👋 Hey, Kasey here! Welcome to this week’s ✨ High Growth Founders✨ newsletter. Every email is full of actionable content designed to help you grow your self and your business. 👇
High Growth Founders is Live!
Yesterday, I launched my new podcast, High Growth Founders (Apple | Spotify). This show is the culmination of years of thinking, and months of planning, interviewing, and recording. It’s all about you. Celebrating your journey as a Founder and helping you learn from the lessons of others so you can grow faster on your own journey.
All I ask: please give a listen.
If you like it, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review it. (Apple | Spotify) Every small way you engage with the show tells the podcast gods that the show is worth listening to and worth sharing with the world.
I am hoping to help this show reach a big audience, so it can help the most people learn, change, and grow. If there is anyone you think might find it valuable, please share it with them.
Right now you can listen to the story behind the show, an incredible interview with my friend, mentor, and brilliant sales trainer, Walker McKay, and the 7 Startup Messaging Mistakes You Do NOT Want to Make.
Give a listen and let me know what you think!
Social Media to Help You Grow:
People do business with those they know, like, and trust. But how do you build trust (i.e. credibility) with your target audience? Here is a simple breakdown by Amanda Natividad.
This is why documenting your process can prove so helpful later on.
People love talking about their own successes. Let them. Reach out and get their input. You’ll add value to what you do and might just make a friend out of the process.
Test absolutely everything. Even if the experiment flops, the process will offer great content and reveal your thought process behind it all.
Always start with a more focused target. Always.
Community makes everything more effective — and fun.
Everything Amanda mentions requires a certain level of vulnerability — being transparent about your process, reaching out to other leaders in your industry, and building a community.
You may be reluctant to open yourself up in that way, worried others will judge you. But I’ve learned most will view your vulnerability as courageous, earning more credibility and respect.
This can be uncomfortable, but it’s work that is worthy of the results it delivers.
Growth Lesson of the Week:
The biggest blocker to your growth as a Founder isn’t a lack of strategy, skills, money, or connections.
Yes, all of those factors count. But they’re also all solvable.
What holds you back is more complex. It’s you.
Many of us roll our eyes at the mention of concepts like “limiting beliefs” or “imposter syndrome.” And I get it. It all sounds a little too touchy-feely for some of us.
But regardless of what you call it, your mindset, belief system, or learned behavior stands in the way of your progress — far more than you think it does.
It took me years ( ahem…decades) to learn this for myself, but when I finally started to process years of struggle, grief, and, yes, trauma, I began to realize the way these experiences, and the behaviors I adopted to cope with them, negatively impacted how I showed up in my life and work.
Since then, I’ve learned I am not alone in this. Many of the behaviors that make us natural entrepreneurs also hold us back from further success.
This discovery is why I started my new podcast High Growth Founders (Apple | Spotify) and informs how I work with entrepreneurs every day to grow their businesses. Yes, I can help with smart sales, marketing, and revenue growth strategies. But some of the most impactful work I do to transform a business is focused on helping the Founders unlock the secrets within themselves.
How do you know if you’re standing in your own way?
Even if you suspect you could be more successful, more accomplished than you are today, diagnosing and solving the problem can present an elusive challenge. I’m not a therapist and I can’t tell you where your deepest struggles rest, but I will share the lessons I’ve learned from my own experience and the countless conversations I’ve had with friends, colleagues, and clients.
1. Think About the Flip-Side
Every coin has two sides and many of the instincts that make you a natural entrepreneur also have a self-destructive element to them. Here are some common ones to consider:
You Are Super Productive.
You’re a get shit done kind of person. You’re able to crank out tons of work in a short period of time and people regularly marvel at your ability to juggle so many balls.
But perhaps, you also use busyness to avoid doing the uncomfortable work that matters more to you.
You Are Resilient AF
Sure, you’ve dealt with your struggles, but you bounce back quickly and people marvel at your ability to handle whatever life throws your way. You never rest for long and always manage to find the silver-lining in the toughest situations.
Yes, this is laudable indeed, but perhaps you’re not allowing yourself to fully process the pain, grief, and loss of what you’ve faced. Sometimes what looks like perseverance through adversity is actually repression of emotions.
You Are Self-Reliant
I always thought my independence and self-reliance showed my strength and independence. It took me years to recognize that they were trauma responses, displaying my inability to trust others to support me during tough time.
Yes, you can take care of yourself, but how much more successful would your business be if you sought out and accepted help from others?
You Have A+ Empathy
You have a sixth sense for what others want and need, so you can predict the wants of clients and customers before they can even speak the words. This intuition helps you delight customers while delivering standout results. It’s your superpower.
But what if your ability to intuit the wants and needs of others comes at the cost of the wants and needs of yourself?
Every strength comes at a cost. Your goal isn’t to eliminate one in an attempt to salvage the other. It is simply to increase your awareness so you can better navigate its challenges.
2. Notice What You’re Resisting
Sometimes the most telling sign of our limitations comes not from the things we do, but from the things we don’t do.
These fall into two primary categories:
The things we intend to do but never seem to have the time
The things others say we should do, but we decide to prioritize other things instead
Make an exhaustive list. Write down every little project, activity, conversation, and detail that comes to mind. And don’t limit yourself to things in the professional realm.
I learned that while I was fairly good at staying on task in my work, I was constantly letting personal priorities slide. The deeper I dug, the more I realized that the more personal, passion-driven work projects also were the most likely to get short shrift.
You have a few goals in this activity.
First, you want to spot trends.
Maybe you’re always avoiding activities that force you to have tough conversations about money.
Or perhaps you go out of your way to avoid asking for help.
Second, as you review your list, notice how each item makes you feel. How does your body feel as you think through your list? Does your skin get a little prickly, your throat gets tight, or your shoulders start to hunch?
Notice any changes in your body. Let yourself get curious about those changes and any realizations, thoughts, or memories that come up.
Maybe you’ve been telling yourself your time is best spent perfecting your product, but you realize it’s really that the idea of taking a sales call makes you want to vomit.
Or perhaps you know you should seek out a mentor, but the thought of getting candid feedback from someone sounds so intimidating you convince yourself you don’t need the help.
3. Who Is Responsible?
Life isn’t perfect. It never has been and it never will be. What matters, however, is to notice whom we think is responsible for this fact.
One of the most challenging, but empowering decisions we can make is to take responsibility for our lives. That’s not to say any of life’s unfair or frustrating circumstances are our fault, but to say, improving the situation is up to me.
If your first instinct is to blame others or hope someone else will fix your situation, you are limiting your own agency, undermining your power to change your life.
4. You vs. Who?
Your competitive streak might light a fire in your belly and propel you to push just a little harder day after day. You don’t want to lose that.
But…you also want to make sure you aren’t playing the constant game of comparison. If you’re always keeping an eye on your ‘competition,’ you might be distracting yourself from your true path and purpose.
Instead, know that your record is the only one you need to keep in mind. You don’t want to win at someone else’s game. Yours is the only one that matters.
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Maybe the only thing holding you back from true success is you. What simple changes can you make in your life to give yourself the support you deserve and to unlock the growth you know is possible?
Growth Tool I Love:
One of the hardest parts of entrepreneurship is doing everything yourself. My business started to grow when I began outsourcing tasks and projects that weren’t a great use of my time. It’s not always easy to outsource, but the process of passing off a task or activity to someone else is an immediate stress reliever.
My favorite place to find freelancers is Upwork. I’ve found amazing designers, social media managers, content writers, virtual assistants, and researchers on Upwork. Give it a try and let me know what you think.
Also, I’m thinking about creating a guide to outsourcing tasks in your business. If this is something you struggle with, reply to this email and let me know what would be most helpful!
A Huge Thank You
Thank you for being part of the High Growth Founders family. I know we’re early in the journey, but so far, 45% of you open these newsletters each week. And it means the world to me.
If there’s anything I can do to support you and your Founder journey, I’m here. Just let me know.
In Love and Growth,
Kasey
Hi Kasey, I’ve just discovered your writings, and they’re extremely helpful and very unorthodox. I really appreciate that, all these blogs are very different from what’s usually available in the formal language. Kudos to youu... 👍🏻