5 Mindset Shifts to Create a Stronger Online Presence in 2021
A strong online presence is vital in today's world.
And yet, we can create mental blocks when it comes to improving our online presence or simply marketing ourselves online at all.
Limiting beliefs, those stories we tell ourselves about why something will or won't work for us or why we can or can't make progress in a given area, can definitely hold us back.
But we don't have to let them.
We all have limiting beliefs about something in our freelance translation or interpreting businesses. Some are related to how much money we can earn, while others are related to our productivity or specializations.
One set of limiting beliefs that come up time and again when I talk to colleagues about their business relates their mindset about their online presence and selling their services.
It's safe to say I've heard it all…
"I hate marketing, and I especially hate to market myself."
"I don't have time to set up my website/reach out to new clients/market my services online/[fill in the blank]."
"I don't know where to start."
"I tried that before, and it didn't work."
"I paid someone a lot of money to help me with this, and I didn't get anything out of it."
I may have even said one or two of these myself early on in my career.
It would be easy to hold on tight to these limiting beliefs. After all, it's more comfortable to keep things as they are, right?
Or is it?
The cost of limiting beliefs when it comes to your translation or interpreting business' online presence
Our online presence is vital these days. It's the best and easiest way for clients to find us aside from direct referrals.
And yet, we can easily push the strategy and maintenance of our online presence aside for other tasks and projects that seem more appealing, easier and quicker to handle, or simply because we feel more comfortable with the way things are.
Until we aren't.
I was listening to the Focus on This podcast this week, and Episode 67 was dedicated to challenging our limiting beliefs.
Something the podcast hosts said really struck me… they shared some questions to ask yourself the next time you recognize a limiting belief in your business. And they can certainly all be applied to building your online presence and marketing your business.
In a nutshell, they said (paraphrased):
If you continue believing this limiting belief, what will it cost you? What will happen? What won't happen? Will believing this take you anywhere closer to your goals?
If you truly believe this limiting belief, how do you explain that others have been able to do this thing or reach this goal?
Can you prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that your limiting belief is 100% true?
Wow… answering those questions can result in some hard truths, right?
Rather than continue to hold on to limiting beliefs when it comes to our online presence, we can make some intentional mindset shifts and create a stronger online presence for our businesses.
And what better time to do that than in the new year?
5 Mindset Shifts to Create a Stronger Online Presence in 2021
By changing our mindset, we free ourselves from the beliefs that hold us back, the ones that keep us from growing our online presence and marketing ourselves to the right clients.
Let's break these limiting beliefs down a bit and turn them into something that serves us better. The Focus on This hosts call these shifts in mindset our "liberating truths." I love this term, because it fully captures the idea that we can create our own path. After all, isn't the ability to make our own way on our own terms one of the many reasons we enjoy being freelancers and entrepreneurs?
Mindset Shift #1
Limiting belief: "I hate marketing, and I especially hate to market myself."
Mindset shift: "I am confident in my skills and my business, and I know that the work I do helps my client to reach their goals. If I don't tell new clients about my services, how will they know? Besides, no one else is going to market my business for me. Other businesses grow because of the marketing strategies they put into place and execute, which means mine can, too."
Mindset Shift #2
Limiting belief: "I don't have time to set up my website/reach out to new clients/market my services online/[fill in the blank]."
Mindset shift: "If I really wanted to work on my website/reach out to new clients/market my services online/[fill in the blank], I could find it. I can commit XX minutes/X hours to marketing my business each week. If I do this consistently, I will see results."
Mindset Shift #3
Limiting belief: "I don't know where to start."
Mindset shift: "No one starts anything knowing exactly what to do and how to do it. The next time I have a break between projects, I will look up a few blog posts/articles, courses or webinars that could help me learn how to strengthen my online presence and marketing strategy."
Mindset Shift #4
Limiting belief: "I tried that before, and it didn't work."
Mindset shift: "Just because I tried something once and it didn't work, that doesn't mean that it won't work this time. Besides, I know more now about my clients and my field than I did before. I can experiment by making some tweaks to my strategy and measure the results. I can also ask someone who's done this before for help!"
Mindset Shift #5
Limiting belief: "Ipaid someone a lot of money to help me with my website SEO/LinkedIn profile/[fill in the blank], and I didn't get any new clients out of it."
Mindset shift: "No one knows my business and my clients better than me. I could put the money I put aside to pay someone to set my website SEO/LinkedIn profile/[fill in the blank] into learning how to market myself/improve my online presence. By knowing how to do some of these things myself, I gain more control in the outcomes of my business strategies. If I reach a point where I truly cannot do something, then I can consider investing more money to pay someone to help me."
We all have limiting beliefs when it comes to marketing our business…
The learning curve is too steep.
LinkedIn or my professional association directory profile just doesn't help me get more work.
I am just too busy with client projects to even think about marketing.
The list could go on and on... if we let it.
The next time you catch yourself coming up with a reason why you can't or won't do something to improve your online presence (or any aspect of your business), determine if you are coming up with more limiting beliefs or if the story you're telling yourself is really true.
Is there anything you can do to shift this mindset and change your reality/outcomes?
If you found this post helpful, I'd really appreciate if you shared it with colleagues who you think might also benefit from reading it.
Do you also have limiting beliefs when it comes to your online presence or marketing your business? How do you shift your mindset to change the story you tell yourself and the results you see?
