Mindset Practices for Beginning a Successful Business
Have you recently thought about starting an online business? Or looking to improve your current one? Now I don’t claim to be an expert in the field of mindfulness, manifestation or positive thinking - and I am definitely not trying to coach you on the topic either. I would, however, love to share my experiences of using my personal mindset practices and how they have contributed to the success of my business - hopefully inspiring you to implement some of your own!
What is mindset exactly, and how can it help my business?
To me, mindset is basically the thoughts and belief systems around your business, yourself and your life. Its your perspective and how you see the world and what you think is possible. Before I lose you, think about what an impact this can make. If you believe that in order to be successful you need to be working 40 hours a week, this will be true for you. If you think that you need to work really hard to make money, you’re going to be killing yourself each week to reach your money goal.
If you believe that you can easily get 5 new clients each month, well then your business is going to be booming! If I think I’m going be become a millionaire overnight - not so much. Although, I did recently fly to Vietnam where a million dong (their local currency) is just a few dollars and easily attainable!
On a more serious note though, becoming aware of thoughts that help and limit your business can have a huge impact on your business success. You’re able to take positive action in the right direction and you don’t focus your time getting lost in a rut of “I can’t do this. This is too hard.”
How mindset has helped my business (and my life)!
When I first began my business I knew exactly what I wanted to achieve with it. Before I even launched Haskin Creatives or worked on my website, I worked on my mindset. I’d wake up and tell myself how awesome I was and what a kick-ass Pinterest Manager I was, even though I hadn’t even begun practicing as one yet. I’d talk about how I’d get a dream client within my first month of business to my husband and to my friends and how I didn’t need to renew my teaching contract because I had an abundance of income flowing my way.
This was only a few months ago, but all that I’ve set out to achieve has become my reality! I had a dream client contact me out of the blue through my website within my first few weeks of launching. I consistently gained amazing clients since (shout out to the best clients!) and quit my teaching job to travel and work remotely full time.
It sounds as simple as “tell yourself anything and it quickly and easily becomes true” and I guess there is a little more to it than that. There is still the action part and actually putting in the work. But pushing through those challenging times is definitely easier if you believe what is coming is worth it.
I’m not perfect either. In my second month of business I fell into a deep negative hole of “This isn’t working. I haven’t been contacted by any potential clients for weeks now”. It was so challenging to take any positive action coming from a place of lack and I continued to see no results in my business. After some deep connecting with other business women (thank goodness for biz besties!), I got back into the right mindset and let go of the lack. Literally the next day there was an email from a dream client wanting Pinterest Management, everything in flow again.
My mindset practice for attracting a successful business
A Morning Routine
I try to ensure I’m in a state of balance before any mindset, self-love or full moon practice (I guess I have loads of practices!). I’m sure you can see how it could be challenging to think amazing, positive thoughts about anything when you’re not feeling your best, are in a bad mood or are grumpy from staying up to who-knows-when the night before. I have a solid morning routine that gets me into a state of flow for manifesting. This usually involves waking up early, drinking lots of water, getting some outdoor exercise in and practicing yoga. Please don’t think I’ve got this nailed down either, I obviously have days when I sleep in an extra hour or skip the run. What I’ve come to notice though is that these activities really get me into an optimal mood for the rest of the mindset work. Feel free to practice at any time of the day!
Goal Setting
Getting clear on what you want to achieve in the next week, month, year in your business is super important. If you don’t know what you’re working towards, what’s stopping you from running around like a headless chicken not really going anywhere? Know where you want to get to and think about what action needs to be taken.
Tip: I like to create long-term and short-term goals, and these go beyond money or number of clients. I focus even on the little things like, I want five clients who provide value to their customers and own creative, conscious business. I want them to be kind and easy-going and fun to work with. What is important to you?
Journaling and Visualising
Imagine that your goals are already achieved. Visualise what your life looks like now. How does this make you feel? This is such a powerful exercise because it really gets you into a space of believing it’s real and possible. Here are some journaling prompts I like to answer for myself in immense detail:
How do I spend my time?
What does my day look like?
Who am I working with? Who are my ideal clients?
Where do currently live? What does my space look like?
Who do I spend time with?
How much do I earn? What becomes possible with this amount of financial freedom?
Creating Affirmations
Have you heard of the saying, tell yourself something often enough and you will start to believe it? It can be scary when you really start listening to some of the negative things we tell ourselves in our heads day in and day out without even realising it, and it can take some time to break the cycle of a negative mindset. We make room for new beliefs and attracting those into reality by creating positive affirmations aligned with our goals.
Here are some of my personal examples: I am so proud to be a successful Pinterest Manager who achieves amazing results for my clients, driving mass traffic to their sites daily. I am so grateful for the abundance of financial resources I have access to. Money is constantly flowing my way. I work with five kind, caring and easy-going clients who are a pleasure to work with. Working remotely as a Pinterest Manager is easy and fun!
I write these in my journal daily. Sometimes I pick one, sometimes I create new ones. I even say them aloud! This can feel super intimidating at first but after a while you get used to talking to yourself 😆 I also love attaching feelings to these - think about how you would feel if it were your reality and tap into it.
Tip: Always write your affirmations in the present tense as if they are already true. I like to write them on sticky notes and paste them all over the house as little reminders of what is to come.
Letting Go
Obsessing over how you started your affirmations a week ago with no immediate results, or checking your inbox for magically appearing client leads isn’t the way to go with manifesting what you desire - trust me! If you really believed it was going to happen, you wouldn’t feel the need to act this way. When you truly begin believing and acting as if these goals are real, this is when you start seeing real results.
I totally get how these can be a bit much to begin with if you’re new to journaling or affirmations or manifesting (whatever you want to call it!). Pick something that resonates with you and begin implementing it. I can 100% say that these practices have contributed to the success of my business and I would love so much if you had access to it too! I challenge you to at least try these for a week or a month and see what you get out of it.
Hello, I'm Megan!
An introvert at heart, Pinterest is the perfect platform for me. Simply posting your content using the right marketing strategies gets you an abundance of website traffic? No engagement or ‘showing up’ needed?
Who wouldn’t want to use this powerhouse of a platform …
