Truth Time! I’m Totally Stuck In My Business [Ep #161]

Today, I’m going to talk about the total truth of you about how stuck I am in my business and how I’m not showing up. Stay tuned.

Hey guys! It’s Andrea here. I’ve just dropped off my girls at daycare, and I’m going to do a quick impromptu podcast episode while I’m driving home. Because today is a bit of a struggle mentally and I’m doing a lot of reflection on my business. And I’m very much aware that I’m not showing up to my business the way that I should. I’m listening to an online business summit right now which I mentioned in the last podcast. And of course, there is always somebody talking about productivity, somebody was talking about how to improve your time, how to show up to your business better. If you don’t show up, then basically you are just trying to make this work. Or one person even compared running an online business and if you’re not actually running it then you’re just essentially unemployed. Which I laughed at, but it’s very true. And I thought it was important for me to share when things aren’t going great and it doesn’t always have to be me inspiring you or provoking you to make a change. I thought it would be really important for you to also hear that even at multi-six figures and even post-pandemic I am not showing up to my business. 

I know that I’m not. But the difference is, that I’m not coming up with excuses and I’m not reaching out to my mentors saying ‘how do I do this, how do I be more productive’. Because I know how to be more productive. I know that I should not be watching RuPaul’s Drag Race every night, which I absolutely adore. That was a show choice out of desperation because I had watched everything else over the shutdown. And there’s a lot of elements to RuPaul’s Drag Race that I love. I love that these people are total black sheep of their family. That these people are changing their identity from straight to outwardly gay. To not only outwardly gay but also cross-dressing and dressing up in drag. And on the very first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, they were complaining about how harsh the critics were and that they felt that there was a lot of negativity. And RuPaul blatantly told them ‘look, we can say whatever we want to, to you. If it’s bothering you, it’s because you have lost who you are as a drag queen. And anything that we say shouldn’t even matter. And if it does matter to you, then you aren’t fully in alignment with who you are, who you want to be, and how you want to show up in the world’. And yes, RuPaul’s Drag Race is inspirational to me, and you can always find inspirational moments. But ultimately, what I love about it is RuPaul shows up unwavering, she says whatever she wants to and she’s made her career on that. And I think that’s where the struggle is coming for me.

I’m deciding what camp I want to be in, where do I want to set up my flag and say ‘this is what I’m going to be about, this is who I am, this is the language I want to speak’. And a lot of this is coming from being a woman for sure.  And I am in no way a true feminist, I would always label myself as an equalist and I just want to have equal rights. Like whatever men can do, I should be able to do. But a lot of that is me owning it. And I have never been the type of person to look at my environment and say ‘well, I have two kids and therefore I don’t have the time or I just can’t get up early enough in the morning or why do I need to be hustling so hard or why need to be working so hard’. And the struggle is real guys, it doesn’t go away. The bigger things get, the more things you want to do. The bigger your aspirations are the more work that falls on your shoulder. And right now, I’m really struggling. And I feel stuck, and I want my business to grow but at the same time, I don’t want to put in a ton of effort to help it grow. And I have to take full responsibility for that, and I’m figuring out my messaging and what I want to stand for. And even if I do figure it out, if I don’t show up and tell the world what my message is and show up the way that I want to. That’s also on me. And so this is the kind of issue that I’m having today.

And again, this is more just like a journal diary than it is a big fancy podcast episode. But I’m sure you guys understand where I’m coming from. And there’s a part of me that is really enjoying taking this time off. And feeling like the regular people. Right? As supposed to these entrepreneurial people that can’t shut it off, that we live and breathe our business that we are constantly putting ourselves out there. It does get exhausting. And I think that was the biggest thing that I realized during the shutdown. That I was working so hard, and hustling so hard and certainly seeing the benefits of it. But I was feeling so pulled in many different directions and so distracted that I just needed to have a break. And I take again full responsibility for my choice to watch RuPaul instead of getting my video snippets edited for my team. Or watching RuPaul instead of learning and implementing the online program that I’m paying for. But it doesn’t help my business. Right? I really loved what one of the speakers said at the online summit where she said ‘look, the difference between someone who’s broke and “unemployed” and someone who has a successful business is implementation’. And even my mentor Brandon Lucero has the same thing. His business is growing quickly because he’s taking action. He’s not thinking about it, he’s not waiting, he’s putting things out there. He’s using the data to make his decisions as to what content people want more of and moving on from that point. And I’m stalling! And when we stall nothing gets done. We collect no data, every time we think about things and continue to think and continue ruminating or writing it in our journal but we don’t actually take action on anything. 

Then you’re again, feeling productive, feeling creative but if you’re not putting it out there then it doesn’t really amount to anything. And so, at this moment I’m really thinking about how to restructure my week, how to restructure my team, how to restructure our air table so that people are getting things done in a timely manner. How to restructure the way that the podcast goes out and gets promoted, how to restructure how we’re posting things on social media. I’m really reframing all of that because I firmly believe just like Alex Charfen says ‘the process sets you free’. And if you have a good process going, then it takes away a lot of the thinking; a lot of the remembering, a lot of the ‘oh wait! I have to get this done’ or ‘yeah that’s on my to-do list and it’s been on my to-do list forever’. When you have those systems in place, it makes everybody know what is at stake and what needs to get done and how quickly it needs to get done. So that’s the action steps that I’m planning on taking over the next couple of days. It’s just hunkering down to see what all the projects that are going on. Thinking and planning out all of the steps that I need to take effect and getting my team on board. And so, for a lot of you, you are still a team of one. And you’re struggling. I am a team of five, and I’m struggling. So again, the buck always will start and stop with us and it’s our job when we are feeling unmotivated when we are feeling like we’re not showing up to our business. 

When we are feeling stuck or stifled or just kind of in limbo it’s still– whether we have a team or not– starts and stops with us. And I have to take full responsibility for how I’m not showing up, how long it’s taking me to get things turned around, it’s all on me still. And so, I could use my team and leverage my team but it still is me executing and delegating the things that I need help on and commanding the things that I need to be doing more of. So if you are also struggling, I just want to hear it! I want to know that I’m not alone in this, I know that I’m not. But I want to hear from you guys. Is this something that you’re also struggling with? Especially post-shutdown. Where are the struggles most coming from? Reach out to me please, send me a direct message @andreamaximnd and then we can start a conversation and maybe I will be inspired by what you’re doing, you can be inspired at what I’m doing. And this episode is certainly not a cry for help, but just a bit of transparency as to what’s going on in the background. Because outwardly, people think that I’m hustling all the time. And those things are working all the time, and that’s because we have some really great systems in place. But is it where I wanted to be? No. are we working at full capacity? Absolutely not. And the revenues and the engagement and all of that is 100% apparent. Because we’re just not functioning well, I’m not showing up well, I’m not showing up to my business the way I need to be. And I’m not going to figure this out on my own either. I’m going to be talking to all of my mentors and asking for help, asking for clarity. And getting those wake-up calls that I need and figuring out what those fully systems are and trying to work through them as quickly as I can. 

So I certainly am not going to be figuring out all of this all on my own in isolation just by writing things down on paper. I’m always using my resources as much as I possibly can. So if you are still a person of one, and you don’t have those people to reach out to. Please reach out to me. I would love to have an entire conversation with you, over DM or maybe we even hop on a Zoom call and just hash all of this out. And if you want a Zoom call, just book in the game plan call, and the link is in the show notes. It’s also on the website https://maximizedbusiness.ca/ But just knows that the longer you’re in business it does not get easier, the more money you make, it does not get easier. The faster you grow, it does not get easier. More and more things tend to shut down very quickly. And that’s where you need to constantly be making sure that you have a solid group of mentors that are where you want to be. And you reach out to them all the time. And I would love to be that person for you.

So ultimately, thank you for the kind of listening to my journal entry today and hopefully, it inspires you to maybe show up to your business in a better way or at the very least gives you solace to know that even I struggle with those things regardless of where you are in your business journey. And I really look forward to hearing from you as you listen to this podcast. And reach out to me again on Instagram @andreamaximnd or book in a call with me. And we can kind of have a little chat over coffee and get to know what’s going on in each other’s businesses. And hopefully, hold each other accountable in a different way. I’m Andrea Maxim and I’m out.

You guys are killer. Thank you as always for listening to the Profitable Practice Podcast. Leave me a comment, and if you have it already, I would love a review on iTunes. Definitely subscribe to this podcast and leave me a quick review! For those ready to maximize your practice, contact me at https://maximizedbusiness.ca/