Are you ready for growth? Interview with Zeenat Noorani

Speaker 2: You work really hard and your business does pretty well, but you know that there is more for you, but what, but how do you achieve it? How to scale up your business without losing your values or your mind is a constant juggling act for any growing business owner.

In this episode, we are joined by the wonderful Zeenat Noorani from Ve Da Mariposa coaching, who will share with us, her wisdom on how we can get our mindset into a place of growth.

I’m Charlotte and you are listening to let’s get down to business, a podcast by a 4g chartered accountants. We’re an accountancy practice based in Kent with over 25 years of consistent growth. In this series, we will take you through each stage of your journey to growing your business and how to overcome the hurdles along the way so that you could achieve a healthy growing business that is less dependent on you. So let’s get started…

Before I introduce our guest today. I just want to share with you the details of our breakthrough growth program. If you were looking for greater clarity and confidence in the future of your business, the tools to make faster decisions and aim to spend less time on the day-to-day running of your business and more audits growth, then this is the program for you with detailed financial assessments, strategic and financial planning, accurate and useful financial reporting.

As well as looking at everything from sales and marketing through to profit and cashflow improvement, we have the tools to help you overcome the various challenges you will face at different stages of your business and help you tackle them. So you can take things to the next level due to the bespoke nature of our services. We have limited availability.

So if you are interested in becoming one of our exclusive clients, please register your details on our website https://www.a4g-llp.co.uk/business-breakthrough/growth, or email us on enquiries@a4g-llp.co.uk to find out if you qualify for as strategic growth coaching.

With me today is Zeenat, who is a growth, mental health mindset, a wellbeing coach. She recently won the best bespoke mental health and wellbeing coach service 2021 award at the mental health coach of the year for innovation and an excellence 2021. And amongst other things is also an author and Kelly runs her own radio show on channel two radio mindset matters. So good morning.

Speaker 1: Good morning, Charlotte. It’s wonderful to be here. So thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 2: Oh, I’m so excited to have you on. And just for some of our listeners, would you mind just giving us a quick background on who you are and what you do.

Speaker 1: Yes, no, absolutely. Oh my goodness. I could talk forever. I know. We’re time bound. Uh, so, um, originally, um, my career started out as a professional figure skater, which I did for many, many, many, many years. So you can imagine, uh, mindset training resilience is all around that, but in those times that never really kind of crossed my mind so long story short. Um, I gave up, um, figure skating professionally in about 2004 came back to the UK because I was based in Spain, living in there for about seven years and came back to the UK. And I retrained as a, um, primary education teacher though. I had, um, got a degree in interior design, which I never worked in because skating was my passion. Uh, you know what it’s like when you’ve got a passion for something and you kind of just want to follow that, but you go to uni because your parents have told you to go just in case something happens along the way.

So yeah, it’s, you know, one of those kinds of, uh, belief systems that kind of follow us around for a while. Um, so I did primary teaching for about seven years and unfortunately that didn’t turn out to the way I expected it. Um, it wasn’t the best career life for me though. I love teaching and I love the inspiration that I get from the children. All of that unfortunately hit me really hard in terms of burnout, depression, and mental health. And that’s where I resigned from teaching Nigeria, my teaching career, I was actually training up as a life coach and NLP practitioner because I thought, you know, I came across it through a friend of mine actually. And I thought, oh my God, this is absolutely amazing. And I thought that was something that I could use within my teaching career and with the children and to support other teachers and colleagues.

Um, but as I said, that didn’t work out and I left. And while I was doing my therapy and counseling, uh, recovery, it kind of hit me then that what I wanted to do was actually help people. And the skills that are learned through coaching and NLP was something that I could take on forward. And I wanted to do something more, you know, when you feel like there’s more to me. And also I felt like I wanted to be in control of my life and not the other way round and control of my, my wellbeing, my future, not having to answer to people. Um, and cause I’d lost a lot of self-confidence during that time. So for me, it was my making that massive shift and wanting to help people who’ve been through what I’ve been through and going back. Cause I went way back to my skating career as well. I’m in fact childhood and things flagged up from way back then that I thought, oh my goodness, that’s, what’s kind of been stopping me. These are the skills that I haven’t gotten. This isn’t the mindset that I haven’t got. Um, and I wanted to make a difference from the time I started recovering and that’s what I do now.

Speaker 2: Wow. That’s amazing. And I love how you also relate, you know, your sporting career to, to now, to know what you’re doing in terms of mindset, you know, because what I’d like to focus on with you today, Zeenat, is your, how a business owner’s mindset or their personal limitations could be sort of the number one thing, holding them back. You know, like most of our listeners will have sort of a number of ideas of how they want to, you know, grow, um, you know, but what prevents business owners from growing, how they overcome these barriers to growth is almost that quite tricky. You know, there’s lots of things we could list off like the size of their industry or the number of customers they have or the finance, all that sort of stuff. But really, you know, the mindset is, can be a massive shift. They get that right. They might not need to really worry about anything else. Um, so obviously, well there is other things, but you know what I mean? Um, we want to just focus on that mindset today, which is lovely, that you’ve got that experience, you know, and you touched on it just actually then in your story, but what would be the sort of signs someone needs to look out for if they’re needing to, to do a bit of work on their mindset?

Speaker 1 00:06:47 Wow. Okay. I mean, symptoms of emotional stress, um, is, uh, is massive. Um, now we’ve got to bear in mind, you know, the symptoms and the signs can be both physical, mental, and behavioral. Uh, and it’s not just one element, so it could be all three, it could be one of these or it could be a couple of them. And sometimes, you know, we, if, if the symptoms are ongoing, then there is a sign there that hadn’t met, this isn’t normal, right? So that’s the first thing that you have to recognize, um, that suddenly you’re getting, for example, um, heavy chest pains or your heart might be racing at particular points when you’re entering in a room, because it’s also the environment that we work in. Uh, it could be ongoing headaches, uh, you know, dizziness. I mean, I was very much a culprit of, um, grinding my teeth and you’re planting. Speaker 1 00:07:40 That was one of the things I used to do a lot of, um, it can be to do with your weight. So gaining weight, losing weight, changing your eating habits as well. And of course the most fundamental, I would say sleeping patterns change. Um, I mean, there’s so much, I mean, it can, you can even go into medical problems, like, you know, suddenly your stomach’s very upset. Um, and you might be even getting things like, excuse me, diarrhea or constipation. And it’s not something that you’ve eaten, but it’s that because your body’s affected by the stress. Um, and even your libido can change. So when you’re looking at these physical symptoms, um, when we’re looking at mental and behavior, you know, you might become more emotional because I knew I became very, very emotional. I was constantly crying. I mean, you could put, uh, pick up a cup and put it in the wrong place and I’d be in tears and that’s not normal, uh, feeling overwhelmed constantly on edge.

Speaker 1 00:08:37 Those kinds of things is about keeping an eye on with how, you know, how are your behaviors changing a use of alcohol or drugs just to cut that moment of, uh, emotional relief. Um, you might even find that he are struggling even in, you know, concentrating focus, uh, solving problems, even getting, staying on task and getting the work done. So there’s lots and lots of things that are out there that can indicate, but the problem is we’re not taught well enough from a very young age, how to become self aware. And I think that’s where the problem arises. Once you become self-aware and you can trust how you’re feeling, then you can start to make the changes. Yeah.

Speaker 2 00:09:28 Yeah, exactly. And I’ve really liked that, you know, what you’re saying is really listening to what’s going on around you. Like everyone goes through a stressful time, but especially in business business owners from the last 18 months to two years, you know, it’s, if there is ups and downs of business, but Chuck noticing something particular that’s different or if, or even another, you know, a friend or a family member says, I’ve noticed this about you, but maybe listening out for sort of that sort of thing. Yeah.

Speaker 1 00:09:55 Yeah. And listening to people because normally the people around, you know, you well enough and if they’re close to you, but what I want to also mention is that the word stress is it’s so tricky because we have to also understand that trust, sorry, trust stress. Isn’t a bad thing. Okay. Cause sometimes people thrive on the stress and it it’s on their motivator. It drives them forward. However, it only becomes a problem when it stops you achieving the things you want to achieve and it’s affecting your health.

Speaker 2 00:10:30 Interesting. Well, I think that’s, you know, that sort of leads me on to, you know, we hear a lot of people say a lot of things. They want to grow their business. They want to do something, you know, they want to go somewhere. They want to achieve things, but they aren’t actually doing what’s necessary to sort of do that growth. So what would you, you know, what could you say would be stopping people from wanting to grow, even though they’ve actually voicing something. Speaker 1 00:10:53 I mean, first of all, it’s looking at their belief systems because what we might believe and what we think may not be congruent. And so it’s going back and it doesn’t mean that a one’s belief system is not wrong. It could be perhaps that that is not working for them right now because we have to remember that we are not born with our belief systems. They grow with us. And sometimes they become ingrained in us that same with our values. So it’s really important that we’re checking in with our belief systems. We’re looking at our values around our personal self, around our business, the culture, the ethos, you know, what are your strengths, weaknesses, your motivators, your drivers, um, because these are all fundamental things that will stop somebody from either progressing in their business, growing their business. But it starts from you personally because it also it’s about taking action because we can talk about everything and we can read all the books that we want to read.

Speaker 1 00:12:02 But if we don’t actually take action, become accountable, take ownership and be consistent in it. It’s not going to happen. And unfortunately, you know, when it comes to our mindset, there is no one and product, the product is what you make it and how you want to be. So if you’re allowing your belief systems to stop you, then you need to look into them. And there are lots of different ways you can do that. Um, one is S you know, seeking support from a coach. Now I’m a coach and I have a coach who coaches me because we’re all human aren’t we in the end of the day. And we were constantly faced with different challenges and paths and encounters. And it’s just about having that little bit of clarity, that vision. Um, another thing I think is really important is if we’re going to go down the strategic part, always review your business plan. I mean, when we start out, we all do a business plan or I suppose most of us do, but how many of us actually go back and look at that business plan and check in with it? Yup.

Speaker 2 00:13:10 Well, you know, actually we talked about that on a previous podcast because it, you know, we, we talked about how business plans are really important, but actually not updating them is probably almost more important because things change, you know, whether it’s a year or five years, I don’t know, but you know, even six months, sometimes things can change in your business and shifts that you need to go back and say, actually our original plans changed. Um, you know, and part of that I think is, you know, like goal setting and when we’ve written a business plan, we’re going to set some goals and that’s sort of extremely important to treat, achieve anything, you know, within the business or in life. Really sometimes like you need a plan, I’m a bit of a planner. I don’t know about everyone, not everyone’s a planner, but you know, I, I like to plan, you know, but have you maybe got some advice for listeners on how to approach goal setting, if they’re, if they’re not familiar with that part of the business plan.

Speaker 1 00:13:57 So in terms of goal setting, I mean, first of all, goals, goal setting is, um, you know, it’s so, so important. We don’t realize how important it is because that’s where we can get clarity in our mind, we get our visions and it allows us to move forward. So before you set a goal, you need to take a closer look at what you’re trying to achieve, and you need to know your why and, and, you know, Simon Sinek, um, if you’ve heard of him, he always talks about the why. So when you set something, know your why know your purpose. So it’s really important to explore that first. And then, and, you know, we’ve all had a majority of us heard of smart goals and yes, create these smart goals, um, by writing them down because when you write them down as well, it makes it reality.

Speaker 1 00:14:47 It’s almost like I remember when I first, you know, for years I was, I need to write a book. I need to write a book and it’s there, but the moment you write it down and you tell somebody, you can’t take it back because, you know, that’s, they’re waiting for that to happen for that makes sense. Yes, definitely. So you can think, oh God, if I haven’t done it at peak, what are people going to think of it? And then you stop all those kinds of things coming to play, and you don’t want those fears. So brighten the goals down and, you know, it gives you that vision. It gives you that accountability as well. And then with that, you start to create action plans and yes, have your end goal. But also in your mind, say there may be obstacles where I might have to kind of reaffirm them and kind of take different angles because you build up a resilience around it as well.

Speaker 1 00:15:37 But also resilience is massive. So check in to see what your resilience is like, is that resilience working for you because there’s no point banging your head against the same brick wall and not going anywhere because you say, no, keep going, keep going. But where are you going to keep going? Which angle you taking? Um, so in terms of that, so check in with that, create your action plan plan, and create a timeline as well. Um, it’s always good to see, you know, where you’re going, so you can see the progress. And then with that, you know, you can start to feel like, oh my gosh, I’ve accomplished something, oh my God, this, this day, or this week, or this month has been absolutely fantastic. Or perhaps this week hasn’t been so great. Well, why hasn’t it been so great. Yep. So,

Speaker 2 00:16:24 And stay on track, isn’t it? You know, if you’ve got it broken down into lots of smaller goals or task, it’s not overwhelming. And you could say, well, I’ve ticked off this. What stopped me? Ticking things off, you know, what can I do next week? It’s a more, a good way to, you know, if you, if you can measure it, you can manage it.

Speaker 1 00:16:40 Absolutely. And I think with that as well, when you’re creating gold gold, talk to people, talk to somebody you trust. If you’ve got a coach, fantastic talk to them or your colleagues, because that can also bring about clarity. It can also bring about, you know, other ideas and possibilities because about reaching goals is all about possibilities. And I would say even with goals take time, because I don’t know, I know so many people I’ve come across, they set themselves a goal, but they don’t reevaluate and assess their progress. And I think, um, you know, with, if you don’t do that, you’re going to lose track and it’s gonna, you’re going to come off direction and focus. Okay. So setting goals puts you in this driver’s seat and it gives you the power to transform your own life into whatever direction of desire you want. Um, another thing I think with goal setting, it goes back to the why, but believe in the process.

Speaker 1 00:17:40 So the first step I would say to goal setting as well is having absolute faith and belief in the process. And in yourself, your confidence, your abilities look at, you know, the strengths that you have and things that you’ve achieved before, because we often forget that actually the things we’ve achieved in the past can actually help us in things in the moment and in the future, it’s almost like, you know, when you get an award, you get, oh, you get an award and you think, ah, there’s the, my award, I’ll put it on the shelf and it can, uh, it gathers dust. But actually, how did you achieve that award? What was behind it? Because those skills and knowledge will help you with other goals.

Speaker 2 00:18:24 Yeah. Is that clear? And I like that if you never really reassess, you never let you say you sort of never celebrate how far you’ve come. It may or may not have been in the direction you initially set out for it to be, but you still may progress. And maybe looking back and actually say, you know, what have I learned from that? And, and I think, I think that’s a wonderful thing to do, and it’s not so disheartening. Like you say, people just play with it. Let’s keep moving forward, keep moving forward and never just stop and evaluate, you know, what could a business owner maybe do to help improve this mindset? Then if it’s something they struggle with and also help them to visualize the success, if they haven’t got that to look back on yet.

Speaker 1 00:18:59 I would say, get yourself a business plan. Or even if you’re very creative, create a vision board, I love vision boards, you know, uh, with a vision board, you can put all sorts of things and that can start, um, giving you that vision. And I would, like I said, right at the beginning, what is it that you want to achieve? And why do you want to achieve it? You have to know your why, because we all know the, how the Watts and the wins, but it’s the why that keeps us motivated. And it keeps us going and ensuring that, you know, whatever you do, it’s measurable. And I always asked my business, um, clients to kind of visualize themselves, say five or 10 years down the line, you know, what do you see? What do you hear? What do you feel when you reach that goal? What is happening right here right now? And it’s that visualization that happens then you work backwards. Does that make sense? There’s definitely no question.

Speaker 2 00:20:03 It’s fine. You know, it’s one of those things, you know, if you can dream, it is possible, you know, you know, and, you know, seeing, if you can see where you want your business to be, whether that be, you know, you could have 10 stores or I want so many employees around what to take it to this level or this award or whatever it is, if you can think about it and dream it, I do believe you can make that possible. You just have to believe it.

Speaker 1 00:20:27 It can happen. Absolutely. Um, you know, there’s, um, Bob, Proctor’s very good at that. Now he talks a lot about the mindset, the conscious the subconscious of the mind, and in believing in what you set yourself. So if there’s any sort of money, setbacks, financial setbacks, or anything like that, and a couple of his books that I absolutely love is the change, your paradigm change your life, which is fantastic. And you were born to be rich as well as the 12 power of principles. I mean, he, he’s all about the mind Bob Proctor, and it’s about working with your subconscious, bringing it to the forefront of your conscious mind and then saying, and believing and writing down that goal, that affirmation, whatever that might be. Um, another, another great person is Carol. Yeah. Do I never pronounce her name? I mean, she’s got the mindset book called the new psychology of success. I mean, she’s got loads of different books, but I love this one as well. It’s actually a fantastic, and the other one is grit that I like, and it’s the power of passion and perseverance by Angela Duckworth.

Speaker 2 00:21:45 Oh, wow. I mean, we love, we do love a good reading recommendation here, so I can put them in the, in the comments actually, um, just quickly then how can, you know, you touched on this at the beginning, actually can, how can someone develop their self-awareness and that’s above others? And, you know, you mentioned people have struggled to be self-aware. How can, how can they develop?

Speaker 1 00:22:05 Well self-awareness yes. Um, well, it’s in the word self-awareness starts with, uh, oneself, believe it or not, um, you know, to become more self-aware w you know, we should be trying to develop an understanding of ourselves in many, many different areas. Key areas of self-awareness is our personality traits, our personal values, habits, emotions, the, um, psychological needs that drives our behaviors. So personality awareness of your personality helps you to analyze, okay. So to start with, and we tell children this all the time and why we don’t do it as adults, I, I have no idea as much, but improve your listening skills. Listen, before you speak, listen, before you react, listening is absolutely fundamental because you get so much from that. So listening to yourself, what kind of language do you find yourself using? That’s not empowering, that’s stopping you. And that comes back to a lot of the NLP stuff.

Speaker 1 00:23:19 Neuro-linguistic programming things that I do, you know, it’s the communication and language a good way also is pay attention to interactions with other people, because how you see other people you’ll think, oh, I do that. Or I don’t do that. And you’ll value yourself more. Um, there’s things like, um, self hypnosis audio books that you can download to, um, improve your own self-awareness, you know, and I think for me, it’s, it’s being mindful. I think the word is, and we hear this word being thrown around a lot lately mindfulness, but actually mindfulness can be so many things. And it’s being in the moment, not reacting, taking time to just stop, breathe, and reflect on what’s going on. And I think if you do it more consciously, then it becomes your habit. You know, you might initially want to start putting in your book and say, you know, every hour I’ll stop and I’ll just breathe and I’ll reflect on what’s going on around me. Speaker 1 00:24:20 What can I see? What can I hear? What can I feel and maybe step out into the garden, but eventually that will become part of you. Um, and I think that’s really important. And just, yeah, you know, when you, when you have a reaction to something in an environment and you know, that’s gonna maybe upset you, or are you going to get a bit agitated or feel overwhelmed? The self-awareness comes by, okay, I know I’m going into that environment. What is it that I can do with myself right now, before I enter that environment? Or before I speak to that person, because as business owners, we’re always going to be in environments that we don’t want to be in or where we may have to talk to people. We don’t like to talk, but to, but we have to for our business. But then again, it’s a choice and we all have a choice when we feel that negative way or that negative thought that’s because we’ve allowed for that person to enter our world and make us feel that way. But you can’t blame them.

Speaker 2 00:25:20 No. Very interesting. You start thinking, you’d relate it to your, you know, your own situation thing.

Speaker 1 00:25:28 Oh yeah. So, you know, I would, you know, spend time identifying your emotions, you know, in different environments, how you are, the people, you know, the positives and the negatives, and then start shifting those around. And that’s what, self-awareness, it’s a journey it’s not going to happen overnight. Um, you know, I’ve, you know, since 2017 is when I left the teaching profession and I’m still, um, growing as a person and I’m still learning as a person I’m still on a journey. And I love this journey that I’m on because I meet all sorts of different people and I’m constantly learning. And it’s about being open-minded self-awareness, it’s also about being open-minded.

Speaker 2 00:26:12 I really like that. And is this related to having a purposeful mindset, you know, can business owners relate back to growing their businesses?

Speaker 1 00:26:19 Absolutely. Absolutely. Because everything you learn about yourself will help you with your business, and it will also help you to deal with the obstacles and challenges are set when you are in business with people or gaining business clients, whoever customers, whoever they may be, because they’re all connected. We can’t really separate business and personal life. To some extent you can and overlaps. And this is where self-awareness is really important. You know, once you’ve learned to establish that things that happen at work, you won’t take home and things that happen at home, you will learn not to take into work, but it’s it’s work. It takes work to get to that point. Yeah.

Speaker 2 00:27:07 Is that going? I think that’s a really interesting point here because, you know, if you’re starting or growing a business, anyway, you’ve got to put in a lot of hours to working on the business. So, you know, have you got any practical tips then to how someone could actually create a bit more balance in a business owner’s life, but between work and home life.

Speaker 1 00:27:22 Right. I, first of all, I would say, um, shed’s ruling is important. Yeah. Obviously work on yourself first. That’s the first thing to do is to work on yourself. Um, but when you’re, when you’re trying to diverse a work life balance, it’s about, um, thinking, okay, what works for me? What doesn’t work cause everybody’s different. Okay. And I could probably give you all the tips and tools, but it may not work for you. It’s about finding what works for you because everybody’s unique. Okay. And everyone has different things going on in their lives, but fundamentally managing your times or having a shed jewel with your negotiables and your non-negotiables, there has to be wellbeing in that. So things that you enjoy doing for yourself and then all the business stuff, and then having your schedule some blank spaces, because those blank spaces will then allow for anything that might have overrun that you can then say, you know what?

Speaker 1 00:28:21 I’m not stressed out because I’ve got blank space at this time in the week, at this time. And then you can put it in there. And I think another tip would be to managing the balance is I’m not trying to fit out too. Sorry. I’m not trying to fit in too much. So don’t have a massive to do list. I would say don’t do more than five things that, and that’s quite a lot five things on a list. Get through that and then think about what else can you do? I mean, you know, there’s loads of management tools that I could throw out there there’s thief and, um, the urgent non-urgent most important, not so important, um, grid that you can use. Yes.

Speaker 2 00:29:05 It will come with that in the last podcast, actually, that.

Speaker 1 00:29:11 That’s absolutely fantastic, you know? Um, and those kinds of things will help you kind of get focused, but again, it comes to mindset. If you’re not accomplishing something, don’t get overwhelmed by it. Think, okay. That’s okay. I can control the things that I can control, but allow the things that you can’t control to go, right? Because there’s no point racking your brain over something and trying to accomplish something, but you have no control over whatsoever. Agreed. Um, no, you’re, you know, if you’re a morning person, try and keep, um, you know, for example, you may want to keep the tough sort of high concentration tasks for the morning and the less easier tasks for the evening. So knowing how you work best, and it goes back right to the beginning. What I said is know your strengths, know what you’re capable of, um, and yet, and stick to them, be consistent. Yeah.

Speaker 2 00:30:13 And I liked that and I think it brings me back to what she said about self-awareness knowing, you know, knowing where, what time of the day works better for us. Like when are we more motivated? Do we have a slump after lunch? Do we need to just do a bit of admin or, you know, catching up on emails after lunch and you know, or maybe we do get a burst of energy in the late afternoon and that’s where we might need to be more creative. And actually, I think sometimes within our businesses, they’re just so busy doing, I don’t think they sit back and just think, am I doing the right thing at the right time? Is it the best return for my time again?

Speaker 1 00:30:45 And sometimes people get it confused that, uh, that busy, but actually they’re not very productive. And one thing I would say is, do not try and multitask because multitasking is not productive because you’re not fully focused on one thing. So to have a balance, be productive by focusing on one thing at a time and also to have that life balance is not to be hard on yourself. Okay. And don’t feel guilty if you take out time for yourself, do not feel guilty. Guilt is a massive thing. And he said, oh, but you know, I’ve, I’ve taken half an hour to do some exercise. Now I’ve got to catch up cause I’ve lost half an hour. No, again, that’s negative talk. So go back and reframe that. What have you gained from that? So a bit of self-love

Speaker 2 00:31:37 I like that. And you know, actually taking a bit of time out for yourself is probably good for you and your business and your family and everyone, you know, if you’re a better person in a better frame of mind, you’ll your staff are going to feel that, you know, your suppliers and customers are going to feel that rather than someone who’s quite a bit run down desperate, tight on time, very stressed out. You’re not going to nurse. We want to do business with these people.

Speaker 1 00:32:01 And we feed authentically. We’re all made of energy. Um, I don’t know about you, but have you ever been in a room and you just get negative vibes of people you think, oh my goodness I have, but because they’re not in the right space that moment, and you know, it’s about you, you know, taking yourself out of that space of uncomfort, um, as well. And I think, you know, it’s so important to, you know, as well with this or is to manage your mind, take regular breaks. And do you know what get yourself a coach because you will be surprised how that person will help you through.

Speaker 2 00:32:40 Yeah, well, I think that’s what I wanted to sort of touch on towards the end Zina, you know, we’ve already mentioned quite a, you know, great list of books and let me know, you know, leaders are readers, do they say, you know, but where can our listeners maybe go for some leading or learning or support on this area?

Speaker 1 00:32:55 Oh gosh. Um, myself…

Speaker 2 00:32:59 Definitely.

Speaker 1 00:33:01 Yeah. Um, just the S they’re all so many coaches out there and I would say, um, do your research. Okay. And, um, look at referrals as well, speak to people because you will always find somebody who knows somebody, um, and really know why you are seeking that coach and the type of coach that you want, but also bear in mind that, um, you have, you have to be committed and ready to take on, uh, a coach or a therapist or a consultant. There’s no point saying I want one, but then you’re not ready to make the shift and that transformation, because I’ve come across many people who want it, but they don’t want it enough or they’re not quite ready. Okay. So, um, it’s important that you need to be ready, but also, um, you know, if you have to resonate with your coach, so I don’t just take on any client, um, and it shouldn’t be the other way round. You have to build a relationship. You have to feel comfortable with them. That is, that is my personal view. That’s my personally, um, um, kind of opinion, because I feel that I best work with my clients when there is trust and you can build a relationship of openness and honesty, and that it’s a two way process.

Speaker 2 00:34:27 I think you’re going to get the most out of it.

Speaker 1 00:34:31 Um, you know, there’s, there’s, I know there’s the life coaching directory online. So there’s lots of online debt directories that you can find, um, certified coaches on that yet. That does that, does that help? It’s a tricky one because more and more of so many out there. Speaker 2 00:34:49 Yeah, definitely. And I think it’s, it’s not just about, you know, getting yourself a coach, doing some more reading. I think, you know, if you, if doing more reading a learning, you’ll find out where you want to go and what direction, and then we’ll ask some of the C’s are out there to help you in whatever challenge that you’ve got in your business. And I think that’s what I really wanted to really focus on today. You know, if uncle series is about growing the business, I don’t, if you haven’t got your mindset right to stop, you know, you might say, where do you want to grow my business? I want to double my turnover in 12 months. Well, that’s great. But if your mind set is not in that place, like you said, if you’re not congruent with what you’re saying, I don’t believe people are going to achieve it. And it doesn’t matter how much we talk about different areas. They could look if, if their heart’s not in it or their minds are in it.

Speaker 1 00:35:31 Absolutely. And do you know what as business owner, especially, you know, running your own business, you have to be able to step out of your comfort zone. And that is huge for a lot of people taking risk and stepping out that comfort zone and seeing the possibilities and that’s important as well to running your own business. So that mindset would also need to be kind of shifting. And when you get those setbacks, how do you get back on that horse and keep going, what are the resources and equipment do you have, that’s going to make you, um, grow, feel empowered.

Speaker 2 00:36:18 Yeah. And I, you know, I, you actually made me think of something I, um, I read this week was, uh, you know, in terms of pushing yourself out your comfort zone as a business of it, you know, the buck does stop with you ultimately. And if, if you’re not going to go outside your comfort zone, probably no one else is in your business. You know, how could they, how could, how could they turn that mindset into one of growth, you know, for pushing the boundaries, coming out of their comfort zone, you know, so that they can drive their business forward. Have you just got any last bits of practical advice?

Speaker 1 00:36:47 Uh, gosh, start networking. I think one of the things, uh, for business owners is start talking to people, start networking. Uh, I think a lot of people fear networking, cause they’re having to suddenly speak to people that they may like, they have confidence. They have the whole imposter syndrome thing. Oh my goodness. Um, I don’t belong here. All of that. So that’s going out your comfort zone. Um, when you go networking, for example, you don’t have to go to every single person, walk into a room, scan the room and think, Ooh, they look approachable and go to a couple of people because that is really important as well. And also network in the right area. Don’t just let me go out and do a whole load of networking. That’s not going to be good for your you or your business because then you’re going to have a setback.

Speaker 1 00:37:34 So it’s about finding properly where your, your clientele is your customer base. Okay. Who’s your target audience. And I think you often hear is surround yourself around people who are going to uplift you, people that you’re going to learn from. So the people who have been there and done it. So, cause you’ll learn a lot from those successful people as well. So reading books about them watching them on YouTube, um, you know, we’ve got clubhouse now, so going on to clubhouse, but again, check in with your emotions, your mindset, because you don’t want to suddenly become, uh, absorbed with it and addicted to it where it’s then setting you back or becomes overwhelming. So there’s a fine balance as well in that too. Yes, definitely because I don’t, I know the feeling of clubhouse. I loved it when it first came out, I got overwhelmed and I had to literally come off it for about three weeks.

Speaker 2 00:38:38 It’s almost like a little enough and isn’t it. Cause he can put me go into things and watch hours and hours of it. And then maybe actually sort of set yourself 10, 20 minutes a day is probably more achievable because you’ve shared your day and you might actually stick to it on a daily basis.

Speaker 1 00:38:52 Schedule, everything goes back to what we were talking about, but yes, everything in moderation and yeah. Do surround yourself with the right people. Um, you know, sometimes life is a little bit tough and you’ve got to do the tough love and cut out people possibly that are not serving you and not giving you that confidence to achieve because you have to believe in yourself. Sometimes there’s a lot of jealousy out there as well.

Speaker 2 00:39:19 They say you need to surround yourself or you become the five people you spend most time with. So I think, you know, like you say, look, you know, if it’s friends, if it’s friends and family, it’s very hard to cut, cut them out completely. But you made me boundaries that had less of your energy towards someone who’s negative or not helping you grow and, or not seeing your vision and, and working with people, whether it’s a coach, whether it’s a member of staff that really has bought into your vision, like anything, stick with them more, that’s going to help you actually achieve it rather than this sort of drag you backwards.

Speaker 1 00:39:49 So do you know what talk about five? I think one, one good piece of advice I was given, um, by my business coach when I first set up that, so this was another business coach. Um, he said to me, uh, have five people on your phone that you can call at any moment in time, they can be different people. They can be five people that know nothing about your business, but that you trust that you can pick up. They will listen to you and some may give you advice, but you know, they’re there for you when you’re not feeling quite right or you’re unsure about something. So I’m talking about mindset emotionally, you know, when something wrong happens, you can just pick up that phone and call them just five people on your phone. Instant diet.

Speaker 2 00:40:33 I like that sounding board. Yes. Well, I feel like I’ve had a coaching session with you. Zena is so much for me. So thank you so, so much for joining. It’s been an absolute pleasure to have you on a podcast.

Speaker 1 00:40:51 Thank you so much, Charlotte. This has been amazing. As I said, I could talk and talk and talk.

Speaker 2 00:40:56 Yeah, we could talk all day. Well, we’ll have to have you back then. Anyway. I think we’re going to join you shortly on the, on the, on your radio show on Mindset Matters. I’m very excited. Well, thank you again so much.

Wow.What’s an amazing episode. I think the key thing to take away here is that your mindset is adaptable. And if you can identify where you need to get to in order to take it into a place of growth, ready for your business to follow, you will be able to drive the business growth. You desire that much easier.

Next week we are joined by Emma White to talk about where the lack of time is stopping you from growing your business. Don’t forget to head over to our website, https://www.a4g-llp.co.uk/business-breakthrough/growth, or email us on enquiries@a4g-llp.co.uk to register your details of find out if you qualify for our strategic growth coaching. Thank you for listening today. I hope you enjoyed the episode.

We are A4G and you can find us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn at April G chartered accountants. Alternatively, check out our website, www.a4g-llp.co.uk which is full of free tools, guidance, or plenty of food for thought to help support you with running your successful business. I’ve been your host today, Charlotte, and this is let’s get down to business.