2011 – Overcoming Limiting Beliefs and Finding Balance in Business Success with Will Steel

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1:05With us right now, it's Will Steele. Will, you are a transformational leadership and business leader coach. You are found on the web at willsteele.com. Will, it's great to have you. Thank you, Josh. Thanks. Great to be here. Yeah. Well, give us an overview of your work and who you serve. Yeah, my work is transformational. I led programs for 15 years all around the world. and now I run my own coaching business and work with business leaders mainly business owners and I'm working on the person if you transform the business owner the business transforms so you know business owners often can get burned out they can get stressed out they can be working too many hours and they come to me and say okay well let's double your business it's like wow I'm just keeping this one going what do you mean double the business right well lots of people say things like that but we actually do do that and it's coming from all the stuff that's blocking you stopping you the doubts the fears the i've done this so many times and it's still not producing the results all that stuff you know i got to work on what's going on in the background with you as a human being because that's my speciality really being the being of human being and was having you be a smaller version of yourself in the world, not the fullest expression of who you really are.

2:31Yeah. So where do you think these limiting beliefs, I mean, I guess they can come from a variety of places and maybe it's just not innate in us, or maybe it is innate in us, but culturally, maybe we feel like it's improper to think bigger or communicate bigger. you know i just uh was talking with somebody i mean even you know my position i was talking with someone they're like josh i don't think you're playing big enough my friend or you know kind of owning you know exactly kind of who you are what you do and and that's well i think we all need a and especially i mean you're british right brits typically have a great sense of humility in my experience yeah yeah yeah so um so what's the question well no just Just, you know, again, where, you know, where does that not stepping into greatness come from?

3:27And what is the antidote for that specifically? Right. Well, I just led a program in Cairo. Right. And when you get to it with human beings, almost I haven't met anybody who hasn't made some decisions. So growing up, things happen and you think, oh, oh, maybe I'm not as good as I thought I was. Or you think I'm not enough. I'm not good enough. My mom loves my brother more than me. Simple stuff that the small you was thinking in the brain around that time. You know, as a small person, everything revolves around you. So when things happen, it's personal, very personal. And you internalize it. And then as you go through life, you're like now you've got a filter.

4:09for finding evidence for what you've already decided and when you decide something and believe it's true that for you becomes the truth and it's in the background it's not necessarily in the foreground it's just the way it is for you you know i'm a shy person or i'm a introverted person or whatever and you produce results compensating for this thing about you so some of the most successful people in the world the richest people in the world i've worked with some of those people And when you really get under the surface, it never really gives you what you want. You can produce all the money in the world, have all the accolades, all the trappings.

4:51But inside, there's still this emptiness. There's still something that's not fulfilling you. So what do you do? You earn more money or you get better things or you change your partner for a more pretty partner. Or, you know, this is what people really do. but it's all trying to fix something about themselves and don't realize it you know um you know even they're confident people they produce results and then they're kind of inside going well yeah not really i just worked hard you know i'm not really smart i just worked hard you know so unwittingly when you do produce results from these strategies that you've a comment um um nurtured if you like you know i'll be hard working and then you're really hard working that's your thing and you produce results every time you produce a result it reminds you of it's not really it so it's never going to fulfill you so we want to get you back to the real you back to the you before you started to limit yourself before you started to doubt yourself before you started to question you know before you had language none of that was going on you were just a free human being little baby but then things happen for everybody and it can be traumatic or for everyone else not so traumatic but for you it's something so um you know it's not psychology it's not therapy it's not counseling i don't want to do any of that i want to work with people who are up to something and this can get in the way you know this gets in the way of stepping out to the next level taking your business to the next level oh and if I take it all to this next level can I can I really handle it you know I can keep what I'm doing and you will self-sabotage your potential success for fear of failing because you'd rather not make it at that thing because you can contain yourself within what you already know so the brain is trying to have you survive and whether you like it or not whatever you've gone through whether it's upset after upset after upset your brain will keep doing that because you survived so it's uh unlocking those you know those those locks that are holding you back especially around you mentioned money right and success yeah you know you got so much money and it still doesn't really do it what's the point of earning more you know i can't just sell my business and live on a beach well do that and within a couple of weeks you'll be bored out of your brains right that's true I've heard that.

7:23Yeah, if you create what you're doing inside an empowering context, you know, you're up to something, you have a vision. This is what I'm about in the world. That will empower you now in doing all the doing that you need to do right now. Yeah. So burnout may be very well be kind of in the same vein here. When you're working with leaders, where do you typically find or let me ask it this way. What do you find the path through or out of burnout to be? Yes. So, you know, I immediately one of my clients comes to mind. He owned four car body shops, you know, where they repair cars that have been in automobile accidents.

8:09And he was running between four shops. He was working 67 hours a week, 60 to 70 hours a week, sorry. and um you know he came to me it was in the pandemic and he said you know i just want to be able to keep the lights on can you support me making two and a half three million if i can do that i can keep the thing going until the pandemic's passed because there are no cars on the road therefore no wrecks for three months well they didn't do um two and a half million did seven million and the first thing i got him to do was have a manager responsible for each of the four shops and all reporting to him all the numbers so he can just open his laptop he can be on the and was one time on the beach in costa rica having his meeting with all his guys and he could see what their numbers were so he reduced his hours from 60 to 70 down to 12 hours a week which is like incredible however if you're the business owner you don't need to be involved in all the he's got the details with the numbers but you don't need to be having all the conversations and being at that place so you know I'm not I'm not saying do a four-hour work week I'm not do what you need to do for your business but part of what he wanted to do was reduce the number of hours we've got it down to 12 hours so four hours on a Monday met everybody all the team and then two hours Tuesday to Friday with each one of the managers and that took his business well way beyond he's been offered 23 million for the business this is like two and a half years later so he would have burned out trying to keep that business going the way it was going because what he knew was to be there make sure everything's happening you know control it you know like letting go of that and being able to trust his guys to do their job and not just do their job actually flourish which is what happened when they're allowed to have autonomy over their shop you know um your your people can't flourish when you're cramping them or you're micromanaging them or you're you know in fear of the business going under you you you know there's no one thing fits all so also at the same time i'm saying this it depends on you individually that's why i mostly work one-on-one with people because it's individual i can't say do this this and this it might not fit for where you're at you know most of my coaching josh is listening i'm really listening for what's going on what's going on with this person what's going on in the background what's limiting them you know i was working with a guy yesterday and he was he says this is so slow i'm not going to get to four million here it's just the increments we're making are so slow i said oh okay and he was it they sell to pharmacies I said okay well what if you sold to these pharmacy chains all of a sudden you're selling a hundred times many products than what you're currently doing oh yeah yeah I used to sell to pharmacy chains oh all of a sudden it unlocked this thinking and it could be pharmacy chains there's um all sorts of ways to completely multiply his efforts and he said wow I don't know why I didn't think of that I said well that's why you got a coach I'm outside your bubble i'm outside your bubble i'm going to ask you you know simple questions that occur to me while i'm listening to you have you thought about this have you thought about that and um i like that because it you know i'm part of the creativity there i can they're not they don't have to take my suggestions you know if i ask a question it usually provokes something yeah that's the magic you know something's going to show up.

11:50Yeah. To our friend that's listening, like if we were to give them, I don't know if you can think of maybe a simple exercise that they might be able to take as homework from this episode. But if you said, you know, here's something I want you to do, you know, grab a pen and paper or whatever it is, right. Or, you know, go for a walk and here's what I want you to work through. Like anything come to mind, maybe that, you know, might be something that might be a helpful, you know, practice, maybe just for being a little bit more introspective, or, you know, if we're unsettled about something, getting clarity around that.

12:30Yeah, that's a little hard to do on your own, because you're going to look at it with the same thinking. I think it was Einstein said, you can't solve today's problems with the thinking that got you here, you know, you need to be outside of that. And that's where a coach really comes in so if you're up against it and you can't see a way through you know pick up the phone and call a coach or call a colleague color color you know um someone you can talk to because again another of my clients i asked him after 12 months working with me he's very successful uh doubled his business i said what what was what was it that i provided for you says well it wasn't really so much what you said it's just i could get all my stuff out i can get all my hands out and because i can't say that to my family they're already worried about me and say why don't you just sell the business and get a regular job you know and no they don't want to hear it and i don't want to burden them and i can't go to people who work for me and say i don't know what to do about this he says but i could come to you and it's just you know non-judgmental i could say it all he said then i could see my thinking i could see the path forward it like broke through so in answer to your question what could they do right now well if you're on your own uh

13:50i don't know how you're doing well it sounds like a journal you could journal that's a possible way yeah you need to be able to get outside of your thinking which is not easy to throw i mean i have a coach. I have two coaches. Yeah. So in different aspects of what I do, because I'm looking for what am I not seeing? What am I not seeing about this situation that's keeping it the way it is for me? You know how exciting that is when you have like an aha moment or one of those discovery moments. And again, I find that that interaction with either a pretty wise colleague who's not part of your company, not part of your family, you know, someone that's a little bit distant or separated from that.

14:35But it's exciting, right? When we do have those moments of, you know, you know, like just a big profound insight about ourselves, you know, why do I do this? And we get that insight. It's really exciting. And I agree with you. I think, you know, having a coach certainly can help facilitate those moments more often. You know, I just think, you know, gosh, in a perfect world, you know, I would be able to use a coach, but and also, you know, for myself, kind of create those moments organically more often. So I guess that's what I'm aspiring for asking about right now is just, you know, again, I don't know, again, if it's obviously reading and listening to podcasts like this certainly help with that yeah yeah well you know um i don't think anybody wants coaching like oh i want to coach i don't want to coach i want someone who can help me produce the results i want to produce right and help me see what is it that i'm you know what is it about me that's you know not having me move forward what's going on with me you know and um you know i've just written a book free to lead and before that the book i was going to write was called go back to move forward so if you're not moving forward you go what does this remind me of what's this remind me of in my past and you know i've got done enough of the work i i can think back oh that's what's going on here we are it's my thing about this you know um you know another example you know when i was coach when i started coaching on my own you know I worked for a salary for 21 years and then now I'm charging coaching I'm getting coached on what to charge and it's like wow I don't know if I could charge that but then I got this I discovered this myself right I imagined there I am talking and I got myself out of the picture I said okay it's not Will Steele it's this person who's super qualified super trained I've watched this guy work with someone and in 20 minutes completely turn them inside out transform them who they are sort them out completely and I could get to speak to that guy for an hour a week holy shit I want that I'll pay for that and it suddenly just took you know my own personal thoughts and feelings about it out of the picture and and my business doubled my business my own business doubled overnight you know within five weeks I doubled my revenue for the year it just this you know you've got to trick your mind sometimes you know because your mind is full of doubts and questioning and you know and when you identify with those thoughts you get limited you've got to be able to what the philosophers call bracketed you've got to be able to have it there it's not useless information everything you've learned right but have it like Just shine a light on what you're dealing with and be able to look at it in the present moment for what it is.

17:38No. Yeah. Well, so to our friend that's listening, what you know, if they were to look for a coach and you may be a fit for them. You certainly work with very high level executives and leaders. But what might be a really good question that someone would ask a potential coach to try to see if it's a good match? I have to look for myself. Right. So if it was me, I want to know. Are they on my level? Right. they might not know the intricacies of what precisely I do, but they really get me, you know. So I would interview some coaches and do you experience them really, really getting you before they, you know, come at you with advice?

18:35There's a lot of advice out there, you know, and it's not bad advice, but, you know, we've all got advice and we can read books and we can do all that stuff. No, does this person actually get me? see until if they don't get me i'm not going to get beyond my own thinking i'm not going to hear anything they say because they're not really listening to me so you know somebody pitched me to coach me right uh he said i'll take your business to the next level because i can really hear and i listened to him and he wasn't quite getting me where i was at and I was just like, no, this is just not a fit. I'm not going to invest in spending time with this person because they don't really get me.

19:19I think it's critical. You've got to trust that the coach actually gets you. I don't want to say understand and I don't want to say, you know, has the answers. I want to say gets you. I don't know if that communicates, but you know, when you feel like, oh, they really get it. This person really gets it, you know? and i and i will say if i don't get it so look let's i just just you've got to get me to get this what's that like for you you know and we'll get right into so i can get the experience so that they get that i got what's it like for them you know and then then you can start to see things yeah well uh your website and tell me about free to lead yeah free to lead um that's the book i've just uh it's draft version at the moment you know available yet any idea when it would be available um i'm probably thinking about three months time sure because i want to i want to promote it well uh i originally wrote it because of the work we're doing in the middle east i'm not an arab right and i'm i'm i got invited in from my one of my clients who's uh who's arabic and uh that's why they're giving me the permission to listen to me even right now we've done three programs it's going really well but I thought well they need to get what this is because there's so many programs out there you know on leadership there's so many courses and do this and do that and this method and that method I'm not doing any of that I'm disappearing your barriers such that you can be the fullest version of yourself as a leader so that I need to write a book I need to write a book so they can and get it translated into Arabic so originally it's for just for it was originally for the Arabs but then as I was writing thing you know this is actually for anyone but if you pitch it to anyone you know nobody's interested so I'm pitching to leaders but what it really is is getting who you are as a human being and what's limiting you as a human being and therefore in your leadership you know if you if you can really trust you being you then you can relate to the people you lead they can relate to you and the communication is open transparent and you're free to be transparent so yeah I don't just want to write a book.

21:52People write books and say, here's my book, like a business card. I'm not interested in that. I want this book to be easy to read, but it gets you to what's going on with you. Like I said, when you asked me before, what could they do? Well, if they could go to this book and they read that bit, they go, oh, right. Jesus, that's what's going on with me. And the answer's in them, not in the book. But the book will give you examples and have you do exercises that you can get to what's going on with you. You know, so I'm not going to put the book out until for me, it's doing that job. I'm not, you know, I'm not interested in particularly in book sales.

22:39I'm not interested in just having, you know, he's written a book. No. So he's got some credibility. No, I actually want it to impact people. So, yeah, it's got to have integrity for me before I actually let it go. Yeah. Your website, willsteel.com, to our friend that's listening and they want to grab a call with you, what do they do? They can go on the website and they can click on the Bean Communication little button there. Or simply will at willsteel.com will email me directly. Will Steele, again, your transformational leadership and business leader coach. Will, it's been great having you. Thank you.

23:19Thank you. Thank you for the questions.

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