Business Is A Tough Gig
Control Your Thoughts. And You Control Your Future.
You ARE what you think. Trust me!
My partner and I did what everyone said we couldn’t do. We built a world wide business from broke. Before the internet. Before email. And before call waiting came to our rural village.
We lost everything in Paul Keating’s ‘recession we had to have’ in 1992. Our home. Our business. Our worldly possessions. Everything we’d worked for over the previous 10+ years.
My partner was an architect with a thriving practice in inner city Sydney. And my market research company was built around companies in the building industry.
All gone in a flash. When the building industry collapsed like a pack of dominoes. Taking Hooker Corporation, Adelaide Steamship Company, Girvan Bros, Bond Corporation and thousands of architects, builders and almost the entire construction industry with it.
Those conditions are a testing time for anyone.
And your thoughts determine what direction you’re heading in.
Because you have all your friends, relatives, acquaintances and neighbours offering advice. There’s a lot of ‘stuff’ buzzing around in your head.
Most of it not very encouraging.
My decision was simple.
Block out all the negative buzz, because it isn’t doing me any good.
And concentrate on what’s going to get me back onto the road to prosperity.
However long that road may be. Even if I don’t know where it’s going to lead.
I’ve been in some very deep, dark places in my life. As has everyone. And the first time I found myself in the depths of despair, I quickly learned that my thoughts determine what will happen.
Because.
The only thing you have control over in your life is . . . your thoughts.
Negative thoughts are very painful. And dwelling on them is a road to nowhere.
Positive thoughts are uplifting. Inspiring. They give you hope.
They take you out of the world of despair, which fatigues you.
And catapult you into a world of ‘can do’. A world fuelled by energy.
So how do you control your thoughts? So they’re positive? Not negative?
First. You have to want to be in the zone of ‘I don’t want to live with this pain and misery another minute’.
If you don’t have that desire, you stay in the depths of despair.
Believe me. Some people just love being miserable.
I’m not one of them. To me, misery is pain. And every good sales person learns that avoidance of pain is one of the chief motivating factors in a buying decision.
Without realising it, but because I want to avoid pain and misery, I taught myself triggers.
Triggers that send off an alarm bell in my brain that it’s time to change the tone of the conversation in my head.
First of all, let me tell you that good things happen after bad things. There are a myriad of stories about people who have been at rock bottom. And risen to the top again.
John Symonds of Aussie Home Loans is just one of them.
I had to get that riches to rags to riches story out of the way, because some people might think that some of us are just lucky.
We’re not. We’re just disciplined.
Another recent story is of a middle aged lady, Claire, who sent out 127 job applications, all rejected. She sent out the 128th one and landed her dream job. Just ask yourself if that persistence is possible if you don’t believe in yourself?!
A great victory for ‘never give up hope’.
And people do recover from the loss of a loved one. And over time, many bounce back to a life of quality and joy. Because they change the conversation in their head and start teaching themselves how to live with their loss.
Back to triggers.
As soon as the negative conversation starts in your head, as it does with everyone, including I’m sure, with John Symonds and Claire, recognise it for what it is, worthless garbage swirling around, accomplishing nothing of value.
And quickly change the tone by concentrating on something you want to achieve. And concentrate on the details involved in achieving it. How will you do it? What will be required? What will it look like when it’s finished?
In earlier times, this was called day dreaming. And frowned upon.
But. Every idea starts out as a dream.
And by the time you’ve concentrated on that ‘dream’ for a few minutes, your whole attitude changes. And you notice you’ve become just a tad bit more positive. You’re standing taller. And you now have hope.
And then something wonderful happens.
Over time, because you’re starting to focus on what you can do, you start to notice that you’re taking the baby steps that lead to the fulfilment of your dream or goal or life’s ambition.
You’re starting to change the direction of your life. And that in itself starts to gain momentum.
A given is . . . .
You’ll have setbacks.
But once you learn how to control that conversation in your head, a setback is just that. It’s not doom and gloom. Or failure. You just have to start a different conversation about how you’ll turn each setback into a positive outcome.
I’ve been practicing this technique for so long, and my triggers are so automatic, that I rarely indulge in negative thought any more.
And just by changing the conversation in my head, I’ve built a world wide business from broke from a remote rural property. A business that now has more than 400,000+ customers in 30 countries. On the back of a product that has a diminishing market.
And that thought process has taken me to places I never thought possible. And given me the courage to do things that other people are too afraid to do.
Another word for courage is chutzpah. It’s my New York City upbringing raising its head.
Just an aside. One of the first positive decisions my partner and I made as soon as we knew we were going to lose everything was to discipline ourselves not to dwell on it. Our friends and family were doing enough of that for both of us.
And to concentrate on starting anew somewhere outside of Sydney. To reinvent ourselves. And have another go at building up a different kind of business.
We had noooo money. So we escaped to the bush. Where no one knew us. And where we could afford to live. And reinvented ourselves as product designers, makers and marketers.
Is this an overnight success?
Absolutely not.
This business is now a 20 year journey. And a business in progress. But I’ve jumped many hurdles and found my way out of many dark alleys because I’m able to change the conversation in my head.
And I’m not through. I’ve many more hurdles I want to jump.
Now. Another word.
This isn’t easy in the beginning. It’s actually very hard. Changing the conversation in your head requires discipline and an unwavering dedication to a positive direction in your life.
And sometimes the negative conversation just takes hold and you find yourself in a state of fear.
That’s OK. That state of fear is a trigger. As soon as you feel it, change the tone. Start dreaming about what you’d really love to do. Who you’d really love to be. Where you’d really love to end up. And soon the fear settles. And you feel better.
And another thing.
Don’t share your dreams with anyone. Unless you really . . . really . . . really trust them. As soon as someone squashes your dream, or belittles it, as people can do, you’re back into the depths of despair.
This is the well trodden path taken by just about everyone who has escaped the negative conversation in their head that holds them back from whatever they want to do.
And it’s so simple. Yet so hard. Control your thoughts. And you control the direction of your life.
Trust me. It works.
Another story.
I used to be terrified of cold calling. The conversation in my head regarding cold calling was always one of fear.
Petrified. Terrified. Mummified. With fear. Of rejection. Rudeness. Abruptness. et al.
And I’m not alone. Statistics say that the overwhelming majority of men and women in business hate and or fear cold calling.
To the point where they convince themselves it’s not necessary
The truth is. You can’t grow your business if you’re not starting a conversation with relevant people who don’t know you.
Emails are mainly ignored from people who don’t know you.
So the other option is to pick up the phone and start talking.
Someone. Has. To. Do. It!
So I changed the conversation in my head.
I decided to stop being afraid. That I had to start to learn to master the art of cold calling. And it would be a bonus if I could learn to love it.
My conversation then became — how can I make this work for me. And I went over and over in my mind how I’d like to be approached by a cold telephone call.
And before I knew it, I was picking up the phone and doing what I feared the most. Making a cold call.
I conquered my fear. Learned the art of making successful cold calls. And really do love picking up the phone and doing it.
I now cold call every day of the week. Meet wonderful people. Make friends. And 90% of people I ring want to talk to me.
There is, of course, a lot in between. Like researching your target. Making sure your call is relevant to the person you’re approaching. And learning how to start a conversation. And how to end it so a door is always open.
But.
The result is I changed the direction of my business because I changed the conversation in my head.
To my delight, I’ve negotiated quite a few successful joint ventures, which is how I like to approach business. Something for you. And something for me.
And I have my foot in the door of two market segments that are not only huge, but to date, ones that I could only dream about, because they are essentially closed shops to me.
But I was so determined to get in those doors, I found a back door to each not known by many people. And we’re talking. Simply because I wasn’t afraid to make the gazillion cold telephone calls required to get in those doors. And. The bonus is. By making those calls, I learned a great deal along the way about my target segments that I didn’t know. And met some fabulous people who propelled me on to the next call.
Again. Control your thoughts. And you control your future.
Once again. Trust me. It works.
Best wishes for a very bright future.
~Carol Jones, Ironing Diva❤
Life Behind The Scenes With The Ironing Diva are my stories about how my partner, Victor Pleshev, and I created a new life out of the ashes of Australia’s ‘recession we had to have’. How did we design 8 products? And get them to market? How did we build a worldwide business from broke? How did we carve out a rural lifestyle that is the envy of our friends? And our customers? How did we create a beautiful hectare of garden out of a barren paddock sitting atop an infertile rock shelf? It wasn’t easy. But this is the business and the lifestyle that we built from scratch. The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover And Other Goodies.
