On this week’s Dear Katie, I came across a case of the cobbler with no shoes problem. I was asked a question that a lot of business owners have: Why can I always get my clients’ work done but when it comes to doing the same for me and my business, I always put it off. Have you experienced the same when growing Leaders Online?

Often, we become so focused on helping others that we forget to help ourselves.

Why?

I’ll discuss the main two reasons businesses fall into this predicament and why number 2 is likely holding you back even more.

1. We Tend to Deprioritize Ourselves

Client work comes first in most business owners’ minds. You need to make money, and clients are how you achieve this goal. So, what happens? Owners tend to continue putting everyone else first until they have nothing left in their gas tank.

Why?

Clients pay us money, so we feel like it’s a good decision to do client work because the work we do for our own businesses “doesn’t pay us.”

2. We Have a Real Fear of Failure

Ideas are… captivating. We envision and ideal life and tend to leave off the details of how it will all work together.

We all want this life we’ve envisioned in our minds and always dreamed of.

But turning that dream life into a reality is much easier said than done. We tend to hesitate. When you mix in the fear of failure, doing the things we need to reach our goals becomes even more complicated.

If we don’t execute with flawless precision, the perfect future may never be attainable!

So, what happens?

We continue to procrastinate. We say that we’ll begin creating content and marketing, but we always allow some outside force to get in the way.

So, What Can You Do About It?

What can you do to break this vicious cycle of fear of failure and deprioritizing ourselves?

1. Make Yourself a Client

This is one of the best things you can do for yourself. I made myself a client early on, and I am so thankful that I did. 

Think about it: your business is your highest-paying client. If you don’t take care of it and prioritize it, you’ll have zero clients.

Add yourself to your project management software as a client. Assign deadlines to tasks that need to be done, and hold yourself accountable for these deadlines as if they were client deadlines.

2. Acknowledge the Fear

You can’t confront and work through fear if you don’t acknowledge it. If you’re paralyzed by your fear of posting on social media, for example, acknowledge it. Write it down. Tell someone. 

Sit down and dig into the problem. Why are you scared? What’s the worst thing that can happen (you’ll likely just stay stuck where you are now)?

Then, ask yourself: what is on the other side of this fear? Who do I want to become on this journey of being a firm owner?

3. Get an Accountability Partner

Accountability is huge. Share your plan with someone you trust, and ask them to hold you accountable.

Schedule check-ins with them. You may even want to have them go with you to do whatever it is you need to do to stay on track. For example, maybe you can find another firm owner who also wants to be more active on social media. You can both commit to a 30-day posting challenge or a 5-day-a-week posting challenge.

If you follow these three steps, I promise you’ll never have to worry about the cobbler problem again.

And, that’s a wrap on this Dear Katie question.

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Now I want to hear from you. Do you have a question? 

Submit it here

Until next time, cheers to your success!

Katie