Why Established Business Owners Get Stuck — And What's Actually Going On | Ep 1

You've built something real — revenue, clients, a track record. So why does it feel like you can't move? In this episode, Meagan Van Woert breaks down the three root causes that stall most established business owners and introduces the concept of the invisible tax — the cost of the unresolved decision that never sends you an invoice.

Transcript

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Welcome to Amplify and Act. If you're an established business owner who's tired of second guessing yourself and ready to actually move, you're exactly where you need to be. I'm Megan Van Wort and this is your thinking space. In today's episode, we'll be talking about why established business owners get stuck and what's actually going on. So let's go ahead and jump right into it. Now you've built something real. You have years invested into your business, into your services, the planning, the operations. You have revenue coming in the door, you have established clients, and you have a track record. So why does it feel like you can't move your business forward? Most owners think this is a strategy problem, but it almost never is based on strategy. The problem is undermath of a decision that you're likely stuck on. So in this episode today, before the week is over, I'm gonna have you write down one decision that you keep walking past. Just name it. You don't have to go solve it today, but naming it is the first step into moving. One decision, one sentence. Hold on to that as we go deeper. I'm gonna show you exactly why that one step matters so much. By taking the time to identify that one decision or that you're either gonna decide to do or not do. Maybe it's a new task, maybe it's changing something that already exists within your workflow today. Just focus on one thing to start, and we'll work through that together. So let's dive into this thing called the invisible tax. This is the cost of an unresolved decision that doesn't send you an invoice. It shows up in distracted meetings, maybe half-finished projects, and the feeling that you're working so hard but not moving. Another thing that comes up all the time with my clients is it's on your list and it never gets crossed off. Or it's that thing that you need to spend a little more time on. Maybe it's something you want to do that has a cost associated to it, and you haven't spent enough time to say, is this worth the investment, or is it not? And that tax of you thinking and not spending the time to actually make a decision on that, it's costing you time and money. Time and doing other things, earned revenue where you could be selling more or investing in other things to be more profitable, or being productive, right? If you just take out money, it's really important to recognize that. And it's a really hard feeling, and you may not know why this is happening or how to overcome it. So that's what we're gonna talk about today. So, one of the causes of this invisible text is decision fatigue. Maybe you've been making a lot of decisions all by yourself over the years. A lot of the time, being a business owner, you do a lot on your own and you have to make a lot of decisions. And sometimes we're just tired, right? There's a lot of mental load and it compounds over time. And you know, some days by the afternoon, your best thinking is already spent. And it's not a character flaw, it's physics. So just recognize that that's okay. And you we all can only do so much in a day with regards to the amount of decisions we can get done and the amount of work we can really do. The second cause for this invisible tax is false urgency. Everything feels equally urgent, so nothing gets prioritized. It's kind of like if you have, you know, um two hours available in the morning to get as much done as possible, and you have 10 things on your list, you have so many things uh top of mind that all have their own level of urgency. But maybe another way of thinking about those ten items is which are the one or two that I could kind of re-prioritize in my head to get done first, or to make sure that I have everything I need to get those done. And that if you don't get the other seven or eight or even five of those done, it's gonna be okay. So it's just about being organized as we think about what's most important for the day and why. And that tax is bearing, it's that heavy weight on our shoulders. So understanding what false urgency is allows us to really think through well, what are the must-haves and what are the nice to haves? And that always goes back to reflecting on that decision we're talking about. What is that one decision that you are lingering on? Is that a nice to have or a must-have? And if it's a nice to have, you can say, okay, I'm gonna push this aside. And then you look at your list and say, well, what's the next thing that I need to make a decision on or I need to do? And then you can think, okay, this is something I need to do. And then you carve out a little bit more time, push all those other items to the side who are creating that false urgency, and spend a little more time, give yourself a time block on how to dig into that decision. You'll be surprised to see what happens. And then a third cause for this invisible text, this bearing of that's stalling you, is around the fear of the wrong decision. This one hits all of us, right? You're immediately like, yes. I don't want to spend my time doing the wrong things. I don't want to spend too much time on this because what is it actually going to deliver at the end of the day? Is it gonna be worth it? And on the flip side, if we are honest with ourselves as business owners, we spend a lot of time doing things that are just taking up time. And if we are a little more mindful about our days and the decisions that we're making, we can invest our time in the right way to be productive, to feel accomplished, to have managed our time, and to feel like we're moving in the right direction. So the fear of the wrong decision, it might feel like well, the longer you sit on it, the bigger it gets in your mind. Another perspective is when started as a business question, it becomes tied to identity or self-worth, which is really interesting to think about. Staying put sometimes feels safer than deciding, and that's why there's certain decisions that just stall us. And that stalling is hidden in that invisible tax. It could be missed out revenue, it could be building your business so many different things. So it's really digging into well, how can we work through this? And this invisible tax overall is the cost of an unsolved decision, and these three causes will compound. And I love that we're talking about this because it's creating awareness on how these things show up for us. Whether it's every day and you're working from a list or you have a strategy, or maybe you don't, maybe you're a little less organized. Maybe there's things, those decisions are in your head and they're maybe not yet on paper. Maybe you need to become a little more organized as a business owner. Maybe one day a week you can dig into these lingering decisions and maybe prioritize them, right? There's a lot of different things you can do to set yourself up for success, to change your mood, to boost your energy, to maybe energize you for those little bits and pieces that your business needs to for reflection, maybe for analysis, or even growth. So the good news is that these are patterns. These patterns can be interrupted. So we can look at decision fatigue in the eye and say, I have done too much today and I'm gonna take a break. And that is really important for you as a personal, as a person and also professionally to recognize that. You can look at the patterns of false urgency, saying, I have to work on my marketing today. If I don't work on my marketing today, I'm just not gonna be where I need to be, or I need to think about my marketing today. That's false urgency. Is that something that really needs to happen today? Probably not. Like, have you completed all your orders for the day? Have you followed up to all the most important emails? Do you have an idea of what your week looks like? Do you have an idea of what you need to do tomorrow? Some of those things have a greater urgency than taking more pictures for your Instagram campaign, right? And then the fear of the wrong decision. This is a pattern. Fear and uh the feeling of risk is something that is psychological. And the more you look at fear and risk in the eye and you compare it to the important components of your business, am I operating in a way that is effective and efficient? Am I giving myself space and capacity to think about growth opportunities, to evaluate my menu, to uh, you know, anything operational or sales related, giving yourself the time to think about what's most important and why, then you won't fear making the wrong decision because you're giving yourself space and capacity to think about those decisions up front and prioritize them. So we're really just um creating awareness on so many of those items. So that invisible tax is something that each of us uh feel um not only in our personal lives, but also professionally, right? On both sides of the lens here. There's things we want to do in our personal lives that we spin on, that has this invisible tax. Uh, and then there's things in our professional spaces that you know we get hung up on. So it's really about creating awareness of that. Now, I just want to share, I built Amplified Decisions, this business, because I've lived this, um, not because I had a theory about it. Um, I am, you know, I might have been uh sitting at my own desk with impossible decisions. And, you know, I would say, you know, sometimes we feel like half the time we are organized and we are moving along in a way that we want to be. And then other times it's like, why did I spend two hours doing that? That was a really bad decision. And sometimes we just have to realize that we're all human and that our businesses and our decisions will ebb and flow. But one of the things that I've realized over time is that what it costs us as a business owner to not have a thinking partner is really um is a really important thing. Um, it is so important to hold time for yourself to reflect and pause. And listening to this episode and listening to this podcast as we talk about these learnings and these lessons, you are doing the right thing. You are pausing to think and reflect about what decisions should I make and why. How do I approach making certain decisions? And you're recognizing these causes that we talked about, the fear, etc. And they're honest. And it's so important to hold this time and space to that capacity to think through what decisions are most important and why. Now that's why every engagement I do starts with the same question. What am I actually avoiding? So it goes back to those everyday decisions and what we fill in our day with, and what are those other things that we just are avoiding. And I want to resurface that because there are things that we may have fear of, and we go back to those causes, right? Of that invisible tax. So if we think about what are we actually avoiding by not making this decision? Well, you are avoiding the fear of not knowing how to go about it. So maybe it's marketing. I don't know how to get help with my marketing. I don't know how to analyze uh the success of my business. Um, you may not know how to improve an operational efficiency, how to approach a certain thing or not. That's where you just need a little help and you can talk through it. We can you can easily create framework and give yourself a little more structure to overcome those things, but it starts with identifying what that one decision is, and maybe you have a couple of them, and a lot of business owners need help, and that's absolutely fine. And the reason I'm talking through this and highlighting it is because when you have more than one decision that you're stalled on, you tend to move a little slower. But if you take the time, and what we're speaking to in this episode is finding one decision to focus on and to think through those details, giving yourself the time and capacity to do that. But it's again, why are you actually avoiding this? And if you need to write it down, write it down. Because there's really no reason to avoid it. It's about holding ourselves accountable to check that off our list, to think through it, do it or move on. And you can do it. I believe in you. You really can. So now that you know the three causes of decision fatigue, false urgency, and fear, that one decision you're avoiding makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? That's exactly why naming it is the first move. Now we talked about running it down this week. Take a moment and write it down. I encourage you to get a pen and paper. You don't have to do it now, but if you want to, accountability, you could try it. One decision. Maybe you write it into a sentence. I need to make a decision on this for these reasons. And those reasons may be true or false. But getting it out, and that's a starting point. It's really important that you know what the causes are of why these decisions are not being made. Maybe because there's many of them. But just knock that out of the park. Think of just one and start there. Okay. Now, as you think through that, it's really important to just recognize those details. And I hope that was helpful for you today. It was an absolute pleasure being here with you. But until next time, I hope you amplify your thinking and act on it. I am Megan Van Wort, and next week we're going to be talking about the most expensive decision that you're making right now, and you may not even know it. So, until then, have a great rest of your day.