Your Business Will Never Replace Your Income Until You STOP Avoiding This One Action

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This post was originally published on The Spiritually Ambitious Entrepreneur Substack, click here to subscribe.

You keep reworking the curriculum of your offer instead of launching it.

You’re designing a beautiful website, tweaking graphics in Canva, writing posts you never publish.

You research.

You revise.

You overthink.

You scroll for “inspiration.”

You take notes.

You gather ideas.

And then you tell yourself it’s “not ready yet.”

Meanwhile, the days go by. The weeks go by. The months go by.

And you’re still inside your head…

still brainstorming…

still “getting things together”…

still “working on your offer”…

Still.

Not. Moving.

And here’s the truth:

Your business will never replace your income if you are avoiding the one action that actually moves the needle.

There is ONE thing every successful entrepreneur does.

Not the strategy.

Not the niche.

Not the branding.

Not the tech.

THIS thing.

And until you’re willing to do it — like actually do it — your business will stay stuck in place.

Let’s talk about the moment I realized this… and the six steps that will pull you out of the overthinking loop and into real momentum.

Trying to build a business without being seen…

When I pivoted into business coaching, I immediately have 7-8 clients I started working with. One day I decided to sit down, and analyze their intake forms for my market research.

I sat with them.

I studied them.

And at some point as I was deep in my analysis of the research, it hit me. The truth was suddenly screaming off the page:

They are trying to build a business without being seen.

It was like they were hiding in the backend of their business. Hiding behind tasks that “felt productive” but didn’t require emotional exposure.

Once I saw this pattern… I couldn’t unsee it. And the image that came to mind was of my dog in residency, Champion.

The hidey hole: The Place You Hide When Something Feels Too Vulnerable

Back when I was in residency, I had a sweet little dog named Champion.

Champion loved me… and was terrified of almost everyone else.

So when the dog walker came into my apartment?

He would run straight into the back of my closet — this tiny corner we affectionately called his Hidey Hole — and refuse to come out.

She’d have to gently coax him out every single time.

He wasn’t trying to make everyone’s life difficult.

His nervous system was just overwhelmed and he was instinctively trying to protect himself.

What I realized is…

My clients were trying to build their businesses from a hidey hole.

And maybe this is something you do as well.

You’re recording podcasts… but sending them to no one.

You’re outlining programs… but never releasing them.

You’re creating content… but never publishing it.

You’re planning and working and creating on your computer… but hesitate to put your work out into the world.

You are trying to build your business from a hidey hole because you are afraid of being seen.

It’s avoidance — disguised as productivity.

It’s doing the safe work.

The solo work.

The invisible work.

The work that doesn’t involve other people, opinions, or outcomes.

And just like Champion — you’re hiding because something feels scary.

Something feels too vulnerable. Something feels too emotionally risky.

But here’s the real problem:

You can’t build a business from a hidey hole.

Not a real one.

Not one that makes money.

Not one that replaces your income.

Because a business that makes money requires you to put yourself out there. It requires you to get in the arena.

Getting in the arena

Let’s throw it back to Teddy Roosevelt’s man in the arena speech…

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming.

Who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement.

And who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

That quote says it all. Being an entrepreneur forces you to choose what kind of person you want to be.

Do you want to be in the arena?

Or do you want to be a cold and timid soul?

Arena Action vs. Hidey-Hole Action

Let’s define these two types of actions right now so we are on the same page.

Hidey Hole Action involves you and your computer

Arena Action involves other people.

Hidey Hole action is all the stuff you do alone:

brainstorming
tinkering
curriculum building
tweaking graphics
editing modules
planning
re-planning
researching
thinking

All the internal, safe, low-exposure work.

Arena action is anything with a chance of emotional exposure:

reaching out to someone
pitching a collab
posting content
sharing your offer
having market research convos
doing a livestream
hosting a webinar

Arena action is what actually builds a business.

Hidey Hole action is what keeps you busy and distracted. And if you are unwilling to do arena action your business will never make money. So today, I’m walking you through the 6 strategies for getting into the arena.

1. Accept That It’s Required

When I first started building my business, I didn’t realize what it took to build a business. I signed up for a life coaching certification without actually thinking about how I would get clients.

For some reason it didn’t seem relevant. But on week 3 of my certification training, I opened the workbook to the section called “Prospecting.”

Prospecting — which was really the practicing of building relationships with potential clients. I read through the workbook. Feeling more horrified with each sentence that I read. Stunned, I closed my laptop. Internally I was screaming…” wait I have to do WHAT?”

Up until that moment, I hadn’t thought about the “business” part of building a business.

I wasn’t thinking about having sales conversations.

I wasn’t thinking about doing marketing.

So the realization I would have to put myself out there like a mormon on a mission filled me with dread.

I seriously thought about quitting right then. Backing out of the whole business thing. But instead, I decided to commit.

I realized that entrepreurship required stepping into the arena

over and over agiain.

and I decided to rise to the challenge.

You know what they say… . acceptance is the first step. So thats what I need you todo first. Take a moment and let it sink in for real.

You cannot build a business without being seen.

You can’t build a business in a hidey hole.

You must take bold + vulnerable action again and again to build a business. Entrepreneurship requires you to step into the arena. Period.

2. Choose the Discomfort of Growth

The concept of comfort zone is a lie.

People think they can either choose to stay in their comfort zone, or get out of their comfort zone and grow.

That’s not the choice.

Because the truth is “stay in your comfort zone” is not a real choice.

You can stay put where you are, but where you are is not comfortable.

If your current situation was truly comfortable… you wouldn’t be trying to solve for it. You are not comfortable.

You are in familiar discomfort.

The choice is NOT stay in your comfort zone or get out of your comfort zone because every path has discomfort.

The real choice is which discomfort to you want?

The discomfort of stagnation or the discomfort of growth?

You will be uncomfortable either way, so all you can do is choose your preferred discomfort.

3. Leverage your social circle

When I surrounded myself with other entrepreneur friends — people who were also posting, launching, experimenting it became so much easier to do it myself.

Putting yourself out there.

Taking on emotional risk to build something of your own became a social currency.

A normal behavior.

I wasn’t the only one feeling exposed — everyone was.

We were all in the arena together.

And that’s the magic of community:

Proximity normalizes fear.

When the people around you are doing brave things regularly, your bravery starts to rise to meet theirs.

4. Learn How to Regulate and Process Your Emotions

The only reason you avoid stepping into the arena is because you are afraid of your own feelings.

You’re afraid you won’t get the result you want and feel disappointed.
You’re afraid people will judge you and you’ll feel embarrassed.
You’re afraid of getting a no and feeling rejected.
You’re afraid you’ll feel like a failure.

It always comes back to a feeling.

If you weren’t afraid of those emotions, nothing would stop you.

This is why emotional regulation matters so much.

Because when you know how to:

process your emotions
be with your emotions
support yourself through your emotions
expand your emotional capacity

there’s nothing to be scared of.

Your fear shrinks. Your capacity expands.

The reason I can get into the arena on such a regular basis is because I’ve trained myself to hold all emotions.

I feel so confident in my emotional capacity.

That doesn’t mean I’m not afraid, but I can manage the fear because I trust myself to manage all my emotions.

Once you learn how to manage your emotions, the arena stops feeling like an existential threat — and starts feeling like a fun challenge.

5. Anchor Yourself in the Mission

When you’re rooted in your mission the arena stops feeling like a personal performance… and starts feeling like service.

This is where your clarity anchors come in:

Who you’re here to help
The result you help them achieve
Why you’re the one to lead them

When you’re grounded in those three truths, everything shifts.

You’re no longer entering the arena to “prove yourself.”

You’re not posting for validation.

You’re not launching to feel worthy.

You’re doing it because your people need you.

When your mission is bigger than you, your courage increases.

Your willingness expands.

Your resistance softens.

It’s not about being selfless — it’s about being mission-led.

When you anchor into why you’re here and who you’re here to serve… you stop obsessing over how you look and start focusing on who you can help.

That mission pulls you forward in a way willpower never could.

And some days, that mission is the only thing that gets you into the arena.

6. Make “Getting Into the Arena” the Entire Metric

This is the one that frees you.

Most people avoid the arena because they’re terrified of what will happen after the action:

“What if I launch… and no one buys?”

“What if I pitch… and no one responds?”

“What if I try… and it flops?”

But that fear only exists because you’re measuring the wrong thing.

Your metric — especially in the beginning — is NOT:

Did it sell?
Did it convert?
Did people like it?
Did it work?

Your metric is simply:

“Did I get into the arena today?”

That’s it.

Did you launch the thing?

Did you post the post?

Did you submit the pitch?

Did you put yourself out there?

That is the only metric that matters at the start.

When getting into the arena becomes the whole metric, something magical happens:

You stop tying your self-worth to outcomes.

You start celebrating your courage instead of critiquing your performance.

And once you’ve mastered that — the consistency, the self-trust, the willingness to show up — THEN you can start focusing on outcomes.

But not before.

Because you cannot optimize what you’re too afraid to do consistently.

So let the metric be simple.

Did you get into the arena?

If yes → celebrate.

If no → hold yourself accountable.

That’s how momentum is built.

That’s how capacity is built.

And that’s how businesses are built.

It’s time to get into the arena…

At the end of the day, business is not built in your Google Docs, or your Canva files, or the safe little corners of your brain where everything feels theoretically perfect.

Business is built in the arena.

It’s built in the moments when you choose to feel the discomfort instead of avoiding it.

When you choose growth over hiding.

When you choose the mission over your fear.

When you choose showing up even when there’s no guarantee of how it will go.

Every entrepreneur you admire has felt the exact same emotions you’re feeling right now — the doubt, the fear, the awkwardness, the vulnerability — and the only difference is that they kept going.

They didn’t wait to feel ready.

They didn’t wait for perfection.

They didn’t wait until certainty arrived.

They increased their emotional capacity.

They anchored into their mission.

They made “getting into the arena” the only metric that mattered — until it became normal.

And that is available for you, too.

So if you take nothing else from this:

Stop measuring success by outcomes you haven’t earned the emotional reps for yet.

Start measuring success by your willingness to step into the arena at all.

Because when you consistently show up — even imperfectly, even shakily, even with your heart beating out of your chest — you become the kind of person who can hold the results you say you want.

You become someone who can launch.

You become someone who can sell.

You become someone who can lead.

You become someone who can succeed.

Not because you eliminated fear — but because you learned how to walk with it.

So ask yourself:

Did I get into the arena today?

If the answer is yes — that’s everything.

If the answer is no — you know exactly what to do next.

Your business will grow in direct proportion to the number of times you choose courage over comfort.

Get into the arena.

Feel what you need to feel.

Show up again tomorrow.

This is how you become the entrepreneur you want to be.