Making Shit Happen with a Shift

Every Sunday I send out something to think about, a question to ponder and something to try to make your life a little more pleasant. The idea is to inspire and encourage positive change. Readers share their progress so we can all benefit from the learnings.

THINK

“It’s not resources but resourcefulness that ultimately makes the difference.” 

Tony Robbins

I recently had the pleasure of working with a coaching client who had a refreshing mindset around making money. 

They are in their first year of running their business (painting and decorating). Not easy! 

Straight off the bat, they attempted to negotiate free mentoring with me in exchange for doing all of the painting and decorating for our Commercial to Residential conversions for free! 😮

That wasn’t an option because we’d already hired a painter and they lived around 5 hours away from our sites but I loved the enthusiasm. 

Upon working together, they shared how they did a job for someone for free, in exchange for putting an advert for their business on the front of their fence. It took the best part of a year, but he eventually got a lead from that advert that landed him multiple £1,000’s worth of business. 

I love this approach! It’s refreshing to hear someone winning business from hard work and ingenuity because so many people complain about how hard it is to make money. 

Our ability to be resourceful diminishes over time. As we get older we become accustomed to our comforts. We feel like we’ve put in the time and earned an easier life. 

Be as resourceful as you can as early as you can. It becomes more difficult over time. 

What does it mean to be resourceful? 

Let me demonstrate how a little shift in mindset can make all the difference to your circumstances with the help of Wasteful Wayne (WW) and Frugal Fred (FF). 

WW: “I’ve tried everything.”

FF: “I’m experimenting with an old school marketing campaign from the 70s.”

WW: “I don’t have time to do everything.”

FF: “I hired low-cost VA’s to do my admin.”

WW: “I went to one networking event and I didn’t get any leads from it.”

FF: “I went to 12 networking events and I got a £10,000 sale from a contact.”

WW: “They rejected my offer.”

FF: “They rejected my first offer, but accepted my forth offer 12 months later.”

WW: “I can’t afford that.”

FF: “Would you consider a discount, a payment plan or me helping your business in exchange?”

WW: “They said we weren’t allowed to just show up.”

FF: “We showed up, refused to leave and they eventually said OK.”

WW: “There’s no way around it.”

FF: “I just found a way around it.”

Being resourceful means being creative, resilient, unreasonable and unstoppable. 

It’s the difference between asking for help and waiting for help.

Are you a Wasteful Wayne or a Frugal Fred?

Reflect and share this with someone. 

ASK

If you’d like to become more resourceful, consider the following questions: 

“What would you need to do to get the same outcome by spending half the amount of money?” 

“How could you trade your skills or expertise in exchange for something valuable to you?” 

“Have you demonstrated enough resilience that it would be unreasonable not to expect success?”

 Write down what comes to mind. 

TRY

There are so many ways to demonstrate resourcefulness – asking for help, exchanging skills not money, frugality, innovation, negotiating, being rebellious and being resilient to name a few. 

This week, try one way of being more resourceful and see what happens. 

The immidiate results aren’t always possible, but it’s a much more satisfying way of living and over time you’ll be rewarded handesomely for it.  

Remember: Little by little, a little becomes a lot.  

SHARE

Comment and share how it went for you. 

If you tried being more resourceful this week, COMMENT and share your wins with the world.