There is an archetypal life journey for a service-based business that we call the I call the Road to Thrive. It is the journey we support at our marketing agency aptly call Road to Thrive agency.
The journey has 4 phases; clarity, focus, approach, lead
The first phase is clarity, understanding where you are on this journey. It is the starting point. This phase comes shortly after finishing school, but can really be started at any time. Understanding where you are is taking inventory of your skills, your resources, and your goals.
The second phase is focus. During this phase, you choose what your specialty is going to be. What is a well-defined set of services that you will become known for?
The third phase is approach. When you begin this phase you have already become very knowledgable and skill at a well-defined set of services. The approach phase is where you take that knowledge and experience and create your own unique way of doing things. That uniqueness also means that there will be a unique set of clients that will benefit more from your approach than from any other approach.
The final phase is leadership. At this phase, your perspective changes from helping individuals to helping the masses. There are many options for this phase. You can take your approach and teach others to use your approach. You can take your approach and create digital products that are available to the masses. You can write books or do talks where large groups of people can benefit from your approach.
Throughout the whole journey, you need clients who want and need your services. The one key skill/process to create those clients during all phases is publishing content. The clarity phase is where you start sharing your journey. This is where your potential clients start to get to know you as a unique person. During the focus phase, you share what you have learned. By sharing what you have learned, you give potential clients a shortcut for learning the same topics. During the approach phase, you share your approach, your framework, and your methodologies. During the final phase, you share your digital products, your talks, and your ideas for the future.
Understanding the archetypal life journey allows you to start the critical habit of producing and publishing content.