Grow Your Local Business Podcast

Host: Leslie Presnall
Episode: Are You Stuck in This Cycle That Keeps You Unbooked?
Date: September 30, 2025

Episode Overview

In this insightful episode, Leslie Presnall, local marketing expert and life coach, unpacks the frustrating cycle that keeps many local business owners from becoming fully booked. She explains the three-stage cycle of excitement, discomfort, and jumping (or quitting/stalling) that traps entrepreneurs in perpetual motion without meaningful progress. Leslie provides practical mindset shifts and strategies to help business owners break free, develop new skills, and create a steady stream of local clients.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Reality of Getting Fully Booked

• Leslie asserts with conviction that it's possible to build a fully booked local business within a year or less when key cycles and mindsets are addressed.
  • “I have clients who I work with inside the Localpreneur Academy who come in and do it in six months. I have some who come in and do it in three or four months. It is totally possible. I watch people do it over and over.” (02:08)

2. The Unbooked Cycle: Excitement, Discomfort, Jump

• Leslie introduces the “cycle” that keeps business owners unbooked:

  • Excitement Phase: New strategy or tactic brings enthusiasm and hope.
  • Discomfort Phase: The strategy gets hard; results don’t come as expected; frustration rises.
  • Jump Phase: Without results or relief, entrepreneurs abandon the strategy for a new one, looping back to excitement.

• Core insight: Most business owners “live in this cycle for years,” never sticking through the discomfort to mastery & results.

  • “They’re constantly starting, stopping, never staying long enough in that discomfort phase to actually build the visibility and the skill sets that they need to create clients.” (04:45)

• Key Reason: Unwillingness to experience and push through discomfort.

  • “They aren’t willing to pay the price of discomfort. They aren’t willing to feel uncomfortable long enough.” (05:10)

3. Three “Exits” from Discomfort

Leslie identifies three common ways business owners try to escape discomfort:

A. Quit Mode

• Simply stop doing the thing when it gets hard.
  • “They start it, it gets uncomfortable, and then they stop…they just decide it doesn’t work. So they pull back and they stop doing it.” (06:02)

B. Stall Mode

• Keep going through the motions with no real progress or growth.

  • “You just keep doing it at the same level without improving…we end up stalling out…doing the same thing every day, the same way, at the same level, with the same effort over and over, getting the same result.” (07:28)

• We feel productive, but are confused as to why it’s not working:

  • “We feel like we’re working hard, like we’re taking a lot of action and we’re doing something, but…we’re really frustrated and we’re confused.” (08:03)

• Personal Example: Leslie recounts her own experience with Facebook ads:

  • "It felt productive because I was doing it, but it wasn’t working. It was not bringing me any business, but I didn’t really know why." (09:30)
  • She highlights that only after dedicating the effort to truly learn the skill did real results materialize.

C. Jump Mode

• Abandon uncomfortable tasks for a new, ‘easier’ shiny tactic—starting the cycle over.
  • “One of the most common things that I see really slowing people down from getting fully booked within a year…is when they jump to something else to try something new that will hopefully get them a better result instead.” (12:49)

4. The Cycle in Action: Detailed Walkthrough

• Leslie offers vivid examples of the cycle:

  • See something promising → try it with excitement → disappointment when it doesn’t work out → quit, stall, or jump to something else → repeat. (13:40–16:30)
  • "Most people don't realize...usually your competitor is just as confused as you are, and they're just kind of doing everything, too." (16:00)

• Long-Term Cost: Years wasted starting and stopping without developing mastery or visibility.

5. Breaking the Cycle and Building Results

• The Solution: Stay in the discomfort phase longer.

  • “The secret here is breaking out of this cycle as fast as you can. It’s catching yourself when you’re in it and getting out of it. And the way you do that is by staying in the discomfort phase for longer.” (17:37)

• Even though discomfort feels bad and the brain wants to avoid it, that’s when learning and mastery occur:

  • “By sticking with the thing you’re currently doing that you’re committing to, you force yourself to learn. You force yourself to develop new skills.” (18:30)

• Allow time (months, not days) to improve, tweak, and get results:

  • “That might take three months, six months, longer, but you will see results because you’re doing the work to make that thing work. That’s when clients start coming. Your books start filling, you build local demand…” (19:14)

• Leslie assures listeners that consistent, focused effort ultimately leads to confidence:

  • “…it actually starts to feel good to do it. The discomfort phase doesn’t feel that uncomfortable anymore. You start trusting that the thing you’re doing works for you.” (20:40)

6. Developing Local Marketing Mastery

• Inside her Localpreneur Academy, Leslie supports clients to:

  • Build skillsets for consistent local marketing
  • Master local go-to content and messaging
  • Know where and how to find/hook local customers
  • Confidently sell and handle client communications
  • Track progress and spot gaps for improvement

• “With this type of support…knowing exactly how to stick with it, being consistent and getting better at what you’re doing, that’s exactly how you get booked in months and not years.” (24:30)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the price of discomfort:

  • “It’s because they get stuck in a cycle…if you can keep yourself out of this cycle…then getting fully booked is inevitable.” (01:44)

• On stall mode:

  • “We feel productive here. We feel like we’re working hard…but we end up stalling out here…we do the same thing every day, the same way, at the same level, with the same effort over and over, getting the same result.” (07:28)

• On chasing competitors:

  • “Usually your competitor is just as confused as you are, and they’re just kind of doing everything, too.” (16:00)

• On persistence and mastery:

  • “Everyone goes through this journey. It really is about being bad at something, developing your skill sets, getting better at it, making it work, and finally getting the result.” (22:24)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:08] – The reality and possibility of getting fully booked fast
• [04:45] – Unbooked cycle explained: excitement, discomfort, jump
• [06:02] – The three “exits” from discomfort: quit, stall, jump
• [09:30] – Leslie’s Facebook ads personal stall mode story
• [13:40–16:30] – The cycle in action, with real-world illustrations
• [17:37] – How to break the cycle: Stay in discomfort longer
• [19:14] – Allowing time for skills to grow, seeing results
• [24:30] – Localpreneur Academy and support structure

Conclusion

In this episode, Leslie Presnall delivers tough love and practical strategies for local business owners who find themselves spinning their wheels—chasing tactics, never feeling visible, and struggling to fill their books. Her core message: progress happens when you push through discomfort, stay on one path long enough to develop skill, and resist the urge to continually restart. For listeners, the episode is both a mirror to common struggles and a guide out of them.