💡Reframing your goals to focus on action items will help you get out of a negative loop and get to work
If you are a business owner who’s in need of a reset, then this episode is for you. Justin Shiels is a creative consultant, speaker, and author of The Reset Workbook. He is on a mission to help guide business owners to meaningful breakthroughs so they can unleash their creative potential.
We sat down for a fulfilling conversation on what it really means to have a reset in your business.
Spoiler alert: you don’t have to be going through a rough patch in order to reset. We also talk about how we can embrace change and how we can trust our instincts as business owners.
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Learn to trust your intuition to know when it’s time for a business reset
For his entire life, Justin has been a goal-oriented high-achiever. However, as he started digging into personal development, he realized that action was not always the answer. In some seasons, he needed to slow down. In other seasons, he needed to veer off his perfectly planned path and take more risks.
Over time, Justin learned to trust his intuition when it came to his business and life. He started doing business resets during difficult seasons, such as transitions or experiencing loss. However, you don’t have to wait until you’re in a bad place to do a business reset.
Additionally, you don’t have to do a reset of your entire life. Instead, you can find small areas where you want to see significant change. For example, Justin recently focused on eating healthier.
3 things you can do to start your personal development journey
- Keep a journal. Justin recommends keeping several lists, such as “ten things you want to accomplish in the next five years.”
- Go for more walks. Ideally, you should go for a walk every day, but aim for at least once a week. Walking helps you stay in the present moment and feel grounded in your body and in nature.
- Meditate every day. Even if you only meditate for a few minutes each day, it will help you slow down and grow your intuition.
Build your intuition by adding joy to your schedule
In order to build your intuition, you have to slow down and learn to listen to your gut.
When you look at your schedule for each day, ask yourself what you need to get done, and then ask yourself what you can add to your schedule that sparks joy. When you add more to your daily schedule, you learn how to be a deep listener, which builds your intuition.
Following your “sparks of joy” will also help you enjoy the journey of your business, even during the challenging moments. Your work will feel aligned and you will stay in a creative flow. The more you learn to listen to yourself, the easier it will be to make decisions and move forward.
What to do when you feel stuck in your business
In every business, there are different seasons. One important season is the season of sowing. You have to plant seeds in order for them to grow so that you can reap the harvest. Sowing seasons are difficult because they require a ton of work and you don’t see the payoff right away.
All of us experience a waiting period between doing the work and seeing the reward. It can feel like you’re “stuck” in the season, but the truth is that you’re sowing seeds. Your job in this season is not to dig up the seeds you just planted yet. You have to wait for it to grow.
One way to navigate this season is to change the way you look at goal setting. Change your goals to things that you can actually control. For example, instead of saying “I want to get ten new clients by the end of the quarter,” say, “I will reach out to ten people a day until I get ten new clients.”
Reframing your goals to focus on action items will help you get out of a negative loop and get to work. During this season, you should also focus on improving your mindset by repeating positive affirmations.
The biggest differentiator between the businesses that succeed and the ones that fail
Justin believes that the biggest differentiator between the businesses that succeed and the ones that fail is belief. If you believe that something is possible, it will happen. You might have to wait, but as long as you believe that it is possible, it will eventually happen.
Important sections of the conversation
- [1:46] Learn to trust your intuition to know when it’s time for a business or life reset
- [9:40] Three things you can do to start your personal development journey
- [14:21] Build your intuition by adding joy to your schedule
- [23:00] What to do when you feel stuck in your business
- [31:15] The biggest differentiator between the businesses that succeed and the ones that fail
Connect with the guest
- Justin’s business: socurious.co
- Justin’s personal website: justinshiels.com
Episode Transcript
Akua: If you are a business owner who’s in need of a reset, then this episode is for you today on the podcast. We have a creative consultant, speaker, and author of the Reset Workbook, Justin Shields, and he is on a mission to help guide business owners to meaningful breakthroughs and unleash their creative potential.
We sat down for a fulfilling conversation on what it really means to have a reset in your business. And let me just give you a quick hint. You don’t have to be going through a rough patch in order to reset. We also talk about how we can embrace change and how we can trust our instincts as business owners.
Get ready for this fun and refreshing conversation. Hey everyone, this is your host Akua Kanadu and you’re listening to the Independent Business Podcast. More people than ever are working for themselves and building profitable businesses in the process. So on this show, I get to sit down with some of the most influential authors, entrepreneurs, dnd creators to break down the science of self-made success so that you can achieve it too.
Hello, Justin. How are we doing today?
Justin: Oh, I’m really good. How are you doing? Oh,
Akua: So good. So excited to have you on the show today. And I just thought you would be the perfect person to talk about how to reset your business. And I’m just really excited to hear your story. I’m really excited for our audience to also hear your story.
So thank you again for being here.
Justin: I’m so happy to be here. This is awesome.
Akua: Yes, absolutely. So I really want to know exactly, just based on a little bit of what I’ve known about your story. We can all attest that life is full of so many transitions, so many resets. Can you just walk us through your story and essentially what inspired you to create the reset workbook?
Justin: Yeah. I feel like in so many ways, I’ve just been through my own series of career transitions and relationship transitions – moving to new cities, dealing with loss, and navigating these experiences to the best of my ability. And I feel like through that process, I really got into personal development work – primarily through books and journaling and exercise and self-care and wellness, but also therapy.
Therapy was this meaningful and magical part of my personal awakening. And so I think I wanted to collect the things that I learned along the way on personal development and personal growth and build a tool to help people to start their journey in that space of self-discovery.
Akua: Yeah. So when you say personal awakening, I kind of want to break that down a little bit more, just full of everything that you’ve just said, like you’ve walked through, right?
Because you know, our business is our business, but also to your life can absolutely affect your business in so many more ways than one. And so I’m really curious to know, as you talk about this personal awakening, like what did that look like for you breaking that down even more as you were going through these transitions?
Justin: Yeah. So I am fully a career guy, right? Like I’m the type of person that sets a goal of becoming a creative director at eight years old. And I hit the target of that goal around 30, which was exactly the timing that I desired. But I think when you think about that comparison of personal goals and how they actually fit into your life, that’s the space where I needed the most work.
I was good at sticking to the plan. I was great at coming up with ways to take tiny steps towards achieving my goals, but sometimes I was forgetting the fact that I needed risks. I was forgetting the fact that action is not always the thing that we have to do, right? Sometimes we actually need to slow down and experience things, or we need to actually give ourselves the opportunity to celebrate.
Those wins that we’re having in our lives. And so a lot of my personal development growth was learning how to slow down and genuinely learn how to listen to my intuition.
Akua: I love that. I think too, I can absolutely relate to that because I feel like as a business owner, right, we set these goals for ourselves and we are like, all right, I have to do X, Y, Z to get there.
And we are hustling. Like there’s so many seasons of hustling in our business to where it’s really easy to forget the areas that you also need to take care of to help you achieve those goals. Like if you’re not, you know what I mean? Taking that time to rest, filling your cup, doing the things that bring you joy.
We tend to forget that as we are actively pursuing the thing that we want, where we think like, okay, if I pursue this thing, I’m going to be happier or feel better. But then we forget about the things that actually are really critical to your success, because I have found myself where I have pursued, pursued, pursued, and I got this goal and I didn’t even get to enjoy the goal because I was so exhausted, so crabby, where I just was like.
You know, I just, I didn’t celebrate. I just moved on to the next thing. And I feel like that is a really kind of toxic and just exhausting kind of mindset. And so I really liked that you said that as somebody who’s a career person and I am too. And I feel like we, we, as again, we put our businesses up on a pedestal when it’s like, no, like your business is supposed to be there to help you create the life that you wanted to live.
Not where that’s like the main thing in your life. So I absolutely love that. Another thing I’m really interested in is that you said in the reset workbook, that you don’t have to be in a bad place in order to have a reset. So I’m really curious as where in your life did you feel like you were doing these resets?
I know you’ve shared a couple of things where you said you’ve had transition loss, but if things are going well for you, like where did you know that you needed a reset.
Justin: Yeah, that’s actually a really good point. And I think one of the things that is really important to me to unlock in this book is like a lot of times when we think about the idea of a reset, we feel like it has to be a total reset in every area of our life.
And I really like this idea that if we do this deep personal reflection and kind of look at all the different aspects of our life, we can notice the tiny spaces where we want some significant change. And so I structured the reset workbook so that you examine these different areas of your life. And hopefully we can come up with one or two small goals in these areas of your life that you want to change, right?
So personally, for me, one of my things was really focusing on eating healthy. I’ve always kind of been okay at eating healthy, but in my personal reflection, I was like, you know what? I really want to commit to my health and my physical fitness in a way that I had not before fully. And so I earmarked a goal, right?
I wanted to have one day a week where I eat meat free. And that was actually a significant change that led me on the path of becoming a vegetarian as I am now, which I’m super hype about. But it started with this really small first step. It was like, I want to eat more plant-based meals. Starting there led me to, oh, I don’t want to eat meat on Wednesdays.
And then it went, I don’t want to eat meat on Mondays and Wednesdays. And then all of a sudden I’m able to jump into this next new arena of my life. And the benefits for me of becoming vegetarian is this kind of clarity of focus and vision that kind of translated to the other areas of my life. And so I think many of the people watching this, you know, they’ve got some things figured out in many areas of their life and probably are happy, right?
I’m hopeful that they are living in alignment with their goals and their desires, and have many areas of their life figured out, but we can always make a little bit of positive progress in other areas. And I think the Reset Workbook is a tool to do that.
Akua: I love that. I think too, for myself, I’ve always been the person that has always thought I needed to, like my life is in disarray when I need a reset and I feel like there’s so many of us that can relate to that.
But I think when you actually take that time to really just evaluate where you’re at and see the areas that you want to improve in. That will help prevent you from getting burnt out, from feeling like you have no other options, from feeling completely stuck. And one thing that I actually learned based on some data is that one tiny optimization can lead you to be at least 3 percent happier, which I was like, okay, that is so true.
But then also the happier we are, the more productive we are, the more successful we are. Instead of thinking of that, success will make me happy. Actually come from a place, do the things that make you happy today, because that will actually lead you to success. And so that mind shift for me is huge because I’m totally guilty of that, where I’m like, Oh my gosh, if I have these things in my life, I am, you know, if I have hit this revenue goal, or if I have this amount of audience members, I have made it.
And I’m like, and I know, you know what I mean? I feel like that’s such a small thing, but there’s so many other, bigger things that business owners think of. And again, I think it’s, prioritizing your happiness, what truly aligns with you and leaning into those things will help fuel you to move forward.
And I think that’s something that we really just like to keep at the forefront as we continue to just really evolve as business owners and as people. And so another, Thing that I’m really curious about for you, what does that deep work look like for you as you have really just, you know, created this workbook like, uh, and you know, all of your life journeys.
Like what has deep work really looked like for you? Can you give us some examples?
Justin: I’ll tell you three things that I think every person can do to start their personal development journey. The first thing I’d say is do journaling. And one of the easiest ways to journal that I have found, gets people out of that kind of dear diary mindset, that many people can kind of, think of journaling as is to make a whole bunch of lists, right?
So, uh, you might start with a list that says, uh, here are 10 things that I want to accomplish in the next five years. And then you might make a list of five recipes I want to try over the next few months. And then you might make a list of the spaces in my life where I think I need a little bit of tiny positive change.
And the process of making these lists starts to reveal these things about yourself – that maybe you don’t have time to think about in your day because you’re so busy doing all of the things that you’re responsible for. And then you can take those lists and start to achieve those specific goals on the list.
You can start doing the things that you’re interested in accomplishing. So that’s number one. Number two, I would say make time to go walking at least once a week. Ideally, you want to go take a walk every single day. I’m like a huge proponent of this and primarily because the process of walking slows us down enough to like being in the moment.
So a good walk is going to involve like you’re not looking at your cell phone. You’re not paying attention to all the notifications popping up from email or slack or Instagram or wherever tends to get your most attention, but you’re giving yourself the space to be inside of your body and move through your neighborhood or your community with peace, right?
I feel like a lot of times the reason why people get dogs is because dogs are the perfect example of forcing us to be inside of our bodies and actually experience the world, right? It offers this moment of delight to take your dog out for a walk every day or to have to take them out so that they can go potty.
If you don’t have a dog, you still have permission to go outside and take a break. You still have permission to go take a walk. And honestly, I think when we remember that we are part of the animal kingdom, we need fresh air. We need that space. We need to be able to roam. That’s a part of who we are as well.
And then the third thing I would say is to really invest in your growth through meditation. One of the things that’s really challenging for me still to this day is choosing to meditate every day. I literally can only do 10 minutes of meditation at a time. It’s still very challenging for me. But what I can say is that the process of slowing down has really supported me in growing my intuition and our intuition is so useful.
It’s such a big part of our personal growth because our brains have so many ideas and we’re going thinking about this and then thinking about that and thinking about that when you meditate, it slows your brain down and you’re able to connect those dots together and make decisions faster.
Akua: Mmm, I love that so much.
There’s so many things I want to unpack within that number one journaling I’m a big journaler and for somebody for myself one thing that it was from a book that I read homecoming from a long time ago This author said this and it stuck with me and this why now I journal religiously is because She always said, give yourself the gift of honesty.
And so really taking the time to, no matter if things are going well or things are not going, not going as well, um, really take the time just to get a realistic picture that’s happening in your life. So for example, like if you didn’t get a client, I’m like, okay, Okay, cool. You didn’t get the client. What were some of the reasons?
You know, maybe they were busy or maybe I was outside of their budget. Right. And said, so like, you’re not internalizing everything and taking things so personally. It just helps you look at things objectively. So then again, you can make the best decision for you. And I just was giggling because that is absolutely why I got a dog because my best creative ideas have absolutely been when I’ve been out on a walk and I will like whip out my cell phone and either it’s like a story that just popped in my head of where I like store all of my stories as content.
So, I can just absolutely attest to that, that those types of things work, but I didn’t even think of how it can really build your intuition. And of course I use my intuition a lot as a business owner. And now of course I lean more into data, but my intuition still serves me very, very well.
And so I would love to know more about that. How are you building up your intuition to where you’re making decisions quicker? You’re feeling really good about the decisions that you’re making and it feels very aligned.
Justin: Yeah, I feel like, uh, the key to intuition for me is really, it’s learning to slow down enough to listen to your gut, right?
Our guts are going to tell us what we need to know. And I actually love the balance of using data analysis with what our intuition is telling us to make good decisions, right? Like that’s a really great way to move in the world because oftentimes, when we’re moving in alignment, we have the opportunity to tap into who we are and who we want to be and ultimately create the goals that we desire for the world.
So how do you tap into your intuition? I think the simplest way to do it is to really slow down. And you mentioned earlier, this idea of when you find your happy space, you’re able to be more productive. You’re able to do more work. And I feel like there’s something really good about to ask myself what is most important thing I need to do today?
And then what’s one small thing that will bring me a spark of joy, right? I try to schedule my day in that way. So you have your to-do list of all the things. And you know, like me, I don’t want to do the accounting for my business. That’s not something that sparks joy for me, but it’s something I have to do.
So it’s like, that’s an important focus for my to do list today. But then right after that, what am I going to do? I’m going to draw. Because that puts me into this really positive, happy space of being in flow. And then I’ll do another test. That’s a little bit more challenging. I might sit down and write a little bit about a new idea that I’m working on.
And then I’m going to tie that to another activity that brings me joy like walking. And so you’re planning your day in such a way where you have these sparks of joy that encourage you along the way. And by adding in those sparks of joy, You set yourself up to be able to listen deeper, to understand more who you are and what you want to accomplish.
Akua: I love that. And I think too, when you mentioned flow, like I just realized when you are putting in those little sparks of joy throughout your day, you are creating a constant flow. Flow of creativity consistently. That’s what I just was not where like, okay, I just have this little, um, you know, not where you get those little sparks of it and then like, that’s it where you don’t get to enjoy it anymore, but really taking that time to put joy into your day, you were in a constant flow and cycle.
I don’t even know a constant flow of creativity, which I think is great because it gives you that space to be more innovative. It gives you that space to try new things. It gives you such great ideas and that you can really tap into as a business owner. So a lot of us, we have our schedule back-to-back to back meetings or whatever, but even if it’s just 20 minutes and you said earlier how you’re working on meditation, I’m not good at meditation either.
I find it something that’s really difficult. So I have now. I started tapping and I don’t know, and I don’t know if you do that, but that has worked really well for me where I want to eventually get to meditating where I can do like, you know, 10, 20, 30 minutes. But I said, let me just start with tapping where I’ll just do it for five minutes and I can literally feel energy flowing – stagnant energy, literally moving to where now I’m like, oh my gosh, I have the space now to create something because I feel at peace.
I feel more intuitive. And so therefore, when you feel more intuitive, you feel very confident with the decisions that you’re making. And so I absolutely love that so much. And so another question that I have is, you kind of already answered it where, you know, really centering yourself is essentially finding that space in your workday to have those sparks of joy, but also to how are you managing just your various priorities and just to focus on what truly matters to you and your business?
Yeah.
Justin: Oh, it’s so hard because, uh, like many other people watching, I’m sure that you all can connect with this. I’m a multi passionate creative. I also have ADHD. And so it’s like, I want to accomplish so many things before I leave this planet. And so I want to do all of these cool and interesting, vibrant, and have all these vibrant adventures.
But, you mentioned something earlier that really stuck with me and I want to say it in a slightly different way. We can focus on the ultimate accomplishment. That’s one thing that we can do, right? But we could also figure out ways to enjoy the journey that we’re actively on right now. And I feel like that’s actually probably the better goal, right?
So like, if you, for example, are working a full time job and maybe you don’t love that full-time job, but you’re actively building your own small business on the side, it’s like, where can I find that joy in where I am right now? That is actually why we’re here on this planet. to like, try and try to experience that joy.
And I feel like that connection of enjoying where you are right now is really what sets us up for the success to get more of what we want, right? So it’s like, you feel that spark of joy when you’re working on your small business and that gives you the courage to take the next steps forward.
You take the next steps forward and all of a sudden you’re running your own small business that you’re super excited about. Right? And while you’re running this small business that you’re super excited about, there will be problems. Things will pop up that are challenging, but if you can slow down enough and understand that this thing that popped up is not here to destroy my business.
It’s actually here to give me a new skill so that I can run a better business ultimately. So if I take the time and learn that thing that I’m supposed to learn at this level, I can move to the next stage of maybe having a slightly larger business. Maybe I will start hiring employees now, and I’m at this point where I’m working with freelancers and I might have one full time employee.
And that gives you a new set of challenges, right? A new set of skills that you have to learn. But if you can keep yourself focused on the joy of the moment and keep following those sparks of good that you’re experiencing, you will continue to be successful. to use your curiosity as a tool to support that growth and development that you desire.
Akua: Oh my gosh. So much goodness with that because that is so, so, so true. We absolutely, like being present in the journey, that is the most important thing. I feel like then the actual goal And I think we really need to. And I’m speaking for myself as well, because I’m so guilty of this, where we really need to detach from the outcome, because I have realized that so many times when I have a specific goal and I am only focused on that specific goal and not actually present in my every day, I am absolutely miserable. And it is not an easy thing to truly turn off. I’m just learning that about myself where I’m like, okay, I really, really want to hit this goal. So I’m doing everything that I can. But one thing I realized is that I’m sacrificing pieces of myself and that’s not what goal setting is supposed to be.
It’s supposed to be like, you know, obviously where it makes yourself better and it’s always great to have goals, but you shouldn’t have to sacrifice The things that bring you peace, the things that bring you joy in order to attain it. And I feel like that’s something that it’s a trap that we can easily fall into, especially when we get so excited with goal setting.
And then when you get so attached to the outcome and then you don’t hit that goal, um, it can be very devastating for people. I have absolutely been at that point. And so like as a business owner, especially in the earlier times, And so that’s something I remind myself when I goal set, especially of this year.
I just say Akua, if you hit it great, and if not, that’s okay. But like, what can you do today to move the needle forward? And how can I show up consistently, but like in a way that feels good that day. So maybe that day for me is 10%. And that’s all I can give. And that’s more than okay. And maybe the next day it’s 50 percent and that’s okay.
So that’s kind of for me how I have made that shift. And so I just love that because it’s just such a good reminder of to really just be present in the journey because that’s what’s actually going to really propel you forward. I think more than the goal. I just think of my own journey of, My so many of my failures, but the skills that I attained from that is why I’m sitting here today.
And so I love that so much. Thank you so much for sharing that. And so what do you have to say to business owners who are in a season of feeling stuck? Just think about your own journey with where you have been and where I’m sure you have felt stuck yourself or frustrated in the season that you’re currently in.
What do you have to say to business owners who are currently experiencing that?
Justin: Yeah. I’ll pull from something you said earlier. Uh, there are seasons of hustle and I’ll, I’ll reframe that slightly. There are seasons where we’re going to sow seeds, right? There’s a season where you’re going to do all of this work. To plant your garden. And then there will be a season where you reap all of the rewards of the things that you have planted. But I don’t think we talk enough about the time in between those two points. There is a waiting period that all of us go through to achieve the things that we desire and navigate that waiting period with grace.
This is one of the biggest challenges that we all will face. I’m not going to pretend like that’s not the case. It is challenging. But our job in this season is not to dig up the seeds that we have already planted. It’s to wait and let those seeds do what they want to do. And that is grow, right? And so, as you mentioned earlier, so much of it is focusing on the things that you can do now.
Is your life moving in the way that you want it to move? And so that’s like, I would reframe all of goal setting, right. To be not, I want to make X number of dollars a year. I would actually change it and focus it on things that you personally can control. So it’s like, instead of saying, I want 10 new clients before the end of Q2, you might say I’m going to reach out to 10 people every day until I get 10 new clients.
By reframing the goal in that way, you focus it on action items that you can control. And by doing the things that you can control, you get out of those negative thought loops that bring us down and stop us from doing the work that we’re supposed to do. And so I think one of the key things that pops up for me when you’re sitting in that waiting period, kind of waiting for those seeds to grow, is to really focus on positive intention and reframing your personal mindset.
I’m one of those people that has always struggled with negative self-talk, and at various points in my life, it’s like, I’ll achieve a goal and I’ll get that, and then hit the imposter syndrome where I’m like, ugh, I’m not worthy of being a creative director, or I’m not worthy of directing a series of commercials, or I’m not worthy of X, Y, Z, whatever it could be for you specifically.
And it’s like, no, you got that opportunity because this is a chance for you to flex those muscles and grow. And so you got to show up and do the work that you were, you were made to do. And when you do it, once you get through the roadblock, all of a sudden, you see, oh man, I was actually, I knew that I could do it, but I was afraid.
And it was really my fear, uh, was what was getting in the way of me actually taking the steps necessary to get what I desired. And so you got to focus on that mindset. For me, one of the most beautiful ways to retrain your mindset is with positive affirmations. And so I made an affirmation card deck, it’s called joy bombs.
I would love for you to get it if you think it could be useful for you, but even if you don’t, you write down phrases that usually begin with, I am in their positive statements, about yourself. If you repeat those positive statements about yourself, you eventually begin to believe them, right?
So, in my career in advertising, I felt nervous about speaking up in meetings. I kind of felt like I didn’t fully fit into the community that I was a part of at my first position. And so I started saying this affirmation. I am worthy of taking up space, right? And so I would say it over and over and over again all day.
And anytime I kind of got that flash of concern or where I wasn’t feeling the most confident in myself, I would just say it again and say it again and say it again, like making it a constant loop in my brain. And suddenly, over time, and it wasn’t like one week or two weeks. It’s like, right. Maybe six months later after doing this activity, all of a sudden I’m noticing that I’m showing up more in meetings more confidently.
And the reason that I think it was was because instead of allowing that negative self-talk to grow in my head and become my reality, I focused on positive thinking and that positive thinking actually showed up in the actions that I took with my life.
Akua: Yes. Oh my gosh. So many, so many things that you shared within that.
Number one, we don’t talk enough about that waiting season within our business. That season, like, okay, where you just had this amazing success. And then you have it all of a sudden where things are dry. Right. And you’re, you’re not seeing you know, inquiries or results and all those things, but there were seeds that you planted in the previous season.
And I love that because I know that there’s so many business owners, where, you know, these conversations are happening behind closed doors where they are not in Q1 and Q2. They have no inquiries right now in their business. And so I can, you know, there’s conversations of anxiety. There’s conversations of nervousness, right?
And I, you know, and we all know with, uh, entrepreneurship, it just, there’s seasons like that, but it’s not an enjoyable season, regardless of when you happen to, no matter how many times you’ve been through it. And so I think, again, to your point, just really reframing it as, what are the actionable things that I can do each day to help me move forward.
But also, I also think of myself as, all right. How am I waiting in this season? I think again, I think that’s a good question to ask ourselves is like, how are you actually waiting? Are you waiting where you’re feeling negative? You know, and I think we should allow ourselves to feel those negative feelings, but don’t allow us to, but don’t allow yourself to sit in it.
I always try to try to give myself a timeline of like, okay, cool. You can feel this for the next 24 hours. But after that, you have to bounce back. And so I do that. I’m like, I allow myself to feel the negative feelings the next day. I’m like, all right, I’m good. We’re going to keep moving forward. And so I think that’s a, just to add to that of like, ask yourself, how am I waiting in this season?
I think it’s just so, so key, but affirmations. I love it. And I know it’s such, it’s such a simple fix, but not enough people do it because I’m the same way. I feel like I found myself in meetings where I am terrified because I feel like I am not worthy. I feel like what I have to offer people will find stupid.
And so it’s really hard. It’s really easy to make yourself feel small, but those types of affirmations, can really truly make an impact and they really don’t happen overnight, but I’m doing them myself currently where I say, I literally say, find any type of affirmations to say about, so like I am X, Y, Z, or, you know, because then I’m reminded of myself.
Because then your brain starts to remind you a lot more easily as you are coming up with tasks that make you feel extremely uncomfortable. It’s a lot easier to remember those things. And so you’re more likely to step in the uncomfortableness. I don’t even know if that’s a word, but if you allow yourself, it’s a lot easier to step into it and lean into it.
So I love that so much. And Justin, I have absolutely loved this conversation. I feel like it is going to make a difference for a lot of business owners. And so one thing I’m really curious about with you, what’s next for you in this, this season?
Justin: I feel like the thing that I have been focused on, the fear that I have been focused on conquering most recently is really showing up in video form.
I have a YouTube channel and my intentions for this new season. Is to make more video content. I want to show up regularly and connect with people, uh, to show my face and show my illustrations regularly. But I also want to step into this era of being an online educator and teacher. And I’m excited to kind of share many of the things that I’ve learned along the way, uh, so that it can hopefully help, uh, make people’s lives a little bit easier.
Akua: Oh, I love that so much. And I’m going to speak truth over you because you are already an amazing teacher. You have taught us so much within this episode. So thank you so much. And one question we always love to end with is, what do you think is the biggest differentiator between the businesses that succeed and the ones that fail?
Justin: Oh. That is such a good question. I think, if you believe that something is possible, it will eventually happen. You might have to wait, but as long as you believe that it is possible, it will eventually happen. I think the only thing that you have to do, though, is take daily progress until you hit the goal.
Keep showing up. You will hit the goal that you desire. I genuinely believe it.
Akua: Oh my gosh. I love that. And I also want to add to that. I have also been leaning into acting like I already have attained the goal. So I moved in certain types of ways. I’m like, okay, girl, so you hit this revenue goal. How, uh, what does she dress like?
What does she look like? What does her makeup look like? Right. And I actually will wear the clothes. And like, those types of things. Because when you look good, you feel good. Like where I already am moving of like, I have already attained this though. I don’t have it today. I definitely believe that I’m going to be able to get it.
So now I’m moving accordingly. Like I already have it. And it totally shifts your mindset. And I do believe that if you believe in your business and the goals that you have, and if you’re doing the work, it’s going to happen. And so keep moving. Like you have, like, you already have those things. So love that so much, Justin.
Thank you so much for this amazing conversation. For those that want to connect with you, where can they find you?
Justin: Uh, you can find me online if so curious. And if you’re interested in coaching services for creative professionals, you can visit my personal website, justinshields. com.
Akua: Oh my gosh. Thank you.
Thank you so much. And we will absolutely be linking the reset workbook and also the affirmation cards. And Justin, thank you. Thank you so much for being here and for those listening until next time. That ends our episode of the independent business podcast. Everything we’ve discussed today can be found at podcast.
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