222 – The Truth About a Business Boss State of Mind

Hi there.

You're listening to a really special episode of gift biz unwrapped

number two 22 I'm here to tell you that everyone's business

is messy.

Nobody has it all together.

Attention gifters,

bakers, crafters and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.

Whether you have an established business or looking to start one

now you are in the right place.

This is gift to biz on,

unwrapped, helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.

Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,

resources, and the support you need to grow your gift biz.

Here is your host gift biz gal,

Sue moon Heights.

Hi there Sue,

and I'm really glad you're joining me here,

especially for this episode because we have a super important topic

at hand.

I talked about this at a conference a few weeks ago

and I could tell everyone was really dialed in and listening

intently afterwards.

A number of women came up and said they wished they

would have taped it.

Several deep conversations also resulted,

which is when I said to myself,

why not share this with more women?

That's how we got to today where we'll be talking about

your state of mind as a business boss.

It's going to be an honest and raw discussion.

So buckle in and let's do this.

So often in business we talk about the tactical things,

how to run Facebook ads,

how to compose an intriguing subject line to increase your email

rates or how to get that perfect photo for your website

from your phone.

But rarely do we talk about the other stuff,

the internal emotional hard work that's involved in running your own

business. That's what we're getting into today along with how not

to let these things hold you up.

I want to start out by saying you already have what

it takes.

You have the skills,

knowledge, and resourcefulness to achieve what you've set out to do

what you've been thinking about for a long time and what's

in your heart.

The only thing standing in your way is you.

Yep, I get it because it's me too.

We each get in our own way all the time and

acknowledging this is the first step to dealing with and overcoming

the obstacles we put in our own way,

but you need to remember,

you already have what it takes to bring some organization to

this topic.

I've broken the conversation into five separate sections that I'm calling

mindsets and we'll go through each one of them individually.

We're starting with the overarching topic of the boss mindset.

Have you ever heard someone who's an employee say,

if I were the boss,

I could run this business so much better,

or this is the craziest way of doing things?

If this were my business and on and on.

Truth is that employees,

while possibly well-intended,

have no clue what it's like to actually run the show.

It's an entirely different game when you're in charge and it

requires a different set of skills.

I remember back in my corporate days,

the natural progression for a successful salesperson was to become a

sales manager.

The thinking was that they can teach others to produce the

results that they've gotten,

but guess what?

It doesn't translate.

There's so much more to management than teaching sales skills and

in quite a few instances the fabulous salespeople I knew left

management to go back and do what they had loved doing

and came so naturally to them.

Sally, all this is to say that owning your own business

like management take something different,

a completely different way of thinking and being.

I'm going to introduce you to a really powerful concept that

sets the stage for everything to come.

When you understand and live by this,

it will be a serious game changer and it has to

do with how you're thinking about yourself and then consequently how

you act.

We're all striving to be successful.

Business owners and success will be defined differently for each of

us, but we have a vision of what that means for

ourselves. My guess is 99% of you think of things in

the following way and I want you to note these words,

pav do B,

let me explain.

Thinking in the have do be way means.

Your mind goes something like this.

Once I have a huge base of repeat customers and I'm

bringing in a solid income,

then I'll be able to do things like hire employees and

sell wholesale and local business boutiques and then I'll be a

successful business owner looked up to as a leader in my

community or industry and whatever else that is for you.

This way of thinking is backwards and why you struggle to

progress. Your current thinking needs to be flipped.

Reversing this model is the true way to achieve success.

Meaning first you must be act,

think and behave like the successful business owner that you're striving

to be.

You must do the things that somebody who is already there

is then and only then will you have the position that

you've been striving to obtain for so long.

Now, it may take some time to digest this concept because

it's counterintuitive.

I know go through this again if need be,

but I want you to truly get this and start applying

it to your way of showing up.

Instead of presenting to the world a have do be approach.

Get yourself thinking and behaving with be,

do, have.

There couldn't be a more perfect time than now to do

this. No longer do we need to wait for permission to

claim our dream.

Think about it,

even a short decade ago,

if you wanted to have a talk show,

you had to wait for someone to select you as their

host. Today,

you can be the next Oprah.

You can start your own YouTube channel or go live on

Facebook right this minute and not long ago.

If you were a vocal artist,

you needed to be picked up by a label to be

heard anywhere outside of your local area,

not so today,

given our huge strides with technology.

So if you're still sitting back waiting for someone to give

you permission to say it's okay and you can go ahead

and start now,

let me do that for you.

You have permission to take action right now.

What does taking action mean?

It starts with defining a few things for yourself.

First, your business purpose.

This is defining why you're in business.

It's personal to you and doesn't ever need to be shared

with the world.

This is the deep seated reason.

Inside that you've decided to be a small business owner and

it's about more than just money.

It's a given that you're in business to make money,

but perhaps your business purpose is because you're committed to ensuring

that your children can go to college or you're setting yourself

up for a life after retiring from your current nine to

five when you'll finally be able to do something that you

love. Maybe it's that you want to prove to yourself that

you can really do this,

whatever it is before we move forward with the other mindsets,

defining and being honest with yourself about this,

we'll help you stick with it.

When things get tough,

it's like insurance for your dream.

Then there's the product purpose.

This is the customer's reason why they would buy your product.

What is it that your product provides to the person who's

going to purchase from you?

Of course,

as gifters bakers,

crafters and makers,

we all have different products that all provide different benefits,

but here are a few ideas.

Just as examples.

Let's say you sell a snack mix.

This is a healthy alternative for grab and go or midafternoon

pick ups.

That's the benefit that you provide.

You sell candles.

Your product is for setting the mood and creating a stress,

reducing environment.

With jewelry,

you're adding pieces to make an old outfit new again or

helping women feel pretty unconfident even when casually dressed,

et cetera and et cetera.

The point is,

it's not just about the fact that you're selling snacks or

candles or jewelry.

Take some time to think about your business purpose and your

product purpose.

As you can see,

this category of boss mindset has a lot to do with

redirecting your thinking and defining why you're doing this at all.

It's exciting to make the choice to be your own boss,

especially when you're just starting out because your world is open

to all possibilities.

As you progress through the stages of a business you're going

to get in your head.

There will be tough times,

but I want you to always remember your a rare breed.

You've got the courage and determination and are doing what most

people never will.

You're taking action on your dream.

There will be ups and downs and when the downs come,

remember it's part of what you signed up for.

It's part of the process and it's okay.

Learn to love the process and everything that comes with it.

It's part of admission to the business owner life and it's

really a great show.

Let's move on now to the second section,

the action mindset.

Have you ever met someone who says,

I'm going to write a book about whatever it is?

A year goes by and they say the same thing,

two years,

maybe even 10 years.

It's all talk and it never happens.

It's not that they don't mean it,

it's just that they never start.

They never take the action.

I see this in the gifter Baker crafter maker community too,

and since I've talked with a lot of you,

I know why there's the hesitancy.

I hear that you don't know what to do to get

started or you're afraid you'll make a mistake so you don't

do anything.

I have some great news for you.

A couple of things actually.

First off,

if you get started,

you're already ahead of 90% of the people who never will.

You're already putting distance between you and the rest of the

pack. Secondly,

and please believe me when I say this,

it's okay to make a mistake or let's say that scary

F word fail.

I heard a great saying recently and it goes like this.

Success is built on a mountain of failures.

And it's so true.

When you actually dig down into successful businesses,

you'll find that they've had way more things go wrong than

went right.

But the difference is they kept trying,

they kept going and continued to take action.

So you need to remember,

you are in complete control.

You must do something to make things happen.

You can't sit in your house dreaming and see results.

You have to act.

And the truth is you'll never feel ready.

You may be scared,

you may question if you can do it.

And if what you're doing is right and you know what,

there isn't just one way to get to your dream,

but the sure way to failure is by standing still and

doing nothing.

The best time for new beginnings is now,

and I also want to reset this word,

failure into learning.

Think about it,

if something doesn't work,

that just means it doesn't work.

Having something not work teaches you and you're better for it.

Your next move is to figure out how you can adjust

or approach a goal from a different angle to try again.

So can we all agree from this point forward,

there are no failures,

only learnings which enrich us and bring us closer to our

goals. If there's one thing that has become evident to me

in my four years of podcasting,

it's that every single person has gotten to where they are

through a series of small steps.

One small action with a second building on top of the

first one by one.

This is what creates big things and the beautiful thing is

each of these smaller steps is so doable that's exciting and

should motivate you.

There's no need to look at the big,

huge, seemingly unachievable goal that you've set for yourself.

Just look at the next step,

take action on that,

and then move on to the next step and so on

and so on.

By doing this one day,

you'll surprise yourself when you realize you've arrived at what in

the beginning felt so impossible,

but there are stumbling blocks that can get in your way

and make you stall out.

Recognizing that these are excuses and not real reasons to stop

will help you to overcome them.

The first is managing your time,

meaning being efficient with the amount of time that you have.

Do you ever feel like you've been really,

really busy all day and then when you close up a

work session,

you find you've not really accomplished anything at all?

Oh my gosh,

I've been there too.

I've learned not to misinterpret activity with action that creates progress.

I'll talk about how I've overcome this in a second,

but for now I want to stay on with these stumbling

blocks. Technology is a biggie.

Oh my gosh,

I'd be rich if I had a dollar for every,

I've heard someone say,

I can't because I don't know how to build a website

or I don't know how to take payments on my phone.

These are excuses.

You guys never has it been easier to get answers to

your questions on tech or to hire out to get things

done. Go to Fiverr and buy a gig to fix a

website glitch,

hire or do a trade with a local chamber member to

move past a project that's holding you up.

Remember I said to you in the beginning that you are

enough. Part of that is being resourceful to find help or

get answers when you need them.

You can do this and finally another place people get stuck

is continually doing activities that are comfortable but don't bring in

sales. How many minutes do you spend perfecting the bow on

that gift basket or adding a little bit more color to

your painting or making the wrapping inside a mailing box just

so at some point you have to say,

enough is good enough and let the product go.

Then when you've given yourself back an extra 10 minutes,

you can be calling a new perspective customer to set an

appointment or researching a new craft show to attend.

You want to focus as much of your time as possible

on activities that are the closest to producing sales.

As I was growing one of my businesses,

I caught myself hitting these stumbling blocks multiple times a day.

I saw with my own behaviors how easy it is to

gravitate to things that are comfortable and fun to do versus

doing the work that brings in sales.

That's because oftentimes this type of work takes us out of

our comfort zone.

That's when I created my strategy,

the power of purpose.

It's what I use now to work through my days to

ensure that I stay on task and actually do those small

and achievable steps we were talking about earlier.

To hear more about this strategy.

Listen to my gift biz unrepped podcast,

episode one 43 where I talk about it in detail or

you can watch a video through gift biz,

unwrapped.com forward slash planner where I also share the strategy and

introduce you to my inspired daily planner.

The planner came about as a direct extension to this power

of purpose strategy,

but you don't need to buy this planner to use the

strategy. I want to make sure that that's perfectly clear.

My goal here is to share with you a solid way

to ensure you take action on things and grow your business

and I want to address this fear of taking action in

one more way.

I've had a chance to be behind the scenes in some

pretty large and successful businesses and I'm here to tell you

that everyone's business is messy.

Nobody has it all together and it's not like they're misrepresenting

anything. Their product production is right on their fulfillment processes efficient

and they're making money,

but they may have employee issues or be wasting money on

Facebook ads that don't work or something else that's not going

as planned.

Understanding that this is universal,

it makes it easier to be comfortable with action for yourself

because you know that everybody tries things,

some work and some don't.

That all comes back once again to actually taking that action.

Let's move on to the third section,

which is the money mindset.

This is not about do you or don't you want to

make money?

Obviously we all do.

That's the definition of having a business overall.

In fact,

a quick side note here,

I define the line between having a hobby and having a

business as being when you make your first dollar,

not when you sell a product to your friend and cover

the costs of your materials,

but when after accounting for all your costs,

you've actually made money.

Okay. Back to the topic at hand.

When I talk about the money mindset here,

I'm talking about how to behave to position yourself to be

in the best place to make money and to grow your

business. Remembered the be do have model we talked about in

the very beginning.

This spins off of that.

The world will see you how you see you and treat

you the way you treat yourself.

This Beyonce quote is so true.

The way you show up to the world will determine what

people think about you and how much money you'll make in

your business.

Think about it.

If I'm at my booth at a show and I'm meek

and timid and speaking in a very soft voice and saying,

well, you know,

if you're interested in buying something from me,

just let me know.

I'll be sitting over here.

I've made a totally different impression than if I welcome you

into my booth.

Tell you a little bit about the product.

Ask something about you and offer to help.

If you need anything.

By showing up confident in control,

knowledgeable and approachable,

you'll attract and command higher prices for your product.

You should have no qualms about charging what your product is

worth. If all you charge is the cost of materials used

to make your product,

you're actually losing money.

There are other costs to a business and the only way

that you can cover them is to price your products correctly

and feel confident in the value your products offer.

Another way to get your money mindset right is to pay

yourself first.

You've probably heard this concept before and I'm telling you,

yes, right out of the gate.

Give yourself a salary.

I don't care if it's a dollar a week.

Get in the habit of paying yourself over time that dollar

will become 10 which will become hundreds and thousands and finally

spend wisely and control your costs.

If you're in the beginning stages,

you'll probably need to be more frugal and limit spending or

do without.

That's okay.

And it's how you grow when you have a limited amount

of money at the start.

So I challenge you is paying for a lunch date with

a friend and making that into a business meeting the right

way to spend your money or buying a new computer when

the one you have now will do for a little while

longer. I'm not saying not to upgrade and spend on your

business, but prioritize and spend when the time is right and

for the record,

a lunch with a friend that is put on a business

account is serving your ego and nothing more.

It's a little tough love there.

Let's be realistic.

There will be months when sales are down or a new

product doesn't sell or a craft show is a bust.

It's going to happen.

Nobody landed the first time out and nobody lands it every

time. Either take things as they come,

learn and adjust and know that the comeback is always stronger

than the setback.

You'll acquire knowledge and confidence knowing that you can pull through

the hard times.

Find productive things to do when you know you're coming into

a slow season.

Things that will make your busy season even bigger.

Ideas that come to mind are employee training.

Email list cleanup,

social media strategy revamp,

ah, do you have a social media strategy?

If not,

then during a slow season is the time to develop one.

The point is when you use your open time wisely,

you're setting yourself up for even bigger successes.

The growth mindset is up as number four.

Are you thinking and planning for growth in your business or

are you running by the idea that it's just miraculously going

to happen?

One is a passive approach and the other makes you in

control of your future.

I've already talked about big businesses starting out with small steps.

The same goes with big ideas for growth.

If one of your plans is to have your sugar scrubs

mass produced to handle your growing volume or to set yourself

up for chain store distribution,

you need to understand what that will entail.

Maybe you want to talk with someone who already is doing

this to get their input on the process.

You'll want to learn how your business changes when you decide

on this distribution method.

Listen to gift biz on wrapped podcast episode number one 62

to learn more about that.

If your research confirms you want to move forward,

you'll research potential factories and develop relationships.

Then you'll decide on one review and sign legal documents,

et cetera,

et cetera.

Obviously your situation may require a different set of steps,

but the point is to get to a big place.

You always start out small.

Everyone does,

and we all grow at different rates based on all sorts

of variables.

Whether you can work on your business part time or full

time, the number of years you've had in business,

other experiences that you have that you can bring to the

table. So don't compare your set of circumstances with someone else's.

Doing so can be discouraging and it's not even really comparing

apples to apples,

but I get it.

We're naturally inclined to do the comparison game.

If you catch yourself doing this thing logically,

have you been in business for four months and the person

you're comparing yourself to has been doing this for eight years?

Obviously there'll be further ahead than you are.

Sometimes it's best just to stop following people on social media

who make you question yourself.

It's one thing to learn from others.

So that you can do better and another thing to feel

defeated and to get in your head about whether you have

what it takes to do this in the first place.

I want to tell you a story about a friend of

mine just really quickly to show you that comparison.

It just makes absolutely no sense.

My friend had a gift basket business in Colorado.

The business was doing well.

Everything was going fine.

She'd been in business quite a long time and then her

husband got a new job and they decided to move to

Phoenix and she continued her business there so she does have

customers still ordering from her,

from Colorado,

but she's now trying to make a name for herself in

Phoenix. Same business.

She's the same owner,

same products,

same website.

Everything is the same.

Guess what her business started automatically growing.

Why would that be?

It's a different market.

Different markets have different needs and interests which will produce different

results. I bring up the story because it's a perfect example

again of how you can't compare yourself to anybody else because

variables are different for all of us.

Bottom line is there are a lot of different variables for

every business.

Keep focused on yours and where you're headed and don't let

others distract you or discourage you.

Here's something else I know you can relate to.

When I started my business,

I was fearless about the amount of time and energy I

would put in.

I do anything,

literally anything it took to grow the business.

If I had to work seven days a week,

12 or 14 hour days,

I do it until I learned my lesson.

My health started failing along with my energy and my passion.

Burnout is real and here's another truth.

I have no idea who said it,

but it's golden.

What got you to where you are today is not the

same as what will get you to where you want to

go. Different levels of growth require different actions and different strategies.

As you grow,

you'll reach plateaus where you have to change your ways to

get any further.

As an example,

if you want to continue growing,

at some point,

you'll probably need to add employees unless you found a way

to clone yourself.

You simply can't scale without bringing in help.

It may be an office manager,

a bookkeeper,

a social media manager,

or people to assist in production.

Most people recognize this late in the game like I did

when I finally self-corrected things reset my passion for my business

reignited and growth happened.

Trust me.

You'll want to bring in help sooner than you think you

need it.

Here's another important concept that I'm actually paying a lot of

attention to right now.

If a plan doesn't work,

change the plan,

not your goal.

Let's say you have a goal of getting into a regional

multi-store chain in your area.

This is totally made up,

but let's call them Jasmine's closet.

To do this,

you need to get in front of someone who works there

and talk about the possibilities,

so you decide to go into one of the stores and

talk with a store manager.

She's very friendly.

She gives you the name of the owner of the business

and you're like,

yes, you think you've made it.

You'll get a meeting and you'll be on your way,

but after repeated calls,

she doesn't respond and you're at a loss.

Here's an important juncture in your plan and where your next

action can help you advance or keep you stuck in neutral.

You have two choices.

You can say,

okay, there is not a chance I can get into Jasmine's

closet. I've tried and my plan just didn't work,

so I'll just have to move on and try and get

a meeting somewhere else.

Or you can say,

okay, this tactic didn't produce the intended result.

What else can I try to do to get into Jasmine's

closet? Maybe at your next networking meeting,

you'll ask if someone knows anyone in the headquarters of Jasmine's

closet and see if that approach gets you a meeting with

the first example.

You're replacing the goal and virtually starting again at ground zero

with a completely new goal.

Well, with the second strategy,

you're adding onto the knowledge you already have about attempting to

get into Jasmine's closet.

Your probability of reaching your goal by trying different approaches until

you're successful is much greater than starting fresh with a new

goal each and every time.

Moving on to our final section,

the self care mindset.

You know,

it's just now occurring to me that I put this last,

and this is so often what we as women do to

ourself, put ourselves last.

Hmm. You must take care of yourself first as we're instructed

on an airplane.

Put your oxygen mask on first before assisting others.

The same needs to be said for you and your business.

This business ownership life is a marathon.

It takes endurance and lots of self care to be able

to show up with what it takes each and every day.

That includes exercising to stay fit,

eating a healthy diet,

getting enough sleep,

and being kind to yourself with your thoughts and inner dialogue

course. With these mindsets,

those thoughts and inner dialogue are what we're addressing today.

Please give yourself grace.

Forgive yourself when things go wrong.

As you learn and experiment,

you'll do better and you'll recover from your mistakes.

As my husband would say,

be your own best friend.

Here's an interesting perspective.

Life isn't about finding yourself.

It's about creating yourself.

Too many of us go through life letting it happen to

us. We have the ability to take control and create whatever

and whoever we want to be in today's world more than

ever before.

What do you really want for yourself?

Define it and go after it and know that the grass

isn't greener on the other side of the fence.

They're just using a filter.

Oh my gosh.

All the picture perfect lives we see on Facebook and Instagram.

We're hearing more and more how this is really starting to

screw up our thinking.

What people show on social are the highlight reels,

the moments when things are going right and life is wonderful

or they want you to think it is.

Don't be fooled.

It's great to see others enjoying life's moments and sharing their

happiness, but no,

that included with that comes disappointments,

self doubt and things that aren't going right.

It's like that for all of us.

It's called being human.

Given that my advice is to focus on the good.

Keep your mindset on positive and spend as much of your

time as you can there in the positive zone and when

times are tough,

remember where there's no rain.

There are also no flowers.

Believe in you.

What you've set out to do with your life and believe

in your brand,

your product and service and the value it gives to the

world. Your belief in these two things are the most important

of all these mindsets will influence you and your future.

I don't know if you're a proponent of the law of

attraction like I am,

but there are many who agree that when you focus on

the good without understanding how and why the good gets better,

and I have the best news of all for you here.

I'm taking this out of a recent email I received from

Chris Brogan.

The best way you can reach the people you most want

to serve is to be the one person who doesn't line

up neatly with all the other choices.

All those differences you've been trying to hide since age 12

might well be your secret power waiting to be discovered.

Isn't this freeing?

You can change the world by being yourself.

You don't need to act like anybody else or pretend to

be anything other than who you are and there will be

a portion of the world who will fall in love with

you and be by your side to support you,

buy your products and celebrate your success and in the end

your ultimate achievement will be insane.

Not that you should have or would have or could have,

but that you did.

So go out and show the world what you've got.

I'll be watching and supporting you the whole way.

My hope with this episode is that you'll bookmark it and

come back to listen again when you need it and please

share this with someone who you know is struggling or could

benefit from some thought realignment.

It happens to all of us and we should be here

to support each other.

Thanks again for tuning into the podcast and I can't wait

until we're together again next week.

Bye for now.

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