Unlocking Freedom in a Business by Making Two of the Hardest Decisions

I'll be quite honest. This one feels a bit uncomfortable to post and share. Because I am talking about some things that are not nice and happy things. However, they are very real things when you are operating a business. And a lot of people say that growth is uncomfortable. I started this newsletter to share all types of perspectives that can lead to growth, so here it goes.

I’ve been operating my company for about 3.5 years now and have grown personally and professionally through the wins and the failures to date.

This is a personal story of some challenges, and mindset shifts, that can lead one to a place where one has the space for growth.

On a recent walk with my dog – often the time that gets me thinking and free-flowing with myself – I started thinking about how I feel freer lately.

I wondered why..?

I know we are busy as usual, but I feel less crazy in the busy. Just recently, I feel free even amidst the busy, and I have had more freedom with my time lately.

In the past, when I was feeling free, I tended to think that work was not getting done and clients weren’t getting responded to.

But now, it is the opposite. My team is firing on all cylinders, and they are crushing it. And I am so confident in them.

And I am not feeling owned by my business.

My days are not owning me; instead, I feel like I have more ownership over my days.

When operating a business, it is so easy to get stuck in the monotony of the day-to-day “keep the lights on” mentality. The problem with that? It will eventually burn you out, burn your team out, and it will kill your business.

It’s critical to have time where you are free to think and innovate. Making space and time for future thinking, creative problem solving, and having fun is so important. It is the secret sauce to growth and more peace of mind in your business.

I’m not going to make that sound easy, like it just happens. It is not easy. It doesn't just happen. Time in the saddle with a lot of heartache, risk, sweat, tears, and feelings of putting it all on the line gets you there.

So, back to that question of why? Why are we in this place now? Why am I able to feel this way now? (Which is amazing!)

My business was formed in 2020, but I really went full swing into it in 2021. That first year was so fun. It felt incredibly uncertain and incredibly joyful. In 2022, I felt a lot of growth and excitement as well, and at the same time, the growing pains started creeping in.

Then, in 2023, I felt strung out most of the time.

Last year is when I really started to feel like so much of my time was going to keeping the lights on and “feeding the family,” so to speak, that I started getting incredibly stuck in the weeds. I was treading water and regularly felt like the undercurrent was pulling me away from actually fixing anything.

It was a year of thinking to myself: “Just don’t drown.” I knew my mindset was not sustainable, and yet I also did not feel like I had the headspace to do a lot about it.

In 2024, I decided to swim harder because I had to get to shore. I knew if I kept treading the way that I was, and we were, that I was going to want to quit. I didn’t want to quit. I just wanted some reprieve from the feeling of drowning.

To get out of the undertow and into calmer waters, I realized that I had to make some mindset shifts. Those mindset shifts involved letting go of some revenue and also letting go of my people-pleasing tendencies (well, a little at least...that’s a hard one for me to shake).

There are two major things that I did this year:

#1 - I stopped focusing on selling a service that was killing us.

Sure, it was a lucrative service that brought a lot of our business in the door in the first few years. Sure, we’re good and fine at providing the service. But. It’s a big but. It is also one that I notice has a way of sucking the life out of my team. And it is not our truest lane of genius.

We are still providing that service to clients with whom we have had a longstanding relationship. However, we are not selling it to new clients.

As the operator/owner, I had to take a step back and say no to a something that could bring in a lot of money. That hurt, but it felt necessary.

In doing so, however, we’ve been able to say yes to having the time to focus on the services and products that we love doing. And. It’s a big and. I have had time to start working with my team on building new products, which better align with my mantra of living and working happier.

#2 - I decided that we won’t let people who are not the right fit keep their seat at the team’s table because I will do everything I can to protect the greater good of the team.

Yeesh. It hurts like hell to let someone go. And I am fully aware of how much more it hurts them. At the same time, I cannot allow people to stay who are holding the entire thing back.

More and more over the past few years, I have better clarified my perspective on how to surround oneself with the right people that are a good fit for you.

The reality of life is that some people are right for you, and some people are not. And that is ok.

In return, it is also true that you're right for some people, and not right for others. I know I am not right for everyone, and not everyone is going to like me. It's just life. Here is some of my thinking that brought me to my #2:

• Bad vibes don’t lie. We should listen more to our gut when it feels like someone on the team is not quite the right fit for our particular business. If you and others on the team are getting "off" vibes, then it probably is for a reason.
• This can be hard to spot because sometimes the fit can feel right in the beginning, but as you get deeper into the work, you get that little "something is not working" voice in your head. It can be like a shoe that fits at the surface level, but on a deeper level of comfort it feels a little wrong. Sometimes the shoe is comfortable enough for casual wear, but you would not go on a five-mile hike in that shoe. To run effectively, we need to be wearing shoes that can solidly go on a hike.
• Having wrong fit team members usually ends up hurting the entire operation. And that hurts a lot more people in the grand scheme of things. By keeping the wrong people on staff, it not only hurts the other members on the team, but it also eventually hurts the quality of work overall, and that, in turn, hurts our clients.
• Then, that hurts me as the owner/operator, and I end up getting dragged back under the water. And I want to quit all of it. That is, obviously (duh!) bad for the whole company and all of the people who are showing up every day, bringing their A-games.

So, that’s that.

1. Fire yourself from selling the wrong thing. (Read last week’s article on focus and clarity around what you are selling, and to whom )
2. Clean your house if that is the best thing for the whole team’s health.

Lastly, help the people who are at the team’s table know how special they are by frequently complimenting them on their work and reminding them that they are special and have a seat at family dinner.

Those two things I shared today are not small. At all. They suck, and they are devastating. You might even think I sound like a big a-hole talking about it.

So why share this? I share this because running a business is not easy. It’s not for the faint of heart, and it also takes honesty and transparency in talking about the hard parts of it. These are some of the hard parts.

The reality is that facing the hard parts head-on also allows us to get to a space where we get to experience more of the good parts – more joy, more ease, and more of that freedom that I mentioned I’m feeling lately.

That’s the good stuff. That’s why those of us who cannot shake the entrepreneurial bug keep going even through the real hard stuff.

??????Taylor