I have been really blessed and lucky to be around entrepreneurship for 20 years and be able to see businesses grow from little guys to big guys. To see people fail. To see people exceed To determine whether or not people exceed quickly. Now, I'm also an introvert. I know I am doing these videos because I'm an introvert. One thing I have gained from that is that I am able to sit on the sidelines and kind of watch, and see what people are doing and analyze it. And there are a few things I've noticed over the last few years that have made someone succeed versus not. Moving fast versus not. And today, we are going to touch on one of those. 

So this morning I was listening to my morning motivational video and I heard Denzel Washington's voice. He has one of those distinct voices. Now, Sean Connery is my favorite voice, but Denzel Washington, I just know his voice. And he was speaking at the commencement, and he said this. And I thought this fit so well into one of the things I see entrepreneurs get wrong all the time. What he said was this: He said: "Don't confuse movement with progress. "Running in place takes you nowhere. Let me say that again. Don't confuse movement with progress. "Running in place gets you nowhere." And I was like, "Man!" This is such a good analogy for what I see entrepreneurs and business owners doing. They're so busy and busy and busy, and then they wonder why they haven't reached their goals. So there are three big ways I see business owners making themselves busy and working but not going And we are going to touch on those. But a big piece is the goals. You need to know where you're going. So if you are going anywhere, you might end up in Texas when you mean New York. You might end up with no clients when you really wanted 200. So, goals are really important. When I work with clients, this is one of the first things we do. What are the goals? And what are the milestones to get to the goals? Think of those as rest stops. Are we hitting these certain places as we're getting to our goal? The only time that I don't do that is if I have a business that has a lot of foundational stuff that needs to be set, so we'll work on that first, and that's our main goal. so that we have a launchpad to go off of. 

So the way I see people is just spinning and having momentum but not going anywhere. One of the big ones is using social media. So you have a goal, and you have a strategy, and you have a tracking, and a way of seeing how it's working  That's great! But what I normally see people do is this: "Oh, I'm just connecting with people! I'm just going to comment on my network stuff. I just want to see, you know, if anyone needs my service and then maybe comment on it. " That is when you're moving forward but not really going anywhere. The second thing I see is people complaining about their business. They will call their friends and be like, "Oh my goodness, you can't believe what happened today!" PshPshPshPsh "Oh you gotta go? OK, let me call someone else. " "Oh my goodness, you can not believe what happened today!" "Oh you gotta go? OK, I'm just going to type about this. " "Oh hey! Oh, I don't care about what is going on with you, " "I gotta tell you what is going on with my business." I see that all the time! Now, complaining about your business is fine. Venting about your business is fine. But if you're constantly complaining, you are wasting precious time. If you have 10 hours of working time and you are spending all of that time complaining, even though you're talking about your business, you're still just running in a circle and not moving anything forward. It is during these times that you should consider hiring a coach or consultant. I'm going to put a link to a video below that helps you decide if it's time for a coach or a consultant. But if there is a problem that you keep just hitting into, then it might be time to make an adjustment and find a solution so that you can break through that problem and not deal with it anymore. 

The third one is booking your calendar full of meetings. I don't know how many times I've talked to someone and been like, "Hey! How's your week going? " "Oh, it has been great! Yesterday alone, I had 10 meetings. 10 meetings! " And I'm like, "OK, were those productive meetings? Were they client meetings? Or referral partner meetings? " And not just referral partners like they might be able to refer me, but you know, like-really strategic referral partner, growth, relationship building meetings. " "OK... no?" Having your calendar full is not always the best thing. I am known to say no to as many meetings as I say yes to. Your time is very valuable. And if you are not progressing forward toward your goal, then that means you are just running in place. What I really want you to look at, if you really are set to expand and grow your business, is what are your goals? And that is exactly what you are doing: running in place while feeling like you have momentum. Or are you actually progressing to where you need to go?