During a recent conversation with my husband James about business and life, this phrase dropped into my mind: Mediocre Middle
What’s the Mediocre Middle?
At my live event, I talk about the Comfortable Minimum (which I’ll write about in a future post).
Mediocre Middle struck me as a place where it’s not comfortable but it’s sustainable with very little effort.
It’s not extraordinary, but ordinary.
It’s vanilla versus wild berry walnut with salted caramel drizzle.
In Latin, mediocris is a compound of the adjective medius, “half” or “in the middle,” and ocris, “rugged mountain.”
Something that is mediocre is only midway up a mountain or rises up to only half a mountain’s height—the thing goes just halfway to the highest point of excellence.
When we don’t have a high level of enthusiasm for what we do, or we lose our enthusiasm for our business, we get stuck at or start sliding down into the Mediocre Middle.
And, my friend, it’s a slippery, slippery slope.
If this is resonating, here’s your 4-step protocol for getting out of the Mediocre Middle.
Step 1: Identify what’s going on in your business that you don’t absolutely love or enjoy
In the spirit of Marie Kondo’s decluttering advice, first, make a list of all the offers and income streams and activities, etc. you do in your business.
For each one, ask yourself if it sparks joy, and if it doesn’t, thank it for its service and delete or delegate it immediately.
For example, if running your online course no longer brings you joy, it’s time to let it go and make space for something that does.
Or if populating your social media platforms with content doesn’t float your boat, delegate it to a capable assistant.
Step 2: Organize and prioritize what remains
What’s left should only be the things you truly enjoy offering, leading or doing.
Organize and prioritize them into your newly-opened space, both physically in your office, on your computer, and on your calendar.
Just a note here: Ideally, there should be no ‘sometimes’ or ‘maybes’ on this list. If your business is in transition from one business model to another, there may be some ‘not yet’ items on your list to let go of, so for those, commit to an exit plan and a date when you plan to be done with them for sure.
Step 3: Realign your marketing message
Now that you’ve pruned your business, it’s time to take a close look at your marketing message and make sure that it still aligns with what you offer to the world and to whom you offer it to.
Part of being in the Mediocre Middle is having a marketing message that’s only ‘half-way up the mountain’.
Make your message more succinct, more impactful and more specific to your market, and then refresh or create a new opt-in to further lift you to the summit.
Step 4: Take a stand and share it often
One of the fastest ways to move from the ordinary to the extraordinary is to take a stand for your message and your market and to speak publicly often about it.
You don’t need to shout it from the rooftops. Even quiet stands can have great impact. The point is to have one.
Ask yourself: What do you believe it? What are your values? What do you know to be true? What would you go to the mat defending? What’s your philosophy as it pertains to your business, your life, even your purpose on this planet?
Once you answer those questions for yourself, start sharing more about your answers with your market.
What will happen is that more of your perfect people will start finding and connecting with you, and your audience will grow much more easily.
Truth-telling time: Are you in the Mediocre Middle?
If you are, what are you willing to do to move out of mediocrity today?
I’m generally a quick decision-maker and fast implementor.
But something James said to me recently really struck me. And reminded me instantly of the Rule of 3* (at least my interpretation of it).
He was good-naturedly teasing me about my tendency to procrastinate.
As soon as he said that, my first thought was about launching the Lively Biz Business Club. Or more accurately, my lack of launching it.
It’s 90% ready to go. What needs to be completed before opening the doors is easy and can be done within a couple of days.
So… why haven’t I opened it yet?
I lamented about this to my mastermind group. They reminded me that I’m still grieving. I showed the sales page and membership site to a private client as an example for her own, and she told me with certainty that I was going to open it in the fall. When I talked to James about it, he said, “It’s hard to put your heart into something when your heart’s breaking.”
Oy.
And in that moment, I knew what I needed to do. I need more time and space to heal. I need more time and space to be fully present for this program. I need the summer, I need the lake, I need to breathe in so I can breathe out come the fall.
So I’m honoring that, knowing that it is the best decision, for me and for you. What a release that is.
Here are three things that helped me get from feeling off about launching this new program to feeling really excited and good about it again:
1. Trust that things are unfolding as they’re meant to
I know that when I don’t move forward with something, there’s a reason. I don’t usually know the reason at the time, but I do trust that there is a reason that in some way is supporting my best and highest good.
That doesn’t mean it’s easy to sit in that place of unknowing. When it’s really hard, I have to remind myself of all the other times I’ve been in limbo and how it always works out. Always.
2. *Listen to the whispers
I trust my own intuition AND I tend to pay far more attention when the “whispers” show up in 3’s. When my mastermind group offered insight on giving myself more time and space, I listened. When my private client said to wait until the fall, I listened. When James understood my heart and expressed it so succinctly, I listened. And then I made a new plan.
3. Make a new plan
Once I decided that I wasn’t going to launch the membership before the summer, that cleared my mind and my desk so I could figure out what I was going to do instead, which took about 10 minutes. That alone affirmed this was the right decision.
Where in your business (or your life) are you not moving forward? Are you open to hearing the whispers to guide you to making a different decision?
How often do you find yourself in this scenario?
It’s Monday morning and you’re all geared up for a productive week ahead. You’ve got your to-do list (massive as it is) at the ready and you sit down at your desk to start checking things off.
As you begin to read down your list, you start to feel something in your gut. It’s not a physical pain necessarily, just a feeling of something heavy starting to grow. You ignore it and continue reading your list, making stars next to the things that seem to be the most important to get done that day.
But the more you do this, the heavier that feeling gets, until it starts creeping up to your shoulders and finally settles in your head. All that enthusiasm you had when you first sat down is gone and the only thing you feel now is utter and complete overwhelm.
Sound familiar? I’ve been there, too, so I understand.
And it’s not that all the tasks on your list aren’t wonderful and/or doable. There are simply too many of them – and they all seem important right now – to expect that you can accomplish them all in the hours you have to work in any single day.
So what happens? You do a little of this, a little of that, and you really never complete a single project!
But you don’t have to let another week pass without really accomplishing anything. Simply create a Priority Card.
A Priority Card will help you organize all your tasks in a way that will SHOW you every day what you should focus on.
There are a lot of details that will threaten to take your mind off your priorities (this is where a virtual assistant can be of immense value), but those details are not necessarily what will move you forward in your business. To do that, you need to consistently focus on completing the projects that will move your business ahead big-time.
You can create a system for helping you focus on your priorities in a number of ways, but I’m going to give you mine. I only work about 15 hours a week on my business, so adjust your own plan accordingly.
At the beginning of each week, I choose 3 projects with looming deadlines (self-imposed as they may be) from my master task list (which really is so massive that it has its own notebook).
For example, at the moment, I am working on a sales page, content for a program, and a new offer.
On a colored index card, I write down those projects and prop the card in a standing clip holder, right in front of my computer screen. When I start to feel that sense of overwhelm, or when I find myself getting distracted by new ideas or other tasks (all of which seem important), I remind myself to look at my Priority Card and focus only on what’s written there.
Once I started using my Priority Card, my own business growth leapt forward ten times faster than when I was doing a little of this and a little of that, working on a dozen things, but taking much too long to actually complete just one project.
Know you won’t be able to stick to this process 100% of the time, but even 80% will help you make dramatic strides in your business growth. You’ll actually finish the projects you set out to do, and you’ll not only feel great about doing so, you’ll be inspired to do it again, and again, and again. Once you make this shift, you’ve learned the secret to wiping out overwhelm for yourself and your business!
Want to know more of my best tips for beating overwhelm and simplifying everything in your business so it’s less stressful and much more fun?
Be sure to check out my Lively Biz Business Club – get on the wait list here.
Here’s the truth –
I planned to open my brand-new membership program last year…
But 2017 had other plans and priorities for me.
And that’s ok – because the right time for the Lively Biz Business Club is now.
In the following weeks, I’ll be inviting you to join me for a beta launch of LBBC.
If you’re interested, just let me know here.
Can’t wait to tell you more…!
In emailing with a private client recently, I suggested she not have a Plan B until her data proved she needed it. In other words, I was telling her to hold tight and stay the course. 🙂
As things go, I was looking at my Google Analytics later and one of my referring sites had reprinted an article I had written a few years ago, and in it, I talk about a Plan B.
I figured I wouldn’t wait for the 3rd sign to share it with you… 😉
These were 10 lessons I learned at a business conference I went to a few years ago that still hold true today. I think of them as mantras now. 🙂
1. Opportunities come through people, not your computer
Think about that for a minute. Yes, you can build good relationships with people over email and social media. But when it comes to the really juicy opportunities, those are going to come through meeting people and spending time with them IRL (in real life). That’s one reason why it’s so important to get out there at least a couple of times a year.
2. BLT – Believe, Like, Trust
We often hear and I say it myself – that people need to know, like and trust you before they will buy from you. But I liked this version better – that people have to BELIEVE you, like you and trust you. So the more YOU you put into your marketing, the more authentic you are, the more people will get to believe, like and trust you, and the more sales you’ll make.
3. When you are yourself, you have no competition
Enough said.
4. No Plan B
If you have a Plan B, then just do Plan B. Otherwise make the commitment to Plan A, with no other option.
5. Your best ideas don’t come from sitting at your desk
My best ideas come to me in the car. Or sitting on the dock in the early morning of summer. I created this business under a palapa in the Turks & Caicos. Where do your best ideas come to you? When you’re stuck or need to hit the refresh button, go where your best ideas are able to pop into your mind.
6. You’ve got to be comfortable with being uncomfortable
Being an entrepreneur will bring up all your stuff. 🙂 Most of the time, that’s going to make you uncomfortable. You have to be ok with that and recognize that it’s just an indicator that you’re moving through whatever you need to in order to grow and reach the next level. If you can remember that, it’s actually pretty exciting, isn’t it?
7. Balance
I always say there’s no such thing as balance, that there’s an ebb and a flow but no such thing as balance. So it was empowering to hear two of the speakers say the same with their own spin:
“Life if not about balance; it’s about resilience.” and “Balance is for ballerinas.” 🙂
8. Eat that frog
You may have heard this idea before – to do the thing you most do not want to do first. Eat that frog and get it over with. Once you do, your energy is free to work much more productively and enjoyably on everything else.
9. Focus on your zone of excellence
If you’re still trying to be all things for the people in your market, I’m going to make a coach’s request that you make a commitment to stop that right now. Spend some time focusing on who your ideal client is and what is the ONE thing that you LOVE to do in your work with that ideal client? Start re-designing your message and your offerings around that.
10. Business happens at the bar
…or on the shuttle from the airport, or while waiting in line for the restroom, or when you step outside on a break for some fresh air. If you’re taking the time away from your business and your life to attend a live event, then you need to be talking to people, engaging with them, and letting them engage with you. Let me be clear – I don’t mean selling to them and I’m not fond of the word networking, but just talk to people, have a conversation. The best business relationships I have were built from a simple chat over a drink.
I’d love to know which of these resonates with you. Please leave your comments below…
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