The Question that Keeps You Stuck

I recently taught a teleclass that focused on tracking activity so that business owners could get clear on exactly how to spend their limited time and resources. The key to the process was to reflect on past positive results and uncover the specific actions that led to those repeated successes.

When I asked the participants to share the patterns of success they discovered, I got a variety of responses. Networking, phone calls, social media and more. As I expected, what worked for each business owner was a little different – unique to their skills, preferences, and industries.

Then one participant asked a question. She asked, “I can see that networking really worked in the past, but can you give me some ideas for what else I could be doing?”

Perfect. Can you see what she said here? She identified what worked, but instead of thinking, “WOW, cool, I’m going to do more of what is working,” she asked what I hear all the time – the question that keeps you stuck, frantic and overwhelmed – “What else?”

Always asking “what else” keeps us looking for the next quick fix, distracted by bright shiny objects, and susceptible to slick new marketing schemes. It keeps us from doing the things that will get us to our goals simply and easily.

So what is the smart alternative? Evaluate your business to discover what is working, then do more of that. If you do this, you will likely find that 70-90% of your business comes from one or two specific activities. If you want to double your business, all you need to do is to double those activities that are already producing the results you want. Simple.

Simple, and also effective. In my own business, and in my clients businesses, taking a hard line on this perspective has led to doubling and tripling our incomes. Don’t let the simplicity fool you, folks, this is the real deal!