And I’m going to say here, these are all subjective things. They’re wisdom bombs and habits that have worked for me and the types of businesses I’ve run, but in principle, my own experiences are going to work for you too. 

 

So, wherever you’re at in your journey write these things down as they could be life changing or, if I’m covering old ground for you, then I challenge you to return to that old ground as you might discover something new. 

 

What Does Success Mean To You?

Ok, before I move on, don’t forget, what it means to feel successful in business is also very subjective and its very personal to you, and what that means to you. 

 

Over the years, I’ve moved away from seeing success as something that’s connected to financial reward and I’ve begun to see success as more connected to my personal growth and the breakthroughs I have in my daily life. 

 

An example of when that happened, was the day I discovered my own life purpose. I realised I wanted to play my part in whatever way I can, in building a more equitable society. And purpose was something I really discovered by chance. 

 

For around my first 15 years in business, I didn’t have that sense of having a clear direction, or any big life purpose, and the day I had that breakthrough that something else mattered more to me than making a shit-ton of money then I’d discovered what success meant for me. 

 

Success for me is when I have a personal growth breakthrough. 

 

I feel successful because when I grow, I can better fulfil my own purpose toward building and walking in equity. It’s not tied to money. Money is a tool, and it just helps me to move more mountains when it comes to breaking down inequity. 

 

Does that make sense?

 

So, entrepreneurship is a journey and no matter how far along that journey you are today, there will always be new lessons to learn, things to improve or new ways of getting things done. That’s what I love about what I do because I’m constantly challenged and I’m always growing. 

 

I’m always asked how I came to be successful in my business life, from starting my first business at 14 years old to, over the years, investing in and owning businesses around the world. I scale large businesses for my clients too. 

 

Cultivating A Resilient Mindset

I always say to other entrepreneurs that although experience over time has helped me make my own journey a little easier, that it’s my mindset and outlook that’s kept me going – even in some incredibly tough times. 

 

And believe me, I’ve had hard times and I’ve had times where my ideas have not worked.

 

I generally don’t talk about this but, I’m also a neuro diverse person and an introvert, so I often find it hard to quantify and communicate my mindset and what exactly is it about my mindset that’s contributed to my success in business. And, because I started out in business when I was so young. 

 

I guess moving on 30 or so years, I still don’t know any different and it just comes naturally to me to easily turn my hand at being in business.

 

But also, throughout my journey over the years I’ve watched thousands of entrepreneurs and I’ve been able to compare their mindsets to my own. I’ve been able to build a clearer picture of my own mindset, and what makes me successful in my approach to my day-to day business life. And I’m pinpointing those things from my own experiences that really do work.

 

Let’s talk about motivation, daily grind and building resilience. 

 

Incidentally, if anyone tells you that business is easy and that from the get-go, they work a few hours a week in return for millions in the bank is lying. 

 

Every business is an engine, and it takes ‘work’ to make it tick, it’s just a case of figuring out what that ‘work’ represents for you, and who is doing it.

 

Firstly, you’ve got to be able to stay motivated. I’m not going to lie and say running a business is all fun and no daily grind because although it is highly rewarding, and yes, we should be working to build a business that works for us…we’re all going to still face difficult days. 

 

It’s usually the case we’ll have days where things are going ‘kinda alright’ but our motivation starts slipping. And sometimes things really do go to shit, and we might not even want to get out of bed at all. And that happens to me too! Even I’m not immune to having a shitty week! 

 

The difference usually is, and this is key, is how I reframe a tough time, how I grow from it and how I deal with it in the moment.

 

So, the take-away here is work out what motivates you and build those activities, or those affirmations into your daily routine.

 

There’s always going to be those business owners whose natural response will be to give their business up at every setback and if that’s you then, you’ve got two choices…either give up and get a job, or work on reframing your mindset and putting something positive in place that will build your motivation and resilience. 

 

A Winning Mindset

So, how do you know if you have a mindset to be successful, or to win in business? 

I like to think of mindset as a set of ideas or biases that we all hold about a certain thing. Our mindset also dictates how we’ll react or respond to certain situations. 

 

For example, have you ever heard yourself say something like, "I'm no good at painting”, or whatever?

 

And if you hold onto that attitude and fixed negative mindset, how successful do you think you would be? And I think the answer for most of us would be, pretty unsuccessful because we’ve already talked ourselves out of reaching any success or mastery, before we’d even tried. 

 

And yet, many people successfully learn how to paint, and they tap into their creative sides. And this is where it’s important not to allow your mindset to get in the way of your success, or at least recognise where it might be holding you back so you can be aware of it.

 

And the mindset you bring into your business life is (you guessed it) it’s going to impact your business. And if you don’t believe in your expertise or what you have to offer, then your mindset is going to hold you back from winning in business. 

 

And your state of mindset will project into your audience without you realising it.

 

One of the biggest parts of my entrepreneurial journey and, my routine today is taking time out to reflect on my attitudes or beliefs that might be stopping me from winning in my personal growth and my business life.

 

The great news is, your own mindset isn’t set in stone for life and if you take time to reflect on your beliefs and ask yourself important questions around why you might hold those beliefs, or think that way, then you can change your mindset over time and better set yourself up for success.

 

One thing I’m very aware of is all the hugely successful entrepreneurs out there in the world talk about how important it is to develop the right mindset, and that mindset has been a major part of their own personal journeys. 

 

Alright let’s move on to some of my breakthroughs. I’ve got a notepad in front of me a long list of them, but I think I’m going to break these out into 2 podcast episodes or I’m going to be talking at you all day!

 

So, remember, if you’re already a seasoned entrepreneur, DO dive in and return to some of what I like to call the cornerstones of entrepreneurship. I always go back to my own breakthroughs every quarter and I like to dig down a bit deeper. I ALWAYS uncover something new. Try it and see where you get. 

 

And if you discover something new then let me know in the comments or in a DM because I love hearing about these things.

Keep Your Vision Alive

I’ve always loved Marie Forleo’s quote; 

‘Never start a business just to make money - start a business to make a DIFFERENCE!’

 

I always like to say your personal vision is a picture YOU paint of the future you want to build for yourself and for the people who are close to you. And creating a vision on what that difference is could be to make a difference to you, your family, your friends or in the wider world around you. 

 

Now, focusing on my own personal vision has been an integral part of shaping my life and I learned a huge lesson recently about the real value of keeping my own vision alive - and checking in on it. 

 

I find that many entrepreneurs or business owners either create a kind of vision statement as a box-ticking exercise which is then forgotten about, or they might get all consumed in their big picture vision, regardless of how the world or the marketplace changes around them.

 

I’m just going to put that into context now, and this is where my personal learning came in. I’m the latter of that example. I’m driven and probably too focused. I’ve held for so many years now a vision of building businesses and income streams that will help me play my small part in building a more equitable society. 

 

So, remember, Marie Forleo said, ‘start a business to make a difference’. 

 

Well, I’ve worked so hard over the years and that’s been great, but what I’ve been doing is keeping my head on the big picture vision that I didn’t realise I’d lost sight of WHAT the difference means to me, and what that difference is in my life. 

 

Now, I’ve had my head stuck in the same groove of my vision for so long, and I was fine with that….and then…. In 2020 along came Covid.  

 

Covid changed everything for me. Like so many other people I caught it and got very sick. But, what the isolation of Covid taught me was how important my health is, and how important my relationships are, and not to take those for granted. 

 

Sometimes we all get so busy that we just don’t see the people that really matter, right? I think that had been my life prior to Covid, my head was so IN the big picture that I forgot the detail. And details like friends, family and those close to us matter.

 

And Covid forced me to re-evaluate my ‘long-term’ and what I want my lifestyle and my world around me to look like. My vision is still the same (of building social equity) but I have spent more time defining the detail within that same vision; who I serve, my values, how hard I want to work, the causes that matter to me and so on. 

 

It was a huge lesson in keeping my vision fresh, relevant, and alive. 

 

Next year I want to be travelling the Americas. I want to be walking on the beach, or in a café running my business from my iPad. My co-host, Emma Veiga-Malta will be busy plumping the pillows at her new place in Australia ready for me to go and visit. 

 

I want to visit Zimbabwe and the incredible project work that’s happening over there with the country’s female entrepreneurs. I want to immerse myself in working with entrepreneurs in the LGBT+ space, and trans entrepreneurs in particular.

 

And these are the extra details that matter when we craft our vision of what ‘starting a business to make a difference’ can mean to us. 

 

Bake What You Are Known For Into Your Brand

One of my other biggest breakthroughs came when I realised that in business, when we’re looking inwardly at ourselves, we can actually use that to propel our business even further forwards. 

 

We often spend so much time figuring out who we want to sell to and what we want to sell, that we can overlook the power of understanding our audiences’ perceptions of us. Because what you want them to know you for, and what they know you for may in fact be two very different things! 

 

So, I like to see myself as an expert of the techniques and techy ways of operating and scaling a business, and I’m a complete geek. I want to be known for the go to person if you want to scale your business. But what I wasn’t seeing (and this is the breakthrough here) was that those who knew me and followed me, saw me in a different way. 

 

And their perception was what really propelled me forward because my audience ‘see’ me for jargon free ways of making business seem ridiculously simple. I chat with people using a language as if we were in the pub. 

 

So, when I started to see the power and strength in my audience’s perception of me for simplicity, it then became the whole basis for what I’m now known for as a mentor. I’ve integrated that (so that’s jargon free simplicity) into my personal brand identity.

 

And that power of bringing together their perceptions of you and highlighting them in your personal brand is incredible because it means you’re just showing up authentically you. And it gels seamlessly, for you and your audience.

 

If you haven’t ever asked your audience how they see you, and what they love about you then go and ask them. And then, look for where you can further integrate that feedback into your business values and your brand.

 

Serve People Who Will Actually Invest In You

I’m going to talk about probably one of my biggest breakthroughs that I’ve had in all my time in business and that’s choosing to invest my energy, my efforts and focus in serving the people that are going to invest their time, effort, and money in me. 

 

And this is a journey we all go through. I’ve been through this lesson so many times each time I’ve started a new project, or a new business. I was asked by a friend recently if there were certain mistakes that we cannot avoid making in business (no matter our level of experience, and I reckon this one is pretty much up there). 

 

You’ve probably all been told by business coaches to go away and create an ideal client avatar. You go away and create a picture of who you want to work with or sell to. And then…invariably that client avatar doesn’t work because there’s something missing. 

 

You circle back to that same avatar at some point later down the line when you’re exhausted and trying work out what’s going wrong. But my breakthrough every time here is asking myself ‘WHY aren’t these people buying from me? What’s the blocker?’ And there will always be nuances between the people we want to buy from us and the people that don't. And the secret is to tap into that, and then find out why they’ve rejected your offering.  

 

I always like to explain it this, imagine you own a mobile phone business. I’ve had my same iPhone for 7 years now, the newer apps won’t work on the old operating system. Do I need a new phone? Yes, I do. So, am I your ideal client – yes, I am. 

 

So, I come into your store, and you try to sell me a new iPhone but I’m not interested. So, what’s going wrong here? 

 

Well, there’s a nuance. And that nuance is I’m environmentally conscious and I don’t like to replace what’s not broken. As a consumer, I hate the throwaway and replace mindset. So, I’m your ideal client, yes, but the people who will invest in your business are actually the ones who are more likely to want the latest model with the latest apps, the best camera, and so on. Not a 100-year-old fogie like me that’s happy to make do with an old phone until it breaks. See what I’m saying here?

 

And once you’ve identified all these nuances and pinpointed the people who will reach into their pockets and invest in you – then you’re over that hump and one step closer to winning more sales. And what you’ll do is speak to that exact person in your messaging, in your offerings and in your branding.

 

And when you’ve identified those things, then double down and focus on those people, those nuances. If you’re the owner of that shiny mobile phone business, then don’t focus on people like me who won’t buy from you until their phone stops working because it’s a waste of your energy and focus. 

 

I see many business owners tirelessly putting out freebies, challenges, lead magnets and striving for engagement on social media to keep up the interest of all these people who are never going to buy from them. 

 

Many of these wonderful people will happily orbit your business and they’ll never buy from you. So, work out who are the people that will invest in you and put all your focus into nurturing them! That was a game changer for me but, as I said earlier, we all go through this mistake every time and it’s almost like a right of passage. 

 

I’ve got so many learnings, experiences, and breakthroughs to share with you, so I’ll probably do a follow-on podcast episode on this. But for today I’ll leave you with these! If you have any success tips, breakthroughs or wisdom bombs that you’d like to share with me then please do! I’d love to hear from you!

 

Until next time...

Lor Bradley