Reclaiming splintered focus

Picking your needle movers

Mindset Mastery is a weekly newsletter about the psychology of self-employment from Jenni Gritters. If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while and you receive value from it, I’d encourage you to sign up for a paid membership. By doing so, you’re also helping me make business coaching for self-employed folks more accessible to all.

Have you signed up for my newest workshop yet? We’re meeting THIS Wednesday, on the 14th, to dig into the mindset blocks that often come up when you try to do more client outreach. As of the time of this writing, there are two tickets left. Does one have your name on it?

---

Jake had 17 projects on his mind that he wanted to complete. He made a list of them before our coaching call and emailed the list to me with a note that said: “I feel a little overwhelmed.”

Of course you do! I thought, as I scanned through the list. Jake’s expectations for himself were sky high. When I asked him what he needed from the session, he was clear:

“I need to understand my priorities.”

Jake was a highly creative person with many ideas. And he hated being told that he couldn’t do them all — so as a rebellion, he was absolutely hell-bent on doing them all.

Before we started in on his list, we talked about the context of his life. Jake had 3 children under the age of 6 and his wife worked as an attorney. Jake ran his own media consultancy and ended up working about 25 hours per week, although he was often the fall-back parent when a child was sick. When we looked at Jake’s capacity, it was clear that he didn’t have a lot of time for his many incredible business ideas after he cared for his family, himself and his existing clients.

But Jake’s business had taken a hit the year prior and with prices rising, he wanted to make sure there was momentum. He felt like he needed to do all 17 things to make sure he had a steady stream of clients coming his way in 2024. The list included a podcast, newsletter, video push on LinkedIn, increased presence on Instagram, lots of networking, and beyond. Oh, and he also desperately wanted to work on that book he’d been picking at for years.

I felt Jake’s story deep in my gut, and I’m sure you do too. Many of us are feeling the squeeze right now financially and that urgency is poignant. But Jake also knew he couldn’t do it all without absolutely burning himself out due to overwork. He held the important role in the family of keeping things afloat in the house — and if he didn’t have that extra bandwidth, the whole ship might go down.

So Jake and I started with the big picture: What is the one thing you need to do in the next six months?

His answer was one I expected: He needed to start courting new clients.

So we turned to the big list and started sorting. I highlighted any of the items that would move him toward this key goal — we call those needle-movers— and we talked through them.

While the podcast, newsletter, LinkedIn efforts and networking push would all get him to his goal, we realized that Jake had time for just one, maybe two. He could absolutely tackle some of the other ideas later in the year but for now, he needed to start with one thing.

Which of these ideas has the most likelihood of getting you to your ideal goal and feels relatively easy and exciting? I asked.

We talked about it for a while and landed on LinkedIn content, which felt like Jake’s best bet for reaching a new audience with innovative content. Later, he could turn a lot of that content into a newsletter or a podcast. But for now, he decided he’d start there, by posting one video per week and two longer narratives. And he’d set aside an hour each week to connect with his existing network and clients to ask for referrals and let people know that he had room for two new clients in Q2.

Jake looked at me with relief after we’d done a bunch of pruning, all of his ideas sorted into future quarters except the two he’d landed on. He told me that he hadn’t realized how divided his focus was. It was an exhale to think about putting all of his effort into just one or two things — and that might even leave bandwidth for him to work on his fiction book, too.

I explained that every creative person needs a hopper, a place where we can put all those ideas we love but have been labeled “not yet.” While I wish I could tell you that you can pursue every single idea on your list right now, truthfully your ideas deserve your full focus. Without that focus, almost everything gets completed in a sub-par way, our focus shattered across a dozen mediums, with multiple audiences.

One of the best ways to move the needle in your business is to focus on one clear thing and give it the attention it deserves.

This is challenging when everyone around you is talking about how they’re spending their time and what they’re focusing on. It’s tough when your feeds are full of all the reasons why you should be on TikTok and Instagram and LinkedIn and YouTube and...

But take it from someone who’s worked with hundreds of business owners: Your business will move best when you choose your focus intentionally and put your full self there — when you step all the way in and commit to that needle-mover.

When I saw Jake next, he’d been connecting with his LinkedIn audience and contacts, and he had several promising leads for new retainers. He’d also started creating a book proposal and, perhaps the biggest win: He was able to keep his family steady when they all got taken down by the flu. And his LinkedIn content was giving him all kinds of good information about what his audience needed right now. He was taking notes and excited to talk about a potential Substack newsletter for Q2.

Sweet friend: You don’t need to do it all, all at once. Take your time. There’s time.

There is so much time.

xo,

Jenni

---

Jake booked a 90-minute, deep-dive UNLOCK strategy session with me, which is where we focused in on his needle movers. You can book one, too! This month, I’m also offering a free first month of SUSTAIN, my group coaching program, when you sign up for an UNLOCK session. You don’t have to do anything to get that special discount: Just book your UNLOCK session, and you’ll get an email with the SUSTAIN registration code, too.

Curious about my background? I’m a writer and business coach based in Central Oregon. I have two small children and I work part-time so I can spend a lot of time with them. Lately, I’ve been obsessed with non-linear business building and teaching people how to build successful businesses that support their human needs first. Check out my coaching offerings here, and follow me on Twitter & Instagram.