How do you know whose opinions to listen to and whose to ignore? One of my favorite quotes from Steve Jobs is:
"Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition."
It can be tempting to both ask for and listen to others opinions. And sometimes the answers you get are truly helpful... but a lot of the time they aren't. And if we aren't careful, they can get in your head, derail your success, and cause you to question everything.
Over these past couple weeks, I have had several conversations with clients who started to question themselves, their offers, their business model, their everything because of feedback or questions they received.
Here are a couple pieces of absolutely horrible feedback I received from trusted business mentors over the years.
"Don't talk about scaling. You sound too corporate. Entrepreneurs don't care about scaling, they want to grow."
Um, what?!? That may be true for newer entrepreneurs and the target market she was working with, but that's not who I work with. I work with established multi-6 and 7 figure businesses who want to increase their impact, revenue, AND profit, while reducing the amount of time and resources they have to put in. That's scaling. And there are few people who have as much experience as I do scaling businesses in simple and sustainable ways, from the largest Fortune 10 businesses in the world to product-based business, service-based agencies, and coaching and consulting businesses.
I trust that my ideal target market knows the difference between growth and scaling and are ready to do what it takes to truly scale their business which includes strategy, planning, systems, and team, instead of staying focused on (unsustainable) growth through the latest bright shiny sales or marketing strategy. So I ignored her advice.
The irony? This person now talks exclusively about scaling and named her program almost exactly the same name as mine - the name she repeatedly told me I should change. 🤦
"No one is going to buy your high ticket offer without starting with something small so they have skin in the game. Then you should add a middle tier offer and keep upselling them to your high ticket offer."
This was advice that I unfortunately listened to... at first. The irony? When I would try to sell my lower ticket offers, people would ask for the high-ticket offer. And the few people who did buy low-ticket never upsold to the high-ticket offer like I wanted them to.
So I ditched all the extra steps and unnecessary complexity and shortened the buying cycle by giving people what they actually wanted. What I needed was better messaging that spoke directly to my ideal target market, not multiple offers at different price points and a super complicated funnel. Thankfully I figured that out pretty quickly and now help my clients avoid this same mistake which is advice still widely shared.
Have you gotten horrible feedback and advice over the years too? How did you determine what advice to listen to and what to ignore?
Here are a few questions to help determine if what you're hearing is helpful or if you should ignore it:
- Is the person sharing the feedback with you in mind, or is it about them? Do they understand you, your business, your target market, your experience, and your vision enough to be giving you feedback that they feel is truly right for you and not feedback that is based on what is right for them?
- Has the person actually done or experienced themselves what they are telling you or are they regurgitating something they heard from someone else and have no context for if it will really work?
- Is the person trying to be helpful or hurtful? Although we always want to think the best of people, the reality is that not everyone has your best interest in mind, whether consciously or unconsciously.
- What does your inner voice say? Are they sharing feedback that is valuable, right on, and challenging you to step outside your comfort zone, so while it feels scary or uncomfortable, you know it is the right next step. Or does it feel out of alignment for you?
- If you listen, will it take you closer to or away from your next level vision and goals?
We get feedback and advice all the time. Sometimes from business mentors, sometimes from clients, sometimes from our community, sometimes from friends and family. No matter how much you trust or respect someone, you don't have to listen to them.
Learning how to trust and listen to yourself and your own inner voice and filter out what is noise will help you stay laser focused on your next level of success.
How do you decide what feedback and advice to listen to and what to ignore?
When you are ready to accelerate making your big bold vision a reality, here are 2 ways I can support you:
- Want to spend a full day together deep diving into your scalable signature offer or developing your strategic plan for your next big bold business move? Learn more about working together privately in a VIP Strategy Day here.
- Looking to scale your business faster? Our Simplify to Scale Business Accelerator helps you eliminate unnecessary complexity and build a business that runs itself through simple systems and a rockstar team so you can step into your next level of visionary leadership and dramatically increase your impact and profitability. Learn more and apply to join our next cohort here.
by Crista Grasso
Crista Grasso is the go-to strategic planning expert for leading global businesses and online entrepreneurs when they want to scale. Known as the "Business Optimizer", Crista has the ability to quickly cut through noise and focus on optimizing the core things that will make the biggest impact to scale a business simply and sustainably. She specializes in helping businesses gain clarity on the most important things that will drive maximum value for their clients and maximum profits for their business. She is the creator of the Lean Out Method, 90 Day Lean Out Planner, and host of the Lean Out Your Business Podcast.
