Last summer, a life coach started our conversation with this.
“I’ve Googled your name. Nothing came up.”
Before we had even jumped on our first call, this was her first impression of me.
It hurt at the time but now 12 months on, it’s the best advice I’ve ever been given.
Let’s pretend the life coach is a potential client. Imagine their first line was, “I’ve Googled you. Nothing came up.”
Is there any way back from that?
For six years, I worked as a freelancer. All my work was hidden behind the brands I worked for.
I didn’t have a personal/business website.
I wasn’t active on LinkedIn.
I didn’t even have a business name never mind a business email address.
It sounds awful, right?
That’s because it is.
Hear me out.
Everything I have ever worked on has come through face-to-face networking in London or Ibiza, a referral through a friend or through my personal Facebook.
I was so caught up in my own bubble that didn’t think I needed any of these things.
The life coaches response to this was “how are you going to scale your business without your own email list? Your own website? A list of case studies for new clients to find?”
Within five minutes of our first call, she had levelled me like never before. I was facing the harsh truth that I wasn’t even doing the basics well, never mind enough to scale my business.
A year on, her questions are in my head every day. I am even applying her questions and mindset to every new potential client I meet. I’m asking them the same painful questions.
The funny thing is, the life coach I spoke to worked with my girlfriend. If that hadn’t been the case, would I have ever received this advice?
Probably not, because my name didn’t even come up on Google.