Business Success Mindset

Having a winning business mindset will make the different between business success, mediocrity and failure.

Mindset is how you view the world, yourself, situations and outcomes.

You can be a “glass is half empty” person, where you always look at the negatives or potential negatives first, or you can be a “glass is half full” person where you see the positives and possibilities.

Who do you think will be more successful? Someone who looks at negatives and is worried about or expects negative outcomes or someone who is sees the positives and looks at the possibilities as opportunities.

The positive person, of course. Negative situations will always arise that we have to deal with, but, by seeing the positives in these situations or after the situations are resolved, you will be much happier than if you just focus on the negatives. When you are happier, you will be more motivated to do what is required to make your business successful than when you are angry, frustrated, disappointed, depressed, or cynical. Plus, you will enjoy your life more when you are happy.

For example, let’s say you had a negative situation in the past that cost you a lot of money, stress or other issue. You try again, and at the first sign that the new try might go wrong, you automatically think and say, “See, this is just like the other time it happened. It’s happening all over again. This always happens to me. Why do things never go right / always go wrong? You will become stressed, angry, depressed and/or have other negatives thoughts, feelings and words to say. Yet, maybe it was just a small glitch that would have quickly resolved itself.

Someone who has a positive mindset would be conscious of the new small issue, but, then say something or do something to steer the situation so it has the greatest chance of having a positive outcome. If the issue starts to get bigger, they will look to stop it, if possible, and change course completely.

Getting angry quickly and staying angry will not help you and will not make you happy.

Notice how easily and quickly you get angry and to what level you get angry when something doesn’t go your way. Do you get angry at others in business situations? If so, how will that affect their impression of you and your business? Is it appropriate/professional to get angry or to show anger towards someone when you are representing your business? Likely not.

TIP #1: Look at the positives. Regardless of what is going on in your life or in the world, there are always positives. If you are having a hard time or when something goes wrong, say these words to yourself in your head, out loud or write on paper, “At least..” then add on something that is good about your life, the day, the world. It will instantly make you feel happier. Example, let’s say you car breaks down and you have to take a taxi, Uber or Lyft ride to your prospect/client meeting. At first you will likely be upset that your car broke down and you don’t have time for it, but, then quickly call for a ride and think or say to yourself, “At least I can check my emails and do other work on the way to the meeting.” Yes, it sucks that you will have to take your car to the garage later and you may have to pay to fix it, but, if you dwell on that, you won’t be happy and you will not be in the best mind frame to have an enjoyable or successful meeting. Instead if you focus on the positive and use the time when you don’t have to drive because someone else is driving you constructively, you may come out further ahead, than if you had spent the time driving instead.

TIP #2: 95% of fears do not come to fruition, so don’t worry. Worry is in a negative emotion that doesn’t do anything except take away your happiness. Do you want to be happy or not?

TIP #3: If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again. Most of us have heard this before, and this advice is wise today as it was whenever it was first said. Do you keep trying if something does work or do you give up easily? It’s normal to not be the best at something when you are first trying it out. So, be kind to yourself, evaluate whether you should do it differently, ask others for help and try it again. Here are some words from some famous people you may have heard of, who followed this advice and won.

• “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Edison (invented the light bulb)

• “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius (Chinese philosopher)

• “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky 

• “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela.

TIP #4: Before you do and say anything, always consider the IMPACT OF YOUR WORDS and ACTIONS on the other people in the situation, especially when you are interacting with prospects, clients or others for business. What impression do you want them to get of you and your business? What impression will they have if you say/do one thing vs. another? Will your words and actions or lack thereof help your business or hurt it?

TIP #5: Don’t show anger to your customers, prospects or other business professionals who know about your business. Take a step back, even wait for a day or two to respond, so you can make sure that your response will have the impact that you want without including anything you don’t.

TIP #6: You never get a 2^nd chance to make a 1^st impression.

TIP #7: K.I.S.S – Keep it simple for success.

TIP #8: Be slow to anger. Recognize that no one is perfect, including you and give people the benefit of the doubt and the chance to improve.

TIP #9: Don’t take offence when no offence was intended. Maybe something someone did or said wasn’t what they meant to do or say, or maybe you are interpreting it differently from how they meant it. Think about if you and other people were to witness a car crash. Depending on where each person was standing and what they were doing when it happened, how tired they were, what kind of mood they were in when they saw the crash and their different past experiences and bias, each person may have a slightly different reaction to the event and may describe it somewhat differently.

TIP #10: Avoid “All or nothing” thinking. It is “USUALLY” WRONG and doesn’t help anyone (Notice how I didn’t say that it is “Always” wrong). “All or nothing” thinking, is also called, “black or white” thinking, and it refers to thinking and responding as if there are only 2 absolutes in a situation.

Examples: Someone recently complained to me saying, “everyone” does it, and someone complained to me a few years saying, “no one” does it. These people tend to be very resolute in their point of view, meaning they are confident that they are right, express their point of view aggressively and don’t consider their responsibility for their actions.

In both of these cases, the use of the words, “everyone” and “no one” were FALSE. They thought saying those words would strengthen their position as if to provide me with proof of why it wasn’t their fault. It can be very challenging to deal with these types of people and get the outcomes you want, which are peaceful resolutions to the problems, having the person understand that they are responsible for their action and to have them respect you, so as to not spread lies to others blaming you for their actions, hopefully correct their behaviour and to not follow the same pattern in future situations. When I pointed out to them that some of them did/do that or most of them did/do that, they calmed down and took some responsibility. It is usually easier to point the finger at someone else than at yourself.

TIP #11: There are usually multiple possibilities for why things happen and for why people do or say things or don’t do or say things and their may be multiple reasons as well. When you are not sure about the why, write down at least 3-5 possibilities, considering the worst, best and in-between case-scenarios.

For example, let’s say on a Monday, a prospect told you that they would hire you. You send them a contract to sign that day, but, by the Wednesday they haven’t completed it or replied to you. There are many ways you could think about this.

• They changed their mind
• They have probably been busy (it has only been 1.5-2 days after getting the verbal yes from them, and they may have had many other meetings booked during that time or work to get done during that time)
• They may be sick or have become injured
• Their family and/or pets have been sick or injured
• An emergency came up that they had to deal with
• They wanted to confer with someone else before signing
• They forgot (because they are busy or sick)

If you just consider the first option (i.e. they changed their mind), you may feel disappointed, stressed, frustrated or other emotions, when the first option may not be true. You may choose to not follow up with them, which may definitely cost you the sale.

At this point, it may be good to send them an email to ask them if they have any questions about the contract, or you could wait a few more days to see if they sign it, and if they haven’t, send them an email or call them on the phone to ask them. “Do you have any questions about..?” is a non-pushy way to encourage them to take action and give you the knowledge you want to know where you stand. They will likely get back to you to say they haven’t had time to read it yet, to which you could reply. “Ok. Np. Let’s catch up next week. Have a good night / great rest of your day / nice evening,” etc.

TIP #12: There are typically exceptions to rules. It is important to have rules, but, it is also good to be flexible in certain cases. Life is not perfect and it is best for us to be understanding of others’ situations. Hopefully, others will be understanding of your unique situations should you not be able to exactly meet the rules or requirements of something in the future.

TIP #13: Take responsibility for YOUR words and actions. Before you blame others, ask yourself if you could have done something different. Interactions take 2 or more people to tango, so it is important to consider your part. Maybe a situation was all or mostly the other person’s fault. Maybe it was all or mostly your fault or maybe it was equally both your faults.

TIP #14: YOU are responsible for your business success. Do not blame others for your business success or lack thereof. Your success is specifically due to the things YOU SAY or DON’T SAY and the things YOU DO or DON’T DO, although luck can sometimes play a factor. Always take responsibility for your actions and think about what you can do to improve yourself and your processes so you can have better outcomes. If you are not sure how to have better outcomes, ask others for their advice and feedback about their observations of you and your business operations.

TIP #15: If you keep doing the same things, you will get the same results. The only way to improve your business outcomes is to objectively evaluate what you did well, what you can improve upon and what you can do differently. Don’t stay stuck. Evaluate each interaction you have an each action you take and their outcomes and ask yourself how you can improve. WRITE a list of things to do to make improvements.

TIP #16: Seek PROFESSIONAL ADVICE and TRAINING  . Consult a professional Business Consultant / Coach like me for help if you are not getting the results you want. Often an objecti             ve, 3^rd party perspective combined with a lot of business experience and expertise can help to uncover your blind spots and give you the perspective, tools and strategy you need to up level your business game.

TIP #17: Keep LEARNING. The wisest people in the world know and acknowledge that they don’t know everything, and they seek to learn what they don’t so they can improve their lives and businesses. Read, take a course, watch a video, join a workshop, and ask others for information to add to your knowledge base. The more knowledge you have (along as it is accurate), the more powerful you will become.

TIP #18: Business Networking Success: Do you tend to get clients from attending business networking events? – If you do, fantastic. If you don’t, why not? Here are some reasons why not:

1. Your physical appearance – hair style, jewellery or lack thereof, clothing
2. Your personal hygiene – do you and/or does your breath smell bad
3. You talk too much. People have short attention spans, and they go to events to meet lots of people. They can’t meet a lot of people if you are monopolizing their time by talking and talking and talking. If you talk too much, you will give a BAD IMPRESSION of yourself and the person will not want to have any more contact with you, which means YOU LOST a potential client.
4. You don’t ask others about themselves.
5. You ask others about themselves, but, you don’t comment on what they say and/or you don’t ask them follow up questions.
6. You don’t suggest further contact with them.. like, “Maybe we should set up a meeting to talk further,” or “do you want me to email you the information / event invitation?” etc.
7. You don’t follow up with them. Unfortunately, statistics show that 87% of people don’t follow up with those they meet at events. “Follow up” means that you email them, send them a social media connection request (LinkedIn is best as it is specifically a business platform), call or text them within 24-48 hours after the event to say it was nice to meet them, and to request further communication or just to say, I look forward to seeing you again at the next event.” If you don’t follow up, you won’t likely get any clients from attending, which defeats the biggest purpose for attending.
8. You follow up too much. This means you call them, email them, text them or message them on social media too frequently (i.e. you are TOO PUSHY). No one likes pushy people and it will likely result in you pushing people away, not bringing them closer to becoming your clients. Being pushy is annoying to others and it can make you seem desperate. Neither of these outcomes will get you business. Too much reach out can also be considered
9. Your target market is not at the event. You need to know WHO are the people who are MOST LIKELY to buy from you/hire you. Consider the following and if they apply to your business or if it may be good to focus on one segment of one of these demographics.
   1. Gender
   2. Age range
   3. Family status – married/common-law, kids / no kids / age of kids
   4. Income
   5. Profession / business type
   6. Hobbies
   7. Interests
   8. Medical conditions
   9. Sexual orientation
   10. Don’t have a close friend or family member who offers the same thing you do
   11. Living accommodations – rent vs. homeownership
   12. Company size
   13. Need and/or desire for what you offer
   14. Geographical region of home and/or business
   15. Race
   16. Religion
   17. Languages
   18. Country of origin
   19. Net worth
   20. You don’t know how to make small talk
   21. You appear to be not confident
   22. You don’t speak clearly about what you offer (i.e. it is too vague, too many ums, etc.)
   23. You give too much away (don’t tell others everything, or you won’t be able to suggest that you book a meeting to learn more)
   24. You send follow-up emails to sell them as opposed to ask for a meeting for mutual benefit..

There are many more life and business tips I can give you. I will add more later.

Best of luck! Let me know if you need help.