The Transcript For The Clear Business Growth Show:

Yeah, let me guess, somewhere along the way, you were told that the key to getting more clients is just posting more, putting yourself out there—more content, more marketing, more showing up. And honestly, there is some truth to that. But what no one really tells you is that before you can show up in a way that connects and actually converts to more paying clients, there's something more foundational that has to come first.

Without it, all the content in the world is just not gonna really land, and it will lead to frustration and burnout and all the not-good things. So maybe you've been doing your best putting yourself out there—or at least intending to or beating yourself up for wanting to do it and then not doing it—and it's just not clicking. And you're tired, and you're second-guessing yourself, and you're wondering, is it just me? It’s not. It’s not just you.

And what if I were to tell you that the real issue is that your message is potentially not clear enough to connect with the right kind of people that you want to work with? That's exactly what we're diving into today.

In today’s episode, I'm going to show you why getting clear on your messaging comes *before* taking action in your marketing—posting more, sending the email, doing the webinar, sending out a newsletter—and how it makes your marketing simpler, faster, and way more effective.

So if you're tired of spinning your wheels and ready to finally feel confident about what you're saying, what you're writing, and how you're showing up—then this one is for you.

**1:56**
Welcome to the Clear Business Growth Show, the podcast for service-based business owners ready to escape the overwhelm of juggling client work and marketing.

If you've ever felt stuck in a cycle of inconsistent income, the frustration of not having a clear way to market and grow your business, and you've teetered on the edge of burnout—you’re not alone. I've created this podcast for you.

I'm your host, Esther Gretton, Business Growth Mentor and creator of the Clear Business Growth Framework. Drawing on my 10 years as a business owner, a decade prior to that in corporate business development roles, five years as a business lecturer, and my expertise as a certified coach, I'm here to help you gain clarity, attract more great-fit clients, and grow your business without burning out.

Each week, I’ll be sharing actionable strategies and real-world insights to empower you to grow your business so that you can feel on track and in control. If you're ready to transform the way you approach your business, you're in the right place. Let's dive in.

**3:29**
Hello and welcome back to the Clear Business Growth Show—or welcome for the first time if this is your first time joining us. I'm your host, Esther Gretton, and it's really lovely to have you here. Thank you for taking the time, spending it with me, and learning a little bit more about marketing.

Now, this topic comes up a lot with clients who are putting in the effort, doing all the right things—posting, consistently showing up online, trying to market their services—but still feeling like it's just not landing. Or you're in the other camp of doing it, stopping, starting, stopping, starting, because you just know something's not quite right here. It doesn’t feel right. It's not landing. It doesn't feel good for me. I get busy with client work. I have the intention. I put in action for a week or two, and then I stop. And that whole hamster wheel continues to happen.

And you're frustrated because it's not really converting. Your audience on your email list or Instagram or your referral group isn’t growing. And that confidence within you starts to wobble. And you may be thinking, "I'm doing all this work—why isn’t it working?"

And often the instinct is to actually do more: double down, post more, try harder. But here's the thing—it’s not actually about doing more. It’s about getting clear *first*. Clear on your message, clear on who your great-fit client is, clear on what's happening in their brain and heart and world, and then clear on how your service offer helps to create a positive change in their life or their business.

**6:02**
So let's go a little bit deeper on why getting clearer on your message has to come before the marketing action—before the posting, before the thing that you're trying to do in your marketing to actually grow your business.

So many service-based business owners feel like they're on that hamster wheel. They're doing all the things. They're showing up on Instagram. They're writing the emails. They're launching offers. There's a constant undertone of, "Well, is this even working?" or worse, "Why is this not working?"

And the reason is almost always this: you haven't gotten clear on your message first.

So what do I mean by message? I mean the foundations of your business. This is how you get really laser-focused messaging. First of all, you need to get clear on all things you—your values, your goals, your natural style of communication, your way of working. When you skip over this, your marketing can feel like wearing someone else's clothes that don't really fit. It's uncomfortable, it's unnatural, and it's exhausting to maintain.

Then it's about getting clear on who your great-fit client is. And I'm not just talking about any client. Think of the clients that you've worked with, and I know straight away when I say the words "great-fit client," you know already who it is. It's that client that was a pleasure to work with, had similar values to you, was prepared to put the time, effort, and money into your services because they knew they needed help with the thing that you can help people do.

They got a great result. They were really happy with it. They became a referral client or an ongoing client. That's who your great-fit client is. And you don't want to just know their demographics or their job title, but what they're thinking and feeling and worrying about and hoping for and waking up in the middle of the night wanting.

Getting super clear on what's keeping them stuck and what they've already tried, getting clear on the words that they'd actually use, and getting clear on the feelings that they actually have. Because when your message sounds like what's going on in their internal world—their thoughts, their feelings—that's when they start listening. That's when they go, "Oh my goodness, she's in my head. She's in my heart. She gets me. She knows what's going on for me."

That sense of connection and validation and being seen and heard—this is what drives people to want to connect with you, to want to download your free thing, to want to be on your email list, to want to work with you eventually. That's when they start listening.

**10:18**
The third thing to get clarity on is your offer—what it is that you do, who it's for, how it helps, what's the transformation and outcome positioned in a way that your great-fit client is able to read and hear.

When I say "able to read and hear," not talking literally—of course they can read, they can hear—but I mean when we position it from the perspective of our great-fit client, they can really connect with it. Rather than positioning it from our own expertise and our own thoughts and feelings about our services. Because remember how we think about something and how we write about something and how we talk about the thing that we're good at is very different to how your great-fit client is thinking and feeling about it.

They don't really care about how you write about it, if that makes sense. It really needs to come from the perspective of your great-fit client for it to really land, for them to really hear it, for them to really get it. It needs to be done in a way that's so specific and relevant that someone reading it or hearing it goes, "What? You're in my head."

**17:18**
Thank you for tuning into the Clear Business Growth Show. I hope today's episode has given you more clarity, inspiration and actionable steps that you can use to move your business forward. Remember, growth isn't an overnight process, despite what you may hear from others online. True success comes from a strategy that's tailored to you and with a solid plan in place you're well on your way.