You are listening to The Effective Entrepreneur Podcast with Lauren Cash, episode 3: Why You’re Not Effective Yet.

Hello, happy Monday, if it’s Monday where you are when you’re listening to this. These podcasts come out every Monday but it’s also Monday where I am right now too. So are you off to a strong start of your week? Have you decided that you’re going to have a strong start? I’m so curious about how you all are starting your weeks and if you’re hitting the ground running, ready to go after a weekend unplugged, or if you’re dreading the Mondays.

So I have been thinking about myself, what input I’m having into my brain. And recently I have been ferociously reading again. I don’t know why but I think I had taken sort of a mini hiatus. I was reading but not as much as I have been in the last few weeks. And it’s been incredible for my brain. My brain now is just going and has so many ideas and thoughts and is so much more creative than when I’m not reading. And I’ve been noticing the type of inputs that I’m adding into my brain is also creating the quality of output that I’m giving in my life.

So I want you to think about that for you, what are you putting into your brain and into your mind as far as reading, podcasts, audio books etc? We don’t always want to be just consuming. We want to make sure that we are creating and giving our clients amazing things in our businesses, not just sitting around listening to audio books or researching info. But we do also want to be challenged and continuing to challenge ourselves.

So start to think about what you’re putting into your brain. Are you putting helpful things that are pushing you and helping you create your next amazing goal? Or are you just sort of listening to music all the time that’s not really pushing you forward? So I just wanted to give you that little tidbit from my own life of thinking about reading this morning before I went on my walk run and all of the things that I’m listening to is feeling amazing.

In today’s episode we’re going to talk about why you’re not effective yet. And notice that I said yet on purpose. It’s not that you can’t become effective. It’s just that you might not be as effective as you want to be yet. Everything ever is a yet. Everything can always change in the future. You get to decide where you’re going and if you’re becoming something different or someone different than you are right now.

So do you remember what effective means? Yes, I hope so. We have talked about it in both of the previous episodes. It means to be successful and producing a desired and an intended result. So being successful and producing a desired and intended result. So what is that in your business? It’s making money, we’ve talked about that. It’s revenue. It’s hopefully also a profit percentage of that revenue. And it is a mirror reflection of your impact on the world and your contribution to the world.

So we’re talking about why you’re not making the money you want to make or within the parameters that you want to make it in. Because sometimes we’re making the amount of money we want to make but we think that it’s not possible to maintain that revenue level without let’s say overworking, working 80 hours a week or something like that. We’re like, “Yeah, we can make this much money when we’re doing all these things and we’re overworking.”

But if we were to let’s say cut it down to 40 hours a week then we’d have to have half the revenue or something, let’s say our belief was. So in this episode we’re going to talk about the reason why you’re not effective yet. So why you’re not creating the amount of money you want to make yet or in the way in which you want to make it. Ready? Alright, so the first reason why you’re not effective yet is because you’re busy. How often do you talk about just being so busy and running around, and frantic, and chaotic energy, and you just go from one thing to the next thing? And you don’t really have a plan for your life, or if you do have a plan it’s just jam packed full of activities. Now, taking action isn’t a bad thing. And that’s actually going to be one of the reasons why you’re not effective is about action in a minute.

But we’re not talking here in busy land about taking what Brooke Castillo and Grant Cardone call massive action. We’re not talking about really purposeful massive action that we do towards things that are really effective that we know are going to create a result and that are planned out really well. And you don’t have to bring frantic busy energy to massive action. Actually that’s going to detract from your massive action if you’re bringing that energy to it.

So being busy is just being not clear on where you’re headed, how you’re headed and adding in extraneous things. And it’s this energy that is not very attractive that you’re doing it all with as well. You’re just racing and running from one thing to the next thing. And that’s not very attractive for future customers either if you’re just running around like a chicken with your head cut off. And you don’t have great systems in your business and everything is very reactive, which we’re going to be talking about in number two. So let’s talk about that now.

So number one though is you’re busy, not just in how we watch you but also your mindset is just very disorganized, and kind of throwing paint at the wall unmethodically.

So number two is you’re reactive. So this is another reason why you’re not being effective, because you’re just reacting to whatever comes your way in your day or in your life. And you’re not driving the car. You’re not deciding where the destination is and how you’re going to get there. And then when things come up on your way there you don’t then just adjust, but still head to your destination. Instead since you don’t have a destination in mind you just notice the obstacle in the way between you and wherever you’re headed, which is really nowhere, and you then veer off and go in that random obstacle. So now you’re just meandering around and not going anywhere. So that’s why you’re not going to hit your goal at all, if you’re just being reactive and you’re not setting the ownership of your day or of your life.

You don’t take the time to step back and ask yourself, does this make sense to do right now? Does this email really need a response right now in this moment? Or would it make more sense for me to go and make some offers first? Emails can be handled later. Somebody else’s fire isn’t your fire unless you decide that it is. You don’t end up staying the course if you’re just reactive. You’re going to not create what you’re wanting to create.

You’re not going to get the money goal that you want to get if you’re just reacting to everything that happens to you. And you believe that, you think everything just happens to you rather than you taking ownership and creating your life. So that’s number two, that’s you’re reactive. Number two, the reason why you’re not effective is you’re reactive.

Number three is you neglect the power of compound interest. You’ll read about this concept in so many amazing books, Atomic Habits, The Compound Effect. I’m reading The Slight Edge right now. All of these books, and also this other book that I recently read, Psychology of Money was amazing as well. All of these books are talking about compound interest and how it’s the eighth wonder of the universe, and how very wealthy successful people use it to their advantage.

And I love how in The Slight Edge he’s talking about how we can either use that phenomenon either for us or against us. So if we use it in investing and growing our money we can be using it for us. If we’re using it let’s say for like a training plan, or the way that we’re going to eat, or the way that we’re going to consume water or something like that, we can really use it for ourselves.

Or we can really use it against ourselves by just telling ourselves, this one really doesn’t matter. And then eventually each of those little doesn’t matters, and not putting the dollar into the investment every week or whatever it is, if we just don’t do it because it’s just as easy not to do it then we don’t use the compound interest for ourselves. We actually use it against ourselves. And we can also use it against ourselves in carrying debt with high interest, the interest works in the opposite direction in that sense.

So each and every one of those little moments can be used and harnessed for you rather than against you. Now, be careful here, my procrastinating perfectionists might use this as a way to create a lot of anxiety around each and every little decision in their day. And be in paralysis and not move forward, and beat themselves up for each little decision they didn’t make toward the compound interest. Don’t use this against yourself, but just know in order to be effective you’re going to capture the compound interest for your business. You’re going to take little micro steps as you move forward, tiny – that was the other book, Tiny Habits.

You’re going to make tiny habits that as you do them they’re going to compound and then they will make an incredibly amazing business for yourself. But those actions are just as easy to not do and seem very insignificant in the moment that you’ll be tempted to not do them. And your brain will want to tell you that you shouldn’t do them and that they’re really not going to result in your six or seven figure business, when they actually will.

And the tricky thing with compound interest which I love how he talks about it in The Straight Edge is that it’s not visible in the beginning, the return on that investment isn’t very noticeable in the beginning. You have to give it time for it really to snowball and compound, and you continue to add to it as you do that. And that will give you even more of a return.

So this happens in your business. Think about people learning to know, like and trust you. That’s not just going to happen with a 30 day posting on Instagram every single day. You’re going to then be like, “Oh my gosh, I shouldn’t keep posting on Instagram every single day. I’m not really making the money that I want to make. This isn’t really effective.” But you haven’t given it enough time to compound and to really take off and for enough people to start to get their eyes on it to know they can trust you, to then give you money. So give it time and stay the course.

So the third reason why you’re not effective yet is that you’re neglecting the power of compound interest.

Number four is that you’re in a hurry. So you’re not playing the long game. You’re trying to play a very short game, which this directly connects to our compound interest situation. If you try to invest let’s say in an index fund, for example, and you want to get a return next year. You’re not going to do very well if you take the money out. And it’s not going to be able to grow to its potential if you would have just let it sit there for 10 to 20 years.

The same thing happens in our businesses, we end up doing the hurry, we’re looking for the quick wins, we’re wanting to make a quick buck rather than building a very strong brand that’s going to maintain itself and continue to pay us over the next 10 to 15 years. And if you’re in a hurry you’re going to be making decisions in a hurry in a way that’s not useful for the long term. So, start to slow yourself down, play it for the long term, don’t be in a hurry.

There is no rush to get over there because nothing really is going to be better over there. It’s just going to be what you think about what is over there. And we’ll talk a lot more about that mindset as we continue in this podcast. So number four is you’re in a hurry.

Number five is you’re not willing to fail. You have to be willing to fail in order to move forward in your business. You have to get out there and try things and see what’s working, what’s not working, what the market has to say, what you are trying and adjusting it, and really testing it, and experimenting. You can’t ever learn anything from an experiment if you don’t get out there and do the experiment. You have to get out there and do the experiment.

The more you’re willing to fail, the more you fail the more successful you will be, because you will learn so much more than just hanging out on your couch. So get out there and fail if you want to be effective. It seems very counterintuitive to our brains. But you for sure need to fail your way in order to succeed. So that’s number five, you’re not willing to fail, you’re holding yourself back by not being willing to do that.

Number six is very related to not being willing to fail. It’s you don’t take enough action. So often we don’t take enough action because our fear of failure, it’s usually very connected. Or we are covering up that fear with what I told you briefly about on episode one, I believe it is, about indulgent emotion. So you end up just being confused and indecision, overwhelmed. So then you just don’t take any action or you don’t take enough action. If we’re not taking enough action we won’t get enough data to really tweak it in our whole experimenting in order to create the results that we want.

So you must take enough action, and this doesn’t mean that you’re doing the busy frantic, throwing random actions at the wall. But you’re taking very effective intense action. So Brooke Castillo, who I referred to earlier too, she also talks about doubling down.

And then, Grant Cardone also talks about 10x-ing your goal. So you go all in on the goal, you double down, you give it even more massive action than what you think is required for the result that you want. And this doesn’t mean overworking though. This doesn’t mean working too much. This just means that we’re putting in very focused, deep, intense action very regularly toward our goal and not giving up.

So number six is you don’t take enough action, that’s why you’re not effective yet, that’s why you aren’t receiving or creating your goal yet.

Number seven is you’re too focused on you. I see this all the time with my clients. They’re so focused on being self-conscious, being anxious, thinking that what they have to say isn’t valuable, all of these self-doubt things. They’re not thinking about their ideal client. They’re not thinking about the person out there who really desires the t-shirt that they’re selling, and where they might be and how they might need to hear about this specific t-shirt that will make it compelling to buy.

You have to slow down and think about your client. Stop thinking about you, it doesn’t matter. You’re irrelevant when it comes to selling to a client. You have exactly what you need in order to create the money, because you’re you and you can think about your client. Probably there’s something similar to you and your client, so you can think about you in terms of you like a client, or you like a customer. But other than that you really have to get into the heads of your clients in order to help them and serve them in order to create the amount of money you want in your business.

So number seven is you’re too focused on you.

Number eight, are you still with me? We’re almost done. We have three more, they’re super essential and then we’ll recap, and then we’ll be done. But you have to know why you’re not effective yet so that you can become effective. And I know you want to become effective. You want to make the money you want to make in your business so that you can have the life that you want to live. That’s totally possible for you, but make sure you’re not doing number eight which is to interpret all data or data however you like to say it as setback or failure.

I see this all the time in my clients. They’re like, “Yesterday I didn’t make a sale.” And then they decide that means for sure they’re not hitting their revenue goal this month. The only reason why they won’t hit their revenue goal this month is because they’re using that data from yesterday against themselves. And they’re not creating what’s necessary to make sales today, and tomorrow, and the next day, and however long there is between now and the end of the month.

You can interpret all of that data for you, of like I thought yesterday I was going to make a sale. I didn’t. I wonder why not. What could I have done differently? What will I do differently today? Because obviously I’m hitting this revenue goal by the end of the month, I just didn’t realize that on whatever day that was I was going to make zero sales. And then this other day I’ve made five. You always have to adjust for the way that things go, get super curious about why you didn’t create a sale that day. Don’t use it against yourself. But then always adjust and then create your goal still.

And then you can’t ever use any of the data as failure, unless you want to keep failing. I know you don’t want to keep failing. So use all the data, the amount of money you made so far, the sales you’ve made, how many consults you’ve had, all of the things, number of followers you have, any of the numbers in your business, the stats in your business. Always get curious and then use it for yourself and decide that you’re going to be successful no matter what. That’s up to you.

Alright, number nine is you’re stuck on the past evidence. This is very similar to number eight except this one is you’re always telling the story about how you’ve never done it before. You’ve never created that amount of money before. You’ve never had so many clients before, sales before. You’re so stuck in what your past thinking and past beliefs created for you then that you don’t create it now. It’s irrelevant what you created in the past.

Obviously in the past with your previous thinking, which I’m going to teach you more about thinking and how that creates our results as we’re going along. But you’re so focused on that, that you don’t create anything new now, and that’s the reason why you’re not effective. You’re thinking like past you was thinking when they created that amount of whatever, the revenue over there. But now you want to create new revenue so that means you have to think differently.

You can’t think like yesterday you, you have to think like today you, who obviously creates however much you want to create now and in the future. So you have to think differently, you can’t just keep looking at the past ‘evidence’. It only has to do with how you used to think, but you don’t want to think how you used to think. You want to think how you want to think now and in the future based on what results you want to create.

Alright, so last one, number 10, it’s the big one that really encompasses everything we’ve been talking about and that is you don’t change the root issue. The root issue is your thinking, the way in which you think about yourself, about your business, about money, about sales, about any of this that we’ve talked about, about taking action, failure, success, money, all of it. That is why you’re not creating the result that you want. That’s why you’re not effective. You haven’t changed your thinking and your beliefs in order to create something new.

And also changing your thinking is going to change the way in which you are acting as well, the type of action you’re taking. So what we’ve talked about in all of these 10 things so far.

And I’m going to teach you more about how to do that, why to do that and how that works because really the way in which we think aka our mindset, ultimately always creates the amount of money we make in our businesses, always. So you have to change that in order to change all the other nine things I just taught you.

Alright, so let’s go – I’ll tell you the 10 again just in case you want to hear them one more time. The first reason why you’re not effective yet is you’re busy. The second reason is you’re reactive. The third is you neglect the power of compound interest. Four is you’re in a hurry. Five, you aren’t willing to fail. Six, you don’t take enough action. Seven, you’re too focused on you. Eight, you interpret all data as a setback or failure. Nine, you’re stuck on the ‘past evidence’. And number 10, you don’t change the root issue. And the root issue is the way you’re thinking, aka your mindset.

Alright, so I want you to think about which ones resonated the most with you this week and begin to question if you can change that. Start to think about that you might be totally wrong about the way that you’ve been thinking. Maybe there’s a brand new way you could be thinking about that particular thing about you or about your business that will help you become effective.

Thanks so much for listening. I look forward to hanging out with you next week.

And hey, have you rated and reviewed The Effective Entrepreneur yet? I hope that you have, and if you haven’t, I want to invite you to do so now, because I’m doing an awesome giveaway that you don’t want to miss during the beginning of the launch of this podcast. If you enter the giveaway you’re going to automatically receive these beautiful desktop and smartphone backgrounds that say, ‘There is no rush, there is no hurry’, which is one of my favorite beliefs that I’ve been working on.

And then you’ll also enter yourself into winning this gorgeous watch that you definitely want to be wearing and having in photos, it’s so pretty. I want to get one for myself. And then the two giveaways for the runners up for the grand prize watch that I just told you about will get an Apple gift card. So you can buy my favorite calendar platform so that you can manage your time more effectively. It’s called BusyCal, and of course you can use whatever you want to use the Apple gift card for. But that’s what it’s intended to be used for.

And I really hope that you will rate and review because I can’t wait to hear what you think about the podcast so far. It doesn’t have to be a five star review, anything would be amazing. Of course I hope you’re loving the podcast. So you’ll head to vivere.co/podcastlaunch to get all of the details for entering the giveaway and learning how to rate and review in Apple Podcasts. It’s v.i.v.e.r.e.co/podcastlaunch.

Thanks again, and I will see you next week. Bye.