Podcast

Four Ways to Get Unstuck in Your Business

The Modern Editor Podcast: Four Ways to Get Unstuck in Your Business
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Have you ever felt “stuck” in your business or personal life? I’ve experienced this lately, so I wanted to share some tactics I use to help myself feel unstuck. I’m sharing these tips to illustrate that even coaches need coaches, just like editors need editors. I want to normalize the fact that everyone needs help, and sometimes you need guidance to get unstuck in your business.

Sometimes I need someone else to tell me something in a different way or from a different perspective. I want to be up front that while I’m using these tactics I’m sharing with you, I’m also talking to my two coaches about my situation. I want this podcast to be supportive and help you move forward, but I also encourage you to ask for help when you need it.

Review the Transcript

Welcome to The Modern Editor Podcast, where we talk about all things editing and what it’s like to run an editorial business in today’s world. I’m your host, Tara Whitaker. Let’s get to it.

Hello everyone. Welcome to today’s episode. So today’s topic is a little personal for me because I’ve been going through some stickiness, shall we say, both in my business and my personal life.

I’ve had some things that I just can’t get past or seem to make any progress on or can’t make a decision on, and I’m not going to go in the weeds on all those things because no one wants to hear that, but I am going to share with you a few tactics that I’ve been using to help myself get a little bit less stuck, unstuck, we’ll say, and I wanted to share those with you for a few reasons.

One, to showcase and remind that even coaches need coaches, just like editors need editors. It’s the same thing. Everyone needs help. And I want to continue to normalize that. And two, even though I’m a coach and I, quote, know what to do, sometimes I need extra support. It doesn’t matter how much, you know, we’re all still human.

And sometimes I need someone else to tell me things in a different way and from a different perspective. I want to be up front that while I’m using these tactics that I’m going to share with you, I’m also talking to both of my coaches about it. And yes, I do have two coaches because I need all the help I can get.

And that doesn’t mean if you need help that you’re not doing something right or anything like that. It’s simply just asking for help when you need it. And I want to be that extra support for you here on the podcast. So we’re going to go over a few ways to help get you started getting unstuck and hopefully get you moving forward. Even if it’s just a centimeter or an inch, we’re looking for any sort of forward momentum.

Now the key vibe or mindset I want you to remember while we’re talking about this is to get curious. This is something that is prominent in a lot of coaching programs, and it was in all of the coaching programs that I’ve gone through.

It’s getting curious about whatever it is you’re talking about, or in this case, if you’re talking to yourself and asking questions. So today we’re going to be self-coaching. And you’re going to ask yourself these questions, or you can pretend like you’re the coach and are helping a client with the problem you’re having, because that’s going to give you a different perspective and hopefully some objectivity and taking the personal out of it.

Because when we think about our own issues or roadblocks or problems, we can be a little harsh on ourselves. We can not be as nice as we would be if we were talking to someone else, right? So trying to get yourself in that mindset of just being curious and asking questions and pretending like it’s not something that’s so personal or something wrong with you is going to help you overall with that getting unstuck process.

Now I know that sometimes that’s easier said than done, but we’re going to try as best as we can, because again, we are human. That’s all we can ask for, right? Okay. So the first thing is to take a break. And I know you might be thinking I’m like pulling a Miranda Priestly here with “Groundbreaking, Tara. Taking a break,” but it can be the best thing to do when you’re feeling stuck.

Step away from whatever is causing you the problem or the issue, whether it’s literally or figuratively. Sometimes you can actually move away from the thing—move away from your desk, go take a shower, go take a walk, physically remove yourself from the environment that is either causing the issue or activating the issue or triggering the issue for you.

Or you can figuratively step away. You know, we’d hear all the time about, or even suggest to authors to put away their manuscripts for a while, take a break. That’s the same vibe. Maybe you’re working on a project and you’re just not getting anywhere. File it away, either, you know, digitally or physically, just take a break from it.

And that can be for hours, days, weeks, months, however long it takes to help you gain a little bit of perspective. You might not even go back to it. It might end up being something you don’t want to pursue at the moment, but without taking the break, you might not have realized that and you might have just kept going and going and going for whatever reason.

So taking a break is going to be the first thing to try to do as much as possible. The second thing is one of my favorite things. And I came up with the name and it’s a PITA audit. And PITA is P-I-T-A. And that stands for “pain-in-the-fill in the blank with an A word” that you think is an appropriate word.

I’m not going to say it on here because I don’t want to put an explicit tag, but I think you can probably figure out what the A stands for. But it’s again asking those questions. Why is whatever you’re trying to do a pain? Where’s the friction? Where’s the hang-up? Is there a bottleneck somewhere? And you might even need to type or write out the process if that’s applicable, or actually pretend like you’re doing the thing and seeing where you get stuck.

So I’m going to give you an example to try and illustrate this. I started using Notion semi-recently. I think it was actually technically probably a year ago at the time of this recording. But Notion is like a project management system, kind of like Trello or Asana. I’m obsessed with it. But it is super robust and very, very customizable, which means the options seem to be endless for what you can do. And my brain was just not comprehending it, but I knew I wanted to use it because I could see examples from my coach and other people of what it could be like, and I desperately wanted that organization.

So what I did was, with the help of my coach too, I practiced. So I was like, “Kkay, why am I having such an issue building this project management system out?” So I created a page in Notion to see where that was happening. And I realized it was because I didn’t know which option to choose when it came to creating a database.

Now this might sound fairly simple and it might seem a little out of context. Like I said, Notion is very robust and I don’t want to go too in the weeds with it, but I couldn’t figure out the database. I watched tutorials. I was on YouTube. I was reading the help guides and I just couldn’t get it. And so I didn’t do anything because I didn’t want to create a database and then have it, you know, be the wrong way and then having to redo it.

So that fear just made me not take any action. And again, I really wanted to use Notion. So after all of the tutorials and stuff, and I couldn’t figure it out, what was my next step? Asking for help.

And because this editor who, if you are interested in Notion build-out for editors, please let me know. She’s amazing. She knows exactly what to do. It comes naturally to her, or she learned how to do it more than I could and she was able to do it in a fraction of the time that I was able to, and she was able to take my jumbled mess of thoughts and create this Notion that is a thing of beauty.

But had I not gone through the steps myself to see exactly where I was having the issue, I might not have ever gotten past that overwhelm, and I might not have ever asked for help. So going through it if you can, step by step, and seeing where the problem is, identifying the problem, see if you can fix it, and if you can’t, then ask for help.

There are, admittedly, a lot of things that this applies to in my life. I can get stressed very easily when it comes to learning something new. I still have a very fixed mindset at times, depending on, you know, the day and what’s going on. And if I try something new and I’m not good at it right away, I just don’t want to do it.

Which is, you know, not the right approach, but thank you, brain. So I have to remind myself that I need to go through the process, I need to figure out where the hang-up is, and there is a solution. Maybe the solution is I don’t go forward with Notion. Maybe I try something else that I can figure out. But for me, I knew that I wanted to use Notion, so I had to figure out a way to do it.

Okay, so if the issue isn’t something like what I just talked about, and maybe it’s a little more nebulous, here’s what I suggest you do with that. I would try to commit to making one tiny change around that thing and creating a habit for it. Now, let me again give you another example, because you might be like, “Huh?”

Let’s say you’re having trouble putting your phone down for the night so you can read a book. This may or may not be a personal example. I couldn’t stop doing it. I was getting very frustrated with myself. Every night I would be like, “Okay, I’m gonna get into bed. I’m gonna get all nice and cozy. And I’m going to read my book.”

And every night I would get into bed. I would get nice and cozy. And I would scroll on TikTok. And every night I would get mad at myself. And I’m like, this is just ridiculous. Luckily, I was going through my Tiny Habits Coach Certification program during all of this. And so I thought, okay, I’m going to experiment.

I’m going to create a Tiny Habit for myself. Which for this episode, we’re not going to go deep into Tiny Habits. That’s going to be another episode. So I’m just going to hit the surface level here for the unstuckness, but I created a Tiny Habit, which was: After I brush my teeth, I will put my phone out of reach for the rest of the night.

Now that can get a little more specific, but again, we’re just keeping it high level here. Now that took some experimenting. There were days I definitely wasn’t successful, but overall my reading has significantly gone up since I implemented that Tiny Habit. I could make it more specific by saying like, I’m going to put it in the kitchen or I’m going to put it somewhere else, but there’s some things with kids that we need the phone and all of that.

But for the most part, I am reading way more now than I was, and all it took was that little Tiny Habit. And so the key here is to start tiny and go from there. We’re not changing huge drastic behaviors. We’re not, you know, changing our entire lives. We’re just starting tiny. Shameless plug here, I’m a huge fan of BJ Fogg, who created the Tiny Habits Method, wrote the Tiny Habits book, which is why I became a certified coach because you can use Tiny Habits for so many things, including getting unstuck with some things. But the overall takeaway there is to just make one small change, experiment, and see what happens.

And now, last but not least, is to try something new. Now I’m not talking about doing something huge or drastic or expensive or anything like that. You know, I’m not saying go skydiving or, you know, go move across the country unless you want to. Everybody handles change differently. So do what works best for you and your brain. But if you’re stuck with something, see if you can either do it in a different way or scrap it altogether and do something brand new.

Here’s a very low risk thing that I did. I use Canva to create my graphics for social media and my website and all of that. And I have templates for showcasing on Instagram what’s coming up in the Freelance Editors Club. And I was so bored with the templates. I just didn’t like them anymore. I would dread creating them because they just, they weren’t inspiring to me, which is not what I want because I have to do them every month and I want to talk about the club and the amazing stuff we do in there, but if I don’t like the graphics and I don’t want to post it, that’s not a good place to be coming from.

So I just said, “You know what? Scrap it. These old templates are out. I’m going to create new templates.” I approached it as an experiment, because if you have any experience with Canva, or any type of graphic thing like that, you can go down some major rabbit holes, and you can be tweaking until you’re ninety years old.

But I set a timer for myself for thirty minutes, and I’m like, okay, let’s see what I can come up with. And you know what? I found something I absolutely love. And now I actually want to create them every month and share them because I think they’re cute and fun and easy to read. I’ll probably get bored with them at some point in the future and then I’ll remember, “Oh hey, this happened before, Tara. You got bored with these, you know, you can bust it out in thirty minutes. Just make some new ones.”

Now you can try something new that has nothing to do with what you’re stuck with. You can try a new hobby. You can read a new book, try a new flavor of tea or coffee or soda or juice. You know, shake things up a little bit in whatever way that looks for you. Again, it doesn’t have to be massive. A new flavor of tea. Pretty low risk. I love a good routine. I thrive on routine. But I know sometimes I need to shake it up a little bit. Expand a little. Try something new. Even if it’s a little scary.

Depending on what it is, sometimes just shaking it up a little bit can help jiggle something loose that helps me get unstuck in other ways. So it’s kind of like a trickle effect. You might not think like, “Oh yeah, Tara, I’m going to try a new flavor of coffee and then I’m going to magically be unstuck in my business.” I’m not saying that, but it could lead to little changes in different areas of your life that could very well affect your business. So be open to the possibilities.

All right, that’s it. Those are just a few of the ways to try to help you get unstuck. They’re the ways, the strategies that I’m using currently with the help of my coaches, because remember, there’s nothing wrong with asking for help.

I don’t think these are the total solution, but they are a good start to think about what you could change or adjust or tweak or do something new or ask for help, and just remember that you are not less than, or you’re not good enough if you need to ask for help or you need to try different ways. You’re just a human being.

Now, hopefully, like I said, this was extra help for you, but if you need extra, extra help, whether it’s with your business or with creating new habits like we talked about, or even budgeting as a freelancer, I am a certified coach in all three of those areas. Imagine that, because they’re the three areas that I am most passionate about: business coaching, habit coaching, and budget coaching.

I’ve got details on my website about the different coaching packages, but there is going to be some more information coming soon. So in the meantime, if you’re interested in chatting more, you can always email me at Hello@TaraWhitaker.com and we can see if we can get you really unstuck and really get you moving forward with your business or whatever you need help with. 

So until next time, keep learning, keep growing, and remember, you are not alone.

Thank you so much for tuning in to today’s episode. If you enjoy The Modern Editor podcast, I would be so grateful if you left us a review over on iTunes. And as always, you can head to TaraWhitaker.com to connect with me and stay in touch. We’ll chat again soon.

Start With Getting Curious

Before we start talking about tactics to get unstuck in your business, I want to dive into the key mindset you need to have to make them work. You need to get curious and ask yourself questions. Essentially, you need to do some self-coaching to help you gain a new perspective on your situation. 

Our inner voices are often too harsh, especially when it comes to the roadblocks and problems we’re experiencing. Acting like a coach and treating yourself like a client is a helpful way to gain some objectivity and take the personal side out. 

Tactic One: Take a Break

To misquote Miranda Priestly, “Taking a break? Groundbreaking.” I know we hear this advice all the time, but it can be the best thing to do when you’re feeling stuck. 

Step away from whatever is causing you problems, whether that’s literally or figuratively. Maybe you need to physically remove yourself from the environment and take a shower or go for a walk. On the flip side, you could step away figuratively and set the problem aside on your to-do list. 

This is similar to how we tell authors to put their manuscripts down. If you’re working on a project and you’re just not getting anywhere with it, file it away. 

You can take a break for a few hours, days, or even months—however long you need to gain some perspective. It’s possible you won’t ever go back to that project and you needed the break to realize it’s not something you want to pursue anymore. 

Tactic Two: Do a PITA Audit

A PITA audit is something I came up with, and it stands for “Pain in the A**.” It’s about asking yourself questions to get to the root of the pain. Here are some questions you can ask yourself:

  • Why is what I’m trying to do a pain? 
  • Where’s the friction? 
  • Where’s the hang-up? 
  • Is there a bottleneck somewhere?

It’s helpful to write down or type out your answers, or you can even pretend like you’re doing the thing and see where you get stuck. Once you identify the hang-up, you can try to fix it yourself or ask for help.

An example of this is my recent experience with the project management platform Notion. I really wanted to use Notion to organize my business, but I kept getting stuck at a particular part of the process. I would repeat my steps so that I could see where and why I was getting stuck. 

I watched tons of YouTube tutorials and did everything I could to get unstuck on my own, but I still couldn’t get it. Eventually, I asked for help, and that solved my problem. Doing a PITA audit helps you find the pain and then take the necessary next step to move past it.

Tactic Three: Create a New Habit

I recently couldn’t figure out how to put my phone down for the night and read a book. I wanted to get all cozy and read in bed, but every night I would end up scrolling TikTok instead. I got extremely frustrated with myself about it.

During this time, I was completing my Tiny Habit Coach Certification program and decided to do an experiment with myself. I created a Tiny Habit, which was that every night after I brushed my teeth, I would put my phone out of reach for the rest of the night. 

It took time and experimentation, but overall, my reading went way up after implementing this Tiny Habit. The key is to start small instead of trying to make drastic changes all at once.        

Tactic Four: Try Something New

When you’re stuck on something, see if you can do it in a different way or scrap it altogether and do something brand new. Here’s a low-risk example from my life:

I use Canva to create graphics for my business, and I was recently bored with my templates. I would dread creating graphics because they weren’t inspiring me, so I decided to completely scrap them. 

I set a timer for thirty minutes to experiment with new templates and I found some I absolutely love. Now I feel excited to create and post my graphics because they’re more fun. 

Trying something new can apply to any part of your life. You can pick up a new hobby, try a new flavor of coffee, or read a new book. Whatever it is, shaking things up can help you get unstuck, and it doesn’t have to be a huge change. 

Sometimes shaking things up in a small way can jiggle something loose that helps you get unstuck in other ways. If you’re open to possibilities, it can have a trickle effect on other areas of your life. 

Get Coached by Me

Feeling stuck does not make you less than; it simply means you’re human. Remember that it’s okay to ask for help.

If you want one-on-one coaching with me, I offer packages in business, habit, and budget coaching. Check them out here.  

Important Sections

  • (2:03) Start With Getting Curious 
  • (3:26) Tactic One: Take a Break
  • (4:53) Tactic Two: Do a PITA Audit
  • (9:04) Tactic Three: Create a New Habit
  • (11:25) Tactic Four: Try Something New
  • (14:58) Get Coached by Me

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