E122: You Haven't Tried Everything. You've Tried Lots Of Things Once.

You haven't tried everything. You've tried lots of things once.

And there's a big difference.

In this episode of Simple Business Dream Life I'm getting really honest about one of the most common patterns I see in business owners at every level. The buying, the trying, the giving up, the moving on. And why it's costing so much more than money.

This one might sting a little. But sometimes the most useful thing someone can do is hold up a mirror.

In this episode I cover:

• Why trying lots of things at surface level is not the same as doing the work
• The real reason we keep buying things that don't deliver the results we hoped for
• Why we're so quick to blame the thing we bought and what the honest version of that conversation actually looks like
• The 3 costs nobody talks about. Time, money and belief
• Why time is the most expensive thing we waste on noise
• The 3 questions I use every single time to cut through the noise
• What actually happens when you commit to something properly. And why either outcome is a win

This episode is for you if you've said I've tried everything and nothing works. If your inbox is full of courses you never finished. If you keep moving on to the next thing before the last one had a chance to work. If you're working harder than ever but not getting more of what you actually want.

You haven't tried everything. You've tried lots of things once. And it's time to change that.

Key Takeaways

• We have to own the results we get from the effort we actually put in. Not the effort we intended
• Buying because of noise, FOMO and comparison is not a strategy
• Time is what actually gets lost when we waste it on the wrong things
• Doing less of the right things done well will always outperform doing everything at the surface
• Committing properly to one thing gives you real data. And real data is how you actually move forward

Want to connect? Find me here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamemmahine

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-hine

Website:  https://www.emmahine.co.uk

You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/@EmmaHineStrategy

Transcript

You haven't tried everything. You've tried lots of things once. And every single time you moved on before it had a chance to work you didn't just lose the strategy. You lost the time you spent on it. And that's the bit you never get back.

Hello and welcome to Simple Business Dream Life. I'm Emma Hine and today we are going to get really honest about something that I think is holding a lot of business owners back without them even realising it. And that's what makes it so hard to spot. Because it doesn't look like a problem from the outside. It looks like action. It looks like effort. It looks like someone who is really trying.

But trying and committing are two very different things. And today we're going to talk about why.

You buy a course that teaches you how to get clients on LinkedIn. You do it for a week or two. You post a few times. You connect with some people. No clients appear. So you decide LinkedIn isn't for you and you move on.

You join a new community. You show up for a while. You comment on a few posts. You introduce yourself. Nothing much happens. But you always show up to share your offers. Always. And you wonder why you're not making the connections other people seem to be making so effortlessly.

You launch an offer. It doesn't sell the way you hoped first time around. So you quietly shelve it and start thinking about what to create next.

You try a new content strategy. You commit to it for 3 weeks. It doesn't feel like it's working so you switch to something you saw someone else doing.

Sound familiar?

Here's something I want you to sit with for a second.

We have to own the results we get from the effort we actually put in. Not the effort we intended to put in. Not the effort we told ourselves we were putting in. The actual effort. The real version. The honest one.

Because a week on LinkedIn is not trying LinkedIn. Showing up in a community only when you have something to sell is not trying a community. Launching something once is not trying that offer. Three weeks of a content strategy is not trying that strategy.

It's dipping a toe in. And then being surprised the ocean didn't part.

And I say this with so much warmth because I have done every single one of these things. This is not a telling off. It's a mirror. And sometimes the most useful thing someone can do for you is hold it up for you.

So why do we keep buying things and trying things and moving on. Why does this pattern keep repeating even when we can see it happening.

Because of noise. Because of comparison. Because of FOMO. Because someone in your Facebook group raved about it. Because someone you really admire was talking about it. Because everyone seemed to be doing it and you felt like you were falling behind by not having it too.

So you bought it. Not necessarily because your business actually needed it right now. But because the noise told you that you should.

And then when it doesn't transform everything immediately. Because lets be honest here nothing does. You move on. And you tell yourself it didn't work. Maybe you even tell yourself it was a bit crap.

And look. Some things genuinely are crap. Let's be honest about that. But we are very quick to reach for that explanation. Far quicker than we are to ask the more uncomfortable question.

Did I actually give it a proper chance. Did I buy it for the right reasons. Was this even the right thing for my business right now. Or did I buy it because the noise told me I should and then blame it when it didn't deliver the miracle I was secretly hoping for.

Because that's what most of us do. We buy because everyone else is. We try it briefly. It doesn't work instantly. We move on and we blame it. And every single time we do that 3 things happen.

We lose the time we spent on it. Gone. Can't get it back.
 We lose the money we invested. And that adds up faster than we like to admit. And we lose something that doesn't show up on a bank statement but costs more than any of it. A little bit of our belief that anything will ever actually work for us

And that last one is the most damaging of all. Because a business owner who has stopped believing their efforts will pay off starts making smaller decisions. Stops investing properly. Stops committing fully. Because why would you give everything to something when everything you've tried before has let you down.

Except it hasn't let you down. You let it down. By not giving it what it needed to work.

So I want to talk about the cost for a minute. Because most people frame this as a money problem. Look at how much I've spent on courses and programmes and tools that didn't work. And yes. That's real. That adds up.

But the cost I want to talk about today is time.

Most of us only really understand how precious time is when something happens. A loss. A health scare. Getting older. A moment that stops you in your tracks and reminds you that time is the one thing you cannot buy more of. Cannot earn back. Cannot borrow.

I had that moment. And it changed everything about the way I see wasted time. In life and in business.

Every week you spend trying the next thing instead of committing to the right thing is a week you don't get back. Every month you spend in the buying and trying and quitting cycle is a month your business stays exactly where it is. And the version of the business you're trying to build keeps getting pushed further and further away.

Not because the strategies don't work. But because you never gave any of them long enough to find out.

Time is what actually gets lost when we waste it on noise. Not just money. Not just energy. Time. And that matters more than anything else.

So what's the answer. And I want to be really clear here because I know what your brain is going to do. It's going to say right I need to find THE thing. The one strategy that works. And then I'll commit to that.

But that's still the same pattern. Still looking for the magic solution. Still waiting for the thing that works instantly so you know it's worth committing to.

That's not how it works.

The answer is simpler and harder than that simultaneously.

You need to stop doing lots of things at the surface level and start doing fewer things properly. Deeply. Consistently. For long enough to actually get a result.

This is the whole foundation of the Simple SCALE framework. Not giving you more things to try. Helping you identify the right things for your business right now and actually do them. Properly. Consistently. And long enough for them to work.

Because doing less of the right things done well will always outperform doing everything at the surface. Every single time.

The business owners who get consistent results are not the ones who have found the secret strategy nobody else knows about. They're the ones who picked something that made sense for their business and their audience and they did it. Properly. For long enough to see what it could do.

That's it. That's the whole secret.

It's not glamorous. It's not exciting. It doesn't make for a very good course sales page. But it's the truth.

So let's stop looking backwards for a minute. Stop replaying everything you've tried and everything that didn't work. That's not where the answer lives.

Let's look forwards instead.

What do you actually want. Not what you think you should want. Not what looks good from the outside. What does your business actually need to look like for you to feel like it's working. More clients. More consistent income. More time. More freedom. Get specific. Because if you don't know what you're actually building towards you will keep buying things that sound like they might get you there without ever really knowing if they will or where there actually is.

And once you know what you want. Ask yourself honestly. What do I actually need to get there. Not what the noise says you need. Not what everyone else seems to be doing. What does your specific business need right now.

I use 3 questions every single time I need to cut through the noise and work out what my business actually needs right now. You’ve probably heard me quote them before but let me share them again.

Is this making me money.
 Is this moving me towards my goals.
 Is this serving my clients.

If the answer to all 3 is no. That's your noise. And your noise is where your time is going.

Cut it. Ruthlessly. Without guilt. Because every hour you spend on the wrong thing is an hour you're not spending on the right one.

And then pick the right thing. The one that passes all 3 questions. The one that actually makes sense for where your business is right now. Not the one that worked for someone else. Not the one that's everywhere in your feed right now. The one that's right for you.

And commit to it. Properly. Not for a week or two. Long enough to actually find out what it can do.

Because I know from working with business owners at every level. When you actually commit to something properly one of 2 things happens.

It works. You start getting the results you've been chasing. More clients. More sales. More leads. More of whatever it is you actually want. And it feels completely different to the cycle you've been in because this time you know why it's working. You have real evidence not just a lucky month.

Or it doesn't work. And that sounds bad but actually it's not. Because for the first time you have enough real data to know. Not a surface level impression after 2 weeks. Actual evidence that this specific thing isn't right for your specific business right now. And that's genuinely valuable. Because now you can move on without guilt. Without wondering what if. You gave it a proper chance and you have your answer.

Either way you win. Either way you stop going in circles.

And your time. Your precious irreplaceable time. finally starts going somewhere that matters.

So this week.

Pick the thing that passes all 3 questions. And commit to it. Properly. For real. No more dipping toes in and wondering why the ocean isn't parting.

Your business is worth more than a surface level attempt. And so are you.

Thank you for listening, I’ll see you next time!