Sneaky mindset stuff that will kill your business

I wrote a post last week about the 3 pieces to a successful business (read it here if you missed it), and I wanted to take some time today to dig in to what I actually see as THE most important piece.

You might assume that I believe that the most important thing is NICHE since I have a whole free guide about it and you probably always hear me going on and on about how important it is and how it can make or break your business.

Yeah yeah — niche is important. But what I think is the MOST important thing, might surprise you.

MINDSET. 

Mmmhmm… just hear me out (even if you don’t think you have mindset issues — I didn’t either 🙂

Just to be clear, I am NOT a mindset coach (we have our incredible mindset coach Erin Foley for that in Uncage Your Business!), but I’ve really come to realize just how important mindset is in business. 

But mindset isn’t just a positive attitude, affirmations, and cheerleading. Those things don’t actually make lasting shifts in the underlying reasons you’re struggling with stuff like imposter syndrome, fear of failing, and perfectionism. 

Cheerleading like “You go girl!”, and “Screw what other people think! You’ve got this!” can actually be damaging to building a strong business mindset. 

These kinds of statements make you think you should “just be able to go do it” (because the person cheering you on said you can do it!)…. but then when the REAL junk behind your mindset blocks continues to hold you back you feel even worse about yourself and your business, which just feeds the mindset gremlins even more.

Real mindset shifts come from looking at the beliefs behind the thoughts that are holding you back and working to loosen those so they don’t have such a strong grip on your behaviours.

There are 3 key parts of mindset that especially as new business owners that I mentioned in my last post.

To succeed in business you have to be:

1. Persistent (the ability push through when it’s hard and when it sucks) 
2. Consistent (keep taking those little baby steps even if they don’t seem like are doing anything) 
3. Open (forget your expectations and be willing to change course in the moment)

We work with a LOT of new business owners here at Uncaged (like hundreds and hundreds every year!), and I can’t even tell you how many students we have worked with who have the perfect niche, clear messaging, and rock at what they do. 

But their businesses do NOT succeed because to be honest, their mindset is total shit.

Often, these students were rushed to make things happen immediately, would get frustrated and irritated if things weren’t working, they would ghost their business if something didn’t work, and would feel like total failures if they didn’t meet their HUGE goals (like making full time money) in the first month.

On a side note, HUGE goals and big visions are a topic for another post, but we have seen a lot of people fall into the personal development world BIG VISIONING and huge goals, and it often hinders their businesses success… more on that phenomenon in another post though 🙂

In my Live Uncage Your Business program, we really aim to get to the bottom of what is actually going on and help you “loosen it” as our mindset coach Erin says, so that it doesn’t have such a hold on you.

Good mindset coaching can go a crazy long way in your business!! 

And then of course, you need to pair that killer strong mindset with strategic business building and marketing strategies that are quick and easy to implement, to help show your mind that it isn’t so scary after all, and that your worse fears are not going to come true.

Uncage Your Business is the perfect blend of mindset + strategy + implementation.

I see a LOT of new business owners hiring life coaches to help them start their businesses. Which on the one hand, is great! Having a (good) coach by your side to help you untangle your mindset shit and help you push past your comfort zone is awesome and often necessary.

But on the other hand, unless your coach also teaches marketing strategy (particularly marketing strategy for NEW businesses), then they are probably not going to be the BEST person to help you grow your new business. You need a marketing coach or program when you’re new (ahem… we happen to have one), because the best mindset in the world won’t make up for lack of knowing how to actually market and sell your services.

Here are some of the most common mindset issues we see in new business owners:

• Fear of failure – “But what if it doesn’t work out? What if I put in all this work and no one buys”
  
  
• Imposter syndrome – “Who am I to be doing xyz? Why would anyone want to learn from me?”
  
  
• Perfectionism – “I can’t talk about my business til my website is ready!”, also “that niche feels pretty good, but I just can’t help but feel that we haven’t quiiite nailed it yet”
  
  
• Procrastination – “I know I need to do xyz but first let me clean my entire apartment and scrub the bathtub and then look in the fridge again to make sure no new snacks have appeared”
  
  
• Fear of what people will think – “I’m a lawyer becoming a life coach — people are going to think I’m so flaky”
  
  
• Fear of success – “What happens if my business gets too big and then I don’t have time to enjoy my life?”
  
  
• Lack of clarity – “I’ve taken 627 courses about niching, but I just still can’t seem to find my niche!”
• Anything around money – “I don’t need to make a lot of money, just X amount to pay my bills and have a little leftover is fine for me”, also “Making a lot of money is gross! Rich people are terrible people”, also “I’ll just charge a little bit so everyone can afford me”

There are so many more nuances in each of these (we see them ALL in Uncage Your Business!), but these are just a few to get you started with even noticing whether you ave mindset issues in the first place (spoiler: I don’t think I have ever met anyone who didn’t have a mindset issue in some area of their business or life)

These are the thoughts that will hold you back and STOP you from being persistent, consistent, and open.

Think about it — how are you going to be consistent, if you put something out there and no one responds? That alone triggers several of the mindset issues above:

• I knew they would all judge me (fear of what other people will think)
• I knew this would never work (fear of failure)
• I knew I wasn’t good enough at this (imposter syndrome)
• Next time I won’t launch til it’s PERFECT (perfectionism).

In order to get to a place where your business works, you need tools to work through these moments and continue to be persistent. and consistent, and open.

This is something we tackle alongside all the foundational and marketing work we do in Uncage Your Business, but for now, I want to hear from you…

 

Do you have any of these mindset issues?

I would love for you to pop into our Facebook group and out yourself (sometimes just recognizing it and owning it can shift SO much!). Let us know how this mindset shit is affecting your business. Our community is fantastic and you are definitely NOT the only one experiencing some of these mindset issues  and me and our community are here to help you!

xx becca