When I went into business for myself, I had a big vision for what I wanted to achieve. I knew how quickly I wanted to grow, how soon I’d be making those 6-figures, and how I’d be showing up in the world as said business owner.
You know what they say about having plans…
What I understand now is that my business, and my evolution as a leader, is my personal development path.
Let me explain…
We can all go through the steps to set up a business, launch the product or service, and draft the marketing language that should, in theory, bring everyone in the door. It’s a literal step-by-step process that, if committed to, can create results. But it doesn’t for everyone, right? Otherwise, we’d all be living the dream.
Having the perfect plan or strategy doesn’t mean we’re going to act on it.
It’s the resistance, the hesitation, the doubt, the fear – all the sticky stuff that shows up as we’re considering each step – that yields the greatest results in our desire to uplevel, if we turn our attention to them.
I have numerous examples of these:
- Why did I take the course, and then the next one, and then the one after that, instead of just building the thing?
- Why did it take me 6 months to put my first client offer out into the world?
- Why did I spend hours looking at my content instead of just beginning to use it in my business?
- Why was I so focused on perfection when any progress would have been welcome?
- And whose permission was I waiting on before finally taking action anyway?!
The short answer to these, and all the other questions: My sh*t came up.
My limiting beliefs, my doubts, and all of my fears. The fear to be seen, the fear to say the wrong thing, the fear I’d mess up, the fear I had no idea what I was actually doing…
As my business launched and then began to grow, each and every one of these stumbling blocks became an opportunity to level up. Every.Single.One.
And if I’ve learned anything in business, it’s in the showing up each day, doing the thing even if it’s not perfect, even if I’m not yet 100% certain it’s the ‘right’ thing to do, that creates momentum.
But it’s doing the deeper inner work alongside, to clear the limitations, that creates transformation.
Far too many of us allow the stumble to keep us down, often unconsciously. We allow it to reinforce all the old beliefs, doubts, and fears, rather than become a catalyst to our next level of growth. Bypassing them doesn’t serve us. It is on the other side of the stumble where our growth lives.
But here’s something we don’t talk about enough:
As we scale our business (or uplevel our leadership), we also scale our patterns.
They become bigger, stronger, and more concretized. That is a recipe to keep us in our place. Sustainable growth with that anchor weighing us down? Good luck. We hit a ceiling, and then we burn ourselves out attempting to push through it.
So what can we do instead?
We start by making a conscious decision: to be intentional about how we address our fears and resulting behavior patterns so they don’t keep us down. Hence, my business – and all its varied roadblocks – has become my roadmap.
Our roadblocks are our roadmap.
Each time we face down a fear, getting to the root of it, we have the opportunity to overcome it. As we overcome it, we accelerate our growth – personally and professionally.
Because business problems are, more often than not, personal problems that show up in the business.
This is the philosophy and the curriculum I’m bringing to The Academy, our 12-month mentorship experience for women entrepreneurs who are ready to scale successfully without the burnout. It’s why we place such a strong emphasis on nervous system wisdom, intuitive clarity, along with the strategy to scale.
✨ Applications for our September cohort are now open. You can check out all the details here. ✨
Join me Live on Instagram This Week
I’ll be going live on @theacedemyforher on Instagram this week 👉🏻 Wednesday, August 6th at noon Pacific Time, to share more on The Academy and how we can help you scale.
I hope you’ll join me then, and let me know if there are specific questions you’d like to see answered during the live.
