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Small Changes Big Dreams Unlocking Entrepreneurial Mindsets with Patricia Stepler · The One Small Change Podcast

• 0:01
  Hi. Welcome to the One Small Change. And again, I
• 0:04
  am thrilled that you took the time to join me on this journey of exploration
• 0:08
  and transformation. And let me come along with you. I'm your host,
• 0:11
  Yvonne McCoy, and I bring almost 30 years of entrepreneurial
• 0:16
  experience and a passion for discovering how you can get growth through the
• 0:20
  power of seemingly small change. So I want to thank
• 0:23
  you again for spending your time and plotting
• 0:27
  out your entrepreneurial journey with me. And this week, we are
• 0:31
  speaking with the amazing Patricia Stepler. Patricia,
• 0:35
  thank you for taking time to be here with me, and, you
• 0:39
  know, I know that what you have to talk about, my
• 0:42
  audience can use. So tell me what you do, and what was the
• 0:46
  small change that caused you to do it? Well, Yvonne, I wanna thank you
• 0:50
  for inviting me. So my small change, I was a school
• 0:54
  teacher and was about the time where I could retire,
• 0:58
  and my small change came from my son. My
• 1:01
  son, when he was 12, told me that he
• 1:05
  was going to be a collegiate athlete and get a full scholarship.
• 1:09
  And I did not believe him. Even though I did personal development my
• 1:13
  entire life, I'm like, nothing like that's ever happened to me.
• 1:17
  And so I let him believe his little fantasy.
• 1:21
  And sure enough, he finally decide baseball would be
• 1:24
  what he was gonna be a collegiate athlete in, and they don't even give
• 1:28
  full scholarships because if you're really good, you just go pro.
• 1:33
  But lo and behold, he was
• 1:37
  went to see some different schools and they started to, you
• 1:40
  know, contact him. And when he
• 1:44
  got his scholarship offer, he indeed got a full
• 1:48
  scholarship. Now in full disclosure, it was not an athletic scholarship.
• 1:52
  It was an academic scholarship. But when
• 1:55
  he did that, I'm like, I know he caused that to happen.
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  I just don't know how. So that one
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  small event that happened led me on my journey to
• 2:07
  figure out what he had done because I knew
• 2:10
  enough about personal development that he had set this goal, but
• 2:14
  I didn't know how he accomplished it. And the school that he went
• 2:18
  to was a school we had never heard of.
• 2:21
  And it was in the south where he wanted to play. We live in Pennsylvania.
• 2:25
  He wanted to play in the south. The school was in Georgia. Like,
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  everything was falling in place for him, and I
• 2:32
  had to figure it out. And so that journey led
• 2:36
  me to, Bob Proctor, who
• 2:39
  showed me, as soon as I saw Bob Proctor, another small change.
• 2:43
  The minute I heard him talk, I knew that he was the one that had
• 2:47
  the answers to the questions that I had.
• 2:51
  And so I quickly joined as a consultant with his group
• 2:54
  because I had to figure it out. It was like, if he could do
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  it, as amazing as I I think my son is, I know
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  that other people can do things just as amazing. And so I had
• 3:05
  to figure it out so they could share it with the world. So that
• 3:09
  was small step. Maybe it seems like a really big step
• 3:12
  because a full scholarship is pretty, pretty big deal. But you
• 3:16
  know, at the time it, it was like, okay, I have to figure this
• 3:20
  out. So, so how did that bring you to
• 3:24
  working around, productivity and profit and freeing
• 3:27
  up people's time? I mean, to me, it sounds like first
• 3:31
  you have to set the intention. Mhmm. But, you
• 3:35
  know, in terms of entrepreneurs, you know,
• 3:39
  that's what we're into. We're into production and profit and, you
• 3:42
  know, I jokingly say as an entrepreneur, you have the freedom to
• 3:46
  work 17 hours a day. Sometimes I do.
• 3:52
  Yeah. So what I learned from everything that,
• 3:56
  you know, we have to think bigger. And so I kept using my son as
• 3:59
  the example because he thought bigger. He just he never
• 4:03
  let any discouragement get in his way. And he did have
• 4:07
  roadblocks. He had things that went wrong.
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  But in the end, he kept thinking big. And, you
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  know, so many of us, we we don't
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  we don't wanna step outside of our comfort zone. And so if we
• 4:22
  think too big, we're like, oh, I don't know how to do that. Well, he
• 4:26
  didn't know how to do it. He just kept saying it and
• 4:29
  affirming it and believing it. And so that's
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  one thing that, you know, I help people and businesses because I
• 4:37
  particularly like working with business owners and entrepreneurs because they want to
• 4:41
  see results. And you can really start to see results when you
• 4:44
  start to put these things into action. So first, you have to think
• 4:48
  bigger. You have to know where you want to go. And a lot of people
• 4:52
  don't really know. They they have a wish maybe, but they don't
• 4:56
  really know how to how to go about and take the steps.
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  So that's the first thing I think that you need to do.
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  So why do you think we don't think bigger? I think
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  because we're afraid. And sometimes
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  we, you know, I know a lot of people say, you know, someday I'd like
• 5:14
  to do this. Someday I'd like to do that. And it's really just a
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  wish. And I think the the whole
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  the whole problem that people don't wanna think bigger, because if they really start to
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  think bigger and they start to go after something, a lot
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  of times, other people will try to discourage you. Even people
• 5:33
  that love you will try to discourage you because they wanna keep you safe
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  and your own mind wants to keep you safe. It doesn't want you
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  to stretch beyond what's comfortable. And,
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  and so, you know, sometimes there's other people, even though
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  they, they do love you and want to keep you
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  safe. They also, I think, subconsciously think,
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  if they go off and they think big and they do this and they do
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  that, they're not gonna be my friend anymore. They're not gonna need me
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  anymore. And I don't think it's a conscious thought. I think it's just
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  something that that happens. Well, I think, you know, what I
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  say about that is 1, your fam
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  you're absolutely right. You know, as children, right,
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  left to our our brothers, we you know, it would be amazing if we actually
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  grew up. And so, you know, you know, there's like, don't
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  cross the street, don't, you know, migrate, be seen
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  and not hurt. I mean, these, all these kinds of expectations. And then when you
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  grow, you know, you get older, those those things that kept you
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  safe as a child do not serve you as well as an
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  adult. Right. And they are subconscious so many times.
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  Right? I just remember, you know, when I
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  was in junior high and I ran for president of the student
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  council, and my mother said, I don't want you to do that. And I
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  was like, why? And she goes, you might lose. And I go,
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  there's 5 people running. I mean, there's an 80% chance.
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  So so yeah. I mean, I think that that, you know, I think I I
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  remember the first coaching group I was in. We had to
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  write down our 3, 5, and 10 year plans. Mhmm. And,
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  I remember that one person, their their you know, for
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  their 5 or 10 years, they would they wanted to own their own island.
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  Right? And, you know, all this stuff. And
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  I was like, I wanna be able to take 2 vacations
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  here. There's something wrong here. Doesn't
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  it? You know? Okay. So I just so that we have time to hit
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  some more points from you. Yeah. So, you
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  know, with with my son thinking bigger, he just
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  he constantly had the thought in his mind. And and, you know,
• 7:51
  when you're talking about discouraging, he never knew that I did
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  not believe he would get a scholarship. I never I
• 7:58
  never allowed myself to say, come on, Danny. You're
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  dreaming. That's never gonna happen. You know how few people get
• 8:06
  scholarships and how few people get to be collegiate. You know, I never said any
• 8:09
  of that. I just let him believe it was a little fantasy until till the
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  bubble burst. And even the day when he he got his letter,
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  I reminded him that the school had told us he could only expect a
• 8:20
  third to half. And then when he opened it, it was like a full scholarship.
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  So thinking bigger and constantly keeping your
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  focus on what it is that you want, even
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  when roadblocks get in the way and discouragements come, is super
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  important. And then I think the next thing you have to realize is
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  the person you are today is not the person
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  that you need to be to accomplish that big goal. You've
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  gotta change. You've gotta be willing to change. You've gotta work on
• 8:50
  you. You know? And and that is something constantly we
• 8:54
  constantly have to work on our self image because as you were saying, you
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  know, a lot of our self image is input when we were
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  small and we didn't even have the ability to filter it
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  out because everything just went into our mind. And
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  so we have to be able to be willing to change
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  because if you don't change, you would already have that
• 9:15
  goal. Right. If you think everything that you see in front of
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  you, everything that you have today
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  is because of the person you are today. Well But to go to that next
• 9:26
  step, you gotta change. One of the things that I always say to about people
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  is think about the characteristic that your family hates
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  the most. That's probably the thing you're actually the best at.
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  Yeah. You know? I mean, because it didn't fit into their
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  norm. Yeah. Yeah. It seemed like it was a bad thing.
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  But it's actually the thing that is your natural your
• 9:47
  natural persona, kind of. And and and I think the other
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  thing is that change is
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  constant. So whether you make a conscious
• 9:58
  decision to change, you will be changed by things that
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  are going around you, or if you don't change at all, you're gonna stagnate.
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  And you as a business person, that means that you're not relevant.
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  And so I think that, you know, as an entrepreneur, we have to say
• 10:14
  we have to be aware of the changes that we need to make because,
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  you know, unfortunately, our education system is such
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  that it's meant to get the right answers,
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  follow the instructions, that kind of stuff. You're in an entrepreneurial world
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  where you get to make the rules kind of, you know, or some of the
• 10:32
  rules. And if you can't take what
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  you do, I mean, people don't need more information.
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  Right? Because it's everywhere. What they Exactly. What they need
• 10:45
  is someone they relate to that can help them
• 10:48
  implement the information that's right for them.
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  And so if you can't figure out how to, you know, not
• 10:56
  not do what you do, but customize it
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  somewhat for what people need, which we you
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  know, it's not it it's changing in small increments, tweaking.
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  Right? But I think change is uncomfortable. I
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  always you know, my my my big thing is I've never been this
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  miserable before, so I must be making a great change.
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  I love that. You know? Yeah.
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  I don't wanna stop you. Yeah. So the next thing that I I
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  started to realize is that you can have that dream and you
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  can visualize the person you wanna be and pretend that you are
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  that person, But if you don't take the action,
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  it's not going to happen. And that's where I think a lot of entrepreneurs
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  or coaches miss out because they're not taking the actions
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  they need to take with the right mindset. Because it's
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  not just the action, but it's doing those actions in a certain
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  way with a certain thinking that will give you the
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  results. And if No. Go ahead. Then I'll ask
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  my question. I'm sorry. Yes. So, you know, a lot of times we
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  we have something that we want, but on the flip side, we don't think
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  we're gonna get it. So that's conflicting. And
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  so you just have to start moving forward and taking actions.
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  Even if it's a small step, just make a tiny step each day
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  towards your goal. And you have to get rid of that doubt and
• 12:26
  fear, which holds you back.
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  And that's, that's the thing I see a lot of people,
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  you know, they allow that fear to creep in and they allow those
• 12:37
  thoughts about, who am I to be able to do this? You know, what
• 12:41
  makes me think I can, you know, be an entrepreneur?
• 12:44
  And actually, that stopped me for a while too.
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  So I I'd like to talk about mindset a little bit, because
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  I think, typically, entrepreneurs are doers.
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  You know, they focus on the doing, and they
• 13:00
  don't, you know and so, like, when a lot of times when they come into
• 13:03
  a a program or whatever, and it starts with mindset, some kind of mindset,
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  which it probably should. You know, entrepreneurs are like, just give me the
• 13:11
  thing I need to do. Mhmm. Can we talk a little bit
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  about, can we talk a little
• 13:18
  bit about why that is so important and that
• 13:22
  mindset is not just a buzzword. It really is a thing.
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  Right. So mindset in in
• 13:30
  your subconscious mind, you have these thought patterns,
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  habitual thought patterns. And as long
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  as those habitual thought patterns remain in control,
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  and one of them is your self image, they are in
• 13:47
  charge, and they will stop you from doing the very thing that you
• 13:50
  want to do. So it's a matter of understanding
• 13:55
  how to change those
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  paradigms, we call them, and change those paradigms to the ones that you
• 14:02
  want and to the beliefs that you want. And that's
• 14:05
  why mindset is so important. You know, you're you're exactly right. So
• 14:09
  often people think, oh, I've got a good mindset. That's not my problem.
• 14:13
  Well, yeah. It probably is. It's probably one of the main
• 14:16
  issues because when you do that,
• 14:20
  then your actions have a different intensity.
• 14:25
  And you do things intentionally, and you do things with
• 14:29
  on a higher what I call higher vibration because
• 14:32
  now you're you're operating at a different level. And when
• 14:36
  you operate at a different level, which is the level where your goal is or
• 14:40
  at least closer to your goal, you put a
• 14:43
  different motivation and a different energy
• 14:47
  behind every action that you're taking. And if you're
• 14:51
  thinking like, oh, this is never gonna happen, then you decrease
• 14:55
  it. Just like you're saying, you know, you you either change or
• 14:59
  you stagnate or you go backwards. You
• 15:03
  know, the world is changing, and and we have to make
• 15:06
  sure that we are changing to the person that we want to be.
• 15:10
  And I I think the thing that's interesting is
• 15:14
  alright. So my framework, generally speaking, is
• 15:19
  that first you learn to be, you know, to manage
• 15:22
  yourself, and that's where mindset come is so, so important.
• 15:26
  Mhmm. How do you, you know, become resilient? How do you
• 15:30
  what are your principles and your thoughts and stuff like that?
• 15:34
  We are not taught that on purpose as we're growing up.
• 15:38
  No. So that's a a weak spot, which is why you know, and the next
• 15:42
  thing is how do I manage the project or the business that that I'm
• 15:45
  doing? And then after that, you can learn to
• 15:49
  manage other people and after that, organizations. But I say
• 15:52
  that because there are some
• 15:56
  higher level kind of thought patterns. I mean, so for instance,
• 16:00
  just a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset,
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  you know, is a big one. But the one I think in
• 16:08
  terms of changing my my my
• 16:11
  mindset and how I operated was the concept
• 16:15
  that success was not a binary choice. It was not that you
• 16:19
  succeeded or you failed. And when I
• 16:23
  finally learned that failure was part of of the
• 16:27
  process to getting success and you were actually doing
• 16:30
  an experiment, you know, so you do something, you look at your
• 16:34
  results, you adjust it, and then you keep going. That
• 16:40
  was a huge mindset because I was,
• 16:44
  you know, as a child, you know, you were always taught, you know, that in
• 16:47
  in my family, you know, your head was the most important thing, that you were
• 16:51
  the best, that you were at the top always. And so failure
• 16:54
  was not an option. And so what that meant is if you
• 16:58
  thought you were gonna fail, you just didn't do it. Right.
• 17:03
  Right? So I I think that's one of the reasons that
• 17:06
  mindset is so powerful and so
• 17:10
  important. Anyway, we can probably talk for hours. You know, I see that
• 17:14
  with so many people because they'll they'll start out and they have a
• 17:17
  dream of something they want to do, and then they
• 17:21
  meet with a roadblock or something gets in the way and, you
• 17:24
  know, and they may try again later.
• 17:28
  But once it happens, once or twice, they
• 17:32
  quit trying. Yeah. And and that's really sad
• 17:36
  because I I look at those stumbling blocks
• 17:40
  along the way as, you know, it's just like a,
• 17:44
  an angel out there that's trying to see how badly you want
• 17:47
  it. Yes. And so I try to keep
• 17:51
  my clients knowing that, you know, not everything you do is
• 17:55
  going to be successful, but it's
• 17:58
  testing you. It's like a test that you're taking. Are you
• 18:02
  willing to take this failure and turn it into a
• 18:06
  success? Or is is it sometimes
• 18:10
  the failure is you realize that it's not the right
• 18:14
  thing. Right. It's time. Yeah. Right?
• 18:17
  Okay. So here's what we need to do to make sure we get everything
• 18:21
  in. I need you to talk about your free gift and Okay.
• 18:25
  Action steps that people can take to to
• 18:28
  improve their mindset and their productivity and their profit.
• 18:32
  Okay. So my free gift is called from stuck to
• 18:36
  unstoppable. And this is kind of a new adventure
• 18:40
  for me in that it's a very detailed,
• 18:44
  freebie with questions and
• 18:47
  information. It goes through those three steps about the thinking
• 18:51
  bigger, the becoming the person you need to be, and taking
• 18:54
  action. It's giving you a lot of information as
• 18:58
  to why you need to do that. And for
• 19:02
  myself, I felt very stuck when I,
• 19:06
  was raising my kids because I was the mom. I was
• 19:10
  Rachel's mom. I was Renee's mom. I was Danny's mom. I didn't even have a
• 19:13
  name half the time. You know, people would just say, oh, you're Danny's
• 19:17
  mom. And I was okay with that because that was my main
• 19:21
  purpose, raising my 3 kids to be,
• 19:25
  as what I could get to them, outstanding citizens. And
• 19:29
  then when they were going off to college, when my son finally well, he was
• 19:32
  my youngest. Went off to college, it's like, what am I gonna do? Because I
• 19:36
  felt like I had no identity. Mhmm. And even though I was teaching, I
• 19:40
  still thought I had no identity. And so I felt very
• 19:43
  stuck. Well, then when I got into business, I also became
• 19:47
  very stuck because I did not have any business experience.
• 19:51
  And so I was listening to this person and that person and this person and
• 19:55
  that and running off doing all kinds of different things.
• 19:58
  So in this booklet, I wish somebody had given this to me
• 20:02
  and said, okay. So think deeply
• 20:05
  about this. What is it that you want? What do you need to change
• 20:09
  about who you are? What actions do you need to take
• 20:14
  to go forward? So that's, that's why this freebie, I think it's a really
• 20:17
  important booklet for people, you know, if they feel a little
• 20:21
  stuck anytime, you know, whether it's at the beginning or whether it's midway, they've hit
• 20:24
  a plateau, What do I need to get unstuck?
• 20:28
  Right. And I think there's a time in your your mind that
• 20:32
  everything just clicks. Well At least that's the way it was for me.
• 20:36
  And and I think when, you know, just this is my take on on
• 20:39
  stuckness. It's stuckness is,
• 20:43
  you know, you could still be doing things, but
• 20:47
  you're not moving in the direction that you want. It's like,
• 20:51
  you know, the, the definition of insanity. And I think
• 20:55
  there's a particular time in our life when you, you know,
• 20:58
  especially when the kids leave, you know, and, you know, the
• 21:02
  other things that you have to take care of for whatever reason lighten
• 21:06
  up, and you go. And it really happens close to
• 21:09
  around when you're 52. Also, there's
• 21:13
  gotta be more. Right. This isn't where I
• 21:17
  expected to be. Right? And so you need to keep
• 21:20
  looking internally. I mean, that's part of the whole, you know, the whole
• 21:24
  journey. Okay. So, again,
• 21:28
  we can use the three things that you talked about as our 3 steps.
• 21:32
  Mhmm. You can find the information for the freebie will be in
• 21:36
  the in the notes. And so my other question is when was
• 21:40
  the last time you did something new for the first time?
• 21:43
  So this is kind of new, getting on speaking
• 21:47
  stages, getting, podcasts. That's
• 21:51
  my something new and it's something I'm doing for the pretty much
• 21:55
  the first time. So it was about, I guess, a month ago when I made
• 21:58
  the decision that 2025 was gonna be my speaking
• 22:02
  year. And I was going to pursue getting on as
• 22:05
  many stages as possible. Well, I hope this has been a great
• 22:09
  experience. I've enjoyed it. So Yes. I've enjoyed it too. I
• 22:13
  hope this is a good kickoff for for what you plan on doing. So,
• 22:16
  unfortunately, we have to wrap this up. So I just wanna say to all of
• 22:20
  you that are listening, as a first step, please subscribe
• 22:24
  and, share this with other people, engage on, you know, with the
• 22:27
  podcast on social media. And one of the reasons I'm doing this is
• 22:31
  to help you have small changes that can supercharge your
• 22:35
  business through connection. And it's my way of giving back and
• 22:38
  helping you to, on your quest for growth. So I'm
• 22:42
  hoping that you will join me for the one small change, as we go
• 22:46
  on to this journey of monumental transformation.
• 22:50
  And if you haven't gone to the main page, you want to do that so
• 22:53
  you can get the first episode about why I'm doing this. And also so that
• 22:56
  you can find some other, great speakers that have some
• 23:00
  great, you know, words of wisdom so that you can dive
• 23:04
  into a world of bold vision and innovative possibilities.
• 23:08
  So with that, Patricia, what's what's your last word you want us to
• 23:11
  remember you by or a quote that you like? I think
• 23:15
  one of my favorite quote quotes is, you can never outperform
• 23:20
  the image you hold of yourself. Say that
• 23:24
  again? You can never outperform
• 23:27
  the made you hold of yourself. So in other words, you know, if
• 23:31
  you think if you think of yourself one way and
• 23:35
  your, self image is stuck there,
• 23:39
  you're never gonna be able to be bigger. Interesting.
• 23:43
  That is a great quote. I've never I've never heard that one before.
• 23:47
  So we're coming up to the end, and I just want
• 23:51
  everybody to remember that change can be simple, but it's
• 23:55
  not always easy. Because for one thing, it requires courage,
• 23:59
  resilience, and a willingness to step out of our comfort zones.
• 24:02
  And it's so comfortable in the comfort zone. But I
• 24:06
  hope that you will join me again for the one small change as we
• 24:10
  as we look to see what possibilities there are. And
• 24:14
  I hope that next time, you will bring
• 24:17
  a friend and have others listen as well. So thank you for coming.
• 24:21
  Patricia, thank you for giving your time and your information
• 24:25
  freebie. Thank you for inviting me. Everything will be in the notes
• 24:28
  so that you can get more of her. Bye.