In this episode of The One Small Change Podcast, Yvonne McCoy welcomes Brigitte Borski, PhD, as they explore the profound impact of a mindset shift on personal and professional transformation. Brigitte discusses how starting with a single change in mindset can lead to a domino effect of personal evolution and entrepreneurial success. Sharing her own journey from a flight attendant to a professor and entrepreneur, Brigitte highlights the importance of resilience and embracing discomfort as a place for growth and opportunity. The discussion also delves into the essentials of personal branding and how a growth mindset is key to unlocking potential both in entrepreneurship and beyond.

Guest Bio:

Brigitte Borski, PhD, is an accomplished entrepreneur with a diverse background in academia, corporate leadership, and professorship. Her passion lies in helping individuals embrace a growth mindset and develop a personal brand that aligns with their values and ambitions. Brigitte's journey from a flight attendant to an entrepreneur has equipped her with unique insights into the power of transformation through seemingly small changes.

Chapters:

00:00 Embracing Failure as Growth

05:48 "Embrace Uncertainty for Growth"

08:06 "Resilience in Weight Loss & Entrepreneurship"

12:35 Entrepreneurship: Exploration and Growth Mindset

15:05 "Define Your Personal Brand First"

18:44 "Coaching: Balancing Logic and Emotion"

22:16 Embrace Growth and Uniqueness

26:35 "Stay Curious: Fuel Your Growth"

27:23 Embrace Small Changes Together

Main Quote:

"Your brand is not what you do. It's who you are and how you show up in the world. It's the light you bring that turns invisibility into impact." - Brigitte Borski

Links:

• https://bridgetbrands.com/

Welcome to the one small change. I'm thrilled that you joined us

again for this exploration and transformation and that I'm along

with the journey with you. I'm your host, Yvonne McCoy, and I bring almost

thirty years of entrepreneurial experience, but I bring a passion

for discovering growth through the power of one seemingly small

change. So I am so happy that you joined me, and you

are going to be amazed at what you hear today. The

this week, we are talking to Bridgette

Borski, PhD. Bridgette,

they are going to learn so much from you. And

tell us about the one small change or the insignificant

decision that you made that sparked a transformation

and help you do what you're doing. Oh, hello,

Yvonne. Thank you so much for having me here today.

That is a huge question. That's small, that's small step.

So I believe one small change can

create a domino effect that sets

transformation shifts into motion. For me, the

pivotal change was a mindset shift. This was the

first thing from thinking I can't to I can't.

It was a journey of moving from playing

small to truly believing.

I am worth it. Yeah. It's this shift,

that something like that doesn't happen overnight. Yeah.

It it requires courage,

persistence, the willingness to start, just to, to

start taking small, consistent steps,

one foot in front of the other and important is

one foot in front of the other into nothingness and

trusting your instincts, your intuition, and everything that

happens for you. So I think this is or this was

the most important thing for me, at the

beginning to start one small change. And

my story and my my journey reflects

this mindset transformation because I started as a flight

attendant, a job that taught me the

value of cultural diversity and connecting with people.

And from there, I stepped into a series of

seemingly disconnected roles.

One step after the other, I didn't know what was, what was

gonna come. I became a student after I was a flight

attendant. I became a corporate leader, then a student again,

then a corporate leader again, then a professor, and then

finally I ended up as an entrepreneur.

So each chapter, each step,

each little pivot represented a leap of

faith. I I I absolutely love the way that you talk

about this because, I don't know, it it it really

reflects a a change that I had. You know, it took me

a really long time to understand that I thought

that you took an action and you either

succeeded or you failed. And Yeah. I was brought up to

to think that you had to be successful. So if I thought I couldn't

succeed, I didn't do it Mhmm. Which meant that I was

playing very small, you know, staying very much in my comfort

zone, never, you know, venturing out. And

gradually over time saying, you know what? The more you fail,

you know, if your direction is you're going in the right direction,

the the more you you actually learn from failing. Failing is is a

way to learn. Typically, we you know,

you can learn from your success, but we tend to learn more from our

failures. Absolutely. We are learning from

our failures and we and it's that's that's the that's

the true learning. That's that's as you say, it's a

leap of of of faith. It's it's where we

really, really make huge incremental

steps. But, we

usually are hesitant towards that because

we are not the ones who continue

starting or continue getting out of this comfort zone

because usually we're reject, you know, we are

hiding again in our comfort zone and that is

not where growth happens because growth happens

when we get out of this comfort zone. And it's

not easy in those uncomfortable moments that

where we build the resilience, right, and

discover what we are truly capable of. We never go beyond

that. And recently I heard resilience is the

immune system of our soul. Oh, I like

that. I like that. Yeah. It's the pause it's it's

the it's it's the ability that we as human beings

possess to bounce back from these setbacks, to adapt, to change,

to overcome challenges, to overcome hardship and and

to, and also towards

adversities in life. And, and and

we do that always a little bit better every time.

Yeah. It's like a muscle that we are training. It's

like, the muscle, like confidence,

becoming that's also a muscle. You just need to step

out of the comfort zone. You see suddenly it's working

and then you feel comfortable in doing that and then you take on the next

challenge and the next hurdle, and you are able to conquer the

next struggle. And that's how we learn. So we step into

the into the unknown, first of all, because

growth lies outside of our comfort zone to embrace this

uncertainty and the opportunity to stretch beyond

and going into this, I always call it this untapped terrain,

something we are not used to breaking your

mental barriers and then learning through that,

evolving through that, because all these setbacks are

the stepping stones for us to elevate and

then really to become something that we are truly

are and, and, and walking this unique path

and very often against conventionals. And for me

coming back to the small changes, it really, I'm

gonna summarize that again because it's so important.

It sets off this domino effect that transforms

our lives, our careers. And

for me, this change came very, very often.

So it's like, events that are kind of,

events that that build up something that

is not related, a path, a puzzle

that comes together, something, you know,

it's it's it's it's a puzzle of seemingly

disconnected events suddenly make sense altogether that

has So I need to I need to stop you because you've said so many

things, and I wanna make sure I wanna make sure

that I emphasize some of them. So one of the things, and

I think this is particularly true of entrepreneurship. I, you

know, I was having a discussion with somebody else, and, you know, we we

we said entrepreneurship is not for everyone.

Because one of the elements of entrepreneurship is uncertainty.

You know, it just is the nature of the game. You just you know, it's

not like going to work at a nine to five and you get a regular

paycheck every two weeks or whatever. So there is a

massive amount of uncertainty, just, you know,

saying that you're gonna be an entrepreneur. And so

what I say to people is you need to have a

reset. You need to be able to when something happens, you need to

be able to stop and go, okay. What

worked right? How would I ideally like it to be? What do

I need to make that happen? So that you can pick yourself up. And

and the mantra that I gave myself when I was losing weight

was it doesn't matter how many times you fall down. It

only matters how many times you get up and how fast. So if

it takes you a year before you you start your diet again, it's gonna take

you forever to lose weight. If it takes you a month, it won't take as

lot. If you but if you can start at the very next meal,

right, saying I'm gonna eat right again, right, Then and

and the same theory is true with entrepreneurship. You know, you try

something. You know? Like, you say you pick a strategy, like, you say you wanna

be visible. Right? And you try something and it doesn't

work. You don't wait another year before you try another strategy.

You know? And you know that that's that's part of it that that,

you know, that everything is changing. And so, you know,

if you wait until you get something, you think you're gonna get it perfect,

it's not gonna be perfect for the new time when you finally do it.

Does that make sense? I mean, so that so that was one of the

things you said that, you know, just by the fact that you've decided to be

an entrepreneur, you need to be resilient. I think

discomfort is a place where

amazing things can happen, and I think you talked about that. That's where

opportunity happens. That's where creativity

happens. And, you know, the other lesson that

I learned was the this you know, I said,

this is the best $40 piece of advice I ever got. And it

was from my therapist. And she said, if you don't ask for what you want,

you're gonna be uncomfortable, and you're you're not gonna be happy because you're never

getting what you want and what you need. If you ask for what you

want, you're gonna be uncomfortable, but you have a much better shot

of getting what you want and being happy. And for me, it

was, oh, so I'm gonna be uncomfortable

both ways. You know? Because I guess I

thought by not asking, I was actually comfortable, but I wasn't.

And so that that is the thing. We we are, you know, we

are experimenting. And so now I don't call it being uncomfortable. I call

it being excited. Yeah. I'm doing something new, so I'm

excited. Yeah. And the and this is it,

actually, because you said either or, I was uncomfortable.

But when you are uncomfortable in both, like, options,

then think beyond that. What is my ultimate goal?

What is my vision? And then re engineer. Mhmm. So

that is my vision. And what can I do now to

achieve that? So if I stay the same, then nothing is

going to happen. But if I wanna change that, if I

wanna lose weight, for example, then there is something I can

do now. Go in introspection, feel into yourself,

what do I really want, what do I desire, what makes me

happy and feel into it. Is that being stuck making me

happy? No. It's making me uncomfortable. Is it like seeing

myself in in a positive in in in a fit body?

Oh, yes. That makes me happy. That's where is this

passion. It ignites, you know, warmth. It is

is is exciting. It's it makes you passionate.

Okay. So what is the first step that I can do towards

that? And that is also instead of

feeling this uncomfortable, feeling like you are

you are, you are

stuck. There is the feeling of freedom.

Suddenly, something lightens up, something

ignites, something joyful comes up, happiness comes

up. Just the thought about a future state. And

now it's about you whether you wanna go towards that

direction And that means making the steps

into something that you are not used to. And that is all

about the concept of growth mindset. Having a growth mindset

elevating is changing. It's becoming a better version of

yourself. It's elevating towards what

you want, and everyone can do that. It's it's changing

mindset. It's changing your thoughts from something that is

holding you back and something that is empowering.

So so one of the ways that I explain it is I think of entrepreneurship

as kind of, being an explorer. You know where

you wanna end up, but you may not go in a straight line, and you

may not stay on the highway. You may have to go off road to get

to where you wanna where you wanna go. So I wanna make sure that we

have enough time to talk about, your gift, which

is amazing, and ways you know, three things that you

think entrepreneurs should do, to help them get into this

growth mindset, to help them really step into, you know, their

best self. So you could take it at the view. I threw a

couple of things at you, so you could take it at any order you want.

I wanna relate to to the free gift I have. That's a

checklist. So if you wanna become an entrepreneur of or if

you want if you're not quite sure about your branding, about

your entrepreneurial brand, that is your personal

brand because you're the face of your company and your company brand, I have

a checklist that gets you there. And I want to walk you very quickly

through that three step entrepreneurial branding blueprint

that I have created. It's my, it's my signature

framework that I've worked with. So since I'm also coming from academia, I was

in corporate, I work with scientifically proven

models. And this three step entrepreneurial

blueprint, as I say, is is a structured

at

and authenticity. And that entails three

steps. The mindset shift. So from a

mindset of an individual country be

contributor to recognizing yourself as a brand, as a business

owner, as a leader. And then it also

helps you, this, the first

step mindset shift to to,

overcome your self doubt. This limiting beliefs

and transform them into empowering beliefs. And

it also involves what I talked before. It's,

crafting your vision. Where do you want to go? What do you want to become

Your mission, how you get there, your big why, your higher purpose,

and to value survival, transforming this limiting into the

empowering beliefs. This is the first step and it's

a stepwise process and you cannot skip the

steps. Because when you start with the last step, like

building your company and you haven't done your mindset

shift and you have not built your personal brand, you do not

not have the foundation where you have a strong brand that stands

for something. Yeah. You cannot position yourself in the

market as distinctive,

recognizable, something that is unique and has

power. So the second step in the whole process is

defining your personal brand. You're focusing on who you are at your

core because your personal brand is a reflection of your

values, of your passion, and we have talked about that how important

passion is and the unique story that you are telling.

And, you're about to answer, what do I stand for? What

sets me apart? What is my uniqueness? What makes my

greatness? What makes me relevant? What makes me distinctive in the

market? What story am I telling that no one

else can? So your personal brand serves as the

foundation of your professional identity. So

and that is the essence that attracts the right opportunities

and the right connections. And building upon them, you are

creating, or building your company or your business

brand. And in that, in that

step, you solidify your personal

brand. You extend it to your business

and it involves laying the foundation for defining

the industry that you're in, the category you are in, and

you're also, trying to understand

and focusing on what is the target audience

you are serving. Whom do you wanna attract with your

offer that we only you can provide in that in

that way. Yeah. In that plant of your secret sauce,

your superpower, that's what you are, what your passion is.

And I also wanna mention that a brand always has

a duality. It has a rational and

an emotional part. Yeah. Success I like that.

Yeah. Integrates both. It's like the rational people

know exactly what it's in the category of soft drinks or

online services or whatever that is.

Yeah. Automotive, fashion.

Yeah. But also the category. What specific is it about?

And then, yeah.

And so and the pricing. Yeah? But then there's also the

emotional part. How does the brand make you

feel? What is it the feeling that I wanna

elicit, yeah, from my clients or from my

potential customer? Because the feeling overrides

pretty much everything because that's where you connect on an emotional level. That's

where people then remember you. First the

heart and then the mind. Yeah. And

then you make the brand sticky. You make

your image you because the image is created by

your customers. You are, you are with your

identity presenting yourself in the market and

that creates an image in customer's mind, but it has to come and

go through the heart. Yeah. And that's where you

align and hopefully then with the right clients. So you need to

know who you are first, then who is the customer you wanna

attract, and then this together really creates an

impact. And and that's exactly I mean, that's exactly what I

what I do in my coaching program. And the thing that's interesting that

I see with so many people is you talk about the emotion and the, you

know, and the the logical. And I think,

at least for myself, I tended to be very

logical because it's like, I can lay this out for you in a logical

way, and you can see that it makes sense. And

I think that if you have self doubt, you tend to go to

the logical because it's not about you.

And you need to do just the opposite, and you need to almost

say to your clients I mean, one of the things that I find is, you

know, when you say to your clients, I've been where you've

been. I know what you're going through. That's why I can, you

know, I can present a solution because I've gone through that.

Do you know? And it's like I said I said to somebody, you know, almost

everybody that I've worked with, we've had to shift the way that they introduce

themselves and take from the logical to the personal first

and then the logical. I said it's like if you went into a bakery and

you said, I want your best gooey brownie, and the baker said, okay. Here's two

cups of flour. Here's a half a cup of cocoa. Here's a recipe.

That's not what you're looking for. Right? And it doesn't

it doesn't meet that emotional need. So I you know? And I

and I think that the the the first two steps of what you were

talking about, I think that that everybody

needs to have that whether they're an entrepreneur or whether they're work,

you know, because I think one of the issues that happens

is I I don't think you succeed in corporate

either until you have a personal identity, until you

know people, you know, higher up know this is the person to go to

for this. Exactly. Exactly. And

that's what I'm also doing, but I'm using different, scientific

models for that. So I work with with companies

to reshape the corporate identity, And I'm

coming from there. I'm coming from,

who are you? Yeah. What it's it's

coming from this emotional side. You know,

it's about the values. It's about our vision, our mission.

It's really about who we are truly authentically.

How do we want to present ourselves? And it also,

it will, it, it works in all industries, even though in the

financial sector, we more and more, we want to humanize

brands because it's really about,

becoming trustworthy, you know, for our clients. We are

living in a world. We wanna deal with people. We

wanna deal with the humans behind these brands, especially

now in the wake of AI. So it's we are coming back

to, yeah, being people and having these relationships.

And the same works for leaders, because we wanna be

compassionate leader. That's why the latest trend and I think it's

it's something that is really becoming established. It's about compassionate

leadership. It's not being only empathic. You

know, we just talked about, being empathic

and understanding and putting ourselves into the other person's

shoes. This is really feeling with them, but

being compassionate goes one step further. It's

taking action. It's helping to find a solution, and that's what

we want for our clients. Well, I you know, I think

one of the things that's really, I think, educated out of us

is our specialness and our uniqueness and the way that

we you know, it's like follow the leader, do what you're supposed to do,

get to the right answer kind of thing. And I think that,

you know, having a mind you know, a a a growth mindset

is something that everybody needs to have. I mean and it's

something whether, you know, whether you don't work at all,

you know, and, you know, you're you're a caregiver for somebody,

you know, or whether you are an entrepreneur or whether you're in a

corporate situation, because the world constantly

changes. And if you're not growing, you're stagnating.

Right? And, you know, to me, you know,

sometimes I I feel like I'm a kid. I'll hear something and I'll go, oh

my god. That's like I get so excited

about the smallest thing sometimes. Yeah. But but it's

you know, for me, that's like it's like seeing the world

with a child's delight. What what's you know, I I

I remember so often when my kids were little,

I had a one one of my kids would say

when they were cold, they would say, mommy, I'm hot. And I'm like,

mommy, I'm hot. And then until I realized he was

touching his skin and his skin was hot, He felt cold, but

his skin was hot because he was cold. You know? And it was like,

oh, I guess that's true. You're you know? But they would say

things and you would go, that's not right. And then you'd think about it and

go, oh, that could be right. I mean, depending on how you're

looking. So having a growth mindset to me is kind of looking

at the at the world, you know, through the eyes of a child

and and and wonderment. Do you know? And and how it

can make you different. Okay. We could talk about this forever. We definitely

where we go. It's what we think is where we go. Right? Where

we where we think, it's where we look, it's where we go. What we are

focusing on, that's where, life takes us. Absolutely.

And Have our thoughts. And then if he says, hey, mommy. I'm

hot. He's visualizing his hot because he doesn't know how

to otherwise deal with that situation.

So so you have given us some great things. We've got

the checklist that we're that we're gonna have.

So that's gonna be amazing. I can't wait to get my hands on that.

So let me ask you the trick trick question. When was the last

time you did something new for the first time?

Okay. This is something

really funny. I actually signed up

for a pole dance classes program

yesterday. What what kind of dance?

Pole dance. Pole dance. Oh, okay.

Oh, us. I mean, this was something I was

always curious about because it's such a unique blend of dance

and acrobatics. And for me, it's not just about the

physical challenge, but about aligning my body, mind, and soul.

And there's something graceful about this movement, especially when it's paired

with music like classical rock, which I

love. And I like to challenge myself and try new

things. It's like with Muay Thai boxing, I have been doing that since

02/2006 and I love it. It's

becoming very fast minded. So you always one step ahead

and always on the move and protecting yourself. And this is

something that I think,

it's it's an experience that will push me not

just physically but also mentally and emotionally, really bringing

everything in alignment. And I feel it's a beautiful

way to grow and connect with myself in a

in a completely new way. So I'm always my,

my, my own test subject. You know,

I like to test things on my own and see how

things are, are evolving and, and I'm

sure I like it. So I will keep you posted on that.

Please do. I I I I I'm always surprised at people's

answers to that question. And the first time somebody asked me,

I was like, so that's why I think it's

such a good question because it also it also reminds me just to keep

stay curious and do new things. Alright. I hate to do this, but

we need to wrap up so that we are, doing what we need to do.

And so as always, if you haven't done it already, please

subscribe and share this podcast with others. Engage

on social media with it. And I hope you know, the reason I do this

is this is my way of giving back to the community to introduce

you to a variety of people who can, supercharge

your your business, and it is a way to help

you to fuel your quest for growth. So I hope you continue to

join me on the one small change and that, you know, we will

take a look at the smallest changes and the benefits that you can get

from that. And if you haven't listened to, you know, other of

our episodes, please dive into them and see,

how you can, you know, make your vision bolder and find more

innovative possibilities. So do you have any last

words for us, Bridgette?

Yeah. I mean, there are some it's it's about

branding and your brand. So your brand is not what you

do. It's who you are and how you show up in the world.

It's the light you bring that turns invisibility into

impact. So I think that Sorry. I

really like that. Oh my god. This went way

too fast. Alright, people. You know,

we talked about this a little bit, but, you know, remember change can be

simple, but it's not always easy. And we shared in this

episode that it requires courage, resilience, and a willingness

to step into your comfort zone. So I hope you do continue to join me

on the one small change. Until next time, please stay

curious. Bridgette, thank you so much for doing this.