How to manage perfectionism in business

If you have been frustrated with yourself for taking too long to...

1. Launch something

2. Publish (a free and helpful) lead magnet to your audience

3. Create free podcast eps and YouTube vids

… maybe you are being a little perfectionistic in your business :)

It can happen if we grew up in an environment where mistakes were not tolerated.

Or perhaps you have worked in an office where mistakes carry heavy consequences. 

One way to get some control over our perfectionism is to do this quick exercise below.

Much of perfectionism is due to our ‘all or nothing’ thinking patterns.

This exercise is a snapshot from my done-for-you Overcome Perfectionism workbook which you can brand and sell to your audience.

I’ve also recorded a 10-minute video last week to share how we can gain some control over perfectionism as a business owner:

I recorded the video using a not-Zoom software and it was not as smooth, admittedly.

I hope the video will help you understand why you make business decisions the way you do. And hopefully you will feel less alone as a business owner who has perfectionism tendencies.

See you in my next email, video or podcast ep :)

Take care. 

Shikah

Using your intuition to run your business

Have you used your intuition to make small business decisions before? What was the outcome? You can share your experience here :)

Hi there! Thank you for joining me in this episode today. I feel called recently to experiment with running my business in an intuitive way, following my inner voice and my inner guidance.

I have seen how coaches claim that working with their intuition helps them run very pleasurable businesses, makes business feel so easy and they also claim that abundance - or money - comes flowing in buckets when they run their businesses following their inner guidance.

I am curious to see if this is a sustainable or practical way of running a business. I am not saying that intuition is not important when it comes to business, but I am interested to see how I can merge my inner guidance and intuition with the business demands of our 3D practical, real world.

If you are new to me, I’m Shikah and I create done-for-you workbooks and masterclasses which coaches can sell to their clients. I’ve been running my business for 4 years now, since the global lockdown in year 2020. I have always run my business in an intuitive manner, I would say that I run my business with 60% intuition and 40% logic. I want to increase the percentages to be 70% intuition and run my business using my intuition more often. I will be experimenting, I will be trying out law of attraction techniques, energetic techniques and sharing the results with you guys.

I am not referring to grand scale results, but I am referring to little, tiny, everyday results of running my business the intuitive way. I want to see if conducting our business using our intuition will result in more ease and more money.

How long will this experiment last? Probably it will be a lifelong experiment - I don’t know. I will share my experiments and results for as long as I feel the inclination to do so.

To start off this experiment, I’ve followed my inner voice and created this podcast episode. It doesnt sound like much. But the intuitive feeling I get feels like a mix of curiosity and excitement. It’s not an over-excited feeling. Imagine a dog excitedly wagging its tail. It’s not that type of over excitement. But the excitement I feel to go through this experiment feels as though it is something I look forward to doing everyday.

I feel happy to do these micro experiments and see the results. So I’ve followed my intuition and inner voice this week to go through with this experiment. The result so far? I feel pumped, I feel excited to create podcast episodes all over again.

In the past, I love creating podcast episodes too, but they feel like a business necessity more than something fun, you know?

Any downsides to following my intuition to go through this experiment? Well, I realise that I may have to be more vulnerable to the public if I do this. I have to share my real business experiences, the real mental and emotional struggles that I’m sure many of us face whilst running our businesses.

So yes, being more vulnerable and more open is a downside in my opinion because I am a 100% introvert.

So share with me, have you followed your intuition regarding your business recently?

Have you taken any small steps driven by your intuition? And what was the result? You can email me your experience or leave a comment.

I’ll see you in my next episode. Bye.

Have you used your intuition to make small business decisions before? What was the outcome? You can share your experience here :)

Dont have a rags-to-riches story? Three methods to display your coaching abilities without a rags-to-riches story.

Hi everyone, Shikah here. Today we will be discussing whether a rags-to-riches story is necessary for you to sell your courses or to sell your services as a coach.

At the end of this episode, you will have 3 techniques you can use to boost your credibility as a coach if you don’t have a dramatic rags-to-riches past.

Before we start, I want to mention that I have a done-for-you Confidence Workbook which you sell on your coaching website. It is fully customisable with Canva so you can make it your own. I have written the text and content for you so you don’t have to think what to offer to your clients or community this week.

It’s a workbook, but you can repurpose it to be a blog post, or a high value lead magnet to get more subscribers. Or offer it during your coaching sessions and save so much time and money. I will place the link here and you can check it out if this is something you need.

Alright, let’s get back to this topic. If you have been listening to podcasts, you would realise that many big-name coaches have a rags-to-riches story.

I came across one money coach who said that was living in the front seat of her car with $10 in her pocket before she started her business.

I came across another one who said that her mother was a drug dealer and she had an abusive father.

I also came across another manifestation coach who said she was living on her grandparents’ couch whilst launching her business.

So you may be wondering, firstly, why do these coaches tell these stories of their past? And what if you do not have a rags-to-riches story?

What if you have an average middle income family background? What if you come from a privileged background? Does that mean that your coaching has less value?

Frankly you don’t need a rags-to-riches to be a successful coach. However, I understand the some coaches want to prove to people that they overcome many difficulties and hence, their coaching is very powerful.

That’s why they bring our focus to their difficult past. These coaches may also be targetting a group of people who have the same type of challenging life.

This is an unpopular thing for me to say, but it may be eye-opening for you to know this. I have attended business seminars in the past. And the business coaches will literally encourage business owners to come up with some rags-to-riches story.

They will ask you to dig deep into your past, recall something that made you feel grief or some other similar emotions. And literally write your rags-to-riches story on the spot. Because in business, emotions sell. So the logic is that, if you can evoke emotions in people, you are going to sell more.

This is one reason why coaches like to draw your attention to their ‘troubled’ past. Another reason is because they want to prove to people that their coaching techniques work.

However, this is ironic, but people may be more drawn to you if you have a more average, non-drama background. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I do feel that many people do not have dramatic childhoods.

There are a great many of people out there who have mundane, almost uneventful past. There is no need for you to dig up or worse, write a fake rags-to-riches story simply to show your coaching worth or play with people’s emotions.

You can own your past even if there is nothing dramatic about it. Being authentic is a fresh direction to take in business. So how can you showcase or display your coaching abilities without resorting to dramatic stories?

I will share 3 techniques with you.

Technique #1 to display your coaching abilities without a rags-to-riches story

Think of a time you have overcome a challenge in the past which relates to your coaching expertise. If you are a self love coach, you can share a time when you overcame a self-love issue for yourself or help others do the same.

Do take note that even overcoming a small challenge counts because let’s face it, we face small challenges everyday. If you can share with your clients how to,say, make wise decisions in 3 steps for example, people can relate to that.

Technique #2 to display your coaching abilities without a rags-to-riches story

Check and see if you have any related certifications. You don’t necessarily have to take long courses or a degree program for this. Perhaps you can even take short courses which give out certifications.

I think certifications are very helpful even though we have seen many coaches claiming that they have made 6-figure years without certifications.

Usually, we need to put in some hard work and effort to get through even a short course, so it’s a good thing to do for us to gain knowledge and get certs to our name.

Certs are a tangible representation of someone who continually upgrades themselves.

Technique #3 to display your coaching abilities without a rags-to-riches story

Consistently show up on YouTube videos, podcast episodes or other types of video content. The keyword here is ‘consistently’. Perhaps uploading a video every week or go ‘live’ on Instagram every week or so.

Videos are obviously the fastest way for you to gain trust, respect and show your expertise to the world. There are instances where I have gained so much knowledge from listening to someone on just two podcast episodes, that I was ready to buy her mid-priced course.

Well if you are new, YouTube is a good option for you because your videos will show up on people’s ‘suggested’ videos even if they are not subscribed to you. YouTube is a great way to get fresh views and for people who don’t know you to know you.

I have so many coaching tips to share with you so that you can get inspired and motivated about your business.

You can join my email list of 9000 coaches and I usually email a few times a week with coaching tips to help you with your business.

I’ll see you in my next video and take care. Bye!

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What to do when someone belittles you or your struggles (share this with your coaching clients)

Listen to this post:

My podcast link

What should you do if someone belittles your struggles? 🤔

I remember seeing a married-into-wealth influencer post an Instagram post two years back. 

She shared in that post that she had been struggling to go to the gym and to keep up with her exercise routine recently.

I didn’t expect the barrage of sarcastic comments she received. 

“Wow, it must be nice that your biggest problem right now is going to the gym.”

“Such a hard day for you. People are dying out there.”

“You have a hard time? What about all the other women juggling full-time jobs, motherhood and chores?”

My eyes widened a little in surprise as I read those comments.

You may have had this experience too. You posted an everyday struggle on IGS and you get judged for it. 

I want to say that ALL our struggles are valid. 

One reason is because, all of us value different things. 

That wealthy influencer clearly values a healthy lifestyle and her health a lot.

Her critics likely do not value having a healthy lifestyle as much as she does and attacked her values, which they judged as ‘insignificant.’

This applies to you too.

One thing you can bear in mind when you get judged for having a seemingly small ‘first world problem’ is that, you value different things from the people who judge you.

This also reminds us not to judge other people’s problems. What we see as a small or trivial problem may be important to them.

In the video and podcast ep above, I shared 3 other things to bear in mind when someone belittles your struggles.

I hope this helps you in a small way.

Sincerely,

Shikah

How to overcome shiny object syndrome in business : 4 ways

I was listening to a course from an intuition coach and she interviewed a business owner who was experiencing ‘shiny object syndrome’.

You may have a friend who is killin’ it in real estate.

Or another friend who is in an enviable safe and secure job.

Or you may know another coach who charges $400 for one hour of ‘chatting’ with her (true story!) and you may feel a bit of FOMO and be tempted to… try these endeavours.

Hold on for a sec because there are 4 things we can take note of before diving head first into a new direction.

In the above vid, I shared 4 ways for you to overcome shiny object syndrome so you don’t end up distracted and losing focus and achieving nothing at the end of the day or month.

Here is what I talked about:

✔️ How to identify if something is a true gut feeling or just empty excitement 

✔️ A little extreme way of handling this situation which may work for you

✔️ When to take action on an idea (all parts of you have to be on 100% on board)

You can watch the vid or listen to the podcast ep above.

Or read a gist of it below:

Method 1: Know your values like they are at the back of your hand

If your top value is ‘freedom’, you may want to think hard before starting a new endeavour or creating a new offer which needs you to be at a specific place at a specific time. Or an endeavour which needs you to stick to strict deadlines.

What to discover what your values are? You can download this coaching tool and use it on yourself. Or use it with your clients or park it in your blog as a lead magnet

Method 2: Live out that dream!

This is an extreme method but it works for some of us. If you have this exciting feeling about pursuing a side line as a real estate agent, for example, go all out.

Create an Instagram account for this imaginary sideline. Create a free website for it.

Research on the exams and papers you will have to take. Buy the books and read them. Literally live out that dream. If it’s not meant for you, you may lose interest in a few days.

Method 3: Know where that excitable feeling comes from

Does it come from your gut or do you feel this giddy excitement feel mostly in your head area?

If this excitement mostly centres around your head area, there is a high chance that this idea satisfies your ego and not your higher self. Which means, be careful with any idea that gives you empty, giddy excitement Wait it out and see if it fizzes out after a few days.

Method 4: Only jump into an endeavour if you are 100% on board with it

Even if a small part of you is unsure, sort it out until all parts of you are on board with this idea. If not, this small part of you will drag you down, slow down your progress, make you second guess yourself and give you emotional stress.

If you want to run a masterclass about setting aligned goals, you may like this done-for-you masterclass which is ready for you to launch.

I hope this blog post, video and podcast ep will be helpful for you.

See you in my next blog post ;)

Shikah