Minimalism; A New Approach to Business Growth

It’s an interesting paradigm, being a simple woman, running a modest business, and living a minimal lifestyle in the midst of the “Go Big, Be Bold” mindset in business today.

I’ve been in more than one networking meeting where there is another business coach who speaks of how to get yourself out there more, attract more clients, build a better team and make more money.  Something really shifts in the room when it comes to you and you share a message almost in opposition to that.  

Some at the table will quickly jump to the judgment of “Oh, she’s a hobbyist” or “She must have a fear of being big” or, the one I hear most often, “She must have a block to making massive money.” Those who jump to judgments never stop to think that their judgment is more likely a reflection of their own fear.

→ The All-In Approach Today

In today’s business world there is unspoken pressure to always be launching, always be growing, always be scaling, always be developing new and better products, programs, and offerings. From my own experience I know just how easy it is to get pulled in, sucked in, and stuck in this message and lose sight of why you started your entrepreneurial journey in the first place. I also know how hard it is to fight against this pressure, to feel the judgments of other women business owners. You just want to cave in and follow the crowd. You begin to think, “Wouldn’t that be easier...” and of course, we’ve all always wished to be in the “in” crowd anyway.

You can easily lose your own vision and begin to take on the vision of the lights, the stage, and the cameras. You can spend hour after frustrating hour pulling your hair out to create the best tag line, the most compelling marketing message, or trying to put together a high-value program. Before you know it, you’re overly busy, overbooked, overwhelmed, and even more often overextended in your business. Yet at the same time, the lights and the public recognition are so sweet and so tasty, it feeds your ego and can often lead to experiencing hallucinating happiness and smoke-and-mirrors confidence. 

→ Finding the Sweet Spot

True happiness and true confidence comes from standing in your own power, holding to your own vision, and living and doing business from your unique authenticity. 

Now, let me clarify. There are many women whose unique authenticity is to be in front of the lights and cameras. These women are most definitely made for the stage, but there are also many women for which this is not their authentic way of being.  

Some of us were made to serve in a different way. Not a smaller or less valuable way, but simply a different way. Our authenticity is often best used to serve a small population deeply vs. a massive audience on a more surface level. Some of us were designed to be the ones offering the information and allowing our audience to simply do with it what they need to. Others were made to be more of a backstage hand supporting a lead actress and gaining not recognition but heartfelt appreciation from the lead actress alone.  

Find your sweet spot of authenticity and own it. Hold to it, stick to it, get so stuck in your own vision that you no longer see or become distracted from that which is not a part of your own vision. Release yourself from following those who lead you away from your vision. Unsubscribe to the newsletters that only bring about guilt and shame, not inspiration and motivation. Give yourself the gift of living in and doing business from your unique authenticity. Gain your strength not from caving in and following the crowd but in resisting the fear-based marketing messages that others use to manipulate you into buying their programs, signing up for their newsletters, and attending their high-pressure sales events that they promise are not a sales pitch. 

When you minimize the number of things you do in your business or the amount of information you take in, own the fact that you’re looking for deeper connections. Stop feeling guilty about not “doing it all.” It’s your vision and your dream. Live it and work it.

In the end, I don’t believe success is about how many programs you launched, how many names are on your email list, or how many social media fans and followers you have. Rather, I believe it’s about what you learned, who you became, and how you impacted others around you.  

I have yet to see an obituary that lists out the stats of a baseball player, the shots taken by a basketball player, or the final net worth of an entrepreneur. Obituaries tend to speak about the person; who they were; how they treated others; their impact on their family, community, society; and the strength they showed in their final days. So what if we decided to strive for making an impact rather than a recognizable brand?