A (0:00)

Foreign. Welcome to the Courage and Clarity podcast. I'm your host, Steph Crowder. I'm a former sales training director who's helped thousands of entrepreneurs earn a living doing something they love over the past 10 years. On your journey, you'll need the courage to be bold, to take risks, and to do what looks crazy on paper. You'll also need the clarity, the brass tacks, simple strategies that actually work. And on this podcast, we deliver both in equal measure. Oh, and by the way, we've got absolutely no time for bs, gross marketing tactics or get rich quick schemes. Just sustainable business strategies for good humans with big dreams. If that sounds like you, you're in the right place. Let's go. Hello. Hello my friends. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you all so much for spending some time with me here today. I am super, super stoked to dig into this topic that I have been thinking about so much since we kicked off the year. And I've shared a little bit about it here on the podcast, but I wanted to go a little bit deeper. We are talking about boring. Okay? We're talking about how choosing boring and making my business boring is going hand in hand with my goal to make seven figures in my business in one 12 month period in a year. Right? And it's a, you know, it's a little bit less exciting. I mean, I think it is exciting because it's such a big goal, but I really wanted to dig into more of the like, what does this actually look like? So if you follow me on Instagram, I'm at hey, Steph Crowder. You may have seen that really like a couple days into the New Year, into 2026, I posted this reel of me talking about how making my life more boring was going to help me make have my first million dollar year. And that real got a lot of love. I got a lot of comments. A lot of people saved it. And I was like, wow, okay, this is something that a lot of people are interested in hearing more about now. Some of you actually feel the opposite, which is super interesting. I've had a couple people be like, wow, it's so amaz. It's so interesting that you are leaning into being boring. I feel like my life needs to be more fun. And so fun is my word of the year. And that's awesome. I love that. And a lot of people also were thinking, gosh, this is more of what I need to be doing as well. And so no matter where you fall in terms of, you know, how you identify and what you think of this concept of making your life more boring, making your business more boring, I, like I said, got so much traction and created so much interesting conversation about this, even just as a concept. But what I haven't really done yet was talk about, what does that actually mean? Like, what is that looking like we are now, I think three weeks or so into the new year as I record this, what is making my business and making my life more boring? What is it actually looking like? Like, how am I doing that? I haven't talked about the how. And so that's what I wanted to do with today's episode because this really is the dopamine problem that I personally feel like I have to fix to scale my business. And we're gonna get a little bit more into that and why I believe that's the case. But it's, it really is about allowing myself to feel that rush of dopamine that excited, you know, like good feeling vibes. Not from creating a whole bunch of chaos in my life, but from completing the, yes, sometimes boring, sometimes monotonous and repetitive work that is required to take my business to that million dollar mark this year. So, as I said, this year I am chasing that big goal. I think I've shared here on the podcast that I've been like wringing my hands right now. Every time I even say it out loud, I'm like, quick, put it back in your mouth. You know, because I don't have a crystal ball, I don't know how this year is going to go. I think there's an enormous chance that I won't make it, that I will fail and I'll have to tell you guys all about it and we'll just get there when we get there, right? But I do know for sure that if it's going to happen, I need a few things. There's probably a lot of things I need, but for me, at the top of the list is laser focus. I need to get better at task completion, the skill of completing tasks. Are you someone who loves a new project and loves the feeling of like a fresh page and a fresh idea? Yeah, same. Right. Where I personally struggle is completing my tasks and especially tasks I don't like. And so I gotta work on that this year because it doesn't matter if I like it or not, these, these things must be done. And then finally, and certainly importantly is, I'm going to need a lot of capacity. I've been talking about more and thinking about more. The idea of capacity building, expanding my own ability to hold more if I'm trying to create a bigger business that is a larger container for a bigger audience, more clients. Then I have to have the increased capacity to be able to serve at the level of excellence that I pride myself on. So I've got to create and build and expand my own ability to have space. Right? But big, but big problem here is my brain loves chaos. This is something that I have really just come to embrace. And it's not just my brain, it's your brain too. It's how our brains are created, right? Problems create interest. Problems are interesting for our brains. It's why we love puzzles. It's why my daughter, who's only nine years old is begging me to do the wordle and then she's logged in as me and ruins my score. That's a story for another day, right? From a very young age, we love having problems to solve. And I'm really good at solving problems, right? Like I have solved a lot of high velocity lives are on the line problems in my personal life as a parent and as a daughter, like I've been through some stuff. I'm willing to bet that you have. Well, and the truth is solving problems create a rush of dopamine. I think I shared this in a recent episode that John, my husband and I have looked at each other and said like, hey, I think we kind of are getting something from this. When we have problems that we have to solve together, we come together as a team. It feels kind of good, right? But I have noticed and it's really been happening beneath the radar for me, which I think is where the problem is, is I didn't. I've come to realize that I have created problems in my own life just so I get to solve them. And I've created problems in my business just so I get to solve them. And it can be really sneaky. It won't look like you're creating problems, but you are nevertheless, right? So I have decided that the trick for me will be to get dopamine because we need that good, those good feeling, you know, things happening in the brain. But I want to get my dopamine from solving the right problems. Solving the problems that are actually going to grow my business, right? Solving the problems that matter instead of let me just solve all the problems that are coming up. Some of them I've created, some of them are not important, but my brain is just treating them all. It's like, oh look, a problem, a problem over here. And listen, when there's problems in my business that I don't feel like solving because they're boring. They're tasks I don't like. Maybe it has to do with people not liking me. I think when a new problem comes up that I prefer, it's really weird to say that we have problems that we prefer, but I really think we do. I think subconsciously my brain is like, oh, great. Oh, good, good. I can go play with that problem. Like, that one seems more fun, right? And so I am just really coming to terms with the fact that when I make my life and my business more boring, I'm pushing myself to solve those important problems that will move the needle in the business instead of making up new problems to solve. And so I'm going to try to keep some areas of my life and business boring, and I'll talk about what those are so that I can free up mental space. This is really important to be new and different where it actually matters. Right. It's not that I'm not going to create anything new and different this year. I am. But I'm going to do it in a way that actually benefits the business that I've already created. Instead of coming up with new problems, different problems, new ideas, different ideas in, like, a million different directions, I'm going to challenge myself to do it within the architecture that I've already built. This won't be for everyone, right. I'm a. In a business that's. That's at a more advanced stage. Right. Maybe you're in the ideating phase. Maybe you're starting something brand new and you're going to be scrappy, scrappy, scrappy, throwing spaghetti against the wall. And that is the right thing to be doing. Right? But for a lot of you and for myself, like, we have already done that part. We have to stop starting over. Right? Starting over. So fun. I love starting over in a lot of ways, just letting myself, like, claim that. And at the same time, you know, what I don't love is, like, starting over every year with revenue or only being able to go so far with my revenue, because just when I start to get some momentum squirrel, we're coming up with something new or a new problem has popped up that, like, totally kills that. That momentum and that velocity. Right. It gets really hard to actually pick up speed. And so I'm going to share with you. I have four. I'm calling them boring rules, and I have more, actually, and some of them are smaller. I'll share them. Especially, like, as the year goes on, I want to be updating you all on how I'M going to call it Project Boring. How Project Boring is going for me in my life, sometimes it's small things, like not engaging in drama, right? Not engage. Like, not responding to every post on threads that pisses me off. Like, that is keeping it boring. Just keep my mouth shut, keep my eyes on my own paper. That's boring, right? That's a. That's kind of like. That didn't make it into my four official rules. But little things like that, I'm already seeing myself. I'm already watching myself go, oh, yeah, that's one of those ways that's like, you know, if I get swept up into a comment war with somebody on social media and it takes me out for the next few hours, well, that's a new problem I've created, right? Well, I can't get to work because I'm too busy fighting with somebody. This is an example. There's so many things, big and small, that you will start to see if you start looking for this. I promise you. Last week alone, I was like, here are the three. Three ways that I wasn't boring when I said I was going to be boring. So I want to share what my four rules are. And like I said, I'm going to be adding some. But these are four of the big ones that have really come up for me. Some are life, some are business, some are both. Let's get into it and you can apply what you love from this. Maybe it'll inspire you to come up with some of your own rules. And if you don't like the word rules, some of my clients are like, I'm a rule breaker. I don't follow rules. I totally get it. You can think of this if the word rule doesn't resonate with you. Think of it as a guideline or a principle or something. For me, I'm setting some rules. I can parent myself a little bit. There are some rules, and in particular, I have four of them. So in really no specific order here, let's get into these boring rules. Number one is. And you know what? Preface this by saying, I will give myself permission to change my mind. Okay? You know, are we gonna get, like. I would say this is gonna be the case for at least six months. If y' all see me breaking the rules in August, we'll have to talk about it. But I wanna say that at least for right now, these are the rules, okay? Rule number one is no new offers. Okay? No new offers. Here's why. I have a proven offer that gets results. In fact, I have two of them. But the one that I'm really focused on, I have more than two of them. But I have had two last year that I really focused on. Three if you count, you're on the wall. But the one that I'm really focused on this year is sold out group programs. My mastermind, okay, this year is about scaling that, okay? No new shiny offers. I don't need to come up with a whole new business model. I don't need to come up with a new PDF or a new this or that, right? I can take any ideas that I have and I can use it to make that offer better. So remember when I said that I can free up my mental space to be new and different where it matters? This is a perfect example. Instead of feeling like I have to come up with a new offer and do something like have a membership or have a low price point product, or have a high price point product, like all these ideas that we always have, instead of feeling like I have to do something new in order to execute new and different, I can do that within the parameters of what is already successful, right? This is a mastermind that has already has tremendous proof of concept. I have incredible client results. The framework is there, the architecture is there, it is ready to scale. And so if I am going to scale it the way that I dream of, I cannot become distracted by new and shiny offers. So like I said, any ideas that I have, I'm like, oh, but that would be so cool. Or this would be such a neat thing, or gosh, that'd be an incredible feature. I'm asking myself, how could I incorporate that into the offer that I already have? And it's already working so well for my brain because I think it was last week or maybe two weeks ago, I was like, oh, I had this new idea for something different for a new offer. And I was like, man, that would be really cool. And it just felt so, just like juicy to think about. I was like, wow, how would I think about that, right? And then I was like, well, what's really the essence of that idea and how could I create that for the clients that I already have and the ones that I'm attracting into my year long mastermind program? And then I felt that, like, relief and that same excitement. I was like, oh, I'm not saying I can't pursue what lights me up, but I am making a commitment to this offer that I'm already going steady with, right? And when I tell myself, hey, by holding off on new shiny offers, you're going to make this one more successful. I feel way better about that. I'm like, oh. Like, I'm not depriving myself for no reason. It's just like, oh, yeah, this is what I committed to. Let me see how I can dig in and make that work. Okay, so number one, no new offers. I think this is a great rule to have. If you already have an offer that sells. For those of you who aren't quite sure what sells yet and you're testing things, like, I think that's a different ball game. But for me, I've been selling this offer consistently for years now, and it's been selling better and better, and my client results are getting better and better. Like, it works. Okay. It works. It's a great program. It's, you know, it's fantastic. Why would I. Why would I deviate in a year that I'm trying to scale? Right? Like, get better at selling that. So no new offers. Boring rule number one. Boring rule number two is themed days. Boring rule number two and number three kind of go together. Number two is theming out my days. This sounds like I do the same things on the same days every week. Okay. I think the reason this is important is because I do not have to make a new decision every single week about what I'm gonna do. When. Oh, my gosh, when am I gonna record my podcast? Oh, my gosh, when am I gonna coach my clients? When am I gonna get my clients feedback? When am I gonna update curriculum? When am I gonna answer emails? Right? Do you know how much space that actually takes up in your brain to not have the answer to that? You can make that decision once. And yes, I've been talking to a few friends about this. It does take some time to rearrange your calendar and, like, start to put up those boundaries. And like, you may have to make changes to your program. You may have to make changes to how you see clients. Right? And you. I want to really firmly say this. You don't need to do it exactly the way that I do it and that I am doing it this year, But I've kind of found what works for me, and I'm choosing to make it the same every single week. So for me, that looks like making Content Mondays. Okay? If I'm going to be making guess what? It's a podcast right now. It's Monday. And you know what? It's a holiday in the United States. And. And I talk about boring. I'm still sitting in the chair. My kids are swimming at the gym. With their dad. I'm sitting in the chair. I would love to be watching Tell Me Lies the new season. But I'm making content Monday. We don't need to decide and renegotiate. We already decided. Making Content Mondays. Coaching Tuesdays, right? I coach my clients on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Those are my coaching days. I do lots and lots of coaching. And then Friday is kind of like a flex day. It's like a CEO day. So sometimes I'm catching up on things that need catching up. Sometimes I have content overflow. Sometimes I have client overflow. Sometimes I have personal life overflow. Right. Fridays, I don't have the most focus. So that's the day that I clean things up. Right? And I do the same things on the same days. On Sunday, I like to wash my hair. Then it's washed for the week, right? Like, I only have to wash my hair once a week. So I shop for my groceries on Saturday. I meal prep on Saturday. I know what I'm doing when. And I don't have to keep wondering, when are we going to get that done? Like, I. That's just not a problem I need to have if I can let it be boring. Okay? So that's number two is themed days boring. Rule number three, again, kind of related, is repeating. I have been having so much fun learning how to be repetitive. I'm not a very repetitive person. I'm always looking for. You can ask my friends. I can always looking for, like, the new thing. I've moved a lot of houses. I've, you know, always, like, trying something different. New hobbies. This year's about repeating. Okay. I can save brain space by repeating where it doesn't matter. This is like the Steve Jobs of it. All. Right? You all know about. I think it's Steve Jobs, isn't it, where he wore the black mock neck? Like, we've seen it over and over again. Like, the guy just wore the same thing every day. I think Mark Zuckerberg, similar. That's a great example for me. It's eating the same meals. Why am I coming up with a gourmet restaurant meal plan for my family with two kids don't even eat anything every single week. Starting over every week, what are we going to eat? As if. As if I haven't been cooking for my family for, like, 10 years or more, right? It's like I actually wrote down to keep it boring. I was like, what are 14 meals that we eat? That's more than enough to rotate. Especially when you throw in the takeout Night and the going out to eat, right? 14 meals, that's all we're going to be eating. And they're meals that I have memorized, essentially. Okay, we're going to eat the same meals. I'm going to go to the same class at the gym. And every day I go at the same time. I go to a bootcamp class. I go at the same time. Unless I have, like, a really strong reason that I need to change my time. Sometimes that does happen because that's life. But on a regular day, no renegotiating. No. Would it be better if we went at noon? No, no, no. We go to that same class every day. There are so many ways to be repetitive. Here's an interesting one. Figuring out where my family's gonna go to spring break, I had the idea, I was like, we could do something different that we've never done before. We could go to a new state, a new place. Or I can take my family to the same hotel at the same beach that I have done to before. I've gone to before, and I know it like the back of my hand. I know where the restaurants are. Half my family's gluten free. I know what they can eat. I know where the pool is. I know where the beach is. Like, we're just gonna repeat that trip. You wanna know why? Because I don't have to spend brain power planning another trip. I don't have to research. I don't need to figure out where people can eat. I don't need to figure out how we're gonna get there. Like, we've done it before. And guess what? My kids are delighted. They're like, we loved it there. We don't always have to be coming up with new stuff every single time in order for life to be amazing. And that's what, that's what I'm really leaning into when I say. I hesitate to say boring so many times because I'm afraid it makes it sound like I'm not having any fun. Right? I mean, we kind of think fun and boring are opposite, right? But I disagree. I'm playing the game. How can I have fun with boring, right? I think it's really fun that I don't have to plan this trip that I can just enjoy, that I can just go and be like, actually, there's fun in the familiar. That's the other thing, right? There's fun in the familiar. And this might not be new to you, it's new to me. I don't usually do fun in the familiar. I usually do fun in the spontaneity and fun in the chaos. So that's why it resonates so much with me. Maybe you need something different, but I know a lot of you have been feeling this, so I really have to offer it as a framework and as a concept, right? There is no need to burn my brain on old problems. What to eat is an old problem. I'm gonna have that problem every day. When to work out, where to go on vacation, what to wear. I don't need to be burning that precious mental space on old problems. We already solved that problem. Let's just go with the solution that we already had. Okay, so that was boring. Rule number three. Number four is doubling down. Okay? Doubling down. So this one is when something works. I think a great example is sales messaging. I'm not changing it just because I'm tired of it. Okay? A lot of y' all need to hear this. I talk to my clients about this a lot. They're like, I've said that so many times. I'm so tired of saying that. I'm so, like, it's the same thing over and over. Listen. Same, right? But when something works, just because you are tired of it doesn't mean that it's not working. In fact, a lot of times, it's the opposite. It's like you're tired of it, but it's not really for us. Is it like, our marketing is not for us? Our sales messaging is not for us? I'm trying to think of, like. I mean, I'm sure there's a million examples of, like, great products. You can probably think of any product or commercial that you've seen where they're just running it back. They say the same thing. And you know what? It's actually the repetition of it that makes it stick in your brain. Like Pringles. Once you pop, you can't stop, right? Do you think that people and Pringles are tired of hearing that? I assure you that they are, but it doesn't make it work any less. In fact, it's the opposite. So especially when we think about sales, repetition sells. That's a thought that I like to have a lot, is repetition sells. If my followers love it and my customers love it, we're keeping it, okay? And in fact, I'll do you one better. Not only are we keeping it, we're going to simplify it even more, right? If I have, like, a piece of simple marketing that people are vibing with, I'm like, cool, let's make it Even simple, simpler. Let's make it even clearer. Let's make it even harder to miss. Right? We'll say it louder. Okay. This is one way that I. This is one of the biggest problems I see with entrepreneurs in sales and marketing is y' all get bored with what you're saying, so you think it's time to move on. And it's like, just when it was starting to work, you're like, yeah, let me just go try something else. And it's like, if we had just. You could have ridden that thing. You could have stayed with that thing for an entire year. And sometimes people will be like, well, like, what's the point of being a business if it's not, like, fun and exciting for me? And it's like, first of all, like I said, you can find a way to have fun and excitement within what you've already created. But also, may I offer, there's lots of ways to have fun in your life. There's lots of ways to have excitement in your life, right? Asking your business to be the constant source of your stimulation is a great way to kill your revenue, right? Asking your business to be that constant source of stimulation. Keep it exciting for me, right? That's not really what your business is for. It's really not. That's not how really successful businesses scale and sell. Paradoxically, being boring for me is exactly what my brain needs in order to see the simple answers right in front of me. You know how we overcomplicate things, and you know how it becomes really, really difficult to see the answer. You're like, oh, it feels so murky. You're probably doing too much. If you're anything like me, where by the more I have found also another, like, tangent that's sort of parallel to this whole conversation is like, going more analog, being more offline. I've been going on more walks without headphones. Oh, my goodness. First time I did it, I wanted to launch myself into the creek behind my. My house, right? I was like, no. Podcast, no. Calling my friends, like, are you kidding me? But I have had. You know, we talk about our kids need to learn to be bored. And all of us are like, yeah, but what about us? We still need to be bored, too. And we live in a world that is really bad at just sitting in your boredom. Really, really bad. Maybe some of you are good at it. I personally, this is, like, such a growth edge for me, and I have found that, A, when I let myself be bored, A, I don't die. B, would you. What do you know, I get ideas and things don't feel like such a big, big deal, right? I don't feel as stressed. My stress isn't gone. Trust me. It's not gone. But it's like I have this general feeling of like, we can figure this out. We have the tools. I'm not jumping from fire to fire. I'm not jumping from stimulus to stimulus, right? So practicing boredom so I can see more simplicity, right? Like, I really do feel like I have been able to see more simplicity. I woke up today with an idea for a social media post, and it was like, boop. It just dropped into my brain. Same thing with an upcoming training I'm going to do. I was like, bang. There's the name of it, and here's what I'm going to teach. I really think it's related to letting that white space be there. If you're somebody like me who's lived a really full life, like, I'm a mom of kids, my kids are starting to get a little bit older at 9 and 6, right? I have not had a white space on my plate since, I don't know, 2005 or something, right? And I know that once that white space started showing up, I was just like, oh, God, you gotta fill it, gotta fill it, right? But by letting it be there, I really am able to let some of these answers come to me, right? And I'm able to troubleshoot the problems that matter by not just rushing in to create more problems. I promise the important problems, they won't go away, okay? And there's plenty of important problems right in front of you to be solved. Here's the thing. I've been in sales for a long time. I know a lot about sales. And selling sales loves boring, right? People's sales process, the way our brain works. We love repetition. It's why you love your favorite song. It's why the jingle gets stuck in your head. It's why you have an association with certain products. It's why, you know, we can also think about marketing stats and how many times people need to hear the same messages and see the same things before they're like, you know what? I'm gonna look at that. You know what I'm gonna call that person, right? Repetition. It might feel boring to you, and it doesn't mean that you're doing anything wrong. I would love for you to try the thought, boring businesses sell, right? Boring businesses sell. Boring businesses scale, and you might have different goals than me. Your number one goal might not be to scale your goal might, might be to have as much excitement as possible in your business. But if your goal is to sell out, if your goal is to scale double, triple boring is going to be the best way to get there, in my opinion. I will keep you posted on this journey, but that's what I have for you so far. Try my four boring rules. I've been trying them and so far, I mean, Dang, we're only 20, 20 days into the year. I feel a tremendous difference and I feel the possibility and we will see what happens with my results. Okay. I hope you love this episode. If you did, I'd love to hear from you. You can reply to any of my emails. Tell me what you think. Tell me if you hate it. Tell me if you disagree. I can hear it all. You can also DM me on Instagram. I'm at hey Steph Crowder. I. I have so much good stuff for you coming up in the few the next few weeks and months. So stay tuned. I will see you next time. See you on my next Make Content Monday. And until then, I'm wishing you the courage and the clarity to go after what you love.