Mindset shifts for business owners

When I first started my business I received lots of (often unsolicited) advice about how I should present my business, where I needed to advertise, how I really ought to carve out some kind of unique niche, how I needed to think about how I could scale my business, employ other coaches and so on... Advice which, while well-meaning, at the time simply made me feel hugely out of my depth!

Not knowing any better, I followed a lot of the advice that I received, which took me on a very merry, expensive and time-consuming wild goose chase, as I tried to do the all things that "made good business sense" despite my heart telling me that I really wanted to be moving in a different direction.

When those things didn't get me where I wanted to go, I was finally able to turn my attention back to my own intuition and follow the path that I had originally fallen in love with.

As I mark the milestone of 15 years running my coaching business this month, I've found myself beginning to reflect upon what advice I would have really benefitted from 15 years ago. The advice that I definitely didn't get, but that would have made a big difference if I had.

It would have been something along these lines:

• Listen to your intuition, not your fears and go only where your intuition leads you.
• Your age, background and so on mean nothing, the energy that you bring to your clients (and your marketing messages!) is everything.
• Don't underestimate the value of holding space for people to talk. They don't always want/need amazing coaching questions or advice, sometimes all they need is to be heard.
• Growing a business isn't a linear thing. You will make plenty of mistakes along the way and there is huge learning in those mistakes, so embrace them!
• Dare to dream where you might like your business to go and see if those ideas bring you joy.
• Get to know your fears, lean into them - ask them what they are worried about and what you can do to help them feel better!

With the benefit of experience, I know it's so important to share with business owners at any stage in their business (not just at the start), that it's really natural to have fears around whether you and/or your service/product is good enough.  To compare yourself to others. To want to stay small for fear of failure, embarrassment or ridicule.

To some extent this fear is healthy, as it does encourage you to keep reflecting on your opportunities for growth and improvement. However, meeting it and giving it some air times, allows it to move on and creates room for you to step into the amazing human you are capable of being. Ultimately, you are in business because you have something of value to offer. If you focus your attention on the value you bring, the fears become irrelevant.