Can you imagine a world without sticky notes?

It’s easy to take Post-it notes for granted. Those small, sticky, reusable paper strips have a thousand uses.

And they make a lot of money with 3M.

There is a business lesson on Post-it for your coaching or hypnotherapy business. And no, it’s not what you expected.

The obvious lesson is that failure is not failure. They set out to create a super strong glue and accidentally made a weak glue that stays tacky.

Useless!

Until I find another use for it …

So, sure, there is a business lesson there. Whenever you think you have failed, try to see success buried in failure.

But that’s not what I’m talking about right now.

Post-it notes initially did not sell well. Imagine that you have never found them before. Would you be willing to buy pieces of paper … to stick to things? Doesn’t sound very useful, does it?

Some things in life can be difficult to describe. Sticky notes are one example. You can talk about what they do, but until someone experiences it, they won’t really understand.

Tetris is the same thing: a wildly addictive game that sounds boring and terrible when you describe it. “There are blocks … and you drop blocks into the gaps. When you complete a row, it disappears. No, really, it’s fun!”

Offering a professional service can also be like that. People may not think you can help them.

Or they may not be able to imagine living without their problem, common enough for whatever they carry for years.

“I guide you to solutions” does not work well, you know? Like Post-it notes, that’s more than helpful. But people don’t really see how until they experience it.

So how do you get clients to experience your methods before they sign up?

In the same way that Post-it notes became a huge success:

3M mailed a box of Post-it notes to the secretaries to the CEOs of all Fortune 500 companies. They didn’t ask, they gave them away as free samples.

CEOs started using them.

Then they kept using them, which meant asking for more.

So everyone was curious about these strange notes taped to the memos these influential CEOs sent them.

From there, it became fashionable.

You can do the same by offering free samples of your training or hypnotherapy.

What I am NOT suggesting is giving away your time for free. That is not the mark of a professional.

And no one would take you seriously if you did.

What I suggest is this:

Weave your change work methods into your marketing.

Show your clients how to solve problems and grow, simply by reading what you write and listening to what you say.

Teach them to work with you.

How?

With content marketing.

But not by sharing “life hacks” or telling them what to do. That’s as effective and popular as telling smokers to quit. The world has no shortage of knowledge, and your job isn’t just about imparting knowledge anyway.

It is about much more than that.