Sometimes, the real reason selling feels hard isn’t mindset—it’s a sign that your services or product needs improvement.
You know something’s off.
Not in your skill. Not in your strategy.
But in that quiet disconnect between what you know you’re capable of, and what you’re currently offering.
You’ve built the systems.
Delivered the results.
Earned the praise.
And still, when it’s time to scale… You hesitate.
You know the advice you’re getting is solid:
“Share more of your story.”
“Lead with value, not fear.”
“Trust that the right people will feel your energy.”
But what if the reason you’re not promoting your business is simply because something doesn’t feel right?
Not bad. Just not aligned.
Not broken. Just not an authentic reflection of what you believe in.
That’s exactly where I was.
Years into a successful coaching business, with frameworks that worked, clients who thrived, and referrals that flowed…
But, I still resisted bringing new people in.
Not because of fear.
Not because of impostor syndrome.
But because the experience didn’t match my standards.
Not yet.
So I did the opposite of what ‘everyone’ was telling me to do.
I paused the selling.
Rebuilt from the inside out.
Focused on making something I could truly stand behind, without hesitation.
This isn’t about confidence.
It’s about congruence.
🎙 That’s what this episode is about.
Not a tactic.
Not a sales strategy.
Just what happens when you create from clarity—and build something that feels authentically you.
It’s not about pushing past the discomfort.
It’s about listening to what it’s trying to show you.
🎧 Listen the episode—this one’s different.
No hype. No hack. Just honest evolution.
KEY TAKEAWAYS: The Role of Product Improvement in Business Growth
- Resistance to Selling: Many entrepreneurs experience resistance when it comes to attracting new clients, often due to feelings of inadequacy about their offerings or fear of not being able to provide the same level of support to new clients as they do to existing ones.
- Importance of Product Quality: A key realisation is that the quality and presentation of the product or service being offered can significantly impact an entrepreneur’s willingness to sell.
- Focus on Improvement: Instead of pushing for sales, it can be more beneficial to focus on improving the product or service.
- Trusting Your Instincts: Entrepreneurs should trust their instincts about their products and services. If something feels off or not good enough, it’s essential to address those concerns.
- Long-Term Vision Over Short-Term Gains: Building a product that one is proud of may take time and effort, but it can lead to more sustainable success.
BEST MOMENTS: Realizations That Highlight the Need for Product Improvement
00:09 – 💬 “When it comes to actually going out and finding new people and attracting them into my world, I find that there’s a huge resistance and I really struggle with this. It’s held me and my business back.”
05:13 – 💬 “I realised that I was embarrassed or I wasn’t proud of how my courses were structured, how they were presented, how they were a little bit complicated. There wasn’t a clear client journey for people to go through.”
13:15 – 💬 “If you’re in this place of resistance, if something’s not feeling right, go deep. Figure out what it is and trust yourself.”
14:13 – 💬 “Maybe it’s not about selling more. Maybe it’s about actually doubling down on building something you’re proud to sell so it sells itself.”
TIMESTAMPED OVERVIEW
00:00 Overcoming Client Acquisition Resistance
04:36 Business Growth Resistance Insight
08:14 Streamlining Services with AI Integration
12:49 Believe and Commit to Succeed
13:43 Sell What You Believe In
Episode Transcript
Dr Steve Day: Over the years, I\'ve really struggled with putting myself out there to attract new clients into my business. I get nearly all of my clients through referrals, and that feels comfortable to me. When it comes to actually going out and finding new people and attracting them into my world, I find that there\'s a huge resistance. And I really struggle with this. It\'s held my business back. It\'s held me back in terms of the way I feel about my business and the success I could or should’ve had.
And over the past six or 12 months, I\'ve really been working on this, and I feel that the solution to this for me was far simpler. And it went against everything that my coach had told me. It went against what the Internet tells me to do, what social media tells me to do. And today, I want to actually dig into what has worked for me.
So, hopefully, if you are feeling some resistance. And you need some reassurance that what you\'re thinking may actually be right, this episode might be the one you need to listen to. So let\'s jump in and I\'ll explain exactly where I was, where I am now, and how I believe I got there.|
Okay, so just for a bit of background, I\'ve been running my coaching business for about nine years. I started off basically winging it, so to speak, I had some ideas. I\'d tried out a few things with working with assistants. I was just getting into task management. Had a battle on a background in computing. I was dabbling with automation. I was pretty good at tech, but no real expertise to speak of. Yet, I put myself out there.
I sold my first course, and my clients were massively successful. I seemed to be a natural coach, I enjoyed it. People seemed to get on with me, they seemed to listen to what I said, they did what they asked. So it was a massively successful experience. I felt incredibly lucky that I\'d done it. That I actually made that bold move to quit my job as a doctor. To figure out what I actually wanted to do in life. And actually create an offering a business that lent into my strengths. And actually in an area that I\'m massively interested in. That has blossomed over the years.
I\'ve spent the past nine years developing frameworks. To help people to hire, onboard, train and work with virtual staff, remote teams and in house staff. To get those people to build systems, to document work, to create operation manuals, automations. Now working with AI, like all of this stuff has basically built from a need to fix these problems in my business. And then when I fix the problem, create a framework, creating a solution, I\'ve then been able to offer that to my clients. As something to help them.
And many of my clients are literally one step, two steps behind me in their journey. And they\'ve come with me and grown as I\'ve grown along the way. So it\'s been a hugely rewarding experience and I\'ve had some amazing success stories. However, despite all of what I\'ve just told you, I find it incredibly hard to actually put myself out there to sell what I do. I know what I do is great. Like the results speak for themselves.
The client feedback I get without me even asking for it is just remarkable. I\'m like honestly brought to tear sometimes in meetings. Because I feel so grateful to be getting the appreciation from the people I\'m working with. And to see the joy that what I\'ve helped them to do has given them the freedom, the opportunities and the lifestyle that I have.
Like, it\'s just absolutely life changing and I love it. So why then, despite all of this, how I such a resistance to actually attracting new people in? It\'s not because I don\'t know what I\'m doing. I\'ve done, I\'ve had more marketing coaches than I like to admit to. I spent tens of thousand pounds on marketing coaching, on courses, on systems, on ads. I know how this stuff works.
I\'ve built funnels and I have lead magnets and I have all of this stuff. This ecosystem of ability to attract people in and sell to them. But I don\'t really push it. I don\'t utilize it, I don\'t sell myself. And I often thought this was maybe something like about my confidence about not wanting to get new clients in. Because of like people talk about, oh, it\'s because of being imposter syndrome.
I don\'t feel that. I feel I\'m actually quite good at what I do. So I don\'t actually feel for me it was that, but still there was a blockage there. And so many people were just saying to me, you just gotta get out there. You just gotta basically sell, sell, sell and attract people in and make more money, et cetera, et cetera. And I kept on doing that and I kept on, when I got to that point of, you know, switching on the ads. Or like getting like putting my new lead magnet out there or whatever it was.
And then I\'d get this resistance and I\'d pull back from it. And that work I\'d put in it would just be wasted. Because I\'d never actually see it through that last 10% to see the fruit of all my labor. And what I realized was that I was embarrassed. Or I was, yeah. I wasn\'t proud of, let\'s say, not embarrassed, a bit strong. But maybe is a good word, of how my courses were structured. How they were presented. How they were a little bit complicated. There wasn\'t a clear client journey for people to go through.
Like, the onboarding experience wasn\'t as slick as it could be. And I felt that in so many ways it didn\'t reflect who I was. And it didn\'t reflect the value I wanted to give people. So it was great when I worked with people one on one. When I was coaching them, like, we had fantastic results. So if I could handheld them and show them where to go. Which frameworks to use, how to apply them. When to use this particular methodology. Show their staff how to go through the courses and where to get access. And then coach them through it, it worked amazingly.
But I\'ve always had this fear about selling it to people I didn\'t have that intimate relationship with. That intimate experience with. Because I felt I wasn\'t going to be able to give them a hand when they needed to get over the hurdles. And that\'s held me back massively. But people still told me to keep selling.
They still told me to, you know, create the next lead magnet, do the next webinar. And I\'ve done automated webinars, I\'ve done live webinars, I\'ve done workshops. I\'ve done, as I said, lead magnets. I\'ve sold stuff on YouTube, like all of their stuff. But then I pull it back just as it just. Is it often about to become successful? Because I didn\'t want more clients, I didn\'t want more people coming into this world. Forgets all the advice and against all the advice, saying, no, you don\'t need to do anything different. You\'ve got an amazing ecosystem, you\'ve got an amazing product. You just need to sell it more.
I didn\'t. And what I realized after so many times of doing this was actually the problem was what I believe is that there was. It wasn\'t good enough in my eyes, and that\'s why I wasn\'t selling it. There were things that should be a lot better. Knowing what I know now compared to when I actually first created some of the courses. And that\'s why I wasn\'t selling it. It was clunky and slow. It did have issues and glitches. Some of the videos were out of date and didn\'t make sense.
Some of the paths did take too long to see results and those were the reasons why I wasn\'t selling it. It was nothing about my confidence. Nothing about my being feeling that I didn\'t deserve the wealth. It wasn\'t anything about feeling like an imposter. It was simply that I didn\'t believe the product that I was selling was a true reflection of who I am. And what I wanted the world to perceive me as.
And that is because I want people to get value from what I do. I don\'t want people to pay good money, come to into my world and then feel like this was a second rate product. This was actually they\'ve been ripped off at all because yeah, the content may be amazing. And they may get the results, they may get all that. But I want them to have that amazing experience on day one to feel they were getting. They\'ve done the right decision in investing in my program and I didn\'t feel on the, on its own.
My product, services and community of thing gave that impression. With me involved, I didn\'t have a problem with it. So what I did was stop selling. Stop getting new clients in. And focus 100% on actually finding the ultimate platform that can deliver the best customer services. Utilize latest technology like AI agents and AI coaches. To bring all of my courses and coachings and methodologies into a single place. A single version of truth. A knowledge base which is highly searchable. That can be that you can find anything, any transcripts.
And bring it all into one platform to go through. Modernize all the courses. Start introducing AI as a tool to actually help people. Start building more templates to make it easier for people to get results. To strip out all of the noise. All of the bulk and the bonuses that may have added in over the years. Thinking that more like adding more is more valuable. And actually what people want is more results in less time, Not just more stuff.
And so stripping it all out, it\'s been a big, big challenge. But in doing so it\'s allowed me to create something far more streamlined. Far more beautiful, far more customer friendly, far more valuable. Something that actually people can actually get involved with. Engage with, get results, dip in and out of, not get lost. See where they\'re up to, find what they need.
All of these things. These complaints I know people had about what, you know, my previous offerings. Because the platforms were outdated and they were like on WordPress and stuff. And it\'s a bit clunky and slow. That it\'s all gone. But it\'s taken me, best part of 18 months in total, to actually go through this journey. And all that time, my coach has been saying, Steve, you\'ve got to sell. You\'ve got to sell. You got to get on with it. And I said, no. I\'m not going to do it. I\'m going to focus on actually what I truly believe is my biggest bottleneck. If that\'s the word or the Achilles heel, whatever the word is, like the resistance. That\'s the better word.
Why was. Why was I not openly selling what I did? Because I know it was great. But yet this resistance in me stopped me from doing it. So for me, I found my resistance. It took me some time, and I had to believe in myself against what everybody else was telling me. I had to say no, actually, this is what\'s important. So, yeah, I mean, I\'m lucky in that I built up a good client base. I do get referrals still. I still had cash flow coming in, so I could afford to do this without really affecting me financially in any way.
So I had that going for me. But I also have probably missed out on a huge amount of sales potential sales if I\'d gone selling. But I know that deep down I wouldn\'t have felt comfortable about it. I would have put the brakes on. I wouldn\'t have ended up doing it. Because I didn\'t want people into my world in the way it was. Now that\'s changed. I\'m seeing, like a totally different experience. I feeling so I totally experience when people come in.
And I\'m excited that now going forward, I\'m going to be wanting more people into this world. I\'m going to be. Actually, we\'re just getting to the end of this development stage. We\'re going to be properly launching everything to our existing clients in the next month at most. And then I\'m going to be starting actually inviting new people into my world. And this isn\'t about. I\'m not doing this podcast as even a taste as what\'s coming. I\'ll do something like that in the future when we\'re just a little bit nearer.
But it was really just to share this revelation that I had. I actually was speaking to my coach this morning. I sent him a video. It\'s about whether or not I was going to continue with his coaching service going forward, and I explained this dream. And in doing so, I realized the challenges that I overcome, and how much I\'d grown. As a result of being with him and my two coaches over the past year. And so I wanted to share it, because I think it was just a incredibly almost obvious problem. But because everyone else was telling me, no, you know, you don\'t need to fix that. It\'s all good enough.
And that\'s sort of what people say or they hear on social media say. When actually, you know, if Apple did that, if Steve Jobs had just said, yeah, it\'s good enough. You know, the mouse bit clicky, it works all right, you know. Oh, yeah, the green screen, that\'s good enough. We don\'t need to create a column monitor.
If that\'s actually what happened in Apple, they were nowhere near the company they are today. I\'m not trying to say I\'m the next Steve Jobs or anything like that. But what I\'m saying is that it was so important for me to actually create a product that I\'m proud of. That it was stopping me from selling. And regardless of what anybody else told me, that fundamental fact would not go away. And I resisted it for so long. Oh, I\'ve just got to sell.
I\'ve just got to do this, just got to make this money, whatever. But if I just five years ago, or three years ago, more realistically. Three years ago, I just done it and dedicated all my time then. To just doing what I\'ve just spent the last six months doing. I\'d probably been a completely different place now, because I didn\'t. I\'m only just seeing the potential of this decision I made.
So that\'s it. I just wanted to explain this. That if you\'re in this place of resistance. If something\'s not feeling right. Go deep. Figure out what it is. And trust yourself that you know best of what it is. The reason you aren\'t pushing your services, the reason you aren\'t selling. If you\'re on a sales call and you\'re not confident, you won\'t make the sale, 9 times out of 10. If you\'re confident and you really believe in your product, even if it\'s crap, you\'ll probably make the sale. You might not make the repeat sale if it\'s crap, but you probably made a sale because you believe in it.
So I\'m not trying to sell. Not trying to say you should sell crap products. But I\'m just saying that if you don\'t believe in your product, sales are going to be really hard. So whatever you do. Whatever service or product you have. Whether you know an Apple Mac computer seller. Or whether you\'re a course coach or whatever like me.
Then think about, is the thing, are you proud of what you\'re selling? And is that the reason why you\'re not pushing as hard as you could? Why you\'re not being as profitable as you could be? Why you\'re not making as much money as you could do? Maybe it\'s not about selling more. Maybe it\'s about actually doubling down on building something you\'re proud to sell so it sells itself.
Thanks so much. Indeed. I\'ll see you next time. Bye.
LINKS TO CONNECT WITH THE HOST
- Podcast: https://www.systemizeyoursuccess.com
- Website: https://systemsandoutsourcing.com/
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ABOUT THE HOST
Steve moved to Sweden in 2015 and transformed how he ran his businesses—switching to a fully remote model. A former NHS doctor, with a background in computing and property investing, he now helps overwhelmed business owners systemise and outsource effectively. Through his courses and coaching, Steve teaches how to automate operations and work with affordable virtual assistants, freeing up time and increasing profits. He runs his UK-based businesses remotely with support from a team of UK and Filipino VAs, and is passionate about helping others build scalable, stress-free companies using smart systems and virtual support.