3 Things You’re Not Doing That are Keeping You From Growing Your Business

You will fail. It's a requirement actually, the way that you handle that failure, your resiliency and your ability to get up and try again, dust yourself off. That is what's going to strengthen over time, which is going to allow you to do more things faster to launch more, to keep putting yourself out there to recommit to yourself, and not take it so personally.

This is The Entrepreneur School Podcast where we believe you can run a thriving business and still make your family a priority. This show is all about supporting you the emerging or early stage Entrepreneur on your journey from solopreneur to CEO, while wearing all of the other hats in your life. My name is Kelly Sinclair and I'm a brand and marketing strategist who started a business with two kids under 3, I'm a corporate PR girl turned entrepreneur after I learned the hard way that life is too short to waste doing things that burn you out. On this show, you'll hear inspiring stories from other business owners on their journey, and learn strategies to help you grow a profitable business, while making it all fit into the life that you want. Welcome to Entrepreneur Sschool.

Hey, I am jumping in today with an episode that I literally just have had on my mind, and on my heart for a little while now. So it's totally unscripted other than my quick sticky note points, so that I don't go too far down some random rabbit holes, because I know you don't have time to follow my thoughts down that pathway. And you're already doing we're already doing it's fine. Okay, Kelly, come back to it. You know what I'm keeping that in, we're not getting that out. Because this is how it works. Sometimes you create content, you put yourself out there, you don't necessarily have a plan. And you can be in your own head about, about how it's going to land on people, and what they're going to think if you put out a podcast episode or a video or an Instagram post, or whatever you are doing, and it's not perfect. It's not, you know, seamless, it doesn't have a like pretty bow around it. So what we're going to talk about today is the three things that you're not doing, the three things that you're not doing, and that are keeping you from growing as an entrepreneur from growing your business from expanding into your true, full potential. And I have to say that the first thing is, I mean, it's all fear. But the first thing is not making a commitment. So when you're afraid of trying something new, of going all in on your business of creating a new program, or an offer, or course, or a freebie or anything, you're something's holding you back there, and that's you not being fully committed to actually doing the thing. So what do I mean by that? Like? Where can you actually get that feeling of commitment and be willing to just put yourself out of your comfort zone for the split second that it takes for you to take the action that you need to make a step forward? That commitment comes and we've talked about this tons of times already, from really knowing what your why is, what is it that you are aspiring towards for yourself and for your family, by having this business, or by turning this business idea into a reality for you. I know as a mom. And from what you might know, from my own story, I had my first daughter when I was working in a corporate job. And it was a busy job. It was lots of hours, there was lots of overtime, and I was commuting a lot to get to my job. And I just I don't even know like at the time it felt like oh yeah, this is what I'm supposed to do. I have a job and have a kid and people do it and we can make that happen. But I didn't even notice that poll on myself. And in reflecting back on it now. I now have a business that allows me to walk my kids to school every single day to stop work at two o'clock this afternoon and bake a cake for my husband's birthday. And to be able to take my kids to all their activities like I really don't know how people who don't have business it or don't work from home or just don't work at all, are actually able to navigate having children like It's like school is not every day at school is not all day every day either. And I've pulled my kids out of childcare now to, so having them be able to come home. And I don't have to work, that period of time in the afternoon, like, all of these things, like this is what I wanted. This is the success that I needed to create for myself, it's not about six figure business, or 10k months, or any particular income number that you might have as a goal for yourself. It's about the lifestyle, and your ability to be connected with your family and, and be present and create this business that you have like you can see success parallel in both of those tracks. So commit to it. Because you're the only one who can. I'm thinking of an audio I heard recently from Mel Robbins that was like, nobody's coming. Nobody's coming to get you out of bed in the morning, nobody's coming to make sure that you, you know, take the course finish the course actually make your website, do the sales call create the thing, it's, it's on you. So how are you going to step into that? Because right now, by not being fully committed to this dream on your heart, whatever it is that you do, the way that you serve, the way that you show up with your business that's holding you back. You can't grow if you don't jump in with both feet. And I've hesitated forever to say that because, you know, I acknowledge that there are lots of reasons why you might be hesitating. And they are very good reasons. They might be like security, financial, like your own financial situation in your family. Everybody's got different things. But you know, it doesn't mean you have to quit your job and go start a business and do it without thinking about the implications of that. That's not smart. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that being fully committed to it will allow you to be resourceful enough to figure it out, to figure out how you're going to make it work, how you're going to make it work from the time you need to invest the actions you need to take maybe the financial side of things as well.

So the first thing is to make that commitment, what can you say to yourself right now what can you write down on your sticky note beside you stick it on your wall, on your mirror in the morning, wherever you want to put it about why? Why you're committed to making this happen, at least trying. That's step number one.

Hey, I just want to pop in for a second and chat with you a little bit about content creation, you know, that thing that you know that you're supposed to do in order to get visibility and find clients online? And you know, you're just not finding time to actually do that thing? Because it can be overwhelming to think about? What am I supposed to write? What video should I be sharing? Where am I going to have the time to make all of the beautiful graphics that go along with having a lovely Instagram page, all of the things? Well, I made for you a tool called The Simplified Content System. And inside of this, you're gonna find exactly what I use to be able to plan and create all of my content in an hour a week. So it's a calendar that you can edit, that you can put in what you're doing where for any kind of platforms, whether you're using Instagram, other social medias, whether you're doing email marketing, whether you're on YouTube, all of it can go in one place that links nicely to this beautiful caption document. And I've also created a number of trainings and templates for you to make it even easier to get your content out and into the world so that you can be seen so that you can get clients and so that you still have time to go to all of your kids sports activities. Okay, so you can grab it at entrepreneurschool.ca/content.

The second thing that is getting in your way that you're not doing is actually just launching the thing. So putting it out there into the world. As a marketing and branding person. I've done a lot of launches. I follow a lot of people who teach launch strategy and how to make it happen. And I am a little bit jaded by the way that it's coming across right now that I think much strategists are telling you how complicated It is they're like, Please join my program. And we'll do this 27 step process, and then six months, you'll finally be able to launch your thing. I'm like, No, if I did that every single time I launched something new, I would have launched, maybe a third of the programs, ideas, service packages, digital products, and all the things that I have done. Because of the amount of time I am all about the messy action launch the like, what is the minimum viable product that we need right now? Can we actually talk to a human who might be interested in it and see what that would look like?

How do we craft that offer, and let's put it out there. And if it doesn't work, then we've learned faster, we've learned a lesson that we can take into consideration, we can make tweaks we can try again, like I have been creating a series of digital products, like small just fully, you go do it yourself kind of products, since May. So it's February, now I'm recording this, so that's two plus seven, that nine, nine months, okay, so for nine months, I've created like four version of a full digital product, with training videos and PDF worksheets. And I've created launch plans and sales pages, and I have done advertising and I've sent emails, and I've been on podcast, and I've shared them all over the place, and haven't found the one that's working perfectly yet, which by the way, if you're wondering, if you would like an example of this, please do check out my simplified content system, it is a very good tool that you can use to save time and figure out how to plan out and map out all of your content. And it also includes templates and some prompt ideas for your copy and all that kind of stuff all within my nice little tool. So anyways, if I'd have been if it had taken too long to launch that, like I could have, I could still not have anything. So here's the thing, if you don't want something, if you don't make an offer, people cannot buy it. You cannot make money, if you do not put it up there. It's impossible. You have to tell people, how they can work with you what they can buy from you. And weird pay. That's basically it. So putting your stuff out there and actually launching is such an important part of growing. And you're gonna have to do this on rinse and repeat.

So the second thing in my list of three things you're not doing that are keeping you from growing as you're not launching, you're not launching regularly, consistently or even at all, you may have this idea on the back burner that you've been thinking about for months. And you know, you need to put it out there. Well listen, if you're hearing this right now, now is the time. Okay, I want to hear about I want to hear what you're thinking about doing, what you're planning what your idea is, I want to support you. So reach out to me and let me know. And number three on this list. And I think one of the most important is that and how it comes into play here is that you will have to be willing to fail. So if you're not willing to fail, you're not going to do anything. Because you're too worried that is not going to work. And I'm just going to let's let's skip through this for you, you will fail. It's a requirement, actually, the way that you handle that failure, your resiliency and your ability to get up and try again, dust yourself off. That is what's going to strengthen over time, which is going to allow you to do more things faster, to launch more, to keep putting yourself out there to recommit to yourself and not and not take it. So personally, I think one time I heard a quote something to the effect of like that failure is a verb. It's not a noun. So you cannot be a failure. You can fail. But you cannot be a failure. This is not about you personally. You are not a failure if you fail. In fact, I think you're brave. I think you're courageous, that you are able and inspiring to put yourself out there and be willing to try and be willing to fail, despite what anybody thinks, despite how your mother in law might react to it. Despite your friends, your co workers, your past colleagues. Just being able to step into who you are for thinking about why it matters to you and putting it out there is the bravest thing that you can do and When you're willing to fail, then you try. And then eventually, and I don't know how long that might be, sometimes really quickly, sometimes you're on this journey for years and years. But if you're committed, and you know why, and you do launch, and you put the things out there, and you're willing to fail, and you then you're resilient about it, you will see the success that you want, you will create the financial abundance, the lifestyle, the freedom, the flexibility, all of it, that you can have, as an entrepreneur, in I am here for it. And I want you to know that there is a community of people who are ready to cheer you on, who are doing the same thing. And that's all you just need some people around you like that. Sometimes we can feel so alone in entrepreneurship, if you don't have you know, friends who are running businesses, or if you're not part of groups, that's what our entrepreneur school community is for. We're here to lean on each other and just find some commonality and some understanding and acknowledgement within each other that you know, there's other people who get it, they get it, we get it, I get it. And I'm here for you. So I hope that you take this as a little moment of encouragement for your day. And if you already are thinking of the thing that you know, that you need to do, then this is your side to go and do it.