Follow This Blueprint If You’re Feeling Stuck in Business

Megan Yelaney:

Welcome back to Business Not As Usual. Lucky you, you are getting my sexy Phoebe-sounding from Friends raspy voice, ’cause you’re the first person I’m talking to out loud this morning. So lucky you. I was contemplating, I’m like, should I record this later? I’m like, I kind of like this. I kind of like the raspy sound. And I’m sure halfway through it will, it’ll wake up a little bit, but I just, I really— I love it. I’m excited to talk about this topic because this is something that, this is gonna be probably, and I hope, I hope it’s one of these episodes that you really can bookmark for those times that you are just feeling the entrepreneur lows. Because we all know it is a fricking rollercoaster. It really is. It’s just every single week, either myself or my clients will share these anecdotes and we’ll just talk through like, wow, look how much has changed, right? Like I’ll have a client who has one week where Everything’s falling apart. I want to quit my business. The next week, oh my gosh, I just had five new high-ticket clients sign. I just had my best launch. I can’t believe the numbers I’m bringing in. Look at what’s in my bank account. It’s just it’s hysterical. Like when I really think about the ride that entrepreneurship can be, and you know my goal with my clients, with you, with myself, of course, is to expect that ride but not make it so jarring to your nervous system. So you have that sustainability and predictability in. Some way, right? You know you’re going to be good. You know money’s coming in. And even though there’s going to be ups and downs, it’s not this like franticness, right? That’s where we’re at. That’s where we’ve been at. And that’s my goal, is really to help as many people get there as possible, because the ups and the downs is inevitable. That’s just kind of what you signed up for. And just to start it off real bluntly, if, if you are not okay with that, or if you can’t learn to be okay with that, it’s gonna be a really tough ride. It’s gonna be a tough ride regardless, but if it’s something you don’t expect from here on out, I’m telling you, if you can start to expect it and go, okay, here we go, it’s the ride, you will enjoy the ride so much more. Even during the downs, you can like almost laugh about it and be like, okay, great. So like a tech issue happens, something goes wrong, something doesn’t go as planned. You’re like, there we go. There’s that down. There’s that entrepreneur rollercoaster. Because what you’re doing in, if you think about it, you literally are creating something out of nothing. You took an idea, you took something you’re good at, and you said, hey, I’m gonna package this, I’m gonna put it in an offer, and I’m gonna sell it to strangers on the internet. It’s kind of wild. Like, I really do, like, once a month or so, sometimes more, I try to, I like sit down and I think of that. I actually like think those words in my head. I’m like, wow. I look around. I look at my home, I look where we live right now, I look at what we’re able to do with our boys and how much we’re able to be with them and just the life we’ve built. And I’m like, this was literally built from an idea. Like, I don’t have a product. Even if I had a product, that’s built from an idea too. That’s freaking awesome. Like, it’s all awesome, right? It’s crazy. It’s so crazy when I really think about what entrepreneurship can do for you. And when I think about the amount of times I have felt stuck in my business, Oh my gosh, the limit does not exist. I have felt stuck so many times, and I think one of the things that people who have had success in entrepreneurship don’t talk about enough is that they continue to feel stuck throughout the success. Just because they’ve had success does not mean they do not feel stuck. They just know how to get through it, and they expect it. Again, they know that’s just part of the ride. Like, every time I’m on this, like, precipice of a next jump or jump financially or just jump in like how I’m thinking or what I’m doing or the structure of my business, something feels stuck because that’s the whole point of feeling stuck. You’re supposed to in order to go, hmm, okay, something maybe isn’t working here. I need to figure it out to work through. And it forces you, it forces you to make change. I mean, the biggest one I went through was my postpartum. Identity crisis. Boy, did I feel stuck more than I’ve ever felt stuck in my business. And I couldn’t just push through like I’ve done in the past. That kind of gets me through that stuck feeling. I had to change stuff. That stuckness stayed stuck until I actually changed things because that’s what I was meant to do. Now, your stuckness might be just a season. It might just be a week. Maybe you’re in your luteal phase, cuz literally feel stuck every single luteal phase. So if that’s it, do not fret. It’s just your luteal phase. We all know how that feels. But seriously, don’t make, don’t make any decisions or, um, or any big decisions during that time. But it’s, it’s either, it could either be a temporary, like, okay, this is just like a season. This is just like social media’s changing, or, you know, I’m just feeling some type of way, or I’m going through something in my personal life. That’s different than like, oh wow, this is like not ending stuck feeling. And I do think I need to make some differences. I do think I need to make some changes and, and switch things up and really like one of the telltale signs with that is if you show up to work and every single time you do, you dread it. You’re like, this is not why I left my 9 to 5. Or if you’re still in your 9 to 5, this is not why I am trying to leave. And you, you just can’t stand what you’re doing. You’re like, if this is it, if this is the freedom of entrepreneurship, I don’t want it. That’s the sign. That’s the sign that like, maybe, maybe we need to reevaluate things because Your business isn’t— I’m quoting an old mentor’s mentor— your business is not meant to entertain you, but you shouldn’t hate it at all. You shouldn’t like not want to coach your clients ever. You shouldn’t not want to show up to create content. You shouldn’t not— if you like hate every aspect of your business and everything drains you, we need to question that. That is— that’s not— that’s not not being entertained. That’s like, what? What? We need to like some of what we’re doing here, right? And so That is the sign. That is a very big sign that you need to change something. And that’s literally how I felt postpartum. I was like, I hate everything. Not my clients, loved, always loved my people, but I hated what I was talking about. Honestly, I didn’t love what I was coaching most of them on. I was like, oh gosh, this just feels like blech. I don’t wanna talk about this anymore if I have to say this one more time. And it’s funny because like when I think about what I’m doing today, it’s not that like Some of the stuff that I, I coach clients on, there’s overlap, like content, for example. Content’s always gonna be something that, like, probably always gonna be something that I’m talking to clients about, but it’s in such a different way from diff— a different angle because I lead with finding your distinctive edge. So we’re talking about content from that perspective. That distinction makes it enjoyable for me. I love talking about it. I love helping clients with it. Whereas before, previous, that wasn’t. the hardcore lens I was looking at it from. I naturally did that, especially with my high-ticket clients. So that was enjoyable. But all my others, like there wasn’t that process to take them through as solidly as I have now. And it just was like content for content’s sake. And there it was, it was confusing. And there were things about social media that were changing so rapidly that we were like, what’s even happening? I don’t even know what’s working anymore. And I felt like I was outta the game. So I also a little bit felt like an imposter, whereas now I’m so in the game. I’m watching what’s happening. I’m keeping up with the changes I’m seeing, and I’m able to like jump in and show people where things are switching in real time, which feels really good to be like in it with my people, you know? So all that being said, I promise I’m not gonna be tangenty. I wrote out a few things that I wanna talk through so that I’m not super tangenty, but there are really 4. I wanted it to be 3 because 3 is just like that nice number, but there’s 4. So we’re gonna say 4. There’s 4 things that I think really keep entrepreneurs perpetually stuck and And again, you’re gonna be stuck. It’s a normal feeling. It’s a normal feeling. So when it happens, go, boop, here we go. Meg said this is gonna happen. This is the entrepreneur rollercoaster. I’m expecting it. Great. Let me work through this. So these are the 4 things, and then I’m gonna give you an exercise that’s so simple at the end to work through it that has really helped me. Okay, so number 1, one reason I think people feel so stuck today especially is we have way too many inputs. We are watching way too many people give way too much advice and we go, what do I do? Do I start a YouTube channel? Do I start a Substack? Do I do my SEO? Do I go ham on trial reels? And the thing is, you can literally do all of that, but you can’t do all of it at once, right? It’s like, unless you have unlimited money and funds and unlimited time or team to invest in, it’s hard to do all of that at once. And Even all of those things, let’s say trial reels, for example, you will see one Instagram expert tell you one thing and another, another tell you another. And guess what? Both of those pieces of advice, even though they might be different, both will work for different people. Man, that’s frustrating, right? I was that typical student. I don’t— I shouldn’t say typical. I don’t know if this is typical. I was a very Type A student. I liked memorizing the facts for the test. I liked going A plus B equals C and then getting a good grade because I did my homework or I studied. I like to have a formula. I like to know what I’m doing is gonna lead to this result. This was the biggest thing I had to unlearn with entrepreneurship because man, just following a process that’s tried and true doesn’t always work exactly how we want it to, right? Sometimes it works out even better. Sometimes it works out worse than we want it to, but that there are so many paths to success and that’s why it can be so hard is there’s too much information nowadays. And it’s gonna make me sound very like, back in my day, but back in my day when I was starting in, gosh, um, 2000— I’m gonna say 2017, because even though I technically had my first business and I signed up the end of 2011, which is so wild to think, oh my gosh, that was so long ago, I really don’t feel like I got my entrepreneurship like bug until I started this this, um, second and then third business. So let’s just say even 2017, about, about 10 years, 9 or 10 years back then, even though there were many things that were way easier, like there wasn’t as many people, AI wasn’t a thing. Yes, that all made you stand out so much quicker, so much easier for sure. 100%. And there was way less advice, way less people knew what they were doing and could say, hey, here’s my tried and true business map. Take it and run. There wasn’t as much of that, and that’s also why when you had it, you got you stood out more because there wasn’t as much of that, of course. So for business coaches, it was great in that sense, but there wasn’t like I had to figure out so much of what I what worked. I had to just trial and error, and I had to really like stop and ask myself and trust my gut and my intuition and go, hmm, does this feel good? Does this feel like this is actually going to work? Is this something that I could do over and over again? Is this a a task? Or a weekly, daily, monthly thing that I can commit to. For example, back in my network marketing days, I would— I was encouraged to, and I was a good student, so I listened. I would cold DM, and you know, it worked for a while. And even when it worked, I hated it so much. There are people today in 2026 who have entire programs, business programs, and a huge part of that teaches that tactic still, cold DMing. And I know this because I’ve had clients come to my program literally in the last year tell me this, and it Flabbergasts me, but to each his own, because it does work. It totally can. It’s a numbers game. You’re eventually going to find someone who will answer you and who will sign up. And if that’s how I have to build my business, I don’t want a business. It’s not worth it. It’s not the freedom. I would hate doing the task every day. I would literally hate what I had to do to build my business. That’s not freedom to me. Unless you get to a point and then you finally could stop. Okay, I guess so. But can you finally stop? Or you hire someone else to do it? I don’t know. All I know is there are many other ways to see success besides cold DMing. I have done it. My clients have done it. You don’t need to do it. So that’s an example, right? Like, that’s— someone will give you their, their step-by-step and go, hey, this is exactly how you should do it, and it will feel wrong. And so I did not carry that tactic over, that strategy over to my business today. And so I had to trust and I had to discern what is right for me and what is not. And something I’ll just, this is like kind of a tangent aside. One of the best things you can do for marketing in particular is really study any kind of psychology. Like get psychology books, consumer behavior books, why people buy what they buy, podcasts, YouTube videos. Learn about the human psyche, learn about buying patterns and what makes people tick and How they buy socially, logically, emotionally. Like, study that stuff more than any Instagram hack or tactic or anything like that. If you can learn about people, that’s going to help you 10 times more with your marketing. You’re going to start to learn what you should say to turn your people on, to get them to pay attention. So that’s just like an aside. We have a buyer psychology lesson in my program as like a bonus. And I’m like gonna beef it up and make it even a really big part because it’s just such a huge part of really good messaging is actually talking to the human and understanding who they are. And you have to understand who they are to talk to them in that way, right? I want you to even think about the stuff that you’ve consumed or you felt really called to, or you’ve been like, oh gosh, I can’t not watch this. Why? What did it tug on you? And so when you are scrolling and you’re doing your thing, Instead of just scrolling mindlessly, like just take a little bit more of a conscious scroll and say, is there, what about this is firing me up or getting me upset or getting me motivated or making me, they’re making me feel an emotion that’s making me watch or listen or read. Why? What emotion? What are they tugging on? How are they doing it? If you start to just really get conscious with that, scrolling can be so educational and you’re gonna learn a lot and you’re gonna be able to replicate some of that in your own, obviously from your own lens. But that’s just like an aside. So that is number one. One reason people feel stuck is they’re getting just so much information from so many different people. And so again, back in the day when I didn’t have that, I had to just trial and error a lot of stuff and figure it out and fall on my face and go, wow, that didn’t work. Okay, we’re gonna try something else. Okay, that didn’t work. Okay, we’re gonna try something else. Oh, okay, that felt kind of good. That worked a little bit. Like this part of it worked. Let’s go dive into that. The other stuff didn’t, but this little piece did. Okay, let’s go try this more. Okay, let’s amp this up. Like literally that’s what I did. And this goes to my second point. The other reason people feel stuck is they expect to have results faster and easier because of what people share in their highlight reels. When I started my business, my second business, or really let’s say my third, because it was this coaching business. My second was technically a pretty short stint in health coaching for like 6 to 9 months. But my entrepreneur, or my first entrepreneur endeavor was in Beachbody. And my— not endeavor, my— it’s very— it was very successful. I don’t know why I’m saying endeavor. I signed up the end of 2011. I had my first, I think, $30K year in 2013 maybe. And then— no, maybe— yeah. And then maybe it’s ’14. Was 50 or so, it started to get real. And I was like, oh crap, this is like a real income. This is cool. And then, and then it hit 6 figures. So it started to really catapult. But from 2011 to 2013, I made like, like no money, like very little money. I’m talking very little money. Like it paid for my product and a couple other things. It was so slow going for 2 years. I was like, this is crazy. This is never going to replace an income. Like what? What? And then it was like, oh, okay. I could see, I could see some stuff moving. And I remember, I think it was, I did reshare it. I’m going to bring it up actually really quick because it was such a good fricking reel. Let me bring this up. Chris Harder posted something that I reshared. I don’t reshare a ton of entrepreneur stuff. I reshare like funny things, but this was so good. It says employee income, $3K, $3K, $3K, $3K. It’s like across the board, $3K. Freelancer income, $1K, $2K, $3K, $3K, $4K, $4K, $5K, $7K, $8K. Business owner, negative $20K, negative $40K, zero, zero, zero, $10K, $30K, $100K, $1 million. That could not be more accurate. Like the first few years I was like, I am Spending more on this business than I am making. A hundred percent. I am spending so much more than I am making. What am I doing? I’m doing something wrong. But the thing is, I’m not. That’s business. That’s entrepreneurship. I have a couple stats for you because I was like, I have to. I have to take to chat and ask about some business stats because I know, and I think because I saw that business take a good chunk of time to have success when I started my business coaching business, I came at it with the same like, all right, this is going to take some time, but not as long because I figured some. stuff out before because I had been in business for so many years that I, I was like, oh, I already know a lot of what not to do and what to do. But it took me so long. Right. And so it’s funny whenever people like thought back in the day when I had a lot of growth relatively fast in the business coaching space, I, I had like 6 years of business experience before that. Almost of it, I would say without success. So yeah, it wasn’t overnight at all. And so I didn’t expect it to be. And I think that was such a— it’s such a gift that I was given. Honestly, I’m like so grateful for that. And I’m an actor, and I was a professional actor. So I also came at the same time from a career that I, for a living, every day I was told no. Every day with acting, you’ll go on 100 auditions and maybe get one. That’s That’s just how it is. And I think I booked like 4 gigs this one year and it was crazy. It was so cool. It was like, oh, my friends were like, oh my gosh, you’re gonna get the Equity insurance, the Actors Union insurance. This is amazing, guys. I went on 4 or 5 auditions a day at one point in the city. So to book 4 gigs for the year, yes, awesome, great. But the amount of auditions I went on to get those 4 gigs was wild, wild. And I think that set me up for a lot of like business success because I didn’t expect things to come so quickly. And our expectations just really make such a difference in how successful we are. It doesn’t mean you give up or you go, oh, I’m gonna take my foot off the gas. No, quite the opposite. You just don’t get like as upset or, or bogged down or like defeated. You’re like, oh, this is literally part of the process, right? So some quick fun stats. 80%, roughly 80% of new business establishments make it, make it through their first year. So the often repeated most businesses immediately fail is actually really exaggerated, which I thought was a really cool stat because in, in this like second point about expecting to have easier results, I was like, I don’t want you to go, oh, I’m gonna scare you and give you all these like scary stats. I wanna show you how possible it is to have success. I do, because that’s my goal. I want you to keep going. I want you to get through the stuckness, but I also want you to understand some of the truth of it. Only about half are still operating 5 years later. That’s the biggest thing. So 80% get through their first year. Half are still there 5 years later. That’s the biggest thing is, are you, you the first? I think the reason most last the first year is you’re still excited, even if you’re like in the negative, which most are. I definitely was and not making money at all and just like, oh my gosh, this is crazy. You’re still in that excited learning phase, right? So you stick with it. But after 5 years, you’re like, all right, let’s like, should I get off the pot? What are we doing here? You know what I mean? So totally, totally understand that. But again, at 5 years, you’re kind of like, we’re out here deciding something isn’t working, right? We’re like, all right, what’s going on? And so the another stat that I thought was interesting, the biggest drop-off happens early. So historically, it says roughly 79% survive to year 2, around 68% survive to year 3, and then gradually start to decline. So that’s really interesting. So staying, it’s kind of like staying in the game long enough to get good at what you’re doing. This makes sense. Uh, one, one really good example that I’m gonna share is I was working with a funnel expert a few years ago, wonderful man, and it was during a recession. And I remember him saying, if you stick through this part, you are going to come out the other side. More successful than a lot of people because so many coaches quit their businesses during these times. Every time we have a recession, every time a ton of businesses quit because they get nervous, they don’t want to spend money, they don’t want to invest, they pull back. And so their business starts to decline and then they freak out and it’s like a, you know, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy in that sense. And then they quit. So the people who don’t quit, who stick it out, who are able to figure it out, even if they feel like they’re barely surviving, They make it out the other side and then there’s less people to compete with and you get more business. And I did experience that every single time I’ve experienced that. So he was very accurate with that. And so that’s like, you, you will have that advantage if you stick through these hard times. It’s so hard, but this is gonna get me to my, my, my how to, like an exercise to work through it in a second. Um, let me see if there’s any other fun stats I wanted to share with you. I think that was mainly it. Uh, ooh, this is a fun, interesting psychological one. 49% of people who saw entrepreneurial opportunities said fear of failure would stop them from starting a business in 2024, and that was up from 44%. I thought that was really interesting. Um, so this is like, I’m gonna move to the next point, but I just really, this is like the crux. This point is the most important one because if you see, you only see the highlight reel on social media. You see people making money fast and they share about that. But they might say, I made 6 figures in 6 months. But are they telling you the years before that they made nothing? Right? So you start thinking, okay, I’ve been talking about this offer for 3 weeks. Why isn’t it selling? I have posted so freaking consistently for 2 months. Why haven’t I grown? Like, I launched this 6 months ago. Shouldn’t I have so much more success by now? Or I’ve been in business for 3 years. Like, why have I not figured this out? And When we look at the 5-year stat, right? If you, if you compare yourself to that, we’re talking about a game where like making it to year 5 puts you roughly among half of the business owners. I don’t want you to have to wait till year 5 to have success. I don’t. But I just want you to like think about it in that perspective. And so a little like thing to end this with is maybe instead of telling yourself you’re stuck, You might just be in the middle of something that, yeah, like that’s the normal amount of time it takes. But again, Instagram and the highlight reels that we all share convince you the normal was like 6 months. You’re supposed to have as fast success as I have, but they’re not giving you the context. They’re not actually giving you the behind the scenes, right? So I, one stat I’ll share often is I 5x’d my income in 2019. I literally went from like $200-ish thousand the year before, which is an amazing income, to $744,000 in one year. Wild. Insane. Like, crazy, crazy. Actually, it was less than $200,000. I’m forgetting what the exact number was now, but it was, it was a 5-time number. But that was 2018 or 2019 to 2020. Now, I started my business, my first business, in 2011. So like, That’s a lot of time before of trials and errors and ups and downs and such fails and years making nothing, years making negative money. Right. And so every time I would share that, I would try to share the context behind it because sure, did I 5 times my income in one year? Yeah. After so many years of failures, of negative, of being in the red, of barely making any money, of making decent money, of making, okay, I’m finally able to like drop this one side gig. Like this shit takes so much longer than I think people are willing to give it. And it can be worth it if you start to enjoy the process a little bit more. Okay, number 3, because I wanted this to be a short one, but you know, this is just how— what happens when I get passionate about something. The 3rd thing that’s keeping you stuck is— it’s kind of similar to number 2 with expecting your results to be easier and faster— is comparison. Is, you know, seeing someone share what’s working for them, and maybe you started a program with them and you’re like, why are they having all the success and I’m not? I’m in the same program, I’m going through the same process, all this stuff. Again, You don’t know their context. You don’t know what’s happening behind the scenes. You don’t know a leg up that they’ve had. And also every industry is different. Some are just gonna be easier to break through in. Some niches are just gonna be easier to have success in. It doesn’t mean you should pick the easier one if it’s not something you’re genuinely passionate about, right? But that’s just the truth of it. And so if we compare, it’s really just such a, it’s truly the thief of joy. As corny as that quote is, it’s, it’s not corny. It’s true. I was having a conversation with a friend a couple months ago. And on the outside I was like, oh my gosh, she is crushing it. She’s crushing it. And I DM’d her and we were chatting and she was telling me the same, which was very sweet. And she was like, man, it has been so hard for me. Like, business is down. This is what’s happening. She was very vulnerable and we were having a, a really good chat about it. And I told her, I was like, I’m honestly shocked. Like, I, it seems like things are going so great. And not from a, like, I didn’t say it in a way that’s like, you’re lying. ‘Cause she would, she never lied ever. Not about numbers, nothing. It was just like the energy, you know what I mean? And I made a reel about it recently. I was like, people want you to think they’re doing much better than they are. Of course we do. I’ve put that vibe out. Of course you’re not gonna be like, hey, we’re struggling over here, hire me. Like no one’s gonna do that. So it’s so easy to look at someone having success and be like, oh my gosh, everything’s perfect. Life is great. Life’s wonderful. So every time I start to get that comparison, this is gonna sound really negative. I probably shouldn’t share this, but whatever, I’m going to. I don’t know, whatever works, right? Every time I see someone share something and I get into that like, oh man, why don’t I have this? Now I would, I will say before I share the negative part, the majority of the time I’m genuinely happy for people. I don’t tend to get into this jealous comparison. Like I really don’t after this many years. Like I just know we’re all so different and we all, we all can win and having a distinctive edge is such a way to do that. And it’s like my process has literally proven that. So I think I just am so baked in it that I don’t really get into this energy anymore. But occasionally I do because I’m a human, right? I’m gonna compare myself occasionally. And whenever I do, I literally go, there’s probably some stuff, hard stuff going on in their life. Like there’s probably some context here. There’s probably some things that they’re not sharing. That is happening or things that they did to get there that maybe I’m not willing to do, or that they’re just not being transparent about. And, you know, again, some might say that’s so negative of you, Megan. Yeah, I guess it is, but it’s also just like realistic. It’s actually just the truth. Everyone is going through stuff. And so it’s rare I fall into those comparison traps, but when I do, I remind myself of that because I did it. My, like, best— it was in 2020, and I’m, like, riding high, having all these $100K cash months. Oh my gosh, life is amazing. I was— my marriage was literally falling apart. I was separated from my husband. I didn’t know if we were going to stay together. The world was ending, but we all were in that together, so that wasn’t a me thing, right? But, like, I was going through one of the hardest— the hardest thing I ever dealt with in my life at the time, ever, behind the scenes, while front-facing. I felt like Such this whiplash every day. I would be posting and sharing all these great things and then literally crying between client calls, like absolutely breaking down. So I, when I have that like, oh, what’s going on behind the scenes? Because I did it myself. Like we don’t owe our audience every detail of our life. And I, I don’t, I wouldn’t change anything about that time. Like I think I wasn’t ready and he wasn’t ready to share. And you know, even if we never shared that, that would’ve been fine too. I just was like, I know I am meant to share this story with other people. And so because I know that. I have to. But all that to be said, if you are finding yourself like scroll doom scrolling and then getting into this comparison, do the best you can to either limit that habit of scrolling. And what else can you do to replace that? Like really exploring and finding out intuitively what you wanna do. You are an entrepreneur. I believe every entrepreneur is an entrepreneur for a reason. They’re given this gift and it comes from within. So the more you can ask yourself and get in tune with your own intuition, Go on walks, get outside in nature, get off of social media, ask yourself what you wanna talk about, study your client, get curious about your person. That is gonna be the best thing for your business versus let me go scroll and see what hook I should, I should use so that I can recreate it. And all of a sudden it’s 20, 30 minutes later and I’m in a rabbit hole and I’m looking at all these other people in my industry and I’m like, oh my gosh, why am I not having success? I just came on here to get a hook. What is happening? Right? We’ve all been there. I want you to remind yourself of this note about comparison. And then last, like, strategy one before I give you my, um, piece of like my really, really simple, my really, really simple piece of advice that you’re gonna laugh at is I want you to try, as hard as it is, especially in the first few years, try not to be everything to everyone. And it looks like so basic niche advice, but I want you to do your best to get specific with who you’re helping. And it doesn’t mean I help postpartum moms at 3 months reduce blah, blah. No, I’m not saying you have to get that niche and specific. If you do and can and you want to, amazing, awesome. I’m talking in like, what makes them tick? What do they think about when they wake up in the morning? What do they think about when they go to sleep? What like gives them anxiety during the day? What’s constantly running loop on their, in their mind? What are their day-to-day, every single moment thoughts? Get to know your person. Have a name for your person, like someone that you can give an avatar. And again, there could be some specifics with their life, but start with their emotional being. Who are they? What are they thinking? What are they feeling throughout the day? What are those moments that they’re going through? That’s who I want you to really get specific with. Now, your content can be more multifaceted. Yes, you still wanna mainly talk to that person, like 75% of the time, yes. But if we’re talking like Instagram specific, it’s changed a ton and people wanna know who you are. It’s why it’s actually very exciting for me in my process because my process is literally like, who are you? And we create your business from that. And so social media’s moving that way and I’m like, oh, thank you. This makes, this makes, this makes it even better. Like you’re gonna get even more success with my method cuz a huge part is like, let’s share who you are and what’s unique about you and yeah, let’s Be a little bit self-indulgent. So content is getting multifaceted, meaning like sharing, like I’ve been sharing some things that are just about my twin mom life that have nothing to do with business. I’m not relating it back to business. I’m just sharing. That’s connecting me with people. That’s bringing in new people and they’re gonna come and see my page and go, oh, okay, I’m also a business owner, or I’m interested. Let me go follow her. Right? And so content can be multifaceted. The large majority is still directed towards business owners, but I’m still sharing those other aspects of my life and that’s bringing in more people, but When I’m talking about my offers, I am not trying to help every single business owner out there with every single thing. I am helping you find your main message and become known for that, and then use that as a jumping off point for your business success. I am not going, hey, I’m gonna help you with your funnel. Hey, I’m gonna help you with your launch. Hey, I’m gonna help you with your, um, email marketing campaign. Hey, I’m gonna help you with your YouTube strategy. Now, do I have some of that stuff baked in with guest experts and like continuation programs and upgrades? Yes, but my front-facing is I’m gonna help you find the message that you’re gonna be known for. That’s it. Period end. That’s it. No ends, no buts, no and oh, and also this, and then this too, and then da da da da. No, that’s literally it, and that’s been it for a year and a half, and that’s why I have built my business back up to where it is. It’s because I am not trying to be everything to everyone, and let me tell you, it is hard sometimes when you’re like, oh, but I can help you with this and this. I do when they’re behind the scenes afterwards. I help them with the up— after they continue, I help them with the upgrade when they go to the next offer. Because it’s not only like marketing-wise so much clearer for people to— you to stand out because you’re known for this one thing, but also it’s less overwhelming for the client when you throw so much at your client. Like you have to learn this and this and this and this and this, and it’s so many different types of things. Like it’s already when someone comes in my program, there’s a lot that goes into getting your main message locked in. So if then I was also like, and we’re going to learn a whole huge Launch System. Now I do have a light launch process in the program, but I’m not giving them an entire launch course. That would be so overwhelming. No one would be able to go through it in the time that they’re in the program at all. I’d have to make it a year-long program, which I’ve had year-long programs, nothing wrong with those, but it’s just, it’s for certain buyers, right? Certain buyers at certain points in the process. Usually it’s higher level. It’s when people have been with me and they’re ready to commit for that longer time period. But for my initial more mainstay program, I knew that’s not what I wanted again. And so trying— you— this is one reason people get so stuck is they’re trying to be everything to everyone. And so I really want— this kind of goes to the, the exercise that I want you to do. If you have clients that you’re working with that you love, I want you to write down your, your top 3, the people that you’re like, if I could literally clone them, I would be so happy. They’re amazing. I love them. I like how they show up. I like how they are so coachable. Whatever the reason, write down their names next to them. Next to that, in the next column, write down why they specifically hired you. What about you? Ask them if you don’t know. And the next column, why did they sign up? And don’t answer because they were stuck. Because they were stuck with what? What specifically? Why did they give you their hard-earned money to actually help them? What was the specific problem? Get really nitty-gritty here. It’s gonna be so helpful for marketing. Then the next column, what was the breakthrough that they had with you? Like, what was there? An exercise, a tool, a resource, a call, some type of like philosophy or concept that you did with them that something clicked and things took off. What was that? And then what was the result? The column where things took off and the tool that, a resource or concept or process you used, that’s the one I want you to lean into and see if there’s overlap with these 3. Now, if you have 5. Great. Do 5 clients. See if there’s overlap with those 5. That’s gonna be such a key. I did this and that’s when I realized, oh wow, I really like helping people figure out what they wanna be known for. That’s, that’s what’s actually getting my clients all these insane results. That’s like, that’s the domino. When they get that locked in, content’s easier, launching is easier, selling is easier. Everything is like boom, boom, boom. Everything falls into place. And here I’ve been selling, launching and selling and content, but that’s not actually what I do. That’s the aftermath. That’s easy. Anyone can teach you that. Anyone can teach you that stuff. This is the domino. This is the thing that really tips it over. Once you get this down, everything becomes easier. Oh my gosh, that’s what I do. That’s what I love doing. That’s what I naturally gravitate towards. That’s what I could talk about all day. Amazing. That’s what you should focus on. So If you have those clients, do that exercise. If you don’t, ask yourself, what topic would you talk about all the time? If someone said you can talk about this on a podcast for an hour, what would you want to talk about? Or at an event, what gets you excited? What lights you up? What, like, can you not shut up about, right? And then I want you to find a way to talk about it daily, ideally publicly, ideally on your stories or in your posts or in your emails or in your podcast or to a friend. But we forget to do the things in business that we actually enjoy and that are fun. And something I try to do every day, I really do my best to, to do this most days, is I ask myself, what am I looking forward to in my business today? And what am I looking forward to in my life? So what am I looking forward to that I get to do in my business? So today I actually, this is like my off-call week and I love my clients. I hope you know that. But I love these weeks because I get to just like do a lot of CEO fun creative stuff. So today I love writing my, my newsletter. I love doing my podcast, so I’m already doing it. Starting the day off. I’m gonna do a workout after this. I mean, we’re starting the week off right. But I love writing my newsletter. I’m gonna go to a coffee shop. I’m gonna enjoy the juiciness of that. It’s gonna be so fun. And then I’m gonna have an afternoon with my boys and I’m gonna maybe brave taking them to the playground by myself. Oh my gosh, I’m crazy. And I’m really looking forward to it. Like I really am looking forward to that time because I’m gonna be at a coffee shop. The babysitter’s here, so I’m not gonna see them the first half of the day. And I miss them. So I get excited to wake them up from their nap and have an afternoon with them. So I’m looking forward to that. I’m looking forward to cooking this one meal that I have ready to cook. So like these little things, right? But for my business, I’m really excited to write my newsletter, really pumped to do that, um, because I get to talk about things that light me up. So I want you to do that every day. It doesn’t have to be an hour-long thing. My newsletter takes me about an hour, sometimes a little bit longer. It could be something that takes you 5, 10 minutes, but every day do something that is related to the topic that lights you up, and then go talk about it. Start to get comfortable talking about it, whether again, it’s voiceover, it’s face to camera, it doesn’t matter. Just get used to talking about it because at, even if it’s not like perfect, you don’t have the right hook, who cares? Just start putting yourself out there and just get the reps in because you’re gonna just be excited talking about it. And that excitement really does resonate. People feel your energy so much more than a perfect hook, I promise you. I’ve had clients not pay attention to that stuff and then take off because you can feel it. And people are like, oh my gosh, I’m gravitated towards this. And the words they’re saying are still really— they know their person, so they don’t have the perfect hook in. They’re still paying attention. Now, do I think hooks are important? Yes. Unfortunately, we have to really spend a lot of time on them, and you figure that stuff out as you get yourself out there. I would rather you just get yourself out there. Okay, I hope this helps. This, I know there was lots of tangents here. This was like longer than I planned it to be, but I wanted to go off on some things here. I really hope this is an episode you can bookmark and just keep coming back to. And I’m sure I’ll put this as an ad in the, in the, um, episode, but if you have not, download, opt into my Main Character Energy podcast because it really helps you with number 4. It really helps you figure out what you wanna be known for so you’re not trying to be everything to everyone, and that helps you get unstuck. I’ve had so many people tell me, that this private podcast has really helped them with that specifically. So go to magnolini.com/main-character-energy. We’ll put it, the link in the show notes as well. Um, listen to that. I think it’s gonna be really helpful and bookmark this. I hope this helped. Let me know if it did, and I will see you in the next one.