Episode 1: Tip for Small Business Owners: Flip The Script for A Better Mindset

Fiona Killackey, speaker, author, business coach and founder of My Daily Business Coach (MDBC) is the host of this podcast, made for entrepreneurs and small business owners looking for tips, tactics, insights and inspiration for running their businesses. 

In this first episode for MDBC’s #TipTuesday, Fiona shares how flipping the script can change how we approach things in our daily lives, relationships and our business. Flipping the script improves our mindsets and allows us to have a few moments to consider an alternative outlook on everything we deal with. Listen now to learn more about Fiona’s tip, how using the ‘Flip the Script’ mantra helped her deal with the anxiety of writing, publishing and promoting her upcoming book and why you should use this as your new mantra, too. 

Topics discussed in this episode:.

• Introduction [00:49.100]

• The Three Types of Episodes to Expect from this Podcast [01:29.120]

• What is Today’s Tip? [02:53.900]

• What is Flipping the Script? [04:31.090]

• Sharing A Personal Experience - My Book Publication [07:53.920]

• How Flipping The Script Helped Me (Personally) [09:28.800]

• How Using ‘Flip The Script’ As A Mantra Improves Your Mindset [10:16.210]

• Conclusion [10:47.800]

Resources mentioned in this episode: 

- So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson [8:47.530]

Episode transcript:

Do you love your business? You should, right?

Well, sometimes we just don't. It's my hope that this The My Daily Business Coach podcasts helps you regain a little of that lost love by providing tips and tactics, tools, insights, inspiration - all the good stuff to help you actually enjoy running your business.

In addition to actionable tips and tactics that you'll be able to execute immediately, you'll also hear from creative small business owners around the world who've been able to sidestep their hustle and build a business that merges their passion with their purpose and provides a profit.

I'm your host, Fiona Killackey, founder of my daily business coach. Let's get going.

Hello and welcome to Episode one of my daily business coach podcast.

I was so excited that this podcast is finally, finally out there in the world and I'm really honored that you are choosing to spend the next few minutes with me. So thank you so much for showing up today for me for the podcast, but most of all, for your business.

I really hope this episode and I hope that all the episodes in this podcast series inspire you and provide you insights that really, I guess, test the way that you're thinking and challenge you to look at new possibilities and opportunities for your small business.

I also hope that you hit subscribe and you come along with me on future episodes of this podcast.

So with this podcast, there are three types of episodes: There are coaching episodes where I actually coached. I mean, that's what I do day in, day out. I'm a business coach. There are interview episodes where I chat with inspiring small business owners from across the globe. And then there are tip episodes. So they come out every Tuesday night, tip Tuesday and those are where I really share a quick tip tool or tactic.

So when I was thinking about, you know, launching this podcast, I thought for episode one, you know, what do I really want to launch this with? Which of the three types, the coaching episodes, interview episodes or the tips episodes should actually launch with? And I came to the conclusion that I'm going to launch this entire podcast series with a tip.

It's quick, it's simple, it's actionable, and it's something that you'll be able to implement immediately, depending on where you're listening to this.

But it's something that you'll be able to take with you and really action. And that's what I'm all about. I'm all about practical, solid advice for small business owners. And so that's what I'm going to offer you today.

So I am going to be sharing a tip. And I guess when you initially hear this, you might be like, oh, wow, so revolutionary, Fiona.

But bear with me because it may sound like a simple tip. But looking back over, you know what I've been able to achieve since I started my business - I'm into my fifth year now and what my clients have been able to achieve, I think that a lot of success has come as a result of what I'm about to share. So let's get to it.

What is today's tip?

Well, today's tip is flipping the script .

I know, simple, right? Or maybe maybe it's not, because we all have these scripts running daily and constantly in our heads. You know, they could be anything from, you know, what sort of parent or partner we are. What kind of friend we are. What sort of business owner we are. How healthy or not we are. You know how many followers we have. What does our e-mail list look like?

This script is just endless and it's often unforgiving. You know, it's human nature to be risk adverse. Like, we are programmed to look at what could go wrong whenever we encounter a new idea or come up with a plan in all parts of our life.

But I guess as small business owners, this one, to avoid risk at all costs is ever present. I mean, think about the last time you came up with a new idea or a program or an offering or maybe you're in e-commerce and it was a collection or a strategy for your business.

You know, chances are you kind of went through this system. You were at first excited, really pumped up and woo! And then you were nervous and then you were fearful. And then little by little, you allow these more negative thoughts to overshadow you and basically chip away.

And then this leads to procrastination. I know I'm guilty of that at some times when I'm fearful of doing something. I mean, hello, this podcast, this took years to get going. And in some cases, you move not even just from procrastination, but giving up on the idea altogether. And that was an idea that initially excited and inspired and energized you. And then you sort of just let it go.

So I guess, you know, what is flipping the script?

It's literally flipping that ongoing or risk adverse script on its head. It's about to use an analogy like taking off a fear helmet and in place putting on a curiosity cap. You know what is possible if I do X? What could result from me jumping into Y? You know, where could this take my self and my business? You know what would happen if this actually works? Like, God forbid, like imagine if it actually works. What's the best that could happen?

You know, we have been trained our entire lives to think first what's the worst that could happen? And there's actually, you know, a lot of business books and podcasters out there who suggest that you should you should think about what's the worst that could happen. And I get their reasoning to some degree. You know, there's this idea that if you think of all the bad things that could happen, you realize they're actually not that bad. And then this may encourage you to give it a go.

And I get that. I get for some people that will work. But I really believe that, you know, that train of thought puts you into a negative mindset. And like I said, while some people may be able to rise above and realize, you know, it ain't that bad. A lot more won't. They will let whatever fear they have, you know, overshadow action and end up putting the idea on the someday pile. And we all know (I know) from experience that that “someday” pile often just moves into “never to be seen again” pile.

 So flipping the script is really about letting yourself have a few moments to consider an alternative.

What is the best that could happen if I submit my latest project to that Interiors magazine and they publish it? What might that lead to? If I expand into that new territory, what could that do for our international sales if I hired that person? What space, headspace and physical space might be freed up for me to grow my business? If I pitch myself to that podcast or that book publisher or, you know, that event, maybe not right now, because we're in coronavirus time, but in the future, if I pinch myself to that event, like what could come from it?

By allowing ourselves to get curious, our mind moves into more expansive rather than contracted positioning. So often from there we can have all these other amazing ideas that come to the forefront. And, you know, there's a lot of research that's out there that says when our brain is relaxed, particularly when the left side of our brain is calm, the right side of our brain could kick in with what we call a-ha moments. And we all know what that means.

Now, I'm not going to get into a science lesson here. I didn't do particularly well at science in school. But you can Google this stuff and it's fascinating. But what I want to really point out with this kind of science tangent is that when we allow ourselves to be a little bit more relaxed, we can find these moments of genius. And I'm sure you've had the same experience as me as when you have a shower or you're getting a massage or maybe you're watching just some really mindless, trashy TV and you suddenly have this aha moment and you suddenly have I've got a really good idea for my business, and that's because we've allowed ourselves to relax a little.

Like flipping the script really allows you and enables you to get into a more curious, almost playful mindset. What could come from this? What's the best thing that can happen? You know, if I allow myself to just daydream a little bit, what might come up, what might come to the fore. Whereas on the other end of the spectrum, when we come in a new business idea from a place of fear, we can feel restricted and contracted almost as if you are physically tightening up.

And I don't know about you, but I've definitely had that where something's come up, some possibility has come up - some opportunities, someone's e-mailed me to do something and I initially and like, I got this amazing, I'm so excited. And then instantly, it's almost like the fear takes over. And physically, almost in your chest, you can feel this tightening like, oh, my God, oh, my God, what am I saying yes to.

I've recently had this I've got a book that's coming out later this year. And I met with my publicist recently and she went through the full publicity schedule and she said to me, we'll be also pitching you for TV and radio if that's okay with you. And initially I was like, yeah, of course, you know. Well, and then instantly all my fears came in, all my insecurities about, oh, my God, if I go on TV, what am I going to look like? And what if I say the wrong thing?

And I read a lot of Jon Ronson, who's an amazing author, and he has a book that's out there that everybody should read. It's called So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed. And some of the things in there are people who who've just said horrible things, you know, on Twitter or other things. But some of them have just made an error of judgment, a momentary error of judgment. And so when I got told, you know, we're gonna try and put you on TV, my brain rushed to JonRonson's book like, oh, my God, I'm gonna be publicly shamed.

What if I say the wrong thing? And so that overshadowed me and made me feel really tight and constricted in my body. So when we come from that fear place, you can physically feel the fear. And, you know, when we're stressed and when we feel like that, we can't think properly. And we often then have less bandwidth to come up with exciting paths forward for whatever our business idea is.

So for me, flipping the script has enabled me to do things that I really, honestly, genuinely didn't think possible. So from small things like contacting editors, I've been a published writer for about 20 years. But when I think back to that initial, you know, contacting an editor or even sometimes if I'm contacting somebody new, there is that "Oh, my God, am I gonna go down that path of fear or the path of curiosity and see where this leads" or even sending a DM to someone to do a collaboration like those are small things. But I've had to use the flipping the script mantra to get myself to take action all the way through to like bigger things. So increasing my prices or saying no to people who've come to me for work because I don't feel that they're right fit or pitching my book to a major publisher and so many others, I have been able to use flipping the script mantra to just simply take the next step.

So for many of my clients as well, using that mantra flip the script has allowed them to break past limiting beliefs and contact people and companies that have gone on to have like this massive impact on their businesses success.

So it might seem really super simple, but having a daily reminder. I have a Post-it note on my desk to flip the script may be the one thing that actually ships your mindset into a place of curiosity rather than fear and enables you to take that next best step towards whatever your new business idea or category or collection or whatever it is is.

So I hope that has been helpful for you. It's often these simple, small things that can have the biggest impact and the biggest mark on our business journey. So I would love to know what you thought of this episode being Episode one, so please send me a DM on Instagram. I'm just @mydailybusinesscoach or you can leave a review in iTunes. I would love you to do that because that will help me get found by other business owners for whom I hope this is helpful to.

I'm gonna be doing these tip Tuesday episodes every single week. So if you're struggling with something in your business, please get in touch on the channels I've just mentioned and I can definitely help you. And I may then be able to share that solution with everyone else in a later podcast episode.

So thank you again for listening to this - my very first episode of my daily business coach podcast. Please remember to subscribe so you don't miss out on interviews with amazing small business owners who I'm so excited to be bringing those to you and also my longer coaching episodes where I'm gonna go into depth on different business elements.

So, yeah. Thank you so much. See you next time.

Thanks for listening to My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you want to get in touch, you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com or hit me up on Instagram @mydailybusinesscoach

So I would love to know what you thought of this episode being Episode one, so please send me a DM on Instagram.

Please remember to subscribe so you don't miss out on interviews with amazing small business owners 

If you want to get in touch, you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com or hit me up on Instagram @mydailybusinesscoach