How your attitude kills your business
Attitude, such a great word. And I bet you have one when it comes to running your own business, or even to the work you do for someone else.
Attitude: “A settled way of thinking or feeling about something”
This definition hits hard the moment you see the word: ‘settled’.
Every business has its bread and butter no doubt. There’ll be a level of service or a product you offer that is ‘settled’ and that’s ok. It’s the bones of your business, and it needs that. If one week Tesco was a supermarket and the next a spa, we’d all get a little confused when it came to doing the weekly shop.
Although, I’d take a massage over meal prep any day.
But the bones of the business being settled wont be what kills it, it’ll be your thinking, and more specifically, settled thinking, that keeps you small, or stuck or hating what you do.
It was the fourth Norwich Yoga Festival this year, the second year of doing it alone (no one else to pay the bills if it all went wrong), and I was so done with feeling stressed about it.
I was done with being told “you must be so busy”, or “I don’t know how you do it all.” and “It’s such a huge undertaking…” and then believing those messages!
No, if I wanted to, I didn’t need to feel busy or stressed.
I didn’t need to worry about if I’d get it all done.
I didn’t have to remind myself of how long the lists were.
So I changed my attitude.
The shift was overnight, I woke up one morning and journaled about how lucky I am that I get to do this. That I get to talk to and meet wonderful humans, I get to bring together some of the most wholesome and caring businesses in Norfolk and Suffolk, and then celebrate them. How could I possibly not enjoy that?
And ever since that morning, I’ve woken with a smile on my face most days, I sometimes work long hours but I enjoy them. I am more connected to the people I meet and open to all the opportunities that are coming my way.
In fact, I get so many opportunities these days, I now have a list. I couldn’t have done them all at NYF 2025 for example. So we have new plans for the next 3 festivals at least.
Every now and then I have a wobble, and when it came to the festival it’d usually be caused by some insane bill that needed paying. But instead of letting that floor me, like I would’ve done in previous years it spurred me on to go do, create, pay the damn bill and then get on with bringing the festival to it’s full potential.
And once Festival day arrived, I had a great time, I actually danced.I took part in a class, I had my palm read. I hung out with my nieces and nephew. I got to chat to so many people. Yeah, I spent a bit of time fixing a microphone, and helping out on front gate, but I had an amazing day.
I got to experience the day I’d created, rather than running around like a lunatic almost looking for ‘jobs’ to do.
This attitude shift changed so much about organising Norwich Yoga Festival this year, that I swiftly implemented it onto my other businesses too. Therefore I’m going to share with you what happened as a result, and why your attitude to your business might be keeping it stuck, small or in a negative place in your mind.
I reminded myself that I chose to do this
Yes, it was that simple. Remember how when you started out you loved what you are doing now, and dreamed your business would be what it is today?
You started this business because you have a passion and you’re damn good at it. Your superpower lays within what you have created, you might think it’s easy peasy, but I promise you most people don’t.
So why are you not talking about it the way you used to? Why aren’t you nerding out and enjoying the nuances any more? Why aren’t you inspired or finding ways to get inspiration.
That halt in your curiosity, your lacklustre vibe and the assumption that ‘you know it all’ because you’ve been doing this 5,10,15 years is what’s keeping you where you are.
It’s killing your vibes and it’s killing your business.
I took back what I enjoy doing
I’m a creative soul, hence being here on Substack, where creativity thrives (hey fellow creative). And I realised, with my shift in attitude, that I’d actually outsourced most of the creative aspects of organising the festival. So I took it back, and you know what happened? A lot!
The social media audience grew, the collaborations I wanted happened, the connection and the community actually came together online. I was excited to have conversations with people over social media. I was enjoying making the posts to share what we were planning.
It was only a small thing, but knowing I was able to have an idea, create and do, brought back a level of joy I’d lost.
There is definitely a time and a place for outsourcing, I’m a huge fan, but it’s being mindful of what you pick to outsource. If you enjoy the customer services why are you hiring someone to do that for you? If you hate the email marketing, why aren’t you outsourcing it?
I didn’t take my eyes off the money
The biggest stress over the last few years of Norwich Yoga Festival, and I guess with Align with Alex (was Alex Howarth Yoga), was the money. The bills for NYF are staggering. I’m dealing with numbers with more zeros on than my poor lil nervous system is used to. It’s big numbers that get me excited though and that’s half the reason I wanted to create the day in the first place.
But when stressed in the past I’ve buried my head in the sand and prayed that the sales would come through. And the level of stress with doing that (obviously) is disgustingly high.
It might seem oh so obvious, but it wasn’t a conscious choice. As I’m always reminded, there’s so much to pull together for festival day, that I can focus on everything else and convince myself that;
‘Oh I’ve just not got round to looking at the bank account.’ or something equally as vague.
But by keeping my eyes on what was going in and out every single day that fear evaporated and instead of lack ruling the day, everything was done from a place of informed abundance. AKA, proof that all I needed was right under my nose.
When times get tough, and your business hasn’t grown this year, or you’re not hitting the targets you set nearly 12 months ago, then it’s hard to keep you chin up and that abundant mindset in place, but telling yourself that ‘no one has any money’ or ‘there is too much competition’ is a one way ticket to everything staying exactly as it is.
So how does this apply to you? How do we challenge the attitude? I’ll share with you my top lessons, and I can’t wait to hear what you discover.
Discover how to switch up your attitude in simple steps you can implement whenever you want
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