259: What If The Problem Isn’t Your Effort?

Is your business growth hitting a ceiling no matter how hard you work? The problem likely isn't your effort– it's your infrastructure. And I don't mean your software.

In this episode of She Thinks Big, we're diving deep into the "Internal Operations System" that dictates your success. We often think scale is about external tactics, but true growth is internal. If you feel like you're spinning your wheels, it might be because your belief system hasn't caught up to your business goals.

We’ll cover:

✳️ Growth vs. Scale: Why they aren't the same thing and why you need both.

✳️ The "Belief Bridge": How your internal beliefs act as the infrastructure for external results.

✳️ The Upper Limit Problem: Why you can never grow a business beyond what you believe you deserve.

✳️ Fixing Your "OS": Practical steps to upgrade your internal operating system so you can finally handle the success you've been working for.

Chapters:

00:00 – Belief is Your Business Infrastructure

4:00 – Belief vs. Commitment: Know the Difference

5:21 – Growth vs. Scale: Stop Confusing Them

7:35 – Real Business Examples You'll Recognize

10:35 – The Hard Truth About Your Ceiling

11:33 – What Growth Actually Demands of You

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Read the transcript 
I am going to assume something about

you. You're not uncommitted. You've worked hard. You've shown up. You've invested some time, a lot of money, some

energy, and reputation. So, when someone suggests what's holding you back is belief, you're probably

thinking, "Please don't tell me I just need to believe harder." That's not what I'm saying. What we're talking about is

structure. Because belief is not inspiration.

Belief is infrastructure.

I'm Andrea Liebross and welcome back to She Thinks Big.

In order to get into what this episode is all about, I want to make sure that I clearly define what I mean when I say

belief infrastructure or belief is infrastructure so we're all on the same page. When I say belief is

infrastructure, I mean that it's the internal system that really determines how much success your business can carry

or hold without breaking or without you stepping back in to hold

it together. So, here's a way to think about it. A building, you don't see the

foundation of a building. It's it's below the ground, but the whole building

relies on that foundation. Most of you probably are not standing there admiring

the plumbing in your house. But when it fails, when there's a leaky faucet or a

toilet won't flush, that plumbing becomes super important. So the foundation or the plumbing, those things

become the most important things to you, to the building, to your day. And belief

works the same way. So that's why I also think of belief as your internal

operations system. Belief, it determines how decisions move, how you make decisions, determines

where things bottleneck, what overloads you. It determines what

feels kind of unsafe even when it's working. and belief

capacity.

That's how much success your leadership nervous system can really tolerate

calmly. So belief is not what you write down in your journal. Belief is really

revealed in what you delegate versus what you hold on to or what you tolerate

versus what you actually address or say out loud or have the hard conversation

about. Belief is really revealed in what are you delaying versus deciding.

It shows up when you think about where you're stepping back in when things are

working. So if you are telling me if you're saying out loud to the world you

want to grow but you're still the bottleneck or you still have to approve

everything or you still equate leadership with how available you are to

your clients or your team or your family. That's not a knowledge gap. You

really don't need to like learn anything else.

You just really need to hone in on your belief. That really is a signal that

your current belief infrastructure is still built for a smaller version of

your business. You can't grow any bigger if you are operating on a small belief

infrastructure.

Belief vs. Commitment: Know the Difference

When I talk about this kind of concept with women, there is

often confusion. So, let's let's

separate two things that I see that

women sometimes lump together all the

time. Really, they lump together.

Commitment and belief. Commitment and

belief are not the same. Commitment

usually sounds like this. I'll do

whatever it takes. I won't quit. I'll

figure it out. I'm just going to push

through. Okay? And and commitment

matters. So, don't get me wrong.

Commitment matters. It builds

businesses. It gets things off the

ground. But commitment that runs on

effort.

Whereas belief really runs on capacity.

So if commitment were a person, it might

ask what am I willing to do? Whereas

belief asks what am I willing to hold

without kind of destabilizing everything

or what am I willing to continue to work

towards without having everything else

fall apart. So you can be deeply

committed and still capped because

growth doesn't respond to effort the way

building does. Growth responds to

capacity.

Growth vs. Scale: Stop Confusing Them

Here's a really important distinction.

You can grow without scaling, but you

cannot scale what hasn't grown first.

Okay? So, here's another way to think

about this. Growth is internal,

but scale is external.

Growth is internal. Scale is external.

And belief is kind of the bridge between

the two. If your belief hasn't grown

first, if capacity hasn't expanded, any

attempt to scale is going to feel kind

of heavy. It's going to feel chaotic.

Then here's the part I think most people

avoid saying plainly when they talk

about growth. You don't grow based on

what you want. You grow based on what

you believe you're allowed to keep. All

right, I'm gonna say that again. You

don't grow based on what you want. You

grow based on what you believe you're

allowed to keep. If part of you believes

that money creates problems or money is

a problem. If you believe ease leads to

complacency. If you believe support

makes you dependent. If you believe the

calm is kind of temporary. If you

believe visibility is just going to

invite criticism.

You will unconsciously

destabilize your growth. Not

dramatically but subtly. And belief

always wins over intention.

Belief always wins over intention. So I

often hear people say, "I want to be

intentional about this. I want to move

forward with intention." Okay, super.

Yay. But do you believe whatever you're

trying to do is actually possible?

Here's the core truth. You can't grow

beyond what you don't believe you

deserve. And anything you try to scale

without that belief will eventually

collapse back in on itself.

Real Business Examples You'll Recognize

So, we've talked all about this belief

infrastructure growth versus scale. Now,

let me make all of this tangible. I see

this all the time. A woman finally hires

the role she knows she needs.

uh the role this person that she hires,

it's the right resume, right experience,

right intention,

and then without realizing it, she keeps

redoing this new hire's work. Not

because the person isn't capable.

remember they have an amazing resume,

but because somewhere underneath she

doesn't yet believe the business can

hold together without having her hands

on everything.

And this is not a hiring problem, my

friends. That is a belief infrastructure

that hasn't caught up to the growth or

hasn't caught up to having this new

hire. Here's another example. She has

her biggest revenue month ever.

Money lands, numbers look amazing. And

instead of letting that just settle and

celebrate, she immediately looks for

what might go wrong. She adds pressure.

She accelerates timelines. She creates

urgency where none really exists because

calm money feels very unfamiliar.

So that's not a financial literacy

problem. That's belief capacity. Here's

another example. And as I'm saying

these, I want you to think about like,

is this me? Which one of these sounds

like me? Another example is the calendar

finally opens. Okay? You've got fewer

meetings. You've got less chaos. You've

created this space to think. And almost

immediately, she fills it back up. You

fill it back up. There's more calls.

There's more projects. There's more

being needed because space asks a harder

question than busy ever did. The space

it's asking who am I if I no longer am

the one holding everything together.

Now, why is that? Well, I think that

most women were taught to earn success,

not receive it. So they believe they

deserve growth only if they're working

harder than anyone else and everyone

else. They're constantly available.

They're exhausted but grateful.

And that kind of belief system creates

businesses that require struggle to

function. And here's the quiet truth. If

your business only works when you're

exhausted, you don't actually believe

you deserve it any other way. And that's

not failure. That's conditioning.

And it's optional. So, let me offer a

The Hard Truth About Your Ceiling

few kind of gut checks that I believe

can sort of help you navigate all of

this and be aware of your behaviors or

how you react or respond. I want you to

kind of easedrop in on your brain like

you're an observer. I don't want you to

judge. I just want you to notice

where do I step back into execution

right when things start working?

What level of ease still feels

irresponsible to me? Where do I confuse

being needed with being valuable?

What would break if I truly believed I

was allowed to be supported?

And do I believe growth has to feel

heavy to be real?

So your answers to those questions

aren't the problem. They're just the

data. Ultimately, growth doesn't ask how

What Growth Actually Demands of You

hard can you work. It asks, "How much

expansion can you tolerate without

collapsing back into control?" Because

control is often what we reach for when

belief capacity hasn't expanded yet.

Growth doesn't respond to pressure. It

really only responds to permission. So,

you don't need more commitment. You've

already proven that. You need belief

infrastructure that allows you to grow

into the level of leadership your

business is already asking for. You

can't grow what you don't believe you're

allowed to have. And when belief is

solid, everything else finally has

somewhere stable to land. I know, I know

that sometimes busy feels safer than

spacious and doing feels safer than

holding. But leadership, real

leadership, real CEOing requires belief

infrastructure strong enough to let

things work without interference.

If you're listening to this and

thinking, "This is me. These are the

things I know I need to work on and I

want to become better at so I can be the

best leader and version of myself I can

be. Well, that's the work I do. I work

with women who need belief

infrastructure and internal operating

systems strong enough to hold the next

level of their businesses without

burning it down or holding it together

themselves. If that's where you are,

you'll know. And if you don't,

this episode will keep working on you

anyways. You might hear me in your head

as you're walking your dog or in the

shower or driving across the country.

The work or what I share with you on

this podcast is not meant to be a

oneandone.

What you take from it will hit you when

you're meant to find it. It's kind of

like in coaching. I can sometimes say

things 100 times, but it is not until

the 101st time that it hits home with

someone.

So, be nice to yourself. Give yourself a

little space. This will all eventually

land.

She Thinks Big is hosted by me, Andrea

Libros. To everyone listening, it would

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keep listening. If you're navigating big

decisions right now, you don't need to

be doing it alone. You can learn more

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For realtime insight and straight talk,

come find me on Instagram at

andrea.lbros.coaching.

See you next Tuesday with a whole new

episode.