Join host Yvonne McCoy as she delves into an insightful discussion with Patricia Dent, a seasoned entrepreneurial trainer and coach. They explore the significance of planning exit strategies from the outset, maintaining relevance in business, and the power of mindset. Patricia shares her expertise on overcoming barriers and unlocking potential through mindset shifts. They also tackle family dynamics in business, sincere feedback methods, and fostering innovation through curiosity. This episode is packed with actionable advice for entrepreneurs aiming to align their purpose with business strategies.

Guest Bio:

Patricia Dent is an accomplished entrepreneurial trainer and coach with over 14 years of experience. She specializes in guiding startups and established businesses towards growth and preparing them for successful exits. Patricia advocates for the importance of developing a positive, resilient mindset and aligning business actions with personal values to achieve meaningful entrepreneurial success.

Key Points:

1. The Importance of Early Exit Planning [03:15]
2. Patricia emphasizes why startups should consider exit strategies early on and how this planning can guide business growth.
3. Mindset for Overcoming Barriers [12:45]
4. Introduces the "pyramid of evil stuff" concept, with fear as the top obstacle influencing scarcity responses and leading to procrastination.
5. Fostering a Positive Mindset [21:30]
6. Discusses the value of protecting one's mindset through meditation and continuous learning to cope with change effectively.
7. Feedback and Management Styles [30:22]
8. Critiques the "feedback sandwich" and advocates for authentic feedback as a means to enhance productivity and employee morale.
9. Aligning Business with Values [45:10]
10. Explores how entrepreneurs can align their actions with personal values to challenge doubts and ensure purposeful, value-driven business practices.

Main Quote:

"Unlocking your mindset is the single most powerful change you can make to navigate challenging times and forge a path to success."

Guest's Website:

Visit Patricia Dent's website for more resources and insights:

https://www.askfordirectionstraining.com/

Hello, everybody. We're at it again. And I am so

thrilled that you joined me on this journey of exploration and

transformation. And I'm your host, Ewa McCoy. And I

bring almost 30 years of entrepreneurial experience and passion

for discovering growth through the power of seemingly small

change. So I know there are lots of places you could spend your time in,

so I'm excited that you're spending some time with me on this entrepreneurial

journey of exploration and inspiration. And this

week, we are talking with one of my favorite people, Patricia

Dent. Hey, Patricia. Hey there, Yvonne.

How's it going? It is. You know, if you wake up every

morning, you can say it's a good day. Yes. That's

true. It is true. So so you and I

have talked often and and have have had a lot of fun

together. So I doubt seriously that we will

have a problem instilling some, incredible

Having some fun. Yeah. Having some fun and and and giving

people some thoughts. So why don't you tell everybody what

it is you do, what you're passionate about, and what was the one

because we all have lots of them, but one of the many small changes

that made an impact in your life or business.

Happy to do that because I think mastering change is

huge. That's my personal belief. So I'm an entrepreneurial trainer and

coach and I have been for the last 14 years. It may be even a

little bit more than that I should count, but for the past at

least 14 years I have been introducing startups

to how to start up and set up their business and then grow it and

then I kind of hand off to other people where they

can, grow more fully if they're, if they want to,

it's really a personal decision but that training process

I take it, to quite a lengthy,

distance because I'm actually interested in the exit part of

business as well and even from the very beginning I would ask

people, so you're starting a business, what's your exit

strategy do you think? And they would say for the most part, you've got to

be kidding me, you You know, what are you what what are you talking about?

I'm just starting. You know, leave me alone. You say

that and that I mean, I know that that's what you're doing now, but

that was not originally what I think I

knew you for. True. Because I've really mostly focused

on startup, but although I and I will focus more on exit

because we're about to have a massive change in the entrepreneurial infrastructure

in terms of the, aging out of of different

classifications of entrepreneurs. But,

startup for me also means, okay, do you

think you might want to exit your business by selling

it? Do you think you might want to pass it along to your family?

Danger, danger, if you're going to think about,

not that your family is terrible people, but if you're thinking about

that, one of my colleagues at the local chamber of commerce, I'm on the

board there, I said said to him you've got this really great,

business in the trades. What do you see as your exit

strategy? Because I know darn well he's getting up there a

little. And he said, oh, I thought I would just give it to the kids.

I said I I gotta stop you there because because

so far there's, like, a lot of wisdom to unpack. First of all, it

is a wonderful strategy when you're putting your business together

to think about what the end result is going to be. What do where do

you wanna end up regardless whether you're gonna sell it or whatever. And

I think that in everybody's business, there is a point

where you may want to pivot. You know, you've done this, you're

really good at it, and you go, I really would like to do something else.

Maybe I will That's true. You know? And so it

doesn't have to be just that you're up in age and you're getting rid

of it. It That's true. And I think, you know, the

other thing you said when you introduced yourself about change is,

you know, that is a big thing for me too. Change is constant.

It is. And if you want to keep getting clients, you have

to stay relevant, which means that you have to do some change. And that

change may be, I need to get into a different business. It

could be. That's very valid. Absolutely. So there is so much

so much dynamic so many dynamic pieces that are going on in

this Mhmm. That the idea of starting with you know, well,

I I call it dead reckoning. Where is it that you wanna end up? What

do you wanna be remembered for for your 1 100th birthday? But Exactly.

But the business perspective of putting together something

that somebody else may want. And and I have to laugh when you say

family because my family my family still

goes, I don't know what you do. That's true. Oh, my

God. That is so true for so many entrepreneurs. It's one of the things that

drives us insane. Your family doesn't understand why I'm doing

this and what I'm doing. Exactly. And, you know, I have had clients

that, you know, are getting ready to, you know, expand

their staff. And the first thing they think is, I'll give my kid a job.

And I'm like, no. Maybe not.

Let's I end I understand the reason for that, but let's talk

about what you actually need and then see if your your

child has those qualities and those skills, you know. Well, if

I can say one or one quick thing about that particular person that I talk

to who is in the trades, guess what his kids did? 1

was a lawyer, 1 was in finance. I said, did you ask

them? And when he finally did, imagine what they said.

No. The catastrophe that I

had was they were looking for somebody to manage in an

accounting office. Okay. And their

kid had been in the culinary arts. Oh.

And I said I said, how did when you've had to, like, correct

somebody and and give them bad news, how did you do that?

And he said, I told him to go in the in the pooler and cry

it out.

So, you know, that that's that that's the first

trap. That's the first challenge, I think, for entrepreneurs is

that we tend to want to get hire and involve

our family and friends who have may have our best interests at

heart, but typically do not have the skills that we need. Alright. So we

went on a totally different tangent. Let's get back. We did. Well well, one of

the things I in terms of change, particularly, and this has been

a particularly eventful 4 years that we've been in, you know,

who who's ever been in a pandemic that lasted, whatever,

and who wanted to have a downturn after we went through the pandemic?

So it's been quite a time of change. So the two things that are

really key for me are relationships with other entrepreneurs

and your community and the idea

that you can actually change things

so that if you don't and through that

my actually my small change if you wanted to hear about that now, if you

can hear about it later if you want, but, the small change that I found

really helpful is to unlock your mindset, not necessarily become a

guru,

become really adept at meditation or whatever it is, but

to unlock that negativity that we often

get nailed into, particularly if we look at the

conditions all around us, and maybe the conditions aren't so

welcoming, So that's the small change I've actually gone

through very recently. And and it is

my my version of that was,

believe it or not, a combination of 2 things. 1 was

Ted Lasso Okay. And one was and there

was a podcast that went with that that had a positive

psychologist and a leadership coach that right? Right.

And the other was this, you know, of course I took on positivity.

And it has totally changed

the way that I look at things. It has totally unlocked opportunities,

and which is why I now, at the end of my at the end of

my newsletter, go stay curious. You know, and

Ted Lasso said in an episode, are you being curious or are you being

judgmental? And I found myself in the

judgmental camp far too much. Right.

Right. And so, you know, it's interesting when you

you're curious and you say, tell me more about that before you

go, oh, that's not gonna work, or why would you do that?

You know? I know far too many people who do that immediately.

They find the fault because they wanna, and maybe it's a

process that they go through in order to find the fit, but it's a

very negative process. So I, was recently, in

fact, this earlier this week from somebody you know who's in

a, Minds RA, mastermind with us

and suggested, you know, I think you should look at this person. And

that was this is very new, but it's I feel like I'm at

home. So it was David Baer and he's written a book called

Mindhack And that is an easy way

of kind of taking a lot of complexity with positivity

and giving you a place to start. So I was really grateful for that

because you can get into this this I guess it's like

a shell. It's almost like, you know, having a closed mind that

has to process the amygdala is way too busy in those

minds. You know, the other thing and one of the bad things about this

particularly is for entrepreneurs who are bringing

on people, hiring people. Yes. The management style

is typically you you always tell them what they did wrong because

you're always under some kind of time constraint, and you need to get it fixed

or whatever. Very rarely do we tell

people what they're doing right. And I think that's why, you know, the

one minute manager is such a good a simple thing. It's

like, you know, you tell people when they

do something good, and it doesn't have to be that sandwich. Like, you did

this good, but this bad happened, and now this is you know? It can

just what a great job. You did exactly what I expected. I'm

you know? Thank you. Right? Right. And and you know what?

People will ask if they're conscious about their own performance and they want to

do better. They will ask, how can I do better? But if they're

afraid of what you're going to say, that sandwich was what was that? The

nineties I think? Where it was yes say something nice then say

something terrible then say something nice again. It'll make it all better.

Right? Yeah. So I you know and I think one of the reasons I

like the the model of creativity is

that, I think sometimes for those of

us that are in business, we can look at

positivity as like a woo woo thing. Do you know if it's like

Sometimes. Yes. You know? And and and I have to tell you that

I come from a place of being

highly type a, highly focused.

I'm a totally different person than you know, when when I first

got married, a friend of Oscar said to him, you know, I really

like Yvonne, but talking to her is like talking to a calculator. I feel

like I'm under interrogation. How much is it gonna cost? When are we gonna do

this? How much time is it gonna take? You know, I was just like,

mhmm. You know? On on everything that we did.

So, you know, but curiosity,

I know, is necessary for creativity. Creativity

is necessary for innovation. It

is. Absolutely. With people, part of that

innovation and change is the transformation that

you're gonna provide. And all of that starts with curiosity. If

you can't be curious, you're not gonna be able to do that, get

to that transformation. No, and I don't know

about you, but I got a little tired of having change thrust

on me, because and I realized one of the one of

the reasons that I think it kept happening was that when

change was happening it was not necessarily in my control, and

that's okay because that can happen a lot, but I felt

like I was being, layered with all of these different

things. One thing it did do is it forced me

to talk to a change as if I were, okay

what are you about? That curiosity that you mentioned, instead

of approaching it with, oh no, I'm gonna have to do this

again, it I realized it opened up the doors,

And that's really important because I've had change throughout my entire life,

some of it pretty major, and some of it I think you

know. But, I can remember thinking,

okay, this is gonna happen, so what are you gonna do to

be able to make it a comfortable change? And and I think

the other part to that that's so important is

how can I say this? I think because there's so many things we can't

control Yes. We we wanna hold on it's

it's like the tighter you hold on to something, the less control you

actually have. And it comes and it comes from a a

perspective of fear or scarcity. Always.

If if if I do the you know? And one of

the things that one of the best pieces of advice that I ever got

from somebody, which I'm very thankful for,

is I was like, alright. How do how do we figure out

if this you know, we're gonna do a collaboration. How do we figure out who

this client, you know, goes with or whatever? And there was this

long silence, and I'm like, okay. I just stuck my foot in

it. And he's thinking, what a terrible person. You know?

And he said, you know what I found out? That the

better quality of person you work with, the less you even have to

worry about that because they know that the client

is the person who makes that choice. It's not your choice or my choice.

It's their choice. And I was like, oh my

god. That is so wonderful. Light bulb. Right? No. But

it's when you when you are coming from a place of scarcity, it's like this

client is my client, you know, and I you know? As opposed to

saying, you know, you should decide what's right for you.

Absolutely. And, you know, one of the things it's a relief to actually

take that position because you can't control most of

this anyway, so if you can't then, you know, you

might as well, be at peace with what's what's happening and

find out if it's possible. One of the the switches

over time that I found, I used to think that I could serve

everybody, you know, the great the greatness no more, yeah,

that and that is of course, you know, not true,

but one of the things that I found is I tend to gravitate to heart

centered people who have a mission, who want to do something that's

important, and I love that because helping

people make the world a better place is just a joy and most of

them are very grown up which is lovely. The ones who

are hanging on tightly to control, they haven't,

it's almost like the 3 year old, you know, having a tantrum,

yeah, so I'd rather not have to deal with that, I'd rather be

able to have things evolve and if you can just step back a little

bit, it's a good thing. One of the things I I have in

my entrepreneurial mindset class because that's

a unit in my training because people aren't always aware

is the pyramid of evil stuff. I don't know if I've ever talked to you

about that. Oh, you never have. Okay. Well, I actually have

a a slide that has a little pyramid on it, and it

talks about all of the things that really get in our

way, and just make our whole thing miserable,

and the of course I bet you could guess what's at the

top, but fear. Fear is at the top because

fear drives so many of our things, you know, our our,

our scarcity responses that you mentioned, so many of them.

And of course up there is I can't and motivation and

procrastination. It's one of the things that if you can't figure

out how to do, something, then you know

something is is worrying you underneath, and it would be a really good idea

to find out what that is for sure.

Imperfectionism, that's another one. That's one of my faves too.

Well, I think, you know, there are many places

where we have intersections of the same ideas. Absolutely.

And so you're talking about your pyramid of

Evil stuff. Evil stuff. Sorry. And and I'm

gonna sneeze. I'm sorry. At some point, I'm like oh, dear.

Okay. And so for me, you know, part of that is

the limiting beliefs that so many of them come from our childhood. And

Totally. If you take a look at them, most of them are there because, you

know, our parents are trying to keep us safe. Society and our parents

are trying to keep us safe, which may have worked as a child but do

not serve us well now, partially because we're not children and also

the world is very different. You know? That's true.

I mean, you know, when you were growing, I don't know about you, but when

I was growing up, the whole goal was to get a job that you could

stay in for 30 years and then retire, which is totally

disappeared from the face of the earth pretty much, you know, for

most people. But I think I wanna go

back because one of the things that I think is really important is although we're

talking about changing and creativity and stuff like that, I think

that's why it is so I should I I

should be curious instead of preaching, I should ask.

I should use my Good job. So I'm

still learning. I'm still, you know, I'm still trans listening.

So the question is, in this kind of

environment, how important is it that you're in

touch with your values and,

kind of your framework that you want for the work that you do? I

think it's huge. I think you cannot you cannot

operate with purpose, let's put

it that way, do things with purpose without being

comfortable with the value system that you have, and that is a,

that is a, I think an eternal truth as well, and yes

you're right there are some things that are going to come through and bubble up

from our childhood that we really have to catch sight of

and say do I really want to do that or not, that's where the amygdala,

the I think of it as not a very great guy, comes

in and keeps, to keep us safe. It's that doubting voice that

says I don't know, I don't know if you can do this, I think

that's pretty scary. So often it's actually been

trained while we were kids, and one of the things, if you

have a value, if you have a value of say, saying truth to yourself,

and you recognize something like that, then you can do something about

it, right, so values are huge. I don't want to

hurt my fellow entrepreneurs or my fellow citizens, I don't want to

do that. That's a value that I have. I also tell the

truth, it's an important value, but I try

to do it kindly, because I don't wanna judge

people, but I will talk about the effect of on me

or, you know, that did you notice what happened when you did

that? Did it work out for you? Not particularly.

So I think you can't, if you're figuring it out, you have to tell

the truth, but you also have to go by your values to to not

hurt people. And I think also that there are there are

patterns that people go through. They go through the

different speeds, they go, you know, but for instance, one of the patterns

that I talked about is most entrepreneurs, you know, when they need to

expand their workforce, go to family and friends, you know,

and and and in some ways that's a positive value. I

wanna help my family. I wanna help my friends. But,

you know, you have to take, you know, because that's what you were told, you

know, your sister is, you know, take care of your sister or

whatever the case may be. Yeah. This may not be the place to do it.

I think it's dangerous, to be honest. I do. I I agree with

you. I agree with you. Anyway Yeah. I think

we need a whole another conversation. Possibly. We're just getting

to the top of this. Right. And it is you know, every

time I talk to you, you and I get into such a great conversation

and, there's so many things that we believe

in. And I think that

we see them kind of from different ends, I guess.

Different experiences. Right? From different experiences. Exactly. Exactly. So this is what

I wanna do. Before we run out of time, I want you to give me,

or and and the audience three things or some action steps that people

can do to help them with what we've been talking

with. With with mindset and coping with change. Okay.

One of the things that I'd like them to do is just take a look

at their own behavior and their own mindset and

see if they can see a recurring pattern that they really aren't keen about,

and I'll give you a quick example and that is, potentially I'm

not getting to things. I have these ideas, I have these goals, but

I'm not carrying them out because your behavior is an

indicator of what's happening in your mindset, and so if you

can just do a little review and say, and honestly you don't have to talk

to other people about it, but to be able to recognize, yep, I'm

not operating at my peak performance. I would

also say it is important to embrace

positivity in whatever way you can do it, and

everybody has a different way. When I went through,

we see it was 10 years ago I was diagnosed with 2 different kinds of

breast cancer, and I had, I just bought a business, which

was a little inconvenient, let me say. And so, one

of my Reiki masters said, because I loved Reiki and I was taking

Reiki at the time, she said, you must meditate, and she was

just no bones about it, and so it took me about 2

months using, I used Lazarus as an example, and it was

more spiritually oriented, doesn't have to be, but for me it

was. It took me 2 months to get into the habit, and when

I did I found everything opened up.

Now recently as I said the third thing is, okay it may not

be meditation, but how are you opening up your

mind to other people, so you need to really, even though

you're really busy, and I understand that, but look

at and, and review new people, new thought

leaders, because you're going to learn something useful,

and whether or not it's something that you have to do for 2 months until

you get a little better at it, or whether you can just have an

moment, that will break open that

negativity and break open the possibility that you

could fashion your mindset in your life a little differently,

then I would do that. So it's about looking at yourself, and it's

about thinking about the different things that you could do to be

able to really advance your own mindset. Does that make

sense? It does. And and, you know, one of the one of the things that

I found really helpful for me, and this is my

translation of this, so don't hold me to it, you know. It's

okay. Wayne Dwyer had an exercise that he had you

do at night. Mhmm. Before you went to sleep, you basically said, these

are all the good things that I gotta accomplish today.

And tomorrow, this is what I'm going to get done. Right.

You know? And I think it just puts you in a point of I'm

making progress. You know, it may not be perfect. I may not get finished, but

I'm making progress, and I'm focusing on the things that I need.

And your brain works on it while you're sleeping, and I find

that, you know, so I think that there are lots of ways to do it

and I think the more small ways you do it during the day,

the better your overall results are gonna be. So what have you got for us?

What are you gonna give us to help us? Well, it's more to do

with, you know, how's your business doing and what are you doing for either those

who are already started but may have to adapt and change

because we are redefining ourselves lately or the

people who'd like to start a business and that is, there are

some, downloads that I've got on my site, askerdirectionstraining.com,

and they're easy to get. One of them is how much does it really cost

to start a business because one of the, I have one of 2 different

kinds of people who join my training program. One of them is, I have no

clue. Please help me. I would really like to do this step by step.

The other people are, how difficult can it be?

I know the thing that I want to do. I'm just going to start, and

then it's, oh, there's other things that I have

to do. So one of the things I did was put this document

together, and one of the hints that I will tell you, if you haven't or

you're still working in a job, go get a line of credit

from the bank. Because if you

don't and you I have been I can remember the shock

when I was with the bank for 25 years, and they didn't care that

I had all of this history. Once I I was an entrepreneur,

it was like, no. No. We can't loan you money. So a line of

credit while you're still employed is great, or if you go back to employment,

get the line of credit if you can. That is such a good piece of

advice because I know that when I got ready to start

my business, I had decided that I was gonna

refinance my house. It wasn't for the you know, it was like a lot of

different things. And I realized that I had

decided to leave my job, and I was like, oh my god. I

hope this goes through before I leave lunch. That's exactly

right. Exactly. I didn't think it through really well when

I was doing it. It just, you know, it was something happened. I was like,

that's it. I'm out of here. You know? Not even thinking about the other stuff.

So that is a great piece of advice. Absolutely. Now there

yeah. There is one other thing you could do, and that is if you can

get a package when you leave, that's great. But that doesn't that's not in our

control. Right? So yeah. That's fine.

So alright. Here comes the surprise question. And that is,

oh, but before I yeah. That is, when was the last time you did something

new for the first time? Always. No. I'm kidding.

When you're curious, you do more of them. Well, this this

last year, because we had a slowdown in people in Canada, we

we're a little more conservative than you guys, and we don't hop on new

things if there's a downturn as quickly. And so one of the things I

thought was I am going to do the things, the certifications that I

want. So I did a facilitation certification,

I did a flourishing business model canvas certification, and

I pitched, the idea for exit to an incubator, and I'm

in the incubator starting a new business. Is that enough?

That was more than one new last time. It was. A lot of

things. That's a little bit. I hate I hate to I hate to cut us

off because I feel like we're just warming up. So we may have to do

Patricia Dent, you know, 2.0. But until

then, if you would, everybody that's listening, would

take a minute to subscribe, to share, to, you know, engage with the

podcast on social media, that would be great because it's a great way to

grow the community. And I I I just did a post that said,

you know, one of the things that that I'm really happy about is that

the podcast is starting to grow a community and

people are, interested. So I wanna make sure that, you

know, that you continue to share and to listen to the One

Small Change, and that we continue on this this journey

of creativity and curiosity, and the small shifts

that we can make in our life that will have monumental

transformation. And you can always go back and listen to the

first episode and see who else has been there that has joined us.

So what last words are you want you know, do you

want us to take away, Patricia? There are 2

important things you really have to protect. 1 is your mindset,

and one is your relationships because those are the things that

sustain us as entrepreneurs. It's not magic, it seems

very, you know, meat and potatoes, but that is the

truth. Everything else is not as important, I

think. So there you go. Well, I think I think

there are what I call universal truths. Think that regardless

whatever what other things change, they stay the same.

So I think in that in that vein, I think it's

important to remember that change can be simple, but it's not always easy.

And it can inspire courage, resilience, and a willingness to

step outside your comfort zone. So I hope that you guys are

willing to do that so that you can see some bold

you know, you can live in your bold vision and have some new innovative

possibilities. And so I hope that you'll join

me again. That would be lovely. I would love to do

that. We do we do have conversations that go on. Yes.

And so for the audience, I hope that you will join join me

and other people in the one small change again. And until the next

time, I hope you'll stay curious. And, Patricia, thank you so much for giving

us this time and the free Thank you, Yvonne. To give it.

I appreciate you.