When I was pregnant last time, I remember clearly wanting someone to simply “tell me what to do” - daily - in my business. While I usually loved the autonomy of running my own thing, brainstorming projects, prioritizing, and strategizing - there was something about pregnancy that made me want to hand over the reins. I was tired of making decisions. I was questioning my intuition. And this all led to a lot of self-doubt that felt paralyzing.

Have you ever experienced this?

Pregnant or not, every entrepreneur hits these moments. It’s a lot of responsibility to be in charge of everything. And most of the decisions you’re making come with a lot of unknowns. You can’t know for sure that a product will sell, or a new marketing strategy will give you the ROI you need.

Most of your business decisions are made with the information you have available along with assumptions and intuition. You won’t know if it was a good decision until you test it out. And testing means building your product, putting it out there, and investing money and time on your hypothesis.

It feels risky. And when we’re doubting ourselves, whether from the pregnancy hormones or just being human, it’s enticing to think an “expert” can take the risk out of the equation. Someone else, with more experience and a track record of success, will simply tell you what to do and it will work, you’ll make all the money and save all the time.

It’s a common marketing strategy for coaches, consultants, and business strategists - hire me, I’ll teach you my method, and solve all your problems.

But can it be that simple?

If it was, we’d all be millionaires by now.

Coaches, consultants, and business strategists all have their place in your business. And they can save you time and help you make all the money. But it’s not as simple as “tell me what to do”. Many are missing a crucial first step - asking the right questions.

There’a a reason you’re the one generally making your business decisions. You know your business better than anyone. You know your clients, your skillset, your strengths, your dreams, and your goals. A coach that doesn’t get to know these things about you and your business will “tell you what to do”, but it’s coming from the wrong place (likely in-line with their business, their clients, their skillset, their strengths, their dreams, and their goals.)

You know what you need to do in your business. The answer is within you. When you have those self-doubt moments and everything feels murky, a coach should be there to help you craft the right questions of yourself and help you navigate through the unknowns until you feel confident again.

You can’t hand over the reins of your business (as much as you’d like to some days!). But this is good news. Because it means that you already have the right answer for your business decision. Trust yourself, it’s in there.