8 Powerful Angles to Solve Mediocrity

After just finishing up with a client’s business retreat in San Diego – I’m returning home excited about my clients’ business, my personal business and most importantly YOUR business. 

Let me tell you, I’m not sure if I’ve ever been more INSPIRED by a group of women. 

Flying in from all over North America, the team of contractors got together for a few jam-packed days of intense 2020 biz visioning, including marketing, content, and launch plans for the upcoming year. It turned into a brilliant mastermind, and some pretty lofty goals were born. 

Every time someone got up to speak, I was holding onto their words like Jack and Rose: I’ll never let go!

To help bottle up the powerful week, I’m passing along eight quotes for you that got mentioned throughout my trip. No matter where you’re at in your small business, you can soak up these powerful statements and apply them to yourself. 

Let’s go! 

1. Leaders grow other leaders. There, I said it. Leaders don’t grow their net worth, or their client base, or their list size… They grow other leaders. When you can surround yourself with others who live by this motto, then the way you view business, goals, money, power, and life will change radically.

2. Shift your vocab from “yes but” to “yes and…”. This is a mindset shift I’ve been working on for a while now. When you’re trying to explain your viewpoint to someone, I challenge you to simply shift your phrase from “yes, but….” to “yes, and….”  Just humor me and try it. See how the convo immediately changes from a defensive one to an opportunistic one.

3. “You cannot fail unless you quit.” Mr. Lincoiln coined this bad boy… what a smart man he was! Listen, it’s okay if your launch was a bust, it’s alright if you need to pivot your offer, and it’s not all for lost if you miss your income goals. Hell, JK Rowling kept preserving after 12 declines from publishers (along with a personal note to go find a day job because no child would ever read her books). And Giselle Bundchen kept modeling after being rejected 42 times for her big nose and small eyes…(I mean comon’, she’s a babe!) The point is KEEP. GOING!

4. “Success is 90% intention, 10% mechanism.” You can have all the motivation and plans, but the real factor in moving the dial is your INTENTION. Hense the business retreat I just attended – it was all about not only mapping out our 6, 12, 18-month goals but meticulously planning out each and every step within those overarching goals. AKA the intention behind our plans. The HOW we’re going to make it all happen. Richard Branson (CEO of Virgin Group) can be quoted saying, “Without intention, there can be no productivity, and in turn no success.” Truth.

5. “Big Results Demand Big Action” (via Tony Robins). No, Tony wasn’t at the retreat. But he mentioned this on stage once, and the quote came up in conversation this week. The thing is, all these ‘overnight’ successes we hear about – they didn’t happen overnight. They happened over many loooong nights, and the only reason it seems like it all happened quick to us is that they weren’t in the spotlight during their struggle. You’re encouraged to have some big goals and big plans (heck yes!) and then you’re encouraged to back em up with some big action! A little “walk the walk,” one might say.

6. “Leaders are change masters, knowing that possibilities are created out of nothing and that all obstacles are opportunities.” Change is inevitable. So instead of always be being behind the 8-ball and reacting to change, why not get ahead of it, open up other doors, look through your options with a different lens… What if you challenged other’s ideas? What if you took a new route? What if you increased your income goal by 30%, even when the invoice gets turned down? Get curious about your possibilities and capabilities!

7. “The work that you’re doing matters. When life happens (and it will), don’t sell out on your dream.” If I sold out on my daydream, I’d STILL be sitting in my corporate office (heck it was barely even a cubicle), plugging away in my lifeless outlook calendar and hearing my employees complain about how low the oil stock price is. Ugh! Listen, WHAT YOU’RE DOING MATTERS, and please, don’t give up on it when life gets a little rocky.

8. “Be the CEO of your life.” YOU get to decide the process of your projects, YOU get to determine your morning routine, YOU get to plan out your monthly calendar. Nobody else. YOU are in control of your life path. Don’t be afraid of failure – the only thing you should be afraid of is finding yourself years down the road and being in the exact same spot as you are now. Put yourself out there, don’t be afraid of what others think, and learn to show up as the CEO of Y-O-U.

BOOM!

Soak up these quotes up and stick ‘em in your think tank for when you need them next. I can already see shifts in my mindset and interactions (most evidently from #2!). 

Which quote will YOU implement into your day?