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By Shumirai Chimombe

The Standard Bank Top Women EmpowHER conference that took place at the Capital Zimbali Resort in Durban on 26 June was a truly inspiring event. The line-up of speakers imparted their words of wisdom and encouragement which were well received by the room full of enthusiastic and bold women entrepreneurs, mostly small business owners. 

Entrepreneur and CEO of Pro Talent, Cindy Norcott had a powerful message to give in her talk titled Girl, Put your Armour On.  

“It’s tough in business and our mindset is the most powerful tool we have.”

 Here are some of the tips she shared about how your mindset is absolutely everything as your guiding light.

In your business you will work yourself fit – you need to put in the work

In the beginning you may have that impostor syndrome – when you question yourself whether you have done the right thing by taking the leap and starting your business. “You have done the right thing and you are going to get better and better over time.”

Goal-setting is an essential compass in navigating the direction you want to take with your business. To have a clear, crystallised picture of success for yourself. One important question to ask as a starting-off point is  “what will it take for me to go from where I am to where I want to be?” Take a snapshot of yourself and ask, “what would I like to say about myself and my business at the end of the year that I can’t say today?” Then start working on that.  

Cindy stressed the importance of finding a mentor – anyone who is successful in business. Reach out and connect with them. Even if you don’t know someone, chances are that you know someone who knows someone, so start networking. Ask them out for a coffee; ask for an online meeting and ask specific questions. What can I learn from you? What was your biggest challenge? If you could do this again, what would you do differently? Don’t be afraid to ask the embarrassing questions – there are no embarrassing questions. 

“Often as women we don’t ask.”

And start believing that people will want to meet you and want you to succeed. One of the key ingredients of anyone who is a successful entrepreneur is that they tell themselves that “I believe in myself. Even if I have those moments of doubt and impostor syndrome I honestly believe that I can do it. I believe in the service that I provide and I believe that the world is conspiring to bring me great things.” 

She emphasised the value of self-development and to try to learn something new everyday. “We all want to be successful …but how many of you are prepared to spend R1-million on your own development? For many of us, we hope, we wish, we dream but we are actually not investing in ourselves. As women we invest in our children, our families but somehow we put ourselves last. What I discovered as an entrepreneur is that the best investment you can make is in your own development.” 

Your business will not grow if you are not growing yourself.

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Your mindset is going to make or break you – the power of self-belief

In this challenging world where so many things are going wrong, it’s important to ask yourself whether you are an optimist or a pessimist. Sometimes when someone says that they are a realist, it’s just pessimism in disguise. 

“And I believe that the future will be better than today – that’s the definition of hope. Despair is believing that tomorrow will not be better than today. You can’t run a business with a mindset of despair. You need to firmly believe in yourself in everything that you do. And you need to create a filter between yourself and the world.”

How do you create that filter? By setting boundaries, and being intentional about the company you keep or the feeds on your social media. Be careful of negativity because that has the potential to  become your reality. “I don’t want to sit with people who speak ill of other people. I want to sit with people who are dreaming – ‘possibletarians’. I encourage you to do the same.”

Successful people love the grind – the power of intention

Do you want to make a success of your business no matter what? A lot of people are very serious up to a point. It’s at the ‘no matter what’ where they stop. 

“Business is hard, and I want to encourage you to appreciate that everyday you will do stuff that you don’t like. And the people who are consistent, who keep their head down longer are the ones who are making successful businesses. Ask yourself, am I prepared to do the hard work and do it longer than other people?”

Mind your mind – the power of self-awareness and perspective of life

“Get to know yourself.” If you want to build a business, you need to build a team. And to build a team you need to be a leader. And a leader knows herself – warts and all – and she shows herself. Be prepared to be natural, authentic and yes, vulnerable. 

Successful people have an internal locus of control – the extent to which people believe they have control over the events in their lives. Many people tend to get caught up in problems that are outside their control such as the exchange rate, inflation or the electricity and water issues in the country. Those are external locus of control 

“If you want to grow your business quickly, efficiently and intentionally you need to have an internal locus of control – focusing on what you can control. So what can we control? We can control our thoughts. Start looking for evidence that the world is a great place, start looking for evidence that you are amazing. Be careful of the words you use. Women are often not good at expressing themselves well. We have to learn to build ourselves up one thought at a time. One word at a time. Our self-limiting beliefs hold us back.Don’t minimise what you do and don’t ever think that you’re not big enough”

This is where you see the power of positive self affirmations come into play because we have so much power over what we can become from the words that we use. What do you say to yourself everyday?

“Business is a journey. Be prepared for the journey. Expect it to be hard. With your mind you can create a castle, a palace, or an empire – or you can create a granny flat. It’s amazing how powerful your mind is.  Work yourself fit – You’ve got this.”

Catch up on the full conference video 

Standard Bank EmpowHER conference – Cape Town

The third and final leg of the Standard Bank EmpowHER series will be on 21 August in Cape Town.

10 pre-selected entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to pitch their promising business models to a panel of high-level thought leaders and business experts. The pitch will consist of a 3-minute elevator pitch followed by a 5-minute interactive Q&A session, where participants will receive valuable feedback on how to scale their businesses into market leaders.

Apply to enter your business into the pitching den here  or get your ticket here to attend as a delegate, watch the live pitches, and network with a powerhouse community of bold female entrepreneurs.

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