Want Succes in Your Business? Don’t do what you are told!!
Tried all the advice about becoming successful out there? It’s time to do it YOUR way. Take elimination of your not-preferred tasks and strategies to the extreme!
In every book about success ever written, the author advises you to leverage your strengths and build on those. Similarly, many authors tell you to eliminate or outsource tasks that you are not great at. I like that advice — but I do not think I have taken these recommendations to an extreme enough level. I don’t think you have either.
From now on I am going to do this:
Leverage my strengths, preferences, and personality to build my business.
A lot of people striving for success in entrepreneurship emulate other successful people's way of getting there. But the thing is:
“Nothing important comes with instructions”
— James Richardson
These words of wisdom got me thinking; It’s probably the same for business. I am not saying that you NEVER should look at what others do. But I do think it is wise to look at what other people have done, reflect and ponder upon it and critically select what is the best thing for you to do.
There is no one way to become successful, every successful person out there has had to come up with their own formula, and so do you.
You are not me, your cousin, Richard Branson or Gary Vaynerchuck, you are YOU. That means that you should not do like any of these people — you should do you!
Your personality, your strengths, your motivations, and your interests are different. Yes, you might have some of the same ingredients as they do, but a Tequila Sunrise is very different from a White Russian even though they both contain vodka.
Okay, I just googled what was in the drinks — turns out it's tequila and not vodka in a Tequila Sunrise — wow, I think my brain is broken, it's in the freaking name!!! Okay, let's just use White Russian and Bloody Mary as an example instead.
I got sidetracked(Thank you ADHD 😉)
Let’s get back to how to take the “leverage your strengths, delegate or eliminate your weaknesses” to the next level. Let’s take it to the extreme.
How to do it
Take a hard look at all of your tasks, your business strategies, and your tactics. It’s time to reevaluate every single one of them. It’s time to be radically YOU and redesign your business to suit its owner. Be extra vigilant, selective, and critical of your business strategies and tactics because these are where your choices and eliminations have the biggest impact.
Eliminate:
What can you toss in the bin and never do again, or do less often? It might be something simple like sharing less on SoMe or only checking e-mail once a day. Eliminating simple tasks are something we often hear about from others. If you want to take it to the next level, you need to seriously look at everything in your business.
Your business strategy and tactics might not be serving you. Reassess them and ask yourself whether it is the right thing to do for YOU (Don’t just do what everybody says you should do).
Here’s a few examples to get the ball rolling…
It might be a great tactic to go live on Facebook every week, for some people — but it is the right thing for you?
If you start sweating bullets and your stomach hurts hours before you are going live — it might not be right for you. It’s okay, to be honest, and stop doing it, there are other ways to get attention from your followers. Btw, you might have sweaty palms and a weird feeling in your stomach, and still like it — maybe it’s because you are nervous but excited, if that’s the case, by all means, continue doing it.
Is building and/or maintaining a website something you despise? Eliminate the website completely, you can live without it.
Does the pressure of sharing stuff on SoMe cause you to have a mini-breakdown? Share less, or find other ways to get attention.
Are writing content, blog posts, and website text killing you? Stop doing it — go live, record videos, do a podcast… Do whatever suits your personality, strengths, and interests instead.
Do you hate selling (like me), how can you work your way around it? How can you become so magnetic that your customers ask you how to buy from you? I have chosen to share, share, share and see what happens.
Have you been selling high-ticket courses, because some “guru” told you that this was the way to go? But it doesn't work for you and you don’t feel great about it? Do something different! Chop up your massive course and sell short courses for 1/10th of the price. Serve a course-buffet and allow your customers to pick and choose what they need from you. Write a guidebook, host a retreat in a tropical location. Or, do YOU and find a completely new and different way of teaching people and making money.
Are you following other medium-writers advice on how to make money on medium? Pumping out listicle after listicle and publishing every day? If this isn’t something you love doing, DON’T! Write what you want to write, share what you want to read — maybe people will actually like the authentic you. (this might or might not be a note to my past self. I spend so much time researching how to “make it” on medium, but I never actually wrote until I let go of emulating others).
Is your business strategy and tactics truly working for you? In not, change it to fit who YOU are, and stop blindly following what everybody else does.
Delegate:
Depending on the cash flow in your business, or the size of your bank account, delegating tasks to other people is the smart thing to do.
I am not going to get too much into detail here, as I know that A LOT of people have already written or talked about this. If you want to know more, go ahead and google “Tasks for outsourcing”.
There might be something in your business you can delegate, that you haven’t thought of or that other businesses usually don’t delegate — look carefully at every task and decide if it is delegatable.
If delegating isn’t something you have the funds to do, that’s okay, your time for delegation will come.
Be sure to NEVER delegate something that can be eliminated!
Automate:
There is no way you can possibly eliminate it or delegate it! Okay… then find a way to automate it.
Get software to automate or make your job easier. Use a financial accounting program, use a program for publishing your SoMe content, set up an automatic e-mail autoresponder with the 10 most frequently asked questions.
Eliminate again:
You have eliminated everything you possibly can in your business. You have delegated and automated as much as possible.
Some things cannot be eliminated, delegated, or automated — you just have to do them.
Before you give up, take one more look at the remaining tasks, and especially your tactics and strategies — are you absolutely sure everything is 100% critical for your success? If you don’t enjoy doing them, is there any other way to get the same results, that would be more YOU? Is your business aligned with your strengths, personality, and interests? Or does it need a little tweak?
There is NO SET FORMULA to success in business, you need to develop your own. I believe your road to success is doing YOU! What do you believe?
Do:
Well, get on with it — the task isn’t going to magically disappear 😉
Here’s what I am (not) going to do from now on
I want to focus on my strengths, the things I am good or great at, and the things I enjoy doing. I will also leverage my personality and my ADHD (my superpower/greatest obstacle).
These might not be your typical “elimination” tasks or strategies, but that is exactly the point. I am going to align my business adventure with who I am. I truly believe that DOING ME will harvest the greatest outcome.
- I work like a crazy person for short spurts of time. I am able to hyperfocus and get A LOT of work done, in no time — when I am motivated. The downside is that the high doesn’t last for long, and my energy and motivation disappear as quickly as it arose. This makes me very inconsistent. I have been trying to become more consistent for years, but it never lasts. From now on I want to leverage my hyperfocus/obsession and get a lot of work done while in that mode. I am also going to allow myself to not do much work when energy and motivation fade. People that read my stuff and follow me on social media are going to have to live with the inconsistency. However, I will be saving some of the work I do in hyperfocus for sharing and publishing in low seasons. I am going to ELIMINATE consistency.
- I am full of ideas and I love to do research and test on myself and others. I LOVE sharing this with the people around me, both online and in person. However, I often stop myself because I feel like I don’t have the whole answer and therefore cannot be sure that what I am talking about is 100% correct and will work for everyone. Even though I have tried a lot and found tonnes of ways that don't work and some that do, I don't like to position myself as an expert that has THE ANSWER. I deep-dive into things — and I figure out how to solve the problem at hand, but I am still very aware that I haven't found THE PERFECT way of fixing things (procrastination, productivity, finding passion, etc.). I know that NO ONE has the perfect formula, not even the best in the world. I see all the holes and the potential problems in both mine and other people’s guides and “how to’s” — and I know they are not bulletproof. For that reason, I have always been hesitant of positioning myself as an expert, despite the fact that I know just as much as most experts out there. I have decided to use my awareness of “lack” proactively. I will share what I know and what I have learned, and tell people that I do NOT have everything figured out. I will even share the limitations and “holes” that my teachings have. I hope this will help me share more, without a knot in my stomach. I hope this will show people that I am competent but brutally honest. I am going to ELIMINATE the “have all the answers persona”.
- I suck at sales — I hate selling. I know that my customers are happy with the services I provide and recommend me to other people. I know that I have been the stepping stone for change in a lot of people's lives. But, I just don't like selling. I think this is connected to the ability to see that none of my services are bulletproof (What I do: Inspiring and guiding entrepreneurs and side-hustlers to (be able to) live their best lives). I am going to solve this by NOT selling! At least not for now. I am writing, I am sharing, I am working on my book about finding your passion in work-life. Me and my “products” are going to be available for those who are interested — some of them for purchase. However, I am NOT going to pitch my work, write sales pages, etc. I am simply going to share and connect. Maybe one day, I will love selling but for now, I am going to ELIMINATE sales.
- I hate confining myself to ONE subject. I love to write, read and talk about (work-life) passion. I also love everything that has to do with entrepreneurship, productivity, procrastination, philosophy, ADHD — everything I believe will help make my and other people's lives better. A couple of years ago I positioned myself and a PASSION ADN PURPOSE MENTOR, something I really do excel at. But I get bored talking about the same thing all day every day. From now on I am simply going to share what I am obsessed with at the moment, as long as it is in the sphere of “Inspiring and guiding entrepreneurs and side-hustlers to (be able to) live their best lives”. I recently had a beautiful baby girl (she’s almost 6 months old now), and I have been obsessing about a lot of mom/baby stuff since I found out I was pregnant — but I have decided that this is not something I want to share my learnings and thoughts about. If I decide to start doing that, I will probably use different Medium and SoMe accounts for that, so I won’t confuse people. I am going to ELIMINATE sticking to a confined niche.
- I am a big-picture-kinda-girl, and I suck at focusing on details like punctuation, minor typos, and typing errors. At this point in time, it’s too expensive to pay someone else to edit my SoMe and Medium posts. Therefore I have decided to always do a quick re-read and Grammarly check on my posts, but not spend too much time and emotional dread on editing. Yes, this might be a huge mistake -but I am going to try it out. I’m sure you have already seen plenty of errors in this article ;-) You have probably also noticed that I am not a native English speaker (In from Denmark). I am ELIMINATING thorough editing. [I hope that you can look past the mistakes and be motivated and inspired by what I share, and enjoy reading it. If you can’t you probably aren’t “my people” anyway!] There is ONE exception though — When my book is finished I am going to DELEGATE the editing to an expert — I don’t want my book to be unprofessional and unreadable.
I’m a curious George! Has this inspired you? What have you decided to eliminate in your business? How are you going to shake things up, to make your business YOU?
Thank you for reading my poorly edited, and somewhat rambling post. I sincerely hoped you can use this in your business or side-hustle, if not I hope it has inspired you to think a tiny bit different.
I would love to connect with you, discuss the post, the ideas, or just get a “Hi!”. Share a comment or write me an e-mail.
Living Life, Loving Life.
Sincerely
Maria Skaarup
