You Don't Need A New Offer, You Need A New Nervous System

Welcome to Million Dollar Grit, the podcast that dives deep into the world of entrepreneurship, where tenacity meets strategy and dreams meet reality. My name is Julie and I explore the raw, often overlooked truths of what it takes to succeed in business and in life. It's not just about the glossy success stories. It's about the grit it takes to get there. Hey, everyone, this is Julie. Welcome back to another episode of Million Dollar Grit. Today. Today I'm talking about why you don't need a new offer, you need a new nervous system. And it's going into the nitty gritty of why your business really can't sustain the long term strategy if you don't have short term stability. So if you have ever been spinning out wondering, hey, why can't I just commit to this particular idea or strategy? This episode is for you, and I want to just come right out and say it. It's probably not because you're flaky, and it probably isn't because you lack a strategy. It's probably because your nervous system is screaming survival. And your brain is like, hey, let's build a legacy. And so those two timelines are in direct conflict with each other. So until you understand how to resolve that tension, you'll keep sabotaging the very thing that you want to sustain. All right, so let's talk about the long game. And the long game is when you are building something that is going to be stable, steady, efficient, profitable, right? And we see people who represent this sort of stability. And when we dive into their ecosystem, in their world, there are usually a couple of things going on. Something like weekly webinars, right, where they show up week after week after week to sell and get really good at one presentation. Maybe. We notice there's a content system in place, right? A weekly YouTube video or a strong strategy for reels and stories. So we see that there's like, you know, that term content flywheel is popular, that's going on. We notice that there are evergreen funnels with ads running constantly and optimization for low ticket offers, right? So we see these types of strategies in place when we look at people who are playing a good long game. And it compounds over time, right? Because if you're doing a weekly webinar and you have a YouTube strategy and you know, you've got some ads and funnels running like that is going to compound over years and years and years. And so the, the two things that the long game requires are, aside from money, obviously, time, patience, right? And calm. Because if you don't have those Two things. Long game plays are going to often feel like failure in the short term, even if they're working. Right? So long term plays don't have a lot of highs and lows. Long term plays are inherently slow, quiet and tweaked over small, you know, small tweaks over time. There's not a dopamine spike. There's no like, oh my gosh, my bank account's got a hundred grand and you know, I had this huge six figure launch, right? And so these long games that we aspire to because we ultimately want something that's steady and stable, right? And that is what we all want to build. If our nervous system needs proof that you're safe, this model is going to feel intolerable, right? Because it's not going to produce that reassurance that you need. And so it's the patience and the time and the calm. And so, you know, when I see people who are running weekly webinars, in fact, I'm thinking of a client right now, and she did her webinar five times. So five weeks, which is not that long in the context of doing a webinar, but to her felt super long. And she kept only getting one sale. So it was one of these conversion rates that feels like, okay, well it's clearly working, but it's not working at the rate that I need it to work. Right? So it's like that purgatory part of marketing. And so there was no dopamine, right. It feels like, man, this isn't working. And so if she had quit, which she didn't, because she is, you know, mature business owner and she's well supported and, you know, she keeps at it. She didn't quit. And then she eventually, you know, we worked out an argument that then she presented on her sixth webinar and that converted nine sales. Okay? So the quote, if you will, that I want you to take away is most people don't quit because the strategy doesn't work. They quit because their nervous system can't tolerate how slowly it goes. Right? That's really the truth. And so when we're looking at the long game and we say, okay, is your nervous system regulated? Like, are you looking for that reassurance and that safety right here, right now? If you are, you're going to naturally sabotage this. So let's talk a little bit about the short term game. Because it's not, it's not the bad guy. In fact, the short term game is, is survival, right? It is, it's not failure. And I'M about to publish a book that is all about the short term game and Million Dollar Grit. Right now I think is going to, is going to launch on October 26th. That's a temporary launch date. And this was how I made my first million dollars, my first million dollar year. So it goes through the 10 years. And you'll notice that towards the end of the book I'm going to be talking about some of that long game stuff, right? The weekly webinar, things like that. But for probably eight of the 10 years, I was playing a short term game. Why? Because I was in crisis and I needed revenue. So I hear me that the short term game is not the enemy. It is not a moral failure. It is simply a bridge. It is a survival tool. It is, you know, it's things like done right now offers, VIP days, flash workshops, problem hunting in Facebook groups. It's selling what you know in the format that is fastest to deliver. And so this creates revenue which many people who are in that sort of phase of like, oh my gosh, I need to pay the bills, they feel that survival energy pulsing through them. Like the issue is when you start to see that, that bridge, that boat and you see it as home, right? Like that's all it's going to be. And you get stuck in like launch and scramble, launch and scramble, launch and scramble. And so when you're running your business like that, it's sometimes necessary and temporary, but it's not a long term play. It's not going to grow roots. You're not going to get that efficiency. And so I notice that a lot of clients who are cash strapped or in debt, they actually need to carry the two timeline business strategy. They need to carry a short term game and a long term game. And sometimes this is really tricky to do. So I want you to hear me, if this is not something that's, that's you're able to do, it's okay. But the short term game is designed to help regulate your nervous system, right? It's, it's that survival. Like, hey, I'm going to do what I can do right now. I'm going to get those offers, I'm going to problem hunt in Facebook groups. I'm going to get that revenue in, in the fastest way I know how. Also I'm going to build a long term strategy. So it's kind of like, okay, what is that cash infusion offer that can help your body exhale, that can help you, you know, feel like, okay, I am safe. You know, I've Got cash coming in, I've got, you know, something sturdy. And then what is the consistent boring as hell play that will work as long as you do not abandon it. And so that's the idea, is that we can hold both of those things in tension with each other so that you can like say to yourself, okay, what's my short term strategy? If you need it, right? If you are, if you've got capital, you got time, you, you have a regulated nervous system. Hell, if you have a regulated nervous system and you're in debt, you probably still can just play the long game because the debt isn't rattling you, right? So this is all about how you live and how you are in the midst of whatever your financial situation is like. So you don't necessarily need to just focus on one or the other, you can focus on both. So, you know, just kind of, to bring this home, I'm going to just use some, some specific examples. So if you are someone who is currently in debt, you have 40, $50,000 of credit card debt and it doesn't really bother you. You are fairly regulated, you have maybe a spouse or a partner that's paying the bills and you're okay with the fact that you have debt, maybe you even will go on a little more debt. You probably can go ahead and play the long term game because your nervous system is not going to be sabotaging you every week that it doesn't work. If you are that same person, 40 or $50,000 of debt, but you are greatly troubled by it, you do not have a spouse who can pay the bills. You are stressed to the max, can't sleep, you need to play a short term game, right? The short term game that allows you to get that cash in, to feel that survival, to get that regulation in. And then you can decide if that works and you have the capacity to then see a different strategy as a long term play. Awesome. If you don't, then you need to stay in the short term and stop berating yourself or feeling that envy that you can't play the long term game right now. And so it's really, really important that you don't confuse the two. Because I see people who think, okay, I'm going to do a weekly webinar, I'm going to do a, you know, weekly YouTube video, or I'm going to do an organic social media strategy. And they're think that that is a short term solution. And most of those are not short term solutions, they are long term plays that are slow and quiet. They don't have a lot of dopamine and there's not an overnight roi, but they are absolutely critical and necessary if you want an efficient, stable business in the long term. So I hope this was helpful. I hope this gets you thinking a little bit about how you react, how you lean towards one type of offers or another. Right? If you tend to be like, ah, I need to launch, I need to launch. It could be a little bit more of a survival mechan kicking in versus someone who's like, no, I just need to redo this webinar a thousand times until I get it right. So I hope that was helpful and I hope you have a great day. Talk soon. And there you have it, folks. Another dose of Million Dollar Grit. I hope today's episode has left you feeling inspired, equipped and ready to face your own entrepreneurial journey with resolve. Remember, until next time, embrace the struggle, Harness your grit and keep pushing forward your strength, stronger than any challenge you face. I'm Julie, and this has been Million Dollar Grit.