Hey Bold Leaders.
Happy New Year.
I’m pretty sure I’m going to be wishing you a Happy New Year for the next three months because I’m just that happy to not be in 2020 anymore.
And I am really loving the new energy of 2021. I’ve been welcoming that energy in since December and I’m excited to be starting a new year.
Today I want to share with you some beliefs for you to release in 2021.
I know it’s already 2021, but we’re going to work on releasing these beliefs because we do not want to carry them through the rest of the year.
This is really a conversation about mindset.
I work with people in the online space and I work with people who don’t run businesses in the online space, or maybe they don’t even use the internet or social media to run their businesses.
I know for the online business people that sounds shocking, but it’s really possible. It exists.
And so what I noticed, is that there’s a difference in my clients. The ones who are not in the online space are kind of new to mindset and aren’t always 100% sure what it is.
It is a new phenomenon.
They’re very excited to talk about mindset.
And my peeps who are in the online business space kind of get bombarded with a lot of mindset stuff.
What I find is some of the people that I work with get really tripped up around mindset because they start to lump it in with the law of attraction, spirituality. A lot of New Age talk. And that’s not actually what it is at all.
I want to separate that out for you before we even start having this conversation.
So that if you are somebody who either doesn’t know what mindset is, hasn’t heard the term before, or you are someone who gets maybe a little confronted when you hear mindset because you lump it in with spirituality or the law of attraction, I want to just first define that.
And listen, if you’re a big law of attraction spirituality person, I am too.
I like to say that I’m not necessarily woo-woo. I’m one woo. And I’m cool with that too.
I’m not poo-pooing the law of attraction at all right now.
I’m really just looking to have a conversation around mindset.
So I want to be concrete with the definition.
This definition is from Auster-Gussman & Rothman, from their article that they wrote. They define mindset as:
A consistent pattern of thoughts about a specific topic can become a mindset, which represents an established set of beliefs that shape how people think and reason about a topic.
So for me, I just say mindset is a set of thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes that you hold about something, and they could be true and they might not be true.
And so this is really a conversation around mindset and beliefs, because we all have sets of beliefs.
Some people call them limiting beliefs, and we do carry beliefs with us that limit or inhibit us.
However, what I want to say is these beliefs are often here for a reason.
They’re here to protect us in some way.
And it’s really our job to identify why we have this belief.
Is this a belief that we want to continue to hold?
Is it serving a positive purpose in our life?
Is it leading to the results that we want?
Or is it holding us back from getting the results that we want?
I’m going to share five top beliefs that my clients or I have had that limit your capacity for growth.
And when I talk about growth, I mean personal and professional growth as an inner game, and it’s usually hindered by our beliefs in what we think is possible.
We limit ourselves in what we think is possible.
So living in a place of possibility versus believing things are impossible.
Choosing possibility over impossibility takes creativity.
It takes courage.
It takes consistency.
And what I mean by that is it takes creativity to visualize beyond what you know, and beyond what you have experienced.
Courage: because believing in something you lack tangible evidence for is scary and vulnerable and risky. To continue to show up for what you want, even though you might not know how it will happen takes guts. That’s a risk, right?
Consistency: our biggest achievements or dreams happen incrementally over time with a lot of patience and a lot of delayed gratification.
But when you really then reflect back, you see that it really didn’t take that much time. It really happened quite quickly, but that consistency piece, the ability to keep putting one foot in front of the other and experience these incremental shifts requires consistency.
This is why it’s so important to spend time reflecting on what you want, making decisions that are in alignment with your vision and what you desire.
Maybe even participating in a group program or working with a coach so you can find the evidence of what you want being possible here and now.
There are many times where I’ve worked with coaches who have taken their business to where I want to take my business or have achieved a result that I have wanted to achieve. And I’ve worked with them so I can borrow…
I get to have this intimate relationship with them. I get to see the impact of these results and what I want on their life. And I can borrow that experience as evidence for the fact that this is possible.
This is also really great in group coaching programs, because you have people sharing their wins and their experience.
You can borrow from the people in that group so you can see and know that if it’s possible for them, it’s possible for you as well.
As well as the accountability that a coach or a group gives you to keep going.
I hope that as I share these beliefs, you give some thought about how they show up for you.
Some might be on repeat in your head.
I call these pervasive and persistent.
Those get our priority attention.
When something’s on a looping pattern in our heads they’re pervasive and persistent.
Others might be sporadic.
So you’ll want to get curious about them and what triggers them.
The best approach that I have for this is to be curious and inquisitive around your beliefs and use a journal.
Track them.
Jot them down as you note them.
Don’t make them mean anything.
They’re not good or bad.
We all get into this trap of this is a bad mindset. And it’s not good that I think this way.
Really, this work requires a tremendous amount of grace.
To release the belief, start by setting the intention that you want to release it.
Intentions are powerful. And simply by setting that intention, having it in your awareness, knowing when it comes up, knowing when it doesn’t come up.
Maybe just redirecting your mind at that time or giving it a cue. Maybe even just saying, thank you.
Thank you.
You could cue it to maybe just dissipate.
And you have to see what happens because some of these ones that are sporadic are usually easier to move past, but the ones that are persistent and pervasive take a little more time.
Let’s dive into the top five beliefs that you want to explore and release in 2021.
I’m going to start with my personal favorite.
This one I struggled with for quite a while, before I was able to release it. It still comes up sometimes for me.
The first belief is:
It’s possible for them, but not for me.
Any belief where you’re pitted against ‘them’ is not helping you.
Including, I don’t want to be like them, or I want to be like them.
Because you’re in comparison now: it’s possible for them, but not for me.
The reason why this is so problematic is it’s hard for you to borrow that evidence. Because you might work with a coach or you might be in a group and you might say, “Oh, well, it’s possible for all these people, but it’s not possible for me.”
That’s a belief that you’ll want to check in on.
I’ve also had the belief I don’t want to be like them.
This comes up a lot for people around selling. They think that selling is sleazy because they’ve seen someone sell in a way that has been smarmy. And then they go, “I don’t want to be like them.”
Just be mindful of when this comes up or the comparison I want to be like them. Because next thing you know, you’re creating a business that’s not going to work for you because it works for them. And what works for them might not work for you.
The second belief is:
I don’t know how.
You have to know the how. Or you have to have all the answers before you take action. You have to have it all mapped out before you can start taking action.
This is so easy because our brains get stuck here because our brains crave certainty.
The certainty is the how, but if you get stuck on the how you won’t move forward.
This is such a conundrum.
So this is why vision is so important.
Keep aligning with the vision and not worry about how.
I’ve done things in my business in 2020 where I set it up in my vision or I set a goal, but I honestly didn’t know how I was going to do it. But every turn, I just kept coming back to the vision and the goal.
Is making this decision supportive of the vision or the goal?
Will this get me closer to my goal?
Will this get me closer to my vision?
Do I need this information right now to achieve this goal?
And I just kept bringing it back to those items and you develop the how along the way. It becomes your process.
The third belief:
I know that already.
I know that already, this won’t work for me, or I’ve tried that before and it didn’t work.
This is not a growth mindset.
And what I want to say about growth mindset – this is the work of Carol Dweck, growth mindset versus fixed mindset – is that I think that at any point we can be on this spectrum of growth and fixed mindset.
There have been times and situations in my life where I have not had a growth mindset. And yet I think of myself as incredibly growth-minded.
So I just want to say that something could be really confronting for us or we could feel like we’re kicking and screaming and tantruming into that next level of growth, and we have a fixed mindset for a while.
Just be mindful of ‘I know that already, that won’t work for me, I’ve tried that before and it didn’t work’. Another one that would fit into this to me is ‘because we’ve always done it that way’.
Those are fixed mindset things that you want to be careful of as you’re moving through your growth in 2021.
The fourth belief:
Your value is tied to time.
You believe your value is tied to time.
For example, I have hourly sessions where people can buy an hour of my time. The value is not the hour of my time, the value is the coaching that happens during that time.
In an hour, I could give you a plan to make six figures or more if you implement the strategy and are consistent with that over and over and over again.
I’ve done this a number of times and that’s highly valuable. Honestly, it’s priceless to have someone be like, “This is the strategy based on your strengths, based on what you want to do, based on your mission, based on how you like to work. This is how you get to this specific number.”
I can get anybody to any number with the right services or products. It’s what I do. It’s what I’m great at. That’s highly valuable. I charge $1,000 for that hour, but it’s worth six figures.
I went to Mexico on retreat with one of my coaches in 2017. We had a 15- to 20-minute conversation as we walked on the beach. My takeaways were worth multiple six figures. It was a huge turning point for me in my business and set me up for so many fantastic results after that.
The value of the outcome that you provide is what’s important.
The time you spend providing that outcome is irrelevant.
There are many people who want a big outcome in a shorter period of your time and would pay more for that than more of your time.
Let me give you another example. Let’s look at attorneys:
Attorney A charges $750 an hour.
Attorney B charges $250 an hour.
Attorney A has been doing this for 20 years. They have an impressive record. They have relationships with other attorneys, the judges, the clerks, and everyone in the justice ecosystem for where this attorney works.
Attorney B charges $250 an hour because they’re starting out or maybe they lack the confidence to charge more. If they lack the confidence to charge more, that’s going to be a big problem for them representing you. You want an attorney who is very confident.
You have to go to court.
Prior to arrival, attorney A has already spoken to the court clerk or to opposing counsel because they have these relationships and they can just pick up the phone and they have the confidence to do it.
You arrive at court and you are in and out in 20 minutes. It costs you 40 minutes. It doesn’t even cost you the full $750. It’s 20 minutes that they spent pre-planning with the clerk and the opposing counsel and the 20-minute appearance? That doesn’t even cost you $750.
Attorney B shows up the day of your appearance. They have not called ahead and spoken to anybody. You wait for three hours to be seen on the docket and it costs you $750 and three hours of your time.
It reminds me of the saying: If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do a job, wait until you hire an amateur.
I hope you really let that example land for you.
Because if you want to make more money in 2021, there’s a really good chance you need to raise your rates or you need to be more confident in the rates that you have, or you have to get out of this thinking that your time is what is a value.
Because it’s going to inhibit you from generating the revenue you need to generate, to have the profit that you want so that you can provide for your family and do all those extra things that you want to do.
But it’s also going to prevent you from scaling your business. Because if you’re constantly in this, ‘my time is what’s worth more’, you’re never going to be able to scale your business, because you only have so much of your time. You only have so much capacity.
This is really a much larger conversation around identifying yourself personally with your business.
I like to talk about separating the business entity from your identity.
This comes up a lot in service-based businesses.
There’s a lot here for you to untangle, but starting just with my value is not in the time, my value is in the outcome is a great place to start.
The fifth belief is:
More equals more.
More of my time equals more money.
More hard work equals more money.
More money equals more happiness.
Anything where more equals more is something that we have to really look at and inspect for ourselves.
Because oftentimes, growth, value, and results come when we do less.
Less is actually more.
Doing less is what is going to grow your business.
Doing less allows us to be more efficient.
It allows us to create something that’s more simple and easier to deliver.
Chasing money and more money equaling more happiness is not necessarily true either.
You can spend your year chasing more and more revenue, but realizing that you’re not any happier, fulfilled, or feeling on purpose.
That is not how we want you to get to the end of the year.
We want you to get to the end of the year where you have made the maximum amount of money and are experiencing the maximum amount of fulfillment and happiness and profits.
It’s a whole piece together there.
But that you’re not doing more. And when it comes to scaling your business, you cannot scale something that is overly complex.
You can’t scale something that is bloated.
You can’t scale something that is onerous, that is hard to deliver, that is inefficient.
So really wrapping your head around more is not more, less is more, will be really helpful for you this year.
Head on over to Instagram. I still enjoy hanging out on Instagram in 2021. Comment on the post in the grid, or shoot me a DM, and let me know which one of these beliefs you are going to release this year.
I want to know which one really resonated with you the most.
Thank you for taking the time today to listen.
I hope this has been helpful.
Please know, I believe that small business owners have the power to change the world.
Take good care.
