Lost momentum? Do these 3 things.

There is a piece of this that is about forcing yourself into discomfort until it becomes not something necessarily that's comfortable, but something that you that is a routine, it is a habit and you do it. Because you know that showing up and doing that thing is what is going to help propel you forward take you to the next level, build that momentum and take you into that place where you can receive everything that you really want.

This is The Entrepreneur School Podcast where we believe you can run a thriving business and still make your family a priority. This show is all about supporting you the emerging or early stage Entrepreneur on your journey from solopreneur to CEO while wearing all of the other hats in your life. My name is Kelly Sinclair and I'm a brand and marketing strategist who started a business with two kids under 3am, a corporate PR girl turned entrepreneur after I learned the hard way that life is too short to waste doing things that burn you out. On this show, you'll hear inspiring stories from other business owners on their journey, and learn strategies to help you grow a profitable business while making it all fit into the life that you want. Welcome to Entrepreneur School.

So today's episode is a bit of a pep talk for you. And quite honestly, for myself, one of the things that I wanted to do with this podcast is share some real behind the scenes sort of how things are going kind of episodes, which basically are going to be like entrepreneurship in real life. Because the truth is, you can predict what's going to happen next, how you're going to feel how everything is going to shift and turn on a dime. That's why whenever I talk about planning, I talked about how I like to plan my business with dry erase marker because something comes up and something needs to change. And it's really important to grow your flexibility muscles. And that's a really challenging thing for me, because I like plans, I like control, I like to feel like I'm in the driver's seat. And ultimately, when you give yourself the title of CEO of business owner, really you should be but there are other things that come into play here.

So one, what I want to talk about today is momentum. And what to do when you feel like you've lost it, which if you're like me I know is it can happen regularly, where you go into this sort of season where everything feels like flow, and it feels like you're really gaining momentum, you're seeing things happen and all builds up. And it's really like that snowball rolling down a hill, but in a good way. And then there's seasons where like everything stopped. And it feels like so challenging to get it to go again. So I want to share three steps basically on how to get your momentum back, which I will be applying to my own life and business in real time. Over the next few weeks, too. So make sure to like stay engaged with me on Instagram, because I'll be sharing some more behind the scenes of that. And there'll be another podcast episode coming out in a few weeks that kind of goes into some more detail about what I've been going through and how I'm managing this particular season in my business.

So the momentum, when you lose it, it feels like you don't want to do anything. It feels like you can't do anything. Maybe you get stuck in indecision in inaction. And it feels really challenging. So what do we do to get out of that, the first thing to do is to make a decision to make a decision about one that you do in fact want to get your momentum back, which also involves ensuring that you have the energy to put towards maintaining it on an ongoing basis. Because sometimes you don't and for me, that's the case recently where I actually was just completely out of energy completely burnt out completely done and needed an actual do nothing rest period for Well, it's been going on like three weeks now. So I don't really know how long I need it for but that may be the case for you. So I want you to listen to yourself. And if you have the opportunity to take that break, do that. But more on that on another podcast episode. So the first step is making that decision. And if you do decide that it's time to get back out there to get things going again, to get that ball rolling, then the first decision that you need to make is what are you going to do, that's going to help you to feel that momentum. So think about things that you've done before, that have created that for you specific kinds of actions that you take. For me, this is like putting something into a calendar, making myself do it picking a date that by this day, I will do X thing. One of the great examples for this is your content. So one thing that we all have to do as business owners is create content to help build our visibility, attract those ideal clients to us. And as I've talked about before, creating content also creates confidence for you. Because when you're talking about what you are an expert in, you remind yourself that you actually do Knuth know some things. This is happening in real time for me right now because my momentum is stuck. And I needed to record this podcast episode. So I told my I put in my calendar. I'm recording it right now. And that's exactly how it's going. So deciding. And then the follow up piece of that, of course, is a decision doesn't do anything unless you take the action that's associated with it.

So step two, in regaining your momentum is taking the action. So doing the live, putting the post out, making the real creating the podcast, applying for the speaking opportunity, sending the email to the person who you would like to collaborate with, or going to the networking event in your community, online or in person, whatever it is, all of those things can start your ball rolling. So what I would recommend is that you pick something like pick one thing, rather than having to go through this process, repeatedly pick the one thing you're going to do on a regular basis. So that's why I'm suggesting content creation is a great place to start getting your momentum back. Because it's fairly safe. It's something you have to do. And it's something that you can do multiple times to help stack up until you feel that momentum again. So the action, let's talk about content creation. And again, if you need support with content creation, you can always grab my simplified content system, they have tons of tools to help make this even easier for you.

So the third step in creating your momentum is to build a habit around it. So when you do something one time, that is not momentum, that's like, Okay, you got like a little buzz maybe from doing it. But you need to continue taking actions, showing up and doing the thing again, and again. And according to James clear, who's the author of atomic habits, he says it takes about 66 days to build a habit. So be prepared that this is an ongoing thing that you're going to do regularly. Some tools to help you with your habit building would include scheduling things. So if it's content creation we're talking about, and that's the example I'm going to use, but you can put in any example of what sort of action you want to take for your business, then you're going to put it in your calendar to create that content. So whether that's on a Monday or on a Friday, you're going to create two or three pieces of content that you're then going to share out, or you're going to do something that's going to be live every single week, or whatever cadence that you want weekly, would be ideal. And then stick it in your calendar. Because that helps you make yourself do it. There is a piece of this, that is about forcing yourself into discomfort until it becomes not something necessarily that's comfortable, but something that you that is a routine, it is a habit and you do it because you know that showing up and doing that thing is what is going to help propel you forward take you to the next level, build that momentum and take you into that place where you can receive everything that you really want. So I have an example to share here. One thing one experiment, I guess that I did earlier on in my business was I did a live video on Facebook every single week. So it was in my calendar Wednesdays at noon, for 30 minutes I blocked off and I just showed up because I committed to it and once you make a commitment to yourself, you're much more likely to actually follow through. And then when you put it out there and other people know about it, that's an other layer of accountability that you have to have help you show up. So you know that there's people who know about it, they've talked about it, and then you deliver on it, and you're fulfilling that whole piece of it. So 100 Live videos I did on Facebook over the course of approximately two years, because it was weekly. And I really strengthened a lot of things. It was momentum building, in terms of I knew that, at the very least, I had that piece of content to use for my week. And then I would be maintaining some presence, maintaining some visibility, maintaining some relevancy, and also practicing skills that I needed that would apply to other parts of my business, like training, like teaching, like extemporaneous speaking, right now, I'm doing this podcast based on one sticky note, with three bullet points on it, which is a process that I developed from doing exactly that, those 100 Live videos, I used to map out the entire script and write it down, and rehearse it, and then show up and deliver it, which is totally fine. And if you need to take that effort and do it like that, for your first few times, you will eventually be able to be more spontaneous about what you're talking about, because you've practiced a skill. So if you think about it, there is a lot to be said about the act of doing something regularly, because you're going to make it easier for yourself, you may think is challenging now. But once you do it repeatedly, create a habit around it, and then continue, not only have you built momentum, but you've also you've also created this new level of skills for yourself, which will be important to support you in delivering what your business does, delivering your expertise and, and being able to, you know, really create that authority for yourself, which is important for building your brand.

So to recap, for the purpose of this episode, momentum comes from taking three steps, number one, making a decision. And number two, taking the action that is associated with that decision. And number three, building a habit around it. So if you can commit to one thing that you're going to do, at least on a weekly basis, or maybe twice a week, for 66 days, at a minimum, to build a habit to build momentum will create your next level of success. Because truly, when you're in that place of feeling like things are going somewhere and you see the result, you get more clarity every step of the way. And clarity is what creates additional success for you. It's such an important piece, because when you're sitting here stuck, like I am, like you might be right now, you feel like you're unsure, you don't know which direction you want to go. You start questioning everything, you want to rip it all apart, in there. But once you start moving somewhere, things start moving around you. And you will come to these moments where you'll start to see more clearly where it is you should go next and why. So you just have to start walking down the path. I one time saw this visual of staircase where you couldn't see the next step. That's what life is. That's what business is all about it is taking the step and trusting that it's going to show up for you. So I hope that you found this a little bit informative and a little bit motivational to get your momentum back. As always, please connect with me on Instagram. And let me know what you are working through right now. I'm here to support you.