Why You’re Not Following Through (and How to Fix It) | 042

Matt, welcome back to the podcast. I'm so glad that you're joining us today. I have a confession to make. I have exercise equipment in my garage. I have a couple different pieces that I really like to use because it works different muscles really works well for my body, and I really

enjoy using these particular pieces of exercise equipment, and they're just in my garage. I only have to walk a few feet, and I can be in my garage working out every day, multiple times a day, if I want to, the equipment is right there, and I know what to do. I know the exercises that I enjoy doing. I

know the ones that make a difference in my body. I know the exercises that will, you know, make me feel better and more healthy, and yet I do not go to my garage every day and use the exercise equipment that's going to make me feel more healthy, that's going to build up my muscles, that's

going to help me build up my stamina so I can walk further and longer and do all the things that I want to do in my life. I know that I should be doing it. I know that the exercise equipment is right there, and yet I don't do it every day. I don't always do it when I plan to do it. I don't always do what

I know I should do, what I know I can do, what will make a difference in my physical body, even though I know that I I know how to do it, and I it's right there. And I find this very often with business owners, when I'm talking to them about what's going on in their business, what are they struggling with? Where

are they stuck? What is holding them back from building the business that they want and the life that they want and make the difference that they want to make in the world? And that is, I know. I already know. I know what I'm supposed to be doing. I know what I should do. In my business, I'm struggling here

because I'm using the word should and supposed to and, and I don't want to make this about a should, because that that's sort of a guilt thing, right? These are things that you know, if you would do them, that it would make a difference in your business, like I know that if I go in my garage and do my

exercises, that that will make a difference in my body. So it's not a should, it's a knowledge and an end and, and what's the word I'm trying to say? It's a an exclamation of this is what will make a difference. So whenever there is something in your business that you know that you can that doing this will

make a difference in your business, or reading this book will make a make a difference in your business, taking that course, working with this coach, hiring this person, getting someone in to fix your books, doing whatever it is that's going on in your business. And you know, you already know that

that will make a difference in your business, and yet you are not doing it. That's the conversation I want to have today, and I want you to know that this is so universal, it is a challenge that human beings have had for hundreds of years. There is a place in the Bible where they talk about, I know

what it is right to do. I know what to do, and yet I'm not doing it, and I don't know why. So know that this is in all areas of life, all areas of business, that we can get in that place where we know what to do, and yet we are not doing it. So I wanted to talk today about a couple of things that we can

do in our business where we know that that's going to make a difference, and how do we get to the place where we can start implementing those things? So the first step that I want to talk about is clarity, getting super duper clear on what it is, what is that change that you want to make when I talk to, you

know, I talked to a business owner recently, and she was saying, you know, I know that I need to be making telephone calls in my business. Telephone calls will make. Difference. So she was very, very clear about what that piece was in her business. Now, other times you'd know, well, I want to make more

money, or I want to have better customer service, or I want people to I want people to come up to me, instead of me having to go to them whatever that thing is. There are sometimes big areas where we we know we want something different, yet we have not gotten crystal, super duper clear about what that

thing is. And in order for us to change it, in order for us to make progress, we really do need to get clear about what that thing is, what is the end, and stop with the generalization. Okay, don't raise your hand if you do this. And I just want you to raise an eyebrow and acknowledge that it's something

that you do where you'll make a to do list, and the to do list says, Create website. I need to work on my website. I need a new website. Well, that is not one thing. A website is dozens of little tasks, but we will put website on our to do list, like it's one thing that has to get done. So that is an example of

something where that's very, very broad and not clear. We know we need a website, but we don't know but, but we're not being clear about exactly what do you want that website to do? What do you want your your clients and customers to experience when they get there? You have to think about, you

know what, what it's going to look like. You need to think about all of the pieces. What's that customer journey on your website? And then you have to break it down even further. You have to write the copy. You have to have it programmed. You have to actually create the website itself. You have to have the

domain name. You have to So look, just goes on and on and on and on when we say really broad things that we want in our business without the clarity of exactly what we're going to do next. So first of all, we need to be clear about exactly what it is we want. And then we need to get clear about exactly what

that is. So I want to make more money is a very broad thing. It's not very clear. And so you need to know, I want to make $100,000 this month, or $100,000 this year. Give it a number, make it clear. Make it something that you can you can measure in a way that you could check, check a box, or fill in a bubble

so that you can, you know, see the progress that you're making, if it has some kind of measurability around it, and that you can measure anything. I can help you with that. If you don't know how to measure things that aren't numbers, I can help you figure out how to measure everything. So you need a

measurable way to say what you want to have. So get really, really clear and make those, make the what you want to have a way to be measurable, make it specific and not broad. And then the next thing that you need to do is you need to put a structure in place if you want to make $100,000

in whatever amount of time, what you need to do is then make a structure on how do you get there, you know, based on your prices, how many of the items do you need to sell? How many you know, how many clients do you need to have? However your your business is structured, you need to figure out how those numbers

are working towards getting your $100,000 so you put a structure in place, and that structure looks like for if you if it's sales, it looks like, how many sales are do you need this week? How many sales do you need today? How many sales do you need in a month? How are you going about getting those sales

actually, you know, as a structure, it can be as simple as a, you know, a three step structure that you can repeat over and over. Structures are really useful because they give you a process that is repeatable. That is the that is one of the powers of having a system and a structure in place,

is that once you figure out what's what works, you keep going back and doing it again and again and again in that same way. So you get really clear, you get structure in place, and then the other piece. Piece that is usually missing with most business owners is the last piece, and that is support

having a business sometimes, if you especially a So, if you're a solopreneur, you're a small business owner, sometimes it feels like you're just out there blowing in the wind, right? It's just everything come or the waves are crashing around you. I'm going to use all the weather metaphors this. Winds are

spinning, and you just feel like you're all alone in a little, little row boat out in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of a hurricane. And that's a really, really lonely place to be, and that is a place where we lose our enthusiasm for for running our business. That's the kind of place where you lose

your joy, where you are like, why am I even doing this? These things aren't working. I am so overwhelmed and frustrated I know what I need to do, and I haven't been able to do it, and I feel like a failure, and I feel embarrassed when I talk to my other business owner friends, when I talk to my family,

because I know that there's things that I need to be doing. There's things that are going to make a difference in my business, and I'm just not doing them, and that is a really lonely place. So what we need when we're in those places is we need support. We need someone to come beside us, to hold our hand

to give us instruction to to get to mentor us. If you have support, you're more likely to get it done. When I lived in New York, my mother in law lived a few blocks away from me, and we both needed to walk every day, and so we made a commitment to one another that we would go walking every day at a certain

time. So even if I didn't feel like getting out of bed, I knew that my mother in law was going to be at my door at a specific time, and I needed to be dressed and ready to go. She knew that I would be waiting for her. So we because we were doing it together, because we had that support, we got up and we walked

every single day, even in the winter, and we made that we got really clear about what we wanted to do. The structure was we were going to do it together, and we supported one another. So it's, I will say this all the time, if it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to build a business,

trying to do it all on your own, is lonely. It's isolating, it's overwhelming, and it will cause your business to stall, because if you as the business owner, are not engaged, if you are not business healthy, if you aren't, if you are completely spent all of the time, because you're doing everything by yourself,

your business will only be as healthy as you are. So you need to get support. Don't do it by yourself. Get an accountability partner. Find somebody that does the same kind of business as you do, and, and, and, you know, swap stories, or maybe if you don't want to do that, because you consider them competition. I

personally don't believe in competition. I believe in collaboration. However, I can understand that you might not want to share secrets with someone who does exactly what you do. So maybe you find another business owner friend who is also growing their business and needs support.

There are mentors out there, there are coaches. There are people that that will come in that you can pay to do the things that you don't want to do in your business, there's all kinds of support. But don't do it alone. Doing it alone, being isolated without a plan and without any structure to get

there is what is keeping you stuck. It will keep you in that place of I know what I need to do. I'm not doing it, and I don't know why. That's how you pull yourself out of that. You have to take action. You have to have clarity, you have to have structure. You have to have support. And when you have those

pieces in place, it is so much easier if I made a commitment with my husband to say, I would like you to join me in our in our garage and exercise with me every day at such and such a time, you know, at 6am and he would be there and I would be there, then I'd be more likely to go out and exercise every

day, because. I made that commitment to him. I got that support. I had somebody with me that was keeping me motivated, keeping me accountable, holding my hand, being a partner. There are a lot of people who are are more collaborative in nature, and we collaborators. We need those people around us. I am a

collaborator. I love bringing people. You know, locking arms with other people towards a common goal is so powerful and it gets us closer to where we want to be. It actually helps us to take the action to have momentum. But you have to put these things in place if you want to get out of that. I know

what I need to do. I know what I should do, and I'm not doing it. And there are a lot of reasons. I haven't really gone into the whys that we get stuck on these things. And maybe I'll do that in another podcast. Let me know if you want to hear that, I just wanted to address, we know it's happening. And here are some

tools. Here are some steps to get out of that rut, to get out of that I know what I should be doing and I'm not doing it. And let's say I know what I should be doing and and I'm clear about what I want to do, and I have a structure, and I have support, and now I'm making progress. Now I'm moving my business forward.

Now I am accomplishing the things that I want to accomplish, that I know are going to make my business better. So those are the steps. Get clarity on it, get really clear about what you want, put some structure in place, and don't try to do it alone. That's one of the things that I love

about how I work with my clients, is that they don't do it alone. We do it together. And I am also one of those people that I like to have someone check my homework. Is what I call it, you know, having my own coaches, having my own mentors, having my own accountability people, helps me to stay on

track. It helps me to get clear. It helps me have the structure and then, and I know I have the support so I'm able to do it. So I hope that this was

beneficial to you. I'd love to hear how these steps are helping you get clear and moving in making progress in your business. And thank you for joining us. As you know, we do have a community. I call it the profit connectors club. It is profit connectors dot, C, l, u, B, it's our website. If you go

to profit connect doors, because you're the ones making the connections. Profit connect doors dot club. You will find all of our you will find links to all the gifts from all of our speakers who have been with us on the profit connections podcast. And you'll have see their bios and how to connect

with them and any gifts that they've given. And in addition, you can find all of my gifts. I know that some of you have heard about the profit growth audit that we have that is free. You can find that on the profit connectors dot club site. You can go in take the audit. It will give you an analysis of

what's working in your business, where you're where what's not working, where are the holes, where are the gaps and the weaknesses in the structure of your business, so that you can be aware of what's what you need to do in your business to move your business forward. And that's the profit growth audit

that's free in the profit the profit connectors dot club site, and thank you so much for being here. I encourage you to keep showing up. Your future self will thank you, and remember it's your business and your impact. Go make it matter you.