Living the E Life

Living the life of an entrepreneur is challenging, with countless ups and downs. What we have found that helps us not only survive but thrive in this unique lifestyle is a collection of 10 mindsets. Each month, we're going to spotlight one mindset, to share more about what it means and how it can benefit you as a mental performance entrepreneur if you choose to adopt it and act on it.

The first mindset is:

Do good work, first and always.

It's easy to get lost in the weeds of the day-to-day tasks that are required to operate a business. Like us, you may find yourself in rabbit holes exploring new technology, new resources, and new opportunities. In the midst of wearing all of the entrepreneur "hats," remember that the simplest strategy to achieve success as a mental performance coach in private practice is to ensure that you are doing good work.

No matter how good you are at other aspects of your business, if you're not doing good work consistently, none of it will matter in the long run.

Here's the bottom line: Prioritize showing up and providing your clients with the best that you have to offer based on what you know right now. If you can walk away from sessions, workshops, and contracts knowing that you provided high-quality support, added value to their lives, and met or exceeded expectations, not only does that positively impact your current clients, but it creates a ripple effect.

When you do good work and help your clients reach their goals, they start talking - and have the potential to become the best and most effective advocates for working with you. When they refer others to you, this allows your business to grow and become more sustainable.

Key Takeaway: Do good work. Rinse and repeat.

Let's Keep Climbing

I recently read a book by Cal Newport titled "So Good They Can't Ignore You." The main premise pushes back against the idea of following passion and excitement. Instead, Newport suggests that you need to spend your time focused on developing skills and expertise. It is through this development that you are able to leverage your skills and expertise to create the work-life you desire.

Passion and mission tend to come from continuing to develop your knowledge. This may be reading books, listening to podcasts, attending workshops, talking to others, or even reading our newsletter! Essentially, you want to expand what you already know by finding the edges of your knowledge comfort zone, what Newport calls the "adjacent possible." It is at these edges that you can create new connections, explore potential pivots, and build a unique expertise.

As a mental performance entrepreneur, your ability to continue developing your craft - the mental performance work - is crucial. This continued development allows you to do good work now and become even better at that good work for future clients.

- Lindsey

Trail Tips

As you've likely noticed by now, we've connected the dots between hiking and entrepreneurship. This is partly because there are a wild amount of similarities between the two - and partly because we both love the outdoors, hiking, and exploring, so this underlying theme felt like an authentic fit as we were building Project E.

For those newer to hiking culture, here's some trail lingo for consideration on your entrepreneurial journey!

Summit Fever: An obsession with standing on top of mountains. As an entrepreneur, this might translate to only focusing on or acknowledging the big wins. Just like the clients we support, some version of "winning" is likely going to be part of our goals as entrepreneurs - however, the challenge with this is that the summit and the success are only temporary. When we embrace the journey of hiking to the summit, beholding the view, and navigating the descent, then we can learn to enjoy the process.

Type 2 Fun: When you're doing something tough but the satisfaction you feel when you're done makes it all worth it. Or when the difficulty just plain sucks at the time but will make a good story afterwards (haha!). Honestly, so much of being an entrepreneur involves Type 2 Fun, and yet, I'm sure most of us would agree that this is fun, it is worth it - and it's what is required to get to summit after summit after summit. Building your life while owning and running a business is hands-down one of the most challenging adventures you can take on - and one of the most rewarding.

In the Know

Here are the latest updates from Project E:

• The Establish course is now OPEN! If you're ready to start your mental performance coaching business, this is the only self-paced course (and community!) to help you create and launch your business, and feel ready to welcome your first paid client.

• 55 people are exploring whether or not entrepreneurship is right for them with our free Explore guide.

• We have 100 followers on Instagram! If you're on IG, we'd love to connect and stay in touch there.

• We have 110 email subscribers! Thanks for joining us on this journey and being one of the first people to connect with Project E. We're glad you're here!

We'd be so thrilled if you would help us continue to spread the word about Project E. We're on a mission to become the go-to entrepreneurial resource for mental performance coaches, and we're just getting started.