When Jessica Wilson came to me for business messaging coaching for solopreneurs, she was a budding food writer with a head full of brilliant ideas and a stack of experience. She wanted help getting clear on her business and wrangling her words to the page. Read on to see how she found her authentic voice and discovered the business she was meant to launch.
A solopreneur seeking clarity
When we first met, Jessica was desperate for clarity. She knew she wanted to launch a business. She had the motivation to turn her culinary experience into her full-time gig, but she was struggling to find the direction to go in. She’d been thinking about launching a business for years, storing up ideas in her head until it was like a logjam. All necessary and important work, but she was frustrated. It was time to act—her kids were settled in full-time school, she had the time and head space—but she just couldn’t figure out how.
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Business messaging coaching for solopreneurs: finding her authentic story
When Jessica started business messaging coaching with me, I took her through the framework I take most of my Blueprint clients through.
- Your WHO: I encouraged Jessica to get to know her ideal clients. But I mean, like, really get to know them. There were questions and surveys to go and ask real humans. As a scientist, this was a breeze for her. (I don’t think I’ve ever had another client who produced such extensive bar charts!)
- Your WHY: Then, I got Jessica to dig into the story of why she wanted to help busy women put healthy family meals on the table. Again, we went deep. What she’d struggled with, the roadblocks and turning points, the hard-won lessons. It turned into a long story with many forks in the road, as is the case for most of my clients, but we revisited it again and again to shape it into a cohesive narrative of why she was the person to follow for your culinary challenges. This was going to be the backbone of her web copy and all her communications—her business messaging.
The result was more than words on a page for Jessica.
“What really unlocked things for me was having a clear story. Once I had that, I knew who I was trying to talk to. All that stuff in my head that was damned up and blocked? My brand story was like a channel cutting through it. Everything started flowing after that.”
In fact, everything flowed so much that she got her culinary coaching website set up and her business launched. I wouldn’t want to give the impression this happened overnight. Jessica worked on her business messaging for about six months, but when her story was clear, everything else—every page of her website, her lead magnet, her welcome email—was quicker and easier to complete.
From culinary to travel: how clear messaging supported a pivot
Then an interesting thing happened. When she first started business messaging coaching with me, Jessica debated where to slot in her travel writing. She loved travel, traveled often, and wanted to incorporate it into her culinary coaching and writing. She figured she’d just do the odd Instagram post or email about her travels, with a foody twist. It would keep things fun for her audience and be a point of difference.
But when the opportunity came to try her hand at being a travel advisor, Jessica knew she wanted to give it a go. Now, instead of having to go back to the drawing board, Jessica was ready. All the coaching she’d done with me, all the prompts and exercises, gave her what she needed to pivot. And this time she was able to get her new website launched in half the time.
“What was beautiful was that I was able to take everything I had done working with you—the client discovery, the brand story—and convert it into travel. I even used the same base story. You knew the right place to start—my story—and that was what I went back to.”
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The confidence and clarity to launch as a solopreneur
Jessica now had:
- a new website
- a business as a travel advisor
- clarity about who she was and who she served
- copywriting skills she could return to for life
- the confidence to launch a completely new business, on her own, without my help.
Aside from the clarity and confidence, there was another key by-product of our regular coaching calls. “Having a trusted person to talk to about my business ideas helped me let go of perfectionism. You kept encouraging me to give an idea run time and try it.” This was a paradigm shift for Jessica. Like so many of us smart, creative solopreneurs, she was scared she would mess things up if everything wasn’t lined up and perfect before she launched. Instead, when it came to her travel advisor business, she decided it was OK to put something out there and adjust it later. That’s exactly what she did and she now has a clear, compelling website and profile.
As a recovering perfectionist myself, I was surprised I’d been able to help Jessica in this area. However, it speaks to the power of private coaching: someone in your corner encouraging you to do the right thing for you.
I love seeing how business messaging coaching for solopreneurs gave Jessica the clarity and confidence to nail her story and launch the right business for her. If, like Jessica, you’re feeling stuck in your business, take her advice: “Keep bringing it back to the story. Bring it back to your client.” I couldn’t say it better myself.
If you’re a smart, creative solopreneur who needs a clear business message, book a free discovery call to see how I can help you get to the heart of your story. I’d love to see you launch your new business.
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