I think I am at that place again…

Part of me knows I have made more progress in my business in the last 36 months than in the almost 20 years of doing business that came before. But another part of me is thinking that I am way out of my depth.

It is a strange feeling, like I maxed out my character, made them resistant to physical, ice, and fire attacks… and then suddenly all my enemies are attacking me with slime.

What just happened?

Why are all the things I did for the last few years suddenly not working, or at least not working as well as they did before?

What makes it worse is that the transition is sometimes so subtle that you don’t even realize it is happening.

Why isn’t revenue doubling when I double ad spend?

Why is the system we used to deliver our service for the last 10 years not working anymore?

Why does my elevator smell like spoiled salmon?

If you have been in business long enough, you may be able to relate to some of those questions.

The answer is simple, but also really scary.

It’s cliché, but “what got you here won’t get you there.”

Those old attacks and moves that helped you grow to 7 figures of revenue won’t work to get you to 8…

… and what about getting to 9?

I have no idea about the latter, but it is what we are trying to figure out.

The questions I am dealing with are no longer about whether this ad copy is better or if we need to tweak this or that in delivery with AI.

They are questions about whether to buy a physical building, which PEO to hire to run our W-2s, and whether to go with an ESOP plan or phantom equity.

Stuff that my current build has no idea how to do.

In this new game, I am a noob.

Just like I was 20 years ago.

This is the next chapter. My New Game+.

I can give up, or I can put my ego in the already overloaded backpack and start again.

I think I’ll go with the latter.