September 5, 2023 • 24 mins
Ever wondered how your mindset can shape your business? This week, let's unravel scarcity mindset and its potential to limit us. In this episode, you'll discover how a scarcity mindset can distort your perception, often leading you to overlook great opportunities that may be right in front of you. Unearth the signs of a scarcity mentality and learn how to break free from its stifling confines, a crucial move that can open up new dimensions of growth in your business and your life.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey there, my name is Corinne O'Flynn and you're
listening to the CalmEntrepreneur podcast.
I am a USA Today best-sellingauthor, non-profit executive and
organizing nerd with over 20years experience running my own
small businesses.
I teach entrepreneurs,solarpreneurs and small business
owners like you how to organizeyour business, find more time
(00:21):
and deepen your alignmentpractice to experience more calm
and confidence every single day.
If you're looking for thatintersection between practical
business advice and spiritualgoodness, then you're in the
right place.
So sit back, relax and let'sdive into this week's episode of
the Calm Entrepreneur podcast.
Welcome, welcome to the CalmEntrepreneur podcast.
(00:44):
I'm your host, corinne O'Flynn,and this is episode 37.
So I just got back from a longweekend conference where I was
speaking on panels and I wasthere in my capacity as an
author and on one of the panelsthere was this conversation that
we were having about.
The audience was asking usauthors questions about
(01:07):
authoring and the business ofpublishing and you know the
current state of affairs and howthey should think about
different things.
And I was struck because thequestion was how?
How do I get started?
How do I have my novel written?
How do I go?
And this is not a.
(01:27):
This episode is not about beingan author.
This is about scarcity mindset,because one of the panelists on
the panel with me after each ofus were talking about, like our
advice on how to approachbreaking through and getting
into the market today, theirresponse was all about how hard
(01:48):
it is and how they don't knowhow long they're going to be
able to keep doing this and thatthe the market is saturated.
And you know all of that kindof talk, which isn't true.
And I was struck as I sat thereand I tried to rebut and give
the more uplifting kind ofresponse, not because it needed
(02:13):
to be said in another way oranything like that, but because
that person's response wassteeped fully in scarcity, and I
think that we need to have moreconversations about scarcity
mindset, and so that's what Iwanted to talk to you about
today.
So, scarcity mindset right.
When, when you're running abusiness, no matter what that
(02:37):
business is, if you're operatingfrom a scarcity mindset, that
means that you're viewing theworld through a lens of lack.
Right, you see limitedresources, you see limited
opportunities and limitedpossibilities everywhere that
you look, and it's not, as itsounds, really simple.
(02:58):
It sounds like, oh, that's justlooking through the lens of
lack, but it's much bigger thanthat and it's a dangerous.
It's a dangerous place to comefrom because a scarcity mindset
that lack sensibility permeatesyour thinking, your forward
vision and how you approachevery situation.
(03:21):
And if you're in business, ifyou're an entrepreneur, you're
trying to build and create anddisrupt right.
You need an abundance mindset.
That's crucial, and so I wantto go through some of the
dangers of a scarcity mentality.
And you know, hopefully, if youidentify yourself in any of
(03:42):
these things, like if you seethings that you've said or
things that you've thought inany of the things that I talk
about today, you can, you know,hone in and be like who I need
to shine a light on that, andyou know, because awareness is
key, you put the sunlight on thething and now you start to see
it for what it is, and then youcan shift into a different
perspective, and I will, youknow, preface this entire
(04:04):
conversation by saying that I amas available to scarcity
mindset as anybody in the world.
Like, I think that it's one ofthose things that we have to
learn.
It's a habit that we have tobreak, because a lot of times,
it's easier to drop intoscarcity.
(04:26):
So I had three main points thatI wanted to share with you
regarding scarcity and thedanger of having a scarcity
mindset, and the first thing iswhat struck me from this
conversation that we were havingon this panel, and what that is
is scarcity mindset distortsyour perception, and I wanna say
(04:48):
that again.
Scarcity mindset distorts yourperception.
When you operate from scarcityright, you tend to see
limitation and lack, even whenit's not true, and this causes
your field of vision to narrow.
Right, because then everybusiness interaction, every
(05:09):
interaction like forget, even ifwe pulled this away from
entrepreneurship everything inyour life starts to appear as a
zero sum right, and a zero sumsituation means that if somebody
else wins, I lose, right, andthat's scarcity.
Like, if you think that there'sonly one small pie that we're
(05:33):
all drawing from, you know, thenof course you're gonna say,
well, if somebody else gets that, then there's not that thing
for me, you know.
But in reality there's alwaysnew opportunities opening up and
there's always more marketbeing created and there's new
opportunities for collaborationtaking shape, you know,
everywhere, if you choose toopen your awareness to those
(05:56):
things, right, but having ascarcity mindset blinds you to
those possibilities and youstart to see everything as
competitive, even relationshipsthat could be collaborative.
It changes how you view people,jobs, investments and you know
it, discounting greatopportunities because of your
(06:17):
scarcity filter.
Because that's what it is.
It's a lens, it's this thingthrough which you're seeing
everything.
You know, when you discount allthe good opportunities around
you because you're seeing thingsthrough this lens of scarcity,
you start to focus on the flaws.
That's all you start to seeright, and abundance is the
(06:39):
opposite of that right, and thisis the expansive thing.
This is the thing that broadensthe horizon, so that all you
see is opportunity.
So, for example, like you, let'ssay you have this potential
partnership and you start tolook at it through scarcity.
You're only going to look athow this person could take
advantage of you or compete withyou down the road, and you
won't see that.
(06:59):
You know combining forces couldopen up new possibilities to
benefit both of you.
Or you know you might have atalented person that you bring
on in your team and you know youmight look at them as a threat
and then not take them on ratherthan as somebody who can help
your team thrive.
Right?
This is something that isactually quite common in
(07:23):
entrepreneur land.
Like, we have a difficultybringing people in, you know,
out of fear, and it isn't alwaysabout, you know, lightning the
load and taking on assistance.
It's, you know, bringing on apartner in some things or hiring
a consultant in some other ways.
You know, yeah, you have to becareful about being scammed and
(07:44):
you have to be protectingyourself and your business and
your you know your all of yourassets.
But doing that through the lensof abundance versus through
this fear lens of scarcityreally does make a difference
with how you approach thesethings.
Right, because a scarcitymindset, it distorts how you
view everything.
Right, you could look at agrowing sector and, like this
(08:08):
person on the panel, like theauthor that I was talking with,
all they see is how saturated itis already.
And then they actually saidyou're kind of late to the game,
to the audience, and it's likewhoa, you haven't missed any
opportunities.
There's always new market,there's always more.
It's our job to innovate andit's our job to pivot and it's
(08:30):
our job to challenge ourselves.
But thinking you missed thewindow and thinking that it's
saturated is putting theseexternal forces on you and then
you're no longer responsible forthe situation that you're in.
Right, but with an abundancemindset, you can see new
segments, you can see the spaceopening up in that market and it
(08:52):
helps you spot new ways ofdoing business that have nothing
to do with limit.
And I think that that's themain thing about how it distorts
your perception, becausescarcity mindset it really is,
it's a distortion.
The other, the next point that Iwanted to do.
The second thing about scarcityis that scarcity mindset
(09:13):
promotes unhelpful thinkingpatterns.
Right, and as I just saidbefore, scarcity-oriented
thinking is often driven by fear.
Right, you start overanalyzingeverything, getting lost in
worst case scenarios, thinkingthat because something feels
safe, it's easier than takingaction.
Right, than taking a chance,and then you start to feel
(09:36):
helpless to create the successthat you want, which what this
is is.
You're giving away your power.
Right, with scarcity mentality,you dwell on what you don't have
.
Right, versus what you do have,which is kind of like that
gratitude piece.
Right, the energetic iscompletely shifted into the void
, and the problem here is thatthe unhelpful pattern is that
(10:00):
you start looking at everybusiness decision through this
feeling of lack, and lack breedslack.
It's.
You're not gonna be coming tothis problem from an innovation
standpoint and from thispossibility standpoint, it's
(10:20):
going to feel very closed offand it's going to feel very
isolated and you're going tofeel unsupported by everybody
and everything and, like theuniverse and like the energy
around, these decisions isn'tgoing to be correct for you,
right?
So, and again, this episodecould be all about your life,
like, take out theentrepreneurship piece and just
(10:41):
think about this in terms ofyour life.
Like, I know all of us no,people who live in a scarcity
mindset, this zero-sum thing,and it's dangerous because you
know, when you approachdecision-making and
problem-solving from this placeof fear, because, make no
(11:03):
mistake about this, when you'reliving in a scarcity mindset,
that is fear-driven, whether ornot you're aware of the thing
that you're afraid of, it is afear-driven place.
Well, what kind of decisionsare you going to make when
you're making them out of thisfear?
Like these aren't going to bethe best decisions, right, and
(11:23):
they might not be terribledecisions, but what about the
bountiful thing that isavailable to you if you were
able to switch off scarcity anddrop into the abundance?
Right, because abundancethinking helps you act from
possibility and vision, and thatgives you courage, because
you're willing to take thoserisks and you're willing to see
(11:44):
what's possible, and one of theways that this looks in practice
is like you know if you areabout to make a decision.
Right, you're about to make adecision and it's going to have
a financial cost and you know,or there's going to be some kind
of collaboration going on.
A scarcity mindset has youfocusing on the potential
downsides right, you're going toplay through every worst case
(12:05):
scenario and you're not going tospend time focusing on the
upside, because the upside isnot realistic to you.
The upside is like this pie inthe sky Pollyanna thing that
isn't real, right?
And so this scarcity mindset isbecoming unhelpful to you
because, instead of looking outdown, like let's imagine, you're
looking at this big, longhallway full of all the
(12:26):
potential outcomes, when you areliving in a scarcity mindset,
all you're doing is closingdoors, like all the
opportunities that are availableto you become smaller and
smaller and smaller, becauseyou're making a decision out of
fear.
The other thing that happenshere is we tend to catastrophize
things, like thinking that onesetback means that everything is
doomed, and you again, this isgiving away your power.
(12:50):
You have now turned yourselfinto a victim, right, and you're
unable to find your way throughit and out of it, because this
thing happened to you.
It was caused by the forcesoutside of you, and then you're
not the person who made thething happen.
The way that it happened, right, it's like well, I knew it, the
(13:11):
market was saturated, no wondermy thing failed.
I knew it, that person wasgoing to take advantage of me
and no wonder that thing failed.
I think that it's reallyimportant to analyze how the
sense of lack in your decisionmaking, in the way that you view
the world, in that scarcitymindset takes away your power.
(13:32):
And if this is something thatresonated to you, take a pause,
take a breather and kind ofreanalyze, like draw the whole
thing out on a whiteboard,figure out where it is that you
can switch things around,because the potential and the
positivity are always there.
This is kind of one of thosethings Like if you think you
can't do it, you're right, andif you think you can do it,
(13:52):
you're right.
Like the mind matters in thisone.
So the other thing that isreally dangerous about scarcity
mindset is that it also makesyou start diminishing your
skills and discarding ordismissing your talent and the
talent of your team, because younever believe that you're going
(14:15):
to have enough of whatever toaccomplish the big vision.
Well, what is that doing?
That's becoming aself-fulfilling prophecy.
And then it's also making yourvision smaller.
You don't want to dream small,you want to dream big.
But when you live in scarcity,thinking you're dreaming big is
unavailable to you.
(14:35):
So abundance mindset, again, isthe counter.
It's this thing that helps youaccurately weigh risk versus
reward and staying solutionfocused and building on existing
strengths and building onexisting successes and trying to
recreate the things thatbrought in the success in the
first place and maybe try toidentify where it was that you
(14:58):
fell into this negative thinking, because it's really a mindset
thing, it's not real.
And so number three for me.
So the first point that Iwanted to make was that it
distorts your perception.
And the second thing thatscarcity does is it promotes
your vision.
It promotes unhelpful thinking.
And the third thing that itdoes is it leads to unproductive
(15:19):
actions.
And this is the big one, andthey're all connected.
Neither of these things happensin a mind, in a vacuum, but
operating from scarcity has veryreal, real world outcomes.
You might overly fixate on acompetitor rather than focusing
on how you can become creativeand make something new.
(15:39):
In this moment, you may hoardyour connections.
You may be unwilling to be likethe person who does outreach
and shares and uplifts otherpeople.
You may withhold resources orwithhold ideas out of this fear
of lack rather thancollaborating to unlock new
(16:02):
value.
This is nickel and diamondcosts rather than looking at the
bigger revenue picture.
I think the worst thing of allis that you start making selfish
, short-term decisions toprotect what you have, rather
than thinking long-term becausethe scarcity mentality has
stunted your ability to take arisk and the desire to do so.
(16:27):
Now again, contrast that withthe abundance mindset, where you
share your ideas freely to getfeedback, or you offer feedback
and ideas to somebody else sothat they can grow and learn.
You then would surroundyourself with talent to people
because you know that makes thepie bigger for everyone.
(16:48):
You help others because youbelieve that there's more than
enough success to go around.
You think steps ahead, withvisionary strategies rather than
reaction and reactive tactics.
This is what fuels innovationand strong partnerships and
smart investments.
An example of this would be youmight be not sharing your
(17:12):
business challenges with peersor mentors.
On this podcast, I talk a lotabout mastermind groups and the
importance of having amastermind group.
To bounce ideas off of Ascarcity mindset would prevent
you from doing that.
The cost of that is just.
It's really a bummer to thinkabout it, because the potential
(17:34):
is right there.
You've just closed the door onyourself.
By letting yourself sit inscarcity, you lose out on
constructive feedback to helpdevelop your stuff further.
Scarcity could also tempt youto underpay your staff or hire
(17:54):
based on the cheapest contractorjust to save money.
I'm all for a good bargain, butthere are going to be places
where you get what you pay for.
Sometimes you do need to investand look at your business
decisions as investments in yourfuture so that they will bring
back the rewards and thebenefits in the future.
(18:15):
That takes that willingness totake that chance and that vision
to understand that this isactually a good decision, to
make an operating decision foryour business.
With abundance thinking, youbecome proactive, you become the
person who likes to exchangeideas, you invest in top talent
(18:38):
and you collaborate for mutualbenefit.
How can you start shifting outof scarcity mindset if you find
that that's something thatyou're struggling with?
And again, like all of us, allof us do this.
This is not something that Ithink any of us has cured
ourselves from.
I think that there aren't goingto be situations, you know,
times and places where we getdropped back into that scarcity
(19:01):
mindset, for whatever reason.
But once we're aware of it, wecan start to to work on moving
ourselves out of that.
So the first thing that you cando is focus on what you have
versus what you're missing.
Make a list of all the things,the connections that you have,
the knowledge that you have, thecapital that you have.
Recognize your starting pointis likely more abundant than you
(19:23):
think.
Counter any negative thoughtswith gratitude for what is
already working.
Well, you know.
And when you notice scarcitythinking, rise up, shift your
focus to opportunities andstrengths.
This is kind of like whenyou're a brand new author and
your book is out there andyou're like, oh my god, oh my
god, what am I doing?
You know, if you're strugglingwith abundance thinking and
(19:44):
you're dropping into scarcity,go read the five-star reviews.
Right, everybody has has a pathtoward, you know, focusing on
and shifting the mindset on thepositive.
Another thing that you can do islook for positive possibilities
and stay future oriented.
Right, do vision exercises toimagine expansive future
scenarios instead of limitingpresent obstacles.
(20:06):
You know, set big, bold goalsfocused on the future and
focused on growth, rather thanjust stability.
Right and One, setbacks dohappen, and they're going to
happen.
View them as temporary, becausethat's what they are.
You're like.
This too shall pass.
Stay focused, like.
Like, break down what wentwrong, pivot, fix it, identify
(20:27):
the thing and then look forwardto this larger growth trajectory
that's available to you, andthe last thing that you can do
is adopt a mindset that theretruly is enough for everyone.
And, like this, this can happenin so many different wedges of
the pie.
Right, this looks like sharingcredit where credit is due,
(20:49):
sharing opportunities with yourteam versus hoarding them.
Collaborating with competitorson industry growth, rather than
zero-sum thinking.
You know, invest in and upliftother people.
Right, view everybody's successas mutually beneficial.
Like, imagine that we are allin this together, because guess
what we are?
(21:10):
The rising tide truly does liftall boats.
And even in the places where wedo have competitors in our
business, imagine collaborativeopportunities.
Because, even as authors like if, if I'm writing a fantasy novel
and this author next to me iswriting a fantasy novel, you
know, readers don't read onenovel.
(21:31):
Let's collaborate, let's do ashared promotion, let's get
other authors in on this thing.
Let's write an anthologytogether where we all have
little short stories thatconnect everybody.
There are so many opportunitiesTo continue and all it takes is
that innovative impulse.
It takes that, that willingnessto Let go of that scarcity
(21:53):
thinking.
Because scarcity thinking justall it does is it closes your
doors.
It doesn't close anybody else'sdoors, it closes your doors.
So how do you keep all thedoors open?
You know you open the doors,open the windows, open the
curtains, open your arms, openyour heart and really do stretch
for abundance, becauseabundance is where it's at.
(22:14):
And One of the best places toget you into that energetic of
abundance is gratitude, likefocus on what you've got, focus
on what you've done, focus onwhere you've been, focus on how
every challenge has been growth,you know, and move forward like
that because it's it'savailable to every one of us.
And If you find yourself stucktoday, pivot change, then change
(22:39):
tomorrow.
Like this, you're not lockedinto any of this.
You know, the world that welive in is shaped by our beliefs
and our perceptions and, asentrepreneurs, your mindset
matters immensely and it becomesa self-fulfilling prophecy If,
if you see the world through thelens of scarcity, then that's
the reality that you will create.
If you see the world throughpossibilities of abundance, you
(23:04):
unlock that instead.
So be aware of scarcityoriented thinking and Cultivate
an abundance mindset as much aspossible, because it opens up
the world for you and it willempower you in every single
thing that you do in yourbusiness and in your life.
Okay, so that's all I've got foryou this week.
(23:25):
Thank you so much for listeningand I'll catch you next time.
And remember, part of being acalm entrepreneur is developing
the systems, habits and know-howthat lets you know that you are
the one in the driver's seatfor your business.
(23:45):
You get to choose how you thinkand you get to choose how you
work.
So you got this, my friends.
Thank you for listening.
Hey there, my name is Corinne O'Flynn and you're
listening to the CalmEntrepreneur podcast.
I am a USA Today best-sellingauthor, non-profit executive and
organizing nerd with over 20years experience running my own
small businesses.
I teach entrepreneurs,solarpreneurs and small business
owners like you how to organizeyour business, find more time
(00:21):
and deepen your alignmentpractice to experience more calm
and confidence every single day.
If you're looking for thatintersection between practical
business advice and spiritualgoodness, then you're in the
right place.
So sit back, relax and let'sdive into this week's episode of
the Calm Entrepreneur podcast.
Welcome, welcome to the CalmEntrepreneur podcast.
(00:44):
I'm your host, corinne O'Flynn,and this is episode 37.
So I just got back from a longweekend conference where I was
speaking on panels and I wasthere in my capacity as an
author and on one of the panelsthere was this conversation that
we were having about.
The audience was asking usauthors questions about
(01:07):
authoring and the business ofpublishing and you know the
current state of affairs and howthey should think about
different things.
And I was struck because thequestion was how?
How do I get started?
How do I have my novel written?
How do I go?
And this is not a.
(01:27):
This episode is not about beingan author.
This is about scarcity mindset,because one of the panelists on
the panel with me after each ofus were talking about, like our
advice on how to approachbreaking through and getting
into the market today, theirresponse was all about how hard
(01:48):
it is and how they don't knowhow long they're going to be
able to keep doing this and thatthe the market is saturated.
And you know all of that kindof talk, which isn't true.
And I was struck as I sat thereand I tried to rebut and give
the more uplifting kind ofresponse, not because it needed
(02:13):
to be said in another way oranything like that, but because
that person's response wassteeped fully in scarcity, and I
think that we need to have moreconversations about scarcity
mindset, and so that's what Iwanted to talk to you about
today.
So, scarcity mindset right.
When, when you're running abusiness, no matter what that
(02:37):
business is, if you're operatingfrom a scarcity mindset, that
means that you're viewing theworld through a lens of lack.
Right, you see limitedresources, you see limited
opportunities and limitedpossibilities everywhere that
you look, and it's not, as itsounds, really simple.
(02:58):
It sounds like, oh, that's justlooking through the lens of
lack, but it's much bigger thanthat and it's a dangerous.
It's a dangerous place to comefrom because a scarcity mindset
that lack sensibility permeatesyour thinking, your forward
vision and how you approachevery situation.
(03:21):
And if you're in business, ifyou're an entrepreneur, you're
trying to build and create anddisrupt right.
You need an abundance mindset.
That's crucial, and so I wantto go through some of the
dangers of a scarcity mentality.
And you know, hopefully, if youidentify yourself in any of
(03:42):
these things, like if you seethings that you've said or
things that you've thought inany of the things that I talk
about today, you can, you know,hone in and be like who I need
to shine a light on that, andyou know, because awareness is
key, you put the sunlight on thething and now you start to see
it for what it is, and then youcan shift into a different
perspective, and I will, youknow, preface this entire
(04:04):
conversation by saying that I amas available to scarcity
mindset as anybody in the world.
Like, I think that it's one ofthose things that we have to
learn.
It's a habit that we have tobreak, because a lot of times,
it's easier to drop intoscarcity.
(04:26):
So I had three main points thatI wanted to share with you
regarding scarcity and thedanger of having a scarcity
mindset, and the first thing iswhat struck me from this
conversation that we were havingon this panel, and what that is
is scarcity mindset distortsyour perception, and I wanna say
(04:48):
that again.
Scarcity mindset distorts yourperception.
When you operate from scarcityright, you tend to see
limitation and lack, even whenit's not true, and this causes
your field of vision to narrow.
Right, because then everybusiness interaction, every
(05:09):
interaction like forget, even ifwe pulled this away from
entrepreneurship everything inyour life starts to appear as a
zero sum right, and a zero sumsituation means that if somebody
else wins, I lose, right, andthat's scarcity.
Like, if you think that there'sonly one small pie that we're
(05:33):
all drawing from, you know, thenof course you're gonna say,
well, if somebody else gets that, then there's not that thing
for me, you know.
But in reality there's alwaysnew opportunities opening up and
there's always more marketbeing created and there's new
opportunities for collaborationtaking shape, you know,
everywhere, if you choose toopen your awareness to those
(05:56):
things, right, but having ascarcity mindset blinds you to
those possibilities and youstart to see everything as
competitive, even relationshipsthat could be collaborative.
It changes how you view people,jobs, investments and you know
it, discounting greatopportunities because of your
(06:17):
scarcity filter.
Because that's what it is.
It's a lens, it's this thingthrough which you're seeing
everything.
You know, when you discount allthe good opportunities around
you because you're seeing thingsthrough this lens of scarcity,
you start to focus on the flaws.
That's all you start to seeright, and abundance is the
(06:39):
opposite of that right, and thisis the expansive thing.
This is the thing that broadensthe horizon, so that all you
see is opportunity.
So, for example, like you, let'ssay you have this potential
partnership and you start tolook at it through scarcity.
You're only going to look athow this person could take
advantage of you or compete withyou down the road, and you
won't see that.
(06:59):
You know combining forces couldopen up new possibilities to
benefit both of you.
Or you know you might have atalented person that you bring
on in your team and you know youmight look at them as a threat
and then not take them on ratherthan as somebody who can help
your team thrive.
Right?
This is something that isactually quite common in
(07:23):
entrepreneur land.
Like, we have a difficultybringing people in, you know,
out of fear, and it isn't alwaysabout, you know, lightning the
load and taking on assistance.
It's, you know, bringing on apartner in some things or hiring
a consultant in some other ways.
You know, yeah, you have to becareful about being scammed and
(07:44):
you have to be protectingyourself and your business and
your you know your all of yourassets.
But doing that through the lensof abundance versus through
this fear lens of scarcityreally does make a difference
with how you approach thesethings.
Right, because a scarcitymindset, it distorts how you
view everything.
Right, you could look at agrowing sector and, like this
(08:08):
person on the panel, like theauthor that I was talking with,
all they see is how saturated itis already.
And then they actually saidyou're kind of late to the game,
to the audience, and it's likewhoa, you haven't missed any
opportunities.
There's always new market,there's always more.
It's our job to innovate andit's our job to pivot and it's
(08:30):
our job to challenge ourselves.
But thinking you missed thewindow and thinking that it's
saturated is putting theseexternal forces on you and then
you're no longer responsible forthe situation that you're in.
Right, but with an abundancemindset, you can see new
segments, you can see the spaceopening up in that market and it
(08:52):
helps you spot new ways ofdoing business that have nothing
to do with limit.
And I think that that's themain thing about how it distorts
your perception, becausescarcity mindset it really is,
it's a distortion.
The other, the next point that Iwanted to do.
The second thing about scarcityis that scarcity mindset
(09:13):
promotes unhelpful thinkingpatterns.
Right, and as I just saidbefore, scarcity-oriented
thinking is often driven by fear.
Right, you start overanalyzingeverything, getting lost in
worst case scenarios, thinkingthat because something feels
safe, it's easier than takingaction.
Right, than taking a chance,and then you start to feel
(09:36):
helpless to create the successthat you want, which what this
is is.
You're giving away your power.
Right, with scarcity mentality,you dwell on what you don't have
.
Right, versus what you do have,which is kind of like that
gratitude piece.
Right, the energetic iscompletely shifted into the void
, and the problem here is thatthe unhelpful pattern is that
(10:00):
you start looking at everybusiness decision through this
feeling of lack, and lack breedslack.
It's.
You're not gonna be coming tothis problem from an innovation
standpoint and from thispossibility standpoint, it's
(10:20):
going to feel very closed offand it's going to feel very
isolated and you're going tofeel unsupported by everybody
and everything and, like theuniverse and like the energy
around, these decisions isn'tgoing to be correct for you,
right?
So, and again, this episodecould be all about your life,
like, take out theentrepreneurship piece and just
(10:41):
think about this in terms ofyour life.
Like, I know all of us no,people who live in a scarcity
mindset, this zero-sum thing,and it's dangerous because you
know, when you approachdecision-making and
problem-solving from this placeof fear, because, make no
(11:03):
mistake about this, when you'reliving in a scarcity mindset,
that is fear-driven, whether ornot you're aware of the thing
that you're afraid of, it is afear-driven place.
Well, what kind of decisionsare you going to make when
you're making them out of thisfear?
Like these aren't going to bethe best decisions, right, and
(11:23):
they might not be terribledecisions, but what about the
bountiful thing that isavailable to you if you were
able to switch off scarcity anddrop into the abundance?
Right, because abundancethinking helps you act from
possibility and vision, and thatgives you courage, because
you're willing to take thoserisks and you're willing to see
(11:44):
what's possible, and one of theways that this looks in practice
is like you know if you areabout to make a decision.
Right, you're about to make adecision and it's going to have
a financial cost and you know,or there's going to be some kind
of collaboration going on.
A scarcity mindset has youfocusing on the potential
downsides right, you're going toplay through every worst case
(12:05):
scenario and you're not going tospend time focusing on the
upside, because the upside isnot realistic to you.
The upside is like this pie inthe sky Pollyanna thing that
isn't real, right?
And so this scarcity mindset isbecoming unhelpful to you
because, instead of looking outdown, like let's imagine, you're
looking at this big, longhallway full of all the
(12:26):
potential outcomes, when you areliving in a scarcity mindset,
all you're doing is closingdoors, like all the
opportunities that are availableto you become smaller and
smaller and smaller, becauseyou're making a decision out of
fear.
The other thing that happenshere is we tend to catastrophize
things, like thinking that onesetback means that everything is
doomed, and you again, this isgiving away your power.
(12:50):
You have now turned yourselfinto a victim, right, and you're
unable to find your way throughit and out of it, because this
thing happened to you.
It was caused by the forcesoutside of you, and then you're
not the person who made thething happen.
The way that it happened, right, it's like well, I knew it, the
(13:11):
market was saturated, no wondermy thing failed.
I knew it, that person wasgoing to take advantage of me
and no wonder that thing failed.
I think that it's reallyimportant to analyze how the
sense of lack in your decisionmaking, in the way that you view
the world, in that scarcitymindset takes away your power.
(13:32):
And if this is something thatresonated to you, take a pause,
take a breather and kind ofreanalyze, like draw the whole
thing out on a whiteboard,figure out where it is that you
can switch things around,because the potential and the
positivity are always there.
This is kind of one of thosethings Like if you think you
can't do it, you're right, andif you think you can do it,
(13:52):
you're right.
Like the mind matters in thisone.
So the other thing that isreally dangerous about scarcity
mindset is that it also makesyou start diminishing your
skills and discarding ordismissing your talent and the
talent of your team, because younever believe that you're going
(14:15):
to have enough of whatever toaccomplish the big vision.
Well, what is that doing?
That's becoming aself-fulfilling prophecy.
And then it's also making yourvision smaller.
You don't want to dream small,you want to dream big.
But when you live in scarcity,thinking you're dreaming big is
unavailable to you.
(14:35):
So abundance mindset, again, isthe counter.
It's this thing that helps youaccurately weigh risk versus
reward and staying solutionfocused and building on existing
strengths and building onexisting successes and trying to
recreate the things thatbrought in the success in the
first place and maybe try toidentify where it was that you
(14:58):
fell into this negative thinking, because it's really a mindset
thing, it's not real.
And so number three for me.
So the first point that Iwanted to make was that it
distorts your perception.
And the second thing thatscarcity does is it promotes
your vision.
It promotes unhelpful thinking.
And the third thing that itdoes is it leads to unproductive
(15:19):
actions.
And this is the big one, andthey're all connected.
Neither of these things happensin a mind, in a vacuum, but
operating from scarcity has veryreal, real world outcomes.
You might overly fixate on acompetitor rather than focusing
on how you can become creativeand make something new.
(15:39):
In this moment, you may hoardyour connections.
You may be unwilling to be likethe person who does outreach
and shares and uplifts otherpeople.
You may withhold resources orwithhold ideas out of this fear
of lack rather thancollaborating to unlock new
(16:02):
value.
This is nickel and diamondcosts rather than looking at the
bigger revenue picture.
I think the worst thing of allis that you start making selfish
, short-term decisions toprotect what you have, rather
than thinking long-term becausethe scarcity mentality has
stunted your ability to take arisk and the desire to do so.
(16:27):
Now again, contrast that withthe abundance mindset, where you
share your ideas freely to getfeedback, or you offer feedback
and ideas to somebody else sothat they can grow and learn.
You then would surroundyourself with talent to people
because you know that makes thepie bigger for everyone.
(16:48):
You help others because youbelieve that there's more than
enough success to go around.
You think steps ahead, withvisionary strategies rather than
reaction and reactive tactics.
This is what fuels innovationand strong partnerships and
smart investments.
An example of this would be youmight be not sharing your
(17:12):
business challenges with peersor mentors.
On this podcast, I talk a lotabout mastermind groups and the
importance of having amastermind group.
To bounce ideas off of Ascarcity mindset would prevent
you from doing that.
The cost of that is just.
It's really a bummer to thinkabout it, because the potential
(17:34):
is right there.
You've just closed the door onyourself.
By letting yourself sit inscarcity, you lose out on
constructive feedback to helpdevelop your stuff further.
Scarcity could also tempt youto underpay your staff or hire
(17:54):
based on the cheapest contractorjust to save money.
I'm all for a good bargain, butthere are going to be places
where you get what you pay for.
Sometimes you do need to investand look at your business
decisions as investments in yourfuture so that they will bring
back the rewards and thebenefits in the future.
(18:15):
That takes that willingness totake that chance and that vision
to understand that this isactually a good decision, to
make an operating decision foryour business.
With abundance thinking, youbecome proactive, you become the
person who likes to exchangeideas, you invest in top talent
(18:38):
and you collaborate for mutualbenefit.
How can you start shifting outof scarcity mindset if you find
that that's something thatyou're struggling with?
And again, like all of us, allof us do this.
This is not something that Ithink any of us has cured
ourselves from.
I think that there aren't goingto be situations, you know,
times and places where we getdropped back into that scarcity
(19:01):
mindset, for whatever reason.
But once we're aware of it, wecan start to to work on moving
ourselves out of that.
So the first thing that you cando is focus on what you have
versus what you're missing.
Make a list of all the things,the connections that you have,
the knowledge that you have, thecapital that you have.
Recognize your starting pointis likely more abundant than you
(19:23):
think.
Counter any negative thoughtswith gratitude for what is
already working.
Well, you know.
And when you notice scarcitythinking, rise up, shift your
focus to opportunities andstrengths.
This is kind of like whenyou're a brand new author and
your book is out there andyou're like, oh my god, oh my
god, what am I doing?
You know, if you're strugglingwith abundance thinking and
(19:44):
you're dropping into scarcity,go read the five-star reviews.
Right, everybody has has a pathtoward, you know, focusing on
and shifting the mindset on thepositive.
Another thing that you can do islook for positive possibilities
and stay future oriented.
Right, do vision exercises toimagine expansive future
scenarios instead of limitingpresent obstacles.
(20:06):
You know, set big, bold goalsfocused on the future and
focused on growth, rather thanjust stability.
Right and One, setbacks dohappen, and they're going to
happen.
View them as temporary, becausethat's what they are.
You're like.
This too shall pass.
Stay focused, like.
Like, break down what wentwrong, pivot, fix it, identify
(20:27):
the thing and then look forwardto this larger growth trajectory
that's available to you, andthe last thing that you can do
is adopt a mindset that theretruly is enough for everyone.
And, like this, this can happenin so many different wedges of
the pie.
Right, this looks like sharingcredit where credit is due,
(20:49):
sharing opportunities with yourteam versus hoarding them.
Collaborating with competitorson industry growth, rather than
zero-sum thinking.
You know, invest in and upliftother people.
Right, view everybody's successas mutually beneficial.
Like, imagine that we are allin this together, because guess
what we are?
(21:10):
The rising tide truly does liftall boats.
And even in the places where wedo have competitors in our
business, imagine collaborativeopportunities.
Because, even as authors like if, if I'm writing a fantasy novel
and this author next to me iswriting a fantasy novel, you
know, readers don't read onenovel.
(21:31):
Let's collaborate, let's do ashared promotion, let's get
other authors in on this thing.
Let's write an anthologytogether where we all have
little short stories thatconnect everybody.
There are so many opportunitiesTo continue and all it takes is
that innovative impulse.
It takes that, that willingnessto Let go of that scarcity
(21:53):
thinking.
Because scarcity thinking justall it does is it closes your
doors.
It doesn't close anybody else'sdoors, it closes your doors.
So how do you keep all thedoors open?
You know you open the doors,open the windows, open the
curtains, open your arms, openyour heart and really do stretch
for abundance, becauseabundance is where it's at.
(22:14):
And One of the best places toget you into that energetic of
abundance is gratitude, likefocus on what you've got, focus
on what you've done, focus onwhere you've been, focus on how
every challenge has been growth,you know, and move forward like
that because it's it'savailable to every one of us.
And If you find yourself stucktoday, pivot change, then change
(22:39):
tomorrow.
Like this, you're not lockedinto any of this.
You know, the world that welive in is shaped by our beliefs
and our perceptions and, asentrepreneurs, your mindset
matters immensely and it becomesa self-fulfilling prophecy If,
if you see the world through thelens of scarcity, then that's
the reality that you will create.
If you see the world throughpossibilities of abundance, you
(23:04):
unlock that instead.
So be aware of scarcityoriented thinking and Cultivate
an abundance mindset as much aspossible, because it opens up
the world for you and it willempower you in every single
thing that you do in yourbusiness and in your life.
Okay, so that's all I've got foryou this week.
(23:25):
Thank you so much for listeningand I'll catch you next time.
And remember, part of being acalm entrepreneur is developing
the systems, habits and know-howthat lets you know that you are
the one in the driver's seatfor your business.
(23:45):
You get to choose how you thinkand you get to choose how you
work.
So you got this, my friends.
Thank you for listening.
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