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September 1st, 2015
Your business already has exactly what it needs to succeed
2015 has been a year of change and possibility in my business, and in the past few weeks I’ve been a little more quiet online. I’ve posted less, stepped back from social media as I’ve savored the last days of summer and been at work planning the rest of the year.
I’ve also been celebrating. Last week I completed my Quiet Power Strategy™ licensing work, which makes me a business strategist! I’ve been working, but also getting out to experience life exactly as it is right now. I’ve also reflected on the work I’ve put in to build my new work as someone who helps bloggers and small business owners.
I started this year by leaving my previous business and finishing work with my final my website design clients. Ending that service was a big mental shift for me. It was how I started working for myself and in the last months that I offered it, it earned me $26,000 USD. After working so hard to build that business, leaving the certainty that money represented was tough.
I loved working with small business owners, but I was thoroughly burned out on web design. I was ready to have stability, to make things easy for a while so my husband and I could start our family.
I also wasn’t ready to settle.
Not for a business I sort of look forward to when I wake up to in the morning.
Not for work that kind of created I wanted my life to look like.
The sort of‘s and just for now’s that whisper to you are different from mine, but I don’t think you should settle for them either.
(POOF! We just time traveled to 2011 to the site of a related story. Congratulations on being magic, please try to use your powers for good once you’re done shoplifting.)
When I started working with clients who ran six figure businesses, I think I spent 90% of my energy in those meetings trying not to look so shocked. I would ask questions about their how they ran their businesses and got these amazing results and as I learned about how they prioritized their time… well, I would have to focus on making sure that my face maintained the same expression, because I actually wanted to:
a) Slide underneath the table and hide for a minute
b) Jump back up and flip the table for dramatic effect
c) Take 3/4 of the what I was doing off my to-do list and get to work that would lead to results.
I had always thought that people who ran successful, profitable businesses must have a huge team, live in fancy places or have a big secret on their side. It didn’t sit well with me when I found out that they just made different choices than I did.
They had small, scrappy teams, didn’t waste time and focused completely on taking relentlessly taking action. They measured their results (boy did they ever measure their results!), then adjusted their tactics and they won. They would over deliver in a few specific areas and completely ignore other things. They engaged, leveraged and transformed normal opportunities into speaking engagements, book deals and newsletter lists of 500,000+ people.
I took notes, started stepping up and my business started to change in serious ways.
No matter how big your business is, you have two choices every day: You can do what‘s kind of worked before and tell yourself it’s just for now, or you can make something amazing and different happen.
A sort of and just for now mentality will eat away your future if you let them.
Today I’d urge you to take a look at the choices you have as a business owner or a blogger. What decisions have you been making from a sort of dedicated place? What are you doing that’s just for now? What are you doing because you think you’re supposed to?
Most importantly, are you willing to consider that your business could already have exactly what it needs to succeed? What would you change if you knew your choices were all that stood between you and this big other life?
I think the status quo had better hold onto it’s hat.
Well, this is just great! he,he. Kyla you are someone I really look up to and you are so right in all your points. I applaud your guts to not just be ok with your life.
Thanks for messing with my head, no I mean inspiring me.
I love how truth isn’t always a nice or easy thing to hear but you can’t un-hear it. I think your honesty is truth spoken in love and there is nothing more powerful than that.
Again, what a great post and congratulations on your great news.
Kellie from Princess and the Yard Ape
Aw, Kellie – you just made my week. Thank you for this! One of the things that I don’t think we talk about much in general is that it’s really scary to have big dreams! But knowing that you & I and the other community members are in it together makes it feel a lot more manageable. Ultimately, seeing that we’re all already in a position to make more of our opportunities and do more with what we have is hugely freeing. We can start dialing up our focus today and see results! I’m excited to do that alongside you :)
Kyla, you are definitely an awe inspiring woman! This truly makes me think about my own direction and where I am headed. I am just starting out in my business and I feel with your pearls of wisdom here, I can truly focus on what matters most! Thank you for the inspiration!
Thanks for commenting, Melissa. I love that this helped you get some clarity and feel inspired. The best thing you can do with that is put it into action in your business! I hope my blog keeps on fueling that feeling.
Good for you, Kyla. This is a great new direction for you. I’m continually inspired by your awesomeness.
Thanks Caelan, I really appreciate that! And the feeling is mutual – that you get so much done with kids is a superpower. Teach the rest of us mere mortals your ways! #pioneernationforlife
I’m in the process of establishing goals for the next six months, and this is just what I needed to read! I’ve been puttering along, doing what sorta works, which has gotten good, but not great, results. Guess it’s time to start being ruthless in cutting out the chaff and focusing on results. Thanks!
I love that you’re getting clear on your goals, Kathleen. That’s such a fun process – or at least it is for organization geeks like me! I like to keep the 80/20 rule in mind – you generally get 80% of your results from what you put 20% of your time into. In my work, I’m always on the look out for what those essential things are, and how I can throw other things out to focus on them. We’ll get there!