The Boundless Mindset Podcast

A vision is a vivid mental image of what you want your business to be in the future, based on your goals and aspirations. Having a vision will give your business a clear focus and guidance.
 
You want to take time to visualize the successful future that you want to create for yourself and your business.  Creating a space in your daily schedule to visualize your future will make your vision real for yourself and bring it closer to you.  
 
 When fear, doubt and insecurities set in, your vision will get you out of it.  It's like having a window into the future that only you can see.

The best way to formalize and communicate your vision for your business is to write a vision statement.

A vision statement captures, in writing, the essence of where you want to take your business, and can inspire you and your target market - It's the heart and soul of your business.

How to write a vision statement

To write an effective vision statement you should think about what your business does, and imagine what your business would look like in it's best possible state.

Make sure your vision statement:

• Is clear and written in simple language 
• Is short yet powerful and memorable
• Helps to paint a picture in peoples' minds
• Incorporate your objective, advantage and scope

You can use your vision as a way to differentiate yourself and promote your business.  It  should be used to to guide and give your business direction.
 
 There are many different types of vision statements and there is no wrong or right way to do it. The thing to be mindful of is to make sure your vision statement is unique to you and that you resonate with it.

Examples of inspiring vision statements:

• Tesla: To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
• Nike: Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. *If you have a body, you are an athlete.
• Shopify: Make commerce better for everyone, so businesses can focus on what they do best: building and selling their products.
• TED: Spread ideas.
• Amazon: To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online.

To get you started, Think of … If you could have it all  

• Describe your business; be positive, be ambitious, be specific
• What value are you offering?
• How are you being profitable? 
• Describe your life; home, family, leisure 
• What are you excited about?
• What does your day look like? 
• Describe how your business is impacting your community and the world.
• What changes are you inspiring? What do you stand for?     

Now I would like to hear from you! How are you incorporating your unique story into your vision statement?
 
 For more, Download your 4 Step Guide to Creating a Lucrative Online Business.

I often get asked, do I need to do a business plan for to start my business?

The answer is that it depends on what you are using the business plan for.

The traditional business plan format is lengthy document about 20 pages long with financial plans and complex graphs and charts.  So what’s the purpose of preparing a business plan? Is it a must to create one before starting a business?

Think of a business plan as a resume.  You don’t need a resume to do your job, but you need a resume for potential employers to see your experience and qualifications before they hire you.

Your business plan serves a similar purpose for your business, it includes:

• Executive summary
• Business and industry overview
• Market analysis
• Competitive analysis
• Sales and marketing strategy
• Ownership and management plan
• Operating plan
• Financial plan

You’ll need a business plan in the following cases;

1. When you want to borrow money from a bank.
2. When you're pitching to investors
3. When you’re bringing on partners or other highly skilled professionals be part of your business.

If you’re not looking for a bank loan, investors nor partners for your business, then you probably don’t need to complete a lengthy business plan document, but you’ll need a PLAN.

You’ll need to determine the following for your business;

• Clearly identify and articulate the purpose of your business 
• What is your business model - How will you make money?  
• Who is your target market? What's  your value preposition – What problem are you helping to solve for your target market.
• What is the most cost-effective way to communicate with your target market
• What are your channels of distributions? – How will you make your product or service available to your customers?
• What are your expenses? How much does it cost to do business? What's your break-even-point?

Instead of using the traditional business plan, I recommend my clients to use Business Model Canvas to plan their businesses.  

I also recommend for you to download my 4 Steps Guide to Creating a Lucrative Business. This guide will help you understand the steps you need to create your successful business. 

Now I’d love to hear from you! Tell me about your experience with a business plans – How has it been helpful to you? 

As Entrepreneur, we have all these fascinating ideas that are floating around and it’s difficult to just choose one idea.  in Episode 9, we talked about the importance of focusing on one business idea at a time and how that can help you succeed in your business.  In this episode we’re going to discuss how you can choose the best idea for you.

The important thing to keep in mind is that passion is important. Your chosen idea should allow you to infuse your passion into your business.  This is where your greatness lies and it’s linked to your WHY which we discussed in episode 8.  Knowing WHY and what you’re passionate about will help you get through difficult times and it will give you that added advantage to engage fully with your business.

Assessments Method - The assessments method is one of the best strategies I use with my clients to choose an idea that’s best for them and their business.  This method helps you assess every aspect of your business and yourself to make sure that you are perfectly aligned with a business idea.

 Personal Assessment - The personal assessment will guide you on what you enjoy in life, what your passions are and what you really love doing. It will help you understand yourself better, so you can align well with your chosen business idea. 

Ask yourself:  

• What are my values? What’s important to me? What do I care about? What do I find meaningful and enjoyable? 
• What do I currently do in my spare time that I love?
• What inspires me and makes me feel proud doing every day?

 Resources Assessment - The resources assessment will help you determine if you have the time and the capital required to pursuit a business idea.  I often see clients limiting themselves because they don’t have a lot of money to invest in their business.  This forces them spend a lot of time and effort looking for investors instead of working on developing their business.  I always recommend to go with the lean start-up method; to create a Minimum Viable Product/Service and grow from there.  T

 Strengths Assessment - The strengths assessment will determine what your strengths are, so you can use those strengths to support your business.  You want to create a business that will compliment your strengths and will let you capitalize on your natural strengths and abilities.  

Once you’ve completed your assessments, it’s time to eliminate the ideas that are not best suited for you at this time.

Step 1:   Eliminate ideas that you’re not passionate about, that don’t inspire you and that you don’t see yourself doing long-term. 

Step 2: Eliminate ideas that you don’t have enough time and money to invest. This will help you focus on the ideas that you can start right away with your current situation.  

Step 3: At this stage you shouldn’t have many ideas still on the list.  Go through the remaining ideas and cross out the ones that don’t complement your strengths and abilities.  

Step 4:To help you decide the best idea to choose, ask yourself which idea brings me the most joy.  This will help you choose the idea that’s closely aligned with your WHY and that you connect with at a deeper level.  This is the idea that you want to focus on, because it will give you the fulfillment and the engagement that you need to sustain you and your business long-term.

For more, visit www.theboundlessmindset.com

In this episode I had the pleasure of chatting with Sadia Abdullahi.  Her business is called Sadie and the Bee Honey Company. She sells pure–natural-organic honey which she harvests herself from her bee farm as well as other natural products.  

Her passion for beekeeping comes from a deep caring and concern for the fragility of the Honeybee population and the immense respect for their collectivist structure.  She talks about her journey on how she started her business and how it came from a personal need to go back to nature to find peace and balance.

Sadia brings many years of experience as a social worker and community worker in Ottawa. Sadia worked closely with children, youth, and their families developing programs supporting youth, especially Black girls, to build confidence, develop talent and pursue their dreams.

The many skills she has learned from the hive and beekeeping are also the same skills she applies in her work as a social worker.  Her dream is to one day start a private practice that incorporates beekeeping as a means to support mental health and promote wellness.  When I look at Sadia, she represents black excellence – young, educated, proud of her culture and background with deep care for the community and the environment. 

References:
Apitherapy

Somali Lingo:                                                                                
"Heblaayo” Means “So-and-so” 
“Eeb culture” Means “Shame culture”

Connect with Sadia:                                                                   
Instagram: @sadieandthebeehoneyco
Email: [email protected]

For more visit: theboundlessmindset.com

We’ve all been there, you get excited about a new business idea, there's also that project you’ve always been somewhat involved in, and then your friends present you yet another fascinating business idea that they think can go big! How do you just choose one? they’re all so exciting and you see yourself doing well in all of them.  Choosing just one feels like you're giving up in some ways or losing something.

This is an issue that many entrepreneurs face, coming-up with so many great ideas all the time.  And this is a great thing.  Your mind is active and engaged with the world - inspired about what we can offer to benefit others and contribute to our growth.

Letting go of  some business ideas so that you can focus on just one can feel like you’re giving up on amazing possibilities. So why do we even have to choose only one idea - why can't we do all of them?

You can, and you should explore all of your business ideas - test them out to see what feels right for you.  But ultimately you should choose just one.

Working on multiple businesses when starting out, will scatter your time, energy and resources.  You will end up not being able to accomplish what you want in any of them.  Furthermore, as long as you are not prioritizing, you are stating to yourself and the universe that you’re not really serious about your business - That you’re just trying a bunch of things and seeing how they turn out.  

I’m sure you’ve heard of the expression “less is more” that’s the case here.  Choosing one business idea to focus on when starting out is key to your success and it will help you to:

Prioritize your time, energy and resources
Starting a business will require a lot of your time, energy and resources.  It will take all you’ve got to take it from an idea to launch.  This will be the thing you live and breathe!  Frankly speaking you can do this effectively when you focus on  one business at a time.

Build a reputation for yourself and your brand 
If you’re involved in many business/projects/ideas that are unrelated, you will not specialize in anything.  You’ll dilute the value or your brand.  Have you ever noticed those stores that sell everything? You go there when you need something insignificant and it’s just there for you to grab something and you’ll never remember them.  When you’re starting out, you want to create a recognizable brand with a certain value, offering quality products and services.

It’s important to give yourself the permission to try and consider different business ideas.  The more ideas you try the closer you’ll get to the right one that’s perfect for you at this time.

I tried a few businesses myself.  It was great to get the experience and the exposure from each one of them.  They all taught me valuable skills and experience which allowed me to grow personally and professionally.  But It wasn’t until I decided to focus on a one business that I was able to gain the vision and clarity that I needed.  I had to get everything else out of the way, so that I can make my business a top priority.  

So how do you know which one to pick? How do you know the best business for you to focus on?

This is the topic of our next episode.  Stay tuned!

For more, visit www.theboundlessmindset.com

Why is it important to know your why when you are creating your business?

Simon Sinek talks about the golden circle in his first hugely popular Ted Talk with over 51 million views.  He explains that people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.  He uses Apple as one of his examples, and talks about how Apple is able to communicate their why so effectively.  Which is the reason for Apple's strong brand loyalty.

So What's your WHY for starting your business?
If your answer is "To make a lot of money" - That’s not enough!

There's nothing wrong with wanting a lot of money and luxury things, but your WHY should be part of your purpose, your calling, the gift that you want to offer the world through your business.

Knowing your WHY will give you a sense of purpose and direction.  It will guide your business and allow you to inspire others who resonate with your WHY.  Creating your own tribe -  people that believe in why you do what you do.

Your WHY will sustain you when the going gets tough and doubt starts to set in.  It will give you unwavering commitment to continue on your path of living your purpose through your business.

My WHY helped me gain the courage I needed to walk away from my job and put everything on the line for living my purpose through my business.

My WHY is: Helping ambitious WOC to become an empowering force and launch a lucrative online business they’ll love.

I could’ve chosen any business serving any target market - So why WOC and why Online Business?

The obvious reason is that I am a woman of color.  But more than that is that I can relate deeply with the struggles and the experiences of WOC.   I believe their ability and their potential.  Beyonce says "girls run the world" - WOC are the backbone of the workforce.  We bring so much dedication, hard work, creativity and heart to our jobs.  Yet less than 4% of WOC are in leadership positions.

Why is that? We are often overqualified but yet we’re undervalued and underrepresented in the workplace. We watch the people we train get ahead of us.  We’re lucky if we make it to middle management level, that's where the glass ceiling becomes so difficult to break!

In addition, we're exhausted trying to make ourselves “acceptable” by hiding parts of ourselves and identity in the hopes of not making anyone feel uncomfortable.

I believe that WOC deserve more than that! We want to show up big and bold, proud of our culture and identity - That’s the black girl magic!

Having your own business can give you exactly that. You can exercise your unique ability and creativity to establish a business that’s truly you! That lets you gain your freedom to do what you want, when you want and with whom you want!  Gaining your freedom and financial independence - Sharing your gift and being an inspiration to yourself, your family and your community.

That’s my why - What’s yours?

For more, visit www.theboundlessmindset.com

Mindset is defined as a person’s way of thinking and their view of the world. 

How’s your mindset helping you to stay aligned with your goals in life and business? 

The psychologist Carol Dweck has been investigating the questions – Why some people with no apparent exceptional skills or talents become successful while others don’t.  She wrote the Mindset book in which she examined this topic in depth.

Her and her team did an experiment.  They worked with students and divided them into two groups.  One group was praised for their ability while the other group was praised for their efforts.

When the ability group solved a problem, they were told “You did this so well! You must be really good at this!”

And the group that was praised for the effort were told “You did this so well, you must really have worked hard on this!”

After a while, the group that were praised for their efforts continued to excel while the group that was praised for their ability declined in their progress.

Professor Dweck explains that we have either growth mindset or fixed mindset.

Someone with a growth mindset, believes that they can accomplish anything with some hard work and effort.  While someone with a fixed mindset believes that we are born with a set of abilities that determines how successful they are and there’s really nothing they can do to change it. 

How do you know what kind of mindset you have; growth or fixed?

Think about something that you did that didn’t work out as you hoped or planned.  What was your thoughts about that? Did you think that you were just not good idea and you should just not do that and focus on other things? Or Did you think that there was something you can do differently to get a better – more desired outcome?

What if I have a growth mindset vs fixed mindset? Why does it matter in my business?

Well your mindset could be either helping you get ahead or holding you back!  If you believe someone is just a “natural born public speaker” or that you “just can’t speak in public” you’re holding a fixed mindset. With a fixed mindset, you avoid new challenges because you’re afraid of being judged.  

In a growth mindset, you believe you can develop any ability through dedication and hard work. Because of this belief, you have a desire to learn. This enables you to embrace challenges and persevere when setbacks happen during the learning process.

How can we change our mindset from fixed to growth?

Step 1: Become aware of your fixed mindset
Listen to your fixed mindset “voice”.  When you’re working on your business and trying to find opportunities, you might hear your inner voice saying “if I only had this ------------ ” or “If I was good at  --------------- things would be a lot easier”. Recognize it as your fixed mindset voice.  

Step 2: Recognize that you have a choice to change your fixed mindset self talk
When you hear your fixed mindset voice, you have the choice to interpret it as challenges, setbacks and self-criticism (fixed mindset) or as an opportunity to challenge yourself and learn something new, explore strategies for better results and continued growth. 

Step 3:  Talk Back to your fixed mindset voice
As you approach a challenge, your fixed mindset might say “Are you sure you can do this?" Answer with your growth mindset voice “I am not sure that I will get it right the first time, but with some experience and learning I will be able to know how to run a successful business”.

 Step 4: Take consistent growth mindset action
Take consistent growth oriented actions.  In time, this will help to reprogram your fixed mindset to shift to growth mindset.

For more, visit www.theboundlessmindset.com

I  had the pleasure of chatting with Sassie Naidoo as we discussed some of the options WOC have for financing their businesses, the importance of money management in business and the ingredients for WOC to succeed in their business.

 Sessie has over 4 decades of  diverse experience in finance, education, and sales.  She shared her passion of helping her clients to explore options that best fit their financial needs while supporting them to increase their financial literacy.  As an experienced financial advisor, Sessie minimizes the guesswork of finding the best financial product for her clients.  She’s well versed in the key requirements of  lenders to help her clients secure their financing goals.  

In our conversation, Sessie talked about her own  journey on how she achieved her lifelong dream of starting her own business and what helped her get there. In Sessie’s words “I am rewarded when my clients learn the tools to help them achieve their financial goals”.

Here’s how you can connect with Sessie:

Website -  https://sessiefinancial.ca
LinkedIn -   https://www.linkedin.com/in/sessiefinancial/ 
Facebook -  https://www.facebook.com/sessie.naidoo.5 

Resources:

• Four step guide to starting your business: https://www.theboundlessmindset.com/landing-page/
• Business Development Bank of Canada:  https://www.bdc.ca/en/pages/home.aspx

What are you doing  to increase your money knowledge so that you can reach your financial goals?

I had the pleasure of chatting with Ikram, the owner of the Siti Fashion House.  I was inspired by Ikram’s story and how passionate she is about her business vision and mission.  She shared practical tips that helped her in her entrepreneurial journey.  

Ikram spent years perfecting her signature headwrap technique. As a newbie in the headwrap biz, she takes the - less is more -  approach, which keeps her clients looking stylish, vibrant and beautiful.  Siti Fashion House sells authentic African material made  in Ghana, Kenya, Ivory coast, and Rwanda.  Siti Fashion House offers in-house one-on-one headwrap tutorials, as well as  in a group settings. The name Siti is from Egyptian origin, which means "lady".

Ikram shared that embracing and empowering women are the main goals of Siti Fashion House. She urged aspiring entrepreneurs to not be discouraged and start creating their busines.   She told us to  “Find what makes you different and run with it!”.

Here is how you can connect with Siti Fashion House

• Website:  www.sitifashionhouse.com
• ETSY : www.etsy.com/ca/shop/sitifashionhouse
• Pinterest https://www.pinterest.ca/sitiscarfs
• Instagram: @siti_scarfs

Drop a line and share what you’re taking away from this episode.

Do you know that we’re all born with a set of unique talents and special gifts?
Gifts that no one else has but you. There’s only one you in the entire universe.
The truth is that we all have specific purposes for being here. Our desires,
dreams, and ambitions are directly related to that purpose. And our innate gifts,
talents, strengths and abilities are there to support us with our purpose.

One of my favourite authors and spiritual leader, Eckhart Tolle says: “You are here
to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold. That is how important you
are!” That’s how we’re all connected to one another. You carry within you
certain unique qualities and attributes that contribute to society. Your life
matters - your business matters - everything you do has an impact.

So how do you determine your unique gifts? and how do you apply it to your life
and business? at a young age we are taught to focus on improving our weaknesses. When we get feedback, the thing that we hear the most is what we need to improve...all
the things we are not good at! But that’s not where the magic is. The magic is in
knowing and magnifying your strengths. Recognizing our talents and gifts is what sets us apart from everyone else. It’s what will give you the confidence to do things your own way and not be afraid to create your own path that’s different from everyone else.
Whatever you do, your uniqueness adds colour, texture, flavour, and emotion to
your life, your business, and the lives of everyone around you.

To discover your unique talents and special gifts, consider this:

1. Think of when you were a child, how did you spend most of your free
time? What did you enjoy doing? What types of activities were exciting to
you?
2. What lights you up and gets you motivated? What activities do you love so
much so that you lose track of time.

How to Apply Your Special Gifts

It’s important to get familiar with your zone of genius. the thing that you are the
best at and fully own it! How you show up in the world is special and unique.
Everything you do is uniquely yours - your general demeanour, your smile, how
people feel around you is truly unique and your undeniable gift.
The more you apply your whole self into your business the more authentic your
business will be. You will be able to resonate with your target market - they will be able
to relate to you, trust you and feel that they’re part of your journey and brand.
you are involved in the business that fits your vision, your values and your passion it becomes your life’s work and enjoyment.

Start listening to your gifts, strengths, talents, today - Pay close attention to your zone of genius and what brings you joy, then sprinkle it in everything you do.

For more, visit www.theboundlessmindset.com