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Forbes
24-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The 5-Step Ritual Successful Founders Use Between Victories
The 5-step ritual successful founders use between victories Most entrepreneurs race to the next thing after hitting a milestone. The deal is barely done before they're hunting for their next mountain to climb. The next dopamine hit. This constant motion feels productive but leads to rushed decisions, wasted resources, and businesses built on shaky foundations. Your entire legacy might depend on your ability to stop and think clearly before your next venture, pivot or offering. When I sold my social media agency in 2021 after ten years of building, I refused to jump into anything new. Instead of immediately buying domain names for new ventures or signing up to another decade of commitment, I created space to think. This deliberate break became the most valuable part of my entrepreneurial journey and directly influenced what became Coachvox. Constant momentum: is it really serving you? Entrepreneurs pride themselves on action. We celebrate the hustlers and the go-getters who make things happen through sheer force of will. But without strategic stopping points, we risk building impressive momentum in entirely the wrong direction. Hit the pause button before pressing play. You can fast-forward later. The first rule for any entrepreneur taking a strategic break: do not buy domain names. This might sound trivial, but it matters. Buying a domain name is the first concrete step toward commitment. This symbolises any investment into a new idea. Once you've made that purchase, you've invested. You've put skin in the game. You risk falling for sunk cost bias, even at a few hundred dollars. Between businesses, I had a strict rule: explore freely, commit to nothing. This boundary kept me from prematurely locking into ideas that felt exciting in the moment but wouldn't stand the test of time. Make this your rule too. No domains, no landing pages, no LLC filings until you're absolutely certain. Capture every business idea that comes to mind during your thinking space. I created a simple spreadsheet with columns for the business concept, target audience, problem solved, first five steps, and growth potential. Each time inspiration struck, I documented it without action. By the time I was ready to commit, I had 30 different business ideas. The business I eventually launched was actually idea number 22. It wasn't the first, last, or most initially exciting. But it showed the most promise after careful, unhurried consideration. This spreadsheet approach creates a valuable record you can revisit. Some ideas that seem brilliant at first glance look ordinary later. Others gain strength with time. Be open to signals that validate or disprove each one. Avoid wasting years on the wrong path. Your environment has a huge influence on your mind. Your thinking transforms when you physically change locations. I noticed that business ideas that came to me in my hometown were small, local and service based. Limited in scope and scale. But when I traveled, when I expanded my horizons physically, my business thinking expanded too. The ideas that came up while seeing different parts of the world were bigger, more ambitious, and more likely to create meaningful impact. Get the pattern interrupt you need to think more clearly. A deliberate break gives you the chance to change both. Book the trip. Get out of town. Expand your mind. All sorts of biases sneak in when making big decisions about your next move. Sunk cost bias is major. You should never do something just because you've been doing it so far. There's also recency bias, where the latest idea seems like the best simply because it's fresh. Then there's the Einstellung effect, where you default to doing what you already know works, even if it's not the best solution right now. Taking time creates distance from these biases. Get the perspective that's impossible when rushing from one commitment to the next. Spot patterns in your thinking that might be leading you astray. Write down these biases when you notice them. Reduce their power over your decisions and move forward on your own terms. Strategic stopping isn't meant to last forever. At some point, you need to commit and move forward. But how do you know when that time has come? Set a specific timeframe at the beginning. Whether it's three months, six months, or a year, having a defined period creates healthy pressure. For me, it was when one idea kept rising to the top regardless of what new inputs I was receiving. When Coachvox continued to be the best option whether I was looking at market size, my personal interest, or alignment with my strengths, I knew it was time to act. The thinking space had done its job.
Forbes
16-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
You Get 18 Summers With Your Kids. Stop Wasting Them On Your Phone
You're lying by the pool, watching your kids splash around. But your eyes keep drifting to your phone. The email notification pings. Your team needs you. Just this one thing. You promised yourself this vacation would be different, but here you are, scrolling through Slack messages while paradise passes you by and your kids hit new milestones and grow up into adults. Most Americans get just 11 to 12 paid vacation days per year. The lowest among all developed countries. And they don't even take them. More than half of American workers leave vacation days on the table, creating 768 million unused days annually. Deprived of vacations at record levels, yet still working through the few breaks we get. I ran a social media agency for ten years and it took me three years to systemize my business and do travel right. I thought being available made me essential. It just made me exhausted. When I finally learned to disconnect, my business actually grew faster. My team got stronger. My clients respected me more. The cost is high. Your brain needs complete disconnection to reset. Your creativity dies when you're always half-working. Your decision-making gets cloudy. You return more tired than when you left. Break this cycle by understanding why you grip that phone so tight. Overcome the addiction and hang out with your family. No one needs you right now. And even if they do, your business won't collapse in seven days. Your clients won't fire you. Your team won't mutiny. The emergency emails aren't emergencies. They're just other people's poor planning becoming your problem. Get over yourself. The world spins without you. When you respond to every ping and notification, you train everyone around you to expect instant answers. You become the bottleneck in your own business. Set an autoresponder that means something. Not "I'm away but checking emails occasionally." Make it clear: "I'm offline until [date] Your team wants you on call because it's easier than thinking. But when you're always available, they never learn to solve problems independently. They'd rather get your quick opinion than risk making a mistake. This keeps them small and keeps you trapped. Before you leave, run a fire drill. List every possible issue that could arise. Write down who handles what. Make your team practice solving problems without you. My operations manager takes pride in protecting my vacation time. She sees it as proof she's doing her job well. Create incentives for your team to handle things themselves. Make self-sufficiency their badge of honor. Author and entrepreneur Jim Sheils wrote about having just 18 summers with your kids before they leave for college. Eighteen. That's it. While you're answering emails on the beach, your seven-year-old is becoming eight. You can't buy that time back. No amount of business success will erase the guilt of missing these moments. Write down your number. How many summers left? Post it where you'll see it on vacation. When you reach for your phone, look at that number instead. Your future self will thank you. The deals aren't so important. The emails can wait. Your kids can't. If you're solving the same problems on repeat, you're not running a business. You're running in circles. Every vacation becomes a working vacation because you haven't built systems that work without you. The goal isn't to be needed. The goal is to be free. Start documenting everything. Every process, every decision framework, every standard response. Use tools that clone your knowledge. Train your team to find answers in your systems, not your inbox. Each time someone asks you something, ask yourself: could this be solved without me? Then make it happen. Build the solution once so you never have to solve it again. When I finally learned to disconnect, everything changed. My team got creative. They found solutions I never would have thought of. Clients started respecting my boundaries because I respected them first. My best ideas came during trips away, when my brain had space to wander. Delete the email app from your phone. Give your laptop to someone else. Make it physically impossible to check in. The harder you make it to work, the easier it becomes to rest. You deserve a complete break. Not a half-hearted attempt at relaxation while staying tethered to work. Your family needs you. Stop wasting your 18 summers on other people's priorities. Your team will figure it out. Your clients will survive. Your business will keep running. But those moments with your family disappear while you stare at your screen. Set the autoresponder. Delete the apps. Trust your team. Watch what happens when you actually disconnect. The world won't end. Your business won't crumble. You'll come back sharper, clearer, and ready to build something big. Access my top ChatGPT prompts to change your life.
Forbes
11-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Your Hometown Is Silently Killing Your Dreams. Here's How To Stop It.
Your environment is branding your brain. Every conversation, every room, every feed is shaping what you think is possible. Hang around people who settle and you'll start to shrink without noticing. They won't tell you your dream is too big. They'll just laugh a little too long when you say it out loud. Your algorithm won't say it can't be done. It will just keep showing you examples of people playing small. Your surroundings silently program your potential. I founded my first business, a social media agency, at age 22 and sold it for seven figures. Throughout that journey, I saw firsthand how environments either limited or expanded my vision. When I was surrounded by other agency owners who thought charging by the hour was the only option, my company stayed small. When I joined a mastermind of entrepreneurs with different business models, I doubled my prices within a week and clients still signed. Environment determines everything. Most people don't realise their motivation problems are environmental problems. They read more books, listen to more podcasts, and try to pump themselves up. Then they go right back into the same rooms with the same people who have the same limited thinking. The self-help high fades fast when no one around you believes bigger is possible. Here's why: When you see someone similar to you accomplish what you want, their success removes your excuses instantly. Your brain stops creating barriers and starts plotting paths. This is why masterminds work. This is why business conferences transform companies. This is why traveling to cities with bigger economies expands your pricing. You see what's actually possible. Without these influences in your life, there's no blueprint. There's no signal it's possible for someone like you to rise above the normal around you. The collective vision of your five closest contacts becomes your business vision. Pay attention to how these people react when you share ambitious goals. Watch their face when you mention your next move. The passive aggressive eyebrow raise tells you everything. The quick shift to another topic speaks volumes. The subtle reminder about "being realistic" reveals their ceiling, not yours. Ideas shrivel in spaces where you constantly defend them instead of developing them. If you spend more time explaining why something could work than actually building it, you're in the wrong room. Your business grows at the speed of your aspirations. If you constantly hear "impossible," "unrealistic," or "too expensive," those limitations become part of your thinking. You can only achieve what you believe is possible. Expanding what you see expands your trajctory. Here's how to upgrade your environmental influences, even if you don't actually leave your hometown. Join networks and groups, online and in real life, where your biggest accomplishment barely gets noticed. Find places where your current goals seem modest compared to what others are building. The temporary discomfort forces rapid growth. Swap the people who say it can't be done for those who already did it. Visit locations with economies that dwarf your local market. Experience business cultures where your pricing would be considered a bargain. See how entrepreneurs in major cities approach their ventures. Your hometown mindset shapes your business scale more than you realize. Change your trajectory by changing your geography. The fastest way to change your future is to stop spending time with people who are loyal to the past. Some friends and family will unconsciously keep you at their level. They don't want you to outgrow them. Their comments about "the old you" or "staying grounded" are anchors disguised as concern. Make your circle intentional or forever play small. If you can't find the right room, build it. Create a mastermind of people playing bigger than you. Host dinners with people whose businesses you admire. Start a Slack channel for ambitious founders. Begin a podcast interviewing people ten steps ahead. Your environment won't upgrade itself. Take control of who and what you allow to influence your thinking. Your business vision expands or contracts based on your surroundings. Find rooms of people who will champion your crazy ideas. Travel to places that recalibrate your sense of possible. Distance yourself from those who reinforce old limits. Build communities that pull you forward. Your potential is waiting on the other side of your current environment. Step into bigger rooms, build bigger businesses.
Forbes
09-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
4 Steps To Manifesting Success In Business, Even If You're Skeptical
4 steps to manifesting success in business, even if you're skeptical You're pushing hard in business. Content, calls, operations. Every deal feels like pulling teeth. Maybe you're wondering if success has to be this difficult. What if it doesn't? What if you could put in the work and let opportunities flow to you? Whether you believe in manifesting or think it's complete nonsense, getting intentional about what you want can only help. I used to be the person grinding 12-hour days, running my agency thinking hustle was the only path to success. Then one day I wrote myself a pretend check, from 'the perfect buyer' for 'one social media agency.' When I exited for the exact amount I wrote on the check, I wanted to understand what had happened. I researched manifestation and started experimenting with different approaches to business. Some worked, some didn't. But the mindset shifts that came from getting clear on what I actually wanted changed everything. Over a third of people already use some form of manifestation, according to recent academic studies. The numbers are growing: from just 2% believing in the Law of Attraction in the 1990s to 73% globally in 2022. On TikTok alone, manifestation videos have racked up 34.6 billion views. People who practice it tend to perceive themselves as more successful, stay confident about their future goals, and take bigger risks in business and investing. You don't need crystals or vision boards. You need a system that works whether you're a believer or a skeptic. Amy Westmoreland, a manifesting expert with 120,000 YouTube subscribers, has broken down exactly how to attract what you want using her 4-step method. "I want what I want and I get what I want," she says. No apologies, no compromises. The first step is clarifying your desire and focusing on already having it. You don't need to believe it yet. Just imagine it. If you want warm chocolate chip cookies, close your eyes and imagine holding one. Feel the warmth, taste the chocolate. Be specific. "You have to imagine having exactly what you want with all of the specific details," Westmoreland explains. Then acknowledge it: "Oh my god, I got exactly what I wanted." Step two is belief, but here's the twist: you don't need to believe it will happen, just that it could happen. There's a difference. Can you get a warm chocolate chip cookie? Of course you can. That's enough belief to work with. Step three tackles resistance. Maybe you think you can't get exactly what you want. Fine. "I can have that thought and still get exactly what I want," Westmoreland suggests. Test this with your next business goal. Write down one specific outcome you want this month. Ask yourself: is it possible? Not guaranteed, not likely, just possible. If yes, you have enough belief to work with. Accept any doubts that exist, then move past them. Your thoughts don't control your outcomes unless you let them. The fourth step is where most people fail: detachment. "I want it, I would love it, but I don't need it," is how Westmoreland frames it. You still care about it. You're just not gripping so tightly that you strangle the possibility. Try this with something small first. A parking spot, a specific coffee order, a particular outcome in a minor negotiation. Practice the feeling of wanting without needing. Notice how you normally approach goals with desperation or force. Then consciously relax your grip. Watch how differently things flow when you're not desperately attached to one outcome. Business works the same way. Do the work, stay open to opportunities, and let solutions come to you. Sometimes you walk into a situation with no idea what you're looking for, but you know it when you see it. Westmoreland discovered this firsthand in Puerto Rico. She'd never been, had no expectations, and fell completely in love with the place. "I didn't know that I wanted this, but now that I'm here, this is exactly what I wanted," she realized. For these situations, skip the clarity step. Close your eyes and imagine the feeling of getting exactly what you want, without the details. Picture yourself saying, "I didn't know this existed, but it's perfect." Focus on the emotion, not the specifics. Let your subconscious fill in the blanks. This works for finding business partners, discovering new markets, or recognizing opportunities you didn't know you were looking for. You don't need to believe in energy or the universe. Think of this as strategic focus. When you clarify what you want and imagine having it, you're programming your brain to notice opportunities. When you release resistance, you're getting out of your own way. When you detach, you're creating space for creative solutions. The UK data backs this up: 60% of adults reported "speaking their goals into existence" for 2022. Among them, those who believed most strongly also showed more optimism about achieving ambitious goals and shorter expected timeframes for success. Set your revenue goal, visualize hitting it, believe it's possible, release the fear of failure, then detach from needing it to happen on your timeline. Neuroscientists like Dr. Tara Swart explain manifesting as a process of rewiring your brain to align with your goals. This involves understanding what you truly want and taking consistent actions toward achieving it. Swart emphasizes that manifesting is grounded in neuroscience, not supernatural beliefs, and is about creating habits and neural pathways that support your objectives. Famous people including Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jackson, Jim Carrey, Dolly Parton, and others have spoken about using manifestation techniques in their lives and careers. Techniques include visualization, scripting, and positive thinking. You don't need to fully believe it right now, you just need to be open to the fact that it could make a difference. Manifestation means focus plus clarity plus detachment. Whether you call it strategic planning or cosmic ordering, the process works the same. You get clear, you imagine success, you believe it's possible, you release resistance, and you let go of desperation. Start small. Pick something you want this week. Run through the four steps. See what happens when you combine clear intention with detached action. The worst case? You've spent five minutes getting clear on your goals. The best case? You unlock a new way of moving through the world where success feels less like wrestling and more like flowing. Want exactly what you want. Take action. Then watch what shows up.
Forbes
06-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
5 Ways To Fix What's Quietly Breaking Your Business
5 ways to fix what's quietly breaking your business Most business owners carry weight they don't need. They lug around problems so familiar they've stopped noticing the strain. These unnecessary burdens slow them down, drain their energy, and keep them from reaching their next level. The business becomes a trap rather than the freedom vehicle it was meant to be. Recognizing what's holding you back is the first step toward breaking free. When I was running my (now exited) social media agency, I realized how many things I had been carrying that weren't serving me. Old offers that no longer excited me. Clients who weren't the right fit. Systems that worked but didn't scale. Once I let these go, everything changed. My business became lighter, more focused, and significantly more profitable. Most founders get stuck in patterns that once worked but no longer serve them. They run on autopilot, doing things the way they've always done them without questioning if there's a better approach. These old habits become invisible anchors holding them in place while competitors sail past. Smart entrepreneurs know that yesterday's decisions don't need to dictate tomorrow's direction. Something that once worked no longer serves you. Old offers, old clients, old plans. Just because it worked once doesn't mean it belongs in your future. Clear the clutter or stay stuck. You launched that service three years ago. It brought in good money. You built systems around it. But now it's draining your energy and taking time away from what excites you. Your business evolves, and so do you. Not everything gets to come along for the ride. Take a hard look at your offers, clients, and projects. Which ones light you up? Which ones make you want to check your phone instead of doing the work? Ruthlessly evaluate what deserves your energy going forward. Cut what doesn't. Do it right now. Trying to please everyone becomes the fastest way to dilute your value and spread it thin. You end up with generic marketing, forgettable offers, and a business that looks like everyone else's. Stand for something or fall for anything. Be more you. When you try to appeal to everyone, you end up connecting with no one. Your message becomes so watered down that it lacks real impact. The most successful businesses are built on strong opinions and clear values. They repel the wrong people and attract the right ones. Pick your lane. Know exactly who you serve and why. Let go of the fear that specializing means missing opportunities. When you narrow your focus, you become the obvious choice for the right people. Specificity sells. Too many people mistake busywork for real progress. Endless tweaking, replying, planning. If it's not moving the needle, it's in your way. Every hour spent on low-impact tasks is an hour stolen from what matters. Stop being the bottleneck to your own business. Look at your calendar and to-do list. How much of it actually moves your business forward? How much just makes you feel productive without delivering results? The business owners who buy back their time know the difference. Create a "not to do" list. What tasks can you eliminate, automate, or delegate? What meetings can you cancel? What communication channels can you close? Your most valuable resources are your focus and time. Guard them fiercely. Protect your attention like your income depends on it. Because it does. Low standards in high places undermine everything. One wrong hire, one weak collaborator, one draining client. Cutting ties is essential, even if it seems harsh. Every day you tolerate mediocrity is a day you send the message that excellence isn't your standard. That client who always pays late, questions your expertise, or creates unnecessary drama? They're actively preventing you from serving clients who value your work. The C-player on your team doesn't just underperform themselves. They lower the bar for everyone around them. It's your name above the door. So get serious. Raise your bar. Be clear about your expectations. When someone or something doesn't meet them, be prepared to walk away. Fast. The quality of your business can never exceed the quality of the people in it. Many struggle with the fear of being seen. They play small because it feels safe. They hide behind logos, teams, or vague language. The moment you stop dodging the spotlight, your business changes. Fear manifests in countless ways. You don't call yourself an expert. You refer keen prospects to other people when you think the job is too big for you to handle. You get imposter syndrome. You stay middle of the road so you don't rock the boat. But people buy from people, not boring brands. Stop hiding. Step into the spotlight. Own your expertise. Share your journey, including the struggles. Your offers become more valuable because they're uniquely yours, and now people know you better. Your marketing becomes more effective because it connects on a human level. Drop everything weighing you down and build the business you're capable of building. Instead of carrying things you never needed, let go and move on. Clinging to what once worked, trying to please everyone, mistaking busy for productive, tolerating low standards, or riding the fear of being seen. At least one of these is weighing you down. Identify, release, and continue on your path. Access my most life-changing ChatGPT prompts.
