If you’ve built – or are currently building – a service-based business, it can feel like there is so much confusing, conflicting advice about every aspect of being a business owner. Many of us turn to industry leaders to see how they’ve built their business, and try to put into practice what worked for someone else in the hope that it’ll work for us, too.

But as today’s guest will point out, you can’t do business using someone else’s model. You have to find your own core strengths and lean way into them if you want to build a successful business that’s aligned with your values, skillset, and unique offering.

Our guest on this episode, Heidi Taylor, is a business coach for caring people. She combines sales and life coaching to support creative business owners and non-linear thinkers as they turn their creative output into a thriving business. She’s a very emotionally in-tune thinker herself and has done a lot of work to figure out who her ideal client is, where they spend time online, and how to build deep relationships with each one of them.

She’s also committed to providing value to every service-based business that crosses her path: every Wednesday Heidi uses Instagram stories to feature and comment on intake forms she sees online that are working well (or are not working at all). She does this not only to provide valuable content, but also because she’s passionate about helping service-based business owners understand how an intake form can work as an effective sales and marketing tool while also positioning you as an expert in your industry.

We cover a lot of fascinating ground in this episode, talking about how Heidi got her start in business, how she realized she wanted to transition into a career that was client-focused, why she loves working with creative, non-linear thinkers, and how she’s built her business around her own strengths. She shares a lot of great advice about how you can (and should!) center your business around your individual strengths, and why you should spend some time thinking about who you serve best and love working with the most.

What You’ll Learn from this Episode:

• How Heidi differentiates herself from other business and life coaches.
• How she helps clients identify and use their strengths to make pitching feel natural and connective, rather than sleazy.
• Why Heidi believes that good relationships are crucial for building any successful business.
• How her experience as an entrepreneur before the 2008 financial crisis helped her recognize and refine her ability to build rock-solid relationships.
• How Heidi spots her ideal clients online and how she initially narrowed down who they are.
• Why she believes an intake form is one of the most informative, impactful ways for you to connect with potential clients.
• How Heidi finds and reaches out to clients who would be a great fit for her work.

What Mastery means to Heidi:
Mastery is understanding who you are and where you excel. It means drilling down into what it is you do well and creating a process, a system, and/or a way of being that is exemplary.

Turning point:
Recognizing that 80% of my top 5 strengths are in one-on-one relationship building. This was a huge turning point for my business because I was able to claim my strengths in outreach and connection, one person at a time, to create genuine, in-depth connections with potential clients and peers. Knowing this allowed me to use my strengths to reach out to potential clients in a way that other marketing tactics or strategies could not touch. It helped me to focus and narrow in on what converts for me. I no longer get sidetracked by all of the strategies my peers are using. I had to do what works for who I am.

Heidi’s Core message:
A core message I share is around creating a business that leverages your personal strengths instead of doing business based on other business owners’ strategies for success. Understanding how you show up for a sales conversation is how you show up for your business and for your life. Going deep into who you are as a person and what your strengths are will often require a rearranging or creating a business built around how you operate at your best.