How a Growth Mindset is Helpful for Scaling Your Online Business
Cultivating a growth mindset can go a long way to creating success as business owners
Once upon a time, I would feel extremely disappointed that I had zero signups for my webinar. Or when I only had 4 participants showing up for my class. Then, there was also the time when I had fewer than 50% attendance rate to my free presentation.
I took the dismal results to define my worth. All the while, I compared my results with those in the same field. Admittedly, I was envious when I looked at their success. They had photos on hundreds of people attending their workshops. Their sales copy was about the amazing success that they had achieved. So for a while, I decided to stop launching anything or hosting any more classes.
However, after a while, I began to tune into a sick feeling in my stomach. I was struggling with the conflict that I was not giving myself the opportunity to improve. Most certainly, I would like to share my message with more people. Well, the pain got bad. I just hate being and feeling stuck.
It was when I began to realise that the only way is to continue to put myself out there. What I was having is really a fixed mindset. As Carol Dweck points out, there is a difference between having a fixed and a growth mindset. Quotes like the following inspired me to make a change…
You only fail when you stop trying. — Unknown
You miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take. — Wayne Gretzky
Failure is not the opposite of success. It is part of success. — Unknown
It didn’t happen overnight, of course. In fact, I had to gradually work up my courage. I first worked on releasing any shame or embarrassment I was feeling (in particular, using EFT tapping). Also, I decided to change my perspective on how I view success. Very importantly, I worked on letting go of my expectations on how things “should” or “ought” to be.
Thus, what it came down to is about developing a business growth mindset.
Growth Mindset for My Coaching Business
Today, instead of holding so tightly to the end result, I emphasise more on progress. I celebrate every small win, not just the big ones. Instead of comparison, I focus on my own journey. In fact, I found out that how easy it is to be genuinely happy for others when they report their success once I freed up energetic space.
In order to grow as a business owner, I believe that there is a need to go beyond my comfort zone. Yet, doing a new launch or hosting another webinar always carries the chance of rejection. And so, to make things less scary for myself, I prefer to approach things with an open mindset. I decided not to take any poor results personally too!
What I have also discovered is this: even well-known universities cancel classes when there are not enough sign-ups. Hence, there is nothing to be shameful about if sign-ups do not meet expectations. I choose to take any signs of “failure” as feedback. There are always opportunities to make tweaks to launch campaigns for an improvement in results.
My focus is now on to changing one life at a time. I’ve since held classes with anything from 3–200+ people showing up. Letting go of high expectations and unrealistic timelines has certainly brought in a lot more ease. I’m happy to be cultivating a growth mindset that is allowing me to enjoy my journey as a business owner.
Summary on How You Can Cultivate a Business Growth Mindset
In summary, here are the points for growing a business growth mindset especially if you are running a coaching business…
- Prioritise progress over end results.
- Seek continuous improvement.
- Stop comparison with competitors.
- Always celebrate wins.
Hope my sharing can be of help to your journey too.
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