What to do when you feel indecisive in your business
Today I want to talk about a topic which has been bothering me for quite some time and that is indecision. If you are new to me, I’m Shikah and I offer done-for-you coaching tools which you can sell and use with your clients.
So I have been battling feeling much indecision about my business recently and in particular two business indecisions indecision moments that I've been facing recently.
And I'm going to share with you what they are and also what I'm doing right now to handle indecision.
So if you are an overthinker like me, most probably you are not new to being indecisive and you are also someone who may take a long time to be make just a simple decision.
And I know that this is not a very healthy or and it's not a very healthy or positive way to run your business or run your life. I will share with you what I'm going to be doing for these couple of months to somehow reduce my indecisiveness and reduce my indecision moments.
So that's what I'm going to be sharing with you today. And I have to admit that I am someone who will need to to have 10 steps laid out in front of me before I take one new step.
If you are someone like that, then you know that you're going to be pretty much stuck in analysis paralysis for for a while when you want to make a new step or take a new action in your business.
Okay, so that is not exactly a healthy way to run our business and our lives. And I would say that the first indecision that I'm having right now is what I should be offering to expand my business. That is something I've been thinking about.
My Indecisive Moment #1
I've been wanting to expand my business services for a long time. I want to offer emotional and also mindset support for new entrepreneurs and also would-be entrepreneurs, people who want to start their own business. So it's something that I've been thinking about.
And then of course I'll be having all these indecision type questions, you know, such as “Should I run a low cost membership? Should I run a high cost membership because that's more sustainable and more worth my time or should I offer consultations instead? One to one consultations? Will people be paying for this?” So that's also another battle because I know that as solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, new entrepreneurs, any entrepreneur, wherever you are on the spectrum of entrepreneurship, we usually have one thing that we all want in common and that is to get more clients and to get more sales and make more money. That's essentially what most entrepreneurs want.
So I am battling this…this enthusiastic idea that I have. I have been wanting to, like I mentioned, support entrepreneurs emotionally and mind and mindset-wise.
So I was wondering, will people actually pay for that because we are all more keen or more focused on making more money? Will you pay for it? I'm not sure.
That is something that I've been battling in my mind. Should I really launch this coaching service or not? Are people going to sign up for it or what if only 3 people sign up for it? That's also not very sustainable. And so all these things are playing in my mind.
That is indecision number one.
The thing about running a business is that we have to take action. So it's not very good to be stuck in an indecisive place because when you take action, that's when you see changes and results. So taking action in business is very important.
It's not like being in a full time job where more or less every day is pretty much predictable. You do more or less the same things every day, at least in my experience when I was a counselor in the past, it's pretty much predictable. Every day you get a predictable amount at the end of the month, everything is more routine.
Whereas if you're running your own business, sometimes you put in a lot of effort to launch something and nobody buys it.
So there are more surprises. There are a lot more surprises involved when running your own business.
That is why taking action is incredibly important instead of being stuck in analysis paralysis and indecisiveness like what I am experiencing right now - just being real with you here.
I love creating workshops and workbooks for coaches. That's what I'm doing now. It's just that when I'm facing the laptop and facing books about five hours a day or more, it starts to get a bit isolating.
And I do believe that the best transformations or the fastest transformations happen when you communicate with people more directly, whether it's through podcast episodes or group coaching or one to one coaching or whatever it is - even podcasting is a form of communication because you can hear me, you can respond to me.
There are more chances of conversation there happening instead of, you know, me creating done-for-you workshops and done-for-you workbooks and you can't really communicate with me much.
I have this longing to communicate more with other solopreneurs and coaches out there. That's why I am thinking of offering some kind of coaching service for entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs.
I'm still thinking about that and wondering about the logistics of it and overthinking all the details as I've mentioned. So that's the indecisiveness that I'm facing - indecisiveness number one.
My Indecisive Moment #2
I also have indecisiveness number two, which is which platform should I run this theoretical coaching membership/service on?
Okay, so as you know, there are many platforms out there and if you're starting a new venture or if you're starting to offer a new service, sometimes you are torn between paying for a platform or doing it on something free or doing it with something low-cost.
To be honest, I've never been a fan of free platforms because you will be restricted in so many ways and it just doesn't feel good energetically to conduct your business using a free platform or free service, if you know what I mean. If you are starting out from ground zero, maybe it's something you can consider.
But if you are going to treat your business seriously, running your business with a free platform is just…it's just not a good vibe because they are going to change their terms sooner or later and you're going to be stuck and then you're not going to move forward.
So that's why I'm also indecisive about which platform to run my coaching membership or coaching group or coaching business in.
And I was also thinking, should I pay a small cost for a platform? I think that's a more viable option because when you're not making any money yet because you're launching something new, you are also a bit more cautious about your ROI - Return of investment. Should I invest this amount every month when I'm not seeing money yet?
Reasonable software option #1 for launching something new
Meanwhile, let me suggest a few which can be helpful for you if you are starting out or if you are about to launch something new and you don't want to, you know, pay $99 per month for Skool’s premium plan or something like that. Skool is a course platform. It's great for running your business on.
But anyway, I saw that Payhip - Payhip.com - is actually quite a good option. It is free. They have free and paid tiers. Even though I'm not a fan of creating my business from with free platforms, but the free tier has a transaction fee.
You are essentially paying a small amount when someone buys your products. So it's not exactly free in that sense. It's not 100% free. There's a transaction fee involved and they have paid tiers as well.
And I think Payhip has been around for many, many years. So that is one option for you if you're starting out and you're not sure which option to go for when you're running your courses or memberships.
I've been running my blog on Squarespace and Squarespace has an option as well for you to sell courses and memberships. So you can consider that if you are already on Squarespace, although I do not recommend it because Squarespace’s focus is on blogging and website building. It's not exactly for running courses. So you might run into many restrictions. That’s my input about Squarespace.
Reasonable software option #2 for launching something new
So anyway, another option is Skool’s hobby plan. They have a $9 per month plan recently.
I think it's pretty decent. You get to upload your videos there and your videos are auto-captioned and, and it's very easy to just upload a course and run with it. So that is also an option for you.
Of course there will be some restrictions as well from what I see.
A few restrictions here and there, but it's still a good beginner option. So those are the options I was looking at. And you know as I mentioned, I'm overthinking this as well. So this is indecisiveness number two.
What I’ve been doing for my indecisiveness (for mental peace)
So I've got two indecisive points at this moment and what have I been doing to give myself more inner mental peace when it comes to these things is that I have been taking a so called ‘mental break’.
There is no formal word for this, so a mental break is more like - I've been reducing the mental energy I spend thinking about my business and researching and brainstorming.
If you are a solopreneur or a business owner, I think you may be able to relate to what I'm saying.
You are always brainstorming, looking out for ideas, researching. It’s always at the back of your mind. At least for me, these things are always at the back of my mind.
I've been trying to dial that down a little bit and be more present in my environment.
What I'm going to do during my ‘mental break’ is that I will still be creating podcast episodes and writing emails.
I've decided to be more active podcasting because I love communicating with you all and if you all can leave me a comment or reply back, that'll be nice. It’s a form of communication with you.
And I will also write emails because I love writing emails. So these two, I will continue on. Most likely, for this month of August 2025, I may not create a new product. I will not create a new done-for-you coaching product for this month because I want to rest my mind and because when we give our minds a break, there is more mental space for it to get creative.
Have you noticed this? Let me know.
When you take a total break, a clean break, a clean rest from your work and your mind is not racing a mile a minute thinking about : “What am I going to launch next?” “What am I going to write to my subscribers next?” You know, when your mind is totally well rested, you will realize that you have more creative ideas coming up. You have new perspectives coming up. You just get creative and then the motivation just comes naturally.
I don't know how to exactly describe it, but when you take a break the ‘correct’ way, you will have all sorts of benefits.
You experience all these benefits within yourself. You will get creative. You have ideas, you have perspectives. You get ideas which you will never get when you're trying to force them out.
Ideas will never come when you're forcing them out.
When you're stressed out and forcing yourself to come up with a new idea, forcing yourself to come up with a new angle or a new product or a new service or a new way of marketing, they will never come.
You will just stress yourself out and give yourself a headache.
What I’ve been doing for my ‘mental break’ this month
So just take a break. Take a ‘mental break’. Like I mentioned, don't think about your work at all.
Do more fun things. This is how I have been, this is what I've been doing recently. Doing more fun things - watching more fun videos on YouTube, fun makeup videos, fun celebrity videos. I love watching celebrity interviews by the way.
I've been doing that more often, doing more fun things with my daughter and family and reading more fun books, rom coms and books which are not work-related because I spend too much of my free time reading self help and personal development books because that's what my business is about.
So now I've switched to reading more rom com and fun books. This is what I've been doing to take a mental break and to give my mind a rest so that more ideas can come and I get more motivated and I get more creative ideas on the products that I can launch in future.
So that's what I've been doing. I really hope that this is helpful for you because this is what I've been doing and it has been helping me a lot mental health wise and it also helps me business wise and creativity wise.
And so do you have any ideas or any services that I can launch to help you with your business?
If you do, you can leave a comment depending on where you're catching me from.
Let me know if this is something you can relate to!
And at the same time let me know if this is something that you can relate to.
I record my podcast in a ‘live’ fashion so I don't really edit it - it’s raw and real.
If you have any ideas on a service that I can launch which is a fair exchange for both parties - not too much of an energy drain on my part and not too much of an energy drain or monetary drain on your part.
Basically, a win-win situation.
So if you have any ideas on what I can offer you, you can leave a comment in the description box or leave me an email and I will reply you.
So that's all I'm sharing today and I hope to see you in my next episode.
Goodbye!
How to slow down ‘hustle’ mode and be more mindful running your business
I'll be sharing the basics for you to run your business with more intention and more peace :).
Timestamps:
03:23 : The first thing you can do to start a gratitude practice despite being busy
07:14 : How to start a gratitude habit and stick to it
09: 06 : A practice you can do at night to slow down your days
Listen to the podcast here :
https://open.spotify.com/show/2v9CgxvU1cReABUGDLdmmv?si=a9131636459747ac
If you want a done-for-you Mindfulness masterclass to launch and sell to your audience, head to: https://shikahanuar.shop/collections/done-for-you-courses-and-masterclasses-to-sell/products/done-for-you-mindfulness-workshop-script-and-workbook
Want to take a long break from social media? Get these 30 done-for-you mindfulness Instagram posts and captions :
If you want done-for-you mindset coaching tools to use and sell with your audience, head to: https://www.shikahanuar.shop
⭐️⭐️
In case you are curious about my background, I used to work as a counsellor with a government ministry.
I now create done-for-you coaching materials which you can sell and share with your audience.
Take care,
Shikah
Self compassion and stress : 3 mindset shifts for your clients
Hi there! I’m Shikah, I have helped thousands of coaches save time, save money and also make money by offering done-for-you coaching tools using my counselling experience.
For today, let’s talk about 3 mindset shifts your clients can do to face stress with self-compassion and prevent burnout. You can share these tips with your audience in emails, reels or other social media platforms.
The first mindset shift to help your clients handle stress with self compassion is to install the belief that people around us, our colleagues, our family members, friends and the world in general are kinder to us than we think.
Our stress sometimes comes from the mindset that other people will be ‘let down’, disappointed, angry or have some sort of negative emotion when we do not ‘do a good job’. Your clients may have a less-than-positive viewpoint of the people around them.
Having a mindset shift that the world in general is understanding and forgiving can ease stress and pressure. This mindset also allows them to be self forgiving when they make mistakes. And this mindset is helpful when they are facing mountains of work and they feel overwhelmed.
Instead of pushing through the stress and overwhelm and burning themselves out to produce perfect work, they can choose to do work that is ‘good enough’. If they are comfortable doing so, your clients can also express how overwhelmed they are and hope for their colleagues’ or other people’s understanding.
Being open with their vulnerabilities can invite other people to be understanding and avoid miscommunication. But of course, this approach highly depends on their work culture and office culture. some offices may not welcome such expressions of vulnerability. If so, your clients can choose to express their overwhelm to people they trust.
Moving on to the next mindset we can practice to face stress with self compassion, your clients can redefine what success means to them.
When I mention the word ‘success’, there’s a high chance that pictures of money, awards and fame come to your mind. However, we have to be realistic that only a small percentage of people out there can have everything at one go.
I remember one successful much older business owner telling me this when I was 21 years old. He said that “you can have everything you want, but usually not all at the same time.” If your clients have placed very high expectations on themselves and burning out, you can invite them to redefine success.
In fact you can define success in any way you want.
If they are stressed out because they are not meeting their income goals, you can invite them to expand their definition of success.
Some suggestions of success include having ‘good health’, ‘ healthy relationships’, enjoying freedom of time, having a balanced life and also mental peace. There are people who have money and recognition but do not have all that.
Encourage your clients to write down the things and people they have in their lives which are blessings that they take for granted. When they feel stressed out about not achieving their goals on time, they can remind themselves that they have other successes in their lives which they overlook.
At this point, you may have extra questions about how to coach your clients to set aligned and achievable goals which dont stress them out. Dont worry, i have created a free coaching tool to help your clients set goals which feel good and which align with their values. Fill in your details below to get it sent to your inbox.
The next mindset shift to face stress with self-compassion is to have a healthy relationship with mistakes and failure. If your clients are perfectionists, they are going to cringe at this suggestion. Invite your clients to be open to trying new strategies and failing fast.
The good thing about failure and mistakes is that they are very good teachers. Trying new ways of doing things or new ways of handling situations is refreshing and can encourage a growth mindset. They can choose to adopt a curious mindset when they try something new.
For example, if they are stressed out that they can’t finish work before a deadline, they can experiment with submitting work which is not perfect and see what happens. This curious mindset allows them to be a bit more playful with work and takes some of the stress off.
If they ‘fail’ or get an outcome they do not want, they can take that experience as a learning moment instead of letting that failure define their career or define their reputation. Having a playful and curious approach to life in general can reduce your clients’ stress.
While most coaches can share these mindset tips with their audience, I find that they get better results when you offer them a download or a workshop to help them out. If you are someone who wants to level up, download the free lead magnet BELOW and share it with your audience.
Thanks for being here and see you.
Shikah
Listen on Spotify here:
One way to overcome perfectionism in yourself and your coaching clients
Hello there! Today, we will be discussing micro experiments that we can do to lower our perfectionism when running a business.
As business owners, we want to give our clients and audience the best transformation possible, the best workshops and products possible. And this desire to do well can translate into perfectionism.
I am a victim of this myself. When I create my done-for-you workshops, I tend to pay too much attention to the images I use in the slides, the fonts and the colour schemes.
I do this because I want the workshops to be transformational mentally and emotionally.
However, I am aware that this slows down my process. I take a longer time to finish my coaching content, I take too long to launch products and in the end, these small details do not matter as much as I think.
So, I fall victim to perfectionism because I am a stickler for quality. You may be the same too. You are so committed and dedicated to offering the best to your clients that you take too long to finish projects, you overthink a simple Instagram caption, you take too long to make decisions and all this cost you your energy and your time.
So what can you do if you are a perfectionist in your work and it is giving you stress and is holding you back from levelling up in your business?
Well, you can do micro experiments to handle this.
These micro experiments will test your comfort levels and make you feel a little uncomfortable in exchange for less stress.
Let me give you an example.
Let’s say you are someone who obsesses with finding the right pictures to use when you are creating your workshops. And I get it. The right pictures will evoke emotions such as inspiration, hope and joy. So using the right images matter at times. But if being overly detailed is causing you stress and exhaustion, it’s ok to loosen your perfectionism a little.
What can you do with this situation?
Well, you can perform a micro experiment where you choose not to obsess over the pictures you use in your slides.
For the next workshop or workbook that you are creating, select pictures which convey the right vibe without overthinking it. It sounds so common-sensical, but trust me, to a perfectionist, this small experiment is a big change.
After doing this, you can take note of how you feel.
What are the results? Do you feel less stressed about your work? Do you feel more free? Do you feel more energised? Or on the opposite side of the coin, do you feel panicked at letting go of control? Do you feel like you ‘slacked off’ or did not put 100% effort?
It is my hope that you will associate these micro experiments with feelings of more freedom, less stress and more flexibility.
You may have clients who struggle with perfectionism.
Let’s say you have a client who is a perfectionist when it comes to her appearance. She does not step out of the house- even running errands - without a full face of makeup.
She is insecure about her looks and this routine of looking ‘perfect’ before she steps out of the house is causing her stress.
You can suggest to her to do a micro experiment which allows her to be 80% made up instead of 100% made up.
So if she puts a full face of makeup on before going to a nearby mall, you can suggest that she puts just 3 essential makeup items on the next time she is going to the mall. Your clients or audience have to feel comfortable with these micro expriments. I won’t recommend you suggesting them to go from 100% down to 10%. Baby steps is what I would recommend.
After the micro experiment, you can ask your clients how they feel after it.
Does it bring them any benefits?
What are the benefits they experienced?
What are the fears that they had when going through the experiment?
Is this something they are willing to try again?
These are questions your clients can brainstorm when performing these micro experiments.
If you want to one step forward and coach your clients on baby steps to overcome perfectionism, you can use the exercises in my done-for-you overcome perfectionism workbook.
My favourite exercise in there is to encourage them to let go of their ‘all-or-nothing’ thinking pattern.
Perfectionists usually have this thinking pattern. They believe that they should either give their 100% in a project or not do it at all. This is a very high-pressure habit or principle to live by. And it is humanly impossible for us to give our 100% in every single thing that we do. We will be fatigued, burn out, stressed out.
There is an exercise in the Overcome Perfectionism workbook that can help with that.
If this has helped you, please leave a comment because I appreciate your comments very much.
See you!
Shikah
Listen to this instead:
Three questions to prime your clients for a productive yet fulfilling day
If you are nosy (like me), you probably like watching YouTube vlogs about other people’smorning routines. 😂
They are comforting to watch, but if you (or your clients) have fast-paced lives, it’s not realistic to carve out 2 hours everyday to slowly make coffee, journal, do yoga and workout before work in the mornings.
So how can your clients prime themselves for a productive, fulfilling day which feels like a success without all the elaborate rituals?
They can start by asking themselves these 3 basic questions which ground them and remind them of what are the ‘needle moving’ things which matter in their lives.
I covered the 3 questions in this podcast episode.
The questions are basic. They are down-to-earth. They are probably not earth-shattering either. 😂
🌷However, the power lies in the answers that your clients give.
Encourage them to go deeper with their answers by asking them to reflect :
why something works,
why they feel a certain way,
why they are grateful for certain people in their lives
My favourite question is Question 3 because it keeps me focused on my mini-goals for that day so that I don’t feel as thought my day is ‘wasted’.
You may want to go one step further and offer your clients a step-by-step workshop on how to create a morning routine which makes them feel like a success.
That’s where this done-for-you morning routine workshop will get the job done for you.
✅Slides? Done.
✅Accompanying workbook? Done.
✅Script? Done.
Ready to launch + sell a 60-minute workshop and help your clients create a successful morning routine? This done-for-you workshop is ready to brand and launch.
You don’t have to create the workshop from scratch - save your time for other things which matter ;)
Meanwhile, if you have a morning ritual which works for you, let me know in Comments :)
Take care,
Shikah
As always, thank you for being in my world.🌷