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[00:00:00] Welcome to today's episode of the Retail Initiative. First off, I just have to acknowledge I'm a little bit tired today. Um, it's been one of those days that was like meeting after meeting after meeting. And I've been wanting to record this podcast for so long and like getting my thoughts together and all of that.
[00:00:19] And so I didn't want to wait any longer because I want to dig into some of my own journey. And that I think can encourage you. And I think you're going to be able to pull a lot away from, [00:00:30] and it's really been my journey as a CEO. And one of the things I talk about is like, there's these different levels of business.
[00:00:38] Like when you come in, you're at this first level where you. Really just want money in the bank. Like you just need to make money. And when people are like, Hey, focus on the strategy, not the tactics. You're like, good for you. That sounds great. But how do I make a sale? Because I need a sale to pay my electricity bill.
[00:00:56] And it's really hard to get out of tactics and get out of [00:01:00] scarcity when you're in this stage and then. You do start to gain traction and you level up and then you start to be centered around, not like just how do I get money in the bank, but what I have and it's more success and you want more. And so you do start to build out strategies and that's an incredible period.
[00:01:17] And then you level up and you're like, okay, it's not just about what I have. It's about who I am. What do I actually want my life to look like? And do I want to make a beast that runs my life or do I want to [00:01:30] make a business that serves my life? And I've been going through this journey and I think I'm somewhere between the second and the third, but if you like, you know, if you were like, if you were an employee of mine, you know, six years ago, you would would have seen me at the first step and it was a struggle during that era.
[00:01:49] And if you're in that stage, 1 thing I just want to encourage you in is everyone starts there. You know, rarely does someone come in and skip that era where you are obsessed with [00:02:00] tactics, but there's something magical in that error because your passion about what you do is never going to be stronger.
[00:02:08] And so embrace that. But what you can do is start to look at the people that are a little bit further along and look at how they make decisions and start to model some of yours after that. Um, but what I can tell you is like the early stages in business for me. You know, I look back, I'm like, I don't regret how I did it, but I can look back and be like, [00:02:30] man, I, you know, let all everyone else's priorities became my priorities.
[00:02:35] I was burning myself out. I wasn't prioritizing the things that actually fueled my life. And it took a long time for me to figure out, okay, how do I start to build the business that I actually want? And, and so I want to share with you really five things. that I adopted five mindsets or strategies or whatever you want to call it that really helped me level up as a CEO.
[00:02:59] And [00:03:00] I wish I could say that all of this was on purpose, but it really is like, okay, I leveled up as I was growing because of coaches that I hired because of programs I was in because of people I was surrounding myself by. And through those things, I leveled up. But now I look back and I can see like, okay, it was in these areas.
[00:03:19] And so my hope for you is that you can take these five things and think through what they look like for you and how could that help you level up? Kind of pull from, you know, the coaching that I [00:03:30] paid so much money for and I still pay a crap ton of money to get that you can pull some of that for yourself as well.
[00:03:37] So the first thing is I adopted a like, I'm going to do it anyway mentality. Early on, I was so dictated by my feelings any given day and how I felt dictated the content I could write. If I was going to do an email that day, if I was going to be great on a sales call or whatever I needed to accomplish, it was driven by how I felt that [00:04:00] day.
[00:04:00] And I shifted to like, you know what? I just, I need to show up. And I started to create some separation between how I felt and what I did. And I'm not saying that like you can completely disconnect them. But I started to say, you know what? Like, I don't feel like doing this, but I'm going to anyway. And when you make that change, you're able to actually do what needs to be done.
[00:04:26] The next piece, and this may be one of the most [00:04:30] important ones, is I stopped letting myself make scarcity based decisions. And if you think like scarcity based decisions are things that like, if you're fearful or you're worried about what's next and you make decisions based on that, that's when you find yourself cutting subscriptions to things that are actually really valuable, stopping that coaching program or this resource that is actually helping you level up.
[00:04:53] You, you're cutting back out of fear of like, okay, I need to save all this money, which sometimes that stuff is [00:05:00] necessary, but I had to catch myself of, am I doing this because my, I need to, for the sake of the business, the sake of where we're going, or am I doing this because I'm scared? And if I'm doing it because I'm scared, I need to wait.
[00:05:14] And sometimes I still made the same decision, but I would get out of that fear brain and I would move into. Not even an abundance mindset, but just like, what is, what is, and there's a difference between scarcity and [00:05:30] abundance and, you know, abundance is like, there will always be enough. And I think that's the healthiest place to live.
[00:05:34] But sometimes as a CEO, you have to pull yourself to the middle and say, okay, best case, worst case, I'm not going to assume either. I'm going to make a smart decision based on. The middle, but I quit letting myself make scarcity based decisions in e commerce. This is, you know, scarcity is like, okay, well, you know, I don't want to spend all this time photographing these products because then what if they sell in store first?
[00:05:59] And [00:06:00] we find ourselves making an excuse to not do the things needed to grow online sales. The next thing, and this is the most important of the whole list is I took control of my schedule. For the longest time, I let other people's priorities for my day become my priorities. And I got pulled in any direction that someone wanted.
[00:06:23] Someone wanted a quick call, got on a quick call. If someone wanted to talk about this thing, I talked about that thing. And [00:06:30] I moved in a direction where I said, these are my priorities for the day. These are the things that have to move forward. And if I don't move these forward, no one else will. And it is the difference between me being where I want to be.
[00:06:42] And not a lot of times we tell ourselves that we don't have time to do these really important things. I don't have time to grow online sales. I don't have time to take pictures. I don't have time to do social media. Well, no, it's not that you don't have time. It's just not a priority for you. And so [00:07:00] we either have to stop saying it's a priority.
[00:07:02] Or we need to prioritize it. And when I took control of my schedule, everything changed. This is pro this is the most important one. And if I'm honest, just being transparent with you, I appreciate that you're a listener. Um, that is the biggest difference I see between successful CEOs and those that aren't is the way they handle their schedules.
[00:07:24] I do these like strategy sessions where I dig into people's goals and where they're wanting to go and [00:07:30] what, what it's going to take to get there and uncover like, okay, this is what we need to start doing. And if you want to schedule that, you can do that at made by capital. com slash schedule. But I do these calls and they're really valuable for people.
[00:07:42] You know, what's fascinating. The only people that ever know, show those calls that just don't show up. Are retailers doing under 300, 000 a year. Their show up rate is pretty low. But retailers are doing over that their show up rates incredibly high. And I, [00:08:00] and I get emails from those people all the time.
[00:08:02] After time got away from me, I was doing this. Sorry. I was pulled to the sales floor, all these reasons, but it was really, their priorities were not set and they were being pulled in too many directions. That were other people's priorities. And I get that things happen. That's not what I'm trying to say.
[00:08:18] There are those moments that even now I get pulled in directions. I don't want to be pulled in and you just can't prevent that all the time. I would say with 80, 80 percent of my [00:08:30] schedule is based on my priorities, not someone else's priorities for me. All right, the next one. I started taking complete ownership of my results, good and bad, and realizing like every single thing that I have in my life, good and bad, is because of who I am, the actions that I take, how I think.
[00:08:50] And when I took ownership, I was able to take control. Before I blamed all these circumstances and I looked at all these things outside [00:09:00] of me and I said that that is why I wasn't where I wanted to be, or even outside circumstances was the reason I was successful. And the problem with both of those is I don't have any control over them.
[00:09:12] So once I started taking ownership, I was actually able to do something. So instead of making excuses on outside circumstances, the economy right now, I know so many are worried about the economy and. Like I'll see in post in different Facebook groups. I'm in like, Hey, we just got a grin and [00:09:30] bear it and get through it.
[00:09:31] And on the other side, it's like, no, like the economy's here. And you know what? There are people that are crushing it right now in this economy. And there are people that are not. And instead of looking at the ones that are crushing it and making up excuses about their circumstances and why they're different.
[00:09:47] We could look at it and say, okay, but I know that it's possible. It is possible to still be successful right now. I just haven't figured out how to do it yet, but I know I can. And so I'm going to take responsibility for the fact that I have it. [00:10:00] I'm not going to blame the economy. Like money is moving.
[00:10:05] Still people are still spending money. They just aren't with you. And so we just need to take ownership for that. And then as soon as we do, we gain control. And that is where we have the power to actually transform our life and our business is when we take control instead of blaming outside circumstances.
[00:10:24] And then the last one is really transformative for the way I was a leader. And it's that I started letting [00:10:30] people make mistakes. If you think like the whole way that I've become, uh, gotten where I am is that I made mistakes early on. I screwed up and I messed whatever up, and I learned from it and I moved forward and, and I got stronger every single time.
[00:10:48] But then I would have a team member join and as soon as they made a mistake, I was frustrated with them and I was mad that they were screwing up these different things. But the reality is like, you know what, they have to make [00:11:00] mistakes too, in order for them to grow. And when I adopted this mentality of, you know what, like, they're going to learn the same way I did, which was messing stuff up and never messing it up again.
[00:11:13] And once I started doing this, I was able to build a strong team around me. And so for you and your team. See, like, have you made mistakes and learn from them? Will your people have to, and the red flags with your team is when you have that team member that does not seem to learn from [00:11:30] their mistakes.
[00:11:31] That's when you know you don't have an A player and they don't need to be on the team. But if they are learning from mistakes, then the trajectory is great. So that is my journey. I did it anyway, even when I didn't feel like it. I stopped letting myself make scarcity based decisions. I took control of my schedule and really built it around my priorities.
[00:11:53] I took complete ownership for my results instead of blaming circumstances. And I let others and I let people on my [00:12:00] team learn from their mistakes instead of expecting them to be perfect while I could learn from my mistakes. I hope this episode was encouraging for you. I'm grateful that you're here.
[00:12:08] Cannot wait for what's ahead. I have some cool stuff planned for the podcast, but I will see you next week.
