I do believe we all know the power of the mind. So today, I want to talk about mindset and how it can sabotage your business growth. This isn’t only about branding or a website redesign, but general advice that can be applies to anything. We all see other people, like your clients, sabotage their growth whether personal or business too. Yet, how often do we take a conscious look at ourselves? We are terrible at taking our own advice, especially when we need it most. The saying goes: “you are your own worst client.” It wouldn’t be so popular and so real if it weren’t true.
Today, I want to talk about these sabotaging mindsets because I want to call you out on your own bullshit. I want to help you realize that you are stopping yourself from growth. I’m writing this post based on the most common objections I get from potential clients. They are also what commonly I see online. How many of those sounds like you?
1. “I will do it later…”
I’m starting off my list with the “I’ll do it later” excuse. Okay, later when? Most women can’t tell me when. There are so many things we all could be, or should be, doing right now. Instead, we pick that one thing to do later, and time after time, we never get to it. But, you will feel guilty over and over again for not having done it yet. Feeling guilty and procrastinating will sabotage your business growth.
The best way to move past this excuse is to have a serious looking at whatever it is you are avoiding. I’ve got this method from Louise Hay. It’s a 5 step process:
- Sit down and on a piece of paper write all the thing you think you SHOULD be doing for your business.
- Once you’re done with the list, one by one ask your self why do you think you should be doing it.
- Next, replace the word ‘should’ with ‘could’ and rewrite them all in the following format: “If I had the time today, I could…”
- Once you’re done with your new list, again, one by one, ask yourself why haven’t you done these things.
- By now you should see things in a new light. This is your opportunity to regroup your prioritizes based on your new insights.
For example, say you’re looking to expand your social media presence into Instagram, Snapchap, and Pinterest. Why do you think you should be doing so? Because everybody and their mother are? If you had the time, could you expand? If not, do yourself a favor and stop thinking about it. However if, in fact, it is something you should be doing today such as putting money away for retirement, following up with your leads or looking for a VA – just do it. Do it today because your future self will also say “I will do it later.”
Whatever it is, either do it or not. Don’t dwell on it; it’s not worth the emotional or mental drain. Self-sabotage your business growth is never worth it!
Get real with yourself
Mel Robbins puts this very well in her quick video, Get Fucking Real with Yourself. Watch it, because she’s 100% right. She talks about how she always wanted to have a 6-pack. Eventually, she got honest with herself that because of her laziness and love of alcohol she isn’t willing to put in the work and therefore no longer cares about not having it. Now, she is no longer bothered, no longer procrastinating, and no longer guilt tripping herself into something she was never willing to do in the first place.
2. “I will do it when x happens”
This mental sabotage is slightly similar to the previous one, but it does deserve its own mention. “I’ll do it when I have…. the time, the money, the assistant, 100,000 followers”, and so on. Alternatively, “I will do it when I’m ready.” Not only are we never ready, we should neither be waiting around for something to give us permission to act. I completely understand that we need resources, most often it’s time or money, in order to get shit done. However, that’s now how abundance or law of attention work. That’s also not how resourceful businesswomen work either.
You don’t need thousands of followers in order to do effective campaigns or partnerships. You are better off getting started and gaining the momentum because the rest will take care of itself. Eventually, you will get to the level where you will be able to partner with large and reputable brands. That’s just how it works.
I didn’t wait to start writing either one of my two books to have a certain job title, a certain amount of Twitter followers, or certain life or work experiences. I didn’t start blogging before I had a large FB group, or before hiring a VA to help me proof or format my writing. Lastly, I didn’t wait to have thousands of followers on Instagram or members of my Facebook group to start doing short but informative live videos. Of course, I’ve made this excuse before! Oh my god, I’ve been there too! I’m not lecturing here today because I’m immune. I’m lecturing you to call you out on your own bullshit! Procrastination is terrible and awful. It gets in the way of everything, not just business growth.
The bottom line is that you don’t need permission to get started! Stop waiting around and start acting right now!
Working through your mental blocks
I have put together for you a free printable workbook. It has 4 pages of exercises that you can do in order to find you limiting and self-sabotaging mindset blocks. If you’re interested, go ahead and download it. It deals will help you better address the sabotaging mindsets that we’re talking about in this article.
3. “I don’t know where to start”
Personally, I’ve often used this excuse whenever I was intimidated or overwhelmed. Either way, those are both feelings of fear and both sabotage your business growth! Being unsure, not knowing, those are all about giving into fear. I mean, let’s be real, its mid-2018, the answer to everything is online. If you don’t know where or how to start, you can post it on Facebook, do a quick google search or even hire someone to help you. We’re just businesswomen, at the end of the day, we aren’t doing anything overly complicated. Just about every problem we face in business has a (more or less) simple solution you can look up online. We just like to over think everything!
Come on, you know I’m right with this one too! We face many different challenges, some of which can be intimidating or complicated at first. However, they all become simple after dealing with them once or twice. If you’re not tech savvy, you can ask a friend for help or hire someone to take care of it for you. If you have no idea how to run a successful and engaging Facebook group, you can hire a Facebook group specialist, hire a social media savvy VA or take a course and try tackling it yourself.
Don’t worry about the how. Suck it up and push through it because if it were easy, everyone would be doing it!
I have been extremely intimidated by social media. The whole concept rubs me the wrong way. I don’t particularly like posting on Facebook about my personal life. Twitter has lost the appeal for me a long time ago because of its shit content and even more terrible company policies and values. I love browsing Instagram, but I have no idea how to post on it for myself. The point is social media intimidated me. I didn’t know what to do. Except, I knew that it’s a powerful tool for growing a business.
When done right, social media can help grow your business like wildfire! Who wouldn’t want that, no matter how intimidating it may seem? I got real with myself, and I followed through. I created a Facebook group; I made a business Instagram. I’m working at it little by little, learning as I go. I started and I’ve already seen the benefits with the amazing women I’ve met. I’m working at it little by little, learning as I go. I started! Furthermore, I’ve already seen the benefits through the fantastic women I’ve met on those two platforms.
I know first hand how scary it can be. So before you jump the gun to ask yourself once again if this thing you’re not sure how to start is right for you to pursue in the first place. If it is, do it. Start!
4. “I have no time”
Every one of us has super busy lives. I will never dispute that. I will also never tell you to cram your schedule so much that your mental health starts to suffer. However, I’d like to ask you that instead of saying “I have no time for X” ask yourself “Is X a priority”?Is branding a priority right now? Yes or no? If no move on. Go through your should list one more time. Ask of each item on it if it’s a priority or not.
Then, I want you to take it a step further and have a look at your current schedule and workload. Ask yourself if each of those items is a priority too. For the things that aren’t a priority, remove them or delegate them. You’ve now easily made time for “the thing” you already prioritized that you previously didn’t have the time for. If it happens you still don’t have time – it’s time for you to make some. That thing you don’t have time for is a priority, after all. Suck it up and make time for it. Once again, don’t over think it and don’t lose sleep over it. Figure out why it’s important to you, why you keep procrastinating on it and either stop thinking about it or just do it!
Be real with yourself. If you keep claiming you don’t have time for things that are important to your business is just another way to self-sabotage your business growth.
5. “I don’t have the money”
Saving the best for last here! All of these mindsets are, ultimately, about fear. Anything from fear of failure to fear of success can have us frozen and procrastinating like hell. While considering that you don’t have the budget for something you wish you had can seem like a terrible thing, I do believe you’re thinking about it the wrong way. Not having money may seem like the end of the world. However, in all honesty, you’re not being creative enough!
Having an honest look at your current expenses will useably free up some additional cash. That’s just step number one. Step number two would be to figure out whether the thing you want to buy or the help you want to hire is actually the right thing. I’m going to say this once more, many of our worries come from things we don’t need to do, we just think we should. Those worries, those hesitations is how you end up self-sabotage your business growth.
Once you’ve established that you, in fact, want to hire a web designer, a social media manager or buy yourself a new camera for your YouTube videos, it’s time to make that money happen! It’s much easier to find the money (or to manifest it) if you know what that money is for. In order for the law of attractions to do its thing, you must know exactly what you want the money for and you must believe that money is already there. You know that I’m right. Once you know what you want and why you want it, once you wholeheartedly believe it is happening to you, things just work themselves out. You find an uncashed checked, you raise your rates and no one bats an eye, you find new clients, and – boom – now you have the money.
Finding money for the right things
I most often hear this excuse coming from women who are simply uncertain about what they want. Don’t worry, I’ve been this myself. A few months ago I decided to up my productivity game and get some help by hiring a VA. I’ve been contemplating this for a while, and I finally got around to it. I knew why I wanted the support – to delegate simple tasks I didn’t want to waste my time on – and I knew my budget too. I found a great VA that makes my life more comfortable and I love it. Oh yes – I found the money!
Today, my super helpful VA Adam works on proofing these posts and uploading them for me. This frees me to focus on other things that grow my business like scoring guest appearances on podcasts. Keep in mind, I didn’t hire a full-time VA to handle client meetings, my social media accounts, or writing these posts even. I got my priorities straight and made a budget based on the minimum tasks I needed to be taken care of. It’s a lot easier to find $200 a month for a few hours here and there for proofreading then $3,000 for a full-time VA.
And, knowing when you’ll never have the money for the wrong things
Around the time I hired Adam, I was also working on improving my business’ visibility. So, I looked into hiring a PR person. I wasn’t sure if this was the right move for me but maybe… I was mostly curious about what they could do for me and if it was even worth it hiring someone to help me so that I don’t have to figure it out on my own. The first person I spoke with quoted me $8,000 for a three-month do-it-yourself group course. Of course, I didn’t have money for that!
First of all, I wanted to hire someone to do this for me, not waste my time for three months teaching me to do it. I wanted to outsource the task, not add onto my own to do list! Second, I was unsure of hiring a PR person in the first place. Therefore, the $8,000 was never going to be worth it even if she quoted me for this her PR services. No way in hell would I ever be able to justify and find this money if my heart wasn’t in it.
Do you see the importance of understanding your actual needs now? Not having the money is just an excuse. It’s not always true. The quicker you realize that the quicker you can move on and focus on the right things and spend to invest in your business.
Also, do consider that things are not as expensive as you thought they would be. It’s even true for high priced items when you are in fact getting tremendous value out of it. Buying and hiring is a big part of growing your business. Don’t think you can’t afford to do so if you absolutely need to.
Working on your money block
Money blocks come in all shapes and sizes. They mostly formed in our childhoods. Do sit down and try to identify them. Although this post was heavily geared towards to-do list related mindset block, money is also a big part of it. By prioritizing the thing you want or must purchase for your business it will be easier for you to go deeper and identify your specific money blocks. You will definitely be on your way there! In the meantime, in addition to the strategies and advice, I shared with you, Caz from yTravel has some fantastic and actionable lessons on removing your money blocks as those are killer in self-sabotage your business growth too.
The takeaway
How many of those mindset blocks resonated with you? For me, it was all of them. As I said in the very beginning on this article, today I wanted to call you out on your own bullshit to stop you from self-sabotaging your business growth. We all lose sight of things every once in a while and that’s okay; I’ve got you! Take some time to go through your money blocks and productivity blocks. Take a minute to reprioritize the thing you have to do verses you think you should. It’s never a bad idea to take a step back and do some mindset cleansing. It works wonders for our clients, it will work wonders for us too!
If you’re looking for some help with this, go ahead and download the workbook! It will prompt you to start recognizing your negative patterns and help you put an end to them as well!
