The 3 Deadly Sins of Entrepreneurship (Part 2)

00:00:00 - Courtney Elmer
We are in the middle of a three-part series on The Three Deadly Sins that keep most entrepreneurs from making the lasting impact in the world that they want to make. So, if you're just joining us, last week we covered deadly sin number one, and today we're diving into deadly sin number two. Now, this is one that is so sneaky that it kept me from reaching my revenue goals for five consecutive years in a row. I'm not joking, and I don't want this to be a trap that you fall into. Now, we're going to break all this down and more in the episode ahead, so stay tuned.

00:00:34 - Courtney Elmer
Globally ranked among the top shows in business and education. We're known for helping overworked online business owners navigate the ups and downs on the way to seven figures each week. You're going to learn how to get the right systems, structure and support in place so you can build a self-sustaining business that thrives in a rapidly changing digital environment and grow through what you go through to create the greater income, influence, and impact you deserve. This is AntiFragile Entrepreneurship™. I am so embarrassed to admit this, but holy moly, this one was an entrepreneur mistakes that I made for way too long and that I still sometimes make if I'm not really careful. And if I'm being honest with you, this entrepreneur mistake kept me from hitting my revenue goal of six figures for five consecutive years in a row. So, if you have a revenue goal that you haven't hit yet, despite your best efforts, then listen closely to my voice today because this will be especially relevant for you. Back when I started my business, I was in a very, very fragile season in my life. I had just launched my business; I had no idea what I was doing. And a few short months after launching my business, I became a mom for the first time.

00:01:56 - Courtney Elmer
So I had birthed my business; I had birthed this baby. I was navigating parenthood; I was navigating entrepreneurship for the first time. I was suddenly confronted with all of my own fears, all of my own beliefs that were keeping me stuck and getting in the way of me actually being able to grow and create any kind of impact. And I didn't know what I didn't know. So, I started to follow different business experts, people that I looked up to, and people who had achieved the success that I wanted. So, what most of us do, right? We talked about this in the last episode and how this is actually something that can erode our own trust in ourselves and in our own intuition over time. But imitating these entrepreneurs only served one purpose. It made me find out the very, very, very hard way that copying whatever they were doing was the worst way to grow my business. And it led me to the discovery of the deadly sin that we're talking about in this episode today.

00:03:01 - Courtney Elmer
So this is part two in a three-part series. These are not sequential, so you can listen to them in any order, but I strongly recommend you listen to all of them. Because the deadly sins that we are talking about are sneaky. They're subtle. They're something that you might not even realize that you're doing. Or if you do realize that you're doing it, you recognize that it's creating problems for you, but you aren't sure how to fix it because it's something that you've done for so long. So, the deadly sin that we're talking about today is not it's not obvious. It's something 99.9% of all entrepreneurs do, but it's pretty subtle, and it's overcomplicating. Overcomplication. This is something that almost every entrepreneur mistakes, and it makes things twice as hard and it makes progress take twice as long, and it's frustrating.

00:04:05 - Courtney Elmer
So, for the sake of an example, let's imagine that you're opening your coaching business. In fact, if you have a coaching practice or a consulting practice, think back to the early days of your business, where you started your business with a mission, with a calling, with a spark, with a drive. You were excited. You wanted to make a difference. You wanted to help people.
And so you wanted to launch your first program and start enrolling clients. But instead of starting with a simple one-page website that leads people to book a call, learn more about your offer and how you can help. You spend weeks researching how to build a website only to find out that you really should probably have an opt-in page so that you can start growing your email list. But then, to start growing your email list, you need to give people something in exchange. So you go, and you download twelve different resources on how to create a lead magnet.

00:05:02 - Courtney Elmer
What's the best kind of lead magnet to create? Deciding which lead magnet to create. All right, what topic is this lead magnet going to be? And then you sign up for Canva you pay for the pro plan to actually create the thing? And then halfway through, you realise, hold on a second, I don't want to be creating lead magnets. So you go, and you research people on Fiver, and you hire someone who could do it for you, and you go back and forth with them like 18 times. And by the time all is said and done, it's still not exactly what you want. But, you know, you need to move forward. You spent too much time on this already. So you figure out that your current website provider doesn't have landing page functionality.

00:05:43 - Courtney Elmer
So you go, and you research landing page software, and you purchase a subscription to a software program that gives landing pages that you then have to get on chat support with your website provider to figure out how to integrate with your website, not to mention with your email service provider, which you're now realizing you also need so that people can land on your landing page, opt-in to get your lead magnet, and then automatically get added to your email list so you can grow your list. But wait, there's more because then you have to go and buy another software subscription for an email service provider, and you get completely overwhelmed with all the providers that are out there who offer similar features but that are just different enough to make this a difficult decision. So you bite the bullet, you pick one, and you sign up for it, only to realize you know absolutely nothing about how to set up an automated email sequence that can actually deliver your lead magnet to the person who just subscribed to your email list. So you spend three more hours on live chat figuring out how to set that up. And in the process, you learn that you really should be tagging those new subscribers when they opt-in.

00:06:49 - Courtney Elmer
So you can segment your list and send custom email content to different segments based on their interest. I mean, it makes sense, right? So you go back to your landing page software, and you spend another hour on live chat learning how to tag new subscribers when they opt-in. And then it dawns on you: Hold on a second, I haven't even written the email to deliver the lead magnet sequence. So you open that up in your email service provider, you figure out how to create an email, and you find a template. You sit down, your fingers are hovering over the keyboard, and you're like, I have no idea what to write. Which makes you kind of realize, hold on a second, I'm not that clear on who I'm even writing to. Who is my ideal client anyway? I mean, you think you know who they are, but you have no idea what they want to hear from you. So at some point, you decide, this is really hard, and I'm just going to hire a copywriter.

00:07:39 - Courtney Elmer
It'd be easier. And then one day, three months later, you wake up, and you realize you haven't enrolled a single client. So you get desperate, and you assume it's because your lead magnet must not be working. So you go, and you create another one and rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. Ask me how I know I rinsed and repeated ad nauseam for five years, guys Five years. So either you're cringing right now at the accuracy because you remember exactly what this was like when you started your business, and maybe still sometimes it feels this way, only it's gotten a lot more complex. Sales funnels and marketing strategies. Oh my. Or you're living this experience right now, and you're like, Courtney, you're in my head. This is me.

00:08:38 - Courtney Elmer
Tell me what to do to fix it, because this is miserable. And what you haven't realized yet is that none of this is the real problem. The real problem is overcomplicating the heck out of your business because you're under the illusion that you need to, that in order to be successful, it must be complex. But even deeper than that, I'm willing to bet that the real reason you're overcomplicating things is because you're afraid to fail. You're afraid of looking like you don't know what you're doing, of looking unprofessional, losing this sale, missing out on revenue, and having that lead to sign up with your competition failing, plain and simple.

00:09:31 - Courtney Elmer
So now that we can shine a light on the real fear, here is a fear that kept me from growing as quickly as I could have for way longer than I care to admit. Let's take a closer look at this. Pick your favorite business thought leader. Maybe it's your own coach or mentor. Maybe it's someone like James Wedmore or Marie Forleo. Maybe it's someone that you love and relate to, like Amy Porterfield or Jenna Kutcher. Whoever it is, it doesn't matter. I want you to pick someone, and I want you to look at how they run their business. And I want you to notice two things. First, it is normal for their business to be more complex than yours because chances are they've been doing this longer than you have.

00:10:22 - Courtney Elmer
But what you probably haven't noticed is the time that it took for their business to grow and evolve to where it is now. Amy Porterfield first entered my world at this point, probably close to 15 years ago. And I guarantee you, back then, she was not running seven-figure, world-class professional launches with a video editing team and a full staff. Neither was James Wedmore. Neither was Marie forleo. None of them were. The complexity is a result of the time that they've spent perfecting their craft, learning and growing and refining and going deeper, but not going deeper just for the sake of having complexity or because they think complexity equals success. They go deeper because they can because they started with the basics. The second thing I want you to notice is that they also don't stay stuck in the weeds behind the scenes of their business. And I'm not talking about the fact that they have teams to outsource and delegate to.

00:11:34 - Courtney Elmer
I'm talking about how they all have one thing in common both when they started and now: they stayed laser-focused on one thing, and they made it successful before moving on to anything else. Look at Alex Hormosi. I have mad respect for this guy. Alex started out in his early 20s, running his own gym. He worked at it, and he worked at it, and he worked at it until he made it work. And then, once he did, and only once he did, did he start teaching other people how to do it. And he started a program called Gym Launch. And he worked at it. And he worked at it, and he worked at it to make that successful. And then because he knew how to make other businesses so successful.

00:12:27 - Courtney Elmer
He started his current company, Acquisitions.com, where he now takes businesses that are grossing a million or more in revenue, and he helps them move from a million to 30 million or more a year in revenue. But the complexity and the nuance and the depth of his knowledge and his experience weren't there on day one. The reason he can do what he does now and do it so well is because he has mastered the art of laser focus. We know this. This is not new information; this is not rocket science. But most entrepreneurs who are scaling from six figures trying to reach seven are making the entrepreneur mistakes of taking a flashlight approach to their business when what they really need is a laser pointer. In the last episode, I explained how I resisted focusing and going all in on scaling one of our offers for years; for years, I overthought that, and I made my business so much more complicated than it needed to be. So complex and so stressful. But once I made the decision to focus on one thing, everything changed. I guarantee you, James and Marie and Amy, they're not sitting in their team meetings asking, how can we do more things?

00:14:05 - Courtney Elmer
They're asking themselves and their teams, how can we do less, better laser focus? But how do you get laser-focused? You're multi-passionate. There are a lot of things you want to do. You're also an entrepreneur, so there's no shortage of ideas coming at you all day, day and night in the shower, on a walk, or at the gym. Ideas, ideas, ideas. They are flowing. But I'm here to tell you that the solution is very simple. I've also got to warn you it's going to require you to do the hard work of letting some things go. Let me break it down for you.

00:14:47 - Courtney Elmer
There are three simple questions to help you figure out what you need to be focused on and then tune out the noise that's keeping you from focusing on those things. So the first question is this: What do you want to be doing? What do you want to be doing? What do you want? For many of us, we've been in business for three, five, 7910, and 1215 years, and often, we can lose sight of what it actually is that we want to be doing right now in this season. Maybe what we did a year ago two years ago, or five years ago is the thing we've continued to do. But maybe as we've grown and evolved, that's not actually the thing we want to be doing anymore. There's misalignment there, which is going to cause friction, which is going to cause self-doubt.

00:15:50 - Courtney Elmer
So get quiet, like I encouraged you to do in the last episode. And in that time of quiet, ask yourself and examine and explore and notice. What do you want? What do you want to be doing and then Once you figure that out, what you need to ask yourself next is, okay, if this is what I want, what's the simplest path to get there? If I were to start my business over today with Zero Team, here's what I'd do. I would dial in who I'm here to serve. And I don't just mean to say, like entrepreneurs, who specifically. I would categorize them by their beliefs, their values, and the type of people that they are. I would dial that in crystal clearly. Then, I would dial in how I'm going to help them, what specific problems I can help them solve, and the specific transformation that will be achieved when those problems are solved in their life.

00:17:03 - Courtney Elmer
And I would get crystal clear on those two things: who and how. Then, I would create an offer around solving that problem and beta test it to get proof of concept. Once I've done that, I would choose a simple mechanism to sell it. Simple. I'd run ads to the sales mechanism and make money. That's it. Now, maybe it sounds like I'm oversimplifying this, but it really is that simple. Who do you serve? How do you help? What's your offer? What's your sales mechanism?

00:17:49 - Courtney Elmer
Forget SEO. Forget social media. Forget podcasting. I can't believe I'm saying that. I love podcasting. You know, I would argue that does need to be one of the next things to focus on once you have a proven offer that's generating revenue. But for now, till you have that dialed in, forget it. Forget fancy sales funnels. Forget lead magnets. Forget opt-in pages.
Forget guesting on podcasts, speaking at virtual summits, and overthinking your pricing structure. And who cares? Who cares? You're here to help people, right? So you have to ask yourself, how am I letting my own fear of failure get in my way right now and hold me back from doing what I want to do?

00:18:38 - Courtney Elmer
It's a very subtle fear, but overcomplication is another procrastination strategy, and right now, it's holding you back from making the difference you want to make. So, question number one, what do you want to be doing? Question number two. What's the simplest path to get there? And then question number three is what feels lightest to you in this season of your life?
What approach feels the lightest, the simplest, and easiest in this season of your life? For me, pouring all of our resources into Pod launch is focusing on our monthly workshops, teaching and teaching, and serving and serving. That's it. And guess what? It lights me up. And I love it. I love it. And I hope you join me for one of those workshops. You probably heard information about that at the start of this episode. But what feels lightest to you?

00:19:44 - Courtney Elmer
What's the shortest path from A to B? So that's it. No need to overcomplicate it. Those are the three questions. So now that you know that, I have to ask you what do you want to do from here? Do you want to make progress and feel energized and inspired when you get out of bed? Do you want to feel excited to sit down at your desk, crack open your laptop, and do the work you're here to do? Or do you want to keep trudging along, bogging your to-do list down with work that really doesn't matter? And what do you need to let go of in order to get there? Let me give you an example from my own recent experience to drive this point home. In the last episode, part one in this installment series, I mentioned that for the last year and a half or so, I resisted letting go of an arm of my business that was responsible for half of our revenue last year alone. Does it mean I'll never bring it back? Who knows? But making that decision was hard, and once I made it, it was liberating. Another big decision that we made was to move away from live launches to an open enrollment model.

00:21:11 - Courtney Elmer
And I could have made that really complicated. In fact, you can go all the way back to episode 55 if you want to learn how. I spent $23,000 to learn how to make this process really complicated. But as I've grown and as I've learned and have learned to ask and am teaching my team to ask, how can we make this as simple as possible? What's the shortest path from point A to point B? I could have implemented everything I learned in that $23,000 program on how to set up an automated webinar evergreen System sales funnel. I mean, you name it, everything that you could possibly think of to set up one of these fancy sales funnels. And let me tell you, I've done it, and it's labor intensive, and I hated it. And I knew I didn't want to do that. So, instead, I just made the decision not to do it. And I started with a workshop that I'm teaching on a recurring basis.

00:22:21 - Courtney Elmer
If someone's in the workshop and they're interested in learning more, you can hop on a call with me, and we will talk about your specific business and how we might be able to help if we're able to help you. That's simple because I know that I can and will layer the rest of the stuff in once the basics are dialed in. So whether you're just starting out in business, or you've recently pivoted, or you're trying to grow beyond the level in revenue that you currently are at, whether that's one hundred k to two hundred k, two hundred and fifty to five hundred, five hundred to seven hundred and fifty, or beyond seven figures, it doesn't matter. At every point in the journey, you're going to have to continually dial stuff in. And the more that you complicate stuff, the longer it's going to take. So the choice is yours. Here's my challenge to you. I want you to pick something that feels really complicated right now in your business and give it the litmus test. Ask the three questions that I gave you. What do you want to be doing?
What's the simplest path to get there? What feels lightest to you in this season of your life? And notice if you need to let anything go. And if you want, I will hold you accountable. DM me on Instagram at @thecourtneyelmer.

00:23:47 - Courtney Elmer
Let me know that you're taking me up on this challenge because I check my DMs just about every day, and I am happy to be your accountability buddy if that's what it's going to take to help you stop overcomplicating things. So that's all I've got for you in this episode today. I know I've given you a good bit to think about, and if this was helpful for you, I would love it if you would take a moment right now. Just a moment is all it takes. Scroll down in your Apple app if you're listening on Apple. Tap the five stars and write a one-sentence review. This helps new listeners know that this show is worth their time and that they're going to get something valuable out of it. And it would mean the world to me if you would take a moment of your valuable time to do that. Then make sure you join me back here next week because we are going to wrap up this three-part series with the third deadly sin of entrepreneurship. So if these two episodes have been insightful for you, you are not going to want to miss the next one.
All right, until then, let's get out there and grow through what we go through together.