Last week I broke a habit that I’ve had for the past 5 years of running this business. You might be thinking that must be a bad thing. Surely it can’t be good to have broken something I’d been doing for over half a decade?
Well, this actually wasn’t a good habit.
In fact, it’s probably hampered growth on multiple occasions over the past few years, and it’s something I’m actively trying to improve as we look to grow and scale the Lifestyle Business Academy this year and that’s my habit of saying yes too easily and giving myself – and the team – multiple priorities, rather than ensuring that our attention isn’t being fragmented.
And last week I decided to scrap a profitable project that we’d planned to launch in Q2, in favour of focusing all our attention on improving the Lifestyle Business Academy.
Now, to be clear, this wasn’t an easy decision. The project looked good on paper. It would’ve brought in revenue. And a few years ago, I absolutely would’ve said yes without thinking twice.
But here’s what I’ve learned the hard way: saying yes to everything is a really effective way to just stagnate as a business. When you spread yourself across 10 different projects, each one only gets 10% of your attention. So even if some of them have genuine potential, none of them get the focus they need to actually succeed. Or to put it another way – you’re moving about 100 yards in 10 different directions rather than one mile in a single direction.
And I was guilty of this for years. In my head, I was being strategic. I was keeping options open. Every new opportunity felt like it could be the thing that unlocked the next level of growth, but when I actually look back, these distractions have always slowed us down, somewhere, somehow.
I see this pattern all the time with students in the Lifestyle Business Academy now too. Someone will come in with three different business ideas but the honest truth is that none of those ideas will go anywhere unless they pick one and commit.
In fact, the businesses that succeed are almost always built by people who said no to nearly everything else so they could focus on one clear direction. They’re not smarter than everyone else. They’re not working harder. They just understand that building a business is about depth, not breadth.
You need to go deep enough that you genuinely understand your customers, that your offer stands out from everyone else and that allows you to actually build the systems and processes that allow the business to grow.
And you simply cannot do that if you’re splitting your attention across multiple opportunities which brings me back to last week’s decision to scrap our planned project.
Was it potentially profitable? Yes. Would it have been exciting to work on? Probably. But would it have taken focus away from the thing that actually matters right now – making the Academy the best it can be? Definitely, yes.
And that’s the trade-off. Every time you say yes to something new, you’re saying no to going deeper on the things you’ve already committed to.
So if there’s one thing I’d encourage you to think about as you’re building your business, it’s this: what could you say no to right now that would free you up to go deeper on what actually matters?
One mile in one direction. Not 100 yards in 10 different directions.
Have a great weekend 😊
Ali xx
P.S. If you’re specifically thinking about building a $100k/year lifestyle business and want help figuring out what to focus on, we’re opening applications for the next cohort of the Lifestyle Business Academy soon. Keep an eye on your inbox 👀