How to Apply Growth Mindset to Your Business

Welcome to episode 95 of Dawn of a New Era, the podcast that covers all things marketing, motivation and mindset. Now, I'm proud to say that we are a top 3% global ranking show, and this is thanks to you guys who have tuned in and supported my journey on this podcast since 2018. Now, as you will know, my name is Dawn McGruer, and I am the business growth coach, helping CEOs to scale and grow. And in this podcast, we're going to be covering how to apply growth mindset to your business.

Now, this is a really exciting topic because it is essential in business to be covering the strategic side, to be looking at marketing, to be looking at money, to be looking at the whole mapping of your journey and making sure that your model is sound. But in addition to those two things, I truly believe that we have to have the motivation and the mindset. We have to feel absolutely aligned to our business. Now, I set my business up, my first business, at the age of 21, and at that point, as an entrepreneur, I really was passionate about getting out of the travel because I had been travelling seven days a week, and one thing that was vivid in my mind is the burnout.

And I've gone through various stages of being in ebb and flow and various stages of having burnout. So as I've added businesses to my journey and to my mix, it has changed the way I've worked because sometimes I have had the ultimate that I wanted, which was financial growth, but I ultimately wanted to have the feeling of having fun, having freedom, having flexibility in my business. But this always is something that I wanted, but not necessarily something that happened. So when I think about growth mindset and how important it is in my business and my clients, it's paramount because It's the way that people look at things.

You know, if you think about what a growth mindset actually is, it's someone who believes they can develop intelligence and abilities over time, instead of assuming a person's skills are fixed. Or a growth mindset assumes we can improve with the right environment and encouragement. So an example of this in business is when you think about a growth mindset. It's someone who shows up and thinks, I can improve my skills over time, and constructive feedback helps me grow.

And there's always going to be room for improvement. Whereas a fixed mindset could be someone feeling that they're either good at something or not, or feedback is perhaps criticism, or there's no reason to improve if I'm already good at doing something. Now, why is this important in business? Well, you have to think about how it affects how you show up and how you trust in your ability, how you handle failure.

At the end of the day, in business, whether you're, you know, accelerating your career, boosting your business, setting up for the first time, scaling or growing, there will be adversity, there will be challenges, there will be things that are set out that go one direction one day that completely change the next. So if you are someone that has a growth mindset, it's definitely going to help you thrive amid challenges. Now, we know that every business is going to have challenges from, could be team members, expansion, could be financial. And a company with a growth mindset sees challenges as opportunities.

And I often see this and talk about it because when I think about when my business scaled, when my business grew exponentially, it was when I had failed because these learnings taught me a new way of working. Now, it also creates a culture of innovation. So, you know, if you and your team are stuck in like a fixed mentality, it will be hard to think outside the box and, you know, find creative solutions. So a growth mindset encourages an environment of new ideas, helping your business beat the competition and stand out from the crowd.

Now, this is the same when you think about your marketing. So often we look at people online and we get FOMO. We've all been there where we think someone is doing bigger and better things. When you think about a growth mindset, this is having the ability to think, well, maybe I don't want to operate in a saturated market.

Maybe I don't want to zig when everyone else is going that direction. Maybe I'm going to zag and I'm going to do something completely different. Now, having this innovative approach and a way of just maybe working slightly outside where everyone else is, this comes back to something I firmly believe. When I started my first business, I always said to myself that I wanted to have this innate feeling that I would be prepared to do what 80% of business owners won't in their business.

Now, why would I want to do that? Well, I wanted to be different. I didn't want to be part of the churn. And I think about this when I think of social media.

I don't conform to all the normal advice maybe you're given. I don't show up every day and go live. I don't post every single day. I look at social media as, yes, a strategic tool, but something that is authentic to me and how I want to use it.

So as long as we are using the power of social media to really build a powerful, mighty community, it doesn't have to be huge. Then that aligns to what my mission and vision is. I want to make sure that the people that I have in my communities are my tribe, the people that I want to align to, the people that I want to attract and draw into my communities. Now, this is about being able to shift your mindset and subtle nuances in the way that you actually look at your marketing.

Just because everyone else does something doesn't mean to say you have to do it. I like to look at the bigger picture and use growth mindset to really kind of think about how could we do this differently? How could we create a better experience? How could we talk to our audience in a more meaningful way?

How could I start more connections and conversations and build these, you know, relevant relationships where people resonate with what I'm saying? And this, in turn, is helping me turn connections into clients while still feeling aligned, while still feeling authentic, and appealing to the people that I would like in my communities. Being on social media is not a numbers game in terms of appealing to the masses. It's about understanding who your ideal client is.

And growth mindset allows you to have this ongoing learning. So understanding or realizing that you're never done. You know, you can seek out these new opportunities, be it from growth in your business, growth in the way you work, professional growth. And having this eagerness to learn ensures that you and your company stay dynamic and you're not complacent.

So having the ability to evolve, and I use growth mindset tactics every week in my business to delegate into declutter, to keep my business feeling fun and dynamic, to keep aligned to the principles that I set my business up for, which was fun, freedom, flexibility, and financial growth. If I'm appealing and I'm serving those goals and objectives, then I'm getting closer to my dream, which then in turn feeds my own motivation. It helps my mindset. Everything feels in sync.

But it also encourages accountability. So when you have a company or you have this ethos or culture within a business, growth mindset helps you adopt this culture of accountability where you and your team take the responsibility of your wins and your losses. So you face up to them so that you're realising it's all part of this path to progress. You know, sometimes I see where, you know, you're in a sticky situation and it's, you know, maybe where you're not getting enough clients or you feel like you're showing up all the time and something's not getting traction.

Having a growth mindset means that you understand that the critical development to your business or the achievement of these objectives comes down to the fact that you will have things that maybe don't work or you have to accept mistakes that have been taken. And it could be that it's difficult sometimes to own why something doesn't work. You know, as a leader or, you know, someone in business, you have to learn from your failures and encourage the same attitude in your team. So when you start to focus in on if something's not working, I urge you to draw a line and look at how you feel about the situation.

Are you pushing at something that's just not getting traction? Stop, breathe and reassess the situation. Is there something that's not working that you can take a learning from that you can use to really grow the business? Can you develop something based on what you've seen?

Is there a way that you can switch things up? Is there a way that you can review what you're doing and think, is it aligning to my mission, my vision, my brand? Is it aligning to my goals? So when you think about driving growth mindset within your business, within you, and also it could be outside of your whole...

Personal life and taking this into your hobbies. It could be taking it into everything you do in life. One thing is true. I know that when I look at things in a positive way and I am able to accept my mistakes.

Focus on, you know, the potential and look at things as an opportunity. My motivation and mindset is stronger. I'm more excited. I see the challenges as something of value rather than something that's happening to me.

And it's about stepping outside that victim mode sometimes and owning it. And if you have an issue and you feel that you maybe do have this potential for growth mindset, or you've slipped back into this fixed mindset, draw the line. Look at what's happening. Look at what's working and what's not, and try and separate them and feel into how you would change that or how it would feel if you stopped doing it, switched it up.

And think about every week, if you have a very clear plan on what you do, say no to everything that doesn't serve that goal. Say yes to everything that absolutely helps you do that. Say no to things that don't energize you. Say yes to things that light you up and invigorate you.

If you have that feeling of burnout, stop, refocus, rejuvenate, regenerate, come back stronger. And these are the exciting things because when you have a passion for your business or a passion for life, it's a very different way to live. So sometimes just doing a brain dump and addressing these situations and really, really thinking about how you feel, but how you could improve it. How could you use growth mindset in your business to take this and make it the biggest opportunity, the biggest chance of change, and the biggest way that you're going to realize your dreams, your mission, your vision, and your values.

So think about how it would feel to be living that best life and work back and start stripping out the things that do not represent that goal. And it's so cathartic. Even if you take out one thing this week, delegate and declutter, empower yourself in a way that gives you a new focus, a new excitement, a new energy around something you're doing in your life. It could be a relationship.

It could be just, you know, you're constantly arguing with someone in your family. Having a growth mindset is that not just your opinion counts. It could be that truth is that both have valid opinions, and because you're clashing all the time, it's because you're expecting them to take on what you believe, and they're expecting you to take on what they believe. But neither is true.

You can both own it and work differently. So think about how you can switch things up. Think about how you can use your mindset to give you that motivation to reinvigorate the passion, be it in your business, your relationship, or your life. And take the time to strip back and simplify.

Go back to basics and look at the things in a week that you love, the things that make you just think, I am so happy. I am so enriched, and do more of those things. And if something is bugging you, giving you sleepless nights, really weighing on your mind, strip it back. And there is nothing better in the world than the art of communication.

A problem shared is often a problem halved. Just talking about something. If something doesn't feel aligned in your business, speak, vocalize it, share it. It will take this weight.

And if you do something about it, the exciting thing is anything could happen. But if you do nothing, nothing will change. So I hope you enjoyed this week's podcast, and I hope it gave you some food for thought. And don't forget, if you enjoyed the podcast, remember to subscribe, rate and review, and connect with me.

Come and get to know me on social media, and you will find me on all the usual platforms at Dawn McGruer, and I will see you on the next podcast. Thank you for listening to Dawn of a New Era podcast, and for your free checklist to find out how to boost your business for growth, profit and success, and join our community, go to dawnmcgruer.com.