83. Three Reasons Your Business Growth in 2025 Feels Harder Than It Used To (and What to Shift)

I recorded this as an Instagram Live and a podcast episode at the same time, so you’ll hear me talk to both audiences throughout — but that’s also what gives this episode its live energy.

In this episode, I’m walking you through three reasons your business growth feels harder in 2025 than it used to, what’s actually missing, what to do instead leading up to 2026, and how we are doing this inside Reclamation in Q4.

These are the things that worked in the beginning but eventually stop working — and if you’re feeling like your results aren’t matching your effort anymore, this will help you understand why.

Here’s what I cover:

1️⃣ Selling through likability and referrals but not converting new people (cold leads)

This is where most of us start. You get clients because people like you and trust you as a person — not necessarily because your offer was super clear, but because they knew you or someone referred them.

That can work for a few years, but eventually you run out of warm leads.

What’s missing:

You need to be able to convert cold leads — people who find you on a Tuesday and pay you on a Wednesday. That comes from thought leadership (not just problem-solution content) and messaging that’s anchored in your clients’ words, not yours.

2️⃣ Solving your business problems through content only vs. lead gen and marketing

In the early days, your audience might have grown just by you posting content or through word of mouth. But at a certain point, that stops working — not because you’re doing something wrong, but because the algorithm and your audience have changed.

What’s missing:

Lead generation, not just audience growth. They’re not the same thing.

You need visibility beyond your own platform — third-party credibility that centers your expertise and thought leadership so new, qualified people are finding you consistently.

#1 (Cold leads) and #2 (lead gen) go together.

3️⃣ Delivering results that are bigger than what you’re charging for

This one can be sneaky because it still feels like success — you’re fully booked, but something feels off. Your expertise has outgrown the people you’re serving.

What’s missing:

You need to start talking to your best clients, not all of them.

That might mean solving a higher-level version of the problem or introducing a higher-level way of thinking about it.

Recap: Three things that make your growth feel harder than it used to:

• Selling through likability and referrals but not converting new people (cold leads)
• Solving your problems with content vs. lead gen and marketing
• Delivering results that are bigger than what you’re charging for

And what’s missing:

• The ability to convert colder leads through thought leadership and messaging anchored in your clients’ words
• Lead generation and third-party credibility beyond your own platform
• Talking to your best clients and positioning your work at your current level of mastery

Reclamation Mastermind will help you solve all three of these before the end of November — through a series of Demand Gen done-with-you workshops we’re running inside the program this quarter.

Doors close TONIGHT, October 9th at midnight, and we start the week of October 20th.

Apply and schedule your call now at the link below:

www.marieladelamora.com/reclamation