Define Your Own Success

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Listen to this week’s podcast episode, Ep.177: Optimism, Resilience, and Navigating Success: Building Strength in Business, with Lindsey Burden, using the player below, or click here.

Are You Building a Team (or Business) You Actually Want to Run?

When things feel tough, most new business owners do one of two things: they push harder, or they panic.

They start creating new offers, signing up for more networking events, or fiddling with their marketing. Sound familiar?

But as business coach Lindsey Burden says in this week’s episode, that kind of knee-jerk reaction often leads to the opposite of what you want. It eats up your time and leaves you feeling overwhelmed.

Instead, Lindsey suggests asking better questions. Ones like:

• Where are we going?

• What are we doing?

• Why are we doing it this way?

If you know your purpose (your "why", like the famous book says…) then these questions get easier to answer, because you're not guessing, you’re steering. Steering requires intent.

Lindsey calls this having a vision. And without it, you're just a passenger hoping the road takes you somewhere good.

The Messy Bit in the Middle

Everyone talks about resilience like it’s a badge you wear. I’ve spoken to several resilience experts this year, and heard many more definitions from various other guests and articles since, but I have to say one of my favourite definitions is the one Lindsey dropped in our conversation this week.

If being resilient is “the messy bit in the middle” where you’re not where you started, but not where you want to be either. And it’s uncomfortable. It’s hard. But it’s also where the growth is. Then you don’t need to wait for something big to happen before you build that resilience muscle. You can work on it now, which brings us back around to asking better questions. Practice pausing instead of reacting. Practice simplifying. And Lindsey’s great re-frame of resilience:

“If we're looking at different ways to do things, learning, growing, developing, moving forward, finding different ways, then that is about being curious…we can see resilience as being curious.”

All of us should remember too, just like leadership, resilience is a skill not a personality trait. It’s something you build by staying curious and keeping going, even when things aren’t going your way; keep training that muscle.

Optimism Isn’t Pretending. It’s Planning.

Lindsey also has a clear take on optimism. You can’t just decide to “be more positive” and expect it to work, it’s not a switch (are you spotting the recurring theme yet..?).

Instead, she works on it like a habit. She surrounds herself with people who energise her. She focuses on her vision, and she re-frames situations instead of letting them drag her down.

You don’t need fake positivity but you do need to find the parts of your work that give you energy. The things you get to do not have to do; that one shift alone can change your week.

Which is part of the magic of running a team or business, you have the power to decide the way you define these things.

Success Isn’t a Lamborghini

If you’ve ever felt bad for not hitting six figures yet, this part’s for you.

Let’s be honest, nobody else really cares how many zeroes are in your business account, apart from HMRC, I suppose.

And on the subject of re-framing and defining things for yourself, in Lindsey’s words: “Success is absolutely personal.”

Want to work three days a week and still afford to go swimming with your kids? That’s success.

Want to run a tight, profitable business with no team and no meetings? That’s success.

Want to hit six figures? That’s success, if it’s what YOU want.

Just want to be able to sleep at night and do work that aligns to your values? That’s ABSOLUTELY success too.

It doesn’t have to be about numbers. It’s not about doing what the gurus on social media tell you to do, posing in front of their (probably rented-for-a-day) Lamborghini. It’s about making your own rules and building a business around the life you actually want.

It’s Simpler Than You Think

So much of this episode was a reminder to stop over-complicating things. We add so many layers that we forget why we started doing what we do in the first place.

• Stop doing the thing that stopped working three years ago.

• Stop building more when less might work better.

• Stop trying to be someone you’re not.

And if you’re in that messy middle bit, good! That’s where the work gets real, where things can start to make sense, where you often learn the most.

Last thought (not from your cat)

Lindsey’s final piece of advice for new founders? “Surround yourself with amazing people.” The ones who’ll lift you up when things are hard, and cheer for you when they’re not. And don’t take advice from people who’ve never done what you’re trying to do.

Especially not your cat. Or that influencer who pays people in ‘exposure’.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy listening to the full conversation with Lindsey and here’s the link to this week’s episode, one more time:
Ep.177: Optimism, Resilience, and Navigating Success: Building Strength in Business, with Lindsey Burden | Leadership podcasts

I’ll be back next week to chat frame of mind, self-reflection, coaching skills and other leadership learning with my next guest, Kim Ades.

Until then, if you’re in the UK enjoy the heatwave (from the shade, with a cool drink!) and: Be a Leader, Not a Boss.

- David

In case you don’t know me that well, I’m David Hatch and I’m here to help new managers and first-time founders with their leadership skills, so they can become leaders not bosses, lead with integrity, and build happier, higher performing teams, more effective organisations, and, ultimately: successful businesses.

If you’d like to join Integrity Leaders, my online leadership community (solopreneurs also welcome 😉) where you can participate in live member-only workshops & events, access an ever growing list of leadership resources including early access to podcast episodes, if you want to learn more about leadership and have a healthy love of sci-fi, then this is the community for you. Here’s the link:
Integrity Leaders: Community membership and learning, for new leaders or first-time founders.