Episode 613: 5 Mindset Tweaks for Entrepreneurial Success (Mindset & Self-Care)

EBT613 – 5 Mindset Tweaks for Entrepreneurial Success

Intro  00:01

Hey food bloggers. Thank you so much for joining me in this mindset and self-care focused episode here on Eat Blog Talk. One of the reasons I started a blog talk was to hold a space to talk about the importance of mindset and self-care. Being an entrepreneur can be a lot. If we are not taking care of ourselves, then getting actionable information about SEO Pinterest or whatever else is all moot. I will meet you back here every Wednesday to discuss various mindset and self-care topics. So you have the energy and space to tackle the rest.

Sponsor (Caro Jensen)  00:37

Thanks Megan for the opportunity to share my video services with your listeners. My name is Caro and I have a food blog called Caroha.com. Video is time-consuming. It’s another skill that you might not want to master right now. And that’s where I can help you. I confidentially shoot for bloggers who need videos for existing or new recipes. I mentioned look and feel it will help establish a new video style as well. I can create simple hands and pens, videos or more complex edits that include multiple angles and those really captivating slow motions. I deliver a variety of edits for all platforms horizontal vertical square edits, I just want to make sure that my clients can leverage my work as much as possible. All videos are color graded, have engaging transitions, branded titles updated, etc. You can check off my portfolio on carojensen.com, CAROJENSEN.com. If you need help with video on 2024, please get in touch.

Megan Porta  01:23

Hello friends. Welcome to this episode of Eat Blog Talk focused on mindset. Today, we are going to talk about five mindset tweaks for entrepreneurial success. In last week’s episode, I talked about a conference I attended recently, and I focused on some things that I observed that high quality high achievers do. And as I continue to process my time at the event, I’m realizing that I have a handful of other episodes that will probably come from processing the event so to be continued on that, by the way, if you haven’t listened to last week’s episode, you’re probably wondering what I’m talking about. I went to a two-day in person, mastermind, kind of workshop conference where 40 ish entrepreneurs got together to just collaborate and learn from each other and learn from speakers. There it was just an incredible experience. I went back through the notes that I took while at the event, and I noticed that there were some mindset related things that I jotted down and that have stayed at the top of my mind as I’ve gone through my week. So I would love to share those with you, because each of them is really small and fairly easy to implement, but I anticipate when they’re implemented, they’ll become really big, powerhouse moves. So I’m going to talk today through five mindset tweaks for entrepreneurial success. 

Megan Porta  02:47

Number one is have faith in yourself. We listened to only a handful of speakers who gave talks at this event, but all of them were just filled with inspiration, insights and so much wisdom. One of the talks came from Dr Jeff Spencer, who is an Olympic athlete. He’s a business coach. He coaches Olympic gold medalist and world record holders, so he has an extensive history with high performance coaching. And he threw out a couple little nuggets that just held a few simple words, but that were really powerful. One of them was to have faith in yourself. This really resonated with me. So often I will bounce into anxiety and I’ll start worrying about something that I don’t need to worry about. I do this daily. It’s so silly, it takes up so much of my energy. So hearing this from Dr Spencer was my reminder to just call myself out when I start doubting myself, and to just stop. Here is an example this morning before I started work, I thought through my calendar. I thought I have three interviews today, followed by two hours to do some other miscellaneous work. So I had it in my mind exactly what was going to happen, and I also knew that at that moment, I had 45 minutes before my interviews began. So I broke the time down in my mind, okay, I have 15 minutes to get ready, 15 minutes to meditate and 15 minutes to prep for my interviews. I have done this hundreds of times. 45 minutes allows plenty of time for me to get these three things done, no problem. So I’m five minutes into my meditation, and I start thinking about my interviews. Who am I talking to today? I’ll need to get the script sorted out. I’ll need to plug in my mic and open audition, and then I stop myself, because this is all stuff that I can work and think through during my 15 minutes of prep. There was no need for me to give it any attention during my precious meditating time, sometimes I just need to stop and remember that I know what I’m doing. I do not need to second guess myself. I need to have faith in my past experience, my abilities and my knowledge if someone else were second guessing me, if my husband popped into my office during my meditation time to ask me if I knew who I was going to be interviewing today, and if I had set up my mic yet, I would absolutely freak out on him. So why do we question ourselves? Having more faith in ourselves keeps us from wasting energy. Energy is such a valuable resource, and it will also boost our confidence. So I’m encouraging you to have faith in yourself today and this week. You know what you’re good at, you know what you can get done. Don’t second guess yourself. Have the faith you need in you. 

Megan Porta  05:46

Number two, let it simmer. Another message I took away from the event, and this came from a number of people who I talked to and listened to, was to not rush to allow things to simmer when they need to simmer, if a pan of pasta sauce is simmering on the stove, there’s absolutely nothing you can do to rush the process right. The only thing it needs once all of the ingredients have been added is thyme. You know that if you allow it to sit for as long as it needs, the flavors will be robust and it will be just totally delicious in the end, but you have to let it sit. You cannot rush it. The same thing applies to projects, problems, healing and growth. I am notorious for impatiently trying to rush things, and it’s probably part of the reason I have ongoing energy issues. Honestly, I remember the story from when I was a kid, and it comes to mind often, for some reason, there’s probably a good reason it comes to mind often. When I was about five years old, I desperately wanted to sleep in a bunk bed, just like that, like all of a sudden, I decided I want to sleep in a bunk bed so my mom told me that she would be able to put bunk beds together, but that she didn’t have everything she needed at that moment in time, and that I would have to wait a few days. This was not acceptable to five year old little me. I threw an absolute fit. I remember being just ridiculous. I wanted her to put those bunk beds together pronto. I fought with her. I remember crying and screaming, and I also remember her being just totally exasperated with me to the point where she finally caved. Then I watched her very angrily Cobb all these bunk beds together in my sister’s bedroom. Who knows if they were even safe? I don’t think I really cared at the time. I just wanted them together, but that memory is a reminder that it’s kind of in my DNA to be impatient and to want things now. Allowing things to simmer has also been a good life lesson for me that I’ve had to embrace over time. Sometimes the best things in life are the things we wait patiently for. That has certainly been the case with my blogging business and my podcast and so many other pieces of my business and my life. Both my blog and my podcast have been long projects slash ventures in the making, and they’ve both definitely been worth waiting for. 

Megan Porta  08:23

I chatted with a handful of different people at the event last week who talked about being in seasons of burnout recently. If you have been listening to these mindset episodes, you will know that I can really relate to this. I’m still emerging from a very hard season of burnout. One woman at the event talked about her burnout, then she talked about all these business projects and ideas she wanted to accomplish, and then kind of wondered out loud if she should fast track her burnout and just decide to be done with it. That was kind of the gist of her thinking. And I get it, I have the same thought often for my own situation, like, why can’t it just be done now? But when I hear someone else say it, I’m like, No, we have to allow burnout and healing to simmer and do its thing in its own time before it’s done cooking. The same thing applies to really everything in our businesses, so projects, new ventures, periods of learning, periods of healing, periods of growth. It all has its unique simmer time, and we need to honor it. 

Megan Porta  09:30

Number three, embrace the champion mindset. I mentioned Dr Jeff Spencer in point number one, and this point also comes from him. A message he imparted to us was to ditch the default human mindset, which is based in self preservation and comes from that survival mode that we’re all familiar with, and to embrace the champions mind, which is where we can find our true potential. I cannot stop thinking about this message. It’s like when we have an inspired idea about something we should do, almost like it’s delivered directly from God. You know, those ideas, then our human mind starts chiming in. It’s like a dysfunctional, unsupportive parent questioning why you would want to do that. Are you sure you don’t want to settle back into the way you’ve always done things? This new idea feels really scary. It probably won’t work out anyway. It’s that whole train of thinking that’s kind of built into us. I think if we start observing what happens after an inspired idea comes our way, or we’re hit by a wave of motivation about a new, scary venture, we know we should try, we will see that back and forth conversation that happens between the scared, impulsive part of us and the champion that wants to burst out. Sadly, I think most of the time, we listen to that default voice that urges us to just continue being afraid and little but what if we start taking a stand and gently tell that voice that the champion inside of us is going to overrule it? What awesome things could we accomplish? So I’m encouraging you to, number one, be aware of these internal battles and conversations, and number two, take a stand against them. Take a stand against the pessimist who lives inside of you. Something I’ve been really intentional about doing this week that aligns with the champion mindset is to take action when I’m feeling bold. I’ve called out my scared, perfectionist human mindset a few times, and declared courage. Then in my moment of courage, I took action. It was really scary, but I knew it was right, and it felt really good. I think if we wait to take action, it just doesn’t happen. But if we just act during those moments when we feel like champions, so many bold, awesome things will emerge. 

Megan Porta  11:49

Number four, don’t be afraid to ask. Another takeaway from the event was to not shy away from asking for what you want or need. We took time every single one of us on stage, as well as at our separate tables, to ask each other for things that would help move our businesses forward. Honestly, it felt a little uncomfortable, because it almost feels like we’re putting people out by asking them to do things for us. But it also felt really empowering when others made their asks at the event, I wasn’t judging them. I wasn’t thinking that they were putting me out at all. I was carefully thinking through ways that I could actually help them. Most humans want to help their fellow humans succeed and find happiness. So that means that other people want to help us succeed and find happiness. Another speaker at the event was Mark Victor Hansen. He’s the author of all of those really famous Chicken Soup for the Soul books, one of the many books he has written, so many books, I can’t even tell you he mentioned it was somewhere in the hundreds of books. I mean, so many. So one of the books he’s written, along with his wife, Cheryl Dwyer Hansen, is called Ask: The Bridge from Your dDeams to Your Destiny, which we got at the event, and I began reading on my flight home from Los Angeles. It’s so good, I tore through it, and I really highly recommend it for you, too. But in the book, they talk about the three places you can go to ask for things you want yourself, others and God, speaking for myself, I can get so caught up in ruminating about things and deeply wanting things, but not letting it go any further than that, I forget to ask for them, which, when said out loud, seems a little bit silly, right? I’m hoping you have a trusted network of friends and peers who you can ask for things from. I encourage you to go to them this week and make an ask, see what happens. It will likely be well received, and something fruitful will probably come from it. Also ask yourself some questions you’d like answers to. You never know what insights you have for yourself. And of course, ask God any question, and you’re guaranteed to get an answer back in some form. 

Megan Porta  14:04

Number five, win the day. The name of this event that I’m talking about was called win the day mastermind. It was hosted by the incredible James Whitaker, who is the host at win the day podcast. If you’ve never listened to his podcast, add it to your list. It is packed with value, so much inspiration, so many gems, and it just has an overarching, positive, helpful theme. And his guests are super high quality people. James brings this concept into every interaction he has with people. He asks, How do you win the day? So I’m going to leave you with this question, how do you win the day? How do you set yourself up for success? How do you ensure that you have a positive, fulfilling day, filled with love, joy, peace, all the good things you want. Winning the day is about setting yourself up for success, both mentally and physically every single day. James lives by this philosophy, encouraging all of us to focus on the small daily victories that ultimately lead to long term success. It could mean sticking to your morning routine, making time for self care every day, exercising or tackling the most important tasks to start the day, whatever it is for you, it’s definitely a mindset shift that empowers you to build and gain that momentum to stay positive and just create lasting change in your life and business. So I’ll end this point with the question, how do you win the day? And I want you to answer that, either in your head or out loud to somebody or maybe in your journal. To conclude, in this episode, we talked about five mindset tweaks that can have a profound impact on your entrepreneurial journey, having faith in yourself, letting things simmer, embracing the champion mindset, not being afraid to ask for what you need and win the day. Each of these shifts is small but very powerful, and when you apply them consistently, they can help you to overcome challenges, stay motivated and really unlock that full potential that is hiding inside of you, just encouraging you to reflect on these mindset tweaks this week and see how you can start applying them to your life and your business. Thank you for being here. I love doing these mindset episodes. If you ever have topics you want me to cover, reach out and let me know. Otherwise, I will see you back here next week. 

Outro 

Thank you so much for listening to this mindset and self-care episode here on Eat Blog Talk. If you are a food blogger providing a service for other food bloggers, and you want to spread the word about the value that you offer. I would love to offer you a free way to do just this. Send me a 60 second audio clip to be featured in a mindset and self-care episode here on Eat Blog Talk in 2024. Go to eatblogtalk.com/audioclip to learn more.