How to Think, Work and Live as an Entrepreneur

Nuggets of wisdom by Tom Barrett

Tom Barrett is the president of Business/Life Management, a co-founder of Tightrope Communications, a faculty member at the Lockheed Martin Center for Leadership Excellence, and a leading authority in the marketing industry. He is also the best-selling author of Dare to Dream and Work to Win and Success Happens. Tom practiced clinical psychology for 20 years, coaching individuals and maintaining awareness of what it means to “live in the real world.” Tom shared with our National Convention audience several key principles about success, dreams and prosperity. Here we offer a few notes from his highly dynamic presentation.

FOCUS ON JUST TWO GOALS:
1. CHANGE YOUR BUSINESS.
2. CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

10 Levels of Commitment to the Business

1. A lark
2. Just dabbling (not serious)
3. A hobby. This sounds like they’re having fun. But it’s not fun all the time. They will adjust expectations forward or back.
4. A cute little business
5. A small, home-based business
6. A business
7. An opportunity. They see potential.
8. My business. They’re starting to think, “I’m not in Nature’s Sunshine, Nature’s Sunshine is in me.”
9. My opportunity.
10. My business, My opportunity, My movement, My vehicle.

Gauge where you are and where your members are on this spectrum.

LOOK AT YOUR BUSINESS. WHAT DO YOU SEE? “EYES THAT LOOK ARE COMMON. EYES THAT SEE ARE RARE.”

What do you see from the distributor side?

Maintain your passion and commitment to purpose.

1. You have an invitation to live as an entrepreneur.
   2. You have an invitation to dream.
   3. You have stumbled upon the golden goose.

• For the first time, you are being paid what you are worth. You have entrepreneurial freedom. You don’t have to ask for time off for vacation, sick child, etc.
• What is the state of your dreams? It’s time to feel safe and start to dream again.
• You stand in the doorway of multibillion dollar industries. You allow people to have more of what they do want in life and less of what they don’t want in life. “NSP is a vehicle to get them where they want to go.”

ON OPPORTUNITY

People are stressed.
They are spending more money than they have. Solution: help get people out of their stress. Don’t just give them products to deal with it.

You have the opportunity to give people back their physical health and their financial health.

Altruistic goal: “I want to help people have enough money to live well, to help them stop living hand to mouth.”

KNOW WHAT YOU’RE PAID FOR

1. To answer 2 business questions
   • How do you get close to a customer?
   • How do you develop customer loyalty?
2. For access
3. To get your products in front of more eyes. Help others become customer gatherers
4. For perseverance “Entrepreneurs are paid for vision, courage and stamina. Entrepreneurs are modern-day heroes every day.”

ENTREPRENEUR VS. EMPLOYEE MINDSET

Front-end and back-end expectations
What you do in Nature’s Sunshine is not common sense, but it does make sense.

PRINCIPLES OF SUCCESS

1. Consistent effort over time produces results.
   2. Duplication. Find customer gatherers.
   3. Give it enough time. Persevere. Be excited about backend expectations and rewards. Give it enough time on a daily/weekly basis. “How many times in the last quarter did you get your business in front of another set of eyeballs?”

BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND

(One of Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People) What would you like from your business?

Four Types of Dreams

1. PRACTICAL. “Never outgrow your appreciation for what $150/month can mean to a person. You allow people to escape living so close to the margins.”
   2. FUN. You can get to a place where your first question isn’t, “How much does it cost?”
   3. MEANINGFUL. Life-changing opportunities and experiences.
   4. SIGNIFICANT. You get to be a blessing because you have time, energy and money to give away. Listen to others. Become a blessing, a gift, a solution.

Are you beginning with the end in mind? “Ask yourself, Is it OK to dust off my dreams? Then do it.” “Tell yourself, I’m not going to let anyone steal my vision.”

ADVICE FOR BUSINESS OWNERS, ESPECIALLY THOSE JUST STARTING OUT

1. Protect your vision for your business as if you were protecting your physical eyes.
2. Don’t let any moment, event or person diminish your vision.
3. Remember, “Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.” –Jonathan Swift

Dream Big Enough…to get you up, keep you up, ignore frustration and ignore fear.

Dare to Focus

Use binoculars to see where this is going to take you. See your future. Then pull out the magnifying glass to examine what you need to do right now.

Live with purpose.

Live every day on purpose.

“Talent is over-rated. Tenacity is under-rated. Activity trumps ability. Courage trumps capability. Work trumps wishing.”

“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”

“Success is inconvenient. The only thing more inconvenient than success is the lack of success.”

TWO REALITIES
Fear of Growing Your Business		Fear of NOT Growing Your Business
Being laughed at		You’re broke
Being taken seriously		You dislike your job
Knowing what to say		You’re not ready for retirement
Answering questions		You have dreams you never realized

Unfortunately, emotion trumps reason, and negative emotion trumps positive emotion. Tell your fear to sit down and shut up so you can make a call. “Stop letting fear run the show!”

FOUR THINGS TO LEARN ABOUT YOUR BELIEFS

1. What do I believe?
2. When/how did this belief get installed?
3. How long have I believed this?
4. What impact will this belief have on me, my team and my business? Dare to believe yourself. “It’s time to reload the software of your mind. Focus. Ignore fear. Live out your sense of passion, purpose and productivity.”