660 The 3 Business Habits That Are Keeping You Stuck at Your Current Level

Unstoppable Women 2025 is officially happening and if you are a woman in business who's ready to grow, stretch and get in the room with other ambitious women, this is your event. It's a full day high energy experience happening on Friday 29 August in Brisbane at the Brisbane Convention and Entertainment center. And it's for the women who are tired of doing it alone are ready for real strategy, real conversations and real momentum. This isn't your average get inspired and take notes kind of day. It's not a boring sit down conference. We're talking powerful speakers, curated connections, breakthrough moments, high energy performances that will stay with you long after the day is done. If you've been craving connection, clarity, Next Level strategy in a room full of women who really get it, you're going to want to be there. Click the link in the show notes and pop your name on the Notify Me list so you can be first in the know when the next allocation of tickets go on sale. These tickets won't be available forever. The way our ticket system works is that you will get an email and those tickets will go on sale for a short period of time and then they will close. Or once they close, the price will go up for the next allocation to then open weeks later. So please don't snooze on this. Please don't wait. Make sure that if you're on the notify list that as soon as you get that email you jump straight in and grab your ticket. Otherwise you'll miss out and be super disappointed. All right, go put your name on the Notify Me list and let's get into today's episode. Welcome to the Next Level Life Podcast with Christine Corcoran. This podcast is made for the powerhouse business women who are ready to ignite their fullest potential. This is where we will dive deep into mindset breakthroughs and sprinkle in some pick up the butt motivation so you can scale your business with confidence and clarity. Whether you're craving more income, impact or inspiration, this podcast will be your ultimate resource for all things. Next Level. Listen in as we have authentic conversations with game changing female entrepreneurs as we reveal the secrets of what it takes to rise and thrive. So go ahead, ignite your inner fire and let's get you taking massive aligned action. Are you ready to elevate? Let's go. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm so excited to share with you all the exciting things that are happening at the moment. So my book is so close to being out and next week on the podcast I'm going to share with you a sneak peek and read a chapter for you so you can get an understanding of what the book is about. But also you get to hear a little bit more about it before I get it out into the world. And I can't wait to show you the COVID The COVID looks amazing. I'm just so in love with it and I cannot wait to have a copy in my hands. Make sure you keep an eye on my socials because I'll definitely share that once the book arrives. I've got a proof on the way to me at the moment and so I'm waiting for that to arrive. And then once I have all the details of when I can order all the books and we've got the launch date, then I will be putting out the events, the launch day events as well. So the launch day events, I shouldn't say day, they're going to be evenings, the launch events. We're going to be doing a launch party in Brisbane and then I'm going to be doing a launch party in Melbourne and then one in Warrigal in my hometown in Gippsland, where I grew up. One of my beautiful friends has a bookstore there called the need to Read and she's going to be hosting me, which is going to be so exciting and also random. Like it's so funny to think like me leaving there in my, in my early 20s to be like, I'm never coming back. Get me out of this small town. And I remember leaving there, getting a job on cruise ships and working overseas and coming back and being like, I am so glad that I left this small town. And I think it was always ingrained in me to leave the small town. I don't know why I think my dad was such a big thinker that I was always like, I've got so much life to live. And so I was out of that small town real fast. And I don't think it was like, I mean, I love small town energy and I love the vibe of spaces, but it was actually more the mindset and looking back on it now, it's quite funny to be like, often there's a small town mindset and it's not everyone. That's not at all the case. Absolutely. It's incredible people who are big thinkers in small towns. But a majority of the time it's like that small town environment that can often create small town energy and mindsets which for me, as someone who is such an expensive thinker and prioritizes growth focused Thinking and a growth mindset. It was something that I was like, felt stifled in. So it's so interesting for me to be going back there to launch my book. It's so bizarre. I don't even know how I feel about it. Um, and then also, obviously the tickets went on sale for Unstoppable Women and we've got the speaker announcements coming up in May as well, which is super exciting. So I'm just getting all their content together to share with you all about the incredibleness of each speaker. And also, the book launch party won't be huge. It's not going to probably. You probably won't see a lot about it. So if you do want to come along, make sure you let me know. Maybe just reach out to me on Instagram and say, hey, I'd love to come along just so that I don't miss you. Because I'm probably only going to do one or two emails about it and it's not going to be like this big public launch or anything like that. It's going to be really intimate, I think. So I've got a list of people that I want to invite for Brisbane and then I'll put it out to everyone. So if anyone would like to come along, they're welcome to. It'll be a small ticketed event and. And then in Melbourne as well, a small ticketed event. Actually found a really cool location for the Bris for the Melbourne one. I can't wait for that. And I'm imagining I'll have more family as well at the one in Melbourne. And then Warrigal. Who knows? Who knows? I've got a guest. A guest list as well. I've actually got clients all the way down there in Gippsland, so I'm so excited to be able to also have them come along too. So anyway, lots of fun things happening. If you didn't hear the early message on the podcast, make sure you're on the Notify Me list for Unstoppable Women, because I do not want you to miss out on the next tier of tickets because once I start announcing speakers, you're going to be like, I have to be there and I don't want you to miss out. So make sure that you are on the Notify Me list via the link in the show notes. All right, let's get on to today's episode. So today's episode is all about the top three habits that are keeping you stuck at your current level. I really wanted to talk about this because I've been Having so many incredible, expansive conversations. And one of the frustrations that I hear from a lot of business owners is that they get to the stage of busyness and they are almost like chasing their own tail. Right. They're getting stuck at this space where they're like, oh, I know I need to grow, but I'm holding myself back and I don't really know what it is. And so I to talk to three main things that I see as a. As a regular thing. And then I've got the fourth one, but I want to do a whole separate episode on that. And so I'm going to do the fourth one. The fourth one is actually not hiring support until you feel ready. And that's actually never happens. You don't ever feel ready for support. And we often think that we need the money, and we do need the money. Absolutely. But there's definitely ways to forecast the growth of your business and where you need to bring on team. And so I want to do a whole separate episode on that because I think that that'd be really valuable. So let's talk about the top three habits. The first one is overthinking everything and staying in consumption mode and not taking risks. Once you get to this next phase, phase of growth, or really like any level of business, to be honest, you've got to be willing to take risks. Nothing in business is certain. And if you're waiting for certainty, you're going to wait for like God knows how long. The overthinking often comes from a level of insecurity or trying to feel certainty, trying to overthink things, to figure out all the different case scenarios to be like, how am I going to safeguard myself from it not working out or from having a negative experience. But the overthinking isn't going to gain you any clarity. Right. Learning more, trying to know enough isn't going to get you anywhere. You need to make sure that you're implementing it and actioning it in order for you to get the information you need to take the next step. So rather than waiting, rather than like sitting there and being like, oh, I don't have all the information yet, I can't take the next step. I can't make that this investment, like all of these things prevent you from your next level because you're holding yourself back in that stage of doubt. You've got to be willing to take the risks. And when I say that, I mean calculated risks. Like obviously it's never going to be like massive risks where actually saw a girl on TikTok recently and she was sharing how she's just started her business and she had this huge opportunity to basically present at a trade show and she's like, I don't know whether I should do it yet. And I don't even have my website up. And I was like, oh my God, that's a real bad move. Like, I don't think you should do that. I didn't say that to her, but I said to her, consider another way to gain leads from this opportunity. Because if you don't have a way to capture information of their leads, it's going to be a waste of money. And so, yes, make a calculated risk. And so you want to make sure that you can maximize in every opportunity for sure. But if you're stuck in the overthinking the self doubt or learning more things or, you know, like taking that next course and the next course, thinking you need to know more in order to be able to create more, it's not true. You've got to get into the rhythm of learning enough and then taking action on what you know and knowing that the clarity and the certainty will come after the fact. Right? And you can't ever safeguard yourself from all the uncertainty. You can't. There's going to be things that don't work. There's going to be launches that fail, there's going to be events that suck. There's going to be, you know, masterclasses that no one shows up to. You still have to give it your all. You still have to give it your all. Like recently I ran a masterclass and I only had two people show up live, which sucked. It absolutely sucked. But you know what? I brought my A game. I absolutely brought my A game. And afterwards I was like, I loved that. It was actually great. The women that I had there were amazing. They were interacting with me and both of them have signed up to work with me. So, like, when you look at the conversion rate, it's a bloody high conversion rate. So, like it was a win, an absolute win. But I could have sat there and be like, what a disaster, what a failure. But I did not address it like that. I took the action anyway and I was on fire. Like, I actually loved that, that masterclass. I was absolutely on fire and I felt in my zone and in really positive energy and it all worked out beautifully. And so I still had a whole bunch of signups, join my wait list and join my enjoy my email list. So, you know, they may want to eventually work with me in the future and if they watch the replay, which I know a whole bunch of people did, I know they'll get value out of that. And that's all that matters. That's all I can control. And so we can look at failures like that and be like, oh, my God, that, what a disaster. Or we can be like, well, actually, what are the good things that came from that? So recognizing that you can't safe your gut safeguard yourself from everything. So you've got to stop looking for that. And often when we get stuck in the overthinking, it's because we're wanting that level of certainty in order to take the next step. And I want you to know you're never going to get it. So you better get uncomfortable. You better get comfortable with being uncertain. The fortune is always in the messy action. And honestly, the growth will only happen by you taking the action. Like, honestly, how many times do I need to say take the action, do it, do it, do it. Only way that you're going to learn. Only way that you're going to learn. All right, habit number two, this one's a massive one. And I see a lot of people doing it, and they think that they have to do this in order to keep growing. And it's one of the things that is stopping them from actually growing. Habit number two, saying yes to misaligned work because you don't want to miss out. Whether that's miss out on the opportunity, whether it's disappoint people by saying no to them or whether it's missing out on the money, it's irrelevant. But you're still saying yes to unaligned work. So what that looks like can be saying yes to projects that maybe aren't the right fit for you could be saying yes to clients that aren't the right fit for you. It could be saying yes to stuff that you actually don't want to do. It could be saying yes even though you don't have the space. Like, you literally are fully booked and you're saying yes and you're pushing yourself into massive overwhelm, where you're pushing yourself beyond your capacity and eventually you're going to burn out. And the other reason why I say that this is a huge one that I see that is something that's keeping you stuck at your same level, is because if you continue to take on misaligned work, you will become known for less. So what I mean by that is you will become known for being a mishmash of doing a whole random bunch of stuff, or you'll become misaligned, Sorry, you become known for working with misaligned clients. And so they'll then send you more misaligned clients, which will fill up your calendar with misaligned clients. Clients that maybe you don't enjoy working with, that maybe you have different values to, maybe they don't really value the work that you do. And you're filling your calendar with people you really don't want to work with. And that's only going to cause more resentment, more judgment, more hate, more anger, more frustration, more exhaustion, like, and heaviness. And so this can be a many, many different reasons why. I highlighted those main three things of like why we do it is like missing out on, you know, you don't want to miss out on the opportunity, which is fomo. You don't want to miss out on the money, which is scarcity. You don't want to disappoint people, which is people pleasing. So if it's one of those, and it could be something else, but if it's one of those, you need to address that behavior because there will always be more clients, there will always be more opportunities. But if you look at that behavior as a message to the universe of saying, hey, I want more of this, and then you get up, get upset with more of that coming your way, you have to recognize that it's you, it's you. By saying yes, you're asking for more of it. So even if you look at that as a sign to be like, I hadn't realized that, or like I hope that that's like smacked you in the face a little bit and made you realize like, oh, I'm asking by my actions, I'm saying to the universe, this is what I want. So that then brings me to habit three, which is not prioritizing growth focused activities. So what I mean by this is that we can get so caught up in the month to month or our busyness or serving existing clients and then we're not actually growing, we're just maintaining. That's absolutely going to keep you stuck at your current level. So if you're only just maintaining, call it what it is, you're just maintaining. There is absolutely years in your business that you may have where you're just in a maintenance year and that's okay. But don't judge yourself if you then don't grow. Because if you're in a maintenance year, and I remember having a maintenance year after my dad died, you know, I obviously went through the full grieving process and then like six Months later I was back home in Brisbane and I recognized that that year my capacity, my bandwidth, my ability to hold more was not going to be possible. So the whole concept of growing my business felt extremely hard. So I was like, I am going to give myself a pass and I'm going to just have a maintenance year this year, which was just literally maintaining my results. I did not have any intention to grow that year because I knew I was going to be grieving and I knew that I was going to not have a bandwidth that I would normally have to work on growth. And so then it wasn't until after that, years later, that I was like, now, okay, I'm ready to grow. And so I was ready to expand and starting to step into this next level of growth. And so prioritizing growth focused activities is the only thing that will help you grow if you're not spending any time. And what I mean by growth focused activities is actually focusing on growing your business. So working on the business, not just in it, right? If we're just working in it, getting caught up and doing all the 50 million things, just working, but we're not focused on growing the business, we're never going to grow it. So it could be creating something new. It could be like for instance, for myself, writing a book, creating this event, creating this new offer that I just started called her expansion. Like those things wouldn't come to fruition if I hadn't prioritized growth focused activities. And everyone's got different capacities for growth focus. But you should be able to build it into your business every single Monday. I usually don't take clients and every single Friday I don't take clients. So those two days, my Monday is my CEO day, so that's more of my maintenance focused activities or sales focused activities. And then Friday is my growth focused activities. So again, if I otherwise, if I didn't have the space to do that, this event that I, I'm working on would not come to fruition. It would be impossible to bring something like this to life without space within my calendar. So if you are booking yourself to the hilt where you can even have time to work on your business. And so coming back to point two, like it's worthwhile, it's valuable in order to say no to one client, give yourself the space to actually work on growth focused activities. And some of that is actually working on growing your presence or growing your visibility so you can attract those dream aligned clients, whatever it looks like is for you is totally fine. And so those are my three Key points, right? These are the main habits that keep you stuck at your current level. Overthinking, self doubt and not taking risks. Habit two, saying yes to misaligned work. Habit three, not prioritizing growth focused activities. So hopefully one of those resonated with you, or maybe all three. And so it's worthwhile taking a moment to sit down and be like, okay, how is this showing up for me in my life and what can I do differently? Because if you don't address that, you will always just continue to do the same because your brain runs on autopilot all the time doing the exact same thing. So you've got to interrupt the pattern and choose to do something differently. And, you know, joining something like her expansion can be the. Literally the, the circuit breaker or having a coach or whatever it might be. Like, sometimes we need that. Other times it's just that awareness to be like, well, hey, you're right. I keep saying yes to misaligned clients. Why do I do that? What's the mindset behind it? What am I worried about? What are the fears? What and how can I work on that? So please take the time to look at that. If you have any questions about anything I've covered, feel free to reach out to me. I'm more than happy to chat with you, but I hope this resonated with you. And make sure you're on the notify me list, because tickets are going to go back on sale for unstoppable women very soon. All right, we'll see you soon. Thank you for listening. And if you found any value out of this episode, make sure you hit the follow button so you get access to the episodes as soon as they are live. And make sure you come hang out with me on Instagram. You can find me at Christine Corcoran. Underscore coach. Have an incredible weekend.