Digitally She Does It Podcast

EPISODE 108: What to do when it feels like nothing is working in your business

• Karen Davies • Season 1 • Episode 108

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Feeling stuck in your business? You’re not alone!

In this episode of Digitally She Does It, I dive into that all-too-familiar frustration when it seems like nothing is moving forward. I share powerful mindset shifts, practical strategies, and personal insights to help you stay motivated even when progress feels slow.

You’ll discover the importance of celebrating small wins, trusting the process, and recognising how every action contributes to your bigger vision. I also reveal why taking a step back can help you see just how far you’ve come. Plus, I introduces valuable free resources inside the Digital Creators Hub to support your online journey.

Whether you’re launching an online course or just need a boost of encouragement, this episode is packed with inspiration and expert advice. So, grab your headphones, hit play, and let’s navigate the path to success together!


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Karen Davies [00:00:00]:
Hello, and welcome to the Digitally She Does It show. This is episode one zero eight. And in today's episode, I'm going to be talking about what to do when it feels like nothing is working in your business. So let's jump right in, and let's get started. Welcome to the Digitally She Does It Show. I am your host, Karen, and I'm here to lift the lid on what it actually takes to create a successful business. If you are an ambitious creative ready to build a business on your own terms and without compromise, then this podcast is perfect for you. 


With my award winning approach to marketing, and expert knowledge in creating online courses, this show will leave you feeling inspired, energised, and ready to bring those big dreams to life.

Karen Davies [00:00:51]:
Join me each week for a dose of motivation and marketing know how along with actionable step by step strategies to help you accelerate your businesses grow. So let's dive in and don't forget to subscribe to all my upcoming episodes which drop every Wednesday. Hello, and welcome. 


Thank you for joining me today. I'm your host, Karen, and I really do appreciate you hitting that play button to listen to today's episode. So today, I am going to be talking about something that I think we could probably all relate to, and that is that feeling of feeling as though nothing is working in our businesses or maybe we're not getting the progress that we're actually wanting. So I'm gonna be diving into that. But before I do, I just want to talk about the Digital Creators Hub, which is your one stop shop for getting started online.

Karen Davies [00:01:51]:
If you're not in the hub, go and get yourself in the hub because at the moment, it's completely free. I am making changes. So I think over the next couple of weeks, I'll probably start to talk about these changes. But for now, they're going get access to some free resources and tools to help you get started online. All you need to do is head on over to my website, www.karen-davies.com/hub, and go and get yourself in there. Go and enjoy these resources and start your online business today. Okay. So on to today's episode.

Karen Davies [00:02:29]:
And today, I just wanted to talk about something that I think we can all relate to, actually. It's something that I think is a common feeling when you are running a business, and it's this feeling that things are just not moving fast enough or maybe you're not achieving the success that you want to be achieving. This is something that, as I said, I think we all can recognize. Sometimes it feels as though things are a upward struggle. And for the level of effort, sometimes we don't feel like we're getting the rewards that we want and that things are just taking such a long time to happen. Maybe you're somebody that puts in the work. You're showing up consistently. You're doing all the right things, but you're just not getting the results, Or at least they're not coming as quickly as what you'd hoped for.

Karen Davies [00:03:30]:
And it could be something like maybe you're growing your email list, but it's happening at more of a trickle instead of a flood. I know I've been there, and and, you know, I can definitely relate to that. Maybe you are somebody that is going through a launch. Maybe you're launching your online course or maybe your membership or a program that you're delivering, but sales aren't as high as maybe what you expected. Or maybe you're just somebody that is feeling like you're just putting in all the effort, and it just isn't paying off. Now if that sounds familiar, I just want you to know you are not alone. It is very common to think like that, to feel those things. And I promise you, just because things feel slow, it doesn't necessarily mean that things are not happening.

Karen Davies [00:04:28]:
Things tend to happen behind the scenes, and sometimes things are happening when we don't even realize it. But it can be really challenging to stay motivated and stay focused when it just feels like you're just putting in all the work with no real payoff. So today, I just wanted to kinda talk about this, maybe share a little perspective shift that has helped me to stay motivated when progress has felt painfully slow because I've I I understand this feeling all too well. And it was interesting. So last week, I took the week off, and I was out in New York. So for my regular listeners, you'll have noticed that I didn't receive an release an episode last week. I just ran out of time. So I'm ever I'm really sorry.

Karen Davies [00:05:27]:
I wanted to come back and and talk about this this week. But so last week, I took the week off because I was over in New York, with my mom. We had it planned in the diary for quite a while, and it was just some time together to go and enjoy New York, go and see the sites, do some shopping, spend some mother and daughter time together, and just, you know, get away from normal day life just just for a few days. And and, honestly, it was, like, the best time. It was really intense. Now my mom is in her early seventies, and my goodness, her energy levels are through the roof. She is, like, she's in her fifties. She is so energetic and has such a zest for life.

Karen Davies [00:06:25]:
It's very inspiring. And when I'm out in New York with her and she is walking me the width and breadth of the city, I'm trying to keep up with her. So, yeah, very, very intense, very full on. We were there four days, had the most amazing time. But what was great about it is it gave me time to think and gain some perspective around what it is that I'm doing and and also how I'm feeling about things as well. Because like many of you, I'm in I'm in the trenches. I'm doing this. I'm building my online business.

Karen Davies [00:07:08]:
I'm constantly at the helm sort of driving everything forward. And it feels sometimes as though for the amount of work that I'm putting in, the level of results are not aligned. That that's some that's how it can feel at times. And it having spoken to many of my entrepreneur friends, I feel like this is something that comes up a lot. And I think this is quite dangerous to have these feelings because they can be derailing. And when you are working towards a vision and you have a goal, you want to stay focused. You want to stay motivated and and keep your head in the game. And sometimes when you feel as though progress is really, really slow, that in itself can can derail your efforts because you can end up feeling like, what's the point? Why am I doing this? This is too hard.

Karen Davies [00:08:11]:
Oh, I'm gonna go and do something else instead. And we don't wanna be doing that. We wanna stay the course. We wanna keep our heads in the game, and we wanna persevere. And we wanna get those breakthroughs because those breakthroughs are there. They are there. They're the the results are happening. And I think it's a kind of like a compound effect almost.

Karen Davies [00:08:35]:
Like, things are building in the background and you can't necessarily see those results, but then something will happen and it'll almost be a reminder that things are happening. And it could be something as simple as somebody makes a comment about my podcast or somebody you know, I I've recently had a really great win in my membership. One of my members, sold their course for quite a lot of money, and it was the first time that they'd ever sold anything online. And it was a milestone for them, And that was a reminder to me that all the effort that I'm putting in, supporting my members, doing what I do, I'm doing it for that. I'm doing it for those kind of results. Their results are my results because they are achieving because they're doing the work. They're taking the action. They're showing up, and things are happening.

Karen Davies [00:09:37]:
And sometimes it can feel as though there's a lot of work that goes into getting everything set up, getting everything in place, do doing the things to help other people. And you get so caught up in the, I suppose, in the in the in the throes of the work, you forget almost why you're doing it. And then something will happen, and it's a reminder it's a reminder that this is working. Things are working. People are achieving. They're getting results. They're doing the thing that you've set out to achieve. It's it's happening.

Karen Davies [00:10:19]:
And I think it would be very easy to give up when things feel that bit tough when you are in that state of, why why is it not happening quicker? Why why are my results so slow? And it's what you don't see, I think, that actually kind of is is really what matters to to an extent because what you're not seeing is, like like, say, the compound effect in the background that's that's working its magic, and we can sometimes overlook that. I remember very early on in my business, I was pouring my heart and soul into creating content. The content was all about branding, and I'd be writing blog posts. I'd be posting consistently. I'd be emailing my newsletter out on a regular basis. I was showing up. I was trying to be consistent, and it often felt like I was talking to no one. Like, I was sending everything out into the void, and all I got back was crickets.

Karen Davies [00:11:29]:
I'd spent hours crafting a blog post, or I would create social content that I felt people needed to see. And I just I remember thinking, what's the point? Nobody's listening. Nobody's engaging. You know, why am I doing this? And then I realized that things take time. Things take time to happen. And I would go networking, and then I would get people coming up to me to telling me how much they loved my brand, they loved my colors, they loved reading my blog posts, and how they felt like through my post that they got to know me, and they just really enjoyed my content. And it it was it's a real eye opener because what I actually realized is that just because I didn't see things happening, it didn't mean it wasn't happening. People were seeing my my content.

Karen Davies [00:12:30]:
They they were consuming it. It was landing and resonating with people. And and so when when I'd have people come up to me and actually talk to me about the things that I'd created, you know, it may have been that somebody downloaded my lead magnet and they came over to tell me how much they'd enjoyed reading the thing that I'd created, that was huge. That was huge. I felt like I was making progress. I felt like that I okay. I didn't necessarily need thousands or millions of people. I just wanted to resonate with a few.

Karen Davies [00:13:09]:
That's that's how I felt when I started out. So to have people come up to me and, you know, talk to me about what it was I was creating and how they'd how it made a difference to them, that was huge for me. But it was a learning curve because I could have so easily have given up and not bothered continuing because there were times where I genuinely felt what was the point. Why am I doing this? Everybody tells tells me I've got to do content marketing. I've got to share content, and I've gotta create content that that resonates and that communicates my brand and tells the story of who I am. But when I do, nobody's nobody's taking notice. So what's the point? And the point is that people are taking notice. People are reading it.

Karen Davies [00:14:02]:
People are, in their own way, consuming and, you know, enjoying it. It's just you may not know that. And I think we live in such a busy world where people are busy, and not everybody has the time to actually write an email or, you know, sit on social media adding comments to posts and things. Sometimes people read things and consume things on the go. And when they do that, they may not necessarily have the time to respond and engage. And I know from my own behavior, I consume a lot of content, but I'm not always engaging with the authors of those that content because sometimes I am just really busy. I don't mean to be, but I am. But I am enjoying their content.

Karen Davies [00:14:57]:
I just don't always make it known. And so I think we have to also look at our own behaviors and how we're showing up in terms of perhaps engaging with other people because there might be some patterns there. There might be things that we're doing that if we look closely at it, we can identify maybe what other people are doing it. So it might not be that you're not making progress. You you most likely are making progress. You just don't see it. You don't see it until until a certain point, and then there will be something that you will see that will represent the pro progress that you are actually making. We live in a world that now seems to glorify overnight success.

Karen Davies [00:15:45]:
It's almost as though if you're not getting success overnight, what are you doing wrong? And we see the huge flashy winds on social media, and it makes us think that success happens instantly. You start a business, and within seven days, you're gonna be turning over 6 figures. And it just doesn't work like that. I I get really frustrated because I see things on Facebook, for example, about create an an online course in in in a day. How can you create an online course in a day? It's not possible. If you're creating something that is of gonna going to be of high value to somebody, it's going to take time for that to come to life. You're gonna have to go through a process. You're gonna have to go through a journey to create a course that delivers results.

Karen Davies [00:16:39]:
You have to map it all out and identify what it is that you're creating and what those results look like. Of course, you can plan it in a day, but to be able to create really high value content, piece together the the the tech and everything that goes into it, It's completely unrealistic. So we see these adverts online that makes us feel like we can have instant success with doing very little work, and it just does not happen like that. I don't know who said it, but there there's a there's somebody that I follow, and they they said something that I found I I thought was just spot on, actually. They said, it's taken me ten years to achieve overnight success. And I remember thinking, that's probably right. That's probably right. When you start a business, you embark on a journey, a journey that where you have to learn.

Karen Davies [00:17:43]:
It's self discovery. You have to learn about yourself. This is the thing that a lot of people don't talk about when you start a business. You know the thing that you're creating a business around. Like, I know how to brand a business, how to build a website, how to design. That was my bag. That was my skill set. I knew how to do that.

Karen Davies [00:18:04]:
What I didn't realize is the self development piece that I would have to go through in order to be able to show up in the right way. So I spent months and even years figuring out who am I? Who am I to be running this business, and what are my actual strengths outside of the job that I do? Because my business required me to show up and be many different things to many different people. And there was a time where I didn't have the confidence. I didn't believe that I could I could actually do it. I didn't have that faith because I didn't know what it was I needed to know to to run a business, and I had to learn that. And I had to develop my skills and my probably shift my perspective as well and adapt my mindset, and that took time. And even now where I'm at in my business, I'm about seven years in, and, you know, I have a goal. I have a place where I'd like to be at a certain milestone, but I also understand it's gonna take me time to get there because I'm climbing a mountain, and and that mountain takes time to climb.

Karen Davies [00:19:17]:
I've gotta I've gotta learn what I need to learn to be able to take the right steps that's gonna get me those results that I'm looking for. And I think that can be said for all of us that's running a business. It takes time to set up a business. You have to learn what is needed in order to create business, but then it takes even longer to be able to run your business and to show up as a CEO and do the things that's necessary to make your business a success. And sometimes, it requires a lot of work. And sometimes, it feels as though for the work that you're putting in, you're not getting the output or the results that you actually want. The two don't match. And I've I know this feeling so incredibly well, but this is where you need to dig in and you need to keep the faith and you need to remember that you are on a journey.

Karen Davies [00:20:17]:
And as long as you show up, you take action, you do the work, you will achieve the results that you want to achieve. Now I think one of the things that we probably don't do that is essential is that sometimes we just need to look back and see how far we've come. This you can't do this for, like, you know, looking forward. You can only do this with hindsight. But I guarantee that if you compare where you are today to where you were six months ago, you would see growth. It would maybe that growth is with your confidence. Maybe it's with your skill set. Maybe your expertise has grown.

Karen Davies [00:21:08]:
Maybe the your message is clearer, or maybe you're just being more consistent. It doesn't matter. There will be growth. So we have to make sure that we're looking back so we can reflect on how far we've come. And any growth that we have achieved is progress. So you may not necessarily feel it on a day to day basis, but I guarantee that progress is there. I think the other thing that we also need to do is we need to celebrate the small wins because the small wins are happening. It's so easy to get caught up with what we've not yet achieved.

Karen Davies [00:21:50]:
I mean, I'm I'm so guilty of this. I mean, I run regular master classes, and I run them so that I can teach about online course creation. That's what I do. That's what I know. It's what I'm passionate about. But the next step from that masterclass is coming into my membership, and I'm super, super proud of my membership. I've put my heart and soul into creating something that delivers results, and I'm getting results. However, sometimes, what my expectations are to what the reality is can be a little bit different, and that can be disheartening.

Karen Davies [00:22:32]:
But when I look back over the past two years where I've been running these master classes, my numbers have grown. My engagement's grown. My email list has grown, and my conversions have grown. And so last year, I made sure that I got into the habit of documenting my metrics so that I can see that growth visually. The growth is there. I have to celebrate those small wins because those small wins mount up to the big wins. So look out for the small wins. If you've posted some content and you've had somebody leave a really nice message about your content, that's a win.

Karen Davies [00:23:15]:
Or even if you've only gained a few new subscribers to your email list, that's a win. Or maybe you've even started to create something that you've never created before, that's a win. The wins are there, and small things matter more than maybe what you think because those small things mount up. And I think what's really important is that we have to trust that what we're doing is going to pay off. We have to back ourselves. We have to have that belief that what we are doing is going to take us to where we wanna get to. I can't tell you how many times I have thought something wasn't working only to look back months later and realize that it was. I just couldn't see it at the time.

Karen Davies [00:24:01]:
Every podcast episode, every blog, every email, it's all building something bigger that you just maybe can't see right now. So even if things feel slow, I encourage you to keep going. Now I know how frustrating it can be when you're working really hard and not seeing instant results, but I promise you things are happening even if you can't see them just yet. You are planting seeds. That's what it comes down to. We need to plant seeds and we need to build momentum. You are learning. You are growing, and you are essentially becoming the person who will eventually achieve those big goals that you've set for yourself.

Karen Davies [00:24:44]:
And one day, you will look back and you'll realize that every small action that you took led you to exactly where you needed to go. So I have a challenge for you this week. I want you to spend some time and look at those small wins that you are having. I want you to celebrate them and trust that the progress that you are making is happening. I would love to hear about your wins, so why not reach out to me on Instagram at Karen underscore digital coach, and let me know how you get on. Share those small wins, and let's celebrate together. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode. I hope you found this episode of value, and, of course, please do feel free to share it with others who you may think will also benefit from listening to today's episode.

Karen Davies [00:25:41]:
If today's discussion has sparked some inspiration and maybe you're eager to get started with creating an online business, then go over and visit my website www.karen-davies.com where you'll find free resources to help you kick start your online journey. And if you are ready to take the first step in creating your online course, then visit my all inclusive membership, sell your brilliance online at www.karen-davies.com/membership. I will be back next week with another episode, but until then, have a great week. 

I hope you enjoyed this episode of the digitally she does it show. Don't forget to check out the show notes for all the links and resources mentioned in today's episode. New episodes drop every week on a Wednesday. So, why not rate and subscribe so you never miss an episode? Thank you for tuning in today, and I will see you next time.