4 Ways to Get Out of the Comparison Trap in Business

Living in overwhelm and the comparison trap can be a given in blogging and business, but it shouldn’t be. It doesn’t have to be that way. As I go through my third pregnancy, I have felt myself get caught up in the comparison trap lately…and I’ve seen other people feeling the same way.

Read on to learn four ways I deal with the comparison trap, PLUS watch the [free] video I’m sharing today with Lindsay Cotter from CotterCrunch.com on how she deals with the comparison trap, burn out and blogging roadblocks!

leave the comparison trap behind

Free Video How to Deal with the Comparison Trap + Blogger Burnout with Lindsay Cotter from Cotter Crunch!

Here’s what I’ve been getting caught up with this month…

Do you have to travel to have a successful business? Do you have to leave home…spend a good chunk of money…to grow your business?

It’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about. I’ve been thinking a lot about it because the people who I know and network with…and look up to…travel a lot. They go to conferences, networking events, in person mastermind events.

And they have MASSIVE pay-offs.

I know this. And…I’ve experienced it! I’ve gone to two 90 day year live events and if you’ve been on my list at any length of time then you know I had life changing A-HA moments at both of them. I also go into NYC (which is only 35 minutes from my house) 4 times a year to hang with Todd Herman and some other awesome business people.

But….like…I have to be honest here.

I see people traveling to amazing places…and I have the opposite of FOMO.

I just want to be home with my kids.

Am I alone in this? Or weird? Maybe…

I get totally caught up in the comparison trap though wondering if I NEED to be traveling to grow my business.

Or if I SHOULD make some type of effort to actually WANT to go places…

But then I remember that life is cyclical. That my kids are only little once. That I can do business how i WANT to do business. That I CAN make time for what REALLY moves me and I WANT to go to. That when my kids are older, it will be easier to leave.

What do you find yourself getting in the comparison trap about?

4 Ways to Get Out of the Comparison Trap in Business Click To Tweet

One of my online mentors that I really look up to Maru Iabichela taught me that when I feel I’m headed into that comparison trap I should do a few things…

reduce overwhelm

 

4 Ways to Get Out of the Comparison Trap

  1. Notice what is sending you down that path. Think about WHY? What does it say about you? Say thank you for realizing it’s sending you down the comparison trap path, call myself out and get back in my own lane.
  2. If it’s about a specific person, realize that there is room for us all. Send them best wishes for more success. Realize it’s just more evidence we can do it too!
  3. When I feel like giving up I remind myself that doesn’t get me closer to my dreams or goals.
  4. And this may be my FAVORITE one…and the most WOO WOO 🙂 • When I feel behind, I’ll remind myself the Universe always has perfect timing no matter what.

So now…

I want you to notice when you are caught up in the comparison trap… go back to these four steps in this email.

Reduce Overwhelm

Watch here to learn more about how to get PAST the comparison trap! (no email required!)

And stay tuned….2018 Planning Party coming December 4th and the Viral Content Summit starts January 3rd! Tickets go on sale mid December! 

Sign up for the Planning Party Wait List here! 

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How to Put on a Successful Event + Get Sponsors with Lauren Goldstein, Sugar + Spice Summit

Lauren Goldstein created The Sugar and Spice Summit, which brought  influential female food industry professionals to Northwestern’s campus for a day of panels, breakout sessions, career workshops, and of course, tastings. Female chefs, food writers, food critics, social media personalities, and CEOs from the Chicagoland area and beyond will tell their stories, discuss trends, and network with Northwestern students, specifically female under-grads, interested in pursuing careers in all aspects of the food industry.

 

Big Take-aways:

  • Lauren saw the need for a summit and went for it. She secured a big guest first and used it to leverage it for other guests/speakers.
  • Lauren got involved in Spoon University.
  • Lauren helps Spoon Fest put on their community event + raise funds for their magazine.
  • To get involved in Spoon University, go onto your chapters individual page on Spoon University and apply. If your campus doesn’t have a chapter of Spoon, become a founder!  SU also has a high school chapter!
  • The Sugar + Spice Summit has opened doors for Lauren for jobs for the summer, as a junior in college. She’s working as a special events contractor for Spoon University.
  • Figure out what your attraction point is and use it when pitching brands. Make sure you follow up! Get them on the phone! Whatever it takes to get the person on the phone is worth it to me!

First Steps to putting on an event:

  1. What is the point of the event? What are you trying to achieve with the event?
  2. Figure out who your event is for? What is your demographic you’re targeting?

 

Find Lauren Goldstein + Connect with her!

LaurenPaigeGoldstein.com

Instagram: @lauren_goldstein

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Stick to your main mission and beliefs with LuAnn Nigara, A Well Designed Business

LuAnn Nigara is the host of the 5 star rated podcast A Well-Designed Business. A Well Designed Business is the definitive resource for interior design professionals interested in operating a profitable and productive business. Every Monday and Wednesday LuAnn conducts in depth interviews with interior designers and industry professionals who have created profitable careers. For Power Talk Friday she gathers experts from all fields eliciting their insights and lessons on all business topics including entrepreneurism, time management, marketing and beyond.

Stick to your main beliefs with @windowwork_nj #blissfulbitespodcast Click To Tweet

Big Takeaways

  • Stick to your main mission and core beliefs.
  • Her podcast benefits her main business.
  • She’s gained clients + built relationships from her podcast.
  • You have to know who is the right person that you are attracting for your business.
  • The clearer you get on that person, everything you do supports that.
  • Figure out what your niche is and TALK to them. Don’t worry about leaving the rest behind.
  • If you do your best every single day you have nothing to worry about.
  • Run this like a business, not a passion project. It should be 80% work, 20% passion.

You HAVE to stick to your company mission. You have to first know what your mission is and then you have to stick to it! When you’re a person with a lot of energy and a lot of talent creativities almost everyday of the week you can think of another idea that you do well. You have to filter them if you want to be successful and if you want to further the success of your main business. Every little shiny object that you come into, has to go through the filter of supporting that mission.

To start a podcast:

  • Make a clearly defined avatar.
  • Stick to your mission so they know every time what they’re going to get.
  • Tremendous marketing
  • It’s intentional! It’s an intentional business plan.
  • Get help and get a mentor to get you a roadmap.

Find LuAnn:

A Well Designed Business

Window Works

Instagram @luannnigara

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How to be Mentally Tough with Todd Herman, 90 Day Year

Your business moves at the speed of relationships. Todd Herman

Having two kids and two businesses, I could get caught up in A LOT of time wasting activities…and truth is I used to. I was busy all of the time and didn’t know what activities actually caused me to make money. This free video series that Todd puts out twice a year has absolutely changed the way I work. As a work at home mom, I have to be focused and smart about how I spend my time….and this series is the first step.

Listen to the interview and then check out his download + video series! 

Todd Herman

disclosure: I really want you to watch these free videos because I know they are SUPER SUPER valuable….by themselves! They only come out 2x a year and he adds new content every time. So PLEASE watch them! If you did decide to join the 90 day year which is beyond not required to watch these I would get a % commission. I love + support the program because it was a life + game changer for me….so watch the darn free videos! :

I had the chance to interview my biz coach + mentor Todd Herman and there are so many gems + A-HA moments that you’re about to have.

In this episode:

  • You’ll hear how Todd started out almost losing money in his sports coaching business
  • How he started locally with free workshops and grew his business
  • Why you should have a WOW mindset, not a OW mindset + how you can flip your mind to be naturally success minded
  • Todd has the complete inability to quit when he should…and why that’s paid off.
  • Why women are really good at task based thinking, but not so good at achievement.
  • The deathtrap of entrepreneurs
  • How to validate your idea
  • How doing 68 speeches in Alberta, Canada launched Todd’s business

todd herman interview

Best quote:

The thing about start up is a lot of the business you’re not good at yet. That’s natural. Don’t feel insecure about that. If you keep moving through it other people will stop. Just keep moving forward.

Listen to the podcast here on your computer

Listen to the podcast here in iTunes

increase income with 90 day year

Todd Herman

Check out the post I wrote in June about my progress because of the 90 day year! 

 

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Grow Your Facebook Page + Make Money too with Rachel Miller, Moolah

This episode is for you if you want to grow your Facebook fan page and make money from it!

Rachel Miller is the creator of multiple Facebook fan pages like Quirky Momma and Crazy Cat lady as well as dozens of other audiences.  These pages are profitable and a real source of income. She teaches Moolah: from page views to paycheck how to grow an engaged audience.

Join Rachel’s Moolah from Pageviews to Pay check course here!  (this is an affiliate link)

 

Grow Your Facebook Page + Make Money too with Rachel Miller, Moolah Click To Tweet

Big Takeaways:

  • Collect eyeballs and ask them what they want!
  • You don’t have to be perfect to make money!
  • Rachel made a system that she was able to grow again and again and turn it into money.
  • You have to learn who your customer is and how to make those people happy
  • You can find your competition and then have them do the work for you
  • Traffic, Emails + Sales are HUGE opportunities you can take advantage of on your FB page
  • Bumper Sticker: How your reader defines themselves inside their niche (Crazy Cat Lady)
  • Have the content on your Facebook page to speak for your reader
  • When your reader shares your post, they say… “I’m like this”
  • Think about who your reader is and how your page and celebrate that person
  • Realistically, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Facebook is one piece of the pie.
  • Ask your readers to talk to you on the phone. Ask them what things irritate them, ask them what their successes are.
  • Find out what things your people are purchasing!
  • Your readers will love you when you help them!

If you have your readers trust you and trust that you have the best interests for them and if they can see that you’re doing as something that they can do you can have a huge impact on their lives and in your pocketbook too.

Join Rachel’s Moolah from Pageviews to Pay check course here!  (this is an affiliate link)

Grab Rachel’s Go Viral CheatSheet Below:

Join Rachel’s FB group here:

Join Rachel’s Moolah from Pageviews to Pay check course here!  (this is an affiliate link)

Get Rachel’s list of words to NOT use on FB below!

 

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Take Yourself Seriously with Erin Bahadur, Erin’s Inside Job

I love this episode because Erin talks about how she wasnt making money blogging and what she did to increase her income AND how important building relationships are. This episode is for you if you want to hear from a blogger on how she got her start and increased her income stream as a writer!

Erin is a Chicago-based blogger, personal trainer, and fitness instructor. Her blog, Erin’s Inside Job, is an exploration of finding true wellness from all facets of life including the physical, mental, and emotional. Prompted to begin writing after entering recovery from drugs and alcohol, she is also passionate about breaking the stigma surrounding addiction. In her spare time you can find her writing for such publications as The Huffington Post, sweating her way around Chicago, and finding the best coffee and desserts in the city!

Reach out to people and communicate with @erinsinsidejob blissfulbitespodcast Click To Tweet

Big Takeaways

  • Make a writing portfolio, which you can put on your blog. The more links you have in there, the more impressive it looks! You can write for places for free to start. This gives you leverage to approach other places and gets you longer term contracts!
  • Treat yourself seriously. This is your time! You can negotiate. There’s a huge range of work you can do!
  • It took confidence (to ask for money from writing) and I figured i’m going to put it out there. If they say no, they say no. By doing this more often, I got more confident. As people said yes, I realized I can continue to do this!  
  • I wasn’t making a ton of money from my blog at the time, which is why I wanted to write for publications so I could get more income. I wanted to make more money and write as a regular thing. You can use your blog as a piece of your portfolio. Go out and DO IT!

grow your blog through relationships

True wellness, I believe, comes from within. For so many years I tried so many things to try and make the outside look good. I thought if I looked good on the outside, I would be good. The times when I looked the best, I was the most miserable inside. My blog is an exploration on how to deal with yourself and how to work on what’s inside because then that’s always reflected on the outside, no matter what.  Erin Bahadur, ErinsInsideJob.com

I lost everything and had to start over again. I’m going to start over as a person who is able to be open and honest and talk about these things. When I do the opposite, I go back to the person I used to be and that’s not a person I want to be. In order to change I had to do a 180 on how I dealt with things and how I talked or not talked about things. That made it easier.

Network with other people. You can talk forever, you can write forever. Reach out to people and communicate…actually try to establish a relationship with them. Don’t blindly just comment on every blog because that’s what you’ve been told to it. It makes a genuine difference. They’re more likely to be invested in who you are.   Erin Bahadur, ErinsInsideJob.com

Find Erin!

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Getting Your Blog Posts to Rank with Glenneth Reed, Glenneth.com

In this episode you will learn how to get your blog posts to rank in search and how to increase your understanding of Search Engine Optimization. This is for you if you want to increase your traffic in search and learn how to optimize your blog posts!

Big Episode Takeaways

  • Know where traffic is coming from and how you use your data.
  • 9 steps it takes to optimize old posts and current posts.
  • Not every post is going to rank. (Example: What I Ate Wednesday verse Gluten Free Banana Bread Pudding)
  • Spend time optimizing + promoting posts that WILL rank!
  • Go in Google Analytics + find your top 10 – 25 posts and see what’s resonating + evergreen. Optimize those posts!
    Start with the ones getting the most traffic + make those evergreen. Those will bring you even MORE traffic!
  • After you optimize, set them back up to promote after!
Learn how to increase your traffic with search on the #blissfulbitespodcast with @glennethdotcom Click To Tweet

SEO Myths

Myth: It’s just a word you’re optimizing for. Truth: Use Key Phrases – Optimize for something like Strength training for beginners. Use a long tail phrase.

get your blog posts to rank in search

What are great phrases that work?

Go to google.com and type in a phrase you’re thinking about. See what google suggests and also scroll to the bottom and see what it says.

Check common searched for terms and phrases.

When going to write a blog post:

  • Nail down what phrase you want to rank for.
  • Key phrase in mind.
  • Title
  • Then create your content.
  • Do your research using google.
  • Make sure your keyword is in first paragraph, last paragraph and in heading.
  • Images should have the keyword in their name and in their alt-text.
  • Optimize your meta description.
  • Make sure your meta description entices people to click through to your blog post.
  • Try to draw the reader in and ask a question.
  • Use your keyword in meta description.
  • Do your meta description last. Think about what people are getting from your blog post. What would make YOU read that post? What are you answering for people?

After you publish: start promoting across the board.

  • Make a promotion schedule for Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram.
  • Promote it for more than that day or that week.
  • Spend an hour so it auto-posts for the next 6 months.
  • Content creation may make you happy, but don’t forget to promote.

For every hour you spend creating content, spend 4 hours promoting your content!

SEO Things to Know!

  • SEO can take awhile!
  • It takes time to rank for a phrase!
  • Go for something attainable!
  • A big site is going to hold rank over you (for the most part)
  • Take a look at analytics once a month. Go back and optimize the posts that are doing well!

Glenneth Reed is an SEO and online marketing consultant for bloggers and online entrepreneurs. Her goal is to help make SEO and online marketing simple and quick. Glenneth lives in Knoxville, TN and works for an internet marketing agency full-time. Her hobbies are weight lifting, walking, and social media. Find her at glenneth.com

Find Glenneth and get her free SEO download! 

Email Glenneth for help + services information: me@glenneth.com

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