Leah Gervais: Hi, visionaries. Welcome back to the Your Biggest Vision show. This is Leah and I am so excited to be here with you today to share some takeaways with you from our recent virtual mastermind retreat. So a little bit of background, I host a year long women only mastermind that is for entrepreneurs scaling to or above the six figure mark, um, that year. And they are all online business owners. 

They’re all very passionate about being able to travel and have freedom from their business. It’s a really incredible experience and a really great group of women. And as such one of the things that comes with this, our retreats that we get to have and bond over throughout the year. So this first one was supposed to be in Miami, Florida, where I live, but because of COVID and just an abundance of safety for our clients, we decided to do this virtually, which I know that a lot of, um, events have turned virtual over the past year in 2020 in particular because of COVID.

So we wanted to do something a little bit extra and special. We didn’t want it to just turn, um, virtual and have everyone, you know, basically feel like they’re just at another day at work at their, uh, at their computers, not getting dressed or just not really feeling anything different, not having that kind of separate space and container to, as they say retreat. 

So we were able to host them in really, um, gorgeous hotels, hotels that we worked with them to pick, um, you know, five star resorts within driving distance of where they all live. So this way they were still able to have that kind of retreat feel and step away from their day to day, step away from distraction and kind of bring themselves in a present way into their environment to really give themselves time to focus all on their business and themselves, um, over the few days.

And so once we did meet, we did do it over zoom, but we did it in as much style as we could. We even all got matching pajamas. It was very cute. Anyway, I’m about halfway through on day two, I asked them to share some of their takeaways thus far and between what they shared and some of the takeaways I’ve had from watching them. I knew I had to come share it with you and let you know what we have seen be the biggest takeaways from their work. Um, their work has been mostly internal. It’s been a lot of mindset work and then slight strategy. But at the point when I asked them for reflections, it had still mostly been mindset. So that’s really what you’re going to hear.

So without further ado, here are my five biggest takeaways and kind of favorite parts thus far. Um, at the time of me having asked them for their reflections of the mastermind retreat. Okay. The first point is a mindset shift that completely changed the game for me. This actually was taught to me in a sense by David Nagel who has been one of my he’s someone I’ve learned a lot from over the years. 

And he was a guest speaker on our mastermind retreat call. And I asked him about this because I remember when I heard him describe this, it was on a podcast episode of his, and it was something that, you know, when you like internally something to be true, but you don’t have the words for it. And then when someone says it, it can almost move you because it just feels like it’s completely, you know, vindicated what you’ve been thinking all along.

That’s what this episode was with David for me. So what this concept is, is what he calls. And I think that this can sound a little harsh. So I want to make sure that this is not my, uh, not my original words. He calls this the middle class way of thinking versus the entrepreneur way of thinking. And this isn’t meant to be demeaning. 

This isn’t meant to be judgemental around what is good or bad about the middle-class; it’s meant to paint the picture of two different value systems, depending on what you think of in terms of your career and what you want out of your career. It is very different to see your career in the sense that most of the middle-class does. Or another way to think of it is just like the corporate route versus an entrepreneurial route. What is the main difference?

So for in general, this is not obviously the case with everyone, but in general, the middle-class mindset and the prioritization of a corporate path is safety. That is their number one value. What keeps them safe. This is why companies are so successful in recruiting and maintaining talent through their benefits because benefits make people feel safe. 

You feel safe if you have health insurance, you have say, you feel safe. If you are contributing to your 401k, you feel safe. If there’s an upward trajectory within the company, that you can go up, you feel safe. If you have a ladder that you can climb, he feels safe because you have a consistent paycheck because the company most likely wants to keep you there because you can see yourself growing there because you know where money’s coming from. All of these things make you feel safe. And so most nine to five jobs, and most people within them have that as a huge value.

What makes me feel secure and what makes me feel safe by contrast the number one value of good entrepreneurs is growth. And incredibly those often contradict because in order to grow, you have to change. You have to leave wherever you’re currently at. We can even think about this. Like if we think of a child, you know, growing up, if a two year olds main value is safety, they’re not going to want to even know what three feels like. They’re not going to want to have their body change. That could cause them pain. We all know what growing pains feel like. That could mean that they have, you know, different things going on with their teeth or their new words that they have to learn. Art is more expected of them. What if they can’t handle it? What if they have to now run instead of walk, I don’t have a child.

So I don’t actually know the timeline for development. So forgive me if any of this is completely off, but I hope you understand what I’m saying. The goal is growth and growth by definition, oftentimes contradicts safety. It also contradicts comfort. And a lot of the values that come with this middle-class man. Now, why does this matter? 

Well, most entrepreneurs are not conditioned from a young age to have a growth mindset. Most of us grow up with parents or in, um, societies or towns or cities, or with the majority of adults that we are exposed to working in middle class jobs or even high class jobs, you know, even well-paid jobs, but still in that kind of corporate mindset. 

And so when we become entrepreneurs, you have to understand that the way you’re thinking has to change, because if you go do entrepreneurial things, entrepreneurial tasks, you know, if you start putting yourself out there, pitching yourself, if you start spending money that you haven’t seen the return on yet, if you start selling things to people and not sure if they’re going to like them or not, if you have to spend your life savings on a business, if you have to go into debt to start a business, if you have to, you know, hire out before you even know, if things are going to work, these things appear downright foolish to someone who has a safety value based mindset.

They are not safe. They are risky as hell. And if you don’t understand the difference in how your value system either needs to change, or you don’t have to change, if you don’t want, you don’t have to be an entrepreneur, but if you’re not willing to adapt the growth based mindset, it’s going to be very challenging for you to grow, obviously. 

And if you are still having safety, be a priority that you’re engaging in all this risky, all these risky moves, then you will be terrified. You know, you will be, you can go into an unresourceful state because you don’t know how to move about this sense of growth. That is completely what appears to be the cost of your safety. Now it’s not actually the cost of your safety because at the end of the day, safety itself is most of the time an illusion, even at co corporations, you can get fired any day.

We all learned that in 2020, but I’m not going to get into this. My point is understanding that your value system needs to change in order for you to be successful as an entrepreneur will is not only, I don’t. I think it’s completely critical, but even if it wasn’t critical, it will help you so much to go so much faster. So that’s always a good reminder for me. And I think that that really hit home with everyone to help them see where they are allowing themselves to take things personally, because they’re not growing when really they just still are operating within safety. 

Okay. Takeaway number one was understanding safety versus growth. Takeaway number two is to make your own intention. And so one of our amazing clients shared this really fun anecdote that I loved. So she said she was in her hotel that morning, and she wanted to do some exercise in the morning, which is what I recommended.

So I love that. So she went and did a solo swim by herself, and she had seen that there was a sauna in the pool area. And she was so excited for the sauna, but then of course it was closed because of COVID. We can’t, they can’t have people, you know, convening in a sauna. And so at first she was kind of bummed, but she said that throughout her swim, she was like, Oh my God, I’m learning, learning all about making your own way and paving your own way. I’m going to make my own freaking sauce.

And so she went back up to her room and kept the water on in her shower and made it really hot and just sat in there for a while and enjoyed it and loved that. That was how quick her mind went. You know, just from, I think that was, that was on morning one after a few hours, the day before, where she was able to truly adapt to that mindset of, if I don’t see it, I’ll make it, you know, really that opportunistic way of thinking.

And even if it’s something as what might seem simple as a sauna, that’s how we get what we want out of life is we start thinking out of the box for the things that we have desires for. We stopped seeing a singular way for things to come into our life. The sauna is closed at my hotel. Therefore, I can’t have one. Well, what if you can make one? What if you can go somewhere else and get one? What if he wants something different instead? 

What if this inspires you to order a sauna for your backyard? You know, who knows what’s going to happen, but it is that out of the box thinking, and it is that decision that if you want something, it can be yours. That really makes the difference between entrepreneurs that take off versus those who wait for things to come to them or wait for things to happen in the way they think they should or wait for things to come in the package that they think they should look like.

And that robs us so much of what is available to us and what is presented to us at any time. So I loved that reflection from her and just in general, which is, you know, be intentional about all that you do. And remember that in order to have what you want, you need to go get what you want. 

The third takeaway that resonated a lot with everyone and that we talked about is remembering that if you are a coach, you are not necessarily a teacher or a teller. I think this is really important. And I actually have two kind of points on it. The first point is that I can’t get behind coaching. That is cookie cutter. And one of the things that I think my, my company does well and that I do well as a coach. And that I think my masterminders kind of reflected back to me, which is why I’m sharing.

This is that we are really intentional about making sure that every decision our clients make, we support them in making the decision. We don’t give them the decision. We don’t tell them what decision to make. And we certainly don’t expect them to do things just because we do them or because we want to do them or because we have done them. I think that the true gift of having a coach is to, you know, have support in doing this your way. 

Uh, if you’re an entrepreneur, you didn’t quit your nine to five job. You didn’t go through all the risks that it is to grow and start a business. You didn’t put yourself out there to still do something else. That is someone else’s way. And so I think it’s really important to remember that if you are a coach or if you are being coached, it should always be, it should be the most aligned part of your life.

It should be the most like closely identified part of your life. And in fact, this really kind of, um, put a light bulb off in my head because there was a time period in which I, um, stopped working with coaches for a little while, because I remember feeling like I just wanted to listen to myself for awhile, or I wanted to do my own thing for awhile. And now looking back, if I was having an experience with coaches where I felt anything, but those things, those just weren’t the right coaches. That’s, that’s not coaching, that’s teaching. 

That’s telling that has its place. I’m not bashing that and saying that those people don’t know what they’re talking about, but there needs to be a clear difference because if you’re so influenced by someone else and calling them your coach, or if you’re just doing what they’re telling you to do, and it’s not really what you want to do, then I think that that’s kind of missing the point and it’s kind of missing the sustainable results. So, um, making sure that, you know, you’re continuing to, uh, either your, as a coachee, you’re connecting to your why, or as a coach, you’re allowing your client to is important. 

The second piece that I want to discuss here is that you as a coach, do you know, I have a responsibility for your client’s success nor their failures. I see commonly people wanting to start businesses or service-based businesses and they feel scared to do so because they’re worried that what if their client doesn’t succeed and that’s their fault. Well, when you think like that, when you think that it is your client’s fault, or that it’s your fault, if your client doesn’t see succeed, then you are also by definition saying that it’s your reward. 

If they do succeed, which is completely missing the point of coaching, that’s a very disempowering stance to have, it needs to be their responsibility to succeed or to not succeed. Your job is to not give them a result it’s to, by the information and support to get that result. Whether or not they take action, whether or not that’s within their divine timing, whether or not that is aligning with the other things in their life is so far beyond your control.

And so that should break you free of fears that you might have around an over-responsibility a responsibility that isn’t yours, you know? No. Um, I mean, what are some good examples here? No professor, uh, doesn’t charge people money to go to their college because they’re not sure that they can guarantee everyone a job. Um, you know, they just give you the information and try to support you. And it’s up to you, what you do with that. It’s up to you. If you study it’s up to you, if you actually pay attention, it’s up to you. If you try to implement it, it’s up to you. If you ask questions, so stop holding yourself back and stop holding people back from the information you have, because you’re afraid of what they’ll do with it. And likewise, remember that every time you do that, you also are taking credit for their wins.

Going back to this college analogy, no student would get a job or get their PhD or win some award and, and say that it was all their teachers doing. They can thank their teacher for helping them. Sure. But they would say, I did this. I’m proud of this. We’re celebrating me. I got this degree. I got this job. I won this award. And so remember that the most empowering thing you can do is to totally and completely hand over the results and what your client does with the information you give them to your client. You are a coach, you are not a teacher. You’re not a teller and you’re not a puppeteer. Fourth takeaway is simply the reminder of the power of mindset. And I was even reminded of this as I went through with the weekend. And I do mindset work pretty intensely every single day.

And I have for years now, but I’m reminded teaching this about, you know, I really, I, I taught really so much of what I’ve learned and what really helped me break through my own limiting beliefs. And it was incredible even just having David Nagle speak to our group because he, uh, you know, brought up how he has seen me learn so much about my own personal development and my brain, which has allowed me to go from six, you know, being a side hustler and just making like $60,000 a year at a nonprofit in New York city to, um, just, you know, I made that my monthly income in a few years. And then when we had a six-figure year, the next year I had six figure months. So I sometimes even forget about how much mindset work I had to do to do this. And I get so excited when I remember that, because it just reminds me that absolutely anything is possible.

When I first heard David Nagel tell me that I could turn my annual income into my monthly income. I 100% did not believe him. I did not think that that was, I thought, I thought it was possible, but just not for me. Um, I didn’t think I had what it took. I didn’t think I knew how to do it. I didn’t think, I mean, you know, I didn’t think, I didn’t think, I didn’t think, and I’ve done it twice now. 

So just remembering that and thinking, well, what else could I do? What else could my marvelous mind unlock? What else can I experience? It’s, it’s so incredibly exciting and exhilarating. It really gives me chills just thinking about it and remembering it. And what we talked about on our retreat is that even in the beginning, I would say more than 50%, probably around 80% of your work is in your mind. It is in between the temples. 

Uh, and that has only grown for me. You know, when I, when I look back at what I thought my life and my position as a CEO would have been when I was at quarter of a million, half a million, all the kinds of milestones we’ve we’ve hit, I would have thought that we had the best marketing strategy, the most Instagram followers, the prettiest funnel, the best testing, you know, all these kinds of things nailed down. 

And I can honestly say that we ha we have great strategies, but that my number one job, my number one job every day is to maintain my energy and my mind in a positive place. Because my mindset being in a positive place impacts our team impacts my marketing impacts. My clients impacts me. It impacts my relationship impacts every part of my life that it requires me to, to lead this business.

And so this, the sooner in your journey, you can get used to my, is that being, you know, the, the majority of the work you do and the, and where you credit the most success to yourself, um, that is a great habit to get in. It, it will, it will. It’s what will continue to take you up, up, up and up. The final takeaway that I had from our retreat is the reminder that we all know to be true, but sometimes don’t think about enough, which is that community is key. It has been I’ve, I’ve teared up watching my masterminders connect with each other, be vulnerable with each other, uh, you know, share things with each other that they haven’t ever shared with anyone before, um, connect about their dreams and their vision and what they want out of life and what they want out of their business.

And it was very quick into our retreat when people started having new ideas, new suggestions for one another, pushing each other, to think about things differently. Um, giving them suggestions from inspiration. They had outside of the mastermind retreat that they were able to bring in. And we all kind of thought of it as it’s like, you’re creating an additional brain amongst all of us. 

So I think there were 10 of us or nine of us, sometimes 10. Sometimes we had one of my team members on there. And so it’s like, okay, there’s 10 brains, but really there’s 11. I was kind of this greater brain and that is irreplaceable. Um, I really don’t think that you’re meant to do this alone and especially in an online space where it can feel kind of isolating. Um, I think that they all would agree that having this community has already been transformative in their business.

We’ve had, you know, people say it’s been two weeks of the year so far, and they’ve said, they’ve gotten more discovery calls than ever. They’ve made more sales than ever. They feel more confident than ever. They have more clarity than ever, and that’s not a coincidence that’s because they put themselves in the room, in the game, in the vibration, in the commitment. And it’s, it’s just showing more and more. 

So I am beyond excited to see what they all do together over the year and create over the year together. But it was definitely evident in every part of our retreat that the community is important. The community is essential. The community will unlock things for you. You don’t even know you need unlocked. And if you are not part of a community and you want to be, then I highly recommend you join a group program, consider a mastermind and mastermind retreat.

If you’re ready for something like and we do several group programs. So you can always reach out to us or just go to Leah trivia.com and check out our programs to see if one of them is right for you. 

So those are my takeaways from our mastermind retreat. As a little bit of a recap, we had number one, remembering that the middle-class versus entrepreneur mindset is different. In other words, one value safety, one values, growth. Number two, making your own intentions will help you achieve things you want, that you might not even know how you’ll achieve. In other words, you’ll know what you want because you have intention around what you do and you’ll get it. Three is remember that you are a coach. You are not a teacher. Four is, remember that mindset is the most important part of the equation, for sure. And then five is, remember, community is key. If you want to be successful, there is no replacement for it. And I cannot recommend it enough. 

So I hope you guys found these helpful in your own vision development. And as you look toward it, if you have any questions, let me know. If you listen to this, please see me @LeahGervais_ on Instagram. I’d love to say hi, here is to your Biggest vision.

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