Episode 479: What's the one thing holding you back?
In this episode, Fiona Killackey invites you to ask yourself a powerful question: What’s really holding you back?
Whether you're listening at the start of 2025 or at any point in your business journey, this episode will help you identify and tackle the obstacles standing in your way.
Fiona breaks down common challenges that small business owners face, including fear, confidence struggles, ineffective systems, comparison, perfectionism, and unclear business foundations. She shares actionable advice for recognizing these barriers and overcoming them with clarity and confidence.
This episode is all about stepping back, assessing your business, and taking intentional steps toward growth. Fiona also shares personal stories and expert tips to help you love your business and life every day.
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Do you love your life as a small business owner?
Let's be real.
Sometimes we just don't. It's my hope that this, the My Daily Business Podcast, helps you regain a little of that lost love through practical, actionable tips, tools and tactics, interviews with creative and curious small business owners, and in depth coaching episodes with me, your host, Fiona Kalaky. With more than 20 years experience in marketing, brand content and systems and having now helped thousands of small business owners, I know what it takes to build.
A business that you can be proud of and that actually aligns with your values, your beliefs, and your hopes for the future. So much of our daily life is spent working on and in the businesses and the brands that we are creating, and so it makes sense to actually love what you do.
So let's get into this podcast and help you figure out how to love your business and your life.
Hello and welcome to episode 479 of the My Daily Business Podcast. Today it's a Quick Tip episode and being the first tip of the new year. If you're listening in real time, and if you're listening any other time in the future, this is completely fine as well. This is a deep one and it's a question that I think we really need to ask ourselves. Especially, especially if you've been in business for some time because you can get very complacent and not actually investigate and interrogate the answer to this question.
Before we get stuck in, I want to of course acknowledge where I'm coming from and acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of these beautiful lands. And for me, that is the Waurruong and Raundri people of the Kulin Nation. And so I pay my respects to their elders, past and present, and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been seated.
The other thing I wanted to let you know is that we are opening Group Coaching very soon, so if you want to get on the waitlist for that, you can head on over to mydailybusiness.com group coaching. We will be kicking that off really soon, as I said, and it can really help in making this year the year that you actually get through all the things that you want to achieve in your business. The URL for that again is just mydailybusiness.com group coaching.
All right, let's get into today's Quick Tip episode. As I said, if you're listening in real time, this is the very first Quick tip episode of 2025 and the question that I want to ask you to really, really consider and get clear on because honestly, it’ll help your entire year going forward. And this is whether you do this now at the start of 2025 or if you are listening to this at any other point in the future, it can still help.
And the question I really want you to ask yourself is: What is really holding you back?
And when I say holding you back, I mean holding you back from potentially showing up more in your business or brand, putting yourself out there. What is really holding you back in terms of sales? What is really holding you back in terms of growing your community, growing your business, growing the brand, hiring somebody, maybe keeping staff, you know, retaining staff.
It could also be what is holding you back from taking that next step in business that you really want to be taking. And I think this is a question that we kind of can gloss over easily or we think, oh yeah, well it's just this or it's the economy or it's XYZ or it's time.
I mean time, obviously. I get it. I totally get it. I have two young children. I don’t have parents that can, I mean I don’t have parents. My parents have both passed away. I have a mother in law who's fantastic and definitely helps us out, but she doesn't live anywhere near us. My sister lives two hours away, you know, so I don’t have like this community of village around me to help with the kids. And so I am predominantly the primary caregiver. I'm the one that drops them to school, picks them up from school.
I've been doing childcare, pickups and kinder, you know, half days for the last few years. I've been working part time for the last 10 years because of this. So I totally get it. I totally understand the time factor.
And then you've got kids, sports and you've got other things. And even if you don't have kids, just in general life, like trying to keep fit, trying to be healthy, trying to meal prep, trying to clean the house, keep a house, have a house, have any kind of, you know, rental or mortgage or anything going on. I get that time can feel like you are just constantly trying to find more of it and you never can.
But I also do think that I have been guilty and I know I hear it all the time from other people as well. I don’t have the time to really think about these things. And yet, and yet, if we're completely honest, we often can find the time for other things.
Like in my case, watching reality TV or not even necessarily watching reality TV, but like watching YouTube, watching TikToks, doing things that aren't necessarily adding a whole lot to my life. I mean, YouTube I definitely think does maybe less so for TikTok. But you really want to be thinking about what is holding you back.
And outside of time, the common things that I think hold people back are things like fear and confidence issues, also inadequate systems and processes. That's a big one. And I work with people on that all the time. And 2025 for me is a big year of evaluating and improving our own systems as well.
Also things like comparison, comparison artists, whatever they want to call it, comparison trap, social media pressure. I think perfectionism. I think a lot of people have that and a lot of small business owners have that. And we think that unless something is perfect, I'm not going to put it out there.
I held off, on this podcast, which is very close to a million downloads now. We've never spent a cent on advertising so far. I'm very proud of that. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everybody who shares this and recommends it and all the things. I'm so appreciative.
But I held back from launching this podcast for years because I was worried about my voice, which is so ridiculous because it is what I have. Like, I can't change it. And I haven't really had anybody ever give me the feedback that I thought they were going to give me about my voice being too nasally.
I also thought that I had to have a perfect setup. I had to have a soundproof room, like all this stuff. I had to have a proper studio. I don’t have any of that. I literally am recording right in front of a window, which is a big no-no from all the sound technician people out there. But I let that idea that unless it's perfect, I'm not going to put it out. Hold me back.
And I see this all the time with people all the time. I'm not going to do videos unless it's perfect. I'm not going to do this unless my hair and makeup's done. I'm not going to do that until, you know, the house is completely clean or whatever it is. We've all got this sort of perfectionism running around.
And the other big thing that I think really stops people and holds them back is super unclear business foundation. So not actually knowing who their business is for.
And so I thought I'd run through these to see if you resonate with any of them and if you can really tell yourself that if this is the thing.
So let's say it's perfectionism. How could I practise not being a perfectionist? So could I put something out into the world that is like a B or a B? Could I put something out there that isn't polished? Could I jump on camera without…?
I mean, I don’t wear any makeup pretty much most of the time. It's a fancy day if I put mascara and tinted moisturiser on. But I totally get that for lots of people, they are used to wearing a lot of makeup. And so it, may be if their thing is like, unless my face is completely made up and my hair’s all done, then I won’t get on camera. Maybe your practise is like, okay, let's try it. Maybe not. Maybe if you're used to having a face full of makeup, then maybe it's just a lesser amount or maybe it's some other thing like, okay, how can I do it without having to put all that pressure on myself?
Because honestly, nobody else is probably putting that pressure on you except you.
Okay, so let's imagine that the first one, fear and confidence, is something that you think that that's the main thing. That is what's holding me back. It's not time when I really dive deep. It's more about imposter syndrome or really making you question things like your pricing or the value that you're putting out there.
It could be the fear of being visible, particularly on things like video and being like, ah, you know, I've often thought things like, I don't want to be famous, I just want to be good. And I think that has also maybe held me back a little bit from really getting out there.
This idea that like, well, I'm not trying to be famous. And there's lots of people that definitely are, I think in the business coaching world particularly. And it's like, but maybe that is, maybe that's just an element of fear that's showing up. Maybe it's self-doubt that you've got around your business decisions.
Maybe you're like, oh, do I really want to go big with this? Because maybe it's not the best thing that's out there or maybe the product isn't perfect at this point. It could also be this kind of fear, of maybe outgrowing the current client base that you have or the customers that you have and thinking, oh, if I really show up or if I really launch this new thing, or if I really do XY Z, they're going to somehow move on.
It could also be, I don’t know, anxiety, again, with that fear of around growth and around investing in your growth. So maybe, you know, okay, to really go out there, I need to invest in a CFO or I need to invest in a marketing director, or I need to invest in a platform or an AI tool or business coaching or whatever it is. And I'm worried, I'm worried about that because I've never maybe invested that much at this point in time. And so maybe that's something.
It could also be, like I said before, your systems and processes just aren't there. So you're a bit worried that, okay, if I really go for it with this new collection, or if I really go for it with whatever, I actually don’t have the systems in place.
And that could be real things, like, as in maybe your operations and your, logistics of actually getting products out to people isn’t set up well. So you're like, okay, I need to fix that before I go all out.
It could be that you've got really messy financial tracking. It could be that you don’t have any documented procedures. It could be that your SOPs are all over the place. It could be your emails not actually capturing emails properly. So if you got more of an influx of that, it would be even more of a mess.
And if that is the case, then this is where you need to spend time and focus because you're like, I can’t show up fully because this stuff is not sorted yet.
It could also be, like I said before, the comparison trap. It could be this idea that we have to be perfect and everything we're seeing on social media, particularly in your industry, might be driving these feelings of, I can't fully go out there. And something like that is holding you back.
The pressure to be on every platform, the, I don't know, trying to copy other people's business models or feeling behind. If you're seeing everyone else's highlight reels and so much of Instagram and other platforms, are highlight reels.
I think it's part of why TikTok appeals to so many people. It doesn't seem so polished and so perfect in there.
It also could be maybe that you're feeling like your unique value proposition isn't that unique. Maybe you're feeling like, God, I'm just like everybody else out there in the market. And so again, if that was you, then you might be like, okay, well, how do I find my voice? How do I set myself apart? And no one’s, a perfect snowflake. We're not. There are a million, bazillion business coaches out there.
And what I've had to do is think about, well, what do I offer that's different and how do I offer that and how do I come across and how do put that out into my marketing message.
And like I said before, perfectionism, that is a huge one that holds people back. This idea, like, even down to things like, I'm not going to delegate that to somebody. I'm not going to bring somebody else on or hire somebody or a freelancer, because only I can do it the right way. Or holding back things like holding back your content or holding back a campaign because it's not perfect and it's not.
Or maybe somebody else did it and they had a bigger budget and it looks much better and you're like, ah, now I'm going to come out with a lesser, campaign idea. It's just all these things that so much hold us back and kind of have this paralysis then on decision making or stepping forward.
And so it's much easier to do nothing, honestly. It really is. It's much easier to sit there and go, oh, I wish I had written a book. Then write a book, put it out there and get people's feedback on it. Believe me, I've written two. I've written two under my own name. I've written others as a ghostwriter. And so writing for yourself and under your own name, that's a lot scarier than writing for other people.
It could also be, like I said, unclear business foundations, that you don't know exactly who your target audience is. Maybe your business has just grown, grown, grown. And you're like, I actually don’t know who we're for anymore. And maybe that is where you need to focus on first.
It could be that you don’t have any clear business goals. You actually are, sort of riding this train and you're like, I have no idea what the destination is. What are, ah, we trying to do here? And again, if you've been in business for some time, this could very well be where you're at.
It could be that you've got no boundaries in business. And you're like, I don't have a structure in place to really set boundaries with clients or customers. It could be you've got a really scattered marketing message. Maybe you had a really strong strategy at the start or maybe you didn't. And again, it's just sort of grown and you're like, I don’t really know what we're saying or I've worked with people before.
I remember one beautiful client and they said, I just, I don’t like our tone, I don’t like the way we communicate. I feel like I started this business and I was worried about where I sat in the marketplace. So then I sort of created this Persona that isn't me and now I'm sort of stuck with it because we've been rolling like that for the last 10 years or however many years.
And so that like brand values, really understanding what are my values, what am I trying to align myself to? All of these are things that can hold you back. So the question today is really what is holding you back? What is the big thing that's holding you back?
And if it's one of these things, then focus in on how do I find a solution to that. Now this is where definitely you can work with me as a coach. You could join group coaching. We go through all of this sort of stuff or you can think about it with business friends or, you know, maybe you're in any other kind of coaching group or component.
And I really want you to though take it on board and think about it because this is the stuff that you could just get into the hamster wheel of normal day to day business as soon as know the summer's over or winter or wherever you're listing from and then you wake up and maybe it's December 2025 and you're like, oh, I'm in the same position again. And usually it's one of these things that I have just talked about.
So I really hope that that helps you today. Just to recap, it's things like fear and confidence issues, inadequate systems and processes falling into the comparison trap and kind of social media pressure, perfectionism and then just not having strong business foundations.
So that is it for today. If you want to go through this in text format, you can find it on or over My Daily Business.com Podcast 479 again if you want to jump into this sort of stuff. We go through this in group coaching and the 2025 group coaching. I'm revising a couple of things and it's got a bit of a different format and really excited to get stuck into this so you can apply for that and join the waitlist at mydailybusiness.com/groupcoaching.
Thank you so much for listening. Welcome to the new year everyone and can't wait to get into this with you. Take care. Bye.
Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Podcast for a range of tools to help you grow and start your business, including coaching programmes, courses and templates. Cheque out our shop at mydailybusiness.com and if you want to get in touch, you can do that by email at hello@mydailybusiness.com or you can hit us up on Instagram at mydailybusiness_. You can find us on TikTok at mydailybusiness or find me Fiona Killackey on LinkedIn. I look forward to connecting.
