The BRAVE YES CEO mindset is the backbone of my business coaching and mentoring program.
This is a big chunk of the work that I do with my clients who want to make more clear, brave business decisions. And I’m, of course super passionate about it. And it really stems from first my own experiences as a leader as somebody who really in all spaces and jobs and experiences that I’ve had in my life, I have always been someone who could step up as a leader.
Brené Brown says that leaders are “called to choose courage over comfort all day long.”
Let me repeat that … “leaders are called to choose courage over comfort all day long.”
That is exactly why I believe all entrepreneurs and founders need to be #BusinessBrave.
Today, we’re going to dive into what it means to be lead as a Brave Yes CEO and be Business Brave.
Listen to this episode now.
On Cultivating Unshakeable Resilience to Brave the Business Arena
I am a big fan of Brené Brown, I am a Dare to Lead trained professional in her work, which means I can help you with every aspect of Brené Brown’s work through shame shielding and leadership and daring to lead and braving the arena.
This is a big part is a big influence in my work.
I am also positive psychology certified, which means I am also a resilience expert.
I believe strongly that the resilience part of running, operating and leading in a business is essential. And I have my own framework that I work with around unshakable resilience.
I am also certified as a mindfulness expert, trained in the power of awareness.
So being mindful, being self aware, being fully tuned in to yourself and your inner power is a big part of the work that I do as well.
And so when I talk about the Brave Yes CEO mindset, I’m really bringing a lot to the table.
But ultimately, it is to help you to be able to be that leader who is able to choose courage over comfort all day long, which is exactly what is necessary of us to run a business, especially to run a profitable business, especially to run a profitable business on our own terms.
And so, I’m going to talk about what the Brave Yes CEO mindset is, but first, I want to talk about what I see over and over and over again, in all of my experiences of working with entrepreneurs.
I happen to have a client who is another coach and entrepreneur, and I run her mastermind sessions, I host four masterminds for entrepreneurs a week. And I love this work because I’m working with such a diverse group of entrepreneurs around the world, all of whom are amazing.
And so in these experiences that I have with anywhere from 10 to 15 or 20 entrepreneurs a week, I’ve really gotten to know when and where I see Brave Yes CEO mindset showing up and when I see entrepreneurs operating in survival mode.
Signs of Survival Mode as an Entrepreneur
So let’s talk about survival mode first, because I think it’s really essential that you know, if you’re in it, so that you know where you need to grow and go to get out of it. And grow is absolutely the essential word there.
You might be in survival mode if …
- You are constantly in self sabotage mode where you’re losing sight of your own vision of where you want to go and you’re getting stuck in the weeds. Sometimes you’re getting stuck and you are your own obstacle. You can’t get out of your own way.
- You struggle to know what you are about or what you need to do. Each day you get to your computer or you get to your desk or you get to your office, and you’re going, Okay, what is next? What is next.
- You are afraid to show up and be seen and be visible and take on the authority that you know you could be, your hiding, you might be in survival mode, if you spend a lot of time trying to please others, especially your clients or your team members, and forgetting about yourself or your family members.
- You focus too much on today, this hour, and not nearly enough on next week, next month, next year. You might be in survival mode. If you are chasing too many shiny objects, and you’re getting distracted all the time, and you cannot focus.
- You are afraid to make a move, because you might get it wrong. You also might be in survival mode, if you’re focusing very prominently on your weaknesses.
- You feel out of alignment with your values.
- You spend a lot of time comparing yourself or your business to others. or feeling like you should be farther along than you actually are. And you’re really focused on that.
All of these are signs of survival mode. But certainly, there’s other more common ones, like you spent all day putting out fires, you spent all day dealing with clients and you’re not working on the big picture of your business.
You’re doing the same things over and over, even if they don’t work. So that is the survival mode.
And that is what I see as the most common state and mindset most entrepreneurs in and in order to shift that you must grow and go toward a bigger picture, bigger vision.
This is what I mean by Let’s Get #BusinessBrave.
Braving Up requires that you begin to operate with a BRAVE Yes CEO mindset.
When you decide it’s time to grow your business and start to put yourself out there as a leader or expert, you are ready to upgrade your mindset to go with it. To get to that space of growth — that expansion you know that is necessary to get there — you have to Brave Up.
And so what is that?
How to Brave Up Your Mindset for Business Growth: Signs of a Brave Yes CEO Mindset
When I am working with clients on being more business brave, we’re working on mastering a lot of daily and weekly practices that are required of them to lead in their businesses, grow their sales, work authentically with clients and manage their diverse teams — all while working toward the greater good, which is a requirement for my clients.
- You’re not afraid to shine bright and be visible.
- You’re not afraid to show up as an authority in spaces that are not yours.
- You’re not afraid to take risks. In other words, as a Brave Yes, CEO, you are taking risks you are showing up authentically in many diverse spaces.
- You’re making decisions based on your own soul alignment. In other words, you’re not people pleasing because you know what you need and you’re going to focus your efforts on that. You’re choosing ease and joy over complication and people pleasing and the hustle and grind mentality. You’re taking imperfect action.
- You’re using your strengths and your superpowers for good.
- You’re living and leading fully in your values.
- You’re not afraid to do business as unusual you creating a business on your own terms. And that means you’re letting go of all that comparison as that tends to strike when we’re feeling down.
So I’m curious on a scale of one to 10 … How do you rate your current state of mindset around your business? Where do you fall on the spectrum of being a BRAVE Yes CEO and operating with a BRAVE YesCEO mindset?
Are you at a 1, which means you’re not very far along? And you’re more in survival mode?
Are you more in the middle, where you have some room to grow and go, but you, you’re not the worst, you’re not doing the worst?
Or are you at the top of the scale, you’re a 10 where you’re taking those risks, you’re really living and leading in your own way.
You feel really confident in spaces when you show up. You’re not afraid to be visible, you’re out there, you’re doing it.
You’re attracting new audiences all the time. You’re really just putting yourself out there, you’re not afraid to do that. You’re taking the risks that are necessary to grow your brand to grow your identity to grow your personal brand to grow your business.
- So if you’re at a one, then you’re more in that survival mode. You’re you’re living for today, you’re leaving for today.
- And if you’re at that 10, you are absolutely there at that top of the range where you are really thinking about the future and really doing everything that you’re doing today is really for tomorrow. And tomorrow being in quotes right. It’s more about the future.
This mindset shift requires an expansion that I call Braving Up.
We cannot go from survival mode to BRAVE YES CEO mode without Braving UP.
A mindset change isn’t about repeating an affirmation. It doesn’t work that way. I am NOT a mindset coach, by the way, I would never tell you just think like a Brave Yes CEO and you will be one no, there is action. There is work that needs to be done. You’ve got to brave up.
You’ve got to brave up and that is my work.
One of my favorite stories. And this is not an entrepreneur story. But this was a woman who came to me with a career Brave Yes, she wanted to make and she didn’t know what that look like she had been in the same company for 20 years.
She hated the company that it had become because it was taken over by corporate and she was ready to get out. So, as we’re talking, I’m noticing that what she’s saying to me tells me that she’s a leader. But when I asked her, do you consider yourself a leader, she said no. She was not able to see her own power.
She was not able to even call herself a leader because she was so rooted in her weaknesses. She was so rooted in what she wasn’t good at, that she couldn’t even see her own worth, that she couldn’t even see the potential that she had the capabilities that she had as a leader.
Now, fast forward a good year, she took a job as a leader.
And on a call recently, she was like, You know what? I own that I’m a leader now.
That’s the expansion I’m talking about.
It wasn’t a one overnight mindset shift. She needed to do the work she needed to Brave Up so that she could see her own value, believe in her own value and really start to understand that not only was she a leader but she had immense leadership skills.
And we were able to cultivate that through my private coaching.
When we are working toward that brave yes mission, that bigger picture that fire that’s in our belly, we are required to expand we are required to brave up and that is action oriented. It is practice. It is business practice. It is wellbeing practice. It is spiritual practice. And it is a greater good practice.
All of that works together to help you shift into a BRAVE YES CEO mindset so that you are not afraid to take risks so that you can lead and choose courage all day long over comfort. And it’s necessary. It is necessary.
When I talk about Braving Up, I’m talking about a number of actions.
Understanding what your mission is both personally your soul’s goals and your business mission. Essential when we don’t have that vision that blueprint for the future life and future business that we want. We fall into stagnation of survival mode. Just getting through today, just getting through this week.
The best thing that we can ever do for our businesses is to have a higher purpose that we’re working toward. Hopefully connected to the greater good that the world needs, hopefully.
And another part of this, though, is rising with resilience.
We can’t brave up on our own — resilience is not a solitary adventure. In fact, there is very little evidence that resilience is going to show up for you when you do when you just do everything yourself and that DIY mentality.
When we root in with resilience, we are rooting in with a with a group of people or a number of mentors that we can lean on. We’re surrounding ourselves, with the people who are going to lift us up, help us feel stronger, help us feel more confident, help us give that give us the permission that we need to show up and stand out, to do the big things to do the bold things.
It also entails taking really good care of yourself. And this is another thing that I see very often with the entrepreneurs that I crossed paths with. If you are feeling not very confident, if your self worth is low.
If your energy is low, it’s really hard to go after, and do those courageous things that we need to do all day. As a business owner, as somebody who’s trying to put their brand out into the world or their message or their idea or their offer, it’s hard to do that when you don’t feel great. And why great, I mean, phenomenal.
I always tell people, I don’t show up to client calls unless I feel 150%. I’m ready to give 150% It is rare for me to ever show up at 100%. To do that I root into resilience, I tend to myself and I do the hard work of making sure that I am ready that I am self-aware and self-regulated and self-confident. How do I do that through actions through practices, daily practices, weekly practices, monthly practices.
What do you need to do to brave up?
When you consider yourself right now, in terms of where you want your business to go, where you want your future to take you what do you need to do to brave up?
Ask yourself that, journal on it.
Ask yourself, what it’s gonna take to get from where you are right now, to crossing that gap to where you want to be?
That ocean of gap, that ocean of uncertainty, that ocean of hard things, uncomfortable things?
What do you need to do to brave up so that you can do the courageous things that you need to do all day long to be the leader that you need to be for your business. And if you’re tired if you’re midlife and you’re tired, if you’re a mom and you’re tired, then it’s about boosting your capacity.
It’s about finding that fire in your belly to work toward the greater good that you know that you want to be a part of.
If you’re just dialing it in that survival mode. If you’re just getting through the day or the week, that’s survival mode. But if you’re getting to your desk on fire, ready to do bold, brave work ready to put yourself out there ready to show up.
That’s the brave yes CEO mindset.
Now, I have a lot of practices and tools and I’m going to share with you a Brave Up CEO Checklist that you can use to help you get adopt the mindset.
Are YOU ready to become more #BusinessBrave? Book a session with me to discuss your Brave Yes Business and Life mission and goals and let’s get a soulful, courageous action plan started for you. I’ve been writing, creating and coaching online for 15 years. Let’s chat and see how my expertise and experiences can help you put yourself out there and grow your business to the size you wish. Learn more and schedule here.