Moving yourself consciously through the stages from comfort to fear will ultimately result in positive growth. Weird, huh? But true. The outcome is limitless growth. Force yourself initially, and your brain will move you through the steps automatically.
It's been a busy couple of years on the capital side of our business and until recently I have only spent about 10 or so hours a week on thinking about Superstruct and imagining what it could be. It has potential.
But it is a lot... at Superstruct there are a ton of moving pieces with cross-referral partnerships and dimensional sales approaches. The work itself is sorted and good, but the community and collaboration (the real nuts and bolts of the operation) have been nebulous.
When I really started thinking about it after I didn't make my February KPI's, I realized that I was running in the other direction from anything complicated... and I WASN'T FOLLOWING MY OWN PROCESS. I was leaning into comfort and putting our capital business needs over Superstruct goals for growth.
In essence, I was avoiding digging into the hard work, because it was easy to just keep doing the work I was comfortable doing.
And two days go by, and then a week, then a month and your goals aren't met.
When you have an accountability partner, often there are hard conversations when goals aren't met. Or there should be. We can all hope that's the case. Thanks to both my partner Spring and my accountability partner Ben, I always have someone to push back on me.
Recently Spring and I dug into what wasn't working and we put time limits on what growth looked like.
Two things happened from this:
I was in an immediate state of fear.
I decided to start at the hardest point of the process and dig in.
I figured if I could accomplish the hardest piece of the effort, then the rest was easy (thank's to Justin Welsh's latest email on Choose Your Hard).
Something happened very quickly after that feeling:
I gained clarity and immediate focus.
Now I know my brain kicked into overdrive to support me. My quest became more manageable because I began to hit the challenging efforts head-on.
I started feeling capable, and everything started to flow.
How this works
When we find ourselves in unfamiliar or uncomfortable situations, our bodies and brains react in ways that can trigger feelings of anxiety, fear, and stress. These reactions are emotional and deeply rooted in our biology, impacting our brain's function and the balance of chemicals within it.
The hippocampus and amygdala are two brain areas significantly affected by anxiety. The hippocampus is crucial for processing and contextualizing incoming information, thus playing a vital role in handling situations. It can lead to an enlargement of the hippocampus and the activation of what is known as "anxiety cells," which signal other parts of the brain and the body to produce symptoms of anxiety, such as increased heart rate, muscular tension, and heightened visual attention. This state of hyper-vigilance is the brain's way of overestimating potential threats and offers immediate clarity.
Anxiety disrupts the nerve cell communication between the amygdala, which is responsible for processing emotions like fear, and the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which helps regulate these signals. A hyperactive amygdala can send out alarm signals indicating danger, prompting the release of adrenaline and keeping the body in a state of high alert.
How to Expedite the Plan
There is a sales tactic that I have been using from one of our Superstruct partners, Jeff Goldberg. I love this visual aid, and it firmly works for this experience – honestly, it was a bit of an "Aha!" moment for me.
You have to move a customer along >>>>>> literally tell them what to do next and be overly communicative in the process.
To get a sale, you have to be willing to help the customer move to the next stage, or they stay in their first zone with you. No one, including me, is going to put time and energy into the research and understanding of a business, especially if a salesperson is not interested in doing it.
This is an interesting analogy for this effort, and I have been using this model for my growth work. An important process needs to be determined for growth to happen. Quite literally, if I move myself consciously through the stages from comfort to fear, this will ultimately result in a positive next step, and the outcome just keeps getting exponentially better.
Focus on Methodical, Consistent Growth
After spending time with my team, I realized we needed to move all our inbound through a process. This is the first learning that we are working on. Quite literally we were taking a 100 inbound calls a month without telling them what to do next. Obviously this is a problem.
This is the part we are working on now, in addition to doing outreach to other businesses who meet our qualifications.
Quite literally, we dove into the building without a clear plan, approach, or process and had big expectations for what our community would be interested in getting from us. Kind of makes me laugh knowing what I know scientifically.
With this new learning, we would have ungrounded growth if we all jumped off a cliff and grew to a "peak of confidence" where we didn't feel we needed to run a process. This is costly and throws off the balance of building. We aim for sustainable, continuous, limitless growth, which doesn't paralyze the business and force undue expenses.
One of my favorite recent articles on this topic references this study, by Björn Schigt. The outline calls out social psychologists and Nobel Prize winners, David Dunning and Justin Kruger who refer to this state as the "cognitive bias of illusory superiority" and it results from an internal illusion in people of low ability and from an external misperception in people of high ability; that is, "the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others." Björn puts a unique stint on the framing of growth by positioning the importance of slow, steady growth. This is the premise of our Sprint Calendar.
Implementing Methodical, Consistent Growth Strategies
Consistent, methodical growth is not just about ambitious leaps; it's about the steady accumulation of small wins. The incremental, slow wins. Build a solid foundation, set achievable goals, and make incremental progress towards them. This approach ensures that growth is sustainable, manageable, and aligned with our long-term vision.
Process-Driven Approach Implementing a process-driven approach to growth ensures that every action taken is part of a larger strategy. This involves mapping out each step of the growth journey, from initial concept to execution, ensuring that all efforts are coordinated and aligned with the overall objectives.
Learning from Setbacks Setbacks are an inevitable part of any growth journey. However, they also offer valuable lessons. Adopting a mindset that views setbacks as opportunities for learning and development can transform challenges into catalysts for growth.
Building a Supportive Network No entrepreneur is an island. Building a supportive network of peers, mentors, and advisors can provide the encouragement, advice, and resources needed to navigate the complexities of business growth. This community can offer a sounding board for ideas, a source of motivation, and a safety net during challenging times.
Continuous Learning and Adaptation The business landscape is constantly evolving, and staying ahead requires a commitment to continuous learning and adaptation.
In the journey toward growth, the path is not a linear progression but a dynamic interplay of challenge, resilience, and breakthrough.
This journey is grounded in the profound understanding that growth is not just a goal but a process—a process deeply intertwined with the hard work and the biological responses it triggers within us. The very act of pushing beyond our comfort zones, confronting our fears, and tackling challenges head-on does more than just propel our businesses forward; it activates a cascade of hormones within our bodies, setting the stage for unprecedented growth and momentum.
To founders, balancing leadership with the multifaceted dimensions of product and sales, know that this process is deeply scientific. It is about engaging rigorously with our work, in ways that stimulate our brain's most powerful mechanisms for progress. Each challenge we face and each obstacle we overcome not only tests our resolve but also biochemically primes us for the next leap forward. By understanding and leveraging this, we become architects of our own success, crafting strategies that align with the very wiring of our brains.
Let us commit to the hard work, knowing that it does more than just move our ventures ahead—it activates the very essence of our potential. Let us build a framework of accountability, support, and continuous learning, recognizing that these are not just pillars of growth but catalysts for the hormonal and psychological responses that drive us forward.
In this shared journey of growth, remember that every moment of effort, every challenge faced, is not just a step towards achieving our business goals but a trigger for the biological processes that enhance our capacity for success.
Let's embrace this process with clarity, determination, and the science-backed confidence that through our efforts, we are unlocking the very mechanisms of progress.
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