In this solo episode in the How I Think About… series, I share how my perspective on growth has evolved over the course of my business.
Growth is such an interesting concept the straddles empowerment AND can be very toxic depending how it’s applied.
This episode is a reflection on what real growth looks like in different seasons of life and business – and how ambitious introverts can get intentional about growth that works for them..
I share:
- Why I no longer treat growth as a non-negotiable value
- The hidden costs of chasing growth without clarity
- How 90-day consistency builds true momentum
- Strategic growth vs reactive growth (and how to tell the difference)
- When staying the course is the smartest move you can make
- Real-world examples of clients growing through anti-growth by design
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Episode 228: How I Think About… Growth
It’s a word that we use all the time as business owners and as people who care about our personal development. And it can be incredibly empowering. And it can also have some really quite toxic connotations. And that’s why in this episode, I’m going to be sharing how I think about growth.
Welcome to the Ambitious Introvert, the podcast for founders and entrepreneurs who want to create big results in their business without draining their energy. I’m, your host, Emma Louise Parks. Let’s dive in. Welcome back to the Ambitious Introvert podcast.
I’m Emma Louise and we are nearing the end of this solo How I Think about series where I have been sharing, literally how I think about so many different concepts and facets of business in a really unfiltered way. And also sharing how my perception and thoughts about these things have been shaped and have changed over the years and how they really affecting my clients right now in business. And so it would seem amiss to not talk about this word which has so many connotations and so many of them are good and great, and so many of them can actually be a little bit toxic. And that is growth. And, growth is one that is really, really close to my heart because when I very, very first did a value solicitation to identify my core values way back when I did my first life coach training, growth was one of them. And it made so much sense as a 13 in human design.
I love to research, I love to learn, always love to look for more efficient ways to do things. Maximizer is number two in my clifton strengths. And I am generally a pretty ambitious person, hence why I named my brand the Ambitious Introvert. And so growth is something that I feel like is a real part of me, a real part of my personality, and definitely a big part of my life if I look back and, and map out how things have, have worked out. And so the fact that it was a core value was no surprise.
And the way I use my core values and the way I recommend my clients should use them is running decisions through them in both life and business, or where something feels a little misaligned or a little flat and something’s not quite right, is going back to your values and seeing if there’s kind of a contradiction there between what you’re trying to do and what you say your values are, because that creates this cognitive dissonance that can feel really uncomfortable. And, the other thing I have clients do is redo their values because quite often if they feel they’re quite stagnant or they feel things aren’t quite going how they want or they unclear on anything that can really, really help. And so of course I redo my own values probably on about an annual basis now.
And I’ve been doing this for well over 10 years and the only one that has ever changed is growth. And it changed probably about two to three years ago, which, when I think about it, makes a lot of sense based on where I was in my business, what was happening in my health and my personal life. And what I had come to see is that when I was running everything through this lens of growth, if something wasn’t growing, it was therefore somehow misaligned or bad. And that came from a, more, I guess, naive or immature view that growth was linear and that every time we achieve something that’s always there and now we have to achieve the next thing.
This was very prevalent in the online business space about five or six years ago where, you know, you had a record break in month and then the expectation was you made more money the next month and more money the next month and if that didn’t happen, that somehow something was wrong. And I saw a lot of people get into real mindset spirals with this because maybe they did a launch so they have a huge cash month and then the next month they are delivering that programme, they’re serving those clients and they’re not marketing and selling in the same way and they could make way less money and they would feel like they’d failed and something was wrong. But that was never going to happen because that’s not how a launch model business is set up.
The same thing can happen when people are service providers or coaches or consultants where they might offer a package that is a really high value and someone opt to pay in full and then the next month they might sign someone up who opts to pay monthly and they feel somehow like they failed because even though they’ve got the exact same amount of revenue coming in and to exactly the same clients, they feel like they didn’t grow and they went backward,
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which, you know, we’re always told is a bad thing. So there was something in this that started to kind of nag at me. And it happened also in probably around 2023 when I was really struggling to recover from long Covid and I had to make decisions to, in some areas of my business not grow and to, to stay plateaued. Which, you know, brings up its own mindset, things that we’ll talk about. But I also had to make decisions, to actually anti growth, to descale things because they didn’t make sense. One of the things was this podcast.
I was pumping this podcast out week after week after week for three and a half years and that was great. And at that stage in my life, I could not do it. I didn’t have the bandwidth, I didn’t have the energy. It started to feel like a choreography.
And I had to make a decision that maybe for a while the podcast didn’t grow, maybe it plateaued. But the important thing was I was still doing the thing. I was just not doing it at the same level and intensity. And as I say, there’s a lot around that, there’s a lot about being okay with that. And that could be anything in your business. It could be having a big team and deciding you want a smaller team. It could be having a number ah of offers and deciding you want to cut it down to just one or two. It could be using lots of marketing channels and then deciding to go all in on one of them, which ironically is, you know, growth in itself because you will be focusing on one thing and growing it really quickly. But it can feel like opportunity loss for all of these things and it can feel like we’re going backwards and we should be doing more. And like I say, I put a lot of this down to just how business was back in 2019, 2020 onwards, where there’s this huge boom and people growing very, very quickly and they didn’t really have the understanding or the business acumen or the experience to know that business is actually cyclical and not linear and that plateaus are completely normal.
And these things just give us data to work out what is happening and why. Like 2023, I cut back on my marketing significantly. I cut back on this podcast significantly. I didn’t really sell. I didn’t make offers to people to come and work with me. And I had a number of clients that stayed and resigned. And I did have some people reach out that had been in my audience for a while, but I wasn’t actually actively selling.
So it’s no surprise that I didn’t make as much money that year as the year before when I was healthy and marketing a lot and actively selling. So I think that it’s easy to think of growth as a really good positive thing. I do think it is a really good positive thing. I think it’s very empowering. I think many of us, if you’re listening to this podcast for sure, feel very excited to grow. We, we want to evolve, we want to learn. We want to be a better version of ourselves. We want our business to grow. We probably want our, income to grow and our audience and our impact and our net worth and all of these things. And that is great. But what is not great is when it is growth for the sake of growth. And that is where I fell when I did that value solicitation a few years ago, because it felt like if I wasn’t growing, I was somehow going against my values.
And the way I reconcile this is understanding that growth isn’t linear and that we have cycles of it, and that at that stage that was okay. I did not want to grow, and that is fine. Even though all the kind of boss babe marketing had told us that that is what we needed to do. And so that’s why I just wanted to share some thoughts in how I think about growth.
Because it can be incredibly motivating. It can be so satisfying when we grow something that we care about and we, we see it, whether it metrics and data, like growing an audience or, or growing revenue or whether it’s impact and we see, you know, that growing and rippling out and in more people, it’s really great. It’s really fulfilling. Ah. And it’s really satisfying and it makes us feel really proud of ourselves as we should. But I think the flip side of that is if we not grow in, if we are choosing for a season of life to stay the same, or you can go backwards a little bit for reasons that suit us and suit where we are at that time and suit our lifestyle and our business, then that has to be okay. And that is the reason that I took growth out and what I replaced it with actually was expansion because that felt much more like I didn’t necessarily have to be focused on growing and doing a, a bad thing or making it wrong if something didn’t grow.
But expansion felt much more fluid and like, maybe, I’m not growing my audience or my business, but maybe I’m expanding in myself or maybe I’m expanding how I think about things, or maybe, you know, I’m expanding possibilities. And that felt just at that time like it was good. So I’m about to do my core values in January because I do them for the year ahead. So it’ll be interesting to see, see what comes up with, with that and with this. But I’m pretty sure that growth would not, would not make it back in. And that is not to say it’s a bad thing. It’s a great thing. I love supporting clients who have a desire to grow.
So, I want to talk about a few of the things that I think about when I’m having those discussions. When someone wants to grow. And the first thing is that quite often they want to add more, they think they need more, what I would call tactics to be able to grow. So they think maybe they need to add another marketing platform or they need to launch another programme on top of things. And sometimes that might be the case, but quite often they just need to double down on the thing that they’re already doing. And I don’t think I’ve had a long term client that I haven’t had this discussion with numerous times where we make a plan because they want a certain thing. Let’s say they want to grow their revenue. So we have a sales and marketing plan and we have offers set up and we know what they’re going to be doing and then they start doing it. But the shiny object syndrome sneaks in and their brain tells them it’s not enough.
So then they want to do something else. Oh, I was thinking I could add that. I was thinking I could open a TikTok. I was thinking maybe I’ll start another newsletter. I was thinking maybe I’ll start a podcast. I was thinking maybe. And actually what they need to do is the thing that they are already doing and double down on it and keep doing it because it’s working. It’s already working. If you are marketing, selling, connecting with people in a way that you are selling your offer, even if it’s only two or three times, then it’s working.
You don’t need to change that. And this is what people get so wrong. I think that they think, oh, well, now I want to sell it to more people so I need to do something different and I need to change it. So like that’s like saying, oh, I ran a marathon and I did the training for it and it got me to do the 26 miles and that was great and now I want to do another one.
But I’m going to train completely different in a completely different way. Even though that got me what I wanted and it worked. So before thinking about adding more tactics, I always think about what are we currently doing that is working? And there’s usually a number of things. And what often happens with clients is they know the thing, we’ve discussed it.
Network growth is one that I am really, really hot on with clients because the quality of potential customers that come through your existing network and the number of potential customers is insane. And most people discount this, especially an online business. And they think, I’ve got to create all this really great marketing and find strangers on the Internet to buy from me. And it’s like, no, there are people in your network that will get that know you. They already know like and trust you. And they might refer people or they might share what you’re doing. So growing your network, it feels slow, right? It feels different to maybe switching on ad and get in 100 signups to your email list in a month. But the quality of your network makes a huge difference to growth.
And a lot of clients get very reluctant and they, you know, they fall off the coffee chat, they don’t make an effort, they don’t do any kind of networking, they don’t keep up with their network and check in with them. You know, they might meet someone once and then it’s kind of they’re just a LinkedIn connection. And I really believe in nurturing the network. And then quite often people are saying, oh, I want to sell more of my offer, I grow my audience.
And I’m like, yeah, your network, connect with your network. And you know, you’d be amazed what a difference that makes. So before we want to add new things or try something different, if it’s already worked, it doesn’t need to be different. You probably just need to be doing more of it and for longer. That can feel really freaking boring. That can feel like, oh, well, that’s not novelty. Or you know, as I often hear with clients, I feel like it shouldn’t be that easy. I should have to work harder for this. Or no, distil what’s working, really good at it and keep doing it and it will keep working. And then once you have that nailed, then add something else if you want to. But don’t keep this kind of flip flopping between different things and not really committing to them or finding something that works. And then you’re bored and you think there’s another answer somewhere because that’s the, the quickest way to stop momentum. And momentum always precedes growth.
And what I mean by that is I quite often have a 90 day rule with clients where if you do something and you are all in on it and you are consistent for 90 days, you will see the result or start to see the result. I did this myself. When I grew this business, it took me a little longer than 90 days. That could be because I was marketing to an audience of introverts, but my sole focus was Marketing to sell my one on one. And it took closer to five months.
But once I’d done it, I did it twice in a day and then I did it three times the next month and then I was fully booked a few months later. And I didn’t flip around and go, oh, well, I’m going to do something different. I marketed in the same places the same number of times a week and did the same things because I had the proof then that it, that it worked. So I had that momentum, had that momentum of doing those things consistently over and over and over. And people quite often think they can somehow hack their way to growth or they can just be, I don’t know, flitting around and like half assing it, you know, like one foot in, not really. And that you’re gonna have huge growth in your revenue. No, you need the momentum beforehand.
And the momentum comes from doing things consistently, which can feel, yeah, not very exciting. But what is exciting is the result that you, that you get at the end of it. And so I think that’s another example where identity shifts are really like the rocket fuel to growth. The identity shift for me to build that momentum was that I was someone that was consistent because until that stage in my business, I had really struggled to be consistent.
And then I had a lot of shame around that because I felt like I should be consistent. And then I beat myself up for not being consistent. And then I would go into a kind of freeze because I wasn’t doing it. And then I’d be like, oh, I haven’t done it for ages. I just, I don’t want to do it. I feel like I’m starting all over again. Which, you know, is another reason why we want to be consistent and keep momentum going, because it’s much harder to start again. And so when I had that identity shift as, someone that is consistent, I knew that the result was inevitable because I would be doing the thing over and over again. It’s like if you decide to do 50 squats three times a week and you consistently do that, unless you are considerably overeating your calories and like a complete couch potato, the rest of the time, you’re going to see a difference.
You’re going to feel different, you’re going to feel stronger, you’re probably going to build some muscle in your, in your glutes, you probably feel a bit more motivated, it will get easier each time. But if you do 50 squats and then you don’t do them again for three months, well, no, you’re not going to see any benefit from it other than having to start over again.
And it feel hard because your muscles have atrophied. And that’s really how I felt with, with marketing. It was so hard stopping and starting and being inconsistent. So the identity shift of being someone that’s consistent was the thing that enabled me to grow this business essentially. And so I think it’s really important to know why you want the growth. I mean, at that time I was quite a new business owner and I wanted the growth because I wanted my business to be profitable. Right. So that’s really important. But there’s so much comparisonitis as well in business, especially because everyone’s business is so transparent online.
It’s not like walking down a high street and you, you see a storefront or a shop or a, a service and you don’t know what’s going on in the background. We see people all the time. People are sharing their wins, they’re sharing their stories, they’re sharing their client testimonials. You know, not so much now, I’m sure it still happens, but they’re even sharing their revenue. Whether it’s accurate or not, or they’re just making it up. We, you know, is another story. But that was a big way of marketing for a while a few years ago. And so it’s like everyone’s, the back end of everyone’s business is like hanging out there for us all to see. And this can create massive comparison and this can push people to grow because they feel like they should because someone else is further ahead or someone else that started after them is earning more money than them.
And all of these little mindset gremlins that come in, when in fact growing might not be the thing for that person at that time or the type of growth might be different. Maybe they don’t need to grow the business at, that stage. Maybe they need to grow their capacity to hold more money. Maybe they need to grow their leadership capacity so that they can more effectively manage their team so their business is more efficient. Maybe they just need to grow their audience because maybe they have a great offer and everything is set up on the back end. They just need more people seeing it. But you could be looking at someone else growing in all different ways, you know, growing a team or growing their revenue. And that might not be the right step at that time. So I think it’s really important to remove that shame.
And it’s like putting the blinkers on and staying in your own lane. Like what is right for me Right now in my life and my business is growth, right? If so, great. What, what type of growth and to what end? And knowing that there can be finite growth can be, I’m going to grow this account to 10,000 followers. It can be. I’m going to grow my revenue to X number a month. It can be I’m going to grow my team to a stage where I can just work 20 hours a week.
It’s not just growth upon growth upon growth upon growth. And that’s where I kind of had that disjoint with the value. Because I’m like, well, where does it end if it’s a value? I’d just be constantly needing to grow forever and it never been good enough.
Which is another thing that high achieving introverts quite often struggle with is that they move the goalposts, they never reach the finish line because they don’t even stop to celebrate and they’re onto the next thing and the next thing and trying to grow more and push more. So I think it’s really important that when we grow we do have an end point in sight, even if it’s small increments along the way. Maybe you want to grow your company to millions and take it public, great. But that’s not going to happen overnight. So what are the points on the way that you can aim to grow to and then celebrate and be really proud of and then take the next stage of growth rather than it being this constant like linear graph going upwards without any interruption.
And the other thing that, you know, I had many conversations this year with clients around. This is actually descaling or simplifying business for a number of reasons. Some clients are in a season of life where they have other things pulling at them. So maybe it’s children, maybe it ageing parents, maybe it’s more travel being required because of a partner job, maybe it’s a house move, maybe it’s their health that they really need to look and go. I don’t think that what I’m doing is actually it’s a little too much. It’s not working for me.
So how can I simplify the business so that still keep it going? Or how can I descale things to make it less complex, more efficient and just as profitable? And another reason that people do this, especially here in the uk, is staying under tax thresholds. You know, you can really get by earning above a certain amount and once you hit that amount, it doesn’t really make sense for most small businesses unless they’re going way over it like 40, 50k a year over it. And so I’ve had clients this year make the conscious decision to stay underneath the that that tax threshold because the extra accounting costs and the extra charges they would have to charge their clients and the extra admin that it creates is eaten into their profit. And they’re like, you know what if they were following a growth, you know, by all accounts kind of model, they would be doing it and potentially losing money.
So I think it’s really important to look at growth as something that is a choice and an empowered choice and not something that you feel you should be doing and not something that you feel makes you a failure if you opt not to do it at a certain period in life.
And again, if you are trying to grow and you’re not getting the results that you want, not making that a failure or not making any shame around that, but using it as data because if that’s the case, something is probably not working. And making sure that you have the right support to be able to zoom out and look and say why am I not growing when I feel like I’m doing all of the right things? And that is where coaching is so great for looking at your blind spots or looking at your strategy or what you’re doing or how you’re approaching these things to make sure that you are getting the growth. So I think it really is a double edged sword.
Like I say, it’s a very exciting word and it’s a very personal word to me in many ways because I do identify with it. and it also gets to be a slightly disempowering and toxic word if we are taking it the wrong way or we’re using it as pressure or shoulding ourselves about it. So if I had to sum up really how I think about growth, I really think about growth now as cyclical, I think about it as intentional, as a decision and I think about it as multifaceted. you are not going to grow everything at the same time. People love this idea, but really you need a focus. Like are you focusing on growing your audience? Are you focusing on growing your profitability? Are you focusing on growing your team? Unless you are superhuman, you are not going to do all of those things at once. And that is where so many business owners kind of burn out or then shame themselves to say, well, you know, I’m not getting the results that I want because they’re trying to get seven different results at once. So growth has to be intentional. It’s not linear. That is okay. It’s cyclical. I know
many people that have had boom in businesses and then cut back for various reasons and then you know, come back and grown again when the time is right for them because we have the option to do that as entrepreneurs.
And so that my listeners, is how I think about growth. And if growth or in fact the anti growth is something that you are looking for for your business for 2026, I would love to talk to you about supporting you in this as your strategic partner and coach. I’m currently taking two clients in Q1, one in January and one in March. So if you would like to have a very no pressure conversation and see what this could look like, whether it’s the type of support that could really scaffold what you want to achieve in 2026, then head to the website, head to work with me, head to the coaching section and fill out the form and start the conversation. And in the meantime, if that is not a good fit for you, I would invite you to really, really get clear about how you think about growth yourself for next year. Is it a year of growth or not?
And if so, why? And what, what is the intentional, the intention behind the growth and making sure that you are not just going into a scattergun approach of feeling like you have to grow everything, but actually showing up in a really clear, aligned way and knowing what your growth metrics are and knowing exactly how you’re going to get to them. Because really, once you’ve cracked that, you’ve cracked business. Thank you so much for tuning in and I, will see you in two weeks for the final instalment of the How I Think about solo series. Thank you for tuning in to the ambitious introvert. Be sure to follow or subscribe in your favourite podcast player so you never miss an episode. And if you enjoyed today’s conversation, please consider leaving a quick review or sharing it with another introvert who’d love it too. See you next time when I’ll have even more insights to keep your business growing and your energy flowing.
