3 Mistakes That Held me Back as a Businesswoman

I was reading a post online from a Dutch Online Educator named Celine Charlotte, where she was explaining how she got so popular and why people love to buy her courses. She said something that, for me, was spot on. I truly resonated with her statement and decided to make this the topic for my blog this week: ‘3 mistakes that held me back as a businesswoman’.

She said, “The reason why people love to follow me is because I am extremely authentic about sharing my story as an entrepreneur, including all the mistakes.” I love this because it makes her feel human when you see her and learn from her. I also believe that’s the reason why people love her and follow her journey (which, by the way, is really worth following – a single Dutch girl, soon to be a mom, living in New York with her dog Bella – it almost sounds like a movie plot!).

It made me realize that I have difficulties sharing my mistakes, and it definitely doesn’t come naturally to me. But as I love to read and listen about it from my peers, it might be a path worth considering because it not only will give you clarity but will give me clarity as well. So are my 3 mistakes that held me back as a businesswoman!

Table of content

Being too stubborn to want to learn

Not focusing on one thing

Copying the end game instead of the beginning

Conclusion

Being too stubborn to want to learn

This mistake was big! Before I became a digital nomad, I founded and owned a coworking community called House of Ape. Ape stands for adventure, passion, and enthusiasm, which were the core values of the company. I think because I started this venture all by myself, I became really set in my ways of doing things and got scared when people suggested I could do things differently. After 5 years of doing it my way, I was done. Not because it wasn’t successful (because it was 😊) or the pandemic hit, but just because I was ‘played out’ and wanted to do something else. I wanted to travel while doing what I love. Although this seems fair to want, I now realize that I was ‘played out’ because I was too stubborn to learn how to evolve and pivot the existing company into something new. Looking back, there were probably another 100 routes I could have taken, but I chose the easy one. I quit. I would suggest to my younger self hiring a business coach to explore and learn more about the opportunities. Make sure you see things from multiple angles before giving up and bailing. This probably would have made a huge difference toward my success as an entrepreneur. Lesson learned.

Not focusing on one thing

Okay, so I’m the kind of girl who can get super excited about something, dive fully into it, see other entrepreneurs doing other stuff, get distracted from what I was doing, and want to do that ‘other stuff’ as well. I don’t abandon my previous idea; I just make it bigger and bigger until it becomes this really complex thing nobody understands except me. I tirelessly start working on the idea, but because I made it so complicated wanting to do everything, I get tired in the end, with little results to show for, unfortunately. So no more wanting to be visible on all the platforms every day, need to have a podcast, need to have 5 offers… I now focus on just one thing that really moves the needle, and that’s attracting the right clients to create beautiful websites with an automated sales engine. So basically, all my time right now goes to creating the websites, so I have something to show for and share them with you guys so you know why you need to hire me as your web designer. Keep it KISS, right? Keep It Simple Stupid. Easier said than done, because I guess my brain is wired to make things more difficult instead of less difficult.

Copying the end game instead of the beginning

That brings me straight to my third mistake, copying the end game instead of the beginning. The reason why my brain wants to make it difficult is that it sees so many successful entrepreneurs doing all these things all at once. Not only does this make me want to do everything too, it makes me feel anxious that I am not doing all the things already. It makes me feel left out, it creates FOMO! But instead of dissecting all the steps these amazing entrepreneurs have made, I just want to start at their ‘finish’ line. So I used to try to do what they did in their glory success days. But that’s like wanting to be a top athlete and instantly wanting to run 100m in 10.49 seconds like Florence Griffith-Joyner. And while I’m writing this down, it makes me laugh because that’s the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard. It just isn’t possible. So why would I think this is possible in the business world beats me. Nowadays, I have a maximum of 3 examples I love, and I mute or unfollow the rest. Not because I don’t love what they’re doing, just because I don’t want to be distracted. I want to keep my eye on the prize, and that’s growing into a badass online business chick that helps millions of entrepreneurs all over the world create the life they love.

Conclusion

So to recap, if I could do it all over again, I would hire a business coach as soon as possible to make sure I keep evolving as a businesswoman, learning to see things from different perspectives, and help me move forward with my business. I would ask myself the question, can I make this even simpler so that my 5-year-old nephew would understand? Am I focusing on just one thing, or did other things secretly sneak their way into my business again? What do I need to stop doing? And I would choose a maximum of 3 amazing examples to learn from the start and block everything and everyone until I’m on the level that I want to be, so I can invite other people in to learn from.

Well, there you have it! Thank you, Celine Charlotte, for inspiring me to write about my three mistakes! And I probably will make this a more recurring thing on Instagram too. I feel better already sharing this! I really hope it will help you on your future endeavors too!

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