10 reasons why your growth is slowing down

Hi there 👋,

Growth isn’t an endless slope upwards. Sometimes it stagnates, sometimes it even *gasp* declines.

These moments are enough to make you tear out your hair. You start doubling down on your efforts and trying to do more, more more.

But I need you to resist that urge, and instead, join me in embracing a growth slowdown.

Because here’s what they don’t tell you:

Your growth slowdown is actually your biggest opportunity.

It’s your chance to discover what isn’t working before you’ve spent more time, resources and budget.

Here’s everything you can learn from it.

10 reasons for a growth slowdown

So what are the top 10 reasons for a growth slowdown that I see:

1. You were too reliant on one channel or a form of social proof, and need a better mix of channels because something has changed since then. Adapt to your current needs.

2. You’ve been equating marketing to growth too much and, as a result, you’re restricting your brand team by making them focus on conversions. Instead, take a backseat and look at growth more holistically.

3. It’s been too long since you did customer research, so you’ve lost touch with what customers need. Gut feeling will only get you so far, schedule a chat with your customers.

Learn more about these reasons and the other 7 reasons:

Recommendation

In every newsletter, I will also share a related resource to check out related to the topic of the week. None are affiliate links.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that I’ve shared just about every possible resource for growth slowdown and the reasons for it.

So instead, I want to share a resource to help with the real reason you can’t find a reason for your growth slowdown: a lack of time to zoom out.

You can fix this by working with an external party to help you analyse and compile a strategy for this.

For example, this is how I helped Bower Collective with their bottleneck.

Or if you’d like to tackle this problem yourself, ensure that you make the time for Deep Work. This will allow you to get into the right headspace to approach this mountain.

Check out Cal Newport’s great book on Deep Work to help.

I’m a runner at heart. I completed my first marathon in October and can’t wait to do another.

But when it comes to a growth slowdown, we both need to stop running.

I always remind myself of the famous quote “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting different results”.

It teaches us that we won’t find the answer on paths we’ve already checked. We need to slow down and start checking each potential route.

It might go against every instinct, trust me, I feel the same way. But that’s why it’s important to do it.

As a founder of growth lead, it’s easy to let these metrics define your identity on happiness.

But you are more than just your growth rate. Don’t let it impact who you are or what you stand for.

Slow down, start exploring and enjoy the ride.

See you next week,

Daphne