7 Mindset Shifts to Level Up in Your Business

 What’s your most important asset in your business?

It’s your mindset — the structure and quality of your beliefs shaping every decision you make, and how you show up in your business each day!

It’s the operating software you’re running that allows you to solve problems, spot opportunities, take smart risks and move forward with confidence in yourself.

So if you’re looking to make an investment of time and effort that will pay off in your business (and your life) for years to come… your mindset is the way to go.

And to save you some time, I’m sharing 7 of the most important mindset shifts you can make if you’re ready to reach your next level as an entrepreneur!

1. “The obstacle is the way.”

– Ryan Holiday

Every challenging thing that happens in life is neither good nor bad — you get to decide what lens to view it through, and whether you treat it as a dead-end or a chance to grow and expand in a whole new way.

By seeing obstacles not as roadblocks, but as opportunities — the kind of opportunities that lead to your biggest breakthroughs — you’ll prioritize your own growth and expansion at every step. For example…

Your fear of public speaking may someday be the very reason audiences seek you out and want to hear your story, to see what is possible for them if they believe in themselves.

The fact that you don’t look or sound like other influencers in your space, may be the exact reason independent-minded brands seek out partnerships with you.

Your struggle with insecurity and imposter syndrome may make you the exact right coach or mentor for others who experience similar challenges.

I can guarantee you that the biggest, most game-changing opportunities in your business will arrive disguised as impossible obstacles and dead ends… ones that most people will give up on, and turn back.

So ask yourself, “How might this be a gift? How will solving this problem cause me to grow, learn new skills, have a unique perspective, or stand out from the crowd?” … and you’ll become a pro at seeing through the disguise, and right to the heart of the opportunity!

Before: This problem is impossible to solve. I’ll never get past it, and I’ll be stuck here forever! I’d better just give up before I waste any more time, or risk any more disappointment.

After: This looks like a difficult problem, and I bet most people see it that way… but I’m someone who looks for opportunities. Maybe it’s not obvious right now, but if I get creative, I think I can make this work to my advantage!

2. More work ≠ more results

In the first couple years of your business, there’s so much to do!

And when you’re in that early phase, you’re trying a lot of different things… so it’s easy to get caught up in trying to be everywhere, and do everything, all the time.

Eventually, you might wind up hustling all the time just to keep the balls in the air!

It’s time to simplify, streamline, and restructure your business to work for you, and feel energizing and easy.

Because building a business does take work, and a significant investment of time, energy, and creativity… but working yourself to the point of exhaustion DOES NOT equal better results.

At a certain point, doing more, working extra hours, and trying to be all things to all people, only serves to wear you out, drain your energy… and subtly signal to your community that you’ve chosen a road that leads to exhaustion (who wants to come? probably no one.)

What gets results is always bringing your very best self to your community!

Prioritizing your wellness, your joy, and the sustainability of your business… So you can show up fully energized, aligned, and treat your business and your client relationships as the icing on the cake of your life — not something you’re depending on for your happiness. 

Before: I have so much to do, how will I ever get through it all? I just need to buckle down and get it done, or I’ll never make any real progress. If I want results, I need to put in the time – once it’s all done, I can finally rest.

After: There are a lot of things I could do, but I’m going to trust myself to focus on the one or two things that get me closest to my goal. I’ll use the extra time to do something that fuels and energizes me, so I can show up as my best self for my business.

3. Good for her, not for you

“Comparison is the thief of joy.” — Theodore Roosevelt

So there you are, minding your own business and doing your own thing when — oof! You see someone celebrating a major milestone you haven’t reached yet, and it knocks you off your feet. 

Most of us can relate; it’s human nature to compare our position to others, because slipping down in the pecking order feels like a threat to our survival.

But unless you’re part of a family of gazelle running away from a cheetah, you’re not actually in a race with anyone.

You’re each on your own path, heading to your own destination, going at your own pace, and stopping as many times as you like to rest, enjoy the view, camp overnight if you feel like it, and along the way, do things you enjoy and that feel fulfilling to you…

Building your business isn’t a race to escape an apex predator. It’s a journey that is yours, and yours alone… there’s no need to compare your journey with anyone else’s!

Everyone has their own set of circumstances, priorities, and ideal destination in mind — and the best we can do is cheer each other on and enjoy each other’s company when we happen to stop at the same watering hole.

Before: They’re so great, they clearly have something I don’t have. And they must know something I don’t know. I’m too old/young/shy/etc. for anyone to take me seriously or see me as the expert — what makes me even think I could succeed?

After: They’re doing awesome in their own way, and I’m doing awesome in mine! There’s no competition between us, we’re each just on our own path. I love seeing others thrive, and I love thriving in my own way, on my own terms.

4. Fear is your friend

There’s a popular myth that in order to become unstoppable and reach your goals, you need to ditch your fears altogether and become “fearless”!

In reality, all you need to do is allow fear to be part of your equation. Don’t let it stop you — but don’t wait for it to go away before you take any action, either.

Let fear come along for the ride. Let it be part of your journey and a companion on your path forward. Listen to its worries, and allow it to feel how it needs to feel.

Because fear actually has a lot to offer you!

Fear is a sign you’re moving in the direction of what you really want. What if I mess up? What if they say no? What if I’m disappointed? None of these thoughts would occur to you if you didn’t care about the outcome.

“When you dare to identify your greatest desire, the possibility of falling short sneaks in beside it. “ — Meera Lee Patel, My Friend Fear

Think of your fear like a game of Hot and Cold… when your fear runs cold, you’re pretty far away from anything that feels exciting, interesting, and like a new frontier for you.

But when your fear gets warmer… warmer… hot!! then you know you’re really onto something.

Over time, as you grow in your business journey, you’ll start to recognize fear not as a roadblock telling you to turn back, but a sign you’re on the right path.

Before: I’m scared to take action — what if I mess up? What if someone doesn’t like what I say? What if I’m disappointed? What if the worst case scenario happens? I don’t think I can risk it…

After: I’m scared right now, which means I must be on to something big! I wouldn’t be afraid if I didn’t care about this deep down. Fear is always there, but it doesn’t call the shots in my world anymore. Come along for the ride, fear – there’s a spot for you in the backseat!

5. Failing is learning

Failing can be scary and overwhelming… but the truth is: failure is a necessary part of learning and growing!

When you start a business, the idea of failure may feel different from how it’s felt in the past… it feels more public, more vulnerable, more reflective of your worth as a person… but it’s actually none of these things.

“If I launch this offer and it doesn’t sell, everyone will see and judge me for it!”

“If I share this content and it doesn’t get engagement, everyone will see and think I’m struggling!”

“If I host this event and no one shows up, everyone will think…” – you get the idea!

The truth is, no one is paying close enough attention to notice when you fail. And if they do happen to notice, they won’t think anything of it because they see ALL their own failures up close and personal.

As you grow in your business, you’ll get better and better at “failing well” — allowing yourself to feel disappointed, but also recognizing that it’s not a life sentence.

Your failures do not define you. They are a necessary part of your learning and growing process, and  they’re not the end of the story. They’re just the beginning!

As long as you’re learning from failures, mistakes, and missteps, you’re still moving forward. In the end, you’ll be hard-pressed to even remember your failures, or what anyone else thought about them…

But you will remember and value (and maybe even teach others) the lessons you learned by getting back up, and moving forward!

Before: I really messed up back there. I can’t believe I said that / did that / tried that / etc… What must people think of me now? I totally botched that… I’ll never get past this!

After: That went well in some ways, and in other ways it could have gone better. There’s definitely room for improvement, and I think if I did it all over, I would do a few things differently. I’m proud of myself for trying, and next time I’ll remember what I learned from this experience so I can do better!

6. Experiencing your offer is a privilege

Early in your business, it’s tempting to say “yes” to anyone who asks to work with you.

Because booking new clients and customers is the best feeling in the world, right? It’s living proof that your offer is worthwhile, and that someone trusts you enough to hand over their hard-earned cash to work with you!

But beneath those warm and fuzzy feelings, is a lingering uncertainty…

When you’re eager to work with anyone who asks, and you’re waiting for someone else to validate you and your services… you’re just one “no” away from feeling discouraged and second-guessing yourself.

Instead, remember that working with you is a privilege, not a right — and a sales conversation is as much your opportunity to decide if it’s a fit, as it is your client’s.

Your expertise and insight are immensely valuable, and those who get to work with you are fortunate to have your guidance and support, on a journey that would otherwise be much harder.

So celebrate every booking and every sale… not just for you, but for your clients, for their journey ahead, and for all the benefits they’ll enjoy from working with you!

And remind yourself that a “no” is a gift, saving you from working with a client who’s not a fit, so you can hold space for the ones who are.

Before: Does anyone want what I’m offering? What if no one signs up? Maybe I’ve just been lucky to sign the clients I’ve had so far; what if my luck has run out?

After: I have experience, insight, and wisdom to share that helps my clients get further, faster, and my approach is unique in my industry. I’m a pro at what I do; my clients are fortunate to have me in their corner.

7. Selling can be easy

Ever since starting my business, I’ve handled sales conversations pretty much the same way:

1. Ask questions to understand the client and their situation
2. Assess whether and how I can help, and which offer would be the best fit
3. Support them in deciding whether the offer is right for them, right now

That’s it!

I’ve never taken a sales course or program — and while I’ve tried techniques my mentors and coaches suggested, I’ve settled into a flow that feels natural for me and my pre-clients, and that leads to a “yes” in most cases.

Here’s the thing: You don’t need to assume the responsibility of making any one else’s decision for them, or persuading them to work with you. You don’t need to corner people into a “yes” or outsmart your clients.

You can 100% trust your clients and pre-clients to make their own best decision – and focus your energy on creating a space where they feel free to make their own choice and trust their intuition.

Think about who you want to support, and how much responsibility you want for their choices…

Do you want the client who relies on other people for all their answers, and expects you to make the tough calls for them?

Or do you want the client who values your support and insight, but ultimately trusts themselves to make their own decisions?

…decide which one is right for you, and lead your sales calls to serve those clients best: holding the space, being honest about how you can help, and allowing your clients to reach their own conclusions.

Yes, there are ways to improve your sales game, and increase your conversion rate with integrity – but unless it feels aligned for you and in the highest service of your clients (i.e., easy for you to execute), it won’t hold water. Let sales be easy for you, and your business will grow!

Before: Selling is so hard for me – how can I convince people they need what I have to offer? It feels like an uphill battle just preparing and showing up for a sales conversation, much less converting prospects into clients.

After: Selling is easy and simple. It’s just about listening to understand my prospect, deciding whether I think my offer is a good fit, and if it is, helping them assess and decide their next steps. I trust myself to be honest about my offer… and I trust my client to make the right choice for them!

How to Handle and Adapt to Conflicting Opinions Successfully

 I think it’s pretty obvious that we all bring different skills, strengths, and beliefs to whatever we do. Often we can learn more and find greater opportunity in our disagreements, discovering new ways to solve problems, strengthen proposals, and handle tough times together. RJ asked me to explain how this could be done better or supported more.

We’re All Individuals with Habits

If you pay attention to every person—what they are like and what they need—you can work with them more successfully than if you take a single approach and expect everyone to respond in the same way. Our brains are inclined toward habits and patterned thinking. So when we come into a meeting or enter a discussion, we often take and stick to a particular position about, say, how to plan for next year or improve a crucial project, rather than being completely open to others’ opinions and stances. 

Humans are naturally attached to their positions, often so deeply that these positions can start to feel like moral stances; we also typically think we need to protect our positions so as not to lose ground or status. It’s as if that habit, or that position, is inherently tied up with who we are as a human being. Unfortunately, this means that when our position is challenged, we can feel as if we ourselves are being challenged or are under attack—and therefore we often get defensive or try to anticipate the next blow by striking out before it hits.

This is a natural response, even when our positions have very little to do with the true problems the organization is facing—or the real opportunities available.

Start Where It’s Safe

So if you want real dialog, the place to start is not with the disagreement, or not even necessarily with the issue itself. Instead, begin with listening carefully, noticing any points of agreement about what is working, where the group is trying to go, or what everyone is trying to accomplish. Map these points of agreement visually, if possible, so everyone can see and affirm them. Once people have found all their agreements, they often feel comfortable enough to assess aspects that could be better or explore where the potential is. 

Try to avoid having people jump to any conclusions because that could snap them back into their mental habits and positions. Think of the conversation as building out carefully toward the thin ice where agreement does not yet exist. Facilitating the discussion in this way allows the participants to consider their differing positions out loud and even to change their minds without being penalized, which can be tremendously reassuring and energizing. When our minds are relaxed we can tolerate seeing new thoughts better. We can open to the possibility of trying new thought experiments or even real-world experiments, thinking about and doing things differently.

Leaders Should Always Go First

What it takes to be able to share ideas and experiment within an organization without fear of retribution. I think it’s specifically the responsibility of the person with the most power, usually the leader, to create and sustain psychological safety within the team. One way to establish a safe environment is for the leader to acknowledge how important it is to be able to share ideas, even if they challenge someone else’s, and to show they mean what they say by volunteering themselves for people to practice on: 

“I recognize that I may not always have responded well to new ideas in the past. I hope you’ll help me as I practice developing a new habit of responding to new ideas with curiosity and openness.

“So, here’s my request to you: Anytime I revert to my old habit of ignoring or shutting down a new idea, I want one of you to please point out that I’m operating out of my old habit and ask me if I’d like to use my new habit of curiosity and openness. And then give me a moment to adjust. Will you do that for me?”

Asking for and accepting help in initiating change is a particularly effective way to create psychological safety. It shows that the leader is willing to change to make the group better and is modeling the practice of taking feedback. Both aspects can actually improve the leader’s performance. That sets the tone for helping everyone in the group get better at sharing their views. This entire practice is a form of “cuing” someone to practice a new behavior.

Practice Cuing for Better Communication

Cuing is a way to create partnerships and help each other have more effective and productive conversations. Here’s an example from my own life. When my son was little, he didn’t always know how to tell his father when he was bothered by something. He would say, “Mommy, you tell Daddy.” But it’s important to learn to speak for yourself, even when you’re four. So I would offer to help, and we would walk to wherever my husband was. I would say, in a particular tone, and with emphasis that my husband recognized, “Daddy, there’s something we need to talk about.” Then he knew he had to pay attention. I would facilitate and cue each party: “What was the thing you wanted to tell Daddy?” and “Daddy, are you understanding this fully, and can you answer?” Over time, both my son and his father learned how to have this conversation. 

Team members often benefit from the same kind of approach. The more you do together through partnerships and teamwork, the less it becomes anybody’s place to make anyone else feel bad, regardless of who has hierarchical power.

We’re all flawed human beings, and we can accomplish the most for the organization—and for ourselves—if we are aware of our flaws and try to help each other share views and consider new ones. When we all have that intention and practice, psychological safety will pretty much take care of itself.

How To Communicate Value To Clients So You Don’t Have To Sell

 As a service-based business owner, selling may not be something that comes naturally to you. If you’re nodding your head right now, you probably understand the challenges of communicating the value in what you have to offer. After all, unlike physical products, it’s difficult to explain something your potential clients can’t see, right?

What’s more, you know that nobody likes a hard sell. So you end up feeling like you have to convince people to work with you. And you feel nervous and unprepared when you talk to potential clients. So what do you do when you have to promote yourself, but don’t want to sound “salesy”?

Fortunately, there are ways you can communicate your value without any hard-selling at all.

What is “communicating value”?

Communicating your value is basically expressing your authority and ability to help your audience. It allows you to build trust, and to draw their attention to the solutions to their problems. They may even become aware of problems they didn’t know they had–problems which you have solutions for. It helps to break down the barriers that prevent a potential customer from engaging and working with you.

Think of communicating your value as gently leading your audience along on an enjoyable and respectful journey, one where they get to trust you and value your knowledge and expertise.

How to communicate your value

(1) Avoid talking about features and processes

Let’s begin with the number one rule – stop talking about your features and processes.

Unless you’re selling a service to help businesses streamline their processes, your customers don’t really care about the finer details of your programs and services. They just want to know what’s in it for them.

Details of your features and processes are boring. And talking about them is a quick way to turn your potential clients away. Instead, think about how those features and processes translate to benefits for your clients.

Example: When Apple launched the first iPod, Steve Jobs didn’t describe it as a device boasting a 5GB hard drive, but as being capable of “storing 1,000 songs in your pocket”, which was a huge game-changer at the time. A 5GB hard drive is boring. 1000 songs in your pocket? Magic!

(2) Focus on how you can help your audience

A great rule of thumb is to remember that you should make all of your communication about your prospects and customers – not you or your business.

Everything you communicate to your audience should be a demonstration of how you can help them.

You can create case studies to show how your services solve problems for your clients. You can also build content around topics that you know are problems for your audience and include solutions .

Other ways to help your audience include:

Sharing book recommendations

Sharing reviews, testimonials, reports, interviews, tools and resources that will smooth your audience’s pathway

Sharing your own experience in overcoming similar problems

(3) Create stories everywhere in your business

Stories are gold. They show your audience what you can do intimately because the details remain in your audience’s imagination. Case studies, interviews and all of the ideas I’ve already suggested are forms of stories, especially if they’re linked together into a sequence your audience can follow.

You can also create stories to invoke the senses and emotions, whether it’s joy, laughter, motivation, focus, courage or camaraderie over avoiding fear, loss, and stagnancy. Stories are also great ways to demonstrate how you implement your services, and you don’t have to be a great writer to create stories either. In fact, everyday stories that everyone can relate to often work best.

(4) Reach your audience where they are now

Don’t attempt to reach your audience where you think they are, or where you want them to be. Reach them where they are. This requires a solid understanding of who your audience is, what their problems are and what prevents them from accomplishing their goals. When you have all that information, you can bridge the gaps for them through your content so that they can recognize how you can help them go from where they are to where they want to be.

Don’t forget to create content for different audience types, both in terms of what your customer avatar is and their level of problem or brand awareness.

(5) Solve problems for your audience that prevent them from hiring you

This is a slightly more advanced, but highly effective, strategy. Some potential clients may be close to being able to hire you, but they need to accomplish something else first before doing so. This is where you can step in and solve that initial problem for them. It gives you an opportunity to help your audience and encourages them to take the next steps with your services.

Example 1: You’re an accountant who works with small business owners. Your target audience may be considering hiring an accountant, but right now they’re drowning in a sea of overflowing receipts and invoices that they can’t think straight. So you create a free ebook that teaches them how to organize their receipts and sort through their invoices. And you talk about the value of working with an accountant to prevent future overwhelm.

Example 2: You’re a branding specialist for entrepreneurs. Your target audience wants to start their own businesses but are confused by how to get started. So you create a video series to teach them everything they need to know to start their own business. In one of your videos you discuss the importance of branding and how to find a great branding specialist.

(6) Delight your customers at every turn

If you constantly surprise and delight your audience in everything you do, they’ll expect you to delight and surprise them through your paid content too. The anticipation of the unexpected will keep people returning and buying from you – curiosity is a great motivator.

These little delights don’t need to be grand gestures in order to have a huge impact, but they should go the extra mile. In Chip and Dan Heath’s book, The Power Of Moments, they discuss a hotel in America who offers free ‘popsicles’ for their clientele. It’s a small gesture that goes such a long way that it’s not really a surprise anymore. Many people choose to stay at the hotel purely for the ‘popsicle’ experience. That’s the power of delighting your customers.

Communicating value is one of the most important elements when it comes to promoting your service-based business. Like everything else in business, it takes time, perseverance and patience. But the rewards are well worth the effort.

How do you communicate value to your potential clients?