The real secret to “success” as an entrepreneur

Tell me if you can relate to this. You feel this constant sense of urgency, like everything has to be done right now. Same. And for the last two months, I’ve been in what I call an internal season in my business. And I’ve talked about this concept in other videos like this one. And it’s really the secret sauce to growing my business, but it feels totally weird as an entrepreneur to do it. And I still have that little voice in my head that says, you have to be doing more. You have to be doing all the things all at once. But I can honestly tell you, it’s the best thing that I’ve done for my business over the years. And I wanted to take you behind the scenes on really what my last two months have looked like, and why these internal seasons are so important to your success as an entrepreneur.

Internal months basically mean that I tune out of social media. I’ve stopped posting on YouTube, and I pretty much say no to everything that isn’t 100% necessary or related to the things that actually make my business grow. I kind of slow down to speed up, pretty much. So I look at things like tweaking processes, auditing and updating our programs, and talking to my team and really auditing our team and our structure to see if we can make it any better.

This is going to sound a little bit weird, but Beyonce is really the reason that I started doing these internal seasons.

She spent eight months preparing for a two-hour performance, eight months for two hours.

And this brings me really to the first point of why these internal months are so important and how I put them in perspective. So eight months for a two-hour performance sounds like a lot, but at the end of the day, that performance will live on in history because it was iconic, and it meant so much. And when I think about my business, yes, I’ve taken the last two months to work behind the scenes. And I’ve spent almost 200 hours working on our programs to make them the best of the best. And it sucked at times because all I wanted to do was the fun stuff in my business like this, like making YouTube videos. But I had to bring myself back and realize that if I want to build something that can stand the test of time and that can truly create a legacy, I can’t rush it, and I can’t do it fast. And there’s a big difference between busy work and just doing things to do things and actually building a business. And building a business requires going behind the scenes and really doing the work when no one’s watching.

The next big thing is prioritizing. Oftentimes it feels like there’s so many things going on at once, but if you just pause for a second, you realize that not everything has to be done in the same day. And you’re actually so much more productive if you just focus on one big task a day. So I always ask myself, does it need to be done right now? Does it need to be done by me? Or can I outsource it? And does it need to be done at all? I find that we add things to our plate just to be busy. So this last question is really important. Can you just get rid of it entirely? Super helpful.

And also understanding what your big priority is in your business. The end of the day, a business isn’t a business if it isn’t generating revenue. And in order for a business to generate revenue, you have to have happy clients and customers. So my clients are always my number one priority. And it doesn’t make sense to create a product, a course, whatever it may be, and focus on marketing before the product is where you want it to be. That’s why I wanted to take a step back from marketing over the last two months, because I wanted to take the time to really focus on this. And knowing exactly what the product is, exactly who it’s for, makes my marketing so much more powerful and effective.

So trying to just grow an audience without knowing why you’re growing an audience is a very strange way to do business. With the pandemic this year, it’s been a really big opportunity to practice boundaries. And over these last couple of months, I’ve really had to focus on them because I work from home, and I have for a long time, it’s very easy for me to just work all day, every day.

So I practice boundaries in the sense that I was making sure that I wasn’t solely just working all day, every day. I was actually focusing on the things that made a difference. And I was saying no to absolutely everything else and became the queen of no, which I think is so important to say yes to the things that really do matter to you.

A strange thing happens when you become an entrepreneur. Everybody wants to be their own boss because they want freedom, but then you feel this need to be doing everything, and it takes away all of your freedom. So I had to come to the realization that social media is not the boss of me, and nothing else is the boss of me. I’m the boss of me. So if I don’t set boundaries and give myself permission to take a pause, no one else is going to.

Next, there really is no balance. And I’ve known this for a long time, but I feel like I’ve really started to practice it in the last year, particularly the three marriages in your life, which I learned from a really great book called The three Marriages, are work, relationship and yourself. By the way, this is our next book club pick so if you want to be a part of that, there’s a link below to join my secret group and be part of our next book club.

But it’s a constant ebb and flow. And sometimes you’re going to be at the forefront, sometimes your relationships are going to be at the forefront, and sometimes your work is going to be at the forefront. And it’s important to surround yourself with people who get that and support you in it.

Be honest. What is it like to deal with me when I go into these internal months?

I mean, for the most part, I actually don’t have to deal with you that much because you’re working so much. But then there’s waves of emotions that come. And I think I’ve learned the best thing for me to do is just stay clear and make sure that you’re happy.

And that’s why you’re the best. The best.

I got married not too long ago. I talked about the fact that I made 40K on my wedding day, and you can check that video out. But when I was getting married, that was really my main focus. And my work was still running, but I just wasn’t focused on it every single day. And these last two months, work took priority. And I’m really grateful to have a husband who totally supports that and gets it and was able to be there for me through the process.

And I think that’s the next thing I wanted to mention is being stubborn about your goal, but flexible about the process. There were days when I had plans to get so much more done, and I just couldn’t because I was tired, and it was mentally exhausting. So I gave myself the permission to rest when I needed to rest. And then when I had moments where I felt more momentum, I would capitalize on it, and I would get to work.

I’m going to be really honest. I realized that that sense of urgency and wanting to do all the things, all the time, wasn’t really coming from a healthy place. It came from ego. It came from scarcity, and it came from a total lack of self worth. And I felt like, okay, if I’m busier, then maybe I’ll be more worthy of success.

The irony is when I was working all of the time, I was actually the least successful in my own definition of it. My revenue was significantly lower. My level of peace and happiness was also really, really low. And so taking these times to take a step back, pause, and really audit what you have going on, and if it’s all necessary for you to be doing, is so important to being more powerful, more focused, more abundant at the end of the day, because when you don’t stop, it makes you vulnerable to poor decisions and poor choices for your own health and your own sanity.

And I may have stopped posting on YouTube, but the beauty of this platform, and why I love it so much, is that it continued to grow, so welcome if you’re new here, and it continued to work for my business when I wasn’t working. And that’s why I always come back to YouTube, and why it’s my favorite.

And this whole video really stemmed from this comment that I got on Instagram recently, because I’ve been talking about this concept on Instagram. And I got a comment that said, look, I get where this is coming from, but I appreciate the grind. The hustle from 9:00 PM to 2:00 AM. Yes, it’s exhausting. Yes, it’s draining, but it’s a must for me. The math just doesn’t work out for most who work eight to nine hours, commute two hours, sleep seven, eight hours and have a family. You expect to blow up a personal brand with two hours a day? Serious question.

And my response was this, everyone’s different, and of course there is an ebb and flow. Some periods of time are going to require more work, some require more rest. You have to listen to your body and not blindly hustle with little return. As far as blowing up a personal brand in two hours a day, it’s more than doable. It depends on your definition of blow up. Generating a lot of revenue doesn’t require a constant grind. It requires focused intention and structure with true scalability baked in.

And I see my clients achieve this all the time, going from constantly pushing content to working a few hours a day and generating more revenue than ever before, because it’s intentional and strategic. If you want a ton of followers, and that’s how you define blowing up a brand, then yes, it takes more effort. That’s not my end game. I focus on my priorities of elevating income, impact and authority with a focused strategy so I can have a business that works when I’m not.

Because my true definition of success is peace, because being at peace makes me happy and doesn’t make me feel like I have to prove anything to anybody. So of course, it depends on what your definition of success is. And I think that’s really important to define early on so you don’t work yourself into the ground. And honestly, if it’s good enough for Beyonce, it’s good enough for me.

Are you with me?