1908 – Entrepreneurial Mindset and Mental Wellness with Steve McCready

0:28Hey there, thoughtful listener. next six to eight months with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for over 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high-ticket sales appointments. Also, don't forget, the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for great guests. Go to upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. I'd love to have you.

1:06With us right now, Steve McCready. Steve, you are a coach and you were found on the web at stevemccready.com, but you have a background as a psychotherapist and a marriage and family therapist. So you're an MFT, which my wife is a licensed marriage and family therapist. And so that was actually what I wanted to do. That was my undergrad is it was kind of a pre MFT track. So listen, it's really great to have you here. I can't wait to chat with you. I can tell you already, I love the work that you do and very grateful for the work that you the impact that you have in the world. But Steve, thank you so much for joining us.

1:44Yeah, well, absolutely. I appreciate the opportunity. Happy to come on and chat. Enjoy your podcast. Love your energy. So we're looking forward to having a fun conversation. Also a former broadcast radio guy and a music creator too. So there's so many commonalities. But Steve, I'll let you explain the work that you do and who you serve and kind of the impact you have in the world. Yeah. So these days, my primary focus is in coaching. And so what I do is I primarily work with solo and small business owners. And I like to say, I like to help them get better at using their business as a force for good in the world.

2:20So my background being psychotherapy, my focus is on the mind, psychology, that kind of thing. So we're really working on those issues, helping people be more focused, more productive, get unstuck, get out of their own way, build their confidence, all of those sorts of things. So anything that kind of falls under the category of the mental game, that's really the primary area where I work. And so I know I'm not someone who is going to start a business that's doing something to make the world a better place, but I know I can help other people become more empowered and bigger, stronger, better versions of themselves.

2:55And so that's the way that I'm trying to do my part to help things move forward in the world. With your background in psychotherapy and the coaching work that you do with the entrepreneurial world, I'm sure you have some very interesting observations. I'm all ears. Tell me what you see. Well, so I saw, man, I could go off on that like all day. It's like so many places to pick from. But I think we live in such a noisy, challenging world now. We are all getting just buried with input of messages about what we should do, who we should be. We're being taught to react and trained to react, not to be thoughtful and proactive.

3:36And so it has never been more important and critical to, one, be really, really clear about what you stand for, what you believe in and who you are. Two, to be really, really good about focus. and three, to have just really, really strong and solid boundaries. Because unless you have those things, there are forces in the world that are going to drive you all over the place. But none of those places are the place that you want to go or are meant to go. And I would imagine how this, like the challenges that we as business leaders or entrepreneurs might be facing, I'm sure that this manifests in some pretty common patterns that you see.

4:12Do you mind maybe sharing some of those patterns that are pretty big in your world? I mean, two, yeah. One is just the whole problem of overthinking. It's like, there's all these different possibilities. We live in a world full of possibility too, which is both great and awful. It's like, well, I could do this. I could do this. I could do this. I could do it this way. I could do it this way. I could do it this way. Which one do I pick? So that's when I see people just getting spun in their heads, trying to think of what to do and how to do it and never doing anything. So that's one. Another one is just the issue of focus for the same reason.

4:39So many options, so many choices, so many challenges, so many things. How do I pick which thing to do right now. And then another one is just really the confidence about that because there's so many different messages in the world about, well, you should do it this way. You should do it that way. You should do it like this, right? How many different strategies are there for growing a podcast? Which one is the right one? Of course, the answer is there's not one that's the right one. There might be which one is going to be most effective for you, but the thing is getting that dialed in. And so really helping people clarity is so important and focus and boundaries.

5:12And so I see people just get stuck in these things. And what happens is I sort of imagine someone sitting in a chair, almost just kind of spinning in a circle, looking around at all these different things and never actually really going anywhere. And I do see people who are stuck in that space when they have so much energy and so many ideas that if they can focus it and direct it, they can do really big, powerful things. But there's, again, a lot working against that. I hope you don't mind me asking a question. It's a little bit more meta here, but I'm thinking about this just simply because I'm working on a presentation right now and we're offering a new kind of lower price point product.

5:45I'm really excited about it. And, you know, the goal of sales really is just to help people make a smart decision. That might be my solution. It might be something else. But, you know, I think what's really important for me is I am okay for people for whom I'm not a good solution for, right? But as a marketer or someone that's involved in helping people with that decision-making process. Are there some questions that maybe I could ask that might help people? Because what I don't want is I don't want them to just, I mean, I guess I have paralysis. I'd love for them to make an A, B choice or maybe an A, B, C, D or E choice or something like that.

6:22But I guess what I'd love to help them do is at least make a decision rather than maybe no decision because they're just, it's a decision fatigue or there's just, you know, So it's safer to do nothing. Like I'd love to help them just get clarity on that. Can you empower me with some superpowers of empathy? I think, so I think the thing is helping them relate what you're offering to themselves to assess how much of a fit it is, right? And so it's about thinking about what you're offering is in the context of who they are. What are the sorts of things you enjoy doing? What are the sorts of things you really don't like doing?

6:57What are the sorts of things that you have a lot of energy around or that you don't have energy around? What are the areas where you've been successful in doing this sort of thing? What are the areas that you've struggled? And people will start to learn there are some things that work better for them or not as good for them. And that's a way that they can look and see, is this going to be a good fit or not? It's like, for me, it's like, we're in spring, it's getting warmer. I'm not going to go buy a pair of flannel lined jeans right now. If someone's selling them, I'm not looking for that. I'm looking for the experience of being comfortable, which in summary is going to be shorts, but at another time it would be that.

7:35So it's got to be about helping them think about who are they and how does this solution, not just solve the general problem of sure. I want to increase my influence. I want to increase my visibility, but what sort of visibility? Cause that can take a lot of forms. It could be talking on a podcast. It could be being on YouTube. It could be being on Tik TOK. It could be connecting with people, you know, via email. I mean, there's a ton of ways to do this, but people have to know what fits them better, right? There's a reason I'm not like on TikTok because it just doesn't fit my energy. There's a reason that I do most of my stuff.

8:09I have a daily email list and it's a short email via plain text. Why? Because that's the way I can best communicate my message to people in a way that honors me. That would be a horrible fit for some people. It's perfect for me. So I would encourage you ask people questions that'll help them assess that and really encourage them, right? If it's not to be like, no, either not, not me, or even redirect them. If you're looking for this, here's a place you can go. Cause I think that builds trust too. When people feel like, okay, you're not trying to sell me no matter what you're trying to assess fit and help me assess fit.

8:44Does this fit? And if it does great, let's talk more. And if it doesn't, Hey, off you go, here's something that might be better for you. Best of luck to you. I would imagine that a common complaint could be, I don't know, I'm just guessing, but among entrepreneurs who deal with so many things, and I think a lot of times we care very passionately about what we do. We have high expectations and demands of ourselves. And I know that some of these things can lead to some exhaustion and potentially burnout. Is this something you encounter? And if so, what is typically the path you take with someone to kind of examine and get curious about that burnout?

9:28So, you know, certainly burnout, we see it all the time. Anyone who's building or running a small business or a large one for that matter is at risk of it. And so first thing we've got to do is really assess like, okay, are you burning out? Yes. And then look at like, what's going on, right? Because burnout is, if we think of it as a sustained energy deficit. There are two components to this. There's, are you doing enough to create and generate and build energy for yourself on the one hand? And then two, are you burning more energy than you can afford to? And so we look at both sides of the equation.

10:00Are there things that you can let go of, give up, hand off or delegate? So your work is less draining and taking less energy from you. I'm a huge fan of constraints and stop doing lists as a way to kind of create some boundaries there. But then there's the thing of, are you doing enough to make sure you are fueling yourself optimally. And that's one, obviously rest and nutrition are the simple ones. Exercise is another one. But I think things like also, and this actually works in a sense, both sides of the equation, creative activity, right? We were talking about music a little bit before we got on the recording here.

10:31And for me, music is my self-care. If I have a bunch of like stuff that I'm carrying around emotionally from the end of the day, I pull my guitar off the wall, jam on it for a little bit, do some music. And it just helps me to just get whatever like excess is there and discard it and get it out of the way. And I find it also energizing and free and music can be very powerful. I have playlists designed to create certain moods for myself. And so I think working both sides of that equation is really what we have to do, which always starts with an assessment of where is the equation most unbalanced.

11:00But ultimately I'm always looking at these things as equations and how do we work both sides of it and figure all the different tools we can do to help get you to a more balanced and sustainable place. Yeah. What do you think's going on there when we have a creative outlet? I agree with you. I was just telling you before we recorded, you know, I picked up the bass about six, seven months ago. And, you know, if I don't get my 30 minutes in, like, I feel it. Like, to me, I don't know what's going on in my brain. I don't know if it's meditative. It could be. There could be some of that. But, you know, when I am playing bass, you know what kind of work things I'm thinking about?

11:34Nothing. None. Not a single damn work thing is in my head while I'm, like, trying to hit all the right notes and like really into the song that I'm performing. Well, so I'll tell you a personal story that actually relates to this. It's more on the art side than on the music side, but it's the same thing. And it'll explain what I, what I think is going on. So I went through a period in my late twenties before I went to grad school for psychotherapy, got very depressed, was really struggling, went and got some therapy. It was very helpful, but I found that there was still some stuff kind of there and I was kind of struggling with it.

12:03One day I I'll say re-encounter the work of Jackson Pollock, the famous abstract expressionist painter. And when I'd seen it, when I was younger, I was like, okay, whatever. I thought it kind of looked cool, but I didn't really get it. But then coming to it from a place of having dealt with some of my own mental illness, challenges, and depression, knowing some about Pollock's background and realizing, oh, this is him taking his feelings and dumping them on canvas. I was like, oh, that's interesting. And so I started playing with it. And I went through a period for probably about a year where I started doing painting, similar style.

12:32I won't say it was of the same quality, of course, but similar thing where it was just this space of just giving myself this space to take and visually get things, express myself. And what happened is it felt like literally almost this compulsion for a while. And I was doing it literally almost every day, I made a mess in my crotch. And then one day it was gone and it was really weird, but I'm sure what was happening is it was giving me a space to get some things processed and expressed that words do not exist for. We know this with kids, kids work out their stuff through play, which is really smart.

13:01Adults probably should do the same. But I think creative outlets give us a place to express feelings, experiences, and other things that we have had that we do not have language for. I think this is especially true in English, which isn't always the most artful language unlike others. So that's my opinion on it. And I've certainly found that when I'm doing creative stuff, I feel weighed down less. So it's getting something out of me. I don't know what it is. I don't care because I just know it works. Steve, your website is stevemccready.com. I know you've got some resources and certainly ways that you kind of serve the world and impact, you know, kind of those entrepreneurial lives.

13:39Do you mind maybe sharing some next steps with someone listening to this conversation, how they might engage with you? Yeah, totally. So here's what you can do. So if you go to stevemcruity.com forward slash thoughtful, I have a short, it's a short email course. I call it friction fix. And it's basically designed, if you're stuck in your business and with stuff, it's got some tools and strategies that you can use. It's got a few that'll help you kind of get yourself moving again. So you can go get that there. And basically what I'll say is anyone who signs up using that link, so forward slash thoughtful, will get a special offer from me as well.

14:10So it'll give you a chance to get a little bit of a discount and to connect with me. But even just, you know, if you just want the emails, I think you'll find it easy. I like to make my email stuff fairly short and quick. I realize we're all getting too much input and so I try and keep mine minimal, but that would be probably the best next step for folks. I'm on LinkedIn as well. if people want to look me up and like to connect there, always happy to make some new connections there as well. Steve McCready, again, I would say reformed psychotherapist, but certainly that's your credentialed background as a licensed marriage and family therapist.

14:42And again, now coach your website, stevemccready.com. And did you say that URL was stevemccready.com slash thoughtful? Yeah, forward slash thoughtful is where they can go and sign up and get that email course. Yeah. Yeah, do that. Friction, I could just tell you from, we don't have time to get into this, that is a very, very important topic to evaluate. Certainly, I can say so, you know, for thinking about, you know, the world that we want to create for our future customers, our future partners and clients and so forth, you know, and yeah, being very, very conscious of the friction that are included in our systems or that we put out there.

15:19So, Steve McCready, listen, wonderful, wonderful conversation. I hope that there's, I can have you back and there's there's more great stuff that we could do together. Thank you so much for joining us. Well, absolutely. Thanks again for having me. Super fun to talk. Love your energy.

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