Creating lasting change in your business and life

Transcript

Change is not easy, it can be stressful, uncomfortable and scary, but if you want to achieve something different, whether it is in business or any area of your life, you have to do things differently. In today’s episode, I talk about facing fears and about how when you change, you actually become someone new. If there is any level of your business or your life that you want to up-level, this episode is for you.

You’re listening to the Clare Wood podcast, where we talk all things business, finance, marketing, and mindset for entrepreneurs, sharing practical tips, and actionable advice to help you take your business to the next level. Introducing your host: me! I’m Clare Wood, I’m a numbers geek, a travel lover, and a reality tv addict, and I’m here to empower you to create an extraordinary business and an amazing life, because I believe you don’t have to choose between the two. Now let’s dive right in to today’s episode.

Before I get into the episode content, I just wanted to do a shout out to Tracy from Cookie Queen Kitsch’n, who is a dessert and event stylist in Stanmore, NSW, here in Australia. Her review says “Clare’s podcast is full of tangible business coaching advice, she makes you stop and think!” Thanks so much Tracy for leaving a review and to everyone who has taken the time to leave a review. Remember if you do write a review, please leave your business name, so I can give you a shout out on my podcast or on social media.

Why change is inevitable and actually vital in business

Today we are talking about creating lasting change. Now the content of today is relevant both to you in business and in life. I want to start by talking about the fact that change is inevitable, Warren Bennett says “In life change is inevitable, in business change is vital.” This is so true, and it reminds me of another brilliant quote I’ve heard, by Dale Beaumont which says “You are either green and growing or ripe and rotting.” How powerful is that! Basically, no matter what stage of business you are at, if you are not moving forward you are moving backwards. So when we talk about change, one of the first things that I think is important to understand, is that change isn’t easy! And it’s something we just need to accept about this scary process of change.

My story of being stuck and how I changed it

So I want to share a little story with you guys. If you have been following me on social media, you might have seen that after the birth of my second child, I found it quite hard to loose the baby weight. I’m not talking about a lot of weight here, but I was technically overweight according to the Government’s BMI calculator, but I kept complaining and saying “Why can’t I loose the weight.” So I really wanted to change, because I didn’t feel good about myself, my clothes didn’t fit, and my self-esteem was starting to suffer. I knew I wanted to make the change, and I kept complaining about it, but I just hadn’t done anything different. I was blaming the baby – which is ridiculous right. I was blaming my age – it can’t happen because I’ve reached this age. I was actually even blaming my husband because he does all the cooking in our household and I said to him “if he didn’t make such yummy food, then I could loose the weight” so if you catch my drift, I wasn’t accepting responsibility for where I was at. So the first step was to say “hey”, things need to change here, and the person who has to make these changes are ME! So since then I have gone back to the gym, and I’ve lost a few kilo’s and I’ve also recently started an eating plan put together by a nutritionist. The reason I had a plan done, was because I was doing it on my own and I was doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result and that doesn’t work. That’s why I got some outside help.

How to face your fears

Today what I want you to do is look inside your heart. When I’m here talking about change, what is calling you? What things are coming up? What is an area of your business or of your life that you are ready to take to the next level? So, getting back to my weightless journey, when I first went back to the gym, it was hard. Even getting to the gym, trying to get out the door, because my little one would scream because he wanted Mummy, and I felt so guilty, and then when I finally did get to the gym, the actual training was also really hard. Especially when I first started, everything hurt and then after the session, I would be sore for days afterwards. But what I started to notice, was as I went more regularly, I started finding that it doesn’t quite hurt as much. Maybe what happens is you get used to it, and in fact, I’m kind of loving the feeling of doing a good workout, you feel a bit of pain, and you think, “hey” I’ve pushed myself really hard, and that means that I am slowly improving. So all this talk about gym, you are probably wondering what is the relevance? Well, there is an analogy coming here – change is the same in business.

If you want a different result, you need to do things differently. So what does that look like? It might be hiring a staff member? It might be doing a re-brand? It might be being present on social media more? So if you know something is going to be good for your business, what is the resistance there? I imagine straight away you are saying “yes” and then “but…”, and what’s the ‘but’, it is because it is scary.

So what I want to do now, is talk about facing fear. I still hang onto this dream that once I reach a certain level in business, that I won’t feel fear anymore, however I keep hearing again and again from industry leaders and people who have been entrepreneurs for decades, that they still come up against challenges, they still have the fear, and the same kind of fears that we do. What if it doesn’t work? What if people hate me? How am I going to manage all this extra work if it does come off? How then do you tackle fear? Well, truthfully, I don’t think you do tackle it or eliminate it, you just have to accept that fear is part of the journey.

Now, I want to talk to you about public speaking, because public speaking and I don’t have a great track record,  in fact I’d say it used to be one of my biggest fears. Now when it comes to public speaking, I have tried everything, literally I have tried Toastmasters I can’t tell you how many times, I’ve been hypnotised multiple times, I’ve gotten drunk before doing a speech, I’ve taken Chinese herbs, I’ve even taken prescription medication and some have worked to varying degrees, but ultimately, the fear was always still there. The only thing I have found, for me personally, that actually worked, was consistently, publicly speaking. I remember back in my corporate life, I had to present this training and roll it out through my entire workplace. So I had to deliver this same training 30 times over, over a 2-3 month period. I remember the very first time I had to do it, my hands were sweating, I think all of me was sweating! I was physically shaking, it was such a horrible experience, but I kept getting up, I kept presenting the same training content again and again, and after I had been doing it time and time again, I’d still get the nerves, but it wasn’t as terrifying as it was that very first time. Does that make sense? I got used to the feeling, and came to embrace it, and in all honesty I got to enjoy it a bit. And this is the same in any area where your fears come up. Maybe you’re dating for the first time in long time, or jumping out of an aeroplane or maybe it’s filming video’s in your business. Whatever it is, the more you face fear, the easier it gets, and you just get used to the fear, you become accustomed to it, and it becomes part of the journey.

Getting comfortable with fear

There is a word thrown around a lot in the business at the moment and when I first heard it, it was in one of my favourite podcasts, which is The Life Coach School podcast. The word is uncomfortable. The reason I love this word is that it isn’t painful, it’s not difficult, its not any other synonym, the word uncomfortable literally just means it’s not comfortable. When you go through change, it is going to be not comfortable. Just like me heading back to the gym, things feel a little weird when you start mixing up what you used to do, it doesn’t feel comfortable anymore, you’re moving outside of your comfort zone.

Becoming someone new after you change

If fear is holding you back I want to ask you this “What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?” Powerful huh! Something to think about, something to challenge yourself about, and maybe this is the area of business that change is calling you. Now I want to talk to you as well, about what happens after the change, because when you change, you become someone new. Now this can be scary as hell, so I want to talk about this a bit. 8 years ago today, I was somewhere in Europe, I don’t even know where, I was very much single, I was between jobs which was quite a common occurrence as I could never hold down a job for very long. I pretty much had no money, I was just  partying and travelling and sleeping in hostel’s and living me best life. Even when I got back to my home base in Sydney, I refused to get a phone plan, for fear of committing to, for god forbid, an entire phone contract, and I would only ever sign 6 month leases at a time in case, for some reason, I needed to get out of there. These days my life is very different! I’m in the job of my dreams, helping people change their businesses and their lives, and although I’m only, at this stage, 3.5 years into my business journey, it’s the longest I’ve ever stayed in a job in my life, and I know 100% that this what I’ll be doing for the rest of my life. I’m married, I’ve had 2 children, so talk about commitment, lots has changed. But if you found someone that hung out with me from my Europe backpacking days, and we went out for a glass of wine, I bet you they would say that I’m still the same. Because in so many ways I am, I still love life, I’m still cheeky as ever, and I still crave travel and fun and adventure, but I’m also different. I’ve left that backpacking, commitment-phobic girl behind. I am a new person. And this is the same for you when you make a change, you move on. You become someone new, and you leave the old you behind. I used to be a person terrified of filming videos in my business and in fact I filmed probably 100’s of videos that I deleted and never posted, and I now comfortably film videos all the time. That old me is left behind and I will not go back there. I’m sure sometimes I still get nerves, but I get to choose that that is no longer part of my story.

So today I ask you, who do you want to leave behind? Is there a person inside you who lives in fear, and has a mindset of scarcity? Is it someone who doesn’t make a profit in their business? Is is someone who avoids looking at their business results each moth? Or maybe it’s something in your personal life you want to change. You have a choice, you can make a decision in an instant, that can change the direction of your life, and when you do, when you move to your next level, that’s where you become a new person, and you throw away the key to that old chapter, because you are not going back there anymore. Don’t look backwards, only look forwards.

To summarise what we’ve spoken about today, the first thing is to realise, that change is inevitable and actually vital in business. Because as I mentioned, the green are growing and the ripe are rotting. You also need to accept that change isn’t easy, it’s going to be hard and part of that is going to be about facing fear. But when you do face your fears, and change you become someone new. A better version of you. So don’t look back, just keep putting one foot in front of the other and move forward onto a new and better life, because you have the power to change your business and your life.

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I hope you have a magic week, and I hope to see you back here again next week!

Thank you so much for joining me today, if you enjoyed this episode, please make sure you subscribe to receive future episodes, and I’d be so grateful for a review on apple podcast! If you’d like a copy of the show notes or any of the links mentioned today, please jump over to clarewood.com.au/podcast and remember that Clare is spelled CLARE, have a wonderful week and look forward to chatting to you again soon!