Being selective - doing less- is the path of the productive. Focus on the important few and ignore the rest." -Tim Ferriss
HAPPY NEW YEAR, FRIENDS! I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOYED THE HOLIDAYS AND ARE HAVING A BEAUTIFUL START TO YOUR NEW YEAR!
To kick off our new year together, I wanted to take you down memory lane to the start of my business which was filled with a whole lot of passion, determination, and lots of confusion and missteps.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to share some of my business blunders, my mistakes, and what I wish I had known then in hopes that you can avoid some of these pitfalls.
While there have been a TON of things I did right, I’ve learned the most as a result of what I did ‘wrong’.
I don’t want you to waste time making these mistakes, but I’m grateful for every one of these lessons. Each and every one of them has given me an opportunity to progress.
I’m that much more equipped to guide my clients in building businesses they love that also get them paid because I’ve been where they are. I know the frustrations, I’ve bought into some of the myths, and I get the fear that causes us to take non-sensical steps. I can spot these a mile away in my clients.
So if you’ve made any of these blunders yourself, let’s not get into blaming, shaming, and making ourselves wrong. That is NOT the point of this series. Besides, that does nothing to propel us forward and only keeps us stuck!
Let’s be grateful for the opportunity to grow and move forward with fresh insight. Deal?!
Ok, let’s dig into Part One of what I’m lovingly calling my Business Blunders.
Part One: Trying To Do It All
Y’all, I am a Type-A Worker Bee with a proclivity toward overworking and overdoing. For a long time, I had the mindset that whatever was asked of me, whatever was required, it would be better if I did that times ten.
This has shown up in every area of my life, and you better believe when I started my business this was my mindset and approach.
I figured I’d just outwork and outdo everyone and ‘make it’ that way.
Let me tell you how wrong and misguided this is: very.
You know how I’m always talking about clarity, mindset, strategy, and action? Well, this all came into play here.
I lacked the clarity of my business vision and version of success (which is why I preach it every chance I can now).
My mindset was riddled with fear that what I had to offer wouldn’t be enough or make me money. This bled into my strategy which became do-it-all in hopes that something, anything, would work. As a result, my action was frenzied, unclear, and unaligned.
What did this look like? Have you ever been into one of those delis in Manhattan that can make pretty much anything? They have a stir-fry counter, a pizza counter, a salad bar, sandwich bar, they make eggs, and have rows of hot plates with various dishes.
That’s a great representation of what my business resembled at the start.
It looked like trying to be a coach for EVERYONE. Relationship issues? I was in. Goals and accountability, I could help you! Career confusion? Sure, bring it on. Social Media? I used it, so why not?
Then there were my actual coaching offers. I had three private coaching packages, then decided to add on a Mastermind Group.
That wasn’t enough, though. So I created a very short-lived goal-setting membership group (were any of you around for the Grit Lab?!).
Still not enough. So you got a course. Then another Mastermind and group coaching program.
For a very brief point in time, I even offered ‘About Page’ writing services. #forreal
This fear-based trying to-do-it all approach also leaked into my marketing strategy. I was desperately tap dancing trying to be everywhere. I was on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest.
Then there were all those new apps coming out. I spent a day learning about Snapchat, which I thankfully never downloaded.
Another day went down the drain as I learned about some new social group platform that was going to replace Facebook Groups.
I started a podcast to add to my blog and live streaming because if one or two mediums were good, adding in another one was clearly better.
Madness, I tell you.
The results? I was lucky I did book clients (I’m blessed to still work with one of them now years later!), but my business crawled along. And with every new addition, I sabotaged the growth of my main focus, private coaching.
The reason? We get what we focus on, and I wasn’t focused on anything. Instead of doing one thing well and owning my zone of genius, I was spread thin and quickly becoming a master of none.
This method of flinging spaghetti at the wall and seeing what would stick was entirely based in fear and a lack of belief in my ability to sell what I actually wanted to do.
All the things got so-so attention because I’m only one person. As a result, they all returned me so-so results.
Here’s where it got confusing at the time. Everything did yield results. Some results were better than others, but they all produced revenue of varying degrees. Which at the time, made me think, they were working and the answer was to just work harder.
Each of my offers sold something. All of the platforms brought some people in the door.
THE SOLUTION: Spending time getting serious clarity and doing the mindset work to trust my decisions and hone way in, so my strategy and actions became simplified and focused.
The more I focus in on doing less better, the better the results I get in every way. Results like more income, more joy, ease, flow, happiness, and better client results.
I tripled my revenue at the end of last year. The main difference? I went from doing all the things to only offering my zone of genius. I cut way back on content mediums and social media platforms and showed up in a deeper way on the ones I loved. I created more space for me, fun, play, and self-care (which this go-getter had SO much resistance around).
TAKEAWAY: Decide and pick ONE thing and go all in. This means one offer, one niche, one ideal client, one marketing strategy, one form of content.
Yes, this is scary. There’s nothing to hide behind or ‘fall back on’. Yes, this will also yield exponentially better results.
Master one thing before you add on more. You can always add on more later, but you might not want to!
I hope you found this helpful and take some time to get clarity and focus in this year.
Next week, I’ll be back with Part Two of my Business Blunders, which really and truly, have been my business gifts.
Wishing you your version of success!
P.S. Are you ready to Uplevel your business this year by honing in and doing less better? I’d love to support you!
Part of my zone of genius is helping my clients get clarity so they know what to focus on, strengthen their mindset so they can get and stay out of their own way, simplify their strategy, and take aligned action so they can grow a business they’re wildly in love with that also gets them paid!
Sound like what you need? Let’s talk! Click here to learn more and book a free consultation.
