Will Guidara’s Unreasonable Hospitality highlights a powerful principle: exceptional service is about more than delivering a product—it’s about creating unforgettable experiences. For coaches and service providers, adopting this mindset can deepen client relationships, foster loyalty, and create a business that thrives on referrals. Here are actionable strategies to bring “unreasonable hospitality” to your practice. No better time than now to begin implementation.

1. Personalize Every Interaction

Strategy: Go beyond surface-level personalization to understand your clients on a deeper level.

– Task: Create a “Client Insight Profile.” Note each client’s preferences, goals, and personal details such as birthdays or favorite hobbies. Use this information to surprise them with small, thoughtful gestures.

– Example: If a client mentions a favorite book, send them a copy or a related podcast recommendation after a session.

2. Anticipate Needs Before They Arise

Strategy: Think like a concierge—identify potential pain points or desires before your client does.

– Task: Map out your client’s journey from the first contact to the end of your service. Pinpoint areas where they might feel uncertainty or need additional support, then proactively address these points.

– Example: After onboarding a client, send them a “What to Expect” guide outlining the next steps. Include tips to maximize the value of your sessions.

3. Create Moments of Delight

Strategy: Add an unexpected “wow” factor to your service.

– Task: Brainstorm ways to surprise your clients during their journey with you. These moments don’t have to be costly; they just need to be thoughtful.

– Example: After a client achieves a milestone, celebrate with a handwritten note or a small gift related to their accomplishment.

4. Foster Emotional Connections

Strategy: Treat your clients as collaborators and celebrate their wins as if they were your own.

– Task: Incorporate “gratitude check-ins” where you thank your clients for trusting you with their goals.

– Example: Start a session by highlighting the progress you’ve noticed in them. Make it clear that their effort inspires you.

5. Rethink Your Space

Strategy: Curate an environment—physical or virtual—that feels welcoming and inspiring.

– Task: Audit your workspace (or Zoom setup) for details that reflect care and attention.

– Example: Use calming background music for virtual sessions or place a meaningful object (like a plant or a quote board) in your physical space.

6. Offer Unexpected Value

Strategy: Give more than what was promised in your service agreement.

– Task: Create bonus resources, tools, or tips that complement your services.

– Example: Provide a custom checklist, a summary of action points after a session, or a bonus 15-minute consultation to tackle lingering questions.

7. Train Your Team to Embrace Hospitality

Strategy: If you work with a team, ensure everyone shares your commitment to exceptional service.

– Task: Host a monthly “hospitality brainstorming” meeting where team members share ideas on how to exceed client expectations.

– Example: Recognize team members who go above and beyond for clients, creating a culture of excellence.

8. Build a Tradition

Strategy: Develop a signature moment or practice that becomes synonymous with your brand.

– Task: Identify a ritual or gesture you can offer all clients at a specific stage of their journey.

– Example: A coach might send clients a personalized journal when they start working together, symbolizing a fresh chapter.

9. Actively Seek Feedback—and Act on It

Strategy: Don’t just ask for feedback; show clients you’re listening by implementing their suggestions.

– Task: Send a follow-up survey after major milestones.

– Example: If a client mentions they appreciate visual aids, introduce diagrams or infographics in your next session.

10. End with a Bang

Strategy: Ensure the last impression is as remarkable as the first.

– Task: Develop a structured “client farewell” process that reinforces the value they received.

– Example: When a client completes your program, surprise them with a summary of their progress, a thank-you gift, or an invitation to a VIP alumni community.

Final Thought

Unreasonable hospitality is about the art of showing care, attention, and delight in ways that clients don’t just expect but remember. By implementing these strategies, coaches and service providers can turn their businesses into not just services—but experiences that clients rave about.

What can you do today to make a client feel genuinely valued? Start there—and watch the ripple effect unfold.

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Alexander Astor was a wise ant and continued working when his brothers decided to be lazy. But could he single-handedly save his family in their time of need?

Amazing Ant Colony was always buzzing with activity. All the ants took the wise advice of Queen Ann and churned away at food collection drives. The Astor boys were no different. Alexander and his brothers learned from the best.

One day, the Astor boys all earned Senior Ant status. They learned the ropes, and it was now time for them to move out of Amazing Ant Colony and work for another queen.

“I’m so happy we’re no longer under Queen Ann’s rule,” said Alexander’s brother, Arthur.

“Yes, me too,” replied the youngest brother, Aaron. “We don’t have to collect any food for now. We can leave that to the Junior Ants who are here learning.”

Alexander was shocked to hear his brothers speak like that. He knew that in order to stay fed during the rainy season, they had to continue on the food collection drive.

So Alexander continued to be productive while his brothers lazed around all day. He doubled up his efforts and collected much more food than normal.

Soon, the rainy season was upon them. The rains started to pour and the Astor brothers had to run for cover. They suddenly panicked when they realized that it was now too late to go get food.

Good thing Alexander was being productive all along. “Well, boys,” he said. “Although you were being rebellious and lazy, I still went ahead and collected enough food for all of us. None of us have to worry about starving during the rainy season.”

His brothers leaped for joy and said, “Thanks for taking care of us, Alexander. We have definitely learned our lesson!”

Moral of the story: Take the time today to work towards your goals, as you never know what tomorrow might bring.

The Productive Ant Self-Reflection

Alexander learned the same lessons as the other Astor brothers. They all understood the importance of food collection drives. They knew it was the best way to ensure they have enough food to last them through the rainy season.

But his brothers somehow abandoned those lessons when they earned Senior Ant status. They started strutting around with the idea that the lessons were of little value now. As such, food collection drives fell way down on their priority list.

It’s sometimes easy to fall into that frame of mind when your circumstances change. Somehow, you feel that your prior principles have little worth in your new situation.

However, principles are fundamental truths that dictate behaviors, regardless of circumstances.

To ensure that you are able to hit your goal, stick to the underlying principles of productivity. The best time to work towards your goals is today. There will be times when you’ll have reason to be thankful that you were able to accomplish what you did.

An opportunity may come along that your prior work allows you to take advantage of. Maybe you’ll suffer challenges that your preparation helps you overcome with ease.

For your best success, please lay the groundwork today for reaching your goals tomorrow. Use every chance you get to be productive and you’ll avoid a lot of disappointment.

Self-Reflection Questions:

1. What actions did I take today to help my dreams come true?
2. What techniques can I use to achieve more effective time management?
3. How can I balance achieving my personal goals with the needs of my loved ones?

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Imagine being excited to live each day! Most people dread getting up and spend the week waiting for the weekend.

Determining your life’s purpose is worthy of your time and consideration!

Consider these ideas:

1. It’s easier to plan your day. Most people spend their day trying to figure out what to do. When you don’t have a clear objective and purpose, it’s easy to become lost. What are you attempting to achieve each day?
2. It’s easier to resist distractions. Your life’s purpose is something that’s compelling to you. Distractions are hard to resist when your life feels meaningless, or you feel bored. Your ability to focus is enhanced when you know your purpose.
3. It’s easier to make decisions. Your purpose is the overriding consideration in your life. Decisions are much easier to make when you clearly understand what you’re trying to accomplish.

• For example, if your purpose is to be a world-class marathoner, the right diet choices become much clearer. You also know that getting to bed on time each night is more important than running around all night with your friends.

1. Fun. For most people, a fun activity is just something done for distraction. It’s not something you would want to do all day, every day. Riding a rollercoaster is fun, but you wouldn’t want to do it for eight hours every day. Eating ice cream is fun, but it’s not enjoyable to eat five times a day.

• When you know your purpose, the activities associated with that purpose can be “fun.” You know you’re living the life you’re supposed to live. That’s the ultimate source of fun. Imagine having fun at your work!

1. Contentment. You feel content when you know and live your purpose. The nagging feeling that you should be doing something else with your life dissipates. Contentment is what remains. This is the emotion that most people crave, even if they don’t realize it.
2. Enthusiasm. You feel much more motivated. You feel less internal resistance. Knowing your purpose unleashes your enthusiasm. In fact, enthusiasm is one clue that you’re living your purpose. Are you enthusiastic about going to your job each day?
3. You make meaningful progress in your life. Happiness is largely the result of making progress toward meaningful goals. You have a much better chance of being happy when you’re aware of your life’s purpose.

• Do you have goals? If not, why? If you do have goals, how do you feel when you’re making progress toward them?

1. You become more interesting to others. Have you ever known someone that was clear on what they wanted from their life? It’s exciting to be around someone like that. You become much more interesting and magnetic when your life has a clear direction. Your social life improves in many ways.
2. Your creativity is fully utilized. Pursuing anything meaningful will involve overcoming obstacles. When you’re fully energized, your creativity can operate at full power. You’re surprised by your ability to solve problems.

The world is full of people aimlessly drifting through life without a purpose. Most people have never taken the time to consider what they want their life to be about. This is a huge mistake, because there are so many benefits to knowing and living your life’s purpose

Want to Dig in Deeper? Download Make Life More Fulfilling. No Optin required.

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#1: Your readers are too savvy to succumb to content marketing

This myth is both true and false. The era of web 1.0 is long past and readers are a bit more savvy – blaring adds and obvious, in-your-face marketing content is sure to turn away much of your demographic. That doesn’t mean readers are anti-marketing, though. The key is to provide value in your marketing. Thoughtful content that meets a need while tastefully advertising your product or service can still attract even the most savvy of consumers.

#2: Your business isn’t exciting enough

Simply not true – not everyone is looking for an exciting service or product! Online advertising works for almost anyone because almost every current demographic is now receiving most marketing exposure online. This is your unique opportunity to grab attention by providing useful or entertaining content that spreads brand awareness and attracts a new customer base.

#3: The costs outweigh the benefits

Another common misconception is that content marketing is pricey. While it can be if your goal is lots of slick online videos and information products for give-aways, there are other ways. Many first time content marketers start slow by producing some simple blog posts, and then in turn expanding these into full-blown industry articles, videos, or even advertisements. This provides a greater return on the initial creative investment. Then, you can expand as you begin to reap the benefits of your campaign.

#4: No one will ever read the content

Ignore the admonishments that reading is dead. Any visit to a public place disproves this, with hundreds of people buried in smart phones and tablets soaking up online content. The key is to produce content that your audience wants to read, and then spin it into similar video content for the few that won’t read.

#5: Free marketing opportunities are sufficient

Another common trap is thinking that you can subsist only on free or cheap marketing opportunities, such as setting up social media accounts and putting up a few posts. This is rarely the case. You will need to make an investment, although it doesn’t have to be large at first.

#6: It’s impossible to set and achieve marketing goals

In today’s age there is tracking data available for just about every type of online content marketing idea out there. This makes it easy to see how similar campaigns have done so that you can realistically set and achieve goals.

#7: You have to spend a lot of time and resources producing content

For smaller businesses it can be especially stressful to think you need to either learn to produce and market your own content, or bring in an outside team to do it. Fortunately, this isn’t the case. Outsourcing is becoming the industry norm in content marketing, especially for smaller businesses. You can bring on one or two outsourcers to help out, or connect with a content marketing firm that will handle everything for you.

#8: If you don’t have immediate results, it’s not worth it

It’s unclear why this myth is so prevalent, especially since no one considers it a factor in other forms of advertising. Results can take time, especially if you are new. It takes time to build up brand awareness, foster a following, and find your winning style of content. Slow and steady can really win the race.

#9: Content has to be cute to compete

With all the viral videos of cats and kids hawking big brands online, you may think this is the only way to get viewers to find you. While this method works, it isn’t the only nor even the best method for every brand. For everyone looking for cats, there is someone that is looking for a useful,non-cutesy piece of content.

#10: All you need is lots of views

Views are great, but only if they actually convert into new business. If you are in a small niche, you may not get a lot of views but each one of them is valuable if you are able to convert a high percentage into sales. Conversely, it does you no good to go viral if the video or article is popular but your product or service still isn’t selling.

#11: Publish and your work is done

A common mistake is thinking that content marketing is a one and done deal. You need to maintain and feed your content so you can get the most out of it. This may mean republishing it in several places, spinning it into new styles of online content, or linking to it on social media. Life moves fast on the internet, so you need to maintain your content to keep it on top.
There’s no need to enter the world of content marketing alone. Once you shed the baggage of these common myths, connect with experts to make your marketing goals a reality.

The post 11 Content Marketing Myths You Need to Stop Believing appeared first on Solopreneur Solutions.

I started my first business in 1981 with a friend and it was a dismal failure. I started my second business in 1986 and it took me three years to turn a profit, but I finally figured it out.
Maybe you find yourself confronting some of the same challenges I have faced:

How are you going to prepare for the journey?

Do you find yourself on the edge of succeeding at something and then all of a sudden everything falls apart? It’s called self-sabotage and it kills thousands of dreams everyday.

• Have you struggled with knowing you are as smart as many others who have succeeded, but you’re still getting mediocre results?
• Have you come up with great ideas that you know could change your life but you never seem to get started on them?
• Are you working harder and longer but can’t seem to make the profits you deserve?
• Are you ready to quit because you just can’t breakthrough the barriers in your life?
• Do you have a “settle for” attitude (ie., “it’s not what I want but it’s better than a lot of people have.”)

“The size of your success is determined by the size of your belief.” Read those words again. In fact, read them over and over until they really sink in.

This is a quote from The Magic of Thinking Big, is it possible that this is the missing piece to your success puzzle.
I realized a few years ago that where ever my belief was “set” would determine how successful (or how unsuccessful) I would be.
If I wanted to change my life, I had to change my belief. One of the things I began doing was reading Think and Grow Rich every year. Now I listen to the audio book.
Napoleon Hill, wrote in the classic Think and Grow Rich that belief and desire are the beginning of all achievement. If one of those key ingredients is missing, success is almost impossible. That might explain why a lot of people get excited about an idea (desire) but fail to follow through with it (belief).
It’s rare that we will attempt to do something that we don’t believe in, and we will never give 100% of our effort to something without a strong belief that we can do it. It’s our human defense mechanism. In As A Man Thinketh, James Allen tells us, “The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do.” In Above Life’s Turmoil he tells us, “Belief always precedes action.”
That certainly helped me understand why I’d find myself with some great ideas that I thought would be successful, and then six months would pass by and I hadn’t done anything about them. I didn’t have the deep down belief they’d be successful, so I simply didn’t take any action on them. And that’s the same experience that most people have that steals the great dreams they have for their lives.
Napoleon Hill wrote a very telling line in Think and Grow Rich: “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” That’s pretty clear and straightforward. And you can see that power of belief at work in the lives of all successful people…
If you are ready to change your life and turn your dreams into beliefs about your success then join me for a complimentary webinar in January. It is possible to make a change and shift the results you are seeking. 

The post Starting a New Business Or Growing an Existing One? appeared first on Solopreneur Solutions.

The failure rate is precisely why I founded the Association.  The mission is to provide a virtual incubator for solopreneurs.  Solopreneurs will discover a community offering them the training, coaching, resources, support and accountability to make their journey successful.

The IAS will support new and existing solo business owners in finding out how to overcome fear and procrastination and take action on their dream.   Additionally providing these business owners with the knowledge of how to avoid the #1 deadly mistake that business owners make.

Existing business owners will learn how to recognize their plateau and the steps necessary to break through and achieve the next level in their businesses.

Learning from other business owner’s experiences will provide the members with much more than theory but practical firsthand knowledge they will not find elsewhere.  Check out all of the benefits available for members.

 Fourteen successful solopreneurs contribute trainings, articles and answer questions as posted on forums and take live calls once a week.

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• Keep it simple, clear and brief. The best mission statements tend to be 3 to 5 sentences long.
• Focus on and who you want to become as a person (character) in this part of your life. Think about specific actions, behaviors, habits and qualities that would have a significant positive impact in this part of your life over the next one to three years.
• Make sure your mission statement is positive. Find the positive alternatives to any negative statements.
• Create a mission statement that will guide you in your day-to-day actions and decisions. Make it a part of your everyday life.
• Think about how your mission affects the other areas of your life. Is it consistent with your other personal mission statements?
  Will it conflict with or contradict something else? Is it balanced?
• Make it emotional.

Remember that your mission statement is not forever. It will continue to change and evolve as you gain insights about yourself and what you want out of each part of your life.  My mission statements change as my aspirations change.  As I grow and evolve
Two of My Mission Statements…
“To create a profitable membership website with an exciting atmosphere, great learning, support and excellent service where solopreneurs truly enjoy coming to prosper. To provide a safe and energizing environment where our members and providers gain great value.  Where solopreneurs are attracted and refer others.”
“To exercise and meditate daily and eat healthy foods. I will strive to make a positive difference in every person I interact with and always continue to improve my mind, body and spirit. I will continue to learn and grow spiritially and intellectually, remaining full of gratitude at all times.”
Your mission statements should guide you in your everyday actions and behaviors.  It is helpful to keep them visible.  My are posted above my desk, documented in my PDA and kept in my purse.  If you have fully commited to your mission it will become easy to make decisions about your everyday actions.  I use mine to help me resolve what I believe to be conflicts all the time.  What I find out is when I am following my mission and values those conflicts simply fade away.
I would love to hear what your mission is for any portion of your life.  Please post it below.

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