How you do anything is how you do everything.
In other words, consistency > everything else.
We can talk ourselves into anything. We're masters of justification. We tell ourselves, "I can live with it" when we encounter small problems in our lives, and in our business. We avoid hard conversations because we fear the downside. We allow people to take advantage of our goodwill because, on balance, the relationship is slightly more positive than negative. But sooner or later, these little "pebbles" cause us to walk with a limp. We compensate for the bad habits of others. We shift our schedule around to cover. We stay at the gym to "make sure" a coach shows up on time instead of making sure they always show up on time.
After awhile, we just become accustomed to the limp. But others notice, and the more we compensate the more long-term damage we do to ourselves, until eventually we need surgical action to repair our problem.
Worse, in the service industry, we think no one notices our limp; that it's our own private sacrifice. But they do. We think, "Clients won't care if I jump into class and exercise with them instead of coaching them." But they do. We tell ourselves, "My staff will know that they should take the garbage out when they leave tonight." But they don't. We're willfully blind to the service we're offering, and believe our clients will see past the overfilled garbage cans, past the never-answered phone, past the bad language of our 7pm coach...they won't. They see our limp.
When problems grow to become crises, are they too late to fix? No. Pricing errors, even carried for ten years, can be corrected. We have the best surgeons in the world at TwoBrain. But that doesn't mean it's going to be easy, or painless. You'll still probably require some rehabilitation, and we'll be there for you when you do. But it's SO much simpler to remove the pebbles in your shoe instead of waiting for a hip replacement.
In this episode, I share a half-dozen pebbles that I've removed at Catalyst over the years. Then I give you a few tips on taking action to identify and remove your own.