For three years, I ran a business where nothing was really going right. Despite doing everything I was supposed to do, clients weren’t converting. And the ones who did didn’t stay long.
I kept looking at the strategy because I thought it had to be the problem. It was the only possible systemic issue I could think of. But no matter how much I wanted to believe it was the problem, it wasn’t.
What was actually running every decision, every prospect interaction, every marketing piece I released, and every sales call I made were 3 voices I hadn’t figured out how to stop listening to: You’re not credible enough. People won’t pay you that. You don’t deserve it.
Until I dealt with those, no amount of strategizing was going to fix anything.
I had to develop an entrepreneur mindset before I could actually succeed as an entrepreneur. Because my mindset was what everything else flowed through. It’s the foundation and what makes things possible or not.
For those three years, my foundation was definitely in the not category.
Your Strategy Is Fine. Here’s What’s Happening to It.
What I’ve learned in the years since is that someone’s strategy is not usually where the problems lie. It’s often a mindset issue, and it shows up in interesting ways.
It might show up in pricing that’s based on what you believe people will actually pay and what you believe you’re worth, instead of on market rates and the value you deliver.
It could be what’s making delegation so hard. You might have the exact team you need, but you can’t quite bring yourself to trust them. Or you might not have the exact team you need because you don’t believe you can afford, or maybe even deserve, them.
You may even be making commitments to clients, your team, your family, or even your mentor that you’ll do something, and then something else frequently gets in the way of keeping your commitment.
If you’re operating with an outdated and definitely non-entrepreneur mindset, then every profit lever you try to pull is compromised. And what I find especially intriguing is that you can always find mindset issues running the show if you’ve hit a plateau.
What Does a Powerful Entrepreneur Mindset Do for Your Business?
It removes the friction and energy leaks that sabotage your strategies.
Imagine a business owner with a scarcity mindset who decides to raise their prices because their market and value will support it. And when they start to tell someone their new prices, they hesitate, stutter, or apologize. Or maybe they do all three!
What their prospect takes away from the obvious discomfort the business owner has talking about their pricing is that the offer isn’t really worth it.
So the strategy was rock solid, but the scarcity mindset caused it to fail.
Now, imagine the same business owner after addressing their scarcity mindset. This time, when they raise their prices, they know their market and value will still support it, and they have an abundance mindset. They confidently state their prices, and their prospect can feel their confidence, which translates to the increased revenue the strategy is supposed to deliver.
A powerful entrepreneur mindset makes you feel more confident, and it makes your business perform better.
How Is an Entrepreneur Mindset Different from a Growth Mindset?
An entrepreneur mindset is the applied version of a growth mindset. This is an important distinction.
Carol Dweck defined “growth mindset” as the belief that abilities, talents, and intelligence can be developed through effort. Belief is necessary to create a powerful foundation to operate from, but it’s not enough.
An entrepreneur mindset is built on a growth mindset. It helps you know what to do with the belief inherent in a growth mindset. It’s what allows you to take the necessary actions.
It can support you in doing things like holding a premium price without flinching, delegating without hovering, and saying no to things that threaten your ability to deliver on your commitments.
Understanding the difference between these two mindsets is what separates owners who study growth from those who create it.
Back to Those Three Years…
I didn’t develop an entrepreneur mindset overnight or with the flip of a switch.
First, I had to admit that I had a fixed mindset. That was a hard one because I thought I knew all about growth mindsets, so I had to have had one.
Then I had a community and a mentor who believed in me long before I believed in myself. They were patiently there for me as I worked through it all.
Then, one day, I just decided to stop waiting to feel ready. I was determined to do what I needed to do. To use my resources, both internal and external, and start moving forward. I stopped letting those 3 little voices run the sales conversations I was avoiding.
This was the moment my entrepreneur mindset was in place.
My results shifted almost immediately. People started saying yes, my closing rates climbed, and clients stayed longer.
My strategy was EXACTLY the same. I was the only thing that changed. I was a new person who not only knew growth was possible, but who regularly took action to make it happen.
And the most beautiful thing about this is that I’ve watched client after client (and friend after friend) have the same type of transformation. We’ve all gone from a strategy that looks great on paper but doesn’t work until we shift to an entrepreneur mindset.
What’s the Biggest Challenge to Achieving an Entrepreneur Mindset?
For most, the biggest challenge is that they’re unaware of their limiting mindset because it’s normal to them. It’s simply how they view the world, and it rarely occurs to anyone that they need to change their worldview because it’s part of who they are. (This is why I focused on my strategy and struggled to understand why it worked for others, but not for me.)
You can even read all about what needs to happen and agree with it wholeheartedly, but that doesn’t mean you can make it happen on your own or even recognize how you can shift. Knowing and doing are two very different things.
And this is why so many business owners get stuck. They try to use the same thinking that created the problem to solve the problem. It just doesn’t work.
The quickest way to have an entrepreneur mindset is to find someone who can see what you can’t.
When I see business growth strategies that work, I see a leader who is committed to their own growth and not just the business’s.
