5 Places to Stop Trying to Do It All At Once

If I haven’t already mentioned it, let me tell you that I am a 5-planet Virgo, a 1 on the Enneagram. And if that means nothing to you, it adds up to a controlling, detail-obsessed, type-A, overworking perfectionist.

It’s taken years of spiritual practice, healing and sheer cussedness, but all of that has calmed down tremendously. Turns out that a core fear, compounded by some PTSD symptoms, were running the show.

Stop. Listen… feel that hum? Hear that whine?

That’s the agonizingly painful pressure that I, and sadly most entrepreneurs, feel, driving us to get as much done as possible in every moment.

Rarely is it a good thing. Mostly it doesn’t really work. I’ve been seeing it crop up in our clients lately, and I thought I would remind you of five places to stop letting the hum and whine drive you.

1. Your Initial Marketing Message

Your marketing message, what some call the “elevator speech” and what we call your One Compelling Sentence, gets a lot of responsibility dumped on it. People pin all of their hopes and expectations on what is really just a sentence or two. Give it some space.

Your initial marketing message should not try to move someone from a complete stranger into a raving fan client in one sentence. Nor does it have to explain the full scope of all your services. Neither is it responsible to be the deepest expression of your heart.

It’s the first time someone hears about you. Don’t be so intense or overwhelming. Take it down a notch. It’s okay, there’s time for all that other stuff later. Especially if you don’t freak people out with that first sentence.

2. Your Offer

In putting together an offer, you need to craft it carefully, with attention paid to what’s actually possible in your clients.

Your offer should not expect people to drop everything else in their lives so they can complete 20-40 hours of assignments you give them. Your offer should not expect people to duplicate the learning and integration that you yourself have done over the last two decades. Your offer does not have to get your client to the moon and home again.

This is one of the key learnings we cover in Sacred Selling, how to craft an offer that sells itself. The key point is that a little progress is lot for them. If your client makes good use of what you give them, they’ll come back for more. If you overwhelm them, they won’t.

3. Your Revenue Goals

Whatever you are promoting right now, it doesn’t need to meet your revenue needs from now until eternity. Yes, I know you need more money. Still, you probably don’t need it all at once.

Backing off your ambition/survival fear a few notches means that you don’t need to try to earn your entire year’s revenue goal in the next offer. Count up what you truly need, and it may be a bit less than you were imagining.

As I take the current group of about 90 people through our Heart of Money Transformational Journey, what I’m seeing is that a lot of people operate in a fog about their money. When you don’t know the numbers, they tend to look like big, monster-like things. Get clear on what you actually need and it may still seem big. Yet it can also be smaller than you think.

One of my clients was worried about her business being able to provide for her. In the course of our conversation it became apparent how much she valued a simpler life over a big number, and her income goal suddenly felt really reachable, especially if she gave herself a year or two to get there.

4. Your Meetings

Even if you’re solo, you have meetings. If they are just with yourself, you may not call them meetings. Or, you may have found yourself with an admin assistant, or other team members, and you do have meetings.

The tendency is to cram every single thing into every single meeting. It becomes a rushed, unpleasant slide through a tangled mess of little picayune details and big picture philosophical questions. It’s a mess, and it doesn’t need to be that way.

Have another meeting. And another. Deal with little details in one meeting. Wrestle with a big philosophical, foundational issue (just one, not 3 or 4) in another meeting. Meetings can be enjoyable and productive if you slow down and don’t try to do too much in every single one of them.

5. Your Down Time

The first four years of parenting twins left my wife Holly and I with precious little time to ourselves. When we did get it, there was a babysitter waiting at home, and a long dry spell on either side of it, it seemed.

So, pressure’s on for the “perfect” date night. Or the perfect afternoon off. Boy, doesn’t that sound like fun? Not.

Allow yourself to have regular enough down time so that each time doesn’t have to be perfect. It can be hard to identify what is really going to nourish you during down time. Watching a video? Reading a book? Going for a walk? Meeting a friend? Getting a fun errand done?

Take down time breaks regularly, which is possible even for Holly and myself, even if we can’t always take a break at the same time. That gives you the freedom to be imperfect each time. You can experiment, be playful, have fun, discover what really nourishes you.

Compassion, Anyone?

I’ve been as guilty as anyone of pushing way too hard in all five of these areas, and more. It’s been such a journey for me to learn that no matter how many times people say baby steps that it’s really true.

And yet, when you do take the time to slow down, you’ll be surprised at how much more enjoyable and quickly your business can move forward. My challenge to you is to cut back on one of these areas immediately and see what you notice.

Please share which one you’re taking on. And please share any other areas of business you think could also be slowed down. Add your comment right below.

p.s. My goodness, how do you get articles written every week?

It seems really challenging to write, but it doesn’t have to be. The secret? Most try to write stream of consciousness, just grabbing whatever is in their minds and trying to cobble it into something readable.

The truth is structure is actually surprisingly freeing. It breaks through writer’s block, and helps you identify a never-ending flow of content. Even more surprisingly, it frees your heart to express itself fully.

Check out our Heart-Centered Article Writing home study course. Hundreds of people swear by it: Heart-Centered Article Writing

p.p.s. Need someone to roll up their sleeves and get to work in your business?

The last few months all of us here at Heart of Business who work with clients, Jason, Yollana and I, have been pretty full-up with clients and course commitments.

However, Jason has recently had a few very happy clients complete, and they are happily running their more successful businesses. This tells you two things: 1) Our help really works and 2) It’s not a forever process. You really do make progress.

Watch this video from one of Jason’s clients: Joey Clifton

Apply to work with Jason here: Organic Business Development Program Basic

I also happen to have just one (maybe 2?) spots opening up as well. If you’re curious about working directly with me, you can take a look here: Organic Business Development Advanced