Three Mindset Shifts To Fuel This Season Of Your Business

So often the difference between thriving and not thriving in our business can be the story we tell ourselves in our head.

There’s a reason so many people talk about mindset in business.

Because this journey isn’t just about having a strategic marketing plan and business model, it’s about how we show up and who we become in our work.

I always tell my clients when they feel stuck in the messy middle of building their business to a place where they feel like they truly are thriving in their work: this is your business becoming.

And getting stuck into that messy middle and experimenting and learning from our business and expanding our capacity for discomfort is how we become the person capable of steering the ship that is our business into the direction we truly want it to go.

I know for me in my own business that I can tell when the story I’m telling myself isn’t serving me and my work.

When I’m getting stuck in scarcity thinking and imagining worst case scenarios I start to shrink in my business. And more than that I feel stressed in my business and not because of anything that’s actually happening in my business but because of the story I’m telling myself in my head about what could happen.

And listen, I get it, holding onto hope and trust and belief is really, really hard some days.

That’s why this is some of the most important work we will do in our business because we show up differently when we’re rooted into optimism and hope and trust.

I’ve been talking so much with my clients recently about faith as a business owner, and I don’t mean in the religious sense more just in the sense that faith is the belief in the things we cannot see yet.

And that is the very heart of a thriving business owner: faith in the belief that our business is capable of our goals, that we are capable of making those goals possible, and more than anything that we are capable of being the leader our businesses need us to be.

So today I want to invite you to explore three mindset shifts in your business. And this invitation isn’t about 100% believing these next 3 questions I’m going to ask you but instead being brave enough to sit in the possibility that they are true and show up with the energy and faith that they could be too.

Because that’s really how I’ve got here and how I’ve seen my clients get to beautiful places in their business too, by believing their beautiful dreams for their business and creative life can be possible and by showing up with courage and trust and faith as they make their way there.

1: What if your wildest hopes and dreams for your business had already happened, you just weren’t living in the future yet?

This is one of my favourite questions to ask my clients, to look to the future and picture a reality where everything they’re working towards has already happened.

This is the mindset that really supported me in the years where I was not working in the way I truly wanted to be in my business, where my workload was out of alignment with my true energetic desires and needs. Every day I would visualise in my mind where I wanted to be and what that would look and feel like and root into the belief that it would be my reality soon. And then I wouldn’t live there all day in that vision but instead let that fuel me as I showed up in that season and sowed the seeds to make my way there.

I do it now when I think about where I’d love to be 3 or 5 years from now in my business. I sit in that vision, I picture a future me where it’s already happened, and I let that fuel present me and my pursuit of that future.

Because not only does it fuel me to sow seeds for future growth in my business but I also find it helps me enjoy the season I’m in now too as I don’t have that anxious fear that what I hope for in future seasons isn’t possible, I don’t feel stuck in overwhelm and urgency and scarcity thinking, I trust that it will come to be and then I focus on being present in this season of my life and doing the work future me will be grateful for too.

So picture future you living and working how you truly want to be in your business, allow yourself to imagine that it’s already happened you’re just not living in that future yet.

How would you show up in this season if you let that possibility be true? Let your answer to this question be your guide - even if you don’t fully believe it because the truth is we can’t ever really know what’s coming next, but let yourself sit with it anyway and see how it fuels your focus and your calm and your courage in this season.

2: What if you believed that your dream clients and customers do want to work with you, can afford you, and already see the value in your work?

So often scarcity can be at the heart of our marketing. We can show up with the fear that our clients can’t afford us or don’t see the value in our work or don’t want to work with us and feel like we have to persuade and convince them and that is not a good foundation for an effective marketing plan.

Think about the people you have bought from recently. I bet they show up with so much ease and confidence and trust in their business. They haven’t sold to you with the energy of trying to convince you that their work is worth it, instead I imagine they’ve just showed up, stood in the beautiful power of their beautiful work, and invited you to come on in and dive deeper together.

How would you show up if you believed that your dream clients and customers can afford you, already want to work with you, and already believe in the value of your work?

How would your approach to your marketing shift? Would you show up more? Would you embody the transformation your work offers your clients and customers, instead of shrinking out of fear and doubt? Would you share your pricing with confidence instead of hiding it away on your sales page or constantly offering discounts?

Now you, like me, may have been in business for a while now and have already seen this to actually be true and so you just have to root back into the proof you already have and stay showing up with the mindset of abundance that you already have available to you.

But if you’re earlier on in your business journey or you’re pivoting your business in a new direction this is one of those mindset shifts that’s inviting you to believe something before you truly have proof yet, but that doesn’t mean you can’t show up with the faith and trust that it can be. Because I’ve seen over and over again that more is possible for us when we show up with this trust and belief, instead of waiting on something outside of ourselves to give us permission to truly show up in our work.

And remember: anyone following you and your work right now is there because your work connects with them, they want to hear about your work and your ideas and your story, and you’re going to make it so much easier for them to say hell yes to working with you when the time is right for them if you show up with confidence and joy and purpose instead of hiding behind fear and doubt. And I know this is hard, but just feel it in your body right now.

Close your eyes and let yourself believe that your dream clients and customers do want to work with you, they already believe in the value in your work, and they can afford you.

Doesn’t that feel better than feeling like you have to prove your worth and convince people to work with you?

Sit with this feeling and let that fuel your marketing efforts in this season. See what can be possible when you do.

3: What if failure wasn’t something to run away from but instead to embrace as part of the journey?

What’s something you’re not doing in your business right now because you’re afraid of what will happen if it “fails”?

Perhaps it’s launching a new offer or content stream or trying out a new marketing strategy - what are you leaving on the sidelines because you don’t have confirmation yet that it will work?

And don’t worry I have been there too. I do not like failing, it has taken me a long time in my business to expand my capacity for failure, to reframe failure as an essential part of this journey instead of something that will shame and define me forever more in my work.

But here’s what I’ve also learned: if I’m not willing to fail, I will stay stuck in my business. I won’t try new things, I won’t expand what is possible for me, and I will miss out on all the fresh energy and discovery that opening myself up to failure brings.

Because really failure and success are born from the same thing: us just showing up and experimenting in our business.

Some launches will go better than others, some projects will be adored and others less so, it’s all part of this journey.

And so often something failing is actually just a step on the journey to it thriving, it’s how we tweak our offers and our marketing and our business model until we find our zone of genius and sweet spot in our work.

Being willing to fail is essential if we want to also succeed in our work, and therefore we have to trust that we are wildly capable of figuring out whatever highs and lows may come in our business.

So what aren’t you doing right now because you’re afraid of failing?

Because the likelihood is that the thing you’re not doing is the thing you need to do next to discover what your business truly needs to thrive.

How can you ease yourself into doing this thing that scares you?

Maybe it’s launching that new group offering but in its simplest format, so you can tweak and evolve it as you go.

Or maybe it’s starting your new podcast but only committing to 8 first episodes to see how it feels.

Or experimenting with ads but giving yourself a small budget to get started with.

Whatever it is, start small, ease in, and remind yourself that failure is never the end point in business, it’s just part of the stepping stones to figuring our business out.

And when something doesn’t go as you hoped? That’s when the real work comes in of not making that a story about ourselves in our business and instead celebrating the courage of showing up and trying anyway, seeing what you can learn from this experiment, and then getting back to work and learning and growing and discovering some more.

I always tell my clients that I have unwavering belief in them, and it’s because I do, I wouldn’t do this work if I didn’t and that unwavering belief in them is the very heart of my work and it’s extends to you too.

I have walked with hundreds of clients in their business journey these past 8 years and I have seen how capable we can be of building and running beautiful and thriving and simple and spacious businesses for ourselves. And yes it’s hard and it’s messy and an emotional rollercoaster ride some days but if this is the path you want for yourself I believe in your capacity for figuring it out, even if it’s a longer and more winding road than you first hoped.

Sit with these three mindset shifts and see if they can fuel and support you in this season.

And I’m right here, rooting for you always.

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Jen Carrington9 March 2022