How To Do Less and Still Grow Your Business
By: Claudia Vidor
Tags: Money, Self Improvement, Startup, Business, Productivity

Then one day I realized I couldn’t hold a conversation without popping my ears and twitching my right eye; interesting, I thought. Where the hell is this coming from, and what is my body telling me?

I then realized I had been unsatisfied, controlling, and continuously swinging between two different kinds of guilts (not doing enough and doing too much at the same time) for the longest time.

I needed a way out, as all this doing wasn’t even supporting my dreams, as I was utterly miserable, and I still struggling to make ends meet.

Going back to my values

I went back to a very simple question; why I was doing what I was doing and did my behaviors aligned with my values. It was nice to reinforce my whys and realize that I was doing the work that made me feel extremely satisfied and sparked my creativity. It was also hard to face that the way I was acting towards my family, self, and business wasn’t aligning with my values.

When did it become ok to put myself care and the quality time spent with the people I loved the most in the backburner? I justified my busyness as I had so many things to tick off daily, but could I shorten the mental list I was relying on? To do so, I had to apply…

The Law of the vital few

In laymen’s’ term, I had to figure out what I was doing that was beneficial for my business. To give you an example, I struggled running FB ads; for some reason, I found them quite pricey and somewhat tricky to set up. I second-guessed my choice every time I clicked send, and I didn’t know how to read the analytics. Turned out, although I was investing a decent amount on my ads, I wouldn’t receive much in return, only hours of headaches and tons of insecurity. I then stopped running ads and…nothing changed. It showed me that I was investing much of my precious time in an activity I wasn’t clearly good at, and that didn’t spark any joy (more on it on the next point).

Writing content, and doing research, instead, makes me tremendously happy, mainly because I know I’m able to reach and support a broader audience. Writing an article wasn’t always the most profitable task, but I knew that it was taking me in the right direction, as I was reaching the life and the hearts of my target audience. I just had to wait for the love to come around, and in the meantime, I had enough articles posted to create a program or two, plenty of webinars and workshops, and never-ending lead magnets. Content creation was my thing.

Outsource

To go back to the example of the Facebook ads, I wasn’t saying they don’t work (apparently, 85% of clicks on FB come from friends and paid ads, as it is almost impossible to grow in a platform that is clogged by information), but that I didn’t know how to make them work for me. That’s when I decided to outsource, and I also hired an amazing girl to create my IG posts. She would spend 10 minutes on it, whereas it would take me hours to come up with a decent design.

Outsourcing is an incredible tool, and I applied it to different areas of my life; I do, for example, hire a cleaner to come and tidy up our home twice per month, so the only thing I have to do is keeping the kitchen clean until her next visit. I know that I come from a privileged place where I have the opportunity to hire a cleaner, but I have also been babysitting for other people to get the same favor in return. Also, I don’t spend a dollar on buying clothes, cosmetics, and shoes; unless I really need to.

Find what floats your boat and start asking for the help you need.

Focus on your mental health

As long as I concentrated on doing, instead of being, I had literally no chance to grow. As long as stress and anxiety were taking a massive real estate’s space in my brain, I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. I used to focus on getting short-lived gains, which lead me to feel overwhelmed in the long term. I used to say yes to everything, for fear of missing out. I used to prioritize everything else but me, with the mentality of “I’d rather do it myself as I can’t be bothered asking.”

I had to get to a miserable place of exhaustion before sitting down and focusing on patching up my broken cup, instead of filling it mindlessly.

Also, journaling helped. I would love to say that I turned to meditation, and life became magic in less than a week; this would give you a tool that you can utilize and put in place. Unfortunately, meditation didn’t help me as much as it did in the past, but journaling came to rescue, as it was a moment of mindfulness in my weekly routine where I would sit, regroup and recharge.

Fix your energetic leak, recharge your batteries, and find the way that works for you. As much as I would love to be able to work 80 hours a week and shine, my body and mind can get easily overwhelmed with 25 hours of week of intense focus. Find out who you are and grow from there.