Introduction
“State of running a business with considerable initiative and risk” (dictionary.com). That is the definition of entrepreneurship. This definition is accurate. You have to show initiative, you have to assume the risk of creating something new, finding an audience who wants to purchase what you’ve created, and then deliver on what you’ve promised.
What I don’t see in this definition is the word persistence. And the truth is that persistence is at the foundation of every entrepreneur’s journey. It takes persistence to create something new, find the right audience, and then deliver on what you’ve promised.
Today, in the 200th episode of the Digital Course Creator Podcast, we are going to talk about the realities of persistence, the actions that can help you generate persistence even when you don’t think you have anything left, and also when it might be time to step away from something because the risk or cost is too high.
And, because it can be hard to keep going when it feels like nothing is working or moving fast enough, in today’s Sixty-Second Solution I’m going to share what I do in those moments to pick myself up, dust myself off, and start moving forward again.
The Role of Persistence
Today’s episode is the 200th episode of the podcast. When I published my first episode on Tuesday, February 2, 2021 I had never really listened to a podcast. I wasn’t a podcast junky and I didn’t do any research into best practices for podcasts aside from a good length to aim for.
But through persistence, here we are today, July 16, 2024 at the 200th episode. The path hasn’t been straight or straight forward, in fact the podcast has evolved considerably over the years. That is persistence.
As entrepreneurs, we have to live and breathe persistence because, just like we couldn’t write our names perfectly the first time we tried as preschoolers, our business will go through many awkward growth spurts where we are clumsy.
The key to success as an entrepreneur is in 3 thought patterns around persistence that I want to share with you today. These are the things that get you through not just the good times, but the tough times in your business. They are the thought patterns that allow you to persist when you are tired, unsure, AND when you are riding that high of a signed contract, and Stripe payment received notification.
Thought Pattern 1: Find Your Group
As entrepreneurs we absolutely have to carefully guard our thoughts. They can either lift us up or lead us down into a rabbit hole that is very hard to get out of.
If we are going to develop the kind of persistence that leads to 200 episodes of a podcast, a 6-figure course business, or even profitability, we need to have a dedicated group of supporters. These are the people who are in the weeds with us. Entrepreneurs, fellow course creators who know what it is like to own a business. People who are invested in persistence just like we are.
Finding a group who will support us, push us, and generally listen to what is going on is probably the single biggest action and belief shift that we can make to activate persistence in our business.
When I first got started, I didn’t realize how important this would be. In fact, for months I went it alone. But there was that lightbulb moment where I realized that simply being in a big group of thousands wasn’t going to cut it. Vague requests for help wouldn’t help me create momentum.
No one knew me, knew what I stood for, what I was trying to create, and could check in. Finding a small group of entrepreneurs to get support from and provide support in return was a game changer.
These supporters will not just show up and listen, but will push you, encourage you, and celebrate with you.
This is the proverbial key to entrepreneurial success.
And it seems like a no-brainer, but we have a thought pattern that gets in the way of us finding a group and then sharing openly. We tell ourselves that we have to keep our ideas private so that no one can take them, copy them, steal them for their own business.
While there are entrepreneurs who will absolutely choose a non-ethical path to success, the majority of people out there will not act in that way. They will show up, listen, ask questions, and help you figure out next steps then go back to their own work and ideas.
When we shift our thought pattern from privacy to one of support, we unlock doors that were previously rusted shut. Now if you have a day where your support system isn’t available, and you need some help getting through the muck of being an entrepreneur, stick around to the end because I’m going to share exactly what I do in our Sixty-Second Solution.
Thought Pattern 2: Break Up with Your Subscriptions
But getting support is not the only thought pattern that we need to master to engage persistence as entrepreneurs. And let’s face it, persistence is something that we have to have if we are going to reach our goals as entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship requires initiative and risk. We have to create and try new things.
But we also have to let things go sometimes. This is something that I’ve been working on this year in my own business. As a digital course creator, as an online entrepreneur, it is easy to get buried under a pile of subscriptions. Make a list of all of the subscriptions that you have for your business. I bet I can name a few: Canva, Grammarly, Google Suite, Zoom, and Descript come to mind.
The challenge here is that we often get grandfathered into our pricing and it makes it hard to leave. This can develop into feeling like things are too expensive, worry about accumulating bills each month as those subscriptions renew and it can threaten to derail our entrepreneurial persistence.
What can we do when we feel like our subscriptions are quicksand sucking our will to continue as entrepreneurs out of us? Look at those subscriptions and determine which ones are the ones that you use every day or even every week. For example, I would never get rid of Descript because I use it to grab clips of the podcast for social media, edit videos, and create this podcast each week. It is one of those fees that makes sense. However, there are a few that as recently as last week I decided to cut out of my budget.
Lightening the financial load is a thought pattern shift for most entrepreneurs because we are inundated with ads, posts, email sequences all telling us in persuasive words that to be successful we need these things in our business.
But let me ask you, were there successful businesses before all of these apps, services, and subscriptions existed? Absolutely.
Now let me ask you a different question. Would you feel like you could keep going, keep trying things in your business to get to that success point if the financial load weren’t quite so heavy?
I’m betting the answer is yes. Shifting your thought pattern of trying to hold onto grandfathered pricing to one of keeping just the necessary things can help boost your persistence in your business.
It is a sign of innovation and progress when you are able to examine your business costs and decide what best helps you persist as an entrepreneur. For some costs that means letting them go and for others, it means keeping them around.
Thought Pattern 3: Take a Break
This brings us to thought pattern 3: We all need to take a break as an entrepreneur from time to time. We can’t wait until we hit those 6 figures to take a break either.
When we jump into the ring and state that we are digital course creators, we are entrepreneurs, it seems like the hustle culture is right around the corner ready to welcome you home. We push harder than ever before. We neglect our self care saying that it is something that will come when we hit the finish line. We set a monetary goal before we take a break.
This is a thought pattern that is in direct opposition to persistence. Why? When we ignore the need for breaks, we are decreasing our ability to persist in the face of challenges.
There is a metaphor in the health community. Someone with a chronic illness has a certain number of spoons they wake up with each day. Each activity costs them spoons and when they run out, they are done for the day. It doesn’t matter if it is 9am. If they are out of spoons, they simply can’t do anything else. Their body doesn’t let them.
As entrepreneurs, we have to think about the fact that we don’t have infinite energy, mental stamina, or creativity. We have limited stores of the things that allow us to persist. When they run out, our persistence runs out.
The key is to recognize that we have a limited number of spoons, regardless of what we want to think. We have to use them wisely, and we have to take breaks to replenish our supply of spoons.
What I’ve found to be true is that if we work too hard for too long, and that is different for every person and situation, then our body decides for us that we need to take a break.
We want to shift our thought pattern to get ahead of that enforced break. We want to build those breaks in so that we can be persistent through the challenges, the failed launches, the messy social media planning, and the messaging updates that never seem to end.
We want to set ourselves up to have an endless supply of persistence spoons and the way to do that is to take regular breaks that replenish the persistence spoon supply.
Action Item
Now clearly the theme of today’s episode is persistence. It is what allowed me to get to episode 200 of the podcast and to continue to innovate and grow not just in my business, but as a human being.
And I want you to be able to persist in the same way. That means taking action on what we’ve talked about today.
We discussed three thought patterns that we need to be aware of. The idea that we need to keep our ideas private so that no one can steal them, that we need to keep those amazing grandfathered subscription prices to save money, and that we can take a break when we hit a certain level of success.
We agreed to flip those around to allow us to be more persistent. And that means that we need support, we need to say goodbye to financial commitments that don’t make sense for our business anymore, and we need to take regular and meaningful breaks from the business.
What will you take action on this week to ensure that you can persist as an entrepreneur through the messy middle that is the definition of entrepreneurship, “running a business with considerable initiative and risk”?
Now if you are stuck right now in the messy middle and trying to figure out what steps to take, let’s talk about that.
Sixty-Second Solution
Getting stuck in the messy middle of entrepreneurship can sap and zap the persistence right out of us. But persistence is the critical key to achieving the goals and success that you want in your business.
So what do we do in those moments to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and start moving forward again?
Take some time to journal, meditate, talk with a friend about what is going well in your life and in your business. I’m purposely including both life and business because we are a whole human being and need to recognize all aspects of who we are. Sometimes the challenging times in our business come because we are doing great things in our personal life and vice versa. It can really help to recognize the good that is coming from our efforts.
I have a friend who’s husband sends her to take a bath when she is having a hard day. Her job is to relax and think of three good things from the day or week. She has to report on those when she is finished with her bath.
Psychology research shows very clearly that we are much better at recalling the challenges, the bad things, the losses than at recalling the wins, the gains, the successes. We need to train ourselves to look for the positives.
From those positives we can build a plan for moving forward that utilizes what is already working.
Where to Go Next?
The name of the entrepreneurial game today is persistence. First and foremost, I want to thank you for listening to this episode. I’m sitting here still pinching myself to check that getting to 200 episodes is real…and my publishing history says it is, so today I want you to do a little celebrating. Find something that makes you “tinkled pink” as my Nana used to say.
And if you are ready to dig in and take action, check out Episode 172 where we bust 5 myths that many digital course creators believe and Episode 167, where we talk about creating flow inside your business.
Until next time, happy creating!
