Cultivating a CEO Mindset

Cultivating a CEO Mindset is the first step in a journey of entrepreneurship that will be both fulfilling and profitable. We’ll begin with examining how to identify and clear the fears and blocks holding you back from reaching your next level. We’ll also explore why it’s difficult for solopreneurs to claim the title of CEO and how to overcome those fears.

The process isn’t complicated or difficult; it’s simply a way to explore our feelings about calling ourselves the CEO of our companies and how to break through any roadblocks so we can reach our success milestones more quickly.
But before we get started, here’s a little about me…

I worked as a classroom teacher for twenty years, before deciding I wanted to start an online business. While teaching, I was simultaneously working pert-time as a real estate broker and residential appraiser. In 2005 I discovered that people just like me had businesses on the internet. I made a one-year plan to resign from my teaching job and give away my real estate clients so I could be an online entrepreneur on a full-time basis.

Why did you start your business? Did you have a vision of what you wanted to create and why? Or did you just throw open your doors and hope for the best? Or, are you new to entrepreneurship and ready to learn more about cultivating a CEO mindset?

If you’re not reaching your income goals or if you feel your client roster should be much longer that it is, there are reasons for that, and it boils down to mindset. Mindset consists of those little stories we tell ourselves. Sometimes they are true and they propel us toward awesomeness; other times they are full of lies and can halt us in our tracks like quicksand.

Successful CEOs who embrace and work on cultivating a CEO mindset understand this is equivalent to a growth mindset. They aren’t afraid of learning new things and they can envision a future for their company. Less successful business owners often have an employee mindset, or a fixed mindset. They believe that they cannot reach their pinnacle of success or they are too afraid to take the necessary actions. A person with a fixed mindset believes that there is no room for growth. Essentially, they are afraid to step out of their comfort zone and just settle for less.

Which mindset do you want to embrace? The good news is you can change your mindset and your negative self-talk. You CAN make that switch from having an employee mindset to cultivating a CEO mindset (the brain is a remarkable thing!). The bad news is this doesn’t happen overnight. However, with steady, concerted effort – and following the steps here – you can shift your thinking and beliefs while also conquering the fears that are holding you back. Let’s get started!

So many solopreneurs, mentors, and coaches I know are having an identity crisis. They started their businesses because they wanted to help people, yet coaching accounts for such a small portion of their workdays. They’re exhausted at the end of the day but can’t really say what they’ve done. Their identity crisis comes from working too hard IN their business – like an employee – instead of working ON their business – like a CEO. Make a note to yourself right now that cultivating a CEO mindset must be a priority!

Since solopreneurs are working solo, many straddle the line of being the CEO versus an employee, and that can weigh heavily on the strongest people. You’re experiencing the need to be a visionary (CEO) while also getting things done behind the scenes (employee). How long do you think this work pattern will be sustainable?

You’re still the CEO of your company and if you feel like you need an extra 18 hours in your day to get your to do list complete, it’s time to make a CEO decision about hiring a team member. Once you can delegate some administrative tasks – such as bookkeeping, taxes, or customer service – you’ll regain some time in your day to visualize how you want your company to grow while also serving your private clients.

But the idea of hiring can make some solopreneurs’ palms sweaty. This is a common fear but it’s one that will hold you back because you simply can’t do everything yourself.

Think of some of the biggest companies in the world. Do their CEOs have their hands in every aspect of the business? No, they have employees and middle management to handle those tasks. Do they worry about hiring employees or independent contractors? Probably not because they know instinctively that they can’t do all the work themselves.

If you have a difficult time wrapping your head around calling yourself the CEO, you’re not alone. Many solopreneurs follow their instincts about starting a business and many don’t have formal business training or degrees. Sometimes those people who have experience in a corporate or office setting can relate to the CEO title a bit easier than an entrepreneur who is following their instincts.

There could be roadblocks and fears that are holding you back from claiming your CEO title. It’s nothing to be ashamed of; nearly everyone has fears and roadblocks they need to conquer. It’s simply a part of being a human.

I’ll also go through the steps I use with my own mentoring clients to identify those fears and sometimes that is the most difficult part of this process. But also, don’t feel like you have to race through this process after the webinar ends. Take your time and really explore any feelings that come up during the process. Some fears may be easier to identify than others and sometimes the root causes of these fears can bring up troublesome feelings. The important part is that you continue the process.

Step One: Stop Thinking Like an Employee and Make Cultivating a CEO Mindset Your Top Priority

Mindset is everything when it comes to running a successful business. When you have the right mindset – often referred to as a growth mindset – you dream big and get excited about mapping out a business plan that will help you make those big dreams a reality. You have a naturally positive attitude about your business and know in your heart that you WILL be successful; there are no “ifs” in this equation. Even though you don’t know exactly what the road to success might look like, you are confident that you definitely will reach those big goals.

On the other hand, when you don’t have the right mindset in place, you might:

• Become more easily susceptible to burnout
• Miss out on opportunities because you don’t have the team or the energy to pursue them
• Not be able to hit income goals or other important metrics
• Never be able to scale or grow your business into the kind of business you always wanted

Having the wrong mindset – often called a limited or fixed mindset – equates to insecurity and pessimism. You don’t believe that you can learn new things or are capable of growing a business, so you don’t take the required actions. Those with a fixed mindset often let their emotions get in the way because they’re listening to that little devil on their shoulder feeding them mistaken advice. Believing that you’re not capable of doing something – like running a business – will certainly impact your confidence which in turn will impact your ability to proceed with your action steps.

Being a successful CEO requires a major shift in the way you think about your business. What exactly is a CEO mindset? It’s exactly what it sounds like: the thoughts, patterns, beliefs, and behaviors that most CEOs possess. It’s that confident persona that shines through and handles difficult decisions with ease (or so it seems). A CEO mindset is not being afraid to take chances as well as knowing when it’s time to shift gears or try something new.

When you think of successful CEOs, what traits do you think they all have in common? Most successful CEOs are strategic decision makers and big picture thinkers. This big picture thinking definitively separates someone cultivating a CEO mindset from someone engaged in what we’ll call an “employee” mindset.

The employee mindset thinks in the short-term. It’s an action-oriented mindset – but action without a long-term vision or a strategic plan in place is just action and probably won’t move you toward your goals. Think to your own past and the jobs you’ve held since you left high school. If you punched a time clock, you were an employee. Those employees go in, perform certain tasks, then they punch out and go about their lives. They can leave work at the office until their next shift. They are usually just concerned about doing a good job at each shift rather than thinking about how to move ahead in the company – or how to help the company reach more sales and profits.

These short-term actions are what really separate employees from CEOs. Employees are down in the trenches and usually “can’t see the forest for the trees”. A CEO, on the other hand, knows where the company is headed and is steering the ship confidently. She can see the big picture and make decisions that affect the organization with razor-sharp clarity.

Right now: Are you being the CEO of your business or are you thinking like an employee? Yes, solopreneurs should think of themselves as CEOs. That title is not limited to corporate CEOs. If you started a business, YOU are the CEO.

If you’re not sure how to determine your CEO vs employee mindset, here are a few simple ways to decipher which one you are right now. If you’re already viewing your business like a CEO, you probably are:

• Vision-driven
• Outsourcing without fear or your own ego getting in the way
• Able to “disconnect” emotionally and not take things in business personally
• Working on projects that will build or scale your business regularly
• Taking regular time outs to work ON your business and brainstorm ideas for new projects, products, services, etc.
• Being a leader – embodying the qualities and values you preach, stepping into new territory regularly, expressing your truth without fear

However, if you’re thinking like an employee, you’re more likely to spend your days:

• Stuck in the day-to-day minutiae of running your business (admin work, tasks outside your Zone of Genius)
• Feeling overwhelmed by everything on your plate
• Not outsourcing or handing off tasks that allow you to stay in your Zone of Genius
• Just doing your best to get through each day rather than focusing your time on projects that will move your business forward
• Viewing your business as your whole source of identity and therefore taking everything personally
• Implementing old ideas vs. brainstorming new ideas
• And most importantly: Living from a place of fear – letting your own personal “stuff” stop you from moving toward the goals, dreams, and vision you once had for your business and life

The truth is the employee mindset is keeping you and your business stuck and stalled. I’m guessing that you have fears and roadblocks that are holding you back from achieving your success. These most likely developed during your childhood, either from comments people told you directly or from hearing discussions/arguments between the adults in your life.

Before you ditch me and think all is lost, the good news is that you can overcome those fears and roadblocks! Changing your mindset takes some work and some deep introspection but you can absolutely change your thinking and begin cultivating a CEO mindset.

To truly scale your business, make more money, or expand your company, you have to start “clearing out” your fears so you can feel confident doing the things that need to be done to run your company the way you want to run it. Of course, this isn’t to say you’ll see overnight success or that all your days cultivating a CEO mindset will be rainbows and unicorns. Instead, you’ll learn how to recognize when those fears start creeping back in so you can halt them immediately without them ruining your mood for days or weeks at a time.

Instead, you’ll learn how to identify and clear any fears that are holding you back in the specific areas that are preventing you from being a boss CEO. When we’re done, you’ll have a technique in your back pocket that you can use to move through any fear that comes up as you step into your role as a CEO (or continue to grow as a CEO – there’s always new territory to explore, which means there’s always the potential for new fears to show up).

Step Two: Get Real About What’s Stopping You From Being a Vision-Driven Boss

As I just mentioned, CEOs are visionaries. Odds are, you created your business because you had a big, audacious goal or dream. You had a vision. The problem is that sometimes as you begin to bring that vision into reality, you realize it’s not as easy as you might have imagined. Your own fears and limiting beliefs can absolutely get in the way of bringing your own vision to life.

The key is to find solutions to these problems you encounter instead of letting your emotions and self-doubt get in the way. Don’t know how to do something? Reach out to a business friend or group and ask questions or ask for a referral to an expert who can help you.

Remember, you are the visionary, not necessarily the problem solver. The CEO should know how to reach out to find experts but should not bog themselves down with the nitty gritty of solving individual problems. That’s why you should aim to develop a team with capable contractors you can trust to solve these problems while you keep thinking ahead and developing action steps.

If you don’t get out of your own way and let the small problems get you down, you can end up in lots of hot water. For instance, as a CEO, you can’t just do things – like follow the latest marketing strategy – just because everybody else is doing them. You can fall into this trap very easily if one of your fears is “going against the grain”. Following someone else’s strategy might work short-term, but odds are it won’t feel great to execute if it’s not actually aligned with what you know intuitively is best for your business.

For example: You think every other coach/mentor is on TikTok so you start pouring enormous amounts of time and energy into learning the platform, when you already have a good thing going with your Facebook presence that felt easy and effortless. If you continue to pour all that time and energy into TikTok, it likely won’t yield the same results as someone who naturally feels aligned and drawn to the platform. This is where cultivating a CEO mindset makes even more sense for creating a lucrative business.

So, how do you avoid something like the above happening to you? How can you ensure that you’re able to bring your vision to life?

I give you permission to go back to basics when it comes to formulating strategies! A favorite mentor of mine always asks her clients, “What if it was more simple than you ever could have imagined?” Strategy doesn’t have to be difficult or complicated. Start off with what you know, become an expert at it, then venture off to a new platform if you feel inclined.

Speaking in more general terms, to avoid copying others and to believe in crafting your own business plans and strategies, you have to uncover the specific fears that are holding you back. I’ll dig into the entire process in just a minute but for now, here are some common fears CEOs face. Do you recognize yourself in any of them?

• Fear of saying NO (you don’t want to miss the next big opportunity)Fear of making decisions (so you procrastinate or put them off)
• Fear of making decisions (so you procrastinate or put them off)
• Fear of offending others (some business owners are afraid to write polarizing content or speak to one specific person because of this fear)
• Fear of outsourcing or managing a team (it seems too complicated or expensive)
• Financial fears (fear you won’t make enough money or that you’ll lose it all if you do increase your income)
• Fear of success (you don’t know if you’re capable of handling more clients and more responsibility)

The list of fears goes on, but can you relate to any of these? If so, the good news is there’s an actual process you can follow to uncover your fears and clear them away so you can confidently step into the role of CEO and build your company, your way.

Where do you start? Follow these steps:

1. Start by actually defining your fears. Pull out a journal and answer this question: What am I afraid of when it comes to growing or running my business as the leader?

• Write freestyle – or free flow – for 10-20 minutes and see what comes out.
• Do any of these ideas surprise you? Dig deeper in another journal entry.

2. Think back to your childhood. Do you think any of these fears stemmed from interactions with adults or your parents? Can you think of specific experiences that might have formed these fears?

• This isn’t about placing blame; it’s simply acknowledging that some fears are deep seeded and those usually take longer to change.

3. Journal about how you’ll feel when you see your business starting to take shape.

• Do you have the desire to eliminate these fears and change to a growth mindset?
• What do you hope to accomplish? These can be specific business milestones or a more general description of the company you want to create.

This is a great starting point. I always like to end with some positive thoughts in my journal so that’s what your brain is left with at the end of the exercise. Focusing solely on negative, fixed mindset thoughts (like your fears) that can weigh on you, which can be detrimental if you’re an emotional person.

Even if you don’t care for writing, journaling can help you organize your thoughts – about your fears and about the future of your business – and you might recognize some patterns and/or gain some clarity about what you see in your future. I know not everyone is into journaling but if done on a regular basis, you might just discover the benefits of this new calming habit.

Step Three: Define and Refine the Fears Stunting Your Growth, So You Can Begin Crushing Your Goals!

The next step in the process of identifying your fears is to go back and read what you’ve written in your journal. It’s time to get clearer on what you’re actually afraid of so you can create a “shortlist” of your fears to begin to work through. Right now, your list of fears might be long and seem overwhelming and you and I both know that you’ll stall out before you even begin tackling your fears if the list is too long. Now’s the time to get really specific. Ask yourself:

• Do you notice any patterns with your fears? Do any fears show up more than once?
• Do you notice fears that are all related to a similar, overarching fear? (For example, “going Live on Facebook” and “creating YouTube videos” both tie into going Live on video)

As you hone in on these fears, you’ll want to turn them into list form. Then, go through each fear on the list and ask: Is this a larger, multifaceted fear or is this a fear that can be broken into smaller parts, or into something more specific (aka easier to tackle)?

Classifying your fears in this way will help you get a handle of their true size and depth and help you recognize what you can actually start working on now to begin cultivating a CEO mindset. Here are examples of bigger/vague fears:

• Fear of things unknown – “I’ve never led anyone before!”
• Not sure what step to take next – “I just figured X thing out, and now I have to do Y?”
• Fear of making mistakes or screwing up
• Fear of failure – You always hear the stats about how many founders fail
• Responsibility – I not only have to support my own family, but also my clients and potential/future team members
• Fear of looking or feeling inadequate – “I’m an imposter and soon everyone will find out”

If any of those sound familiar, our goal is to get clearer and turn them into something more precise so you can actually start to overcome them. Here are some examples of specific fears:

• Speaking on a live webinar on a topic you feel a bit unsure about sharing
• Giving feedback to a team member who isn’t performing at the level you expect
• Delegating social media to a pro
• Recording videos for social media

Let’s go back to your list of fears. Go through and using the criteria above, categorize each fear into “vague” or “specific.”

For each “vague” fear, try to further refine it into something specific. To do this, think back to some instances where you noticed fear was present. Can you pinpoint a definite source of that bigger fear?

For example: Fear of “screwing up” might have shown up when you were about to post a promotional post on Instagram. Maybe you’re worried people would see you as weird or sleazy. “Fear of looking sleazy on social media” is a more specific fear.

Or maybe you recall a time when you released a product and received some unflattering reviews. Or maybe it was something smaller, like when you met with a new coaching client for the first time and called her by the wrong name.

Identifying those incidents as human mistakes will go a long way to eradicating that fear of screwing up. You can also learn a lesson from each of these incidents: Look over your content and files carefully before releasing a product or meeting with a new client. Most importantly, understand that these mistakes do not take away from your abilities to run your company as a CEO. Take the embarrassment out of the equation and move on with your plans.

This is just one example out of many. Your experience will be different from your friend’s so there’s no room for comparison here. No matter what your fears are, there are lesson to be learned and you have the ability to turn that fixed mindset around to a growth mindset. Anyone can turn their employee mindset into that of a CEO.

You might be able to quickly identify a more specific fear inside your vague fears and if so, that’s great! The key is to zero in on whatever specific thing provokes the MOST fear because that’s the one most blocking your growth.

If you’re unable to further refine your fears right now, it’s okay. I encourage you to still move through this process. Keep moving through your list until you’ve refined each fear into something as specific as possible. Take your time going through the process because the deeper you dig to get specific about those fears, the more progress you’ll make in the long run.

Step Four: Tackle the Right Fear First for the Biggest Payoff

Now that you have a list of specific fears and can see them laid out on paper (which is half the battle!), it’s time to crack them open and see if they’re really as terrible as you think.

Go through your list and for each fear, ask the following question:

What timeframe and what ‘level’ of impact will my fear have on my business and my life?

For example, will this particular fear have a short-term impact or long-term impact? Is it a low impact fear or a bigger fear? Short-term impact might include anything that will affect your business from one month to one year. Long-term might anything longer than one year.

Let’s look at an example:

“The fear of posting promotional content on social media” will have a short-term impact and immediate consequences if you’re trying to reach a launch or revenue goal. It can also have a bigger impact going forward because you’re not promoting your products or programs and you’re not nurturing your relationships with your social media followers.

While you don’t need to rely on social media to reach your revenue goals, you’ll need to come up with a different plan for making money and increasing your reach. Giving up on social media promotions can also be construed as “giving in” to your fear, which is really just teaching you to run away from what frightens you.

Instead of thinking of social media as a fear (in this particular example), why not consider it a way to stretch out of your comfort zone? Taking those first steps can be difficult but stretching often leads to bigger results. Or maybe the lessen here is to outsource your social media to a social media manager who can manage your online presence and plan your posts without you feeling that fear of not knowing what you’re doing. Your CEO brain can use that extra time – and feelings of confidence – to plot out new products or programs instead of worrying about social media.

Remember, there are no right or wrong answers when analyzing your fears and how they’ll impact you – acknowledge your fears and how they make you feel because those feelings are true for you!

Another way to break your fears down is to try classifying them with a numeric value (like 1-4). To do this, you’ll want to classify your fears by timeliness. The more timely a fear is, the higher it is to being a 1.

For example, this promotional posting on social media fear might be a 1 on your scale. This means you’ll need to focus on tackling the fear now – not later – because it will have an immediate impact on your business and sales.

However, if one of your fears is “managing a team of 3 or 4 people” but you only have one VA (Virtual Assistant) right now and no plans to hire yet, this might get a rating of 3 or 4. It’s not that this fear isn’t important, but it’s just not the most pressing thing or the fear that’s going to hold you back the most right now.

When it feels like you’re afraid of lots of things (which is what can happen when you start to write these fears on paper), rating your fears this like can really help you prioritize what fears will have the biggest and most timely impact on your business or your life. These are the fears you want to start working through first.

You can also follow these steps to classify your fears in your personal relationships. Do you have a fear of talking about money with your spouse? Why? Break down that fear into specifics so you know how the conversation will proceed with your spouse.

Now that you’ve classified your fears in this way, look back at your list. What is your most pressing fear? This will be one of the fears you marked as a 1 using the second method, or a fear you feel will have a big impact in the short-term using the first method. Pick one fear to work through using the rest of this process that I’m about to share with you.

Step Five: Cultivating a CEO Mindset by Breaking Down Your Fears with Tiny, Bold Actions

Once you’ve done the hard work of naming and refining your fears into something more specific and manageable, it’s time to start making actual moves toward “getting over” the fear. But before you just dive in and start trying to do the things you’re afraid of, pause. Not all actions are created equal. One way to figure out the best action to take to get over your fear is to dig deeper into their source.

According to David Whetten and Kim Cameron in their book, Developing Management Skills, there are a few ways to discover the “source” of any fear. Most “CEO fears” will fall into one (or both!) of these categories:

• Lack of knowledge
  ~~~ OR~~~
• Lack of personal motivation

Which category do your fears fall into? Ask the following questions:

Is this fear an ‘ability’ issue? Do you simply not have the knowledge or skills you need to do what you need or want to do?

If the answer is yes, there are three more questions the authors suggest asking:

• Do you need additional resources to support you in building your ability in this are?
• Do you need some additional training that is more specific?
• Do you actually NEED to learn this skill or thing, or is this something you can perhaps outsource to someone else?

For example, if your big fear is around not knowing how to tackle your taxes or fear that you’ll wind up in a bind with the IRS, you might actually NOT need training around this. What you might need is to find an awesome accountant who understands your business.

The next question is around personal motivation. Do you feel motivated to do the thing you fear?

• If not, ask yourself these questions:
• Do you truly understand why taking this action or doing this thing matters? If not, this of course could lead to low motivation over time.
• Are you seeking a reward or benefit from this action that you haven’t received? Cultivating a CEO mindset makes a difference.

For example: You’ve posted promotional posts on social media before and either received crickets in return or a negative (or even just neutral) comment. This can lead to low motivation to try it again because you don’t think there could actually be a positive payoff (like a sale or at least a positive comment).

Answering these questions should help you discover whether the fear comes from lack of knowledge, lack of motivation, or both. It should also help you start to UNDERSTAND your fears so you can look at them in a more RATIONAL and LOGICAL way.

Now you can ask yourself the following questions to start to brainstorm the right action to take.

• What action can I take right now to get over this fear? Or is this fear out of my control at the moment? (The “at the moment” is key!)
• If you identify that there IS an action you can take right now, awesome! That’s where you’ll start.

If there’s truly no action you can take, this doesn’t mean you’ll never address this fear. You have it in writing–and since this is a process you should repeat, you will revisit this fear.

Luckily, action isn’t the only way to address fears, although it is what we’re focusing on here. Other ways to address the fears that don’t allow you to take immediate action on include:
1. Journaling around the fear. What exactly is the fear? When is the first time you remember experiencing this fear? Does it remind you of a particular situation from your past?

2. Addressing it energetically. Some fears are deep-seeded and not only hard to take action on, but also hard to define. Using a tool like EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) to figure out what your true fears are and to move through them energetically can be helpful. Free instructional videos are available on YouTube.

3. Blocking time out in your calendar each quarter to revisit your fears. While it would be nice if you could set time aside to figure out your fears every time you experience them, that’s not always feasible. Setting a specific time to revisit your list of fears and follow the rest of this process would be very valuable for both your business and your personal fears.

For the sake of example, I’m going to take you through a fear you can take action on right now. Keep going through your list until you find a fear that does have some action (no matter how small) you can take

If we go back to the fear of posting promotional content on social media, one small action you could take would be to add a call to action to a post you’ve already put up just to get a “feel” for it. You could also use a gentle CTA like “Message me for more information” vs. “Click to buy now.” You could also just plan out your next promotional post, including the topic and Call ToAction.

Again, there are no right or wrong answers. Your answer to the question above (“What action can I take right now to get over this fear?”) should help you choose the right action. If you feel like you need to learn more about this social platform, seek out blog posts that convey best practices and find one nugget that you can take action on. Even if you take on one small action every day, those will add up to big changes over time. Eventually you will overcome your fear or acknowledge that a social media professional can manage this account better than you can. Yes, cultivating a CEO Mindset has hidden benefits!

If you’re struggling to come up with an action, the good news is you don’t have to ‘eat the frog’ when it comes to your biggest or most pressing fear. That phrase is a time management and procrastination tool that simply means to tackle your biggest or most uncomfortable task first. It may not feel good at the time, but the sense of accomplishment will carry you throughout the day. And you’ll likely realize that whatever this task was, it wasn’t as difficult or troubling as you made it out to be.

What really gets us going are small wins. According to authors Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer in their book The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work, they say that there are recent psychological triggers that inspire us to face our fears.

Luckily for us, one of them is small wins. As it turns out, we don’t need to post a promotional post and get 30 sales from it in order to successfully face our fear of posting promotional content on social media. Instead, if we focus on–and achieve–one small win, we will feel like we’re making progress toward overcoming our fears.

What’s a small win? For this example, it might be:

• Writing the promotional post
• Posting the promotional post
• Responding to any negative comments on the post with a neutral response (Try to focus on what you CAN control vs. what you can’t!)

If your most pressing fear is speaking on live webinars, you can start by creating a pre-recorded webinar. Simply creating the webinar is the first step. Or, if a whole webinar seems overwhelming, you can start by writing an outline for the webinar. These small wins can boost confidence and as your confidence expands, you’ll feel more motivated to keep taking action toward getting over your fears.

Finally, don’t forget to REWARD yourself. This is another proven psychological principle that has been shown to help people overcome fears. A reward will imprint in your mind that tackling your fears is a GOOD and POSITIVE thing for you to do. And cultivating a CEO mindset includes lots of self-care and rewards.

And while you might not see immediate results in your business from posting on social media (for example), over time this “small action” will help you get over your fears and therefore make progress on the goals you have for your business–and get you that much closer to that VISION you hold.

Step Six: Surround Yourself with Other Supportive Entrepreneurs Who Understand the Value of Cultivating a CEO Mindset

While the above process works great, it can also be SO important to actually talk about your fears with others who get it. Because the fears that plague CEOs can be very different than what the average person faces (even another small business owner who is not yet scaling or growing), it’s important that you find a confidante or a mastermind group or group of peers. You need people around you who understand what you’re feeling and going through!

These are also the people who will be supportive of your efforts; who will be your cheerleaders when you reach a milestone; and who are willing to share their strategies of what worked for them to reach their goals or to conquer their fears. These people are the go-getters who have already conquered some fears and who will serve as mentors to you.

Have you noticed over the years that the people who surround you often affect your decisions and your motivation? Think about it: Do you have family members or a spouse who are not supportive of your CEO dreams? How does that make you feel? Are you still driven to make those dreams a reality?

Now let’s add in a Mastermind group or a peer group of other like-minded individuals who are also motivated to be cultivating a CEO mindset. This group of successful people who are steps above where you want to be will inspire you to take more action steps. They can help you figure out your next steps. With this type of leadership, you will feel motivated to accomplish your goals and show those naysayers that you ARE capable of those accomplishments. Energy is contagious so surround yourself with those who strive for similar success paths. Here are some ideas for you to explore:

• Find a therapist. One who owns their own practice might be able to provide feedback or they can assist you in getting past your more difficult fears.
• Join a paid Mastermind group, similar to my own Incubator Mastermind. Participants often say there’s a lot of value in simply sharing their fears out loud–especially with other people who actually understand.
• Create your own group by tapping into your current network and asking who needs this kind of accountability and feedback, specifically around being a CEO.
• Local Chambers of Commerce offer networking opportunities for small business owners.

Many of these options require an investment, such as Mastermind groups. Depending on the level of expertise in the group, you can find them for $10K or more. Do your research and be sure that you’ll receive the support you require from whichever groups have caught your eye. Very often the price tag will disqualify those who aren’t willing to do the work. Anybody who can spend $10k or more on mastermind coaching is a serious player, who should motivate you to take action. If the idea of spending that kind of money intimidates you, look for a less expensive option and save the mastermind idea for another time.

Finding outside support specifically for CEOs will also help you stay accountable. For those just embracing this CEO idea, knowing you have to report your progress every week forces you to take your action steps seriously. If you know you’ll get called out for sloppy work or for not taking more action, you will be more inclined to do the job right the first time – or hire an expert to consult or do it for you. You might also prefer finding an accountability partner for daily check ins to keep you on track.

The ideas of surrounding yourself with like-minded, successful people AND working to conquer your fears can work hand in hand. Personal growth and development never cease and, as I mentioned earlier, at every level of business you attain, new fears will arise, so you’ll want to keep this process handy. No matter what level of success your reach while cultivating a CEO mindset, you’ll stop moving forward if you allow those “next level” fears to take over.

This process will help you name and claim each fear, see each fear more objectively, and figure out what tiny actions you can take. Focus your tiny actions on the most impactful and timely fears. Once you conquer the first one, working on the next fear won’t seem as difficult.

Over time, you’ll notice you’re able to do this more quickly and easily and take those “right next actions” faster and faster. This also means you’ll start to see the results you want to see in your business–whether that’s a superstar team, a higher bank balance, or a new product or service launch.

Every single step above will help you with cultivating a CEO mindset and allow you to continue to expand into your next level, deal with whatever fears come up there, and keep building your business. And remember that storytelling is an ongoing strategy that will make a difference for you as well.

I’m bestselling USA Today and Wall Street Journal author, publisher, marketer, and entrepreneur Connie Ragen Green. Let’s connect to discover how I may best serve you as you are cultivating a CEO mindset that will help you to achieve all of your goals and dreams.