Embracing a CEO Mindset: Transitioning from Employee to Entrepreneur

Speaker 1: 0:01

You ever feel like you are the only one that is experiencing failure or certain things within your business, or maybe you look at other people and you wonder how they keep going and they keep having a great attitude about things. Well, during this episode, I'm going to talk to you about some mindset shifts that are going to help you successfully transition from employee to entrepreneur and CEO in your business. You, you, you. Welcome back to another episode of the Operations Toolbox Podcast, the show that solopreneurs turned to to learn more about the fundamental tools, systems and structure needed to confidently run a sustainable business without feeling like they are always overworked and overwhelmed. I'm your host, tanya D Harrison, and again in this episode, we'll explore three crucial mindset shifts to help you make a successful transition from being an employee to becoming a thriving entrepreneur and CEO. Whether you are already on the path or you are thinking about it, these mindset shifts will set you up for success. So I really want to make sure I'm Mention this while I'm talking about three. There are so many that you are going to Experience or have experienced if you're already on this journey. What I'm doing is Sharing the three that I feel that have had the most and biggest Impact on me and my business. I Mean, out of all of the ones that I could have Experience. These three are the ones that have propelled me to my next level and these three are the ones that have kept me going for six plus years being an entrepreneur. The first mindset shift is Is stop waiting to be told. That is the biggest one when I am working with solo Prenuers. You know, especially those of us are that were newer in business, because this was really Something that I had to learn early on in business. Right, we have to stop waiting to be told.

Speaker 1: 3:33

As an employee, you often rely on clear instructions or a Supervisors guidance or a job description. There's something that gives you an idea about what you should be doing, so you have a clue. Even at a leadership role, you still have a job description. You know I'm responsible for these departments of this team or what have you. So you have some idea of what you should be doing and what success looks like. But when you come out and you step into this journey of being a business owner and owning your own business, it's totally different. Right, you're not handed this blueprint that says do this this way to achieve these results. It just doesn't work that way. You're not even handed something that says these are your Responsibilities, these are what you should, the things that you should be focused on. That is just not something that's readily available. So once we start to make that transition, you find yourself sitting at your desk wondering what do I need to do? And Then what happens is we go from zero to a hundred. We go from doing nothing to doing all of the things. I mean just like everything right. So that is one of the the biggest shifts I had to make.

Speaker 1: 5:03

I Don't have this blueprint. I need to develop it myself, right? That's why I believe I Know everyone doesn't. I believe that business plans work Because it gives you an idea of what you need to be looking at and the research that you need to do, and it it really becomes your blueprint. And I'm not talking about the you know, 100-page business plan. They have the lean ones that you could use, but it gives you different things that you need to focus on. But what I want to impress upon you is that you can't wait for somebody to tell you and you can't go by Everything that you see on social media.

Speaker 1: 5:50

So you have to learn how to be really discerning when it comes to where do you go and who do you listen to. It's not like back in corporate or when you're on your job. You have a question, you go and you ask your boss yeah, you are the boss. So that was one of the biggest mindset shifts I had to adjust. So you are it, you look to you and then you start to develop your circle. But that's mindset shift number one. The second mindset shift, and whoo, this is another one. That was really big. You have to learn how to rephrase Failure and you have to learn how to leverage failure. Now, don't nobody like failure, right?

Speaker 1: 6:48

So in corporate, failure was often seen as a negative outcome. Like, oh, you failed, you did you, you, you did bad, you didn't meet your numbers, you didn't get the job, you know you didn't do something. It was looked at in a negative way as an entrepreneur. It's an opportunity to learn and grow Like. It is the total opposite. Every time you fail it puts you closer to the success that you're looking for, because you learn something and you grow through that. So you have to learn how to look at failures differently.

Speaker 1: 7:27

I remember first starting out in business and even now, right, because I don't meet every single objective that I put forth. But when I first started out, you know Whether it's putting a webinar out or whatever the case may be and you have two people sign up or maybe nobody buys this thing and it was like, oh my goodness you, you feel like such a failure and you think that you are the only one that is experiencing this. And I can tell you 100 with 100% certainty that number one you're not the only one. And number two, you have something that you can learn from that. Even if it's a matter of, hey, I need to learn how to better position myself, or Maybe I'm presenting this to the wrong people, whatever the case may be, there's always something to learn and to grow from it.

Speaker 1: 8:24

So when you are an entrepreneur and when you are on this journey as a business owner, you start to understand that setbacks are a natural part of the journey. It's like just as natural as breathing. They are a natural part of the journey. They are going to happen to everybody. You're going to have setbacks, but you have to develop resilience and you have to learn from your mistakes and you have to be able to turn those failures into stepping stones Forward, so you have to grow through them. That is a mindset shift.

Speaker 1: 9:03

Number two, and I I'll say, out of the three, that was the hardest for me, out of the three that I'm sharing, number two learning how to rephrase and leverage failure was the hardest because my entire life I have been taught that failure was bad, right and, and most of us, when we fail, we don't like to to share it with people and we don't like to fail in front of people. It's like, oh, my goodness, what are people going to think, what are people going to say? And all of these things. And the reality of it is is there's a lot of us that are Going through the same thing. That's why we talk about this in my savvy operations society, membership In the society. We talk about these things and we talk about how we can grow through them and how we can come back, become better and is there something that we could have done differently so that we can apply it the next time? So we're always looking for opportunities To learn and to grow through the failure.

Speaker 1: 10:10

And one thing that I've learned is the quicker you fail, the quicker you can get to success. So you can't hold on and say I don't want to do something because I'm afraid to fail Right, because that puts you further away from the success that you're looking for, because failure is inevitable. There's going to be things that will not turn out the way you want them to turn out, but it's an opportunity to learn and to grow. So, for me, this is the biggest mindset shift that I had to make and I constantly, constantly remind myself of this. All right, mindset shift number three you have to develop a CEO and business mindset again. You're no longer an employee, you, you're no longer employing, so no one's telling you what to do. You have to be able to call the shots your CEO, because you're not an employee. You don't have a CEO that's dictating your vision and determining your mission and your values and putting the strategy in place to determine the journey or the path for the organization. You are it. You are it.

Speaker 1: 11:32

So you have to determine the vision, the mission, the core values and the strategy that you are going to use to accomplish the bigger picture, the goals, short term and long term. So you have to take charge of this, because you are the beginning and the end, so you have to develop a mindset that allows you to do this and creating the vision is really great, but it's the beginning, right. So once I have the vision, I know the direction. Hey, here's where I want to take the organization Now you have to put. This is where putting your business mindset comes into place.

Speaker 1: 12:20

Now you have to put the strategy and the tactics in place in order to help you accomplish the vision. I'm pushing my organization in the direction that I want it to go, and it is going to require me to be all up in my numbers. I know a lot of us are like I don't like numbers. All up in your numbers, understanding what works, what doesn't work, who your customer is, what they like, what they don't like, where they are like all of these things are you, whereas when you're an employee, they are defined by somebody else, and it's that CEO's responsibility to set forth what we need to do. They need to say where are we going, how are we going to get there, and all of that. But now you are it, you are the CEO. So I would encourage you to embrace that, to really embrace it, and the biggest thing that you can do is to start planning. Planning needs to become a part of your everyday life, set your vision, set your goals, put your plan in place, start tracking your numbers and make adjustments as you need.

Speaker 1: 13:40

So those, those are the three, just to summarize the three mindset shifts. Number one stop waiting to be told. Number two learn how to rephrase and leverage failure, which was my biggest aha. And number three develop a CEO and business mindset. I encourage you to embrace these shifts when you are starting out or if you're already on the journey, and let me know what your biggest mindset shift was. I would love to know and, if you liked this episode, I would also love it if you would rate us and leave us a review. Thank you so much for joining us for another episode of the Operations Toolbox podcast. I look forward to seeing you next week. Bye.