Business is one of the best personal development programs on the planet. 

You’re constantly brought face to face with your own shortcomings as things either go wrong or don’t play out as expected. 

And the question every single time is - do I rise up to meet these challenges and step outside of my comfort zone, or do I stay where I am? 

Spoiler alert - staying where you are doesn’t result in you building the business or the life that you want. 

So if you’re choosing to rise, choosing to get outside of your comfort zone, choosing for things to get hard as you grow and get better - the question then is… 

…who do I need to become? 

…what skills do I need to develop? 

…what do I need to do to get better? 

And only you can answer this based on where you are now, your shortcomings and the skills that you still need to develop in order to build the business and life that you want. 

Everything...

Staff and team shortages is still a very real roadblock for business owners.  

Most could put on 2 to 3 people tomorrow in order to deliver the workload in front of them.  

The reality is that the people and the team you need to grow your business are already there, in your current & future network - you just need to attract them into your world.  

Most business owners just put up a couple of ads on Seek or LinkedIn whenever they’re looking to hire - and wonder why they don’t get any good applicants. 

It’s because a very very small percentage of your future team, that are going to help you build your business, will just randomly apply to an ad that you post. 

They will come because they are curious and interested in your brand, your vision, your mission, your culture, your current team, your clients, your projects, your career progression opportunities etc. 

And they’ll only know about these things if...

In order for your business to grow - you need to hire great people or develop them from within, train them to take over a part of what you’re doing right now and then elevate yourself to that next level. 

And you then repeat this process over and over. 

I tell my clients all the time - the roles and the tasks that you’re doing in the business in 6 months’ time should be very different from what you’re doing now. 

You need to be constantly focusing on upleveling your role and what you do in the business so that you, your team and your business are always growing. 

But this process of upleveling can be hard and uncomfortable.  

And humans in general don’t like hard and uncomfortable. 

So we sometimes fall into the trap of unconsciously sabotaging business growth by staying where we are.   

Not growing.  

Doing the same tasks and roles in the business month after month, year after year. ...

Too many business owners over-complicate things. 

They make business way harder than it needs to be - because they think that’s what’s required to grow a successful consultancy. 

When faced with business problems or even what to do next to grow - they make things really complex & confusing so that even the smartest person would have a hard time working out what’s going on. 

There’s a saying we use with all of our Boardroom clients - “Simple scales. Complex fails”. 

When we keep business simple - we can see the path forward to growth. 

When we make it complex and complicated - that path forward gets confusing and overgrown. 

And a confused mind says no. 

Meaning that if you can’t see the path forward or it looks complex and confusing, you get overwhelmed and your mind says ‘no’.  

If it all feels too hard and too complicated, you end up taking no action at all and as a result - you...

A large part of what I do for my clients is expand their thinking.

To show them what’s possible for their lives and their business outside of their current viewpoint or thought structure.

To push them a little to help them see and uncover what they really want in life.

Most of the time, people start their own business for one or all of these reasons - money, meaning and freedom.

They’d like to make more money than they could working for someone else and if you dig deep enough, most would like to create intergenerational wealth and really set themselves and their family up for financial freedom & success.

They’d like to have a greater impact on the lives of those around them. Deliver exceptional projects for their clients, help the community and the public who benefit from these projects, build a great team where everyone is motivated and inspired to do great work and to show their friends and family what’s possible if you pursue doing what you enjoy.

...

Most business owners get into business because they want more freedom and flexibility.

They want to be the master of their own destinies, call the shots, take time off whenever they want and enjoy the fruits of their labour.

But when you start your business - it often demands more time of you than a day job and you then sacrifice the very things and the very reasons why you started your business in the first place.

As your business grows and you hire more people, I see business owners carry the same mentality through with them from when they first started out which is…

“I have to do everything”

This may have served you when you first started (because you did have to do everything) - but it certainly won’t serve you now as you grow.

If you want to build a business that allows you way more free time, allows you to spend more time with your family & friends, allows you to travel more and allows you to live a fun and...

One of the most common frustrations amongst business owners is that they know they need to be focusing on strategy, vision and big picture - but can never seem to find the time to actually do it.

There’s always more pressing things to action first. Calls to make, emails to respond to, a report to review, a client to keep happy, a staff request or issue etc.

There’s quite literally 100’s of things vying for your attention at any given moment. 

And it’s not because you don’t know that you need to be making more time for strategy and big picture - you do.

And that’s what makes this even harder - because you can feel the stress building up in you when you know you need to be getting to something but you aren’t.

So it’s not a question of awareness - you have that.

It’s an issue with priorities.

“What you focus on - grows”.

There will literally always be something you can focus your attention on - but is it a priority?...

Business growth is what we're all striving for.

We want to be able to look back over the months and years and feel really proud about what we've created and how far we've come.

We want to feel like it's all been worth it. The hard decisions & conversations, the big hours & big weeks, the sleepless & restless nights - we want to be able to look back on all of this and feel really proud with what we’ve achieved.

But what happens when we're working really hard, doing all the 'things' - and the growth never comes?

When you’ve been at the same point, plateaued in your business for months, years or even decades?

That's tough. That's frustrating. That's defeating.

It can be downright demoralising.

If this is you - if you’re feeling like you’re putting in the hours and the work - but you’re not seeing the results - it’s probably because you’re still hanging on.

Hanging on to the small things. 

Hanging on...

Most founders and business owners haven’t thought about their exit strategy from their business.

They either put it off because they don’t want to think about it just yet or they genuinely get consumed with the day to day running and building of their business that it gets forgotten about.

There are plenty of stories of business owners leaving this decision until it’s too late and not giving themselves enough time to properly plan for their exit. 

This leaves them with very few options and they either sell for a much lower value than what their business is really worth or they just shut the doors, turn off the lights and walk away.

To me - that’s such a wasted opportunity, when some planning, a good strategy and consistent effort can have you realising maximum value for your business when the time comes to hang up the boots.

Planning for your exit from your business needs to be thought about now and planned for now as this informs the strategy that you...

I’ve been learning to surf on and off now for about 2 years.

I love being in the water but haven’t been able to commit to the consistency because of a few pesky injuries.

The last 6 months my body has been feeling really strong and fit and I’ve committed to consistently just getting out in the water and practicing.

No stress or frustration about the outcome. I don’t care whether I catch 1 wave or 10. I don’t care whether I fall off or stand up. 

Just committed to the process of practicing, being the learner & enjoying the journey.

And this morning a bunch of stuff just clicked. And it became really fun.

I’m by no means a pro surfer or catching 6 foot barrels But I could really see the compounding effects of just turning up every day and putting the work in.

The same is true for business.

We often want the outcome to be immediate or that any effort we put in will be guaranteed to pay off.

Unfortunately neither is true for business.

We put...