Rav: For small business owners and entrepreneurs, mindset could mean various things. Some of us might have heard of growth mindset and fixed mindset from the book, Growth Mindset by Professor Carol Dweck. But here we are talking about something else. For business owners, sometimes mindset means accountability. And sometimes, it might just be staying positive, taking a break to do that. So today, we are going to talk about the top three Mistakes Business Owners Make when it comes to mindset.
Hello, business owners. I’m your host, Rav Mediratta from Sociosquares, and landing leads is where my business leads. If this is the first time you have landed on one of these videos, this is where I interview successful business owners, business coaches, and other experts and they share proven practices for business success. Depending on where you might be watching this, don’t forget to hit like follow or subscribe. Now let’s get into it. Today we are going to talk about the top three Mistakes Business Owners Make when it comes to mindset. And I have an expert on this subject. Buddy McMahon. Buddy is an expert entrepreneur who’s built and sold a large plumbing business in the field of architecture and has been an action coach for the past few years. Buddy, welcome. And thank you so much for doing this.
Buddy: Thank you, Rav. I’m happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
Rav: It would be great if you could tell our audience a little bit more about yourself and your experiences with mindset.
Buddy: Sure, I think, you know, what I recommend to clients is something I recommended myself years ago is to make a little sign for your bathroom mirror that says you are looking at the problem. I did, so you know. You know the mindset is about accountability. And it’s about just getting real with yourself. So my background, I was a plumbing contractor for years, and I’ve morphed that into a sort of a high-end renovation entity. And then, I moved on to New York City to work in the design community, repping really high-end plumbing products. And it did a number of things over the years since then since I sold the business. But landing as an action coach and getting just immersed in all of this great stuff that we have for business owners has just made me look back at myself as a young entrepreneur and realize just how much I could have used this. First of all, and you know, and how typical I was in terms of just trying to slug it out and figure it out on my own. It’s not necessary, and there is a way out of the spin cycle in the madness. Happy to say
Rav: Interesting. Yep. So you’ve been through it. All right, you’ve seen the ups and downs of building a business, and you know that mindset can vary by the day by the client. If your day starts with an angry client, it can ruin the ones coming later in the day as well. So how do you maneuver through a day when you’re having a bad mindset? Or what would you say are the top strategies when it comes to mindset to stay focused and be in the right mindset?
Buddy: Well, we have a thing that an action coach called the point of power. And below the point are blame excuses and denial. Above the point are ownership, accountability, and responsibility. So what we would say is if you’re having a bad day, or a flat tire or something, you know, if you need to go outside and scream at the moon and dust yourself off and have a little pity party for a minute, go do that. But then dust yourself off and come back in and get back above the point, be accountable and own what’s going on and be responsible. That’s how to shift it. And so practice makes perfect. If we’re not good at that in the beginning. You know, we’ll catch ourselves slipping below the point faster as we get better at that skill.
Rav: Interesting. So you’re saying that the focus should be staying above the point, and if you catch yourself, you do some certain steps, or what do you can you give an example of how you would do it if you were in that scenario?
Buddy: I think, Well, for me, it’s just an awareness of saying wow, I’m getting upset about something or you know, that last person just made me crazy or whatever the case may be, and I need to snap out of it. I need to refocus and have some kind of a reset. If that means take a break, take a walk, you know, listen to some music or whatever works for you. But to catch the negative downslide, you know as early as possible and reverse it.
Rav: Interesting. That’s pretty cool. I remember reading one of the books. And I forget the author now, start with why I think the book’s name was? And I think it was by Simon Sinek. Yeah, I think he says that whenever something negative happens, our body produces a chemical called cortisol. And that’s interesting. You mentioned taking a walk or listening to music because I think those are two strategies that can help us lower our cortisol. So thank you for suggesting that. That’s, I’ll definitely try that out. Now, let’s talk about the top mistakes or the top three mistakes you have seen business owners make when it comes to mindset?
Buddy:
1. Collective Vision: Well, I think, first of all, I would say action coach’s definition of a business is important to share. We say it’s a commercial, profitable enterprise that works. And finally, without you.
2. Division of Work: The typical mistake that entrepreneurs make is they create a job rather than a business. So they think they have to do everything, they think they’re responsible for everything, and they’re focused on the work as being more important than running the business. So if I’m a good plumber, if I’m a good florist, if I’m a good dentist, I play to my strengths, and I go by a good dentist. But I may not be that great. No one is about just the day-to-day running of a business and, you know, just the basics.
3. Choosing Degree over Potential: I think I used to think it was a matter of education until I met a lot of MBAs that said they didn’t teach us any of this stuff in college either. Because you’re trained to basically climb the corporate ladder in America for those kinds of things, so that, you know, entrepreneur 101 running a small business, that, you know, our mission is to, to create world abundance through business re-education. And so I think, if people aren’t availing themselves of all that education, and have the accountability partner the accountability piece in there because I mean, I can read, and agree with all the best advice of the world, but I’m human. And so, I might lack the discipline or the follow-through to put that stuff in place without the accountability.
Rav: That’s pretty cool. So the first thing I heard is that the first one is that entrepreneurs work in the business versus working on the business. Second, you’re saying that they don’t have an accountability partner. And as humans, they are not able to catch themselves making some mistakes without that accountability partner? And a third one, can you repeat that? Sorry?
Buddy: Well, I would just say to your earlier point that if I’m a committee of one, then I get to always be right. And that’s not a good thing. You know, my ego might think it’s a good thing for a minute, but, you know, I would like a partner in my thinking and someone to run things by and not feel. So all alone on the island of my little business.
Rav: Got it. All right. Great. Thank you for sharing. And I’m sure I mean like you talked about this. When you were highlighting the mistakes, the solutions are right there. But do you recommend certain things business owners should absolutely do to not get into this trap of making these mistakes?
Buddy: Planning, goal setting, you know, it’s just failing to plan is planning to fail. And I think the classic mistake is the small business owner is putting out fires all the time jumping on grenades, so to speak. And you know, that catches our attention, we chase the shiny object, a squirrel with There we go, off we go. And so to really commit, have it on. Are you on your daily planning calendar? Is it time for you and your business plan there? So if I work on my business from 11 to 12, three days a week, and someone wants an 11 o’clock appointment with me that day, I just say, Hey, I’m so sorry. I’ve got an appointment at 11. How about 12? Does that work for you? They don’t need to know the appointments with you. But unless you carve out that time, you’re just going to go into overwhelm. And that’s what produces burnout. And that’s why we have such dismal business failure rates.
Rav: That’s so interesting. And I’m guilty of this because I set aside time for reading and studying. But if a client wants that time or wants a meeting during that time slot, I give it up. So thank you for pointing that out and remember to do that next time.
Buddy: Who never knows that
Rav: True That. Now I have one final question for you. And I got to ask, because I run a digital marketing company, what is the best digital marketing strategy that has worked for your business?
Buddy: Well, we have a lot of in-house marketing material that’s excellent within the franchise. But in terms of vehicles, I would say Google My Business, Facebook, LinkedIn, you know, what I’m familiar with. And I would add to that, that, you know, an important thing for me to learn was, I don’t know what I don’t know. And so I also know what I don’t want to know. And I don’t necessarily an expert in going into the weeds about algorithms. It is not that interesting to me. But I know it needs to be dealt with. So I need somebody like you to do that for me. So, my challenge is finding someone like you and giving you the opportunity to say, you know, bring in the leads, which is your cat’s line. I really love that. And then a business coach would in turn, take you and teach you how to convert more of those leads and make them more profitable, and how to work it all out. And what’s the marketing plan, how to always make a profit on a marketing strategy, you know, whatever, whatever campaign you’re running should make a profit. And people look at it as a cost or a hassle. And it’s just that it should be a customer-producing machine.
Rav: Right, right. Absolutely. I love the fact that Google Business Pages or Google My Business works for your business, and you hit the nail on the head that marketing should be profitable, not not a cost center. And I love the point which you made about it. We should know what we don’t know and rely on an expert for that. And I think all the viewers today would rely on you for being there, their accountability partner, and being a coach through their business-building process. Buddy, thank you so much for doing this. This was a great session. I definitely got a lot of valuable insights. And I’m sure our viewers did as well. Thank you.
Buddy: Thanks so much for having me. I enjoyed it.
