Game Day Grit for Entrepreneurs

What separates a good athlete from a great one? It's not just talent; it's the mindset, grit, and ability to turn setbacks into comebacks. 

In this episode, we dive into the powerful lessons that entrepreneurship can borrow from sports. Discover the importance of discipline, teamwork, resilience, and the winning mentality needed to succeed both on the field and in business. 

Learn how adopting an athlete's mindset can transform your approach to your goals, challenges, and victories. Whether you're building a dream business or leveling up your career, these insights will inspire you to play to win. 

Join me as we explore key lessons including the power of practice and preparation, teamwork, learning from losses, mental toughness, the importance of coaching and mentorship, embracing a growth mindset, and celebrating small wins. Become the MVP of your business by applying these sports-inspired strategies to your entrepreneurial journey.

00:00 Introduction: The Athlete's Mindset in Entrepreneurship
00:57 Personal Sports Stories: Lessons from Softball and Basketball
04:47 Lesson 1: The Power of Practice and Preparation
05:43 Lesson 2: Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
07:01 Lesson 3: Learning from Losses
07:36 Lesson 4: Mental Toughness and Resilience
09:26 Lesson 5: The Importance of Coaching and Mentorship
11:56 Lesson 6: Embracing a Growth Mindset
13:04 Lesson 7: Celebrate the Small Wins
14:49 Applying the Lessons to Your Business
17:01 Conclusion: Becoming the MVP of Your Business

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Transcript

0:00

What separates a good athlete from a great one. It's not just talent. It's the mindset, the grit, and the ability to turn setbacks into comebacks. The same is true for entrepreneurs. And this episode we're diving into the powerful lessons entrepreneurship can borrow from sports. The discipline, the teamwork, the resilience and the mindset it takes to win both on the field and in business, whether you're building your dream business or leveling up your career, these insights will inspire you to play, to win. Stay with me as we unpack how adopting an athlete's mentality can transform the way you approach your goals, face challenges and celebrate victories. For some reason I have sports on the brain and I was thinking back to when I first started playing sports and I have two very distinct memories. Number one is softball. And number two is my first year of travel league basketball. Totally different experiences. Totally different lessons. And I find it interesting how this played out for me. So the first time I played softball and the only time I played softball was in third grade. Yes. That was a really long time ago. I get it. And I was young and little and I never played T-ball. But I played in third grade. And. What is interesting about that is we won every single game. And we didn't just win every single game. We dominated every single game. We won. By 25 points or more. Probably about 25 points because I think we had five innings. And we had a five run rule. If you had made five runs or you were ahead by five, you changed from offense to defense. And so we won every single game by a massive amount. So now let's contrast that with basketball. Think the first year that I played travel league basketball. I believe it was ninth grade. And. We lost every single game and we didn't just lose every single game. We got destroyed on every single game. We would maybe score 4, 10 points. The other team was in the forties, the fifties, the sixties. We. Were destroyed. And it's so interesting to me to look at those two experiences. And tell you. I don't like softball. I never played again. Because it wasn't challenging. It wasn't fun. It just, we won okay. Great. And it's interesting to me because we think, oh, we want this easy path and we want it to come so easy. And we get frustrated when it's challenging. But if it came to you easily, It wouldn't be worth it to you and you wouldn't enjoy it probably. And you probably wouldn't want to keep going. When I contrast that with basketball, I continued to play. I played all through high school and I played in college and I love basketball. Did I always win? Nope. But did I always learn? Yes. And I think the thing that I learned the most. From those. That season of continual losses. Is one, to, to learn to lose with grace. To use it to improve for us to bond as a team. And. Lean on each other and play better as a team. Did we get better as we went along? Yes. Did we still lose? Sure did. But for some reason I don't look back at that time and hate it. I actually really enjoyed that time. It's sometimes in those challenges where you find your strength or you find the people that you can rely on. And you learn so much about yourself and what you're capable of. And. So this made me think about sports and how we relate it to business. So I wanted to share some lessons that we can take away from the wide world of sports and apply to business. So let's dive in lesson, number one, the power of practice and preparation. Success in sports doesn't come on game day, right? It's in hours of practice and preparation. When we see someone at a championship game. It is days, weeks, months, years that they have taken to get to that spot. We need to be doing the same thing in our business. If you're just starting out. And you're frustrated because you aren't winning you. Aren't making money. Things aren't going well, you haven't put in the work yet. And that's okay. Consistent effort and skill building as well as preparation is what is going to set the foundation for your success. You don't just show up on your launch day, or your grand opening. You have to prepare like an athlete preparing for a championship. It takes work. All right. Lesson number two. Teamwork makes the dream work. Great teams, win championships, not individuals. As amazing as Michael Jordan is he didn't win by himself. He and the team together are who won those games and won those championships. And they want to have been there without the coaches and all the support along the way. And they didn't get there on day one. It took time. It took years for them to get there. One thing that I've learned with business is collaborating with a strong and diverse team is what is going to create innovation in your business. It's what is going to help with resilience in tough times. And it's, what's going to propel you forward. The team dynamic is very important. And when you have diversity within that team and you get to use your strengths and allow others to to use theirs and they're complimentary that's when the magic happens. And as an entrepreneur, when you surround yourself with teammates who compliment your strengths and shore up your weaknesses. That's when your business gets momentum. All right. Lesson number three. Learning from losses. As I talked about earlier athletes face losses, and they bounce back stronger using those defeats as learning lessons. If you're not taking those losses and learning from them. You truly have lost. As entrepreneurs. Mistakes and failures are part of the journey. When you start looking at them and analyzing that, that's what leads to your growth. So a loss is only a loss. If you fail to learn from it. Lesson number four, mental toughness and resilience. Athletes train their minds to handle the pressure, adversity and setbacks. When we were in that season of losing. There was that. Game day, like, oh, How bad is it going to be? Is today going to be the day that we're actually going to win or is it going to be that same thing over and over again. But I, and I think we probably. We're in that quite a bit, but you know what? We still showed up. And I think that's, what's important showing up, even though we lost. And then that team that I was a part of, we all, most of us went on to play high school basketball on varsity, and a lot of us even went on to play college basketball. Various levels. Right. There were a lot of people who are much better than I was for sure. But. We didn't let that losing season stop us from something that we enjoyed and something that we loved. Entrepreneurs must cultivate mental toughness to navigate uncertainty and keep moving forward. If you know that this is what you want to be doing, even though it's hard, even though it's not coming as easy as you anticipated. Keep going, you're going to find your rhythm. You're going to find your space and your place in this world of entrepreneurship and you're going to start gaining momentum. But not if you give up, so you have to build that muscle of toughness of just keep going until you figure out the way to make it work. Your ability to stay focused and resilient under pressure determines your long term success. Lesson number five, the importance of coaching and mentorship. Oh, this one's so good. Every great athlete has a coach guiding them through the process, helping them to improve to strategize. To work on their weaknesses, improve their strengths, all of that good stuff. Again, think about Michael Jordan. He wouldn't have been in those championships without Phil Jackson, the team wouldn't have been there without a great coach. And this is true for us as entrepreneurs, especially if, if you've never done this before. You need a coach, a mentor, someone who has been doing what you're doing, who can share with you tips, tricks strategies to get where you want to go. A coach who can help you think through things and point out what you need to be working on, how you need to strengthen up this, how you can shift these abilities to use them for your good, whatever it may be to help move you forward in your business. Coaching I think is imperative. I have a mindset coach right now that I've been working with for the past. Three or so months I wouldn't be where I am today without him. I am so grateful for what he has helped me work through in my own life. And it has transformed my business. Very very powerful. Entrepreneurs benefit from mentors and advisors who can provide that guidance. That's support. That perspective. I think of mentors and coaches, as rocket fuel, they can help turn your years into days. They can help move you forward faster in your business and accelerate the process. So I would encourage you to look into that. And think about in your business, or in your journey, what do you need help with the most? Is it mindset? Maybe it is a business coach to actually help you strategize where you're going. Maybe it's a performance coach. Maybe you want to get into public speaking. Maybe you need a speaking coach or a confidence coach. Think about what you're lacking or in need of the most in your business. And maybe seek that out. Even the best performers have coaches. Don't underestimate the value of mentorship. All right. Lesson number six, embracing a growth mindset. Athletes consistently seek to improve, focusing on progress over perfection. A growth mindset helps entrepreneurs innovate, pivot, and keep striving towards success. When we have this growth mindset, everything becomes possible. We can see things bigger. We can see the potential bigger, and it also helps us not to get stuck in a rut when we can, say, okay. How is this happening for me? This went wrong in the business. What can we do to pivot, to change, to use this to our advantage instead of. Being frustrated by it and feeling stuck by it. We're going to use this obstacle as an opportunity. So when we have that growth mindset, We just see everything as potential. Versus problems. And I think that's really helpful in moving forward. So like an athlete, keep looking for ways to get better every day. Number seven. Celebrate the small wins. Athletes celebrate personal bests and incremental improvements, not just the gold medals. I love this one. Acknowledging progress, even small milestones, to stay motivated and energized is amazing for us as we're working towards these goals. Some of us have these huge, big, massive goals. And. It's going to take us a while to get there. And if we don't celebrate and enjoy our time until we get there. Man it's going to be a long road. For what I'm doing now, I have big goals! Huge goals! And that first milestone is a big one. And. Recently, I helped raise a small portion of that goal. It's like 1.5% of that goal. It's not a lot, but it's something, it's progress. And I can't tell you how excited I was about that and how much I did celebrate that. And now I think about that. And I use that. I start feeling that same feeling every time I think about it. I start feeling that feeling in my bones. And then that I use that to like, keep going to keep that motivation going. That is a powerful tool as you celebrate small wins along the way that is fuel to get you going where you want to go. So small wins add up to big victories, celebrate the journey. This isn't about a destination. This is about the journey. So celebrate the journey. All right. So let's talk about how you can apply these to your business. So I want you to think back at these different lessons, let's go back through them. So 1., the power of practice and preparation. 2. Teamwork makes the dream work. 3. Learning from losses. 4. Mental toughness and resilience. 5., the importance of coaching and mentorship. 6. Embracing a growth mindset and 7. Celebrating small wins. So I want you to think back about which lesson resonates the most with your entrepreneurial journey right now. Which of those things is resonating with you, is feeling like, oh, yep. You're speaking right to me. And how can you use that moving forward in your business? I want you to take some time, maybe write down one way you can improve your preparation. Maybe. You need to look into coaching. What area. Are you needing the most help in think about that and start looking into coaches for that. Maybe you need to work on actually enjoying the journey. Think about a small or a recent win that you have in your business and celebrate it. No matter how small it seems to be. Maybe it's you're brand new and you're like, I just started making calls and I called my first client. That's amazing. Congratulations. Celebrate that. Maybe you've done big things. And you finally hit a goal that you felt like was so far away. Celebrate that enjoy it. Take the time to feel that, to use that, take the time, to feel that in your body and remember what this moment feels like, because you can take that memory going forward. When you're in the valley and use it to help you keep going on your climb up to the next peak of that next mountain. So I want you to work on some of those things this next week. So, how do you become the MVP of your business? Entrepreneurship like sports is a game of persistence, preparation and passion. Play to win. And remember the journey is just as important as the destination all right, friends. Thank you so much for joining me today. Maybe this resonated with you and maybe, you know, someone who needs to hear this. I would love for you to share this. Don't forget to like and subscribe. And until next time, have a great week.