[0:00] In the world of entrepreneurship, there is a lot of talk about a fear of failure as being something that might be holding us back. What if the business doesn't work out? What if you get bad reviews? What if nobody buys? What will people say? What will people think about you? How will that make you feel? And sometimes that stops people from taking action. But there's also something else that stops people. And we're going to be talking about that in this episode. You're listening to the life friendly business podcast where we lift the lid on the reality of running a business around family life and shine a light on the mindset gremlins which may well be stopping you from stepping into your zone of genius i'm erin the life friendly business mentor and i'm here to empower you to succeed through personalized support strategic business training and ongoing mentorship. Let's work together to champion your goals and ignite your potential so that you can create your very own life-friendly business.
[1:12] When I talk to people about getting visible, I'm talking about putting messaging out there to help bring new people into their world so that they can nurture them and hopefully eventually they will then buy from them. But what comes up time and time again is not a fear of failure. It's actually a fear of success. What if I have too many people wanting to work with me? What if I'm overwhelmed by how much I've taken on? I can't do a good job. What if I have too many clients or customers and they're annoyed at me because I haven't been able to fulfill what I promised? What if I'm so successful that I can't have a life-friendly business and I have to work all the hours and I don't get to spend time with the kids and then I'll get mum guilt? What if I don't have time to look after my elderly relatives anymore? What if I'm so successful and I start earning lots of money and then people don't like me anymore? What if I'm earning more money than my partner? Will that change the dynamic of our relationship? What if I become successful and it changes who I am and I don't like myself anymore?
[2:40] Do any of these thoughts resonate with you? I know for me that these were very deeply buried. I know that I have money mindset issues and I most definitely have a tendency to think about people with money in a certain way. And actually, that's holding me back. That's something that I still work on today. The idea that I can earn good money and still be a good person. We all have these thoughts. And, you know, it's from how we've been brought up, the experience we've had as children as well, how we look at other people, and that is impacting how we see ourselves.
[3:24] But will being successful really change who you are, the core of who you are? And if it does change you a little bit, is that really the end of the world? We all know that in terms of the relationships and the friendships that we have in life, these evolve. And sometimes you have lifelong friends, but other times you have friends for different chapters of your life. And that's okay too. So these feelings that we have, this fear of what's going to happen if we really let our businesses fly, that could be holding you back from taking the actions which you know deep down would grow your business. Because actually, your mindset gremlins are holding you tight, thinking don't change, don't change. We like you the way we are.
[4:15] But let's flip the switch on this. When we're talking about getting visible and telling more people what you do, getting your message out there, just remember that the more people you have interested in what you do means that you can be more choosy. You can decide who you really want to work with. Obviously, this depends on the type of business. If you are selling something like a product, then, you know, brilliant. As long as you can fulfill those orders and you can find new ways to be able to fulfill greater numbers of orders, you can get as many customers as you want. If you're a service-based provider, you get a wait list and you get to be more choosy about who you work with. And this is the thing, it's about taking back the control because you set your capacity.
[5:05] With a life-friendly approach, you decide how many hours you're happy to work each week. If you're listening to this and you're thinking, well, that would be a nice thing, but I need to work all the hours to make the money that I need to make. That's where you need to look at your business model. Is your business model allowing you the work-life balance that you want? And there might be tweaks that you can make in order to make your business more
[5:32] scalable for the time that you're working. But also remember the more people you reach with what you do, it builds up this demand it builds up a buzz the more people that know about you the more chances are that you're going to get word of mouth referrals and the more people that know about you the more people are going to convert if we work on the basis that an average conversion rate is two to five percent so that's two to five people out of every hundred so obviously the the more people, the more hundreds of people know about you, your conversion rate is going to convert more and more people, you're going to be earning more money, then you can take on more help. You can get your VA. You can get your accountant.
[6:19] You can get an assistant, whatever it is that you need to be able to keep your business growing, but without increasing the hours that you have. And the other thing to think about as well, and this is one thing that I keep trying to work on my own money mindset, is the more money that you can earn, the more you can help other people, whether that's your family. You know, maybe you want to be able to look after your parents a bit better. Maybe you want to treat them to certain things. but you can also think about how you can help your clients maybe you can have scholarships for example maybe you can offer some freebies you could support a charity with the extra income that you're making in your business so there are so many ways that by you succeeding by you pushing yourself out there and by growing your business you can make a positive impact but let's take a moment to think about if you do nothing. If you continue the way you are, having this deep-rooted fear of success that's stopping you from taking action.
[7:24] How are you going to feel in years to come when your business is not growing in the way you want it to? You're probably going to be feeling very frustrated, knowing that you could be achieving more. And you might have regret and and wish that you had done things differently. You might see other people around you progressing in their businesses and achieving the things that you dreamed of achieving and wonder why it's not happened to you.
[7:55] When I went to the Tony Robbins UPW event, he did this amazing exercise that had people crying and wailing, where he talked about what would happen if you don't take action today. So he wanted everyone to stand up, 13,000 people in the room. He wanted everyone to stand up and close their eyes and think about the thing that they know that they're not doing, the thing that they're putting off because it feels hard. And he said, what would life be like in one year's time if you haven't changed the way things are right now? And of course, you start thinking about, oh, I might feel a little bit frustrated, might feel a little bit bit regretful. What would things be like in five years' time? What opportunities will you have missed? What relationships might have broken down? What might you have lost because you haven't made these changes? And then he said, 10 years, 10 years' time. And at this point, people were properly wailing. What would your life look like if you did not make a change and you did not get Get over these things that are holding you back. How is that going to make you feel? And he went right up to being on your deathbed. What does that look like?
[9:16] And we can all think of the deep frustration that we would feel and kicking ourselves. Why didn't we get over it? Why didn't we get over our fear of what if I've taken on too much work? We will deal with it. You can put systems and processes in place. You dictate how many clients or customers you work with. You can have a wait list. You can create a community of people that are interested in what you do and take people on in cohorts, for example, and have that set capacity. There are so many ways that you can manage the leads that are coming into you. So do not let that fear of success stop you from putting yourself out there because people need to hear what you've got to say.
[10:09] This is classic self-sabotage. One of the great books that I would recommend is The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks. I'm sure I've mentioned it on the podcast before, where he talks about upper limiting and how, you know, when things are going really, really well, suddenly you'll think of something that will just pull you right back down again. This is human nature, but we need to fight it. We need to be aware of it. So I really want you to take some time after listening to this episode to think about whether a fear of success could be holding you back. Holding you back from making decisions in your business that you know would actually grow and scale what you're doing. If you could let go of all those fears of how success might change you and what that would mean for you, what would you do? What action would you take if all those fears had gone? If you felt confident that you could be super successful and you could earn all the money and it wouldn't change the core of who you are, it would only bring more good. What would you do? I'd love to hear. Please reach out and let me know on social at Life Friendly Biz or drop me an email, erin at lifefriendlybusiness.com. See you next week.
[11:30] Did you know that your chances of success are seven times greater with peer support? Deep down, I bet you know what you need to be doing to build your audience. I bet these things have been on your list for a long time, but other things keep piling on top, which feel more important at that moment. But the longer you put off growing your audience, the more likely you are to run out of lead. And building an audience is not a quick thing. It takes time. The right time to do it isn't when you're stressing out about where the next client's coming from. It's when you're doing OK and want to keep building from there. Through the Visibility Mastermind, I have created a framework to help you take
[12:07] consistent, focused action. With the support of other women doing the same you'll be more likely to stick to your plan and actually start to see the results it's time to take action are you with me apply now at lifefriendlybusiness.com forward slash visibility.
