A Plumber’s Daughter
Lacey Antonio’s father was a plumber for many years.
He was a hard-working man, squarely in the middle class.
Someone who made enough to pay the bills but never had any extra.
He told Lacey, “Go to college. I don’t want you to struggle like I did.”
So that’s what she did…
And she started working in healthcare before she even graduated high school.
Fast forward 15 years, and now she’s a mom working as a physical therapy assistant.
Despite going to college and getting a “good” job, she was STILL struggling to do anything extra…
Exactly what her father didn’t want for her.
“I just kept thinking to myself, ‘Is this what the rest of my life is going to be? To clock in and be so busy that I’m drowning most days? Do I have to do this for the next 40 years?’”
That unsettling feeling is what led Lacey to explore work-from-home options, such as multi-level marketing companies (MLMs) and working as a virtual assistant.
But these weren’t cutting it, either!
As it turns out, the problem wasn’t that the side hustles inherently didn’t work…
Rather, Lacey had to first overcome her own limiting beliefs.
During her interview on Wake Up Legendary, Lacey shared three enlightening shifts she made that helped pave her way to entrepreneurial success.
Mindset shift #1: From being a good employee to becoming an entrepreneur
Please hear this loud and clear, there is NOTHING wrong with being an employee.
Again for the people in the back, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING AN EMPLOYEE.
The problem is that for some people, the employee mindset keeps them stuck in a job that drains them.
You might know the feeling!
And you might even crave direction from a boss or supervisor, even if only a little bit.
Because as an employee, you aren’t responsible if things go south. Your boss is!
On the flip side, you also don’t get to fully enjoy the fruits of your labor because you’re busy building someone else’s dream.
When a person decides to buck that system and become an entrepreneur, there’s no one there telling you what to do.
No one is giving you tasks or assigning deadlines.
And the ONLY person who suffers if you don’t do the work is YOU…and potentially your family if they rely on your income.
The employee mindset is what makes us show up, clock in, work, work, work, clock out, and repeat the next day and the next…
For the next 40+ years….
Which sounded TERRIBLE to Lacey!
But she also found that breaking free from the employee mindset when first starting an online business was T-O-U-G-H.
Why? Because Lacey, who like so many of us, had spent decades perfecting it.
Think about it, from the age of 5 we start doing work for the approval of others – our teachers, coaches, and parents.
So when there’s no one else and it’s just you calling the shots…
It can feel lonely and overwhelming.
But!
Remember, on the other side of that “safe and secure” job is actual freedom…
But it requires rewiring your brain.
And once you commit to your own success, build new skills, and DO THE WORK needed to finally see results, you will.
For Lacey, this took a while – more than 6 months from the time she started her online business to the time she started gaining traction.
True, this change from employee to entrepreneur will not happen overnight, but it will happen over time.
Mindset Shift #2: From “This doesn’t work,” to “How can I make this work?”
Everyone who has ever tried to earn money online has DREAMED of becoming the next internet millionaire.
Not that we actually believe it’ll happen to us, but gosh, don’t we all secretly hope it will?
So when your business doesn’t grow as quickly as you’d hoped, or as quickly as the next person you see on social media, it’s frustrating.
And it’s very easy to blame this “slow growth” (or whatever the problem is) on anyone and anything else besides yourself.
Truthfully, building a business online isn’t fair.
And there are no guarantees that you’ll make any amount of money.
So the only way to guarantee your growth, no matter how fast or slow, is to just…keep…going.
How do you do that?
Well, instead of asking your boss what you should do next, YOU figure it out.
Post a question online, call customer service, or look up an answer on YouTube.
The point is, as an entrepreneur, everything you need is right in front of you.
You just have to put the pieces together in a way that works for your business.
When Lacey realized THIS, things started changing for the better.
Views on her content increased, engagement went up…as did her confidence in herself.
This did not happen overnight, remember?
It happened over 6 months!
But she did it by working through a lot of trial and error, going back to her training, and working on her mindset DAILY.
You can do this, too, it just takes work and perseverance.
Mindset shift #3: From shooting stars to small wins
In the late 1990s and early 2000s there was a show on tv called, “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”
It was crazy popular, and even inspired an 8-time Academy Award winning film called Slumdog Millionaire.
What’s the point?
Well, the popularity of the show and the movie demonstrate just how much people across the world want to strike it rich.
Who DOESN’T want to be the next millionaire?
But this “shoot for the stars” mindset is also what keeps millions of people stuck in their mundane 9-5s.
Like if you can’t “have it all” in the snap of your fingers, why even try?
So here’s what to do instead.
Celebrate your wins. Even the small ones. Especially the small ones.
Like Dave said, “Let’s not rob ourselves of the credit we deserve from the small efforts we’ve made.”
You may not answer the million dollar question, find the burning bush, or catch a shooting star during your first week, first month, or even your first year in business!
But are you showing up in your business every day?
Are you putting in consistent effort?
Are you training your mind to be open to abundance instead of circling in self-doubt and limiting beliefs?
If so, results will come.
If you take nothing else from this article, remember that your mindset determines your success. And you can start improving yours TODAY!
- Become an entrepreneur by taking the reins, solving problems for yourself, and figuring things out as you go.
- Instead of saying phrases like, “This doesn’t work,” ask yourself, “How can I make this work?”
- Shift your focus from catching shooting stars to celebrating your small wins.
Lastly, make yourself proud not with results, but with the effort you put in…and your success will come in ways you never thought possible.
As always, be Legendary.
To catch the entire Wake Up Legendary interview with Lacey Antonio, watch the replay here or listen to the audio anywhere you get your podcasts. Be sure to tune in to Wake Up Legendary live every Monday to Friday at 10am eastern.