20 Important Reminders To Revisit As An Entrepreneur

My professional journey started five years ago, working at a non-profit on the twelfth floor of a building in downtown New Orleans.

On paper, I had “made it” as I had recently earned my master’s degree. I quickly realized that the type of work I was doing wasn’t fulfilling and I often daydreamed of working for myself and owning a business that I was passionate about.

Back then I truly thought my passion was training in health and fitness, so I mustered the courage to quit my “big girl job” and decided to fully pursue my new business as a health and fitness coach.

I gave it a good three years before I reverted to working for another company. I had just had my daughter, and I was longing for purpose again. My business hadn’t taken off like I thought it would, and I needed to find myself again outside of motherhood.

My passion truly lied in social media marketing. Numerous people told me, “you should do social media, you’re so good at marketing yourself.” I found myself coaching others on marketing. I was consulting a few small businesses with social media and digital advertising before I landed a remote job at a large marketing agency.

With this new job at the marketing agency, I was working well over 12 hours a day, and my phone was blowing up with notifications every night from clients.

I decided that I needed to take a chance on myself. I knew deep down that I could never be happy tirelessly working just to build someone else’s dream.

Last April I committed to my dreams and started Litchfield Media, a digital advertising company that helps online entrepreneurs scale their digital products and services.

Entrepreneurship is a rollercoaster ride with lots of highs and lows.

It’s important to know that we all experience very similar feelings and thoughts. So I’ve compiled a list of 20 important reminders to revisit as a seasoned or new entrepreneur.

Your worth isn’t defined by the amount of money that you make in your business. The numbers in your business do not define you nor your success.
It’s okay if your family doesn’t get it. They soon will start asking questions & possibly might ask for a job later.
Authenticity will set you apart, but comparison will set you back.
Complaining and self-doubt will only lead to a negative mindset.
Realize that your inner self-critic is not your true self. Don’t believe anything that she says. Separate yourself from this person.
Success is 80% mindset, 20% strategy. Aim for a million-dollar mindset.
Failure is necessary for growth. I can’t think of one successful person that had said they’ve “never experienced failure.” We all have!
Every failure is an opportunity to look deeper at the lessons you learned.
If you can invest in a mentor or a coach who knows exactly how to get to where you want to be (faster than what you could ever do alone) – hire them.
Don’t compare your Chapter 1 to someone else’s Chapter 20. It’s easy to compare because we only see the surface level stuff on social media, but overnight successes do not exist.
Celebrate the small wins in your business. Have you showered today? Winning. Have you posted on social media? You rockstar.
Entrepreneurship is very lonely. Don’t try to do this by yourself. Seek out a community, especially one that can relate to you.
You don’t have to run your business like everyone else—your business, your rules.
You’re choosing what you don’t change. Read that again. Nothing changes if nothing changes.
Deconstruct your goals. What are the exact steps that you would need to do to hit those goals? Now do it.
Outsourcing is the #1 way to scale. Instead of thinking, “no one can do this as well as me,” think “who can do this even better than me.” Outsourcing frees up your time to do the money-making activities in your business.
You can’t be committed to your dream and your comfort zone at the same time. Embrace the suck and level up.
The market isn’t oversaturated, it’s mere proof that there IS a market and you can do it too.
Feeling ready is 100% a lie. You’ll never feel ready. So get started.
Don’t be afraid of what others may think of you; be afraid of what you’ll feel about yourself if you never tried.

Mindset will always be something that comes up. I’ve talked to so many people that say this very exact thing. Please know that your inner critic is not you. Those limiting beliefs that you have – that’s not you either. I like to call my inner self-critic “Debbie” because she’s a MAJOR Debbie-downer. When you’re feeling these negative thoughts, it’s best to 1) recognize them and realize that those thoughts aren’t you and 2) prove your inner self-critic wrong.

How? Journal or meditate on these thoughts and pull out examples and proof from your life that prove to yourself that these thoughts you’re having are dead wrong.

Whenever I’m feeling like I’m not good enough or comparing myself to others – I honestly go to my website and play the video testimonials. I also read all of my client testimonials too. Not kidding.

Our minds are a powerful thing and if your mind is downplaying your success or your expertise, how are you going to get to that next level version of yourself?

It took me five years to feel confident in my profession.

It took me four years to build the confidence to tackle my biggest challenges: take on my competitors.

It took me three years to find the courage to create a course.

It will take time to get to where you want to be but trust that it will happen.