138: What Is Big Thinking? Three Parts of Becoming a Big Thinker

Welcome to the Time to Level Up Podcast. I'm your host, Andrea Liebross. Each week, I focus on the systems, strategy, and big thinking you need to CEO your business and life to the next level. Are you ready? Let's go.

Hello, my friends, and welcome back to the Time to Level Up Podcast. I'm starting something new. I am recording these on Zoom so that there's a little video aspect to it as well as audio. We're going to see how this is going to go. I don't know, who knows? Maybe it's going to work. Maybe I’ll love it. Maybe I won’t. I couldn't tell you.

But let's dig in today, we’re going to talk about what is big thinking. If you have been following along, you might know that I am about to release a book called She Thinks Big. It is going to be released in September and I'm doing a lot of the prep work. Right now, the book is written. At the time of this recording, the book is written. Actually, I even have a printed copy of it. If I look, you know what, let me see, I think I can show you.

Here's even a printed copy if you're following along on video, this is what it looks like. This little bar across the front says not for resale because it's not for resale or for sale yet. But if you are listening and not watching the podcast, you will see a copy of that book cover if you go to shethinksbigthebook.com.

You'll want to go there actually because you want to be part of the Think Big Movement that I am creating around the book that's going to happen as a result of the book and you're going to get some discounted pricing, some special bonuses, access to a free masterclass. There are a lot of reasons why you would want to go to shethinksbigthebook.com to get signed up to be part of the Think Big Movement and get all the news around the launch of She Thinks Big in September.

Today, we're going to talk about what does it really mean to think big, and I of course have been doing a lot of thinking around this topic as I've been writing the book. I wanted to give you today a little bit of an outline as to what I think big thinking is, give you some examples of some clients who have experienced big thinking and what that looked like for them, and to hope to be able to leave you with a few tidbits to get you starting to think big now even before you have read the book. How's that sound?

Let's dig in. I think right now, in our era that we are living in, it's easy to believe that there's no limit as to how far we can think. I mean, just look at all of these amazing new things that are coming out in the world. ChatGPT, who would have thought? Going down into the ocean, hopefully not exploding, but going down into the ocean in a submarine just humans, not even scientists, going to the moon, having humans being able to go to the moon just lay citizens. There's no limit to how far we can think.

When we think beyond today, it's actually really a source of mental power. I like to call it a power generator, and it really redirects our energy to find the solutions to things instead of worrying about what's happening today, our problems today. Now, if you have this ability to think big, it really is the first step in breaking out of, sometimes I like to say leaving the parking lot, of your own self-imposed limiting beliefs, our own glass ceiling.

It is a way to channel our energy to create a better future, to map out a different path, to figure out what's possible, and then to turn what seems impossible into possible and then into inevitable. Thinking big, here's what it's not: It's not you staring out the window daydreaming. It is not you imagining an idyllic scene, beautiful countryside. Thinking big is a mental practice that allows you to take control over your own life.

Now, in order to do this, you have to access your own agency or your own abilities to make decisions and you've got to learn how to shift from that small thinking that usually keeps us trapped into big thinking. We shift from small to big thinking and then in the process, we shift from being prisoners of our own minds to finding freedom of time, money, finances, relationships in the future. Thinking big is accessing that future you. It is fueling the future you. It's stepping out of the parking lot that you're in now.

In the book, I had to really figure out how do I present this? How do I talk about this in a cohesive way? This was a big challenge for me because much of coaching and much of what I do is very much feedback-based. It's also very circular. It's called the upward spiral. Thinking big does not have a beginning, middle, and end to it. But I tried to organize my thoughts around it into three categories, three parts.

Part one is really thinking about what does it mean to have a bigger mindset, a think-big mindset? Part two is what does it really mean to have a think-big plan? Then the third thing is what does it really mean to have think big results as the result of thinking big? That's how I organized my thoughts around this mindset, plans, results.

I'm going to dive a little deeper today in the podcast into each of those categories and give you some examples of what that might look like. Let's just start with the big mindset. Big mindset really means that you become, number one, a better problem-solver.

It means that you figure out how to redirect your energy to find solutions instead of worrying about potential problems. You recognize that the problems actually are really just going to keep changing as you and your business evolves. Problems never go away, so to speak. There's always going to be some challenge or problem. But if you are becoming a big thinker, a futuristic thinker, you're accessing that future you who's already figured it out, you're going to be able to solve for those problems a lot faster.

Here is an example. I have a client who has been in, I'll call it a typical corporate nine-to-five job for the last 20 years or so and she has been talking about starting her own business now since I met her which was like in 2018. She's finally doing it. This summer, as we speak, she is finally going to make it happen.

This means that she needs to tell her employer that she is leaving to start her own business. To her, this was really a problem. It was a problem. How was she going to tell them? What were they going to think? What order was she going to have to leave her work in? Really, when it came down to the problem, what are the words I'm going to say? But we had to shift into more of a problem-solving activity here.

If she is going to become a big thinker and put on her think-big hat, then she's got to think about what kind of response does she want from them, first of all, which she wanted the response of, “Oh, that's amazing. We're so happy for you, don't worry about a thing.” If that's what she wants, then how is she going to get that? What words does she need to use in order to get that?

She's going to shift the conversation here into all the amazing things that are going to come from her leaving, all the opportunities that are going to be opened up for other people in the organization, and how she even, maybe as an independent contractor, could still help them.

This is just shifting from “Oh my gosh, what am I going to say? This is a problem because I don't want to receive some negativity around this” to “Okay, this isn't a problem. I know exactly how this is going to go. I know exactly what I'm going to say. I know exactly how I'm going to position it so it's a win-win for both of us.”

But that took bigger thinking, that took going to the future, what do I want from this conversation and how am I going to get it? Big mindset means that you are a big problem solver.

Big mindset also means that you have some big courage. You are willing to face and overcome the fear that exists out there in the world so that you can accomplish what you want. You are ready to take charge of your fears. I recorded an earlier episode all about fears that I hope you have listened to because really, becoming a big thinker means having the courage to face the fears. Taking charge of them.

Example, client successful has a team of people working with and for her. She, however, wanted to shift her business to focus on only one aspect of her business. She wanted to focus on one aspect of her business and she wanted to give the responsibility of the other aspect to her team members. There was a lot of fear in this.

There was a fear of the unknown. There was fear of being uncertain of how it would be received. There would be fear about what her clients would say if she wasn't the one delivering the service all the time. This took some big courage to actually address it, first of all, with her team, tell them what she wanted from them and why she was doing it, and then it took big courage to roll this out to her clients, and then taking some big courage to actually not fall back into the trap of old ways.

In order to do these three things, she had to go access the future her who is focusing on the part of the business that she loves, who has loyal clients who don't care whether she's delivering the service or her team is delivering the service. She had to go to the place where her team was like, “Amazing. Bring it on, I'm ready for more responsibility.” That all took big courage and that all had to come from her future you, from thinking about that person that she wants to be in the future, and asking her what to do.

This is a little bit like crossing the comfort zone. I love to say everything you ever wanted was on the other side of uncomfortable. Thinking big really involves crossing that mental boundary of comfort to explore discomfort. It involves thinking about goals and where you want to be and being okay with not knowing the actual how.

It also means stepping into the discomfort zone, not the delusional zone, we'll talk about that a little later, but the discomfort zone, big courage, second part of big mindset. Third part of big mindset is big belief.

Now, there is a guy out there by the name of David Schwartz, he wrote a book The Magic of Thinking Big and in there, he says, “The size of your success is determined by the size of your belief.” I am a big believer that we need to not just have an action plan and a time plan in our business, but we've got to have a belief plan which goes along with the size of your success is determined by the size of your belief.

My client Jill, who I've interviewed here on this podcast, had to have big belief as she shifted her business into a brand new business. She had to believe in herself that she could do this. She was capable of it even though she had never done it before. She had to believe that people wanted the service. She had to believe that she could do this and have all the other pieces of her life that she wanted, traveling, time off, etc.

The actions and the time, that was the easy part here. It was the big belief for Jill that was actually the secret sauce, the mindset. Then the fourth piece of big mindset, so we've got big problem solving, big courage, big belief, next is big commitment. You've got to change from just being interested into being committed, but not attached.

I've talked about this on a lot of episodes about having big commitment. When you have big commitment, you start to make decisions. I've got a client who is starting a second business on top of her existing business. For a while, I felt like she was just going through the motions, but not really making any progress on that second business. The reason was, we discovered, that she was just interested in making it happen but not necessarily committed.

Once she shifted into commitment, things started to happen. She made decisions, it got going. Big mindset involves big problem solving, having big courage, big belief, and big commitment. These are actually chapters in my book where I go more in-depth into them and I give you more examples of what it might look like for you. That's all part one of the book.

Then in part two, we go into being plans. The first element of big plans is having a big picture, knowing what is the real situation, what's really going on today. You know where you are today, and you also then know where you want to go. In order to create a big picture, you've got to really understand what's happening right now.

This is like getting real with yourself. How are you spending your time? Does it align with that future you? Is it how future you would spend time? What do you have in terms of resources? Money, for example. What kind of money do you think you might need in the future? This is having a bigger picture.

My client who is shifting her business too had to get real with herself and had to have a bigger picture of what her commitments were over the next year, how she was going to have to spend some of her time, and how she was going to spend the rest of her time in order to make this thing happen.

When she's spending too much time on passive action, I like to call it, was that going to continue to work for her? Did she have enough money to fund all of this or how was she going to generate money? That's understanding the big picture so that then you can make, part two of big plans, big decisions. What are you prioritizing? What are you working on? Are you adopting a mindset of extraordinary achievement? Are you working in your zone of extraordinary achievement?

I have a client from Texas who has two little boys and a thriving business, and she always feels like she's treading water. But we had to make some decisions on what to prioritize. Maybe going slower in some areas so that she could go faster in the future was going to work. She had to understand what she and only she could do in her business and what she could delegate.

This is like what can you delegate? What are the things that only you can do? Are these things moving the business forward? Do you need more resources in order to delegate? Really understanding what only you and you can do and what other people can do, that's part of making plans and making decisions.

She's not the only one that can do invoicing. She's not the only one actually that could have an initial intake call. But she is the only one that can design a beautiful space. That is her expertise. All the backend stuff, no, not so much. She had to prioritize.

Then the third element here of this big plan is having a big vision. You've got to be able to paint your new big picture. It's important that you can visualize the path ahead and then take the steps to move in that direction. But you've got to visualize where you want to go. Jumping right into action without visualizing where you want to go is not going to work out.

You've got to visualize where that future you is. Are you someone that wants to have a storefront and you want to invite your customers into your own brick-and-mortar storefront? Is that part of your vision? If it is, then all of your decisions and planning have to align with that vision. Taking on virtual clients is not going to work out anymore. Taking on teeny-weeny projects where someone wouldn't need to come to see you in your own space is not going to work anymore because you want people in your space.

I have a client right now that is opening a storefront. It's been her lifelong dream. She definitely is doing it scared but this is what she is envisioning for her future. Then the last part of this big planning is taking the big actions. But you can't take the action unless you have the vision. You can't have the vision unless you've made some decisions. You can't make decisions unless you have the full picture of what's going on right now.

Then the last part of this big thinking is the big results that you're going to get. You're going to get big results. Big thinking includes you being okay with big results and recognizing that the freedom that big thinking gives us is really just in your mind. The freedom you get from having big thinking is freedom in your mind. You start to realize that anything is possible.

You can do anything you want with your time. No one dictates how you spend your time. You can do anything you want with your money. No one dictates how you spend your money. You can be with any person. No one's dictating who you need to be with. Big thinking leads you to these kinds of freedoms.

My client who is a coach, but is more of a career coach, recognized that she didn't like how she was spending her time. It wasn't actually feeling freeing to her at all. But she was stuck in small thinking, meaning that she believed originally that she was the one that had to do all the things inside her business.

Once she put on her future-you hat and I asked her, “What is the future you doing?” she said, “I'm just doing (what I call) clarity calls with clients or I'm running workshops. I'm not doing the nitty-gritty resume writing. I'm not doing the LinkedIn profiles.” That was so freeing to her because she started to hire people to do that kind of thing. That was the freedom that she was looking for.

Part of big results along with big freedom is recognizing that your future is always going to include some stress but knowing that you can now shift with big thinking from what I call stuck stress to progress stress. I have a client who was definitely in stuck stress and she was in the stuck stress of “I don't know how to do anything. I don't know how to find more clients.” It was her big thing.

She does know. She has to make some offers. She has to offer her services to other people. When she offers her services to other people, she's going to have some takers, but that was a shift from being in stuck stress to progress stress. I spent a lot of time in the book talking about the shifts because that is what a big thinker does. We shift from stuck stress to progress stress, and then we create for ourselves big opportunities. We create our next challenge.

What if all of a sudden I have so many clients, I may not have enough time on my calendar, what am I going to do then? You know that saying the sky's the limit? That inspires us to think big. There isn't ever such a thing as too many clients, you're always going to figure out what to do. Thinking big does not guarantee success every moment, but what it does guarantee is our ability to find success, to problem solve, to have courage, to be committed, to make decisions, to have a plan. Big opportunities come with big thinking.

My client, Cynde, who's been on this podcast a couple of times, she has created so many big opportunities for herself, never quite knowing what it's all going to look like but she's gotten used to that and she's okay with that now. She knows that she's going to figure it out. When she has too many inquiries, then she figures out what to do with that. When she has the opportunity to speak on a worldwide platform and never done that before, she figures out that. Big opportunities come with big thinking.

Lastly, my friends, big work comes with big thinking, but this really is the work worth doing. Anyone who is engaging and coaching is doing this big work. They wouldn't be working with me, they wouldn't be reading the She Thinks Big book if they weren't ready and/or already doing the work worth doing which is working on yourself.

Being an entrepreneur is a journey and personal development disguised as an entrepreneurial adventure. This is so, so true. That means that you're willing to do the work on yourself to become a better thinker, to understand how to work through stuck stress, to nail or identify your limiting beliefs and turn them into liberating truths, to move from being interested to committed. That is all big thinking kind of work. That is the work worth doing.

Okay my friends, head over to shethinksbigthebook.com, join the Think Big Movement so that you get discounted pricing, you get free bonuses, you get a ticket to the She Thinks Big Masterclass, and you get all sorts of other goodies coming your way as we prepare for the launch of She Thinks Big: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Guide To Moving Past The Messy Middle and Into The Extraordinary. You’re extraordinary, my friends. Now is the time to level up. Head over to shethinksbigthebook.com and join me. See you soon.

Hey, listening to podcasts is great. But you also have to do something to kick your business up a notch. You need to take some action, right? So go to andreaslinks.com and take the quiz. I guarantee you'll walk away knowing exactly what your next best step is to level up.