If you learn 500 new things every day for the rest of your life, you will never know it all or how to do it all. What’s more, even if you knew how, there would still be things you wouldn’t care to do. And, of course, what you care to do isn’t always in exact alignment with what a client needs or wants, so sooner or later, a client will ask you for something you don’t know about or don’t care to do. The question then is—how *do* you help? What do you say and do? That’s what we tackle in this month’s video.

Chief Takeaways

  • Service gap = the gap between what you can do/offer and what a client needs.
  • Having gaps isn’t an indictment of your suckiness. Nor is it a clue that you need to run on a gerbil wheel to chase new skills all the time. But you do want to fill the gaps with resources you trust so you can serve your client wonderfully well and be a one-stop shop for any need she has.
  • Being a one-stop shop makes you invaluable to your clients. You don’t want to be one choice, you want to be the choice.
  • We have many easily-available tools to help us find resources to fill our gaps.
  • Finding resources isn’t the issue, anymore. Discernment is.
  • Standards inform discernment. What’s good where you are now will be less good at your standards increase.
  • Everyone is where you are, a little behind or a little bit ahead. So no matter where you are with your standards and discernment, chances are it’s perfect for the clients you work with.
  • You also need a bit of knowledge. You need to know at least enough to be dangerous. It also helps you discern between resources. And you need to know your client.
  • Share the really good stuff. Never sling shit toward your clients and hope it works out.
  • As you identify people and small businesses as resources, connect, 1:1 with them so that the process then also becomes a marketing technique—a way to let others know about you that didn’t before.

Please consider joining us for our monthly Facebook Live gathering. It happens on our Facebook page the second Thursday of each month at 11am, ET, unless otherwise noted. We’d love to see you there!  And invite a friend—learning is always more fun with friends!