The three mantras I live by in my business

Leah Neaderthal0:02

And I want to share these three mantras here because, you know, you can't go on Instagram or LinkedIn, even, or anywhere on social media for more than five minutes without seeing some, you know, motivational quote graphic that somebody made on Canva. And most of those phrases feel totally hollow, but when you do find a word or phrase that really sticks, that really speaks to where you are now, you hold on to it, and these are mine. Welcome to the smart gets paid podcast with me. Leah niederthal, I help women land higher paying clients in their independent consulting businesses, but I've never been a salesperson. My background is in corporate marketing, and when I started my first consulting business, I learned pretty quickly that it's about 1000 times harder to sell your own stuff than it is to sell someone else's. So I taught myself how to do it, and I created the sales approach that I now share with my clients so they can feel more comfortable in the sales process, get more of the right clients and get paid way more for every client contract. So whether your client contracts are $5,000 $100,000 or more, if you want to work with more of the clients you love, do more of the work you love and get paid more than you ever thought you could, then you're in the right place. Let's do it together. Thanks for tuning in, and and don't forget to rate, review and share.

Leah Neaderthal1:26

Hey there, Leah here, and thanks for tuning in. I hope that wherever you're listening to this, wherever you are right now, you're having a great week, making some good progress on your business and taking some time for you. So my parents have this saying that. They say all the time. And I mean, picture me saying that with like teenage eye roll face all the time. They say, luck comes to the prepared. You can actually hear my dad say that in the episode where I interviewed him to talk about running his business for 30 years. If you haven't listened to that, it's episode 62 called Lessons from a 30 year business with Bob niederthal. And they say this, like I said all the time, but you know that saying really works for them, because after my sister and I were out of the house, they got really into sailing, and now they spend half their year on a sailboat. And when you're on a sailboat, you really have to think ahead. You have to think about, you know, what you have on board, where you're going to be docked or moored. You have to think about the weather. I mean, it's not at all like the life I live in Brooklyn, where I have like, four bodegas within 200 feet of my house, where I can get just about any necessity. And because it's New York City, I can get almost anything delivered within 15 minutes. In my life, you definitely don't have to be prepared, but in their life, you do, and when you're prepared, you're able to deal with whatever comes your way, and it doesn't turn into a disaster or even really lead to any discomfort, it can almost feel like you were lucky, but you weren't lucky. You were prepared this phrase that they say all the time. It's really their I guess it's their mantra. And you know, a mantra is traditionally like a word or sound or phrase that's repeated to help with concentration and meditation. And meditation, but more recently, that word mantra has come to mean you know something that you repeat to yourself. Maybe it's something that's important to you or something that helps you. And I have mantras in my world that I use that are meaningful and helpful for me. And so in this episode, I want to share the three mantras that I live by in my business. I'm going to tell you what they are, how I think about them and apply them to my business, and how they might help you if you hear these and start to incorporate them into your daily self talk, right, if one of them speaks to you, and you don't have to use these mantras, I'm not telling you to use them, but perhaps one of them might speak to you. And in the course of explaining my mantras, you can also get a glimpse behind the scenes of my business and how I approach my business. And just so you know, I don't have these three mantras because I'm super Zen. In fact, it's actually the opposite. I have these mantras because I am not Zen. I'm pretty I guess you'd say a somewhat anxious person, I have, like, low level stress all the time. And so I have these mantras to help ground me and make me, like, just one step more Zen, but just so, you know, I don't claim to be some like, Zen guru, and I want to share these three mantras here because, you know, you can't go on Instagram or LinkedIn, even, or anywhere on social media for more than five minutes without seeing some you know, motivational quote graphic that somebody made on Canva. And most of those phrases feel totally hollow, but when you do find a word or phrase that really sticks, that really speaks. To where you are now, you hold on to it. And these are mine. So who are these mantras for like, who can benefit the most from hearing and perhaps even adopting one or all of these three mantras? In this case, I think these are for women in both the messy middle and women who are in the startup phase of their business. So two phases of your business, the startup phase and the messy middle. The startup phase is when you're in the first you know, 18 months to two years of your business, plus or minus, and clients are coming to you. You know they're mostly people you knew from before you had your business. Or you're getting all referrals. Your business is growing really quickly, because really, there's nowhere to go but up the messy middle comes after that startup phase when those clients start to slow down a bit. Clients aren't falling into your lap anymore, or you just start to become aware that the referrals could dry up. And that's when smart women realize that they need an actual strategy to keep getting consulting clients. So generally speaking, there are different things you're going to you're going to want to think about in the startup phase or the messy middle. But for these mantras, they can actually help you if you're in either phase, because in the startup phase, you're, you know, getting started, there's a lot of excitement, and you can take big steps and see big results everything you do. And the results you see, it's like this big dopamine hit. But when you're in that phase, you also start getting inundated with messages for entrepreneurs and business owners about, you know, do this and you'll make a million dollars, or this is the way to be successful. And it's really easy to get sucked in and frankly, really confused by of all the things you could be doing. What should you be doing to build the business that you actually want? So in the startup phase, it's good to have a few mantras to help keep you focused and help you resist shiny objects. And in the messy middle phase, you've been doing this for a while, and building your business isn't about making those big leaps and seeing big results anymore. In the messy middle, it's about making small refinements. And small refinements don't give you as much dopamine. You know, it's not all excitement all the time, or all dopamine all the time. So in the messy middle, you need a few mantras, a few touchstones to keep coming back to and to really help you keep going and make sure that you keep going in the right direction. So these can help you in the startup phase or in the messy middle. And depending on where you are, you might hear them differently than someone else. And I just want to say, here's what you're not going to hear in these mantras. You're not going to hear anything about, you know, hustling or hustle culture, about how you have to wake up at 4am or rise and grind or pain, is weakness, leaving the body, none of that bro stuff. I mean, I have a business, but I also have a life, and I have responsibilities and a wife that I want to spend time with, and two small kids. So I'm not about, you know, hustling or working all the time, and that's not what I tell my clients to do either, you know, I'm a grown up my clients are grown ups. We have businesses, and we have a life, and we build our businesses to fit our life. All right. So without further ado, here are the three mantras I live by in my business. The first mantra is, run your race. I first heard that phrase, or really heard it in context, back in 2015 when I was training for a triathlon, and I was in this training group, and as we were getting closer to race day, people started asking questions about like, you know, what happens if you get past or how fast you need to be in your age group or whatever? And the coach said, I'll never forget it. She said, don't worry about anybody else. You just run your race. So this phrase, run your race, I tell myself this maybe once a week when I see other coaches or other business owners doing things that I think are cool, you know, maybe how they deliver their service is interesting, or it looks like they're absolutely killing it. And I think to myself, like, maybe I should do something like that. Maybe I'll get where I want to go faster if I do it the way they're doing it. And I have to remind myself run your race. And in that moment, you know, when I tell myself to just run your race, I remember that I know what my business is. I know how I provide value to my clients. I know the thing and the value that I offer, and I know where I'm going, because if I try to get there by doing what other people are doing, so if I get there by sort of zigzagging here and there based on what I see other people doing, it's going to take a lot longer than if I just keep going forward in a straight line. So for me, it helps me quiet the noise of what other people are doing and what other people tell you or me rather, that you should do, and it helps me keep moving forward. Because if you don't know what you want and you don't remember to run your race, then you're going to end up running someone else's race. Yeah, and I actually made that mistake before. A few years ago, I realized that I had been running someone else's race. I had built a coaching business, and I had, you know, several products and courses, and each with increasing value, and each one more expensive. And I had achieved, like peak online entrepreneur, right? I had achieved what everyone told you you're supposed to achieve in an online business, but I felt completely hollow and I felt disconnected from my clients. I realized that I wasn't solving the problem for women that I had set out to solve, and I was totally burned out, so I ended up closing everything and creating the program that I run now called the academy, where I get to work with women in a really focused way. In that program, I'm solving the problem from start to finish, and I get to work closely with my clients. If you want to hear more about that journey, I actually talk about it more in Episode 31 called the biggest decision in my business. So I think this is so important for women running consulting businesses, because there are so many people out there telling you, you know, how you should run your business and what your business should look like. They're telling you that the only way to be successful is to make seven figures. Now, they're saying that you have to make a billion dollars, which is like just insane, or that you have to have a bunch of little courses, or you have to do a mastermind or whatever, and most of that stuff isn't even relevant to consulting businesses. You know, when you're running a consulting business where you work directly with your clients, you might only need to work with like 10 clients a year to make 500k if you want to, but we get inundated with all of that. You know, online business make it huge, sell small things, make millions of dollars. Stuff, we get inundated with that, and it's easy to get whiplash with all the stuff coming at you. But I'm a big proponent of you build the business for the season of life that you're in. So when you see other people telling you to do something or not to do something, or whatever, and this is the only way. Just remember, you know, it's just like triathlon. You worry about yourself. You just put one foot in front of the other, and you run your race. So that's the first mantra I live by in my business, run your race. The second mantra I live by in my business is you have exactly as much time as you need. I learned this mantra from my business bestie Megan Flatt, who this is actually one of her mantras, and it's a part of her methodology and something she teaches to her clients. And so when I told her I was putting together this episode, I invited her to share what you have exactly as much time as you need means to her, and I wanted you to hear it in her words. So here's Megan Flatt, for me,

12:49

you have exactly the time you need. Really started as an affirmation or a message that I would tell myself when I was having, you know, some anxiety or panic around everything that I needed to get done in my new business, and it often happened at three in the morning when I would wake up and I would think about all the things that I needed to do for my family, all the things that I needed to do for my business, and I would put my hand on my chest and remind myself that you have exactly The time you need. And what started out as a way to kind of quell some anxiety really turned into a curious look at what hustle culture was all about, especially for entrepreneurs, this idea that we are at the mercy of our calendars, that that our worth is around how productive or how much we can produce, whether that's revenue, whether that's followers, whether that's email list, and the more time I spent, the more I realized that I didn't want to be part of that hustle culture and that I wanted to be in control, that I didn't want to say my calendar controls me. I wanted to be in control of my day. It was the reason we became entrepreneurs in the first place, right? So the idea that I have exactly the time I need is that I'm in control, that I can choose where to put my time and energy. I can choose what my high priority tasks are, and that I have exactly the amount of time that I need to make, the impact that I want to make.

Leah Neaderthal14:28

So it's really interesting how the same mantra can speak to two people in two different ways. So you heard what it means to Megan, and the way I take this mantra, or really what it does for me is just slightly different. I mean, I wouldn't say it's different, really, it's just sort of variations on a theme. And what this means to me is, you know, listen, I'm somebody maybe like you. I am somebody who I want to do all the things, and I want to do them right away, and I want to have them done tomorrow, right? Right? And my default setting is like, you know, I mentioned low level stress and anxiety. So if you pair those two things together, it's really easy to feel like God, like everything has to get done now, and to really just get stressed out, like knowing all the things that need to be done in my business and just having this ever present to do list. And so when I say to myself, you have exactly as much time as you need, it does a few things for me. I mean, functionally, it means you have as much time as you need, because anything that needs to get done takes as long as we give it. It's like, if you have something to do and you give it two weeks, it'll take two weeks. And if you only have two hours, it'll take two hours. So, you know, there's that aspect, like, functionally, things can get done in the time you give them. But there's also just a reassurance, I guess, for myself, that, like, it'll get done, you know, and oftentimes, if it doesn't get done, it didn't need to get done, and it was just on the list of things that maybe could have gotten done, but it wasn't the most important thing. So this mantra helps me be a lot less stressed out. It helps me, you know, work on one thing at a time and get it to the finish line, and then stop working on it, like, stop tweaking it. And it helps me just feel more capable, like, okay, yes, I can figure this out. I will figure this out, and it'll get done. And I think this is useful for women business owners, because, I mean, I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way, but there's just, like, always a lot to do, right? And just feeling stressed that I need to get it all done, or feeling like my time or my calendar isn't my own, as Megan said, and not even just talking about business stuff, there's like, life stuff too. You know, there's always laundry that needs to get done or life admin that needs to be taken care of. And so it's really easy to get stressed out and feel anxious. And it's easy to feel like, Oh, if I just had more time I could get it all done, which to some extent might be true, but there will always be things to do, like, there will never not be things to do. And the truth is that when you're someone who's used to having a lot to do, or, you know, when your default is to feel just a little bit busy, even when you have space in your life, you'll subconsciously find ways to fill that space with to do's because that's how you're most comfortable. It's actually something I've had to work on a lot over the last few years, especially as I've been streamlining my business. I remember one time my team and I were working on something like an online event or a webinar, or whatever, something we'd done a few times before. And so we had the process down, and, like, all the systems were set up already. And I was like, you guys, I feel like we're forgetting things, because everyone was just so calm, like it wasn't a rush to do all the things like it usually is. And I started to get stressed about how not stressed we all were. And then my team member was like, it's not stressful because it's all done, like, we've done this before and we got this so I remember she said to me, she goes, what you're feeling right now is calm and having space, but you're so used to having so much to do, so just try to enjoy this space and don't try to fill it with busy work. So anyway, back to this mantra, you have as much time as you need. It helps me so much. I say this mantra, you guys, I say this like probably 100 times a day. I'm not joking. So that's the second mantra I live by in my business. You have exactly as much time as you need. And the third mantra is hit singles daily, which means when you step up to the plate in your business, so to speak, don't try to hit a home run, hit a single every day. I learned this one from another business coach that I'm in a program with. He's, like many, many steps ahead of me and where his business is. And he posted a message in this group that we're in, and it struck me so much that I actually printed it out, and I have it on my wall, and it goes like this. He goes, for anyone at you know he's talking about this certain level, right? For anyone at this certain level, hang tight. It's really tough. Don't try to change too many things. Don't get shiny object syndrome and change path 100 times. He says, If what you're doing is working, just double down on it. Focus on the boring shit. Basically make boring sexy. And then he talks a little bit about, you know, where his business is now. And he says, and it largely came down to sticking to what I was doing, stopping all outside shiny distractions and going all in. So if you're in this place and it feels like nothing is changing, don't chase shiny objects. Focus on making what you've got better. Make boring, sexy hit singles daily. So here's how I take hit singles daily, which it's actually kind of funny, because, like, I'm not a sports person, like, I don't use a ton of sports analogies or whatever. But this one just really speaks to me, and actually, when I shared this with one of my clients, who she's more of a sports person, she told me that one of the most successful baseball coaches ever was this coach who coaches players to hit singles, people who are way bigger baseball fans than me will probably know a lot more about this than I do, but suffice it to say that it's not just me, like this actually plays out in real life. So what does this mean to me? It means when you're working on your business or growing your business, don't try to hit a home run, just hit a single. And if you can hit a single, if you can get on base every day, then you will get where you want to be if you try to hit a home run, chances are you won't hit a home run, just like statistically speaking, and so you're going to spend a lot of time not hitting home runs or waiting for a home run to happen. But if you can hit a single every day, you will make steady progress every day and get where you want to go. The challenge is that home runs are really exciting, right? Like in real baseball, everybody loves home runs. Everybody cheers for home runs like they're sexy, but singles, singles aren't that sexy, but singles are actually how you win a baseball game, and singles are how you actually build your business. Singles are exactly what you need to do. You show up every day, and you put in the work. You move things forward a little bit every day, and step by step, you build your business. So here's how this helps me. I've been running my coaching business for nine years now, and I've seen some people in this industry hit home runs. You know a coach that I worked with who was actually my first business coach, when she was early in her business I've seen her go from somebody who's not super well known to somebody on a national stage, because she hit a home run during a cultural moment, and she had a message that went viral, and now she's famous, right? Like that is hitting a home run. But those are few and far between. Most everyone else you know, even the people who you think hit a home run and got to where they are, they just actually showed up and put in the work. You know that phrase, it takes a long time to become an overnight success. That's what we're talking about here. But again, home runs are sexy. It would be great to hit a home run, because on some level, we think if this just takes off, then you know, you'll be making great money, and it'll be easy, and all your problems will be solved, right? Everyone wants to hit a home run. And I actually did get sucked into that desire to hit a home run, and it nearly ruined my business. A few years ago, I'd been running my business for a while, and I sort of hit a plateau, and I was so tired and so burned out, and I was like, I've been doing this for long enough. Like, shouldn't this have taken off by now? Like, there were people in the coaching space who were so well known that working with them was just a no brainer, right? And frankly, I was envious. I wanted that to be me. And so I reached out to a marketing agency that worked with some of the bigger name coaches out there, you know, the ones making, like, multiple millions of dollars. And I hired that agency because I was like, if their magic can work for those other coaches, like, it can work for me too, right? The agency was, I'm just gonna say it was wildly expensive, but I paid their fee because I was like, this is going to be my home run. And if you've listened to Episode 76 which is called the year from hell, then you know what comes next. That agency, they did a lot of things, but those things didn't translate into actual revenue. I lost so much money. I put so much strain on my business, on my marriage. And instead of, you know, being the home run that I wanted it to be, it pretty much left me at rock bottom. And So suffice it to say, I fired them, and then after a major come to Jesus moment, and really going back to the basics in my business, I was able to rebuild my business, and it's even better than before. And so now, instead of trying to make a home run happen, I try to hit a single every day. Here's why I think it's so important for women running consulting businesses. Because when you're running a consulting business, you have to plant seeds every day you have to show up and plant seeds for new clients every single day. And you know, I think that all of us sort of know on some level that like you don't, for example, post once on LinkedIn or send an email once, and like the clients sort of fall out, right? The clients fall into your lap. But even though a lot of women might know that they kind of act like they don't, because they'll say to me, I posted on LinkedIn for a while and it didn't work because I didn't get any clients. And I tell them, that's because that's not how getting consulting clients works. LinkedIn can be a lead generation tool, but more than that, it's a nurturing tool. Your nurturing. And people to learn more about you, and it can take months for clients to see enough of your stuff you know, to build the know, like and trust factor, to go through their own education process before they even reach out. Most of the people who see your stuff and who are following along are what we call lurkers, meaning they'll never like or comment, but they are reading and they are learning, and even when clients are warm enough to want to reach out, the typical B to B sales process takes anywhere from three to 18 months. And in my mind, I'm thinking, you're telling me that you posted a handful of times on LinkedIn, and who knows what you were even posting, and the clients didn't just come to you, so it didn't work. I mean, assuming your stuff was as strong as it could be, you didn't even give it time to work. And the same thing goes for other marketing strategies. You know, if you tried it a couple of times and it air quotes didn't work, step up to bat again. Take another swing. Take several more swings. Don't expect anything to be a home run, try for a single and hit singles every day. So that mantra, hit singles every day, it keeps me focused on the present. It keeps me focused on what I'm doing. And it's a reminder for me that if I do the work and I move things forward a little bit every day, I'll get where I want to go. I guess it sort of quiets my impatience, because me, I'm like, I want to get where I'm going and be there yesterday. But it's more important to have wins along the way than the one big win, because if you win a little bit every day, you'll get to where you want to go. So those are the three mantras I live by in my business. Number one, run your race. Number two, you have exactly as much time as you need. And number three, hit singles daily. And if any of these helped you, maybe they can become part of your everyday mental practice. And I hope this conversation around mantras helped you tap into what are the real mantras that you keep coming back to, and that means something to you. And hopefully we can all be our own best guides and gurus. And if you have a mantra that you absolutely live by in your business that keeps you focused and helps you, share it. See, there's an idea for a LinkedIn post right there, but share it and tag me so I can see it. And if any of this spoke to you, share this episode with someone who might like to hear it. So I just want to end with my wish for you. My wish for you is that you continue to hit singles daily because you have exactly as much time as you need, and that you keep running your race.

Leah Neaderthal27:39

Hey, everything we're talking about in this episode is part of the system. Women like you are learning in the academy. In the Academy, we help women consultants install the two systems. Every B to B consultant needs a marketing system to consistently attract the right clients and a sales system to lead a sales process to a yes and get paid more for every contract. So even if you've only gotten clients through referrals or word of mouth in the academy, you'll learn how to attract and sign clients outside your network, how to lead a sales process with confidence, and how to get paid for your value, not your time. And there's no cold calling or cold emailing involved, no changing your services or making a course, and you won't use any pushy sales tactics. That's just not our vibe. So if you like what you've heard here, the academy may be your right next step to learn how you can get these two systems in your consulting business and make progress faster and with fewer roadblocks. Head to smart gets paid.com/academy and apply, and we can chat about next steps. All right. See you over there. Transcribed by https://otter.ai