Written by: Kate Greunke, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
I struggled with confidence as a woman and a business owner for a long time, mainly because I thought confidence came from my external circumstances and could only be created once I was successful.
Yeah, I was wrong about that. As it turns out, confidence comes first. Success comes second. But more on that later.
For the first couple years of my career, I fiddled around in an awkward attempt to start a business and kept looking at the sky, waiting for that confidence to come raining down and save me from my insecurities.
The fact that I dared to start a business in the first place felt so wrong that I actually spent a lot of time and money doing unnecessary things to boost my own insecurities, such as posting prolifically on social media and buying followers. I thought I was trying to prove myself to potential clients, but I was really just trying to convince myself that I was worthy.
That was a “me” issue. It was all me, and only I could change it. Today I’m going to walk you through the lessons I’ve learned since then that have catapulted my business to heights I never could have imagined.
If you have big dreams of running a successful business and no longer feeling intimidated by marketing or business ownership, here are the four mindset hacks you need to implement.
1. Marketing is just a relationship
Confucius once said, “Life is really simple but we insist on making it complicated.”
It’s true, but many of us would like to believe that we are the exception, that we and our businesses really are complicated. The truth is that our lives aren’t plagued with difficulties any more unusual than the next person. There is an odd amount of comfort in that.
To get off the downward spiral of thinking that we have it harder than the next person, the first and only thing we can do is change our thought patterns. What we think becomes how we act. It’s the epitome of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Believe that your business or marketing is complicated, and it will be. Believe that you are going to struggle, and you will. But the opposite is also true: Believe in the simplicity of your business and in the solidarity of your marketing message and both will ring true.
2. Manifesting isn’t a real marketing strategy
Some people claim that manifesting has helped them reach their goals, but the new age definition of manifestation is simply the grown up version of wishing upon a star. Manifesting ignores real components of life and psychology, such as the fact that your thoughts create your feelings, and your feelings produce your actions, and your actions produce results.
You might be a hardcore manifester. You’re free to think that way. However, no one has gotten what they want by wishing it into existence. You’ll find that behind every successful business is the conscious, responsible, consistent effort of someone who staunchly refuses to give up.
3. You and your business have equal opportunity
Do you believe that other people have more natural ability or opportunity for success than you do? That belief will keep you stuck in the same place you’ve always been, which is clearly not where you want to be.
Instead, try out this mindset:
Everyone has the same capacity to create their own opportunities - not the same opportunities, but the very same capacity to create their own opportunity. You and the next person might have different abilities, but not different levels of ability.
You might say, “Oh, but you are forgetting about all the people who live in third world countries or others who are underprivileged and don't have the resources to launch a business in the first place, much less market one.”
Who are we to put limitations on other people? And who am I to assume what they can or cannot achieve? More privilege doesn’t necessarily mean a better business.
Privilege is a neutral thing. It can fuel your professional goals forward if used well, allowing you to create jobs and support your community. But if squandered, privilege can lead to lazy, lackadaisical business practices and a real lack of grit.
On the other end of the spectrum, feeling like you are underprivileged can hurt your business, too, by making you think your capabilities are less and that your opportunities for advancement are too rare. This can easily become an excuse for probable failure.
At some point in your life, someone has probably tried to disempower you by saying that because you grew up poor, were born in the wrong country, or because you look a certain way, or because you are a certain age that somehow you are exempt from creating or accessing the same level of opportunity that others seem to be experiencing.
If you feel like external circumstances are dictating the success of your business, you are making yourself a victim. If you are a victim, you approach life passively. If you approach life passively, you have no power.
Success is a choice backed by intentional action. Disempowerment is an emotion - not a fact. To stop feeling disempowered, take responsibility for your thoughts. That’s why being a victim or trying to tell someone that “the system” is against them is flat-out wrong.
You get to define success for yourself. You shouldn’t let yourself wallow in the emotion of disempowerment just because success feels too difficult. Figure out what success looks like in your life.
To me, success means being able to work limited hours, take time off when I want to (even last minute), support a team of other women, and serve wonderful clients. Success is about fitting my business around my life, not my life around the business.
While I can’t define success for you, I can confidently say that your business should wrap around your life. You should be able to eventually step away from the grindstone and experience other hallmarks of a successful life, such as knowing your neighbors, creating memories with your family, and being a good friend.
4. Business growth requires time, effort, and confidence
Every so often, I am an entrepreneur who feels ready to give up on her business before it has barely had time to grow. Many businesses fail within the first three years, so their discouragement isn’t entirely unexpected, but it’s no less sad.
If that is you, let yourself feel discouraged for a moment, but don’t let yourself stay in that place. You are the missing piece your business needs to grow. Maybe you have been squelching your own opportunities all along by refusing to hire the help you need, or being afraid of money, or afraid of investing in your business, or perhaps you’ve been presenting your business unprofessionally because you feel you “aren't there yet.”
If you focus on how successful you are going to be, you’ll have very little time to wallow in discouragement and you’ll rebound faster from mistakes (lessons). Treat yourself like the esteemed professional that you want to be five years from now. Make business decisions today that “future you” would be making if you were running a profitable, high end business with a long waiting list of clients.
Entrepreneurs often undervalue themselves and their capacity to make it successful. If you wallow in how intimidated or underqualified you feel, you will never have the confidence that is required to let your business grow.
The most successful entrepreneurs see themselves as the best CEOs for their unique businesses while understanding they still have a lot to learn. They have the confidence to ask for help, hire people who know what they are doing, and invest in things that will grow their business long-term…rather than limiting their investments to the next boosted post on social media.
You can do this, and only you.
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Kate Greunke, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Kate Greunke founded Socialite in 2014 as a virtual agency of professional marketing specialists exclusively for the home industry. Kate hosts a marketing podcast, The Kate Show, which is ranked in the top 1.5% of all podcasts globally and available on all podcasting apps. In 2021, Kate was named 20 Under 40 by Window Fashion Vision Magazine. She currently resides in Wisconsin with her husband and two children while managing an international team and extensive client roster.
