Mindset Mastery is a weekly newsletter about the psychology of self-employment from Jenni Gritters. If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while and you receive value from it, I’d encourage you to sign up for a paid membership. By doing so, you’re also helping me make business coaching for self-employed folks more accessible to all.
Psst: I’m offering a workshop on February 14th about how to adjust your mindset so you can build relationships with clients with ease, and feel more confident about your offers. Sound appealing? Read more about it below ⬇️
When you get stuck in your life or work, there are usually two types of blocks that come up:
external blocks, which are often things outside of our control — like the weather, our children getting sick, chronic illness flareups, or world events
internal blocks, which involve your beliefs about the world and what is possible — like procrastination, perfectionism, self-doubt, people pleasing, and beyond
Most of my coaching clients come into my coaching room asking for help getting from point A (where they’re at now) to point B (where they dream of being). And it’s my job to help identify whether we’re dealing with an internal block or an external block. Usually, it’s a mix of both!
Here’s an example:
Joey really wanted to make $200,000 in revenue in 2023. He showed up late in the year feeling frustrated because he just wasn’t there. When we talked about what was happening now, he explained that he was on track to hit about $130,000, but had lost a client. That was an external block. Then he spent a month caring for his elderly mother, so he struggled to refill that client spot. Again, an external block.
But when he got back from his mother’s place, he started to spiral. He didn’t fully believe that his industry — journalism — could get him to $200,000. That was an internal block, a limiting belief about what was possible. He also felt like he was falling behind his peers; a familiar voice of self doubt crept in every time he started to scroll Twitter: Are you really good enough to do this? This was an internal block, too. The result: He procrastinated filling up that client spot because he didn’t feel good about himself and every time he posted on social media, he felt like a fraud. (Internal block!) And so his income started to plummet.
As you can see, our whole lives are a mix of internal and external blocks. When we hit an external block, the “fix” is to support ourselves through dealing with the block through therapy, coaching, community, setting reasonable expectations and embracing a more seasonal mindset. My therapist calls this “building a cocoon.”
But when you hit an internal block, the “fix” looks different. Most of our internal blocks have been learned over time. When I talk about mindset, this is what I’m referring to: A set of beliefs and patterns that you’ve built up over years of experience. These beliefs make up your world view, which can stand in the way of what you really want.
Sometimes that world view gets old. In Joey’s case, he was really annoyed with himself. He wanted to hit his goals but he knew his brain was keeping him stuck. That voice of self-doubt was so familiar. The pattern of procrastination had been showing up for decades.
Here’s what I love: When it comes to internal blocks, we have agency. We have control. We can actually change the narrative. And teaching you how to do this is the single most important business building strategy that I could ever give you. It will, no joke, change your life.
Joey was able to dig into his beliefs about journalism as an industry; some of the ideas he held felt true, while he could see that others were ideas peddled by people around him. He knew it was possible for him to hit $200,000 if he diversified his revenue streams. He could see proof that it was possible.
We also dug into that old “not good enough” belief and figured out when it started. We began to understand that Joey had been bullied as a kid, so the critical voice in his head was protecting him — or trying to, at least. When he was able to spend time off social media, he encountered fewer comparison traps, which reduced this flare-up. But we also talked at length about this deep “not enough” belief and how Joey might navigate it differently in the months to come.
Once he got clear on his action steps, his guilt and shame around procrastinating disappeared, too. Joey felt, wildly, that he was back on track. He didn’t hit $200k, but he did land a new client and realized that the lack of hustle felt really good.
I can teach you business strategies all day long, friends, but there’s a reason why this newsletter is about mindset. Mindset is the thing that lies under most of our challenges. Those internal blocks can feel like they’re suffocating you; I want to teach you how to get some wiggle room by building an awareness of your patterns and then using proven tools to approach them differently.
That’s what we’re doing in my one-hour workshop next week, called Mindset Mastery. (Yep: I kaboshed the month-long program and turned it into a one-time, low-cost deep dive based on your feedback!) Come hang out with me on February 14th for the ultimate act of self love: Building awareness so you can feel more free to chase your ideal business, just like Joey did.
See you there?
xo,
Jenni
Curious about my background? I’m a writer and business coach based in Central Oregon. I have two small children and I work part-time so I can spend a lot of time with them. Lately, I’ve been obsessed with non-linear business building and teaching people how to build successful businesses that support their human needs first. Check out my coaching offerings here, and follow me on Twitter & Instagram.