Out of the Shadows

By Etta Joanne

Out of the Shadows - when you hear this statement; what does it mean to you? Think about it for a moment and reflect on your current situation or your past experiences in life. Is there something dark that is overcoming you or once overcame you? Were you able to come out of it alone or with the help of someone else, or are you still in this darkness - this shadow?
I ask these questions to get you to start thinking about this concept in terms of your life. Whether or not you are battling with something dark that has overcome your life and you feel stuck or you are starting to get a notion that something isn’t right because you are unhappy and aren’t at your full potential of truly living your life. The life I speak about is personal and business. They both go hand in hand. Everything in your personal life, affects your business, even though you may be good at hiding the hurt and the issues or you leave all personal at the door before entering your work, it still affects you, your performance, and the people around you.
We decided to write this book, to open up and be vulnerable to our past issues, to give examples of our darkness, our shadows, in the possibility that it may help someone. We hope that by reading our stories, you can have a better perspective on your own. We will share what our shadows were and how we overcame them, in hopes that it will help you to get out of your shadows.
Please share this book with someone you care about because it may help them also, in their personal life and in business. When there is a shift in your mindset, you can truly get to the strategies you need to have in place to do well in your business life.
We would love to hear from you and how you overcame your shadow(s). Also, we would love to know if this book made an impact in your life. In order to hear from you, we created a website so that you can share your story and read and comment on others’ stories. Sonia and I both believe that through empathy and strategy, you can do the best in life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Etta Joanne
• Release date: Sep 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463520109

Etta Joanne

Etta Joanne, M.B.A. is an insightful speaker and founder of “always your best Interest, brand strategy with heart,” dedicating her career to brand and marketing strategy for businesses, through social media. Etta is the co-founder of the world-renowned positive and inspiring mindset movement known as, “Breakthru Entrepreneur,” where she helps entrepreneurs to launch businesses with her team’s dedicated support. With a keen interest in personal empowerment, she writes and speaks to inspire her readers and followers to feel empowered to breakthru any mind-blocks or fears - to essentially do their best. She believes everyone has at least one big dream in their hearts and that they must reject any negativity they hear in themselves or receive from others, and to just go for it – put their heart’s desire out there daily and breakthru! With her first book, Out of the Shadows, co-written with Sonia Baeriswyl, she is excited to start her journey as an author, specifically, in having an additional platform to help others embark on their best journey with empowerment and dedication to their dreams.

Book preview

Etta Joanne, M.B.A. & Sonia Baeriswyl

OUT OF THE SHADOWS

What Does it Take to be an Entrepreneur?

THE RIGHT MINDSET and

THE RIGHT STRATEGY

Smashwords 2019

© Copyright 2019 by Etta Joanne, M.B.A. & Sonia Baeriswyl

All rights reserved.

The total or partial reproduction of this work is prohibited without the express permission of the author.

Table of Contents

Preface

PART I.CHAPTER: ONE

How to Become an Entrepreneur?

What Does it Take to be an Entrepreneur?

What is Mindset?

Examples for Fixed Mindset

CHAPTER TWO

The Power of Our Minds

Programming your Mind

What are Life Shadows

Self-Awareness the Only Road Out

Positive Purpose

CHAPTER THREE

The Secret of Self-Confidence

Self-Awareness

Importance of Self-Awareness

Remove Limitations and Obstacles

CHAPTER FOUR

Overcome Fears and Traumatic Emotional Events

What is Trauma?

CHAPTER FIVE

Define your vision

Passion Discovery

Purpose Discovery

What is stress?

Learn to Communicate more Effectively

PART II. CHAPTER SIX

From Idea to Reality

Business idea generation

CHAPTER SEVEN

How to Target Market

CHAPTER EIGHT

The Goal Setting

Setting Goals and Achieving Your Goals

CHAPTER NINE

Marketing Plan for Entrepreneur

Organic Promotions

Paid Promotion

Organization Management

Organizational Structure and Management

5 Employees You Need on Your Team

Decision Making Process

CHAPTER TEN

Sales Strategies

Sales Management Tips

PART III

Conclusion

Never give up

Preface

Out of the Shadows - when you hear this statement; what does it mean to you? Think about it for a moment and reflect on your current situation or your past experiences in life. Is there something dark that is overcoming you or once overcame you? Were you able to come out of it alone or with the help of someone else, or are you still in this darkness - this shadow?

I ask these questions to get you to start thinking about this concept in terms of your life. Whether or not you are battling with something dark that has overcome your life and you feel stuck or you are starting to get a notion that something isn’t right because you are unhappy and aren’t at your full potential of truly living your life. The life I speak about is personal and business. They both go hand in hand. Everything in your personal life, affects your business, even though you may be good at hiding the hurt and the issues or you leave all personal at the door before entering your work, it still affects you, your performance, and the people around you.

We decided to write this book, to open up and be vulnerable to our past issues, to give examples of our darkness, our shadows, in the possibility that it may help someone. We hope that by reading our stories, you can have a better perspective on your own. We will share what our shadows were and how we overcame them, in hopes that it will help you to get out of your shadows.

Please share this book with someone you care about because it may help them also, in their personal life and in business. When there is a shift in your mindset, you can truly get to the strategies you need to have in place to do well in your business life.

We would love to hear from you and how you overcame your shadow(s). Also, we would love to know if this book made an impact in your life. In order to hear from you, we created a website so that you can share your story and read and comment on others’ stories. Sonia and I both believe that through empathy and strategy, you can do the best in life.

Please go to: www.outofyourshadows.com to share today!

Enjoy this book and we hope it gives you and the people you care about, lots of value.

PART I

CHAPTER: ONE

How to Become an Entrepreneur?

"When we are empowered to reject the shadow of fear, we will have a mind of courage, in that we will take the first steps in executing our idea." – Etta Joanne

What Does it Take to be an Entrepreneur?

What is an ENTREPRENEUR?

Entrepreneur is a common term that is frequently mentioned, but do we truly know what it means? When we say entrepreneur, we mean business owners of all types: shop owners, self-employed freelancers, restauranteurs, digital start-ups, etc. All of which we would count as entrepreneurial careers.

What is the defining factor?

The word entrepreneur comes from the French word to undertake. No, we do not mean a grave-digging undertaker, but instead, a person who undertakes risk and inventiveness with the end goal of financial profit. Therefore, entrepreneurs are defined as anyone who takes a risk with the goal of financial profit.

Clearly, making money is not the only motivator for entrepreneurs, but risk-taking, usually in the form of financial investments, is the underlying theme of all entrepreneurs. They also work hard to build something that will last by leaving behind a legacy or a footprint; a significant and impactful mark in the world.

Another defining factor of an entrepreneur is they take the necessary steps to create a business that will, when managed properly, continue making them money while they are not working. A cafe owner, for example, will make money while the cafe is operating during business hours, even if she’s picking up kids from school.

This is considered passive income - income that is continually created, even when the entrepreneur is not physically present. We have heard many entrepreneurs say that they build so they can make money in their sleep. Waking up to money in the bank is an outcome that we all strive to have.

What is Mindset?

"The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it's not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives." Carol S. Dweck

MINDSET: This is the perception of our mind that controls our attitude and is responsible for determining success or failure.

A mindset refers to whether you believe qualities, such as intelligence and talent, are fixed or changeable traits. Could what you believe about yourself impact your success or failure? According to Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, your beliefs play a pivotal role in what you want and whether or not you achieve it. Dweck has found that it is your mindset that plays a significant role in determining achievement and success.

The Two Types of Mindsets

1. People with a fixed mindset believe that these qualities are inborn, fixed, and unchangeable.

2. Those with a growth mindset, on the other hand, believe that these abilities can be developed and strengthened by way of commitment and hard work.

Carol S. Dweck began her research on this topic by tackling a question: What happens if you give kids a difficult problem to solve? Some children viewed the problem as a challenge and learning experience. Other children felt that it was impossible to solve and that their intelligence was being held up for scrutiny and judgment.

The kids in the first group had growth mindsets. When faced with something difficult, they believed that they could learn and develop the skills they needed to solve it. The second group of kids had fixed mindsets. They believed that there was nothing they could do to tackle a problem that was out of the reach of their knowledge and abilities.

Why Mindsets Matter

Your mindset plays a critical role in how you cope with life's challenges. In school, a growth mindset can contribute to greater achievement and increased effort. When facing a problem such as trying to find a new job, people with growth mindsets show greater resilience. They are more likely to persevere in the face of setbacks, while those with fixed mindsets are more liable to give up.

Fixed mindsets, Dweck explains, tend to create a need for approval.

I've seen so many people with this one consuming goal of proving themselves in the classroom, in their careers, and in their relationships, Dweck explains in her book Mindset. Every situation calls for a confirmation of their intelligence, personality, or character. Every situation is evaluated: Will I succeed or fail? Will I look smart or dumb? Will I be accepted or rejected? Will I feel like a winner or a loser?

Growth mindsets, on the other hand, result in a hunger for learning. A desire to work hard and discover new things. To tackle challenges and grow as a person. When people with a growth mindset try and fail, they tend not to view it as a failure or disappointment. Instead, it is a learning experience that can lead to growth and change.

Your Mindset Matters

"It affects everything - from the business and investment decisions you make, to the way you raise your children, to your stress levels and overall well-being." - Peter Diamandis

How Does Mindset Form?

People are trained in two types of mindsets early in life, often through the way they are raised or their experiences in school.

Fixed Mindset

1. Children who are taught that they should look smart instead of loving learning tend to develop a fixed mindset.

2. They become more concerned with how they are being judged and fear that they might not live up to expectations.

Growth Mindset

1. Kids who are taught to explore, embrace new experiences, and enjoy challenges are more likely to develop a growth mindset.

2. Rather than seeing mistakes as setbacks, they are willing to try new things and make errors all in the name of learning and achieving their potential.

Growth Mindset Examples:

1. Jack Ma constantly failed his college exams, faced ten rejections from Harvard and he was also the only candidate to be rejected by KFC, out of a group of twenty-three people. That’s when he founded Alibaba - the company which was in great loss for many years and after 25 years of immense struggle, Alibaba is now, highly successful.

2. Nike - the famous sport shoe company strongly believes in innovation, great performance, sustainability, authenticity and customization. These factors prove that the company takes great care of its’ clients and has a growth mindset that has led them towards becoming a top-ranking company.

How to Create a Growth Mindset as an Entrepreneur?

Whenever the experts of the world talk about mindset, they're talking about your personal beliefs and how they can get in the way of finding success or achieving personal satisfaction.

Before talking about the benefits of cultivating a growth mindset, it helps to start by first defining the opposite situation: a fixed mindset.

It assumes that our character, intelligence and creative ability are static givens which we can't change in any meaningful way by Carol Dweck

Going to Battle with an Existing Fixed Mindset

Before you can embrace a growth mindset, you need to be able to admit to yourself if you're currently stuck in a fixed mindset. Identifying and admitting your current status to yourself, is pivotal in the battle.

For those operating with a fixed mindset, the belief is that effort is not required to succeed because intellect cannot be changed. Those with a fixed mindset truly believe that their existing talent, skills and intelligence alone can lead them to success, so long as they stay in their lane.

People with a growth mindset believe that going after challenges provides the ability to see failure as part of learning and growth instead of it being evidence of unintelligence. This mindset offers permission to experiment, with the understanding that intelligence and skill develop with time and experience. As a result, people operating with a growth mindset give themselves permission to increase their efforts when they believe in something.

To be sure, we will need to take into consideration that most people are operating with both mindsets simultaneously, with a different mindset for different situations in their lives. The key to overcoming the limiting beliefs in the mind is to recognize which mindset you are using and when. Then, consciously choose to think a different way.

Acknowledge your Weakness

Staying in your comfort zone makes it hard for growth to happen. Consider this example: Recall a time when you were in school and were dealing with a subject that you struggled with. Perhaps you told people, I'm just not a science person after dealing with a string of bad test grades in the subject.

If you ever want to get better, you must first stop with the excuses -they'll keep you exactly where you are.

If you were to instead tell yourself, I'm currently struggling with science, but I know that I could be better with more practice, you're putting yourself in the right frame of mind to get a good grade on your next test (assuming you follow through with extra practice).

It helps to give yourself a specific reason to get over your limiting mindsets (e.g. I want to get a better grade on my science tests).

Learn to see Challenges as Opportunities

For those with a growth mindset, challenges are seen as an opportunity to grow and learn, rather than just an obstacle. People with growth mindsets aren't afraid to push themselves outside of their comfort zones. They choose to embrace the obstacle as an opportunity to learn and overcome. The obstacle is then an experience that eventually shakes out, rather than slowing or halting perpetual movement in life.

When's the last time you were challenged to do something outside of your comfort zone? Even if it was terrifying to put yourself out there, you likely saw an outcome that turned out for the best. It is better than if you hadn't taken a chance, even if you failed.

Learn how to accept failure. If you learn how to accept challenges and see them as opportunities, you will grow in the stretch of comfort and the change in perspective with a different outcome.

Accept failure and be willing to take risks. After all, failure is part of growth and fearing failure will ultimately get in the way of doing what's best for yourself and your business. To truly create a growth mindset, you must accept that no matter how hard you try to do something, it won't always turn out the way you'd hoped.

Don't Seek Approval | Focus on Learning

People with a fixed mindset spend a lot of time worrying about what other people will say about their intelligence and talent. In order to embrace a growth mindset, you must learn how to stop being concerned about what other people think and about getting their approval. Focus on your own learning and growth. Instead of spending your precious time thinking about other people, use this time to improve yourself for your own benefits.

Learn How to Effectively Accept and Use Criticism

Most people can't accept criticism without getting offended. But, in order to cultivate a growth mindset, you must learn not to take criticism as negative. Instead, accept the criticism. Decide whether it is constructive to growth as a way to learn and improve or reject it if it is not. This advice goes for aspects in personal and business.

Smart businesses encourage feedback, ratings and reviews. Whenever they're negative, growth focused businesses use this information to make improvements.

Focus on the Process, not the Result

Rather than being too concerned with whether you're achieving the result you desire, focus more on the process of achieving that result. Learn how to enjoy the learning process, and seek out ideas to make improvements as you go.

Create Time for Daily Rejection

At the end of every day, spend some time thinking about what went well ... and what didn't. If you don't create time to reflect, it's hard to learn. Creating a routine around rejection can help you to understand how your own actions may be impeding your success, before they become a major issue.

Whether you're an employee at a company or have started your own venture, the ability to move from a fixed mindset to one that's focused on growth is necessary to overcome limiting thoughts. At the end of the day, it's up to you to determine what you're capable of -- nobody else can tell you otherwise.

Examples for Fixed Mindset

1. Ford Motor Company - When Henry Ford II was chosen as the head of the company, Lee Iacocca was enraged when he was forced out from the company. Then, he rehabilitated Chrysler in order to prove himself to Henry Ford. Although, he was successful, due to his obsession with his public image and fret that the lower employees might be more praised than him, the Chrysler Company suffered.

2. Nokia - a renowned mobile manufacturing company that refused to upgrade its’ mobiles to Android platform. This decision was the reason competitors such as Samsung adapted and became much stronger. Hence, Nokia had to face a downfall.

When have you been in a fixed mindset (i.e. thinking of human qualities or abilities as static) and what effect did it have on you? It is most helpful to look within yourself. Without an adjustment in this primary function, everything else is clouded and shadowed.

This chart may help you reflect:

The Poor Mindset is the Greedy Mindset

If you ask a rich person ‘What would you do for $1000?’ they would say ‘It's not just about the money, it is how to work it in your favor and for the greater good.’

If you ask a poor person ‘What will you do for $1000?’ they will quickly demonstrate how easily they are bought. For $1000, most people will give up the best part of their week for a vision that doesn't inspire them, working with people they barely care about, and performing a role that is repetitive and dull. Many people will stay in a job they hate if the money is good enough.

In my opinion, it is the poor-minded person who is greedy for money and addicted to money. It is the people with a rich mindset who are mostly indifferent. They are interested in their vision, passion, companions, and adventures; money is nothing more than a tool for achieving it.

In the revolution for entrepreneurship, you must be true to your convictions. If you're easily bought, you'll end up stuck in a dead-end job

CHAPTER TWO

"You are essentially who you create yourself to be and all that occurs in your life is the result of your own making." ― Stephen Richards,

The Power of Our Minds

How many of us really think about the power of our minds? Do you ever wonder how much of our mind’s power we really use? According to some experts the average person consciously uses less than 10% of the computing power of their minds. I suggest that the issue here is not the amount of our minds that we consciously use, but rather the manner by which we use it. The mind is our most valuable human asset. We program our minds, most of the time, unconsciously. We don’t even think about the data or the information that we are putting into our minds in the first place.

What Is Your Mindset?

Let’s take a look at what kind of mindset you are currently working with. Start reading the following statements and decide which ones you agree with most.

1. People have a certain amount of intelligence, and there isn't any way to change it.

2. No matter who you are, there isn't much you can do to improve your basic abilities and personality.

3. People are capable of changing who they are.

4. You can learn new things and improve your intelligence.

5. People either have particular talents, or they don't. You can't just acquire talent for things like music, writing, art, or athletics.

6. Studying, working hard, and practicing new skills are all ways to develop new talents and abilities.

If you tend to agree with statements 1, 2, and 5, then you probably have a more fixed mindset. If you agree with statements 3, and 4, 6, however, then you probably tend to have a growth mindset.

Can You Change Your Mindset?

While people with a fixed mindset might not agree, Dweck suggests that people are capable of changing their mindsets. Parents can also take steps to ensure that their children develop growth mindsets, often through praising efforts rather than focusing solely on results.

For example, instead of telling a child that he is so smart, a parent might commend the child for their hard work on a project and describe what they like the most about the child's efforts, I really like how you chose the colors for that picture!

By focusing on the process rather than the outcome, adults can help kids understand that their efforts, hard work, and dedication can lead to change, learning, and growth both now, and in the future.

Programming your Mind

Similar to the computer metaphor, ‘our minds are idle, until we give them input to process for best output,’ we compare this with what we see, what we feel, what we hear, what we touch and even taste. Our senses are the only external ways we can define the input, and they shape our thoughts that determine our future. Did you realize there is a much more important means by which we deliver input into our minds? It is through the questions that we ask ourselves, consciously, subconsciously and even unconsciously.

These inputs are the real and very powerful programs that we unleash to run in our minds, and they are running every second of every minute of every day.

How exciting that we can change this at any time, by following through with principles described here so far, and, assuming you have defined goals as a result of what you have read and learned so far, you are on your way to the front of the pack, the top of the mountain of success. Unhappily, most of us are operating on autopilot, and the inputs that we are programming into our minds, from the traffic jam on the way to work, to the depressing morning news we watch, to the grumbling and destructive questions we are asking ourselves after skipping breakfast and rushing out the door, late for work almost without realizing that we are doing so, are the wrong programs that then run ALL DAY in our minds until we CHOOSE to input new programs, and ask ourselves new questions.

If you haven’t thought about what questions you’re asking yourself, and about what inputs you are receiving from other people, television, radio, etc., then you are going nowhere at best. At worst, you are quietly on a negative path of destruction, blaming others for results that you simply forgot to control, and to determine in advance, based upon