Why Hustle Lied to Me About What Success Actually Looks Like

Entrepreneurs love to talk about being busy. I used to be one of them.

In 2015, my production company was filming close to one hundred weddings a year. We were booked every weekend, answering emails nonstop and constantly “in demand.” From the outside, it looked like a thriving business.

Inside, it was something else entirely.

I remember telling my mentor how slammed we were, almost bragging about it. Then I casually mentioned that I was paying myself about $2,000 a month.

He paused and asked a question that completely reframed how I thought about my business: “How are you eating?”

That moment forced me to confront a hard truth many entrepreneurs avoid. Hustle had convinced me I was successful when, in reality, I had built a high-stress job with thin margins and no leverage. I wasn’t running a business. I was trapped inside one.

Busy is not the same as profitable

At the time, weddings made sense. They were abundant, emotionally rewarding and easy to say yes to. But they were also underpriced, labor-intensive and difficult to scale. Each project required the same amount of effort regardless of how much experience we gained.

The more we worked, the more exhausted we became — and the numbers didn’t improve.

That’s when I made the first major pivot. I launched a separate brand focused on business video production and began taking on corporate clients. Almost immediately, the economics changed. Corporate projects paid dramatically more, required fewer revisions and wrapped faster.

Within a few years, the company had become an even split between weddings and corporate work. For the first time, effort and reward felt aligned.

But the biggest shift was still ahead.

Discovering the power of focus

In 2020, I was introduced to the franchising space. Around the same time, I read Focus by Al Ries, a book that would fundamentally change how I viewed positioning and growth.

The premise is simple but uncomfortable: the more you try to appeal to everyone, the less memorable you become.

That idea explained almost every struggle I had experienced up to that point. We were talented, reliable and experienced — but we were also generic. When prospects compared options, there was nothing specific anchoring us in their minds.

Three lessons from that book directly shaped what came next.

Lesson one: Don’t be everything to everyone

Broad positioning feels safe. You don’t want to turn potential customers away, so you keep your messaging wide and flexible.

The problem is that flexibility kills clarity.

When your positioning is vague, prospects have to work harder to understand why you’re different. Most won’t bother. Narrow positioning, on the other hand, makes your value immediately obvious to the right people.

Being clear about who you serve also clarifies who you don’t — and that’s a strength, not a weakness.

Lesson two: Be the shiny fish in a small pond

Competing in crowded markets forces businesses into constant price pressure and comparison. Dominating a niche creates authority.

When someone has a specific problem and you are known for solving that exact problem, the decision becomes easier. Trust builds faster. Sales cycles shorten. Referrals improve because people know exactly when to recommend you.

It is far better to be the obvious choice for a small audience than an optional one for a large one.

Lesson three: Focus creates leverage

Once you commit to a single audience, everything compounds.

Marketing becomes more efficient because your message resonates. Sales conversations improve because you understand objections before they’re raised. Operations tighten because you’re solving similar problems repeatedly instead of reinventing the wheel every time.

Focus doesn’t limit growth. It accelerates it.

What happened when we committed

When we fully committed to franchising, the impact was immediate and measurable. Revenue tripled. We built better systems. We hired with intention instead of urgency. Most importantly, the work became more enjoyable because we were no longer stretched across incompatible markets.

Instead of chasing volume, we built depth.

The irony is that niching down didn’t shrink our opportunities. It clarified them. By saying no more often, we created space to say yes to the right work — at the right price — with the right clients.

Many entrepreneurs confuse momentum with progress. Calendars fill up. Notifications pile on. Activity becomes a proxy for success.

But busy does not mean profitable.

Focus does.

If your business feels exhausting despite strong demand, it may not need more leads, more services or more hustle. It may need fewer, better-aligned customers — and the courage to commit to them fully.

Sometimes the most powerful growth strategy isn’t expansion. It’s precision.

Entrepreneurs love to talk about being busy. I used to be one of them.

In 2015, my production company was filming close to one hundred weddings a year. We were booked every weekend, answering emails nonstop and constantly “in demand.” From the outside, it looked like a thriving business.