How People Pleasing is Holding You (and me) Back in Our Businesses!

How People Pleasing is Holding You (and me) Back in Our Businesses!

Welcome to episode number 89 of The Determined Mom Show. I cannot believe that we are quickly approaching 100 episodes. It has been such a fun couple of years, and I thank you so much for being a listener.

Today I want to talk to you about something that has come up for me a few times this week, and that is how people-pleasing is holding you and myself back in our business. This episode is because I’ve been approached a lot in the last two weeks by people looking for me to fill their box, not the box I want to serve.

So, super interesting. People have approached me for full-time SEO positions. As an employee, I’ve been solicited by nonprofits. It’s just an exciting situation that I’m in because I’m being interviewed for work, which I love, but it’s different from the work that I necessarily want to do. Not saying that I don’t want to do SEO because I do love SEO, but I want to do it on my terms and in my way.

And my husband brought up the point that I’m allowing others to tell me what they want and forming a way to work with them on their terms, not mine. And that’s not how a business is supposed to be run. So I know that I am talking about this and putting it out there, but this will help other people know that you are not alone when you do this.

And it comes from self-doubt. I know my SEO skills are precious, and I must value myself. This is not only a people-pleasing episode, but it’s also about knowing your worth, knowing that you’re worth charging what you are worth and what your services are worth, and going ahead and doing it without any question.

So I hope you are not doing this to yourself and your business, but if you are, a client is not just a client. So a client is someone who you choose how you can serve them. You don’t alter your business plan, services, or anything like that to help them. You help a specific set of people with a specific need, so make sure that you are sticking to that unless you want to go ahead and start entertaining other areas and other things. 

I love SEO, so I am totally open to SEO, but I don’t want to work for anyone else as an employee. So I had to make that clear in a couple of instances over the last couple of weeks that, while I love doing SEO and I would love to help these businesses out, I need to be an independent contractor.

And have my team, and I work on their SEO. I started my business because I needed to do things on my terms. I started my business, so I don’t have to answer anyone. I don’t have to be an employee, and that’s a massive deal for me. I am so, claiming my independence as a business owner.

And also, keeping that independence and protecting it is a very hard thing to do, especially if you have people-pleasing tendencies. So this is a very short episode. I would like to ask you to do the same. I’m going to challenge you this week, too. If you feel tempted by people, please, in anything involving your business, do not do it.

Set those boundaries and lines in the sand where this is my business. If you come into the door, you can expect this, and you will leave with this. You can portray to your potential clients and make sure you stick to your guns. What I learned this week the most is that I want to work with people and help them, but I want to help them on my terms, not theirs.

So, super exciting space to be in and work that we need to do to get ourselves out of. I also want to talk about what I plan on doing or what I started doing this morning to work out of it. And that is writing down positive affirmations every day. That set those boundaries in the sand for me mentally.

I am a business, not an employee, nor do I want to be. Lots of different things like that; just setting those boundaries in writing every day will be very helpful. Also, gratitude is always beneficial, and just putting your goals every day and writing those down can be very helpful, too, because that’s affirming where you want to go in your business.

So I hope this episode was helpful for you and that you enjoyed it, and I would love it for you. Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google, Amazon, or Spotify; wherever you’re listening to this, there are so many different places you could be listening to it. Please subscribe and also leave us a review.