It’s always important to have someone show you “the ropes” in the beginning stages in your business. When I started my own business venture two years ago, I hired numerous coaches and mentors across MULTIPLE disciplines to work on getting my business off the ground. Every coach with a different strategy and mindset technique to share, leaving me feeling like there’s no end to chasing for the “next best thing.”

Someone is always trying to give you their “Magic Pill”

You know the moment when you are desperate to start making money (and stop your savings from bleeding)? You click on a link that leads you to a sales page, that tells you the coach has “the best kept secret” or “the exact 7-step formula to start your business” – those of you who’ve been there know what I’m talking about.
You see, I had a weakness for that kind of copywriting. My heart would scream “Take my money and share your secret already!” Through pushing my own boundaries, implementing different strategies, and months after months of falling left, right and sideways – I realised strategy and mindset alone is not enough to get your career or business off the ground. You need the right conditions.
You can’t copy and paste success or failure. You need to have the right environment in order to gain traction and take things to the next level. I’m not referring to external conditions – because  the best conditions that cannot be “ctrl+copy+pasted” from someone else’s success formula are allowing yourself to fail so many times that you become thick-skinned, so you no longer feel self conscious.

“Dreams don’t work unless you do.”– John C. Maxwell

Imagine you’re trying to grow a beautiful garden of flowers. You’ve got all the items: landscaping tools, the instructions, the commitment and all the love and attention you can give to your garden. But wait a minute – you need the right conditions to be met. That’s when you need to look into temperature, amount of water, sunlight, pH of the soil, and pest control to make sure your flowers can flourish and blossom.
The same goes with your career and business. You need to have the right conditions in place, and create the perfect environment for yourself and your work to thrive. That’s why we need to take things one step further to close the gap that acts as a bridge from where you are to where you need to be.
We need to open up the dialogue to talk about how we can get more support as entrepreneurs, because it’s not written in the “Rulebook of Success.” We need to talk about the areas we may have overlooked that are just as important as Mindset & Strategy.

It’s Time To Fill In The Gaps

I’m telling you, just the realisation itself blew my mind. Because having a thriving business is no longer just about following someone else’s “7-Step Formula” or a “blueprint” and hope that it works for you. It always makes me chuckle when people use that word, no one’s business is identical in my personal opinion. Neither is it about journaling your butt off.
In more practical terms, building your business upon the right conditions is about these following things, and so much more. It’s about not needing validation from other people but yourself. It’s about finding the right support community. It’s about going through the process of deep, inner work. It’s about fitting your life and business and fun and family into your schedule.
It’s about confronting all of your fears and having difficult conversations that you’ve put aside. It’s about cultivating experience and building thick skin from your failures (so, you can not fail even if you used someone else’s fool-proof method). Building a successful business is shedding your old identity and building a new one – all the while finding new people along the way that support your vision.

“There is no elevator to success, you have to take the stairs.” – Zig Ziglar

Shower Love Onto Every Part of Your Business

Your success is built upon all the other things that happen in between and along the journey for every self-made person that no one told you about. Every element of non-business related strategy is a piece of the puzzle that shouldn’t be overlooked. That’s why I’m calling the intentional business owners and entrepreneurs forward – to focus your energy on plowing through every inch of your soil and give attention to things that are also “behind the scenes” – so that you can build a thriving empire upon a rich, fertilized foundation.

What part of this article resonated most with you and why? Share your thoughts below!

Why do so many entrepreneurs or business owners fail to constantly show up in their business, connect to their audience and share their message? You might be surprised to know that the answer is because they lack ideas on what type of content to write about on a consistent basis. But why does this happen?
One of the main reasons people do not create much content is because they think that what they write needs to be perfect. They read it and read it over and over again and the more they read it the more they change it and consequently the more what they have written about will move away from the original message.
Another reason that totally freezes people is the lack of confidence in sharing their real message for fear of being judged and criticised by others. Others might say that they have nothing ‘new” to say that has not been explored by others before.
These are simply excuses as you can come up with so much content every day, which, yes, someone might have spoken about it before, but not through your very own eyes and your very own unique voice.

“Creating content that allows us to share our experiences, thoughts and ideas in real time is becoming an intrinsic part of life in the twenty-first century.” – Gary Vaynerchuk

Content creation is much simpler than you think.

Imagine you are going to meet a friend and have a cup of coffee with them. Would you feel stuck on what to say? Would you just remain silent and not speak at all? You probably wouldn’t. You will have plenty to say and plenty to talk about. And the good news is that you can do exactly the same thing with your content. Yes, creating content is as easy as creating conversation during a coffee chat with your friends. If you are still struggling with how to create content, I have listed 2 of my go-to methods below.

1. Be 100% present in your daily life and get inspiration from it

Everything that happens to you during the day can become a topic for content. Imagine the conversations you are having with your husband/wife, partner or children. Imagine the things you see at the grocery stores, the conversations you hear at work or in the streets. Imagine the articles you read and the news you watch.
You can create your entire content based on conversations you have with friends or with your close family. And you can create content based on your mind chatter, or ideas and thoughts that pop up in your mind daily.
Once you have the topic, you would simply need to mould it to your main message or the message that you want to deliver in that particular moment. For instance, let’s say your main message is related to selling. You could easily create posts from a stall of children you see in the street selling toys or handmade things for charity or from a particular behaviour you see someone having in reaction to a sale they have been exposed to.
You could even create content from Advertising posters you see while walking in the streets. I once created content based on an advert of a university, which I saw from a bus. The advert was talking about choosing the right university based on the students’ preferences and not those of their parents. Simply keep your eyes open when you walk around and see what adverts, catchy phrases or images can give you an inspiration.
The secret here is to remain open, to look outside the box and to not worry too much about the content being too perfect. Also remember that your content needs to be personal and express your point of view so that your readers can relate more to you and feel more connected. So sharing your “daily routine” and daily thoughts and conversations is a great way to do this.

2. Create contrast content

This means creating content by stating your opinion on something. It is very important that your audience sees that you have strong opinions and that you stick to them. Nobody likes to follow fluffy leaders that are all over the place, with no strong beliefs or values of their own.
But how would you generate “contrast content” ideas? Here’s how: Start scrolling through social media and look at what other people write, not to copy but to get your mind going. You might read an article or other peoples comments on an article that makes your blood boil and to which you strongly disagree with. Now, take that comment and start writing what you think about and express your opinion.
Being opinionated will help you not only generate this type of content but also to establish a rave of followers who agree with you and see you as a person worth following. The most important ingredient in all of this is to be real, present and notice what is happening around you and start becoming aware that any single word spoken or conversation taken can become an inspiration from which to create great content.