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Sumi Krishnan
Wow. I can see it on other people now. And I'm like, you are self sabotaging, like no one is going to trust you. You're ruining your reputation. You're not going to get anywhere if you keep behaving like that. And so I say this with love, but if that's you right now, you've got to ask yourself who you really want to be in the pursuit of this dream. What is up Dream Life CL Club Fam. Welcome back to another episode of the Dream Life Club. This podcast is for you if you are a woman entrepreneur or creative, ready to grow and scale your business and make the impact in the world that you were meant to make. My name is Sumi Krishnan and if you don't know me by now, I've been an entrepreneur my whole life. I started my first company when I was 19 years old. I've grown and sold multiple businesses, including an eight figure business with over 200 employees in Washington D.C. and I am here today because I am so passionate about empowering other women entrepreneurs to make the impact in the world that they were meant to make. The statistics still stands that only 2% of women owned businesses ever cross the million dollar mark in revenue. And we're going to change that together. So let's jump right in today with five things to do if you don't want to be successful. 5 Ways to Sabotage your success. Okay, now everybody always talks about what it takes to be successful. I'm going to shine a little light on ourselves because we all have these habits creep up from time to time and they are ultimately sabotaging our success. So the first one that I'm going to dive into is changing directions when things get tough. Okay, here's the truth. When it comes to entrepreneurship, when it comes to launching a creative dream out into the world, we've got to have the mindset. Mindset of letting go, of perfection, of done is better than perfect, and of allowing ourselves time and space to launch something out there, test it, see how it does in the real world, come back with that data, measure the, measure how well it did, measure what went well, measure what went wrong, measure how we could improve, look at how we could improve rather, and then make a change, make some tweaks and put it back out there again. So it's launch, test, tweak, repeat. Right? That's kind of like the agile methodology. That's the methodology that Silicon Valley has been using for the past 20 years. It's not about getting your product to perfection before you launch it, but Here is the important part. When you launch something in the world and it lands to crickets, for example, take it the easiest example. You make a social media reel on Instagram and you launch it to the world and you don't get much of a response. You get, you know, I don't know, a hundred views and 10 or 100 views and 2 likes. Okay. Or even less, whatever it is for your platform. And you start to feel like, holy, that's not doing well. That's really bad. Should I take down the post? Should I archive it? Maybe I'm not good at social media after all. This is embarrassing. It took me one week to finally decide to put something out there, and then it didn't go anywhere, it didn't do anything. And then you spend another week thinking about how you could do things differently or whether you really want to be posting on reels. Maybe it's like TikTok, that's better for you, and you just spin and spin and spin in your head and then you decide, you know what, never mind. I'm actually going to try this different strategy altogether f social media. And like a month goes by until you decide, wait a minute, maybe I shouldn't have given up back then. Let me go try again. Okay, that's, that's a very simplified example because I don't think anybody would really quit after like one post not doing well. But the lesson is the same when things get tough. After you've launched something out there into the world and then it didn't do it, didn't do as well as you wanted it to, it maybe got some negative critical feedback, you realized you were embarrassing and like, said the wrong thing at one point, or you answered a question and a stupid quote unquote way. Or maybe you realized, oh, shoot, you completely forgot about this aspect that you wanted to add into your interview or into your product or into your piece of content or into your program, and you get all in your head about it, you start internalizing negative feedback and you decide to pivot, change directions when it's way too early to do so. Now the thing about that, that we have to realize that any successful person in business, entrepreneurship or really leadership, any, anyone who's gotten somewhere with whatever their craft is, whatever their idea is in, anyone who's ever gotten somewhere with their idea or their business knows that it's just about the stick to it. Iveness, right? It's the grit. It's the staying focused on the path and continuing to iterate until we get it right. Because that's par for the course. The negative feedback is par for the course. The experience of launching something to crickets is par for the course. The experience of not getting the results we want. Our first attempt should be expected. Like nothing is going to succeed the way we want it to the first time we put it out there. So what I see a lot of entrepreneurs do wrong is they put something out there, then they see they don't get the response they wanted from it. So then they get filled with, like, shame and embarrassment and they decide to change directions right when they should be continuing to move forward on the same path and making some adjustments, making some tweak, because they've already done the first step. They've, in our launch, test, tweak, repeat framework. They've already launched and they've already tested and they've already gotten the feedback. All they need to do was make some tweaks and repeat. But instead, what too many entrepreneurs, especially beginner entrepreneurs who are just starting out do is they say, oh, this didn't work. Maybe I'll change my idea, right? Maybe, oh, I have a better idea over here. And so you change directions, you start from scratch again. And you guys, I am not casting blame. I am not. I mean, what I mean is I am not casting judgment on anybody because I have been the biggest culprit of this, too. Even after being a successful entrepreneur, right? I still find myself falling into the trap. In fact, I did this about six months ago. I launched something brand new in February, launched it to the public. It didn't. It wasn't received with the kind of response that I hoped it would be. And instead of keeping on going, I decided to change and pivot that program, that product completely into something new. But I'm like, I just basically wasted three months of time because I had taken three months to get the first thing out the door. I was already a few steps into the process. And just because I got the results that didn't sound like I. That weren't what I wanted them to be, I decided to go back to the drawing board. And too many people do that, right? You don't want to, like, continually change your offer. And so, so in today's terms, in the digital marketing terms, what this means is you don't want to continually change your offer every time you don't get the results you want. What you want to do is refine your offer, right? Maybe you need to make some small adjustments, some small tweaks to increase your product market f fit, right? Because the response from the market wasn't where you want it to be, then, okay, maybe they want this in there, or maybe it's just about your marketing message. Maybe it's about how you're selling it, right? And how you're communicating the benefits of it, right? It could be just your marketing message. There's so many elements to tweak. There's so many elements to tweak. So, yes, you can tweak, tweak, not pivot, tweak your offer, but also pivot, tweak your funnel, right? So your. Your. Your marketing funnel is all about how people are finding you and how they go through your ecosystem to the point where they are ready to potentially buy whatever it is that you're selling. So that customer acquisition journey is something that can be tweaked as well. And often it's about tweaking that versus going in and tweaking your offer. Now, it can be both. But what you absolutely do not want to do. Hear me, hear me out. What you absolutely do not want to do is to launch something to market, get negative feedback or not get the results that you want, and then go think you've got to completely change your product, change your offer, or pivot that you're just going to be stuck in a cycle of starting and stopping and starting and stopping and starting and stopping until you die. Okay? Because at some point, you gotta learn the lesson that you don't start over. You don't pivot just because your product didn't do as well as you wanted it to. Okay? All right. The second way to not be successful is to be on and off, on and off, on and off. Let's take. Let's take fitness for an example. I can tell you from personal experience that I. Okay, I'll share this story with you guys. I have been, quote, unquote, doing CrossFit since 2011. Like, end of 2010. 2011. That is. What is that? 14 years. That is 14 years, okay, that I've been, quote, unquote, doing CrossFit. Now, you would think that I would be some sort of Superwoman by now. 14 years of doing CrossFit. You would think I would be, like, super competitive, you know, winning every workout, quote, unquote, at the gym, like, right? But no, guess what? I basically stayed the same for the entire first 11 years that I was doing CrossFit. In fact, maybe even, like, got a little bit worse. And why is that? It's because I was starting and stopping, starting and stopping. I was on and off, on and off, on and off. I would be into it for a month. And then I would, like, go for months without going to the gym. Then I'd be like, oh, okay, no, come on, get back into a fitness routine. Come on, sue me. Pack your clothes every week. Let's go. Like, get in, get back into it. And I would go for another year, maybe, and then the next year I just would be so inconsistent. I'd go twice a month, right? And this went on and on and on and on. And the drama was in my head every single day, every single week, every single month, about me, quote, unquote, should be going to the gym, should be doing this, should be doing that for over a decade. How exhausting is that? Meanwhile, it's not like I was, like, content with my routine. Oh, no. Like, I wanted to be fit. I really wanted to be fit. In fact, to the point where. And I should tell this story on another podcast. I started a gym in 2013 with two partners. I started a gym. If you knew me back then, you'll know what happened. But suffice it to say, that was not a successful business venture and there are a lot of reasons why. Okay? But what I want to talk about in this episode is my personal fitness journey was not successful until it happened to coincide with when I moved to la. I got an apartment very close to this new gym that I was going to go to. And I just decided it was like a switch flipped, a switch flipped in my brain. And I said, I am done with the on, off inconsistency. I am done with that. I am going to show up for myself and I'm just going to be consistent. I had no major goals except I was going to show up five or six days a week. That was it. And then on top of it, I. I signed up for one on one training once a week with a personal coach who held me accountable to some body weight gymnast. Six goals. I wanted to get my first pull up. I wanted to be able to do push ups on my toes. This is. I couldn't do any of that back then, okay? And that was three years ago. And from three years ago to today, I've been consistent, okay? And for the first time in my life, I see results. But it took years. It took years of consistency for me now to feel like I can finally identify as a fit person. Okay? And I have so much more to do. I have a lot more to go. Right there's. It's an unending quest to be fit and to see what your body's capable of and you know, and then at some point it becomes just maintain your, your gains, just maintain your strength. And when age starts to get you that you can like maintain for as long as possible, that in and of itself becomes a win. But none of that is possible if we're stuck in cycles of on, off, on, off, off. I know you know this, but I want you to hear it, I want to reiterate it. Because yes, it's true about fitness, it's also true about entrepreneurship and business. It's also true about any creative act. I mean, think to yourself like if you're trying to learn. And I can say that I still have not found my way around this with like learning the guitar and piano. That's been another pursuit where I've been stuck in the on off drama. And that is why I am not successful at being an amazing guitar player or an amazing piano player. Right? Because I'm stuck. Some days I'll practice, some days I won't. And it's just you never improve. And so I want you to take this in and commit to yourself. And this is what I'm doing right now. I have recommitted to some three very specific goals that I want for myself before the end of the year. And I'm going to take them out of the inconsistent hell hole that they have existed in and put them on my. I'm gonna get this. Flip that switch, flip that switch for one or two or max three goals in your life. Take them out of the drama, take them out of taking up mind space where they're just draining you, because how many? I want you to ask yourself, what are the things in your life where you think about every day, oh, I should be doing that. I wish I was doing that. Or you look at somebody who's, you know, super fit or a great piano player or an amazing singer, or as such a badass entrepreneur or a billionaire, you know, like someone who has accomplished something that's so impressive that you want for yourself. Right. I can promise you they were consistent in the pursuit of that thing. They did not have drama around it. They did not fall into the I'll do it tomorrow. Okay? They committed. But here's the key. You cannot take on too many things because we have limited bandwidth as human beings. Okay? So decide what one, two or three things you're going to take out of the on off inconsistent hellhole arena and put on your list of the things you're going to commit to and you're going to be consistent around. Ultimately at the End of the day, it's never about who's the best, who's the. Who's who was born with all the talent, who's the smartest, who has the highest iq. None of that is actually relevant. And that's the crazy thing. We all have our skill sets. We all have the things that we're good at, the things that we're not so good at, and we can improve on just about everything. If you want to get good at anything in life, you can get good at it. But if you want to be stuck being unsuccessful in that thing, keep it in that on, off, inconsistent place, right? That's a surefire way to not be successful. Okay, let's move on. The third way to not be successful. Oh, this one is a good one. Are you ready for this? To measure your progress on today's results? To measure your progress on today's results. I say this over and over again. I feel like it's just like a mantra that I. That I keep saying, and I don't ever think it lands as strongly as I want it to land. But here's the truth. It is not. It is not about your results today. It is not about where you are today. It's about the trajectory that you're on. Quick example, you could look around, okay? I, for example, could look around to other musicians who have massive followings, okay? Who get maybe 10, 20, 30 times the engagement on each one of their Instagram posts than I get, okay? And as you know, if. Well, if you don't know, as an independent musician, you basically, it's all about cultivating. Cultivating your fan base digitally, right? And. And building that loyal fan base. It's not about getting signed to a major label and having them promote you anymore. It's about doing the groundwork ourselves, right? And building our fan base from the grassroots up. And so you're so. And I could easily look around to other artists who are much bigger than I am and feel bad about myself, right? And measure my progress by today's results. Okay? So and so got 11,000 likes on their post, and I got 46. Whatever it is, right? The thing is, that is a surefire way to not be successful, because here's what most people miss in that equation is that it's not about where you are today. It's about the trajectory that you're on. It's about the trajectory that you're on. Are you continuing to do the things that are going to lead to your success, or are you going backwards? Are you getting deflated? Every time you measure yourself, compare yourself against somebody, are you actually writing every day and practicing every day? Or are you sitting there feeling bad about yourself and wishing that you were in a different position or getting distracted or trying something else because you don't have faith that you're going to make it in this creative pursuit or whatever? There's. It's not about where you are today. It's about the trajectory that you're on. Does that make sense? Does that make sense? I need a better and shorter way to communicate this because here, here, here's a. Here's a little, like, insight. I was chatting with somebody the other day who. So me, I have a small following on, in. On social media, okay? And I'm working on building that in, in both my music, on both the music and the business side of things. And let's take the mu. In the music realm. I was chatting with somebody who I met on a plane, okay? Who is a major musician. If I told you who he was, everybody would know their name. Everybody would know who, who I'm talking about. Major musician, okay? Major, major household name kind of person. And I was just thinking to myself how it's so ironic that you never know where life is going to take you. All you need is one big break to completely change your life. All anyone needs is something to. We never know what's happening in the background for ourselves. So I was just like, thinking to myself, I was like, I don't know whether anything's going to happen with this person or not, whether. Because we can't ever know whether this one thing is going to work out to something or not, right? Like, we have to do all the things and often it's the thing that we least expect is going to go somewhere. That's the thing that takes off, okay? But we have to always have all the irons in the fire, always. And, and not have any great expectations on one thing, one opportunity or one relationship. Nonetheless, I am having this conversation with this musician right now and I was thinking to myself, wouldn't it be ironic if this completely leads to like an exponential growth in my career, which it could, okay? Or nothing may happen from this and it may be like six months down the line that something else hits, right? Meanwhile, I'm looking around at somebody who has maybe like, you know, three times the following that I have and like, wishing I was them when really, like, something major is about to happen for me. So comparing yourself, right? Measuring your progress by today's results is like, completely futile and means nothing. And all all it will do is send you into a backwards downwards spiral and take you out of the game. And is a surefire way to not be successful. So never measure your progress on where you are today because you never know what's happening in the background. You never know. One or two or three relationships could change your life forever. You just never know. Okay, the next surefire way to not be successful is, ah, okay. To copy what other people are doing or just parrot other people. I have to mention this one because I see this so much in like, especially the online world. I'm like, first of all, to present anything with any level of belief, right? With any level of conviction, you ha. It has to come from you. If you try to copy somebody else's message and think, oh, well, that landed for their audience, so I'll do the same thing. Are we kidding ourselves? That will never work because things have to be congruent to who we are and have to come from us for them to land and for them to land. And also, you will never succeed by doing something in a way that somebody else does it because that works for them. Like, I was growing my first business in D.C. and I would. My mentor, my father was one of my first mentors and he had a very specific way of doing business. He is so good at business, okay? The way his mind works, the way his problem solving skills, how he manages to play a long game of chess with. With every opportunity and always win. Like, I am so impressed. So I wanted to learn everything that I could from him. But here's the thing. How he operated in business actually was not a successful way for me to operate. I didn't get the same results when I tried to copy or parrot his conversations or the way he would deal with a problem. I had to figure out my own way. I had to figure out my own path. I had to figure out my own method of, say, handling, you know, a difficult conversation or managing a team or talking to a client, right? I. I couldn't just copy his way because his methods didn't work. In my system, in my body and my energy, it didn't work. Okay? So if you want to be unsuccessful, then just think you're going to copy somebody else. But if you want to be successful, lean in to the uniqueness. That is you lean in to your ideas, to your energy, to your spirit. Even if you think it's a dumb idea, try it out. You're never gonna like, figure it out until you give yourself the grace to mess up, to be unelegant, to look stupid to be goofy. And then finally you get to a point where you figure something out. I mean, maybe you'll end up still being goofy like me. I feel like, you know, who, who, who in the world is ever, like, elegant all the time? Nobody. Okay? But the point is here is that you've got to give yourself the grace to get there. And then my last point for today before I say goodbye is. Oh, and this is an easy one. A surefire way to not be successful is to not honor your word. You know, I have been realizing this lately. Like, I made a commitment to myself recently that I was not going to. I was not going to cancel meetings. I was not going to break promises. I was not going to say I could do something when I thought that I might be overbooked or overwhelmed. I was only going to commit to the things that I knew I could commit to, and I was going to show up no matter if I felt like it or not. Right? It's like Layla Hormozi has this quote that she's running with now that I kind of either I really like. Actually, it's your mood. Follow the plan, okay? And so that's been my mantra for the recent past. And what I've noticed is that now that I'm operating like that, I can see when other people don't show up like that. It's so clear to me now. And I can and actually, like, it always strikes me, I'm like, oh, you know, that used to be me. I used to cancel plans, right? I used to say you could do something and then not be able to meet that deadline. I used to do things like that. And now it's like, wow, I can see it on other people now. And I'm like, you are self sabotaging. Like, no one is going to trust you. You're ruining your reputation. You're not going to get anywhere if you keep behaving like that. And so I say this with love, but if that's you right now, you've got to ask yourself who you really want to be in the pursuit of this dream. Because you're not listening to this podcast to F around for entertainment. You're listening to this podcast right now because you have a big dream that you want to bring to life. It's why this podcast is called the Dream Life Club. We are a community of people bringing our dreams to life. And if we're serious about doing that, we have to be people who honor our word. That is step one. But it's a lot harder than it sounds, right? Like, especially for those of us who grow up and grew up in somewhat chaotic households or weren't trained from an early age to always do that. Right? It takes effort, but it is so worth it. It is so worth it. All right, so in summary, the five ways that I talked about today to not be successful are one, to change directions when the going gets tough. To decide you're gonna pivot just when things get tough, which is the exact point you actually wanna be leaning in. You actually wanna be leaning in with that same thing and figuring it out. Right? But instead of pushing through that pain, too many of us just decide and go take a different road. Then all that effort has gone to waste. So we do not wanna do that. The second way to not be successful is to be inconsistent. To live in that on, off, inconsistent place that is filled with drama, filled with shoulds, filled with regret, and is an energy drain and will never get us anywhere. Okay? The third way to not be successful is measuring our progress by our results today. It does not matter where you are today. What matters is the trajectory that you're on. You never know what's happening in the background, what one connection, what one relationship is going to change everything for you. So never feel like you need to compare yourself to others because you never know what's right about to happen for you. Fourth way to not be successful is to think that you can copy or parrot someone else's way to success. It won't work with you. You've got to find your own voice, you've got to find your own path, and you've got to be convicted in your own message. And the last way to not be successful is to not honor your word. Okay? So with that, I wish you a very happy weekend. Hopefully you can take away a few things from this episode today that you can chew on over the weekend. Journal about it. Ask yourself, what are you going to do to implement something, some aha moment that you had from listening to my stories, from listening to this podcast into your life and your business. I want nothing more than to see you succeed. As always, you can follow me on Instagram at. It's Sumikrishnan and I'll talk to you soon. Bye.