Episode 381: Self-growth — Grow Up — Boss Up!
The journey to a successful business begins with personal transformation. Inga’s story of rediscovering joy in her business underscores the importance of self-growth.
In this episode, Adam sits down with Inga Grigaitiene, a successful entrepreneur and owner of a renowned Cambridge guest house. Inga shares her transformative journey of working 77 hours a week to enjoying a fulfilling work-life balance by reducing her work hours to just 15 hours a week—only if she wants to!
Inga discusses the critical role that continuous self-development and strategic coaching played in her personal and professional growth, providing listeners with valuable insights into the significance of inner growth.
Show Highlights:
- Business growth is directly tied to personal development; you need to grow as an individual to see your business thrive.
- Getting a clear understanding of where you are and where you want to be is crucial before you can achieve business transformation.
- Overcoming the chains of habitual overwork requires adopting new habits and taking different actions for different results.
- A coach can guide you through putting fragmented knowledge in order and provide actionable steps toward achieving your vision.
- Small, deliberate steps and constant reassessment of one’s goals and methods were vital in transitioning from overwhelming work hours to a balanced, successful life.
Links Mentioned:
Get your Business Growth Secrets SUCCESS PLANNER for FREE and profit like a pro: https://adamstottplanner.com/free-book47315172
Adam’s website: https://adamstott.com/?el=Pod
Watch the Episode on Adam’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/adamstottcoach?el=Pod
Connect with Adam on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adamstottcoach/?el=Pod
Join Adam’s network on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-stott-coach/?el=Pod
Coaches, consultants, and business owners – lower your marketing costs, increase ticket prices, and get more high-ticket clients: https://3daybrandbuilderworkshop.com/start-here?el=Pod
Transcript:
Please note this is a verbatim transcription from the original audio and therefore may include some minor grammatical errors.
[00:00:00] Adam Stott: Developing yourself. Allows your business to grow more
[00:00:04] Inga Grigaitiene: and I thought, you know, I know everything about the business, but no I didn’t know what I didn’t know and you showed me what I didn’t know.
[00:00:12] Adam Stott: It’s how can we get you to do Different things to create different results We’ve got to break the chains of habit that are keeping you stuck in that 77 hours
[00:00:27] Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of business growth secrets. I’m really pleased to have one of our great clients and now a good friend on the podcast with me today. And that is Inga. She can introduce herself in a moment to you. She’s got a series of questions that she’s going to ask me, and they’re really designed these episodes to have Inga working with me as the host.
[00:00:49] She’s had a transformation through working with us, which we’ll tell you about, which is incredible. But I think it’s really important to bring business owners on, to let them ask their questions so we can get deep into the challenges, the things that they’re considering, what they’re seeing in their business.
[00:01:05] So we can create amazing results for Inga and everybody watching, right? So Inga welcome to business growth secrets. I’m super pleased to have you here. You’ve had an amazing journey with us. Do you want to introduce yourself to those that watch him?
[00:01:20] Inga Grigaitiene: Yeah, it’s privileged to be here. Thank you very much for inviting.
[00:01:24] And I’m very happy to be here. And I think, you know, all people who watching this should be very jealous because my journey is incredible. I was in the catch 22 home work, and my health went down the hill. I’m not going into details, but after seeing GP, I was really sad and I was walking down Cambridge and I saw banners, you know, the one of those banners and I said, Oh, let’s go and see what this about.
[00:01:57] And I met you guys and my. feelings, you know, my body just shifted somehow or energies. If you believe in those things, you know, they shifted me towards you and how I started my journey. But of course, you know, I had those brainings. brainstorming and they’re searching, Oh my gosh, you know, do I need to do that?
[00:02:22] I’m not imposter syndrome, not kicked in. Do I need that? Why should I go with that? I’m 50 something.
[00:02:31] It’s too late for me. And the start of my journey with you, I was working 77 hours a week. Now I’m on 15 hours a week and only if I want to, yes. And thank you. And it was really hard breakthrough. Lots of things I wouldn’t be saying what I probably. Say today, I was in my shell. I was best world kept secret.
[00:03:02] Even I was working in the guest house, running guest house business was going okay. Fabulous. You know, I’m always have returning. people, but myself, I didn’t grow. That was what I was seeking. I was thirsty for knowledge because suddenly after I saw GP, you know, and I thought, Oh, my, my life. When should I live?
[00:03:30] I need to do something about it. So I did, you know, I’m with you guys. Now self development, number one way achieved. I’ve been there now. Like, you know, the, what is the film was, you know, with Tom Cruise and Cameron Daz when he said, you know, without me, with me, without me, with me. So, without you, I’m with you, right?
[00:03:59] Right. Okay. I’m growing and every single day I’m growing because I’m learning, rewatching your videos. Going through my notes, I took, you know, every single day, something new from the relearning and I thought, you know, I know everything about the business, but no, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. And you showed me what I didn’t know.
[00:04:19] So that is really good. So here we go. One thing, what I would like to know is how. Should I grow more, even more with you, you know, but I know seeing you in the two years growing as well, that keeps me happy and enjoying, you know, and confident that I will, if I follow you. You will teach me, you will lead me to success.
[00:04:47] And you know what is really nice about you? When in the group, you know, the, you’re talking about somebody achieved this or that, your feeling goes from here, your nostrils goes like, oops. And you proud of us. You genuinely proud of us. You know, it’s what is really nice. You know, we’re enjoying our success.
[00:05:06] Yeah, that’s what
[00:05:07] Adam Stott: we’re all about seeing other people win. And that’s what we love to do. And I, you know, we really love every, the journey you’ve been on has been incredible. The changes that you’ve made have been amazing. And that’s why, you know, I’m really pleased to have you here today and start to help you.
[00:05:22] I know you’ve got some questions that you want to ask specifically. So shall we have a look at those. And what we’re going to try and do for those of you watching is try and answer these and add a lot of value to a lot of people. So hopefully it should be a lot of fun.
[00:05:36] Inga Grigaitiene: Yeah, because I was talking about myself, you know, growing and you know, here’s a, I grown as a successful.
[00:05:51] I’m still growing in the procedure, but could you just tell to others, you know, why the self growth is really crucial is for the business owners, you know, especially in the hospitality, if you could add that, you know, but before, you know, that maybe you can talk about why it’s so, so important to grow, not to sit where they’re sitting and not to still be in the catch 22, you know, that
[00:06:18] Adam Stott: yeah, absolutely.
[00:06:20] Absolutely. So self development, building yourself as a business owner. The bottom line is, your business will grow in direct proportion to the amount you grow as an individual. So if you stop growing, it’s very likely that your business will start to stagnate. Because you, in a small business, and this is not the same with, you know, if you’ve got a corporate business with 5, 000 people in it, it’s a different situation.
[00:06:43] But as a small business, you are the business. In the beginning, certainly in the beginning and before you build your team and you scale and you build your management team, everything you’re so entwined in the business and you are so influential on the business that when you walk in, your mood is felt by others on if you haven’t got others around you.
[00:07:05] When you walk in, your results are all to do with you, all to do with your mindset, all to do with how you carry yourself, the things you do. So Developing yourself allows your business to grow more, and it’s something that what I try to do, and you mentioned, you know, you’ve seen me grow over the last couple of years, is what I try to do is pick areas of improvement.
[00:07:33] And focus heavily on one area of improvement because I think it can become quite overwhelming sometimes for people that are on a journey. They just want to improve everything and they want everything to get better. But I really look at like skill sets. So for example, in my early life, I focused on sales.
[00:07:54] And I just picked that skill and I developed it and I developed it and I went deep on it and I think this is what a lot of people do is they might watch a video on sales, read a book on sales and think they know sales where they say it takes 10, 000 hours to master any one skill and you know, If you pick sales and you went deep, deep on that development part, that would transform your results.
[00:08:18] That would seep into your business. That would seep into your people. That would seep into everybody. So sales is one aspect but then you’ve got marketing and these are the different skills that a business owner needs to develop. Sales is one, marketing is another. So. We need to be able to understand how to get our message out there, how to go and have conversations.
[00:08:36] Again, go deep. Business strategy is another. Numbers is another. Finance is another. But the one that you’re mentioning and you led with, which is super important, is one. That people don’t always focus on and is that is your state of mind, your internal DNA, the way you think, the way you act, the way you make decisions, the things you do.
[00:09:00] And a lot of people have morals and guides and ethics in areas of their life. But then they go into business and they let business take them away. It’s like just like the tides pulling you out. And what often happens with businesses and business owners is they get so stuck in the day to day that they become that person Just that’s in the business rather than working on the business has been a number of popular books and things have been written about working on the business.
[00:09:31] Like the E myth is a popular book that talks about that subject. But what you really have to do is you have to get into a mentality where you’re willing to take a step out to take 10 steps forward. And I think that’s exactly what you said. You did. You said I’m working 77 hours a week when you’re working 77 hours a week.
[00:09:49] You can’t think it. Your brain space is foggy. Everything is high stress. You’ve got cortisol running through your body, so you’ve got stress. You take that stress home. You’re in a place where it dominates your life. You’re, you walk through life with a cloud. around your head and it’s hazy.
[00:10:10] And that’s the problem that a lot of businesses, you are, you’re certainly not alone, that most business owners walk through life in that haze and with these things going on. So you did exactly the right thing. And this is what most people do, Inga, is they get to a point where they just can’t take it anymore.
[00:10:31] carry on doing what they’ve been doing and getting what they’ve been getting. So they just get so sick and tired of being sick and tired, they say, I’ve got to make a change. And the problem with change is scary and change is hard. And Oh, very hard. I
[00:10:48] Inga Grigaitiene: said, you know, no, I can’t do that. I can’t do that.
[00:10:51] Resistance comes up. That’s exactly it. Resistance. Imposter syndrome. Why? The, you know, that, those were really little questions you cannot even ask yourself, you know, how to deal with this. And I was really scared actually, but thank you very much again.
[00:11:08] Adam Stott: Nice. And a lot of that is trust, right?
[00:11:10] Because if you’re working with someone in this instance you’re working with coaches, you’re working with us as coaches and what we’re doing, if you take your scenario, you’re working 77 hours a week, you have a great business, but you’re not happy. is what we’re essentially saying. Because you don’t
[00:11:24] Inga Grigaitiene: have time when to think, you know, you always constantly, in my case, talking about my case, you don’t have time when to think, when to start to think.
[00:11:34] And because your homework, you know, you’re running, you’re earning money. Yes. You’ve got money, you’ve got successful business, but you can’t create anymore because you’re too tired to think and you even forget to think.
[00:11:47] Adam Stott: Absolutely. So the transformation is in the habit changes. It’s how can we get you to do different things to create different results?
[00:11:58] We’ve got to break the chains of habit. that are keeping you stuck in that 77 hours and we’ve got to get you taking different actions to get different results and that’s what we did and look the why can a coach do that for you why in this instance were we able to do that well the reason that we were able to do that is myself and the team that worked with you and helped you we’ve also been In the chains, working 77 hours a week, fighting fires all day long, being under the stress.
[00:12:28] It’s just because we’ve been there. It’s not because we’re, it’s not, I’m not claiming to be a genius or anything or be super clever. It’s just I’ve literally had that experience and I know what it feels like and I understand what it’s like. So when we do see it with someone and we’re able to help them make those changes, we are proud because you feel like you’ve made a difference in someone’s life.
[00:12:47] So, you know, for me, If for everyone watching, because there’ll be people watching actually, that, you know, perhaps they’re listening to this as they sit there listening to it now and they’re listening to the sound of my voice and they’re in their car or they’re in the gym or wherever they are right now, what will happen Is people will say, Yeah, but I’ve got all these things to do because it’s almost like an addiction because the things that are going on in your business, they feel it in the moment.
[00:13:19] So critical. And that’s because you’ve got adrenaline running through your body. That’s keeping you and dopamine keeping you hooked to the business. And those chemicals keep you tied to that business. So we have to break that addiction and get you doing different things to get different results. And the bottom line is this, you know, any business owner watching that’s experiencing the same things can change their business, can change their habits.
[00:13:47] Perhaps they need a little bit of help and you’re right, they need to focus on development. And I think what you, what’s good about what you did really well, you know, remembering back to when we first started, you were very clear about what you wanted. Now a lot of the problem is some people are not clear about what they want, like I remember you saying, I want hobbies back in, you know, and you were in a place where you were a bit frantic.
[00:14:08] Cause she was fed up of being fed up, but I remember you saying, I want to have hobbies back and I want to go and do things and I like doing this and I like doing that and I want to enjoy, you know, spending time with my family and I actually want to be, and you just felt like you didn’t have, life wasn’t happening for you, right?
[00:14:25] Inga Grigaitiene: And Adam the thing is, you know, I went through another crucial thing, you know, talking about, right. I was in the hospital. Hospitality, I’m in the hospitality. I loved people. And then I was, I started to be annoyed with people because they’re into my face. You know, it’s really and I escaped them.
[00:14:46] I wasn’t working anymore, you know, but because my honest love, deep love was towards these people. I love people. I love being surrounded with the people. And afterwards, you know, I love people again, you know, I love again what I was doing, you know, the, and I was tired of, I, you gave me my passion and happiness again.
[00:15:17] You know, if you know what I mean, you know,
[00:15:19] Adam Stott: and we help guide you there, but you know, you took the actions and you made the changes, right? It’s a two way street.
[00:15:26] Inga Grigaitiene: I’m talking, I’m over talking you, you know, but the thing is, you know, that until you don’t have coach, you don’t know that you need coach, you know, only working, you know, with the coach, you understand how, much you need coaching because you can read loads of books, but you know, all knowledge will be scattered around and the coach takes you like, you, you know, how many books I read before and you took me.
[00:15:57] And you walk me through, you know, my knowledge somehow now in, in order, I know where I’m going and still, you know, I need you. If you will have me for another 10 or 15 years until I’m alive, I will be following you. You know, yes. Thank you.
[00:16:17] Adam Stott: Oh, well, no, that’s our pleasure. And it is, it’s a two way street, you know, you’ve been amazing.
[00:16:22] You took the actions. So what does somebody do to go on this development journey? Well, the first thing they need to do is they need to get real on where they are. So this is like the practical parts of how do you make a transformation change? You’ve got to get real on where you are. I think you did that very well is like, I’m overworked.
[00:16:40] I’m tired. I need some help. And you got really clear. And then we need to say, the second question is, where do we want to be? And I think you were really clear on that. So you knew where you were, you knew where you wanted to be. What you didn’t a hundred percent know was the steps. That’s the only thing.
[00:16:56] So, so anyone that’s watching and getting used to and understands like, Hey, If you’re not quite happy with your business, if you’re not quite happy with the direction, if you’re not quite getting the financial reward you want, if you feel tired and overworked and it’s not happening for you, it’s simple.
[00:17:13] Where are you right now? Get it all down on paper. Get a clear idea of what’s going on in your life. Where would you love to see yourself in 12 months time? Start to get that vision. You had that vision. You’re like, this is what I want. This is and then what we can do is we can very easily add the steps and the habits to allow you to travel towards that destination.
[00:17:34] But this is the truth. Most people I’ve just given a, you know, a 15 minute exercise that actually would transform people’s lives if they did it. The question is, are they going to do it? And, you know, that would be my challenge. And tell us in the comments, if you do that, where are you now? Get very clear.
[00:17:53] 12 months time, where do you wanna be? Right? So you know where you are, where you want to be, and then we can help fill in the steps. But those first two parts of where are you now, where do you wanna be, is critical because that is getting real, having vision. Then we travel towards a vision. That’s what I would encourage people to do.
[00:18:12] I think that’s exactly what you did. And that changed your life. We are privileged to guided you on that. But you don’t forget you did the work. You got outside your comfort zone. You went through the challenges.
[00:18:24] Inga Grigaitiene: Inga, for doing the hard work. Yeah, that’s it. That’s
[00:18:26] Adam Stott: it. You did the work.
[00:18:27] No, because a lot of people don’t do the work. That’s the truth. And if people don’t do the work, they don’t get the results. You did the work, you showed up, you invest in yourself, you took the action, you deserve the results you’re getting.
[00:18:38] Inga Grigaitiene: Actually, you know, the at the beginning I was just, oh God, you know, there’s artists cost so much and I’m on the leg, you know, and the, you know, honestly, That it was my best investment ever.
[00:18:50] Adam Stott: Oh, lovely.
[00:18:52] Inga Grigaitiene: Yeah, because I believe in education. I believe in self, you know, investment, you know, and just self growth.
[00:19:00] Adam Stott: Yeah, well, as you walked in here today, you look happy, you’re smiling. You’re laughing. You look great. You know, it’s like a different woman sitting in front of me doing amazing things.
[00:19:10] So well done you. And hopefully if you’ve been watching this episode of business growth secrets, you can connect with Inga. It was lovely to have her on. She adds lots of amazing humor and you know, really a real story there as well, which I think is super important. So, so well done.
[00:19:26] And if you want to connect with her, where is LinkedIn the best place? I know you’re going. Yeah.
[00:19:30] Inga Grigaitiene: I’m on LinkedIn. As self, how to say, self presenting myself on the LinkedIn to showing who I am. But if you’d like to come and visit Cambridge, you can stay over the night at my multi award winning guest house.
[00:19:48] Yeah.
[00:19:49] Adam Stott: Yeah. Hopefully I didn’t misinterpret that
[00:19:52] Inga Grigaitiene: invitation. Yes. And yeah. Thank you. You know, I’m on online just googling any biggest house. Cambridge, , if I can say that. Yeah. You can say yeah, but to know me personally better my journey and how I’ve grown and know that just I’m on LinkedIn.
[00:20:12] Adam Stott: Great stuff. Go over, head over check Inga out on LinkedIn. You know, wherever you’re watching this, we’ll put a link to to her LinkedIn there, either in the comments or in the description. And of course, let me know if you listened all the way through to this episode. Let me know if you took action and you actually did that mini exercise that we gave you.
[00:20:32] I’d really love to hear how that helped you. Remember, getting clarity is key. having a vision, following through on the process and really developing yourself is critical to your success. I hope you enjoyed today’s episode, and I look forward to seeing you on the next one of Business Growth Secrets.
[00:20:48] Inga Grigaitiene: Thank you.