210: How Little Quits Sabotage Success at Every Stage of Your Business

Welcome to the She Thinks Big! Podcast. Get ready to level up your thinking and expand your horizons. I’m your host, Andrea Liebross, your guide on this journey of big ideas and bold moves. I am the best-selling author of She Thinks Big: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Guide to Moving Past the Messy Middle and Into the Extraordinary.

I support women like you with the insights and mindset you need to think bigger and the strategies and systems you need to turn that thinking into action and make it all a reality. Are you ready to stop thinking small and start thinking big? Let’s dive in.

Hello, my friends, and welcome back to the She Thinks Big Podcast. I am ready today to guide you through a concept that I really think levels up your thinking. If you can grasp this concept, it's going to be super-dee-duper impactful. This concept is a concept that I learned from some of my coaches way long time ago, like way back in the day when I first became introduced to coaching.

It's got a small name, but it has a massive impact. The concept I want to talk about today is something I call little quits. These are the small, seemingly insignificant decisions that we make that often step us back from our commitments, or they’re decisions we make to step back from our commitments. They don't feel like much in the moment, but when they are compounded over time, their impact is huge. It's monumental.

This happens a lot in our personal life. For example, you decide you're going to exercise 30 minutes a day, and then one day comes and you just don't feel like it so you don't do it. What's really going to happen? Nothing. But you committed to working out 30 minutes a day, and now you're not. Is it going to ruin the world? No, but if you do that day in and day out, over again and over again, it's going to add up and you're not going to reach whatever your fitness goal was.

Or in our personal lives, this shows up like sometimes with eating and diet, you're like, “I'm cutting out sugar.” Then you're like, “Well, I mean, it's someone's birthday, so I'm going to have a piece of cake.” In the moment, whatever, I'm with you. But over time, if we keep doing that, and these little quits add up, the impact is monumental.

Now, these little quits also show up in our businesses and it doesn't matter if you're at the beginning stages of your business or you're trying to navigate a growth stage or you're even scaling, little quits show up differently in each of these stages and really understanding how they affect you as the business owner at each stage in your business is really the key to switching these little quits or turning these little quits into big wins.

I'm going to explain to you a little bit more about what I call little quits, then I'm going to share with you what they look like at each stage of your business and give you some examples. I'm really into examples lately. Then we're going to talk about what to do about it. How to not do little quits, how to not experience little quits, how not to decide to do a little quit or to experience a little quit.

What are they? Let's start there. Little quits are micro decisions. Sometimes we don't even consciously make a decision. Honestly, it's like a subconscious thing, but they are micro-decisions that we make daily to avoid taking an action or to delay taking an action. They're sneaky. They're often unconscious, like I said, they feel harmless in the moment. But over time, they erode your progress. They erode or knock your confidence. They don't help your self-trust.

Now, unlike big quits. To me, a big quit would be walking away from a business venture or ending a partnership. Little quits are subtle. They might look like skipping a follow-up email or avoiding an uncomfortable conversation or delaying a launch. These big quits are intentional and they often come with closure, like you've decided you're not doing this, or you've decided that you're not going to have the conversation.

Big quits are walking away from something. Little quits are subtle, they're subtle. Big quits are intentional, and they come with closure. Little quits slowly chip away at some momentum without you even noticing. Like someone says, "I hate social media, do I have to post?" No, you don't have to post. but the whole reason you thought about posting in the first place was to get your brand out there and stay in front of people.

So if you're not doing it, it's like a bunch of little quits that are going to add up to something bigger. Versus, you saying, “I have decided that social media is not part of my marketing strategy.” That gives something closure. You're like, “That's just not happening. I'm out.” I actually would call that like a big quit and that's not so bad. You've just decided it's not going to happen, social media in general.

Little quits would be having social media on your plan, your business plan, your vision into action plan, then “We're doing it some weeks,” “Not so good on other weeks, I don't know.” So difference, big quits come with closure, sometimes they feel good actually. They're almost like big decisions. But little quits, they don't feel so great.

All right, so let's talk about how these little quits show up at different stages of your business. Let's go there. In the early days, remember this, if you're beyond this, but in the early days, you're full of energy and ideas and little quits often stem from fear of the unknown or imposter syndrome.

So little quits, examples, here we go. Spending weeks debating your brand colors instead of publishing your first blog post. You're like, “I just have to get these brand colors down. Then I'll do that blog post.” Little quit, rewriting your about page for the 12th time, while avoiding your first client pitch. You don't want to pitch a client, you don't want to make an offer to help someone until you have that about page done. Then you've rewritten it like 52 times.

Little quit at the beginning stage, hesitating to charge for your services because you feel like you're not ready or you don't have enough experience or you're not expert enough. That's a little quit. At this stage, little quits really often look more like delayed starts.

You convince yourself that everything has to be perfect before you launch. But while you're waiting for that perfection, someone else is out there taking action, gaining clients. So in the beginning stages of your business, little quits often really look like it delayed starts, convincing yourself everything has to be perfect before you launch. I've seen some of you do this.

Then when you get to the growth stage of your business where you're expanding or building, little quits show up more as avoidance of systems and delegation. So your workload has hopefully increased. Clearly, it's increased if you're in this growth stage. It really becomes harder to juggle everything. You spend two hours troubleshooting a tech issue for your email list instead of just hiring an expert who could fix it in 20 minutes. That's an example of a little quit.

Here's another example at this stage. Continuing to take on every client, even the ones that drain your energy because you're afraid to raise your rates. You're just going to take on everybody. You're not like anyone and everybody still because you're afraid to raise your rates. See how you're avoiding a new system of charging or you're avoiding delegating getting someone to help you fix that tech problem.

Here's a third example, letting your website sit without dated testimonials because you're too busy to update it, even though your social proof really could attract better clients. At this stage, little quits create bottlenecks. You're stuck in a reactive mode doing tasks that you could outsource or automate, which keeps you from focusing on the big picture.

In this building stage or growth stage of your business, little quits create bottlenecks. I know a lot of you are there. Now we are up to the scaling stage, where you're taking your business to the next level. When you're scaling, little quits often stem from a fear of losing control or stepping fully into leadership.

For example, avoiding the decision to hire the COO or project manager because you're nervous about relinquishing control over day-to-day operations. Notice you can't step into your full leadership role if you don't have a project manager or a COO and you're avoiding hiring that because you're afraid to lose control of day-to-day operations.

You're not going to get to that scale place where you're truly the leader. Another example, delaying a rebrand or an expansion into a new market or a new product offer because you're worried about the upfront costs. That's a little quit in this scale stage.

Here's a third example. Skipping the strategic planning sessions because you're bogged down in daily tasks that could have been delegated and probably should have been delegated months ago. At this stage, little quits cause stagnation because you're bogged down in daily tasks that should have been delegated months ago.

At this stage, little quits cause stagnation. Your business is successful, but without really bigger or bolder moves and decisive leadership, you can't break through to that next level. These little quits are calling you to stay at the level you're at.

Let's shift a little bit. Let's talk about turning these little quits into big wins. Here's where the magic happens. When you start recognizing these little quits and replacing them with intentional forward-moving actions, the key is to focus on the specific challenges of your current stage and then take those small actionable steps.

For the startup phase, here are some examples of how you could shift. Number one, instead of endlessly tweaking your website, challenge yourself to get it up live by the end of the week. Commit to learning as you go. You can always refine it later. Here's another truth, you are going to refine it later.

Number two, you're nervous about pitching your services so you don't. How do you turn that little quit into a big win? You start by sending an email to one person today. Tell yourself that you putting this offer out is an experiment. It is not a life-or-death moment.

Example three, little quit. You haven't increased your pricing. Pricing feels overwhelming. Start by just picking a number and test it with your next client. Perfection is really overrated. It is. Your progress is really what matters. In the startup phase, how can you turn those little quits I just described into bigger actions, big wins?

Growth phase. For example, spend one hour listing tasks that someone else could do better or faster. Pick one of them and hire a freelancer on Upwork or Fiverr or a virtual assistant this month. Figure out what you could delegate. You can use the Zone of Extraordinary Achievement Matrix as a tool.

You can access this at andrealiebross.com/toolkit. That's going to help you decide what you can delegate, and then let's get to it. Here's another example in this growth phase, you've been avoiding raising your rates, start by updating pricing for new clients only, set a date to inform them, and stick to it. Start that new pricing and stick to it. Just do it for the new people.

Another example is that marketing feels inconsistent. If that's you in this growth phase and you're quitting on it, commit to one small, repeatable action each day. For example, post one Instagram story every weekday or send a monthly email to your list. That's one repeatable action.

Here are some examples of the scaling phase. Example one, are you avoiding a key hire like that COO we talked about? How can you switch that? Schedule an interview with at least one candidate this week. Even just starting the conversation is going to ease the fear.

Number two, you're not doing your strategic planning. You're stuck in the weeds. Block off time for quarterly planning and commit to creating a three-year vision. Let's do a Vision Into Action together. I will help you. Start small and think about what your success looks like in three words. If you don't want to do the whole quarterly planning, just do three words. What does success look like for you this year or in three years?

Here's my third example. If you're nervous about investing in growth in the scale phase, calculate the ROI of the opportunity. For example, hiring a team member is going to cost you $50,000 a year, but frees you up to generate $150,000, so the risk becomes worth it. What's the ROI on investing in the team member? Why does this all matter? Here's why it matters. Little quits compound over time. They add up, they shape your business and they shake your confidence.

If you can identify how these little quits show up at your specific stage of business, you can replace them with actions that build momentum and self-trust. Here's what I want you to do. Here's your homework. I want you to track your little quits.

At the end of each day, I want you to ask yourself, "Where did I step back from my commitments? What small action could I have taken instead?" Then I want you to choose one little quit and address it and flip it into that big win. Now, this can be hard, my friends. It takes some self-actualization.

But if you're really ready to tackle this head-on, I'm ready to help you. Book a call. Go to andreaslinks.com, and book a consult call. Let's chat about how I could help you in this coming year with these little quits and let's turn these little quits into big actions no matter what stage of business you're in.

Okay, my friends, that's what I've got for you today. If this episode resonated with you, share it, share it with a fellow entrepreneur. That's a big win because people need reminders and they want to have friends in business. Together, you two can help each other eliminate the little quits and start thinking big. All right, until next time, now's your chance. No more little quits. Let's just have big action. See you soon.

Thanks for tuning into the She Thinks Big! Podcast. If you're ready to learn the secret to unleashing your full potential, don't forget to grab a copy of my book, She Thinks Big: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Guide to Moving Past the Messy Middle and Into the Extraordinary. It's available on Amazon and at your favorite bookstore.

And while you're there, grab a copy for a friend. Inside, you'll both find actionable strategies and empowering insights to help you navigate the complexities of entrepreneurship and life, and step confidently into your extraordinary future.

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