The Decision Breakthrough Method
Today on the podcast I’m going to share seven sets of core questions that will help you make the next big decision in your business. You’ll also be able to dive deeper by watching a 30-minute POV coaching session specifically on this topic. If you do this, I have a little something I’m going to email to you as a thank you as I experiment with this new method for delivering free value! Now let’s dive in so you can feel confident as you move forward in growing your business!
Listen in on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Stitcher
Discussed in this episode:
How Anna feels like she’s getting better and better at at helping her clients make decisions quickly and confidently and the one question that will be a game changer for you
Breaking free from decision fatigue and how mastering decision making will make you a better CEO
Understanding that you may never feel 100% certain when making a certain decision and that’s okay
Easy mindset shifts you can cultivate to make decision making feel easier
Believing that a bad decision is better than making no decision at all
Possibility vs. reality and knowing what’s okay to accept
Resources:
Click here to read a transcript of this episode
** This is a raw, unedited transcript
Anna Frandsen (00:00):
Hi, my friends coming to you with a crackly voice,
Anna Frandsen (00:06):
Because I wanted to record this in real time. So you have heard me talk about decision making before, but I truly feel like, you know, once you've made six figures in your business and even before, but especially to my ladies that have established businesses have current clients, right. You're working to bust your income ceiling, whether you're making three K months and you're looking to move path set, or you're at 5k months and you're working towards 10 K or you're at 10 K and you're looking to move towards 20 K, right? Like when you're in that game of growing and scaling your business, there's several skills that can be useful to you right at the start of your, a lot of what's useful is really getting visible, really working on sales, right. And then to grow, you're continuing to work on sales, but you're also adding things like team being a good, beautiful expert boss, right?
Anna Frandsen (00:57):
Learning how to hire and manage another one of those decision. Another of those skills is boundaries, right? Another one of those skills is emotional regulation. You know, I've been doing a lot of podcasts on that. Another one of those skills is decision making, decision making. So I wanna do a podcast episode for you on this because like several times in the last week I have noticed my clients getting stuck on decisions. And I feel like as a coach, hashtag humble brag, I'm getting better and better at really helping my clients make decisions and very effective decisions, much faster and much better in their business. And I noticed that I was really relying on this one main question. And I even, I don't recommend coaching your girl friends without permission, but I even like accidentally asked one of my girlfriends this week, that this question via text.
Anna Frandsen (01:49):
And she came back to me the next week and was like, Anna, that question absolutely changed how I was able to make that decision. And so I knew I needed to make this podcast episode and tell you this one question that is the game changer, or actually it's to set a questions when it comes to making decisions in business and life. And so I hope that if you are on the precipice of a small or a big business decision, I hope this question is useful to you. I also made a Google doc of seven questions that I feel like will help you if you're in the middle of a major decision, you know, that in the past six years, I've made such big decisions in my life from quitting my job to, you know, getting a divorce, to deciding to date again, to so many microdecisions around hiring and firing in my business and creating new programs ending pro like just all the decisions.
Anna Frandsen (02:38):
Right. And I feel like in the seasons of my business, for example, this week on the precipice of a decision that was really weighing on my mind and I was talking to my girlfriends and I really, what gave me a lot of breakthrough was journaling through it in this way. And so I just wanna share with you the seven, like question sets that really helped me this week wrestle through one of my decisions. And again, that one question that I feel like is the game changer for decision making. And I hope that this is useful to you. So this podcast episode has a companion, Google doc. I'm looking at it right now on my computer. I just literally typed it up. It's not a fancy freebie people, but it's really for effective. Okay. So what I want you to do is I want you to make a copy of this Google doc.
Anna Frandsen (03:24):
And I want you to try it out with the decision right now that you are facing, ask yourself, what's a decision that I've kind of been waffling on, right? And this is so useful to if you're a coach or a mentor is a lot of times our clients fail to get results because they're actually in indecision, right? Either they're not, they haven't fully committed or they have committed to something, but they're kind of waffling. I will see this in my clients all the time when they're launching a program, right. They'll commit to launching a program, they'll announce it. And then on day two, they're like only three people bought so far. Right. And I'm like, but you've got two left til cart closed. And they're like, well, should I quit? Right. They're in an in decision again, they put them back to the, themselves back to the place of like, should I, should I not?
Anna Frandsen (04:10):
And anytime we're an indecision, right. We're wasting energy when we could be going into action. So as a coach, it's super useful to put our clients back decision mode and to really help them decide like, okay, are you gonna call it quits on this launch? Or are you gonna go all in? Right. And usually I give them the pep talk. That sounds something like this, the ship has already left the dock, you're launching this thing. So stop second guessing it, get visible, start your booty selling. Let's just do this thing. Whether you have three people or 30 are gonna launch this program because this one, like you are in it for the long term success of this program. Right. anyway, so point being a lot of times as humans, and you'll see this with your clients as a coach, right? Is we get stock in decision fatigue, right?
Anna Frandsen (04:58):
Like decision fatigue. Google is actual a concept. It's right. When we're in the grocery store and we see like 19 brands of cereal and we're like, which one should I get? Right. And then we waste time and we waste energy and research and science actually backs this, that the more options we have, right. The more decisions we make throughout the day, the worse we are at making decisions, cuz we're getting fatigued. Right. And so I just feel like decision making is one of the biggest skills you can master as a CEO of your business. So let's dive in. Okay. these are seven question sets. Let's go through them. And I really want you to try this one out. Promise, promise. You're gonna try this out on a decision. So I want you to stop right now, whether you're in the car, whether you're washing dishes.
Anna Frandsen (05:43):
Hi, hi friend. Ask yourself what decision as I'm reviewing these questions. What decision are you gonna have in mind? As I say these out loud and you can even like kind of think through it either you can get out a piece of paper, you can get outta Google doc and start to type through as I walk you through this, or you can say it out loud. Like if you're in the car on a road trip, like you may just wanna start saying this out loud or joting some notes and work through it now because you know, if you're a client of mine, I'm a big fan of like not leaving you with more homework, but like having you do the SHS while we're in session. And so I really want you to get results from this. So ask yourself, what's the decision right now that I'm stuck on.
Anna Frandsen (06:20):
Maybe it's something in my personal life. Maybe it's something in my business, but where am I feeling stuck on a decision that I haven't yet made or I've already made the decision, but I'm kind of waffling on it. Right. And I need to Reig or, or quit. Right. I need to like go back in and Reow my decision or need to move, move out of it. Right. Okay. Did you get, do you have your decision pause? This do not move forward till you have the decision. Do you have that decision in hand? I want you to tag me on Instagram or DM me and tell me what it is. Okay. Okay. So number one, the first question set. I call owning the decision. Okay. So I ask you four questions in this decision set. I'm gonna say 'em out loud. Number one, what's the decision at hand?
Anna Frandsen (07:06):
What's the decision, say it out loud. So decisions that I walk, some of my clients through are quitting jobs, choosing your niche or business when you're stuck between multiple niches is right. Deciding which program to launch, deciding to end a relationship or start a relationship, right? What is the decision at hand? And I just want you to, I want you to pick one decision right now. Second question in this set is how will, you know, when it's time to make the decision? How will you know when it's time for cuz maybe it's something you've been putting off, but how will you know when it's time, number two, what is making this decision challenging? So you are filling out this worksheet, you're listening this podcast episode because there's something that feels really challenging about this decision. It feels really heavy, right? It feels like there's the, the fourth question is what most, what feels most at stake with this decision, right?
Anna Frandsen (08:05):
That's related what is feeling so life or death, what is feeling? So make it or break it about this decision. What is feeling so heavy? Give yourself some permission and credit. Cause I feel like sometimes we're like, oh, you know, I don't know why I'm waffling so much in this. I should figure this out by now. This should be easier. Right? And so now don't not only do we have to deal with the decision, but we have to deal with us shaming ourselves around the decision. So I want you to give yourself some credit that there is a lot at stake, right. Okay. Second question set is the magic percent question. And this is the question I was talking about. That's gonna blow your mind a you ready for this? What percent do you want to be certain before you feel ready? Okay. I want you to give a percentage to what percent you want to feel before.
Anna Frandsen (08:55):
You'll feel ready to make the decision. For example when I was deciding to quit my therapy day job and go all in on my coaching business, I really loved my therapy day job. And it was really hard to decide to quit my coaching business. It felt like I was, you know, sacrificing something stable for something very who knows if this fricking thing is gonna work out. You know what I mean? Like no one in my family owned a business. I had like, it just felt like the biggest risk in the world. I was like, what about health insurance? Right? What about stability? What about retirement accounts? Like I just didn't have a paradigm, you know? And at that point I was still like, am I sure that it's ethical to be a coach? You know? And all the questions. Right? I still was nervous about the visibility and the selling, all the things.
Anna Frandsen (09:37):
Right. But I felt like, I think I've shared this with you guys before, but my coach at the time really encouraged me. You know, you're never gonna feel a hundred percent certain Anna. And I think that that was really permission giving you know that if I got to like 90%, that would be enough. Right. So I want you to ask yourself what person percentage do you need to be certain before you feel ready? Say it out loud right now. There's no wrong answer. There's no right answer. It's just the answer. That's gonna pop up for you. Okay. Probably gonna sound something like 85, 90%, 95. I don't know. Second question in the set is what percentage do you feel right now? Yes I did. Yes. I followed up with that one. So if you said I need to feel 90 before I'm ready. What do you feel right now?
Anna Frandsen (10:26):
Most of my clients, if they say I need to be 90, we'll say something like 85, right? Like I'm really close, but I'm not quite there yet. Right? I need to be at a 90, but I'm like at like a 87, you know, say out loud to me right now. Right now I'm listening my love. Say it out loud. I can hear you. What percent do you feel right now? And the reason, let me tell you a little bit of the psychology behind this, right? In case you're a coach, this is a really useful question to ask our clients, right? Because as the coach we're like, of course you need to feel ready to make this decision. Of course I can tell that you're already ready, but our client needs to own and see for themselves that either they are ready or they aren't yet ready.
Anna Frandsen (11:12):
Right. And there's been some major decisions in my life too. This is kind of a side note, but I just feel called to say it where I have made the decision, but I just haven't had the, it hasn't felt like the right time to execute on it. Right. So you may be listening to this and be like, you know what? I need to be 90%. And actually I am 90%. So why am I taking action? And it's okay to have decided something deep in the secret parts of our heart, especially if this is a big decision. Right. but not quite be ready yet to execute on it. Right? Not like you need to wait for the right timing. There could be one thing to make a decision. There are gonna be another thing to take action on that. Right? Okay. Third question set.
Anna Frandsen (11:52):
I call laying it all out. What are my options? What are some of your options, right? When you think about this decision, there might be two options. There might be three options. Like what are the actual options that you are choosing between next question, in this set of laying it all out? Is, are there actually multiple decisions that I can separate out? Right. So even though I'm a business coach, I often help my high level clients with like multiple things. When it relates to their happiness and success, right? Because the more happy and high vibe we are as women, the more money we make always. Right. So I have walked several of my clients through creating healthier habits, right. I, several of my clients through relationship shifts, I've walked several of my clients through house buying and selling, you know, like not the logistics of it, but like some of the energetics around that.
Anna Frandsen (12:43):
Right. And so for example, like if you are thinking about selling your house, you may be wrapping up the decision with, should I sell? Should I buy, should I move? Those are actually three separate decisions, right? You could sell your house and decide to rent, right? You could sell your house and decide to buy in the same city. You could decide to buy in a different city. So I just think like sometimes the reason that decisions feel so weighty and complex is there actually multiple micro decisions that we need to separate out. So that's where we do that right here. Next question is, what questions do I have for myself around this decision? This is where you kinda list some of your curiosities, right? So much of our brain get stuck in the logic part that we forget to be creative and ask ourselves questions.
Anna Frandsen (13:33):
Right. Okay. Next part of this is rewiring our thinking. Okay. So I basically am educating you a little bit on some mindset stuff, subconsciously, as I'm asking you these questions, right? Rewiring your thinking, number one, how would this decision feel different? If I felt like I could succeed with either choice because spoiler alert in many contexts, there's no wrong answer, right? The reason you're wrestling with this so hard, if there was an obvious choice that there was an obvious ethical right or wrong, hopefully it would've made that by right by now. Right. But likely this is a choice where it's not like right or wrong, it's either could work. Right. So that's why I want you to ask yourself, how would this feel different if I could succeed in either choice. Second set is if I believe that there was no perfect decision, but that every decision had a pro and con and my job was just to make the best decision.
Anna Frandsen (14:33):
How would that change things? You guys know my story again, my beautiful coach Lacey sites asked me this at the very start of my business. Like Anna, there's no perfect decision. Every single decision is gonna have an upside and a downside. Every decision is gonna have a trade off. So stop looking for the perfect decision, right. Instead like really figure out like what's best right now, like of all the decisions, pros and cons, which one's the best one, which one has like the most upsides and the least downsides. And for some reason that like rocked my world and made it significantly easier. So that's why I'm asking you, if you truly believe that there was no perfect decision. Right? Good slash bad news. How would that change it for you finally? What finally, if I believed that a bad decision I put in quotes was better than no decision because bad decisions, even bad decisions move us forward and give us data.
Anna Frandsen (15:24):
Right. How would that change things for you? If you knew that even if you quote, pick the wrong thing of the two, which we know there's no wrong decision, right. But let's say you did pick the lesser one, right? Could you believe that even making that bad decision is far better than you being paralyzed and stuck and making no decision, right? Yes. It's safer to make no decision. Right. But it is far better to make a quote, bad decision move forward. Right. And make traction. I learned this the hard way at the start of my business when I was really stuck on picking a business niche or message, cuz I'm a multi, passionate human, anyone else out there raise your hand. Right. And so I really did not wanna pick the wrong niche and waste time. Don't laugh. So I wasted a lot of time, like three months, not deciding.
Anna Frandsen (16:14):
Right. And so you're either gonna be frustrated and stuck either way. And so you might as well do the one that's gonna move you forward. Right? Because even the business decisions I've made that have not been the best looking forward, I'm like, mm, probably wasn't the best decision. There's no way I could have learned that. Right. And you, me such good data, right. Things that I've launched and have not sold well, I've had great data to know and observe. That's why that didn't sell. Well, I'm gonna turn around and do something else. Right. And I think in life, in business, we like wanna like somehow pat ourselves and not make mistakes. But I think you forget women, how fricking resilient you are. Right. We like act like we're these like fragile beings. You are not, you are a tough, beautiful cookie. Right? Think about the stuff in your life that you have handled that you have overcome.
Anna Frandsen (17:05):
Right. You can handle it. Like you can handle a failed launch. You can handle a harsh social media comment. Like you can handle it. Right. Right. You are on a mission for greater things to impact thousands. If not millions of people, you are on a mission to change the lives of people in the world, but also your own family and your own life. Like you are here to make a generational impact on your daughter's life, on your son's life. Right. and so like you can handle it like you are a tough cookie. Anyway, I digress. Where were we even? I can't even remember, oh, bad decisions. Right. And so don't do what I did and give yourself permission to like move forward and like be okay if you quote, make the wrong decision, knowing that even that wrong decision is gonna give you data and you're gonna make a better decision.
Anna Frandsen (18:00):
The next time you'll have learned that lesson. Right. You'll have been like, Hm, I know not to do that now. Cause I did that and didn't work. Right. But you're moving forward. Right. Right. That's where I think we get stuck is when we don't move forward because we're paralyzed or afraid, we don't wanna make the wrong choice. We wanna make the perfect decision. We don't wanna waste time. Right. Instead of realizing like we're all out here learning by like making mistakes, like that's really what it is. And I think about the things in business that I did that were absolutely all or like big mistakes. And I'm so grateful for them because I wouldn't have learned any other way. You know what I mean? Like it really are. It's really the lessons that we could not pay money for. Right. I think about courses I've taken online.
Anna Frandsen (18:42):
I think about massive mistakes I've made I've way more learned from like the massive mistakes that I've made. Right. Okay. Okay. Next section next set is grounding in PO in, in reality and positive reality, right? So I kind of did like a dual duality of a question here. Right? Number one, what is the reality at hand I need to accept? The second part is what is the possibility at hand that I need to allow myself to dream? The reason I ask this is cause I find my clients get stuck on one of two things, right. Either they're not accepting their reality, right? Like maybe you're a busy mom. And in this season of, of life, you only have 10 hours a week to work. Are you accepting reality? Are you making decisions with that reality or are you judging yourself and making decisions as if you, before you had kids, when you had 50 hours a week to work, right?
Anna Frandsen (19:41):
Are you in a season, maybe you're BA you're battling a chronic health issue, either a physical health issue, a mental health issue, maybe your capacity is lower. Are you surrendering to the reality at hand, until we surrender to the reality at hand, we cannot accept the breakthrough that is there for us. I really believe that God, or maybe for you as the universe, like conspires on our behalf to make things possible. But first we have to like surrender to like, what is the reality at hand? You know, the other side is I, I find that some of my clients are the opposite. They're really practical. They're really accepting of the reality. And they're not allowing themselves to dream, right. Like, yes, it's true. You only have 10 hours, but do you believe that like anything's possible, do you believe that your social media following could blow up overnight?
Anna Frandsen (20:28):
Right. Like I think again, it's just that due reality of accepting. Okay. I have a small audience right now, so it would probably make sense for me to fill my one-on-one practice. Will I build my audience so that I can launch my course to a bigger audience. Right. There's that reality. There's also the possibility that I could grow rapidly and quickly. Right. And so I asked both because I want you to be able to like, when I coach you, right. If you're a client of mine, I really am customizing my coaching to where you're at. And so how I design these questions is to really support you no matter where you're at. Okay. Next is let's get practical. I love this part. I love this part. What tools do I like to use to make decisions? You I'm asking you, what tools do you like to use to make decisions?
Anna Frandsen (21:17):
Right. I ask my clients this or my potential clients, this on a sales call. Right. If they're feeling really stuck and they're like, mm. And I really wanna work with you, but I'm not sure. Right. I'll well, how do you like to make decisions? Right? Like what do you like to do? Maybe they say something like, I like to journal. I like to pray. I like to talk it out. I like to talk with friends. I like to talk to a coach and then I'm like, Hey, I'm right here. Like, I'm happy to help you process this decision. Right. maybe you like time and silence, right? I'm a huge fan. You for me talk about this before of driving in the car. Sometimes with no music, no podcast keeping my phone in the glove box and just like driving for 20 minutes. And I honestly like get the most epic ideas and the biggest breakthroughs on things I'm stuck on also in the bathtub, right.
Anna Frandsen (22:05):
This is what I call gold space setting and intention. But really I asking yourself like, what do I like to do to make decisions? And it really varies person to person. It depends on your personality. Right. I also honestly love a ProCon list. I really do. I really love a ProCon list. Second question in this set is, does it feel supportive to create a deadline so that I have time to think about this, but not much so much that I'm feeling paralyzed. Right? So I honestly like to set a deadline for my decision somewhere between 48 hours and like a week, but I don't think you need any more time than that. Right. More time than that. And that can be paralyzing again. We're getting to that place of like trying to make a perfect decision and that perfect is never gonna come.
Anna Frandsen (22:50):
You're probably never gonna feel a hundred percent. Right. But you can get to that 90%. Okay. Finally is I really like this section two hopeful feelings. How do you feel right now before you've made the decision? Second one is how will you feel after the decision is made? So maybe right now you feel like there's a camel sitting on your chest, you feel overwhelmed, you feel paralyzed, right. Once the decision is made, how are you gonna feel? Right. Usually I feel a sense of immediate relief, honestly, even before I take the action to execute on it again, once I've like decided in my heart, this is what I'm gonna do. Right. There's peace with that. There's peace with that. Right. and it's not that it won't feel perfect. Cause I know, especially if it's a big decision, I do feel a little bit of like, oh, did I make the right decision?
Anna Frandsen (23:44):
But I, I look back and I'm like, I'm gonna trust myself. I'm gonna trust that. The version of myself that showed up in Hedon haw for 48 hours did the very best she could and I'm gonna trust her. Right. And so that's that final question. I hope that these are useful for you. I truly want you to take time out to any questions that you did not answer with me. As I went through this, I want you to go and actually answer them and you will get massive breakthrough. If you actually do this, I'm a big fan of like, you can get amazing value from free content online. If you take the action, right? So I want you to move through this and I want you email me back. I want you to DM me. And I want you to tell me what decision you worked through so that I can cheer you on, right?
Anna Frandsen (24:33):
Again, every time you do this, every time you process, it's gonna get easier and simpler and faster. And again, I just think like this is one of those skills that's I would categorize as a money making in your business, right. As like a high level CEO skill. And honestly it makes like life a lot better too. I also wanna encourage you that, like, for me, I know I need a coach. Like when I was taught, asked you the question, like what tools you need to make decisions for me, I will always have a coach because I know that I do like to journal things to on my own. I do like to process, I do like to have my own conclusions, but at the end of the day, having a coach ask me questions like this, like I, all these questions that I wrote down, like this is the that I ask my clients all the time, right? Like this is the stuff that if you decide you want to be supported by a coach, a coach will probably be asking you, you know?
Anna Frandsen (25:27):
So I just wanna say like process through this, on your own, but also like hire a coach if you need support right around this decision stuff. And honestly, a big reason why I have a coach too, is not just the business strategy, but really is the part of help being my brain help making decisions like I'm a busy mama, I've got a ton of cl you know what I mean? And so when it comes to working on my business and making decisions in my business, part of the reason why I love working with the coach so much is just so that they can partner with me in strategic decisions. You know what I mean? Like on days when I'm just spent and that's really what I do for my clients too, right, is helping be a tiebreaker, right. And helping partner with you and make those business decisions.
Anna Frandsen (26:09):
So as you know, coaching and mentoring is the thing I'm obsessed with. And I would love to help you grow your business, whether you are starting out, but especially if you have an established business and you're looking to grow in skill, I would love to invite you to sell with heart, which is my private mastermind in mentorship. The women, this program are second to none, the best women on the internet. And I'm just so thankful for the women. Many of these women have returned to my mentorship year after year. And so I would love to invite you to a free clarity call. If you wanna explore what it's like to be coached by me, we'd love to coach you around one money mindset or one sales block to just to give you a taste at my coaching. And then of course answer any questions you have about with heart mastermind or mentorship.
Anna Frandsen (26:53):
It's fully booked right now, but the next space is open in July. And so I would love to chat with you. If you are interested, you save a space to make sure that your space doesn't get napped up, but this program includes training, but also just an incredible sister ahead and me a coach that's like obsessed with and dedicated you shattering your income ceiling, obsessed with you up leveling in a really supportive and safe environment. I never seen a program like this that marries high level mentorship and support from a coach that knows you and loves you with sisterhood, right? With that like sisterhood element with the worksheets, right? With the like things that like keep you on track and give you that clear roadmap. When it comes to sales strategy and money mindset, I will post the link for cell with heart below, but would love to have you on that on a clarity call would love to get to know you better, especially you've been listening to the podcast for a while.
Anna Frandsen (27:53):
Maybe you've even been listening for years and you're like, maybe I should, maybe I should, maybe I should hop on a call with Anna. Maybe I should see what this is all about. I would love to get to know you get to know your business in that way. Okay. My loves, thank you for enduring my scratchy voice on this late night. I wanted to do this again, fresh off a decision that I made. Right. and I hope that this little matrix is useful for you use it saved on your Google drive and bus through. I'm just like sending the biggest prayer for breakthrough on whatever decision you are at, whether it's a really, really big personal decision, whether it's a smaller business decision, whatever it's at. I'm just like, again, like, you know, we were talking about the tools. One of the tools that I use to is prayer and surrender, right?
Anna Frandsen (28:41):
And releasing. And so I am just like putting out the biggest prayer that you would be supported in this decision that you wouldn't feel alone in this decision. I am here with you right now in this moment. God is here with you right now. In this moment, you are not alone in this decision. And I'm just trusting that you are gonna make the decision. That is the best one for you. You can, what I know about you, girl is you have a good intuition. You, you have a good heart. You can trust your heart. You can trust your intuition. You can trust your work ethic. You are going to make it. And this is going to be an amazing, amazing year for you. Okay. As always thank you for listening and just so grateful to be on this crazy entrepreneurship journey with you.
Your POV Coaching Session:
PS: In the midst of this challenging time I’ve been asking myself what I can do to help? One of the #1 ways I support my clients is by helping them simplify their business so that they can increase the flow of money without creating extra work. In this season simplified visibility and sales is needed more than ever.
So if you’re craving personal support as you reposition your free and paid work, I’d love to help you simplify your sales process so that you can produce income in your business even during a challenging time. If you want support you can check out my services and book a free discovery call here, or you can send me a DM on Instagram.