You wake up at 5am. Check your phone. Another message from a client. Three missed calls from a subbie. Your stomach tightens before your feet even hit the floor.
You’re working harder than ever, but your business feels like it’s running you instead of the other way around.
The same problems keep showing up, cash flow stress, team dramas, projects that drag on too long. You’re exhausted, but you can’t see a way out.
If this sounds familiar, you need to know something: being stuck isn’t a sign you’re failing. It’s a sign you need a different approach.
Right now, you might be dealing with anxiety that keeps you up at night. Self-doubt that makes you question whether you’re cut out for this.
Financial worries that follow you everywhere, even when you’re supposedly “off” the tools.
You’re constantly firefighting. Every day feels the same. You’re working longer hours but getting further behind.
Your team looks to you for answers you don’t have. Your family barely sees you. And despite all this effort, you’re not seeing the results you deserve.
The worst part? You feel alone in it. Everyone else seems to have it together, so you keep pushing, keep pretending, keep hoping something will change.
When you’re stuck, everything suffers.
Your profitability bleeds out through the cracks. Quality standards slip because you’re too stretched. Your health deteriorates – the weight gain, the short temper, the constant fatigue. Relationships at home become strained.
Your team feels it too. Subbies take advantage because they sense you’re overwhelmed. Clients push boundaries because you’re too exhausted to enforce them.
And you start believing the voice that says you’re not good enough, that maybe you weren’t meant to run a business.
Here’s what might surprise you: your business’s biggest project isn’t your next build.
It’s actually you.
The real breakthrough happens when you work on yourself first.
Your mindset. Your mental wellbeing. Your ability to lead under pressure. Your capacity to make clear decisions when everything feels chaotic.
Inside ELEVATE, we’ve worked with hundreds of builders who felt exactly where you are now. What changed wasn’t a magic business hack.
It was finally having a place where they could be honest about their struggles without judgement.
Where they had access to professional support through our TIACS partnership and Stoic Coaching Philosophy, proven tools, and a community of builders who genuinely understood.
Watch the video now, or read the transcript below. Be sure to also subscribe to the Live Life Build YouTube channel.
Amelia
It’s super common as a building business owner to feel stuck, to feel like nothing’s working, like you’re on this treadmill of doing the same things every day, and not being able to get out of that horrible feeling that you’re completely stuck where you are.
Duayne
It can be quite hard to overcome, and you really do have to surround yourself with the right types of people, the right community that supports you to get out of where you’re at.
I can talk about this one from personal experience, and again, from the hundreds of members in ELEVATE. It’s the hardest thing to get out of.
It’s a real mindset shift because it’s very easy to be the victim and to constantly think that you’ve got anxiety and depression.
You’re doubting everything you do, thinking that maybe you’re not good enough to be running a business because you can’t handle everything or you don’t know what to work on.
There are so many thoughts and things that come from being in that position where you’re stuck and you don’t know what to do.
Amelia
It’s something that we do a lot of work on with our members inside ELEVATE. Because really, the project of building yourself is what unlocks your ability to build other projects, to build your business, to build the projects you build for clients.
You are your business’s biggest project.
When you work on yourself, when you support your own mindset and your ability to navigate challenging situations, the ups and downs of the industry, the difficulties of being a business owner, leading a team, managing finances, all of those things, it makes a huge difference to how you show up on a day-to-day basis.
You can do that from a place of resilience, a place of being supported in the right community, having access to mentors, tools and knowledge that can really support your mindset and your mental wellbeing.
If you want a better business, upgrade the builder running it.
Duayne
Duayne
This is something we take seriously inside our ELEVATE Community, and we’ve got coaches who specialise in helping our members with this kind of stuff using the Stoic Coaching Philosophy.
TIACS is actually one of our alliance partners. We do a lot of work with them, and in return, one of their counsellors does regular Zoom calls with our members.
The information and knowledge shared in those calls can be life-changing if you’re in that position where you feel stuck and don’t know where to turn.
On top of that, you’ll get incredible support from our community and from the builders who have been where you are when they first started with Elevate. They managed to not only change their business, but change their life.
So if you’re feeling stuck, you don’t know where to turn, possibly dealing with depression, anxiety, financial worries, and all those types of things, then ELEVATE is truly the community for you.
Amelia
We love that we’ve created a place where builders can be vulnerable. Everybody can see that they’re all dealing with the same challenges, they can feel safe to have open conversations about it, and know that they’ve got people in their corner supporting them through these challenges and cheering them on.
When you normalise that this is what it can be like in the industry to navigate these challenges, you don’t have to feel so alone. You don’t have to feel like you’ve just got to struggle through this.
You’ve got somewhere to turn, somewhere you can talk through the difficulties, build up the resources within yourself, and have the support around you to create better outcomes overall.
Duayne
If you want a better business, upgrade the builder running it.
Your Business Deserves a Builder Who’s Not Just Surviving
You didn’t get into building to feel this way. You started because you loved creating something tangible, because you wanted the freedom that comes with running your own business.
That version of building still exists, but not when you’re stuck in survival mode
.
The reality is this: your business will never outgrow you. If you’re operating from constant stress and overwhelm, your business will reflect that.
But when you invest in yourself, when you build the mental resilience and support network to navigate this industry’s challenges, everything else starts to shift.
You’re not broken. You’re not failing. You’re just trying to do something incredibly difficult without the right support structure.
Ready to stop feeling stuck and start building the business and life you actually want?
Learn more about the ELEVATE here where you’ll find the support, systems and community that helps builders break free from the treadmill and build smarter, live better and enjoy life.
You don’t have to keep doing this alone.