S.J. is a critically-acclaimed playwright and performance artist who performs his original one-man shows around the country and abroad, and has been doing so for almost two decades. His work has been consistently lauded by theatre critics and thousands of enthusiastic audience members over the years, but he hasn’t yet achieved the greater fame and acclaim long-envisioned for him by reviewers and fans (and that he’s envisioned for himself).
Following a recent performance, I spoke with S.J. about his plans for the near future, and he didn’t hesitate to give me the straight dope: “Chris—I’m the most famous person nobody’s ever heard of. I’ve got to take my career to the next level, because the way it’s going now, I’m just re-arranging the furniture in my jail cell.”
Whether we’re talking about show business or any other kind of business, ineffectual practices that don’t spark growth and drive revenue are all reminiscent of Einstein’s classic definition of insanity: “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
If you’re facing challenges such as not generating enough revenue, not growing your client base, not able to break into a particular market, or not able to expand beyond your one-person operation, it’s time for you to examine the habitual practices keeping you stuck. Here are some examples of business professionals who, like S.J., recognized the need to pinpoint their self-defeating habits, and took action to make significant changes.
1) Revamp Your M.O.
For two years, one of my clients attempted to fill her prospective client pipeline with referrals from medical professionals. Over the course of nine months, she scheduled more than 15 sit-down meetings with various doctors, and none of these meetings resulted in any referrals. At some point, it dawned on her she was up against a blind spot in her approach, and subsequently reached out to a friend with a track record of garnering referrals within the medical profession. The advice she received was something she’d never considered: “When you show up for the meeting, bring lunch to the doctors and their staff.” This simple action opened the floodgates for her, and is now an established part of her routine.
The take-away: If you find yourself repeating a particular action that seems like a no-brainer, (such as setting up simple referral prospect meetings) but aren’t getting desired results, you might be overlooking a simple remedy. Find out how other professionals—within or outside your industry—address the same challenge, and then adapt their approach to your situation.
2) Survival Mode Sucks
A few years back, a gentleman who works in the financial services industry was barely making enough in premiums to keep his contract active with the company he represented. For 4 years, he fretfully focused only on NOT losing his contract. Needless to say, there is no promise of forward motion when you approach your job with this kind of survival-based mindset; the best you can hope for is to tread water to simply keep yourself from drowning, and this is no way to work—or live.
Exploring his process in a coaching session, he realized the need to raise the bar—to shoot for a significantly more challenging goal, and subsequently set his sights on becoming the top producing agent in his district. This called for a whole new set of daily practices. He revamped his operating systems, tripled the number of prospects he saw weekly, and hired an administrative assistant to keep everything moving. Within two years of approaching his business with a focus on expanding (versus simply not-drowning) he was able to employ a full administrative staff and three associate agents, and eventually became one of the top producing financial representatives in the state.
The take-away: If you want to get yourself out of survival mode—set the bar significantly higher with a lofty goal. Think 100-200% more than what you are currently achieving in production. Keep in mind, after repeatedly (habitually) setting low-risk/survival-based goals for yourself, the prospect of tackling higher-risk goals will seem intimidating. Go for it anyway. Once you do, you’ll have no choice but to embrace an expansive mindset and implement different actions in an effort to make it come to fruition.
3) The Game Changer
Another client, a soloprenure based in Richmond, was frustrated with the amount of hours she was working. Given her status of sole proprietorship, she’d trapped herself with only one way to drive revenue: working an exorbitant amount of hours every week. She’d considered several options for solving this dilemma, including: hiring associates, offering online services, developing new products, and possibly just walking away from her business altogether.
With so many options on the table, it was difficult for her to decide which one to choose. Every time she faced her situation, she’d get overwhelmed with trying to make the best choice—and habitually procrastinated dealing with the issue, and just resumed running herself ragged.
In an attempt to help her break this habit, I asked a simple question. “Of all of the options on the table, which one would, not only improve your situation, but would, in fact, be a game-changer?” It was an easy answer for her: hiring more staff. Once the action plan was clear, she hit the ground running—drew up training manuals, interviewed candidates, and eventually hired two associates. By the end of the year, she was working fewer hours, and had increased her revenue by 30%.
The take away: If you feel boxed into a situation and are procrastinating taking action for fear of making the wrong decision, set aside a few minutes to simply identify the most obvious, viable game changing solution. The details will naturally fall into place, and you can deal with them as they present themselves.
4) The and clause
Raising your rates can be scary. If you raise them too high—you’ll lose clients. If you don’t raise them at all, the annual increase in the cost of living will force you to work harder in order to simply maintain what you’ve already got. This was the thinking of client who owned a small recruiting firm and hadn’t adjusted her rates in five years. Her habit was to approach this challenge as an “either/or” situation, rather than seeking a “both/and” solution. She unwittingly saw the two aspects of the challenge as mutually exclusive, imagining that raising her rates would result in the loss of a significant chunk of her client base—and replacing that chunk would be arduous.
She and I examined her thought process in a coaching session, and I reframed the challenge by asking, “How can you raise your rates and keep your already-existing clients?” This presented the possibility of a new approach to the quandary, one in which both aspects of the goal were addressed simultaneously, and it opened the door to possibilities she’d not previously considered.
She decided to send a letter to her existing clients, informing them of her plan to increase her rates by 7% in six months’ time, and also informed them she’d be adding more online services. Only one client dropped out as a result of her rate increase, and she gained a 15% bump in gross revenue for the year.
The take-away: If you find yourself trapped in an either/or scenario, find a way to simultaneously solve both aspects of your goal, even if it seems impossible at first glance. The “both/and” approach is a great way to unlock creative solutions that were not previously seen or considered.
By definition, habits are behaviors and routines we fall into without thinking much about them, and habitual thought-processes absolutely play the role of catalyst in self-defeating practices that take hold in our lives.
If your career seems to be stagnating, if your numbers are not increasing, or if you find yourself in any kind of rut, carve out some time for focused self-reflection and examine the habitual thoughts and practices that are keeping you running in circles.
If you’re unable to identify what’s holding you back, you might be dealing with a blind spot, in which case, it would be wise to consult with a trusted colleague or coach to examine some of the specifics of your situation. A fresh perspective might be just what you need to break the habit of rearranging the furniture in your jail cell.
