Have you ever caught yourself thinking "if only I could have xyz, everything would be better?

Other versions of this can look like: I don't have the confidence I need. I don't have the freedom I need. I don't have the support I need. I don't have the money I need. I don't have the time I need.

You get the idea: I don't have xyz. And I need it. And I really, really want It.

If you own a business, you have regrets. Things you now see you could have done differently to better set you up for the current season of your business.

If you own a business, you have things you're afraid to look at in your business. For some, it's the finances. For others, it's the inventory. For others, it's the data. For still others it's how much time is spent winning and producing the work vs what you're paid for the work. For others, it's the support we hired or didn't hire. For most, it's a combo of all of these and more.

We are scared to look because we're scared to see what the data reveals.

Option overload is real. When you are mapping out a site redesign or a new course to launch or a new customer experience or you are creating something entirely new, it can be easy to get overwhelmed with options and we tend to add everything to make it perfect.

But there's the thing: perfect takes time. And often we hold on to "perfect" for so long, we miss the magic of getting our work to those who need it most, when they need it. Every client I work with gets the MVP talk. Now, I'm giving it to you.

Want to see significant growth in your business this year? Make a plan and track your progress daily, weekly, monthly.

It doesn't have to feel heavy or complicated. A simple spreadsheet of key metrics will do.

To scale gracefully (read: not freaking out every Sunday evening, not doing social graphics last-minute every time, not feeling absolutely out of control at all times), you need to streamline your systems.

Whatever is disorganized at $200k, will be extra disorganized on your way to $500k. Whatever is messy and leaks time and energy at $500k will prevent you from getting to $1M.

I work with a lot of powerful women building incredible businesses. I've done so for over twenty years. I've helped them dramatically increase their revenue. I've helped them shift the way their businesses work so their lives work.

But no matter how many goals we reach, no matter how much revenue comes in, no matter how many new clients sign, no matter how many units sell, if they don't heal their core stories, none of it feels good.

So how do we sort their core stories at the root so they can free themselves up to see their businesses — and themselves — clearly?

But your free things - all of your lead generation activities - aren’t just there for kicks, are they? You’ve created all of these free activities to give people a sense of what services you offer, how you see the world, how they might also see the world if they work with you and so on. In short: every free activity should be driving revenue. So how do you know what free things are driving the most revenue for your business? You have to start with revenue. How much money is each product or service generating for you each year?

Knowing what revenue is coming in from what efforts is vital even in very certain times. But it’s the most important thing in uncertain times. Why? Because if you know what efforts bring in the most money, you can focus most of your time on only those efforts. You can actually work less, stress less, have more clients and more revenue.

Before we dive in to specific tactics and approaches, I want you to start thinking about the most important part of being a nimble business in challenging times: How can you shift right now? What services or products do you offer that are needed most? What special skills do you have that you can offer to others to be of greatest service when they need it most? How can you take a physical service and turn it digital? How can you shift away from a physical product and provide an experience instead? Is it time to trim services and add new ones that are desperately needed right now?

I have found that nature has a profound effect on my mental well-being but also on my ability to think big, solve problems and help my clients. It's why I include a nature walk in every 5-hour session with clients. It's why I bake in two outdoor activities for every VIP weekend. And the research backs it up!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how we work. How we do our best work. How we find our way to doing work we love and that makes a profound difference in our own lives and the lives of others. And how we setup our lives to do that kind of work.

I’ve been carefully considering the hyper growth in businesses that most modern investors expect and what kind of pressure that places on the leaders within those businesses. I’ve been a part of many different kinds of companies – start-ups that grew big and ran profitably and happily for years, start-ups that grew too big and had to scale down, CPGs that were grossly bloated and needed to slim down to return shareholder profits, small companies that pivoted again and again until the right product/market/capital fit revealed itself.

One thing I know for sure: if you as a business owner feel really uncomfortable doing a thing, your customers will notice and feel that too. You can’t run a big sale you don’t believe in. You can’t create content for a funnel you feel crummy about. You can’t launch Facebook retargeting ads that make you feel icky. Your customers will know. They always know.

I feel like we’ve gotten to the point where we can no longer listen to podcasts leisurely on a long road trip (think of Serial when you first heard it, or any number of mysteries solved over many, many episodes) if we are entrepreneurs of any kind. It feels as if we need to now use every spare moment to hone our skills, refine our brand, develop new funnels, join mastermind groups and listen to seven marketing podcasts a week just to stay current.

Whether you run your own business or work at a company that has remote employees, you have likely had at least one person on a recent project that is not in your physical location for most of your time working together. This is the nature of the gig economy we are currently living in. So the question isn’t why? It’s how. How do I manage a remote team and over-deliver on all my projects and revenue projections?

You’ve seen all the Pinterest quotes. You’ve screenshot-ed several Instagram stories about it. You’ve puzzled over this idea while also aspiring to embody it: “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” We are constantly told to do what we love. But what if we don’t know what we love?

Starting a business isn’t easy. Sustaining one can be even tougher. When the novelty of being your own boss has worn off and the reality of payroll and a less than stellar recent product launch has you in fits, you’ll take advice and inspiration from anyone with a good idea. Why not take advice from some of the best in the world?