Make Marketing Suck Less

The Unspoken Problem in Online Business

Have you heard about the ‘’It's time to make the donuts’’ phase of the business

If you're a child of the eighties and you lived on the east coast, certainly you remember the famous commercial from Dunkin Donuts, when Fred, the baker, tiredly walks out the door and back in, crying out ‘’I made the donuts. It's time to make the donuts’’.

It's a phase that we don't talk about because in some ways we don't really know it's happening to us. We don't give voice to it because, on the surface, everything in our business is fine, but still, there's this underlying frustration to get more clients, to be fully booked in advance.

I know that for you as the business owner, there's that anxiety about where the next client is going to come from, will a referral come through. There's no spaciousness because you have to be hustling truly to get that next client to fill the next spot. And what you really crave is that stability and space, to have a waiting list of clients who want to be working with you and who've already signed on and are just waiting to start.

The main points of overcoming the anxiety of where the next client is coming from are:

  • find the time and the space to do the outreach, to find new clients
  • that way you will create a much-relaxed pace
  • also, you will have the right energy to find new clients when you need them
  • making and staying on your message is key to creating demand for your work

It's time to break free of the repetitive cycle of finding clients and start creating demand for your services and your expertise. 

I'm diving deeper into online business problems in today's episode of Rebel Uprising.

Listen in or read through the transcript below

Episode resources

Dunkin Donuts 80's Commercial

Dr. Michelle Mazer on Instagram

3 Word Rebellion Messaging Intensive

If you're a child of the eighties and you lived on the east coast, there is a famous commercial from Dunkin Donuts that is seared into my brain.

“It's time to make the donuts, Fred”, the baker says as he tiredly walks out the door and then just moments later, he walks back in.

Exhausted. He exclaims, “I made the donuts. It's time to make the donuts. I made the donuts over and over again.”

And what I have realized is there is definitely a, it's time to make the donuts phase in our business. This is a phase that we don't really talk about because in some ways we don't really know it's happening to us. We don't give voice to it because, on the surface, everything in our business is fine, good even, but still, there's this underlying frustration.

I very much found myself in this frustration for years, and that's where we're going to talk about in this episode of The Rebel Uprising podcast. Let's dive in. 

I spent at least three years in the ‘’It's time to make the donuts’’ phase of business. Instead of donuts, my revolving door was, it's time to get more clients, it's time to work with my clients, it's time to get more clients, it's time to work with my clients.

When you're in that stage of the business, your business is pretty stable. You're financially doing pretty well. You're paying yourself, there's profit in your business, and you're almost always on the edge of being fully booked out. It's like, if you just landed one or two more clients, then you could start waitlisting and having a list of clients who were just waiting in the wings to come work with you.

It's this ongoing cycle, it's this thing that you're almost always trying to get to, but you never quite get there. You know that you're always needing to replace clients because you have clients wrapping up with you. So there's always more room, more capacity, and there can be this low-grade worry because while you're financially okay, you won't be that way for long if you don't take time to actively pursue new clients for your business.

I believe this it's time to make the donuts phase is unconscious and unspoken because outwardly your successful, you've got clients, they're getting great results, your business looks solid and steady, but for you as the business owner, there's just that anxiety about where the next client is going to come from, will a referral come through. How can you reach out to your client, your former clients, and ask for referrals?

It's really interesting because in online business, we talk a lot about feast or famine. Like all of these clients come in and then you work with them and then you don't have any clients. And that's not what this is all. 

There is never a famine and there are always clients in the business that you're working with, but it's just like, you never get to that stability. There's no breathing room. There's no spaciousness because you know you have to be hustling really to get that next client to fill that next spot. What you really crave is that stability and that space to have a waiting list of clients who want to be working with you and who've already signed on and are just waiting to start.

So for me, I've been out of the stage for about a year, and as of this recording, so today is October 28th, I have no consults booked. I have one proposal out, I've closed at least three clients this past month, and I'm not worried, but I don't have any consults, and here's why - I can't start working with anyone until December.

I am always booked out for about a month. It is very rare, if you want to work with me that you can just come in and be like, yes, let's start next week. I'll be like, “Nope, sorry, it’s going to be about a month, sometimes two weeks, but typically, always a month.”

So what's great about that is I do have the time and the space to do the outreach, to find those clients, and it's a much relaxed pace. I feel a little detached from the outcome of sales. So I know that I'm in the right energy to find those clients when I need them. Like they will show up. 

How did I break out of this? What's on the other side of that, it's time to make the donuts phase. 

So there is a tipping point that happens in your business where your work is in demand. It's what I described when you have clients waiting in the wings, you're not taking clients for another month or two, if somebody books a sales conversation with you and wants to start, they have to wait a little bit. And so there's always that room in your business. Like you're never feeling that pressure of like, oh, I've got to find a client right now.

Really that's about it, this point where the demand of people wanting to work with you is higher than your capacity so you have to have that waiting list. You have to make people wait a little bit, a couple of weeks or months. I would say, never say you're fully booked out. That's like slamming the potential opportunities because when people see you're booked out, they're gonna be like, oh, she doesn't have room for anyone, I'm going to go find someone else. Whereas, if you're always enrolling clients on an ongoing basis, you're not going to find yourself in a feast or famine. So it's really great to have this demand.

 I've been reflecting a lot on how I broke out of that cycle that I was in for probably three years and created demand for my services and my expertise and a big part of this was creating the 3 Word Rebellion framework, you know, creating the 3 Word Rebellion itself, creating the framework of supporting messaging.

You might be thinking like, well, that's great for you, Michelle, you came up with this great idea and, and here's the deal - if you're listening to this podcast right now, I know that you're working with clients and you have a program and I bet you already have a framework, but maybe that framework just isn't articulated well, or maybe you're just too close to doing the work with your clients that you can't see the framework.

But, once you have a framework, the next step is the message that gets that framework out. So that is your one of a kind 3 Word Rebellion, right? And this is what I do with my clients. We're creating, yes, their 3 Word Rebellion, but then all the messaging that supports that, that persuades people to buy in, essentially creates demand and desire for your work. 

I think the final part of this is really that you have a body of work, whether it's your podcast or your blog, or you write a book or you're doing videos, but there's a way for people to access your work and your work is always on point and you're on message. You're getting your key messages across that actually turn those strangers that you don't know into your next client. 

Now, we're going to go deeper about creating demand for your work and expertise in the next few episodes of this podcast. But in the meantime, I am curious: did this ‘’it's time to make the donuts’’ stage of business, did it resonate with you? Please let me know, DM me on Instagram because it took me a while to figure out what I was experiencing. So I would love to know what you're experiencing.

Finally, if you're ready to create demand for your work, so you always feel that spaciousness of time and you don't feel the low grade anxiety of where the next client is coming from, your message and staying on message is key to that. This is exactly what we create in the 3 Word Rebellion Messaging Intensive, a way to powerfully communicate the value your business creates in your marketing, your copy and PR so that you can get this demand for your services and your expertise. 

And if you're listening to this episode before the end of 2021, now is a great time to apply for a consultation with me as I'm raising my rates in 2022, and you can lock in this year's pricing and start the work with me any time, In anytime in the first quarter of 2022.

So if you're ready to request a consult, you can go to https://drmichellemazur.com/3wr-application.

And finally, it's time to break free of the repetitive cycle of finding clients and start creating demand for your services and your expertise.

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Your 3 Word Rebellion is the Key to Growing Your Business & Impact

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