Get Results Fast! Three Areas You Need to Look at to Be Happy with Your Results

Are you not getting the results you really want? Are you not happy with the speed to get those results? ​

When you’re going towards your goal, you put in time, resources, and energy. Maybe in your business, you're trying some different marketing efforts. Then you realize that you’re not getting the return on investment that you’re looking for. Or you think you’ve got this goal that you want to reach, but you’re just not quite getting there fast enough. 

One of the most common errors I see is that people are not investing in the right areas. I don't mean the right area of life or the right area of their business. It really boils down to three things:

• your mindset, 
  
• your skillset,
  
• your network.
  

One of these three things is the real reason why you have an obstacle. All obstacles stopping you from achieving your goal, getting the results that you want and having you feeling stuck come from either mindset, skillset, or network. 

Ask yourself: 

• Where are you stuck? 
• Where do you want to see better results? 
• Where do you know that you have an obstacle that you're facing?

Answering these questions will help you choose which of the three areas you need to invest in and focus on. When I use the words “invest in”, I don't mean that you're investing in a business, like you're giving them $100,000 in capital or you're investing in a real estate property, or you're investing in stocks and bonds. However, the same kind of rules apply. If you put in so much money, then you should be getting back more than what you invested. It should have an ROI, return on investment. Spending money means that it's gone. It disappears. But when you're investing in something, you're looking to get a higher return. It's not just investing your money, it's also investing your time and investing your energy. 

Let’s see if your problems are part of your mindset, skillset, or network. 

Mindset

Mindset really helps you to feel like you can go for it and feel like you can achieve it. Mindset examples are:

• having an abundance mindset
• feeling confident
• feeling like you have a belief that you can do it

When you have a top mindset, when you're really playing at that higher level:

• things come to you 
• opportunities come to you 
• you start achieving things and getting better results

I was playing soccer the other day, and there was a 50/50 ball between my team's player and their team's player. As they came up, their player hesitated to jump in to get that free ball. In that split second, her mindset threw her off. Her mindset caused her to hesitate and her mindset caused her to lose the ball. My teammate got it. 

So I ask you now, how is your mindset inhibiting your business and your life? Where is it holding you back? Where is it stopping you from feeling like you can achieve things? 

When we don't feel like we can achieve something, it might cause perfectionism.  Where we just keep going over and over and over something and tweaking and perfecting but we never actually finish. Our mindset makes us procrastinate because we don't believe we can do it, so we avoid it and we do other things rather than actually pushing forward and trying it out. 

The sad thing is, when you hesitate, someone else is going to pick up that

• job
• promotion
• opportunity 
• client

They are going to have that opportunity because their mindset is on point. When you think of Olympic sprinters, their physical ability in running is only fractions of seconds from each other. Their ability to go from being an Olympian to being a gold medalist and the Silver and Bronze is so close. Most of that comes down to mindset training. 

How is your mindset holding you back?

Skillset ​

Ask yourself these questions:

• What are you able to do? 
• What are the talents you have? 
• What are the skills you have? 

When I started my business, I didn't know how to offer from stage. I didn't know how to build programs. I didn't know how to even coach. So I had to invest in training, mentors, and coaches to be able to boost these. 

I'm sure if you've had a business or you work in a business or even in your career, you've had some form of training or some form of skills taught to you so that you're able to take on new or more difficult tasks.

If you're going towards something new in your business, something that's the next level, or even in your life, you need to have that special skill set. You need to invest in the training/education, mentors, and coaches to be able to do that. 

If that's the piece that's holding you back, if that's the piece that has you stuck, let me tell you: 

• you can find someone to teach you
• you can find a program to show you how, at the very least
• you can find someone and hire them to do it for you

If you feel like a specific skill set is where you're lacking, you don't have the right skills or the right talents to move you forward, like 

• you don't know how to build a funnel
• you don't know how to work a CRM
• you don't know how to speak on stage...

Then there are places you can go. This is where you need to invest your time, energy and money to upgrade or master a skill. 

Network ​

This can happen over time or you can be really good at it and have your network grow pretty quickly. Your network is the people you serve. It's the people you know. It's the people you can offer to, and those who surround you, like mentors, coaches, colleagues who push you forward. 

The truth is with no platform or network, your success will be slower, and it will take more energy. It's much easier with other people as your fans and connections. With the right people, you can leverage their network in order to push your business forward. 

You don't have to be a lone wolf. AND you don't have to be Superwoman. I know we're trying to do all these things ourselves or we're trying to have a lean startup, but leveraging your network is so smart. Even if you don't have the money, maybe you have the time. You could trade. You could barter with other people. You could do an hour for hour swap with someone who has something that you want and/or you have a skill or talent that they want. 

I'm part of CAPS or the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers. I was speaking with someone who is producing the networking content for our convention this year. She wanted to talk to me because she says I'm the queen of networking, which made me laugh and also really felt good to hear. ​

It made me think well, what is it that makes me the queen of networking? 

• Maybe it's being surrounded by a great network that helps me to constantly expand. 
• Maybe it's around finding the right people to be able to support my growth and who I can support their growth as well.

It's collaborators. It's joint venture partners. It’s affiliates. All three add so much to your network. When we started talking about the different CAPS networking and breakouts that they were going to do between the educational and keynote sessions, I got quite excited. I was thinking that this is going to be so cool. It’s going to be a really great opportunity to expand my network and for all the attendees to be able to expand their networks as well.

When you expand your network, so much more can happen and it will happen much faster. So answer this, how can you expand your network by investing time, energy, and money into it?

What You Can Do

If you’re not where you want to be, it is because you're lacking one of the three areas: mindset, skillset or network. Which is the one you need to focus on right now? Maybe you're honest and think, “Oh, Diane, it's all three.” Well, it doesn't have to be all three. You can just pick one right now. Pick the one that makes the most sense. 

Once you pick the area that you want to focus on, then ask yourself: What do I have an abundance of? Is it time, energy, or money? Then invest that into that area. 

Options for Mindset

• If you have more money, then invest in your mindset. Hire a coach that's going to help you to stay on top of things to believe you can be in that abundance mindset. 
• If you have more time, maybe you start reading a book on the topic or listen to podcasts, or you do something else that will help you to move your mindset forward. 
• If you have more energy, putting some activities together that will help you to boost your mindset might be the best option for you. 

Options for Skillset

• If you have more money, you can pay someone to show you. This is the fastest route.
  
• If you have more time, you can go online. You can research. Just be aware that if you are going to Google how to do something where 20 people to 20,000 people have their own ways of doing it, you might not get the right information taught to you in the best way. 
• If you have more energy, it's just practicing how to do stuff. You don't know how to use platforms like Garageband, Zoom, Facebook Live, Canva, and Infusionsoft? Try it out,  test it out, flip through things, push buttons, just try and figure it out. That's what I did years ago in order to be able to use these platforms that are now crucial to my business.

Options for Network

• If you have more money, invest in building your network by attending masterminds with people who are at the same level or much higher than you so that they'll challenge you to improve. I also encourage you to invest in attending conferences, conventions, training sessions, where the type of people that you want to connect with are hanging out. It's not just about building your network of clients, it's also building your network of colleagues and friends. Up-level every area in your network. 
• If you have more energy, start attending live events. You can find in person events and virtual events that have you connecting with different people. You'll have the energy to meet them, to connect, and to figure out if they're the right people for you to hang out with. 
• If you have more time, maybe it's about reaching out to individuals and having coffee dates (virtually or in-person) and get to know you calls. Just remember that the intention has to be set so that both of you know why you're there and what you want to get out of  the time together.

Your best investment in life and in business is not always in things like cars, houses, stocks, bonds, or items you want. I know that there will be financial advisors that will tell you to invest in those things. Yes, you need to. But I’ve found that not enough attention is put on investing in your mindset, your skill set, and your network. When you do, you can get a higher return. These are areas that cannot be taken from you. Lastly, the only way to be able to hit your goals is by investing in yourself. 

So which one do you want to work on right now? Is it mindset, skill set, or your network? Which one needs to take top priority right now? ​

Read my other blogs here: 
​1. The One Thing YOU Can do to Turn Networking on its Head (Part 1)
2. The One Thing YOU Can do to Turn Networking on its Head (Part 2)
3.  Want more success? Then pull up your big girl panties!