Introduction
Welcome back to the Entrepreneur Mindset Podcast. For the last few weeks, we have been talking all about mindset as the name of the podcast might suggest, but we have just really been honing in a lot on how to kind of shift things so that you can actually keep moving forward when you don’t know what to do, what do you do?
And this week, I want to take it to the next level. I want to talk about the concept of embracing the experiment. Okay? As I, as you know, I am by training a scientist. My PhD is in industrial organizational psychology. And of course, in order to get that designation, I had to complete a master’s thesis. I had to complete a dissertation, all research based. And so I love the scientific method. I love being able to say, you know what? We’re going to try something. We’re going to gather some data, we’re going to analyze it, and then make some adjustments and try again. And that’s what today is all about, making adjustments and trying again. It is all an experiment.
Does it Have to Be an Experiment?
When I first got started in my business, one of the first things I did was to decide that I wanted to have a podcast. And I decided this without ever having listened to a podcast. I thought, this is going to be a great way to share information, to start conversations, and to just start bringing awareness to my business.
So I’m going to do it. I’m just going to go all in. I’m going to create a podcast. And it has been an experiment. Some of those experiments have been really successful, some of them not so much. I have renamed the podcast a few times over the last almost three years in order to get to where I actually wanted to be.
As I started talking more and interviewing guests and spending time recording episodes for you all, I realized that what I was truly talking about is mindset and what it’s like to have that entrepreneurial mindset, what it looks like, how to implement it, how to get it, how to adjust it if it feels like it’s out of whack and all of those good things. But the reason I tell you this because my podcast, when I first got it started, did not have that kind of focus. And so I would put out a few episodes and I would take a look at what was happening, was my audience growing? What was getting comments, what wasn’t? And then I’d make adjustments. It was an experiment. And even to this day, nearly 150 episodes in, it’s still an experiment.
And I think if you talk to any podcaster, any entrepreneur, they’re going to tell you that they are implementing things each and every day in their business. And then they’re looking at the data and they’re making adjustments. Every good podcaster can probably tell you which episodes have done the best, which episodes have gotten the most downloads, or the most comments, or perhaps the most applications to a one-on-one coaching program because you collect data.
Today I want to walk you through three things to remember in terms of this entrepreneurial mindset and the concept of experimenting.
3 Steps to Experimenting for Traction
1. Learning Mindset
The first one is to truly adopt a learning approach. And what I mean here is that everything is a learning opportunity. A lot of times when we try something new, it is near and dear to our hearts, right? As entrepreneurs, everything we put out there has come from our heart and soul. And so it’s hard to say, you know what? I can’t be so attached to something that I’m afraid to let it go if it’s not working quite right, or to adjust it if it’s not working quite the way I had hoped.
If you can adopt a learning framework, a learning mindset here, what happens is when things don’t work out the way you hope, you see them as an opportunity. And when something is an opportunity, you can make a change. You can implement it, and you get that opportunity to try again. Now, sometimes it’s hard to do that. I know because I’ve been there.
There have been times when I have wanted to say, I am done because this idea is not working. I just, I can’t do it anymore. I just want to pitch that idea out and start all over when in fact, some of those moments, it’s just been a little bit of a tweak of something to make it work. Now, imagine if I had said, oh, I’m just going to throw it out, and actually followed through on that, instead of giving myself a moment to think, I would’ve lost out on a really great idea or opportunity or offer that I was prepared to throw away. But by adopting that learning mindset of, you know what? I’m going to try something, see what happens, and then I’m going to make some adjustments from there. This is a reframe.
In the coaching industry, if you are one of my coaches who’s listening, you know that a lot of times we need to reframe how we view things. And we do this with our clients, right? A lot of times they’ll say, oh, I failed at this. I didn’t meet my goals. And you can really listen to them and say, ah, I noticed that you, you were able to do X, Y, and Z, and you’re thinking about how you could have made a possibility for the week. And so you’re thinking about where to go next. So we reframe, I failed at X, Y, and Z and A. And really what happened is you were able to accomplish this, this, and that, and now you’re thinking about how to move forward. So we just need to learn to reframe for ourselves and inside our business that when something doesn’t go as we planned, we can take a look at what is working, pull more of that in, and the stuff that isn’t working make the adjustments. But this may feel overwhelming.
2. Start Small
So the second thing that I want to bring up to you today is to start small.
Don’t start with this kind of experiment idea. If it’s new to you with the biggest thing in your business, I want you to start with one of the small things. Maybe it is your social media posting schedule. So one of the things I’ve been working on in the last 60-ish days is being more consistent in social media. And I’ve been testing things.
I’ve been looking to see what happens if I post seven days of reels in a row? Does that impact my reach? Does it impact my followers? Am I getting more comments, more engagement? Is it pulling it down? Do I need to post reels in the morning or in the afternoon? Do I need to put in static posts in between those reels?
What about a reel in the morning and a static post or a picture in the afternoon? Does that break up the reels enough or does it need to be one post per day? So you can see I’m starting with something that is kind of small. Now, social media, by no means is small in the sense that it feels like it takes up all of our time, but it is something that if it goes awry, nothing really big, bad and ugly has happened, right? If I discover that posting seven days of reels in a row, tanks my reach, okay? So I just won’t post seven days of reels again, I will post a reel and then a static image, and then maybe another two reels, and then maybe a carousel post.
Nothing really big, bad, ugly happens in this experiment. But what I am getting used to is doing something, putting something into action, looking at the data, and then saying, what opportunity do I have from this? What can I learn? What can I adjust and shift?
3. Analyze the Data
And that brings me to 3. You have to analyze those results.
It is not enough. And I used to be guilty of this, especially when I was a brand new college professor. We’d get those end of the semester feedback surveys from our students after all the grades were turned in, of course. And I would sit there and I wouldn’t open them, and I wouldn’t open them, and then I would struggle to open them, but I knew I needed to open them because as a scientist, how do I get better at teaching? I have to look at the feedback. I have to look at those results, analyze them, and decide what to do.
And the moment that I learned to just open those results and say, you know what? I’m going to take it as an experiment. It’s data. I’m going to see what fits, what doesn’t fit, and make adjustments. It got so much easier. I didn’t get the butterflies in my stomach. Well, they’re butterflies, but they weren’t like big crows anymore, just whirling around in my stomach, and I was able to take action. I was able to shift some of the things I was doing in my class, know that some of them were just working really well and I wasn’t going to change anything. And also, I had the opportunity to recognize that some of those con comments and evaluations aren’t about me at all. They’re about more about that person who was filling out the survey.
We need to analyze our results. And this means, for instance, when you go into social media, what does your reach look like? What does the engagement look like? Are you being consistent? Are you posting in the morning, the afternoon? How does that impact things? It means when you look at the weekly emails that you’re sending, how many opens are you getting? And that one’s a tough one right now. So I wouldn’t necessarily rely on opens, but are people responding to you and answering the questions that you’ve posed for them? If you’ve got an email that, man, you got 10 responses, and the next email you got none. Look at the differences between those two emails.
Did you have more of a conversational style in that first email that got the responses that made someone feel like you were writing just to them? And that second email was kind of more canned, more of a stock response? If the answer is yes, well then maybe the next email you try is more conversational and it has a little bit more personal stories in it, and you have this opportunity now to analyze the results and make some adjustments. The key to remember here is that it’s all an experiment.
And I would encourage you over time, you know, start small. That was the second thing I told you today. Embrace that learning mindset and start small and then analyze the results. But over time, I want you to think bigger. I want you to look at your offers that you’re making. Are they clear? Are they converting? If they’re not converting at the percentage that you want them to convert at, or maybe you’re stuck or the conversions are going down as you move toward cold traffic but not recovering, as you kind of hone things, I want you to really look at that data as an opportunity to build your business. I want you to look at it as an opportunity to better serve your clients. Remember, your clients are out there. They are experiencing something that has them looking for you.
If you commit yourself to this idea of it being an experiment so that you are constantly bettering what it is you’re putting out there, you’re making adjustments and fine tuning things, that person that really needs you has a better shot at finding you and trusting you. And it’s saying yes to the solution or the offer that you’re making, and that will change their life.
In those moments, when the doubt creeps in, I read a post today in a Facebook group that I’m in, and the entrepreneur said, I’m so scared, it just feels so overwhelming. I want you to remember in those moments that by you committing to having that learning mindset to saying this is an experiment, you are committing yourself to getting your offer out there in a way that someone who really needs you can find it and say yes, and their life can change. And you know what happens when their life changes? Maybe they’ve learned to crochet and it reduces their stress. Maybe it’s because they’ve learned how to manage their sleep habits so that they’re actually waking up refreshed, and they go into their life and they go to that meeting and they’re able to help someone figure out a solution to a really difficult problem because they’re well rested and that person goes on to help someone else, and it becomes this ripple effect.
In the moments where it feels scary, I want you to remember that you can be that start of a ripple that changes not just the life of the person you’re helping, but the life of the person that they go. Then impact and the life of the person that that person impacts and so on. Keep that close to your heart.
It is sometimes all you need to get out of that moment of fear, out of that moment of overwhelm and out of that moment of, oh, I cannot believe this didn’t work. What is going on? To get back to the idea of, you know what, I’m going to start small. I’m going to start experimenting with things, and I’m going to analyze the results and make adjustments.
Action Item
What is one thing that you can test out this week? I want you to take action. You know, I’m big on taking action, taking steps, taking in this podcast. So what is one thing that you can try this week? Check out the data and make some adjustments. Is it social media? Is it a landing page for a lead magnet that you have?
Is it how you’re interacting with your potential clients? Is it an email that you’re going to send? Is it taking time to clarify your messaging? And then putting it out there? What is it that you can start with today? What can you test out today? Is it a new hook that you’d like to try in a reel or in a static post?
Is it an introduction that you’d like to give the next time you step into a networking event, whether it’s virtual or in person? Be creative here. Start small, especially if this concept is new to you or if you’ve gotten out of the habit of experimenting. I want you to start small. It’s going to feel a little uncomfortable, lean into that discomfort and know that the greatest growth comes from that discomfort.
If we stand inside our comfort zone all the time, it’s always comfortable, but we never get to see what’s outside the comfort zone if we don’t step a toe over the line of comfort.
Conclusion
Today we are talking all about experimentation in your business, and we talked about three ways to adopt that mindset of having an experiment and knowing that it’s going to be okay.
And the first one is to embrace a learning mindset. Really reframe what you might have said in the past were mistakes or failures, and talk about them as being opportunities. The second thing was to start small. Think about low risk experiments. Trying something out on social media is usually very low risk. And then finally, analyze the results. Don’t let them sit in the file folder like I used to do as a brand new college professor over 15 years ago.
Open them up, learn what you can, take what you need, leave the rest and make adjustments. And finally, take action. Try something this week. Even better yet, try something. As soon as you listen to this episode, go out and test something in your business. Treat it as an experiment. And what happens is that you will be able to grow your business.
You will have a better understanding of what’s happening in your business. You are going to start to notice just the growth that happens because you are willing to say it’s all an experiment. And if you get stuck, as always, I am here to help. I know this is a tricky thing to do. Maybe it is that fear of what happens if it doesn’t work.
Maybe it is the overwhelm of knowing what thing to choose first to experiment on. Maybe it is just simply planning out your next steps and you feel like you are getting stuck. I am here for you. I would love to support you and work with you. In order to do that, I will drop the links to the application so that we can set up a time to chat and see what the most thoughtful next steps are for you.
I cannot wait to read your application and help you make progress in your entrepreneurial journey, whatever that looks like for you. That’s the beauty of being an entrepreneur, right? It is an opportunity to, it’s an opportunity to really build a business that fits your life instead of your life having to fit into your business.
I’ll see you back here next week for another episode of the Entrepreneur Mindset Podcast, where we focus on mentoring, community and implementation. It’s all about taking action so that we can remove the overwhelm of building a successful and profitable business and add in a little dose of momentum.
Until next time, have a healthy, safe, and happy week.
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