Episode 59 – Not Sure What to Do Next?

Introduction    00:00:03    Marketing, explosive growth, and revolutionary secrets that can catapult your business to new heights. You’re now listening to The Underground Marketer Podcast with your host Tudor Dumitrescu, the one podcast devoted to showing new businesses how to market themselves for high growth.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:00:25    Welcome to the underground marketer. This is the place where we deliver the real truth about marketing and explore big ideas that can help new businesses thrive and grow into big ones. I’m your host, Tudor. And today I’m going to give some advice for people who feel stuck and feel like they don’t know what they’re supposed to do, and they don’t actually know what they need to do next. Especially a lot of people who are in the early stages of their business or who may not even have started in business yet, they may have a job or they may just be freelancing, but they want to expand and grow into a business. Many of them, they’re not quite sure what they should be doing, you know, and this is what actually leads to a lot of things like shiny object syndrome and procrastination and avoidance and all those things and negative emotions and negative mindsets that are holding you back.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:01:23    And it’s basically lacking clarity in what you want and where you are going. And once you have this kind of clarity, then things are going to be a lot easier to move forward with, right? And you’re not gonna be attracted by every shiny object that comes forward. And you’re going to know basically, what’s good for you, and what’s not good for you given of course your goals and where you are headed. So the way I like to approach this is that you have to realize that when it comes to these things, there’s just nobody who can help you. Nobody can do this for you, you know, and it’s very important that you realize that when it comes to what you want and what’s going to be good for you, nobody else can determine this for you. You know, some people may advise you and whatnot, but ultimately it’s all on you.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:02:18    You know, you have to become a leader inside yourself when it comes to your own person, because nobody else is going to do it for you. There’s nobody else who can live inside your skin, experience the world, the way you are experiencing it, you are unique. And there is a lot of responsibility that comes with that because you have to figure it out and you have to figure out what you want and what’s actually meaningful for you. Nobody can do that. And the way I approach this is by basically thinking about three things, you know, I think about what the world wants and what other people need and find useful. I think about what I like and what I enjoy doing. And I think about stuff that I’m good at, you know, and that I’m naturally attracted to. So these three things I believe are key when it comes to figuring out what you actually want.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:03:12    So ideally you want to find something that fits all of the three criteria. So meaning that it’s useful for other people, you’re good at it and you enjoy doing it. And if it fits all three of those criteria, then that’s likely to be something that you want to do. You know? So the way I like to approach this and inside on my website on the, on actually on TDA digital, you know, if you just type in tda.digital on Google and you go on my website and there’s a free training there, you know, I actually share this full exercise, uh, insight, the training, and I call it discovering your own unique gift, right? And it’s the exact framework that I use to do this. And basically it involves making a list of things that you’re good at a list of things that other people want or need, and a list of things that you actually enjoy doing.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:04:09    And your goal is to find the intersection of all three stuff that is in all three lists. And those things are most likely going to be the things that you want. So when you’re lacking clarity, it’s very good to do this exercise and to figure out really what your desires are, what things you good at, what the world needs and where you should be headed next. Right? It’s, it’s very useful in that regard. The other thing that you can do is you can look at your past experience and try to identify the moments when you are at your happiest. Or maybe I should not say happiest, but rather most fulfilled. So when you felt most fulfilled, what exactly were you doing? You know, and what were you not doing? What exactly was happening in your life? What sort of environment did you find yourself in?  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:04:59    And if you start thinking in these terms and figuring out these questions, then you’re going to have to find it a lot easier to figure out what you actually want. And once you have clarity about the stuff that you want, you’ll instantly find that things like shiny objects and whatever other people say, they have a lot less influence in your mind. And the reason for this is simple. Once you figure out what you want, you filter everything that comes into your awareness through that, you know, and if it’s not related to what you want and what’s meaningful for you, then you just drop it. You know, it doesn’t matter anymore. That, so, and so is making millions of dollars through eCommerce. You know, if that’s not aligned with what you want, right. That you don’t care about it because it’s not meaningful for you. Right?  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:05:53    So that’s why it’s very important to gain this sort of clarity. And it’s very important that you gain this sort of clarity in a very personal way. So I know that a lot of you have financial goals. For example, you may want to get to $5 million, right? But if your only criteria is to get to $5 million, then there’s no way that you won’t be affected by shiny object syndrome. And the reason for that is that there’s 1,000,001 ways to get to $5 million. And it’s almost impossible to determine which one is the fastest, right? Everybody else is going to say that this one is the fastest, my way is the fastest, whatever, right? And there’s no way that the shiny object of a faster way is not going to attract you, right? And the only way it’s not going to attract you. And the only way you are actually going to stick with a path that’s actually going to get you to your financial goal is if you have a much clearer picture of what it is that you want, because you don’t just want $5 million, right?  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:06:55    You want a lot more than that. And you have to figure out what that kind of stuff is like, what kind of life you want to live, what kind of work you want to do and all of that, right? All of that combines into it. And unless you figure that stuff out, you’re going to have a very hard time sticking to one path and not going, you know, five steps in one direction, and then five, 10 steps back. And if you keep going five steps in one direction, 10 steps back then three steps forward and whatever, you know, maybe even five, 10 years are going to pass and you’re still going to be in the same place. If you don’t have a business. Now you’re not gonna have a business. 10. If you’re a freelancer, now you’re just going to continue being a freelancer 10, making the same amount of money you’re making now, right?  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:07:38    Nothing is going to change. And that’s because you don’t have inner clarity. And it’s that inner clarity. Once you have it, that’s actually going to drive you forward and get you to make the right choices. You know, people who don’t have inner clarity, and this is something that not many people understand persons who are in this situation, they’re not going to be able to make the right choices for them. And they’re not going to be able to move forward in a consistent direction towards something, right? So that’s why getting clarity about what you want. And what’s meaningful for you is so important without this kind of clarity. You’re not going to be able to build, you know, basically break after break and be left with a meaningful business at the end of things. You know? So that’s why it’s very important that you figure this stuff out.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:08:29    Otherwise, if you don’t figure this stuff out, you’re going to be easily distracted. And the only way to figure this stuff out is to dig deep inside yourself and figure out what actually makes you unique. And what’s unique about you. What’s special about you. What are the personal factors and the personal motivations that are driving you that are basically unique to you, and that are not common to other people, those things they’re going to help you make the right decisions for you. And once you gain clarity of the, on them, the right decision is very clear all the time. You know, you’re not going to be distracted by anything. You know, you can’t be distracted because you know what matters for you when you don’t know what matters for you. That’s when you are distracted. That’s when you are at the mercy of other people, that’s when you care that X, Y, Z made so much money with eCommerce or with running an agency or, or with whatever, right.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:09:26    When you don’t know what’s meaningful for you, you care about that stuff. Because the only criteria that you have for making a decision are the very general criteria, like make money as fast as possible and that kind of stuff, right? That’s common to everyone. There’s nothing specific in there in that criteria to actually help you determine something for yourself instead of for somebody else. So if you want to gain clarity, you have to do these things. You have to spend time with yourself and investigate these things. Go through the fair framework that I shared with you, ask yourself, reviewing your head, you know, past experiences and stuff that you found meaningful and times when you felt that your life was meaningful and review the, those times for commonalities find what actually makes you, you figure out what motivates you, what makes you happy? What makes you joyful about being alive and starting from this foundation and getting clarity on this foundation is key.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:10:29    You know, once you have this kind of clarity, you’ll notice that you’re a lot more motivated in whatever you’re doing, and there’s pretty much no distractions. It’s easy to just do what you have to do when you know, what’s actually driving you. And when you know, what’s actually meaningful for you. So the metaphor that I like to use for this is basically having a goal, you know, and having a map that shows you how to get there. And once you have both a goal and you have a map of where you are and where you want to go, and the roots that can take you there and you know your values, right? You know, what’s meaningful for you. Once you know, all these factors, then it’s very easy to choose the right roots to take you to your goal. That’s not the complicated part, right?  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:11:16    It’s very easy once, you know what you want to keep pursuing it, and nothing is going to stop you from pursuing it. But the hard part is getting to know what it is. And sometimes if you are in a very stressful environment and you don’t have much time for yourself, and you’re always on the run, it’s very hard to figure those things out. You know, that’s why sometimes it’s good to basically take a vacation or a holiday, go away somewhere, spend some time in nature just by yourself, just you with yourself, maybe write some stuff in your journal, spend some time thinking about your life and thinking about where you’re going very deeply, you know, and thinking about what you want. And you just have to spend the time and you have to do it. And it’s truly transformative the effects that you’re going to notice by doing this in your life.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:12:08    And by taking the time to do it are going to be tremendous. And it’s not actually possible to quantify them. The effects are going to be far-ranging. You know, you’re going to be a lot happier. Your business is going to grow a lot faster. And you’re going to figure out the actual practical stuff that you need to do for, to grow your business and to do whatever you want to do to achieve your goals much more quickly. And it all comes back to figuring out who you are. What’s meaningful to you. What’s valuable to you and how you can get there, right? That’s the foundation. And that’s what you have to do. And if you haven’t done this, or if you’ve done this very long in the past, then you should do it. I try to do this at least once a year, once a year, you know, basically spend time with myself thinking about exactly what I want and what I would like to achieve and where I would like to be in the future and who exactly I am and what sort of values I have.  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:13:10    And what’s meaningful for me. And what’s important for me. So I highly encourage you that you do the same, especially if you’re feeling stuck, especially if you feel like you don’t know what you want to do. And I hear this very frequently from people. They come to me for advice and they tell me that they don’t know what to do. If you don’t know what to do, if you don’t know what direction you’re headed in, there’s no advice that I can give you. There’s no help that I can give you. Right? You have to first figure that stuff out for yourself. And once you are sure, for example, if you come to me and you’re sure that you want to be a freelancer, or you are sure that you want to build a big agency, for example, then I can help you. You know, because I know how to do those things, but if you’re not sure what you want, then you are wasting your time by going to and talking with other people, right?  

Tudor Dumitrescu     00:13:57    First, you have to figure out what you want. And once you’ve figured out what you want, then talking with other people, asking for advice and all the rest of it, then it can be helpful, right? And then it can actually be productive for you. So that’s pretty much what I wanted to share with you for today, as usual, thank you for tuning in and for listening to the underground marketer, stay tuned for the next episode. And until next time, remember to keep growing your business and providing massive value to the world. You are the reason why we’re all growing richer. Our freedoms are expanding and we’re all living in greater prosperity. Thank you.