MA Business Success 40: How to Break the Glass Ceiling

Watch the video podcast below Listen to the audio podcast below Phil: And you are listening to us at the Martial Arts Business Success podcast, where we're giving you awesome business advice, tips, tools, and strategies on how to take your business and life to new heights. Now, today, we have a topic that gets asked quite a lot with our coaching clients. So this isn't any particular person who's asked this question, but it's just something that always comes about, especially those people who have been in the business for quite some time. And the topic is: What do we do when we hit that glass ceiling? Graham? Graham: Look, firstly, what is the glass ceiling? I suppose that's what some of you guys are going to be asking. Think of it like when you very first started your business. You may have grown from 0 to 50. And then how do you grow from 50 to 100? What mindset shifts? Or you hit that point where at what point do you need to expand, or your systems aren't ready to grow with you. Let's scale that up a bit. Let's look at 100, or 200, 500 students. How do you break through, as I've said, that glass ceiling and get that growth happening again? Because I know that a lot of people get stifled, and they plateau, they get a little bit stale. And they're doing everything they can, but they seem to be losing people just as fast as they're joining, or their systems, or their students, or their staff are just on that plateau. So how do we break through? And that's not only a mindset thing. It's a systematic problem that could also just be environmental to a point, but, yeah, that's really what we're talking about when it is the glass ceiling. You hit a point. But how do you break through to grow to that next level that you may be looking towards? Phil: Yeah, and then just going on that, what is that? What does it mean? Does it mean that you've hit or are stagnant on student numbers? Are your numbers growing, but your income's staying the same? Can you hit the glass ceiling of growing your instructors, and you're still on the floor? So there were many different glass ceilings. You can look at it as a complete thing like, "My school, my business isn't growing," but then you can also look at the different levels like, "I just can't get out of the classes. I would get there, and then stuff falls down, or I have to jump back in," or, "The members are joining. But where's all the money going?" And at the end of the day, everyone says, "It's not all about the money," but it is in some instances, because without the money, you can't be as professional as you can. You can't live and earn an income doing what you love, and you can't share those messages just for free. I mean, you can, but you would want a different job as well on the side. So making sure you look left and right. And a quote comes to mind for you guys out there. A Henry Ford quote which I always love is that, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got." And that's really my question. When we deal with this question with coaching clients, I'm really asking people: All the things, the vehicle of skills, tools, strategies, marketing advice, everything that you've done, your vehicle that you're driving has got you to a certain point. But unfortunately, this set of skills, this tool bag, this box isn't going to get you through that glass ceiling. It's not going to break through. So what can we add to your toolbox, what can we take out, and what can we bring in from the external world? How can we innovate, so that you can navigate through the glass ceiling, go over it, go around it, all that sort of stuff? Graham: Look, I think if you're listening to this or you're watching this, you're already ticking one of the boxes. You're learning. You're growing. You're trying to find and research ways or surround yourself with the right people who potentially face that same problem and can offer a solution. Now, like any offering, any solution, you've got to customize that to your own business. But at the end of the day, at least you know how to potentially tackle that, or the pitfalls or the challenges that other business owners have faced in their own business, too. Phil: Yeah. So I think one of the biggest thing, like sort of Graham said, is whenever I've had issues or troubles, whether it's in business, in my personal life, like we aren't superhuman, and we're not superheroes, although... Graham: We try. Phil: Although our kids think we are. We get to go to work in pajamas and barefoot, so our kids think that we're superheroes. But at the end of the day, we're not, and we fear and we suffer the same things that you do, but just at different periods and times of our life or business career. And what that means is that if someone has already been there, if someone's broken through from 200 to 300, find who that is. Ask them the questions that you're suffering right now. Because I daresay that I've got some strategies, or tools, or tips for you. Will it work for you? Maybe. But it's better to ask something and try it than never to investigate that at any stage. Graham: I must say, and again, we are the king of quotes: "You always miss 100% of the shots you don't take." Simple as that. So if you aren't willing to try things...I know that from experience, we've seen people in the industry that have got their head in the sand. They identify that they're not going anywhere, but they're not willing to do anything about it. They're not willing to take that risk or try things. Because sometimes, the logical answer isn't always going to be the one that gives you that desired result. Sometimes, you've got to be a little bit creative and sometimes take a risk. And what are you going to do? You're either going to get feedback, or you're going to get success from it. And when I say "feedback," it may not work, but it's going to give you something to get and go, "Geez, next time I can tweak it, or I can do this." Because at the end of the day, we're an ever-growing business. You're either growing or you're going back down the other way. You're never just going to stay at 100 students for your lifetime, 50 students, 20 students. Some people do, they cycle those students, but hey, at the end of the day, we want to continually grow. That's what we're here for. Phil: Look, my next thing is me...and if you're watching, you'll see this. If you're not, if you're listening, I'm going to tell you. I'm picking up the keyboard, and I'm throwing it down the camera at you. The reason why I'm doing this is because what I have found: 95% of the population live on the side of effect, which means they blame everyone and anything, their environment, the people, of where they're at. The 5%, and they're generally the ones who are most successful, the business owners who are in the 5% are living on the side of cause. So they believe that they are the cause of everything. Now, I'm not telling you that that's absolutely true, like there's obviously things in life that you don't cause. But if you come from that belief, if you believe that you are the cause, you are also the creator of the solutions. And what that brings me to is, most often than not, what gives you that glass ceiling is your own limiting bloody beliefs and the stupid story that you tell yourself why you can't have more, be more, or do more. And that's really why Graham and I started a different company called Master Your Destiny, which is a personal and professional development events company. Now, if you're interested in looking at that, it's masteryourdestinynow.com. And look, that is all about taking a person, forget about what business you're from, taking a person, getting rid of all their crap in their life, all the things or the limiting beliefs, all the fears that hold them back, reteaching them, repackaging them, so that they have the tools to become that person like we talk about: believe, begin, become. Why is belief first? Because if you don't believe in you, if you don't believe in your business, you will never become the business and person of your dreams. Guaranteed. That's the final. Graham: I couldn't agree more. And, Phil, you're summarizing most of these glass ceiling, I guess, components that make up a lot to do with your head space, your own self-talk. Because I know that we've had tons of instructors that we'd helped, and if you look at let's just say 10, for example. Out of those 10, 8 will be successful, 2 won't be, and those 2 had the same material, the same skills, the same everything else as the other guys. And why didn't they? It's because what the story they're saying in their own head: "I can't do this. I'm not good enough. I shouldn't deserve that. It's too hard." And, again, that is that effect of whatever it may be. And, again, cause, we're talking about many different things here, but, again, the big thing is your head space, believing that you can do it. And that's where if you don't believe it yet, surround yourself with people who do it, then you can see it, and then it's just a matter of getting on board and applying it. Phil: Look, I want to shout out to all the people out there who are watching and listening to this, because the way that we do learn is from other people's experience. We can give you all the advice that we have and our experiences of hitting glass ceilings and breaking through, but it's nothing better than hearing other people's stories. If you've ever had a story or a situation where you felt like you just couldn't break through, but you did, or something happened in your life personally, professionally, but you overcame that, send us an email at [email protected]. And we'd love to hear from you, and maybe we could add that into the podcast at some point, where we have that section called Ask the Boys, and we can give people other strategies on what you used. I'm going to give you three tips - three tips that I use in my life, three tips that I use when I'm teaching and coaching one-on-one, one-to-many from stage. There are three things that you need to do if you want to start changing the results that you're getting personally. Now, T. Harv Eker says a very famous thing, "If you want to change the fruits, you have to change the roots," meaning the fruits are all exterior, the fruits are outside, and you pluck them off. But what actually provides the fruit? It's not the tree itself. It's not the stem, the stump. It's the roots underneath and what you feed it. So if we take that into life, if I want to change my external result, I need to work on internal first. So there's three things that I suggest you do, and if you've got a pen and paper, write this down. Write three Ms down vertical, down the side of a page, M, M, M. The first thing you need to do is change your mindset. And how you do that, we don't have time in this podcast, but you need to figure out ways and find people who can help shift your beliefs. So when you change your mind, you can change your absolute life, guaranteed. When you have one of those unwavering beliefs that you can achieve something, you'll do anything in your power to achieve that. The second thing is to change your mood. So mood, change your mood. Graham, I don't think, I've never made a good decision when I'm in a bad mood. Graham: No. Phil: How can you change your mood? Well, easily. It's how you breathe. If you're upset, how do you breathe? Short and shallow. If you're excited, it's high and quick. So to get your breath back is very important. So your mood is from your breath. It's also from your physical presence, your physiology as well. There's many ways we can do that. We don't have time. And then last but not least is what Graham mentioned, too, is the method. The method. What method are you using to get your results? Is this method you're using going to get you to the next level? I daresay if you hit that glass ceiling, and you're asking the question, no, it's not. So you need to change your method, change your strategy, change your story. Graham: Definitely. Phil, you've summed up brilliantly here, and for you guys that are watching and listening, sometimes for those guys, they're like, "Man, I just wanted a quick win. I just wanted the quick results. Tell me the one secret to get through the breakthrough." Well, to be honest with you, you're always going to face those glass ceilings, whether it's your first instructor, whether it's 10 students, whether it's 1,000 students. It's understanding that, hey, look, if you can unlock those secrets, you're really going to have that great success. And when you identify that you're at that glass ceiling, well, then you can rally the troops, and then you guys together can break through. Because you as the instructor, you as the owner might have a great head space. You then may need to change the mindset of your team and the language they use to help them break through. So again, guys, I couldn't recommend enough what great knowledge Phil will throw at you there. But, again, team, it's a continual process. It isn't just a one secret thing. It's about continual improvement regularly. Phil: Here's what I know, and we'll finish with this. You're always going to have problems when you...let's just call it "student number." It's because everyone understands that in martial arts. You're always going to have the number of 50 students. You're going to have problems at number 50. I guarantee it. You're also going to have problems when you hit 100. And you're going to have problems when you hit 500 students, and you're going to have problems when you hit 1,000. And I know we're at, I think, 1,700 students. We still have issues we have to deal with. So no matter what level of results you're getting, you're always going to have to work on yourself, and you can do that by those three things. So, guys, this isn't just one of those airy-fairy things. I guarantee it. It's changed our lives just by working internally to be able to change and break through that glass ceiling. Graham: Hey, Phil, just as we go, you've pretty much just summarized why we have those three words that team is all about: believe, begin, become. Belief. Believe in yourself. Believe in the process and mindset. And, again, getting your staff and team to believe that. Begin. Start that journey or change those systems. Change the method of what you're going about. And become. Well, become the level that you want to be. Become that business and have that lifestyle that you really want to accomplish and live. So believe, begin, become. Man, what great and powerful words to live by. Phil: Well, guys, don't forget to send through your questions, your queries, your thoughts, your feelings of certain topics or issues you're having in your business, because that's what we're here for. We're trying to give you the answers to the questions that you have. So we can't give you those answers unless you give us those questions. So we've got that segment that we've just created with our new vlogs and podcast called Ask the Boys. So get your questions in, and don't forget, guys, leave your iTunes reviews, get us on social media. And don't forget we've got a great offer where we're giving away free coaching, and if that interests you guys, send us an email at admin.tima...well, I got that wrong, didn't I? [email protected]. All right, we'll see you next time, guys.