Do’s

Get over yourself- check your ego at the door.

Things are going to happen that are directly related to you, and that have nothing to do with you personally whatsoever. This is where you have to learn to get a thicker skin and check your ego. It doesn’t mean that you lose your ego altogether. It is a reminder to not take things personally. As a coach for example, I can do a sold out event on a Tuesday and have a flop on another day of the week. There are things that are just out of your control. The timing, the day of the week, the moon. Who freaking knows. You can’t always predict the behavior of your clients or customer base. This is not to say you are not responsible. Just get over yourself and get on with it. Things will go wrong. Murphy will show up on any given day, and everything that can go wrong will. Deal with it and move on. It’s not about you. Where you have the power is how you choose to proceed and how you handle the uncertainty and unpredictability of being a business owner.

Listen to yourself

You know that feeling you get deep down inside? Listen to it more often than not. It is almost always right. If something does or doesn’t feel right it is for a reason. If alarm bells are going off inside your body but you are reasoning your way in to still doing it, stop. Listen to you. If you can’t quiet the noise enough to hear yourself, take a step back to listen more clearly before you make a decision. If there is a deadline, take a 10 min walk, a shower or bath, and if possible sleep on it. When those warning instincts go up they are trying to protect you for a reason. Taking risk is part of business, however do not discount those voices entirely. They are usually right when it is all said and done.

Be confident

You’ve got this. Even when you don’t. We all get the imposter syndrome some days. Even the greats. You would be surprised. One day you will feel like you are unstoppable and the next you will wonder what you are doing with your life. Welcome to being an entrepreneur. Circle back to your why. This will remind you of why you started in the first place and give you confidence that even on the days where it doesn’t feel like it, you got this. The confidence you exude is important to show people what you are made of, but the reality is that if you don’t actually believe it they won’t either. You can’t outrun your own self image which is why we focus on growth at More Than a Desk. It is at the core of everything we do. You are capable of what you have set out to do, and if you don’t believe it then you are the only one getting in your own way.

Do it your way 

People are going to tell you what to do and how to do it. Great, thank you for your input. At the end of the day only you know what is right for you and your business. If you are misunderstood in the beginning that is a good thing. That means you’re doing something new that people are not already tired of hearing about. Let them be uncomfortable. Keep pushing forward with what feels right to you. Study and learn from others, and take what fits for your business model only. Those people who dismissed you before will be calling eventually if you stick to what you know is authentic and true. They don’t have to understand. Just keep going until they can’t ignore you anymore.

Don’ts 

Resist the hard stuff

You are invited to begin looking at something scary or hard as exciting. I love a good challenge. When you are ready you can push past your boundary and into a new comfort zone. Sometimes life will just do that for you and you have to suck it up. You can do hard things. Embrace a challenge, get excited and see hard things in life as an opportunity to grow. With that said, at the time it may feel horrible, yet you can still choose to push through and fight to keep moving forward. No but really, we can do hard things.

Be overly aggressive- it reads as desperation

Quit it with the cold messages. We hate it. No reply is a response. Promising 6 figure payouts in 30 days and cold messaging reads as a lack of experience and essentially a copy-paste marketing strategy. I am guilty of this in my early days of sales many years ago, and I can tell you from my own experience that it doesn’t work. So what does? Building authentic connection and relationships. That takes more time and skill. You will get there. The best advice I can ever give you is to build a brand that fosters connection with people and brings them to you. That is a special kind of skillset and it does not happen overnight, but you can learn how to get there. Focus on people first not what you want from them.

Forget that anything worth doing takes time 

When you set a goal it better be along the lines of in the next 10 years I will… There is no quick fix, magic bullet or overnight success. The phrase “15 minutes of fame” exists for a reason. Get to the top quick, and back down you go. Think long term. Your plans and goals can be broken into weeks, months, quarters and years. In the end they have to be incremental. Go and look at anyone who is highly successful and you will see where they started out. “Entrepreneurs are the only people willing to work 80 hours a week so we don’t have to work 40” I don’t know who said that, ok I heard it on “Shark Tank” (The TV show). This is the mentality that it takes. Your work will pay off, but if you think it is taking too long then go and take a look at the reality of what it takes to build something that sticks in this world.

Believe that you are have to hustle for your worth. You are already worthy. Hustle away.

Not much to say here. I am a hustler. I do it for the love of the game. The one thing that is already established before the hustle begins: Your self-worth. So often we believe we have to hustle in order to prove that we are worthy to keep hustling. Nope. Already worthy. Full stop. You are enough. You have always been enough. There is nothing to prove to you or anyone else in that regard. Now with that said, if you are like me, hustle away while remembering to find a balance to stop and take time to take care of yourself too. Just start from I am already worthy rather than I am hustling so I can be worthy.

Want more tips on Do’s and Don’ts for Entrepreneurs, and Coaching in Growth and Leadership Development?