Are you feeling behind in your consulting business?
Beware, the “I’m behind” thought process can limit your business growth. It might feel like the truth, that you’re just stating a fact. But, it’s actually a dangerous mindset that’s important to watch out for as in independent consultant.
In today’s episode, Melisa explains how your mindset can slow down or even halt your progress and success as an independent consultant.
Then, Melisa shares two examples of consultants who felt behind on revenue and lead generation and how they were able to shift their mindset and overcome this feeling.
She emphasizes the importance of regularly reviewing the facts, measuring success in your business, and redirecting your thought patterns.
Melisa wraps up the episode with the “fix” you can leverage to feel behind. The fix is likely not what you’re expecting it to be.
Click here for the full show notes and more information.
Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.
Are you feeling behind in your consulting business?
Beware, the “I’m behind” thought process can limit your business growth. It might feel like the truth, that you’re just stating a fact. But, it’s actually a dangerous mindset that’s important to watch out for as in independent consultant.
In today’s episode, Melisa explains how your mindset can slow down or even halt your progress and success as an independent consultant.
Then, Melisa shares two examples of consultants who felt behind on revenue and lead generation and how they were able to shift their mindset and overcome this feeling.
She emphasizes the importance of regularly reviewing the facts, measuring success in your business, and redirecting your thought patterns.
Melisa wraps up the episode with the “fix” you can leverage to feel behind. The fix is likely not what you’re expecting it to be.
Click here for the full show notes and more information.
Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.
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Melisa Liberman
Welcome to the Grow Your Independent Consulting business podcast. I'm Melisa Lieberman, a fellow IAC and business coach on this podcast, I teach you to become a consistently booked independent consultant without becoming a pushy salesperson or working 24 over seven. If I can do it, you can too. Listen on to find out how.
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Welcome to episode 164 of the Grow Your Independent Consulting Business podcast. I am thrilled you are here today. And today we're going to talk about feeling behind in your consulting business and why that is so dangerous, why that is so dangerous. It may feel very, innocuous. I'm feeling behind it is what it is. But I want to share with you today why that can be really dangerous and, slow down or even completely halt your progress and success as an independent consulting business owner.
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So that's what we're talking about. I want to make sure that you don't turn this innocent feeling into something that's really detrimental to your business, help you to see where you might be, how it might be impacting you. If you're feeling like you're behind, and then what to do about it. So that's what we're here for today. Before we dive into that, though, I just wanted to give you a little bit of an update here about what's happening behind the scenes.
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For the last 163 episodes, I've been working with a podcast producer named Colette. She's been incredible and really helped me launch this podcast and get it off the ground and be consistent on a weekly basis every single Thursday, getting this podcast out to you. But she has changed her business model a little bit, and so it allowed me to take a step back and really think about what's happening with the podcast and where I want it to go and what I want it to grow into.
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And so my initial I, thought process was, I'll just bring this in-house and have my virtual assistant help me. kind of felt like a sensible thing to do, to produce it. It's pretty. There's so many amazing, applications out there right now. It's not that hard to produce a podcast on your own. But the more I started thinking about it, I realized that this is definitely not my zone of genius.
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This is definitely even if it's 3 or 4 hours a week, that, you know, in addition to what I've already been doing, it's a huge, you know, opportunity cost for me and my business. And so I decided to take a different direction and really uplevel the podcast instead of bringing it in-house. And so now we're, I'm working with another company and we are producing this both video and audio.
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So not only is it video or audio like you've been listening to it on your podcast player, but also it will be on YouTube and, and, clips on LinkedIn so that it will make it even easier for more people to find it. So I'm excited to see where this journey goes. Today's our first time recording. So, you know, we're we're working through all the kinks, but it's it's really exciting to see where this can go and, how we get this podcast in the ears and eyes of more people, more independent consultants to help them grow their businesses.
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So that's what's happening behind the scenes. And just a little taste of a decision that I made in my own business. And, and perhaps if you're wrestling with something that and trying to decide if you should get help in doing it or do it yourself, a lot of times we defer to doing it ourself because we're capable of doing it, but that doesn't mean that you should or that it's the best business decision for you in terms of setting up your self to deliver at the highest quality in your zone of genius.
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So I will probably share more in a upcoming episode about this decision and the journey and all of that. But in the meantime, that's just a little slice of it. So now let's go back to the topic at hand, which is this idea, in this thought process, you likely have in some form or fashion about being behind and how that can be really poisonous or toxic to the success in your business.
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I definitely want to make sure that you're not making this mistake. Believe me, I made a million times myself. In fact, earlier today I was making this mistake. So I just want to bring it to your attention and help you to see where it's impacting you. How it's not just a fact that you're behind how it's impacting you and ultimately what to do about it.
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So let's talk about the agenda for today. First, I'll go over a companion resource for you to help put this episode into action. Then we'll talk about what the what we're talking about today. So we'll dive into what it sounds like to think you're behind. You may find a lot of these phrases familiar when I share them with you, just really level set what we're talking about in more tangible way, and then we'll talk about why this is a problem, why thinking you're behind in some form or fashion in your business can be a really big problem for you.
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And either create a plateau or even worse, sabotage what you're doing. And then we'll dive into a couple of I'll share a couple of very specific examples with you so that, we're bring this to life. Then we're going to go into a Melisa section there. I if you haven't listened to the podcast before, it's the it's a time where we talk about where you might be arguing with me or trying to justify what's going on, and I want to just,
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tackle that head on to help you to see where this this may apply to you, even if you think it doesn't.
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And then finally, we'll wrap up with the fix, which is not what you might think it is. So stay tuned toward the to the end so you hear what the actual fix is. All right. So with that agenda, let's dive into the first step, which is the companion resource. I want to encourage you to go take the, consulting business health assessment.
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Doesn't sound very exciting. No one wants to help assessment. Really? I don't like going to the doctor, but this one is really, really impactful for you and your business in the sense of it walks you through 14 consulting business Key Performance Indicators asks you questions about each of those 14 to give you then a report on how healthy your business is as it relates to those 14 Healthy Consultant KPIs.
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So go take that that assessment and get a good baseline for yourself about where your business stands right now and what your areas of opportunity are. You can find it at ISC assessment.com. We'll put that link in the show notes. But it's easy for independent consultant assessment.com. And that way you can get a really good more accurate baseline for yourself versus just thinking you're behind and not really knowing where you stand.
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So that is a companion resource.
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Now let's dive into just taking a step back for a minute. We're talking about feeling like you're behind. And I don't want to just dive into this in a little bit more detail and talk about what that means and what that might sound like.
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Have you been saying to yourself, or maybe even out loud to other people on your team, or to fellow consultants, or even to a coach?
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If you have one, you might be one of my clients who have who said this to me and an inspiration for this episode. I'm behind on my revenue goal. I'm behind on my client deliverables. I am behind on my lead generation. I'm behind on posting on LinkedIn. I'm behind on networking. Those are the types of sentences that we are used to just saying to ourselves over and over again.
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It feels like just the fact I'm behind on something. I can't tell you how often I hear these. That phrase from consultants,
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and as a result, you're feeling frustrated or pressured, or that you're just not cutting it. As a business owner, when you're thinking, I'm behind.
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And so why? It may feel like just a fact. You may just feel I am behind most.
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I can show you the list of things I've got to do and the amount of time I have, and that that list just keeps growing rather than shrinking. And I just can't keep up and I'm behind. You may think that's just the way it is, but I want to highlight this for you today because you are when you're thinking you're behind and it creates that discouragement or that frustration, or even the feeling like you're incapable of succeeding as a business owner,
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it's not an effective head space from which to run your business.
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Most likely, when you're thinking you're behind, you're scrambling to catch up to some arbitrary concept of being caught up or ahead, even.
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And you're. And sometimes you're just chasing, trying to cross those things off your list without even realizing or thinking strategically or intentionally about what it is you are chasing to, quote unquote, catch up. And the impacts of this are that you prioritize the busy work over the impactful type of work in an effort to feel better, to feel more in control, to feel that you're that you're keeping up, quote unquote.
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And that is results so often in mis prioritizing what it is that you're doing, how you're using your time. The other thing that happens is that you make decisions from that feeling of being behind.
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Versus making decisions from facts.
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And I'm going to give you a couple of examples of what I mean by this. But when you're making decisions off of the feeling of feeling behind or scrambling, it impacts the decisions that you make, impact how you allocate your time, how you invest or not invest in your business, what a client work you agree to take on or to refer out what pricing decisions you make.
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So as you can see when you're thinking I'm behind and operating from that sort of, chaotic feeling,
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you make decisions that can impact almost every aspect of your business as it relates to the way you're using your capacity, the work life balance that you have or don't have, and ultimately, the amount of revenue that you're generating with the with the time that you're working.
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And so that's why this is so incredibly important to understand where this dynamic could be impacting you and your business so that you can realign it. So let's talk about some very tangible examples. Now I've been giving you some, some, high level. Let's really drill into some examples. So I was working with a consultant the other day, one of my consulting clients who I coach, and she was telling me that she was behind on revenue, and it felt very true.
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So again, I'm behind, right? I'm behind on my revenue. Q1 is ended. We're already one month. If you're listening to this or watching this in the real time, we're already one month into Q2 and she just told me I'm behind on revenue. And so I kind of believed her, but I didn't I didn't believe her because I don't think she lies to be on purpose, but she's just kind of operating off of that sense that she's behind on revenue.
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And so I asked her, I said, let's just start with the facts.
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Tell me what your number is.
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She didn't know the number. She didn't know how much revenue she had generated. So obviously if she didn't know the number, she there's no way to know if she was behind or ahead or on track. So that was a first realization.
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I don't actually know the number. Then the second
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realization, I said, what is the number? What should what should you have already made this year based on your annual goal? She didn't know that number either. And we work together on a weekly basis. Right. It's like this amnesia we've talked about on on this show before, the amnesia that we have when we set goals and, and, and we don't track against them on a regular basis or we even track against them and we just put it out of our mind because we don't want to sort of face that part of the process.
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And so I said to her, okay, let's just take a step back. Let's figure out what let's remind ourselves what your quarterly goal is. We got that number. Then she added up where she was at with her revenue and she was actually ahead. She was actually ahead
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by 6 or $7000,
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which is maybe, I don't know, the percentage off the top of my head.
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But the point is she was ahead. She had been operating off of her idea that she was behind on her revenue goal.
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She was coming to the call almost sort of in a frenetic place of, I've got to figure this out. We're already, you know, it's already the end of April. It feels feels, like I need to catch up.
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And when we really took a step back and looked at the numbers, she was ahead.
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And so for you, when you think about this,
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where are you at with your revenue goal? Where are you at with whatever it is that you think you're behind on?
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What is the actual fact? What is it? Or what is the math of the situation versus operating off of the idea that you're behind without even really knowing if that's true or not?
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For this particular consultant, when she's thinking she's behind, she's kind of scrambling to create more leads, thinking about discounting her pricing or what kind of smaller offers she could, take to market in order to shorten the sales cycle.
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She was problem solving, a problem that didn't even exist, and almost negotiating against herself as a result of this.
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So for her, when we got really clear about what the facts were and allowed her to calm down, to shift it back into that mindset of it's working, her business is working, there's not a problem to solve here, and remind herself that it's so important to regularly review the facts of the situation versus operating off of an idea that something is not working when when we don't even know what's true or not true.
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So that's a first example. Let's talk about another example. I was working with a consultant who told me they were behind on lead generation. They said, I'm you know, I'm behind. I'm behind. My pipeline doesn't look the way that it should look. I'm I'm worried. I'm worried about the health of my pipeline. And I'm behind. And so I asked them, how do you know?
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How do you know you're behind on your lead generation? How do you know you're behind on your pipeline? What does that mean?
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And they said to me, my pipeline is empty. I don't have anything in there. So I asked them what should be in there, what should it have? What should the value be? What should the value of that pipeline be?
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And so then they said, well, a couple I should probably have a couple of leads right now who want to engage me toward the end of Q2, or who would close toward the end of Q2 so that, you know, they can take over the spot of a client that's, wrapping up. And so I said, great, let's solve the problem from there.
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Tell me more about what you're thinking. When you think you're behind on lead generation, or you're behind on your pipeline. That's kind of the headline from which you're operating right now from a lead generation perspective, is what I said to them. What is the impact, do you think of thinking you're behind? And they said, I feel pressured. I feel frozen,
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I don't do anything because of this.
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And then I get further behind. And so you can see that running off of this thought process of I'm behind in this case, I'm on lead generation is not a helpful thought process. It actually ends up creating more being behind more behind this, if that's a word. And so I hope that consultant to redirect I'm sort of redirecting their mindset from just this sort of, autopilot of I'm behind,
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which for a lot of us started when we were in corporate.
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Right. We're constantly behind rushing to a meeting, rushing to get a deliverable to something, rushing to get it to a colleague or a teammate or you were always, you know, it's kind of a thought process that's so pervasive when we're in corporate and it's so easy to translate transfer that and bring it over to your business. And so for this particular situation, this, this, example I'm giving you from a, from a feeling of behind on lead generation, what we worked on with that particular consultant is starting to build up the, the more intentional thought process of I'm figuring out how to better balance lead gen with client delivery, which makes them feel more solution
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oriented.
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So we worked on really noticing this. I'm behind, a pattern that was happening, and then redirecting that and redirecting it to I'm figuring out how to how to balance what I'm doing. I'm figuring out how to balance lead gen in this case with client delivery,
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so that it doesn't feel like it's either pass or fail. It feels like something that you're working on from it.
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And that for this consultant was working on from a skill development perspective, this isn't a pass or fail. You're not either ahead or behind or on track. This is a skill set and an evolution. And when you're thinking you're behind, as I did, as I was describing to you in this example, it ends up creating a dynamic where you end up getting further behind.
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It does not help you.
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So hopefully those two examples really give you a good sense of how this can be such a detrimental thought process from which to be running your business, and why it really matters that you keep track of and notice the way you're thinking,
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in this case, about your business and where you're at, whether you're behind or ahead, and shifting that so that you're able to open up better problem solving so you're able to open up better decision making with respect to your business.
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So let's just touch on one of my favorite parts of the show, which is the segment. But Melisa homeless I am behind Melisa. I can show you where I'm behind. I can show you my list of things to do and how many hours I have in the day, and it will not fit and of course, that could be true.
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It could be very true. You can look at any of our lists of things that we need to do, and it's more likely than not that there are more things than would actually fit. But for you, I encourage you to notice the impact of running off of this mindset of I am behind and how that impacts you and creates more frustration and makes you feel inadequate, or that you're failing and ultimately creates the the result of you getting further behind.
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And I want to encourage you to think about this in the sense of there's no behind or ahead. There's always more you could do. But getting yourself into that mindset of
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continuous improvement, continuous refinement of your priorities, learning, continuous learning and building of a skill of that. Balancing working on your business with working in your business, knowing that there's no right way to do this, a wrong way to do this.
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And quite frankly, the idea of a zero inbox or zero to do list is most likely not going to be the the thing that you chase as a CEO of a consulting business that will result in the highest impact.
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So really question if you're if you're thinking I am behind, let's not argue with the the truth here, Melisa.
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How that what that ends up creating for you, it ends up creating you becoming further behind.
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So now that I've given you a couple of examples and hopefully challenged you, if you're if you're in some way trying to justify the status quo, let's talk about the fix for this, the fix for this. So if you're feeling behind in some form or fashion, which most likely you are if if you're like most of us, as consultants who are running our own business and trying to wear so many different hats,
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the fix for this is a mindset fix.
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The fix is not
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trying to figure out a way to stay ahead. The fix is a might starts with a mindset fix.
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Let's just pull together some of the techniques that I use with those examples that I shared with you, so that you can put this into practice for yourself. So for example, start off by getting more clear about the facts.
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When you're feeling behind, ask yourself like I like I shared with you on that revenue example. What is the truth of the matter here? What are the numbers? If it's a revenue type of a situation, do look at your numbers. Remind yourself what your goal was. Even if you even if you set a goal and regularly, regularly review it, it can be so common to forget to forget what that number is like.
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The example I gave you with a consultant, I ask her the question every week and she still didn't know the answer
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also. So you want to first review regularly review the facts when you feel that or think that I'm behind. The second is to really get more clear about how you're measuring success overall in your business. So I mentioned to you those that business health assessment, the consulting business health assessment that you can take.
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Again the link is I see assessment.com. It's those 14 key performance indicators that you can leverage to figure out how is your business operating against what a what what it looks like to run a successful healthy consulting business
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so that you can see that you're not truly as behind as you think you might be.
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The other thing this the third thing that I would suggest for you is asking yourself, why are you thinking this?
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Why are you thinking you're behind? What is it distracting you from? Sometimes when we're chasing this idea of crossing everything off of our to do list and letting the kind of busy work dominate our schedule and our calendar, sometimes the purpose of that,
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in a subconscious way, is to distract you from things that are more uncomfortable for you.
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So it might be that you know you want to go pursue a speaking, process for your lead generation that's likely not as comfortable for you as whatever else is on your to do list that that you're thinking you're behind on. And so the job that the, the that the thought process is the job that when you're thinking, I'm behind the job that that's doing for you is really protecting you from doing something that's more comfortable.
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So there's actually a reason why you're doing this and getting more clear and honest with yourself can be really valuable.
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And then from there, once you've noticed what this what where you're thinking you're behind and what the impact is, you want to redirect and reinforce a new thought pattern like I shared with you in that second example, shifting to whatever I'm doing is working or there is no behind or ahead.
00:23:21:20 - 00:23:35:09
I'm figuring out how to balance things as a business owner. It's an art, not a science. Those types of new thought patterns can be really valuable for you as you're starting to build a new and different business owner mindset.
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So those are some of the steps that you can be taking to redirect yourself. When you notice yourself falling back into that pattern of thinking your behind.
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So that as we wrap up today's episode, I want to remind you to go take that risk assessment. The business consulting business health assessment. It's at I see for the the two letters for independent consultant assessment.com and will walk you through those 14 areas of a healthy consulting business. They're set up as key performance indicators and give you a really solid report on where you are doing well.
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What are the green lights? What are the yellow lights? What are the red lights? And give you a good sense of where you can focus your attention to continue improving your consulting business and ultimately reach your goals and beyond. So that's what I have for you today. I thank you for tuning in and I will see you again next week.
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Take care.
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Thanks for joining me this week on the Grow Your Independent Consulting Business podcast. If you like today's episode, I have three quick next steps for you. First, click Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to. Make sure you don't miss future episodes. Next. Leave me a review in your podcast app so other independent consultants can find it benefit too.
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And finally, to put the ideas from today's episode into action, head over to Melisa lieberman.com for the show notes and more resources to help you grow your consulting practice from your first few projects into a full fledged business. See you next week.