The Savvy Seller with Kristen Doyle

164. Panic-Proof Your Business with a CEO Mindset

• Kristen Doyle, TPT seller, SEO coach, and web designer

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A sales slump can send any business owner into panic mode - rushing to upload new products, slash prices, or overhaul their marketing, only to regret it later. In this episode, I’m sharing the real cost of those knee-jerk reactions and how to shift from fear-based decisions to a calm, strategic CEO mindset. You’ll learn how to recognize the triggers that spark panic, avoid common mistakes that waste time and money, and create a simple “panic prevention plan” to help you pause, assess, and make confident decisions that truly move your business forward.

00:37 - Panic-driven decisions: why they happen and what they cost

02:15 - An example of a time I made a panic-driven decision in my business

04:55 - Common panic reactions that hurt your business long term

08:06 - The power of pressing pause and switching to a CEO mindset

13:13 - Creating your personal panic prevention plan

Links & Resources:

Show Notes: https://kristendoyle.co/episode164 

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Kristen:

Have you ever been in a season in your business where you noticed a sales dip and you immediately jumped into action? Maybe you started uploading all your products onto brand new platforms, or you slashed your prices in a panic, only to feel resentful later when you realize you're doing tons of work for pennies. I have been there myself, and I can tell you, every single panic driven decision that I have made in my business has led to one of two things, either regret or wasted time. So today, I am going to share with you a calmer, more grounded framework that we can use for making decisions from a CEO mindset, not a panic mindset. When we're stuck in the weeds, we're worried about revenue, or we're feeling behind, it can be really easy to make panicky decisions instead of CEO decisions, and those panic decisions are almost always bad for business long term. Let me show you what to do instead. Are you a digital product or course creator, selling on platforms like Teachers Pay Teachers, Etsy, or your own website? Ready to grow your business, but not into the kind of constant hustle that leads straight to burnout? Then you're in the right place. Welcome to The Savvy Seller. I'm Kristen Doyle, and I'm here to give you no-fluff tools and strategies that move the needle for your business without burning you out in the process—things like SEO, no stress marketing, email list building, automations, and so much more. Let's get started, y'all. There have been lots of times over the course of my years in business where I have made a panic driven decision. And like I said, every single time that it's happened, I have regretted that decision. Either I wasted time or I wasted money, or it sent my business down a path I didn't want to go down. One example is many years ago, my sales were down on the main platform that I sold on, and my panic reaction was to do what I saw a lot of other people doing, and that was, I need to diversify. So I am going to go and put these same products on as many different platforms as I can. So I spent all this time uploading products to all these other platforms, and it turns out I got pretty much non existent sales from all of those platforms, except for one. And I've ended up shutting down, like I said, all of those stores, except the one where I am getting decent sales. In fact, most of those situations, the platform itself shut down, whether before or after I closed my store, because it wasn't my problem that they didn't have sales or that I wasn't getting sales. It was that they hadn't built up an audience that was using their platform. So I wasted all of this time and energy loading my products onto new or other platforms that didn't result in enough sales to offset the hours I spent working on setting those stores up. And in the long run, I thought that I was diversifying my business, but I really wasn't. Because diversifying your business doesn't mean putting the same products in the same type of storefront on a different website. That's like Coca Cola selling their drinks in Walmart and also Target and also Kroger and Publix. That's not diversifying, that's putting the same things out for sale in many different places. And diversifying really means a lot more than that. It's putting different things out to different niches so that you're not fully reliant on the same thing for all your sales. That's a whole other story. When it comes to making those panic driven decisions, the real problem is that you get into a situation where something kind of triggers you, and I know that word, that's a loaded word, but that panic mode takes over. So some of the things that can cause that to happen are noticing that your sales are low, realizing you're not on track to meet the sales goals that you've set for yourself, or even just if you haven't set real sales goals, noticing that your sales aren't where you wanted them to be, or thought they might be. Getting negative feedback that makes you feel like you need to change everything. I know I've had that happen before as well, and some very good business friends have said, Hey, was it just that one person who said this, or is this happening over and over? And when my answer is okay, you're right, it was just one person, and everyone else seems happy. So maybe I don't need to change everything about my business. Seeing a lot of unsubscribes can cause us to hit that that panic mode and stop sending sales emails, especially if you've got unsubscribes on a sales email, it can make you feel like I can't send any more sales emails, right? That comparison game of looking at other people and seeing what they're doing and the success that we perceive them as having, which may or may not even be accurate, but that success that we perceive them as having, that can cause us to compare with what we are doing and the success we're having, and cause that panic to creep up as well. So the first thing that you need to do is realize that the panic is creeping up so that you can choose whether you're going to let that panic drive your decision, or choose a CEO mindset and make that CEO minded business decision. So panic decisions, when we let the panic take over, those decisions can look like staying up all night, uploading all your products to a platform you've never used before, or creating a brand new offer that you feel like has to get put out right now, and so you're losing sleep over it. It can look like making steep discounts all of a sudden, or dropping your prices for no reason other than panic and worry and trying to get people to buy. Maybe you make major changes to your marketing. Either you pull back on doing anything salesy because people were unsubscribing or out of panic, you start over posting and being constantly salesy, which can be a turn off for your audience too. You have to maintain that kind of middle ground. I've also seen people either overhaul or even shut down their entire website, and I will tell you right now, that is a huge mistake if you want to keep a business at all. Now, if you're closing down your business, that's a whole other decision, and you're probably not listening to this podcast. But people who make that decision that you know they're in a moment of panic, and they shut down their website because, I don't know, maybe it costs too much, or it's stressing them out. That is one of the biggest panic decisions I see where people are making that decision without really thinking long term about what the effects of that are. All the work you've put in, all the blog posts, all of the content, all the SEO rankings, all of that goes down the drain. And if the reason for the panic is changes to your sales on a platform, then now you are even more reliant on that platform for all your sales, instead of becoming less reliant on it. Regardless of which of those things you do, a lot of times, it can lead us down this road to resentment in our business. Because, you know, you have this feeling like, Oh, my God, I spent all this time, I created this whole thing, or I uploaded all my products to that website. Or, you know, I was afraid that the client wouldn't say yes, so I discounted my price, and now I'm doing all this work, and it took me so long and so much work to do it, and I'm only making this much money, or I'm not getting the return on that that I wanted. And so you start then to feel really resentful of this effort that you've put in, maybe out of a panic decision, or a discount and a price, and you're not getting what you wanted out of it. So what's the solution to this? It's to press the pause button and assess the situation like a CEO. It is totally normal for us to have those panic moments. We all have times where we look at some of our numbers, or, you know, something comes up, we see someone else's posts on social media, or we see how many people unsubscribe, and we suddenly think, oh my gosh, I am doing everything wrong, and I have to change it all right now. So when you start having those feelings, be aware that that panic is starting to come up, and press the pause button. Put on your CEO hat, which we talked about in last week's episode, and take some time to assess what's really happening. Ask yourself, has anything really changed, really, really changed in your business, or in the market, your audience? Maybe something's changed in your offers, or the technology you're using. Has anything really major changed in any of those things? If they have, then maybe that's the thing you need to respond to. Maybe your audience needs something different from what you've been selling to them. Or maybe the tech just isn't working right now like it used to. Could be any number of things, but ask yourself, has anything major changed recently? And if it has, then that is something you need to look into deeper and assess and address that issue before you make a panic decision to do something maybe totally unrelated. Because a lot of times those panic decisions, we start thinking way outside the box, and we don't address the real problems. Another thing to look at is, what are the metrics that really matter in my business? Go look at those numbers and see what the data is telling you. Are you getting a lot less page views When it comes to making those decisions, like I said, always, always go back to the data, make data driven decisions. And when you do look back, look at the last six months worth of data, maybe the last year if you can, not just this week's numbers. That's going to tell you really if there has been a long term trend of change, or if it's just a fluke week. Because a lot of times we can see numbers and we realize we're having an off week than you used to? Because then maybe you have a marketing or maybe even an off month, and we start to panic, because a month can feel like a long time. We start to panic, but then we realize, you know, a few weeks down the road, oh, look, it's turned around, and this month is fine. It was just last month was weird. So always look at long term data and the trends, rather than making that panic decision based on just this week or just this month's numbers. problem or an SEO problem. Are you still getting a ton of page And to be honest with you, I don't make any decisions based just on today's data ever, because it's just never enough data to really make good, solid business decisions on. Sometimes the answer really is just to wait and not try to fix it yet. My husband and I have a great financial planner that we work with, and we've been with her for many, many years now. We views, but you're not getting conversions? That tells you have experienced lots of ups and downs in our portfolio with her, and sometimes she calls us and she says, hey, it's time for your annual check in, but you really just don't want to look right now. It's going to rebound. I promise it's going to be okay. Let's put a call on the books in a month, in two months, and let's talk about it then, because right now isn't a good time. And I'm sure if you've invested money in stocks or maybe you have a disconnect in how you're selling your product money market or anything like that, you've probably experienced the same thing. Sometimes you know that we're at the bottom of the hill on this roller coaster, and we just need to hang on because it's going to rebound. And sometimes in our businesses, we need to have that same type of response. Let me just hold on and see where it goes. Then again, just like with the financial planner, when we see or your service with the people who are coming to your pages, that trend of downward and we don't expect it to turn back up, take some time to put that CEO hat on and assess what's going sometimes it is time to make a change. Those times when the financial planner calls and says, I think we need to sell this stock. Let's go, let's move in a new direction. And those decisions, when it comes to our financial planner, those decisions are based on a ton of data and a bunch of really smart people looking at the direction that different companies are going, and all these things that I don't understand, but thank and you need to address that. And then always be thinking, goodness she does. what is the long game here? What are the long term effects of on before you make any changes. Look at your last three months data, your last six months, maybe the last year, not just whatever changes you might be seeing right now, of whatever this week's numbers. One thing you can do now to help you be prepared for those moments that inevitably will come up for every business owner, is to create a personal panic prevention plan. Start by thinking about, what are those panic triggers for you? What are those things that will make you start spiraling into panic when you know you need to stay calm? Maybe it's low sales, maybe it's decisions you might be thinking about making for your business, negative feedback, maybe it's the comparison gain. What can you do to prevent some of those? For example, the comparison game. If there's a certain person or a certain business that you frequently compare yourself to, remove yourself from their world, unfollow them on social media, get off their email list and let them live their life while you live yours. Honestly that is one of the easiest ways to avoid the panic and the stress of comparing and are they pointing you to where you really want your yourself to someone else. If it's negative feedback that causes issues for you, do you have a VA who can be the first line of defense on feedback? Someone else who can look at it and let you know when there's a problem, but handle the feedback if you don't need to be aware. Now, when it comes to low sales, or maybe you don't have a VA and so you're handling all the feedback yourself, there's not business to be in 2, 3, 5 years down the road? as much that you can do, so give yourself permission to pause. Commit to waiting 48 hours, maybe 72, before you make a major change, and make sure it still feels good to you a couple of days after the panic has hopefully had time to calm down. Put in your calendar, time to regularly look at your data, maybe once a month, maybe once a quarter, so that you are not caught completely off guard when the data does change, because that can really help you to know the trends and see them coming before you hit that panic moment. Keep in mind that feeling of urgency is normal, and sometimes it can be really good. It can help us pivot towards something important or away from something that's about to be catastrophic for our business, but it can also cause us to act impulsively and make mistakes in our business. So the next time you feel that panic mode hitting, take that step back, analyze where the feelings are coming from, look at what the data is actually telling you, and then make a logical, sound CEO level decision for your business. It'll keep you from wasting time uploading to 10 different platforms at 2am, or slashing your prices in half, or shutting down a piece of your business that really was the one that could have been successful in the long run. If you found this helpful, make sure that you are following the show and take a second to rate and review the show on your favorite podcast platform. I'll talk to you soon.