165: Embracing a Belief Plan: Mastermind Discussion From the She Thinks Big Live Stage

Andrea Liebross: 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 am thrilled you're here and I wish you were all here in person because I am coming off of my She Thinks Big Live event, I am recording this about 10 days after that, and it's so amazing to be in person.

In fact, one of the biggest pieces of feedback I got was how amazing it was to be in person, not in person versus Zoom but in person in order to feel the energy and create a deeper connection, that kind of in person. I'm going to do another episode that’s all about the event, how I created it, and what went into it. But today what I wanted to share with you was a segment from it. It was from our session one.

Session one at She Thinks Big Live was about creating your belief plan. We all hear about action plans, “What do I need to do?” We all hear about time, “What's the timeframe for this?” We actually have lots of discussions these days about work-life balance, and we can have a whole episode on that, but what I want to share with you today is this concept of belief plan.

I had to have a belief plan in order to create She Thinks Big Live, let's get real, but I also shared with my clients the importance of them having a belief plan, and I invited up on stage three of my mastermind clients who have really, really embraced this belief plan.

Now, one of them you'll hear will say, “I think you should have a belief plan from day one.” I'm not sure she had a belief plan from day one. But now she recognizes that she should have had a belief plan from day one. But these three have been in coaching long enough and have gone deep enough with coaching to recognize the importance of a belief plan and they're all part of my mastermind.

The mastermind is called Runway to Freedom. The reason I titled it that, you've probably heard me say, is because when you have got a business that is profitable, that is multiple six figures, part of being the business owner, or the reason that you're probably still in business is because you want some freedom. You don't want to be tied to a desk nine to five, you don't want to have to answer to someone else, and you've got to believe that that is actually possible.

Nicole Pence Becker, who was my emcee, sat down with Whitney, Rebecca, and Cynde and had a conversation about their belief plans, how they formed them, what it really entails, and you're going to see actually that they have different beliefs. It's not just about growing the business.

Rebecca is going to mention, or I'm going to bring it up and have her mention, how she traveled 60-plus days out of the year and has a profitable growing, thriving, counseling practice. That’s her belief.

Cynde has hired a team of people now to be educators to do some of her back-end stuff. She really had to believe that she didn't have to do it all herself.

Whitney really had to hone in on the belief that she had to get her home situation, her kids, care of her children and family in order to grow her business and that it was okay if the babysitter she had for three months wasn't the babysitter that she was going to have in month four. It didn't have to be some amazing hire that she was going to have for 10 years. She just had to fill the role and move on and she had to take care of that in order to take care of her business.

There are lots of tidbits in here as we talk about belief plan. I'm just going to let you listen to this and then stick around to the end because I want to point out a couple of things to you after you have listened to these amazing women, amazing CEOs.

Nicole Pence Becker: Let's give them a round of applause. As you can see there, ladies, two of you on the couch, one right there, Andrea is going to stay with us, as you can see, they’re from all over, literally all over the country, which is really cool to have these actual practical applications of being a big believer.

Ladies, Whitney, let's start with you, walk through, introduce everybody to who you are, what you do, and then we'll start talking about the belief plan. Let's introduce you.

Whitney Vredenburgh: Yeah. Good morning. I'm Whitney Vredenburgh and I live here in Indianapolis. I have four kids ages 12 through 6. They did have a two-hour delay today. They also had one Tuesday, but anyways, and I own a home staging and design business based here called Nested Spaces. I've been working with Andrea for three years now. I'm excited to be here and to just share knowledge with everybody.

Nicole Pence Becker: Rebecca.

Rebecca Hogg: I'm Rebecca Hogg. I have a counseling practice in the Dallas area. I've been working with Andrea for about two years now, about two and a half years into my business. I'm happy to be here.

Nicole Pence Becker: And Cynde.

Cynde McInnis: I am Cynde McInnis. I grew up in Indiana, but now I live in Massachusetts. I've been working with Andrea for a long time. I own The Whalemobile. I have a life-size inflatable whale that we take around.

Nicole Pence Becker: I researched it. I love it.

Andrea Liebross: She might be the most unique business with all the businesses here but that's okay.

Nicole Pence Becker: Yeah, and Cynde, now I'm so in love and distracted by your hairpiece right now. It's a whale. Did you guys catch what Cynde does? Okay, because I think it's so unique. You have to wrap your head around. Cynde, you were saying that you've been working with Andrea for several years.

Cynde McInnis: Yeah.

Nicole Pence Becker: Okay. All of these are clients, they've obviously been a part of this idea of first starting with a big belief. Let's talk about belief plan. Just initially, one of you tell us, when you understood that concept from Andrea, how did you first react to it? What did it make you think of first and were you aligned with what it turned out really to be? Whitney, do you want to take that one?

Whitney Vredenburgh: I think for me, this type of coaching was new and different. I've had a business coach ever since I started my business and I came from a corporate background. I got my master's and did all those types of things. But when you own your own business, it really starts from a belief in yourself, and your business grows at the rate at which you are growing.

To have a belief plan is really, for me, it was very overwhelming because I knew where I wanted to go but to become the person I needed to become to get to those goals felt very overwhelming. What Andrea did was, first of all, she made me laugh and cry and she was like, “This is supposed to be fun.”

I guess if I could instill anything in today's discussion, I would say these are your goals. Don't take them too seriously, the journey is supposed to be challenging and also fun.

Nicole Pence Becker: And rewarding.

Whitney Vredenburgh: And rewarding, yeah.

Nicole Pence Becker: And it has been for you.

Whitney Vredenburgh: Yes.

Nicole Pence Becker: Okay. Rebecca, talk about your belief plan and how you had to really hone in on what you believed as an individual to help define your business goals.

Rebecca Hogg: Oh, man. It started with our consultation call where basically at the end, she was like, “Are you committed? Do you believe that you can do this?” Thankfully, I was at a place of desperation where I was like, “Yes, I am committed and I believe that I can.” That has been a journey of different beliefs of, “I think I am capable,” and things like that. Definitely worth the journey. Yes, some tears and some laughter but definitely a lot of fun too.

Nicole Pence Becker: Was this one of the hardest parts of just starting with your business plan and your goals is like sitting down and making you think about “Here's where I stand. Here's what I believe. Here's what I think I'm capable of”? Cynde, how do you feel about that?

Cynde McInnis: I don't think it was like a sit-down and do it. I think for me, it was really gradual. I started coaching because I was quarantining pre-vaccines and stuff for 10 days. I was sitting in my bedroom, and I was like, “I can't do anything. I need a mindset shift.” That was one of the things that I remember saying.

I knew that I just was not thinking about life in a way that was going to get me anywhere. I feel like the belief plan for me has been a little bit more gradual in this like a year and a half of, I don't know, being in different directions and then literally had a moment where we were talking and you were like, “I believe that you can do this.” That was for me a huge thing that was like, “Oh, I can do this.”

Nicole Pence Becker: How was that? I know in those moments, it really is about like, “What is that feeling in that space, in that time, in that moment,” and it's maybe hard to articulate it but what was it that how she said that or how you got there that you were like, “I'm going to act. Now I'm going to move”?

Cynde McInnis: Because I knew that I could do it. I mean, I think that there's been this little like, “I know I can do this.” I mean, the whale has been my thing my whole life. For me, it's never been a “What am I going to do?” it's more of the how. I always knew that I could talk to people about whales, but it was believing that I could do all of the other pieces of running a business, figure all that stuff out, and be able to create something that was viable.

Andrea Liebross: I think also, I'm just going to throw something, you had a hard time thinking bigger. You had just one model of how you were going to communicate to the world what you wanted to communicate and it was really hard for you to break out of that and think about other ways, being on bigger stages, sharing to different types of audiences, growing a team, and all the things. Right?

Cynde McInnis: Yeah, absolutely. I was like, “I can't do this by myself.” But that was the only way that I was thinking about. That has shifted entirely.

Nicole Pence Becker: That's probably a big piece of all of this, recognizing and believing in the fact that you can lead others, you can coach others, you can be motivated even by others. Talk about, Whitney, some of your stories growing a team, trusting of others, and the belief that you can do that, which was new and exciting.

Whitney Vredenburgh: I know some of you have kids here. I have four kids and I have a traveling husband. We moved a few years ago, almost 10, to Indianapolis, and we moved away from family. That was also different for me and the fact that you think about your family life and how you have a village helping you and then you also need a village helping you grow your business.

I think what I've learned through Andrea, because I was trying to do it all myself, and with kids, you have a rotating group of helpers, depending on if they're in college or if they're out for the summer or whatever, so setting expectations pretty low that hey, every three to six months, I may have to get a new pool of people to help me with my house, with my kids, with this puppy I just got, all those things, that's the personal.

Men can categorize things. When they're at home, they're at home. When they're at work, they're at work, but for women, everything melds together. I really needed that support at home in order to feel like I could focus and grow and be a leader within my business.

Initially, with my business, I was hiring—and there's nothing wrong with this—younger, less experienced people to help me, and in the past few years, I've hired more experienced people, it's been more costly but can I tell you, when they are doing a job for me, and I know I can improve a couple of things but I don't have to be there the whole time and I can focus on the business, not in the business, how valuable that is. That was a big shift for me too.

I think considering hiring experts on your team that may be a little more costly than you initially thought but they will be your salespeople, they will take work off your shoulders, they will make you look good in front of clients, those are all big lessons for me.

Nicole Pence Becker: Yeah. Rebecca, do you want to add on that talk track?

Rebecca Hogg: Yes. Just also something you said even before that of delegating. Andrea has five levels of delegation, I think.

Andrea Liebross: Yes.

Rebecca Hogg: That was really helpful not to just like delegate, what does that mean? Break it down into ability of trust and how much you trust somebody.

Whitney Vredenburgh: Are they capable? Do they get it? Do they have the capacity for it? You will probably find in the beginning you will be hiring like, “Oh, somebody wants to work with me. That's great.” But once you experience the joys and the pains of that, then you might be looking for somebody who's an expert in x area. That's when they can get a level-five delegation and you're not constantly overseeing.

Rebecca Hogg: It's an investment too, like what you're saying. Like yes, it's more costly, but is that worth the investment? Only you really know that.

Nicole Pence Becker: So we're talking about the people around you, whether it's in your business or recognizing where your family is at. Andrea kind of alluded to this but I think one thing I want you guys to answer is when you look for people in your spaces, in your village, whether it's personal or professional, do you look for them to have the same believing mindset, the same belief?

Do they have to fully embrace the same idea that, yes, children need to know more about whales, they need to understand how whales impact the world and the environment. I did a lot of research. I was very curious. An inflatable traveling whale. My children would love that. But for real, how much of the same belief system is necessary for the people in your business or for your family? Or is it not?

Cynde McInnis: For me, it's huge. I mean, I brought my team with me today. My two educators, I mean, we were laughing, we were at a school yesterday in Chicago, and we all travel and we have been to aquariums, we'd go home and watch whale documentaries. We all talked about our documentaries that we had watched the night before with the kids yesterday that we talked to and so we are all passionate about what we do. That's usually important.

But I will also say, I brought my right-hand woman with me, when I wanted to get somebody to help me do all of the back office stuff, one of the things that I decided was really important was that she had a marine biology background so that she was passionate about the ocean and marine biology and getting us in front of kids to talk about it.

Andrea Liebross: It was a great day when we found her. You didn't even know, Christine, that we found you, we didn’t even know you existed and you should have seen Cynde's eyes light up. We were searching for you.

Cynde McInnis: After like my fire coming out of my head.

Andrea Liebross: It was hard for you to make that leap that you were going to trust someone else to do some of these things in your business that you had been doing all along.

Cynde McInnis: Yeah.

Nicole Pence Becker: So for Cynde, she says it's very vital that the people around her in her workspace understand and have the same belief and then it turns into the culture of the organization.

Andrea, add here on this because I think when you said something that when you're walking us through this piece of the puzzle, you said something, “It's okay if not everybody maybe in your family understands your full belief plan.”

Andrea Liebross: This is a hard topic because we also question, “How much should we tell them? Do they need to understand your business just as much as you do? What do they need to know? What do they not need to know?” I think on a very basic level, they do need to believe in your cause.

If it's just from a customer service perspective or client service perspective, they do have to get it that you are passionate about what you're doing and the service you're giving. Do they have to be as all-in as you? I think Cynde's situation is a little unique because her business is constantly sharing that passion. But like Rebecca, you have people working for you that they get what you're doing, they're not all going home thinking about it.

Rebecca Hogg: They can come and go but the main thing is how do they work with the client? Do they work from that same standpoint? From a customer service standpoint, what is their customer service? How are you serving your clients?

Nicole Pence Becker: Stay in line with your processes, what you value.

Andrea Liebross: I talked about core values. They have to align with your core values. If they're all in on your mission and all that, super. But I want to bring up something about belief plan that Rebecca has done. She has traveled the world, like literally been traveling to other countries for how many days last year?

Rebecca Hogg: About 30 at a time last year and the year before. Oh, total?

Andrea Liebross: Total.

Rebecca Hogg: Oh, total. Maybe like 60 in total.

Andrea Liebross: Yeah, I think you told me it was 60-plus days that she was “out of the office.” But yet, her business was still running. You were still managing to work. That took a lot of belief that that could happen so she could be wherever you were, Norway, Sweden, somewhere, Denmark, next to go.

Rebecca Hogg: Sweden.

Andrea Liebross: Mexico. I don't know.

Rebecca Hogg: Mexico, Turkey.

Andrea Liebross: Places and still be running a business. That in and of itself was a belief. That had to come from a belief plan.

Rebecca Hogg: Can I also add that it's interesting because before, I would be like, “Oh, how am I going to do that?” then, when you were like, “I'm going to add what Rebecca's doing, like what did I do?” and so it's almost like it becomes somewhat natural, or at least that's my experience.

Nicole Pence Becker: Was that strategically a goal of the year? Years ago, was it a dream? How cool would it be one day to own a business while it's still scaling and it's profitable and people are doing the work within for you because they're passionate about it as well, and you're able to explore the world as you always wanted, but never thought those were possible.

Rebecca Hogg: Yeah.

Nicole Pence Becker: That's one of those good examples of, in that belief plan, you do have to think about the dream. It does sound kind of crazy to own a business and to be gone 60 days out of the year. I mean, that's incredible. But you've achieved that now with the goals in place of making sure you have the right people, the right processes, everything along the way.

Rebecca Hogg: Yeah. I thought, because I worked for a school district before as a teacher and then I changed careers to what I really love to do, I was like, “Oh, I can only do it during the summer.” Then something happened, took a leap, started my own business, and then was able to work so much differently that it wasn't just the summer, just winter break, or just spring breaks.

Nicole Pence Becker: I love that. Whitney, last thing, mindful of time, but as you think about all of us in the room, whether some have sat down and thought about a belief plan, who and how should you come to the table, recognize that it can be gradual, and how soon do you approach that? What point do you have to be at in your business to start?

Whitney Vredenburgh: I think you should start from the very beginning with a belief plan. Then I think you should write it out. I prayed over mine. If you want to sage it, if you want to do whatever, do it, and then I shared it with Andrea, and then we talked through it. We fleshed out what that could actually look like. I think that's the power of doing some homework on your own. You have free rein to think through that.

Then when you share it with somebody else who you trust and who can guide you, the power is you have this conversation and it becomes more real. Just like anything, when I'm trying to start something new with a business or I have this business idea, before it happens, I start talking about it and I'm riffing on it but I get this elevator pitch going in. It's kind of a game to me because I'm like, “How does it sound?”

Nicole Pence Becker: Like do they like how it works?

Whitney Vredenburgh: Yeah, and you get more comfortable saying your dream or your goal, I guess, your goal out loud. Then as you speak it, I feel like you're literally manifesting it. It may not look exactly how you wrote it out, so there's flexibility in that but I think that's part of just how the universe works to help you bring that goal to life.

Andrea Liebross: And revisiting it. I'm a big believer in revisiting things over and over again. They evolve, they change but I mean, all three of you, I think it's all evolved over time.

Rebecca Hogg: I did have to borrow your beliefs initially a lot, and that was fine and that's okay.

Andrea Liebross: I always say I believe in you more than you believe in yourself.

Rebecca Hogg: I mean, that's what I do for clients. Sometimes they don't believe that they can achieve things. It’s like, “No, I see it, I see it.” This has been really helpful for me and that seems like I can see this happening. I'm like, “Are you sure?”

Nicole Pence Becker: I love that. Ladies, let's give a big round of applause. Thank you for sharing. It's sometimes hard to get up and be open to answering questions and to share about what you're doing in your space.

Andrea Liebross: Okay, my friends. What did you think of that conversation? I want to point out a couple of things to you. Number one, did you notice how Whitney mentioned several times that as a CEO, as a business owner, there are both tears and laughter? There are challenges and fun and it has to be fun in order for you to keep going.

I think that is something that we learn in this mastermind because when I do these in-person retreats, and I'm doing another one in April so if you want to be in on that, you need to message me ASAP. But we learned in that mastermind that we can mix business and fun. Business is fun in and of itself. How do we have fun in our business? That is the number one thing I wanted to point out to you.

The second thing I wanted to point out to you is that they mentioned you can only grow as fast, your business can only grow as fast as you grow as a human. This concept of personal development being key for CEOs, it's true because your business is only going to grow as fast as you do, as fast as you expand your thinking, as fast as you think of new possibilities, as fast as you take care of yourself. That's super important.

Something else I wanted to point out to you that came across a couple of times was the fact that I believe in my clients more than they believe in themselves often and they have to borrow on my belief in order to keep going. Again, that is something that I think comes across in all levels of all coaching programs I have, but especially in the mastermind because we are thinking about bigger concepts, bigger growth, bigger challenges, and bigger risks.

If you're someone who would love to have someone believe in you, and not just say it but truly live it, then you should consider joining us in the mastermind. Here's the last thing. You have to figure out, as CEO of your business, what you're going to do, what you're not going to do, what you're going to delegate, what you're going to do yourself, and that involves a belief plan because you have to be believing that other people can fulfill roles and functions in your business maybe even better than you.

Hiring, spending money on these people is worth it. I think Whitney comes out and says it. She's dabbled in hiring lots of different people and she's realized that she should just hire the best. That goes for your support team, that goes for the people that actually are delivering the service, all the things.

I consider myself an integral part of my client’s businesses who are in the mastermind. I consider myself part of their support team, an employee almost. My role is to believe in them among other things. But it is worth investing in that in order to feel good about things, in order to have fun, in order to grow, in order to get to all the places that you want to get to.

Come join us in coaching. Set up a consult call. Let's just chat. Maybe the mastermind is not for you, maybe one of the other coaching programs is. But if you have an inkling of believing in yourself, imagine the belief that someone else might have in you. This is different than a family member, my friends, like your spouse, I'm sure, they believe in you or your partner, your kids, your mom, whatever, but having someone outside of your business holding space for you, holding that belief is of utmost importance if you want to grow as a human and as a business owner.

Why not believe that even just having a conversation about securing additional support may be valuable in and of itself? Forget about whether or not you decide you want to work with a coach, just the call is you showing yourself that you believe in yourself. It's like evidence that you know that you have the power to create anything you want and maybe you need a boost.

Maybe you need someone to believe in you. Maybe you need some ideas. Maybe you need to figure out how you're going to do it. That often comes from coaching, but it first has to come from you in believing that something like this is possible.

Rebecca said when I asked her at the end of a consult if she believed in herself and she said yes. She was like, “I realized that you probably believed in yourself. You probably believed in me more than I did.” At that point, 100%, and she was willing to let me hold that belief for her.

I'm willing to hold belief for you. You just have to have a teeny itsy bit of belief in yourself in order to set up a free complimentary consult call. Sometimes I think these consult calls in and of themselves are worth thousands of dollars. Who cares what comes of it? Really I'm urging you to not just sit back and take passive action like listening to a podcast, and I love podcasts, but to take some massive action, head over to andreaslinks.com, find the schedule a consult call button, and schedule it. If there's not a time on there that works for you, message me, we'll find a time. I'm willing to work with you.

Alright, my friends. I believe in you. I believe in you. Stay tuned for more from She Thinks Big Live in the coming episodes. But I wanted to start with this because I think this is super duper important. Alright, my friends, until next time. It's your time to level up. Get yourself the support you need. Come join us at the mastermind retreat but if you're going to do that, you got to act fast right now, because we're meeting at the beginning of April. Alright. Have a great week. See you next time.

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.