Narrow Minded

It’s incredible how narrow-minded I can be.

I was reminded of this recently when I had a conversation with someone else.

He was a business owner. His business was as a distributor for an MLM supplement company. He was “all in” and on cloud nine with the possibilities of his new venture.

I asked who his ideal dream client was – someone in the fitness or health industry with a following, he responded after some thought.

“Awesome. How much is that person worth to you?” I asked.

“A good person is worth at least $10k per month to me and a great person, well, the skies the limit!” He responded without any hesitation.

In an effort to help, I quickly told him of a high-level networking group I’m involved in that’s dedicated to the fitness and wellness industry. He lit up. I mentioned a few names of who was involved, and he lit up even more. These were his “great people.”

I told him he should consider joining and even gave him an introduction to my business partner who handles all applications. Smooth sailing right?

The introduction was made, they talked, and nothing happened.

When I asked the business owner why he had chosen not to move forward with the group, he just responded: “I don’t want to pay right now.”

I was dumbfounded. Here he was, a man who had been successful in business in the past, who told me that one client, even just a good one, would be worth $120k per year to him in his business, and he wouldn’t invest 0.3% to attain that customer? Not to mention that there were over 30 of these “great people” that fit his match in the group.

I got angry.

Then I remembered countless times in the past when I did the same.

I didn’t invest in a seminar that I knew would have helped me take my business to the next level. Wrong.

Or that time that I thought hiring the right coach for me was too big of an investment. Wrong there too.

Or the time when I didn’t want to run ads for my business because “what if they didn’t work?” Yup, wrong again.

Or … well, I can go on and on.

Yup, sometimes I’m narrow-minded and forget the big picture. I’ve gotten better about this in the area of business, and I’d like to think relationships as well, but there are certainly many areas in my life where I forget the big picture and focus on the minutia.

It’s a scarcity mindset and sometimes a mindset born of ignorance.

Here are a few things you can do to avoid ending up like me, or this business owner, the next time a decision comes up:

1. Know your outcome. What is it you want to achieve exactly? And more importantly, does this outcome fit into the big picture for you and your business?
2. Know your numbers. As a business owner, if I told you that you could go to the Customer Store and buy a customer right now, how much would you be willing to pay and what’s a good deal? What is a customer worth to you? What is their lifetime value?
3. Understand stress. Making a small choice in business can be stressful. Making a big decision, or taking a risk, can also be stressful. The pressure in the same, but the outcome of exerting action is massively different. Go smart and go big.

Opening yourself up to the big picture and bringing clarity to your business takes you out of the passenger seat and puts you into the driver seat with your company.

Eye’s wide open.