I am going a little Maverick on us. Like they say in Top Gun, “I am writing checks. My body can’t cash” right now. We are going to go a little Maverick and we’re going to have a good time doing it because I’m noticing a challenge that some of you are having around investing in yourselves, investing in your businesses, investing in your future financial security, and you don’t trust yourself to make wise decisions and you are sitting on the sidelines waiting to see when is the perfect time, the perfect investment, the perfect amount of money is waiting in your bank account.
I’m just going to let you know that is not how this works. It doesn’t happen that way.
I know that a lot of you have also had really poor experiences investing in something that didn’t really pan out and I’m going to flip the script, and instead of my usual letting you off the hook, because the online business space is just so bananas, I’m going to come in here and share with you where I think you can be taking responsibility for investing in your business and actually giving yourself the momentum and moving forward in a direction that feels good and aligned to you.
I want to talk about why business investments fail when you take personal responsibility. There will always be external factors to everything. But the way we move forward and the way we grow, learn, take ownership, and get the true results that we want is when we can look at something and go, “Okay, well, what was I responsible for here? It took two of us.”
There were two people. There are three sides to every story. It takes two to tango, whatever little cliche you want to use, it applies here.
A reason why business investments fail
These are some reasons why business investments fail that you can’t pin on the other person, you can’t pin on the consultant, the coach, the marketer, this and that.
If you don’t believe you will get an ROI, guess what, you are not going to get an ROI.
Having that belief going into an investment and saying, “I’m going to get the most out of this,” I always go in and say, “I’m going to be their best client.” That’s the energy I set for myself. “They’re going to love working with me. I’m going to be on their testimonials and their case studies and I’m just going to really implement this in a way that is unique and gets me to where I want to go.”
You have to go into the investment taking responsibility for the outcome, claiming that vision, claiming that desire, claiming the result you want, and don’t overthink it.
So many folks are overthinking these investments and I actually think it’s when you start to overthink things and overcomplicate them that they start to come from a place that isn’t in alignment. If you expect any investment to be an immediate jackpot, you’re going to be disappointed.
The mindset that I go in with is every investment I make works out in my favor. I always get an ROI.
Here’s an example of what that has meant for me. I took a course on publicity once. I hate courses. At the time, I hated visibility, pitching, and publicity. I hated being at the center of things. I hated talking about myself. I hated writing my about page. I hated telling people why they should work with me. But I took the course because everyone else was doing it. I took the course because of peer pressure and there was a lesson.
In this one lesson, the woman said, “If pitching makes you uncomfortable, start your own podcast.” That was it. A single sentence and I dipped on the whole course. I exited the Facebook group. I never went back to that course. I immediately closed it down. Instead, I threw all my energy into starting a podcast.
Five years later, that one sentence has made me millions of dollars. That was the seed that got planted for me and has gone on to be the engine, this podcast is the engine of my business.
Now, was it really that one sentence? It was the seed for the next thing and the next thing and the next thing for me.
When it comes to programs, when it comes to getting an ROI, sometimes that means implementing one thing, and receiving one perspective shift even if you learn to never spend money on that thing again. Or I’ve realized I could have asked better questions upfront, or I’ve learned that what I invested in drains me and I won’t be using that strategy going forward. That is an ROI. Because as that saying goes, you either win or you learn, and at times, it has stung to spend money on something that I felt disappointed by.
I’ve spent $40,000 on masterminds and I was like, “This did not do it for me. This was really disappointing and it was a lot of money.” But I’ve always learned something, even if it was journaled pages full of what wouldn’t feel good, what I wouldn’t do again, and what I don’t want to emulate.
To me, learning is winning.
When it comes to investing, I follow the Maverick rule. In Top Gun 2, Maverick gives Rooster some sage advice to keep them alive and he says, “Don’t think, trust your instincts.”
That’s how I want us to start to practice because this doesn’t happen overnight. Practice investing. I want you to practice trusting your instincts instead of overthinking something.
We have all been on a sales call with somebody where our body was giving us the answer and we overrode it with our overthinking. I want you to feel more, trust your gut.
Trust your instincts.
Trust yourself when you make those investments and do not overthink it.
The Maverick rule, “Don’t think, trust your instincts.”
