From startup idea to full-time business can feel like a long road. Truth be told, it usually is.
What we want to do in this episode is help you along the way. We’ll give you insights into our own journey’s as well as what you need to know (and do) to build your business and chase your dream.
Key Take-aways
How to conquer your fear and get started.
Identifying your avatar and target market.
The wisdom from mistakes we made (so you don’t have to!)
How to push through fear.
Essential character traits of a business owner.
A starter’s guide to taxes.
About Justin
If you’re new to the podcast, welcome!
My name is Justin, and I’m an Elite-Mindset and success coach. Throughout my career, I’ve been a pastor, educator, and serial entrepreneur. I help entrepreneurs, business owners, and world-changers attain elite mental performance through burnout prevention, habits, and compounding daily wins.
About the Mastermind
The Bakersfield Mastermind is a collaboration between Dr.’s Scott Thor and Juanita Web.
I was reminded recently, how in any attempted area of growth, confidence is key.
First, a confession. I’m a huge Gordon Ramsey fan. His ability to instruct, teach, inspire, lead is inspiring. I’ve also laughed at more than a few of his insults. He also knows when to relax, laugh, and have a good time.
Recently, I was watching an episode of his popular show Hell’s Kitchen and set one chef home after a critical failure.
Her crime? She lost confidence in her own ability.
As the episode ends, you hear Gordon’s voice as the picture shows her leaving the competition.
“If she’s lost confidence in herself, I can’t have confidence in her as my next executive chef.”
It is a dear reminder that in any area of life and growth, confidence is key.
Displaying Confidence
Let me be clear: confidence is not brashness, arrogance, smugness, or cockiness.
Confidence is not abusive or manipulative.
No, confidence is assurance.
It’s an assurance in the mission and service you’re providing to the world.
Confident people are able to say, “I’ve made it through every previous trial, I can make it through this one as well.”
Confidence is not about putting others down, it’s a clear picture of who you are.
Confident people have an accurate self-perception. They know who they are, why they were created, and the mission they are to be about while on this earth.
Confidence is key.
I often tell people at the start of a coaching relationship, “I can do anything for you except make you want to change. You have to want to change and be willing to put in the work required to do so. Once you acknowledge and commit to that, I’ll give you every tool I have to help you succeed.”
Why do some people make that commitment (and experience the reward) and others don’t?
Confidence.
Confidence is key.
The Confidence Quickstart
Life can be hard. As a result, there may be moments where you find yourself doubting. Wondering. Fearful.
Those moments are not a reason to withdraw or shrink back. Instead, they are moments to rise to the occasion, challenge yourself, accomplish something great, and demonstrate your ability.
If you ever find yourself in need of a confidence boost, here are three proven methods to help you get back on track.
Gratitude Journal.
First, start by keeping a gratitude journal. Write down as many things as you can to be thankful for.
A number of years ago, I challenged myself to write down 1,000 things I was grateful for. Once I got past the big and obvious ones (spouse, kids, parents, a house, a job) I really had to begin to focus my attention on every moment of every day.
Could I find moments of joy or positive experiences, even in the midst of difficult circumstances?
Of course, I just had to give it intentional thought.
Eventually, I had an impressive list (even if I never did make my 1,000 goal) and it completely reframed the way I go throughout my day.
Want to feel more confident? Start by acknowledging and welcoming all the good you already have in your life.
A list of previous accomplishments.
Next, keep a list of all of the previous things you accomplished.
Again, you’ll start with the big obvious ones (that’s great!).
The raise you earned.
That karate trophy from the third grade.
Voted most photogenic in high school.
Eventually, you’ll move on to the harder, but not less significant experiences.
The first successful sales call.
That time you worked up the nerve to ask that special someone.
Conquering the fear of public speaking.
Pretty soon, you’ll have an impressive list not only of everything you have to be thankful for, but all the previous times you’ve thought something was impossible, and yet you did it anyway.
Positive Affirmations
Finally, look at yourself in the mirror and give yourself some encouragement.
Far too often, we do just the opposite.
We mess up or make a mistake and say something like, “Of course I did that. I’m a klutz.”
Or, “What an idiot.”
Instead of that how about we say, “Boy, had I given it two more seconds of thought maybe I wouldn’t have made that same choice, but I’m glad I had this learning experience.”
Then, encourage yourself:
Look at this list of everything you have to be thankful for and all you’ve accomplished.
You’re very talented!
I can’t believe all that you’ve overcome.
You are very resilient.
You’ve got this!
As you stare at yourself, providing those affirmations, you’ll notice a shift in your thinking, your emotions, and your behavior.
You’ll notice that confidence returning. Building. Sustaining you throughout the day.
Once you’ve acknowledged all you have to be grateful for, written down your accomplishments, and affirmed your intellect and skills, only one thing is left.
Go out and do great things.
You’re more than capable.
I’m sure of it.
I’m confident of it.
And confidence is key.
Want to exponentially grow your leadership skills? Here are two great options:
As a leader, one of the things you’re responsible for is increasing the creativity for you and your team.
Settling on Solutions
As leaders, our natural disposition can be to settle on solutions. That’s leadership, right? We know the problem, tackle the solution, and keep pushing forward.
Not necessarily.
In fact, quite the opposite is true.
Leaders who are expected to know and have all the answers create two primary problems.
First, they limit the effectiveness and full potential of their teams.
Second, they are subject to burnout.
Because of this, a large part of great leadership is not just about providing answers but creating an environment where our team can come up with better ones. Increacsing creativity happens thorugh an intentional delay.
Instead of seeking answers to questions like, “What’s probable?” as a question like, “What’s possible?”
Creativity is about “What’s Possible”
One of the necessary shifts in leadership thinking is to encourage and facilitate questions around what’s possible.
Instead of moving to solution-oriented ideas and tasks, entertain possibilities of the wild and extravagant.
Imagine a customer writing your business praising you for your new product that helped them. What did they say, feel, or experience? Once you know what that end destination is, then you can work backwards to create the product you just visualized.
Pretend a new company pops up and exploits your weaknesses, what would they do? Now that you know your biggest weaknesses, you can discover new ways to beat them.
Plan how you would operate your business if you were operating at ten times your current profit margin. Once you are aware of that, continue the discovery processes by dreaming up those new products and services. Start testing those and implement big change.
Increasing Creativity
Implementing a creative making process for your team or organization benefits everyone.
The team will be more productive.
Your customers will have a better experience.
The community will experience greater blessing.
You will have less stress and more productivity.
However the process looks for you, take time to implement that creative process time
Bring together multiple disciplines.
Research seemingly unrelated fields or areas of interest.
Study the competition.
Hire a coach.
Want to work with me to increase your teams productivity? Contact me here.
Whatever you do, don’t be too quick to settle on solutions. Look for what’s possible, not just what’s probable. Listen to those around you and look for new ways of doing things.
Understanding branding, the image you present to your community, is the final piece to a growing and successful business.
In many ways, this is the ‘sexy’ part of business ownership. At the very least, it’s the component people think about first. Branding is about marketing, your public image, and advertising. Understanding branding, however, is about knowing the ways in which you need to line up with that image. If you as the business owner aren’t in congruence with the image you want to present, your business will fail.
Marketing can’t fix a broken financial model or dysfunctional operations. Marketing can’t help a company with an unclear vision or that doesn’t live up to its values. Marketing can’t overcome a product that does not deliver value or a terrible standard of service or a poor sales process. Marketing is a mirror of the truth for the business.*
Failing the Image Test
Part of my story includes being a pastor. There were many parts of that job that I loved. I can also acknowledge that it had more than its fair share of hardships and trials.
Compounding that difficulty was the fact that I worked in what’s often labeled a ‘turnaround church.’ The short version of it is: Turnaround churches are small and often (but not always) mired in conflict. They reflect fondly on their ‘glory days’ of being a bigger church with a large influence. There are many reasons churches go from large to small but the more common reasons are a changing demographic in the community, pastoral conflict, and the inevitable lifecycle of organizations.
Think of it like this. The church declined because the community changed (and they didn’t), the leaders can’t agree on how to proceed, and an older generation fails to reach a younger one.
Creating Your Public Image
I loved working in turnaround churches. I enjoyed the challenge, even though statistically they almost all fail for one reason or another.
In my years of turnaround churches, I realized one key problem facing all of them. As the pastor, I was, in many ways, given the ‘image’ of the church. That is, I stepped into a deeply entrenched culture. These people already had a way of thinking, behaving, and interacting with one another.
The flip side of that is church planting. Instead of being a part of an existing church, it is, in many ways, easier to start a new one. As a pastor of a new church, I get to create whatever culture I want.
Those examples are true in churches and in businesses.
Stepping into an organizational culture has its benefits, but also its fair share of obstacles.
Creating a new business (entrepreneurship) gives you the power to create whatever culture you want. That also has its benefits and challenges.
When we begin the process towards understanding branding, we begin to understand the ways in which we, both publicly and privately, need to represent our businesses.
A Way Forward
For business owners, the challenge of understanding branding is about bringing alignment to the stated and the actual culture and public image of the company.
One of the more common things I tell new entrepreneurs is that they need to solve a problem. Their product is cool, but if they don’t solve a problem, they won’t have sales.
If you don’t have sales, all the marketing in the world won’t save you.
When your marketing is failing, it’s often because people don’t sense that you solve their problem.
It can be a vicious cycle. As Wiley states, “Marketing depends on all other concepts, but it is the most comprehensive and customer-facing of them.”*
So, how do we create a way forward?
1.) Congruence
Make sure all aspects of your business are lined up. I once received feedback from a trusted friend and business owner. He said, “In your last video, I saw you were wearing a cutoff and a hat. As a business owner, I knew you were talking to me but I couldn’t take it. I turned you off almost instantly.”
Ouch.
He liked the content (at least the little bit that he heard) but I lost him in the process.
My image and my stated goals weren’t in harmony.
As business owners, we must make sure that all parts of our businesses are in alignment. You are in control of your image.
Personally.
Professionally.
All of it.
Stay on top of your company and make sure everyone presents the image you want.
2.) Commitment
It takes time. In a social media filled world of instant gratification, we can fail to see the larger picture of building momentum and quality leads over time.
We expect to run a Facebook ad in the morning and have sales by lunch.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that.
Stay committed to long term vision and planning. Give thought to a campaign that builds over time. Educate your customers on your product, the market, and the evolving ways you meet their needs.
3.) Community
Seek feedback. As your customers what they like (and don’t like!) about your product.
Build a tribe of loyal followers and fierce fans.
Ask Question. Listen intently. Create an experience.
In a world of artificial likes and fake followers, building a deep community radical shapes the way we do business. More than that, it gives people a place to belong. Finally, it creates a culture for your team to thrive.
Eight Core Concepts
This list is updated as the blog series continues. Click on any live link to go to that post in the series.
* Whitney, Marcus. Create and Orchestrate: The Path to Claiming Your Creative Power from an Unlikely Entrepreneur (p. 89). Creative Power. Kindle Edition.
* Whitney, Marcus. Create and Orchestrate: The Path to Claiming Your Creative Power from an Unlikely Entrepreneur (p. 91). Creative Power. Kindle Edition.
One of the biggest shifts I see young entrepreneurs and business owners need to make is in their belief in understanding that they are a salesperson.
They might be visionaries, great leaders, product developers, weekend grinders, but they are not (at least in their belief) a sales person.
Guess what: if you don’t sell your product, no one is going to buy it!
Sales is what your company does to make a person give you money for a product they want … The sales process requires a complete knowledge of the product that the company is offering, and needs to be defined by the service standards and criteria that the company has set.*
The Death of a Salesman
I’ve shared on the blog before the early explosion of my coaching practice. In short, I saw quick growth in a short amount of time. Within the first year of coaching I had exceeded my regular income.
I let it go to my head.
I stopped marketing, stopped networking, and stopped advertising (all things we’ll look at in the next post of this series).
The result was inevitable: I also stopped selling. As I finished up with my clients, I had no pipeline to refill, no prospects to call, and no income to replace what was lost. By the end of my second year, I was down to one regular client.
I failed to follow my own advice and never once told myself, “You are a salesman.” I didn’t want to sell myself, my products, or my services. And so I sold nothing.
I found broke.
That led to being miserable.
Eventually, I vowed to change.
Listen. Share. Offer.
Recently, I was at the dentist getting my teeth cleaned. It was my first trip to this dentist, and we were making the usual awkward small talk while he dug around my mouth.
Inevitably, he asked me what I did for a living.
I work with small business owners like yourself focus on getting the right things done to maximize their business and personal lives through executive coaching and HR solutions.
It’s a question I’ve answered a thousand different times. I play with the wording depending on the situation to make sure it has maximum impact.
He sat quiet for a second. Pull away from my gaping mouth, scribbled something on the notes, and went back to work.
Now, I don’t know if he wrote a note to call me later to talk business, but I do know he spend a good portion of the rest of the time talking about how busy he was and how hard it can be to get everything done. At the very least, I’d touched a nerve that made him aware of how I could help.
Most of the time, my answer follows three easy steps to help me know how to talk to the other person, initiate low-pressure sales, and move the conversation forward.
Listen
First, I start with listening. I know how to shape a conversation and usually get to ask what the other person does for a living first. This time, I already knew (dentist), and had to guess at what some of his pain points might be.
But the important thing is to start with listening. Open your ears. Shut your mouth. Let the other person describe themselves, problems, hopes, dreams, fears, and family. You’ll learn quite a bit and have a good platform to engage them from.
Share
Find a way to share about yourself. Your family, your own hopes, dreams, fears, and wild goals. Then share what you do, and if applicable, find a way to share how it could help them.
Above, I offered this, because I know what it’s like being a businness owner and having a wide range of needs on a day to day basis. He ended up telling me quite a bit about his struggle in balancing work and family, kids, grandkids, employees, and medical records. We have similar pain points and struggles. I knew I could help.
*It’s also worth noting that sometimes you may not be able to help a person. In these situations, don’t force your product unnecessarily and don’t assume they aren’t a worthwhile contact to have. Just because you can’t solve their problem doesn’t mean you can’t solve their siblings, parents, friends, or neighbors.*
Offer
The final step is to offer your services. Sometimes this happens right away, especially if I feel like I stand a good chance at closing. I tried this recently and closed a great deal for early next year.
Sometimes, it’s an offer to follow up. Networking events can be difficult to engage in deep-level business talks. Schedule a coffee or offer to come by their office.
Othertimes, it’s also a chance to keep the door open. The time may not be right, but they might know someone. I have a list of people that I will probably never do business with (for a variety of reasons). With them, I keep in touch every couple of months to check in, start a conversation, and see what’s changed. I may not get their business but I may just get business from someone they know.
Offering to stay in touch is a salesperson gold mine.
As business owners, we are the visionaries. We believe in our product more than anyone. That makes us the chief salesperson in our organization, whether we run a show that is just us, of a team of 100 people building a thriving business.
No matter your work.
No matter your product.
As a business owner you are a salesperson.
Eight Core Concepts
This list is updated as the blog series continues. Click on any live link to go to that post in the series.
* Whitney, Marcus. Create and Orchestrate: The Path to Claiming Your Creative Power from an Unlikely Entrepreneur (p. 88). Creative Power. Kindle Edition.
