Welcome to the Rich Coach Club, the podcast that teaches you how to build your dream coaching practice and how to significantly increase your income. If you're a coach and you're determined to start making more money, this show is for you. I'm master certified life coach Susan Hyatt, and I'm psyched for you to join me on this journey.
Hey, coaches. Today’s episode is all about how to make decisions quickly and confidently. If you are that person who agonizes over every business decision you need to make and you can stall for weeks because you just can’t decide on the perfect name for your business, or the perfect logo, or the perfect whatever, this episode is for you.
And if you’re someone who has a tendency to ask a million people for input before you make a decision and commit to a plan, keep listening because that habit might be holding you back more than it’s helping you. Alright, let’s dive right in.
You want to know something that’s costing you tons of time and energy and money? Being indecisive. Being indecisive is such a time-suck. It’s exhausting. It constricts your business and income in so many ways. If you’re spending three hours agonizing over a decision that really could be made in 30 seconds, this is a waste of your precious time. It’s clogging up your whole day.
You’re going to have a very difficult time reaching six or seven figures in revenue if you’re super-indecisive. I often have clients who have such beautiful goals; books they want to write, podcasts they want to host, a vision for changing lives and healing the world. But they’re super-indecisive, which means everything takes 50 times longer than it really needs to. Or they’re so indecisive that they never move forward at all.
It’s that client who says, “I don’t know. I have five ideas for a book I could write but I just can’t narrow it down and decide.” Or the person who says, “I can’t decide on a perfect name for my new program,” and then they remain stuck and don’t create this new program. Any of this ringing a bell? Sound familiar? Maybe you can relate.
As a coach, it’s my job to be patient, ask good questions, and help this client arrive at a decision at their own pace. But I’ve got to be honest, I do have moments where I want to interrupt this persona and say, “Yo, stop stalling and just make a decision already. Enough waffling. Pick something and move forward.” I mean, I actually did do this, this morning in one of my Facebook groups.
By making a decision and busting a move, you create momentum. And momentum is what leads to success. I’ve gotten to a point where I’m able to make decisions very quickly and confidently and I probably make 100 business decisions every day.
I have 10 employees and my team is constantly sending me things to review and approve, copy to review, web designs, program outlines, budgets, requests, all kinds of things. And most of the time, I get a strong instinct and say yes or no within a few seconds; maybe a minute at most. This means, instead of being a bottleneck in my company, I keep things flowing forward.
I want to share a few things that I do regularly; things that have helped me become a swift decision-maker. I’m a swifty. Alright, number one, I have quiet time in my day. I’m not joking around about this. Don’t y’all roll your eyes at me because I’ve built up over time. But for at least 45 minutes every day, I sit on what I call my patio of possibility or, now that the weather is cooler, by my fireplace. And I just sit.
I literally, I sit with my coffee and stare into space and do nothing. I sip my coffee. I listen to the birds or I watch the flames. Sometimes I think about business, and sometimes I don’t. But this quiet time is precious because it’s a chance for my brain to digest all the matters of the day and reset.
When I go back to my desk, I’m able to make decisions quickly. So, as human beings, we really do, whether you’re introverted or extroverted, we need quiet in order to function and think clearly. We all need a dose of quiet in our days.
There’s so much scientific evidence backing this up. So, if you’re someone who struggles to make decisions confidently, you need to ask yourself, “Do I need more quiet time in my day?” That could really be the issue.
Another thing that helps me to be a decisive coach, number two, I don’t ask a million people for their opinion. I have a small circle of trusted advisors, and once in a while, I might run an idea by them to get their thoughts. But 95% of the time, I don’t ask a bunch of people for their opinion before I decide to do something. I just decide and I do it.
So, oftentimes, you see people posting a message on social media and saying, “What do you guys think about this? What do you think about this idea? What are your thoughts on this offer? Would this be something you’d want to purchase?”
And they just want to collect opinions from people. But personally, I’ve learned this the hard way. I rarely do that. Almost never because I find that kind of thing more distracting than it is helpful. And also, when it comes to making money, you can poll people for opinions all day long. But the only way to know for sure if your idea is going to work is to launch it into the marketplace and see how actual customers respond. That’s it.
All those random people on Facebook are not necessarily your ideal clients. But launching will give you way more information that polling people on social media.
So, when I get an idea, I sit with it. I scan my body. I trust my gut. I might ask a few people who are in the know, but I don’t ask a million people for their opinion. So, those are two practices that help me be decisive and move forward quickly.
One more thing I want to mention. Number three. I recognize that not making a decision is costly. And that’s not a price I’m willing to pay. So, when I feel tempted to stall and hem and haw and put off making a decision, I remind myself that it’s costly, very, very expensive to be indecisive.
I remind myself, “Hey, Susan, you’ve got a full week and a lot of things to do and you can’t afford to waste four hours waffling about this. Make a choice and move on. Create and release. Let’s go.”
The ability to make decisions quickly and confidently is the hallmark of a successful CEO and entrepreneur and it’s a skill that we all need to build. So, look, I’m not advising you to rush and be careless and create a frenzied workday. Not at all.
What I’m urging you to do is trust your instincts and keep moving forward. Don’t become a bottleneck in your own business.
So, I’ll leave you with this quote from Brian Tracy, “Decisiveness is a characteristic of high-performing men and women. Almost any decision is better than no decision at all.” And here’s one last quote I love from a psychologist named George Weinberg, “The cure for most obstacles is: be decisive.”
It’s time for community wins. And this is the part of the show where I share some wins, victories, brave action steps from my clients, sometimes members from my mastermind or sometimes from the Rich Coach Club Facebook group. If you’re not in there, get your booty inside Rich Coach Club.
Alright, I want to highlight one particular mastermind client of mine named Mary Warren. So, when I first started working with Mary last summer, she had a goal to pay off debt and to double her income. And she really has committed herself in 2020, despite all the challenges, to do what she needed to do.
And I’m just so happy to report that she has as much money in savings as she had debt. So, she paid off her debt. She has that much in savings. She tripled her income, and she’s hired a couple employees. I’m so proud of this woman. I mean, what a transformation. She is doing the work.
So, all y’all out there, everyone listening to this, I would love to know, what’s your biggest win, even from the last week? Maybe you had a client consult call that went really well. Maybe you finally made a decision that you’ve been postponing for way too long. Maybe you decluttered your office and you’re obsessed with the new vibe. That’s me. My new office has me obsessed.
Take a moment to celebrate your favorite win of just this past week. And celebrate it because, over time, little wins add up to huge results.
Oh hey, hey. Do you love this podcast? Maybe you’ve gotten a big boost n motivation from this show. Maybe this show has shifted your attitude or helped you make more money. I want to invite you. I’m bribing you to head over to Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. Like, for real, do it today, leave a review. Consider it your tiny good karma deed of the day. And if you leave a review and you let us know about it, I’m going to send you a crown in the mail.
So, here’s my latest review that just warmed my heart, made my day. Sherri Bradfield wrote – she entitles her review Positive Energy, “Listening to Susan Hyatt is a shot of positivity I carry forward into my day. If everyone could harness her positive energy, there would be no need for furthering the search for alternative energy sources.”
Sherri, that is so awesome and sweet of you to say. Thank you so much. I love you right back.
Thank you for listening to today’s episode. I hope that this episode has inspired you to stop waffling, unless it’s buttermilk waffles, and make a decision. Become a decisive leader who trusts herself. There is no such thing as a perfect decision. However, the act of deciding is always a good move. Have a powerful week and I’ll see you next time.
One last thing, are you trying to grow your coaching practice? If you want more clients, more enrollments, a lot more money coming in the door? Well, if that’s what you want, there are six crucial steps that you need to complete.
Want to learn those six steps? It’s all inside a new program called Quick Start. This is a program where my team guides you through these six steps and helps you implement each one. Hey, I’m around too.
With Quick Start, there’s no big time commitment. You don’t have to commit to working with us for six months or a whole year. It’s a quicky. Quick but potent. So, if you want to learn more about Quick Start, the link is in the show notes. Go ahead and sign up.
