There Is No Secret Sauce
Every day I’m talking to women who think there is something that they are doing wrong. Or something that they just don’t know about in their business. Do you feel that way? Do you just wish you could find that one person who would give you the “secret sauce”, that answer that if you just implemented would give you the ultimate lifestyle and immediate clients and money that you SO crave. I get it. I’ve been there. For years, I just thought I wasn’t good enough to be successful. I hid under a guise of confusion and I listened to every free teleclass out there hoping to find the answer, that one thing that would make all the difference.
Here’s what I learned:
THERE IS NO SECRET SAUCE.
No one out there is teaching some secret that is going to make you rich overnight or that if you just implement tomorrow will ensure you fill you practice. No one. I don’t care if they claim that they made a million in 2 years or if they had a $50,000 launch. I can tell you for certain that we all walk the same path. I’ve made a habit of hiring and learning from the best mentors I could find for as long as I can remember. It started with my father who bought a business the year before I was born, expanded it to three states and sold it when I was in college. I’ve been mentored by Fabienne Frederickson, Kendall Summerhawk and now Suzanne Evans. I am first generation Indian and I watched my parent’s friends build their businesses and practices from scratch in a country that was totally new to them. Now they are happily retiring with plenty of money and the freedom to spend their time with their grandchildren.
Here’s what I know. There are no short-cuts. Every successful entrepreneur that I have watched and studied followed a path with these four components. It’s time that I write them down – both for you and myself.
1. URGENCY. I’ll never forget when I was in tears one day after a particularly hard month running Ideal Balance. I had holed up in a walk-in closet (yes I was literally in a closet) at my childhood house in Cincinnati. My dad found me and sat down next to me. He said, “Monica the way I built my business is by realizing that I had no other options, because I didn’t. I needed this business to take care of you and your mom and sisters and I had to do everything it took to make it work.”
I realized that my dad had something that we all need to have as entrepreneurs: Urgency. There has to be a real desire that drives you to move forward. It’s easier and much more healthy if that urgency comes from a love of what you are doing or the need to put it out into the world. But sometimes it comes from the need to make money or provide. Either way, it is this URGENCY that pushes you past your fears and allows you to feel uncomfortable doing things you don’t know how to do. It’s the same urgency that allows a woman to pull a car off of her child.
So I ask you, do you have enough Urgency? And if so, are you willing to move past fear and into action to build your business? If not, then think about WHY you are doing this business. Do you want to provide a better life for your family? Do you want to travel more? Do you want to start a foundation? Keep asking yourself WHY until you find an answer that literally feels so good to you that it becomes urgent for you to follow-through on it.
2. PASSION. We work hard as entrepreneurs. This is definitely not a 9-7 job. At the end of the day, the thing that is going to keep you moving is passion. Now here’s the thing – no one is passionate about everything you have to do as an entrepreneur. That would be impossible. But there has to be some part of the job that you absolutely love. For my father, it is the art of negotiating and conversing. He loves making connections, using those connections and closing large deals. His company still uses him today to go in and close deals. But he didn’t love dealing with the day to day management issues. The thrill of the sale far outweighed the annoyance in the details.
For many of you – it is the actual art of working with your clients and doing your trade that is your passion. Remember to keep that time sacred and revel in the art of doing it. And do your best to delegate as much of the other work as possible so that you can keep your passion alive every hour of every day. And for those of you that can’t find your passion anymore – it’s time to move on to something new.
3. A MENTOR AND A MODEL. Running a business without someone to help guide you is like playing tennis without a racket. You’ll just run around swinging your arms about and missing the ball. You also need a plan or a model to follow so that you don’t end up working for no reason. I decided a long time ago that I was always going to have a coach to guide me on my path of building my companies. It just wasn’t any fun trying to swing in the dark. I also decided to follow a plan and a proven model that works. Every successful business owner has a mentor or a coach – many have multiple experts on their team. It’s just more fun to play the business game when you have someone to light a fire under you or provide inspiration when you need it.
I used to wonder why all the doctors in my community would get together over tea and talk shop. Now I realize what they were doing – they were forming their very own masterminds and mentoring one another. The business game just isn’t meant to be played alone. And you can’t possibly know all the business skills you need to get you from where you now to the next level. If you did, you would be there.
4. THE WILLINGNESS TO FAIL. The truth is that you have to just put yourself out there 110% in your business, especially if it’s in an area that you are uncomfortable in. And more likely than not, it’s not going to work before it does work. I worked for 3 months straight on my first product. Then I put it out for sale. I sold two of them. And I was upset. Very upset. But I learned from that lesson. There is a sequence and a model – and I ignored both because I just wanted it to work. Bad Idea.
You have to be willing to fall on your face in order to learn. In fact, I can name five very successful millionaires in my community who have declared bankruptcy in their lives.
The truth is that the outcome is not in making your numbers, or even getting new clients. It lies in becoming the person that you become while you are moving towards that success. As you become more dedicated, persistent, hard-working and trusting – you will watch yourself transform along with your business. That is the benefit of bringing together your urgency, passion, mentor and willingness to fail – you become a higher version of yourself.
