Dan Martell - How To Protect Your Confidence As An Entrepreneur

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00:00:11.240 How do you protect your confidence as an entrepreneur?

00:00:14.200 There's nothing that feels better

00:00:15.660 than overflowing with confidence.

00:00:17.960 Feeling like you can take over the world, you know?

00:00:20.880 I mean, the biggest challenge for me

00:00:22.520 is always meeting entrepreneurs that just got deflated

00:00:25.280 or they feel like the challenge is insurmountable

00:00:27.520 or they're in this entrepreneurial pendulum

00:00:29.800 where they're swinging from exclamation mark of

00:00:32.240 I'm gonna take over the world to question mark of

00:00:34.560 what am I doing with my life and my business?

00:00:36.900 You know, that is a real challenge

00:00:38.820 that sometimes you might swing both ways

00:00:41.740 a couple times per week,

00:00:43.080 sometimes a couple times per day.

00:00:44.980 You know, when we were working on my company Flowtown,

00:00:47.480 my co-founder Ethan and I,

00:00:49.460 we had the opportunity,

00:00:50.820 we were super blessed to have the CEO

00:00:53.440 and founder of Constant Contact

00:00:55.580 come to her office to meet with us.

00:00:57.940 And her name was Gail and she, you know,

00:00:59.560 At the time she was running a publicly traded company

00:01:01.940 and it was just such a great experience to see

00:01:04.000 this is how it could look at the end of the day

00:01:05.900 and she shared all these incredible stories

00:01:08.580 about how they got started and what they tested

00:01:10.700 in the market and I mean how they do radio ads

00:01:13.000 and split test, I mean I could nerd out

00:01:15.020 on the marketing side but the biggest lesson

00:01:17.400 that Gail shared with us was she's like looking around

00:01:20.720 and we're sharing office with these other companies

00:01:23.020 and it's the early days and she goes,

00:01:24.340 man, I still remember those moments

00:01:26.700 and do yourself a favor and document them.

00:01:29.180 take pictures, celebrate your wins

00:01:31.980 because the journey is the destination.

00:01:35.160 And I was just like, man, that's so true.

00:01:38.280 From that point on, we essentially took photos,

00:01:41.160 took screenshots, did a bunch of stuff

00:01:42.860 to really remind us of the progress we were making

00:01:45.660 and that is one part of the lesson that I was taught

00:01:49.400 on how to protect your confidence as an entrepreneur

00:01:51.800 because if you've got that, if you can show up

00:01:54.840 and feel confident in your decision,

00:01:56.380 even if you're learning and you're gonna change,

00:01:58.840 your strategies, that energy that you bring

00:02:01.340 is just probably one of the most powerful things

00:02:03.380 that we have as entrepreneurs.

00:02:04.580 So the number one thing I wanna share with you guys

00:02:06.320 is celebrate your wins.

00:02:08.780 You know, in your previous quarter, okay,

00:02:11.360 every 90 days, you should take a moment,

00:02:13.820 usually a half day to a day, meet with your team,

00:02:16.600 review what you guys accomplished,

00:02:18.320 and even though there was lessons learned,

00:02:19.860 celebrate the wins as a team.

00:02:22.200 It's super important for you and for your team,

00:02:24.440 but really, as an entrepreneur,

00:02:25.860 to remind yourself that you're making progress

00:02:27.640 because it's so easy for us to just get it done

00:02:29.740 and move on to the next thing without taking a moment

00:02:33.340 and saying, man, we really need to be proud of ourselves

00:02:36.980 and our team for overcoming this challenge

00:02:39.400 or getting this new product rollout

00:02:41.140 or meeting a customer's need that sounded

00:02:43.760 a little kind of out there.

00:02:45.420 Take the time once a quarter to really celebrate those wins.

00:02:48.040 Number two is weekly team wins and customer wins.

00:02:51.980 So in your team format, whenever you do your team meetings,

00:02:55.560 you should ask the team, does anybody have any wins?

00:02:58.040 Maybe it's they just blew a goal out of the water.

00:03:01.180 Or maybe it's a customer win, where as customer service

00:03:04.640 or as the founder you're getting emails

00:03:06.160 from different people, you can actually add it

00:03:09.280 to the agenda, I mean it's what we do in our team

00:03:11.420 so that once a week we have the opportunity,

00:03:13.320 if there's anything that came in that we feel

00:03:15.180 the rest of the team would wanna hear,

00:03:17.240 we share it with them.

00:03:18.260 So on a weekly basis, that's number two,

00:03:20.340 you wanna share that feedback, those wins from the team

00:03:24.240 and your customers with the rest of the team.

00:03:26.420 Number three is making sure that you document the journey.

00:03:28.800 As Gail taught us, take photos.

00:03:31.560 I mean, I have screenshots for the last almost nine years

00:03:35.360 of all the product designs, the decisions,

00:03:38.060 major contracts we signed, Skype sessions,

00:03:41.560 you know, just taking screenshots of the team,

00:03:43.540 the stand-ups, everything.

00:03:45.240 And anytime we had a party or we spoke at an event,

00:03:47.780 we always hired a photographer to document those moments.

00:03:50.940 If somebody was there with an iPhone,

00:03:52.960 I'd make sure that we got all those photos

00:03:54.580 and then shared it with the rest of the team.

00:03:56.240 I just think it's so important that you have a document

00:04:00.340 or a catalog of all these moments as the company evolves,

00:04:03.460 because trust me, the people that were there

00:04:05.460 in the beginning probably won't be there in the future

00:04:08.040 if you're really successful,

00:04:09.400 but they were all part of that story and that journey.

00:04:12.080 It just reminds you the amount of incredible,

00:04:14.300 I truly believe that success has 100 fathers,

00:04:17.600 and being able to kind of reflect and remember

00:04:20.080 those people that came into your life for that chapter

00:04:22.740 really helped you get over those hurdles

00:04:24.500 to build the company that eventually is successful,

00:04:27.340 having that to reflect on will help you protect

00:04:29.780 that confidence as an entrepreneur,

00:04:31.400 because it'll inspire you and remind you

00:04:33.460 the amount of struggles that you overcame.

00:04:35.260 Number four is to have a yearly party.

00:04:37.320 Once a year, minimum, you should bring everybody

00:04:40.160 on your team together, especially if you work

00:04:41.540 in a distributed or virtual team.

00:04:43.280 Bring them together and give everybody else awards.

00:04:47.380 Like, actually take the time to recognize the effort

00:04:50.180 and give them awards.

00:04:51.020 You're probably asking, like, Dan, what does this have to do with confidence as an entrepreneur?

00:04:54.940 Here's the deal.

00:04:55.820 When you can create an environment for other people to do work at a world-class level, to be excellent,

00:05:02.840 and then recognize and give them awards, in some ways, that act is for you.

00:05:08.560 By reminding you that you built this space, this environment, this company,

00:05:13.740 to allow them to be able to do some of their best work.

00:05:16.160 And I think that to me is just part of the process

00:05:20.640 as a leader, you need to take that once every 12 months,

00:05:23.960 once a year, bring everybody together

00:05:26.000 and recognize people for those that really stepped up

00:05:28.380 throughout the year because it just brings you that energy

00:05:32.940 that you're gonna bring into the next year.

00:05:34.480 As an entrepreneur, it's super powerful.

00:05:36.440 And number five is individually,

00:05:39.020 I think everybody on your team should have this,

00:05:40.580 but you definitely as the founder and entrepreneur,

00:05:42.620 you should create an achievement list.

00:05:44.120 And this is everything that you've ever accomplished

00:05:47.920 that you thought would be hard, that you overcame.

00:05:50.620 And it could start back when you were nine years old.

00:05:53.060 It could be little things like learning to ride a bike.

00:05:55.340 If that was meaning for you,

00:05:56.600 if that was an achievement that you set

00:05:58.860 that you wanted to accomplish and you got there,

00:06:01.360 then you put this on this list.

00:06:02.500 And for me, I save it in an Evernote file

00:06:04.480 and it's little things.

00:06:05.740 You know, it could be personal things,

00:06:07.180 it could be health related, it could be business related.

00:06:09.620 But it's just a list that if you've ever got

00:06:11.880 an important phone call,

00:06:13.960 If you've got a really important talk you gotta give,

00:06:16.100 if you have a really tough conversation

00:06:17.980 with your management team or an employee that's struggling,

00:06:22.360 and you just wanna kind of give yourself

00:06:23.960 a kind of a kick and remind yourself

00:06:26.140 of the challenges you've been able to overcome

00:06:29.840 and achieve in your life, just open that list and read it.

00:06:32.340 I think it's probably one of the most powerful gifts

00:06:34.120 that I can give you is the, you know,

00:06:36.660 just the suggestion and the permission

00:06:39.100 to review that list whenever you're struggling

00:06:41.320 to remind you how great you truly are.

00:06:43.620 And I think that protecting the confidence for entrepreneurs,

00:06:47.860 your confidence is such a critical component to keeping the

00:06:50.860 energy and the forward movement going.

00:06:53.000 So real quick, recap, celebrate your wins with the team every

00:06:57.060 quarter at a minimum.

00:06:58.340 Weekly team meetings to review customer wins as well as team

00:07:01.100 wins and then third, document the journey screenshots,

00:07:04.640 photographers, et cetera.

00:07:06.500 Yearly parties and give awards to other people on your team

00:07:09.580 because in a way that's a reflection of the creation that

00:07:12.520 in the space that you've provided everybody,

00:07:14.280 which is awesome, and then fifth is an achievement list

00:07:17.120 where you can just review that.

00:07:18.580 Whenever you've got a big meeting,

00:07:19.780 something super important, you wanna pump yourself up,

00:07:22.280 that's where you go just to remind yourself

00:07:24.120 of all the cool things you've done with your life thus far.

00:07:27.180 I wanna ask you to leave a comment and tell me your story

00:07:30.560 of something that you do to celebrate your wins,

00:07:32.540 or better yet, tell me a win that you've had

00:07:34.480 in the last seven days.

00:07:35.400 I wanna hear from you below, I wanna get excited for you,

00:07:38.760 so tell me your win that you've had in your business,

00:07:41.040 in your life in the last seven days in the comments below.

00:07:43.620 As for usual, I wanna challenge you

00:07:45.080 to live a bigger life and a bigger business,

00:07:46.920 and I'll see you next week.

00:07:48.280 Hey there, if you liked this video,

00:07:49.480 be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel

00:07:51.220 where you get other tips on how to start

00:07:52.800 and grow your business.

00:07:53.640 I'd also encourage you to join my newsletter

00:07:55.500 where I share exclusive invites to events,

00:07:57.820 other free training videos, and community contests.

00:08:00.860 And if you're ready to keep going with some more content,

00:08:02.980 I've got a couple videos queued up for you.

00:08:04.800 Hope this video finds you well.

00:08:06.060 I'll see you next week.

00:08:11.040 You

Dan Martell - November 28, 2016

How To Protect Your Confidence As An Entrepreneur

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