Thinking Big with Andrea Liebross

Having coached hundreds of studio owners around the world , I do think that there is a certain approach to business that those people who reach the success they want really have that their mindset really is a massive contributing factor , and I believe that it is absolutely fundamental to your success and to your growth .

But it's often something that is overlooked and that's why I'm excited to introduce you to Andrea , and today , on this episode of the Pilates Business Podcast , we're talking all about how you could hone the skill of thinking big in your business . Well , hi there , I'm Saren Glanfield .

I'm a business and marketing strategist just for boutique fitness studio owners like you . If you're ready to be inspired and make a bigger impact , you're in the right place . All you need are a few key strategies , the right mindset and some support along the way .

Join me as I share the real life insights that will help you grow a sustainable and profitable studio . This is the Pilates Business Podcast . And profitable studio . This is the Pilates Business Podcast . Welcome back to the Pilates Business Podcast .

I'm Sarah Ann , and I'm so excited for you to join us here today , because I really love to bring on guests that help us to think about our business in all different ways and with all different types of approaches .

And here today I have a very special guest , Andrea , who is an expert on big thinking , and she works with a lot of very high achieving female entrepreneurs . In fact , she wrote a book about it . She is the author of a bestseller called she Thinks Big the Entrepreneurial Woman's Guide to Moving Past the Messy Middle and Into the Extraordinary .

She also has a podcast called Time to Level Up , and I think that's something that we can all learn a lot from Now .

Andrea believes that the secret sauce to thinking big and creating big results that you are 100% worthy and capable of is that there are just two ingredients One is to have some solid systems in place and two to have the right mindset , and I couldn't agree more . We have so much in common . So welcome Andrea . Thank you so much for joining us .

Thank you for having me . So I want to dive into all the things , but why don't we start off with the most obvious question I can think of , and that perhaps will be helpful for us to sort of define before we continue on , is tell us more about what it means to you and what you see . What does thinking big really mean ?

It's the you a year from now , three years from now , five years from now , 10 years from now , whenever that is . You access that future you and you meet them , say hi , nice , to meet you . And then you ask that future you what to do today .

So big thinkers can kind of they have the ability to go to that place and then use that kind of information from that person that's already done it to help them move forward today .

I think sometimes people say , well , is this like manifesting , okay ? Which yes and no ? I mean yes , it's . If you look up the definition of manifesting , the word belief is in there and , yes , you do have to believe that X , y , z is possible . Ok , I'll give you actually a great example today , this morning .

So , prospective client she actually has a business idea which I don't want to reveal on air , but she has this business idea that she has been thinking about for two years and she actually contacted me a year ago about working with me , decided to no , not yet . Now she's contacted me again . So she's still thinking about it .

She hasn't done anything about it , but she's still thinking about it and she does believe , okay , that it is going to be successful in our heart of hearts , to be successful in our heart of hearts . So she is thinking big in that sense . But what's missing are the action . She hasn't done anything , okay .

So big thinkers are able to believe and then take the action . You've got to have that action piece of the puzzle in there . And she's like well , what if it doesn't work ? And I kind of got back . I was like what doesn't work ? Like what are you talking about ? What doesn't work ?

And really what she's doing is she's afraid she won't work , like she can't make it happen . Not that the idea is not a good one , but can she make it happen ? So big thinkers are able to both like , almost like they'll sit with all the feelings and be able to still take action .

So I did create an acronym about the five things that all big thinkers do , which we could share . I could share .

Or I know myself , I set up all of these systems and then I don't , I just let them go after two weeks . Or I know myself , I spend money on this and then I don't commit . Ok , that's past you . And past you is just a teacher , it is not a fortune teller . So we think that it's like telling the fortune too .

Well , if that's what happened in the past , that's what's going to happen in the future . No , okay , so that's the past . There's present you , okay . So now this person I'm talking about , she has been sitting in present you , okay , but she hasn't been doing anything . And that's because she even admitted today on this phone call , because I asked her .

I said , okay , we talked a year ago . She's like , wow , I mean every time , every weekend , I think about it that I should really get this going , and it's just , it's just kind of comfy not to , because , I mean , nothing has to change . Okay .

So present you is very comfortable , even if you feel overwhelmed or stressed , or it's chaotic , like you're used to it , so it's just comfy , ok . So present you is in this comfortable state . Past you , it's the past , it's just a teacher . You sure you is where you have to go for your big thinking , and this is hard work . So , yes , this is hard work .

There's a difference right between it teaching us something and then taking that and moving forward with that and actually using it as perhaps something else yeah , we , we do , we use it effectively , right , right that's the whole thing , do we ?

Is that kind of same thing Like , oh right , just because that happened once before that way last time , doesn't necessarily mean it's going to happen the same way this time , correct ?

This is the work worth doing it is Because when you conquer the mindset , part of it right , when you can separate your and I guess you know as it relates to business when you can separate your business from maybe you and some of the things that you have or work through them so that you are actually unlocking different opportunities for your business , then it

shifts so much and the mindset is a huge component and huge component has to be there . So tell me , I'm curious , well before we move into the acronyms , what is the what , what ? How can we use the past as a teacher ? What does that look like ?

So what are we going to do differently this time ? What are we going to do differently this time ? What are we going to do differently this time ? People don't take that step , they don't give I call it like giving it equal airtime .

So I said to her this morning I said have you given equal airtime to the fact that maybe , if you do get the support you're looking for , you are going to be all in and you are going to have a plan and things are going to happen easily , you know , or I don't know , easy might be too , too loose , but they're going to flow okay .

And have you given equal air time to that thought ? And she's like no , not really , because I just keep going back to the other thought of this isn't , this won't work and I won't show up and I'm not committed , and so that also kind of gets into the interested versus committed in discussion , which she's been interested in doing this .

The past has showed her she's interested , but now is she ready to shift into committed right and she's doubting herself on that . But if it stayed around for two years you've been thinking about this I kind of feel like you're maybe ready to commit and you're reaching out and you're taking steps .

But then how do you kind of take the leap ? What does that look like ?

. This kind of goes into the acronym . So you have to trust . So the acronym is based off of the word trust . You have to trust yourself , you have to trust whoever is supporting you . You have to trust the universe in a sense . Okay . So the T in trust , I say , stands for thought options . So that's kind of just what I described .

You have to give equal airtime to both thoughts . Yeah , I know , yes , maybe this quote unquote won't work , and yes , it's totally going to work . You have to give equal airtime to that . So big thinkers recognize that they have thought options . Ok . Second are the are in trust . So what this has to do with is the real problem it stands for .

The real problem in . The real problem here in this situation is not any problem , there is no problem . The real problem is just a feeling , like you said . Ok . So the real problem is she doesn't want to feel that , she doesn't want to experience the doubt . She doesn't want to feel inadequate , like she doesn't know what she's doing .

She doesn't want to potentially maybe feel like she failed . What would other people say ? What was she right ? So she's not necessarily at the place where she's willing to feel all the feelings . Ok . So the real problem is there's no problem . The problem is , you just don't want to experience all these feelings .

So if you are willing to feel all the feelings and quiet that little voice like I call it , your frenemy voice in the back of your head that tells you you've never done this before , are you sure that's the right move ? Is anyone going to come ? If you can quiet that voice and you know , follow , I call it .

Well , the real , you please stand up , then you're going to get somewhere . So R stands for real problem , which is really just you not wanting to feel a negative feeling . U in trust kind of hits a little bit on the same thing . It stands for the unknown or uncertain .

So you have to be able to embrace the unknown and the , and things necessarily aren't certain , right ? So we don't even know what's going to happen tonight , but somehow we think that we're going to know that the 10 years from now , right , we don't even know .

So this came up actually this morning too , because she said , well , because she told me she doesn't know if she wants to do this because of the money . Okay , which I was like . Well , I don't know if that's really true , cause you knew , you know how much it costs and you called me back .

If you're a big , many unknowns and you've got to be OK . If you're a big thinker , you've got to be OK with those unknowns . Yeah , right .

So I said , if you don't do anything , are you going to know it ? Then , like , no , ok , so this is all kind of like an interesting little psychological study . It's all mindset .

The other thing that's funny that's not funny , but comes up all the time actually is kind of funny to me now , because every time someone says , oh yeah , like I totally think I want to work with you or I want to move forward on this idea , whatever it is , even I find myself doing this , but I just need to think about it .

Ok , I just want to think about it . So I always ask permission to put my coach hat on . Like can I put my coach hat on ? Sure ? What exactly are you thinking about ? What are the questions you're trying to answer ? And no one really has a good answer to that .

They don't know what they're thinking about , but what they're trying to do is get rid of that unknown , like trying to find evidence to support whatever decision they want to make .

Right , and I think , as business owners , this happens all the time because we just have to make decision after decision after decision , and making those decisions can be hard and stressful and there's so much unknown . But if you're a big thinker , you have to embrace the unknown . That's what you stands for in trust in this conversation .

I really should have just pulled this acronym out . We should have been all set . So I said well , right now you haven't done anything . Okay , you're calling me . I'm thinking you want some support moving forward . Who's supporting you now ? Wow , oh , my husband . He's super supportive . My family supportive , my friend supportive .

I said , okay , cool , great , I am so glad that they are doing their jobs , because their job is to support you in a loving way , like that is their job . Their job is not to support you , to tell you , kind of like , when the going gets tough , what to do Like they're not . Their job is not to necessarily push you . They don't want that .

They don't want that job . They just want everything to be comfy too .

So now you've got two people who are sitting there with the feelings of I like to be comfortable , I don't want you to be uncomfortable , I don't want to be uncomfortable with you being uncomfortable , and now you're in a , it doesn't help .

You can't even pull yourself up over the edge to read the label of what's going on around you or what's possible around you . So you big thinkers like I don't know any , I don't like you know CEOs of Google and whatever else , like they all have support . They're no one's doing it alone . No one's doing it alone . So big thinkers , they secure support .

And then the last thing , which might seem obvious , but I want to tease it apart a little bit the last T stands for take action . Okay . So I said , what have you been doing over the last year ? She's like well , I mean , I've been researching if there are any other businesses out there that do what I want to do .

I've been researching , maybe how do I price , how do I structure this pricing wise ? I've been researching blah , blah , blah , and I've listened to all of your podcasts . Okay . So what she's been doing is she's been taking passive action . Okay , so she's not not doing anything , but it's passive action . It's listen to the podcast , read the book .

I love books too clearly , because I wrote a book . I like podcasts because I have a podcast . I'm here with you today .

All awesome , super , but are you taking action , true action , based off of those ? So that's massive action . That's the kind of thing that I'm talking about . You need to be taking massive action which is actually doing something , putting one foot in front of the other , knowing it may not work . It may work , we don't know .

But she's been staying safe and comfy just in the passive action mode . But big thinkers are willing to take massive action , Right .

So I I actually just posted yesterday something , because I this has been bothering me for a while and people were talking about , you know , there was I don't hear it as much anymore , but people used to talk a lot about imposter syndrome , right , and there was a whole phase of like it was imposter syndrome . I have imposter syndrome .

Do you have imposter syndrome ? It's like this disease we have that one day we're going to overcome and then we're going to be amazingly successful . It's like this , you know .

But the reality is , is that in mind and I think it's kind of a lot of I don't know , I don't know another , another conversation for another day , but I think that it's it's actually when you , if you are thinking that someday there will be a , you'll wake up and it will all be different , then you will always say exactly where you are .

But you have to go through these types of this process . You have to sit with the feelings that you have around your business .

Feelings you have about growth and we've mentioned it briefly the feelings that you pull you kind of get projected perhaps onto you from the people that you perhaps surround yourself with as well , to you from the people that you perhaps surround yourself with as well .

And that's why I think it's really powerful to be in a group of like-minded people who are also perhaps in a bigger thinking kind of place . And when you work with , when you see people who are leading very large organizations or who have built large organizations , they are in a room every single day with people who are also thinking big .

They're in a boardroom with other people . When you're on your own in your business , you perhaps have some people who work for you right , who don't necessarily have that same ambition as you .

Or you're with spouses or friends who may or may not be business owners themselves , and it's really hard to find those people who are like oh well , why don't this is , this is what I do , this is what we do , why don't we ? And then the kind of creates this vacuum and pulls you up with it and so you know you have .

There is a process to go through and it isn't a flip of a switch , but there are things you can do to help you get to the kind of work through this process without so that you are not sort of sitting there waiting for that switch to get flipped .

And again , like bouncing things off of your family , not the best way to create a relationship that you want either .

People will come to me and say you know , I spoke to my significant other about this and what they told me was that I should do this , you know , I should start a YouTube channel or I should have a new on-demand platform . Yes , you know , and I'm like , oh , that's really interesting . What prompted that idea ? What was the ethos ?

Well , they said that everyone else is doing it , or that there's a billion people who watch YouTube every day . So I should be doing it too . And it's sort of like , okay , and what do you want and know ?

And all of a sudden , there's you get influenced by the people around you , right , yeah , and you want to make sure that , yes , you're being influenced by people who you love and admire and who are there every day , but you also want to make sure that you're being influenced by people who have perhaps other insights that may help you from a business perspective or

industry perspective or coaching perspective , right , and so it's powerful to have that input .

But this is sort of you know and this is where it it you know .

The awareness for how you make business decisions is also really important , and I think that is also part of what you're talking about here , probably right with , yeah with with , which is that I think a lot of people who achieve big things are very aware of their mindset and the way that they approach things and sometimes can are able to separate their emotional

attachment to certain ideas or thoughts or beliefs they have . Yes , and that supports their kind of bigger thinking 100% .

So a lot of times people just mush all that together in one big bucket . But dreaming really is . You know , if you look up the definition of dreaming or pipe , a pipe dream is when people used to sit around and smoke opium in pipes . They would hallucinate or it'd be kind of euphoric , right . So that's how pipe dreams came to be okay

. Then you've got goals , and I always say goals should be . There's kind of two kinds of goals . Goals should be smarter . So I am a big proponent of like specific and measurable and actionable and whatever the ER at the end I add that on for exciting and relevant . Okay , so they should be smarter , but they also should be a little wild .

And with wild I add in you've got to be willing to not be so willing to suck at it . The W stands for willing to suck at it or not be great at it , or are you willing to do that , but then I do , they ignite you , they light you up . Do they feel a little impossible ? Are you willing to let it be easy ? Because L let it be easy .

Are you willing to let it be easy or are you someone that has to make things complicated and D is like are you doing it for fun ? So , being able to tease all that apart so that you have a concrete plan , I do something called a vision into action intensive , where we extract this vision which takes , which is work .

It's not a lot of people , can't you know they don't , they don't just sit down and have their vision .

We work at it and then we turn it into action steps and in the middle there there's some belief , right , and we take into account time and we take into account what's going on in your life , but you end up with a tangible plan that's actually doable , right ? So , yeah , you can become a bigger thinker .

It is a gift to give yourself time and you have to be in the right place and you have to be willing to kind of explore things and tease them out and play with them and sit with maybe some uncomfortable feelings .

And then if I listen to everyone else around me , oh , you should do that , you should do this , you should do that , right . And the reality is , if we use that as our guide for what maybe like success looks like , yeah , we will never , ever do the thing . Yeah , we will never , ever do anything .

You're a hundred percent , we will never , ever do the thing . Also about figuring out , like , what your priorities are and what you really want , and that is kind of a pro . There's a process to that , right . There's like , yes , a hundred percent , mindset process .

You have to feel good about it , like you said , it has to excite you and you have to believe , like you say , I have to believe it is possible , right .

And you know , I think a lot of folks often come into sort of business planning and goal setting sessions with like and and there's like , this is how much mindset is involved , because I think you know people come into those conversations without even being aware of how much baggage they bring to those sessions of , based off of , perhaps , their past right , like ,

oh , I've never like I have got , you know , I've never completed the final part of my training and I always start it and I never finish it . That's yep , that's a classic right . Okay , so you do you think just trying again the same thing is going to help you ? Or do you think we need to figure out what's holding you back there , what is really going on ?

And that's that awareness and being uncomfortable and really reflecting on like , okay , so I didn't do it last time , what do I need to do differently ? Or how can I evolve the way that I think about it , the way that I approach , approach it , if that really is a goal that I really want to achieve and sometimes people actually aren't even that .

It's not even a goal they even care about , but they feel like they should do it right , right .

Tell me what's the kind of biggest piece of , what's the one kind of piece of advice or guidance you would give to female founders who are wanting to build a fulfilling and stable and profitable business ?

Ok , that's kind of the first thing , and then to kind of tag onto that , it really is about 80% mindset and 20% systems .

So sometimes we tend to get lost in the well , if I just had this better plan for social media and I do think you need social media , I'm not saying you don't but if I just had , if I just put my , my dollars and effort there , then everything's going to be amazing . No , because after you put that plan into place , you still have the same brain .

You still have the same thinking . If you're not evolving your thinking , then in the end you're going to end up in the same spot , absolutely .

You also find a link to my podcast , which is called Time to Level Up , and you can listen to that . Probably where you're listening to this podcast right now and I am usually if tough social media , I'm more on Instagram than anything else , so there's a link to my profile there , Andrearealibroscoaching . And then there's a quiz .

There's two quizzes , so I would encourage you to go to andreaslinkscom and take one of those two quizzes , if not both . One's really more about productivity , why you might not be getting something done and what your productivity archetype is , and then the other one is more about where you are in your business .

It's kind of like how do you create more freedom in your business ?

Thank you so much , andrea . It was great to have you here . This was a fabulous conversation . I really appreciate you sharing all of your wisdom with us today . Thanks for having me . I hope this is helpful to all of you as you go about building your boutique fitness studio business .

If you loved what you heard today , I'd be so appreciative if you could go and take a quick minute rate and review this podcast .

It would mean so much to me and it would also help to get this podcast out there into our amazing community , so that more teachers and studio owners , just like you , can feel encouraged and supported on their journey in our industry . Did you love this episode and want more ?

Head to spring3.com and check out my free resources that will help you run a profitable and fulfilling studio business . And before you go , one last reminder there is no one way to do what you do , only your way . So whatever it is that you want to do , create or offer , you've got this .

Thanks again for joining me today and have a wonderful rest of your day .