Ashley Couto says your real competition is the roadblocks you set yourself. Here's how her six steps fit an owner's working week.
Two quick questions. Who are your three biggest competitors? And which habit in your own week costs you the most? If the first answer came faster than the second, a recent post from Ashley Couto is worth a minute of your time.
Couto, who describes herself on LinkedIn as a book coach, editor and ghostwriter for executives and founders, put it bluntly: your competition isn't other people, it's the roadblocks you set for yourself. Comparing your day 1 to someone else's day 100 is a losing game, she wrote. The real game is getting past your own obstacles every day.
A competitor's website, trucks, reviews and crew size are the finished result of years of decisions you never saw. Measuring your first year against that tells you very little about what to do on Monday. Couto's point is that the daily game is one you can actually play, because every day offers a chance to break a bad habit, face a fear and learn something you didn't know yesterday.
Her post lists six steps. Here's each one with what it can look like when the person using it runs a business.
| Step from the post | What it can look like in a business |
|---|---|
| Notice your habits | Keep a short written list of what holds you back. Change one small thing from it each day. |
| Remove your distractions | Protect your attention and focus. Skip the endless scroll that eats the start of the workday. |
| Run toward fear, not away from it | Take one small step a day toward what you're avoiding, such as the hard call or the overdue quote. |
| Check your ego at the door | Stay a student. Write a personal syllabus and block time on the calendar to learn. |
| Kick procrastination in the butt | Cross off one small task, then use that momentum on a harder one. |
| Turn discipline into consistency | Set a minimum you'll hit every day, then add consequences or someone who holds you to it. |
The first step is the cheapest one. Write down what's slowing you down: the unanswered messages, the estimate that sits for days, the task you keep moving to tomorrow. Then change one small thing from that list each day. Couto's approach doesn't ask for a new system. It asks for a list and a single small shift.
Couto calls attention and focus precious and warns against falling down a doomscroll algorithm wormhole. For an owner, that means deciding when the phone is allowed to pull you away from the work in front of you. Treat the first hour of the day like a machine that has to be running for the shift to produce anything.
Her advice on fear is gentle on purpose: it's okay to be scared, everybody is sometimes, and the move is one small step a day. In a business that might be asking for the review, calling back the customer you lost or finally putting prices on the page. The size of the step matters less than taking it again tomorrow.
To beat procrastination, Couto suggests finding one small task you can cross off and using that momentum on something more challenging. Finishing something small changes how the next task feels, so start the day with the easy win on purpose.
The last step is where discipline becomes consistency. Couto recommends a minimum viable productivity metric, the least you'll do on a bad day, backed by consequences or outside accountability. For an owner, that can be a partner, a manager or a mentor who expects an update on Friday. A floor you actually hit beats a goal you only announce.
Couto says she learned this in grad school, where grants, fellowships and medals pitted people against each other, and she had to choose to step out of that mindset and focus on her own goals. Owners who feel the pull to track every rival online may recognize the feeling. Look at the market for information, then go back to your own work.
The six steps are Ashley Couto's. The application to a working business is ours, and it only has to be small enough to repeat.
How WebKing runs this
We read marketing results the same way: a business's calls, leads and visits this month against its own last month, changing one thing at a time so it's clear what made the difference.
It means judging progress against your own last week instead of a competitor's finished result. Ashley Couto calls comparing your day 1 to someone else's day 100 a losing game.
Notice your habits, remove your distractions, run toward fear, check your ego at the door, kick procrastination, and turn discipline into consistency.
It's Couto's term for the smallest amount of work you commit to every day. For an owner it works as a floor, so a bad day still counts as progress.
Couto suggests either consequences or outside accountability to turn discipline into consistency. A partner, manager or mentor who expects an update can fill that role.
No. The idea is to stop measuring yourself through their lens and keep your attention on your own habits and goals. You can still watch the market for information.
Sources
The Lab is original analysis by WebKing. We summarize and interpret developments from the sources above for industrial, commercial, and small business owners. Figures are reported as published by their sources.
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