Sometimes All It Takes Is a Shift in Thinking
I want to share with you two big shifts in thinking that happened for me recently in the hope that it might spark a shift in perspective for you.
I learned many years ago, albeit quite late in life, that sometimes, when we are stuck in struggle, all that is needed to change EVERYTHING is a shift in perspective.
A really simple example I always use to illustrate perspective is that two people can look out of a window and see heavy rain and one person can feel miserable about it and another person can feel happy about it (I’m the latter!). When we see this we know then that rain, in and of itself, is neither a good or a bad thing. What matters is our view of it. Our perspective.
What’s exciting is that when we change our perspective, it changes how we feel and when we change how we feel, it changes what we do and how we show up.
We so often cling to supposed truths and deeply entrenched beliefs for dear life, even when doing so isn’t serving us. When we can see things differently, everything feels different and when that happens, it can be a total game changer for how we show up.
This is why, when I work with clients and they are struggling with something, I go straight to perspective and I ask:
Is the way you are looking at this causing you to feel some sort of way about it?
Allow me to share two shifts in perspective I’ve had recently that have changed my entire outlook on my year ahead.
At the end of last year, I wrote my business plan. I did so with a very specific financial target in mind. My plan was centred on how many clients and group/workshop participants I needed to get over the year to hit my goal. Which makes sense on one level but I realised recently how short-sighted I was being.
My business model centres on 4 key offerings: 1:1 Coaching, my yearlong group mastermind, smaller group programs (which I only introduced last year) and workshops. My group mastermind and 1:1 are quite steady in terms of numbers and once the mastermind starts, I know what my monthly income will be from that for the rest of the year. So if I want to increase income (or so I was telling myself) then my only option was to run more workshops and group programs and get more people into them.
Part of my plan for this month was to launch a new workshop and a week or so ago I took several steps towards making it happen (dragging my feet along the way). I mentioned it in a newsletter to gauge interest (something that usually motivates me to move forward with the plan), I wrote an outline for the workshop, created a promo graphic and I even worked on the sales page with my favourite copywriter.
As I considered the content, I figured it would require at least 2 x 90 minute teaching calls and probably a 60 minute Q+A call. I usually charge 50€ for these, even though, I acknowledged to myself some time ago that this price was too low for 4 hours of workshop time.
Then last week when it came time to actually launch it, I just couldn’t do it. I actually said out loud at my desk: “I don’t want to do it!” the level of resistance I felt was huge. So much so that I abandoned the task of launching and decided that I would either abandon the idea altogether or simply do one 90 minute workshop for that price point at a later date. I immediately felt better.
You see here’s the thing, I typically get, at best, around 20 paying people per workshop I run and give away, to my clients and mastermind participants, another 35 free spots. Twenty people at 50€ is 1000€ and as I considered all of the time it would take me to launch and market the workshop, design the workshop content and deliver the workshop, 1000€ just wasn’t enough to motivate me to do it and that was if I made 1000€, given it was quite a techy topic, the chances are that less than 20 people would sign up. Meaning I might make 500–800 euros for all that work!
I had got so caught up in my thinking that I couldn’t see the wood for the trees. Thoughts like ‘it won’t be useful if it’s not got tons of teaching AND space for Q+A’ and ‘If I charge more than 50€ people won’t sign up’ so there I was stuck with a set of beliefs that weren’t serving me and that were making me want to do anything BUT launch this damn workshop.
Realising all of this, I came to the conclusion that I would either postpone the workshop indefinitely OR I would run it as a single 90 minute session for 50€.
From the space that had now been created inside me, the first shift happened. First of all, I could breathe again and felt light and joyful, Then, later that same day, I had a mastermind call (I joined a mastermind myself this year to support me in getting my business to the next level).
The topic of the mastermind call was audience and list growth, which is one of my strategic priorities for the year. I was excited to dive in and it didn’t disappoint, the coach who hosts the mastermind shared her best ideas for list growth as did everyone else on the call. My mind was ablaze with ideas and then it hit me.
I realised that I had created a business plan so focused on selling this year to hit my financial goal that I wasn’t going to have time to take action on actually growing my list. That’s when I had my epiphany:
What if, instead of hustling to get people into my workshops and programs, I focused on list growth instead?
It was one of those moments where everything shifted, my whole plan for the year and most importantly my feelings about my plan! Whereas before I felt a certain sense of dread about marketing and launching so many things, I suddenly felt excited about all the amazing free things I could offer for people to find me and get to know me better, knowing that with a bigger list, it would be easier to fill my workshops next year! It seems so obvious now but I just couldn’t see it before.
With this shift in perspective I felt so much lighter, so much more creative, content ideas started flowing again and I felt excited about my work again.
A few days later, it was my birthday (this is where shift #2 kicks in!). I had planned to head into the city with a friend to go shopping for new yoga clothes and have a nice lunch. My friend was due to pick me up at 9.30am and so once I awoke, I needed to get ready for the day ahead and get my boys up, fed, dressed and off to school. It was going to be a busy morning and then I had a thought!
Oh it’s my birthday, what if I host a birthday sale for my subscribers?
Part of me thought it would be impossible to get it set up before my friend arrived but I wanted to try! I had done sales before so I had emails I could use and the infrastructure already set up. In 20 minutes and with 5 minutes to spare before my friend arrived, I had sent the sale email!
Over the course of my birthday and the next day, sales of my workshop replays and bookings of gift and discounted coaching sessions came in. I couldn’t help but laugh as I thought about how heavy I had felt just a few days prior about how much work I was going to have to do to launch my workshop.
In the end I made just under 1000€ on the sale. I couldn’t believe it. 1000€ for 20 minutes of work vs what I might have made (or probably less) for a workshop that would have taken me about 30 hours to launch, create and deliver. I have no doubt that my 1st shift is what gave me the idea and the energy to execute the sale.
These 2 shifts have changed everything for me and since having them, I’m having so many ideas about other things I could change in my business to make my life and work more easy.
Now I know it’s not always easy to create a shift in perspective but I’ll leave you with a few questions that might spark some inspiration when you are feeling in struggle.
What about this could I do differently?
How could this be easier?
What if I ripped up the plan and did something else entirely?
What ideas or beliefs about myself or my business am I holding onto that aren’t serving me?
If you have any questions about what I’ve shared here, don’t hesitate to let me know in the comments.
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