March 25, 2025 • 23 mins
Tired of the frustrating cycle of building business momentum only to watch it fade away? This candid exploration reveals why entrepreneurs get caught in the start-stop pattern and offers practical solutions for creating sustainable growth.
The root causes might surprise you. Fear and self-doubt trigger our brain's protective mechanisms when we attempt something new or try to level up. Instead of pushing these emotions away with quick fixes, learn how to sit with discomfort, get curious about underlying beliefs, and address what's really holding you back.
Counterintuitively, success itself can derail your progress. When things are going well, complacency creeps in. You reach income goals and think "I'm good," then subtly pull back on the very activities that created your success. This dangerous phase allows for gradual decline that's often imperceptible until you're scrambling to regain lost ground.
Shiny object syndrome and burnout complete the perfect storm. Jumping to new strategies before stabilizing existing systems creates instability, while working in extreme bursts followed by crash-recovery periods prevents sustainable momentum.
The solution isn't working harder - it's creating systems that work for you even when you're offline. Automations, evergreen funnels, and structured workflows allow your business to function while you take necessary recovery time. Imagine creating content once, then having it serve clients for years without requiring your daily energy.
Ready to break free from this exhausting cycle? This episode provides the roadmap to transform your approach, protect your nervous system, and create a business that grows steadily while honoring your need for balance. Your future clients (and your wellbeing) will thank you for making this shift.
Coaches, healers, and creatives—how much money are you leaving on the table?
Coach OS is the world’s leading all-in-one software that automates your business, scales your income, and replaces all your other software for a fraction of the cost!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, this is Annie Veblen-McCarty and I'm gonna
teach you how to be effortlesslyproductive.
I've been an entrepreneur forover 20 years and I got sick and
tired of experts preaching whatbusiness and life should look
like and what I should be doingas a leader and to turn a profit
, only to find myself wastingtime, burned out, feeling
(00:22):
inauthentic and still not makingany money.
On this show, we are ditchingthe shoulds.
I'm giving you permission to dobusiness differently.
As a certified master coach, Ibelieve that everything you need
to have success and build thelife and business of your dreams
is already living on the inside.
(00:43):
I'm going to empower you tolean into what you do best, help
you see your path forwardclearly and give you the
strategy and action steps alongthe way to become effortlessly
productive.
Let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Welcome to this episode of Effortlessly
Productive.
Today, we are going to beexploring why you keep stopping
and starting in your businessand how we can fix this.
When I am coachingentrepreneurs, I often find that
they come to me because theirbusiness had momentum and now
(01:21):
they don't have momentum andthey're trying to figure out
what is going on there, or theyare somebody who has just never
built that momentum in the firstplace.
So I do a lot of one-on-oneaudit calls with people where we
dive deep into their business.
This can either be on onespecific thing that they know
(01:41):
that they need help with, or wedo a full audit of their
business to figure out all thedifferent leaks that they know
that they need help with.
Or we do a full audit of theirbusiness to figure out all the
different leaks that they haveand we come up with a strategy
on how to fix it.
In these audits, if you haveexperienced this, where you
either found the momentum andlost it or just never have been
able to build it in the firstplace, there is a good chance
(02:03):
that you are doing something inyour business that is related to
stopping and starting andstopping and starting, and so
let's talk about why this isbecause I've been on so many
sessions with people and havebeen able to figure out a few of
the reasons why this happens.
One of the biggest reasons whythis stop-start cycle happens is
(02:26):
because of fear or doubt orthat feeling of like I'm not
good enough.
These are all kind of relatedright.
It's those like core limitingbeliefs that we have about our
self-worth.
They're usually deep down inour subconscious.
A lot of the time we're noteven really aware that they are
there, but they are having sucha huge impact.
(02:49):
We start to do something.
Maybe it's new, maybe it'suncomfortable, maybe it's up
leveling.
We're going to a whole newlevel in our personal
development or in our business,and our brain is literally
designed to keep us safe.
Right, it wants nothing morethan to keep us safe and keep us
alive, and so when we hit thesepoints in our business and in
(03:13):
our regular life, in anything wedo, where there is some reason
that our brain thinks that weare unsafe or that it's
uncertain, we will start toexperience these emotions of
fear and doubt and not goodenough and imposter syndrome,
like.
Whatever your flavor is, weusually each have our own
(03:34):
special flavor of our story thatour brain has figured out.
When I tell her this, she'sgoing to start to pull back,
she's going to go back into thatsafety zone.
That is one of the reasons Ifind that entrepreneurs do start
and stop in.
Their business is facing thisuncertainty, this unknown
(03:55):
growing to a whole other level,and maybe you have more clients
coming in all of a sudden, andthen you start to have that
voice of doubt of like, oh mygosh, I don't even know how I'm
going to handle all theseclients.
Or you launch something new andthen all of a sudden, your
brain is like are you even anexpert at that?
Right, that's more like thatimposter syndrome.
(04:16):
This is more our subconscious.
So I'm going to give you alittle tip.
So we need to sit in thoseemotions A lot of the time.
I find that, especially peoplewho have very strong mindful
practices or spiritual practicesand there is nothing wrong with
making ourselves feel better.
(04:38):
However, rather than sittingand processing and actually
being in that emotion a lot ofthe time, we tend to just jump
to like how can I make myselffeel better?
I'm going to go do a meditation, or I'm going to go do a
workout, I'm going to take awalk outside.
We have all these strategiesand maybe you have your own
special way of making yourselffeel better, and that's great.
(05:00):
We need these things to helpregulate our nervous system back
down.
But unless we start to facewhere those beliefs are coming
from and even what those beliefsare, sometimes we aren't even
taking the step of figuring outwhat is that in my head.
We just experience this emotionand immediately pull back and
(05:21):
we're never getting curious andbeing like huh, I wonder where
this fear is coming from.
Today, fear, what do you haveto tell me?
Why are you popping up today?
What's going on?
What's coming up?
And so when we can start to askthat emotion some questions of
where it's coming from, then wecan start to understand the
underlying belief.
That is one way, especiallywhen we approach this particular
(05:45):
flavor of that start-stop cycle.
It's really important to sit inthat, and sometimes that
requires getting some help fromsomebody who is outside of our
brain.
It can be very hard for us tosee all of our beliefs, to know
all of our beliefs, to be ableto ask the questions to
ourselves, to pull out thosebeliefs.
(06:05):
So definitely start there.
However, you might want to seekout a coach, you might want to
seek out somebody who can helpyou through that Even a
therapist fantastic support,depending on what you're dealing
with, especially if it's comingmore from a place of trauma.
Seek out a therapist or acounselor who is licensed to
help people with trauma.
(06:26):
That is one reason why we startand stop our business and just a
little way of how to kind ofbreak out of that loop of that
start and stop.
Another reason why people startand stop in their business is
they hit this point where thingsare going really well and
they're like I'm good, likethings are so good and that's
such an amazing place to be.
(06:47):
I want to celebrate you forbeing in a place where things
are good.
But oftentimes what I find iswe hit that place of being like
I am good, the clients areflowing in, this income is great
, I'm exactly where I've beenworking so hard to be and we
pull back.
We subconsciously start to pullback.
Maybe we're not doing all thethings that we were doing to get
(07:09):
us there, maybe we're not doingthe growth things.
All of a sudden, right, weprobably got to that new level
and that place of being like Iam good by growing and doing new
things.
And when we get to that place,rather than continuing to grow
and continuing to do the newthings or do the things that
(07:29):
were working that got us there,we pull back and we're like, oh,
I finally earned this.
I'm going to take a little bitof a break, I'm going to take a
rest, I'm going to coast on this, and I often find that for a
couple of months we actually cancoast on that momentum,
depending on how big you builtthat momentum up.
(07:50):
Sometimes it can be even longerthan that, but eventually that
momentum will start to dial backif we're not continuing that
path of growth and notcontinuing the things that got
us there in the first place.
So the I am good can actuallybe.
In my opinion, that's almost oneof the most dangerous places to
be, because we can lullourselves into this, and this is
(08:14):
where I often see entrepreneurswho have hit this I'm good
place and that sometimes they'renot even aware that this is
where they've hit.
But I will see somebody whoachieves this level in their
business.
Let's say that they had a goalof earning $10,000 a month in
their business and they finallyhit it and they're so excited
(08:35):
and maybe the next month theyhit $10,000 again, but then all
of a sudden their income fallsoff and they're back down to
like 3,000 a month or 1,000 amonth or 5,000 a month and we're
trying to figure out whathappened.
They're like what is going on?
I was so good and so then it'sclawing back to that place.
That's that start stop cycle,right?
(08:56):
Another reason that this mighthappen is that we see a new way
of doing things right, and Icall this shiny object syndrome.
So maybe we hear about thiscourse and we jump into this
course and we're so excited toimplement this new strategy and
we're like, so pumped and we'relike I am going all in on this.
(09:17):
This is going to be amazing,this is going to change my
business.
I am not saying do not lean intothat, lean all the way into
that.
However, a lot of the time, weforget to keep doing the things
that got us to where we are.
So my rule of thumb in businessis we want to keep doing the
things that have been workingfor us until that new thing has
(09:41):
completely supplemented ourincome or our number of clients
or whatever it is that we arelooking for in our business.
Whatever our metrics are.
We want to make sure thatwhatever that new way of doing
things is is bringing in ourclients and our income and all
of that to the same level of ourold way of doing things.
(10:03):
Before we start to dial backthe old way of doing things and
in fact I would encourage yourather than just cutting off the
old way of doing things thatwas bringing in some income, we
can keep doing that, and we canoften keep doing that by
automating or by outsourcing,like finding somebody else that
we can teach.
Hey, this is what I was doingand it's working really well.
(10:24):
I'm gonna show you exactly whatI do so that I can lean into
this new way of learning anddoing things.
Obviously, if the old way wasnot bringing in very much,
that's your call, it's yourbusiness, you're the CEO and you
get to make the decision whenit's time to let go of that.
However, if you do findyourself in a start-stop where
(10:45):
you're like, oh, things were sogood, I had so much momentum,
and then they fell off a cliffand all of a sudden, clients
stopped coming in, my incomestopped and I don't know what
happened.
Often it's that we have gottendistracted with doing things a
new way, or maybe you're notputting as much time into your
business because you're learningthis new thing, so keep doing
(11:07):
those old things that have beenworking for you until you make
the very conscious decision thatit is time to scale that back
and scale up the new way ofdoing things when that starts
working really well.
So the last little bit I wantto talk about here on this
episode it feeds into thatstart-stop cycle that you may
(11:29):
have found yourself in is yourtime and energy.
So I often find thatentrepreneurs go really hard.
We get so excited right,especially like.
Think about when you very firststarted your business, how
excited you were because youwere doing something brand new.
You are a soul-led entrepreneur, so I'm sure it was like such a
(11:51):
strong internal calling thatyou had where you were like, oh
my gosh, I want to share thiswith the entire world.
Literally everybody needs thisand I'm going out and I'm going
to make the hugest impact in theworld, and that excitement that
fed into your momentum.
However, I often find we getinto this and we're like I am
(12:14):
going all in, I'm going to beworking a million extra hours
and I'm going to put so muchenergy into this and then we hit
that point of burnout, right.
We end up with a nervous systemthat is completely out of whack.
We end up either constantlystuck in fight or flight and
it's not to say like fight orflight mode in our nervous
(12:37):
system.
It's not necessarily a badthing as long as we're not there
all the time, right, becausethat can be that excitement,
right.
That can be that state of justbeing like a little bit elevated
and like I'm really excited.
But if we're at that point oflike, oh my God, I am fighting
every single day, or when we gettrue burnout, then we are kind
(12:59):
of stuck in that nervous systemplace of freeze where we have
literally been in that fight orflight for so long that we just
literally start to shut down.
And so if you find yourselfstuck in fight or flight or in
freeze mode, there's a goodchance that you have worked to
the point of burnout, and so weneed to start to heal that right
(13:20):
.
But rather than reaching thatpoint, let's talk about how to
not go there.
A lot of the time, again, I findthat people put in so much time
and energy and then they'reexhausted and then they take a
break to recover and there'snothing wrong with recovery.
I am 100% all here for recovery.
However, we need to have thatbuilt in.
(13:41):
So rather than like having ahuge peak and then this huge
valley where it takes weeks ormonths to recover and then we
peak again into the stratosphereand we are launching a million
things and then all of a suddenwe're exhausted and we crash
back down, let's see if we cansmooth those peaks and valleys
(14:01):
out a little bit right.
We don't want to get rid of thepeaks and valleys that's a
natural part of life andbusiness but rather than having
it be this huge, tallestmountain in the world down to,
like the depths of the ocean,the deepest point in the ocean,
let's have it be a little bitmore leveled out, right.
So rather than going 1 millionpercent in on your time and
(14:23):
energy and then having to crashand recover for weeks or months,
let's see if we can find a moreeven place where our time and
energy is going in but it's asustainable amount and we can
take a recovery day.
Please be taking recovery daysat least once a week, if not
more than that.
Have that time to recover.
(14:44):
But we want it to be a moresteady flow.
I hope that makes sense.
This cycle of start and stop,and whatever reason it is that
you are starting and stopping Iam sure that is not an
exhaustive list of the reasons.
Those are just the biggest onesthat I see when I am working
with clients, especially inthese audit sessions in their
(15:05):
business this cycle of start andstop, what this is ending up
doing, it is actually keepingyou from your big vision.
It's keeping you from makingthat impact that you want to
make, because we get going, webuild up and then we crash back
down.
And we get going and we buildit back up again and we crash
(15:25):
down.
Rather than having that slowbuild that then eventually, as
we know, I am a total math nerd.
I love advanced math stuff.
So you think about the parabola, right?
Usually you start out a littleslower and then you start to
take off.
Right, that's the growthpattern we want to see.
But if we're like constantly upand down, and up and down, and
(15:47):
up and down, we're never goingto reach that place where we
take off and we can build ourbusiness with ease, make it feel
effortless and clients areflowing in.
We never hit that point ofhaving that big vision and
making that huge impact andchanging lives literally across
the world, because we are sostuck in this on and off again
(16:09):
cycle.
So the secret to momentum isnot working harder.
As you could see in everysingle one of those examples,
the hard work is not going toget you there.
Yes, we need to work hard, butif you are already, like I am
working at a top level,sustainable pace, just saying
(16:31):
work harder than you are workingright now, that is not the
answer.
That is actually going to feedinto this start-stop cycle, for
probably all of these reasons Ijust talked about, we don't want
to just work harder.
We need to start to createsystems in our business that
actually work for you.
They work for you even whenyou're offline.
(16:53):
They work for you when you aretaking your recovery days.
That's part of why I'm likeplease go take your recovery
days.
And when you have these systemsin place whether it is
automations in your business,whether it is just more
organization and structure,whether it is that when you sit
down to work, you know what youare doing each and every day and
(17:16):
you have the back-end systemsthat are doing the heavy lifting
for you, so that you can putyour time and energy into what
you do best and what you lovedoing.
When we have this stuffautomated when we check out,
when we go on vacation, when wetake our recovery days, when we
go do things with our kids, ourbusiness is still growing and
(17:38):
building and sustaining in thebackground, and that means that
we don't have to be switched onall the time.
Being switched on all the timeis not the goal.
Yes, work hard when you aresitting down to work.
I want you focused and givingso much energy, and it's also
just as important to be able tocheck out and recover like the
(18:00):
boss, like the six or sevenfigure CEO that you are in your
heart.
They take days off, theyrecover, they make sure that
their nervous system is beingable to come back to a place of
regulation.
Again, we want that flexiblenervous system so we can be
excited and we can come backdown and be in that place of
just being good, being social,being loving, chilling out.
(18:25):
If you can't get yourself intothat place of chilling out,
that's usually a pretty goodsign that your system is
completely hijacked, and so weneed to start to be able to work
on that and, at the same time,we don't want to let our
business go right.
We don't want to stop thatmomentum.
So that's why it's so importantto have these systems in place
to support you in your recoveryand in your energy.
(18:48):
Right?
If you're like, okay, that'sgreat.
Like you keep saying businesssystems and automations, and I
don't really know what thatmeans.
I don't know where to start.
I don't know how to do this.
So an example of a businesssystem that might be supportive
to you in your business issomething called an evergreen
funnel.
So think about it.
We have people coming into ourbusiness, new people that have
(19:11):
never met us and never heard ofus are coming into our business
on autopilot because we have thesystem set up to bring our
ideal client in.
Once they come in, they getsome emails, they get some
messages, whatever this lookslike in this system that we set
up, in this funnel that tellsthem about a course or about an
(19:33):
offer or a membership that theycan join, and we have a whole
funnel system in place so theyare able to actually sign up and
join whatever it is that youhave for them.
If it is an evergreen course ortraining, they can go watch.
That training is actuallydelivered to them.
They don't need you sendingthem emails, sending them their
(19:54):
login, sending them the videos,sending them the playlist on
YouTube.
No, it is all delivered to them, where they can go, log in and
they can take this training andthey can get your magic without
you needing to give your energyat this moment.
The energy part came in when youcreated all of this, and now
(20:16):
that energy gets to get sharedout and compounded over and over
and over again.
And so when we say evergreen,that's where you do a training
or a course or a program onetime and I highly recommend
doing it live that one time.
So do it in front of people andthen take what you taught and
turn it into something wherepeople can go buy this for years
(20:38):
and years and years to come,and you get to serve people for
years and years and years tocome with that energy that you
put in that one time.
How does that sound?
To me, that sounds way betterthan constantly, constantly
pushing right.
We are growing in thebackground.
We are continuing to growwithout having to expend our
(21:01):
energy on that one thing overand over and over again.
We get to now take our energyand go create more magical
things.
So that is what true growth iswhere we get to put our energy
in one time.
We get to continue to servepeople with that energy
forevermore, as long as it livesout there, and then we get to
(21:21):
take our energy and put it intogrowing new things and creating
new things right New containers,helping new people, finding new
people, serving our clients wholove us so much, doing the
things that are our magic.
That is true continual growthand a way of growing that is not
(21:41):
going to completely exhaust youand completely hijack your
nervous system.
So I hope that this help todayjust shed a little bit of light
on why you might be stuck in thestart and stop cycle, some
strategies and some ways tobreak out of that and how to set
your business up so that youcontinue to grow and you
(22:02):
continue to build and serve morepeople and make that huge
impact that you want to makewithout you totally burning out
and just shutting down and beinggone.
Think about the impact that weget to make when we set our
business up this way.
Not only is it better for usand our well-being, it also is
better serving for our clientsand the people who need our
(22:26):
light and need our help.
So I cannot wait to hear whatlittle bits and pieces you took
from this episode.
Maybe there's a big shift thatyou are wanting to make in your
business.
Please share that in thecomments.
I would love, love, love tohear or reach out to me on
social media and, if you areinterested in an audit, if
(22:46):
you're like, yep, that's me, Ineed to figure out what is
happening here and how to sealup some of these leaks.
I would love to help supportyou with that.
So definitely find me on socialmedia, reach out to me and we
will go from there.
So have a beautiful rest ofyour day.
I cannot wait to see what youcreate and I cannot wait to see
(23:08):
all the people that you help andserve and that huge impact that
you get to make with yourbusiness.
I will see you on the nextepisode of Effortlessly
Productive.
Hey, this is Annie Veblen-McCarty and I'm gonna
teach you how to be effortlesslyproductive.
I've been an entrepreneur forover 20 years and I got sick and
tired of experts preaching whatbusiness and life should look
like and what I should be doingas a leader and to turn a profit
, only to find myself wastingtime, burned out, feeling
(00:22):
inauthentic and still not makingany money.
On this show, we are ditchingthe shoulds.
I'm giving you permission to dobusiness differently.
As a certified master coach, Ibelieve that everything you need
to have success and build thelife and business of your dreams
is already living on the inside.
(00:43):
I'm going to empower you tolean into what you do best, help
you see your path forwardclearly and give you the
strategy and action steps alongthe way to become effortlessly
productive.
Let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Welcome to this episode of Effortlessly
Productive.
Today, we are going to beexploring why you keep stopping
and starting in your businessand how we can fix this.
When I am coachingentrepreneurs, I often find that
they come to me because theirbusiness had momentum and now
(01:21):
they don't have momentum andthey're trying to figure out
what is going on there, or theyare somebody who has just never
built that momentum in the firstplace.
So I do a lot of one-on-oneaudit calls with people where we
dive deep into their business.
This can either be on onespecific thing that they know
(01:41):
that they need help with, or wedo a full audit of their
business to figure out all thedifferent leaks that they know
that they need help with.
Or we do a full audit of theirbusiness to figure out all the
different leaks that they haveand we come up with a strategy
on how to fix it.
In these audits, if you haveexperienced this, where you
either found the momentum andlost it or just never have been
able to build it in the firstplace, there is a good chance
(02:03):
that you are doing something inyour business that is related to
stopping and starting andstopping and starting, and so
let's talk about why this isbecause I've been on so many
sessions with people and havebeen able to figure out a few of
the reasons why this happens.
One of the biggest reasons whythis stop-start cycle happens is
(02:26):
because of fear or doubt orthat feeling of like I'm not
good enough.
These are all kind of relatedright.
It's those like core limitingbeliefs that we have about our
self-worth.
They're usually deep down inour subconscious.
A lot of the time we're noteven really aware that they are
there, but they are having sucha huge impact.
(02:49):
We start to do something.
Maybe it's new, maybe it'suncomfortable, maybe it's up
leveling.
We're going to a whole newlevel in our personal
development or in our business,and our brain is literally
designed to keep us safe.
Right, it wants nothing morethan to keep us safe and keep us
alive, and so when we hit thesepoints in our business and in
(03:13):
our regular life, in anything wedo, where there is some reason
that our brain thinks that weare unsafe or that it's
uncertain, we will start toexperience these emotions of
fear and doubt and not goodenough and imposter syndrome,
like.
Whatever your flavor is, weusually each have our own
(03:34):
special flavor of our story thatour brain has figured out.
When I tell her this, she'sgoing to start to pull back,
she's going to go back into thatsafety zone.
That is one of the reasons Ifind that entrepreneurs do start
and stop in.
Their business is facing thisuncertainty, this unknown
(03:55):
growing to a whole other level,and maybe you have more clients
coming in all of a sudden, andthen you start to have that
voice of doubt of like, oh mygosh, I don't even know how I'm
going to handle all theseclients.
Or you launch something new andthen all of a sudden, your
brain is like are you even anexpert at that?
Right, that's more like thatimposter syndrome.
(04:16):
This is more our subconscious.
So I'm going to give you alittle tip.
So we need to sit in thoseemotions A lot of the time.
I find that, especially peoplewho have very strong mindful
practices or spiritual practicesand there is nothing wrong with
making ourselves feel better.
(04:38):
However, rather than sittingand processing and actually
being in that emotion a lot ofthe time, we tend to just jump
to like how can I make myselffeel better?
I'm going to go do a meditation, or I'm going to go do a
workout, I'm going to take awalk outside.
We have all these strategiesand maybe you have your own
special way of making yourselffeel better, and that's great.
(05:00):
We need these things to helpregulate our nervous system back
down.
But unless we start to facewhere those beliefs are coming
from and even what those beliefsare, sometimes we aren't even
taking the step of figuring outwhat is that in my head.
We just experience this emotionand immediately pull back and
(05:21):
we're never getting curious andbeing like huh, I wonder where
this fear is coming from.
Today, fear, what do you haveto tell me?
Why are you popping up today?
What's going on?
What's coming up?
And so when we can start to askthat emotion some questions of
where it's coming from, then wecan start to understand the
underlying belief.
That is one way, especiallywhen we approach this particular
(05:45):
flavor of that start-stop cycle.
It's really important to sit inthat, and sometimes that
requires getting some help fromsomebody who is outside of our
brain.
It can be very hard for us tosee all of our beliefs, to know
all of our beliefs, to be ableto ask the questions to
ourselves, to pull out thosebeliefs.
(06:05):
So definitely start there.
However, you might want to seekout a coach, you might want to
seek out somebody who can helpyou through that Even a
therapist fantastic support,depending on what you're dealing
with, especially if it's comingmore from a place of trauma.
Seek out a therapist or acounselor who is licensed to
help people with trauma.
(06:26):
That is one reason why we startand stop our business and just a
little way of how to kind ofbreak out of that loop of that
start and stop.
Another reason why people startand stop in their business is
they hit this point where thingsare going really well and
they're like I'm good, likethings are so good and that's
such an amazing place to be.
(06:47):
I want to celebrate you forbeing in a place where things
are good.
But oftentimes what I find iswe hit that place of being like
I am good, the clients areflowing in, this income is great
, I'm exactly where I've beenworking so hard to be and we
pull back.
We subconsciously start to pullback.
Maybe we're not doing all thethings that we were doing to get
(07:09):
us there, maybe we're not doingthe growth things.
All of a sudden, right, weprobably got to that new level
and that place of being like Iam good by growing and doing new
things.
And when we get to that place,rather than continuing to grow
and continuing to do the newthings or do the things that
(07:29):
were working that got us there,we pull back and we're like, oh,
I finally earned this.
I'm going to take a little bitof a break, I'm going to take a
rest, I'm going to coast on this, and I often find that for a
couple of months we actually cancoast on that momentum,
depending on how big you builtthat momentum up.
(07:50):
Sometimes it can be even longerthan that, but eventually that
momentum will start to dial backif we're not continuing that
path of growth and notcontinuing the things that got
us there in the first place.
So the I am good can actuallybe.
In my opinion, that's almost oneof the most dangerous places to
be, because we can lullourselves into this, and this is
(08:14):
where I often see entrepreneurswho have hit this I'm good
place and that sometimes they'renot even aware that this is
where they've hit.
But I will see somebody whoachieves this level in their
business.
Let's say that they had a goalof earning $10,000 a month in
their business and they finallyhit it and they're so excited
(08:35):
and maybe the next month theyhit $10,000 again, but then all
of a sudden their income fallsoff and they're back down to
like 3,000 a month or 1,000 amonth or 5,000 a month and we're
trying to figure out whathappened.
They're like what is going on?
I was so good and so then it'sclawing back to that place.
That's that start stop cycle,right?
(08:56):
Another reason that this mighthappen is that we see a new way
of doing things right, and Icall this shiny object syndrome.
So maybe we hear about thiscourse and we jump into this
course and we're so excited toimplement this new strategy and
we're like, so pumped and we'relike I am going all in on this.
(09:17):
This is going to be amazing,this is going to change my
business.
I am not saying do not lean intothat, lean all the way into
that.
However, a lot of the time, weforget to keep doing the things
that got us to where we are.
So my rule of thumb in businessis we want to keep doing the
things that have been workingfor us until that new thing has
(09:41):
completely supplemented ourincome or our number of clients
or whatever it is that we arelooking for in our business.
Whatever our metrics are.
We want to make sure thatwhatever that new way of doing
things is is bringing in ourclients and our income and all
of that to the same level of ourold way of doing things.
(10:03):
Before we start to dial backthe old way of doing things and
in fact I would encourage yourather than just cutting off the
old way of doing things thatwas bringing in some income, we
can keep doing that, and we canoften keep doing that by
automating or by outsourcing,like finding somebody else that
we can teach.
Hey, this is what I was doingand it's working really well.
(10:24):
I'm gonna show you exactly whatI do so that I can lean into
this new way of learning anddoing things.
Obviously, if the old way wasnot bringing in very much,
that's your call, it's yourbusiness, you're the CEO and you
get to make the decision whenit's time to let go of that.
However, if you do findyourself in a start-stop where
(10:45):
you're like, oh, things were sogood, I had so much momentum,
and then they fell off a cliffand all of a sudden, clients
stopped coming in, my incomestopped and I don't know what
happened.
Often it's that we have gottendistracted with doing things a
new way, or maybe you're notputting as much time into your
business because you're learningthis new thing, so keep doing
(11:07):
those old things that have beenworking for you until you make
the very conscious decision thatit is time to scale that back
and scale up the new way ofdoing things when that starts
working really well.
So the last little bit I wantto talk about here on this
episode it feeds into thatstart-stop cycle that you may
(11:29):
have found yourself in is yourtime and energy.
So I often find thatentrepreneurs go really hard.
We get so excited right,especially like.
Think about when you very firststarted your business, how
excited you were because youwere doing something brand new.
You are a soul-led entrepreneur, so I'm sure it was like such a
(11:51):
strong internal calling thatyou had where you were like, oh
my gosh, I want to share thiswith the entire world.
Literally everybody needs thisand I'm going out and I'm going
to make the hugest impact in theworld, and that excitement that
fed into your momentum.
However, I often find we getinto this and we're like I am
(12:14):
going all in, I'm going to beworking a million extra hours
and I'm going to put so muchenergy into this and then we hit
that point of burnout, right.
We end up with a nervous systemthat is completely out of whack.
We end up either constantlystuck in fight or flight and
it's not to say like fight orflight mode in our nervous
(12:37):
system.
It's not necessarily a badthing as long as we're not there
all the time, right, becausethat can be that excitement,
right.
That can be that state of justbeing like a little bit elevated
and like I'm really excited.
But if we're at that point oflike, oh my God, I am fighting
every single day, or when we gettrue burnout, then we are kind
(12:59):
of stuck in that nervous systemplace of freeze where we have
literally been in that fight orflight for so long that we just
literally start to shut down.
And so if you find yourselfstuck in fight or flight or in
freeze mode, there's a goodchance that you have worked to
the point of burnout, and so weneed to start to heal that right
(13:20):
.
But rather than reaching thatpoint, let's talk about how to
not go there.
A lot of the time, again, I findthat people put in so much time
and energy and then they'reexhausted and then they take a
break to recover and there'snothing wrong with recovery.
I am 100% all here for recovery.
However, we need to have thatbuilt in.
(13:41):
So rather than like having ahuge peak and then this huge
valley where it takes weeks ormonths to recover and then we
peak again into the stratosphereand we are launching a million
things and then all of a suddenwe're exhausted and we crash
back down, let's see if we cansmooth those peaks and valleys
(14:01):
out a little bit right.
We don't want to get rid of thepeaks and valleys that's a
natural part of life andbusiness but rather than having
it be this huge, tallestmountain in the world down to,
like the depths of the ocean,the deepest point in the ocean,
let's have it be a little bitmore leveled out, right.
So rather than going 1 millionpercent in on your time and
(14:23):
energy and then having to crashand recover for weeks or months,
let's see if we can find a moreeven place where our time and
energy is going in but it's asustainable amount and we can
take a recovery day.
Please be taking recovery daysat least once a week, if not
more than that.
Have that time to recover.
(14:44):
But we want it to be a moresteady flow.
I hope that makes sense.
This cycle of start and stop,and whatever reason it is that
you are starting and stopping Iam sure that is not an
exhaustive list of the reasons.
Those are just the biggest onesthat I see when I am working
with clients, especially inthese audit sessions in their
(15:05):
business this cycle of start andstop, what this is ending up
doing, it is actually keepingyou from your big vision.
It's keeping you from makingthat impact that you want to
make, because we get going, webuild up and then we crash back
down.
And we get going and we buildit back up again and we crash
(15:25):
down.
Rather than having that slowbuild that then eventually, as
we know, I am a total math nerd.
I love advanced math stuff.
So you think about the parabola, right?
Usually you start out a littleslower and then you start to
take off.
Right, that's the growthpattern we want to see.
But if we're like constantly upand down, and up and down, and
(15:47):
up and down, we're never goingto reach that place where we
take off and we can build ourbusiness with ease, make it feel
effortless and clients areflowing in.
We never hit that point ofhaving that big vision and
making that huge impact andchanging lives literally across
the world, because we are sostuck in this on and off again
(16:09):
cycle.
So the secret to momentum isnot working harder.
As you could see in everysingle one of those examples,
the hard work is not going toget you there.
Yes, we need to work hard, butif you are already, like I am
working at a top level,sustainable pace, just saying
(16:31):
work harder than you are workingright now, that is not the
answer.
That is actually going to feedinto this start-stop cycle, for
probably all of these reasons Ijust talked about, we don't want
to just work harder.
We need to start to createsystems in our business that
actually work for you.
They work for you even whenyou're offline.
(16:53):
They work for you when you aretaking your recovery days.
That's part of why I'm likeplease go take your recovery
days.
And when you have these systemsin place whether it is
automations in your business,whether it is just more
organization and structure,whether it is that when you sit
down to work, you know what youare doing each and every day and
(17:16):
you have the back-end systemsthat are doing the heavy lifting
for you, so that you can putyour time and energy into what
you do best and what you lovedoing.
When we have this stuffautomated when we check out,
when we go on vacation, when wetake our recovery days, when we
go do things with our kids, ourbusiness is still growing and
(17:38):
building and sustaining in thebackground, and that means that
we don't have to be switched onall the time.
Being switched on all the timeis not the goal.
Yes, work hard when you aresitting down to work.
I want you focused and givingso much energy, and it's also
just as important to be able tocheck out and recover like the
(18:00):
boss, like the six or sevenfigure CEO that you are in your
heart.
They take days off, theyrecover, they make sure that
their nervous system is beingable to come back to a place of
regulation.
Again, we want that flexiblenervous system so we can be
excited and we can come backdown and be in that place of
just being good, being social,being loving, chilling out.
(18:25):
If you can't get yourself intothat place of chilling out,
that's usually a pretty goodsign that your system is
completely hijacked, and so weneed to start to be able to work
on that and, at the same time,we don't want to let our
business go right.
We don't want to stop thatmomentum.
So that's why it's so importantto have these systems in place
to support you in your recoveryand in your energy.
(18:48):
Right?
If you're like, okay, that'sgreat.
Like you keep saying businesssystems and automations, and I
don't really know what thatmeans.
I don't know where to start.
I don't know how to do this.
So an example of a businesssystem that might be supportive
to you in your business issomething called an evergreen
funnel.
So think about it.
We have people coming into ourbusiness, new people that have
(19:11):
never met us and never heard ofus are coming into our business
on autopilot because we have thesystem set up to bring our
ideal client in.
Once they come in, they getsome emails, they get some
messages, whatever this lookslike in this system that we set
up, in this funnel that tellsthem about a course or about an
(19:33):
offer or a membership that theycan join, and we have a whole
funnel system in place so theyare able to actually sign up and
join whatever it is that youhave for them.
If it is an evergreen course ortraining, they can go watch.
That training is actuallydelivered to them.
They don't need you sendingthem emails, sending them their
(19:54):
login, sending them the videos,sending them the playlist on
YouTube.
No, it is all delivered to them, where they can go, log in and
they can take this training andthey can get your magic without
you needing to give your energyat this moment.
The energy part came in when youcreated all of this, and now
(20:16):
that energy gets to get sharedout and compounded over and over
and over again.
And so when we say evergreen,that's where you do a training
or a course or a program onetime and I highly recommend
doing it live that one time.
So do it in front of people andthen take what you taught and
turn it into something wherepeople can go buy this for years
(20:38):
and years and years to come,and you get to serve people for
years and years and years tocome with that energy that you
put in that one time.
How does that sound?
To me, that sounds way betterthan constantly, constantly
pushing right.
We are growing in thebackground.
We are continuing to growwithout having to expend our
(21:01):
energy on that one thing overand over and over again.
We get to now take our energyand go create more magical
things.
So that is what true growth iswhere we get to put our energy
in one time.
We get to continue to servepeople with that energy
forevermore, as long as it livesout there, and then we get to
(21:21):
take our energy and put it intogrowing new things and creating
new things right New containers,helping new people, finding new
people, serving our clients wholove us so much, doing the
things that are our magic.
That is true continual growthand a way of growing that is not
(21:41):
going to completely exhaust youand completely hijack your
nervous system.
So I hope that this help todayjust shed a little bit of light
on why you might be stuck in thestart and stop cycle, some
strategies and some ways tobreak out of that and how to set
your business up so that youcontinue to grow and you
(22:02):
continue to build and serve morepeople and make that huge
impact that you want to makewithout you totally burning out
and just shutting down and beinggone.
Think about the impact that weget to make when we set our
business up this way.
Not only is it better for usand our well-being, it also is
better serving for our clientsand the people who need our
(22:26):
light and need our help.
So I cannot wait to hear whatlittle bits and pieces you took
from this episode.
Maybe there's a big shift thatyou are wanting to make in your
business.
Please share that in thecomments.
I would love, love, love tohear or reach out to me on
social media and, if you areinterested in an audit, if
(22:46):
you're like, yep, that's me, Ineed to figure out what is
happening here and how to sealup some of these leaks.
I would love to help supportyou with that.
So definitely find me on socialmedia, reach out to me and we
will go from there.
So have a beautiful rest ofyour day.
I cannot wait to see what youcreate and I cannot wait to see
(23:08):
all the people that you help andserve and that huge impact that
you get to make with yourbusiness.
I will see you on the nextepisode of Effortlessly
Productive.
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