Want to see more success in your craft business? It starts with mindset! Here are some tips for crafting a business mindset from my friend and life coach, Nicole Baker Holleman!
This post is a summary of a recent YouTube Live and podcast I did with Angie Holden! Nicole was our guest speaker and shared so much knowledge about mindset when it comes to business. You can watch the video by clicking play below, or you can find the podcast on many of your favorite podcast players. There’s so much more than what I cover here in the video and podcast, so if you have the time, give them a shot!
My personal mindset story
I had a really hard year two years ago. Mentally, I was just not in the greatest place. Even though I was successful, I didn’t feel successful enough. I didn’t feel like I was working hard enough. I didn’t feel like I was producing enough.
This feeling led me to Nicole who was (and continues to be) an integral part of my business journey. Working with Nicole helped me to understand that yes, I am a Type A perfectionist, but that’s okay. I can use it and thrive because of it! After working with her and adopting some of her mindset techniques, I began to see a shift.
These days I find that I am way more productive, but I work less. I also maintain a much more positive mindset and avoid getting down in the dumps (most days). This was a big goal of mine!
Nicole has been such a game changer in my business that I couldn’t wait to sit down and chat with her on the podcast. I hope you enjoy her tips and insights!
Let’s get to know Life Coach Baker!
Nicole is an expert in helping people craft a business mindset. She is with Life Coach Baker and Fantasy Fangirls Podcast and I want to let her introduce herself to you.
Nicole: Hello, hello. My name is Nicole Baker Holloman. I am the CEO of Life Coach Baker and the co-owner of Fantasy Fangirls. I recently made the pivot from Life Coach Baker into Fantasy Fangirls full-time, so that’s very exciting and we’ll talk about that momentarily.
When it comes to mindset, I want to give you a short background on me.
I grew up in a family that was very heavily immersed in the personal development world. My dad and my mom both worked for big, big, big people, and from the get-go, I was immersed in personal development and I loved it.
It was so fascinating but I also had some questions because there was a lot of like, positive influence, just think happy thoughts and my question was “Is that true?”. In my early to mid-twenties, I started getting more into the neuroscience behind mindset and why do we do what we do. Why does our mindset tend to shift one way or another?
I devoted about five years of my life to it and I’m really excited to talk to you today because I like to think I know some stuff.
So, let’s get into it…
What is mindset?
Nicole: Mindset is basically understanding what your mind is focusing on at any given moment. Then taking that and determining how you plan to lean into that energy, how it may change your productivity, and how you’ll show up as a human being.
A large part of this is your beliefs. I used to think I wasn’t at all intelligent. I thought I couldn’t read or write well, and wasn’t good at school. This was many years ago. However, I shifted my mindset and began to believe that I AM an intelligent person. Now, I know it.
A big part of this is something I refer to as the Reticular Activating System (RAS).
This is essentially a big filter on the front of our brain. For example, you start to shop for a car. You want an orange SUV. You think an orange SUV will be unique and no one else has one. Until, you start to drive around and see orange SUV’s everywhere! They were there the whole time, but it wasn’t until you gave it importance and mental space in your brain that you start to see them. I love sharing this example!
It’s not about cars, though. For business owners, when we’re first starting, we tell ourselves were not not worthy enough to start a business. I don’t have enough time. And so on and on.
However, if you start out with the mindset that you ARE capable, you CAN make enough time… you will start to believe it and bring opportunities your way!
Can you talk a bit about limiting beliefs?
Nicole: I refer back to this quote: “your past does not equal your present unless you live there”. I love that so much.
For example, if you haven’t been good with money in the past, does that mean you can’t be good with it in the future? No. If you shift that mindset to acknowledge that maybe you didn’t put the time or energy into learning to manage money or doing the research, then you can begin to be capable of it in the future.
We also have beliefs that we’ve had since we were very, very young. I’ll use the example of a family member. When we are young, most of us idolize family members. So if you have a parent who isn’t good with money, then you may start to believe YOU can’t possibly be good with money either. As soon as the thought enters your brain, it sticks there. Especially between the ages of 5 to 14.
But perhaps, you just need to do more research. Are you really bad with money? Or, do you need to do a little bit of research to see just what you spent your money on and how you can budget a bit differently? Chances are, that’s the case.
How do you shift your mindset from hobby crafter to a money-making business?
Nicole: The biggest things that I see get in people’s way here is when they go from doing things for free, to doing things for money and suddenly they’re like, “I’m not worthy of $23 for this sweatshirt. Who do I think I am to charge for the things that I was doing for free for so long? Who’s going to pay me? There’s so many other sweatshirt designers out there! Who am I?”
There’s so much belittling ourselves and thinking that we are not worthy of making money doing what we love. So one of the things I love to do here is actually spook the heck out of our brains, and that is by listening and absorbing as many stories as possible of people doing the dang thing, of people going out, having really successful businesses launch, and stuff like that.
I do want to mention that this can be a double edged sword. Suddenly you’re thinking that we should go out and listen to 10 stories of successful business owners, even the overnight success stories. But I want to hear the stories of the people who fell flat on their face over and over and over again, and then finally figured it out. Those are the stories I want to hear because that’s training my RAS to see that you can be successful. That others are doing it.
Yes. You can sit down and journal on your own and say, I am capable. I am good. I am an awesome business owner. People will pay me lots and lots of money. We can totally do that. But sometimes that’s too big of a jump for our mindset. Instead, I like to imagine a bridge sort of opening up that new neural pathway in our brain saying “Hey, hey, see, they can do it. You can do it too.” It’s just a matter of opening that bridge up.
How do we adapt our mindset and grow as our business grows?
Nicole: Well, I think it boils down to doing the antithesis of that. It’s saying, I like this example here. If I’m at a bar and I’m playing darts, what is the goal of me playing darts? I’m not a big darts person, but I do know this about darts…
Get a bullseye.
And if I’m playing darts and I’m trying for a bullseye, trying for a bullseye, trying for a bullseye, and then suddenly the dart board goes away, what’s my goal of darts? Shoot at the wall. It could be anywhere, it could be anything. So what this is, is looking at, okay, what is my bullseye?
I need a direction I want to be heading towards. We do need goals, especially as business owners. We always want to be growing. And, even as people that’s just embedded in our human makeup. But if we don’t have a direction of where we’re going, our mindset is going to immediately fall back into old patterns because, that’s what’s comfortable.
So if I say, okay, my new goal is I want to have five sales in a week. Maybe that’s my goal. I’m really excited. I really want that. So that’s my dartboard bullseye. I want five sales in a week.
What I would do then is I would close my eyes and I would go through a day in the life or even a week in the life of that version of myself. What does that person wake up experiencing? What does that person wake up thinking? What are they grateful for? How do they spend their days? What do they see when they look in the mirror? How do they talk to themselves when they look in the mirror? And oh my goodness, their dream is coming true. At least their next goal is coming true.
That is the mindset we need to adopt. Now, let’s go back a few steps, right? We might not be making five sales a week on Etsy, but if we start adopting that kind of mindset, guess what? Our RAS is going to listen and it’s going to start looking for opportunities that will bring you closer to that outcome. So for example, a very real example—a few, not even a few months ago (more like eight months ago), I was at a podcasting conference and I knew, I was like, I really want to be a full time podcaster.
That is just something I’ve always wanted to do. I’m realizing it more and more. And when I put that bullseye in front of me, I started to think about, okay, what kind of mindset would that person have? I’m intelligent. That was a big one. I am clear. I am concise. I am charismatic. I started to talk to myself in that way.
Less than a week later, after leaving that conference, my sister and I decided to start a podcast and it’s now my full time job. So that’s like the super short version. Trust me, it’s not an overnight success story, but I do think that that is the biggest tool that we can use in our back pocket is saying, “what’s my goal? What’s the mindset of that person who’s achieving that goal? How can I adopt that mindset now?”
I also really like a quote that says “where focus goes, energy flows”. If I focus on my circumstances right now that I really don’t like, I’m going to show up not in the best place. I’m going to show up really low energy. But, think about how I can take the circumstances I have right now and think about where I’d like to be, I can start working toward that goal.
What’s one way you keep yourself moving forward?
Nicole: I celebrate the wins. Big, small and everything in between.
It doesn’t need to be a big huge celebration every time you meet a goal (say, those 5 sales), but just pause and acknowledge it. It’s as simple as saying I’m proud of myself and the progress I’m making.
I like to remind myself of this awesome graphic. It looks like a bunch of little teeny tiny stair steppers and someone’s at the very, very bottom of the stairs and then someone’s trying to get to the top of their stairs. The top of their stairs is their goal and they’re here at the bottom of the stairs and they make one step.
I love this graphic because it’s a side by side and it’s the super zoom out and it’s how we view ourselves which is like super far away from our goal versus the super zoomed in which is the second graphic and it’s someone making a step and we forget how important those steps are because that’s how we get from point A to point B and yet we think that it’s all the big steps.
There is a way to activate the big steps more, especially as a new business owner. It is really important to do the things that will take you bigger steps versus the little teeny tiny steps that tend to be safer. But we discredit any steps that aren’t a full leap to the goal.
One of the things that I actually encourage a lot of people to do is to at the end of the day, whether that’s at the end of the workday or even at the end of the evening. A lot new business owners are doing the side hustle thing. It’s not for the faint of heart at all!
But if you end your day and immediately you’re like, okay, what did I not do today? Then you beat yourself up for all the things that you didn’t do today. That’s not going to help you get that mindset specifically that incorporates “look how far I’m going”. Instead it’s looking at the end of the night, or the end of the workday and writing out a list of at least a minimum of three things you DID do that day.
When you see it written out, your brain has to activate so many different, more things in order to view that thing on paper. So writing out a list of three to five things that you did do that day is such a game changer. It only takes five minutes.
I also remind myself that we are human first. We need to treat ourselves as such. We can’t work nonstop and run ourselves into the ground.
We’re all human
Nicole: We have human emotions. We experience highs, lows, and everything in between. However, with the correct tools in your back pocket, you can experience these things and not let them completely derail you and your business.
The first thing to embrace is that we are human. Remind yourself of that and remind yourself often. Understand where you’re at, admit it, and face it head on. Don’t put the blinders on and try to ignore it. Remember that YOU are the one in control and tackle the situation at hand.
Ok, but how do we actually implement the “human first” ideal?
Nicole: Out of sight, out of mind, right? And if I say, okay, human first, but then I don’t ever use it because it’s either not in my face or it’s not framed on my fridge, or it’s not something I say back and forth with my husband. If it’s basically on the back burner, my brain’s just going to forget about it because it’s not important.
So, stick it where you can see it. Whatever your mantra is. Have it somewhere you can constantly refer back to it. For me personally, I have sticky notes, I have alarms for reminders on my phone. My husband and I repeat it to each other. Otherwise, it’s out of sight, out of mind.
Having it in front of your face is one of the fastest ways to reprogram your brain, because if you don’t you’ll forget about it. Life gets busy, even if we think that we’re so smart and won’t forget. We can’t outsmart our brains. Our brains are really powerful, and it tends to not always be in our favor in that way.
As a crafter, you could even make a project out of your mantra. Cut the words on a laser, use your Cricut machine to make a sign, anything to remember it.
How do you stay motivated and focused on business goals, even when the rest of life feels heavy?
Nicole: Great question! First, make your goals a lot smaller than you want to. If you are in tough times and have huge goals, it will feel really overwhelming. So, what’s the first step to get to my goal? Start there.
Block out everything else and focus on that first step to the goal. Because, when you’re in hard times, you can fall into a place where you have a shovel in your hand and suddenly you’re digging a hole. Before you know it, you’re 10 feet underground. If you find yourself underground, you can’t shoot into the stars. First, pick up that shovel and build yourself a set of stairs out of the hole. But, you don’t build the stairs all at once. Build it one step at a time.
That’s how I want everyone to look at getting out of hard times.
Do you have any advice on how to let go of things that don’t matter?
Nicole: Most people think they need to be doing all the things, all the time. That just isn’t the case.
If you think you need to be on all the platforms, doing the blogs, the YouTube videos, maybe write out a reason of why maybe this isn’t the best idea right now. Challenge those thoughts. Don’t just ignore it.
Instead, release it. Sometimes our brain has really got its talons sunk into it and it’s really hard to release. So let’s pluck the talons out one by one. So, make a list of why that certain thing is not right for right now.
Eventually, you’ll get to a place where you can see an much clearer objective board. What do I want to do? Then you get to make a decision from a much more clear head. You’re in the driver’s seat, rather than feeling the need to do everything all at once!
Honestly, if I gave one tool for people who are experiencing that, I would literally whip out a sheet of paper or whip out the notes app on your phone and just start writing down what are some reasons why this is maybe not the best idea and see where your mind goes.
What are some other ways we can effectively manage our time and resources to run a successful craft business?
Nicole: I am a major believer in the 80/20 rule. So for those of you who are not as familiar, 80/20 rule basically means in order for me to achieve a goal, let’s say, there are a hundred tasks that I need to do to achieve said goal.
However, 80 of those tasks tend to be not very helpful. They tend to be things that maybe move me like a little teeny tiny step forward, or maybe not at all, or maybe they’re just there to appear like I’m busy. It’s very, very common. We want to be busy, especially as business owners.
We’ve glorified the society of busyness, right? So a lot of these 80 tasks tend to be the illusion of busyness, but then there’s those other 20 that tend to be things that are really scary, they tend to be really out of our comfort zone, but they also tend to leap and bound us closer to our end result that we’re trying to get to.
So this is the 80/20 rule. It’s looking at your goal. And it’s saying what are the 20 percent tasks? What are the big, big scary tasks that are going to take me way closer to my goal? And what are the things that are maybe on my list because I should do them or because they sound easy, or because I feel like this one person on a live told me I needed to do it?
There tends to be a lot of shame and should in the 80 and there tends to be a lot of fear and specifically fear of failure and rejection in the 20.
But the 20 percent tasks, those are the ones that get you to your goal.
They are also the ones that keep you sane, and they’re the ones that tend to take the overwhelm and way, way, way lessen it, because you don’t have 80 tasks you’re doing, you have 20 instead.
In this instance is I would ask someone what their goal is. Then I would say, “Okay, write out a list of things that you feel like you need to do in order to achieve said goal.” Then I would go through each of those items. I would say, is that a 20 or is that an 80? And all of the 80s, ball up, throw in the trash, and do the 20s.
The 80s may feel good, but the real work is in the 20s.
Color-coded to-do lists and how they work for me
One thing Nicole asked me to share more about is her color coded to-do lists and how I use them. This was such a game changer for my business!
If you read my Tips for Starting a Craft Business, you may have read how I break up my tasks by my mental load. This was something Nicole helped me to implement. I’ll share more here.
I write out basically everything I have to do into this big brain dump document. Then I go through and break each bigger task into “one-sitting tasks” meaning that I can get the task done in an hour or less all in one go.
Then I prioritize by how much brain space each of my tasks is going to take. So, I have things that take a lot of brain space, things that take some brain space, and things I can do pretty easily.
Then I’ll color code them easy, medium, or hard, but it’s really more brain space, little, medium, or a lot of brain space. My hard stuff is teal, my medium stuff is pink, and my easy stuff is yellow. And then that way, if I’m struggling with brain fog, I can say to myself “today is a yellow task day.” What are some of those easier tasks that don’t take a lot of my brain space? I’ll tackle those on the days where I don’t feel as great and save the harder tasks for a day when I am ON.
Nicole was such a wealth of info. Hopefully you found this a helpful place to start on your own mindset journey.
You can actually listen to previous episodes of Nicole’s podcast, Imperfect Success for more tips. She’s no longer creating new episodes, but there are more than 200 previous ones I’m sure you will find helpful!
Speaking of podcasts, if you are into books, specifically fantasy books, I can’t recommend her new podcast, Fantasy Fangirls enough. Nicole and her sister deep dive into so many amazing books, namely A Court of Thorn and Roses. This is now her full-time job!
If you’re looking for more resources from Nicole, check out her mini course, Get Over the Overwhelm.
This mini-course contains Nicole’s golden 15-min exercise that will help you break the overwhelm cycle FOR GOOD! But this goes so far beyond just learning how to get out of the overwhelm!
You will also learn:
- The neuroscience of overwhelm
- Nicole’s favorite (and short) exercise to learn how to prioritize
- How to catch overwhelm before it starts
- How high achievers get SO many goals accomplished WITHOUT EVER going into overwhelm
- And SO much more!!
You can get access to the mini-course for 70% off! Use this link to get it for just $9!
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