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The $100 MBA Show
MBA2651 Q&A Wednesday: How Do I Stop Comparing Myself to Everyone Online?
00:09:54
Scrolling through social media can sometimes leave you feeling like you don’t measure up. Seeing everyone’s highlight reels can make your own business (or life) seem ordinary in comparison—but it’s time to break free from the comparison trap.
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Have you ever scrolled through social and suddenly feel like your life, your business, your progress, just isn't enough? Yeah, me too. It's like everyone's crushing it and you're the only loser in town, right? New launches, perfect bodies, seven figure months, vacation photos with exotic backgrounds, right? And here you are trying to figure out why your Last post got 11 views. Today's Q and A. Wednesday's episode is a question from Sally, and she asks a very popular question that I get asked a lot. How do I stop comparing myself to everyone online? 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, and Friday, to help you start, grow and scale your business. Let's talk about the psychology of it, the reality of the situation, and what actually works to break free from this mental quicksand. We're gonna learn how to live with social media the right way. Let's start with the uncomfortable truth. Social media is a highlight reel. It's not reality. It's not the truth. At least it's not the whole truth, right? You know this already, but it's worth repeating. I could tell you firsthand. I've spoken to influencers that are crushing it online who couldn't make payroll. I've seen viral creators who secretly hate their business. I've met founders who post selfies with business class boarding passes kind of peeking into the frame, who sleep like three hours a night because they have so Much anxiety. People exaggerate, people spin, okay? People show you the best 5% of their life and their business and leave out 95% of everything else. What's everything else? The chaos, the fear, the slow progress, the numbers, the actual reality of their life and business. And let's be honest, we all do this to some extent as well, too, right? Even in our wins, we polish them up and, you know, show the best photos possible. We use filters. We frame it just right, right? So stop comparing. Comparing your truth, everything you know about your life to the fiction that you see online to the most polished version of any moment. Think about that for a moment. You're comparing your real life to somebody's branding strategy. That's not fair and it's not useful. Here's what comparison really does. First of all, it robs you of joy. The best thing you can do is never compare yourself to anybody other than yourself. I like to compare myself to who I was yesterday, right? I just want to improve, that's all. Really? What you want to do now doesn't mean that I never compare myself to other people. It's natural to do that. But I try to catch myself. What is happening? Why? Because I notice when I'm comparing myself to other people, it shifts my focus from my own path to somebody else's path. It turns inspiration, even into insecurity. You know, you might be inspired by what somebody's doing, but if you dwell on it too much, you often start to feel insecure about your own life and your own achievements. And worst of all, it slows down your action, right? Because you're living in your head and you're not doing right. You know how many people I've seen delay a launch or kill a great product idea because they saw someone else already doing it? That's the trap. If you see someone winning, it doesn't mean you're losing, okay? That's a zero sum game mentality where you think that there can only be one winner. No, you can win and somebody else can win. You know, that means the market's working, and that's a good sign. Let me give you a real example from my own experience. When I launched my software company, Webinar Ninja, there were already a ton of webinar tools and a lot of tools coming out as I was growing it. Tools like GoToWebinars, Zoom, Webinar Jam. Those are my competitors. But I didn't say, well, I guess I'm too late, or I guess I should just pack up my business because somebody else came out with a similar product. I said, great, this market is proven. Let me make something better for my people today. That decision helped us build a multimillion dollar business so valuable it allowed us to be acquired not because we were first, but because we didn't get distracted. We stay focused. We didn't look at other people and say, hey, what are they doing? Oh man, they're doing so good. I love what they're doing over there. Alright, let's get tactical. Here's what I've done and what works when it comes to this. To stop comparison and to focus on execution. Because really, that's what matters. Turn envy into research. Next time you feel jealous or inferior, do this. Don't hate it. Don't hate that person. Don't hate that thing. Analyze it right? Look at it under the microscope, right? Ask what exactly is working for them? Are their videos short and punchy? What about the video that is engaging? Do they have a tighter niche? Are they, you know, doing storytelling better than you? Learn from it, study it. Then use what you've learned to do better in your own business. Turn that comparison into improvement. That's really what I'm trying to do here, like learn from something that you see that is great.
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That's $200 you can put towards your next freelancer. Design help, AI automation, admin support, market your business needs. I just love Upwork because it's simple, it's easy. You can solve a problem in your business quickly by finding great talent. Visit upwork.comsave right now for this great offer. That's upwork.comsave to get $200 credit to put towards your next freelancer to help grow your business. That's Upwork.comsave. s A V E Upwork.comsave don't wait. This offers only valid June 24th through August 5th, 2025. Number two, make your progress visible to yourself. This is huge. This is big. Create what I call a wins folder. I personally call it a rainy day folder. It's a folder on your phone or on your computer where every win, big or small, you put it in the folder. A great email from a customer, a post that performed well, A review of your podcast that just surfaced, that somebody just sent a sale, right, that was really impactful. Maybe your first sale, Maybe even a photo of a journal entry where you had a moment where you had a tough time and you didn't quit. Track these things, okay? Because your brain will forget all the progress you've made when you're in that comparison game. And when that comparison creeps up, you need reminders. Tap into your folder. Tap into that wins folder. Number three, design your feed. Be ruthless about how you use social media. This isn't woo, woo, you know, kind of information. This is mental hygiene. You know, you don't need to follow everybody that follows you, okay? Anybody that triggers you, you don't need to follow them. Creators who make you feel less than you should feel. You can just, you know, say, I don't want to see these posts anymore. Friends who actually secretly are competing with you. People that act like your friends, but they want to see you go down, you know, unfollow them. You know, you don't need to see their posts. You can mute, you can unfollow. You can just clean up what you see when you open up social media. Follow people who teach you, that help you, that want to see you win. Follow people that inspire you with vulnerability, with honesty, with truthfulness. Anybody that can help you grow. Those are the people you should follow. Your Feed is your environment. Remember that. And your environment shapes your mindset. Sally, who asked today's question and anyone else struggling with this, you're not alone. Comparison is human. It's ancient. It's since the beginning of time. But so is the solution. Focus on your race, on your path, on your work and trust. Your path is meant for you, right? This is what you need to do, not them. Right? This is your thing. You. You don't need to win faster. You don't need to win like them. You're going to win in your own unique way. And what I found is that it's really just about staying in the game long enough to win. So don't get distracted. So how do you stay in the game long enough to win? Well, you got to protect your mind. You got to guard your energy, right? You got to show up consistently, even when nobody's, you know, clapping right or saying good job. Because eventually they will, all right, they will praise you. You're going to see. But you got to do it despite of what's happening around you, right? And you have to create the environment around you, even online that helps you do that. Thanks so much for being part of the Hundred Dollar MBA show, being a listener, being a subscriber. If you got a question you want to ask, go ahead and ask it right here on Q and A Wednesday by just going to 100mba.netq to submit your question right there. And of course, if you want to go deeper with me, you can. You want to join my Three Things newsletter. What is the Three Things newsletter? Well, first of all, it's free. Number two, it allows me to coach you from afar. I give you three things every single week. First, something to think about, so you're growing your mindset. Number two, something to do so you're actually taking action week after week. And number three, something to learn so you're skilling up and becoming better. Every week that goes by, just go to100mba.net sign up for any of our free resources and you get added to our newsletter automatically. Again, it's free. 95% of everything that I offer is free. And it's because I want to make sure that nobody has any excuse to build that business they've always wanted. If you found today's episode helpful and you want more practical business lessons to help you start, grow and scale your business, the best thing you could do is subscribe to this podcast, hit, subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app, the one that you're using right now. Whether it's Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts by hitting subscribe, you get our next episode automatically and it's the best way to support the show. It's absolutely free and it's a way for you to commit to growing your business. 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