The Subconscious Mind Is Holding New Zealand Business Owners Back

You can nail your pricing.

You can know your margin down to the decimal point.

You can have a cash flow model that would make any accountant proud.

But if the story running in your head says you're not good enough, none of that matters... because you'll cap yourself out long before you ever get to use it.

I recently sat down with Sarah Robb on the podcast.

Sarah works in the subconscious mind space, background in psychology and PE, but the bulk of what she does now sits in neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), which is essentially how language trains the mind.

Sarah mentioned that our subconscious mind is 30,000 times more powerful than our conscious mind.

Which lines up with what I see in business owners constantly, so we unpacked it properly.

Here are the top 5 lessons that I reckon all business owners should hear from that conversation.

1. Business is identity work.
"You will never outgrow who you believe you are."

If you want to grow your business, you have to upgrade your identity.

We've all been conditioned since childhood, and that conditioning shows up later as people-pleasing, perfectionism, or self-sabotage.

You can do all the marketing in the world, but if you don't do the work on your own identity first, you'll stay exactly where you are.

2. Self-doubt isn't the problem
Sarah told me: "I don't think self-doubt is the problem. I think believing your thoughts is the problem."

She still gets self-doubt herself after delivering so many speeches.

The difference is she doesn't attach to it, she gets curious about it, treating it as a sign of where her edge currently sits, rather than feeding it until it spirals.

3. Courage has to come before confidence.
Sarah referenced Brené Brown's line: "You can choose courage or you can choose comfort, but you can't choose both."

Years back, Phil and I launched a $5,000 business planning day and it flopped.

We lost some confidence off the back of it.

We later rebuilt it at a lower price and filled a room of 20 people.

The second time round, we didn't need courage the same way, because we already had the confidence from the first attempt.

As she put it, clarity and confidence don't come before action, they come from action.

If you're standing at the fork waiting to feel confident before you move, you're doing it backwards... go down the path, and you'll find out fast enough whether it's the right one.

4. Perfectionism is self-sabotage with a nicer name.
"Perfectionism is just a dressed up word for self-sabotage."

Blunt I kno, but I think it's fair.

I would support Progress over perfection, every time.

If you're waiting for something to be "right" before you take action, you're the thing standing in the way.

Go out there and do the thing!

5. Overwhelm is just too many open tabs.
Think of your mind like a browser with a hundred tabs open.

Every unfinished email, unresolved conversation, or thing you haven't followed up on is an open loop quietly draining your energy in the background, whether you're aware of it or not.

Having these many tabs will make you anxious, less focused, and impact your descion making.

Close the loops before you open the next tab.

6. Gratitude.
Gratitude needs to be an actual feeling, and you can be grateful for where you are while still wanting more.

The two aren't in conflict.

Sarah pointed to the book The Gap and the Gain as useful reading for business owners who never feel like they've "arrived."

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This article is based on insights from the Next Advisory podcast, where Luke and Phil help New Zealand business owners navigate economic challenges and build better businesses. Visit nextadvisory.nz to find out how we can help you.

Checkout more of our blog content at https://nextadvisory.nz/podcast