With over 20 years of experience in corporate and small business consulting around brand marketing, I have come to see the importance of mindset in the overall advancement of business goals and financial gain. This is especially important for small business owners because the direction of the business is driven by the founder’s vision for whatever growth size their dreams encompass. Yes, all of the old tools of audience avatars, advanced optics, and advertising automation serve to ensure that marketing campaigns capitalize most effectively, but without a mindset grounded in the values of sustainable success, I guarantee that these composition efforts will go flat. So, in order to have successful marketing movements time and time again, I highly recommend creating goals that optimize not just business development, but also personal growth in five steps:
Believe in Abundance
A depravity framework has no place in an environment where you want to attract customers to purchase your products or services. If you’re a small business owner, then you have already built your livelihood around a passion that motivated you to create a certain product or service in order to meet someone’s needs and better their lives. In order to sell your offering, you must first believe that it is sellable, which directly implies that someone has not just the desire, but also the means to purchase it from you. This might seem obvious, but you would be shocked to know how many entrepreneurs I speak to who have yet to adopt an abundance mindset.
In order to practice the belief in abundance, try inserting a daily mantra into your day. Whenever you find yourself thinking through the lens of depravity, just repeat the mantra. For me, it’s, “I am an expert and am confident that my experience, talents and skills are valuable and needed in the world.”
Set a Strong Intention
Once you believe in abundance, you can set an intention in relationship to it. You can’t ask for presents from Santa if you don’t believe in the magic of Christmas, right? The same applies here. For personal and professional goals, I will take this one step further and say, you must expect your desire to come true, not just wish it. Wishful thinking is the death of dreams. Instead, figure out what you want and then expect that it will arrive.
At this point, you want to be committed, but not attached. You can’t control how your dreams will arrive or when, but you can continue to show up consistently and confidently every day to your life and observe how small steps eventually become the realization of your intention. But what if you don’t even know what you want? How do you approach figuring that out? The answer might surprise you. Often to know what you do want, you have to know what you don’t want- or, as I say, you need to recognize your voids.
Recognize Your Voids
You may be surprised to learn that values and desires are actually a reflection of your voids, or, what is most deeply missing in your life. So, in order to figure out what you desire, you can just look at what you’re missing. Is it more financial prosperity? A loving family or partner? A sense of achievement? Personal fulfillment? Is it warm and fuzzy feelings? Better health? Safer friendships? More creative time? The perfect business team? Increased autonomy? A nice new car? 1,000 people to sign up for your new big launch? You may also be perfectly content and, in this case, your intention can just be to feel grateful.
Voids often come from challenging experiences or perceived failures in the past or limiting thoughts in the present that insist that you keep playing small even though you and your business are destined for greatness. Instead, learn to dive into your voids and learn from them. Ask yourself what would fulfill your voids not just momentarily, but sustainably? Addressing your voids can help you to learn and grow quickly. There’s nothing worse than failing or learning slowly. I call it death by paper cut. So fail fast, learn what you need to learn, and keep growing and going. Then, through studying your voids, you’ll begin to understand your values.
Own Your Values
Once you’ve identified what’s missing, you can then define your desires. Write them down in clear and concise “I” statements: I need ______, so I want ____. For example, I need more income, so I want more customers to sign up for my offer. Then, below your voids and values write down 5 practical steps that you can work on every single day to get there. Like: I can invest in digital advertising to attract clients; I can let my network know that I’m launching a new product or service; I can create beautiful social media posts celebrating the work that I do; I can collect positive feedback from former clients to well-brag to gain new customers; I can practice my daily mantra, “There are an abundance of people in the world who need my help and would benefit from my services.”
Show Up Consistently
Then, once you have a plan, you must show up consistently. This is where so many of my clients miss out big time. They practice their 5 practical steps with confidence, but when they don’t get immediate positive feedback or results, they get discouraged and quit. Don’t quit! Release the emotional energy around outcomes. Success is built through showing up over and over again especially when you aren’t awarded for it. This will help your audience to trust you as your business builds and eventually invest in your offerings because they know that they can depend on you.
Another myth spreading around the marketplace right now is that you don’t have to do things that don’t feel good. This is another reason that entrepreneurs fail: they stop as soon as their feelings shift from the initial adrenaline rush that ran their business to the rote and tedious daily tasks of maintaining one. Instead, master your emotions by directing them to different tasks. Every emotion can be used for something. If you’re feeling low, engage in activities that need strong critical thinking like administrative or financial management. If you’re feeling excited, there’s no better time to reach out to clients to initiate or renew relationships.
I’ve said this once and I’ll say it again: marketing is a mindset. If you can get your brilliant mind around not just your optics and operations, but also the opportunities available to you beyond your greatest imagination, then you will attract and achieve success. I know from watching thousands of entrepreneurs surpass their goals for over 20 years. Leadership of self must be mastered before leadership of others can be realized. How are you leading to succeed through the mindset of marketing?
