Stop it.

A few weeks ago a friend asked me “how have you stayed so centered? Aren’t you worried about the ‘unknowns’ coming in the next few months?” 

(Don’t worry, this email isn’t going to turn into a self-congratulatory vanity show. Keep reading because this email is about YOU.)

My friend is successful, but she’s taken a few hits to her business in the last few weeks. There was an in-person event she had to reschedule and lost money on. Then she had some people drop out of her signature program, which made her revenue dip a bit more than she’d planned. 

While she was not in a place of severe danger in her business, this series of events caused the worry to creep up a little. About what “might” happen in the uncertain future and whether or not this “might get worse.”

As a result, she went into:

1. Hoarding mode. Money she’d planned on investing in herself and her leadership suddenly got re-routed towards “new marketing plans and increased Facebook ad spend.” Cause you gotta hustle and get new clients in NOW….right? 

2. Hustle mode. Within only a week of the outbreak being announced on worldwide media, she sprang into marketing new workshops and pivoting her messaging. She also offered TONS of free content to her audience and discounted some of her paid offerings, which was adding to her team’s workload. 

Which is all great…but something CRUCIAL was being overlooked and even more dangerous, it was in her blind spot.

You might read the above and think “what’s wrong with any of the things she did? Sounds like a smart, responsible business owner to me!”  But remember–she came to talk to ME specifically because some tiny part of her KNEW something was off. 

Did you know that research has shown that our brains are wired to be more impulsive when we’re under stress or perceive future stress coming?

That means you become more reactive, see false patterns in the “unknown” future and end up reaching premature conclusions about what “might happen”. 

It means when you’re making important decisions under stress, you can only see a few limited options available to you. You then unknowingly make decisions that ultimately limit you and your business, instead of staying open and waiting til you’re centered enough to see MORE options.

If you’re reading this, the best thing you can do for your career and business right now is to ASSUME you are making impulsive decisions right now. 

Because you are. Especially if you haven’t been prioritizing your capacity as a leader. Which, let’s face it, you haven’t been. You’ve been too busy learning and applying business strategies and funnels.

I’ve seen so many respected business owners with quickly-put-together offerings coming out, discounting offers that don’t need to be discounted and making investment decisions that seem “smart” to “bolster their businesses in the coming months”, but that are actually just going to create a circular problem in the long term for their businesses. 

You know what that’s called? I teach it in my programs as “the victim cycle.”

When we’re unaware of the extent to which stress is affecting us, our actions tend to reach for “quick fixes” like diverting funds to more marketing and ad spend, or hoarding money. Instead of dealing with the deeper issue that has needed resolving for a while, which IS what would get us OUT of the victim, quick-fix cycle. That’s what my friend was doing.

But quick fixes never actually solve the problem, so then we have to find another quick fix. And another one. And the cycle of you blindly and continuously victimizing your own business continues.

Which leads me back to my friend… what WAS wrong? Most people would look at what she’s doing and say “she’s being a great CEO.”

Because she’s my long time friend, I had more information. In the last few years, her business has exploded, she’s had lots of press and opportunities for speaking. Lots of engagement on social media. 

And while she LOVES serving her community, she’s started to have some weird health things pop up. So much so she thought she had an iron deficiency. She went to doctors and no one could figure out why she felt how she did.  

She finally realized a few months ago through some of our conversations that she’s hitting a capacity limit, which is why she’s having all these weird “symptoms” no one can explain. Her body’s putting up a STOP sign. Something in her way of being and doing business is no longer in alignment with who she’s growing into. 

Yet, here she was, in a pandemic, STILL hoarding and redirecting extra money towards more marketing and ad spend, instead of investing it in the deeper work she’d planned to invest her money in. Repeating the same behavior that put her here to begin with. 

That’s a quick fix. 

She’s responding, from stress, to a short term problem, with a temporary solution and as a result she’s going to have short-lived results. In a few more weeks or months, she’ll have to do another “pivot” to keep things going during these uncertain times.  

This is because she’s IGNORING and PUTTING off the thing that would actually permanently fix the problem. The work her body has been asking her to do.

This is what she’d been doing for YEARS. The pandemic had now become the new excuse to put things off. When I first told her this, she got defensive. “What do you expect me to do Lisa? Let my business go down the drain?”

I replied, “Of course not. But before the pandemic, it was another thing that stopped you from doing this work your body is asking you to invest in. Before that, another drama. And yet, here you are once again, doing the SAME thing you always do. Trying to solve a problem that needs DEEPER work, in the same way you always solve problems. I thought you’d already established that’s no longer working for you?”

I’d say the same thing to you. I’m not one to spiritually bypass the pandemic. Its implications are real. A lot of people are hurting on many levels. It HAS had an impact on our world. 

But I truly believe this virus has done one thing: SLOWED US THE EFF DOWN. Given us time to do some deeper reflection about who we want to be, what we’re contributing to and a chance to reimagine some of the ways we’re choosing to do business.

If you’re a business owner, the virus has revealed the weak spots in you and your business already. That’s a good thing. But those weak spots are like that because you were doing things a certain way.  It’s insanity to think you can do things the same way and get different results.

While you may have been able to get away with your “tried and true” quick fixes before this pandemic, that shit’s not gonna fly right now. It’s just not. And I’d rather be up front with you now, to help you avoid a hell of a lot more pain in a few weeks or months.

The people who are going to come out of this thriving are not ONLY going to focus on their “ad spend” and redirecting all of their financial resources to “upping” their marketing.  They’re not going to stay in outdated “either this or that ” mentality (e.g. “I can either invest in more marketing or I can invest in expanding my capacity”). That way of thinking died with the world we knew in December of 2019.

The people who thrive DURING this pandemic are going to FINALLY do the CAPACITY work they’ve been needing to do, and deal with the ROOT of the issues they keep coming up against. 

Instead of quick-fixing everything all the time. They’re going to use this opportunity to go deep and fundamentally fix the flaws in the way they do things and in the foundations of their businesses. 

Because you KNOW this pandemic is already revealing your and your business/career’s weaknesses. The ones you’ve been sidestepping for years. They’re in your face right now. 

So you’re telling me you’re just going to go right back to what you always do, which is hustle harder and increase your marketing? That’s how you’re responding to this? By CONTINUING to sidestep with “strategy” the work you know you need to do on your capacity? That’s not gonna fly right now. 

How do I know any of this? Who am I to say this?

This is what I had to do in 2015 in my own business. The reason I’m so “calm” in my friend’s eyes, is because I’ve been through scary economic downturns in my business. I’ve had to dig myself out of huge holes before. 

And what I learned in that stressful year, was that as long as I kept directing money to new “funnels”, new “offerings” and marketing budgets and ignoring my own capacity issues, the deeper my business went into the red. 

It took me ending up in $100,000 in business debt to FINALLY stop trying to solve problems that needed deeper approaches with “strategies” and “ad spend.”  SO much of my work around capacity now stems from the lessons I learned digging myself out of that experience.

It wasn’t until I stopped thinking increasing my marketing spend was going to save me and started doing the deeper work and looking at my capacity that things started to truly shift and turn around.  And my business not only became even more financially successful, it FELT good to me. No more mystery health issues. I was FORCED to deal with it.

And it’s not just me. I’ve worked with thousands of people now helping them with the SAME thing. I’m trying to prevent you from having to be FORCED in a worse way than this pandemic. Because it will happen if you keep doing this avoidance dance with yourself.

You’re already being forced in an unpleasant way. Are you seriously going to make it worse for yourself by trying to do the same sh&t you’ve already been doing?

Continuing to do things in a way that stopped working for you on even just a physical or emotional level (no matter how financially successful it still makes you) is a CAPACITY ISSUE. 

And it may not be affecting your finances, it may work like gangbusters for now, to apply the same strategies you’ve always used. But that’s going to be temporary. I PROMISE. From EXPERIENCE.  Good, long term successful leaders think and behave long term, not short term temporary quick fixes.

And after this pandemic is over, there’s going to be another big thing that happens. That’s life. And you’ll always have a very serious and real sounding excuse for not changing things.

Then you’ll hit the plateau, or your body will break down and you’ll wonder why. 

You know why.

Stop it. Just stop it. 

You have a GOLDEN opportunity right now to build success, wealth and impact in a more aligned way than ever before. You have the BLESSING of being able to re-examine the ways you’ve been obsessed with your marketing budgets and strategies and totally ignoring the MOST IMPORTANT thing you need to keep growing—your capacity. Don’t throw it away.

You’re either going to cut the BS and stop avoiding what you know you need to do, fix the ACTUAL problem (cause trust me, it’s not your marketing budget), expand your capacity and come through this thriving when everyone else is having a hard time.

OR you’re going to do the same thing you’ve always done and keep hitting the same walls over and over. Pandemic or not. Please don’t let it take something worse to get you to stop and listen.

You choose. 

But I’m NOT here for the latter. I’m here if you’re ready to UPLEVEL FOR REAL and get the capacity you need to be the GREATEST leader you can be–emotionally, financially, and practically. I’m here if you’re ready to explore BEYOND either/or limited thinking and EXPAND your capacity to HOLD, handle and receive MORE.

If that’s you, come to my workshop, Capacity in Crisis on April 29th.

It’s only $99, 90 minutes long and you’re going to learn the FOUR KEY PILLARS you need to be leaning on HEAVILY right now to soar through this, REGARDLESS of what the economy is doing.

But please, don’t come if you’re determined to keep doing the same thing over and over again. Cause this workshop? It’s NOT that.

DO come if you’re ready to try NEW, more effective things and come sailing through and out of the next few months further ahead, AND with a solid foundation set up to HANDLE even bigger future goals.