Welcome to another episode of the podcast that teaches you how to be a ridiculously good virtual assistant.
This episode is the first in a series of four episodes that I want to share with you as a lead up to my 50K VA Group Coaching program that is launching next month. Hold on! What? Yep – a special program just for you!
Today I want to talk about mindset, but not just any mindset. Your 50K Mindset.
Today’s Quote: Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right – Henry Ford
Click the play button above to tune in, or choose your favourite podcast player below:
Connect with Tracey D’Aviero, VA Coach and Trainer
Episode Notes:
I love today’s quote (not just because I’m a Ford girl, beep beep!), but because Henry is talking about the importance of mindset in achieving success. That’s what we are going to talk about today – overcoming mindset blocks and creating your growth mindset.
Defining Mindset
Okay, so let’s first define what I mean by mindset.
Your mindset is what you think, what you believe, about yourself, the people around you, the things that are happening around you, and the circumstances you may find yourself in.
It’s about what you think of all of those things.
Notice that I didn’t say anything about it being a reality.
Often your mindset is not real.
It’s your perception – your belief – and that’s why we can shift it when necessary.
You can always change how you think about something. Many of us don’t, but when you are in a place where you are not being successful, it’s definitely worth looking at it.
It could just be you. Your thoughts. Your beliefs.
About yourself, about others.
The Impact of Mindset
I’m going to say if you are blaming others for anything that is happening to you, you could need a mindset shift.
It’s not as simple as flipping a switch though.
Yes, Tracey, just be happy. Just be positive. And you will become weathy.
No, it’s not like that.
But a positive mindset can help you go very, very far – very quickly – because you are looking for the positive in everything around you.
You are looking for it so you can focus on it – not on the nasty feelings or thoughts you might have going on.
You can increase your profits, get more clients, get better clients, make more money, work smarter … so many things .. .when you are in a good frame of mind.
In fact, a Harvard Business Review study found that 98% of entrepreneurs who focus on positive thinking and maintaining a growth mindset reported higher levels of business success and personal satisfaction compared to those with a fixed mindset. Um. 98%, ladies!!
Yes please.
Mindset Blocks
It’s not your fault most of the time – something is happening to you, or around you, that initiates those crappy feelings. You get blocked. And it can be really tough to get our of on our own.
Especially if you don’t even realize you are blocked!
What are some of the most common mindset blocks?
Imposter syndrome – I talk about this quite often because it comes up in my conversations with VAs like you every single day. We feel like someone is going to find out that we don’t have it all together. That there are some things that we are winging, or don’t excel at entirely. Someone is going to find out!
But they won’t. Because you are so much smarter than you give yourself credit for.
Fear of failure – It’s so easy to think that failure is right around the corner. Often we are doing things we have never done before. It’s hard to be confident that things will end up the way we think they will.
Especially if we are treading in new territory. The thing about business is that we are almost always doing something new, or something we haven’t done before.
So we come to this fear of failure not just once, but over and over and over again.
Self doubt is another biggie. Maybe you don’t really think you deserve to charge what you need to charge, or that you are the best VA to offer your services to your clients. You see others and think they do things better than you.
Doubting that you can do something, or are qualified to do something, is very common for VAs like us who work solo – all by ourselves all day long. I know there are days when I don’t say one single word out loud.
That means I’m having ALL of my conversations inside my head, which is not always a great place to be. Can you relate?
No matter what kind of mindset you might have – whether you have it once or whether it occurs again and again, you can find solutions that will help you manage it.
In my case, if I find myself not talking to anyone, I reach out to someone and have a conversation.
Especially if I’m struggling with thoughts or processes. I have my accountability partner who I can call anytime. We text each other ‘got 5?’ and then the other person is ready to go.
It helps so much to have a cheerleader in your corner. If you don’t have one, i promise you that finding one will really help in so many situations.
Overcoming Self Doubt
Our minds work SO fast – our brains – and it takes 5 positive thoughts to turn a negative thought around. So if you are having more negative thoughts than positive ones, there’s a huge red flag.
And a solution, though! bump up those positive thoughts or interactions or conversations. That’s why the water cooler can be such a good thing. It’s a place to take a break, have a chat about anything other than work.
Our water coolers are our social media groups and chat groups most days.
Our community is an essential part of keeping our mindset positive. One of the best things you can do is to find a great and supportive community to hang out with.
Our accountability partners or group can be a safety net when things seem tough. Remember, that your VA colleagues have all been where you are.
We all started from zero. We all made mistakes. We all succeeded at SOMETHING. You have too.
Being reminded of that is important.
Yes, my accountability partner and I disagree. Yes, we pontificate. Yes, we bitch and moan and look for the other one to pump our tires even if we aren’t right.
But we also hold each other up. We find ways through the challenges. We research resources and strategy and plans and take action to dig out of the crap. And you can too.
My point is that you are not alone. Even though we work alone, we don’t have to do it all alone. You need support. I need support. We can support each other.
You can also help yourself of course. No one can change YOU. You have to be the one to change you. Change your thoughts, change your actions, change your community, change your decisions.
There are a lot of techniques that you can use to do the work, as the professionals say.
You can keep a success journal – reminding your self of positive and happy and GOOD things that you have done in the past can reinforce your confidence in yourself to do them again in the future.
Really focus on your value that you bring to your clients. Work out what is unique about you – that your clients GET to experience by working with you. You are so amazing at what you do – and you should be able to shout it from the rooftops – but you have to know it and believe it first!
Get really clear on what you do best. When you do, a lot of stuff becomes a lot clearer – why you deserve the rates you charge, why you will only work with this client, and not that one, why you don’t ever have to do rush work or work you don’t want to do. These are all allowances we make for our clients that can lead to those feelings of negativity.
Setting Achievable and Ambitious Goals
Goal setting is really important.
There isn’t a simpler way for me to say that. If you aren’t setting goals in your VA business short term ones and long term ones, then what are you working towards?
In order to grow as a business owner, you have to know where you are going.
Where do you want to go?
What do you want to do?
In a perfect world, what would your day look like?
Short term goals are my favourites – I love short term gain. I love to REACH that goal. I love to achieve that thing. I like to cross stuff off my to do list!
Setting a short term goal helps you focus on something in the near future that you want.
Could be more money, more clients, more profit, more organization, more visibility, more interactions, more community.
Whatever you want.
But it’s something you can achieve in a relatively short period of time – and that’s cool!
Long term goals are awesome too – but I don’t want you to put them too far out or you will tend to forget about them or abandon them.
Instead, what I work with my clients to do is to set a long term goal made up of many other short term goals. Like the nest inside one another. One leads to another, you know?
That way every time you are reaching a short term goal, you are one step (or many steps) closer to your long term goal.
Setting any goal is easy. Pick a specific goal. Set a deadline to reach that goal. Break out the action steps you need to take to reach that goal. Set deadlines for each of those steps. I recommend breaking up your action steps into the smallest of actions so you can do something small every single day to lead you towards your goal.
Doing something every single day helps keep your focus on it. And if you do get derailed for any reason, you haven’t lost that much time. Like if you schedule 3 hours on Sunday to do xy or z, and then your neighbours have a bbq and invite you, you will miss that entire week of action steps. Better to do one thing every day. Trust me on that one. I’ll literally die on that hill because I know it’s truth!
Developing Your Growth Mindset
Now that we have talked about the importance of a positive mindset, how to recognize and fix your mindset blocks and self doubt, let’s talk GROWTH.
I’m not a mindset expert, but I have been in business a long time and I want you to understand that probably everything you are thinking you suck at, I have thought the same thing about myself.
It’s honestly why I teach. why I coach. I want you to get where I got to wayyy faster than I did.
The way I did it was really really hard. I didn’t make any money. I worked with clients that I didn’t like, that didn’t respect me. I struggled.
I always though that business was hard. That’s just the way it was supposed to go. Sales was hard. Finding clients was hard.
But guess what? It’s SO NOT.
Business is not hard. You just need to take the right steps.
You need to have a strategy and a plan that works for you. You need to take daily actions to reach your goals. And you need to believe in yourself.
You need to believe that you can build the business you want to build.
No matter how big.
You CAN do it.
But it’s not up to me to tell you that you can. Why would you believe me?
You have to believe yourself.
You have to adopt a growth mindset – which simply means that you can develop the mindset you need for success by being dedicated, learning and working hard.
It means that you can learn from your experience (yes that might mean mistakes) and that you can grow into a smarter, better, and more successful VA.
You can master your mindset – with practice and the right guidance and teaching. It’s what I’ll be covering and teaching in my 50K Bootcamp program.
Cultivating your growth mindset isn’t a one off thing. Especially if you are really in it right now.
It takes time. It takes practice. In my 50K bootcamp you’ll work on it for 12 weeks. Definitely enough time to change your habits. To change YOU.
Most VAs I know are voracious learners. I love to learn. You probably do.
Change comes from learning a better way to do things.
I’m going to leave it off here for today.
This is the first of four episodes I want to cover about ow to build your 50K VA business. Tune in to part two of this podcast series Essential Skills Every 50K VA Must Have here: http://www.yourvamentor.com/blog/2024/08/podcast-essential-skills-every-50k-virtual-assistant-must-have/
If you want more information, drop me a PM. I’ll share more info in the coming weeks across all of my social channels, but I’m available to answer any questions you have right now too.
Of course I also want to circle back on today’s quote: Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right – Henry Ford
Your mindset is everything in business. So why not focus on thinking that you CAN? Because I know you can. I’ve done it, and hundreds of my VA students and clients have done it too.
Thank you again for trusting me to teach you and to guide you. I truly love to be here for you every week.
If I could ask you a favour – to subscribe or leave me a review if you haven’t already. That’s something I should say every week and I never really do. But it matters and it will make sure that I know you are finding value in what I create just for you every week.
Do You Need Help?
If you need help shifting your mindset to one of growth and possibility, get in touch with me. I’m here to help.
It’s the only reason I’m here at all, as you know. To help you become a ridiculously good VA.
I have helped hundreds of VAs who are stuck get moving through private coaching, group coaching, and live and self study trainings. If you want to talk about how we can work together, let’s connect on a Cut to the Chase call. You can book yours at YourVAMentor.com/chase
Thanks for tuning in this week! I’ll see you next time!
What You Need to Do Next:
PRIVATE COACHING: Let’s work together privately to get you to your really big goal. It’s the fastest way to get results and we can start right away. Learn more about private coaching here.
GROUP COACHING MASTERMIND: The Virtual Circle is a group coaching mastermind option that costs less than private coaching, and can help you achieve the goals you set for yourself. . Check it out here: The Virtual Circle Group Coaching Mastermind for Virtual Assistants . We’d love to have you join us!
50K VA GROUP COACHING PROGRAM: If you have been struggling to build your VA business, get in on this live coaching program where we will help you create the framework for a business that can earn you 50K a year and beyond. LAUNCHING FALL 2024, stay tuned!
MONTHLY EMAIL MEMBERSHIP: I also have a brand new low-cost monthly membership program that will help you build your VA business – and it doesn’t require you to be on social media! It’s an email membership that I call The Virtual Toolkit! Every Monday morning you’ll receive a lesson and a downloadable resource in your inbox, that you can use to take a step further in your VA business. Get more details and sign up here now!
SELF STUDY PROGRAM: My self study program Getting Started as a VA can help you get your VA business started easily and quickly too. You can sign up right away and be on your way to getting clients by the end of the program, with all the right foundations in place. Check out the program here.
COMPLIMENTARY CONSULT: Reach out to me if you need to talk about where you are stuck and what the right option might be to get you moving. It’s literally all I’m here to do is help you get to where you want to go. Book a complimentary Cut to the Chase call with me here.