Avoiding the Big Mistakes: Two Mirages on the Horizon for Entrepreneurs
Whether you’re a start-up entrepreneur or a seasoned veteran, there are always mistakes and traps you need to be aware of so you can avoid them.
There are two in particular that I see on the horizon today. I call them mirages, because from a distance they look very tempting, but once you get close-up, you’re often wildly disappointing.
Many times you’re in too deep; you’ve already fallen in the trap.
Mirage #1: The idea that you can abandon hard work and opt for the “easy flow” of building your business.
There is this beautiful mirage in the business world right now – this idea that you don’t have to work hard; you don’t have to hustle; you can just take it easy and go with the flow. The story goes that if you just sell enough of your $37 product, you will easily scale your multi-million dollar dream and accomplish everything that matters to you.
This is an illusion. It’s not real. It’s not going to work. You are setting yourself up for absolute disappointment.
I see so much confusion going on in the market right now over this idea. I actually believe this confusion is intentional. It is preying on tired, overworked, overwhelmed entrepreneurs who are searching for an easy way out.
Please hear me. I don’t blame you one bit. I don’t blame the entrepreneur who says, “This is really hard, and I need to find an easier way.” I get it. I feel you.
I know the journey of entrepreneurship stretches you and challenges you in ways you never could have imagined. In fact, if you knew it was going to be as hard as it is, you never would have started.
But here’s the thing that we as entrepreneurs have to remember – the human experience is filled with turmoil and challenges, setbacks and obstacles. Those things are all placed in our lives so we can learn, grow, and become more.
The hard things are there to help us develop into the people—the leaders—we need to be in order to operate at the level we want to be.
I love my business. I absolutely feel like I live in alignment with my soul’s purpose every single day. It’s the most invigorating and freeing feeling in the world. But I am never going to hide the fact that I work extremely hard. But I don’t resent that fact, not at all. I celebrate that hard work. Because I understand the thing that I want all of you to understand.
Hard work is what builds muscle. Hard work is not a bad thing. Hard work is how we learn, grow, and become more.
Being in flow means that you operate from a place of authenticity, in alignment with your soul’s purpose. It means that you accept and take ownership of the hard work that is required to achieve the outcomes that matter most to you. I live in flow every single day.
What’s hidden in this “go with the flow” messaging that’s so popular right now is that, by opting for a lower bar, by setting goals that are easier to accomplish, you are ultimately settling for a lifestyle that does not match your goals and dreams.
What is this “flow” they’re advertising? It’s the absence of friction. But, if there is no friction, there is no muscle-building. As entrepreneurs, when we get comfortable, we stop growing. We stop building muscle. And without muscle, we’ll never get to the top of the mountain we’re trying to climb.
What’s really going on for a lot of people in this “movement” is that they’ve decided that the “friction” (the muscle-building) that is required to become who they really want to be at the highest level either – isn’t worth it. They’d rather be comfortable and release the pressure of performing at a higher level.
Don’t do this. Don’t opt out of the friction and the stress and struggle of growing in lieu of instant gratification.
I want us to reframe this idea of flow and understand that we can be energetically in alignment—body, heart, spirit, and soul—with our purpose on the planet.
When I talk about flow, it’s a different kind. Not the kind that suggests you can achieve greatness without friction, without stretching and challenging yourself. The flow I’m talking about is that beautiful momentum and sweet spot that comes from building your muscles through friction as you head in the direction you were destined to go.
I want to encourage each and every one of us to set the bar for our lives in true alignment with who we feel God is calling us to be, who we truly long to become.
Mirage #2: The idea that all you need to be successful is the newest, shiniest tactic on the market.
I know it is absolutely so tempting when you see people out there on social media hyping up the latest and “greatest” tactic to think that this one new thing might be the absolute game changer for your business.
Believe me. It’s not. You don’t need another tactic.
I didn’t realize how pervasive of a problem this was until recently. My team told me they’d been talking to clients of ours who were all worked up by all these different tactics and which ones they should be trying and buying and implementing in their businesses immediately.
Just like the “go with the flow” mirage preys on people who are overwhelmed and burnt out, this “tactic” mirage preys on people who think “I don’t have enough. I don’t know enough. I’m not enough. I need more.”
You have to break out of that spell that the market has you under. That spell that so easily manipulates you into believing that you need more tactics, that you’ll be left behind if you don’t jump on the biggest, newest, greatest, shiniest, flashiest grand idea.
You have enough, you know enough, you are enough RIGHT NOW. You have to be able to envision your success at a level you can’t even wrap your mind around right now.
The mirage of this tactic trap is literally keeping you stuck, keeping you from achieving your goals. The fact that I’ve even seen this creeping into our own community of elevated thinkers and high performers shows me what a huge problem it is right now.
It’s exhausting to watch, because I’m sitting here thinking, “Wow, if they just took that energy and focused on getting their head in the right place and getting one or two course strategies to skyrocket—wow—they would be in a completely different place in their business and their life.”
Over the past two years, I have focused on two simple things:
- My Live Launch.
- My mindset.
There are a ton of tactics out there that I’m not doing, that I don’t know how to do. But I know that 85% of our millions of dollars of revenue, has come from one strategy: our Live Launch.
And the only way I could go from six to seven to eight figures was to elevate my mindset. So I made very intentional decisions to elevate my mindset to allow me to rise up to the level I wanted for my brand.
If you’re still making your decisions chasing other tactics and always looking for something new to do – you have a mindset issue. The market manipulates you into thinking that you need the next new tactic to find success.
They don’t want you to know what I know: that if you perfect the Live Launch and do it over and over again, you’ll be successful. Because then you won’t buy their course, their product, their $37 newfangled idea. You won’t be desperately seeking the newest, latest, “greatest” idea.
The market wants you to experience this sense of panic. They want you to feel frantic. They want you to believe in scarcity. That is how the market works.
Yes, people are stressed, burnt out, and overwhelmed right now—more so than ever before. But what we all really need is a mindset reset, not another tactic. When you are building and growing a business for the first time, you always think there’s a latest, greatest tactic that’s the easy, simple answer which will catapult you to the next level.
This is not how exceptional brands are built. Chasing after the latest tactic is not a legacy play. This is not how you’re going to become the best in the world at what you do. This is not how you catapult to category one. You need to wake up. The strategies are already in front of you.
If you know me, you already know you can make millions of dollars through your Live Launch. If you’re not already making millions of dollars through your Live Launch, you need to perfect your Live Launch, plain and simple. You need to do the work. You need to execute.
This will only come by friction, by overcoming that little voice in your head that says, “There’s an easier way. You can skip over the hard work. You can just flow with it.”
If you are still chasing after the newest, shiniest tactic, I promise you’re missing the point. If you’re looking for shortcuts, the easy way out, new tactics, less friction, you’re missing the point.
I am here for those of you who truly want to become the best in the world. Those who want to leave a legacy, who want to provide a superior product that makes a superior impact, one that elevates you to the top of your category.
It’s critical that you avoid these traps, these mirages. I want to challenge each and every one of you to make the commitment to yourself to not pull back, to not play small, to not give up, to not give in, to not settle, to not shrink your dream down to what’s easy in the moment.
I’m here to empower you. I want to see you thrive.
