MBA2593 Why You Are Stuck & Not Growing Your Business

Summary

Summary of "MBA2593 Why You Are Stuck & Not Growing Your Business"

Podcast Information:

• Title: The $100 MBA Show
• Host/Author: Omar Zenhom
• Episode: MBA2593 Why You Are Stuck & Not Growing Your Business
• Release Date: March 3, 2025

---

Introduction

In episode MBA2593 of The $100 MBA Show, host Omar Zenhom delves into a pervasive issue many entrepreneurs face: feeling stuck and witnessing stagnant business growth. Drawing from his extensive 20+ years of entrepreneurial experience, Omar explores the often-overlooked internal factors that hinder business expansion and provides actionable strategies to overcome these mental roadblocks.

Identifying the Root Cause: Mindset Over External Factors

Omar begins by challenging the common tendency among entrepreneurs to seek external solutions when their businesses hit a plateau. While adjustments to pricing, marketing strategies, or team expansions are valid, he posits that the primary obstacle is often within the entrepreneur's mindset.

“It's not your business that needs to change. It's you.”
— Omar Zenhom [01:14]

He emphasizes that believing in one’s own abilities and overcoming self-imposed limitations are crucial for breaking free from stagnation.

Common Mindset Blocks

Omar illustrates his point with relatable examples:

1. Freelancer's Dilemma: A freelance writer maxes out on clients but fears raising rates due to imposter syndrome or distrust in delegating tasks.
2. Founder’s Sales Aversion: A product creator avoids selling, viewing it as manipulative, which leads to insufficient sales and business stagnation.

These scenarios highlight how internal beliefs and fears can prevent business owners from taking necessary steps to scale.

“Your beliefs. Your mind is the biggest obstacle to your growth.”
— Omar Zenhom [03:10]

Steps to Overcome Mindset Blocks

Omar outlines a five-step process to shift mindset and unlock business growth:

1. Identify the Mindset Block:
   Determine the specific belief hindering progress.

   “What belief is holding you back?”
   — Omar Zenhom [07:11]

2. Challenge the Belief:
   Assess the validity of the limiting belief by seeking evidence and alternative perspectives.

   “Is there actual truth behind it?”
   — Omar Zenhom [07:30]

3. Take One Small Step Forward:
   Implement incremental changes to test and adjust assumptions.

   “I raise my rates for one client, for example, or I raise it on my sales page for a month and I try it out.”
   — Omar Zenhom [08:05]

4. Reflect and Adjust:
   Evaluate the outcomes of the changes and make necessary adjustments.

   “Did the world end? No, it did not end.”
   — Omar Zenhom [08:30]

5. Learn and Make Mindset Growth a Habit:
   Continuously seek knowledge and surround oneself with inspiring individuals to foster ongoing growth.

   “You have to make an effort to be around people that are doing big things.”
   — Omar Zenhom [09:15]

Personal Anecdote: The Tokyo Experience

Omar shares a personal story about a dinner with Ramit Sethi in Tokyo, highlighting the impact of surrounding oneself with ambitious individuals:

“I'm not thinking big enough.”
— Omar Zenhom [10:00]

This encounter reinforced his belief in the necessity of a growth-oriented environment to push one's limits.

Internal Solutions vs. External Fixes

Throughout the episode, Omar consistently advocates for internal solutions over external fixes. He argues that while external strategies can provide temporary relief, lasting growth stems from transforming one’s internal mindset.

“External fixes are great, but internal growth ones is where the magic happens.”
— Omar Zenhom [11:40]

He underscores that personal development directly enhances decision-making, hiring quality, and overall business strategy.

Conclusion: Embrace Internal Growth for Business Success

Omar concludes by reiterating that business growth is intrinsically linked to personal growth. To sustain and elevate their businesses, entrepreneurs must continuously evolve, challenge their beliefs, and adopt a growth mindset.

“You can't grow your business until you actually grow yourself, right?”
— Omar Zenhom [12:30]

He encourages listeners to introspect, identify their mindset blocks, and take proactive steps to overcome them, ensuring their businesses not only survive but thrive.

Key Takeaways

• Mindset is Crucial: Internal beliefs often play a more significant role in business stagnation than external factors.
• Five-Step Process: Identifying, challenging, taking action, reflecting, and learning are essential for overcoming mental blocks.
• Surround Yourself with Growth: Engaging with ambitious individuals and continuous learning fosters a growth-oriented mindset.
• Internal Growth Leads to External Success: Personal development directly influences business decisions and overall success.

Notable Quotes

• “It's not your business that needs to change. It's you.” — Omar Zenhom [01:14]
• “Your beliefs. Your mind is the biggest obstacle to your growth.” — Omar Zenhom [03:10]
• “You can't grow your business until you actually grow yourself, right?” — Omar Zenhom [12:30]

---

For a deeper dive into practical business lessons and strategies, subscribe to The $100 MBA Show and visit 100mba.net.

Transcript

[Dr. Emily Carter]

Do Crohn's disease symptoms keep coming back. Tremphya Giselcomab May help at 12 weeks. Rapid symptom remission was achieved in most patients taking Tremphya and some experienced visible improvement of their intestinal lining. At 12 weeks and 1 year. Individual results may vary. Tremphya is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease. Serious allergic reactions and increased risk of infections and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tb. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu like symptoms or if you need a vaccine. Explore what's possible and ask your doctor about tremphya today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit tremphiradio.com.

[Mark Johnson]

USAA knows dynamic duos can save the day like superheroes and sidekicks or auto and home insurance. With usaa, you can bundle your auto and home and save up to 10%. Tap the banner to learn more and get a quote at usa. Restrictions apply.

[Omar Zenhom]

Why isn't your business growing? You've tweaked the funnels. You refined the product. You've optimized your marketing. So what's the problem? The answer might surprise you. It's not your business that needs to change. It's you. Today, we're going to dive into why your mindset could be the biggest roadblock to your growth and how to fix it. Listen, I totally understand if you're hearing this right now and you're like, what are you talking about? Or my mindset. I was like that 15 years ago before I learned this. I was like, I want to win. I want to grow. There's nothing wrong in my mind when it comes to this. What I realized was I was wrong and I didn't get it. Now that I understand, I want to share it with you. If you are stuck right now, you cannot afford to miss today's episode. Welcome Back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm your host Omar Zenholm, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday to help you start, grow and scale your business. Today's episode is all about why your business is stuck right now, why you're in a rut, and how to get out of that situation. How to get growing again. Let's start with why businesses get stuck in the first place. At some point, every business hits some sort of plateau. Revenue starts to flatten. Maybe your leads are starting to dry up. You run out of hours in the day to take More on Does this sound familiar? When this happens, most entrepreneurs look for external fixes. They start asking questions like, should I adjust my pricing? Should I rework my funnel? Should I hire more people? Now, don't get me wrong. These are valid questions. But in my opinion and in my experience, they're not always the right ones to start with. The smartest move, in my experience is to stop looking at your business and start looking at yourself. Now, I'm going to tell you right now, this is uncomfortable. Okay? It doesn't feel great to say, maybe there's something wrong with me. Maybe I'm not enough. Maybe I can't do it as I am right now. It's okay, because everybody goes through this. And you can get through this. If you recognize this and change, you have the ability to change. You've already changed in your life to get to the point where you are right now. So what are some better questions? The real questions you should ask yourself. A really golden question I like to ask is, what could I change about myself that would solve this? So whatever problem you have in your business that you see, what about myself that I can change that would solve this? Here are some other ways I would rephrase this question. Maybe it will hit differently for you. Who would you be if you weren't stuck anymore? What's holding you back from taking the next step? Here's the truth. Your beliefs. Your mind is the biggest obstacle to your growth. And what you believe is who you are, right? Whatever you believe, the things that you believe about yourself is who you are. That's the reality. Let me give you an example just to make this super clear. Let's say you're a freelance writer. You've maxed out on your clients. You've hit your revenue ceiling because you simply don't have the time to take on more work. The external fixes might be charging more for your services or hiring another writer to help you scale, or maybe using AI to streamline your workflow. But here's a really important question. Why haven't you done those things yet? Maybe you're afraid to raise your rates. AKA imposter syndrome. That old friend. Maybe you're hesitant to hire somebody because you don't trust anyone else to do the work as well as you will do it. Fear of delegation. Maybe you're avoiding AI because you think it's fake or it's lazy. Or maybe it's going to be so good you'll start to question your own skills. Get under the reason why you haven't done the things you should in your business to move forward. The internal solution is more powerful than than any external one because it unlocks your ability to act. It solves the root problem so you don't have this problem. Again, let me give you another example. The founder who loves creating their product but hates selling it, Their mindset around sales is that it's some form of manipulation or it's sleazy. The result, they don't sell enough and their business stagnates. The external fix is simple. I'm going to wait until I can hire somebody to handle my sales for me, and basically you're going to be stuck until then. But how are you going to afford them if you're not making more sales? All right, but the internal fix, if you went internal, it's far more transformative. Get comfortable being proud of your product. Recognize that your product has value and that there's a transformation it brings to your customers. Understand that you're educating your customers on the value, educating them on why this is a good decision to go with you, and you're proud of it. There's no manipulation in selling something you truly believe in. If you go to a great restaurant that you absolutely love, you can't help but tell other people, you got to go to this restaurant. You're not manipulating them to go to the restaurant. You just feel compelled that this is a valuable experience. You should do this. You should go. So the bottom line is you can't grow if you're afraid to champion your own work.

[Mark Johnson]

Race the rudders.

[Omar Zenhom]

Raise the sails.

[Mark Johnson]

Race the sails.

[Omar Zenhom]

Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching.

[Dr. Emily Carter]

Over.

[Mark Johnson]

Roger, wait. Is that an enterprise sales solution? Reach sales professionals, not professional sailors. With LinkedIn ads, you can target the right people by industry, job title, and more. We'll even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign. Get started today at LinkedIn.com results. Terms and conditions apply. Got a 7am Meeting on a Monday expensing breakfast because it's in policy, wasting all afternoon submitting an expense report for that breakfast. If your company used Ramp, you could submit expenses with just a text.

[Omar Zenhom]

Yay.

[Dr. Emily Carter]

Free your team from expense reports today. Switch your business to ramp.com.

[Omar Zenhom]

So how do we break free from this? How do we get unstuck? Here are my steps, steps that I like to take anytime I hit a plateau. Step number one is to identify the mindset block. What belief is holding you back? What do you believe about yourself or about the situation or what's going on that is stopping you from doing what you need to do, for example, I can't charge more for my product. Step two, challenge the belief. Challenge it. Is there actual truth behind it? Is there evidence that this is true? Because you're telling yourself a story without any proof. Could you charge more if you demonstrated there's more value you can bring? If you increase the value to your product? Or maybe you showed how valuable it is, the return on investment for the customer, wouldn't that be enough to justify a higher price? One of the things I like to do is I like to detach myself from the business. Like, imagine I'm talking about another business, another founder. What advice would I give them in this situation? And most likely it's advice I should take on. And again, this exercise of pretending it's somebody else is proof that what I'm telling myself is a false story. So after I identify the block and I challenge the belief, the third step is I take one small step forward. I test my assumptions. I raise my rates for one client, for example, or I raise it on my sales page for a month and I try it out. I see what happens. If I'm afraid to delegate, I delegate. One task. Fourth step, I reflect and I adjust. I ask myself the question, did the world end? No, it did not end. Right. Great, keep going. Let's make some adjustments. What else can I do? What's the next step? What's the next way I can, you know, lean forward and lean into this a little bit more. And step five is you learn from this experience and you say, okay, there's a lot I need to change about myself if I want to get better and better. So you need to make mindset, growth, a habit, a part of your daily life. And the way to do that is through information, is through your environment. Read books, take courses, surround yourself with people who challenge the way you think, make you think bigger. Let me give you an example. Let me give you a story. Last year I was in Tokyo, Japan, and I had a couple dinners with a friend of mine, Ramit Sethi. Ramit Sethi is a New York Times best selling author of two books and he's a star of his own show on Netflix, how to Get Rich. Ramit is a lovely guy and we had a great meal. But my biggest takeaway was, I'm not thinking big enough. This guy is thinking big. And that wouldn't happen. That unblock of I'm thinking small, I need to think bigger. Would not happen if I didn't surround myself with people like Ramit, if I didn't accept the fact that, hey, I gotta be around people that are doing big things. That means putting yourself out there, inviting people to dinner, you know, networking, going to conferences, asking for introductions. It's not going to happen by accident, okay? You have to make an effort to be around people that are doing big things. Almost every business challenge that I faced has some sort of internal solution. When you change who you are in your head, you unlock the ability to do all kinds of things in your business. Whether it's raising your prices confidently, delegating and trusting your team. Embracing tools and technology that come up like AI. Sell your product with pride, like we talked about. All these things don't happen just because I decide to. I have to believe in my head first that this is something that I should do and have to do. I got to remove the beliefs behind it that are stopping me from doing it. That's why challenging your beliefs is really important. You can't grow your business until you actually grow yourself, right? Your business is only going to grow to a certain level. Beyond that, that's who you are. You got to change. You got to grow so they can keep growing. Otherwise, how else will it grow? Who's making the decisions? Who's making the hires? You are. And if you want to improve the quality of your decisions and your hires improve who you are. So if you're feeling stuck, if your business is stuck, start looking inwards. Ask yourself, what could I change about myself to solve this? Remember, external fixes are great, but internal growth ones is where the magic happens. Where you don't actually have to worry about how to fix something external because it's going to happen naturally because you already fixed the root problem. Almost every hurdle I found in business starts and ends with yourself. Listen, who you are right now has gotten to where you are right now. And that's great. You've done a good job. You've made a lot of progress in your life. But if you want things to change, to improve, you guessed it, you got to change. You got to improve. Thanks for tuning into the $100 MBA show. If you want to go deeper, if you want to learn week by week with me, I have a weekly newsletter that is absolutely free and it's my way to kind of coach you from afar. I give you three things to do every single week. Something to think about. It's like a thought exercise. Something to do and something to learn. It'll help you take action every single week. All you gotta do is go to our website, 100 MBA net and sign up for any of our freebies. Give your name and email address, and it'll be part of our weekly newsletter. If you found today's episode valuable, don't forget to subscribe. Share with other people that you know. Make sure you're following the show on any podcast app you're using, or if you're watching on YouTube. That way you get our next episodes automatically and have access to our archive episodes of over 2,500 business lessons. I'm Omar Zenholm and I'll see you in the next episode.

[Mark Johnson]

Got a 7am meeting on a Monday? Expensing breakfast because it's in policy.

[Omar Zenhom]

Yay.

[Mark Johnson]

Wasting all afternoon submitting an expense report for that breakfast. If your company used Ramp, you could submit expenses with just a text.

[Omar Zenhom]

Yay.

[Dr. Emily Carter]

Free your team from expense reports today. Switch your business to ramp.com.