It Starts With Heart
It Starts With Heart is a relatable straight talking podcast, brought to you by Mindset Mastery Online Founder Rebecca Sonuga.
Rebecca is on a mission to empower women to be the best version of themselves, for them to know their worth and to have the self-belief that they can be and do whatever they wish.
Anytime you feel inspired, share this with your friends and tag @rebeccasonuga on social media!
It Starts With Heart
192 - Climbing the Ladder: My Journey from Sales to Leadership and the Power of Perseverance
Embark on a journey with me and my trusty companion Winnie, as we unveil the pivotal role hard work plays in life, both professionally and personally. Through a book that reminded me of my own experiences, I've realised that by outpacing my peers and embracing the grind, I managed to climb the ranks from a middling salesperson to a corporate leader. This episode is a candid recount of my evolution, highlighting the priceless balance I've struck between career ambitions and precious moments with my daughter, who's about to celebrate her very first birthday.
As we navigate the winding road from employment to forging our own paths as entrepreneurs, the contrast couldn't be starker. Success, it turns out, isn't a simple trade of time for money; it's a marathon of consistent effort. Listen closely as I spill tales from my personal venture into entrepreneurship, where the toughest requirement isn't just delivering your best, but doing what's needed for growth and achievement. We'll explore how these lessons transcend work, touching on fitness, relationships, and the immeasurable value of mentorship. If you're ready to take actionable steps towards betterment, this episode is your guidepost, and I'm here to support you every step of the way.
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Rebecca xx
Hello, my name is Rebecca Shenuga and you are listening to the it Starts With Heart podcast. We are back with another episode. I have my little psychic Winnie you can probably hear her in the background already yabbering away, because that is just what we do around here, and I am so excited for this episode. I have literally been waiting for days to record this and I just can't seem to find a minute where the child is asleep when I've not got something else going on. So, yeah, this is why she's here again, but people seem to like it. She likes the feature on it, so why the heck not? The value is the same either way, but what I wanted to talk about today oh, here she goes. She's off already.
Speaker 1:What I wanted to talk about today was a book that I read over the weekend, and it was such a good one. It wasn't that long. I read it in the weekend, which for me, is really, really good. It's been a long time since I've sat down and read a full book literally within a couple of days, and there was just a few things that massively stood out to me, and it wasn't necessarily that I'd heard that. I'd never heard these things before. I'd definitely heard these things before. I definitely heard these things before, even if it was just said in a different type of way. But what you find is, when you are so into personal development, obviously you're continuously learning, evolving, improving, moving the needle forward every single day. Sometimes, when you hear something and it might be six months ago, a year ago, three years ago, six years ago, a decade ago you hear it different when you hear it again, and I like to think that I am a very disciplined person. I implement good habits, I've got the resilience, I've got the mindset. Obviously, that's what I teach as well. I teach about confidence. There's just so much value that I personally provide to other people and sometimes I like to have those checks and I'd be able to and be able to reflect on what I'm actually doing and in order to keep me on track as well, so I can be a better coach. And there's just a few things that he said that really massively stuck out to me and I'm going to go through each one and share them with you and what I took from those sentences that he shared. So the first one was do more than they do and you'll have more than they have.
Speaker 1:Now this how I got to where I was, especially in the corporate world when I was working my corporate career. For those of you who don't know the story, I used to be quite average in everything in life. I got average grades at school. I didn't really have any talents, I didn't even really have any passions, to be quite honest with you, and I'm just sort of plodding through. I went to college, went to university, again just sort of plodded through. I wasn't really excelling in anything.
Speaker 1:And then I went into employment and I'd done a few different jobs and again I wasn't really excelling. But people seemed to keep me around even though I wasn't excelling, just because of my work ethic and because I used to show willing. So when you show willing but then you're not actually very good at your job, people tend to keep you around a bit longer than what you should be. And the jobs that I was in was jobs where you didn't really need any experience, which was sales. So I was in all of these different kinds of sales roles and I was not good at sales. I'm not a natural sales person. It didn't come to me naturally and it wasn't even necessarily something that I was really enjoying either. But I could see people who were sat next to me with exactly the same systems, exactly the same data, exactly the same phone, and I was thinking how are they making double, triple, quadruple the money that I am and I'm working more hours? So then I decided to work on myself.
Speaker 1:I was introduced to personal development by my boss at the time. It changed my life. I literally read my first book and implemented everything that it said in my job, and I became one of the top salespeople in the company to the top salesperson in the company, to then getting promoted multiple times until in the end, before I left the corporate world, I was a head of sales in a large corporate organization. I had a huge team. I was responsible for over 58 million pounds. Just for my team alone is a hell of a lot of appliances and um. That is what we did and um, and that is like I said, through hard work and when I started my first online business.
Speaker 1:Again, it didn't come naturally to me. Yes, there were transferable skills that I picked up along the way from doing years of personal development and by being in the corporate world and moving that needle forward, but it was also loads of new things that I had to learn and again, it wasn't something that came naturally to me. I worked very hard until the penny dropped and I realised what I was good at, I found my passion, I found my true life's calling and everything changed. But it started with hard work and now I have overtaken some people in a way. Obviously, success looks different for different people and you know it might not have been a competition to them, but for some people it was a competition to me, and by outworking these people, I've accomplished more in terms of what I wanted to achieve, from what I've achieved, and it's from doing more than they do. So then, like I said, you can have more than they have. So the reason why I'm sharing this and why it really stuck with me is because it was just a nice reminder to keep going.
Speaker 1:Sometimes, when you get that time freedom and you start to get the results in your business and you start to help other people transform their lives, and then I'm in a bit of a mum bubble as well. My little girl's just about to turn one and she's not had to go to nursery because I'm at home and I'm going through this whole mum phase where I've just everything is just about my kids right now. I know everything does revolve around your kids anyway, but even more so now. Everything I'm doing is just focused on them. So that's the place that I'm at at the minute.
Speaker 1:So sometimes it can be a little bit easy, if you're not self-aware, to fall into those habits of just being a little bit complacent in other areas, in terms of your business, as an example, I'm not working all night anymore like I was before. I'm focusing on getting a good night's sleep so I can get up early and do a really nice morning routine with my girls before my eldest goes to school and before I do start to work on my business in the day with my other little girl. So if you are that person, you're looking around thinking, gosh, I really want these results, but I don't know how I'm going to get there and you might lack the confidence, you might lack the knowledge, you might lack the skill set, whatever. First of all, don't compare someone else's chapter 10 to your chapter one. That's one thing. But in order to close that gap, just work harder than them, genuinely work harder than them, and then condense that time where you are getting better through practice.
Speaker 1:The second thing that he said that really stood out to me was success comes down to doing the obvious thing for an uncommonly length of time. Now, this is so relevant to the business that I'm in in terms of the network marketing company and the travel business opportunity, because to get the results in that, you have to do the little tedious tasks every single day, make them part of your routine, part of your lifestyle, and you have to do them for a very, very long time before you see that continuous result come in and before you see it really taking off and really really growing. And sometimes it can feel like you're just not getting anywhere. A little bit like sometimes when you go to the gym and you might feel amazing after your workout but you look in the mirror and your body doesn't change for quite some time. Well, it's a little bit like that with business. You've got to do the things that you know you need to be doing on a day-to-day basis, but you have to do it for a long time.
Speaker 1:It's not about that instant gratification. It's not like just going to a normal job, turning up at work for a few hours and then you know you're going to get paid for them hours, whether you work or not. It's like when I was an employee and before I got really really good at what I did, I was essentially getting paid for not being very, very good. Obviously it wasn't what I desired and eventually it's not sustainable. If you're not hitting your targets in sales, they let you go, but they reward the top performers with commission. But if you're not earning that commission, a lot of companies will still pay you for your time. So in business you don't have that luxury. You're not trading time for money. So sometimes it feels like you're doing a lot of work for not a lot of return in the beginning, and that's when you've got to carry on, and carry on, and carry on. If you know that the actions that you're taking are getting you closer to where you need to be, even if you can't see the results straight away, you need to continue it.
Speaker 1:Business is a five-year plan minimum. I know some people who've had business for a lot longer than five years and still haven't hit the big time in the business, because it's the long game and if they're not doing the obvious thing on a day-to-day basis and being consistent with it, they're never going to get there. There's massive entrepreneurs now who are billionaires, who never paid themselves from their business for over a decade. They paid everyone else apart from themselves. It was a bit like that with my partner when he launched his first company and he was paying everyone else before he paid himself. He didn't take a wage home for a long time.
Speaker 1:But that's what it takes, let's be frank. So have a think about it, and it's not just in business, it's anything. Anything worth having takes work and a lot of the time. You know what you need to be doing. If you want to lose weight, it's your nutrition and it's moving your body. If you want to work your business, it's income producing activities. If you want to develop your relationships, it's putting the effort in and not just ignoring everyone every minute of every single day. So a lot of the time, the things that you need to do are obvious. They're obvious, and if they're not obvious, you just get a mentor, a coach, or you learn what you need to learn to make it become obvious. But a lot of the time it is is obvious. It's the basics, and you have to do them for a very long time before you hit the success. And then the third thing that he said is don't just do your best, do what is required. Sometimes your best means to get better.
Speaker 1:Now, this one hit home with me because I'm someone who genuinely does try my best. So, even, like I said, in the school days, when I wasn't massively excelling in anything, I was still doing what I felt was my best at that time. It wasn't the best because if I would have known about personal development then and I would have put the work in in a sense of improving that knowledge, improving that skill set, obviously I could have become better, but in my head I was doing my best. But I was doing my best with what I knew and my, my capabilities at that time, based on my comfort zone and what I was doing. So this one probably stood out to me the most, because I can say that now I'm doing my best now, but it's like, yeah, you're doing your best now and you might feel like you're doing your best now, but is your best really going to get you to where you want to be your current best? So my goals, my big, big, big goals, are a lot bigger than how I'm currently playing now.
Speaker 1:So if I'm saying, oh, I'm just doing my best now and I have no intention of improving that and getting better, then my best isn't going to cut the mustard. My best now isn't going to be what my best looks like in another five years or another 10 years. It's scary to think what my best will be like in another six months when you're continuously pushing yourself and trying to get better. All the time there's a new level of best. So are you reaching that new level of best? Are you striving for that new level of best or are you just sitting at your existing best and you're like I'm doing my best.
Speaker 1:So you might be working really hard now with where you're at now, but do you need to be better? Genuinely, like some people are trying their best right now where they are in the businesses and thinking gosh, I'm really really working so hard, I'm doing my best, but I'm not getting anywhere, and they might have been playing the long game. It might have been a year, two years, three years and they still don't feel like they're making progress. That's because your best might need to get better. Where do you need to get uncomfortable? Where do you need to push yourself? Where do you need to find more knowledge? Where do you need to grow and develop. It's a growing and development game. Your business will only grow to where you are, so you need to level up in any area that you want to get better results in.
Speaker 1:So that massively stood out to me, because that was something that I don't think I have ever heard anyone really saying that way, or if I had heard them say it, I hadn't heard them say it, if that makes sense. Like I said before, sometimes you just hear things at a different part of your journey. It just lands a little bit different. That last comment really landed different with me. So this is why I'm so, so grateful for the growth and the opportunities that personal development does create. And if you're listening to this now and you're thinking, gosh, I could do more, I could be working on myself, I could be increasing my knowledge, my skillset, then do it, just do it, decide and just do it, because you can literally go leaps and bounds in a few weeks, a few months, few years, and that time is going to pass anyway, which is the crazy thing. And so many people just coast through life and never think about that time just going to pass by anyway. So why not just give it your best shot and continuously learn and get better.
Speaker 1:And I'm not saying it's easy. Okay, it's not always easy to be on this journey because it is uncomfortable. That's the whole point. But the more you put yourself in these uncomfortable situations, the better you grow and the more you grow. I've made myself really uncomfortable recently, in the last few months, with things that I forced myself to do in my business and in my life, and I've thrived off it at the same time, because my brain knows now, when you're uncomfortable, it's good. So when I'm uncomfortable and out of my comfort zone and I know there's a growth opportunity in there, yeah it's scary, but I don't retreat from it, I lean into it, and that is the difference as well.
Speaker 1:So think about where you can be getting uncomfortable. Think where you can be really pushing yourself and, instead of sitting there in your comfort zone with your comfort blanket around you and thinking, oh, I'm just not ready yet and oh, I'll do it when it's the right time, just get up and do it. I was on a call earlier today and that is one of the things that they said, and they were talking about the weakest link and it was about teamwork and, ultimately, the people who are the weakest link. They stay the weakest link because it might be 12 months on and they're still having them same conversations. Oh, I'm not ready to do that yet. I'm not ready yet to do that. But if you actually just did it, you make yourself ready.
Speaker 1:I do so many things before I'm ready and start messy in order to get better and more confident at those things. And then that's when you look at people. You think, gosh, like how are they doing it? How are they doing that? Gosh, they're so confident. Or I could never see myself being there. See yourself being there and just take the action.
Speaker 1:Everyone starts from somewhere. Some people are born with loads of confidence. Some people have it instilled into them all of their lives, being told how amazing, how great they are. I was not that person. My belief pattern was I'm basic, I'm average, there's nothing special about me, and that is genuinely the belief pattern that I had, that I had to reverse in order to get me to where I wanted to be, because if I always had that mindset, I'd always be in the same place and I would never have achieved the things that I have achieved now and what I'm going to achieve in the future.
Speaker 1:With that mindset, like who doesn't want options in life and who doesn't want the feeling of knowing that you've worked your socks off for it as well. So think about your current circumstances, think about how you spend your days, think about the things in your life that you love and that you don't love. And if you could change anything, if I had a magic wand right now and I could give you any pay packet, I could give you any living circumstances, I could put anyone around you who you want to be around you. A lot of that is in your control, literally, and you just have to put a plan in place and follow that plan. And, like I said, most people know what they need to do. They just choose not to do it. And sometimes you might not be ready for that next step, but it's about just doing it anyway regardless. I'm one of those people.
Speaker 1:I hate the saying I'll start it tomorrow, I'll start on Monday, obviously not saying I've never said it before, but I always think why start Monday, or why start next month? Why not just start today? So it's like if I choose to start eating healthy, I would never be like, oh, I'm going to start it on Monday and just eat what I want, all the rest of the week like I think. No, I'm going to start it today, I'm going to get back on track today and that is what causes the gap between the people who are making something of themselves and the people who don't. Is it an excuse or are you just going to crack on and just do it anyway? Do not settle for less than you deserve. Everyone listening to this podcast deserves more and can have more and can be more and can achieve more.
Speaker 1:The reason why you're listening to this podcast is because you are getting some inspiration from it. Why are you getting some inspiration from it? Because you want to make a change in some way. But there's so many people who will listen to this and you'll be in your car or you'll be in the gym or you'll be cleaning up or whatever, and then you will just be thinking oh, I'm just going to put it in my ears, it's going to give me a little bit of inspo. You'll stop doing what you're doing, you'll feel good for about maybe half an hour and then you just go back to your old pattern straight away.
Speaker 1:Whereas even if I helped one person or a handful of people who actually implemented some of the things that I've spoken about today and it actually hit home. And then they went and made the plan. And then they went and worked the plan. Then I've done my job. And if that is you, I want to hear from you. Let me know.
Speaker 1:On social media Instagram at Rebecca Shenouga R-E-B-E-C-C-A-S-O-N-U-G-A, share this podcast episode. Let me know what you are implementing and how it's helped you and then I can respond and we can chat about it and I can help you. I will help you through the DMs if you reach out to me and let me know. Let me know if you are one of those few people who will actually take what I'm saying and actually implement it. It's about being coachable. What's the point of listening to this stuff if you're not going to put it into practice? So those three quotes again that massively stood out to me. Number one do more than they do and you'll have more than they have. The second one success comes down to doing the obvious thing for an uncommonly length of time. Don't just do your best. Do what is required. Sometimes that means your best needs to get better. My name's Rebecca Shinuga. I am so happy that you've listened to this episode and I will catch up with you very, very soon.
