The essence of aligning your internal beliefs with your external reality is the foundation of success. You have the power to control your situation. But first, you must open your mind to not only understanding yourself and your values, but also changing your habits and disciplines. You must remove the excuses and dare to believe that you can achieve the goals you have set out for yourself. But how? Join us as we discuss the power of mindfulness to propel your business to abundant success with Krishna Mohan on this episode of the B2B Mentors Podcast.

What was it like in the early days, as you developed and then went through an exit in your business?

[KM]: The early days were really tough. There was a lot of wishful thinking and optimism and reminding myself that I can do this. But the reality is, it’s really tough. You have to be good at planning, executing, hiring, mentoring, training, understanding the market, understanding the competition … a lot of these things, I learned along the way, but it was really tough the first few years. Since then, I’ve focused on learning, so I don’t repeat the same mistakes. I think that’s the key. That actually helped me transition to a more predictable model.

The team surrounding you and the advisors in your corner really matter. Ask yourself, who are you listening to? You’ve got to be really careful about that. It’s important to always have smart people around you. You know you’ll have a blind spot and these are the people who will tell you what you’re missing and challenge you to consider doing something in a different way.

Throughout my experience, I really learned the value of teams, mentors, and advisors, as well as the value of success stories as a window into experiences that I can learn from. It’s important to remember that you don’t need to reinvent everything. Make sure you are disciplined in the way you manage your business.

What form did mentorship take for you? Did you build a board of people who built seven-figure businesses and exited, or did you pay mentors, or something else?

[KM]: In my case, I paid a lot to many different vendors. In fact, I invested so much money — half of my revenue went toward mentors, coaches, and other avenues for learning. I went to every possible source to learn. However, I’m confident today that I made a worthwhile investment.

I think many businesses owners do not consider this type of investment. When they think of investing, they often think of investing in their product, infrastructure, and people. What they don’t really understand is that they need to invest in themselves as well. If you are not right, nothing is right. Your success is directly proportional to your ability to make the right decisions, anticipate problems, understand the market, understand the strategy, and navigate the business. Remember, your decisions will only be as good as your thought process behind them. So it’s important to invest in yourself and to continually do so. The difference between successful business owners and average business owners is their thought process and their commitment to investing in themselves and their business.

In the end, you’ve got to pay the toll. You can’t waste all of your time in a trial-and-error approach. That’s where mentors and advisors can help. Your business needs that kind of wisdom. You cannot spend 30 years to become wise. By that time, you will have lost valuable time. In life you want money and time, at the right time and place. So how can you crunch that timeframe? How can you be wise, today? That’s really the key. Not how can you be wise after 20 or 30 years. Where will that wisdom come from? By seeking mentors and advisors, you’ll be able to crunch that timeframe and gain wisdom quickly by learning from their experiences, successes, and mistakes.

Remember, there is no structure to your progress. You are in the driver’s seat. You decide your destiny.

With the mentorship you’ve had, what are some of the major roadblocks and challenges that you faced and how did you overcome them?

[KM]: It goes back to your belief system. What do you believe? What is your core belief? Do you really believe that you can build a 100 million-dollar revenue company? Or is that just wishful thinking? When it comes to the point where you have to put in the work and do it, many people don’t realize that they don’t have the right internal dialogue or internal belief system to make it work. Externally they want, but internally they’re not ready. Without the internal belief, whatever it is that you are wanting will not come to you.

Fear is another component to your internal dialogue. What will happen when I have XYZ? Fear can create a lot of internal discomfort. For example, your business could have 50 or even 100 employees. Do you know how to manage that many employees? Probably not. Do you know how to invest that large amount of money? Maybe not. You are asking these questions of yourself and answering no, no, no to each. And then in the physical world, you’re working so hard to get there. But before you can make it happen, you need to look inward and fix your internal dialogue and belief system.

When you’re ready internally, the decisions won’t feel like such a big deal. You will be able to not only visualize what you want, but you’ll have a mental roadmap for getting there. This mental preparedness will enable you to quickly adjust and come up with solutions to problems as they come.

You can be doing all of the right things, but still nothing is happening. So you have to ask, where is the issue? The issue is not outside, the issue is inside. You should feel your worthiness and your beliefs. You must focus on conquering your fears because fear is the biggest barrier that will stop you every time. Often, if you ask a new business owner what they are fearful of, they will reply “I don’t know.” It’s the fear of the unknown that causes so much discomfort.

When thinking about your internal journey, what are they steps you have taken to improve your internal belief system to realize external success?

[KM]: The first step is to sit back and ask yourself:

• Who am I?
• What is my personality?
• What are my likes/dislikes?
• What is it that I really want in my life?

Once you start asking yourself these types of questions, you’ll learn more about yourself. But the key is to be truthful. You’re not answering to anyone, so you might as well face reality. Once you have that in place, then you have a starting point. You can now ask “what is it that I need to do that aligns with who I am?” This is important because if there is no alignment, there’s a problem.

For example, if you say that you hate talking to people, but you want to become an entrepreneur, that’s a conflicting expectation. The internal trait does not align with your external want, which is a problem. You either need to change your internal mindset, or you have to change your external expectation.

Once you have that clarity on who you are, you can better understand your core values and belief systems. You can dig deeper into what exactly you want to do. Then you can start your business from there. With alignment between your internal self and external desires, you’ll realize a natural flow of success.

How have you cultivated that internal awareness and alignment? What kind of habits do you practice daily to continue that?

[KM]: Meditation definitely helps. I believe that you need to be aware of your own internal frequency. If you want to be in that high-vibration frequency, you need to make sure those around you are also in that frequency so they are always elevating you, not bringing you down. You must be aware of the negative energies around you, which could include people or simply the environment. What you see, what you speak, and with whom you are is nothing but who you are. If those three things are not right, even if you do everything right, nothing will happen. If those three things are right, and even if you just do an average job, you’ll be a top performer. Why? Because those three things influence you, often unknowingly. You are essentially programming yourself at an unconscious level by putting yourself in situations that will propel you to be successful.

A lot of business owners don’t meditate either because they are unsure of it, or it seems difficult to get started or create a regular practice. For those that are interested, how can they get started with meditation?

[KM]: Every day they should spend some time before they start the day in solitude. No cell phone. No email. Nothing. Spend time. Even if it’s just two minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes, or more. Slowly, you can increase the time. And then just relax. The thoughts will start flowing and slowly you will develop that stillness. As you start practicing, what happens is you start connecting to your own source. From there, you will find brilliant ideas. Whatever you’re really trying to solve for the rest of the day, you can get those answers through silence. Then, when you go to act, you act with clarity, purpose, and a tremendous amount of focus.

This practice will enable you to excel in what you do, which will show in all areas. As you start practicing on a consistent basis, you will be successful. The clarity comes from within. It does not come from an external source. You’re not finding solutions from the outside. You will have to continually go back to the silence to ask for answers. And you will get those answers.       

Statistically, how many businesses make it?

[KM]: 50% of businesses fail in the first two years. 80% of businesses fail in the first five years. 96% of business owners will never reach 1 million in revenue in their lifetime. These statistics can be quite scary. If I’m starting a business, it can feel disappointing to know those numbers. So why are these numbers so high? What’s wrong? Where is the problem? All businesses start with a “great” idea, but your business needs to be more than a great idea. You can’t just say, I have this great idea and I’m going to crush it, or I have a great product so I’m obviously going to make money. It often looks easy from the outside looking in, but even if you do the same thing that you see others doing, you may not get the same business.

It all comes back to the clarity. Why did you start the business? Yes, the statistics are there, but if you have alignment with your internal self and external wants, and you do your best to make the right decisions, you’ll have a better chance of beating the statistics. You’ve got to take care of your business, but you also need to work on yourself, too.

What are some of the external foundations that business owners, business development professionals, marketers, and others be doing?

[KM]: Anyone who handles customer interactions should have daily disciplines in place. First, you need to set some metrics. For example, if I’m trying to meet a 1 million revenue goal, I need to have some metrics and thresholds to achieve that number. What is the average sale price? What’s the size of the market? How many prospects are in my target market? What is the average conversion rate? How many of the prospects in my target market do I need to engage with to meet my goal? It’s good to break it down by month, week, and day. This provides greater focus to establish daily disciplines.

You need to figure out where to find your customers. If they are not offline, they are online. It’s your job to figure out where they are and connect with them. If you follow a daily discipline, you will have a systematic way of reaching your goal. I think the biggest missing link that I see is that people have an attitude that they can’t connect with a customer because it’s a weekend or a holiday or something else. While these may be facts, they are also an excuse as to why you can’t make a sale. It’s important to move beyond those excuses to see the bigger picture and realize the greater opportunity and success.

For a business owner that wants to go big, what is the difference between doing a $50,000 deal and a multibillion-dollar deal?

[KM]: I think the only difference between these two numbers is your mindset and believe system. It’s your job to work on your internal thermostat. Nobody is going to set the temperature inside of you. If you think you should make a million dollars and then go retire in Florida, you’re right. If you think you need 100 million before you retire in Florida, you’re also right. No one is telling you the number you need, that’s completely up to you and what you believe internally. It comes down to your believe system. You have to believe that you can get the sales. You have to believe that it’s possible.

Think of it this way, your boss is not going to tell you that you will become the best. He or she is simply expecting you to become the best. And then he or she will tell you that you’re the best. But first, you need to believe that you are the best so that your external reality can match your internal belief. All you need to do is decide. Decide that you are the best. Your external reality will change to match your internal reality.

Watch the full interview below: