The Lessons My Clients and I Learned in 2020 that Will Help You Grow Your Business in the New Year

2020 left us – woohoo!

I don’t think there is one person on this earth who’s not happy about that. Even if 2020 was a year of expansion and growth in their business. But before we dismiss the old year completely and start diving deep into the New Year, 2020 also left us with some good teachings.

Amongst many lessons I learned from my clients’ and my own experience, I’ve picked those five that can help you grow your business exponentially this year.

1. Your thinking shapes your reality.

Yes, it’s true. I teach that to my clients every single day. Our thoughts affect our emotions, and they, in turn, drive our actions. And actions create our results. Ergo – your thinking does create your reality.

Unfortunately, too often, we allow our primitive negative brain to take the reign of our thoughts. When it runs loose, it keeps talking us out of actions we want to take to get close to our dreams.

The good news is you can learn to take control of your thoughts. You can redirect negative ones when they show up and also work on having more positive ones. Positive thoughts lead to expanded and positive actions. Which then leads to better results.

2020 was especially challenging for many.  Getting out of despair, reframing the doom and gloom mindset to something more positive wasn’t easy or even impossible for many people.

And yet, you can do it.  Once you learn how to intentionally create thoughts that serve you, you’ll be able to tap into your full potential. I can see this every week when working with my clients. Many, despite the COVID and recession, managed to grow their businesses. When you focus on what you can control, you can overcome anything.

2. You are more resilient than you think.

As human beings, we underestimate our abilities. Sometimes we only discover a hero in ourselves when the circumstances put us in an extraordinary and challenging situation. Yes, some people break down under pressure, but 2020 has shown us how most of us pivoted, adapted to the change we didn’t expect or want. And so many thrived. 

I saw my clients, who pre-COVID-19 delivered their services only in person because what they believed was the best way, switch entirely to online because they had no choice. And the best part is that the quality of their services didn’t suffer.

I participated in my clients’ transformations from fear of not believing they could start and run a business when everything around was closing down to deciding they can do it. And once they did, they quickly saw positive results in their business.

Some of my clients doubled and quadrupled their income despite Covid and other life events happening to them.

All of this because while working with me, they learned how to be resilient. And because they asked for the right kind of help at the right time.

3. Failure is an excellent GPS for your self-development

Have you ever been trying to get a result in something for a long time and kept failing at it? Like for example, closing sales. Maybe you talked to 20-40-80 potential clients and didn’t sign any? Or have you written copy over copy over copy only to get no reaction to your posts?

What do you think this experience taught you? Maybe you started to believe that people don’t want what you offer. Or even worse, that you’re not good enough and that’s why no one wants to buy from you.

What I’d say to that: it’s all lies. Lies that the negative brain is telling you to “protect you” from perceived but not a real danger. All such experience is telling you is that you’ve entered a realm of a skill you haven’t mastered YET. Failure is a GPS for self-development.

Cannot sign new clients? Maybe it’s you need to work on and improve your sales, marketing, or copywriting skills.

Remember that any successful entrepreneur started with some lack of critical skills. And what they did that you might not be doing it yet, is that they got help, doubled down on learning to go faster, and didn’t give up.

So, don’t be too hard on yourself, thinking you’re not good enough.  Instead, before you go too deep into 2021 with the same skill-level hoping to get different results, think of your self-development. What area do you need to grow in to achieve the results you’ve decided on?

4. It’s not about learning new things; it’s about learning the right things.

The previous lesson is a great segway to this one. Looking at your current business needs and past failures is a GPS showing what exactly you should be learning to succeed. Too often, with my fellow coaches, we see people investing in things in their business that they are not ready for yet.

For example, paying someone else for lead generation when you don’t have the skillset yet to convert them into clients. Or investing in Facebook Ads when you’re just starting, have no clear message, audience, or didn’t even test out if your offer would sell.

Entrepreneurs who invest this way get quickly disappointed that the promise made didn’t materialize, and the solution didn’t work. However, the lack of results didn’t have anything to do with the solution’s quality or effectiveness. The problem was that it was the wrong solution.

There are many offers out there. All sound great and appealing, like something you need right now. But until you understand your business, objectively know where you’re at it and what you need to up-level, most of what you buy will not produce the results you’re seeking.

5. Knowledge is like make-up: it only looks good when applied.

And lastly, a lesson we need to learn over and over again. Because of the 21st-century curse: impatience and the need for instant gratification.

Has this ever happened to you?

You invested in the skill you need. You stuck with the program. You listened to all the videos, maybe even tried to apply the learnings a couple of times, but in the end, BIG results didn’t come right away.

You’re disappointed. You think that either you suck or the program was a waste of money.

Let me tell you this. Vanessa Williams, Marie Forleo, or Michael Jordan didn’t become great at what they do only by learning and manifesting their dreams with minimal action. They put in a HUGE amount of hours of work into that dream. Their coaches and mentors helped them level up and expand faster than they ever would on their own, but it still took them YEARS of work to get to the top master level in their respective field.

The good news is, they started like you, sucking at what they do…

Then progressed to being OK, mediocre, better and better, excellent, to one of the best. Action, coupled with patience, perseverance, and self-development is what helped them achieve excellence.

So don’t be too hard on yourself. Don’t give up. Invest, learn, and apply. Because knowledge is like make-up – looks good only when applied.

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And If you’re looking to invest in yourself and your business to start signing more paying clients consistently, then let’s talk. I offer free 30-mins Book More Clients Discovery Sessions where we’ll take a look at what you’re currently doing to grow our business and brainstorm a game plan for immediate results. Click here to book one.

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