Ep #263: Biz Owner Mindset: Belief Formation

Stacey Brown Randall: If you’ve never thought about your brain being similar to a car engine, well you are going to love this episode. And of course, to have this conversation, we have to chat with a former NASCAR guy. Let’s dive in.

Hey there, and welcome to episode 263 of the Roadmap to Referrals Podcast, a show about helping you build a referable business. My journey from a business failure to a successful business now 10 years in. I know generating referrals naturally and consistently has made all the difference.

Working with clients around the world, we leverage the science of referrals, protect relationships above all else, and help you build a referral business. Welcome back to another episode. I’m your host, Stacey Brown Randall.

Alright, ladies and gentlemen, start your engines. Okay, sorry, I just couldn’t resist. I just needed that to be the intro here because if you listened to what I said at the top of this episode, I mentioned we’re talking to a NASCAR guy.

So, I mean, how in the world did I not start with ladies and gentlemen, start your engine. I mean, it only makes sense. Okay, but what does that have to do with what we’re talking about in this episode?

Well, we are continuing on with our series on the business owner mindset and the things we need to know and understand and really take control of and understand and be aware of that allows us to have the best mind and enjoy the journey of this business ownership journey that we are on.

So, this series is special. Yes, it’s our summer series for 2023. We’re not talking about referrals, we’re talking about the mindset of business owners. And in this episode, we get to talk to Matt Clark.

Matt Clark is an expert team performance strategist. His experience as a NASCAR championship pit crew coach for drivers like Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson give him a unique perspective on developing a champion mindset and building high performance teams that execute.

But where Matt really shines in my personal opinion, is how he breaks down our beliefs, how they’re formed, how they serve us, how they don’t, and the things we need to know so that we can change what isn’t serving us.

So, I am very excited to talk to Matt about our belief formation as part of our business owner mindset series. Let’s dive into the interview.

Matt, I am so glad to welcome you to the podcast today. It’s going to be such a great conversation. We’re going to talk about all that nitty gritty, fun stuff that we talk about, what goes on between our two ears. I cannot wait to have this conversation with you.

I know you’ve got some great stuff to share. I know about it, so I’m excited for my audience to hear it as well. But before we dive into all that, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do?

Matt Clark: Stacey, thanks for having me. I am a coach and speaker, and my focus is on mindset and execution. I work with high performers and business leaders to work on their mindset, execution, all things performance, because that comes out of my background in NASCAR racing, and that’s how I channel my creative energy working with people to make them better versions of themselves.

Stacey Brown Randall: I love it. I think that’s so great because most of us, I won’t say all of us, but most of us are always striving to become better versions of ourselves. I don’t think you can become a business owner, an entrepreneur without expecting some level of painful growth. Edit your direction through the process of just owning a business. So, definitely.

Okay, so alright. This series that we are doing this summer series that we’re doing is on the mindset of a business owner. And so, completely off topic for me for the topic of referrals and business growth and client experience.

But what I really wanted to do with this series is help people recognize the things we need to know to enjoy this journey of being a business owner. Because for most people, it’s a long one. Not for everybody, but for most people it’s a long one.

And this isn’t about being successful because that’s such a hard word for people to define and then we’d get into comparison society, and I don’t want to do that. I want whatever the business journey is supposed to look like for you as an owner, I just want you to enjoy it.

And I think what happens between our ears plays a huge part in our ability to enjoy it. So, last week we chatted with Eugene and he was talking about the two states that we operate from, the executive state and the survival state.

So, for our conversation, I know we’re going to dive in even deeper into the brain, that beautiful mind of ours. But first, before we do that, I want to ask you as a business owner yourself, and I know like this is what you teach, so of course you find it important. But as a business owner yourself, why do you feel like this is so important for business owners to understand and also work on their mindset?

Matt Clark: Let me back up as you were talking, this is a universal axiom that I spend and talk to my clients with. First of all, I want my clients to build the business that they want to build, not the business someone else wants to build for them.

Typically, whatever industry you’re in, there’s forums, there’s peers, and we’re always comparing ourselves and we’re trying to match ourselves to someone doing X, someone doing Y. And that comparison really is negative to us.

So, that’s the first place that we start, is building the business that you want to build. And what does that mean? That means having the right mindset. And when we have the right mindset, really mindset is how we view the world.

And as I’ve been unpacking this, and I’m actually sharing part of this with a group of coaches this coming week in Vegas. But when we look at mindset, mindset is really our belief system. It’s how we interpret how we view the world.

So, having the right mindset as an entrepreneur sets us up for success. Because let’s face it, Stacey, being in business, running your own business, being a major player, all take a toll on you. It’s a grind. We’re on 24/7, whether we realize it or not.

And we won’t get into guardrails and self-care here, but it’s important to realize that we are constantly on the go trying to get things done, trying to be the best versions of ourselves, and understanding how we have a right mindset, how we create the right mindset is important.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah, it’s funny, one of the things that we talked about with Eugene is the ability to know when you’re in executive state or survival state, is the ability to label what you’re feeling and what’s happening so that you can actually understand it.

And as I was listening to you talk and you were talking about like, what does that journey look like for us? And what are we ultimately after where we’re not comparing ourselves to others, it reminded me of this recent label that I had picked up on.

And I don’t know where I heard it from, but I believe someone has a book coming out, and this is part of their book title. I just saw it and I was like, “I’m going to borrow that,” because that’s the exact label I’ve been looking for to define my business owner journey and why my business is built and structured and managed the way it is.

Because it’s not that seven-figure, eight-figure multimillion dollar business. And I think a lot of people think that. When they think about, oh, you’re going to own a business, it’s because how much money can you make? What’s the revenue line you’re going to hit? How exciting is that to be able to say, “Ooh, look at me.”

But for a lot of people who run a business, it’s like, yeah, that’s awesome and great and if you want that, perfect, but that doesn’t mean it defines for all of us.

And I make a lot of decisions on how I run my business and keeping it the size that I keep it because, and what I’ve like now been like, “Yes, this is the label I’ve been missing,” is I’m a family first entrepreneur.

That doesn’t mean I don’t do great work. That doesn’t mean my business isn’t successful. That doesn’t mean that my business doesn’t challenge me and teaches me all the things I need to know. And it doesn’t mean it’s a hobby or a side hustle.

And it’s not a lifestyle business. But it is this business that I have built to allow me to put my family first while also still providing for the family as well. But when you mentioned the word label, I thought, God, that’s so important because I’ve been fighting this battle in my own brain about is my business good enough?

Is it successful enough? Like how do people judge it? And the reality of it is that it’s because I hadn’t figured out how to define what I’m trying to accomplish. And having that label I think is really, really important.

Matt Clark: It is. So, I like to look at it like this, you mentioned lifestyle and I don’t want to be contrary, but I want my folks that I work with to build a business that suits their lifestyle, which is what I think you’re saying.

So, when we create these processes, systems, these business, we have to understand, hey, I want this business to serve me and not me serve the business. Now, that doesn’t mean we don’t grind, that doesn’t mean we don’t answer emails, we’re constantly doing the thing.

But when we become so consumed by the business and its growth and everything it is, I think we lose track. And I’m with you, I spent 15 years in NASCAR building high performance pit crews for drivers, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and I was on Stacey 24/7, 364, sometimes we got Christmas off.

But I’ve gotten calls in church. I’ve gotten calls on holidays by crew chiefs, by owners to say, “Hey, listen we want XYZ, and we want to get this done.” So, I have finally crafted a business.

And to that, I don’t want to … let me go down a little bit of rabbit hole. When we begin to understand our value, we begin to create a business that suits us.

When we don’t understand our value, we begin to do things and work on our business that all we’re worried about is what we look like, how we show up, am I serving everyone? Yes, we need to serve everyone, but we also need to serve our business and our best interests.

So, I love where you’re at and where you’re going with that.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah, I think that’s such a key point that you’re talking about from that perspective. It’s that recognition of what you talked about when you know your value it makes everything easier about how you’re going to show up, what you believe, what you find important, what you’re like, that’s not important to me and it makes you confident and comfortable in those beliefs as well when you recognize your value.

And the truth is, I have always watched the work that I do deliver results for my clients. Whether people took an online course, in the beginning it was one-on-one coaching or if they came to a workshop or if they did an online program, whatever it was, there was always success if they were willing to put in the work. So, the confidence has always grown for like a decade on the work that I do.

But it was paying attention to me really settling in a couple years ago, and this would’ve been two-ish years ago now, almost three, but it was really settling into, and this is how I want to show up to help my clients get that success, which is how I built the whole BRB (Building a Referable Business) coaching program, which is the main thing.

I have other ways I work with folks, but that’s the main way, that’s how I want to work with folks.

And it was really when I established and saw myself, not somebody else telling me, but saw myself the value of what I provided and where my clients got their best results and how I wanted to show up that I actually created a whole model that I had fought against for the eight years prior.

It’s crazy. I love how you said … I hadn’t thought about it that way, it’s like when you understand your value, you’ll build a business around that not only serves your clients, but also serves the life that you want as well. And that for me is where I think that label comes from, family first entrepreneur.

Matt Clark: So, it’s a good segue, where do our values come from? From our belief systems, from our mindset. So, when we have the mindset that I’m enough, I bring value to the marketplace, number one, we’re not afraid to charge.

And listen, so this is coming from someone, this is true authentic, Matt Clark being transparent with you and your folks, this is my experience. I would always over deliver, do so much more because I wanted to make sure that the client, the customer, whomever, got enough because I didn’t feel like I was enough.

So, I overcompensated, over delivered. And if you find yourself over delivering, making sure that everything’s perfect, you might ask yourself, “Hey, why am I doing that?”

Now there’s a line, we want to be the best, deliver the best product. I believe in being like, listen, I worked at the highest level? So, performance winning, that’s all matters to me.

But understanding my value and that mindset of your worth and really reframing my belief systems that I am enough is a game changer. When folks actually say what I bring to the marketplace is worth it, they will change how they do business without question.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yep. It is a very empowering reckoning, so to speak. I love that. Okay, as a former NASCAR guy, I love the analogy that you use when you’re talking about the work that you do about the analogy of how our brain functions and it kind of functions in these two transmission types. I love that from a car, maybe.

I don’t know if you need to explain to everybody what a transmission is. You know what it is, if it’s ever gone out in your car and you know how expensive it is to fix it. But talk to us a little bit about this transmission type.

What do you mean when you say our brain functions in one or two modes of a transmission? And then talk about the two transmission types as well.

Matt Clark: Okay, so let me set it up this way. This is kind of going into my NASCAR background. And if we look at our brain, it operates, like you said, with two transmissions. And some of your folks are probably familiar with a manual transmission.

Now those might be some of the older folks, some of the newer folks, I have a 20-year-old son, he is like, “Dad, I just learned to drive stick.” I’m like, “That was common in my area, son.”

But that’s the stick shift. That’s where you have to manually put the input. You press the clutch, you shift the gears.

Stacey Brown Randall: You cannot hold a phone while you’re doing it.

Matt Clark: You can’t do that. Now listen, folks going to be like, “Well I have a manual shifter, it’s a paddle.” Okay I know technology has brought us through to a whole other level of transmissions. I get it.

But let’s keep it basic gang. Manual transmission, we have a clutch, and we have a gear shift. Then we have our automatic transmission which we put the car in gear out of park, we put it in gear, and we go.

But here’s the thing. Both change gears. However, manually we are the ones changing the gears, the automatic transmission is still going through the bands through the different gears, except you don’t know, what you don’t realize is it’s set on autopilot.

So, if we look at our brain, our conscious mind. That’s where we set goals, we get results, we think we’re creative, it’s short-term memory, limited processing power. It’s where our desires hang out.

So, it’s what we think about. I can say right now, think about a pink elephant. Everyone thinks about a pink elephant. Like boom, like your brain’s like “Oh, pink elephant.”

But our subconscious or our automatic transmission is our subconscious mind. And that’s where our memories live. It’s a database of experience. It thinks linearly and literally. The systems run there habitually, all of our body systems. It’s how we experience the world sight, sense, taste, touch, smell are in that subconscious.

And the subconscious is the home or basis or database of our belief system. And this is where it gets fun. And this is where for me, my journey of diving kind of deeper into the brain science was really spot on because I was just stuck.

I was stuck in neutral and I couldn’t figure out what the heck, I was like had all these, I want to do the thing. And I finally realized I had the desire be the thing, do the thing, be about the thing. But I didn’t have the belief system that supported my desires.

So, I would self-sabotage because our manual transmission doesn’t have the computing power, the power to drive the engine that our automatic transmission has.

The subconscious is so much more powerful and that’s where our belief system is. That’s why it’s hard to change beliefs. That’s why people are like, “Oh I can’t do the thing.”

It’s not because we’re not thinking about it. It’s just because it’s so grounded and so rooted in our subconscious, it is hard to change if we’re not being intentional about it.

[Music Playing 00:16:56]

Stacey Brown Randall: Hey there, pardon this interruption. I know this summer series, we’re focused on the mindset of a business owner. You’ve been totally loving it, right? I know, me too. But don’t ignore your referral mindset as well.

In our Building a Referable Business coaching program, we help you implement the mindset, the strategies and the individual tactics you need to build a referable business.

Go to staceybrownrandall.com/referable to learn about everything you receive inside BRB and submit your application. The group is small, which is why we start with an application first. The link again is staceybrownrandall.com/referable. Now back to the interview.

[Music Playing 00:17:45]

Yeah, so I think that’s really powerful and for a long time — I’m a consumer of knowledge and particularly books and I like my books printed. I want to hold them and touch them when I read them.

And so, I have for as long as I can remember for like decades now, I mean even though I know I’m 12, but like for decades I would read business books but I was like, “I don’t read fiction.”

It felt like a badge of honor. I don’t read fiction even though my father was a fiction author and has like over 21 fiction books published. I’m like, “I read his because I needed to be a good daughter but I don’t read fiction and I don’t read self-help.” I was like, business books.

And I think most people, if they’re open to it or as we just get older and we get like head over the head a few more times with it, we start to become more open to this idea that maybe the way I’m acting and behaving and thinking isn’t really serving me as well as it needs to.

Maybe there is a different way to look at that self-help kind of genre and looking at it from that really what it is, that personal development and making myself and helping myself and understanding myself to make myself a better person.

And so, the last couple of years I’ve gotten really open, it used to be like, “Oh, you want me to take another assessment like the DISC or the Myers-Briggs or the Enneagram? I’m like, “No thank you. I already know what they’re going to say about me. No thank you.”

Now I’m like, “Okay, what’s the next one I can take? What’s the next thing I can learn about myself?” And it’s fascinating and poor Norm, like for those of you who are longtime listeners of this podcast, you know Norm is my husband.

And poor Norm because every time I take one, I’m like, “Now you got to take it.” Because we got to see how opposite we are or how similar we are depending on what it is.

But I think that you have to be open to the idea that you want to dive into understanding your mind, your subconscious, your consciousness.

Also understanding that piece of where our beliefs sit and challenging them and paying attention to them and understanding, hey, because I believe this, this is why it always drives this behavior and that’s why I’m a lot of times getting this outcome.

And we think about that in our personal lives. I think the easiest place to actually talk about this stuff is in my parenting. I mean, it’s not universal, not everybody’s a parent, but it’s really easy to talk about this becoming a better parent and understanding the belief patterns that I have.

I think more people are more willing to leave that at the door when they step into business owner mindset. They’re like, “Oh, I’m being the business owner.” Sometimes we leave that stuff at the door, but it’s so very critical.

So, when you are talking to somebody who is a business owner who’s like, they know they need to probably work on their belief pattern, their mindset, their sub-consciousness, and how it informs the things that they’re doing and thinking, but, you find somebody who actually has resistance. I’m just curious, how do you help them overcome the fact that they may be resistant to actually going down this path, but they’re kind of interested but they’re not sure.

And so, they’re a little bit resistant to really diving in and going all in because once you open up this Pandora’s box, you can’t go away. You don’t back away from it. It’s always kind of there.

Matt Clark: Right. So, let me start the conversation this way is most of our beliefs are programmed by the age of seven. Alright, so we have-

Stacey Brown Randall: Wait, is this one more thing I just get to blame on my parents?

Matt Clark: That’s one way to frame it or we can reframe it to say, hey, we were sponges and here’s the quick science behind that.

Stacey Brown Randall: Oh my parents appreciate you.

Matt Clark: Yeah. So, and how we view life, how we view money, faith, relationships, our entire life primarily in that year up to year seven is subconscious.

And this is how it happens. Our brain is in fatal wave, and I don’t want to get deep dive there because I’m not a super deep neuroscientist, but we’re in theta. Theta is the same state as meditation or hypnosis.

So, parents with kids under seven or eight, they are sponges just absorbing the environment. So, I would say to those folks to answer your question, okay, how do you view money? How do you view relationships? How do you view success? A lot of those are pre-programmed beliefs. Are you okay with those beliefs? Let’s do a belief inventory.

Then we have to understand we have events that create, and we can have one event that could send us down a road that we end up hanging on to this core belief.

Let’s just say, “Hey Matt, you’re not tall enough for x.” I could go through the rest of my life saying, “You know what, I’m not enough because I’m not tall enough.” And I begin to view my life through that belief system that is the lenses through which we see life.

But the challenge would be like what do you want to be? Do you want to stay where you’re at or do you want to grow? And this sums it up. We create ourselves through the decisions we make and we make those decisions based on our beliefs.

So, until we dive into our belief system, we can still be successful. But are we going to be the person, the full person that we want to be if we don’t actually dive in to say what’s happening?

And for me, I just did a TEDx Talk on this not too long ago talking about imposter syndrome and what helped me get over imposter syndrome was understanding the science of what was happening about my limiting beliefs.

And that’s really what imposter syndrome is just the belief that I’m not enough in whatever area it is. And it was that deep dive into that help me unpack okay, this is a biological response to an event. Okay, I can understand what’s happening and it helped me take 20 years’ worth of limiting beliefs.

And so, my goal is to help people say, “This is where you’re at. Let’s do a belief inventory.” I have a framework that I work through and we work with people to help them go there. But here’s the thing, I can’t want it more than you. I can’t-

Stacey Brown Randall: I have said that before to clients.

Matt Clark: Yeah. I can’t want change more than you because once you begin to see life through your belief systems in others, how they show up, how they act, how they react, you’re like, “Wow, okay, that’s their belief system.” And it’s not judgmental.

But until someone says, why am I always seeing myself as the victim? Why do I always say I can’t win? What’s my inner voices? And you begin to talk about that. They have to be willing to do it. I can’t take them down a road.

All I can say is, “Hey, this is what I do, this is what’s happening in your brain. Are you interested and being open to be wrong about your beliefs?” Because here’s the thing, we tenaciously defend our beliefs because it’s associated with our identity and our brain will protect ourselves because our ego wants to protect our identity. It is a survival method.

Stacey Brown Randall: Even if that identity is not a good one. Like, why am I always in victim mode?

Matt Clark: Correct.

Stacey Brown Randall: It still wants to protect it.

Matt Clark: Exactly.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yes.

Matt Clark: So, our brain, obviously it is in protect mode all the time and will do it’s very best to make sure that it protects itself.

Stacey Brown Randall: Okay. So, don’t tell us all the things you can’t tell us because this is the work you do with clients. But can you share a little bit about this belief inventory, can you tell us a little bit more about that? That sounds super interesting.

Matt Clark: Yeah. So, one of the things that I would encourage people to do it right now, just get a notebook, a pad and just begin to monitor what are my thoughts, what are my thoughts about this? What are my reactions to this?

Because I framed it up this way if I can remember my TED Talk, but how does this event make me feel? What are my emotions about this thing? Is it true the interpretation of the event even true? Because not all interpretations of events are true.

And have I been reaching for these same limiting beliefs time and time again to reconfirm the original limiting belief?

So, when you begin to do a belief inventory, it changes things. I try to do that consciously now. Something will happen. Why am I feeling this? Why am I feeling anger? Why am I feeling embarrassed?

Okay. And it’s based on, hey, is it a belief about myself that I’m holding that isn’t true? And I’m learning to really extend the gap between stimulus and response.

So, having that inventory makes me like okay … and again, the voices in my head, hey, and this happens on social media a lot for me, Stacey. I’ll be like, “Wow.” I’ll be scrolling, I’ll be like, “That person’s crushing it. We’re in the same space.”

And I have to catch myself be like, wait a second, you’re comparing yourself to this person and that’s not the right thing to do because when we do that what it’s telling the brain, your brain will say, “Okay, so you don’t value yourself.”

That’s the determination, I’ve made up the story. So, therefore it reaffirms in your brain neurologically that I’m not enough and it’s actually creating the neural pathways that keep this thing going. So, having that interruption, go ahead.

Stacey Brown Randall: It’s interesting, I really love that you said that about catching yourself when it comes to social media. What I have been doing lately is I will see somebody’s really awesome reel or really great, something like they’re on stage or they’ve published another book or whatever these amazing highlights that other business owners are sharing or these things that are happening and you do, you have that reaction of man, they are crushing it.

Wouldn’t it be great if that were me? You kind of have to stop yourself. And lately what I’ve been saying is, “Wait, that is me. I’m just too lazy to take the time to post it on social media.”

It’s like I just remind myself like, but you don’t post all your highlights on social media. You walk off stage after giving a killer presentation and Kathy, who’s my social media assistant, will be like, “What pictures did you get?”

And I’ll be like, “I completely forgot. I was just too in the moment. I had a line of people who wanted to talk to me afterwards. People wanted me to sign my books.” I was like, “I totally forgot I didn’t take a single picture and a single reel.” And she’s like, “You are killing me.”

And I’m like, “But that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. I think there’s a little bit like, but if it’s not on social media, did it happen? Yes, totally happened. I just don’t get around. I’m not in that moment of thinking about how am I also going to put this on social media? Most of the time I’m just in the moment.

And so, that’s what I’ve been doing to remind myself when I catch myself, it’s like, hey, you just don’t stop. You just don’t decide to stop and capture that in the moment. You’re just in the moment and then the moment’s over and you move on.

Matt Clark: Listen, I feel you 100% because that is the marketing part. I don’t wear my marketing hat when I’m presenting. I’m just in presentation mode and I wish I looked back because great marketers win over content. It’s totally different podcast that we can talk about, but great marketers win.

And the other thing that I love that, that you’re doing that, but what I’ve learned to do when I’m doing that is to like their post rather than scroll by, is to say, “Okay, you know what? Awesome for you. I’m happy for you.” To show gratitude that you’re putting the work in and it makes me — I guess it forces me to say, “Okay, good job.”

And the more I do it, the more I appreciate their hard work, so folks will appreciate my hard work.

So, if I become jealous then I’m comparing. So, I’ve been intentional about like, like, like, like and that way I’m like okay, I’m not holding anything back.

Stacey Brown Randall: Matt, is this why you like all my stuff on social media?

Matt Clark: I like all your stuff Stacey, because number one, I know your background and how hard you work.

Stacey Brown Randall: I’m just kidding.

Matt Clark: Having read your book, having listened to your stuff, what you’re doing is phenomenal. And this is not a paid plug gang.

Stacey Brown Randall: Right, I understand.

Matt Clark: I know you as a person, but I do like your stuff because you are present, and you are impacting people the right way. You’re never salesy. You’re like this is how I do it and you’re truly authentic. So, that’s why I like your stuff.

Stacey Brown Randall: Thank you.

Matt Clark: Genuinely.

Stacey Brown Randall: Well I appreciate that. I mean, I couldn’t miss that opportunity just to poke a little bit. And I appreciate that you like my stuff. I appreciate what anybody likes my stuff. We all do.

We’re like “Oh good listen the creepers have turned to the lurkers have turned into actually like button pushers and they’re telling us that they like the stuff I love them all.” Lurkers, creepers or the likers. We appreciate them all.

And I think that I love the fact that you have yourself also like their post or whatever it is because it does keep you in a mindset of abundance. Which is really, really important I think for every business owner is you can’t come at anything from a mindset of scarcity. You’ve got to be thinking about things from a mindset of abundance.

And for some people that takes a lot of shifting of the belief that they’ve built up in a lot of different ways that they lean more to scarcity than they do abundance.

And I remember making a very dedicated practice towards abundance. It would be with my first business, so well over a decade ago of being like, we are going to operate from a mindset abundance. There’s work for all of us. It is all good and I will get what I’m supposed to that is coming my way and so will everybody else.

And I remember people back then telling me, they’re like, “You’re always willing to share. You’re always willing to help. It’s so obvious you operate from a mindset of abundance.” And I was like, “Well, the Stacey prior that probably didn’t, and I made a concerted effort and now it’s just a part of who I am.” And I just think that’s so important that you say it like that.

Okay, so there’s so much that you could share on beliefs and belief formation and unpacking it. And I love that you just kind of walked us through that belief inventory and kind of gave us a structure to think about when we react to something.

Stopping for a minute and writing that down and then unpacking the why and then see where that takes us, very probably very tied to our very early childhood beliefs that we had as we were a sponge soaking everything up until the age of seven.

I think about that from my own kids. I’m like, “Oh man, if I could just go back in time, there’s probably a few more things I would want them to soak up versus some of the stuff that they did.”

But just kind of leave us with one final thought about why you believe that this is such a critical skill for entrepreneurs, for business owners to have, to check themselves with whatever they’re thinking or however they’re reacting and map it back to their beliefs.

Matt Clark: Great question. We show up in the world based on our beliefs. Our identity really is a mirror, a reflection of our belief system being lived out.

So, whether it’s from a place of abundance or scarcity. We have to ask ourselves why. Why am I feeling this way? Why am I reacting this way? Why am I seeing myself as a victim?

When we begin to ask ourselves, to do the hard work to say, “Wow, my business isn’t growing because what, I’m selfish I don’t do the thing or whatever.” That’s one thing.

But when we really look at our mindset and we decide to say, “Okay, why am I acting the way that I do? Why am I showing up the way that I do? How can I change? How can I be a better version of myself?”

And if we are aspiring to be the best versions of ourselves, we’ll never be the person who we are because we’re constantly growing and when we stop growing we become stagnant.

And I don’t want the folks that I work with to become stagnant, to not be able to grow and I want to challenge them. And you said it earlier in a way, but basically what you were saying is you’ve become more self-aware.

And when you’re self-aware, you’re willing to ask yourself hard questions, you’re willing to be wrong, you’re willing to do the hard things to make yourself a better version.

Let’s face it, gang, not everyone is in this and the folks that are listening to this podcast are probably mover, shakers, grinders. They’re probably not nine to fivers. And there’s nothing wrong with the folks that say, “Hey listen, I want to show up work nine, knock off at five, I’m cool, I don’t want to think about it afterwards.”

But then there’s the folks that show up, grind it, do it and they’re like, “Okay, I am going to be the captain of my own domain.” I am going to steer my own ship and those are the folks that I want to help to unlock their belief system to say, “Listen what I thought was impossible, now is more than probable.”

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah, I mean thank you so much for sharing that. I think that’s awesome. And for me it’s like I want to be that person as a business owner that is not afraid to do the hard stuff and not afraid to grind but I’m probably going to stop at 2:00 PM because I’m in control of my own domain.

Matt Clark: And I — so-

Stacey Brown Randall: Because I can that’s the cool thing about being a business owner.

Matt Clark: Let me leave you and your folks with this because I see it all the time with my clients. I call it entrepreneurial guilt. What happens is if we are not moving, shaking, grinding 24/7 Saturdays, Sundays 5, 6, 7, 8 o’clock, we feel like we’re not doing the thing. We’re not going to make it. We’re not going to be the next, we’re not going to build the thing.

And I challenge the folks that I work with to set up guardrails and to be okay with shutting it down because you have to take care of yourself. You have to make sure that you’re not burnt out because if you’re going 24/7, that can only last so long.

So, don’t feel guilty if it’s two o’clock because what you get done from 6:00, 7:00 AM 8:00 AM to two o’clock, a lot of times it’s better than folks that are working two or three days.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yep. And sometimes I can get done between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM what some people can’t even accomplish in two or three days. But that takes time to get yourself to a place that you can get into your deep work, that focused, that like in your flow state and get moving.

But there’s certainly some days where I’m working longer and I’m like, “Crap, it’s because I procrastinated or it’s because I didn’t do what I needed to do.” But to your point, it’s all about your self-awareness and I think that is key.

Okay, so, so much more we can talk about, but I know my listeners are going to want to know more. I can’t give it to them because we are confined by time. So, where can my listeners find out more about you? Where can they reach out?

Matt Clark: I think the best place to find me I’m on social, but it’s mattclarkmc.com. All my social handles are that way. So, I at least did a good job of unified branding. So, whether it’s Twitter, LinkedIn, Insta, it’s mattclarkmc.com, my website’s there and contact forms and would love to reach out and talk to folks and build some relationships.

Stacey Brown Randall: That is awesome.

Stacey Brown Randall: That was just so good. And I’m probably going to say this after every single interview because they all are. I just really love this series. And I know I have the benefit of knowing what’s coming because I recorded the interviews in advance of you guys actually hearing them. But it’s just so good.

One of the things that I love that Matt talks about is the brain can’t tell what’s real versus what’s imagined. And that was a game changer for me when I heard it because I have a tendency and have done this my whole life to be all up in my head.

Like creating scenarios of crazy, terrible things happening to the humans in my family that’ll probably actually never happen. And like spending time in that tailspin of like this crazy thought.

And sometimes I think if I were to tell people the crazy things like that that are in my head, you’d be like, “Dude, she’s actually super crazy.”

For the longest time and it’s probably something I’ll hold onto forever, I’ve always attributed that ability to my creativity and to my imagination, which is I think served me well and some of the things I do in business and in life.

But the crazy part of where my brain just kind of goes into weird random places, recognizing that when I’m off in that crazy weird daydream of something that’s not good and will never happen, that my brain actually doesn’t know that it’s not real.

That to me was like, “Oh yeah, come back to center my friend and recognize maybe what I’m doing to myself.”

So, I love that Matt talked about that and I hope that you guys enjoyed this interview with him as well.

Of course, we are going to link to all the ways that you can find Matt and learn more about him and connect with him on social media. Maybe just start following him and see his goodness pop up in your feed.

We’ll do that all on the show notes page for this episode, which is staceybrownrandall.com/263. That’s for 263. That’s episode 263. And of course, Stacey has an e.

Alright, next week is episode 264 and you guessed it, the summer series of the business owner mindset will continue.

So, until then, you know what to do, my friend: take control of your referrals and bill a referral business. Bye for now.