Don’t put too much pressure on yourself in business
Have you ever felt embarrassed making changes or being indecisive in your business? I share 2 things you can do to stop putting too much pressure on yourself as an aspiring or new business owner.
(Transcript coming soon!)
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 have a relaxing morning (how to create the best morning routine for mindfulness)
This is Episode 3 from my new podcast channel : The Mindful Cafe. This is your cosy mini-coaching corner to help you create an intentional life which makes you feel good.
Hi there!
Welcome to episode 3 of The Mindful Cafe. I share habit shifts and mindset shifts which help you slow down, live with more intention and experience inner peace even if you have a busy lifestyle. Think of this podcast as a cosy place where you go to, to feel good about yourself.
For today, I want to share how we can create a mindful morning routine. You may be mildly interested in this topic but wondering how you can tangibly define a so-called ‘mindful’ morning.
I define mindful mornings as mornings which feel flowy, aligned, calm and trusting. None of the panicking, rushing, frustration, anger, bad-temperedness, I think you have an idea of what I am talking about. Because we have had those kinds of days before.
Why is this important, you ask. Well, if we do not plan our mornings, our days will control us instead of us controlling our days. Can you recall a day recently where evetything seems to go wrong? And one bad thing after another happening like a domino effect.
Well, if we mentally and emotionally prep ourselves for the day ahead, we will have less of this negative drama going on. We can reduce this happening if we are intentional with how we start our days.
If you start your days feeling calm, at peace, yet alert and present, you will be handling challenges with grace and you will also have more courage to take actions which feel good to you. Not to mention that you will have easier access to your intuition when you are very present and mindful. Intuition is another topic for another day.
Also, people who practise being in a mindful state of mind in the mornings will have experience less stress, less anxious feelings and overall,more stable emotionally.
Let’s start how we can create or design the best morning routine for mindfulness.
Strategy #1
For me personally, not touching my phone, laptop or iPad for at least 60 minutes upon waking up is the foundation for my morning routine. Once we swipe our phones, our attention is going to be robbed by other people. We will be sucked in into other people’s priorities, their opinions, their ideas, their values. This is not the best state of mind to be in. You want to hold on to your authentic values and priorities instead of letting social media or other people dictate how you think and feel and act. So do yourself a favour and dedicate the first 60 minutes to yourself.
I’ve done this for years. And I will admit that on some days, I will go against it and scroll first thing in the morning. When I do that, I will usually start feeling anxious and my mind will start racing. And then I will be indecisive about what I should or should not do.
I also understand that some of you may not have the luxury of doing this for whatever reason. You may have a job or a situation which requires your immediate attention. If you are in this stage of your life, then maybe you can aim for setting aside 20 mins without the internet first thing in the morning.
Strategy #2
If you don’t know what to do during that period of time, you can do chores, prepare breakfast, workout, prepare your children for school, write, plan your day, read or journal.
I like to read self-help books in the morning because the positivity can shape how you think. So, infuse your days with some positive thinking in the morning if you can. Get yourself in the growth-mindset mode before tackling the day.
Strategy #3
Another very typical activity you can do, is to journal how you want your day to turn out today. For exmaple, I have a digital planner and almost every morning, I will write how I want the day to flow. What do I want to feel? Do? How do I want the day to unfold?
You are almost scripting your day. You are like the director of your day. I love journaling and planning my days because if I don’t do that, my days will feel wasted and unproductive. Ideally, I want to do smth meaningful and high vibrational everyday, but it doesnt always happen. But I try to make it happen by scripting it or writing down how I want my day to turn out.
So far, I have talked about not touching your tech in the mornings, reading a self-help book and also scripting your day. That should be enough if you have a very busy lifestyle.
However, I want to just gently remind you to feel aligned with the things you do. The activities have to feel ‘right’. On some days, working out at 6am feels right, on other days, journaling at 6am feels ‘right.’ Being flexible and honouring what feels aligned for the day is important.
However, you will realise that the same activities will feel right 70% of the time. If you are a natural writer, journaling will feel right 70% of the time.
The 3 activities are activities which work 70% of the time for me to create a mindful, peaceful, calm morning.
Other strategies
But you may be different from me and find my suggestions not exciting at all. Then I’ll give you 5 other common activities which can help you create a mindful morning.
Number one : working out. You may find it very energising to work out in the morning. And working out is great because you will automatically (I hope!) stay away from the internet and its influence as you are exercising.
Number 2, you can also meditate if you like it. I used to meditate in the mornings and it was helpful for like 2 years, but now I have somehow stopped it because I find journaling my emotions and thoughts more helpful for me to get clarity and calm. Meditations come in many forms - you can do a coffee drinking meditaion where you sit and be present with your cup of coffee for as long as you need to be. Walking meditation is another idea for you. Walking for some time with just you, your thoughts and nature is a form of meditation too.
Or you may like esoteric meditations like those from Steve Nobel - I love esoteric meditations because they remind me of how much bigger the universe can be. And my problems feel so small in comparison. The result? More calmness, clarity and in touch with your intuition.
Number 3, you can try switching on relaxing spa music in the mornings to elevate your mood. Relaxing classical music can help too, or music with 528 hz - these put you in a focused yet calm mood. Communicating or playing with your pets can ground you and start your days on a very high note.
There you have it! I have shared 3 non-negotiable things which work for me to create a mindful and intentional morning and also suggested other activities as well.
See you in the next episode.
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
How to be okay with making mistakes and be more resilient
In this video, I'll be sharing 4 ways for you to get comfortable with mistakes and failure - and be more resilient in pursuing your goals.
I recorded in a ‘livestream’ fashion - all real, raw and in the moment. 😄
I shared 4 ways to get comfortable with mistakes and failure including
A little experiment you can do to loosen your intense fear of making mistakes (scary, but effective)
How it’s important for us to feel our discomfort instead of avoiding or denying it
Why it’s good to keep trying new approaches even though this means we will fail and make even more mistakes
If you want a done-for-you Overcome Fear of Failure masterclass to launch and sell to your audience, click here.
If you want done-for-you mindset coaching tools to use and sell with your audience, head here.
⭐️⭐️
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 mindset materials which you can sell and share with your audience.
Take care,
Shikah