102. Stop Sabotaging Your Growth: The Missing Link Between Strategy and Identity

The secret to breaking through revenue ceilings lies in the powerful combination of business strategy and identity work, not just one or the other. Your business will always match your self-concept, so upgrading both simultaneously is essential for sustainable growth.

• Strategy without identity work leads to self-sabotage
• Mindset work without strategy keeps you stuck despite positive thinking
• Every revenue level requires different strategies AND a different identity
• Three business stages: starter (charging for expertise), systems builder (becoming a true business owner), and scaler (becoming a leader who delegates)
• Your business and identity grow together like a DNA spiral, reinforcing each other
• Assessment requires examining both your current strategies and how you see yourself
• When implementing new strategies, always ask "who do I need to become?"
• Make identity work concrete by behaving as your future self would today

Go to jenncodysolutions.com/revenue to get a free blueprint on revenue ceiling breakthroughs and stop spinning your wheels.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Create your Day
podcast.
I'm your host, Jen Cody, andthis is episode 102.
So happy you're here, welcomeback, and if it is your first
time, welcome to the podcast.
So my name is Jen and I spendmy time helping people figure
out what is my next move goingto be, and then how do I

(00:37):
strategize that move?
Now there's something that'sdriving me crazy, and this has
to do with business, and I seethat there are all of these
people out there.
Right, the internet is a big,big place, and there's all of

(00:57):
these people teaching a lot oftactical stuff.
We're teaching about funnelsand Facebook ads and pricing
strategies, systems, processes,all that stuff, and that 100%
really really matters Absolutely.
And then there's people who arefocusing on mindset, telling
you to believe in yourself,visualize your success, manifest
your millions.
All of that stuff absolutelymatters too.

(01:19):
But what no one really reallytalks about is that these two
things need to exist at the sametime.
Here's something that I'velearned working with literally
hundreds of people the beststrategy is still going to fail
if you don't believe that youare the person that it's going

(01:39):
to work for.
So I'm going to give you anexample.
Let's say you are stuck at acertain revenue.
Right, you're making, I don'tknow $5,000 a month, $8,000 a
month, $10,000 a month, whateverthat looks like, and you've
tried everything.
You hired Facebook ads, people.
You're optimizing funnels,you're raising prices.

(01:59):
You're doing all of the rightstrategy and strategy matters it
really does of the rightstrategy and strategy matters.
It really does.
But what's happening?
This is my prediction.
What's happening is that everytime you get close to what
you're trying to get to,subconsciously you're sabotaging
yourself.
You've met someone and you'relike oh, you know what, I'm just

(02:19):
going to give them a differentprice.
Or you over deliver to thepoint where you're just totally
burnt out and you have nothingleft to give, and maybe you're
even creating extra work thatyou didn't need to do, because,
while you're learning all thestrategies to break through and
get to the other side, you stillsee yourself as that person who
can only make it to.

(02:40):
Whatever the level is thatyou're at now and I'm going to
tell you something your business, it is always going to match
your identity.
So this is what I'm talkingabout when I say that
implementation without thatinner work really does lead to
self-sabotage.
You can have the most brilliantstrategy in the world, but if
it does not align with who youbelieve you truly are, then you

(03:04):
are going to find a way to makeit not work.
And, on the flip side, you cando all of that mindset work,
right, you can spend all yourtime doing the inner work.
But if you don't have thestrategies and the systems, then
you're just thinking positivethoughts and trying to, like,
manifest your business, but yourbusiness is going to stay
exactly where it is.
So what happens?

(03:25):
We stay at our current ceiling,wondering why everyone else
seems to have the secret that wedon't know.
But it really isn't a secret.
It's simply that thisbreakthrough requires both
things.
You have to have the systemsand you have to have the
self-concept.
Strategy plus identity is whatequals breakthrough.
So why is this so crucial?

(03:47):
And it's not just woo-woo,touchy-feely stuff, because
every revenue level, everydifferent stage in your business
has different requirements.
And it's not just strategy,right, we talk a lot about like,
if I am someone who is asolopreneur and I'm working by
myself, I do X, y and Z everyday.
But now if I'm managing a team,I don't just need to know what

(04:11):
to do with that team.
I have, like identityrequirements.
I have to believe that I am theperson who can lead that team,
because that person thinksdifferently.
They think differently abouttheir time, about their money,
about what's possible.
And when you have thatself-concept and you allow that
self-concept to guide you, youwill make different decisions,

(04:33):
you will have differentboundaries, you'll see
opportunities really differently.
So this isn't about being betteror being worse.
It's simply about being alignedwith the level you are trying
to get to.
So this is why I love workingwith people, because I really do
try to address both sides ofthis equation.
It's about casting the vision,not just for your numbers, but

(04:55):
for who you need to become.
Right.
How do you locate where you areright now, identify your
current reality and the personthat you are at this moment?
And then there's a gap, right,if you think about where you're
trying to get, there's a gapbetween who you are and who you
need to be and fake it till youmake it works, but it doesn't

(05:17):
work the whole time.
You eventually have to actuallybecome that person who
naturally operates at this nextlevel, who naturally operates at
this next level.
So we work on both pieces, right.
We work on upgrading strategy,we work on all the things that
that entails.
Maybe it's different services,maybe it's different pricing,
different clients, differentways of looking at your business

(05:37):
, different systems for sure toimplement into your business.
And then we work on youridentity.
So how does someone that runsthis new business think?
How do they spend their time?
What do they believe aboutthemselves and about their work?
So how do these two thingsactually work together?
Because it's not about justdoing them separately.

(05:58):
We need to really do itcompletely at the same time.
So I'm going to break this downinto three different levels,
because they do really play outdifferently depending on where
you are in your business journey.
So let's say you're juststarting out.
You are just trying to figureout basic revenue strategies,
how to package your services,how to price and then how to

(06:20):
find those first clients anddeliver value to them.
But you also need to startseeing yourself as someone who
actually charges for theirexpertise.
Because chances are, you are atthis level because you are
someone who's been doing thingsand now you're realizing oh wait
, a minute, this might be abusiness, this is something I
can charge for, and a lot ofpeople get stuck here because

(06:43):
they can learn the strategy butthey really struggle with.
I'm not just a helpful person,I'm an actual service provider
that's charging money.
That's a hard shift to make andthen from there, the next level
would be someone that I calllike a systems builder.
This is where you need moresophisticated strategy.
You need things like recurringrevenue.

(07:05):
You need lead generation.
Maybe you're building a team,maybe you're starting to
optimize the processes thatyou're working with, but your
identity this is where you needto stop seeing yourself as that
freelancer, as that solopreneur,and start seeing yourself as an
actual business owner.
Solopreneur and start seeingyourself as an actual business

(07:28):
owner.
So you're not just starting thebusiness, you're growing a
business, and this is where youstop trading time for money.
Right, you're going to startbuilding something that can grow
beyond what you can dopersonally and that always leads
.
Naturally, if you continue onthat path, you go to that next
level, which is where you startto scale, and your strategies
are about building systems thatcan run without you.

(07:48):
They're about creating multiplerevenue streams.
Maybe you're even licensingthings out or thinking of
franchising, but the identitywork here is about becoming
someone who leads, becomingsomeone who delegates rather
than doing everything yourself,because there's nothing worse
than figuring out that you arenot just a great multitasker,

(08:09):
you're actually the mostexpensive employee in your
business if you're doingeverything.
This is the hardest shiftpeople have to make, because it
really requires letting go ofthe control that you've had up
until this point and, as we allknow, entrepreneurs just really
like that control.
So what I want you tounderstand is that you can't
skip this identity piece andexpect the strategy to work.

(08:33):
If you have been really workinghard trying to get things to
move in a different directionand shift and it's not happening
for you, chances are you needto do some identity work.
When you start implementingthose higher level strategies,
it really forces you to stepinto a higher level identity.
So when you get there, you'regoing to naturally gravitate

(08:55):
towards the strategies thatmatch that level.
Like I said, like your businessis always going to be at the
level that your identity is, andit becomes this spiral effect
where each piece is justsupporting and reinforcing the
other, building on each otherlike building blocks, like
picture that DNA spiral.
One side is your identity, oneside is your strategy and they

(09:19):
need to work in tandem so thatthey can grow at the same rate.
So this is why I really focus onnot doing strategy first and
then identity.
I want you to do both together.
When you try to do one or theother, it kind of breaks down
right and you're not seeing howit all works together.

(09:39):
But when you learn thestrategic framework for whatever
you're working on to get tothat next level and
simultaneously you are becomingthe person who implements it oh
my God, it's total magic thathappens there, because you're
not trying to force yourself todo things that feel foreign.
You're actually becomingsomeone that these strategies
feel supernatural.

(10:00):
So that's when your businessgrowth stops feeling like such a
struggle and it doesn't feellike you're forcing yourself to
implement things that don't fitwho you are.
So I want you to become theperson where those right
strategies they're just obvious.
That's just the next naturalstep that you would take.
How do you actually integratethis into your life?

(10:24):
So I want you to start with anhonest assessment in both areas.
So look at where you are now.
Ask yourself what strategies amI using that worked to get me
here, but maybe they're notright for where I'm trying to go
?
And then ask yourself how doyou currently see yourself?
Does that identity match whereI want my business to be.

(10:45):
That's what you have to askyourself, because chances are
there's a little bit of adisconnect there.
And then, when you're learningnew strategies, always be asking
yourself who do I need tobecome in order for this to feel
natural?
Don't just learn the strategy.
Really embody the identity ofthe person who would use that
strategy effectively.

(11:06):
And third, when you're workingon your identity, make it
concrete.
Don't just visualize it.
I want you to visualize thesuccess, but I also want you to
actually behave like the personwho has that success.
How would that person managetheir time?
What boundaries would they havein place?
How would they make their nextdecisions?
And then I want you to bereally patient with both

(11:29):
processes Strategy shifts,identity shifts.
They both take time and theydon't always move at the same
pace.
Sometimes you have the strategyfigured out before the identity
catches up, and sometimes it'sthe opposite.
So this is where that like DNAvisual comes in.
If you need to pause and waitfor one of them to catch up,
it's so much better to do thatthan to try to run with one or

(11:52):
the other in a silo.
It's always to keep working onboth of them consistently.
So I'm keeping this episodeshort this week.
I want you to take from thisepisode this, if nothing else
Breaking through from one levelto the next.
It's not mysterious, it'ssystematic, and it requires

(12:15):
strategy, systems and identityto execute them consistently.
So you don't need to choosebetween being strategic or
working on who you are and yourself-concept.
You have to do both, and whenyou do both, that's where the
breakthroughs happen.
So if this resonated with youand you want to go deeper, reach
out to me.
I'd love to chat and, as always, I hope you take this

(12:36):
information, go out there andcreate your day in the best way
possible.
I will see you next time anduntil then, take care of
yourself, take care of eachother and have a great week.
Hey, so before you go, I have aquestion for you.
Do you feel like you're workingharder than ever, but yet
you're still kind of stuck inthe same place?
I promise you're not alone.
Most people, they hit a pointwhere their growth just plateaus

(12:58):
and, no matter what effort youput in, you just can't seem to
break through.
So here's the thing thestrategies that got you where
you are, they're not going toget you where you want to go,
and this is exactly why Icreated my free blueprint on
revenue ceiling breakthroughsTotally free.
Go to jencodiesolutionscom,slash revenue and get yours for

(13:19):
free today.
This is not about workingharder.
I promise.
If you are ready to stopspinning your wheels and start
seeing real growth for yourself,this is for you.
Enjoy.