Ep #261: Biz Owner Mindset

Deciding to become an entrepreneur has been one of my favorite decisions in life. Right up there with choosing to follow Jesus, marry Norm, and become a mom.

But that hasn’t made the journey easy, actually, very far from it. But what has eased the journey is me finally recognizing that my mindset as a business owner matters most above all the tactics, all the strategies, all the things.

So, for our 2023 summer series, we are diving into your mind, and I know you’ll thank me for it.

Hey there, and welcome to episode 261 of the Roadmap to Referrals Podcast, a show about helping you build a referable business.

My journey from a business failure to a successful business, now 10 years in, I know that generating referrals naturally and consistently has made all the difference. Working with clients around the world, we leverage the science of referrals, protect relationships above all else, and help you build a referable business. I’m your host, Stacey Brown Randall.

So, if you’re new around here, a summer series or the idea of a summer series maybe new to you, but we have been doing this now for a couple of years. Actually, the summer series idea is one I stumbled into back in 2020. I don’t actually remember it having anything to do with COVID specifically, but that’s how long we’ve been doing it. So, we are now, of course, in our fourth summer.

Now, let me explain what a summer series is. The summer series is a time in the summer, of course, where I take a series of episodes and I dedicate them to one topic. Usually, I dedicate them to a topic that’s actually not tied to referrals. It’s not directly related to referrals. I mean, you guys know I can indirect or direct just about anything, two referrals.

But the idea behind the summer series is that it’s almost like a pause and we focus or tackle one topic that I think is important, that obviously has something to do with growing your business and building a referral business. It’s all interrelated of course, but the summer series really does have that different focus for so many episodes in the summer.

So, if we go all the way back to 2020, it was actually the first time I stumbled into the summer series idea. We didn’t call it the summer series, I just realized that I did a series of episodes from episodes 106 to 113, and they were focused on the deadly sins of generating referrals. That was a fun one. If you guys want to go back and listen to that, please do.

But it was a series over (I believe, it was like July and August) that time period in the summer when we talked about the deadly sins of generating referrals. And I’ll of course link to the first episode in that series 106 in the show notes page for this episode.

And as you guys know, the show notes page for this episode, it’s always the episode number. So, it’s staceybrownrandall.com/261, and Stacey has an E.

So, then in 2021, we continued the summer series idea, and I think that’s when I really started thinking in my head, this is a summer series, I do this now every year. But we did that one on the referable client experience.

So, of course, that was a little bit more tied to referrals, just like our deadly sins one was as well, but it was the idea of really looking at it from that client experience perspective as well. And that starts with episode 151, and continues through episode 165. That was a long one, took most of last summer.

And then last year, our summer series for 2022 was a business development series, and that went from episode 212 to episode 220. So again, I will link to the first episode in each of the summer series of those three years on the show notes page for this episode, if you’re just curious and you want to go back and listen.

So, we’re keeping the trend going. We are giving you and bringing you yet another summer series. And this one truly, is off the topic of referrals, because we are talking about the mindset. That’s right, your mindset, my mindset, all the mindsets that we need to have — I guess I shouldn’t talk about the mindsets being plural, but the mindset we need to have when it comes to being a business owner.

Because I am one that if you had talked to 20 something year old Stacey, or even early 30-year-old something Stacey, she would’ve been like mindset, she would’ve been like affirmations, paying attention to that stuff, caring about that stuff, should’ve been like that sounds like a little bit like California hot tub woo-woo, like voodoo woo-woo to me. That’s what 20-year-old or early 30-year-old Stacey would say to you.

Stacey of today definitely does not say that because I know that that stuff matters, it actually matters more than any tactic, any strategy, anything really that you’re going to do in business or in life, is your mindset matters most.

And I went kicking and screaming into this whole concept of focusing on my mindset because … and I’ll admit this, to you guys, is that it felt like a little bit of a weakness to be like, “What? My mindset’s not locked and loaded, what I got to work at my mindset? No, no, no, I’ve got that figured out.” And the truth is, no, we don’t. I certainly don’t, you probably don’t either. Like we don’t have it all figured out. We have lots of it figured out. We don’t have it all figured out.

And so, for me, I kind of always shied away from that like working on yourself, like that self-development, all those different things that kind of came into be until probably the last five years.

And then I really dove in I was like, “Oh my gosh, really truly, what have I been missing and how foolish have I been? Because this stuff is amazing, and it really does help you deal with situations and process information and just live a better life.”

So, I made the decision that the summer series this year would be on the importance behind the business owner mindset, and not just the importance of it, but like what does that look like from a business owner’s perspective?

And I’m not talking about the business owner mindset because I want you to perform at your best. Yes, that is definitely a part of it, I think we all would agree to that. But I’m really looking at this from the perspective of I want to enjoy being a business owner. And I really think that starts with what’s happening between my ears.

I really believe that my ability to enjoy being a business owner, the highs and the lows, the ebbs and the flows, like all the things comes down to my mindset of whether I’m actually going to enjoy this journey.

I’m not looking for an easy journey, I’m not looking for a perfect journey, I’m looking to enjoy the journey. And that means you’ve got to be equipped to deal with everything that’s going to get thrown at you when you choose to become a business owner or basically anything in life.

So, for this episode, this is kind of our overview, our kickoff episode. I wanted to explain what the summer series is. I wanted to make sure you understood where this was coming from, particularly if you’re new and you’re like, “I’m here for referrals.”

Okay, there’s like 200 plus other episodes that we do dive into referrals, so just go back a few and you’ll find lots of fabulous referral episodes, I promise. And there’ll be some coming as soon as we finish this summer series. I got a whole slew of referral episodes coming up as well when we finish the summer series. So, just hang with me through a little bit of our summer as we cover this topic of the business owner mindset.

So, I just wanted to give you that overview. I didn’t want this to come as a surprise as you were like, “Wait, what’s happening? We’re talking about the mind and all these other things. What’s going on? I’m here for referrals.” I just wanted to give you a heads up.

So, what are we covering in this series? Well, thank you. I’m so glad you asked. I have curated a top-notch group of experts who are business owners and experts, and their respected fields of mindset. And I cannot wait to introduce you to each of them over this series week after week.

So, the series will cover the following topics.

Hey there, pardon the interruption. I know this summer series, we are focused on the mindset of a business owner, but don’t ignore your referral mindset as well. In our Building a Referable Business Coaching Program, we help you implement the mindset, the strategies, and the individual tactics you need to build a referable business.

Go to staceybrownrandall.com/referable to learn about everything you receive inside BRB to see some of the amazing transformations that our clients are having, and of course, to take your very first step, which is to submit your application.

That’s right. There is an application to join BRB because we keep this group small and curated on purpose. The link again to apply is staceybrownrandall.com/referable.

Okay, let’s talk about the topics (so exciting) of what we’re going to go over in this series. And then of course, I’ll let you go for today and we’ll pick back up next week with our very first expert.

So, here are some of the topics we are going to be discussing and diving into throughout this series. We’re going to talk about your state of mind specifically in terms of how you operate and are you operating in an executive state or a survival state.

What’s really cool about paying attention to executive state versus survival state is how much we don’t pay attention to when we’re switching into survival state. Like I mean, I think most of us would like to think we show up to work and we are operating from this executive state of mind.

Like we are making decisions, we are in the moment, we are focused, and then yet, actually what we’ll learn, is that no, we’re actually a lot of times making decisions and getting things done and everything from a survival state of mode. And that is really fascinating, can’t wait for that conversation.

Then we’re going to spend some time talking about beliefs and how the beliefs that we have, how they’re formed and what that looks like, and what we need to know about how that informs the decisions that we make, and of course, the things that we think about. Everything kind of paying attention from that belief formation perspective.

Then we’re going to talk about habits. Oh yeah, yours and my favorite. Just kidding, it’s probably not anybody’s favorite unless you’re like loving your amazing habits and you don’t have any bad ones you want to kick to the curb.

But we’re also then going to talk about habit formation and what that looks like, and how we can create, following an easy recipe, how we can create really good habits that’ll not only serve us in our personal life, but in our professional life of course, as well.

Then we’ll spend some time talking about mental health and the importance of protecting our mental health and boundary settings. Super important as always. You guys know I’m a big believer in my boundaries. As I like to say to Norm, I got more boundaries than a US map.

And then of course, we will talk about something I think is overlooked when we are dealing with mindset, and that is actually truly understanding how to cultivate happiness, which is a lot of times (and I did not know this until the interview) confused with moments of pleasure, thinking that that is actually the true sense of happiness. And we learn (in this interview, we can’t wait for you guys to hear it) the difference between moments of pleasure versus cultivating true deep happiness.

And then we will wrap up our series with something that’s super, super important, and that’s the idea of how we are productive, but doing it from a place of rest and what that looks like and what that means particularly.

Because I would say that every single human listening to this podcast wears more than one hat. You’re not just a business owner, you probably have a lot of other hats that you wear. I’m a wife, I’m a mother, I’m a daughter, I’m a sister, I’m a friend, I’m an aunt, I’m a neighbor. I am a lot of other things too that are now not coming to mind as I was like starting to list those off, and there’s a lot. And I’m me, too, I have that time for me as well.

So, like the idea here is that understanding what truly matters, but being able to be productive from a place where you come out from a place of rest, it’s really cool.

Like I said, we have curated an amazing group of experts that are going to spend some time with us each week over the next so many weeks — I think we have six more weeks to go with this series, it’s six interviews, and I really believe that you guys are going to appreciate the conversations and the dialogues that we have as we go throughout this series. I cannot wait to get started. It’s going to be amazing.

So, make sure you are back here next week, Tuesday, because we will be dropping our very first interview and I know you guys are going to learn so much.

Now, of course, the show notes page for this episode in particular, if you want to go back and listen to the episodes that I mentioned at our past year summer series, you can find all of those episodes on the show notes page for this episode, which is staceybrownrandall.com/261.

And of course, coming up next week as episode, well, like I said, 262 and the summer series of the business owner mindset begins.

So, until then, you know what to do, my friend: take control of your referrals and bill a referral business. Bye for now.