The 2-Step Routine That Transformed My Business Clarity | 112

(Note: This is a formatted and slightly edited, AI-generated transcript to make it easier for you to read through. Please excuse any spelling, grammar errors and filler words – it’s just how I speak LOL)

  Starts to feel a little bit heavier than it used to. It feels a little bit off or a lot off then it’s usually not a strategy problem, it’s a business clarity problem.

 Hey,  I’m Lucy Reyes. I’m a productivity strategist. And just to quickly recap, in the last episode I shared that I made the decision recently to retire a ton of my most loved products, and I even gave you the exact questions I asked myself to help me in the process, but I wanted to take a step backwards because these decisions really didn’t happen overnight. 

Like, I have been thinking about this possibility being a thing for months now, and I would always just kind of push it off. Just, I wasn’t ready to deal with it. I didn’t want to deal with it, quite frankly. So that, but that’s been a process, right? And so I really then decided to take some time to do the steps that I’m going to show you and walk you through in this episode, because if something is feeling off in your business, it’s for a reason.

And so we really need to take the time to figure out what is going on and why it feels that way. So I’m going to give you the two steps that I took that helped lead me to the business clarity that I needed before I made any big moves or changes, and they’re the exact steps that you can follow as well.

So,  before we get into it though, if you already know that you need to get into this rhythm of reflecting and really making the space to figure out what has been working and what hasn’t been in your life and business, then I really recommend that you go grab and sign up for my FREE Weekly Reset GPT.

It’s a free AI tool that’s going to help you start building the habit of getting this business clarity, but in small, manageable, weekly steps. Okay, so that is going to be in those show notes or the description of wherever you’re watching this. 

All right, so let’s dive in and jump into the first step towards getting this business clarity that you need.  So step one is to set aside some intentional quiet time.  Yes, I know. I know. You might be like, “But, no. I’m not doing anything. What do you mean quiet time? You mean, I just need to sit back and think?” Like,  yeah, that’s exactly what I’m asking you to do.

Yes.  The productivity strategist is saying, don’t do anything. That in itself will be productive, which might be a counter to what some of the things that you might have heard in the past, but you know, I’m not gonna go down that rabbit hole. But if something is feeling off, this is really where you need to start.

You need to start by giving yourself the permission to just pause and essentially do nothing but think. So for me, my intentional quiet time looked like, spending a lot more time praying over the decisions in my business. It looked like spending more time and reading my Bible, trying to find the answers that I needed that will guide me to make the right decisions.

And it also looked like journaling and reflecting on what the heck was on my mind. Because sometimes, and this is what I mentioned earlier when I said, “This has been a thought,” this thought of retiring products, of simplifying my business. This has been in my mind for quite some time and quite frankly. I just never wanted to deal with it.

I never wanted to deal with it. I just wanted to kind of push the thought back away and we do this a lot, be honest. We do this a lot, but if that thought keeps resurfacing, if something keeps feeling off, if there’s a little nudge telling you that, ”  Hey, something isn’t right, something needs to change.” Then we need to, at some point, pause and listen to that and really figure out what is going on.

So this intentional quiet time really helped take away the pressure to try to really react. You know, I’m very reactive. I can go from point A to point Z really fast so I can zoom  through and do a lot of things, and sometimes I don’t want to do that. And so this intentional quiet time really took away the pressure to immediately act on some of the thoughts that I was having in the past before, you know, coming to the decision of retirement products.

But it also helped me really assess and determine and discern if the actions, the steps that I was thinking about taking, if they felt like the right ones. Because sometimes, we’re quick to act and we don’t even have enough space to really feel how that decision felt. So, you know, I might be going really, really fast and then I might get overwhelmed.

I might get confused, and I don’t know which of the steps that I took were the ones that led me to that overwhelm. But if we’re taking one step at a time,  we’re making very intentional steps forward, then we can easier tell if that decision felt right or wrong. So that’s why we need to slow down and really think about even the thought of making a decision.

How does that feel? Does that feel good or does it feel not good? Because if it’s not feeling right, then chances are  something needs to change. So,  you want to ask yourself these bigger questions about the direction that your business is going and not just trying to follow the crowd. Like who gets that shiny squirrel syndrome?

Me! I’ve done so much experimenting  in my business, and there’s a season for that, and maybe that’s a season that you’re in and that’s totally fine. But slowing down and having this intentional time will help you figure out if that’s the season that you’re in or if you’re meant to move on into a different season, if you’re meant to start that season, whatever the case is for you, you will know once you slow down.

So I really, really highly recommend that you do this and to remember that yes, even this quiet, intentional time, even this pause, even this quiet season, this quiet moment that you might be taking is still productive and don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise, okay? They are still productive because they do provide that clarity that you need. 

All right, so step number two is to plan and visualize.  So this is the part where you’ve created enough space. You have let yourself think. You’re really trying to focus on what the thoughts are telling you, how those thoughts are feeling and now is the time to  zoom out.  Okay? So we’re going to start by looking backward.

We’re going to look backward at. How your business has been running, what’s been going on, what has been working, what has felt draining? What about your current state of business is feeling off right now? You know, for me it looked like I have all of these products. What is going on? And this moment of pause really helped me figure out that,

you know what? Even though I love these products, which is why they’ve been available, I am mentally carrying them into everything that I do because I’m thinking at the top of my head, “Which product am I gonna run a flash sale for? Which product can I offer somebody? Is this product really like related to this?”

Like I am constantly running through so many decisions in my mind and having to filter them through so many different products, and that in itself felt overwhelming. So that was my first little hint or clue that, you know what, it’s the fact that I have so many products that’s making me feel overwhelmed.

And again, I’m talking about myself. For you, it might be different and that’s okay, but you want to look back at what has been going on in your business to see what you need to do moving forward, because from there, once you kind of have a good idea and have some clues, some hints as to what has been going on in your business, now let’s look forward.

Let’s look at where your business is headed or where you want it to go. So this is the part where we’re starting to visualize and we’re trying to think, “Okay, if I were to just keep doing things as is, what does my business look like in the future? Do I like that feeling? Is that what I want? Or is that not what I want?”

Or you know, what does it look like if for me, I felt like having fewer offers, like how does that feel? Is that the direction that I feel like I’m being pulled into? And for me it was, “Yeah, actually I really want less offers.” I myself am getting in a season, even in my personal life where I want to simplify things because of things that are going on around me, and I don’t want to mentally carry so many products with me.

And again, for you, it might be the complete opposite for you. Maybe you don’t have any products, or maybe you only have a few and you’re really feeling like, “Ugh! These aren’t enough,” or maybe you’re struggling to get a product out the door just for whatever reason. Maybe it’s the opposite for you, but you’re looking at what has been and what you want it to be, and then trying to see if they match up.

Does this match up    with this?  And if not, then there’s your sign that something needs to change. Okay. So again, for me, like I said, it was really seeing and noticing that like I have a ton of products. They’re still amazing, which is why they have still been available and they’re taking up so much mental bandwidth that I do not want to carry with me into the next season of my business.

Who knows, maybe at some point it will change. Actually, I’m a hundred percent sure it will change because just like our lives are in seasons, I talk about this in a previous episode where, you know, we just go through so many different seasons of life. Our business is the same way. So right now I’m in a season where I want to simplify.

That doesn’t mean that I’m going to get rid of everything again. In the last episode, I went through the questions that helped me figure out which products to retire and which one’s not. But it did mean that I needed to do a big cleanup, and that was true for myself. And so I really just had to recognize that not everything can come with me. 

Maybe for you it’s the fact that you need more products. You don’t have enough to carry with you. You maybe don’t have any products, and you need to at least get that one. So really take the time to slow down, have that intentional quiet time, and then start to plan and visualize to see if what has been is lining up with the future that you want to be true, at least in the season of life.

So simplifying or expanding, they’re both valid. They’re both valid, but that’s why these two steps are so important because  I can’t tell you what that is going to be.  I can give you my opinions, I can give you my suggestions. I can tell you what’s true for me. I can guide you in the process, but ultimately it’s your business and that’s what makes it great.

That is what makes it great, is that it’s your business which is unique to you, that, and ultimately you were the decision maker for your business. So that is like my little, my little ramble bit there. So, when you actually give yourself the space to all to do all of this, you’re going to stop reacting out of urgency, out of fear, out of necessity, you’re going to stop making emotional decisions like what I was doing, right?

I was making the emotional decision of holding onto all of these products because I know how hard I worked on them. I know that I poured my heart into everything that I have created. So it sucks. It sucks knowing that they’re going to be taken off the show. So you stop making those emotional decisions.

You stop pivoting every 30, 60, 90 days. You know, you might be like, ”  Ugh! Something’s not working. I need to change.” “  Oh, it’s still not working. I need to change things again.”  Like, no, maybe it’s, it, maybe you’re not changing the right thing. So, it helps you stop pivoting every so often without truly making sure that you’re making the right changes.

You stop chasing all of these new strategies. Like there’s so much going on in all of the industries right now. AI has caused some big disruptions, especially in the online industry where you are seeing so many people pivoting to teaching AI and maybe that’s you, and that’s totally fine. But this process will help you decide if that is for you.

So you’re not constantly going to be chasing after every new strategy that every single person tried and said, worked for them. You’re going to figure out the strategies that you feel good about that are gonna work for your business. And you start making some CEO-level decisions because again, you’re the business owner, you are the decision maker.

You are the CEO. So as a CEO, you can’t just always outsource your answers or your decisions. You have to be the one to make them yourself. Okay? And lastly, you have to trust yourself more once you start to see how things start to work in your favor after you have done the CEO-level decisions, and whether it was the outputs or the outcome that you wanted.

In the future, you can look back and be like, “You know what? I may not have made as much money, or I’ve gotten as many clients, or gotten as many leads as I wanted to, but I learned a lot from that experience,” and that is more than good enough. So you start to trust yourself. Okay, and that is  huge,  huge,  huge.

 So if something feels off in your business right now, don’t immediately fix it, pivot, make changes, or burn it down. Okay? Instead, schedule quiet time and then journal before you take the next step.  All right, we’re good. Awesome. The difference between reactive business owners and the intentional ones is    truly reflection.

 This is what’s going to help you feel good about all of the decisions that you make in your business. So I’m so excited for you to get the business clarity that you need. If you want a simple way to build this rhythm of reflecting into your business, then definitely go grab my FREE Weekly Reset GPT, which gives you guided prompts to help you build that exact kind of routine into what your weekly, day-by-day and help you figure out what’s working, what’s not, what you can do better in your week.

So the link is in the show notes or the description, wherever you’re listening.  And of course, you know the drill. Be sure to subscribe so that way you don’t miss the next episode. All right,  I’ll see you on the next one.