Then vs. Now: How my approach to business has changed over time

One of my biggest lessons as a business owner has been to ebb and flow both personally and professionally. So, in today's episode, I'm taking a trip down memory lane, reflecting on what I used to do/believe back “then” compared to what I do/believe “now” and how my approach to business has changed over the years.

– Why the number of followers has little to do with business success, and what to focus on instead.
– The importance of showing up consistently over time—even when you don't feel like it.
– How my launch failures have taught me so much more than the successful ones and the shifts I've needed to make to get to this point.
– Why success doesn't come from jumping between trends and chasing what's working right now and what you can do instead.
– Why comparing your business to another business is like comparing apples and oranges—you cannot see what's really going on behind-the scenes.

 

 
Today I'm doing a little bit of a compare and contrast and then and now of what I used to do in business versus what I actually do now.

 

#1: Back in my early days of business, I cared about how many followers I had.

Now I care about how many email subscribers I have and it's pretty funny because now that I have a decent-sized Instagram following, I actually don't even really care about Instagram anymore. I hardly ever show up there outside of the content that my team is repurposing for me. 

But that's also because I know that my email list is what is converting. My subscribers, click through to listen to these episodes. They register for my free webinars. They're the ones who are signing up for my courses more than the audience that is on Instagram, and that matters to me so much more than the number of how many followers I have.

Because followers on their own is a vanity metric. Yes, it is the one clue to someone's business size that you can see externally. But I've met people with a hundred thousand followers who are broke. I've also met people with less than a thousand followers who have a super-engaged email list and a very profitable business. So it's not a very reliable gauge of how big somebody's business is, or how successful or how profitable they are.

 

#2: Back when I started out, I would show up online when I felt like it, and now I have systems and structure in place to ensure that my content is always consistent. 

I hardly ever actually log into Instagram, but my team repurposes and schedules my content. So as long as I'm creating these three podcast episodes every week, everything else happens consistently.

We've got emails going out three times a week. We've got posts going out to Instagram. I don't have to think about it anymore because we now have the systems and the structure in place. And it has taken a long time to get to this point. We definitely weren't always the content machine that we are today, like when it was just me doing every single episode, I wasn't creating all of the other content. I was so scattered. I would show up on Instagram when I felt like it. I would occasionally miss a podcast episode. 

If I didn't have an idea or if I was a little bit uninspired, I would try to email my list each week, but I would often miss those emails. If I didn't know what to write about, or I didn't feel like writing, now that we have these systems in place, I have to show up and record the podcast episodes, even when I don't feel inspired, because otherwise, my team can't do their jobs, right? And once I've recorded those podcast episodes, then everyone else can step in and do their roles to make sure that everything is consistent.

 

#3: Back when I first started out, I worried about the outcome of every single launch.

Now I treat every launch as a learning experience and as an experiment that we can build upon. The few failed launches that I've had, have taught me so much more than the successful ones and the lessons that I've learned from the failed ones mean that I can help my own students and my clients a whole lot better than if I'd only ever had successful launches.

Imagine if I was like, Hey guys, I've only ever succeeded in my launches. You probably wouldn't relate to me. I can empathize because I have been there. I've been through all of those things and by going through those things, I've been able to come up with my own tools and strategies for dealing with it, which I can then share with my students to make that journey a little bit easier for them.

 

#4: I was constantly searching for the magic pill of what was working right now, and I'd be chasing that. 

I know where I need to focus my time and energy so I can be a lot more intentional about growing the business. I was constantly looking for that magic pill. If a new social media platform or a new format like Reels came out, I would try to be the first one on there so that I could be on that trend early and that was a huge waste of time. 

Now I know that success doesn't come from jumping on trends early. I know that it doesn't come from constantly chasing the new shiny things, the things that are working right now. Instead, it comes from strategy, it comes from intentional focus, and it comes from consistent action. There's no quick-fix tactics involved in growing a successful business. 

 

#5: Back when I started my business, if any part of my business felt easy or boring, I thought that that meant there was something wrong. 

Now I know that boredom isn't a bad thing. And I started to lean into things that feel easy. It can't always be exciting, yes. Uncertainty creates excitement, but it also creates anxiety and stress. And all of those other things that maybe don't feel so calming. 

At the end of the day, yes, you want to love what you do, but you can't expect it to always be super fun and super exciting. The truth is that parts of your business will feel boring and that's not a bad thing.

When I first started this podcast, it was so exciting. That was because it was new. It was shiny. It was a novel. Every time I put an episode out there, there was this dopamine hit of how many people listened and how many downloads we got. And 700 episodes later, I still love it, but in a different way. The honeymoon phase has ended. I don't get the dopamine hits from each podcast episode that goes out and now I keep showing up and I keep being consistent with it because I know that by sharing these podcast episodes, that is how I get to help people. And that is how I get to drive growth in my business as well. 

 

#6: When I first started my business, I was so attached to everything happening the exact way that I wanted to.

And now I am so much more flexible and open to what else is possible outside of what I had planned. These days, when something doesn't go to plan in my business, I'm able to see the bigger picture because I've been through so many little failures that have redirected me in the right direction. But if you told me back in 2016 that the very first business I was building back then would fail, I'd have been devastated. I wouldn't have been happy at all about that. 

But what I have built instead is so much better than I ever could have imagined or planned for, and it took me way too long to let go of that first business. Unfortunately, I didn't want to swallow my pride and close it down because I didn't want to accept that I had failed at something.

And while I was desperately clinging on to that first business with all of my might, I probably missed all of these other opportunities for success. I could have started my current business If I'd let go of the first business earlier and other things that might have been a better use of my time and energy, I would have maybe spent my time there rather than hanging onto it. 

 

#7: Back when I first started, if something didn't work right away, I thought that that meant I should give up on it altogether.

And now I know that consistent action over time is what creates results. When I first started this podcast, it took six months to hit the same number of downloads that we now get in a month and it didn't happen quickly but through showing up over and over again, that is how the momentum started to build.

And even now, sometimes growth feels slow but then I look back to 12 months ago and we've nearly doubled our monthly downloads in the space of 12 months. These last 12 months are also the only 12 months since I started the show where I have not missed a single Monday, Wednesday or Friday episode, and previously I would sometimes miss episodes or I'd miss a week or two if I just didn't feel inspired or if things weren't working out great in my life or in my business.

But in the last year, I have consistently shared episodes every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. My team has been consistent with the content that we now repurpose from this episode and so everything has grown. 

 

#8: I used to compare my business to everyone else's businesses online, and now I know that what you see online is only part of the story.

I remember this recently, I was sitting down with a friend and we were talking about somebody that we both went to school with and hadn't seen in a long time but we follow her on social media and I remember saying to her, Oh wow, they've such a beautiful family, they're such a good looking couple, such beautiful children like they look so happy.

And my friend said to me, well, you know, he's been having an affair and you would never have guessed that from looking at them on the outside. 

And there have been so many times when you'd look at my business online and it would look like I was crushing it. I was nailing life and, meanwhile, I was miserable behind the scenes for whatever reason, something might've not been going to plan.

What I've learned is often the people whose lives look the best online, they're the ones who are least happy and they are the ones who are living for the validation that they get online. Obviously, there are exceptions to the rule, but this is very common and now I barely even look at Instagram.

I follow a few people on my personal account who I actually care about my friends, you know, those people, but I don't compare myself to other people's businesses because I know that that's not actually an indication of what's really going on.

 

#9: Back when I started my business, I worried a lot about what people would think of me.

And now I focus on how showing up means I can help more people. What will they think of me when I start a podcast? That is what I had spinning through my head when I started this show back in 2018 and now nobody has said anything bad to my face. Nobody has judged me for doing it yet. Nobody's told me out loud yet.

And 700 episodes later, if anyone did judge me when I started, they did well. Guess what? I'm the one who is laughing now, right? Because this show has helped a lot more people than I ever could have if I'd never started in the first place and it's helping people beyond what I ever believed I could share.

As I learn new things in business and in life, I share them with you. As my business grows, I learn new things. I share those with you. And magically over the last few years, I've really stopped caring what people think as much. I have learned to let them think what they want to think. If they're judging me for doing something, it's probably a reflection of them. If somebody is judging me for starting a podcast, it's probably because they don't think that they could ever do that themselves. 

 

#10: Back when I first started my business, I would overthink every little detail, every little decision. 

Now I take imperfect action and I figure it out as I go. I've learned that overthinking is so unhelpful because you're usually trying to solve a problem when you don't quite have all of the facts. And so your brain makes up facts to fill in the gaps for you. 

For example, when you are planning out a launch, you have no idea whether that launch is going to fail or succeed, but your brain is going to tell you a hundred reasons why it is going to fail. And so it's going to feel really true to you. So you don't end up launching and now your brain's like, yes, I've won. I'm safe. This is your brain trying to protect you from failure, right? 

Whereas if you take action, you do the launch. Now you have facts, you know for sure, whether that launch failed or didn't fail. And if it failed, great. You survived it. First of all, you didn't die. And second of all, you can learn something from that and that is how then you can tweak the launch. You can do it better next time and that is also how you grow. This applies to every area of your life and your business, not just your launches. You need to take that action to get the facts rather than sitting there ruminating on it, overthinking it, and trying to make up facts when there actually aren't any. 

 

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