The Wize Way

Episode 131: Mindset Shift: How to Cultivate a Growth Mindset in Running a Business

• Wize Mentoring for Accountants and Bookkeepers • Season 2 • Episode 131

Share episode

In this week's episode of "The Wize Way," Brenton Ward and expert Jamie Johns delve into the mental shifts essential for modern entrepreneurial success. 

Jamie shares his experiences from a recent mastermind session, revealing how traditional business challenges are often rooted in outdated thinking patterns. By focusing on the internal journey—what Jamie refers to as "traveling within"—he underscores the need for personal evolution alongside business development.

This episode offers actionable insights into adopting a new mindset that embraces change, fosters innovation, and drives scalable growth. Join us to transform your approach and lead your business to new heights!

________________

PS: Whenever you’re ready… here are the fastest 3 ways we can help you fix and grow your accounting firm:

1. Download our famous Wize Freedom Strategy Map for FREE - Find out the 96 projects every firm owner must implement to build a $5M+ firm that can run without them - Download here

2. Need to Hire right now? Book at 1:1 FREE hiring assessment with our WizeTalent recruiters to help find your next best employee locally or offshore – Click Here

3. Book a 1:1 Wize Discovery Session – Spend 30mins with our Wize CEO, Jamie Johns, a $7M firm owner who is ready to give you his entire business plan to build a firm that can run without you – Find out more here

Brenton Ward:

From Wize Mentoring is The Wize Guys Podcast, a show about accounting and bookkeeping practice owners and the many stories, lessons, and tips from their experience of transitioning from a time- poor practice to a business that runs without them. I hope you enjoy and subscribe. Hi there, it's Brendan here. Welcome back to another episode of The Wize Way. I've got with me for this episode Jamie Johns. How are you, Jamie?

Jamie Johns:

Yeah, good Brenton, how are you today?

Brenton Ward:

I'm doing great. Thank you, Jamie. You're up in Brisbane for a bit of a weekend, away from the beautiful Great Ocean Road, and, as you do, I love spending a bit of time with other firm owners. So I organized a weekend, and I thought about mastermind over the weekend some of the things you discussed in that mastermind other firms. I wanted to just record a short episode because would be really good for everyone listening in to the podcast because it wasn't so much about you know what's going on in the industry and tactics and things like that. It was really kind of diving into a bit more of the core I won't say issues, but the core things that need to be focused on for firm owners to change and transform their business. So would you give us a bit of an insight into what that morning was about and how this conversation came up, then we'll dive into some of the nitty-gritty of it.

Jamie Johns:

Yeah, thanks, Brenton. Yeah, look, the bottom line is the session that we had there in Brisbane was about you know how do you make a massive change or a mindset shift? Because you know, like with Wize Mentoring and coaching, you know, even in what we do and professional sports people, whether you know they're reaching for the Olympics or you're going for the premiership or whatever, you've got to first believe that you can do it. If you don't believe you can do it, you know you're not going to achieve it and other people are going to see straight through you.

Jamie Johns:

So it was a really good deep dive into how you actually get a mindset shift and actually, you know, work out how you can change because I believe fundamentally you actually have to change as a person. And you know, if you don't do the work under the skin uh, in the old gray matter um, you know you're not going to do it externally, um, you know, as you travel within, you also travel without, and I think a lot of people forget that. They think that it's all just on the surface. And you know you can grow your firm and, uh, you know, add millions to it or whatever, and think that you don't have to change. Well, you know that's just complete BS like you have to change your thinking, and that's what the session was about, Brenton.

Brenton Ward:

Yeah, so it's an interesting point there, because I think you know, when a lot of firm owners come to us for help, whether it be in the midst of a growth challenge or an opportunity to take advantage of to scale up their firm it's all firm focused, so it's all you know. We need technology to help us scale, we need technology to help us improve, or we need to hire new staff, or we need to figure out how to keep staff, or we need new clients. It's all tactics and firm- focused. It's never oh, I need to become a better leader or I need to become a better business owner focused, um, but that's where you're saying it needs to start or the journey needs to start oh, absolutely it's.

Jamie Johns:

You know, I mean I always say to people if you don't believe what I'm saying, just look it up, or, you know, seek out the um. You know, I mean I always say to people if you don't believe what I'm saying, just look it up, or, you know, seek out the um. You know some of the greatest minds on this. But you know Dr. Stephen Covey says there are always two creations. You know, in his first sort of a couple of chapters of first habits he talks about um. You know there's the invisible creation, or the creation in your mind, and then the second. You know then the second physical creation. So you know, essentially it doesn't matter what you're looking at, the computer screen we're looking at or the chair we're sitting on, someone thought about it first. It didn't just happen and your business and your life are the same, you know.

Jamie Johns:

So it really sort of fundamentally comes back to um having a mindset shift around what it is that you visualize, how clear is it, what sort of fundamentally comes back to having a mindset shift around what it is that you visualise, how clear is it, what sort of clarity you've got on it. But then you know, fundamentally not being wishy-washy and working out. Well, you know, if my calendar is packed today with these appointments, if it's the same in 12 months' time, you haven't changed.

Jamie Johns:

Because if you're sort of living changed because you know, if you're sort of living in the present, you know, Brenton, you can't change the past. You can only impact on the future. You can't change the future, but you can only have an impact on the future by what you do today. So it's such an interesting topic that I think often coaches, you know, glaze over this particular topic and you know I don't make any sort of, you know, arguments about sort of trying to be the best coach I can be, because you know people are coming to Wise and coming to myself and their team and they're wanting the best coaching in the world and I take that really seriously, you know yeah, and it's an interesting point there because, again, when, when someone is receiving 150 emails a day, you know, got client demands, team demands, um, anxiety is high, stress is high, health is low these are some of the symptoms that we see a lot every day.

Brenton Ward:

It's hard to get in that frame of reference of, oh yeah, I need to be a better business owner. It's more about oh, I need to bash out the next return and stay ahead of the game. So how do you break that circuit? How do you have that moment? Actually, if the future is going to be any different, something does have to change today, but I just don't know how.

Jamie Johns:

Yeah, well, I mean, look there are behavioural scientists who have sort of found that. You know, after the age of 25, often we need some sort of traumatic experience to actually change. And there's there's a lot of study on that and that can come in all sorts of different forms. You know, one day you wake up and you work out, you're spending 100 hours a week in your business or you're going through a divorce because you never spend any time with your wife or your family. Your relationships break down. You know you're 20 kilos overweight, you've given up all your hobbies, you've given up all the things that you love just because of your work.

Jamie Johns:

And, as you said, you know it's reflective of 200 emails in your inbox every day. So at some point in time, often you know we get a tap on the shoulder until we get a slap. You know what you want to do is avoid the slaps. You know, and so that you know, often that can be the trigger point, and that was in my case. You know like it was just like. Well, you know, do I really want to do another 20 years of this?

Jamie Johns:

and the answer for me was no, and you know that that instigated a whole journey. Um, you know that wake- up call was a catalyst to instigate a whole journey, a whole journey. And then I had to go through change. And when, and Brenton, when I went through the change and when I started, you know, working with my mentor, little did I know it, but I was actually practicing what I call the three- by- three rules of change. And we can, you know, and be great to sort of touch on that with the listeners, because I think if you understand the three- by- three rule of change, it'll give you the mindset and the tools and the know-how how to actually dig under the surface of your skin, into your brain, and work out how you're actually going to achieve your goals and, you know, drive the change that you want.

Brenton Ward:

Yeah, so I think, certainly on this topic, it's so broad and also so deep that it's hard to often know where to start, so a simple framework would be a really good place. And yeah, I think you touched on it there. I think it'll be great to cover that off and leave it there for this episode, because I think just going down that path of having a look at this framework and thinking about what it means for you is a perfect place to start. So hit us with the framework. Yeah, the bottom line is Brenton.

Jamie Johns:

The framework is sort of what I call the three R's of change by three years, right? So I went through this. But you know, on my journey, as you know, I've read, probably, you know well over a thousand books, uh, you know, since I was the age of 15 on this topic, just trying to work out. You know, fundamentally, how do human beings work, you know? So we come into the world and we're not really given any instruction manual, um, but a lot of us have to work it out ourselves. Whatever that is, and for me, what I found was, instead of looking back now and reflecting, I came across a book called Change or Die. I can't think of the author's name, but we can put it in the notes.

Jamie Johns:

But essentially, you know, if you're going to go through change, you've got to go through three R's, and you know the first R is relate, right?

Jamie Johns:

So you've got to find someone that inspires you. You know, someone that motivates you, someone who's achieved what you want, and it really needs to be this concept of tribe, you know, like your tribe, or an emotional connection to a community or a person that inspires you to change, because obviously, a bit like, as Dan Martell says, you know, a lot of the time you only change if the pain of staying the same is more than the change itself, you know. So the first R is to build a connection, build an emotional connection to a person or an individual, a community or a tribe that will inspire you to change and that can't just be like Brenton. Just like you know, today I'm going to talk to such and such right? It needs to get this relationship to influence. You need to go over a period of three years, and that's why I call it the three by three because you know some people say oh well, you know, you can change your habit in three months or six months. I don't believe that.

Jamie Johns:

I think it takes a consistent effort over, on average, a period of three years to undo what you know and relearns and relearns and then, over that timeframe, if you want to master you know, for example, what we're talking about. If you want to master the growth of your business and leadership and scale your firm, you know, double, triple, whatever beyond where you're at, it really does take the three years to consolidate your thinking and learn the body of knowledge that you need to. You know, because often when you're dealing with a mentor, you know they've spent 20, 30, 40 years of accumulating knowledge, right, and we're trying to try and say you can pack that down into three months or six months as rubbish. If you can pack it down to three years, six months as rubbish. If you can pack it down for three years, that's pretty good.

Jamie Johns:

Look at it like this you know you go to university for a minimum of three or four years and we don't think anything of it, do we? And we probably spend these days 50 grand in the process, you know? And these days we come out of that and say, well, what do you know? We actually don't know anything because you're a graduate, right? So there's a lot of arguments here. What I'll say, so the. So again, the first R is relate. The second r is to repeat the skill that that community or person or individual teaches you. So you've got to repeat the skill day in, day out, day in, day out, month in, month out, year in, year out, and again over the period of three years until you develop new habits. The problem is often if we repeat the skill you know just for one or two or three or four months and then we lose contact with that influencer, that mentor, or coach.

Jamie Johns:

Have a guess what happens. I'll just go back to you, know, I'll just go back to the always.

Brenton Ward:

Yeah, I'll just go.

Jamie Johns:

Oh, it's quicker if I just do it myself. Oh yeah, oh yeah, you know, right, that's, yeah, that's the worst thing. So the second.

Jamie Johns:

That second r is to repeat the skill that you've actually learned from the person that inspires you in the first place, the one that you're relating to. That's the second one. The third R is very important as well is to reflect or reframe. I like the word reflect because I think you've got to stop at least once a week, once a month, every six months, and then at minimum once a year. You know how long people have a New Year's resolution and oh, yeah.

Jamie Johns:

I don't like the me and what I did in the past 12 months. And you know, on the first of January I'm going to sign up for the gym and you know I'm going to. You know, the typical New Year's resolution. Now, a lot of those New Year's resolutions they never hold because they don't have the first two R's that we just spoke about yeah but the importance of the last R, the reflect.

Jamie Johns:

Um, it's in the process of reflecting and asking the question am I a better version of myself, whether you know, personally or professionally than I was a week ago, a month ago, a year ago? And it's in the reflecting that, combined with the other two R's, that you actually develop new neural pathways in your brain so that you're actually changing. But if you never take the time to show gratitude or you never actually you know book in the time to actually ask yourself a bit like discovery, you know, have I actually improved? Will you actually learn anything? No, and all the greatest leadership books in the world will tell you.

Jamie Johns:

The number one of the qualities of leadership is self-awareness. Right, but if you're not self-aware, how do you know what sort of travel you know? How do you know what distance you've traveled, either mentally or physically, you know? So reflecting is really measuring. Am I a better version of myself today than I was yesterday? And in that process, there's magic in that and that's the three R's. By three years you know the three by three. And if you consistently practise those three R's, find your tribe, find the individual that inspires you, repeat what they tell you, repeat the skill that they're teaching you, and, lastly, reflect on whether you're actually improving. Based on the first two R's and doing that for a period of three years, you're likely to change, yeah.

Brenton Ward:

And it sounds very much like it's a three-legged stool. Like you can't, you can't have one missing no, that's right, otherwise it's really superficial.

Jamie Johns:

And another analogy, or meant or metaphor, this is um, again, I come back to one of the greatest business books ever read personal development books ever read is Dr. Stephen Covey, you know, and he talks about what we, what he calls the personality ethic versus the character ethic. And you know, Dr. Covey did I think it was like a 20-year thesis on PHD, on. You know what that actually means. And the personality ethic is just the. You know, the shiny bits and everything that you see. The character ethic is is you are what you don't see under the surface. And he uses an iceberg as a metaphor for that because with an iceberg you can only see, probably what is at the top 10%, but it's actually the 90% that you don't see that counts. That makes it stable.

Jamie Johns:

And a classic example of characteristic is um, you know, uh, failing fast, never giving up grit. You know a lot of studies about grit. Just determination, um, uh, ultimately, the people who succeed in the industry. You know that, you know they, just they. They fail, they do it again, they do it again. You know Eagle and Muskets is a classic one. So success is about how much are you determined to put up with in order to achieve that goal. But the beauty of mentoring and coaching and you know traveling the three by three is that you know obviously you can avoid a lot of the roadblocks and a lot of the red flags because you know someone else has done a lot of the red flags because someone else has done it. You know someone else has done it and that's the key.

Brenton Ward:

So I think that's a really simple framework to follow, but there is still a lot of depth in those three R's, so for anyone listening to it going I really resonate with that makes a lot of sense. I want to go on that journey To finish up this episode. What's one piece of advice, a word of encouragement that you'd like people to leave with from this episode, Other than just do it? What's something you want them to walk away from this episode other than just do it? What's something you want them walking away from this episode?

Jamie Johns:

Thinking about yeah look, I think the biggest thing in this day and age and you know, not just our industry, but across the board is for people to understand or it was for people to understand that I think life and business needs to be an adventure, and, and what I mean by that is simply, you know, what is it that you've actually, in your heart, have dreamed of doing?

Jamie Johns:

So, whether it's your bookkeeping business or your accounting business, you know what in your heart and mind, have you dreamed of doing that you've been afraid to do? You know like you've thought oh no, I couldn't do that. You know, oh no, I'm not smart. You've thought, oh no, I couldn't do that. You know, oh no, I'm not smart enough to do that. I couldn't do that right, it's, that's actually where your gold lies. That's almost.

Jamie Johns:

You know the reluctant you're calling you're calling yeah, and often it's the things that frustrate us about our industry. You know, like often it's often it's the things that frustrate us about our industry. You know, like often it's the things that frustrate and you think, oh geez, I wish I could fix that, you know. Then you say to yourself, oh no, you know, I'm not smart enough to do that so my message is you know, purely and simply find some time and sit down and write down.

Jamie Johns:

You know a goal or a dream that you've had for your life that you've never had the confidence to do because it's actually in the journey that changes everything. You know it's in that journey. So the message is, I would say, to write down what it is that you actually want out of your business. You know what's your, why. Why are you doing this and what do you think is possible for you? Because, as you know, Brenton, a lot of the times I say to people look, if you had two or three, you know days spare in your business and your business ran without you, what would you do?

Jamie Johns:

And the problem is a lot of people they don't know. You know because they've never had the headspace to think about it. But it's amazing what happens when you do set a goal and you start on the journey of achieving it, you know. The final thing I'll say is this, and this came out of the workshop on the weekend you don't make, you don't demand success like you attract success by the person you become, and I think Jim Rohn said that and I think that was a big takeaway from the workshop that we had on the weekend.

Jamie Johns:

But yeah, you don't demand success. You attract success by the person you become, and so that goes back to where you started. The whole conversation is, as Jim Rohn said, work harder on yourself than you work on your job. Is it easy? Of course, it's not easy, but it's worth it yeah, love it.

Brenton Ward:

I'm gonna leave it there. Um, this framework has come from a more detailed framework that we just put together called the wise mindset shift framework. If anyone listening to this has enjoyed, the glimpse into the three r's of the three by three and wants that more detailed framework, please reach out to us here at Wise or find Jamie Johns on LinkedIn and send him a message and we'll get that to you. It would be great to connect in any case but look, if you liked what you heard, please welcome you to search some of the other episodes on the podcast, or again, reach out to us at Wise. We'd be more than happy to connect and have a chat with you. I hope you've got a great, uh, a great couple of little nuggets of gold advice there from Jamie's weekend in Brisbane. Thanks for sharing, Jamie, and we'll see you on another episode all right.

Jamie Johns:

Thanks for having me again, Brenton. Bye for now!

Brenton Ward:

Bye! Thanks for tuning in. If you like this, please remember to subscribe and leave us a five-star review For more practical, Wize tips on how to build a business that runs without you, head over to wizementoring. com/ podcast to download a free copy of The Accountant's 20-Hour Workweek Playbook. We've included a link in the show notes below. See you in the next episode!