746 Your Business Isn’t Broken. It’s Just Built for the Level You’re At

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 the mindset breakthroughs and sprinkle in some kick 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 on what it takes to rise and thrive. 5. 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. Thank you so much for hitting download. I have been having some really incredible conversations with some amazing women. So recently ran a workshop in Brisbane called the 2026 Success Planning Day, and just such incredible conversations that came through there that really highlighted recognizing what stage of business that you're in and identifying where you are playing small, identifying where you're operating in an early stage business owner versus a further along business owner. And then I've had other conversations with women in business in, um, some networking groups that I'm a part of, on Instagram in the DMs, uh, and also in my programs. And I wanted to do an episode around your business isn't broken, it's just built for the level that you're at. The reason why I want to highlight this is to help you see where you have built a business to a certain stage and what needs to change in order for you to scale it. Because often what happens is that we get frustrated at the level that we're at. We get into our head about like, I should be further along than I am. I should be getting certain opportunities that I'm not. I should be earning more money than I'm not. I should be— all the shoulds, right? And when we start to dive deeper into it, which happened recently at the workshop, I had some certain responses from people of like, oh my God, I'm starting from scratch again. No, you're not. You're not starting from scratch at all. Or it's like, oh my gosh, so much needs to change. My business feels broken, right? And it's identifying, like, we can look back on our business and be like, wow, I'm so proud of what I've built. And I also know I need to evolve, right? And so we need to recognize that the business that you have built and looking at everything from the systems that you've set up right through to the platforms that you use, there's the, uh, tools that you have within your business, the team that you have, the clientele that you attract, the sales systems that you've put into place, your strategies that you put into place for your marketing. All of it have built your business into the current results that you've achieved, right? And so if you want different outcomes, the structure, the setup, the architecture is actually what needs to change, as well as your behaviors as the business owner. And this is where a lot of people get stuck, right? And I get it. I have been in your position and I know a lot of clients that have been in your position and I coach people through this all the time. We need to recognize the role that you are playing right now is creating the results that you've achieved up until now. So for you to get different results, your role has to change, right? As the CEO, your role has to change, but also so does some of the stuff within your business. The structural stuff, right? And so we look at things that are causing burnout, we look at things that are causing friction in your customer journey, we look at areas that actually aren't supporting the results that you're looking for. Because usually when we look at the back end, we can look at what's causing those things. And sometimes you need a fresh set of eyes to come in and be like, "Ah, I see why this friction is happening," or, "I see why the burnout is happening because I'm still doing all of this manually." And so I also wanted to do another episode about it because I am hiring as well for my business. And so it absolutely helps see where I've been playing small or where I've been stuck in operational pieces, which are causing me to then be not focused on the things that need to happen on the other side of the business. Right. And so you can't keep growing. You can't keep scaling if you're still doing the same things and focus on the same thing. So it's so interesting when you have that fresh set of eyes to come in, to look at the back end of the business and literally look at it from the perspective of like, oh, okay, now I can see why you've achieved those types of results that you've achieved. And I can see what's gonna get you to the next level and see what needs to change. And you need to be able to see that yourself. And so we look at what are the different stages of business that you're in? So let's say you, for the first 5 years, you've built your business to get to the certain results that you've achieved so far, right? So whether you're in year 2, year 3, year 4, year 5, it doesn't matter. Like just wherever you're at right now, you look at, okay, the results that I've achieved so far. Now look at the systems that you've set up. Now look at the behaviors that have become habitual. For how you show up in your business? Right? And that comes to everything from the way that you show up in your marketing, the way that you show up in your sales conversations, the way that you show up and motivate yourself right through to the way that you show up and communicate with your clients, the structure of your offers, right through to the way that you facilitate the transformation that you support your clients through, the way that you lead—right—the way that you look at your data, the way that you make decisions in your business, the way that you put yourself forward for opportunities. Like, there is so much, and I feel like, I feel like as I'm talking this through, it's going to be a much bigger episode than I expected, and I apologize, but I want it to be a valuable episode. So let's firstly start with burnout, right? Sometimes this can be the first indicator of what needs to change in the backend in your operations in order for you to support the next stage of growth. So what I would love for you to first consider is where do you feel drained? Where do you feel like you're burning your candle at both ends? Where do you feel like you're leaning or edging on the stage of burnout? Because I guarantee you, or even if it's not burnout, even if it's just like, these are the certain things that I feel like I have to do in my business, or I should be doing in my business that I'm not doing, or that I am doing because I feel like I have to, right? That's usually a really good indicator of where you are taking yourself out of your zone of genius. So that's where I would firstly start. Then you may need to reevaluate your zone of genius. Where should you be spending your time for best results? Let's just start there, because if you are spending your time on things like emails or setting up automations in the backend, and that's not your strong suit, if it's actually where you think about where you generate results in your business, you should be focused on sales. You should be showing up as the thought leader in your business. You should be showing up and forging those relationships. But if you are spent so much in the backend doing all the things that's taking you away from the most important things in your business, that's where you need to start first, because that's actually highlighting to you what's causing the results that you're achieving. Because if you're spending way too much time in the backend, when really you should be focused on the frontend of the business, then that's actually the first place to start. And usually that comes with a lot of frustration, hesitation, uh, you know, resistance towards hiring. And I will just say, there is so much that you can put in place that doesn't require hiring a human being right now. And you know that. AI. But maybe you're avoiding it, right? Maybe it feels all too hard. But what I want you to do first is just sit down with yourself and be like, okay, what is my zone of genius? Right? My zone of genius is where I feel so lit up, so on fire, so in flow that I know that when I'm in that energy and I'm doing that thing, I progress faster. Right? Second to that, where am I best to be spending my energy in order to serve the growth and scalability of my business? When you answer those two questions, you will have a list of tasks and behaviors that you should be spending your time and energy on. Everything else has to be either delegated, automated, deleted, not focused on at all because it's actually not your zone of genius or where you should be best spending your time. So once we have that external list, then we'll have, obviously then you can create a list of things that need to happen in your business in order for it to function, in order for it to continue to move forward. Right? We know that there's always gonna be a list of those things. Then, then you wanna look at with that list, where can I get some traction that's gonna support me to be able to stay in my zone of genius and stay in the area of my business where I should be focusing my attention. Is it automation first? Is it a bit of AI first? Is it actually just hiring for project basis? So you might be able to hire someone for, you know, a month or 2 months to be able to get some traction in that space. Maybe it's actually generating leads. Maybe it's actually getting someone to do Facebook ads for you. Like, if you can try to determine what your next best hire will be, I'm going to do a whole other episode on next best hire, but starting to actually just look at that because that will highlight the structural issue that's happening within your business. It's where you are spending your time. Alright. Okay. Next one is your offers. Are your offers actually structured to scale? And how are they working for you? Because if your offers are currently set up, that's causing you to feel drained, that's causing you to feel like you're over servicing, over delivering, maybe actually undercharging, then we need to actually look at your offers because maybe that needs to shift and change. So we, that we could be causing a lot of bottleneck in your business. The other thing that could be causing is it might not be supporting the evolution of your customer. So we'd need to review your offers and be like, okay, are my offers set up to support people coming into my business? Are they a no-brainer? Are they actually meeting people where they're at and giving people what they need? Are they supporting the next steps? So once clients come into the business, do they then know what's available to them next? And do they then know what's available to them next? Are that— is that transformation being supported through my offers? And am I communicating those offers? Because sometimes that's actually not happening. So I was having a conversation with someone else recently and she was saying how like, you know, my entry-level offer is doing really well. It's actually quite easy to market. People come into the business, but my offer that is actually further along, that's much more profitable and at a higher price point, I'm not finding the right people for them, for that offer. And people aren't evolving and they're not transforming from that first offer to the next offer. So then something's structurally wrong there with the offer. So we need to adjust that to support the evolution. And sometimes it's communication. Sometimes it's the structure of how you're delivering the result. Right? So sometimes we need to just adjust, like, and really do some deep work in that. Now that's probably not quickly fixed, but we may need to adjust that. Or it could be that we need to adjust the marketing to attract the clients that are better for the higher level version, sorry, higher level offer, because maybe we're not actually marketing to those people. Maybe we're not even showing up and having messaging that supports that offer. So, I know as I'm going through this, hopefully it's starting to help you like pique your interest into different areas of your business that maybe you haven't looked at for a while. Instead of looking at it like, oh, I'm so frustrated with where I'm at, we can actually look at it strategically and be like, oh, okay, now I see what's causing the burnout in this area. What's causing me to be taken out of the role of my business owner that I need to be in as a CEO in order to drive the results that I'm looking for, right? Okay. Then that brings me to the backend, because if your backend is not talking to each other, if your backend is not supporting parts of the business that maybe should be hands-off and you're doing so much more manually, that could be the next indicator of what's not working and what's actually causing you to stay at the same level of results. Right? Sometimes you need someone to come in and show you what's not working, or maybe there's areas that you already know that aren't working together. Right? So maybe there are lead gen that you've got set up that actually aren't supporting people to take the next step. So we need to adjust those funnels. Maybe there is another form of your funnels that you need to adjust that actually supports the price increase that you're working towards. Um, maybe we need to actually look at the systems that you've chosen. Are they actually the right fit now based on where you want to take your business versus where you were last year or the year before? Because sometimes it's that people are operating at year 2 when really they're in year 5 and they haven't updated their platforms or haven't updated the systems that they're using to support the scalability of their business. So they might be working on something that they're like, oh, I don't want to invest the money to go to this next stage or this, this upgrade in the system because of money, instead of actually considering that that's actually taking up so much more time for you to do it manually, when really it could actually generate more income when it's done on its own, and then you can focus on much more important things. But what we do, like, behaviorally, is that we keep doing the same thing we've always done, and we get frustrated that we're not getting the results that different results that we really want, but we're not willing to make the change, or we may be willing to make the change, but we get just stuck in the same routine. And so one of the biggest things I said to my client, one of my clients last week, I sat with her and was like, we need to look at where you're spending your time within your business because you're still operating in year 2 with 1.5 team members when really she's actually got 5 team members now and she's still operating as the same leader. So she's still not micromanaging, but she's still overseeing a lot. And she's like, oh, I don't want them to feel bad if I give them that extra task because maybe they're already booked. And I was like, when was the last time you had the conversation around your capacity and also around their capacity? Because if the conversation is open and it's a two-way street, you should be able to be like, cool, where are you at with capacity? What else can you take on? What are you willing to take on more responsibility with? Because if you start to see your, your team members as completely capable, incredibly talented people, then you won't doubt their ability to be able to make their own decisions. Now, I will just say, caveat, if you are a people pleaser, sometimes you attract people pleasers as team members, as clients, etc. And so sometimes you will identify subconsciously that they're a people pleaser, and you are also a people pleaser. And so you're so concerned with them feeling a certain feeling, and you want to avoid them from feeling bad, so then you don't give them the tools or give them the leadership that they need in order to be able to take more responsibility on in the business, right? And so if you are making those decisions for the individual instead of actually opening the conversation, then you're always going to be stuck in that cycle of people pleasing, of being like, oh, I don't want to upset them, I, I don't want them to leave me, I don't want them to, you know, resent me because I've given them an extra task to do. Like, please believe in your people more. And if you are holding on to old team members that are continuously doing the same behavior that aren't serving the growth of your business, then maybe that's actually the next up level for you. Maybe— because the thing is too, like, if you hold on to old team members from the past, unless they evolve with you, they could then still see you as the older version of you, and it may feel hard to lead them at the next stage. So some people evolve with you and that's great. Other times it's actually time to let go of old, old team members because they cannot scale with you because their mindset's still stuck in the older version of the business. I see this happen with when people scale fast and they're still like, they've hired someone in the early stages of their business that only had a certain skillset and they don't wanna let them go. Cause I don't wanna make that, you know, don't wanna be mean. And they hold onto them at their stage of skillset and then they can't scale because they're requiring someone who has a higher level of skillset. In that area, whether it's operations, whether it's marketing, whatever it might be, and your business then keeps behaving at that early stage instead of a scaled stage. So there's so much here that I know that you're going to be like, oh my God, this is so much, Christine. And I'm sorry, because when I first started recording the podcast, I had a couple of dot points that I really wanted to cover. But then as I'm talking through it, there's so much more that comes through. But that's the complexity of it. Like, I must just be honest that the complexity happens when you are scaling. And so if you have gotten to a stage of being a few years in business and you're wanting to scale your business, whether you are, you know, above 6 figures or whether you're at multi-6 and you're wanting to scale to half a million, like, that's where the complexity shows up. It's normal, right? It's normal because you're serving more people, things are scaling, and you're doing more. And so you want to be conscious of that, of like, how am I expecting my business to run at a earlier stage versus where I'm currently at and where I'm wanting to go. Right. And this is where sometimes we can get stuck in the proactive, in the reactiveness versus proactive and really considering like, how do I build for where I want to be versus where I am? Right. How do I make decisions from where I want to be versus where I am? That's what starts to make some changes in your business because you do start to consider like, okay, like, is it okay for me to be spending this amount of money on this in order to get me to where I want to be? So for instance, like to give you an example, like it might be a platform cost. Like someone I was speaking to last week, she was like so hesitant to go up the next stage of investment cost for the platform that she's using, which would give her much more capability, would give her access to be able to have more items that she could sell within that capability. And she was like, oh, but it's gonna cost me an extra $40 a month. And I'm like, an extra $40 a month? But what is it gonna give you? Instead of looking at the cost, you gotta look at what it's going to give you. And so when she— once we— when we looked at that and she was like, oh, okay, then it's totally worth it. I'm like, cool, go do that. And it also helped you start leveling up as well, because if you keep just, again, investing at the same level, requiring the same skill set at the same level with the team that you have, like, you will keep creating the same results. You'll keep creating the same results. So if you want better, then you've got to invest better. And it's the same thing with, like, the rooms that you're surrounding yourself with, the right people. It's the mentors that you're hiring, like, It's starting to level up and invest at that next stage. So then you can actually achieve those next level results. So this is where we step into the redesign phase rather than just like, I'm trying to fix things, right? Because again, I want you to come back to, it's natural for you to have complexity as you start to scale, right? Because it's causing you to look at things differently. And then the clarity will come as you start to increase looking at things in a different way, right? The clarity will come when you start to look at it from a redesign, from where you wanna be versus where you are, right? So rather than be like frustrated, like I'm at this level and I'm frustrated with getting the same results, maybe I'm plateauing, maybe I'm, you know, creating the same outcomes, et cetera, et cetera. You wanna look at you first, then you wanna look at what does the business require in order for it to get to the next level? Does it require support in your team? Does it require better systems? Does it require better marketing? Does it require a better leader? Does it require a better mentor? Like, what is it asking of you in order for it to scale? You don't have to start from scratch. You need to redesign and learn to evolve with your business and start making decisions from the future rather than from where you are right now. So thank your business because your business is built for the level that you're at and you've done well to get it to where it is right now. And that's great, right? So be grateful for what you've built. and then without judgment, without— you don't have to like buy into the exhaustion or the mental spiraling of like, oh my God, it's all not working out. No, there's majority of stuff that is working, but there's certain things that you know you need to level up with, and that's part of evolution. So you wanna scale, you want that expansion. It's time to be okay with being a little bit overwhelmed with it in order for you to get it right. And so you might need to ask for advice. You might need to put yourself in rooms that are surrounded with the conversations that you need to have at this level in order for you to start making better decisions in your business. I hope this episode has supported you to see things a little bit differently, but also call yourself forward to be like, hey, maybe I have been creating the same results because I've been playing at the same level. And my business has been playing at the same level with the same systems, with the same activities that I'm doing on a regular basis, of the same way that I'm leading. And so now it's time to set things up. I'm here to support you. If you have any questions about this, feel free to reach out and send me a DM. And hopefully this activated— this has activated something within you. In order to set things up to the next level. Have an amazing week. 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_Coach. Have an incredible week.