Every January, the same thing happens.
Your inbox fills up with messages about goal-setting and vision boards, and making this your best year yet. Everyone’s talking about what you should add to your business: new offers, strategies, marketing channels, new everything.
And if you’re a business owner who’s feeling stuck or frustrated, all that messaging makes it seem like the problem is that you’re not doing enough.
So you start making lists of everything you need to add. And by February you’re overwhelmed, and nothing’s actually changed except you’re even more stressed than you were before.
Here’s what we tell our Mentor Pods members every single time this comes up: most business owners don’t have an addition problem, they have a subtraction problem.
The issue isn’t that you’re not doing enough, it’s that you’re doing too much of the wrong things. You’re carrying dead weight, tolerating what doesn’t work, keeping stuff around “just in case.”
All of that weight is dragging you down so much that adding more on top just breaks you.
In our program, before we ever talk about what members should add to their businesses, we spend time figuring out what they need to cut, because that’s where the real momentum comes from.
The most common things business owners tolerate
When we sit down with new members and ask them, “What’s draining you that you’re still putting up with,” almost everyone has the same few things on their list.
Clients who cost more in time and energy than they’re worth.
High maintenance, always asking for “one more thing,” slow to pay, questioning every invoice, creating drama with the team. They keep these clients because of the revenue, but when you actually do the math on how much time and stress they’re causing versus how much profit they’re generating, they’re usually not worth it at all.
They’ve got services they hate delivering.
It made sense when they launched it, looked good on paper, and seemed like something customers would want. But actually doing it? Painful, inefficient, frustrating for everyone involved.
Yet they keep offering it because “we’ve always done it” or “what if someone asks for it,” even though every time they have to deliver it, they and their team dread the work.
They’ve got processes that take three times longer than they should.
Manual, clunky, full of unnecessary steps that made sense five years ago but don’t make sense now. Everyone complains about these processes, but nobody fixes them because “we’re too busy” or “it works well enough.”
They’ve got commitments they regret saying yes to.
The board position they joined that they don’t care about anymore. The partnership that sounded great but isn’t delivering value. Or the project they agreed to six months ago now feels like a burden. They’re doing all of this out of guilt or habit or fear of burning bridges, not because it’s actually strategic for their business.
They’ve got subscriptions they’re paying for that they never use.
When we ask members to check their credit card statements, they almost always find thousands of dollars a year being spent on software tools they haven’t opened in months.
Why subtraction is harder than addition
If all of this is so obvious, why don’t business owners just cut these things? The answer is always the same: fear.
They’re afraid that if they fire the difficult client, they won’t replace the revenue. If they cut the unprofitable service, they’ll lose market share or look less comprehensive than their competitors. Or when they say no to commitments, they’ll burn bridges and miss out on future opportunities.
They’re afraid that if they stop doing something, they’ll regret it later and wish they’d stuck with it.
All of those fears sound reasonable, but here’s what we see happen time and time again with our members: every time you say no to something that’s draining you, you create space for something better.
When you fire the bottom 20% of your clients, you don’t just lose their revenue. You free up capacity to serve better clients who actually value your work, pay on time, and don’t create drama.
When you cut services that kill your margins, you don’t just lose that revenue stream, you free up your team to focus on the work they’re actually good at, and that’s actually profitable. Dropping commitments that aren’t serving you doesn’t just clear your calendar but also creates space for strategic work that actually moves your business forward.
Subtraction isn’t loss, it’s strategy, and it’s one of the most powerful things you can do to create momentum.
How we help our members actually do this
In Mentor Pods, we don’t just tell people to cut things and send them on their way, we walk them through a specific process that makes it manageable and less scary.
We start by having them make what we call their “Draining Me” list.
You sit down and write out everything that’s currently draining your energy in your business. Clients, services, processes, commitments, subscriptions, projects, and so on. Don’t filter it, don’t judge it, just get it all out on paper so you can see it clearly.
That act of writing it down is powerful because most business owners are carrying all of this weight in their heads without fully acknowledging how much it’s costing them.
Once you’ve got your list, we help you prioritize. Look at everything on there and ask: which one is draining me most right now? Which one makes me groan just thinking about it? Pick that one first, not because you need to tackle everything at once, but because you need to prove to yourself that cutting things actually works and actually makes you feel better.
Then we help you actually do it. Fire the client professionally and kindly, giving them referrals to other providers if you want to leave things on good terms. Stop offering the service, giving existing customers notice and a timeline. Cancel the subscriptions you’re not using. Drop the commitments that aren’t serving you, explaining your decision clearly so people understand.
The key is that you actually do it this week, not eventually or when you find a replacement or when the timing is perfect. Because every day you delay is another day you’re carrying that weight, and the relief you feel when you finally let it go is immediate and powerful.
After members cut that first thing, we have them move to the next step: fix one thing that’s broken.
Here, you don’t rebuild everything or try to perfect every process. You just pick one thing that’s been frustrating you and make it better than it is right now.
Maybe it’s documenting a process that only exists in someone’s head. Setting up an automation that saves time every week. Or maybe it’s clarifying a role that’s been unclear. Small progress, but progress that compounds.
What changes when you create space first
Here’s what happens when our members go through this process:
- They feel lighter immediately, like someone lifted a weight they didn’t realize they were carrying.
- Have more mental space to think clearly about what actually matters instead of being consumed by managing things that don’t.
- Have more energy for strategic work instead of being drained by tolerating things they hate.
- And most importantly, they create space. Real, tangible space in their calendar and their capacity for the things that actually deserve to be there.
Once you’ve created that space through subtraction, then and only then should you start thinking about what to add. Because when you try to add new goals and new strategies on top of 100% capacity, the math doesn’t work, and you just break. But when you subtract 20% of what’s draining you and create actual space, suddenly you have room for the things that matter.
You can focus on that one strategic initiative that would actually move the needle. Invest time in the relationship that could open doors. Or even work on the creative project that energizes you. You can build a system that would make everything else easier.
Your move this week
If you’re recognizing yourself in any of these patterns, here’s what we want you to do this week.
Make your “Draining Me” list. Get everything out of your head and onto paper so you can see it clearly. Then pick one thing from that list that’s draining you most and cut it this week.
Next, fix one thing that’s broken. Something frustrating you for too long and make it better. Not perfect, just better. Document it, automate it, clarify it, whatever it needs.
That’s it. Two moves. Cut one thing, fix one thing.
Do that this week and notice how different your business feels. Then do it again next week. Small, consistent progress in the direction of less weight and tighter systems. That’s how you build a business that actually works for you instead of against you.
The best time to subtract is always right now.
