We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Caitlin Grant. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Caitlin below.

Caitlin, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the best thing you’ve ever seen (or done yourself) to show a customer that you appreciate them?

I believe that showing clients they are appreciated is a non-negotiable in business. After all, without them, the business wouldn’t exist! But also, I’ve been in some sort of client-facing role, engaging with customers & their experience since I began working at 14 years old and customer experience is a HUGE passion of mine.

Now, as a business owner, I deeply understand the importance of making clients feel appreciated and valued. There are hundreds of service providers and business owners to choose from so making sure your clients feel the most appreciated is a wonderful, human-first approach AND it helps foster repeat customers and amazing referrals. Plus, giving gifts feels great.

That being said, I love finding new ways to show appreciation to my clients. During the holidays I always send some sort of Thank You; typically a customized gift for 1:1 clients and something small, but yummy (candy, of course!) to past clients. But my favorite is showing love in the throughs of life: sending a hand-written card when times are rough, buying champagne when there’s something to celebrate, delivering flowers for a milestone…

I like to think about the small gestures that personally bring me joy and make me feel loved and extend those to my clients.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

I am a business expansion coach, client experience designer & somatic educator. I help creative entrepreneurs, service providers & healing practitioners elevate their brand & communication strategy through executing an epic client experience that gets and keeps their dream clients.

Fun fact, this is my third business! I launched my first business as a photographer while still in college and worked in many capacities for about 10 years before starting my second business as a residential Realtor. Both of these industries are highly competitive and required me to get creative about standing out. Through lots of trial and error, I figured out that if I stuck with marketing that felt easy and fully aligned with my interested and personalities it felt a lot less like work and more like play. I also realized pretty quickly that I wanted to make sure my clients felt appreciated and supported. I put a lot of effort into my photography deliverables, my real estate resources, my processes for engaging with new clients, booking services and keeping in touch. Everything I created was for the value of my clients and those efforts always came back two-fold.

My current business began as a somatic healing practice and has recently evolved into more of a coaching & consulting resource for creative entrepreneurs & practitioners. These may feel like pretty different worlds, but work together very beautifully. In all my years as an entrepreneur, I often struggled with imposter syndrome, procrastination, overwhelm – all the things. And even though I felt good about my strategies and the growth of my business, I have white-knuckled my way through a lot of it and honestly, it stopped me from enjoying many of those years.

I found somatic healing 5 years ago and it really helped me understand the importance of Nervous System healing & regulation. I recognized many of the fears and doubts I had stemmed from past wounds and belief systems that weren’t really my own. My personal healing journey with breathwork and somatic therapy set me on fire to use somatic modalities to help others in moving through their own perceived limitations and alas, this business was born. Many of my clients are also business owners, so my evolution from supporting their personal growth to now supporting their business growth has been very natural and I LOVE IT.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Staying true to myself! I know, that’s a vague answer, but truly. There are a million “gurus” out there that claim to have the one strategy to help you grow and make money – but there is no one-size-fits-all approach! I took ALL THE COURSES, I’ve spent more money than I needed to on learning the “right” way to do things, only to have none of those things work for me.

The kicker, I did this when I started all 3 of my businesses (ha!). I looked to all the industry experts and tried to follow their way: cold call, DMs, non-stop posting, knocking on doors, constant outreach…. when the most effective thing for me was to put myself in places that I could genuinely connect with other humans and talk about the things I loved (which has always connected to a business I’ve been running).

So as a photographer this meant having my camera with me all the time, talking on forums about different equipment, geeking out about film photography, sharing resources or tips with people about things like the best time of day to take an outdoor photo. As a Realtor this looked like sharing about local businesses, spending my time in public places, making *genuine* connections trusting that eventually, Real Estate would come into the conversation – (and it always did). My coaching business has been a little different because I work both virtually and in-person, but I have found that the underlying theme of “connection” and “bringing value” is still the most effective path for me. I connect, I share helpful somatic practices, tips and “tricks” that are actually helpful, not just clickbait and I love to engage in the comments and DMs.

I love people, I’m really curious, I’m an excellent problem solver, and I enjoy working in local coffee shops and bars where I can meet new people. When I lean into activities that are naturally exciting and energizing to me, I find my people and we create an authentic connection. This typically leads to referrals and connections that become loyal clients. As my clientele grows, I also focus heavily on the whole client experience from brand assets and sales to onboarding and offboarding. I’m diversifying the ways people can “meet me” (podcast, social media, in-person events…), I’m constantly growing as a coach & facilitator, I’m using feedback to create more value and find more ways to help my clients feel supported. These efforts always lead to client retention and referrals.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Contact Info:

• Website: www.caitlingrant.com
• Instagram: @iamcaitlingrant
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caitlinmgrant/

Image Credits
First 3 images by The Lipstick Lens https://www.lipsticklens.com/