Get comfortable with being uncomfortable
One of the benefits of travel is that it puts you outside of your comfort zone.
It forces you to be in a new place with new customs, food, driving patterns, and quite possibly a different language, to name a few of the ways life gets shaken up when you leave your home territory.
It forces you to get uncomfortable with discomfort.
Which really is the only way to experience anything new, in business and life.
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And every place that is not home is new.
Last year, I decamped to Paris for 9 weeks. In the fall of this year, I was in Italy for six.
As you’ve no doubt figured out, travel is one of my love languages.
Over the six weeks, I stayed in seven Airbnbs in seven different locations. Was it exciting? Yes! Was it scary and mildly unsettling? Yes!
Each stop has had its differences, big and small:
Driving a stick after 2 years of barely driving
Understanding the instructions on the washing machine
Or how the coffee machine works
Knowing what to buy at the grocery store
Or when you can shop (read: often not between 1:00 and 5:00 p.m.)
Or when you can eat out (read: often not between 3:00 and 7:30 p.m.)
And understanding what on earth to do with the vetro, metallica, plastica, carta, and organico, and on what day
All the things you do on autopilot when you’re at home — those all go out the window. You’re starting from scratch.
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It’s time to get off autopilot.
Your goal is to profitably grow your business.
And you most likely know the business development and marketing activities you need to do to make it happen. The ones with the potential to move revenue up and to the right.
You may be doing some of them, but my guess is that there are others that you’ve been putting off.
Because:
You’re too busy
You’re not sure if the timing is right
You’re afraid of what people will say
Client work has taken priority (working in the business vs. on the business)
#procrastination
#youreafraidtodothething
And being afraid is, well, uncomfortable.
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It’s time to get comfortable with discomfort.
There are actions you can take that have the potential to significantly impact your business in a positive way, especially when done repeatedly.
Here are some of them:
Send an email to a former client asking for a testimonial
Message a former colleague on LinkedIn to set up a time to catch up
Pitch yourself as a guest for a podcast
Pitch yourself as a speaker for an event you’ve long wanted to attend
Host a monthly roundtable or workshop on the area of focus for your business and invite people to join you
Go live on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook
Send a weekly/bi-weekly/monthly email to your community
Or start a Substack newsletter
Are some of them scary? You bet. Will they all work for you? Nope.
But, think about it. What’s the worst thing that can happen?
The person you reach out to says, “no.” And you know my response to that… if you don’t ask, the answer is always “no.”
Or the chosen activity doesn’t yield the expected results and you learn what to do differently next time.
Or that it wasn’t the right action to take and you can choose a different approach.
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Choose 2 and get started.
Don’t try to do everything. That won’t work.
Choose two from the list above, or from your own list, and get started.
Take messy, imperfect, but committed action.
And treat everything as a test.
If you need help choosing the right two activities to focus on to move the needle in your business, and creating your custom action plan let’s talk.