Entrepreneurship

As a part of the elevating process, I reflected on when I was at my best, most optimistic, most creative.

For me, it was when I kept sugar intake to a minimum, exercised 4-5 times per week, meditated 10 minutes a day, and had a morning and evening gratitude practice.

That’s it.

So the elevating move today is to simply to go back to what worked the past. 

Don’t add a bunch of things to your schedule all at once, but simply put back into practice things that worked well in the past. 

Then put those things into your calendar. (remember? Schedule your life first)

Don’t recreate. Just go back to what worked and recommit.

While trying to focus on elevating my business, my attention keeps getting snagged by visual distractions. Stuff on my desk, on my computer desktop, on my ipad…so, I decided to do some decluttering.

When thinking about decluttering, my first instinct is to do EVERYTHING. My closets, my jewelry making supplies, the garage, the closet under the stairs.

Hello? Self-sabotage much?

So instead of overwhelming myself and freezing up before I even get started, I simply tackled my desk. I’ve scheduled time over the next few weeks to clean my laptop desktop, my notes app on my ipad, my jewelry supplies and a few other areas of the house.

Each area I declutter allows me to reclaim my focus so I can be more effective in elevating 2023! Share your before and after pictures, and how it makes you feel!

Before and After!

Clearly, I still have some work to do!

Elevating your ideal clients and messaging actually means elevating your clarity about both. This clarity sets the foundation needed to attract high-quality clients without a lot of wasted time and effort.

In the video below, I walk you through EXACTLY the method I used in my own business to get clearer about my ideal client and messaging so I can get better results with less effort.

I strongly urge you to make the time to do this exercise! (this links to a template spreadsheet you can download)

I attended a phenomenal business retreat given by Lisa Crilley-Mallis, and I had a single, concrete objective: develop my proactive lead generation plan for 2023.

But for a day and a half, I was completely frustrated. The numbers wouldn’t gel. And when I finally did figure them out, they didn’t really align with my goals, as I shared in the kickoff blog in this series… and the crying commenced.

But then something unexpected happened.

I suddenly noticed all the garbage I’d been saying to myself:

• Business is slow because you’ve been coasting.
• You haven’t been mentoring your team closely enough: delegation through abdication doesn’t work and you know it!
• You’re such a slacker.
• Why aren’t you exercising?
• You should be doing more.

All these things had been running undetected, like a low hum in the background. So quiet that I didn’t notice, but they were impacting me every single day.

I had to let it all go, and for me, it happened in a flash: it’s like the volume was suddenly turned up to 11 and then went silent as the truth rushed in.

The truth is, I’ve been recovering from being sick for the past year.

The truth is, to fully recover, I needed to cut my hours to 6 hours or less per day. 

The truth is, I had to reserve my energy for healing, even though it meant not exercising.

The truth is, my team has been amazing and kept the business moving as I recovered.

The truth is that I HAVE been coasting. 

And the BIG truth is, I’ve built a business that is so solid that it COULD coast for a year without major repercussions.

There were more tears… but much happier ones. 

Tears of relief and of joy and release and forgiveness.

To truly elevate my business, I first have to fully accept and embrace my starting point, without judgement.

So whether or not you have a “good enough” reason for not accomplishing everything you think you should have, you have got to let it go and forgive yourself. You’re dragging around that baggage and all it does is drain your energy. There is zero return on investment.

Take a minute to identify all the judgement, look it square in the eye, and then let it go.

I set my 2023 goals, then excitedly started crunching numbers to figure out my action plan…

… then promptly burst into tears.

Because no matter how I massaged the numbers, there literally weren’t enough hours in the day to reach my goals.

It’s hard to describe how helpless and hopeless I felt. The sheer panic in the pit of my stomach took my breath away.

Finally, forcing myself to take a deep breath, my thoughts clarified.

The truth is, there aren’t enough hours in the day to reach my goals in the future, if I pursue my goals the way I have in the past.

Was I was going to have to completely reformulate my business? (gulp!)

Luckily the answer came to me quickly and with a rhyme:

Elevate, don’t recreate.

Yes. Yes. YESSSSS.

Because I do not have time to add 3 new networking events to my schedule or triple my referral generation activity. But with planning, I can make small, quality-elevating adjustments so I can reach my goals without working nights and weekends.

Elevate messaging.

Elevate team.

Elevate client care.

Elevate speaking standards.

Elevate mindset.

Stay tuned: I’ll be blogging about the steps I take so you can follow along.