Maybe The Problem Isn't Your Funnel
Here’s a true story that still makes me cringe.
A few years back, I spent a year straight “fixing my business.” I rewrote my offer at least six times. I took a copywriting course. I A/B tested subject lines like it was my part-time job. I hired someone to redo my funnel because surely, surely, the funnel was the thing standing between me and the business I wanted.
You know what I neglected in those four months? Me. The actual human running the business.
I’ve always valued inner work. I’ve had to. I was diagnosed with clinical depression young, and I found Tony Robbins in my teens, which honestly saved me in more ways than one. Since then I’ve done the mental health work and the personal development work: therapy, books, seminars, tarot readings, and leadership trainings- you name it. And here’s the thing nobody wants to hear: it’s never done. Sorry, guys. It’s just not. You don’t “graduate” from working on yourself. You just get better tools for the ongoing project. In fact, that’s part of the inspiration for creating the Book League.
Meanwhile, over the years, I spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours optimizing my sales copy and making all of the systems while the real bottleneck, the one I commonly related to as handled, was still quietly running my business from the inside.
I am not alone in this. Not even close. The timing of reading this book in Q4 is almost too perfect, because a lot of entrepreneurs deal with seasonal affective disorder right around now, when the days get short, and the hustle doesn’t let up. And it’s bigger than the season: nearly 88% of entrepreneurs report struggling with at least one mental health issue, according to a widely cited Founder Reports survey. Eighty-eight percent. Read that again.
Regardless of diagnosis (from a professional, or from an ex who diagnosed you mid-argument, we’ve all been there), this book is for everyone. Because as we learned in our last Book League pick, The Elephant in the Brain, our brains are built to be biased about ourselves. We are the last people who can see our own blind spots clearly. That’s not a character flaw. That’s just how brains work. That means we need outside tools and outside people to catch what we can’t catch alone.
We Keep Fixing the Wrong Thing
Here’s the pattern I see over and over in this community, and honestly in myself: entrepreneurs and founders will chase the sexy stuff first. Marketing. Sales scripts. The new launch strategy. The shiny automation tool. All real, all useful, all worth doing eventually. But none of it works the way it’s supposed to when the person behind the business is quietly sabotaging it from the inside.
Mindset is not a soft skill. It is a biz asset, full stop. And it is the one most of us refuse to invest in because it doesn’t come with a pretty dashboard or a “look what I built” screenshot. You can’t post a before-and-after of your self-worth on Instagram. So we skip it. We go chase the marketing funnel instead, because at least that feels like progress.
This is exactly why I’m so fired up about our next Book League pick.
#TheBookLeague | Q4: Tell Yourself a Better Lie by Marisa Peer
What if the story you keep telling yourself about who you are is the one thing standing between you and the business you actually want?
Marisa Peer built her career as a therapist to some of the most successful people on the planet, and her core idea is almost embarrassingly simple: you become what you repeatedly tell yourself. “I’m not good with money.” “I’m bad at sales.” “I always self-sabotage right before a breakthrough.” Say it enough times, and your brain will make sure it stays true, because your brain’s whole job is to keep your self-image consistent, even when that image is working against you.
Founders and entrepreneurs are doers, and this book is the uncomfortable mirror we need. It’s not about hustling harder or finding a new tactic. It’s about catching the lie you’ve been running on autopilot and swapping it for something true and useful instead. That’s #BizOutLoud at its core: saying the real, slightly embarrassing thing out loud so you can finally do something about it.
Why Join the Book League?
✔ A group of peers who are also doing the work, not just reading about it
✔ Real discussion, not a book report
✔ Accountability to actually finish the thing (we’ve all got the backlog of unread business books, no judgment)
✔ A room full of people who get the entrepreneur brain weirdness, because they have it too
✔ Real discussion, not a book report
✔ Accountability to actually finish the thing (we’ve all got the backlog of unread business books, no judgment)
✔ A room full of people who get the entrepreneur brain weirdness, because they have it too
Session Dates
Session 1: Wednesday, October 28 at 12pm CT, Zoom
Session 2: Wednesday, December 2 at 12pm CT, Zoom
Final Discussion: Wednesday, December 30 at 12pm CT, Zoom
Session 1: Wednesday, October 28 at 12pm CT, Zoom Session 2: Wednesday, December 2 at 12pm CT, Zoom Final Discussion: Wednesday, December 30 at 12pm CT, ZoomReading this book in Q4 is not an accident. If you want 2027 to be the year things actually shift, the foundation work has to happen now, while everyone else is busy planning launches and buying new templates. Get your mindset sorted before the calendar flips, and you’ll walk into January already ahead.
The Bonus Nobody Told You About Yet
If you finish out the Book League this quarter, you’re getting an invite to our Book League Alumni 2027 Kickoff in St. Paul on December 29. We’re closing out the year by working through Napoleon Hill’s Self-Analysis questions together, the same ones he recommended reviewing every single year to see exactly where you stand. Pair that with a mindset reset from Marisa Peer, and you’ve got a genuinely groundbreaking setup for the new year, done in a room with people who are actually going to hold you to it.
So here’s my ask. Stop auditing your funnel for the fifth time this year. Go audit the story you’re telling yourself instead. Grab the book, join the discussion, and let’s figure out 2027 together.
A few honest takeaways before you go:
- Your mindset is a biz asset. Treat it like one.
- The sexy tactics won’t fix a foundation problem.
- You already know when you’re lying to yourself. The hard part is saying it out loud.
- Community makes the hard inner work actually stick.
