Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:07] Hi there and welcome back to the Confessions in the Home Office podcast. I'm Wendy Hill and my podcast is all about working from home while owning my business for the past 20 years. It's a mix of marketing tips, business ownership guidance, and how to survive just working from home. Today I'm talking about why I stopped listening to business gurus. Yes, I said that. Those big name experts, the endless advice, the courses, the masterminds. I'm pretty sure that I've done it all. At least that's what my bank account says. And while there's nothing wrong with learning from smart people, there came a point where I realized it wasn't helping me anymore. In fact, it was just holding me back. So I want to talk about that for just a minute today.
[00:00:49] When I first started my business, I was ready for any type of knowledge, strategies, roadmap, anything I could find. The Internet was very different back when I started my business in 2005. And online education was really sparse and it was really expensive to do. But as time went along, there was more content available and all the gurus out there made it look easy. And I used to think, how do they come up with all this? How do they get all this to work? And it just seems like, I'm sure they have big teams and all that, but anyway, they had all these shiny funnels, these fancy frameworks and promises of six figures and six weeks or whatever the tagline of the day was. So I bought the courses. I binge watched the webinars, any extra time I had on the weekends or late at night after the kids are asleep, I was buckled down, ready, saying, this is the one that's going to be it. I would get my new notebook out, a new pen, and I would say, this is going to be the one. Once I get done with this, I've got everything. I've got everything I need. And I really tried to mold my business into their formula because they had had the success that I wanted, so why wouldn't it work? And for a while, it felt good. It was structured, I was doing all the right things. They were kind of telling me what to do. This step now, this step and this step. But underneath, I really started noticing I was just getting frustrated and tired. And then I felt like things were really starting to fall apart.
[00:02:11] I would follow a guru step by step marketing plan and my results would be okay.
[00:02:16] Or I would try to mimic their messaging and it just felt kind of off. And then I started to second guess myself, which everybody in business does. This Every decision became a swirl of what would this person do? What would this person have said? How would this person have designed this? And I really lost sight of my own instincts. And then I started thinking, I've gotten pretty far on my own. I'm not starving. I'm paying my bills. We're going on vacation. I have a profit. Why am I so worried that my programs need to look like someone else's?
[00:02:53] I also noticed something else. These gurus just. They weren't me. They didn't have my audience. They didn't have the industry experience I had just. Or even the overall years of experience, my values and my business model. Some of them were in completely different stages of life than me, but I kept measuring my progress against their highlight reels on Instagram, and I was really, really tired.
[00:03:17] So the turning point came for me. After a launch in 2023, I had followed every guru tip to the letter. All the email sequences, all the social posts, the perfect sales page. And the launch came, and it did okay, but it didn't do great compared to all the hours and the time and all the thinking that I had put into it.
[00:03:37] I would say that it didn't bomb, but it was pretty close. And I was just sitting there frustrated and honestly, a little embarrassed. I was hoping nobody would ask me about it. You know, how did your launch do? How did this go? I'd done everything right. It still just didn't really click. And then that was my light bulb moment. I'm building someone else's business, not mine. I had patted their pockets by buying the course, but I really wasn't doing anything to help myself. I'd watched so many things, I had listened to so many things, I had read so many things. I knew what to do, but I wasn't doing it my way. I needed to come back to my own voice, my own understanding of my audience, and actually what really felt aligned and something that would work and last for me. Now, don't get me wrong, I still learn all the time. I still listen to podcasts. I still read articles. I will buy into a membership or a program if it's going to teach skills that I'm trying to enhance. And I don't want to spend all the time going out and looking for everything online myself.
[00:04:37] But now I really vet things, and I do this by thinking through, does it fit my business model?
[00:04:44] Is this something that I think will work for my audience, something that they need, and does this really align with my values? And do I even have time to do this? I think as business owners, we all take on too much and we really need to start thinking about if I do this, do I really have time to do it? Well, if the answer is no, you either need to work something out so you do have time to do it, or maybe the time is not right for right now. And this is the key. I really trust myself more than any guru. I test, tweak and pay attention to my own data, my own instincts. And I really learn more on just having conversations with others in industry. Business owners who are in the trenches like me handling everything, working with a small team or working with contractors and they get it in no way that like a distant guru with a huge team would get it. And the more people I meet and talk with, we all know we have the knowledge. We just have to remind ourselves that we do.
[00:05:44] So my confession today is the best growth I've had in my business came after I stopped chasing guru advice and started listening to myself, even if I have to say it out loud to be able to hear it.
[00:05:57] If you're feeling stuck or overwhelmed by all the shoulds out there, I want to encourage you just take a step back. Whether it's a half day, a day, a weekend, or getting ready to go on summer vacation, I want you to really think about your business, the people you serve, the people you want to serve, and your own wisdom. That's where the magic really happens. And if you have to go through your Instagram or Facebook feed and hide a bunch of ads just so you're not so bombarded with so much stuff in your industry, then just do it.
[00:06:33] So thank you for listening today. If this episode resonated with you, I'd love to hear your thoughts. You can email me@wendy wendyhill.com and if you're enjoying the show, don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. Episodes are on YouTube and everywhere you find your podcast. And until next time, keep doing business. Keep your way.
