DON'T LET THESE 7 DEADLY SINS DESTROY YOUR BUSINESS
A few weeks ago, I watched the film Seven for the first time.
I say the first time - when it came to the dramatic, cliffhanger ending, it turned out I’d already seen that bit.
Anyway, Seven, is a thriller starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman about a serial killer who murders people because they’re committing one of the seven deadly sins. Fantastic film, you should watch it.
After watching the film, my brain started processing it and as it so often does, started thinking about how the seven deadly sins could relate to my business - or yours of course.
I looked at each sin one at a time and found it startling easy to associate them with things I’d done in the past that had affected my business in a negative way.
If any of the seven deadly sins are affecting your business, fear not. I’ve put together practical tips to help you get things back on track.
PRIDE
In a world where everyone’s showing off all the money they’re making, the launches they’ve sold out and how good their business looks across social media, it can be hard to admit when things aren’t going to plan.
When I launched my first business, asking for help made me feel like a failure.
I felt that as a business owner, I should know all the answers. As a social media manager, I should be an expert. As an entrepreneur, I should have the creativity to find my own solutions.
For months, I struggled on, trying to figure things out by myself.
I was too PROUD to admit I needed help. Every time I’d get a message from someone - a friend or family member - telling me how well I was doing, I’d feel like a fraud.
In the end, after multiple breakdowns and crying fits on the kitchen floor, I knew I couldn’t keep trying to uncover all the answers by myself.
After admitting to myself I needed help and reassuring myself it’s ok to ask for help, I shared with my community what was going on and how I was feeling. I received so much support for simply being honest and vulnerable. Others related to my story, offered me advice and shared their own stories with me.
I joined a membership site for social media managers where I learned a TONNE of info about actually running a business and managing the behind the scenes of my clients’ journey.
After 8 months, I hired a 1:1 coach to help me with my mindset and to scale my biz to the next level.
With an increase in confidence and a clear direction to head in, I increased my prices from £115 per platform per month to £400 per platform per month.
The increased prices meant I attracted a higher quality of client who continued to renew their contract.
It’s time to put your pride away and seek the help you need - whether that’s signing up for a course (if you’re self-motivated enough to follow it), researching things online, joining a group programme or hiring a mentor to help you out. When you ask for help or support, you’ll achieve your goals much faster.
LUST
We always want what we don’t have.
We surround ourselves with people who are achieving the success we desire but instead of feeling inspired, we hop on the comparison train.
We look at what they have, the money they’re making, the clients they’re signing and the success their business is generating.
Instead of focusing on making our own goals and dreams come true, we focus on what we lack.
Instead of focusing on how far we’ve come, we focus on how far away we are from what others have achieved.
Instead of self motivating and cracking on with our to do list, we wallow in self pity and ‘why not me’.
Lusting after what others have causes imposter syndrome, self doubt, feelings of failure and not being good enough.
Tell me, are these feelings helpful when it comes to achieving success? No, absolutely not.
Quit the comparison game, stay in your own lane and focus on you and your business.
This is a mindset game and one that takes a while to win.
Every time you catch yourself thinking about what you don’t have, switch your thinking. Look back at where you started and tell yourself how far you’ve come.
Unfollow the people on social media who you compare yourself to.
It’s great to feel inspired by successful entrepreneurs but when feeling inspired changes to craving what they have, it’s time to stop watching them.
Want help with your mindset? Go here for my Master Your Mindset workbook.
GLUTTONY
I used to think I needed all the tools. I spent money on Clickfunnels and Activecampaign and Facebook Ads and membership sites and branding shoots and all the things I convinced myself I needed to be successful.
“You’ve gotta spend money to make money!” I’d tell myself over and over as the debt mounted up.
But the truth is, I’d signed clients before I had ANY of those tools.
Before I had a list, before I had a website, before I had professional photos - I had clients coming to me based on the content I’d shared on Twitter.
Overindulging in tech and tools is a major problem for so many of us.
All you need to start a business and get clients is ONE social media profile that you post to consistently, engage with your target audience on and share a tonne of value from.
I didn’t have a website for the first 8 months of my social media management business.
My second coach encouraged me to use Facebook Ads (as that’s what she’d been taught by her coach) but the truth was, I didn’t have the money to be spending on them.
I followed the advice I was given and despite the 4 maxed out credit cards, ran Facebook Ads to a lead magnet.
After a month or so of running the ads, I still only had around 30 sign ups and ZERO conversions to my signature programme.
Three months later, another coach I followed online announced that you shouldn’t be investing money into ads until you’re generating at least £20K a month because here’s the thing with Facebook Ads, it takes a lot of trial and error to figure out the types of ads your audience respond to best.
Take some time to do an audit of the tools you pay for in your business.
Are they REALLY necessary right now? Are they MAKING you money? If not, then drop them.
Take things back to basics and make things more simple for yourself. This is still something I do now because the more we spend on tools, the less PROFIT we’ll be making. And I don’t know about you but profit’s pretty damn important.
SLOTH
I’m not lazy, but I did go through a stage of making excuses for myself.
If something wasn’t working it would be because of a tech fail or what someone else had taught me or the shitty wifi on the island I was living on at the time.
If I felt overwhelmed, I’d convince myself I needed a nap to avoid the whole situation.
I’d make poor decisions and decide to watch Netflix instead of do the mindset work that kept me high vibe.
I started to believe it was ok for me to not be where I wanted to be.
I didn’t take responsibility for my failures.
As entrepreneurs, perhaps who work at home, it’s easy to just sit on the sofa and watch tv, using the ‘self care’ excuse when what we should be doing is asking ourselves WHY we’re avoiding something or why we’re feeling overwhelmed.
I’m all for self care and make a point of dedicating time each day to working on my mindset but we have to be honest with ourselves - do we really need that break or is it the easy option because we don’t want to face the real issue?
Start taking responsibility for your actions - for your successes AND your failures.
Look for the lessons you can learn and ask yourself, when you feel resistance or are trying to avoid something, WHY.
GREED
We want to go from zero to overnight success without any of the hard work.
We’re greedy, we want, want, want but don’t want to give, give, give.
Growing an audience takes time.
Generating consistent income takes time.
Creating and implementing a strategy takes time.
Building a success mindset TAKES TIME.
We can have all the things we want but we need to be patient.
To create a sustainable business, we need 4 things: Clarity, Strategy, Confidence & Accountability.
Get clear on what you want to achieve and WHY you want to achieve it.
Once you have clarity, you can create and implement a strategy that leads you straight to your goals. Yes there’ll be ups and downs along the way but that’s all part of the journey.
Now you’ve got your strategy in place, spend time every single day building up your confidence and creating a success mindset. If you don’t believe you deserve success, you won’t get it.
Finally, hold yourself accountable.
Check in with yourself regularly, refer back to your goals and if you need some hand holding or guidance, invest in it. Not all coaches cost £10k to work with. Check out my Rapid Revamp 1:1 Business Booster here.
If you know you need a push, work with someone who’ll do just that.
WRATH
When someone’s more successful or achieving the things we want to, it can be easy to see them as a threat.
We may judge them - internally and to our friends - criticise what they’re doing and in some cases, blame them for our failures.
I’ve seen it before when people have worked with a coach and then blamed them when they didn’t reach their income goal or have the launch they wanted.
Blaming someone - or something - else is easy.
We don’t take responsibility because it’s hard admitting when we’re wrong.
But the truth is, we are the only ones responsible for our success and failures.
Taking responsibility is empowering.
Taking responsibility means we’re stepping up and becoming the CEO we dream of.
Taking responsibility means we take action.
And action takers are the successful ones.
The next time you hear yourself blaming anyone - or thing - but yourself, stop. Look at how you can take responsibility and what action you can take to turn things around.
ENVY
Are you building your business on your vision of success or someone else’s?
When we envy the life someone else is living or the business someone else is running, it can be easy to get wrapped up in their vision.
We become consumed by their idea of success and achieving their goals instead of ours.
But we can’t model our success based on someone else’s vision, can we?
When it comes to setting goals for your business, ask yourself why - why is that my goal?
In 2018, I was discussing my goals with Tom and talking about the mansion in the UK I wanted, the Range Rover, the Louboutins, the designer sunglasses and first class flights around the world. He said to me “But we’re not planning to live in the UK”.
I spent some time thinking about what he’d said and realised the majority of my goals were based on what success looked like for other people. When I thought about my goals in more detail, I learned to ask myself why that was my goal - was it my ego wanting something other people had or was it coming from my heart?
Stop craving someone else’s success and start creating your own definition of success.
I’ve let each and every one of these deadly sins hold me back in the past, don’t let them hold you back.