The first time I built a personal training business, I bought sales scripts. I read blog posts. I even ordered a set of CDs from a guy called the ‘Super Trainer’. I tried all kinds of things.
This time, I told myself I shouldn’t have to.
I’ve built businesses before. So when I decided to move into coaching, I expected that I could dive into it with some good momentum.
I think when you’ve already built something successful there is this pressure that the next thing you do has to be bigger and better than before. You feel like everyone who saw you do your last thing is watching and waiting and you owe it to them to do an amazing thing.
Every Monday I’d sit at my desk, staring at an email draft to a potential client, while a voice in my head whispered, “Who do you think you are?”. Or I’d find myself procrastinating hanging up the washing instead of choosing a date to run my next workshop.
The cost of needing the next thing to be bigger, better and… let’s just say it… perfect from day 1, is that it stifles experimentation. Instead of just trying things out and learning from others, you get stuck in analysis paralysis.
Then it hit me that the thing that had allowed me to build successful careers and businesses in the past, was the very thing I was missing now, a Beginner’s Mindset.
A Beginner’s Mindset is choosing to see something as if there’s still more to learn.
It requires a big dose of vulnerability because it often looks like:
- asking for help or feedback
- trying something out knowing it might not work
- being open to different ways of doing things
My brain tricked me into thinking that if I did those things, I would be a failure because I needed to look like the guy who still had everything worked out.
But instead, the opposite was true. I was taking the slow but safe feeling route, instead of the faster but messier route. Not reckless. Not careless. Just willing to learn in public instead of trying to look polished in private.
And it’s uncomfortable at times, but it’s working.
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