Put a finder down every time this is your current situation

1. Selling on your stories when you need new clients 
2. Sharing your stories about everything but your business, even though it’s a business page
3. Lower your prices or launch low ticket offers with no plan on how you will scale to $5k months..
4. Putting things off for the right time or after hitting that goal, even though you have a better chance of closing your business than hitting that goal
5. Telling yourself who you think you are for dreaming big goals when you start your business to have big calls
6. Getting all the free resources and trying to piece together a plan for free content
7. Scrolling for inspiration and consuming content as “research.”  

While this can breed shame, I want you to remember that the first step to change is AWARENESS. Every business owner that you know and love has been in the same place as you are. Switching your business comes from knowing why you are stuck and planning to change it.

Further reading: Why you are burnt out in business, why does everyone hate sales , making a sales plan for the month

the growth gaps

In How Successful People Grow, John C Maxwell talks about the 8 growth gaps that hold most people back. Having the idea that there is a gap leading to your lack of growth will help you get out of being stuck and know what action to take.

Assumption Gap – “I assume I’ll grow.”

Compounding effort works both in your favor and against you. What most people assume (and probably why they feel so stuck) is that it just happens. Below, you see a graph that emphasizes improvement.

If you aren’t improving, you are on a steady decline. But it doesn’t happen in a day or two days; this is over time.

The assumption gap is the idea that you will improve without trying to do so.

Your actions are working for you or against you; the idea that you naturally get better neglects the deliberate practice to get there.

Deliberate practice was coined by Ben Hogan, who was a golfer. The idea is that by intentionally and purposefully working towards the goals by breaking them down into more minor things. Instead of gross improvement on the sport, he was piecing it together to define his precision.

Further reading: James clear on deliberate practice

Knowledge Gap – “I don’t know how to grow”

This is more of an excuse than anything else. With 100s of books ranging on 100s of topics, plus the space to be mentored by another person – it’s knowing HOW you want to grow and go.

So, if you can’t afford a mentor? Books give you PLENTATY of options.

On average, the CEO you know and love reads 60 books annually. Over five years, the CEOs who read 60 books each year will have read over 300 books. When asked how Warren Buffer got smarter, he held up stacks of paper and said, “Read 500 pages like this every week. That’s how knowledge builds up, like compound interest.”

Still unsure HOW to grow – pick up a memoir of a CEO you admire and see what comes up.

Timing Gap – “It’s not the right time to begin.”

John Lennon said it best: “Life is what happens when you are busy making plans.” The timing will never be correct, and the idea that later on is better is a trap.

When I started my business, there were plenty of reasons why I could have waited. As a graduate student, I didn’t have time. My moving date was the end of summer; the list goes on.

When you choose the perfect time, you eliminate this mistake. You say, “Now is the best time for me because I wish I would have started sooner.”

Mistake Gap – “I’m afraid of mistakes”

Avoiding mistakes means you are avoiding taking risks. You want things to be right, even perfect. The problem is you will learn what isn’t working as fast as you learn what is working.

Mistakes mean nothing about you and your business. In the same way Thomas Edison found a way to the light bulb, he found 1,000 unsuccessful attempts to create a lightbulb.

Imagine if he kept fear in the forefront and didn’t keep trying after the first mistake.

The perfection Gap – “I must find the BEST way to start.”

Perfectionism procrastination is rooted in expectations you set for yourself that you cannot achieve. The problem is waiting for the BEST way to start, which is the same as waiting for the perfect time.

One of my favorite sayings to my client was that the best time to plant a tree was 50 years ago; the next best time was today.

This means the best way to start is to not worry about it being the perfect time or the best way. The easiest way to overcome that is to start, do it messy, and realize you get better.

Inspiration gap – “I don’t feel like doing it”

You will have times when you would do ANYTHING else but what you should be doing, whether that is sales, marketing, or even just doing life admin.

Earlier this year, I read the motivation myth, and the biggest takeaway that I had was that motivation comes after taking action.

The five-second rule popularized by Mel Robbins’s book called five-second rule is a great place to get out of the frozen state you might be in.

When you don’t feel like doing something, tell yourself you will and then count down from 5. At one – you start taking action towards it.

Comparison Gap – “Others are better than I am.”

Truth is – some people are better. They have had more experience, more time in the same, and more consistency.

The problem is focusing on them and not yourself; that is a recipe for setting yourself up constantly to wonder if you will ever be good enough.

Comparison takes away the magic; it takes away your own unique experience. Focusing on others gives you less space to focus on yourself.

Expectation Gap – “I thought it would be easier than this.”

If I had a nickel for every time I started something and realized that it would take more effort. I would be rich and still familiar with the planning fallacy.

The planning fallacy states that when planning, give yourself 1.5x or even 2x more time than before. I would even argue to give yourself 2x more grace.

The starting is easy compared to figuring out solutions or toughing the hard.

I thought most businesses would be more accessible, and you improve as you grow.

Solving the Seven Signs of Stuck

Having a consistent sales strategy

The online space has consistency twisted into daily. There are plenty of things you would be unable to do every day but could do consistently.

Consistent sales strategies are rooted in a plan and repetition. You don’t have to have something new to say, and you do have to repeat yourself often.

Showing up and selling BEFORE you need the client and continuing to sell even after you are fully booked keeps you from the vicious cycle of only selling when you need clients.

The other side is that you get better at it through the repetition.

Blending personal brand and business content

Gone are the days of being a faceless brand and hoping to sign clients. aka if your profile picture is currently a logo, it might be time to change it.

The other side is that JUST posting personal content and hoping to sign clients. There is a perfect balance between sharing what you want and having content rooted in sales psychology.

Your marketing is designed to attract clients and create awareness around how you help them. Women buy from a relationship (or parasocial in the case of the online space).

Raising prices and signing clients at that new rate

Most of the time, the problem isn’t the price. In fact – it may not be the offer. It’s the belief

You think that people will not buy at this new price. When you don’t believe people will buy, you stop showing up less or selling.

The problem is believing people will pay the price and consistently show up with your marketing and sales.

Beating Procranstination

I have a theory about procrastination that most people don’t talk about. It’s a minimum requirement for what to do daily. What if the procrastination was rooted in being overwhelmed because you have so many things?

It’s easy to overestimate how much you can get done in a day and, in the same breath, ignore how much you can do in a month, week, or year through consistent effort.

Instead of staring down at this long to-do list and trying to adhere to hyperfocus, push through and focus on the daily tasks.

Plan out your weeks and months and see how to use the compound effect to pay off.

Building belief

Your subconscious mind controls 95% of the decisions you make. While you can focus on conscious mindset work, the lasting change comes from your subconscious mindset work. Lasting change comes from changing your beliefs to support your goals.

My favorite way to reprogram my mind – hypnotherapy.

Much like meditation, hypnotherapy allows you to tap into the theta brain wave state to change your subconscious mind. You can do it in your bed, in your home, guided through a live session, or pre-recording.

further reading: Everything you need to know about hypnotherapy

Creating Content

Marketing is one of the giant blocks I see with business owners. At the same time, it’s easy to sit in the creative competition and wait for the perfect post.

You get better at content creation by doing it; you get better by bringing in the repetitions. The deliberate practice comes from doing, in this case, not just hoping for it.

But it can be easier; you can find frameworks and ways to brainstorm ideas and create them. One of the most significant pieces of Scale to $5k is the consistent content marketing and sales strategy.

Custom Made Strategy

You, your business, and your goals are unique to you. While cookie-cutter strategies were all the rage in 2020, you realized you need something customizable.

So how do you do that?

Hire a mentor to help you with that. In Scale to $5k, you complete an extensive onboarding form to uncover your needs and build a plan.

Throughout the program, your onboarding form is front of mind. So, when you attend coaching calls, you get strategies that help you.

Further reading: How Scale to $5k pays for itself, Scale to $5k framework, From pivoting to DFY services + booking out, make money with a small audience

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