68: Hack your Mindset with Nicola

Kimberly Beer 0:00 The Business Animal podcast is proudly sponsored by WP Engine, your resource for managed WordPress hosting, and Keap, the premier CRM software for small business. Head over to thebusinessanimal.com for the best deals on these two amazing products. Jaz 0:18 Welcome to The Business Animal podcast. Saddle up for a gallop to the top of the animal industry. Where you’ll learn how to tame your wild business beast with tips, techniques, and tools that will take overwhelm to obedience school and have you wagging your tail with joy. And now your hosts Kim Beer and Cara Taylor Swift. Kimberly Beer 0:40 Hey there business animals. It’s Kim with Be More Business, Cara Taylor Swift 0:44 and Cara with Fast Horse Photography. Good morning. Kimberly Beer 0:47 Good morning. You know it might not be morning for our listeners. So good afternoon. Good evening. Good middle of the night. Cara Taylor Swift 0:55 I always just assume it’s morning somewhere. Kimberly Beer 0:57 Well, I’m sure it’s morning somewhere. And speaking of morning somewhere, it is early here for us. But for our special guests today. It’s not so early in the day because she’s from the UK. So we’re super excited to have a guest here today and I’m gonna let Cara introduce her but you guys know how much we value mindset and understanding how mindset affects your business. And that’s our topic of discussion today. And we’re super excited Cara why don’t you tell them all about our guests? Cara Taylor Swift 1:28 Absolutely we are so excited to welcome to the show today Nicola Kinnard-Comedie and she’s the owner and founder of NKC Equestrian Training, delivering training to both horse owners and equine professionals alike. Nicola has developed some outstanding online training for horse owners focusing on horse first aid and equine nutrition all produced together with qualified vets. She’s a qualified riding instructor and has over 20 years of industry experience and now uses her coaching skills to assist equine practitioners. Nicola decided to combine her experience of equestrian science sales and marketing and teach this to others. Building a mindset for success has been crucial to grow and develop NCK Equestrian Training. Feeling the benefits of this firsthand led her to train as a neuro linguistic programming NLP coach, as well as practitioner skills and timeline therapy, Emotional Freedom Technique and hypnosis. Nicola works with veterinary physiotherapists, I hope I said that right massage therapists, osteopaths, and other practitioners across the world to help them build their dream business. Nicola Kinnard-Comedie 2:30 Well, guys, thank you so much for having me. It’s lunchtime here in England. And it’s absolutely lovely to be joined by you guys today. So yeah, thank you very much for having me on the show. Cara Taylor Swift 2:40 Yeah. So you’ve already been up and had your day going and Kim and I are sitting here and we’re like, still rubbing the sleep out of our eyes and getting our morning routine going. Nicola Kinnard-Comedie 2:49 Yeah, I’m I’m up and going with Wednesday. Yeah, we we’ve reached the halfway points. Yes. Uh actually, this is my peak time for doing stuff. So you’ve caught me at a really good window for energy and quietness in my house. So yes, this is opportune time to get me guys. So really nice to see you guys today. Cara Taylor Swift 3:07 Yeah, you too, and I have to say we didn’t talk about it right before this, but you’re our first guest we’ve had for season three so far. So we’ve had a very chill season. And so we’re super excited to have a guest join us on the show again, not just Kim and I today. Nicola Kinnard-Comedie 3:07 Oh, well thank you very much. That makes me feel extra special. Cara Taylor Swift 3:24 So why don’t you start before we jump into our big three and our topic for the day, tell us a little bit about your business story. Like how did you become an entrepreneur in the equine industry? Nicola Kinnard-Comedie 3:36 I would love to share that story. Thank you so much, Cara. So as Cara said, I’m a riding instructor by trade. And I have got 20 years industry experience, which makes me feel about 300 years old, but I’ve been I’ve been around horses for a really long time. And I had a little gap in full time horsey work. And I worked for a corporate company in sales back in 2015. I was working for them. And in 2017, I was feeling really miserable. I had one child who I absolutely adored, and I hated being away with my job all the time. And I really wanted to get back to doing something horsey and I just felt a calling to help more people. I loved teaching one horse and one rider at a time, but it had its limit. And I just wanted to do more. And I wanted to work flexibly. And that’s how I accidentally started my business. And I really hope this story inspires people because I was at my lowest point totally and utterly miserable, couldn’t see a way forward, desperately racking my brains for a business idea and of course, that’s never when you can come up with an idea when you want one. And I remember sitting on a beach in Greece feeling totally miserable. I hated the way life was going. Just the daughter I adored, just was not spending enough time with her, wanted this bigger impact and then it was a few months later I had this idea to run a horse first aid course. And at this point, this was just a fun distraction. I create an event on my Facebook page, which had about 50 followers, which was just a few, pretty much all my friends, nobody really thought for business, it really wasn’t a business, then I was just doing a little bit of teaching, and I sold all the tickets. And I was like, Oh, this is really fun. And I knew a lot about sales and marketing from my corporate job. And I was like, Oh, this is cool. I’m mixing all my skills, I’m adding in the science, and I’m helping wholesalers and I can work flexibly, but it still didn’t feel like a business. And I gave up my job because I was so miserable. And then my business took off. And I think it being an accident, it not having to work straightaway, because it was just fun. And it was just addictive. And I just ran course after course, then I developed other courses in a conference. And here we are almost five years later, a real happy accident. But it only happened because I took that first bit of action. I had no website, no branding, quite frankly, no clue. But I had a passion. I had a passion, and I took action. And I really hope that story inspires others. If you’ve got an idea that’s in a notebook or in your head, what could you do with it? Like, what’s that first baby step of action you could take, I really credit, tiny, but continual steps with my business success. And I really hope that inspires people to move off the sofa to do whatever it is they would like to start moving forward. Cara Taylor Swift 6:20 Well, I think sometimes that first step is the hardest part for a lot of people. And that’s that kind of leads us into what we’re going to talk about today is just that getting your mind in a place where you can be in a good place to move forward with a business idea, or even just a small little spark that could potentially be a business idea. And I love your story. And Kim and I in episode one, we talked all about how the accidental entrepreneur and where we started in our businesses. So I think that a lot of our listeners can relate to that. And the idea that is their idea, something that could grow into a business and getting themselves in a place that that mentally they’re ready to take that next step. So that’s where we’re rolling with today is we’re talking about mindset, I don’t know about you Kim but it seems like when I look at what our listeners are enjoying the most from our podcast, and the shows that we put out, they love anything mindset related, our listeners are loving the idea that they can work on their mindset to help grow their business. So Kim, do you want to add anything? Before we jump into our big three Kimberly Beer 7:21 I do, I just want to say our listeners are enlightened. And that’s what I love about this, they really do understand that business, especially small business encompasses more than just the act of doing business. Its mission, its passion, it’s so much mixed into the experience. And just as you’ve talked about in your own story, and Cara and I share that similar story, there is a lot more under the surface of running a business than what appears to be that way, when you first cook up that idea and mindset to me, is at the heartbeat of that. So yeah, and so we have a big three for everyone today. Number one is mindset blocks do affect your competence as a business owner. So if you have a block, or if you are struggling with your mindset, a lot of times what walks right alongside that is struggling with your competence. And Nicola is going to help us understand the difference between a block and a barrier when it comes to our mindset. So that’s our big three number two, and then she has a wonderful strategy that can help you get through these mindset blocks that you have. So that is her timeline therapy strategy, and I’m super pumped, and I know you’re gonna want to hang around to hear her talk about that. So without further ado, I’m gonna let Cara ask a couple of questions, but we’d love to know, how do you feel about the mindset blocking your competence? How does that relate for you? Nicola Kinnard-Comedie 8:57 Like that is so essential to business, Kim, as you just said, and my goodness, I wish I’d known that sooner. I knew some stuff about mindset from coaching riders, but I, I really thought business was just the busy work. And it was just all the strategy. And yes, of course you need strategy. But if you don’t believe the strategy is going to work, if you don’t really feel worthy of the clients of people buying your product, whatever it is, you’re marketing your business, there is no magic strategy that’s going to overcome those beliefs and those blocks and it really is the ultimate mix mindset and strategy together which really makes all the difference. And confidence, Kim as you mentioned, is something that a lot of people come to me saying they just feel stuck you know, they’ve got the skills they have skills and certificates hand over fist there’s all these ways they can help horses and often other animals as well, generally dogs. And they just can’t quite get out there. They, they don’t know how to tell people what they do, they know that it was, you know, commonsensical, it’d be really sensible to be working with vets and other professionals to get referrals. And they are just really struggling to take that step. And quite often, it’s confidence on some level, confidence in their ability that worry what other people will think that’s really, really blocking them. And it’s something that I really love helping people with. Cara Taylor Swift 10:23 I think that that is huge. I do some mentoring with other photographers, for example, and a lot of them are great photographers. But the thing that’s holding them back it feels like a lot of times is the confidence aspect. They don’t know how to or feel comfortable charging people, having sales conversations in general. So that seems to be the biggest, like their work is they’re, they’re working on the business side of things, but there’s this one little piece still, probably what we’re moving into talking about blocks and barriers, this one little piece that’s there that’s making it really difficult for them to move to the next step of success in their business. So absolutely. I think that mindset and confidence is one of the biggest things that I see when I’m talking with entrepreneurs and they’re struggling. They might come to me for another issue, and then what it boils down to is mindset and confidence. Nicola Kinnard-Comedie 11:12 Yeah, I see that all the time. People often say to me, hh, how do I get clients? What should I say on social media, and then it comes down to they feel really awkward about money. They don’t want to be portrayed as salesy. They’re worried about sometimes the fear of it going wrong, but quite often, oddly enough, it’s the fear of it all going right, which puts people off. So yes, if we can just identify some of these blocks, release some of these blocks, get in some new programming, some mental programming and new belief systems and then add in the strategy, well, then that’s when people are really flying. That’s like the magic zone. And I just love helping people to get to that place. Cara Taylor Swift 11:54 Nicola, can you give us some examples of how you’ve seen in the work that you do mindset show up as a problem with folks that you’re working with, or with other business owners or even in your own personal experience? Could you give us an example of what that looks like for someone? Nicola Kinnard-Comedie 12:10 I could give you a ton of examples Cara, I really could, I gotta give you two key ones. One is my biggest block that I had, which we’ll get to talk about blocks and barriers, this was a huge barrier, was time. I believed that I did not have time to create the business I wanted. I didn’t believe I had time to hit the income goals I wanted. And then all I did was tell myself, I didn’t have time, I was really stressed. I was not actually getting much done. I was just kind of like hyper, not hyper focus, just hyper. And I was just stressing and wasn’t really getting much done. But I just kept telling myself, I just haven’t have time, and I’d see other people and I’d be like oh it’s alright for them, they’ve got more time. And I, you know, I’ve got two young children. And that was a handy excuse as well and was just a self fulfilling cycle because it just kept telling myself that I didn’t have time. And then what do you know, I would just go to decent work phone or drink, somebody would knock on the door, I’d be interrupted all the time, things would just come up, left, right and center to just prove me right that I didn’t have time. So that was a huge one that I had to dismantle and work through. The other favorite I see all the time is around money. Now we could talk money blocks all day. But how I see money blocks showing up in people’s businesses, and I bet the listeners can relate to this, is what I call random discounting. Now this is big with my practitioner clients. And I can imagine it also is quite big with photography as well as other businesses. Somebody asks your price, let’s just say the price of your service is 50 pounds or $100. And you haven’t said the price before you know it boom outcomes. Oh, it’s 40 Oh, it’s $90. And you’ve just whacked a bit off for no good reason at all. And when I talk about random discounting, like a masterclass or if I’m presenting at a confidence, I just always see these faces just go oh, yes, that’s me. It’s so so common. And yet actually, when we work on why we feel like that about money, why we feel like that about charging and are worse, it stops. And it’s so powerful because you don’t get that in a supermarket. You don’t get to have at the gas station. They don’t say oh, for you, we’ll just knock a little bit off the price is the price. So why should it be any different when we are the business? Kimberly Beer 14:33 Every small business owner wants to gain traction in their marketing. After three decades of working with small business owners just like you I have developed what I call my four by four marketing method. In just one-90 minute session, you’ll discover the four major focus areas of a successful marketing plan and together we’ll uncover where your business is getting stuck. You’ll leave the session with an action plan of next steps that engage your revenue engine drop by bemorebusiness.com to request your session today. That’s B-E-M-O-R-E business.com See you there. Cara Taylor Swift 15:05 Well, not only are you crippling your business, but you’re making your life harder, because I remember times when I was first starting, and I was dealing with confidence and pricing, and I do remember doing what you call that random discounting. And then I’m in this place where I have to remember oh, my God, what did I tell this person? And what did I tell this person? What was I going to do? You know, and you’re making your job so much more difficult than it needs to be? Kimberly Beer 15:29 I do too. Nicola Kinnard-Comedie 15:30 You’ll tie yourself in a knot massively Cara Taylor Swift 15:33 Yes. And you set your prices for reason based on your cost of doing business, hopefully, and so there’s a reason that your prices are like they are so you know, it’s like that confidence around that is so key. So that’s a great example. I love that. Nicola Kinnard-Comedie 15:47 I mean, there’s plenty of others. But yeah, random discounting is a real one. I think another quite common block I see is not believing that the clients are there, like not believing that people have the money to spend in your business, whatever your business is. And I just love to send people particularly in the horsey world examples of where people are spending money left, right and center in the horse world. It’s really important that we do believe that the business is out there, that the clients are out there and people want our services. Kimberly Beer 16:16 Yeah, one of the things that you and I talked about a lot in the prep for the show was identifying what is a block, so something that would be easier for you to move, and what is a barrier. So to me, barriers are things that are tied to a whole bunch of other things. So I imagine a barrier as this brick wall. And there’s lots of little blocks of bricks that make up this giant wall that stopped us from something and then there are small blocks that we kind of tripped over in our business. So can you share with our listeners, your thoughts around that? And maybe how they can identify what is a block and what is a barrier? Nicola Kinnard-Comedie 16:58 Sure Kim, of course I can, now to answer that question fully, what I just love to do is very, very briefly, very simply explain how our mind works. So if you think of your mind, you’ve got two parts, you’ve got the conscious part where we are aware of what we’re thinking, that’s the part that goes, oh, goodness, we must post that letter or goodness, I mustn’t be late to the podcast interview. Anything we need to be really aware of that subconscious mind, because that’s the bit that we’re most aware of, we think that that’s where it all happens. But actually, there’s a whole nother part to your subconscious, your unconscious mind, which is where your emotions, memories, beliefs, everything really is stored and your subconscious is responsible for up to 97% of your actions. So it’s pretty powerful stuff. And to me blocks and barriers really relate to subconscious and conscious parts of our minds. Because I see blocks as being things you know, you put up that really well Kim like little throwing stones or things you know, stumbling over. To me it blocks are often things we’re aware of like it might be, you might have a tech blog, I think that’s happened to all of us at some point, you know what you want to do, but you’re not quite sure how to do it. Or you might have a block around whacking the particular vet or something you just can’t quite you know, you need to do it. It just keeps kind of sliding off your to do list. But you’re kind of consciously aware that you’re not actioning it. For me, the barrier is so much more deep seated, you described it so well Kim is a brick wall, like it’s really hard to break it down. Not impossible, but it’s going to take a little bit more work. And for me, the blocks quite often are a bit sneaky, and to just exist in our subconscious. And how I teach mindset work is in two ways, one to be aware of your thoughts. Because when you start tuning into what you think you might well be surprised how much of it can be quite negative, it’s generally the same thoughts. I think of them as like CDs, like back in the day, I when I was a teenager, I thought it was so cool. Had a CD player took three discs at a time, and it would flip between them. And that’s how we think of the programming in in our minds, maybe more than three CDs, but just you’ve got these set CDs, and it’s just flipping between them. And for the barrier. I think that it’s in those old programming. We’ve not even aware it’s there until we go digging, which is the other way I like to teach mindset work, go digging to find out what you actually believe. And for me, this is how we can identify the barriers. And in my time analogy that I was just talking about my time example, I was aware that I had an issue of time, but when I dug down into it, I didn’t realize it was so deep seated and it was so tied into actually what I could achieve in business having small children, what I can achieve in business as a woman, what I could achieve in the horsey world. It was really it was a real pain. It was really multi dimensional. And that was a big barrier. So that’s I think is another way of looking at blocks and barriers whether you are consciously aware of them or you’re not how deep They go, and how much how many kinds of layers of old programming do we need to sort of strip back to release? That’s where I think is the best marker of a barrier. Kimberly Beer 20:08 That’s excellent. That is an excellent description. And it’s an excellent conversation I think people need to become aware of is looking around to their life and seeing where they’re running into those blocks and where maybe the block is leading to a bigger barrier that they need to start chipping away at and working towards. I am so excited for the next part of our program, where you talk about your timeline therapy strategy, because I absolutely loved the very short conversation we had about this. So I’m super happy to hear that. What do we do with all of this? We want more confidence, we want those blocks and barriers out of our way. Share with us some of your wisdom around eliminating those out of our lives. Nicola Kinnard-Comedie 20:52 Yes, sure Kim, I’d love to. So identifying the blocks and the barriers is definitely the first step. And I’d love to share with the listeners that sometimes you can feel a bit disheartened actually, I certainly did. When I uncovered all these thoughts. I didn’t know I had, like, I described myself as a really positive person. And then it’s, I felt like I sort of slit my myself open. And I was like, oh, no, I have all these really negative thoughts. Ah, I don’t want to think like this. I was really disheartened. So I would just love to just advise your listeners, if you start kind of digging and you don’t like what you find. Please don’t worry. That’s the state exact same happened to me. But there is a way forward and timeline therapy, which we’re going to discuss now is one way that we can start to release some of these blocks and barriers and to chest start feeling a little bit better. Cara Taylor Swift 21:46 Are you looking to bring awareness to your equine base product or service? Or create a unique way for your audience to feel connected to your brand? Quality horse photos, tell your story and breathe life into your marketing. They draw your customers in and create an emotional connection. Powerful images, communicate your core values and highlight the benefits your product offers. Ultimately, proving your business is a voice your customers can trust. It’s time to use dynamic images that define your small business and separate you from the rest of the herd. Fast Horse photography’s professional photo library features 1000s of searchable images available for businesses just like yours. And guess what? 100% of those images are horse related. Now finding the right horse images for your website, social media, and marketing needs is easier than ever help your audience see that your brand offers the answers they are looking for search for the perfect images for your equine business right now spur your customers into action with FastHorsePhotography.com. That’s fasthorsephotography.com. Nicola Kinnard-Comedie 22:51 So timeline therapy is a gentle technique where we can look back at the past event, we don’t have to go back into the event, we don’t have to reimagine, say, falling off a horse or something I don’t know a sad day at school in your childhood, you don’t have to get into it, you’re just going to watch it from a safe distance. But what we are aiming to do by looking back in this event is take the key learnings because the reason that we experienced the similar events time and time again, the reason confidence issues hold people back or they continue to find themselves in events, which just reinforce that they lack confidence. It’s to me, it’s like your subconscious is waving a great big flag or tapping you on the shoulder going, hey, you need to solve this, I’m going to keep reminding you again and again and again, until you basically fix this until you go and do a bit more work on this. So timeline therapy allows you to look back at events and take the learnings take the lessons from whatever that point in time was so you can then release it. And I find that such a powerful way to just let go and change programming because with our subconscious mind, we say we’ve found, someone decides they’ve got the same kind of barrier and blocked a time that I had, you can’t just like will yourself to feel differently, you can try it just doesn’t work as effectively you need to get in like I described your subconscious mind as being like the set CDs playing, you need to kind of get in there take out one of those old CDs from the 90s from the 2000s and put in a new one. And timeline therapy is a really effective way to do that. So what I’d love to do is maybe talk through how this technique works, and how people can have a little play around with with using this technique themselves. It’s helped my clients so much Cara Taylor Swift 24:49 That’s exactly what I was going to ask Nicola Kinnard-Comedie 24:50 Oh perfect timing then fabulous. Cara Taylor Swift 24:52 Yeah, that was perfect Nicola Kinnard-Comedie 24:53 Amazing. Say when you identify a thought that you don’t want to have and I suggest to start off maybe go with what they’re working on the moment. So what is your goal? Everybody if you’re for this month, for example, and then you go, okay, this is my goal. And then what I’d love people to do is just get a piece of paper, and I call it going to the dark side, just for a few minutes actually write down all the reasons that you, you don’t want to acknowledge that you feel actually you can’t do that goal. You can’t have those sales, you can’t meet those new clients, you can’t have those number of people visit your store or shop. You don’t want to acknowledge that because you’re trying to be positive all the time. So get all that out on paper and see which one feels like your biggest block. And then you’ll probably find a theme, maybe it’s confidence, maybe it’s time, maybe it’s around money, let’s just use those as some examples. And then the real trick is to go back to the origin. So what is the point in time when you decided, let’s use confidence that you weren’t a confident person, because all of in some point, you know, babies are not born lacking confidence, babies are like, wow, hey, I’m over here, feed me cuddle me, there is a vote of confidence. There’s some point, you know, whether it was really young years, or whether it was as a teenager, or even as an adult, when you decided that you actually feel quite safe to speak your mind or say that you wanted to, or someone told you, you were shy or you lacked confidence. And then that’s how you then behaved since that event, so we need to go back to that origin story, that first event. So using this technique, which I’ll just run through in a moment, we’re going to go back to that event and take these lessons. So that’s what I want people to do, first of all, find a block and trying to think, okay, when did I first feel this. So how timeline therapy works is close your eyes everybody, this is how I find easiest way to do please do not close your eyes, if you’re driving, obviously pull over to do this is to just picture your past, your present right now listening to this podcast and your future, it’s gonna form some kind of linear formation. For me, it goes left to right, like I’m reading a book for some of my clients, it goes forward to back, it may go diagonally doesn’t matter. But what I want you to do is close your eyes, because you’re definitely not driving and look down on this line of events that you know have happened. So maybe there’s a past holiday, or Christmas or birthday or something. Or maybe you could line up family pets or animals or relationships, you can see these events in a line. And you’re just going to hover way above this line, this timeline could be tiny, could be like the size of a pen or a ruler, because you’re right up here. And then when you found your origin story, for whatever block you want to shift or change, you’re just going to float along, until let’s just say it’s a you’re at school, let’s just say you’re five, and you’re at school, and someones laughed at you in the playground because that’s when you decided you weren’t very confident. You’re going to just float along until you’re looking down on this event. There you are in your school stuff, age five, six, whatever you were at starting school, and you can look down, you’re not you’re not being your old self, you’re just looking down this little version of you. And all you want to do is just ask your mind, what do I need to take? What can I learn from this event, and I find people get the most amazing downloads and takeaways. They might be something like I was just nervous. I was just quiet that day. I was just unsure. I was just thinking and maybe somebody else took over. Maybe that’s the point when someone said, Oh, she’s just she’s just shy. I’ll tell you what she wants. And when you can see kind of see what happened. And you can get those learnings you can then apply them to your life and business right now. And I’ve used this strategy with so many of my clients and it works so amazingly well with one of my clients, Amy who really, really struggled with her confidence when we first started working together. We went back to a really early event where she felt like she couldn’t say she couldn’t get the words out. She couldn’t say what she wanted to say. And the takeaways for her were I just couldn’t get my words out. Like I didn’t lack confidence. I just got my words in a muddle. And somehow I decided that I couldn’t then speak in the future, like couldn’t say what I wanted. Or it was a big drama to say what I wanted what because she could then take away for her business was actually I know what I want to say. I’m not a small child, no one’s going to interrupt me. I’ve got a platform I can speak. People need to hear from me and she was like a different person. This is something she struggled with for years and she’s changed so much just as a result of using this technique. It was just Cara Taylor Swift 26:19 That’s amazing. Nicola Kinnard-Comedie 29:34 Yea so so powerful. Another great example client called Marry I can’t even remember what we were looking at in the first place. We were looking at one feeling one emotion she wanted to shift we go to an event go to action, old memory, get some takeaways and out of nowhere comes it’s not safe for me to be in business, and it was, I had like goosebumps listening, because I was like, wow, if you feel that deep down, and this is such a great example of a barrier, she had no idea she felt like this, she does, she’s trying to get a business up and going and talk about being like, you know, opposites in your body like a massive internal conflict. So this is huge, and it’s not safe for me to be in business. And then actually, she was able to get some more downloads out of this. And she was then able to start reprogramming her mind, actually, it is okay to be in business, it’s safe, I got control over this, and this and this and all the positives that there are, but if we haven’t managed to uncover that, and again, another great example of a barrier because it was so deep seated in there, and she kept getting frustrated and procrastinating and not taking the action that she wanted all the time. And then it’s no surprise when that’s what she felt like deep down underneath. So that was another great example of how powerful this technique can be. Cara Taylor Swift 30:57 That’s really incredible. So I was thinking about this, just while you were talking in what happens when the barrier or the block, I guess, I would say is something that is derived from not necessarily a single incident, but maybe a systemic societal oppression or a something that you know you mentioned, you know, I’m a woman, maybe in my culture, I haven’t been set up to be a strong business owner, maybe I’ve been directed to other areas throughout my entire life. Can you do the same type of work when you don’t have something to necessarily pinpoint? Because maybe it’s been a lifetime? Or it’s been, you know, something that’s been kind of constant throughout your life that’s been ingrained? Nicola Kinnard-Comedie 31:36 Yeah. That’s an amazing question. It really is. I mean, the first thing that comes to my mind is some of these barriers are kind of like an iceberg. Like that, you can just think you’ve got it like it’s just the tip, and then you start chipping away. And then you uncover actually, as you said, it’s like a systemic belief that has come from all of these places, and you just don’t even know where to start. So if people feel like that, and let’s use the example of feeling like as a woman, you can’t quite have what you want in business, like it’s a man’s world. It’s not a place for women, if that’s the kind of thoughts that maybe it will identify with some people, I would ask people to just try and think when they think about that belief, is there anything that springs to mind? Because quite often, yes, that will have come from multiple sources over many, many years. But sometimes it’s the smallest snatches of conversation. In our youngest years, it could just be something like you overheard the edge of a grown up conversation where maybe one woman said to another, oh, goodness, it’s really hard working, or just the smallest thing. And it could have just been part of a bigger conversation where they said, oh, it’s hard working when the children are small, or it’s hard working because my husband’s away at the moment or something like that. But we you just heard this tiny snatch, and then you made a decision about how things would be for you and ran with it. So I would really encourage people to just sit with that feeling and see if they can pinpoint one little part to kind of go to and yes, for some blocks and some barriers, you need to go from multiple angles, multiple ways, particularly the kinds of beliefs which we have acquired over time, and have been reinforced again, and again, you know, you mentioned Cara, you’ve heard it from friends, you’ve seen it with parents, friends and media, every kind of TV program going is reinforced that message, it’s going to probably be a slower process, but not impossible. Cara Taylor Swift 33:35 Well, I would think a lifetime of programming wouldn’t be something you could instantly get rid of. But I like that idea that you can think about the issue that you’ve identified and just find one place to start, you know, so I love that. Thank you so much for sharing that. And for answering that question. Nicola Kinnard-Comedie 33:50 When you were there looking down on that offense, you can also ask yourself, Where can I go next? Like what other event relates to this, when you’re in that frame of mind sometimes it can be really valuable to just say, is there another point I need to look at? Is, what’s the next memory I need to dig into and uncover? And quite often the answer is present. Cara Taylor Swift 34:10 Now, would you recommend because you’ve given folks some strategies, a little bit that they can do on their own? And would you recommend someone seeking out some therapy, professional help? Do you have any kind of thoughts around that just to kind of point people in the right direction? If they’re thinking, you know what, I’ve got a block I need to work through? Nicola Kinnard-Comedie 34:28 Yeah, definitely start working on your mindset in some capacity. If it feels like a big block, and you just don’t know where to tackle it. 100% go and get somebody to help you with it. Just like training a horse. It’s so much easier with help. Why would we struggle on our own if you had a new horse, you wouldn’t expect to be able to, I don’t know, take it and jump at 140 level overnight. You would, it would be progressive, you’d get help. So do the same but if you don’t maybe feel like quite ready for that I really encourage people to start doing some kind of work on their mindset, it will so pay off. Cara Taylor Swift 35:07 Excellent Nikola, this has been such a great conversation. One of the things we always like to do before we leave the show is to think about the folks that are listening, and can you share something that our listeners can do right now to start working on their mindset, or maybe to start developing a mindset that’s going to set them up for more business success? Can you share something that folks can do like when they turn this podcast episode off, Nicola Kinnard-Comedie 35:32 I 100% can okay, affirmations quite trendy people have probably heard of them. It’s an I am statement, you know, I am an amazing rider. I’m a fantastic businesswoman, whatever it is you want to believe. Now, sometimes affirmations don’t do the job. And I think the reason for that is because we aren’t quite feeling them. So if you feel like your business is just you know, really not going the way you want to, and you’re trying to tell yourself night and day, I’m a millionaire. I’m a millionaire. It’s, you’re just not feeling it are you? So affirmations are really powerful. For me, they work really well on both the conscious and subconscious level if you personalize them. So what I’d love everyone to do, as soon as they finish listening to this episode is take all of your blocks that you’ve identified and flip them over into positives. So you believe you don’t have all the time you’re going to turn that into I have all the time I need, I have plenty of time to work on my business, I have all the resources, whatever it is, you need to believe that you have turn them into affirmations. And then rather than just writing in a notebook and leaving it there, I would love everybody, we’ve all got the most amazing devices in our pockets, our phones to just voice record yourself saying 20, 30 affirmations, you know, you’re trying to hit some online, there’s loads on my website, and just, but personalize them, make them real to you, your goals, your business, your life, they don’t just have to be about business, they could be about relationships, your family, your children, your friends, but say them. Say them over and over again, record it and then try and listen to that 5, 6, 10 times a day, you know, just a 5, 10 minute recording, you can easily listen to that multiple times coming on in the background. while you’re driving. It could be on while you’re cooking dinner, walking the dog, whatever you’re doing about your day, but trust me the actions that you will take when you believe that it’s all happening are incredible. So whatever it is website, visitors, sales, downloads or something, just tell yourself hundreds of people have visited the sales page. 1000s of people have joined my email list, whatever it is you want. Just tell yourself it’s happening. Listen to yourself saying it again and again and again. And then just watch it happen. Watch yourself take more action than you ever thought possible. It’s literally just like a magical spell, it really is so powerful. And I would love everybody 10 minutes out of the day to go do that straightaway. Cara Taylor Swift 37:55 I love that that is such an easy, it’s an easy thing that someone can implement and then see change from so one of the things that I did this earlier this week. I had a shoot that I was very nervous about. I have certain times during the month that I’m less creative. I’m just gonna leave it at that where I feel mentally less creative. And so I put a reminder on my phone, and it was very simple. It was it was you are a creative person, and you have great ideas. And you will make this successful. And it popped up about 20 minutes before my shoot and it was just one of those silly little I’m showing you my phone. But it was one of those silly little like reminders that you set, but it’s supposed to be for an activity and it popped up on my phone and I looked at it, I was like I got it. So it’s just super, super silly thing. Nicola Kinnard-Comedie 38:41 And imagine if you’d heard yourself saying that like 10 times for the whole week before. It’s great. You know, phone reminders are a great way to use affirmations Cara Taylor Swift 38:49 Use your tech, Nicola Kinnard-Comedie 38:50 Just yeah, double down on that 10 times it and it really is so powerful. And I’m really glad you’ve had to play around with that as well Cara. Cara Taylor Swift 38:58 Nicola, this has been amazing. Thank you so much for helping us walk through the big three and giving folks strategies that they could do right now. I would love to give you an opportunity to tell folks a little bit about your program. Do you mind doing that? Nicola Kinnard-Comedie 39:11 Of course Cara. Thank you so much. So the program that I offer for equine practitioners is called the Expert Academy. It’s a 12 month group coaching program. And it is designed as you could probably guess to be mindset and business strategy. It is designed to help practitioners fill their diary, increase their income and stop those feast and famine months, which really derails so many people so what we do in the program is we offer eight core modules plus live coaching each and every month. So I support you for 12 months and just watch people change before my very eyes. So more of the same deep subconscious work we’ve been talking about today, uncovering those blocks and giving people strategy that works to build their business. Cara Taylor Swift 39:56 Thank you so much for joining us today. This has been a great conversation and I think our audience will really enjoy it as well. Can you tell folks where they can find you online? Nicola Kinnard-Comedie 40:05 Well, thanks so much for having me guys have been great. And so come find me at nkcequestrian.com. On Instagram, @nkc_equestrian. And on Facebook, @nkcequestriantraining. Come say hi, tell me how much you like the show what you’re implementing, I would really love to connect. Cara Taylor Swift 40:24 Excellent. And we’ll make sure that your information is in the show notes so that folks can click right to it and come visit you online and all of those locations. So you all thank you so much for listening today. Nicola, thank you for taking time out of your day to join us and taking time out of your lunch break today. We really appreciate it. For those of you who haven’t already stopped by our Instagram and Facebook page, it’s @TheBusinessAnimal. We would love for you guys to stop by and let us know what you think about the show. Tell us if you want to hear from more guests, because we sure enjoy having guests on the show. And if you haven’t already left a rating and review on wherever you’d like to listen, that’s super helpful for us. I think I’ve mentioned that before on the show. It helps us get seen and get pushed out to other folks that are interested in listening to the type of content that we put out. So thanks, everybody, and wishing you guys all a good day. Thank you. Jaz 41:15 Thanks for listening to this episode of The Business Animal. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you learned something today, leave us a review. To learn more find us at thebusinessanimal.com. We’d love to hear from you. Until next time, keep your business well trained with The Business Animal.