#17 - (Solo) Some Mindset Shifts For Becoming a Business Owner
Hello, friend. Welcome back to a solo edition of Work Worth Doing with your boy, Dean. I would like to welcome you if you are a newer listener or perhaps you're an OG. If so, you need no introduction. But I wanna help you escape the dynamic of working a job you dislike and transition into sustaining yourself with your own income, and I wanna do that with a podcast.
Dean:That's what I'm trying to do. The sickest podcast of all time where you can literally quit your job just by listening. Now there's obviously a now there's obviously a lot of components to creating a business or creating any sort of income. One of them is change. Change is core to this message, and it is ever present in building a business.
Dean:And I honestly think that embracing change is a skill you need to learn. And in this episode, I'm going to give you three things that will help you handle the change from being at 0 in a job you don't like to 1, becoming a business owner for the first time. And what you'll notice is this approach will actually apply to your whole life. Perhaps you've got change that is ending a relationship, eliminating a behavior, facing a difficult conversation head on, moving to a new city. All of these things encompass change, and the 3 things I'm gonna go through that will help you with this change you have to do is put your wipers on, number 1.
Dean:Number 2, lean in. Number 3, loosen your grip. We're going to get into each one. Before we do, I thought it would be interesting to share with you where I actually wrote this and why. I did so on the way over to Egypt, 30,000 feet up in the air above the desert, sipping a can of beer and a little packet of Pringles.
Dean:Not gonna win any nutritional awards with that, but it sparks an element of creativity in me. I thought, why don't I write something here? And so I wrote this. I was thinking about what is the person who is stuck feeling right now? What are they struggling to do?
Dean:And you might be in this stage that you just need to make a change. And so that's why I wrote this for you. And I sit here recording it in Egypt. I brought my microphone because this is what being able to call your own shots looks like. I have come here.
Dean:I will probably extend my stay here and of no consequence to myself. And that is a beautiful thing. It's important to me to be able to do that with my life. And I know it's probably important to you as well. Flexibility, autonomy, these are all important things to all of us to varying degrees.
Dean:So that's what I wanna share with you. So let's get into it. Let's talk about change, and I'll see you in there. As I have done with each solo episode, I will start with a question before I share with you those three things that are gonna help you with the change. And the question, plus the reminder on this instance, sounds like this.
Dean:If you knew the business you were going to create would replace your salary, would you make the change? I can only assume you've said yes to that. And I wanna remind you that a lot of us hold beliefs that creating a business or earning money from your passion isn't for us. That's just for someone else. That's for the people on the Internet.
Dean:But what we also need to accept is that that is just a belief inside our heads and not necessarily an objective truth. Remember that, and question what your brain tells you about how the world is and about what you can and cannot do. So let's look into these three things now. First one is put your wipers on. So imagine a scene driving down a motorway.
Dean:The radio's playing. It's 6 or 7 in the evening. The sun's going down. You hear the home of the outside, the odd car whizzing by yours. And all of a sudden you turn the water and the wipers on, and it's as if all of a sudden you can actually see the colors in front of you as the dirt was removed from the window that you didn't even realize was covering the window.
Dean:You can see the buildings in the distance, the reg of the car, 3 cars ahead, someone turning to attend to their child in the back of their car a little bit in front of you, the farmhouse in the field off in the distance. So what's the point here? The point is, where is your road taking you right now? Are you clear on where this change is going to bring you and why it is necessary for you? So if I think of my example, let's use my example of why I've created my business.
Dean:I alluded to it a moment ago. My North Star was to be flexible, to not be beholden to anyone, and to not be told what to do ultimately when I can and can't go away. That was fundamental at the core of why I did everything I did when building my business. I knew the entire time that the reason I'm doing this is because I do not want to work my whole life. Fuck that.
Dean:And that is where I'm at now. I put my wipers on at the beginning and realized that that is where I wanna go with this. And that sounds so simple, realizing where I'm heading on this road. But it keeps you in check for when times inevitably get difficult. So imagine a difficult conversation.
Dean:Right? You actually have to have a difficult chat with somebody. Maybe that's the change you need to go through. And you might just think to yourself, right, well, this sucks. I'm obviously gonna avoid it.
Dean:We all like to kick cans down the road and avoid having difficult experiences, but you might remind yourself that you're doing it to get to a better place with that person, or to get some closure with that person, or to get to a better place of understanding with that person. You might put your wipers on and realize that moving to the new city is actually something you were doing for the wrong reasons. And then with that information, you can course correct. The point is you need to put your wipers on to understand what's ahead and why and where you're going. Second thing, lean in.
Dean:Accepting that with change, there is struggle ahead. Transition periods are just difficult. If you think of a snake shedding its skin, the shedding has to happen for it to get to a new place. It has to go through this transition period, which is I mean, I've never spoken to a snake, but I'm presuming that's somewhat challenging for us. You get the idea.
Dean:The shedding for you may be symbolic of 1 minute that you need to go through. 1 hour or many many years. The duration of change is potentially a long one because if you're building a business, you're becoming a new person, a new person who owns a business. That's a different type of person. And getting there from where you are now at 0 to 1, there is unknown, there is moments of being lost.
Dean:Tommy and I talked about this last week, and I wrote about it in our newsletter about being lost and using that feeling of being lost to push forward to find the next move. If you wanna read the written word a little bit more than you do the audible version, go over to work worth doing dot transistor dot f m. That's where I share the newsletters each week. But in those difficult periods, there is pain, there is suffering, there is loss. Before is not what's ahead.
Dean:Now is not what's forever. There is figuring things out. There is unknown and there is uncertainty. But if you have your wipers put on and you know why, you can lean into all of this difficulty that is coming your way. When I was working in a 9 to 5, I knew I had to put extra hours in, so I still got paid while building my other income.
Dean:That was one of the many things I needed to lean into that was uncomfortable. That was being real with myself and saying, this business, this income stream is not going to build itself on the side. I have to put the work in. And what that looked like for me was dedicating 10 hours per week to building this. So what that looked like was Monday to Thursday, I would do 5 until 7 in the evening.
Dean:Socializing, seeing people was important to me at that time. So I left time in the evenings to have a bit of dinner, to go and see someone. And then on the weekend, I would do 2 hours on a Saturday as well. And then that's light. You will probably hear a lot of entrepreneurs tell you to work until you're dead.
Dean:You can't sue anybody for 40 years until you make it. Fine. There is a place for that. You know, you'll make progress quicker, for sure. But I don't often promote that as a generic way to do it because the average person doesn't want to spend their days locked in a room.
Dean:You might just want what I have, which is order of freedom and autonomy with the salary you're coming in regardless. You might not want to be at the level of buying supercars. Like, you know, if you want to create serious money, then you probably will have to, like, sacrifice everything for a prolonged period. But the point I'm trying to make is you can lean in to a smaller period of difficulty. It doesn't necessarily have to be as all encompassing as that.
Dean:But you do have suffering ahead of you, and you've got to lean into it. That's it. No escaping that. So I hope that was useful. Put your wipers on.
Dean:Remember why you're doing it, and lean in to the difficulty that is ahead of you. 3rd thing, loosen your grip. You can do everything right. You can take all the steps. You can do all the meditations, all the cold plunges.
Dean:Buy all the courses, the mentorships, masterminds, do all the right client meetings, and a global pandemic can come and give you a swift kick in the bollocks. You cannot escape the fact that when you get going, you have no idea how it will ultimately go. You have zero influence over the world and only influence over what actions you are taking. So what does this demand from you? It demands that you trust that whatever is coming, that you can handle it.
Dean:It likely won't go exactly as you plan, but it equally won't be half as bad as your brain lets you imagine. I have a phrase written on my laptop, and I see it every day as I work. And it's a phrase that reminds me of this. Very simple. It says, you can't control how it all works out.
Dean:You can only control what you do. And I like to remind myself of this because that is all I can really control. The world is the world. There is an infinite amount of things influencing what is going on outside. All you can do is dictate how you're thinking and what you're doing.
Dean:If how you're thinking is, I can't do this. I'm shit, coupled with the actions of I throw Netflix on in the evening from 7 until 10 and go asleep while scrolling on my phone, then you're drastically reducing the likelihood that you will have a fully fledged business that pays you money. Whereas, if you are trying to think in a more empowering way and you are taking actions that are conducive to building an income stream for yourself, then you're drastically increasing the odds that you will be successful. This applies to me when doing this podcast as a way to kind of share what I have with you. I do not know how this will ultimately go for me, and if it is something I will continue indefinitely.
Dean:All I know is I care about the reason why I'm doing it. And alongside that, that I'm taking the actions that somebody who wants to build a podcast would do. So what does that look like? I'm scheduling to release an episode at least once a week. I'm taking the actions of reaching out to people who I think would be great guests.
Dean:I'm spending time writing and fleshing out ideas that I think would be helpful for you. Those are the actions I'm taking. Ultimately, I have no real influence over if people like it or not. I can only just take the actions that I can take, and what will be will be. I just need to loosen my grip on the outcome and not cling to that being a certain way.
Dean:And it's the close cousin of the phrase journey, not destination, process, not outcome. This is the same thing, getting locked into the journey to there rather than getting locked into the outcome that you demand from it. So loosen your grip on the outcome. Instead, tighten your grip on the things you are doing and make sure you do them. That is it.
Dean:So I think if you kinda couple these three things together, you should hopefully stand a decent chance of successfully going through that change. And I know this subject might make you feel a little bit apprehensive, but you have a great privilege in front of you. If you are listening to this podcast, you are one of the most privileged human beings to have ever existed. You have food in abundance. You have water pouring from a tap.
Dean:You have a roof over your head. You have headphones in your ear. The vast majority of humans who have ever existed didn't have the opportunity that you have to live an incredible life. You have a phone in your pocket. You have a laptop on your desk.
Dean:Use these things to acquire the information, to acquire the knowledge you need to get away from working your whole life for money. Don't be afraid of approaching this change messy. Yes, plan. Yes, have foresight. Yes.
Dean:Consider how it affects those around you. But believe me, nobody knows what the fuck they are doing. Even those who seem like they do, they don't. I am another example. I do not know what the hell I'm doing with a podcast, but I'm figuring it out.
Dean:All I'm focusing on is my effort. That's all that's needed from you. Genuinely hope that was useful, talking about change. If you could do me a solid favor, I would really appreciate if you can give the show a little rating on Spotify or Apple, as it helps for the show to reach more people. And, hopefully, they can learn or take something from this.
Dean:And to be honest, you know, it's something that I wanna give more of my time to and lean into more because I enjoy it. I enjoy sharing what I have with those of you who are in the position that I was in. I didn't want to do that my whole life, and now I don't have to. And I wanna share that with you, and I just hope it's useful. So if you found it so, please do rate it.
Dean:Share it with a friend who also echoes the same disdain for the work they do. Bring them in. Bring them into the community. We have a couple of incredible interviews coming up that I recorded before I left for Egypt, and I cannot wait to share them. So keep an eye out for those in the coming couple of weeks, and keep believing that you can do it because you absolutely can.
Dean:Chat to you next time.
