,

Today is February 16th as I type this, and I've just watched a video of another online business that shut down.

The business had rapid growth, such that in less than 2 years, it was making over $2 million.

Unfortunately, anxiety, heart palpitations, and severe mental health conditions were plaguing the lady who started the business.

She couldn't take it anymore.

She shut it down and went on a sabbatical for one year.

When I stepped away from doing the different things I was doing online

It felt like I didn't know what I was doing

To some people, 'maybe Dayo doesn't make money anymore'

I had been podcasting

Then I quit in 2018

I was coaching and consulting

I left it

I had a community of 8,000 members.

I walked away from it

But I've been thinking about everything lately

And today, I want to let you know that there is a big benefit when you keep things simple.

Overcomplication is fancy

It is very enticing to want to grow and do big things

You may even have been getting the invitation to play on a bigger stage (which is not bad)

But complex is the worst way to run anything

Especially a business

If you're building a business based on your knowledge, skills and expertise

If you can keep your business to yourself and one or two staff, better.

The more it begins to grow beyond that, performance anxiety begins to kick in

When I was a mental health therapist to entrepreneurs, I ran an anonymous survey

Let me show you some of the responses I got in one particular batch of the research I conducted.

See image below:

As with the last response, it is easy to default to thinking we should hire more when the workload increases

But I can tell you (from having been doing business since 2005) that more staff members don't solve any business problems

It only creates bottlenecks—operations, revenue cuts, employee taxes, team work dynamics, etc.

When the workload increases, look at your systems

Look at your processes

• What did you add that's non-essential?

• What can be automated?

• What can be outsourced?

Complexity will halt you in your tracks.

Complexity is a cruel mistress that will tempt you until it takes away all your time and freedom.

Once you let complexity into your business, into your marketing, into your coaching, into your courses, into your programs...

It will always threaten to take the reigns of your life and guide you to a place where your health, sanity, family, friends, and all the other things you care about take a back seat.

Don’t let it happen.

Keep things simple.

Especially when it comes to growing your business.

Simplicity in business scales.

Last year, I had a marketing partner with whom we had set up some complicated funnels for my new course on how to make videos with Canva

We invested in Facebook ads

Paid voice-over artists to overlay British accents over some of our ads and videos

But guess what?

When I looked at the books

The inflow and outflow

That was a bad business decision.

So I shut it down a couple of days ago and terminated our contract.

The entire thing was cutting deep into the new business I'm trying to build in the UK

I don't plan to make the same mistakes I made up until 2018/19.

I want to build a better business this time around.

And that's why I'm sharing this with you

All power lies in the simplest of business.

Yes, some things are good.

But not for the stage you are at.

In video games, there are levels that you can only attempt if you've played previous levels well enough

Until then, you can't jump the game

Neither can you unlock it.

If you're having a lot of fancy ideas right now, hand them on to an Ideas Waitlist.

You can always come back to it later.

Maybe not just now.

As I navigate this new chapter, my aim is clear.

To build not just a successful business, but a sustainable one.

One that thrives on simplicity, that respects my health, my sanity, and the precious balance of life.

And it's this lesson, this conviction, that I share with you today.

In business, as in life, simplicity isn't just about doing less—it's about being more.

As always,

Live courageously.

Dayo Samuel

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