Melissa Kellogg Lueck calls the current economy an "economic winter" and argues entrepreneurs need courage now more than ever. Courage comes from the Latin root for heart. She recommends reconnecting with your why, practicing courage daily like a muscle, and preparing your business strategy to gain advantage.
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Welcome. I am marketing expert and business coach Melissa Kellogg Lueck. And this is the Doing Business Like a Woman podcast where we are exploring and teaching you how women are reinventing the way business is done and money is made to help you create greater impact and financial freedom one business at a time. Well, hello. Hello my friends. How are you today? I hope you're having a great day start to your week. If you're listening to this on Monday when it's released. But I'm having a fabulous day. I just returned from Dallas, Texas. I went to the annual Icon Conference. It's a conference put a, put on by E Women Network, which is a network of entrepreneurial women that are all building million dollar businesses. And so we were in Dallas at, in Frisco, actually the Frisco area of Dallas. And there was, I don't know, close to 500 of us there. And so it was such a wonderful, such a wonderful time of connecting and learning and just an amazing time to be in a room with some really amazing entrepreneurial women that are doing such exciting and inventive and creative and interesting things. So that is just what I love, that kind of environment. So it totally filled my bucket. But there was a lot of learning too. We had lots of sessions and I learned a lot as well. And one of the things, one of the themes for me, I think that really stood out as a theme was all around courage. And especially in this time when we are moving into or we're experiencing a changing economic climate. And I think this probably isn't new to anybody, right? Whether you want to call it recession or not, whatever, we know there's changes afoot and there's always changes happening in the economy. The economy is cyclical. It's always going to be cyclical. But it's really a great opportunity for all of us as entrepreneurs to really think about how we want to operate and how we want to be thinking and showing up in a time when the economic climate is changing. And so the CEO of E Women Network, her name is Sandra Yancey and she talked about this, how she called it an economic winter. So it's just like a season of winter. And just like our seasons in the environment happen, we don't really necessarily judge that winter is coming or not coming or, you know, summer is coming. We just know that there's a new season coming and we prepare for it, right? We get our winter clothes, we make sure we've got the proper warm enough things. We change out our closets. If you're in a cold Climate like I am in Colorado, we make sure we have everything we need. And so I like to think of this time when we are moving into more of an economic winter. It's time to prepare. And so we talked about that during the conference, or she talked about it, and she encouraged us to really use it as a time to recognize opportunities. So instead of freezing to death in our businesses, it's time to build your castle out of ice. Right. And we cannot change the circumstances that happen oftentimes. Right. But what we can do is decide how we're going to respond. And so one of the themes around that response for me was that kept repeating was the idea of courage. And so I want to talk about courage today and what it means and actually how we can create it to really catapult ourselves to that next level, as well as prepare for the changing economy that we're currently in. And do we know what the changes will be? No. Do we know how severe or not severe? No. We can't tell the future. But what we can do is prepare, Prepare ourselves, prepare our minds, and also have a good, solid foundation and strategy and how to move and groove with the changes that come. And so one of the things that Sandra had encouraged us, had talked about also was to create our own advantage. And I think about this as creating my own advantage despite whatever economic climate we're operating in. And it's based on what we're thinking, that we can anticipate changes and notice what's happening and then make sure that we are prepared by having the mindset and the skills and the tools to operate in a changing environment, to notice what's happening and see what's happening and shift and move with it. And where does this all come from? And it all comes from courage. Right? It takes courage to see things happening and to trust our. Trust what we're seeing and what we're understanding and what we're feeling and thinking about what's going on. Trust that we're seeing changes happening and then decide to move forward courageously. So courage, to me is a feeling, right, that we can decide to create, an energy that we can decide to create. So where does it come from? So courage comes from your heart. And I thought this was so interesting. So the definition, like the Miriam Webster definition of courage, is mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty. But the origin of the word courage. And my friend Julia, I was talking with her about this yesterday, and she. She mentioned this to me, and I went and did my own Research. And it's so cool. The origin of the word courage is heart. It's from the 1300s. It's a French word, has a Latin root, but it was also French. And so the origin of the word courage is heart. And the current definition is strength. To venture, persevere, withstand danger, fear or difficulty, right? So together. This is kind of my mashup definition for us today. So my mashup definition together is so together we develop the energy of strength in our heart to venture, persevere and withstand danger, fear or difficulty. That's courage, right? One of the words that was one of the phrases actually that was suggested as the cinema synonym is Braveheart. It makes me think of the movie, the old Mel Gibson movie, right? But that's what it is. It's brave heart. And so in times like this, when circumstances, economy, changing, whatever, we need a brave heart, we need to develop this courage. So how do we do that? I suggest, number one, reconnecting with your why, thinking about why we do what we do, why we're doing what we're doing, what is the why behind what you do, what is the mission you're on, the change you are making in the world, the crusade that you are on, right? What drives you and really reconnect with that and practice reconnecting with those thoughts on a daily basis until you feel this shift to courage. And think about what does courage feel like in your body if you have that? For me, it's almost like I visualize it like my heart is just like burning with courage, right? Like it's just like glowing like that orange, white, red hot glow. And that's courage. It's like a fire in my heart. And I also saw another amazing woman speak last week. Her name is Shamika Tankerson. And she talked about courage as well. And I want to share with you my takeaways, my notes from what she shared. She said courage is a muscle. And the more you practice courage and do hard things, your soul remembers that and it becomes easier and easier to be more and more courageous. So for me, I think about it's like just making that first decision, like I am going to be courageous in this, in this situation, in this environment, like I'm going to choose courage. And fighting for my business, in fighting for the financial freedom and build this business that I want to have, build this vision and this impact that I want to make, right? And so it's making that decision once and then just practicing, just building that muscle little by little. And she also said this blew my mind by the way, so that results don't take time, they take courage. Isn't that amazing? I love that she said every dollar that we make that we create is an outward reflection of our inner courage. So the more we lean into our courage, the more value we create from there, the more money we are going to create. And so that next level that we want in our business, in our finances, in our lives, demands next level courage. And all you have to do to get to that next level is decide. Like right now you could just decide, I am going to act courageously today. Right. Once you connect with that, why feel that courage, that shift towards courage begin inside of you and then ask yourself, with this courage that I feel, how do I want to show up? What is one courageous thing I can do today? What's one courageous act of showing up today for my clients, my potential clients that will move my business forward, that will take me to that next level and help me earn and meet those financial goals? Right? And so that's really the bottom line, biggest thing that I learned from the conference I attended last week and I wanted to share that with you because it's just been really heavily on my mind ever since, all week last week and ever since I got back. So if you're ready to grow to your next level courage, your next level mindset matched with kick butt marketing strategies to help you grow, I can help you with that as a one on one coach. We can come up with a plan that's going to get you to that next level that's going to help you create and have the impact that you want to have. And all it takes is a decision in your courageous decision. At this point, if you want my help is to schedule a call with me. You can either visit the show Notes for a link to my calendar or visit my website, melissam Kellogg.com and let's talk about a plan for you and how we can take your vision, your business and your impact to that next level. You'll walk away from that call with a plan and you'll know exactly your next steps. So let's go forward courageously because ladies, we can do hard things and it's in times of, oh, this was another really great quote. I don't even know if I can put my finger on it. But it's in times like this that the greatest advances happen in our economy, in our minds, in our businesses and potentially in our finances. And I'll leave you with this Kristen Nolte, who is a high level official at Dell Computer. She spoke at this conference as well, and she said, a great grape. She's a wine fan. She just had gotten back from traveling wine country and she said she learned while she was there that a great grape is made from the vine that struggles the most. So I know a lot of us have felt like we have. We are really great grapes right now. We've had our share of struggle, right? But let's turn all of that struggle courageously into the best, most beautiful, most valuable product or service that we can, right? To go out and serve our greatest mission, our greatest impact, our greatest gift. I hope you have a great week. I hope you go forth courageously and I'll see you next time. Bye. If you like this podcast, then you have got to sign up for my free on demand video training, Grow youw Sales Doing what yout Love, Where I teach you in depth. My simple process that you can implement right away to harness your mindset and your skills to grow your sales to whatever level you want. So go grab that now. The link is in the show notes and I'll see you next time.
