8: Online Business Success Requires Perspective

Too often, people give up on their online business because they don't see the success that they want right away. It's important to remember that success doesn't happen overnight. It takes time and effort for your business to thrive. With the right perspective, you'll be able to take your business to new heights.

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Transcript:

Welcome to today's episode. I am so excited about today because this is a topic that truly has had a profound impact on my life and business. It's a word that you may or may not think about often, but I have pretty much adopted this as my power word for life, because it has had that much of an impact. And that word is the word Perspective. So, I don't know how much you've thought about perspective, but the definition is a particular attitude toward, or a way of regarding something, a point of view. And your perspective on so many things makes such a difference in how you live your life, in how you feel about your business, about your family. 

And this word, I hope after today's episode that you take some time to really kind of evaluate your perspective on a few things. Because perspective can help to move you forward or it can hold you back. And I have definitely experienced this a number of times. I'll share a few perspectives that I've had to adopt in my business to move forward because I realized point of views that I had on certain things were holding me back.

And a lot of this ties into mindset. Mindset is such a big part of what we do. In fact, I've often said that it's really not that we need to learn new skills or, you know, that we have to go back and get an education. Often what we need most in our life and in our business to achieve our goals is really tied a lot to our mindset and perspective is a big part of that. And let me give you an example of what I mean. A few years ago now, I went to a convention and the speaker was talking about money. And we all have different perspectives of money. Right. If you are selling things right now, you have probably said to yourself, well, I can't charge XYZ price because people will think that's too expensive. Have you ever said that to yourself or maybe you've had someone say that to you? They'll say, "Well, I don't know how you charge such and such. That sounds so expensive. Or I don't want to buy that product. It's too expensive." 

And we start to kind of develop this point of view about money based on the filters of a number of things. Okay. If you think about looking at something through an open picture frame. Okay. If you think of a rectangular picture frame, there's nothing inside it. You can put your arm through it. I want you to think of your perspective as seeing things through a filter. Okay. So, I've done this presentation live and that's what I held up was this picture frame that I could put my arm through. And I used the picture frame and I said, you know, this filter that you're looking through is based on a number of things. It's based on your background, your experiences, your faith, your beliefs. All of those things that you're seeing are going through these filters. 

And money is a great example. A lot of us have certain perspectives about money based on the filters that we're looking through. And I loved the activity that these guest speakers did during our presentation, because I thought of money very differently once I had this perspective. And what they did is they had everyone in the room write down how much they would spend, the maximum amount of money that they would spend on a pair of shoes. And they weren't going to give us any other details. They weren't going to say the type of shoe they were talking about or why someone was buying the shoe. All they wanted people to do is write down the absolute maximum number amount of money they would spend on a pair of shoes. And then they started going around the room with a microphone. And as you can imagine, there was a very wide range of responses. Everything from twenty dollars to a thousand dollars. And why is that? Why would someone, one person be like, nope, I'm only going to spend twenty to twenty-five dollars on a pair of shoes and another person say a thousand dollars on a pair of shoes?

Well, it depends on the value that that item has. Right. That is a big part of it, the value. Maybe there are other needs involved that people haven't thought of. Right. Maybe somebody is willing to spend more money because they have a health condition and wearing comfortable shoes is very valuable to them. Maybe fashion is very much a part of who they are and, you know, their brand, and buying designer shoes is common for them. Right. Everybody has a perspective on what price point they would pay for things. They did the same thing with a steak dinner. They said, what is the most you would spend on a steak dinner? And again, varied responses. It depends on whether, you know, having an experience of dinner is valuable to you or not. 

It opened up my mind to remember that a lot of what we're choosing to do in our business is often based on our own perspective of things, instead of having a broader view of what other people perceive things to be. And so, I just thought that was a great example. And the story he told was that he worked in a men's department, and he sold, I guess, high-end suits and quality men's wear. And the boss was in town when he was, you know, helping a gentlemen pick out a suit. And he was very proud of himself because this gentleman had picked out about $2,000, $2,500 worth of clothing at this men's department. Because he had helped him pick out the suit and the tie and a couple of different things that the man requested. And he thought the boss was going to praise him by saying, "Wow. Great job. You made this awesome sale." and instead the boss said, "You never asked him if he wanted anything else, if he was finished with his order. You assumed that once he hit $2,500 in sales, that that was a great sale, but you never actually offered him something else that would go well with what he just purchased." 

And it was a great reminder for me. At the time I was in a direct sales business. And I remember, anytime I had an order of even a hundred dollars, I used to think, woohoo, great order. And instead after that little session, I viewed things very differently. When people would order a hundred dollars, I didn't say, "Thank you for your order." I would say, "What else can I get for you? Have you thought about this product, which goes great with what you have on your order?" And just that perspective, that shift in mindset about money, made me serve my customers very, very differently. I didn't put my perspective cap on things. So that's just one example on how perspective can impact you and your business.

Another perspective is this. Rejection. How many of you love rejection? No one loves rejection. Right. And if you are in your first online business, maybe you are selling something for the first time, whether it's a course or a physical product, a digital product. You know, in sales, a lot of times when we first get started. When people do not buy what we are offering, we take that as a personal rejection as someone saying no to us. And it holds us back a lot of times because we start getting fearful of the word "No". And if you have the perspective of "No" being a negative word, instead of thinking that my only job is to offer what I have and the recipient's job to decide whether it's for them or not. You release a lot of that pressure, and you no longer take the word "No" as a personal rejection. It's simply someone saying they're not interested in that particular thing. 

And a great example of that. I've told this story, especially when I was in direct sales, I used to say to my team, you know, when you eat at a restaurant and the waitress or waiter comes up to you and says, "Would you like ketchup?"  Some people say "Yes" some people say "No". Let's say everyone at the table says, "No thank you. We don't want ketchup." That person who's waited on you doesn't turn around and as they're walking away say, "Oh my goodness. I cannot believe no one wanted ketchup. I am so bad at this job. I am a total loser. I should just quit because no one wants ketchup." That is not what happens. Right. It's completely up to the people. And that waitress or waiter is not even thinking in their realm of thinking that, oh, my goodness, I am terrible at my job because they declined the ketchup.

So why do we, as someone who was selling an offer, okay, think that. If someone says, "No", it's just not for them or it's not the right time for them. And what is it that they may be interested in? And when you have this perspective, you want to share your offer as often as possible. Because you've released the pressure of the response. It doesn't matter what the response is. It's a matter of sharing it with enough people because eventually you will get a Yes. Right. Getting a No is no longer negative. It's simply part of the process of getting to a Yes. That's another example of how perspective can make you feel very different in your actions, right, in sharing your offers with people. 

But I want to share a story of how perspective made a huge difference for me as I was going through this journey of being a business owner. So, this was in my first business. My direct sales business I had for 20 years, had a wonderful 20-year career, but about 13 years in I was tired. I was burned out and this can happen to any type of business owner. Right. You know, you have things in your business that are going very well but other things that just get frustrating. Right. Have you ever felt like you're on a hamster wheel, you're doing all the things and you're just spinning, spinning, spinning, and you're not getting anywhere? It's like this goal you're shooting for just seems so far away and that you're never going to get there. 

This is where that mindset comes in because you have this perspective that, hey, others have gotten there faster. Others have done it. What's wrong with me? Why isn't this working? I think I'm doing all the right things. And I remember in 2009, I had been super frustrated because even though when I first started my business, things just took off. In my direct sales business, I got to a leadership level very quickly. Things were moving along. The first three years it was, like, just this uphill soar. Right. Everything was going great. And then I had my sights set on what was called an Executive Leadership Level. And I thought, woohoo, you know, the first three years have been amazing. We are on the fast track to this executive level. And that to me was like my ultimate goal I wanted to achieve in my business. Even though I was achieving other things, free incentive trips and all kinds of wonderful things, this executive level of leadership was what I had set as a goal. 

And 10 years later, okay, so now 13 years into the business, I had still not reached this goal. And I remember thinking, ugh, it's always four steps forward two steps back. Because if you've ever been in a direct sales business, you know that is just the nature of that industry. It's very inexpensive to get in. Therefore, a lot of people come in, they go out, they come in, they go out. It's a constant influx of people. And in order to achieve this executive level you had to have so many leaders on your team. And I had promoted many leaders in my 13-year career, but as I would promote new leaders, I would lose leaders. And then I would promote and then I would lose leaders. And I was so frustrated by this 13th year and 10 years of working for this goal. 

I was going to be going to this conference and I literally said a prayer. And I was like, you know what Lord, I need to know if this business is right for me. Do I need to continue or is it time to throw in the towel? And I went to that conference in 2009. I was like, I need a sign. I don't know who prays this way like I do, but I need some revelation. Okay. And I didn't realize it at the time, but honestly what I needed was a new perspective. And that was delivered to me at that convention or conference in 2009.

The guest speaker at that conference was Alison Levine. If you've never heard of Alison Levine, she was the team captain of the first American Women's Everest Expedition. Now, those who know me know I do not like cold. So, to me, anyone who chooses to go where it's cold it's hard for me to understand. But that is what she did. She led the first American Women's Everest Expedition. She is the author of the book On the Edge and she was our guest speaker at this conference. And what she shared completely changed my life. 

She shared a story about her journey in getting to Everest and she had this picture of the mountain up on the screen. She had her little laser pointer with her, and you could see certain points marked on this kind of map on the way to Everest. And what she shared is that when you are going to Everest, because of the altitude change, that you cannot actually walk from base camp, which is at the bottom of the mountain and still obviously very high up. But you start at base camp. You have to stay there for a certain amount of time to get acclimated to the altitude, but you cannot go from base camp directly to the top of Everest. She says it really funny. She's like because your head will blow up and you will die. She wasn't being literal, but her point was is that your body has to get acclimated in a process. 

So, she took her little laser pointer and she put her pointer on the base camp, and she said what you do is you go from base camp to base camp one. Her little laser pointed went up to the next dot on this mountain map. Okay. And she said now when you're at base camp one you have to hang out there for, I don't know if she said two days or whatever. She said but you can't then go to base camp two. She said once you've spent time at base camp one you have to actually go back to base camp. And then she said you have to go back to base camp one and then you go to base camp two. But you don't get to keep going higher. After you've spent time at base camp two you have to come back down to one and then back down to base camp. Then you go to one. Then you go to two. Then you go to three. And this process continues until you get to base camp four. Now base camp four is now the last base camp before you get to the top of Everest. 

Imagine the number of times that she had to go up and down this mountain. And now she is at base camp four. Everest is ahead of her. Would you not just want to run to Everest and be like, I've put in all this work, all this energy. But she could not go from base camp four to Everest. They had to go back to three, back to two, back to one all the way back to base camp before they traveled up to the very top. 

And for the first time I understood the perspective of business growth and achieving your goals. Because if my Everest was promoting to the executive level of my company all this time for 13 years, I assumed that every time I took a step back that I was starting over. That I wasn't making progress. That I was failing. That I was never going to get there. I never envisioned that each step, everything I was doing in my business through those 13 years. It was not me starting over. It was simply me going back to base camp. And even though I was like, ugh, I'm back at base camp. Because I had the journey of going up to base camp one, two, and three before, I was much farther ahead in the journey to get me to my Everest goal.

And that perspective completely changed my attitude, my mindset. I was no longer having a pity party. I was no longer seeing myself as, you know, well these people don't have kids, or they don't work full-time or they're younger than me. You know we all have these limiting beliefs or comparison things that we do where we think that other people are achieving their goals because of XYZ. When the truth of the matter is it's a journey for all of us. We can never compare our beginning to someone else's middle. 

And we don't know what their journey has been to get them to the Everest. We don't know how many times they have been to their base camp. And that perspective changed everything for me. Because now I know even when I'm launching something if I feel like, you know, it didn't quite hit the mark. I'm still seeing that as progress because this journey requires the wins and the losses. I shared this early on in our podcasts and episodes one and two that you have to launch to learn. You have to go up the mountain in order to gain the strength. In order to gain the skills. In order to gain the mindset. Everything that you need in order to get back to the top of that mountain. 

So here I was at that conference. I came home and I was like, oh my goodness you know what, I need to stop worrying about what has not been and focus on exactly what I need to do. Back to the basics of what is going to make me get to my Everest. And what I couldn't achieve in 10 years, I achieved in 18 months from the date of that conference. So, I want you to know that perspective completely can impact the results of your business and you reaching your goals.

So, I encourage you. Think about your Everest. What is that thing you're shooting for? Are you willing to plow that race? Are you willing to do what is needed in order to get the strength, the skills, and the mindset, even if requires every once in a while, having to come back to base camp?

I hope that this is encouraging to you. I hope that you will have a new perspective in moving forward, because honestly, we never are going back to the beginning unless it's a new journey. All right. And we are always moving forward, okay, if we are taking action. And that's what I want you to do today.

If this has been helpful, I would absolutely love to hear from you. Join us in our community for course creators and coaches at launchperspective.community. I hope to see you there.