What to do when your business feels slow?

The past week has been transformational for me in many ways.

My brain has been connecting the dots from different sources, firing sparks non-stop, and giving me so many ah-ha moments.

I know for sure that this week will be a week to be remembered in the future for sure.

Okay, Shruthi…can you please get to the point??

Yes, yes, of course!

Last week, I registered for my friend Hayden’s 2-day workshop, Hot Audience HQ. And as soon as I registered, she sent a recording of one of her previous workshops.

The 1.5-hour video transformed into almost 3 to 4 hours of listening, taking notes, and journaling experience for me.

Blowing my mind.

Later we spent about 2 hours each day in a container, asking ourselves deep questions, strategizing, fixing the gaps, and more. I felt the good kind of dead-tired and brain-fucked because of so many neurons firing in my brain.

I thought it would be stoooooopid of me not to share the main lessons with you guys. Hope it helps!

Most important points to note:

1. You attract people similar to you

Are you desperate and have low self-esteem? You attract those kinds of people.

Are you terrified of investing in yourself? You attract people who think 100 times before investing in your service.

Are you not ready to go deeper into your business and resolve the frictions & gaps?

You get the point.

Coaching is an energy-intensive business, where the energy transition is crucial to building trust with your audience and clients. So personifying your ideal client becomes the first step.

I was aware of this before, but I never realized it. The sessions made me see the patterns in the kinds of clients I attracted through the months, depending on my mental state at that point. It was a massive breakthrough for me.

Exercise:

Make 2 columns. On one side, jot down all the points of who your ideal client is. I’m not talking about the niche here but the psychographics of the person.

And on the other, do an audit of whether you practice what you expect from others. I can assure you than 90% of you will have some gaps there. Start working on it.

Ask yourself whether you embody the same before leading someone through a similar transformation.

2. Do you face friction with your content, experiments, niche, or more?

It’s easy to get stuck in our comfort zone, even if we hate it.

I’m sure you know of at least a couple of folks who hate their jobs and crib about it constantly but will do nothing to come out of it.

Are you doing something similar in your business?

Are you bringing your whole self into everything you do, or do you finish tasks just for the sake of it? (example: producing content)

Do you ruthlessly prioritize and remove tasks that don’t serve you in your business? If not, then things need to change.

You shifted from corporate to entrepreneurship to be yourself and to pursue your dream. Not to get boxed up into stupid rules again, right?

Exercise:

Make a note of all your day-to-day tasks. Are any of them making you procrastinate or uncomfortable? Why? What can you do today to change the circumstance?

I added ooommpphh to this exercise by replicating the wheel of life to my business. Instead of adding all aspects of my life, I added all of my business to give me a mega-clarity.

If you don’t know about the wheel of life, check here.

3. What do you do when your business feels slow?

First, Hayden asked us to do a litmus test.

How do you feel about the business being slow? If you feel frustrated, desperate, or emotional, then it’s a mindset problem. If you feel neutral, then it’s a strategy problem.

It was a mindset problem for me, so I had to spend all of last week in some of the most intense journaling sessions of the year.

Priority is to, of course, work on your mindset first. Then jump into strategy. Tap into your fears, desperations, and what’s holding you back.

For example, if there are financial concerns, do a complete report on your savings, budget, expenses, and more. When things aren’t on paper, we often get too much in our heads. Having a solid number in front of us helps.

Once you start processing and diving deeper, you can start taking action.

Exercise:

Do the litmus test. Put all your fears on paper, and see how deep they are. Why are they affecting you at all? Journal on it. Worse case, please seek the help of a coach/therapist/mentor.

4. What do you mean by strategy, Shruthi?

Great question!

Below are some of the things I do (and plan to do). You can take some or leave some, depending on your comfort. Remember not to get stuck in one of the below steps. See the big picture, and keep moving the cogs in the wheel.

• I amp up and refine my services, client experience, and more. Taking feedback from my existing clients helps.

• Management tasks: Solidifying the onboarding process, refining the website if required, setting up automations to make my life better, and more.

• See gaps and frictions in my content. Work on it (either in terms of strategy or internal work)

• I choose one task I’m super uncomfortable with and do it anyway. This time, it’s videos and giving workshops.

• I set time aside to learn how to coach better. Because when someone comes along, I want to give them the best experience.

• Experiment, experiment, and experiment more! With new offers, conversations, content, branding, and more. Remember, there’s nothing with changing and pivoting if required, but it needs to be you. I take note of what works and what doesn’t. Then refine it again.

I’m not giving a deep-dive strategy because there’s…none

You need to create your own in a way that fits your needs. And see what works.

Your business is an extension of you. Always. All the time.

Stop putting yourself in boxes. Bring your creativity out and slash all the friction inside!

If you want to dive deeper into specific topics, feel free to reply to this email! I respond 113% of the time!

Until next week,Shruthi

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