I have a big announcement that’s perfectly timed for the kick-off of season 6, which is all about How Beliefs Shape Your Business. I’ll get to that in a minute. First, I want to introduce this season’s theme and tell you what you can expect in the next 12 episodes of the Simplify & Multiply show.

More and more people are embracing mindset as THE key to attaining success, fulfillment and happiness in business and in life. As a solopreneur, you’ll probably agree that success is much more likely when you start with the right mindset. Being in action is important, as it’s how we do our work and function in our solopreneur practices. However, if our mindset is not driving the actions we’re taking, we’re going to be working a lot harder to achieve even the most mediocre results. And who wants that?

I’ve been a student of personal growth and self-examination my entire adult life. A key belief I’ve fully adopted is this: what I believe is what creates and attracts my experience.

For example, if I believe that I’m not good at sales, I will struggle making sales or having success converting prospects into clients in my business. If I believe that I can only make, let’s say, $150,000 a year in gross revenue from my business, I’ll never exceed that amount and only have incremental upticks year over year. If I believe that there are better business creatives out there who charge less and do more than I do, I will attract the “bottom of the barrel” in clients who demand the world and balk at paying my fees.

If I believe that I am in a crowded, competitive industry that forces me to lower my rates in order to get any work, I will always be working long hours and super hard to earn enough money to survive. If I get on a consult call with a prospect and believe that they can’t afford what I have to offer them, I won’t close that prospect and I’ll spend an hour giving away free consulting.

Not that I ever wanted to build a large full-service advertising agency, but a belief I held for a long time was that I’m not a good manager and I can’t find good people who can deliver the level of quality I demand for my clients. As a result of that belief, I’ve had to create scale through technology, not people, so I could grow and still be as Paul Jarvis calls it, “A Company of One.” And, my big announcement has everything to do with taking that scale to a whole new level this year. So hang tight.

At one point or another, I’ve held these beliefs in the 14 years I’ve been in business as a solopreneur. Have you had any of these beliefs in your solopreneur business? If you have, what have your experiences been? What repetitive cycles do you find yourself stuck in year after year?

Well, this season we’re going to be addressing beliefs and how they impact your solopreneur business. I’m going to give you a little right now, and over the course of this season, I’ll be building on this theme as I talk with each guest.

I came to this understanding, or belief if you will, that I’m about to share with you as a result of decades of reading non-fiction books on cognitive psychology, appreciative inquiry, neuroscience, spirituality and the law of attraction, attending personal enrichment seminars and getting certified as a life coach.

You ready for it? A belief is just a thought. It’s not permanent. It’s not attached to your identity. What makes it a belief is that it’s a thought you agree with, hold as the truth and keep thinking over and over again. That’s really all that a belief is: a thought you agree with, accept as truth and reinforce through repetitive thought.

Now I won’t get into the nuances of it in this episode, because I’ll be expanding on this distinction throughout the season with my guests. Suffice to say, beliefs are just thoughts, and if they’re just thoughts, well, you can choose a different thought, right? You can change them, right? Of course you can! The first step is an awareness that they’re just thoughts you keep agreeing with and hold as truth. If you examine any belief you hold, you can trace it back to an original experience that may have been created when you were very young such as something a parent told you. A teacher told you. A friend or sibling told you. Society told you. Or, most importantly, something you adopted as truth based on an experience that just didn’t make sense, such as “I’m not good enough,” or, “I’m not worthy of love, or money or kindness.”

This is a powerful distinction that will change your life. Seriously. It’s changed mine for the better, and I assess my thoughts daily now that I know this is how it works. It’s the key to breaking free of limiting beliefs and mindsets that keep you playing small and repeating patterns of failure or breakdowns in your business and in your life.

Here’s something else that I learned from reading Abraham-Hicks teachings and attending their events: your emotions are directly tied to what you’re thinking. Sounds weird, but try this: the next time you feel any notable emotion, positive or negative, stop and examine what you are thinking in that exact moment. If you’re feeling a positive emotion, what you’re thinking supports your passion and is in alignment with what you want for your life and for those you love. If you’re feeling a negative emotion, what you’re thinking contradicts or diminishes who you are and the perfection of your being and does NOT align with what you want for your life and for those you love.

So now that you know you can choose a different thought by simply choosing a different thought, you’ll feel better. Try it!

Now these simple, yet powerful, distinctions I’ve learned will help you redirect your business outcomes, how you feel about your work and how your business supports what you’re up to in the world and with those you love. The right mindset, which is comprised of the beliefs you hold consciously or unconsciously, is crucial to success in business. It’s at the heart of what will make your marketing, sales and how you serve your clients drive profitability, joy and professional growth. Which, by the way, will pour over to enrich your personal life as each are intertwined in what I like to call Your Total Life Experience.

Now for the big announcement!

Instead of spritzing these insights here and there in a video, podcast episode or client conversation, I’ve decided to thoughtfully create a home for everything I have come to know in my life to this point that can help you, my fellow solopreneur, succeed in your business, and hopefully, your life. And since I have like the coolest last name on the planet, Pappy, I had to incorporate it into naming this new home because it’s all me and what I’m most passionate about: freedom. The official name of this new home is, (drum roll) PappyClub! Yup. I know, I’m a bit silly, but here’s the deal. If you’re a solopreneur, whether you’re just starting out or are in the ninth inning of your solopreneur business, I am here as a resource for you. Instead of telling you what’s inside PappyClub and what you get as a member, I’m going to share, in brief, the PappyClub Manifesto, which states seven characteristics for solopreneur happiness:

PappyClub believes that every solopreneur deserves:

To have creative autonomy fulfilling their dreams
To be nourished within a community of other solopreneurs
To have access to reliable, expert resources and support
To be confident about their business and income
To be known, understood and appreciated for who they are and how they serve others
To have clarity around their business marketing and operations
To be happy with their progress yet hunger for more

Everything inside PappyClub caters to helping solopreneurs be as successful as possible. From this Simplify & Multiply podcast to how I coach my solopreneur clients to what I’m building in this new home that you are invited to be a part of is all designed to uphold the PappyClub Manifesto’s seven characteristics for solopreneur happiness.

PappyClub is the place to be if you want to infuse your solopreneur life with fun, inspiration, creativity and profitability, and this podcast is an integral part of the PappyClub universe. Over the coming weeks and months, I’ll be sharing more about PappyClub and how you can become an important member of this exciting new home for solopreneurs on the rise, so stay tuned.

I’m really looking forward to sharing this how beliefs shape your business season with you, and looking forward to hearing from you on how each episode helps you improve the outcomes and experience you’re having in your business and life!

Join PappyClub Today

601: Season 6 Introduction: How Beliefs Shape Your Business