Welcome to this episode of uncomplicating business. I am Sara Torpey. I am so happy to talk to you today. Today we are talking about what it means and what it doesn't mean when you feel like your business is working and also you are still working impossibly hard, and it feels as if you're still running at warp speed, and you should know more by now and be better. And also you can't quite get under out from underneath. 

It for me, what has happened as a business owner, and what I see in my clients as my business has grown, is that, you know, it has gotten lighter in some ways, because I know what I'm doing, and heavier in others, because I know what I'm doing. If this is something you can relate to, probably, you know, some of what gets heavier is the number of decisions you're making. You know, you know what you do, but at the same time, it's like, what is the refined version of this? What is the right price? What have you tried before? What are you doing differently this time? Like, there's still just as many decisions, and decisions are exhausting. 

There is pressure because, you know, it's been succeeding, and now it's made enough money that you have to do it again, and that feels scary. There's more that you offer, likely, you know, like when I first started my business, I was offering one on one coaching, and that was it. And now I run a community. I offer one on one coaching, I run groups, I run day planning events. I do all kinds of things. So there's lots more moving parts, even though I really like them all, and I have a lot more experience, which is a blessing in a lot of ways, and also I have a lot more experienced, and it's like, oh, well, I could try these 96 other ideas, because through all of the learning, I have a lot more things, I think, right? Like, it's both taken things off the table and put them on the table. And so if you are working as hard as you possibly can, and you're like, man, it's working. But jeez, who wants to do it like this? 

This is not you failing. It is not something you've done wrong. It is not that you don't know how to do it any different. It's that it's time to simplify. We all go through this stage, and most of us do it again and again and again, but if you're working flat out and you're spending more time doing things even though you know how to do them, it's really a question of like, how do I do this differently? Because I want the same outcome in fewer steps, right? That is something I think about here in my business all the time. How do I get the same outcome or a better outcome, in terms of how I'm helping people, in terms of the money I'm making, in terms of the amount of impact I have, and in fewer steps, right? That seems like magic to me. So there are really three questions that I think are at the core of this. They are really simple questions, I think between them there's 2345, 678-910-1112, 1314, words just took me longer to count than it would to say them all. And so if you are in this stage where you're like, man, what's happening? It's still very heavy. I feel a lot of pressure. I feel like I'm going flat out start with some questions.

 Number one is the question I ask every client, every time I talk to them, and if you've been a client of mine, if you're in the lab, if you're in any of my places, you know this question, and it is, what's working, because so often things feel heavy and hard, because we have forgotten that anything works. We have forgotten that we're good at anything, we have forgotten that we have success. All of that is true because we're really focused on what we need to change and adjust in that 10 or 20% that isn't doing what we think it should. And so the first question is, what's working? And for you, it could be that it's like, Okay, what's working in my business right now at that grand kind of scale, think about, you know, what it is that you think is going really well. I did this exercise not too long ago, and it's like, well, then the work I do with my one on one clients is great in the lab, the work I'm getting to do with the people that are in the group. And they come to live sessions. Is fabulous. I am getting to be very useful in those 30 to 45 minutes a couple of times a week, sessions with people answering questions, pushing them along, helping them with implementation, all of that's really meaningful. The next question is, what can I remove? 

And you might your first answer might be, nothing I have to do at all, but it's like, really okay, if I only had an hour, what are the things I would do for me as a business owner? I have been in business, in this coaching practice eight years now. I did covid As a business owner with a kindergartener and a second grader. And what happened, as you can imagine, is I got real, real particular about what got done and what didn't really fast, right? Because it was like, does this make an impact? Great, I will get it done. 

Does it make an impact? No, I'm never going to do it again, because my time was so limited, because I was helping kids with school, and I was doing a million other things. And so it's like, okay, if I had to remove some things, what would they be? What could you take out? What are steps you could take out? What are things that you do over and over and over again that you hate, that maybe somebody else could be doing. 

What are tasks that it's time to delegate? Because you don't do you know how I found out it was time for me to delegate some things is I made a list of things I wanted to delegate, and it was a whole page long, and I was like, Oh, here's the thing, for so long you've been doing it all yourself, and you're used to doing it all yourself, and that's fine, and at the same time that is not sustainable in the next stage you're thinking about. 

So it could be that it's like, okay, what I remove isn't that I'm going to stop doing it, it's that I am going to stop being the one doing it right? Should it be a you thing, or can someone else do it? Can you have help? And then the third question is kind of messed up, but is the one I ask all the time, is, what would expert me Tell me to adjust? Sit down in your expertise for a minute. Sit down in the version of yourself that is been in this business 10 more years. What would she tell you? Get real quiet. Get your journal. Sit right. Just let it sit with you a second. What is she going to tell you that matters and doesn't right? And where is she gonna notice that you're treating something as if you're a new business owner, when, in fact, you have experience and things are working, and you're still pretending like every time is the first time, right? I was talking to a client last week, and she was like, Oh my gosh

. I can't believe this person is, you know, it was one of those things that I was like, it was about someone who booked something and paid for it through a website. She was like, this was crazy. Like, really, is it? Because it's not the first time, it's not even the 10th time. And she was like, well, it just feels new every time. And I like the excitement of that, but at the same time, her next step was to treat it like it was also still new again. 

She's like, I don't know what to give them now. Like, actually, you do? You give them the same thing every time. So we don't reinvent processes. We use them, right? That's part of keeping it simple. But her tendency to want to reinvent things every time something new happens, even though it's not new, is problematic because it's doubling her workload or tripling it. This simplification is really an exercise in groundedness and planning.

 This is about being aware of what's working, of what's feeling heavy and recalibrating. This is recalibration to a simpler version of your business. This is also a place where you have to step into self trust, right? This is if I really trusted my processes, if I trusted myself, if I trusted that this business is working, because that's the hardest of the bunch, right? We all are like, yes, it's working, and we're waiting for the day it doesn't, right? So if you really trusted your business, it's worked 50 times in a row.

 There's nothing that says it's not going to work the 51st that's not how probability works, right? Just talking to my husband about that the other day, it's like if you flipped a coin 10 times and you got heads every time. On the 11th time, you're going to feel like you need to get tails. But that's not true. Your odds are still the same of getting heads. It's still 5050 they're independent events.

So for you, it's like deciding that it went well 50 times in the 51st time. It's not when number 51 has nothing to do with. Number 50, right? We convince ourselves that, like the tide is going to turn, luck is going to change, and it can't all keep working, which is bananas, because actually the data says it can, and it is working because you are working. I know the other one other thing I want to add to the end here. This is a place where you know when things feel heavy, when they feel complicated, that people say, reconnect to your why. I don't disagree. And I also hate saying that to people, like it's always every time somebody says to me, Well, just reconnect to your why. I roll my eyes a little bit, and some snarky voice inside of me is like, oh, for the love. But you can recast that a little bit. And for me, what I tend to see that as is checking in on what in my business feels like me and what doesn't. 

Because what happens is, as we add things, over time, we add things that were other people's ideas that we saw other people do that. We saw them try, and we're like, Oh, that's interesting. I want to try that. And then sometimes we forget to take them out when they don't work for us. So it's like, what here feels like me, what doesn't? And if it was me doing this thing, if I was doing it and being true to myself, what would it look like? What would it sound like? What would change? Would I do it at all? Because that will take the complication out, right? It gets over complicated doing something when you're not doing it in the way you would do it when you're doing it someone else's way. So for me, that's a really good indicator. It's reconnecting to my why? Sure, yes, and reconnecting to myself. 

Same is true for you. I would love if you would take a second to rate and subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already. This is how other people find it, and if you're not in the uncomplicating Business Lab, now is a great time to be there. This coming month, we are talking to Kim Kiel. She is going to be talking to us on May 20, which is tomorrow, I think, and we are going to be talking about higher prices. We are going to talk about the higher how tos of, how are high the, sorry, I can't get it out the how tos of higher prices. Because if you're thinking about raising rates, if you're like, I don't feel like I'm making as much for all the work I'm doing.

 She's a genius, and so we're going to talk about sales and raising rates tomorrow live. You can go to my website and sign up. I will drop the link in the show notes for this. And she's amazing. Come join us if you're not in the uncomplicating Business Lab. The freebie that she's going to offer the group will be there afterwards, and you'll get all the support you need for actually raising your prices in the lab. I'll see you there, and I'll talk to you guys soon. Bye.