Episode 35: Stick With It - The Success Series, Part 3 of 4
All right ya’ll - welcome back to the Personal Stylist Podcast! I’m really excited to dive into this week’s episode because it’s something near and dear to my heart but FIRST - I celebrated my 36 birthday this past weekend (on the 19th - any Libra October babies out there?) and I gotta say - I’m loving my 30s SO much - I feel much more grounded, I know where I’m going in life, and generally feel like a better all around human being. I’m recording this episode early, actually, so by the time this airs, I will have either gone on or will be going on a great fall hike in the mountains of western Virginia - one of my favorite places AND since we are talking about success - being able to travel and to do so during the work week is one of my definitions of success - one of the ways I’ know I’ve set my business up to support ME.
So let’s get in to today’s episode! If you’re just tuning in I’d invite you to go listen to Episode 33 where we work through an exercise to help you craft your own definition of success and Ep. 34 where we talk about Standing for Something and how that is step 1 in being successful in your styling business.
Today we’re diving in to Part 3 in the Success Series which is Stick With it (and avoid Shiny Objects).
Once you’ve decided what you’re standing for - you know your clients, you have your service - your one and only goal is to stick with that ONE thing until you’ve hit your definition of success with it. - (need one? $5,000 a month consistently for a year is a good one).
I want to share a metaphor that comes from my mentor James Wedmore.
Imagine your dream life as an island out across the water. You’re over on shore and want to get there - so you start building a bridge - that bridge is your first service. And then you start building another bridge, your second service, and then you do ANOTHER bridge which is an online style course. So you’ve built three bridges, but none of them reach the island.
You’ve fallen for the trap we ALL fall for - that more services = more clients = more money and that gets you to your dream life. But by creating all of these small bridges, you’re never creating and committing to ONE. Imagine how you would feel if you created ONE bridge that got you to the island.
That you reworked, tweaked, made better, and turned into a money making machine. Then you can start tuning into the 2nd bridge. But all too often, we get shiny object syndrome. We do a service for 3 months, don’t get any clients and think something is wrong with the service. And yes, something may be wrong with it - but you haven’t stuck with it long enough to know what that is or discover how to fix it. Because chances are, if you created something, it’s GOOD but if you don’t do it consistently for YEARS you’ll never make it great nd turn it into that bridge you’re dreaming of. You’ll short circuit it and start working on another bridge, only to repeat your pattern.
Maya Elious, a brand strategist on instagram recently posted a story that said: “I don’t start anything I’m not willing to put five years of work into. Success takes time.”
I see stylists ALL the time, and I was 100% guilty of this when I first started, was creating service after service that sounded good, but the moment it didn’t work, I ditched it and started something new. Now - there are a few reasons to ditch services, if they aren’t aligned, etc. BUT you will NEVER know if a service that you are truly aligned with works if you keep changing it every 3 months. If you truly need a number, I would say in my experience, I usually do something for about a year, and then I’ll evaluate and see if I want or need to pivot.
A great business book called Good to Great, talks about success as a flywheel. Think of it like one of those spinning wheels on a playground - your first few pushes are so hard to get it moving and going, but eventually, after a few pushes, you’r able to run, then jump on and enjoy the ride. Your business is just like this. It takes time. Flat out, years, for you to get to that running and jumping on phase. And we don’t like that. But it’s necessary if you want to be a success.
Stop chasing shiny objects, and start sticking with it.