Tona: 0:02

The WE Pivot Podcast is for you if you're a woman who has recently pivoted into entrepreneurship. You'll find digital marketing tips, trends and strategies to help grow your business in today's digital world. Join Tona and Al Haywood as we have fun breaking down all things digital marketing. So sit back, relax and enjoy the show.

Tona: 0:27

Hello everyone and welcome back to the we Pivot podcast. Today we're going to talk about five essential steps to stop comparing and start thriving in your business. Have you ever looked around and you've seen all your favorite women entrepreneurs seemingly knocking it out of the park when it comes to their business? They're showing up on social media consistently, sending out weekly emails and they're making sales, not to mention they're getting plenty of reviews from satisfied customers. Or clients. You look at yourself and immediately start to compare yourself with where they are and start to feel bad. Or clients you look at yourself and immediately start to compare yourself with where they are and start to feel bad or disappointed about where you are in your business journey. Well, in order to combat that feeling, there are some essential steps that you can take so that you start thriving in your own business and not looking at so much what the other businesses are doing. The first thing is have you ever thought of praying for that other person in their business? I know for myself when I would see other businesses and they seemingly seemed like they had it all together, and especially when it came to their boutique shops, it seemed like they were always on time with getting out their new apparel line. They have all the reviews and all of these other things and I started to feel like you know, instead of me comparing myself with where they are, maybe I could stop and pray for them. Maybe stop and pray that the Lord would continue to give them smooth sailing when it comes to their customers. Maybe that the Lord will continue to give them ideas that will keep them going and continue to motivate them to keep showing up for their clients or their customers.

Tona: 2:22

Another thing that can be done is acknowledge your own achievements. A lot of times, if we're looking at other people, we don't acknowledge where the Lord has already gotten us to. We don't look at those little ways that when we started our business, we were just starting with a name and a logo and maybe a website. But we get so fixated on what other people are doing that we don't realize how far we've come. Like we might've had a whole nother type of business when we first started, but we're doing something totally different and it's thriving. Sometimes we need to stop and thank God for those things and just highlight how far we've come.

Tona: 3:08

Another thing that can be done, number three, is identify small improvements that we can make. Instead of looking so much at what others are doing right or what you feel like they're doing right are doing right or what you feel like they're doing right, go back and look at yourself and reflect. Are you doing everything that you could be doing? Like, let's say, I don't send out any emails at all? Well, maybe I could set a benchmark for myself to start sending out email. Maybe, if I don't post on social media, maybe I could say you know what I want to try to actively post on one social media platform, based off of what I can handle. So these are some of the things that you can do yourself. Like, let's say, if you feel like you've had an old lead magnet on your website and it's been there for a long time, maybe that's one thing you can say. You know what, within the next two months, I wanna have a new lead magnet. That's an optimization of your website. That could definitely move the needle for you. But you see how, when you think about those things, you're not so much thinking about the other person that you may have been admiring or you're trying to compare yourself with, because now you're looking at what is it that I'm doing and how can I make what I'm doing a little bit better. The other thing that you can do.

Tona: 4:45

Number four is enjoy your own unique journey. Sometimes we have to stop and realize our journey is not like anyone else's and the Lord has us on a different journey. You might be working a nine to five job and trying to also do business on the side when you have time. You might have just left a job and you're doing this full time, but you have other commitments. Your journey is not going to be like someone else's and sometimes we have to embrace that and thank God for that. Don't be so quick to get to the end of the thing, but just enjoy the small steps in between to get you to the big place where you're trying to go. The last thing and this is probably one of the most important things as well is sometimes we need to just set our own personal business benchmarks. How can you compare yourself with someone else if you don't have your own benchmarks that you set for yourself some specific goals that you can achieve?

Tona: 5:53

Now, I'm not saying setting overly ambitious goals. Like man, I want 100 sales this month, but you haven't even gotten one sale. That might be too hard to commit to trying to get 100 if you haven't even gotten one. Maybe, instead of saying I want to get 100 sales, maybe start implementing certain steps to get sales. Maybe start implementing certain steps to get sales Like, say are you doing email marketing? Are you posting on social media? Are you talking about your business? Even when you meet people on the street out in public, start conversations, do you tell people about it? These are all things to get you on the road to at least one sale or one client.

Tona: 6:40

I know for myself, when I started making more achievable benchmarks, I started to see the needle move. I remember once I wasn't really doing emails that much because there were so many different things that was going on in my life. But when I decided you know, I think I can commit to one email a week and when I committed to that one email a week, I noticed that at least with each email someone bought something from the store and that was a real encourager and motivator. And when those things were happening for me, I don't have time to really compare myself with someone else because I'm content with staying in my own lane. So I don't know which one of these resonated with you most.

Tona: 7:28

Was it the pray for others? Was it the acknowledge your own achievements? Was it the identify small improvements you can make? Was it knowing that you should enjoy your own unique journey? Or was it setting your own personal business benchmarks in order to avoid the comparison trap? I would love to hear which one you found the most useful for you. Right now, all you have to do is email me at tona at haywoodsbscom. I would love to hear what you thought. The next podcast that's coming up after this one is going to be one you really don't want to miss, so make sure you stay tuned, but for now, take care and bye-bye sure you stay tuned, but for now take care and bye.

Al: 8:22

We're so excited that you tuned in to the latest episode of the we Pivot podcast. Thank you for joining us. Now, whether this is your first time or not, please make sure to subscribe and share with a friend who can also use some digital marketing guidance as well. Until next time!