Solosode: 9 Ways to Get Unstuck in Your Business

I have had 4 clients in the last week and a half tell me that they feel stuck. They stated that they feel unmotivated, misaligned, and/or feel like they can't take that next step for some unknown reason. I have helped each of them find their own pathway out of the mud, and back on track for their business, and that's what I hope to do for you today too! Episode 120 of the Moments with an MEO podcast is about getting unstuck and back on track with your business.

In this episode I discuss how I get unstuck and my favorite ways to figure things out. I also explain, with examples, 9 ways to get unstuck and why you may be feeling stuck right now.

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Transcript

Britt  0:00  
Sometimes I'm just standing outside seems kind of silly, but I will just go into my backyard and just stand out there. Maybe I'll play with the dogs, or all grabbed my Kindle and I'll read out there, but it's really just about being. Now you can take that next step and exercise outside, you can go for a walk, you can go for a hike, you can go for a run. Exercising is definitely another way that I enjoy getting unstuck.

Welcome back to another solo episode. I'm your host, Brett with the moments with an MBO podcast. And I am so excited that you're here. There are many reasons why you might be feeling stuck in your business. And I'll be honest, the reason I came up with the idea of this unexpected podcast episode is because I had for clients in the last week and a half, reach out to me, because they feel stuck. Either they feel unmotivated, or they feel some sort of imposter syndrome that's holding them back. They don't like the direction that their business is going. And they're not sure why. Or because they just don't know what the heck to do. They just don't know what's going on. And so if you're feeling stuck, the first thing is to identify why you feel stuck. What is going on that is making you feel stuck. There's a couple different things, I just expressed it, a couple of them, it could be a mindset issue. Either you feel stuck, because you're unmotivated. And you feel like motivation is the only thing keeping your business going. It might be impostor syndrome, that you just feel like who am I to do this? Who would pay me to do this big thing that I'm working on. It could also be a fear of failure, or even a fear of success. It could be that you genuinely don't like the direction that your business is going. And this is an opportunities versus distraction conversation that we can have in another episode, it might be a pressure, maybe you're putting pressure on yourself, or maybe the timeline that you have constructed is not realistic. And that pressure of trying to achieve the an achievable, is causing you to have anxiety and to feel stuck in your business. It could also be you aren't making enough money to justify what you're doing. And so this feeling of being stuck in the mud with your business is actually just that you're not being paid your worth. And you need to raise your prices. There are many reasons why you might be feeling stuck. But if you are today's episode will hopefully enlighten you in ways that you can get unstuck and back on the road to success, whatever success looks like to you. So I'm going to start by talking about the ways that I personally like to get unstuck when I feel stuck, because we all have been there. And if you're a new entrepreneur, I want you to be rest assured that it doesn't matter how many years and entrepreneurship you are, you get stuck sometimes. And that's okay, you just have to get out. So when I feel stuck, I like to do roughly these five things. And it just depends on my mood. It depends on what I'm stuck on. It depends on a whole bunch of factors. But this is what I love to do. Number one, get outside. I love the sunshine. And so whether that is just doing something called grounding, where I'm outside barefoot on the grass, or on the gravel here in Arizona, and I'm just putting my feet on the earth. Sounds a little woowoo but I promise it works and I don't know why it works. But just having your feet on the ground or just feeling the sunrays on your face or across your shoulders, warming up your skin. It just feels so good. And that vitamin D. Your body needs that for energy for your complexion for lots of things, but it needs it to just be happy to. So make sure that you're getting outside. Sometimes I'm just standing outside seems kind of silly, but I will just go into my backyard and just stand out there. Maybe I'll play with the dogs or I'll grab my Kindle and I'll read out there but it's really just about being now you can take that next step and exercise outside you can go for a walk you can go for a hike, you can go for a run. Exercising is definitely another way that I enjoy getting unstuck, I like to go to the gym. So my number two would be, of course, moving your body, right being physically active. And this doesn't have to be a high pressure high cardio workout, it doesn't have to be lifting weights and you know, hitting PRs,

it can just simply be, I'm just going to go for a walk, I'm just going to go outside for 20 minutes, and I'll be back after I do like a half mile or a mile walk, right? Number three, is I love to work on something different. If I'm getting stuck on something, and I just need a break, I will just go do something else. There's plenty of things that I can do. That's not the one thing I'm stuck on. And so whether that is cleaning up my emails, whether that is doing a project for another client, all right, number four is take a break. I love to read books right now I'm really into somebody's books. So if you've got any good romance novels, send them my way. But I love to just give my mind a break, go do something fun. When was the last time that you let fun and creativeness into your life for the sole purpose of just having fun. Now, this is going to be a future episode. Because inviting FUN into your business and into your life is so vital to avoiding burnout or pod fade or whatever profession you're in. It's just so good for you to have fun and to play. And I think as adults, we get into this mindset of we're an adult, we don't have imagination anymore, we don't play or if we do it's with our toddler, or if we do it with our kids. And yes, that's good. But we also need to play just for us not to serve somebody else not to do something for somebody else. Sometimes we just need to play for us too. And number five, ask for help. I love calling up my dad who's an entrepreneur, or calling up a friend or talking to somebody else, whether they're an entrepreneur or not. Sometimes just talking to somebody getting their viewpoint on it can just change your perspective. Even if they're not going to have anything helpful to add to the conversation, they might say something they might ask you a question, they might look at it from a different lens than you have. And that can significantly help you get unstuck. Other ways that you can get unstuck, you can sit in the stuck, try saying that 10 times fast, you can sit in the stuck. And what I mean by that is you can ask yourself, Why am I feeling stuck, sometimes just acknowledging that you feel stuck instead of just trying to power through it like, I'm just imagining, I'm from Vermont, there's a lot of mud. And I'm just imagining like a four wheeler getting stuck in the mud. But when you hit the accelerator, all that's happening is you're getting further down into this mud pit. And the mud is spewing out the back. You're getting covered in mud, but you're not actually going anywhere. You're just burning gas. You don't need to be burning gas. Sometimes it's good to just say, You know what, I'm stuck. Now, why am I stuck, and sometimes just identifying that can fix the problem. The next thing you can do is ask yourself 20 Questions about whatever it is that you're stuck on? What are 20 questions that you have about the project? Or the product that you're working on right now? What are just 20 questions? What do you want to know about it? What don't you know about it? Asking yourself 20 Questions means you get past, you know, the who, what, where, when, and you just get to the like, what do I genuinely need to know? Do I need to know how to do XYZ? Is it that I just don't know how to put the pieces together? And so I'm feeling stuck because I'm feeling apprehensive? Because I don't have the education that I need. Great. Can

I get that education? Do I need to sign up for a course? Do I need to just find a YouTube video on this? Can I be resourceful? Can I reach out to a friend who might know the answers? How are you going to get the answers to these 20 questions and usually that can help you as well. Number three is lose your fear. You can lose your fear of failure, right like oh man, this is just gonna bomb like no one's gonna sign up for this. Why am I even working on it? I'm so intimidated that nobody's going to buy this what if I spend all this time and energy on this and it doesn't work out? Or the fear of success? What if 45 People want to do this and I can't I can't possibly give everybody what they need. What if I can't I can't sign up myself that much time or that many items is going to take me forever and I'm never gonna get through it. What is Is that fear? And then just get past it, ditch the fear? And say, Okay, if this happens, what will I do? I love doing this exercise with clients and one on ones because they'll come to me and be like, Brett like, I'm scared, like, what if I'm pregnant? Or what if we do you get married? Or what if we do PCs? Or what if he does go to the wire? What if she does have to, you know, have another deployment next month? Like, what am I going to do? And my favorite thing to ask is, yeah, what are you going to do? Have you written that out? If you're going to get pregnant? Have you written out the email to your clients saying that? Hey, guys, guess what I'm pregnant? Which means my maternity leave, is this in that? Have you figured out what maternity leave looks like for you as an entrepreneur? Have you identified the programs or the products or the services that you're going to discontinue for a bit while you get used to motherhood, or while you acclimate to that third addition to your family? If you're going to be going through a deployment? Do you understand? Do you have a plan for how you're going to break that down, if not create that plan, create the templated emails, create a Google form of what ifs, and every time you have a whatever, just go in there, and fill in the blanks. Because here's the thing, when you have a plan, it's no longer scary, because you know what to do, it's no longer a what if it's a if this happens, I I know what we're doing. Number four is exercise. We kind of already talked about that. So I'm just gonna say it briefly. But it is important, just exercise. Number five is get support. Again, we talked about that. But reach out to a friend reach out to a colleague reach out to another entrepreneur, reached out to someone who's been in a totally different space for many, many years, and just see if they have a different perspective for you, or hire a coach, hello. Let's sit down in a one on one and go over this together, because I bet we can get you unstuck. Number six is a huge one. Go back to your priorities. This is really opportunity versus distraction. Go back to your mission statement, go back to your brand values and ask yourself, Is this actually an opportunity? Or is this a distraction, and it's truly just pulling me away from my mission. If it's a distraction, girl, get rid of it. But if it is an opportunity, then there might be a different reason why you're feeling stuck. But a lot of times my clients come to me and say, Brett, I'm feeling really stuck, like just doesn't seem right. And I can't get past this feeling. And we'd go down this rabbit hole and figure out that it's actually a distraction, has nothing to do with their mission has nothing to do with where they want to be in five years. And they'd just be wasting their time. And it's their subconscious telling them that. Number seven is do market research, go back to the drawing board, if you will, and actually look at what does your ideal client want? What do they need? And is this whatever it is that you're working on? Or maybe you're feeling stuck because you have no idea what to work on? Maybe you're like, Man, I got no idea what to do. This would be a great thing to go do is to go back to the drawing board and ask your audience questions. Ask them what they need, ask them what they already have, ask them who else they're following. Ask them for their biggest pain points, ask them for their biggest challenges, ask them for what it is that they have done. That took too long, because they didn't have the tools in their toolkit to do it quickly.

But if they had known right, hindsight, is 2020. If they had known what they know, now everything would have been better. Can you fill the gap there? Can you possibly reach out to people that you trust that you've built a fundamental relationship with who meet your ideal client and ask them three questions in an email and ask them for their input? Number eight, again, going back to the drawing board, but revisit your business plan, or better yet, revisit your business Canvas model. I love the business Canvas model because it is so much more for the visual person like myself, I love looking at everything. It just makes more sense. It's more flexible, it's more fluid. I've been teaching a lot of my more recent clients about this model instead of the business plan because the business plan kind of becomes a doorstopper. It's not exactly something that you use time and time again. You never really go back and read the whole thing. But a business Canvas model is something that's a one pager which I really, really like. So go back to your business plan and figure out where are the gaps here what is missing, what needs to be filled? And is this project or plan is actually moving the needle or Is there another way that I can do the same thing? Number nine, that's a little harsh. But it's for those people that just need that tough love Enneagram sevens I'm looking at you just get through it. Just do it. If it's not fun, but it needs to happen if you go through all these steps, and you're like, yep, Brett like I need to do it, I just don't want to just do it. Just get through it, it may be messy, it may not be your best work. But just get through it because it's easier. Again, this Hindsight is 2020 theme keeps popping up today, if you can look backwards on what you've just created, because you've gotten through it, it can be a lot easier, the next day, a week or two months from now, to go back to that thing and say, Where can I improve? Where are my mistakes? Where are the spelling errors? Where are the gaps and my thinking around this because I wasn't motivated. And because you already have a prototype, whether it's good or not, doesn't matter. Because you have a prototype, it's going to be a lot easier for you to revise it to clean it up to polish it because there's something to work with, versus just an empty space between you now and the next step in front of you. Alright, so I've gone through a bunch of different kinds of ways to get unstuck. I gave you reasons that you might be stuck and how to get unstuck in them. So hopefully after listening to this episode, you can take these practices and apply them if you to feel stuck, because you don't have to stay in the stuck. You don't have to stay in the mud. You can get out of it at any time. You just have to work through it, whether you work around it or you pause and take a break before you get through it. Whether you find that motivation or ask 20 questions. Just get through it. You got this girl? I believe in you