2 Reasons You Don't Have Clarity In Your Business Right Now

00:00:00 - Courtney Elmer  

I've talked to dozens of entrepreneurs lately who are experiencing what I would call seismic shifts in their businesses right now. Maybe you're one of them. Maybe you're going through a major pivot. Maybe it's a complete departure from what you were doing before into something different. So today, I'm going to do something different and go behind the scenes to show you some of the recent pivots that we've made in my own company. And the one thing that you need to do to find clarity anytime you're in a season of change or uncertainty. That's all coming next, so stay tuned.

00:00:38 - 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 greater income, influence, and impact you deserve. This is AntiFragile Entrepreneurship™. So, if you've followed me for at least a year or more, then chances are you know that my journey this past year has been a rough one. About a year ago on the podcast, I shared an episode of some really crazy stuff that was going on in my life and also was being reflected in my business.

00:01:32 - Courtney Elmer

And I want to share with you what has happened in my company and within myself since that really rough period of uncertainty, of overthinking, of over-analyzing every little thing, trying to find the answer, trying to find my path forward. This is a little bit out of my comfort zone because I am someone who, as in Enneagram 1, is aptly nicknamed The Perfectionist and is used to making it appear like I have everything together. And what I want you to know is that I'm a human running a business just like you. I experience the same challenges, the same doubts, the same uncertainties, the same questions. And this past year for me has been a year where I have been asking the big questions. And I feel like now, on the other side of this rough season, looking back, there is so much growth that has happened.

00:02:42 - Courtney Elmer

That's what anti-fragility is. It's growing through what you go through. But the reality of anti-fragility is that we don't often see the growth when it's happening. We can trust it's happening, but we don't often see it until we're a bit removed from it and can then reflect on it. So, in the past three to four weeks, I have spoken with many people who are experiencing similar shifts in their businesses right now. Maybe you're one of them. And for me, this shift was something that became very evident that I needed to do around April of this year. Prior to that, our company had evolved and become known for business systems, helping people with their business systems. And look, I'll be honest with you: I'm good at entrepreneurship, but it's not my zone of genius. It's my zone of excellence. What had happened in my company without me realizing through the course of three to four or more years after taking advice from different mentors, peers, and colleagues, and also clients who were getting results with what we were teaching, I felt like that was the work I was supposed to be doing.

00:04:00 - Courtney Elmer

Teaching systems. It's what I was always good at. It's what I had always done, even in previous roles, before starting my business. And it's what I thought I was supposed to be doing. We were getting great results for our clients. We were making a lot of money with that particular program when we were running it. But chances are you also know that we've had a podcast program that we've been running under the radar for the past three-plus years, and that was a program that fell into my lap. It was never something that I saw myself teaching. It was never something that I saw myself doing in a million years of teaching podcasting. I was just helping people get their podcast started because we had had such success with ours right out the gate, and people wanted to know how we did it. And I was helping them do that, and it turned into a full-fledged program that continued to grow and grow and grow. And for almost three years, I continued to ignore it and ignore and ignore Yes, we were getting clients great results in both programs on the system side and on the podcasting side.

00:05:09 - Courtney Elmer

But internally, I felt very conflicted. So, earlier this year, it became clear to me that I needed to let one of these things go. And it was hard because my identity was wrapped up in I was known for the entrepreneurship side of things. It accounted for over 50% of our total revenue just last year. So, letting go of that program Was difficult not just because it meant that it was going to generate a lot of extra work as we refined the brand and our messaging and everything that goes with that, but it was an identity shift for me as well. During this time, I had become really aware of a voice story, which had turned into a voice block, which you might have even picked up on listening to this podcast.

00:06:10 - Courtney Elmer

And what I noticed was that I was not doing the work that I really wanted to be doing in the world. So I made the decision to shelve the systems program and to just press pause and move fully in the direction of helping people go from unheard experts To in-demand thought leaders in their niche while using their voice to build their legacy with a podcast as the vehicle to do And ask anyone who knows me. I resisted that for a very long time. I didn't want to be known as the podcasting girl. I didn't want to put my stake in the ground and become known for something that I felt like, well, great, I help people launch podcasts.

00:07:05 - Courtney Elmer

Nice. It didn't feel impactful enough for me, but I hired a mentor earlier this year who helped me reconnect with my deeper purpose and the work that I believe I'm here to do, which is, first and foremost, to use my voice in service of others to create positive, meaningful change in the world and to help other people do the same thing. As soon as I realized that and reconnected with that deeper purpose and intention, it became immediately clear to me that the podcasting program was what I needed to focus on. It was the perfect vehicle for the work that I'm here to do. And I shared more about that back in episode 189. 189. As I was going through these shifts, both the external shifts that were showing up in the business and the internal shifts that I was going through as part of this process, there was one thing that became very obvious to me, and this is what I want to give you here today to think about.

00:08:13 - Courtney Elmer

So many of us spend so much time in our zones of competence and our zones of excellence but not our zone of genius. Now, your zone of competence is where you're doing work that you're good at, but someone else could do equally as well as you. Your zone of excellence is where you're doing work that you do really well. Others validate that work, but it's not the work that lights you up. Your zone of excellence is where you are doing the work that you're meant to do. It's the work that lights you up and facilitates transformation in other people. And I had lived so long in my zone of excellence that it had become a habit. I didn't realize I felt the tension within me, knowing that there was something more that I was missing but that I couldn't put my finger on. But I didn't realize that that was why. was because I was living in my zone of excellence, afraid to let it go because of what it was giving me. And that's the thing about beliefs. When we develop beliefs, often we're unconscious of them to begin with. We have to develop a conscious awareness of what are the thoughts that are going through our head and then notice the secondary gain that we're getting from continuing to run that play in our mental playbook. And for me, the secondary gain that I was getting was external validation from other people who were telling me, Courtney, you're so great at this thing.

00:09:49 - Courtney Elmer

We're getting such great results. You're doing the work you're meant to do. That was the work they believed I was meant to do. And I was getting paid for, Well, paid very well to do. So, to say no to that and hit the pause button felt like I was giving up on what I had spent years of time, energy, and effort to create. I promised you earlier in this episode that I was going to share one thing with you whenever you're in a season of uncertainty that you need to do to find clarity. Before I share this with you, though, I want to preface this with the idea That Emily Freeman shared in her book, The Next Right Thing, which I highly recommend, by the way. We'll link it in the show notes. It's a book about discernment and what to do when you're faced with big decisions in life. And in the book, she says when you are in a period of discernment, of change, of shifting, We all want the answers. Of course, we want the answer. We're high-functioning entrepreneurs. We're high-achieving individuals.

00:11:05 - Courtney Elmer

We want to know what's coming next so we can be prepared for it, so we can make plans for so we can take action with clarity, knowing we're not wasting our time because we know this is the thing that we're supposed to be doing. And when we don't have that clarity, we can feel stuck, and that stuckness might show up like waking up in the morning not feeling Like you want to go to work. Not feeling inspired to see your clients but rather resenting your clients. I do not want to write that email that you know you need to send to your list this week. Not want to move into your next launch because the economy is down and there are so many crazy things happening in the world right now. and you know you need the launch to keep your business going, but oh, it just feels like such a heavy rock to lift. And so what Emily says is that in moments like this, when we find ourselves in these seasons in our business is that we've got to stop looking for the answers and instead look for the arrows.

00:12:06 - Courtney Elmer

Where are the arrows pointing you? So, that was something that I started to notice in my life. The things that seemed a little serendipitous or too coincidental to be a coincidence and noticing where those arrows were pointing me. So, I preface what I'm about to share with you with this idea: when you're in a season of uncertainty, stop looking for the answers. Look for the arrows. But here's the kicker. You're not going to notice the arrows if you don't have enough silence and distance to notice them. In a period of uncertainty, the thing we want is clarity. The way we often go about trying to get that clarity is to work harder, to put in more hours, to do more work behind the scenes, to go out and host more workshops or more training, to do more sales calls, to try to get more people in the door, to validate for ourselves that yes, this is the path I'm supposed to be on. Surely, if I have all these people enrolling in my program, this is the thing, right, that I'm meant to be doing. But by overworking in these moments, we're actually denying ourselves and robbing ourselves of the very thing that we need to get the clarity we're looking for. In these instances of uncertainty or change, action won't bring clarity.

00:13:39 - Courtney Elmer

It will bring more confusion. What you need is silence and, more importantly, distance. Have you ever experienced a time when maybe you went on vacation for a couple of weeks, and you unplugged for the most part on that vacation? You had your assistant managing your inbox. You had your vacation autoresponder on. You weren't worried about the work. You knew you'd be able to get back to it. You had carved out this time on your calendar. And you came back refreshed, and you came back with dozens of new ideas and an excitement to implement those. You came back with clarity. But you didn't get that clarity from working through those two weeks on your vacation. You get that clarity by giving yourself the space, the quiet, and the distance from your business to be able to see more clearly what action to take. So this is my invitation to you. If you're experiencing a period of what I call seismic shifting in your business, a pivot, complete departure from what you were doing, you're noticing yourself overthinking.

00:14:54 - Courtney Elmer

See what happens if you were to give yourself a weekend of silence and distance from your business. Just a weekend. a couple of months back, I did this for myself. I booked myself an Airbnb for three nights, and I went away with the intention of listening and nothing else. Within 20 minutes of settling into my Airbnb house, cracking open my journal, and grabbing a pen, I had one of the biggest breakthroughs in my business that I have had all year, and it has fueled the direction that we're headed ever since. Because anti-fragility is not some big thing we accomplish, it's not another feather in your cap. Anti-fragility is where the rubber meets the road every day in your life and in your work in moments like this where things are changing. So what I share with you here today is anti-fragility at work, and you've got a choice. If you're experiencing a shift in your life and in your business right now, you can choose to grow through it. Even if you're not clear on what that growth exactly is just yet, you can choose to trust that you're growing through it and commit to giving yourself a little bit more silence and distance in this season to help you find the clarity you're looking for so that you can take action and to know what action to take.

00:16:31 - Courtney Elmer

Or you can keep doing what you're doing. And how's that been working out for you so far? So, as you walk away from this episode today, I want you to look at your calendar. I'm challenging you right now. Open up your calendar, and in the next four weeks, notice where you can carve out at least, at least 48 hours of silence and distance for yourself. And just go into that period of silence and distance with the intention of noticing what you notice. That's it. I promise you when you do that, the arrows will emerge. Thank you so much for being here today for listening to another episode of AntiFragile Entrepreneurship™. I would love to connect with you. I hang out mostly on Instagram @thecourtneyelmer. I'm also on LinkedIn.

00:17:24 - Courtney Elmer

We've got a brand new digital newsletter called Own Your Voice, where I would love to have you join me and over 1,500 other entrepreneurs to help you discover the missing links that you need to go from unheard expert to in-demand thought leader in your niche for free. The next issue drops on Friday, so to make sure that you don't miss it, go to antifragileentrepreneurship.co/ownyourvoice. That's antifragileentrepreneurship.Co/ownyourvoice. Now, next week, I've got a very special guest joining us who's going to show you how to build more resilience into your business finances. So, if you don't want your bank account to be down like the economy, Then join us back here next week to learn how to make sure your business stays secure during tough financial times. Alright, my friend, that does it for today. I'll see you next week, and until then, let's go out there and grow through what we go through together.