There’s one mistake that so many entrepreneurs make that costs them business success.
It’s an honest mistake that could be holding you back from achieving your goals.
In this week’s Spark Your Life podcast, I share a story to help you understand what that one mistake is.
If you’re working so hard on your business right now, and you’re trying to do all the right things, yet it’s still not working…
Then, you might be making this mistake without realizing it.
ONCE YOU ARE AWARE OF THE PROBLEM, YOU CAN FIX IT
I’m going to tell you a story of exactly what the mistake is, how I made it, how I fixed it, and how you can fix it.
About a year ago, I was ready to quit my full-time job.
I was working my full-time job, and I was working on my business. It was exhausting having two jobs.
I kept telling myself I needed to quit, so a year ago, I decided to come up with an exit strategy.
What was my exit strategy?
To create a masterclass centered around setting and achieving goals.
I thought it would 100% work.
My strategy was to price it so I’d have enough financial buffer to quit my job and go full-scale with my business.
I only needed 37 people to sign up.
So, I outlined the masterclass, created cool content, and built the prettiest landing page.
I launched everything, including several Facebook ads, and guess what happened?
No one signed up.
One day, two days, a week had passed with no purchases.
I was already spending hundreds of dollars, yet no one was buying.
You know I was stressed.
I woke up every morning checking for new leads.
Do I have a new purchase yet?
No.
So, I’d spend a few hours every morning trying to come up with a new way to bring in leads — making small copy tweaks to the ads.
I was desperate.
Fast forward three weeks, I had spent $5k and had one signup.
One.
My exit strategy was falling apart.
I was really stressed and getting emotional, and it was impacting my family.
One night, I raised my voice at my daughter, and my husband told me he was concerned. That I wasn’t myself.
This was a big realization moment for me.
It brought me back to reality in a way, a wake-up call.
I had been so focused on the goal in front of me of how to make this masterclass work, so I wasn’t paying attention to anything else in my life.
I shared how I was feeling with my husband, and he said…
What if you just cancel?
My first reaction was, “I can’t cancel!”
I have always taken pride in completing things that I have committed to completing.
Canceling meant that I would fail myself.
I had worked so hard on this class, so canceling it was a hard decision.
Canceling What’s Not Working Might Be The Best Approach
I felt like I was so close to making it work and that it just needed one more tweak.
I couldn’t stop.
The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized it wasn’t working and maybe canceling was the right approach.
I asked myself, “Why am I so afraid of canceling?”
Having to email that one person who signed up was a huge barrier.
It meant telling someone else that whatever I had planned wasn’t happening.
The moment I decided to cancel was a liberating moment for me.
It released all that pressure I had been carrying on my shoulders for the last five or six weeks.
My exit strategy failed, but the moment I accepted that fact liberated me.
I wasn’t trying so hard to make it work anymore and instead accepted that it wasn’t working.
I decided to re-engage with the job I didn’t like and told myself the time would come when I could quit.
You Always Have a Choice
It’s always our choice of how we respond to and engage with things.
Two months prior, I decided to disengage.
That was my choice. That choice didn’t work out.
Two months later, I chose to re-engage and try to find joy in my full-time work again.
Surprisingly, once I started looking at it this way, I saw some positive things.
- I realized I was grateful for my full-time job. Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to start my business in the first place.
- It allowed me to pay the bills and invest in the business.
- I found that gratitude and started feeling my mood gradually improve. I wasn’t so stressed and emotional.
My family noticed the difference, and you know what happened then?
About a month later, I came up with an idea for my Life Design system, which has been a game changer for me and my business and all the women I’ve been able to help.
I strongly believe the only reason I could create this system was because I released that pressure.
Here is the point and moral of the story…
We focus so much on a particular goal that it stresses us.
By feeling stress, we eliminate our chances of getting the results we want.
Imagine you’re in a box of that stress, and all you can see are the walls of that box.
But the solution you’re looking for is outside of the box.
In order to see it, you need to get out of the box.
The real solution to your bigger problem is something bigger, dramatic, and significant.
In order to see that “something,” you need to be in a completely different state of mind.
Only when you’re in a positive state of mind can you start seeing those opportunities.
Find solutions to bigger problems and questions by:
- Breathing deeply.
- Getting out of survival mode.
- Thinking broader.
Some studies suggest that when people are in stress mode, their vision literally narrows.
KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE ONE MISTAKE HOLDING YOU BACK FROM SUCCESS
The more you stress about achieving a particular result, the further you get from achieving that result.
You can fix this.
You can remove that pressure and start noticing your life today.
Let me ask you this…
Why did you start your business in the first place?
Did you start it to be desperate or stressed? To struggle?
Or…
Did you start it to enjoy your life today? To make your life today better and happier?
Probably the latter reason.
So, let’s embrace that knowledge.
Start noticing life today because so much good is happening, even beyond business.
If things aren’t going great in your business now, there are so many other amazing things happening in your life.
All you need to do is start noticing them.
Once you start noticing them and recognizing everything good happening today, this is when you get outside of the box.
This is how you’ll find a way to achieve your biggest dreams and goals and desired results tomorrow, a week, or a month from now.
And guess what?
The way toward your dreams will likely be something you weren’t expecting.
This is why I believe elevating your life by 10x is actually easier than elevating your life by 2x.
Because when you think about achieving 2x results — 2x more revenue, 2x more clients — you believe it’s possible to work two times harder.
But that’s probably not possible.
If you think about achieving ten times the result, it forces you to start thinking in a completely different way.
If you really want to scale your business and achieve the results you want, and more than you ever thought possible, you have to stop pressuring yourself.
Live your life today, and don’t let that stress and pressure deviate you from the path towards a fuller, happier life.
If you have any questions, send me a DM or an email. I’m happy to support you on your journey.
Until next time,
Olena xx
