Why Your Business Isn’t Growing: 9 Leadership Fixes

If you’ve been struggling for more than six months to grow your business beyond a current plateau, or an obstacle popped up on your way to a growth goal, and you’ve been trying things, working at it, but not making any progress, well, the issue is most likely a leadership limitation that you can overcome. In this episode, I want to explore how to upskill your leadership to upscale your business.

Welcome to the Digital Nomad Entrepreneur podcast. My name is Eric. I’m a full time digital nomad entrepreneur, traveling around the world with my wife and four kids. I want to say thank you for being here right now, listening to this episode, wherever you are. I don’t know if you’re out for a walk, driving the car, maybe at an airport or on a bus. I don’t know where you are, but thank you for bringing me into your earbuds. I’m recording this on a rainy afternoon here in Costa Rica. Yes, we’re still in Costa Rica. If you were listening to earlier episodes, you might be thinking, wait a second, are you supposed to be out of Costa Rica by now? Keep listening to the very end of the podcast if you’re interested in our traveling, and I’ll unpack that there. But not everybody who listens is into the traveling side of things, so for all of you, and for everybody, I want to get into the meat and potatoes of this episode: how to upskill our leadership so we can upscale our business. Then at the end, we’ll come back to our travel plans.

Now, if you’re ever going to listen to more than one episode of this podcast, you’re going to hear me talk about leadership. Most of the time it’s not the whole episode, but I do end every podcast with a leadership tip of the week. I’m going to do the same thing with this one, because your leadership capacity is the limiting factor of your business. Now, yes, other things can creep in. New regulations, outside market forces, significant changes or disruption in technology. All of these things can impact your business, but a leader is still going to lead through those. And it shouldn’t take you more than six months, maybe twelve months depending on the size of the obstacle, to lead through it.

Now, for many of us, there’s not necessarily an outside force happening. It’s a personal development thing. And I want to explore this a little bit, because I do believe, in every situation I see with every coaching client I work with in my businesses, every time we’re hitting a wall or coming back around and bumping into the same wall, it’s a leadership skill issue. So I’ve got nine things here I want to go through real quick. Nine is a big number, sounds scary, but we’re not going to labor on many of these very long.

Number one: You have to understand that you’re a leader. Lead, even if you’re a solopreneur. A lot of people think they’re not a leader yet. They’re just trying to get a business started. They’re an entrepreneur, a solopreneur, but they don’t see themselves as a leader of their business. And because of that, they see things through the wrong lenses. I was talking to one person earlier this week who’s trying to build a web design business, and he was struggling. He picked up a contract providing white label services to a marketing agency, and now that agreement is taking up all of his time. He doesn’t have time to work on his business. I told him, wait a second, you have an amazing opportunity here. You’ve got a client paying you almost $70,000 a year, and you’re providing a great service. You could very easily find somebody at four, five, six dollars an hour to deliver what you’re providing, and buy yourself back several hours. Your mindset was that this was a job you had to get through on your way to building your business, instead of seeing it as, “I just got a seventy thousand dollar contract.” Most people trying to start their journey as the owner of a web design agency don’t get that. Now, you may not be a web designer. You may be a copywriter, an online coach, whatever business you have. But we have to start thinking like leaders. We have to understand that we are leaders. We have to lead leaders, evaluate leaders, step back and look at things at a higher level. Whether you’re a solopreneur or all by yourself, you don’t need a team to be a leader. If you’re trying to create your own thing, a revenue stream, a life that looks more the way you want it to, that gives you the ability to travel more often or have location independence, then you have to see yourself as a leader.

Number two: Having broken systems isn’t hurting your business. You’ve got to stop thinking, “if I could just figure out this, my business will be better. I don’t have a good lead gen strategy yet, I haven’t cracked the Facebook ads nut.” Having broken systems isn’t hurting your business. Allowing broken systems is hurting your business. Leaders don’t allow broken systems to last. Leaders aren’t victims, leaders are fixers. You need to step back, look at your business, and remove the emotion of what you’re feeling. You’ve got this pressure, this sense, all these feelings and emotions tied up with it, and it’s clouding your judgment. You may be approaching things as a victim, and that’s not what a leader is. Leaders aren’t victims, leaders are fixers. You’ve got to step back, look at your business, identify a problem, identify a broken system, and fix it. That’s what a leader does.

Number three: Leadership isn’t about getting it right. It’s about making the adjustments that need to be made. This is huge. So many people are gun shy about making a decision because, what if it’s not the right decision? And then they fret and stress over it. Leaders gather as much relevant information as they can, as quickly as they can. You’re never going to have all the information. You’re going to gather what’s accessible to you right now, make the best decision you can, and then stick with it and make adjustments. Let’s stick with lead generation for a second. So many solopreneurs or small business owners with two or three freelancers will try something for lead gen, and because they feel like they’re not getting it right, they’ll try something else, and something else, and something else. Leadership isn’t about getting it right. It’s about making the adjustments that need to be made so things get better. You need to pick a strategy that works for you. I don’t care if it’s Facebook ads, webinars, finding people on Upwork or Fiverr. Pick one, stick with it, and get amazing at it. That’s what it takes. Same thing with selling. People try one technique, then a different one, then a different one. Honestly, it’s not that these techniques don’t work, or people wouldn’t be doing them and teaching them. They don’t work for you or for me because we don’t give them the time, energy, and effort they need. It’s not about picking the right thing. If you’re spending all your time looking for the right solution, you’re wasting time you don’t have the luxury to waste. Pick a solution you like, stick to it, and make adjustments to make it work, whether that’s lead generation, lead conversion, collecting and managing money, or project management. Just keep making incremental progress on the thing you’ve chosen to do.

Number four: The most effective leaders are the ones who seek the most help. It’s true. Leadership doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Great leaders aren’t grown in a vacuum. They seek out help, get regular input, ask questions. Leaders are like little data collectors. We love collecting data and information we can use to make a decision or make adjustments to decisions we’ve already made and gone public with. It’s why CEOs of huge companies have boards, C-suite staff, assistants, and researchers. The most effective leaders are the ones who seek the most help. And you don’t have to have a full team to do this. It isn’t expensive. You’ve got to find help.

Before I give you number five, let me step into my own commercial. One thing you might want to check out is what I call open office hours. Every Monday I have an hour of time on Zoom, at noon Eastern time, eight a.m. Eastern European time, answering people’s questions. Some weeks I’ve got a couple of people, some weeks more. People come in and ask any question they have about their business, and we talk about the five main business processes: leadership, lead generation, lead conversion, collecting and managing money, and project management. We talk through problems and solutions. There’s a 14 day free trial, which means you can sign up on a Monday and come for two Mondays for free, and after that it’s $19 a month or $190 per year, for access to a group of successful entrepreneurs getting together on Zoom to problem solve and fix issues in their business. Not a bad deal. If you want to sign up, DNEPodcast.com/officehours. Also linked in the notes with this episode.

Number five: You need to find a leadership mentor, or mentors. You’ve got to broaden your definition of mentor. I have significant leadership mentors in my life who have no idea I exist. They don’t know my name, they’ve never met me in person, but I’ve consumed their books, their courses, I listen to their podcasts. I am regularly mentored by some of these people. Some of my mentors are John Maxwell. You can’t go wrong with a John Maxwell book, he’s got so many out there and they’re all great. Andy Stanley, great leader. Craig Groeschel, fantastic leader. Chris Hodges, amazing leader. Mike Michalowicz, great business books. Find a leadership mentor, and don’t be afraid to reach out with questions. I’ve asked a lot of these guys questions, and some of them I’ve gotten answers to.

Number six: You’ve got to read some books. Listen to some podcasts, but reading leadership books is great. There are so many great leadership books out there. I’ve got several listed on the resource page on my website that I recommend. Leaders are learners. We’re constantly reading new books, studying from people, not trying to implement everything we read. We’re gathering data, looking for the nugget, looking for some of our preconceived notions to be challenged a little bit, and we’ve got to be open to that. We’re looking for some reinforcement or validation of ideas, but we’re not looking for new strategies in every book to come back and implement and mess everything up. We’re looking to grow, not to copy.

Number seven: You’ve got to set aside recurring leadership time. When I was a solopreneur starting out, this was originally about an hour a month. I told this story before, I’d go to a monthly networking event and schedule the hour afterward to work on my business. Then that became a half day, then a day, then eventually most of my week, which I love. But I have very specific time scheduled for CEO time, for high level leadership activities, where I’m working on my business, working on my leadership. You’ve got to set aside some time to work on your leadership.

Number eight: I learned this question and I really like it. Ask, “how would [insert business leader’s name] handle this?” I rattled off some leadership mentors above, and one I didn’t mention is Dave Ramsey. I oftentimes wonder to myself, how would Dave Ramsey handle this? I wonder what Jeff Bezos would do in this situation, what Elon Musk would do, what Chris Hodges would do. Insert a leader’s name and ask how they’d handle it. It helps change your perspective, and sometimes we have to do that to challenge our preconceived ideas.

Number nine: Leaders don’t make decisions based on how they feel. You may be saying, but I don’t feel like it. That’s not how leaders work. They don’t work on what they want to work on based on how they feel. Leaders step back and say, I’m going to have the discipline to do what it takes. And what it takes is having the discipline to set aside some time, protect it, and use it to work on yourself, your leadership, and your business. Leaders are focused. They’re learning, they’re asking tough questions, evaluating their conditions, looking for the broken system and fixing it. They don’t allow the broken system to continue, and they don’t try to fix everything. They fix the biggest problem, then move on to the next one.

One approach that works well if you’re a solopreneur, I don’t use it any longer because I have a team I can delegate to, but it’s found in Mike Michalowicz’s book Fix This Next, where he lays out the hierarchy of a business’s needs. It’s a great approach. If you’re struggling with what to work on in your business, go to my website, my resource page, and you’ll see a link to Fix This Next. Great book to check out, and there’s a link in the show notes as well.

Leaders are mature, and we don’t let our fear run the show. We’re aware of our feelings and our emotions, we understand emotional intelligence. We have an IQ, our intellectual quotient, but we also have an EQ, our emotional intelligence, and we’re very aware of ourselves. We work to become more self-aware, more aware of how we’re impacting those around us. We understand our mindset and we work on it. We work on ourselves even when we’re not leading others. Even if you never want to lead others, your business is not going to grow beyond your skill set as a leader. And if you disagree with me, then your business probably hasn’t changed much in a year, three years, five years, and you’re probably frustrated at points with how things are going. You’re constantly feeling like, “I’m always dealing with this, I can never get past it. This is the year I’m going to fix this.” If you keep telling yourself that over and over, you’re working on the wrong problem to start with. You need to work on your leadership of yourself. Then you’re going to be able to lead others. Then you’re going to have an organization you’re going to be proud of, that’s going to stand up as its own thing. You’ve got to work on your leadership.

Now, this week’s leadership tip of the week: don’t assume it’s a no. I was talking to one of my one on one coaching clients earlier this week, and we were working hard on lead generation strategies. I gave him an exercise I do with everybody I’m starting out with who has very little in the way of leads and lead generation. We put together an opportunity pipeline, which is a crucial tool to have. I said, I want you to fill in the first column, which I label “untouched.” These are opportunities you’ve done nothing with. I want you to think of every single person you could possibly talk to that has a website, your dentist, your kid’s pediatrician, and so on. I listed several off the top of my head and he got to thirty, and he’s like, “but why? I don’t know what they’ll say, they probably don’t need that, or they already have a website.” Stop. Time out. Mindset adjustment needed. Leadership axiom lesson: don’t assume it’s a no. Never say someone’s no for them. Honor them enough to let them say no. Ask the question, let them say no. You’re still going to be okay. Don’t let your discomfort that they might say no keep you from asking.

Let me give you an example of how this played out in our lives outside the business world. I use this all the time in the business world, but here’s one from before we became digital nomads. We wanted to test the idea, I love shooting a bullet before a cannonball, and I didn’t want to commit my family, all six of us, to being, in every practical sense, homeless, without testing the idea first. We wanted to go on a test trip, but I also didn’t want to put all our stuff in storage. We were renting at the time and gearing up to buy a house, and that’s when we decided, let’s test this lifestyle before we go all in on buying a house somewhere. So I went to our landlord and said, hey, we’re going to leave the country for three months. We’re going to go to Istanbul, Turkey for four to six weeks, then take six weeks and train travel through Europe. When we get back, we’ll either sell everything and move out and be gone, or we’ll stick around for a while longer, and possibly even be interested in buying the house from you, if that’s something you’d be interested in. But I said, I can’t afford to pay for the house rent and travel, so I’m willing to pay 50% rent. At this point we were on a month to month lease. I remember telling some people I was going to do this. I told my dad, and he said, “that’s a hoot, who’s going to say yes to that, no landlord’s going to accept that offer, you’re going to insult him.” I proposed it to him, and he said, “hey, this sounds like a great idea, no problem, let’s do that.” It worked out great for our family, multiple times. I bought a business one time, and after they told me what they wanted, I made a proposal I ran by a business coach, and he said, “nah, forget it, you’re not going to get this business.” I gave the owner the proposal, and he said, “yeah, let’s do it.” So don’t assume it’s a no. Don’t say somebody’s no for them. You do not know the amazing opportunities in life you’re turning away from because you were embarrassed to ask. Ask. Maybe they’ll say no, plenty of times I ask things and people say no. But I’ll be honest with you, a lot of times they say yes when I didn’t think they would. So don’t assume it’s a no. Don’t say somebody’s no for them.

So, for those of you interested in the traveling side of our lives: I had somebody send me a message the other day asking where we are, what’s going on, they thought we said we were headed to Spain. We’ve changed our plans. We’re still in Costa Rica. It is currently June 5th, 2024. We’re going to be here until September, we have to be out September 3rd, and we’re most likely going to do four months of fast traveling in South America. We were going to go to Spain, get the digital nomad family visa, and stay for a year. I found out through the process that we’d have to pay some taxes I didn’t want to pay, honestly it just comes out of being cheap, it would have been a financial hardship for us. So we decided not to do that. We thought we may just go to Europe right away for three months, but my wife has been crushing it in her Spanish school, she attends a Spanish language institute here in Costa Rica, and her Spanish keeps getting better. I told her my concern is if we go to Europe and she’s not in a Spanish speaking environment, she’s going to lose so much of what she’s been learning. This was an aha moment I had when we were in Colombia. We had to do a visa run there because we were stamped into Costa Rica for 180 days, and in some countries you can leave and come right back in and get stamped back in, we call it a visa run. So we went to Colombia for a week for vacation, and while we were there my wife was practicing Spanish, talking to somebody, asking a question, and he walked her over to somebody else and said, “you can talk to her,” and then said to that other person, “it’s okay, she speaks Spanish,” meaning my wife. My wife is like, a Spanish speaker called me a Spanish speaker. She was so excited. I was struck by that, impressed and super proud of her. I told her, if we stay here for four more months, there’s a really good chance, a hundred percent chance, in South America you’re going to have to use Spanish a lot. It’s really going to help root it in you as a second language. So we’ve decided to do that. The kids are on board, they’re excited. We don’t have all the details planned out, we’re probably going to end up hitting seven to nine countries in four months. There are a few things we want to see for sure.

So stay tuned if this is of interest to you. If you find this stuff interesting, helpful, let me know, and I’ll add more of it at the end of the podcast for those of you in the full time travel, digital nomad space. One of the best ways to do that is send me an email, [email protected]. Sent me an email and let me know. In fact, while you’re at it, let me know what your favorite topic has been, what your least favorite episode has been, and if you’re a first time listener and want to hear more about a specific topic, let me know what that is. This is not a vanity exercise. I am creating this to create something that helps, that inspires, that empowers people to create businesses, to put systems together, to help you increase your revenue, your profits, and for those that want it, your location independence. So there’s a really quick update. I look forward to reading your email really soon. Until next time, chase the big dream, lead with courage, and safe travels.