Ep 22 - 3 Fatal Mistakes to Avoid as an Entrepreneur - Part 1: Overthinking

On this episode of CEO amplify, we're diving deep into the entrepreneur's silent killer, overthinking. Imagine this. You've got a brilliant, groundbreaking idea, but the fear of making the wrong move has you stuck in analysis paralysis. Join me as I uncover real life scenarios of how overthinking can derail your business dreams. Learn practical strategies to break free, trust your instincts, and make decisions that propel you forward. Don't let overthinking be the anchor holding you back. Are you a successful business owner who has a laundry list of ideas and struggles to achieve your big goals? Welcome to the CEO Amplify podcast. I'm your host, Donna Dube, and my goal is to empower you to drive meaningful change and amplify your profits without the overwhelm.

Join us as we provide actionable solutions for visionary CEOs like yourself to up level your CEO skills, Streamline operations and master strategic prioritization. Learn how to scale your business to new heights, working smarter, not harder. If you're ready to reclaim your time and accelerate your growth, let's dive in and start this exciting adventure together. Remember, the only limit to your business growth is the one you set for yourself. Welcome back CEOs. I'm so glad you're here. This is the first of 3 episodes In which I'm going to be focusing on fatal mistakes that you want to avoid as an entrepreneur. And I call these fatal mistakes because they could cost you your success if you're not careful.

So the first one we're gonna talk about this week is overthinking. Now for some of you listening, when I ask you if overthinking is really an issue for you, your gut reaction is gonna say no. You're gonna say, I have tons of ideas, and they come faster than I can put any of them into action. But that right there is the key, my friends. When we're talking about overthinking, it's not about how many ideas you have, but rather how long you contemplate and research and think about an idea before implementing and putting it into action. So let me give you a few scenarios and examples that I've come across either in my own business or with helping my clients just to set the scene and and get you thinking in this realm. So again, imagine you've got a brilliant Dia for a brand new product, program, or service. You're really excited about it, but as you start contemplating the various aspects of actually bringing this thing to market, you find yourself overthinking.

Should you launch it now or wait for market conditions to be just right. Maybe you should spend more time in market research just to make sure you're on the right track. Or maybe you should start developing a prototype first, or maybe you'll beta test it first, or maybe you'll wait until Mhmm. You see, this indecision becomes a breeding ground for overthinking. You might actually spend months analyzing Utilizing every possible angle, consulting with business besties and friends, industry experts, and maybe even your potential customers by, you know, asking your audience. Meanwhile, while you're doing this overthinking and overanalyzing, Your competitors who are making swift decisions and making adjustments gain the upper hand. Or perhaps you've been contemplating starting a podcast to showcase your expertise in your industry. You've brainstormed topics, you've got potential guests lined up, you've envisioned the format.

But the fear of not having the perfect strategy, or the best equipment keeps you from taking the 1st step. Overthinking turns your exciting project into a prolonged idea that never materializes. And overthinking can creep into our day to day the operations of running our businesses as well. For example, you're faced with a decision about hiring a new team member, And instead of assessing the candidate based on their skills and the cultural fit and a value fit, you spend weeks agonizing over whether it's the right time to expand your team. Meanwhile, your workload keeps increasing, and your potential opportunities slip away. The problem here is that many of us don't realize that overthinking is really an unconscious habit. It's silently hindering our progress. One common scenario is getting stuck in indecision, and when we let indecision drag on, We lose momentum as we remain paralyzed by the fear of making the wrong choice.

A lot of times, the root of our overthinking actually lies in a lack of self trust in trusting ourselves. You see, as entrepreneurs, many of us are conditioned to seek external validation, and we find it really challenging to rely on our own instincts. And this is exactly where the danger of overthinking comes in, because we get stuck in this loop of endlessly gathering information. Right? We're in information gathering mode. We're scoring the Internet. We're going on Google. We're going on YouTube. We're finding resources.

We're maybe even buying courses and attending classes, and we're seeking advice from our friends and from our audience. But the danger lies in that we can spend up to a whole A year collecting information without actually moving forward. I heard it said once It's that those who collect a lot of information know a lot, they have a lot of knowledge, but without putting it into action, We don't have a lot of experience. So how do we overcome this habit of overthinking? Well, first, we need to acknowledge that we don't always have the right answer. Woah. Now that may come as a shock to some of you. You don't always have the right answer. You have to start by acknowledging that you won't always have the perfect answer, but by trusting your experience and your intuition.

You can make the best decision that you can now. Your experience and your intuition are valuable assets that I don't want you to discount. Use the information that you have and make the best decision that you can right now. And remember, you Always reserve the right to change your mind. Having this freedom allows you to move quickly and adapt, and prevents overthinking from obstructing your impact. So give yourself that freedom, that right to change your mind. Go with the best decision that you can right now and tweak and adjust as you move forward. The 2nd piece of this is learning to trust yourself and your instincts.

Again, we're often conditioned to Follow others' advice, right, assuming that the steps they took are gonna work for us. There are a lot of business gurus out there teaching us their cookie cutter mode. And I, for 1, don't stand for this. I don't believe in a minute that my business is going be exactly the same as yours, and the steps that I took to grow my business are going to work exactly the same for you. Because we are all different people. We all have a different voice. We all have a different business. We all have a different target audience.

And so I want us to get out of listening to everyone else's voices and letting all those should'ves and could'ves fill our heads and start to listen to our own thoughts and our own voice. Now this may be something completely new for some of you. And if it is, I understand it can be challenging at the beginning. But here's a way I have found that works for me, to take that break from external influences. And the easiest way to do this is actually to go on an information fast. Yeah. Fasting, just like we do with eating, but in this case, we're going on a fast with information. So think of this as a detox for your mind.

You want to disconnect from social media, from podcasts, yes, podcasts, even my podcast, books, and online events. I want you to get quiet and start listening. Pay attention to what you notice when the external noise fades away. This might feel uncomfortable for some of you, and I want you to embrace the discomfort, because often it's a sign that you're really tapping into your true self. So Take that time, whether it's a week or 2 weeks, and step away from information overload. No researching anything, no Googling anything. No podcasts. No social media.

Just let your mind be free. And pay attention and listen. Think you'll be pleasantly surprised at what you notice. The other piece of this that I wanna make sure we tap into is that overthinking is actually a procrastination technique. So when faced with a choice of now or later. This dilemma can be paralyzing for some of us. But again, by allowing yourself the right to change your mind, You create a sense of freedom, and this freedom enables you to move forward confidently knowing that adjustments can be made along the way. Make a decision for now and start down that path.

And when things aren't lining up right, tweak and change. Don't get caught in the trap of now or later, really focus on what you want to do now. And remember that mistakes, my friend, are going to happen. But mistakes are not to be feared. I want you to look at them as opportunities for growth and learning. Mistakes aren't roadblocks, but rather stepping stones on our entrepreneurial journey. So I ask you now, are you ready to break free and do the work that you were put on this earth to do, reaching more people and making a more significant impact? If so, then I challenge you to get quiet for the next 7 days and listen to your inner voice. Disconnect from social media, podcasts, webinars, books for the next week.

Yes. A true detox for your mind. And during this time, get quiet and pay attention to your inner voice. What ideas surface when the noise fades away? Alright, if you are up for this challenge, I want you to hop into the CEO Amplify Facebook group, and let me know when you're ready to start your quiet challenge, and I'll be there to hold you accountable. When the 7 days are up, be sure to come back to the group and let me know what you learned. What ideas came to mind when you let the noise beta way. Let's challenge ourselves to break the cycle of overthinking so we can unlock our true potential and pave the way for sustained business growth. That's all for this week friends. I hope you found this episode helpful. We'll see you next week.

Thank you for joining us on this episode of CEO Amplify. I appreciate you being part of our thriving community of ambitious business owners. If you enjoy today's episode, kindly ask you to share this podcast with a friend and take a hot minute to rate and leave a review. It would mean the world to me. Your feedback helps me reach more people and continue providing valuable content. Thanks so much for your support. Keep shining, and we'll catch you on the next episode.