Frustration is a funny word.

It means a lot of different things to different people, even though it has one definition.

My therapist had a great definition of frustration:

For the sake of this episode, we’re going to focus strictly on what frustration can look and feel like in your business.

I’m also going to give you 3 ways you can take your frustration to dig a little deeper and get better at what you do.

This episode was inspired by a coaching client.

She messaged me about her Black Friday Cyber Monday offer, which she had worked extremely hard on (in other words, she’s doing the work).

The campaign was set to go out over 4 days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, & Monday of the holiday weekend).

After the first 2 days and no sales, she messaged me that she was having an “insecurity attack” and even though she knew the people on her list weren’t the right people, she was really frustrated.

The day prior she was excited that even though no one bought it, she knew she was on the right path.

I’m going to give you a little context about where she was when we started working together (not her niche, market, or name, but you’ll have enough to understand).

When we started working together she knew she wanted to focus on a different market. Very similar work, but the message and audience needed to be changed.

In addition to some website changes, we started working on a new email opt-in offer (this is a long sequence based on the ‘Lesson, Bridge, Pitch, Survey’ strategy by Brennan Dunn): 9 emails with a very specific purpose, followed by an offer to purchase, followed by a survey to those who didn’t purchase.

Then we worked on the BFCM offer.

More emails, product images, sales page set up, etc.

A lot of work, right?

Here’s the thing…

She’s JUST getting started!

Where she was to where she is today is like night and day. She has been working extremely hard to build a solid foundation for her business.

It’s kind of like how working out and eating healthy feels if you’re trying to lose weight. You know your body is feeling better, your energy is better, your sleep is better, and maybe you’ve lost a few pounds.

Then you step on the scale a couple of months in and the number hasn’t moved.

Maybe even the inches haven’t dropped yet.

Does that mean that the two months prior, with everything you’ve accomplished aren’t worth anything?

Absolutely not.

You’ve created new habits and are establishing a level of trust within yourself that no scale can take away (nor does it determine your worth and value).

This is the biggest challenge with online businesses.

It “seems” like everyone else is having success.

But we don’t know how many times the person we’re comparing ourselves to has failed. Nor do we now how much work has been put into the knowledge and skills they have today.

Here’s an example:

I’ve made a couple of BFCM purchases. All have to do with writing.

The first was that I signed up for the