Seeking buy-in? It’s a beautiful way to stall your business creation.

“Your business works on you before it works for you.”

A coach told me that early in my journey, and it lodged in my brain ever since.

At the time, I was deep in my mindset coach training, running headfirst into old corporate patterns:

🏢 Seeking broad consensus.
🏢 People pleasing.
🏢 Getting buy-in from the “right” leaders.
🏢 Making sure everyone is on board before moving forward.

Those habits helped me thrive in a corporate environment. But in business creation, they keep me from taking risks, from stepping fully into being a business owner.

At the start of my business, I noticed I was playing to get a prospective client’s signoff—instead of making an offer to help.

I was still chasing validation.

Part of it was about being new—seeking approval to feel like a business owner, wanting to feel legitimate (as if their approval was needed). Part of it was about the offer—hoping someone would tell me it was good enough to share with the world.

I kept looking for someone to say it was ready.
That it would land.
That it was safe.

I thought I needed a yes.
I needed a hell yes—from me.

These patterns and mindsets can be so subtle.
That coaching work helped me start catching myself—now I help my clients do the same.

This is the first in a new, semi-regular series I’m calling:
Your business works on you before it works for you.
Think of it as a hot take from the trenches—
a short note on the identity shifts and emotional work behind business creation.
It’ll pop up now and then alongside my regular Thursday newsletter.

👉 Wherever you are in your journey—
what is your business or business idea working on in you right now?

To your success,

Pierre

Certified Professional Coach

Photo by Stefan Lehner on Unsplash