383: Setting Your Mindset and Doing Hard Things with Colleen Sedgwick
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What does it mean to do mindset work? As a business owner, we encounter so many trials and tough situations. Having the right mindset doesn’t just help us when times are tough, it helps us take advantage of when times are good. Colleen Sedgwick, The Pet Nanny Coach, joins us to share how she approaches mindset work, and the importance of being intentional with what we focus on. Instead of mental toughness, Colleen shares the idea of how surrendering leads to more flexibility and resiliency. She encourages us to tackle hard things so we can grow personally, but cautions against pursuing anything that feels like suffering.
Main topics:
What is mindset work?
Mental toughness
Why tackle hard things
Audience of one
Main takeaway: You can’t create on the outside, what you don’t feel on the inside.
About our guest:
Colleen Sedgwick is a Pet Sitting Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Wife and Mom, and she teaches pet business owners how to launch, grow and multiply their businesses 10K or more a month in revenue. Colleen transformed her once teeny-tiny, itty-bitty pet sitting business into a thriving and lucrative enterprise that services over two thousand clients on The Main Line of Philadelphia. Through her ultra-informative blog, videos, online courses and group coaching programs, she’s empowered and taught countless other pet sitters how to turn their passion for pets into paychecks. And when she’s not turning her knowledge of the pet sitting industry into blog posts, programs or courses, you will find her loving on her family, hustling on the tennis or paddle court or watching BRAVO TV! Colleen says, “I’m living proof that you can create a purpose-filled and lucrative business based on your love for animals and that it’s never too late to follow your heart and live your passion.”
Links:
Previously on https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/072-colleen-sedgwick-the-pet-nanny-coach and https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/226
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
work, business, day, pet, affirmations, colleen, create, mindset, life, business owner, change, brain, surrender, focus, process, alignment, thoughts, people, pet sitters, nanny
SPEAKERS
Colleen S., Collin
Collin 00:01
Welcome back to pet sitter confessional. Today, we're brought to you by time to pet and the National Association of Professional pet sitters. What does your mindset say about you? Are you limiting yourself because of how you view the world around you or view your own abilities and actions. Today, Colleen Sedgwick, the pet nanny coach joins the show to talk about what it really means to do mindset work, she breaks down how we can focus on the long term gains from short term pain and work as a business owner. But recognizing the difference between working through struggles and suffering in our businesses, she also explains how we can become more mentally tough, and how we can stay grounded in our business and focusing on ourselves. Let's get started.
Colleen S. 00:55
Alright, so my name is Colleen Sedgwick, and I teach pet sitters how to launch grow and multiply their businesses to $10,000 or more a month in revenue. I have an existing petsitting business on the main line of Philadelphia, which is the suburb suburbs of Philly. And I've had that business since 2001. I've created extraordinary results with that business. And now I teach others how to do it.
Collin 01:18
And we dive into a lot of that background on the previous episodes. And I'll have links to those in the show notes. So listeners can go and click to that. But I today I wanted to focus with you on talking about about mindset, I think it's a really important thing in business. And many of us come into pet care and start a business and go, What on earth am I doing? And don't really have a lot of background and experience in this. And so what would you say, for business owners? What are most business owners missing when it comes to proper mindset?
Colleen S. 01:52
Well, first, I don't think that most business owners understand that it's a crucial ingredient for their success. I mean, I know I certainly didn't when I started in business, as Tony Robbins says success is 80% mindset and 20% action. Second, I think that most business owners, when they go into business, they may have a vision of what they want to create, they set goals, they start implementing, they get to work. But what's not understood is that you can't create a specific result, unless your inner self is aligned with that result. So that's deep, I'm gonna say that, again, you can't create a specific result until your inner self is aligned with that result. So in short, you need to become the person that is able to achieve that result, which is actually the best benefit of setting those goals. It's the person that you become in the process.
Collin 02:46
So it's about changing, it's but it's not really changing who we are, right? It's, we're still so walk that line for me, because some people may hear, Oh, I have to become something different or have to become something that I'm not. So I lose myself in the process. But what's your how do we tease those two things apart.
Colleen S. 03:05
It's more about overcoming, like, the negative thought patterns, the negative thought loops, the fears that hold us back from creating the results that we want in our life, it's not about changing who we are, you know, as a person, our core values or anything like that. It's really, you know, getting past those fears and taking action that you really wouldn't, until you do the inner work and create the confidence with your inner self to take that action.
03:31
Yeah, it's kind of like it's kind of recognizing, okay, I have my current self and there is going to be some version of future self right. There's current Colin and then future Colin will be a certain way I can take agency, I can take a little bit of agency right now with current Colin, to influence how future Colin will be an interact. And so for that, but that work, it takes kind of knowing that, that endpoint, right, so how do we know what to shoot for?
Colleen S. 04:01
Most people don't stretch themselves far enough, right? Because you also have to have a your subconscious mind has to believe that you're able to accomplish what you're searching for. Okay? So sometimes if you're gonna say, I want to make $5 million next year, your subconscious mind is like no, you can't, absolutely not. And then you're not going to take action, you're not going to move forward. So what I suggest to my students is that you want to create a stretch goal that your subconscious mind can believe. But that is going to take you out of your comfort zone. All right, and you're gonna have to get past fears or have to move past those fears to attain that goal. So usually, the first goal with my students is the $10,000 month. All right, so the beginning people are like, Oh, $10,000 a month, but it's like, well, I've done it. Hundreds of my students in my programs have done it, right. So they're like, oh, wait, I can do that. I can do that. Right. So then they set that goal, and then they're going to start doing not only the mindset work, but they're also going to be doing the business strategy along with that to create that and When they get to the 10,000 is like, Oh, wow, that was doable and easy. Now, what's the next goal? So we're going to stretch them a little further. Okay? A pet nanny coach?
Collin 05:09
Yeah, well, it's those two things are aligned. There's that there's a mindset that is going to motivate you to do that work. And then it's recognizing, okay, what tools equipment, what knowledge? what systems do I have in place to now meet this and make this but you never get to that point until you start believing or thinking that it's, it might be possible for you. Right? Exactly. So what this is really this, this is where that mindset work comes in. I know we get that with throw that word out an awful lot. In, in when we talk about mindset and business and changing. What is it actually what are we actually doing when we're when we're talking about doing mindset work?
Colleen S. 05:47
Okay, so for me, it's daily habits and rituals that program my subconscious mind for success. Every single day, I do my affirmations, I do my breath, work and meditation, I journal, I have vision boards and visual cues. And I fill my brain with positive information through audiobooks and podcasts. That's my recipe for working on my mindset, daily affirmation. So I'm saying to myself, for example, I am so happy and grateful that I'm a million dollar business owner, thank you, God, Thank you universe, insert whichever word that you use in your life, alright, so I'm saying it from the present self, I've already done it. Because your mind doesn't know that you haven't done it. So you want to speak in the present. And you want to feel that feeling of what it's going to feel like when you accomplish this, I set reminders on my phones to say my affirmations. When I'm driving, every time I hit a red light, I use that opportunity to go through my affirmations and my gratitude list. Every night before I fall asleep, I run through my affirmations first thing in the morning, when I wake up, I'm saying those affirmations, I'm saying I'm trying to put an impression of them on to my subconscious mind. Let me show you something. So back in 2011, my coach told me to write these gold cards slash affirmations. And I show these to my students all the time. Everything in this book has come true. There's a long time ago. So for example, I wanted to read you the one about pet nanny. Where is it? Oh, shoot. And it says I'm so happy and grateful that pet nanny is making $30,000 a month and then I filled my mid day walking roster. I'm so happy and grateful it came so easily. I'm a way surpassed that, you know now, but it's something that I was reading every single day in my mind and my bed whatever I was like watching TV, I was just constantly go through and flip through my gold card. And it's all manifested in my life. All right. Any questions about affirmation? Well, I
Collin 07:47
think what's important to know about that is that it's combating what you mentioned earlier about working on those negative thoughts. It's working on those those down thoughts, those those those self talk that we do most times, because we tend to focus on the negative, right? Because sometimes that feels a little gratifying, because well, I knew I would fail anyway, look that I failed. And now look at me failing. And we can just hyper focus on that. But now what you're doing is consciously intentionally putting this right in front of you, you can't look away, you're not going to not remember this. And it tends to it changes your attitude and how you approach opportunities and all sorts of things.
Colleen S. 08:23
Absolutely. It's training your brain for positive thinking, a lot of us just let our negative thoughts run wild in our head. And we're not even paying attention or even aware that we're doing it. But when you become the watcher of your thoughts, and you you hear yourself or see yourself, you know, creating a negative thought in your mind, and then you reframe it. And then you're saying these affirmations over and over and over again, you are literally reprogramming your brain for success. Amazing. Yeah. The breath work and meditation. So do you meditate, Colin?
Collin 08:55
I do. I tried to take a few moments of mindfulness, especially in the morning, just to try and almost hit it hit a reset and make sure I'm starting off that day. Because on a good foot that I'm just bringing myself aware of what's going on.
Colleen S. 09:09
Right? It's so so important. And people like oh meditation, I don't want to do that. I mean it this could be as simple as five minutes of just quieting your mind and your breath. And you're allowing energy to flow through you. And that's where those big aha moments come from me. If beginners I always say you can go to YouTube and just search for Meditation for Beginners or Guided Meditation for Beginners doesn't have to cost you anything. There's apps out there like headspace where if you're really new that teaches you like step by step to the breath work that goes with it. Another one is calm. But I truly believe that meditating has significantly changed my life and who I am as a person I used to be. I say I'm Irish. I'm very Irish. Colleen. I have you know, a lot of emotions and meditation has really like taught me He helped me to like just calm myself. Journaling, love, love, love, love, love, love, love journaling. So emptying your brain of all the thoughts that we have on a daily basis, and then writing about the future that we want to create. So putting pen to paper, like there's just something truly magical about it, like I just said, with my gold cards that I'm showing you here putting pen to paper about what you want to create, and who you want to become is extraordinary. Actually have I'm giving all the people that are coming to my planning session tonight, I created this journal, my dream pet Business Journal. So people are like, I don't know what to journal about, Colleen, I have prompts every day in here that you can, that will just get you started. And you can just write for two to three minutes every day. And that's it, it's significant.
Collin 10:46
I know, I know, I can get a little afraid of the blank page syndrome. So it's something that I do a little hack for me is on every on the foot on the cover of every notebook or journal that I have. I write nothing doesn't go in here. So that I know I can use it for anything. And then the very first page because I'm really worried about making sure that I'm worried about I'm gonna I'm not going to write good things, right? Is this is just going to be all junk. Get some self consciousness coming in with Right, right. So the very first page I write the first page is profound. That way, if nothing else, that page is true. And
Colleen S. 11:22
I love it. And love, love love. Yeah, it is scary, right? And you're like, Well, I have nothing to write about. This is like, you're just saying, What if it's all junk? Well, it doesn't matter. Yeah, whole processes, we need to empty our brains and just like start the fresh page every day. Right? Getting it out onto paper, right? Um, vision boards and visual cues. Alright, so creating vision boards of the life that you want to create. So I have my big three for the year. And I have that printed out frame. So I look at it every single day, I have my monthly revenue goal posted on my computer. So I'm looking at it every single day. I have these mindset cards, I pull one of these cards every single day. This one says when I'm connected to spirit, I feel a sense of certainty, magnitude and ease that I've never known before. All right, but that right out in front of me. And I've read that over and over again every day. It's just these little tiny things that you can do to keep those positive messages pouring into your brain is going to make a big, big difference. And then listening to amazing podcasts like yours. I love Cathy Heller's podcast, I love the mind, your business podcast, all of this stuff is my mindset work that I do on a daily basis.
12:34
Yeah, come back to that word. It's intentionality. It's using that time those moments those thoughts, those I love the the visual, the visual cues, post, it notes, things around you, too, that you there's a physical reminder of what you're going for what you're trying to change what you're trying to implement. So that when you have those moments of, of doubt, or frustration, or whenever things really start to crumble, you have things that you can point back to and say that, you know that that's why I'm going through this, that's what I'm actually reaching for. Exactly.
Collin 13:08
And a word that I think of when I when I go through this process is is actually mental toughness, because this work can be can be strenuous on us. And it's kind of coupled with a little bit of doing hard things. And so what how do I how do I build mental toughness, as as a business owner whenever sometimes I don't have any time for eating lunch most days, right?
Colleen S. 13:35
So I don't know if I would use the word toughness, I think of it in my own life more as surrender. So you're surrendering to the faith, that all is well and that everything is working out in your favor or my favor. Right? So it's like really just understanding that every obstacle is an opportunity for growth, and just surrendering that everything is okay. And I'm just giving it over and not carrying it and putting so much stress on myself. Every day. I when I started all this, I was trying to like control everything and I was pushing so hard and why are my affirmations coming to fruition and why isn't this happening fast enough? And that's not surrendering. That's not just letting the process evolve as it should. That makes sense.
Collin 14:18
It does now that you mentioned that that word toughness kind of calm conjures some some imagery that might not sit well with people or that might not be healthy in a lot of instances of what we're trying to do or sustain. So really putting in that surrender of being okay when things happen being okay and it takes this toughness this brick wall this this sure thing and it makes it a lot more fluid and flexible. And then that can impact how I interact and respond to things as they come up. Right.
Colleen S. 14:47
But the next thing about doing hard things I laughed. I was like, Oh, look at my screensaver. I was born to do hard things. So it's okay to surrender the process. Right, it's okay to surrender the timing of things. But it's also okay to do hard things. Doing hard things isn't a bad thing, right? I think doing the right things is amazing because magic happens outside of the comfort zone outside of your comfort zone. So working hard on your business working hard on your mental state working hard on your physique, all will net in something positive. So I don't think it's negative to do hard things either.
Collin 15:24
Have you heard of time to pet dog from bad to the bone pet care has this to say, time
Doug 15:29
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Collin 15:48
If you're looking for new pet saving software, give time to pet a try. Listeners of our show could save 50% off your first three months by visiting time to pet.com/confessional. Well, no. And, you know, I know you, you actually went and did you played field hockey, back in school. And when I think of hard things, I think a field hockey
16:11
it's, it's it's extremely, extremely strenuous. And very, it's very athletic. There's a lot of hard things that you do in that. And I think just thinking about sports in general of like, there's, there's hard things that I have to do or personally endure for a greater good right for the betterment of my teammates for the betterment of this to reach for something that's beyond something that I personally can do. And so I think knowing that hard things are worth it. But how do I know when I don't make that distinction between hardship and suffering as a business owner?
Colleen S. 16:51
Anything that you feel is suffering you shouldn't do? Okay, so I don't know if anybody you listen to Abraham Hicks, play a look up on look her up on YouTube. That's a whole other conversation. But she talks about alignment, right. So if you feel like you're suffering, that is not a good thing. Because you cannot create again, going back to that result that you want to create. You can't create on the outside what you're feeling on the inside. So discomfort, and fear is something but like suffering and oh my god, I am not doing that. I don't want to do that you shouldn't do that. Because it's not going to it's not going to work out for you anyway, because it's not in alignment,
17:26
linking it back to that alignment. So basically, when we think about enduring hard times and doing hard things with hard things are worth it. And we I love that screensaver I was born to do hard things, we should not shy away from that. That's how we build things. That's how we grow. That's how we change and we how we change our communities and people around us. But that has to like you keep saying and I think it's really important that we point that out that has to have a purpose at the end. Right that I think that's really what that difference between hardship and suffering is is that with hardship, you endure it for a point for a future for goal. Suffering is not linked to that it's something that's happening that you you don't want.
Colleen S. 18:06
Precisely. So one of my favorite quotes is a strong focus now creates a different future later. I say this to my students all the time. So yes, doing hard things while you're trying to build your business, and you're focusing on it right now you're gonna have a different future because of the work you're doing now. But if you are hating every step of the process, and you're talking negatively about it, and out and you're crying, you're so far out of alignment, that it doesn't even matter if you were to do every step of the process, because it's out of alignment, because you're not energetically connected with the outcome you're trying to create.
Collin 18:44
So what do I what do we do in those moments where we start to feel like no, this is all wrong. This is not what it's supposed to be I'm actually suffering right now. How do I go from that to being in alignment? What are some steps that I can take to really see the direction that I ought to be going? Well, I
Colleen S. 19:01
think it's getting clear on your why, which is the very first step of my launch and growth program with my beginner students. Why do you want to create a successful business? Why do you want this? Because that is your core values, right? Like where what you want to create, and why you want to create it. So you need to connect with that first, and then say, Is this something I really want to do? It might not be? That's just not for me. And they've sold their businesses or they've closed their businesses, I have realized that they had this entrepreneurial bug and they blown their businesses out of the water, right. So it's really connecting with what you want. You can do anything you want. That's what they're nothing is holding you back. You can create any future that you want and making sure that you're clear on what you want to create and why you want to create it. That's going to be the differentiator when it falls out of alignment. You know you're on the wrong path. And how do you know that by your emotions,
Collin 19:56
your emotions are you know, they're the canary in the coal mine and a A lot of cases and sometimes sometimes they're only as useful as you are in as you are in tune with them. Right, then I think a lot of times we can get so busy and focused on day to day, the grind to being busy, the being stressed out that all of these little red flags that start popping up our little reactions, or little outbursts, how we respond to people, those go unnoticed to us because we aren't paying attention to them. Right. We don't take the time to actually sit and go. How am I doing today? I think that links back perfectly colleague, whether you're talking about the journaling, the mindfulness practice, that's that's where we start to see, am I actually am I okay, right now, right? It's all connected.
Colleen S. 20:45
It's all connected. So creating those daily practices, habits and rituals is going to keep you on the right path.
Collin 20:53
And some people may hear this and talk about oh, enduring hardship making for the growth for the purpose and that I that's something I should do. But I'm afraid of that. Maybe I've had bad experiences. In the past, maybe I don't think I'm actually capable of doing hard things. How do we help them? How do they overcome that?
Colleen S. 21:15
They overcome that again, by doing these practices that we've already gone through, and then taking action in spite of fear. So I love this, I have an example. I have a student of mine in my multiply mastermind program, she's amazing, but she went out to meet her strategic alliances once and she brought them cards and she brought them cookies, one, one vet's office, and when she went back the next month, or I guess she went back the next day, for some reason, they had thrown everything out. And she was unbelievably hurt by this. I mean, she internalized so much of this, that she said, she's not doing it anymore, no matter what. And through coaching, and through support of our group and everything, she decided, Alright, I'm gonna give this another go. Now, she has a whole network of strategic alliances that she's going to visit, they're feeding her new clients and new referrals every single month. And she's like, thank the Lord, I got over that fear, that fear would have held me back forever. But she acted in spite of fear, even though she didn't want to do it, you know, like she, but it wasn't suffering. It was fearful thoughts. And she made that mean something about herself, right? So she made the I'm not good enough, I'm not worthy of doing this, they don't think I'm good enough. They're just gonna throw my stuff away, therefore, I'm not going to do with this anymore. She admits she assigned that meaning about herself versus saying, okay, this person and I are not aligned to have an energetic relationship. And moving forward. Anyway,
Collin 22:39
I love that phrase that you said that was a self, she assumed she assigned that meaning about herself. And I think I know, I self assign a lot of things based off of assumptions, past experiences, interactions, that are just my flat interpretation of what happened. And a lot of times, it's in the wrong, and I end up living with that assignment of who I am. Now, I've now identified myself in one way that isn't actually in connection with reality at all, but it's based off of my mis mis mis perception of how things took place.
Colleen S. 23:15
Right. So that's our whole life, we the whole world that we see is based on the meaning that we assigned to every experience and everything in our 3d world. So we are basing that on what we're making it mean, why not make it mean something amazing. It's all our perception and our thoughts anyway, so why not be like, I am amazing, and I'm going to create the best business ever, I'm gonna make tons of money. And I'm going to do great things in this world. Like, why not have those thoughts and assign those meanings?
Collin 23:43
Instead of something negative? Yeah, and change and change that and flip that meeting. And now I'll start and start using that to fuel us, right? I know, I get I get super self conscious every time I go in and talk with somebody in the community about hanging posters or building a partnership with them and going, Well, why would they do that with me? Who am I to do this? What would that mean for him? But taking that small moment, right before I opened that door, to take a breath and remind myself, my business doesn't grow, we don't meet our goals. This isn't it, I don't get the future I want if I don't open this door, and, and linking those two together of going. I don't I this is I'm kind of scared right now. I don't know how this is really going to go it's a whole unknown on the other side of that door. But I don't get to where I want to go. If I don't try this.
Colleen S. 24:31
Right. And also understanding that your brain is doing that on purpose. Right? So it's doing what it's supposed to do. Yeah, it's trying to keep you safe. Right so But going back to when we were cave people were our mission was to stay alive right so our we're always looking for things that are going to harm us. So we want to stay that's what your brains like, no, no, no, don't go out there. It's scary out there. Say back in here. It's nice and warm. It's comfortable. And you're like oh yeah, you know what it is comfortable back there. I'm gonna go back in there. And now, I'll go there next week, I'll go there next month, and you want to stay comfortable. So your brains actually doing what it's supposed to do. But you need to recognize that and like, you're not gonna get me this time, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna do it anyway.
Collin 25:13
We it is very easy to sit into it sit in and be comfortable. And I think that that's very different than sitting and being content, right, especially if we have these ideas of growing content means we're being thankful for where we are. But knowing that we can go further and we have these ideas and things that we're reaching for this, why that we're after being comfortable, doesn't get us there, you'd mentioned about we grow in that discomfort, we kind of grow through hardship, because we learn things about ourselves. And a lot of times we learned to do things differently than we were doing them before. Right? Exactly. The National Association of Professional pet sitters envisions a future where pet care professionals and pet parents collaborate to make the significant positive impact on the welfare of animals, and the pet care industry through education, certification and community outreach. Together, we can make this vision a reality naps is run by its members for its members. It's a volunteer driven Association. They offer a trial membership and various webinars to showcase the many naps member benefits offered visit naps website at Pet sitters.org for membership and details and more information today. Now it's through this process. And maybe, maybe we've already talked about this, Colleen. But you know, as we're going through all this work, right? We're working on ourselves a lot. I know that there are people out there who start and then this process of oh, I've got my why I know what I'm doing. And then they start working on it. And then they start to question a lot of things. A lot of times they start questioning the business. Maybe they look at that why? Sometimes they turn that, that Inquisition on themselves and they start to go, Well, who am I actually is this is this? Get some self doubt that starts to come into this process of who they are actually as a person. So how do we how do I stay grounded through this process, as as I go about the mindset work, and in doing these hard things.
Colleen S. 27:12
But I think on a business level, every business needs to have a mission statement, you know, what your business is about, you know, every single business should have that plus a list of their core values. So at least five things in your business that you don't ever want to waver from, no matter what you want to say, you know, connected to. So for example, I have dedication, compassion, responsiveness, impact, and fun. Those are my five things that are very important to my business that I don't want to ever get away from. In terms of like, who I am when I started doubting myself, I think it's revisiting all of these things against revisiting your what is revisiting your why is revisiting your mission statement, revisiting your core values, and just making sure that you're trying to stay in alignment every day, day in and day out through these practices. And remembering that your brain can tell you things that aren't true. I don't think I'm worth it. That's not true. That is a lie. Our brain tells us all types of stories to keep us from moving forward. And again, becoming the watcher of our thoughts and really and realizing, Oh, wait, that's not true, I'm making that up. And making that up to stay comfortable. It all works together,
28:25
keep revisiting these things keep plugged in, it's right you know, in your in the wiring in your house, you have a third wire, it's grounding it so that the electricity flows through it safely. It's not it's not there, and then do detached periodically. It's always there, that grounding wire is never not plugged in. And if it's missing, there are major issues. It just same thing in our lives as we're going through this work, then it's even, it's more important than ever, to continue these processes, even though you might not think you have time for them, even though you might be kind of tired. At the end of the day, even though that you have a very busy schedule, when you're going through that hardship and those changes, these things are even more important.
Colleen S. 29:05
And the best part about it is that you can do them anywhere. Like I said, I do them in the car, when I'm at red lights. That's the reminders on your phone to be like, you know, oh, let me just sit and say I'm gonna have affirmations you know, because otherwise, when you're in the day to day grind, and you're super busy, you're gonna forget, if you set those little reminders, and you just do them, just close your eyes for a minute and just do them. That's it. It's really that hard.
29:27
I like that I like I do like the idea of the reminders because we get so caught up where all of a sudden, you'll look up and go, Oh, it's eight o'clock at night. What happened to the day? So just just having those set time intervals to remind with a little question is something that will really, really change. I know a lot and a lot of a lot of this is actually linked to what drives us. Right? You know, we have this external validation or this external motivation and internal validation. I personally am of Every external validating, seeking person, I look a lot to others, something I've been working on over the last several years. But for those who also struggle with that, who see their validation their legitimacy from from outside of them, how can we start changing that a little back more towards some internal validation in their lives?
Colleen S. 30:22
Right, realizing that, well, it's, this is where I can get really spiritual, but in my life, I know there's an audience of one. All right, so it's me and God, that's it. And all of this other stuff around me as good as it may feel. And as validating as it is to create, you know, wealth and possessions around me, I know that my connection to God is the most important thing in my life. So always going back to audience of one, even like, if I lose, like, I play high level paddle and tennis, and I lose a match, or I'm playing badly, and we're all getting annoyed at my partner, I'll say, audience of one audience of one audience of one, that's all that matters. And that's what's helped me, you know, I'm trying to move away from the external validation versus and just trying to stay within and my connectedness to source to God's universe, you know, again, insert whatever word feels good to you. But that's how I do it. Yeah.
Collin 31:14
It is a process again, of reminding of, of To whom do I owe something? Right, I think that may be a good question to also ask, Do I owe anything to people out there in the world who may have judgments or views or things against me? Ultimately, the answer is absolutely not.
Colleen S. 31:31
It's none of their business, what they think of you, it's only your business, but they think of you write whatever they want. Again, you can assign any meaning to it anyway. So why don't be Oh, my God, everyone thinks I'm amazing.
Collin 31:46
No, I liked that. I really like that, that focus on this of going, if I'm my brain is subconsciously making these these thoughts about who I am and what others think of me and how I'm judged. I need to take hold of that and wrest control back to me and make sure that I'm at the end of the day, I'm okay with what is being what I'm sitting with versus what I think others may be going to bed thinking about me, because that's just kind of weird. But also, I don't have control of I don't have control over that. Ultimately.
Colleen S. 32:20
Now, you have to you have to release that surrender, surrender, there's back to that surrender. Yeah.
Collin 32:30
I think that has some connection, also to the seeing ourselves as as legitimate. I know that there is this process, this mindset of, I see it a lot of this this mindset, I guess that's what that is of, I'm not legitimate. Because XYZ, I just started my business. I'm not a six figure business, I don't have employees, I don't have these things. What what does it take to start seeing yourself as legitimate in our business and in things that we are trying to do in our lives,
Colleen S. 33:02
you are legitimate everything, and that's it, period, end of story. You know, you don't need to be at a certain level or doing a certain thing or making a certain income to be legitimate, you are legitimate, you're born legitimate, each and every one of us. And you have to have you have to know that within right. So your, your legitimate, I don't want to get too spiritual. But that's, that's just the truth.
33:28
Well, I think it's part of that is disconnecting our tasks and our things that we do every day from who we are as a person. And knowing that I mean, myself and completing the whole without the job title without letters after my name without a business or LLC, or whatever that is, is that I ought me as a person, and legitimate because I am, which is a very complete sentence, right? I think that that's really important to remember is that I am is a complete sentence, we don't need to do anything else around it. And that's what, that's how we can start. When we start doing that, believing that and part of that takes implementing a lot of these other things, the affirmations, the mindfulness, the to journaling, you start to see that more and more in your life.
Colleen S. 34:14
Yep. And another exercise that helps with this is the power of yet. Okay, so when you hear yourself saying, I'm not a six figure business owner, you change it to I'm not a six figure business owner yet. I don't have any employees. I don't have any employees yet. I'm not making $10,000 a month, I'm not making $10,000 a month yet. And that just that simple. Putting that word at the end of the sentence is going to change the energy of it.
34:42
Because again, starts looking towards future self, right? Yes, you're talking about like, bring that future now into the present so that you can start working and figure out what will it take for me to get that eventually. And and if that's if that's in alignment, I think that's where a lot of people would go, Well, if that's an alignment, I want that. That's where I start doing all of that work. Correct.
Collin 35:00
No people are really focusing on a lot on on prices. And that's always a discussion for a lot of people. And what I think is interesting is that phrase, charge your worth, know your worth. I also know that there are a lot of people who struggle with valuing themselves. And a lot of days, they don't, they don't feel like they're worth a whole lot. How can we start digging out of that.
Colleen S. 35:27
So again, you can't create on the outside, well, you don't feel on the inside. So starting your daily habits and rituals to creating the energy of feeling of alignment on the inside, so that you can create what you want on the outside. So it's just that same thing over again, I feel like I'm being a little repetitive with that, but that's just the honest truth. Right? So charge what you're worth a lot of people I mean, I talk to my students about this every single week about the pricing, the pricing the pricing, and it's like, just doing it, just, you know, just again, doing it in spite of fear, right. So faking it till you make it there's all different ways that you can do that. But really, truly, you need to do the inner work to create on the outside, what you want. Yeah,
Collin 36:12
those those those inner beliefs. So it's, it's it's both standing, knowing what you're for, but also what you're not what you're against. And you have both both firm foundations to stand on. Yep. Colleen, I know that you are an avid reader, and you have a lot of books, and I was very curious. What are you reading these days?
Colleen S. 36:32
Well, these days, I just finished the Jessica Simpson autobiography. Nice. I just had two weeks off, so I listened to something that was not business related. But I did want to list here are my favorite books for your listeners. That really changed my life. You're a badass at making money by Jensen cero. The law of divine compensation by Marianne Williamson. The E Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber Profit First by Mike McCalla wits. The universe has your back by Gabrielle Gabby Bernstein and the miracle morning in the miracle equation by Hal Elrod, I would say those are the books that had the most profound change with like my mindset stuck with my business. I highly, highly, highly suggest reading those.
Collin 37:19
And just a little bit on reading because I know people say Oh, I don't have time for that. I don't how do you when you're reading a book Coleen? How do you make sure you capture and retain information? Well,
Colleen S. 37:31
ah, well, I listened to most of them. And then if I really love them, I buy the hard copy. And then I'll read it. And I'll make notes and highlight like the law of divine compensation is inside of my nightstand. And I pull that out on a regular basis, you should see it looks like it's been through a warzone. I read Listen, that you're a badass at making money. I love that audiobook because Jensen cero reads it. And I love her voice. And I think she's hilarious. And I just you know, it's repetition. Sometimes you read these things, or listen to these books, and then you just forget, they just go away. But if you listen to them over and over again, again, so you're printing that on your subconscious is what you really want to do. Yeah, that's perfect.
38:05
Colleen, I want to thank you so much for coming and being so encouraging this time and allowing us to see start seeing ourselves in different light and know that that inner work is possible. As we work to be in alignment with those visions and goals that we have in our life. This is a lot. And there's a lot more to this. And you you do a lot of things. So how can people get in touch, start picking your brain and get connected?
Colleen S. 38:31
Okay, they can go to pet nanny coach.com. That's my website, I offer a ton of free resources on the site, they can join my free Facebook group at Pet nanny Coach community.com. They can go to my YouTube channel at Pet nanny coach.com forward slash YouTube. Or they can schedule a strategy session with me by going to meet with Colleen with two L's and two E's dot com.
38:57
Perfect. And I will have all those notes in the show notes and links. People can start doing that and start doing this work that's hard, but really worth it and start changing their mindsets around their businesses and their personal selves. So Colleen, as always, it's such a pleasure to talk with you again. And thank you so much for coming on the show today.
Colleen S. 39:17
Oh, thanks, Colin. It was so much fun. I love talking about things mindset. It's such a big, crucial ingredient. So I was thrilled to be here today.
39:26
You can't create on the outside, what you don't feel on the inside. Ever since my conversation with Callie and I have been thinking about this quote and how it applies to my own life and our own business and realizing that I am a limiting factor in a lot of cases and I have so much work to be done but instead of shrinking back from them, instead of viewing that as a bad thing. There is so much opportunity there and there's so much to take on because we want big things in life. We have to have dapped and become what we would like to see. And that's all about reading good books, listening to good podcasts, seeking out good coaching, that's about being plugged into a good community growing that business so that you can have what you want. But the only way you'll be able to reach those big goals is if you start develop yourself and focus on You. That's part of taking care of yourself as well, giving yourself rest sticking to your boundaries. The all inclusivity of this means that it is absolutely essential to us, as business owners with a personal life to be imbalanced means to prioritize appropriately, and to lean into our strengths, and then fill in the gaps in some way and capacity for where we are lacking. How do you see yourself and how do you do mindset work in your business? We'd love to know you can send that to feedback at petsitter confessionals.com. And we'd love to be able to read that and share that out on the next episode. We want to thank today's sponsors time to pet and the National Association of Professional pet sitters. And we really want to thank you so much for taking your most valuable asset, your time and listening to us this week. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and we'll be back again soon.
