by talking about maybe a client that has a similar experience that the person is going through and how you help them to you know navigate that. And right there you've you've activated trust and belief. So it's really not that's that stiff or rigid, it's it's fluid in terms of just having that very intentional but organic conversation. And obviously, when it's in print or it's a marketing piece or something, then you know, there isn't that that luxury of having the conversation with the other person. Um, so it's more of a like, well, let me, you know, make sure that I'm I'm you know establishing my trust in this section and I'm gonna say this to build belief in this section, and I'm gonna do this, you know. So it's it's all about alignment and and clarity.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Sort of like feeling into where each of these pieces might belong and authentically just move those pieces in a way that is in resonance with how you talk or how you lean into things. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Yeah, just that personal, that personal, you know, uh alignment.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

So yeah, that makes sense. So I know that um in your work, um you talk about passion a lot, right? And uh so for a person who because entrepreneurship, we all know it's hard. You get knocked down so many times. And um it's hard to stay connected with that first spark that you had, that passion that you had at the beginning when you're like, oh, I'm gonna go do this thing, especially if you're having a hard time when things are all all odds are stacked against you. What do you do, or what do you advise your clients to do to consistently stay very close or to reconnect to that passion over and over?

SPEAKER_01 21:13

Yeah, that's a great question because it does um it it can be um quite the roller coaster ride, right? To build a business. Even I think for those who have gone and gotten formal training, you know, like an MBA or something, it's still once you step out into the real marketplace, you know that's the that's when you finally realize what it takes. So so for me, I'm always one to um recommend and I personally do this as well, just uh staying very clear and connected with uh the the reason uh why this work meant something from the very beginning.

unknown 21:59

You know.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Just really keeping that for in the forefront and through whatever mode that makes sense for the other person. Maybe it's an image, maybe it's a statement, maybe it's a, you know, uh, I suggest to my clients, have um, you know, little cameo pictures of all the people, you know, that they've worked with in the past. Because when you ask them to talk about a previous client, they light up just instantly. Oh my god, da-da-da-da-da-da-da. So when people are like really getting frustrated with, well, I did this, you know, challenge and it dah-da-da-da-da. And I, you know, and they're kind of you can sense the energy. Um, of course, giving them space. We don't just switch gears really quickly, but talking then about a person that has worked with them, that has achieved that, you know, meaningful transformation. And that's what just revives everything. You know, for me, I think back to that time of you know, when my business was just at that very low flat line place. And within such a short period of time, everything changed so quickly. And just knowing that it can happen again, it will happen again, you know, and that's what I I uh you know keep my clients connected to is just that original purpose, that original vision, that original, you know, thing that lit you up.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

Yeah, yeah. I I I know personally that's the thing that I consistently reconnect with to my original why, why I started, why I do this work. And it is so powerful because when you do that, then because hard times are gonna happen every no matter how long you've been in business and what your you know business growth has looked like, you're gonna have up and downs. That's just the nature of running your own business, being an entrepreneur. And knowing that you have that one thing, I call it your lighthouse, to anchor you, you know, in during those times, it is so, so important. I also know that um a lot of people don't have, you know, because they're they're new, maybe they've been in this space for months, and unfortunately, some people for years just trying, just trying to get it going. They don't have that client to say, oh, that felt good, you know. So thinking about that person, you know, and let's say that right now they're very tired, they're very discouraged, and they're about to give up. Um, if they were sitting with you one-on-one right now, what is the one truth that you would want them to know or you want to tell them?

SPEAKER_01 24:47

Well, that you know, to reflect back on that message, that that clarity, that inspiration, that download wherever they're at in their spirituality, whether they are spiritual or not, that idea that came to them came from someplace to pursue this as a profession, right? It came from somewhere. And just reconnect with where did that come from and why was that thought there? What prompted that? Because usually, even if they haven't worked with paid clients, I've I've heard people say, Oh, ever since I was a little girl, all you know, my my sister and my all my friends would come to me and ask me for for help and guidance, and and I always knew the answers. I always knew, I always knew the answers. And so just taking them back to what got you to that moment where you said, you know what, I'm gonna I'm gonna do this as a profession and turn this into my livelihood and life. And so even if they haven't had that paying, you know, uh clients and an active practice, it still comes down to uh owning uh that truth. The truth is they make a difference. Their wisdom, uh, their knowledge, their life experience, their innate qualities makes a difference for others. And whether they think this or not, that's what they're they're meant to do. If it brings them joy. If the idea of it brings you joy and you have the abilities to support somebody, there's no reason you can't have a thriving business with the right strategy, right? And the right alignment, the right messaging. There is no reason. And so just that, just knowing and owning that, getting back to the purity of yeah, I do make a difference.

SPEAKER_00 27:03

Yeah, 100%. I I always say there's it's not an accident that you've decided to step into this entrepreneurship arena and do this very thing, or to say to yourself that I'm going to solve this one problem or bring this solution into the market. And a lot of times we're just not aware of the journey that we've been through, we've been on that has brought us to where we are today, where you know, and it's accumulation of a lot of things that got us here because not everybody has that passion to want to be an entrepreneur. So if you have that drive, if you have that passion, if you have that desire, it's not an accident. There's a reason.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

Absolutely. I totally agree. It is not an accident because there are a lot of people, all those people that were telling me, it's like, uh, Wendy, I don't, you know, no, they don't have the spark, right? To be a change maker. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

And I love that your blueprints is called passion meets profits.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

It's amazing. Well, because our our passion is what drives us, right? It's it's all about having fun, loving our lives, creating a life we love, ease and flow, you know, living living a life with passion.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

Yeah. So yeah. So um, I mean, when when those two come together, can you speak a little bit uh about that? Like what what do you think, what do you want my audience to understand before they can bring that passion and profit together?

SPEAKER_01 28:42

Yeah, and it it we you were leaning into that just a couple moments ago in terms of you know, when we were talking about that spark or that, you know, what it was, and not everybody has what it takes to be an entrepreneur, but the fact that the idea of monetizing, right, you're not doing it for a hobby. You could you could volunteer, you could completely gift it, but there's nothing more fulfilling than sustaining ourselves, right? Through our own creativity, through our own gifts of bringing abundance, obviously empowerment to others, but abundance to ourselves. And that's the ultimate gift is passion and profits for ourselves. And when you gift that to yourself, you can do so much, right? So many things in terms of starting a charity, you know. If you really want to serve under, you know, underprivileged um sectors, you know, there's just so much you can do when you have that the profit, the financial stability. And there's just nothing, I mean, when I went from struggling and basically having to give up because this was not a hobby. I mean, it's not a hobby. I I wanted to make a living for myself. And having that switch into profitability is such a an empowering, freeing experience. And so that's really the essence and the foundation that I build my work upon is just okay, how do we make this profitable so that I'm not sacrificing or selling out, you know, so that I'm not burning out, so that I'm not hating what I'm doing, so that I'm not, you know, being somebody I'm not, you know, and so that that balance, that alignment, and I know that Ellie, this is all, you know, speaking your language too, is this being fully in alignment with our authenticity and our own truth in a way that also creates success for our business, right? Yeah, 100%. We want to do both.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

Yeah, 100%. I think the there's a lot of noise in the online world in terms of um, you know, you have to prove your worth. And and that, you know, you don't hear it directly like that. But when you hear crap like you have to give away your best stuff and you have to show up. And I mean, here this is coming from someone who, you know, has an entire book on service first, right? But the other crap that people say is like, you have to serve and serve and serve, and then when you give a lot of value, and then people will come and they want to pay you. But the truth of the matter is that you're not here running your business for your health only. You have to make money. And if you don't make money, you're not gonna be able to go on and help more people. So there's a balance here. And um, and so understanding that you're like you said, you're not here for charity work, and um, you have to also take care of yourself. And if you're not taking care of yourself, you're not gonna be able to go on and help other people. Um, it is so important. I know that I can talk to you for hours and hours. We will just scratch the surface because you and I truly speak the same language. Um, I know that my listeners would love to know how to find you. Um, so would you please let us know where they can find you?

SPEAKER_01 32:26

Yeah, absolutely. And and that gift that I'm sharing with your audience, the Passion Meets Profit uh Business Blueprint, it includes the four pillars to create a uh simple, grounded, easy-to-run six-figure business that is is not limited and not sacrificing your you know yourself. It's not consuming yourself. So um I'm excited to to gift that to your audience. Um and the best place to connect with me and and learn more is through my website, and that's impact-makercoaching.com.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

Wonderful. And I'm gonna um definitely link that Passion to Profit blueprint in the show notes for everyone to get that. And definitely go check it out, grab it. It is phenomenal. Thank you so much, Wendy, for your time. I appreciate you.