I’ve been stewing about what to bring you this week.  And sometimes as with all business decisions we just need to decide.  Decision fatigue is real for business owners but this is also true, just deciding is freeing and creates the movement we need.  Just a quick tip that I needed this morning to get rolling.

I say it often but it bears repeating, what you think really matters.  What you believe really matters especially around your own identity and self concept.  So today I’m jumping into…

Are you in Employee or Owner mindset?  

And of course if you own and have been running a business for any amount of time, you’re going to say owner.  But I think there can be so many ingrained ways that we show up like employees in our own dang business.

How do you know?

Even though you set your hours, you chose to open a business, you resent how hard you’re working.  

We create a business, start having lovely clients to serve and our mind gets triggered at times with thoughts like this:  I have too much to do, I don’t want to work today, this is hard, my clients are so demanding.  As if a BOSS was hovering over you giving you marching orders.  

Even though you are the boss of you…..

These thoughts can be partially true, but that is not the point.  Yes there are some things we need to do for our business that we just don’t want to do.  

The thoughts in your mind can steal your motivation, your energy and expertise.  

The brain will search for all of the evidence that it is hard, that you’d rather be golfing or doing anything else but working today but it really isn’t true. It’s a sneaky pattern and it can be robbing you of the energy and pride that come from stepping in and running your business.

So, if you find resisting any normal Wednesday after you thoughtfully and carefully planned it out last Sunday.  If you find yourself resisting working with the clients you worked so hard to bring in the door……..you might be in an employee mindset.  As if you work from some old, mean bossy boss.

Good news it is easy to fix. 

And like any owner it feels awful to be in the powerless mental position of feeling like a victim of our own business.  But that is what it feels like.  This is a victim mentality in a really sneaky way. 

Quick example:  The first year that I opened my coaching practice, my coach gave me an amazing opportunity.  She was running a group program and hired me to coach all 10 of her VIP clients 1:1.  Yes, Brooke Castillo herself (for any of you LCS folk) asked me to coach her clients.  What an amazing opportunity.  It’d be like an attorney taking the overflow of one of the best attorney’s in Atlanta, trusting you with their work or the overflow of a successful realtor in Atlanta, handing over 10 clients and saying go! And thank you for your help.

I was thrilled don’t get me wrong.  But in the middle of one of my full days of coaching, I found myself saying, “Oh wow, now I have so much work to do”  “I don’t want to work today”. “I have to coach clients”  OMG I was in the middle of a dream job contract with my coach and I was having a mental tantrum.  What?

Oh the mind can be such a jerk sometimes, and offer us opposing thoughts.  I was super GRATEFUL for this opportunity but I was complaining about ALL THE HARD WORK at the same time.

It was an old familiar thought that my boss was making me work too hard.  It felt like it popped up out of nowhere.  I do remember catching myself in one of the moments, are you crazy! This is an opportunity of a lifetime!!

I loved those clients, some of them are dear friends and many are colleagues today.  How fun is that.  But my brain COULD have sabotaged all that by not interrupting the resistance to what i really wanted to do, coach some amazing clients. 

So my challenge for you this week is to notice when your mind, un-managed, goes to a complaining voice, any thought that makes you resist the beautiful work you have set out to do in the world.  Yes there are days we just have to do our work, and it isn’t glamorous.  But there are also so many old thought patterns that can pop up that can steal the joy we can have at running a business, literally sabotaging the great work you’re up to.

Employee mindset in its most simplistic terms makes you feel like you feel like a victim of your own business, like you have a harsh boss that is making you work really hard. That is making you work all of the hours with no pay, blah blah blah. 

Owner mindset is so much more empowering and is where you might notice that you over loaded your calendar and are quite worn out by 5:30 and notice that you’re going to plan better next time.  Owner mindset remembers and is super proud of the clients that you have brought in the door.  Owner mindset is focused on serving your clients at a high level and making decisions that serve you and your clients in the best way ever.

Remember the mind is sneaky, these thoughts can pop up without our permission.  It’s just another beautiful opportunity to manage that powerful brain of yours, THE most important resource in your business.

Catching yourself when you’re NOT feeling it and not motivated is one of the best ways to get more motivated and to take more action in your business.  This is your opportunity to literally increase your capacity and your productivity.  Best part, more intrinsically ENJOY your work.  Bonus points.

1. Notice when you’re frustrated with your workload or you day ahead
2. Catch the ‘poor me’ ‘I have to work’ thoughts that are flying in.
3. Take a breath,  interrupt that thought.
4. Remember what you’re up to in your work, remember how important you are to the clients you’re serving, make it easier on yourself by stepping back into the owner mindset.  
5. This is powerfully taking responsibility for the day you planned, the clients you have secured and are serving well and making decisions that serve your business’s future.  

All that is necessary is catching your mind when it’s in employee mode and pulling it back.  Nothing has gone wrong that you’re here, don’t judge where you are, step into where you want to go. 

Before you go thinking your coach today isn’t needing her own tools, like ALL OF THE TIME. Because we’re human and we have a brain that invites us, yes invites us to manage it.  

Next week I’m going to dive into how you can take this one step further.  Here we’re catching ourselves in a headspace we don’t want to be, next week I’m going to talk about investing some time in thinking and believing in a way that solidifies a powerful mindset or belief.  

Have a great week. You’re the best and you’re doing a great job!!!

If you’d LOVE to have the support of a coach while you run that amazing business of yours, hit me up.  I’d love to share with you how I work with clients and give you an opportunity to see if this is what you need right now. I work with growth mindset owners like yourself.