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Have you gotten too comfortable with your content?

In this episode, I’m talking about knowing when it’s time to take things to the next level. I’m all about “just getting things out” to get traction, but there’s a time and place to go ALL IN.

Key Takeaways

• Why you shouldn’t set goals from your current reality
• How to know where to invest more resources in 2026
• Subtle signs you’ve been coasting in your business

This one’s about consciously evolving in your business!

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READ THE EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Emily Hirsh: 

There’s this balance between just get it out there and do it imperfect. What you put out on day one is not gonna be as good as what you put out on day 30. On day 90 on day 365 done is for sure better than perfect. So when you think about the next year, what are the most important priorities in your business and what would it look like to go pro with those or to take it to the next level?

I’ve already started it’s time to optimize. It’s time to challenge myself here with really taking it to the next level intentionally, because that’s in alignment with where I wanna take my business. Embodied CEOs don’t chase trends. They pave the way they lead from within. Move by purpose, unshaken by noise.

When you are the source, you do not need permission. Hello everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. I hope you guys are having an incredible week. We’re reaching the end of the year. I dunno what your end of the year looks like, but I dunno. I’ve been in, in a season of my life the last month where I, I haven’t felt too busy.

I saw this video the other day from, I don’t know, someone on Instagram and they were like. Do you have enough time? I don’t know. Do you like you choose that? And I thought that was interesting. It was like all these things that we choose as our reality. And I thought that was interesting because I have spent a lot of my life telling myself the story that I don’t have enough time to do all the things that I wanna do and that I’m too busy.

And then something shifted. Maybe it will be a season and it will shift back, but. It’s like I kind of just stopped overpacking myself and being really realistic with what I could get done and, and really still accomplishing the non-negotiables that I have and getting support where I can’t do the things and just being realistic and it feels so good.

’cause your girl is a last minute person and I haven’t been doing everything last minute. Maybe this podcast has been a little tight, my team’s gonna be like, what are you talking about? Only because of my situation with the podcast studio right now and how it’s impacted my routine. So figuring that out and then I’m gonna get way ahead.

Alright. Today I wanted to talk about something that as I walked into the studio, I decided this is the episode because it was something I was thinking about in my own business. And I think it’s it’s something that you maybe think goes away as you, as you get successful. But it really doesn’t. It’s this constant balance between these two things.

And so the thought that I was having and that I was kind of wrestling with was where in my business should I make an intentional decision to take something to the next level by investing more resources into it? So investing more money, investing more of my time and energy, and like deciding to take it to the next LE level, deciding to go pro with it.

This thought came into my mind because I was listening to a podcast episode of Cody Sanchez’s and I was seeing her set up and how she did her intro and just, she’s an entrepreneur I really look up to, has a really successful portfolio of businesses and also really good content creator. She has probably an entire team who creates her content and you know, media team and media has been something that I’m wanting to put more energy into.

So I had this thought of like, not necessarily comparing myself to that podcast, but going, how could I challenge myself to uplevel my content in this podcast? Which then made me think about how there’s this balance between just get it out there and do it imperfect, which I actually feel like I do a really good job with that is like, you know, when we launched this podcast in video format.

For the first time. Back in April, we had hiccups, right? Like things that we were improving. The intro changed, like the way that we edited changed the way that I set up Mike and camera. I learned things as it comes with behind, you know, the tech. So we improved it. We launched it, we did it in perfectly.

I’m really good at doing that, and I do that a lot because I do think. You have things that you are nervous to put out or you could overthink really easily, and part of the journey of entrepreneurship is like put it out there. Anyways, that’s super important. And then there’s this other side of like, once you put something out and you have that piece of your business that you’re putting energy into.

It’s easy to fall into a place of, it’s the same, and I’m not really challenging the next level because I’m really comfortable in the way that we do this, and it’s like it’s working, but could it be even better? Not to constantly chase. It needs to be better, but to say this is a core part of where we’re going and what we’re trying to create.

And so how could I challenge myself to take it to the next level? And that’s where I kind of had that thought of. When I look at some of these podcasters and their shows, I think about, you know, how could I make this more of a priority, but also put more resources into. The development of it and the, you know, the studio, which is I think also top of mind.

’cause I’m looking at new studios, I’m looking at bigger studios and, and shifting things around. And so I wanna talk about this like, balance of an idea of, on one hand when you are launching something new, putting something out there, launching a podcast, launching a YouTube channel you know, launching a new offer.

Anything new in your business. It’s gonna go through a refinement process. So what you put out on day one is not gonna be as good as what you put out on day 30. On day 90, on day 365. Like it will naturally improve. And there’s also a necessary place where you can ask yourself, am I holding back and taking this to the next level?

And when I sit with that, with the podcast, it’s like. I think it comes down to a, a, a time and energy thing. A time and energy and sure money, but, but going, it’s easy to just keep doing what we’ve been doing. It’s easy, easy to fall in that routine and it’s working like it. And also with content, you can’t directly measure it.

It’s like, sure, you can see podcast downloads, but seeing the impact of it that you have as, as a brand, as a whole is harder to see. So you don’t always know where to put. Your resources. So my question and thought for you guys to sit with today, is there any areas of your business where you have a big goal, you have a big goal with your impact, with your mission, with where you wanna go, with how you wanna show up in this world, that there’s a disconnect in how you are actually showing up and producing that content or producing that outcome.

So when I look at, for example. My podcast, if I wanna take this to a top 100 business podcast or a top, you know, 50 business podcast, then my first and foremost, my time and attention and, and amount of energy that goes into this podcast will probably have to increase. That’s a choice that I’ll have to make in terms of like, it takes time for me to build relationships with guests that I want to come on and, and network with them and, and do certain things to grow the podcast.

That’s a choice that I have to make. And then from there, it’s the investment. In the company and in editing, in reproducing in the podcast studio itself, in the setup, and I’m just using the podcast as an example ’cause this is what caught my mind, but this is true for a lot of things. Like it’s even true in how you deliver your offer.

A funnel that you’re building a, a new program that you have and challenging yourself on. If my vision is that I show up like X, Y, Z. Am I doing that now? In other words, if my goal is to be a Top 50 podcast in the business world, am I showing up as somebody who has the Top 50 podcast? Am I prioritizing the podcast as if it already was a top 50 podcast?

And as I think about the, the new studio that I want, and the team that I want to support. And the social team and like the content that I wanna expand to, and I, I said this on a podcast episode, I don’t know, maybe almost six months ago, how Dan Martel referenced his media as, as going pro, as taking, you know, what he was doing himself and just kind of like.

You know, a a five, six outta 10 production and made the actual conscious decision of we’re gonna go pro as a company with our media and like blew up, you know, million followers on Instagram’s, millions of views on his YouTube. But it came back to that choice of I’m gonna choose to. Align my actions and my resources and my priorities around this.

And if you’ve been in business for a while, there’s probably areas of your business that you really haven’t kind of like dug into. So it’s the end of the year. It’s a great time to reflect and go, okay, this next year, you know, where do I see myself? What is this bigger vision? Where are the areas of my business that I really wanna see grow?

And. Take to that next level and what does that look like in terms of resource investment and why? I said at the beginning that I think people think this maybe goes away when, when you’re successful, is like, I do have the resources right now to pour more money into the podcast, but because it’s that thing of like, well, it’s working like it’s comfortable where it’s at.

I don’t have to get a bigger studio. Well, I do have to move, but I don’t have to pay for a bigger studio. I don’t have to, you know, invest in another camera or whatever. But does doing that align with where I wanna take this and then we, we can look at, okay, well my podcast right now is not a top 50 business podcast.

I would like it to be. I’m not showing up necessarily as somebody who has a Top 50 business podcast and like putting the amount of energy and time and resources into my podcast that would equal somebody with that. So my question is for you guys to reflect on that. That’s my, my invitation for you today is think about your business in the next year.

But also, I even think about longer than that. I don’t, I don’t plan out like very specific details of like in 10 years from now, here’s exactly what I’m gonna be doing, because you could do that all day long and it’ll literally never come true. What I do know is. I’m here to have a really big impact with my content and with what I’m capable of sharing my expertise, my wisdom, and as I grow and change, that content is going to grow and change.

But what I know is I wanna play in the big leagues when it comes to content creation, and therefore knowing that that is a priority of mine instead of staying comfortable where we are right now with our content creation and with my podcast and yeah, sure. It’s working. Like, I think we do a pretty good job with the podcast and with the editing.

And my team is amazing and we produce it regularly and we have got a system, but it’s really easy to also fall into the place of, we’re doing the same thing and now it’s been six months and we’re still doing the same thing. And so can you challenge taking it to the next level and make sure you’re not holding back because you’re comfortable.

It’s like, I don’t know if I, if I invest more here, if that’s gonna actually pay off. And I think this is an important balance between starting something and then optimizing. Like there’s two different experiences that happen, right when you launch something new. There are a lot of entrepreneurs who get stuck in that.

Perfectionism in comparing themselves. Let’s say you’re launching a brand new podcast. You can’t compare yourself to me, you can’t, definitely can’t compare yourself to people like Cody Sanchez because how long have they been doing their podcast, but also what are the resources that they had? Cody actually only launched her podcast a year ago, but she’s got a whole media team.

And I think she had YouTube before then, so you can’t compare that. But what happens is they, people are comparing that and then because they can’t meet that level, they get stuck in this perfectionism loop of it’s not good enough, and so therefore I’m just not gonna launch it. I’m gonna keep perfecting it and I’m gonna keep holding myself to the standard and then nothing gets going.

So there’s the start. There’s the get it out there, make it imperfect. You’re always gonna care more than everybody else did. When it comes to what the actual end result looks like and done is for sure better than perfect and you just gotta do it anyways. Do it scared, do it uncomfortable to the best of your ability, knowing that, again, day one of launching that.

Is just naturally not gonna be as good as day 30 because we learn through experience and we learn through that. Then once you get it out there and you start getting feedback and you yourself start getting better at what you’re doing, now comes the optimizing and it’s important not to stay in the place you were when you started of like, okay, I did this, I launched it.

It’s comfortable, but to keep challenging yourself. When I look at all of the content creators that I look up to. You know, and have, have a lot more reach on their platforms and, and, and, and really do a great job with their content. Clearly have process dialed in, media team dialed in. One of the things that they do really well is innovation.

Like they’re setting the standard for everyone else of content, and they’re coming up with a lot of the ideas and the trends, the new things. If you wanna be that person, you have to start. Acting like that, you have to start thinking that way. Okay. Instead of me just following what I saw somebody do or following what I know worked or my coach taught me, like how do I make it me?

How do I come up with something different? How do I connect with my ideal customer and think how could I serve them in a unique way? And that’s where the optimizing comes in and that’s where things really take off. Like starting it is just getting through the experience of. You got it out there. Now you learn from the experience, but now you get to optimize and make it your own.

And I think this is where, you know, being able to put the time and energy yourself as a creator into that innovation and constantly asking questions. I do this all the time myself and with my team is like, okay, you know, we’ve done, every time we post a podcast, we are always thinking like, what’s a different way we could do this?

Because if we do the same exact thing every single time, that’s boring. What’s a different way? How do we uplevel this? And so. As I was walking into my studios, challenging myself going, if I was a Top 50 business podcast already, what would be the decisions I’d be making about the, the type of podcast studio I wanna rent?

How much time I’m gonna spend there? How I’m going to curate guests, how I’m gonna put time in that, how I’m gonna prioritize that in my. Day to day in my week. Week to week. Because content creation in general is very easy to get pushed to the, to the bottom of the priority. So you have like your consistent commitment, right?

For me, it’s two times a week podcasts, but it is easy for me to fall into a place where I’m putting. The minimum amount of time I need to into creating those podcasts and nothing more, because I can do that so easily. I can, I can walk in here like I did five minutes ago and sit down and hit record and just start recording the podcast, which is my unique magic for sure.

But what would it look like if I was a Top 50 podcast, and how would my time and energy be? Being allocated to it. And then also the company resources, you know, what would that look like in terms of the studio, the equipment, the editing, the reproduction of it, and, and it can, we make the decision to go pro with it now intentionally and really challenge ourselves so that that then becomes a reality.

So for you, thinking about this next year, as we look at the end of this year and we think about where we’re going, and especially as it relates to. Content and just output in your business. I think in the solopreneur digital space there, it’s so easy to fall into like subpar because you’re doing everything yourself and, and that’s fine for a season.

And then you have to decide like, how serious do I wanna take this business And. Are my resource allocation and actions aligned with that. And I see this a lot with solopreneurs in the digital space where they get momentum on their own and then because of a fear of really going pro and investing and taking it to the next level, and challenging that they stay trying to do everything themselves and.

At the same time, they want the impact and the level of going pro, but their actions and resource allocation and actual execution doesn’t match that. There’s gotta be an alignment there. So when you think about the next year, what are the most important priorities in your business and what would it look like to go pro with those or to take it to the next level?

And I don’t want you. Thinking about this of like yourself, like this really comes down to hiring, I think investing resources and your time and energy for sure. And like prioritizing. And again, with content, I think that can easily get put at the bottom of the list because it’s, it’s hard to have an ROI with content.

It’s hard to know the exact ROI. It’s there. It’s one of the most valuable things you can do is. Build that warm audience, nurture that warm audience, but the direct ROI, you’re not like, oh, I, I posted a video, I got 10 leads and I got two sales. It just doesn’t work that way, which is why consistency is so important.

But I think because of that, it’s easy to get discouraged and it’s easy to put it at the bottom of the list. And then your actual actions and energy and resource allocation now is not in alignment. With where you are expecting to go. So do an audit, look at that, and then just ask yourself the question like how I did about the podcast of if I already was where I wanted to be.

How would I be making decisions? How would I be showing up today around that? Now, I know that if I was like a Top 10 podcast, I’d probably have a much bigger studio, right? And, or maybe not, but I would, I would have more resources to put in that. So I get that There’s also, okay, where do I wanna go and how would I make decisions?

And then what’s realistic enough for me as a first step in that direction today? Because it’s, it’s all about being intentional too. So many times we have like this expectation up here and we think like, okay, this should be happening. And then you compare your reality and you compare how you’re spending your time, your energy, your resources, and you’re like, oh, well, no wonder I’m not there because.

If there’s a mismatch. So looking at this next year and looking at, you know, one or two areas of your business where you’re like, I’m gonna go all in. I’ve already started. It’s time to optimize. It’s time to challenge myself here with really taking it to the next level intentionally, because that’s in alignment with where I wanna take my business.

So maybe you guys will have some inspiration from that and. We all have these areas of our business that we’ve consistently done for a period of time, unless you’re brand new, and it’s very easy to keep doing that exact same thing without questioning it unless someone invites you to question it and invites you to go, let’s get creative again.

You know, when you first start your business. And you really don’t have a lot to lose, but you also have these like big delusional dreams because you haven’t actually gotten into it yet and like failed or had things not work. So you think in this just like excitement and what if, and like imagine this and imagine that.

And it feels like it’s gotta be so much easier than it. Is in reality, you know what I’m talking about. Did you guys do that? I totally do that. I still do that where it’s like, oh yeah, we’ll just launch that thing. It’s gonna be so easy. It’s gonna do perfect. It’s gonna do amazing out the gate. And then usually it’s like a lot harder, that energy, because that energy breeds that creativity, that dreaming, that challenging of how to make it great.

Like how do you bring that into the pieces of your business that have become. Monotonous or become stagnant or just haven’t been looked at in a while, or where you have that mismatch of like, I wanna be here, but I’m showing up here and actually executing here, and I need to correct this. All right, everybody.

Hopefully this was helpful. I’m gonna mention this one more time on this episode because I am working on this a ton right now. Talking to my team about it a ton, and talk about a place where I put a lot of time and energy as my live event. So in January, January 15 to 17th, we have our next live event in Austin.

You guys like, if I could put these into words, I would, they’re very hard to put into words, but imagine incredible business workshops from AI to your messaging, to your marketing strategy, to your content with. All of the CEO personal growth that you didn’t know you needed, but you needed, and it was holding you back for the last several years with an incredible community and just a full on experience.

It’s like a retreat meets a business conference in one intimate setting with time for one-on-one With me, we’re adding for our VIPs, we’re gonna add a dinner one night. A VIP dinner. We’re adding an AI workshop, so lots of exciting things, and we cap out at 40 tickets, so I would love to see you there.

The link to check it out is embodiedmarketing.com/live. If you have any questions or you’re like, I’m kind of on the fence and I just need you to talk me through it, Emily, I promise you, no one has ever come to the event and regretted it. It is, I think. The best business and marketing event out there because it really does combine the tactical strategy that you need, and that’s gonna make you more money with the personal growth and expansion that will.

Completely set you free from any blocks you’re currently experiencing. So get your ticket before we sell out. It is incredible. We only do them twice a year and everyone there is also amazing ’cause it’s this community. Alright everybody, I’ll talk to you next time.