Mindset
Our inherent qualities of mind and character, our moods and set of attitudes can be summed up by the word ‘mindset’. Our mindset influences absolutely everything, from our relationships to business. It is our biggest asset and most powerful tool to get to where we want to be, but it can hinder our progress if it isn’t right.
Mindset – Switching from being an employee to a business owner required a huge mindset shift.
When I started my own business after 10 years of being an employee, things weren’t going well and I couldn’t figure out why. I had always been hard-working and I was used to getting good results when I applied myself to something. I was having business coaching sessions, doing online marketing, networking and still, things didn’t really pick up. Only when I stumbled upon a business mentorship programme that focused on mindset, did things start to change.
Adjusting my mindset meant changing some of my core beliefs and the ways I was viewing and interacting with the world around me. The main areas of growth have been money and leadership. In the first year of my business journey, I found it hard to talk about money and ask for money. I knew that I had to charge a decent amount if I wanted to run a business, yet, I couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable about it, which reflected on my interactions with clients. Consciously thinking differently about money wasn’t enough, I had to start feeling differently about it. If this resonates with you and you feel icky about money conversations with your clients, start by digging up your core beliefs about money! What sayings did you use to hear as a child? Was “Money doesn’t grow on trees” one of them?
Some people are natural leaders if you are one of them, good for you! If you are not that type, I hear you! I used to cringe at the mention of the word ‘leadership’ until I realised that to really serve my clients, I have to lead them. When a potential client books their first consultation and then they don’t show up, nor bother to cancel, it is my fault for not having led them properly and not having connected them with the value of the consultation in the first place. Since I see leadership as a way of serving my clients, I feel inspired to be a leader and seek opportunities to step up. The results: better rapport with my clients, better results for my clients and more referrals.
If you’ve ever read a bit about mindset, you probably came across scarcity and abundance. The scarcity mindset is when you view the world from the perspective of ‘not having enough’ while having an abundance mindset means having something to give. I personally found that giving works better, especially in the context of networking. When I shift my focus from ‘what can I get out of this?’ to ‘how can I contribute to this?’ I end up having much better interactions and build better relationships.
Setting intentions has been a very useful tool to focus my actions and keep me in the mindset I want to be in. I set intentions at the beginning of the day. What do I want to achieve today? What is the most important task to complete? Setting intentions before conversations help to keep them on track: Why am I going to have a conversation with this person? What do they want to get out of it? How would I like the conversation to go?
How long do I have for this conversation? Setting intentions before networking events is a great way of making the most of them. If it is available, I look through the attendee list beforehand and always set three intentions, along the lines of who would I like to meet, who would I like to catch up with, how many new people I’d like to talk to. The last time, I really wanted to catch up with two of the attendees. Guess who were the first two people to log on to my table?
Our mind is our most powerful tool! Experiment with your mindset, have fun, set intentions!
Written by Anna Tarjan – TarjanAcu