197: From Messy Middle to Big Moves: How Big Thinkers Shape the Future

Hello, my friends, and welcome back to the She Thinks Big! Podcast. This is a very special episode because it is celebrating the one-year anniversary of the release of the She Thinks Big: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Guide to Moving Past the Messy Middle and Into the Extraordinary, the release of the paperback and hardback and e-book, which happened on September 23rd, 2023.

We're celebrating that in this episode, and we are celebrating that with the release of the audiobook version of She Thinks Big. If you have not yet purchased your copy of the audiobook and gotten all the amazing bonuses that come with it, you need to head over to my website where I am going to give you a link to purchase on multiple platforms, and then I'm going to give you access to bonuses.

That probably is still going to be there, no matter whether you're listening to this episode in September of 2024 or beyond. So head over to andrealiebross.com/books, and you will find what you need. You can actually just go to andreaslinks.com and you can get there too.

Okay, all those links will be in the show notes. But listen, as I was trying to prepare this episode, I was wondering, “What do I talk about to celebrate this?” I decided I'm going to break this episode into three parts.

First, I want to share with you what I've observed over the last year as I've really honed in on identifying and being more aware of who are big thinkers and what are they doing.

I've noticed five things that I think they all have in common. This is different than the five things that create a big thinker when I use the acronym TRUST. These are five different things.

Then I want to share with you some women who I think are big thinkers because what they've done might help you do what you want to do. Then lastly, I'm going to tell you why I created the audiobook because this is a question that I get.

Okay. That's the plan. Again, if you haven't gotten the book in audiobook form, you can use andreaslinks.com to get to the website because if you go through the website and purchase, you're also going to see what bonuses are out there for you, which you don't want to miss, that are all just part of purchasing the audiobook.

All right. I've talked to thousands of people in the last 365 days. It's pretty easy, actually, to identify who big thinking comes to naturally and who it doesn't. Because if they're a natural big thinker or if there's someone who's working on being more of a big thinker, they've got probably all of these five things. Here we go. Are you ready?

In general, I want to say that big thinkers are individuals who really see beyond today. They see beyond the present you. They are beyond the immediate. They can envision larger, more revolutionary ideas, solutions, and outcomes in themselves, in their business, and for the world.

There are a few key traits. Number one, they have a visionary outlook. They have become really good friends with future you. I've talked about future you in past episodes. This is the you that's a year from now, three years from now, five, ten years from now who has gotten to a place where they want to be, who sees the potential and the possibilities out there, not only for themselves but for others and for the community.

They can visualize that future. They have a knack for it. This is so true. When I get into a Vision Into Action Intensive, inevitably, someone's going to say, “This vision part is so easy for me,” and other people are going to say, “This vision part is so hard.” Big thinkers see potential where others really see obstacles and they imagine what could be rather than simply what is right now.

When people are stuck in the “here and now,” they just want to know what they need to do right now. “I'll follow your directions, Andrea. Let's just figure out the action steps. I don't need any of this vision stuff.”

Not true. If you want to be a big thinker if you want to go beyond where you are today, you have to have a visionary outlook. That's number one. Number two, you've got to be creative. You've got to be innovative.

Big thinkers really approach problems with creative solutions. They can come up with new systems, new processes, new products, and new methods that are going to challenge what they're doing right now.

They are always curious about what's out there and what's possible. I have a lot of clients who are in creative fields. The field in and of itself is creative. Designers, web designers, interior designers, people who are creating copy, that kind of thing.

I'm not so great at what I would think the arts and crafts piece of things, the true design with elements of color or even necessarily words. But what I'm really good at are creative solutions.

If you have not taken the VIA Character Strengths Survey, go to my website. It's under my fave things. You need to take this VIA Character Strengths Survey because they outline 23 strengths that we have as humans. In my top three is creativity.

When I took this, I was blown away that the word creativity was in my top three because I never ever pictured myself as a creative person. My mom's sister—shout out to Auntie Cici—she was creative. She used to sew clothes for me. She made my first communion dress. She made a strawberry shortcake Halloween outfit. She was super creative. I was not. My mom was not.

But what I've come to realize is that my creativity is really more solution-based. Big thinkers, I've noticed over the past year, they have innovative mindsets. Number two, they are resilient. They are not deterred. They are not discouraged by failures or setbacks.

I see this in a lot of my clients when it comes to the people aspect of their businesses, the hiring, the firing, the finding of the right people, team, and support. That is tricky, my friends. It's a challenge. It's also an opportunity for you to have other creative thinkers in your business or creative in some way.

But often, it may not work out. The big thinkers that I coach don't become ruffled by that for more than a day. They are resilient. Give yourself a little gut check. How resilient are you? Or do things just derail you? If they derail you, we got to work on that.

Okay, the fourth thing I've noticed. Big thinkers are willing to take risks. When I'm creating one-year goals with my clients or areas of focus, I use the SMARTER framework. There's an episode on that too.

One of those Rs in there in SMARTER stands for these goals have to be Risky. That is hard for a lot of people. It is very, very hard. I'm not talking about putting yourself in danger kind of risk. I'm talking about big thinkers are willing to take calculated risks to achieve their goals. They understand that there is a reward at the end. There's a light at the end of the tunnel.

That light at the end of the tunnel, that reward often requires them to step into the unknown, to ride down what I call the river of misery to get to the other place. But they're willing to do it. They recognize that it's only temporary.

Big thinkers, they're risk-taking. They don't dwell on things, too. They don't experience business lag because they make decisions quickly. The fifth thing, big thinkers I've noticed, they're inspirational. They're leaders.

Many big thinkers really have to also inspire and motivate others in the role that they are in their business as CEO. They also at home are constantly trying to motivate and inspire others, kids, spouses, you name it.

They're able to motivate others and to be a leader by sharing their vision, by sharing their enthusiasm. They're willing to communicate what their future you sees. For people who cringe at doing that or who cower at doing that, they're not big thinkers.

I've got people that, you know, “Oh, my gosh, my friends, we went out to dinner and they asked me how my business was going and I didn't know what to say.” Big thinkers are just telling you what's happening. They're just telling it like it is. They have inspirational leadership.

These are the five things. Give yourself a little gut check. Visionary outlook, innovative mindset, resilience, risk-taking, and inspirational leadership. Those are the things that big thinkers have going for them. They're characterized by those five key traits.

Who are some big thinkers? Well, this one I went to the Googles for and I typed in “Who are some big thinkers that are women?” I find looking at this list very fascinating because there's some oldies and there's some new people on here. But what the Googles brought up as big thinkers are people who have made a significant contribution in their respective fields.

I often hear my clients say, “I want to leave a legacy. I want to leave a legacy for my family. I want to be known as the best marketer in my area. I want to be known as a revolutionary in terms of design. I want to be creating educational programs that are beyond amazing that everybody wants to grab.”

Someone like Marie Curie, and there's a movie about her if you haven't watched it, and Lessons in Chemistry, that book and that TV series on Apple TV, they bring a little Marie Curie into it, she really was a pioneering physicist and chemist, and she won the Nobel Prize in physics and chemistry.

But her discoveries were all in the field of radioactivity. It really paved the way for a lot of advances in science and medicine. My husband is a radiation oncologist. What he does is he treats cancer patients with radiation. You've heard people get chemo. Sometimes they have a tumor surgically removed.

What he does is he delivers, he plans treatment using radiation. He's not a radiologist. But I remember when he started residency, the attending physician gave everybody a book about Marie Curie.

If you think about it, she had to push her way into labs. She had to push her way into scholarly journals. She had to push her way into offices where people would listen to her. That's a big thinker. She wasn't afraid. She took a risk. She definitely was inspirational. She led and she was innovative. She went after that future you, who was a Nobel Prize winning chemist female. That's one example.

Here's another one. Sheryl Sandberg. She was COO or chief operating officer of Facebook. She really has been, in the past few decades, a driving force in tech. She had the book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. If you haven't read that book, it's a great one. It's a good one to listen to too.

It really encouraged women to pursue their ambitions and has sparked so many discussions around the world about women in leadership. What's a woman doing in leadership? How does she lead? Sheryl Sandberg was revolutionary in this. She had a platform to do it on. I mean, everybody knew what Facebook was. But she really was revolutionary in rolling out the red carpet for other women in tech.

Here's the third one I'm going to share with you. I don't think I'm going to share all five. Here's the third one. Malala. Malala, that Pakistani activist for female education who survived a Taliban assassination attempt, the assassination attempt. At a very, very young age, she survived that Taliban assassination attempt.

Then she became the youngest ever Nobel Prize laureate advocating for girls' education rights. She's got a book, and I believe there's a movie too. She was a big thinker, man. She knew that she could go beyond her village. She knew that she could move past the assassination and get her voice out there.

So when you're worrying about your business and what other people will think if you do what you want to do, if you charge what you want to charge, if you spend the time you want to spend, think about these people, Marie Curie, Malala, Sheryl Sandberg. They weren't worrying about those things.

Are they human? Were they scared at times? I'm sure they were. I don't know. I haven't asked them. But they went for it. I see this in a lot of my clients. I've put together a playlist of client case studies.

There are probably maybe 20 in there, and they're me interviewing clients about how they've pushed past their own obstacles, what they've found along the way, and where their big thinking has led them. I encourage you to go to the show notes and to access this client case study playlist.

I think I call it client guest interviews. Stacey and her team, my podcast producer, will put the link in the show notes. You will want to listen to that because I think you will find it inspirational with real-life client stories, real-life women who are driving, dropping kids off at carpool, and making dinner, and running a business, real-life stories of how they’ve infused big thinking into their lives.

All right. Here is the last part of my episode today. I want to share with you why I created this audiobook. Because I'm going to be real, you guys. I could have just stopped at bestseller, paperback, hardback. Like, I could have an e-book. I could have just stopped. I could have just not kept going because recording an audio book, again, was a slog. Call it a slog.

Fun, interesting. It was interesting for me to read it out loud. I did it. The reading took place January, February, March so it had been a full six months since I had really read the book cover to cover myself and I don't think I had ever really read my book out loud. The audiobook is my voice.

I recorded it in my home podcast studio with the help of a company called Audivita. They were in New Mexico, or at least my guy was in New Mexico. He was always on the other side of the link, and he would coach me through the reading. He would say, “Stop, reread that. Are you sure you want to put the emphasis on this and that?”

It was an interesting process. But again, it was a slog. It was 12 recording sessions each 90 minutes. But why did I do it? Here's really why I did it, because I want to create a world of more big thinkers. I know the more ways, the more platforms I have to get that message out, the more likely this is to happen. The more likely I am going to make an impact. I am going to leave a legacy.

Now, there are the very practical reasons of creating an audiobook. You can “read” it while you're multitasking. It's convenient. You can listen while you're on the go. I mean, if you're a podcast listener, you already get all that stuff. Also, you get to hear my voice and how I'm talking through the book.

Sometimes when you hear someone's voice reading to you the story—and there are lots of stories in there. There actually are, I think we counted up like 18 stories in there—they might go in better if someone's reading it aloud to you. But the big, big overarching reason why I created the audiobook is because I want to celebrate big thinkers out there.

I want to create more. I want to create what I call this Think Big Movement. Coming up in the next month, if you're listening to this in real-time, between now and the end of October, I'm going to be launching a coaching program called Think Big Coaching.

This program is really for anyone. It is not a big-ticket item. The price, the investment, I feel is pretty accessible for everybody who is wanting to invest in themselves. I did that on purpose because I can have a broader reach.

If you have someone that's been on the fence about coaching and the investment piece has really gotten in your way, which we can have a whole other episode about that, but this Think Big Coaching program is for you. You definitely want to get on my email list so that you can get notifications for the bonuses that are going to come for those that register in a two-week period of time in October of 2024.

We will put the link in the show notes of how to get on my email list so that you will get those notifications. You could also get on my email list when you claim the bonuses that go with the audiobook, one of which is a piece of audio, a private exclusive piece of audio for only those who have purchased the audiobook.

So, my friends, remember, what are big thinkers characterized? They've got a few key traits. Keep in your head a few big thinkers out there and what they have done, then you go do it yourself. I promise you can. I promise you can build up your resilience.

You can learn how to better take risks, you can be a leader, you can be a visionary, you can get creative. I can't wait to see it all happen. Okay. Until next time. Head over to andreaslinks.com, get on my email list, get access to the audiobook, even take the quiz, there might be, by the time you're listening to this, a new quiz on there.

Lots is happening here. Lots is happening. You know what? I guess I just never stop. You'd think one year after the release of this book, I'd be taking a deep breath. But I'm not. I'm not. I really love what I do and I want to help more women do what they want to do. See you next time.