It's time for a pep talk

It's fourth quarter people and let's be honest--this is where the rubber meets the road. For most businesses this is what makes or breaks your year. You're probably at one of three places at this stage in the game. Either you're confident you're gonna finish the year strong and you've got 2017 in bag, you're scrambling for a Hail Mary, or at this point it's anybody's game. Am I right? Let's get real though, it ain't over till it's over, so how are you going to make sure you really finish strong? 

I'm here to tell you that anything can and will happen in the next two months. Businesses will meet and exceed their goals, have record profits, grow, expand, create jobs. There is no reason why yours can't be one of them.

For starters--it's all about mindset. 

I never played football. First of all, I had no interest in being smashed by big dudes who want to take a ball from me, I'd happily hand it to them and save us all the trouble. Second, ladies haven't traditionally played football, so there's that too... That said, many a football player can speak to the power of coaches like Lou Holtz. He worked some magic with locker room pep talks. Why did it work? Because he could capture the imagination of his players and when they believed they could do the impossible they often did.

Have you stopped to consider what is really possible? Odds are you have set some unnecessary limits on yourself and your growth. Every time you catch yourself using the words can't, won't, don't and so on, I'd challenge you to pause and think to yourself, "Is that really true?" My guess is that at least half the time it isn't.

I've noticed a disturbing trend

I talk to a lot of marketers and CEOs in my work. While better systems, processes, and even our marketing services could no doubt help any number of companies, the thing I find more often that is holding them back are limiting beliefs. If you don't think your business can grow it won't. It's shocking how many business plan for the the next year to be relatively flat. Or they'd like to grow, but making even small changes is scarier than the benefit, and often return on investment, of those improvements.

The winners all have one thing in common--they believed they could win and set out to do so. If you don't believe your business can grow your competitor thanks you because they have an advantage over you that is far more powerful than their valuation.

Let's do this!

If you're all-in, if you believe you can grow, then get moving already!! Make plans, execute on them, review the results, iterate and repeat. Growth is a process, and the first step is planting the seed. If you have the growth mindset you're on the way!