What you can control...and what you can’t

Something my former tech start-up partner used to quote after every funding pitch (most of which ended in hope-shattering rejection): “Success requires no apologies. Failure permits no alibis.” At the time, 20-something-year-old me found it super inspiring. Because of course we were going to succeed! (Spoiler alert…we failed.) These days, I still love that saying. But mostly because I’ve internalized it as something slightly different: Ultimately, you are responsible for your results. No, that doesn’t mean you can control or be in charge of whether someone will buy from you. But you know what you can control? How you pick yourself up after a rejection. How you use it to improve. Whether or not you keep on going until you get the results you want. I say this a lot, because I truly believe it: As long as you don’t give up, getting what you want is a matter of WHEN — not IF. So you focus on the things you can control… Like your offer. Your content. Your skills. The value you bring to the table. Your mindset. And you learn — because it’s also a skill, and possibly the most important one at that — to go with the flow on things you can’t control. Like… When someone will buy from you. If they’ll ever buy from you. Timing. Known unknowns. (Like when or if the next algorithm shift will negatively affect you. Or if Facebook decides to randomly restrict your account.) Take how I set growth goals these days for the LZ business: For example, with our site traffic, it’s pretty straightforward. We know if we do these things this many times, we’ll grow by this much. So we back into what we want to hit. (And I share this complete system with you in my [Clients Come to Me]( flagship.) But with other areas, like our Youtube channel growth for example, where we don’t have a set “formula” like that, we set a different type of goal: Instead of focusing on the results (although of course we’re monitoring them and always learning and improving), we instead focus on what we can control there — Creating the best content we can, while adhering to our schedule. In the beginning of your business, as you’re figuring everything out, you’ll most likely want to do a blend both: You can control… How often you market your business. How well you explain your offer. The quality and value of your offer. How you invest your time and money. And, how you react to your fears and doubts. (Or if you’re not able to do that yet, you can control what you do to learn how to do that.) Which gives you a fair amount of control over how much you can grow your audience, how many sales calls you have, and how effectively you’re able to use those sales calls to drive actual sales. Point being: All the things you CAN control…will lead to the things you want but can’t technically control. AKA: More sales. If you want to learn how to do this for yourself — take your own skills and get started online, via in my opinion, the best way to do so (a coaching business)... I walk you through how to take your fate and results into your own hands, in my [free training right here]( . (It’s the same strategy I used to build my first online business to six-figures before I left my 9-5.) The training will also explain my flagship Employee to Entrepreneur program for if you want more guidance, as it gives you everything you need to make your first six-figures online. Using just you and what you already know/have. No physical products, dropshipping, affiliates, coding, or any other hoopla needed. 
 To doing your best in the areas you CAN control… …And learning to go with the flow in the areas you can’t, Luisa Zhou PS - A special time of the year this skill makes an even bigger difference — as in, it can either add a massive boost to your business, or mean you have a pretty bad quarter… Is the last three months of the year. And they’re coming up! On one hand, you’ve got a chance to do holiday promos that can significantly boost your sales…or be a huge waste of your time and energy…depending on how you do them. (Within your control.) On the other hand, you’ve got a weird time where a lot of your ideal customers aren’t necessarily looking to buy coaching or courses. (Not within your control.) At least, according to popular unwisdom. Which you can choose to believe or not. (Within your control.) Because if you choose to believe, as I do, that there are always plenty of people who want to buy from you and get your help? Well, then, the last three months of the year are the BEST time for you to focus on the things you can control — The right offers. At the right time. In the right way. For this specific time of year. So that YOU stand out and make sales to close the year strong. I’ll be talking more about this over the next few days. Including how you can use these last three months to get the big breakthroughs that you might have been struggling to get for a while now. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, click here to [unsubscribe]( Zhou Ventures, Inc. 54 State Street, Ste 804 #5511 Albany, NY 12207