Are you really listening?

I mean, like *really* listening? Yes?

Are you hearing your people crying out for your help? No?

Maybe you’re not really listening.

I teach business owners how to find their people. You know … the ones who are going to throw themselves at your feet for the solution they crave? Well, maybe it’s not always that dramatic, but even if they just knock timidly at your door, we’ll call that a win.

We are all taught to engage. Answer the questions, help someone out, and then they will be interested in your thing. Or not. So we end up sitting and listening for something super specific… the perfect question to open the door for you to rain down your expertise in an exultant shower of transformative advice.

And how often does that come? Yeah, not very. Does this mean the strategy is flawed? Nope. It’s just missing a key part.

You need to have conversations, to read, to immerse yourself into relationship with your clients. Then you can really listen, because you are not only going to hear when they talk about your thing, but all the other things that matter to them, too.

You become part of their community and they will reveal themselves to you, and all the peripheral pieces that you were missing before will start to make sense.

You become trusted and known, and they will tell you stories that are rich in the details you craved, which in turn help you build something they really, REALLY want.

To hear your people and know them, you need to be beside them. Imagine yourself at a party. How do you manage to uphold conversations and get to know people? By listening.

Remember that funny sociologist you met at your cousin’s wedding? Remember how much better you knew them after two hours of conversation? Right? Because you listened. Not just for the one time he mentioned something to do with your business but also every detail of his canoe trip in the Arctic and his side hustle making craft cocktails.

Why aren’t you listening to your customers this way too? So you can catch that moment they mention that they really want something that you never realized you’re actually providing.

So you can be a human in business.

Tell me in the comments…

How do you listen to your clients?