Values vs. Beliefs: What does it look like to align our values with our entrepreneur beliefs?

Hi, y'all. Okay, I literally was doing a whole podcast episode and , taking y'all to church and I was not recording. So, a little, a few snags, right, that happen when you're navigating new ways of doing things. I, this is the first time that I'm actually using my camera to record.

My, not my laptop camera or my monitor camera, but an actual Sony camera as my webcam and my my microphone all connected and I can see myself through the computer right now and all that good stuff. So I was going to town and I had not pressed record, so just wanted to share that little snag there. But today's episode, I want to talk to you about values and beliefs.

and what the nuances are between the two because when we are aware of how they can, how they're different from each other, we can make better decisions, take better action, take bold action into doing the things that we want to do As a business coach, as an entrepreneur coach, I often try to view new concepts and information through the lens of entrepreneurship and business.

And that is a lens that we all, if you're a business owner, you have a lens for how you view entrepreneurship or having a business. And it may be different from me or other people that you know that have businesses. And the way that your view is shaped, it's often related to your experiences, your culture, your background, and information that you're learning

from the people that you trust. So I want to go into a few of the differences because they're nuanced. Sometimes we can use the word values and beliefs interchangeably but they are different. So I just want to point out a few differences and then give you a few examples that it might show up in your life and in your entrepreneurship journey.

All right, so let's get started.

​

Alright, so one of the things that I wanted to highlight in when we're thinking about values is thinking about them as principles. Thinking about them as the gold standard that are close and dear to us. And everybody has values, whether you know it or not, everybody has values. You might have values around family.

You may have values around social justice. You may have values around environmental sustainability or climate change. And those values are near and dear to your heart. They're very hard to shift or to change because they are important to who you are as a person. a sense of self and It is more stable. . they're very hard to change They're more emotional. We have a lot of emotional A lot of emotional charge to our values because they represent what we feel is important to our identity and to who we are as people.

But a belief It's more like a lens or a framework, but it can change if you are presented with new information. So you may have a belief that you cannot start a business because business takes up all your time.

and will take time away from your family. So you if you have a really strong value around family but you have a belief that if starting a business is going to is going to take you away from your family or or take away time from your family, then you may not, even if you've been wanting or dreaming to start a business your entire life, maybe you have values around self dependency, around money, but you have a higher value around family and you have a belief around starting a business that makes you think that having a business will take you away from your family, that is going to dictate whether you start that business or not, right?

So beliefs can change values, even though they may not be able to change as much, beliefs are more easily changed because they're not emotionally charged. They can be factual and they are beliefs about what you know about the world, right? So if you believe that starting a business is going to take you away from your family, it's going to require that you work 80 hours a week and that you work after your full time job and on the weekends and not go out for the next six months so that you can launch something, then you're most likely never going to take action on that dream of wanting to start a business.

Even if you have a value of working for yourself, earning your own money, making a community impact, even if you have that. But your value of family is deeper or it trumps all the other values and you have this belief, you're never going to take action. But if , we can shift the belief to saying that we can

definitely build businesses where we don't have to work 40 hours a week, where we don't have to compromise our time with our families, where we don't have to compromise our health and all of our weekends. Granted, of course, there may be some times where you need to work a few late nights or a few weekends in your journey as an entrepreneur.

it doesn't have to be to this extreme. And if you have this belief that that's what it takes to be successful, you can begin to shift that belief into one that actually fits who you are as a person and fits your values of family. And so that's what I wanted to bring this to the forefront, to your everyday thoughts about entrepreneurship, because Entrepreneurship in communities of color, in women of color, in queer folks, we have a belief around entrepreneurship or starting a business that often compromises our values to the things that we hold dear the most to our heart, which is.

Probably most likely well being right showing up for others. We definitely are folks who have learned, especially as a first gen Latina myself. I am the family manager. So, I show up for my family, have shown up for my loved ones throughout my whole life. And if I have a belief that starting a business is for me and that I have to do this on my own, then again, that's going to shape the way that I approach my business, right?

I mean, I mean, it may be, it may not align with the values that I hold dear. So, I have to examine. What I value most in my everyday life and I have to examine the beliefs that I have about entrepreneurship and starting a business and you can make that intentional reflection and stop to really understand what you believe about business, what you believe about your own capabilities, about your own competencies, your own strengths, and your abilities.

Even if you have to do the work to shift any beliefs to do the things that you want to do in your business, that work starts with your healing. It starts with you taking the intentional pause to reflect and to really think about how you view entrepreneurship and business. And is it possible, do you really believe that you can make it work holding your full time job, continuing to show up for your family, continuing to show up for yourself?

and still figure out a way to have a successful business. It's possible. I don't think anything is impossible.

ion season. And I'm, We're in: 2024

that things happen slow or that whatever beliefs that you have about business and entrepreneurship examine if it's serving you or not serving you another way to put it is it adaptive or maladaptive I want to go into a few. examples of values that you might hold if you're a business owner. You might have values in innovation and progress. So that might lead you to build a business that is full of creativity, that you're passionate about. Changes things and does things effectively faster for a group of people, your target audience.

You might have values in family time, like I said, that's a big one for a lot of people. Family time and personal well being. That is a big one for me. personal well being, my emotional health, my mental health, my spiritual health cannot be compromised for my business. It's just not going to happen.

I might have values in environmental protections, which I do. I am all about protecting the environment. I believe in climate change and we need to do more to make sure that we protect our earth, right? But If you are a business owner and the only examples that you see about business or entrepreneurship are these harmful corporations or companies that build up harmful pollutants into the air and have unsustainable practices.

Then you might not be encouraged to start a business. You may not be encouraged to figure out a way to start a business that is actually environmentally friendly. You may have values in community and there's a lot of rhetoric in entrepreneurship that you have to do this alone, that you are self made.

It's a very individualistic culture, but If you have values in community, again, that may be a cognitive dissonance between your values and what you believe about entrepreneurship. When in fact, it may just, you may just need to shift the way that you think about entrepreneurship, because it is possible to have community in your entrepreneurship journey.

You may have values around collaboration and work. Um, this is a value that is as an introvert, It's hard for me to be quite honest with you. Like I enjoy doing things on my own. I enjoy managing and having autonomy over my own time, over my own projects, over the way things look and are and are executed.

But. I could collaborate and be a team player and hire help and support and hire people that can bring my vision to life, right? There's some work that needs to be done there if my value sometimes may not align. well or super like a puzzle piece if my belief around collaboration and teamwork is that people can't bring my vision to life.

That may be a belief that I have and it deters me or stops me or makes my journey harder because I keep doing things on my own. I may have a belief around creativity So I may constantly want to be creative in my journey. And

maybe I never repurpose some of my content. And to be honest, I really don't. I never repurpose. have so much content that I've made over these last couple years in terms of content. Podcasts and blogs and emails in social media that I rarely repurpose, but I have such a high value and creativity that I feel like I constantly have to bring and create new content, new perspectives, new ways of thinking, new information all the time.

And that can be draining. That can be hella draining. So. I got to check my beliefs that I have around creativity and what that connects to. And I think it has to do with the fact that I have a belief that the more creative that you are, the more innovation you'll bring to your business and the more people that will come.

Have I found truth of that? No. People come to me anyway. If, if whether I bring out my highest creative self or not. because they are attracted to me as a person. So I gotta check that, right? I gotta check that belief. , but these are all just some examples of the values that you might hold as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, or even if you don't, right?

You might have values around community, even if you don't have a business, right? But a lot of these values are not embedded in the mainstream way that we look about business. Right? Um, values in business are all about doing things alone, getting things done, hustle culture, all of these other things.

So I just wanted to give you a few examples. I have values around social justice, right? So I try to bring a lot of social justice views and perspectives and that sometimes can really, it can really

come against being part of this capitalistic system, especially when The revenue is low right when the cash flow is low. It's like oh, what do I gotta do? to ramp that up um, and so it It shifts me into thinking that I gotta stop thinking this way and I gotta start thinking this way where it compromises my values and that, that is not a place I like to go., and where I don't want you to go. Also, if you have values around social justice, around , environmental sustainability, around community, those are all amazing values to have and yet they Can sometimes not align with the beliefs that we have about entrepreneurship or the beliefs that we have about ourselves or the beliefs that we have about having a business, we have to check ourselves.

So I hope that you have learned the. the differences and the nuance between values and beliefs and check them. What are your specific values? Do you have any values that you hold near and dear to your heart that sometimes feel like are being compromised in your entrepreneurship journey? And if so, how have you dealt with that?

How have you dealt with that misalignment? I like to invite you to share with us. Let us know in the comments. And I'd love to know if you have the same thoughts, and the same struggles around your values and the beliefs that you hold about having a business and starting your own business.

And maybe you've been wanting to start a business, but you again have all these beliefs around them that are stopping you from taking action. You can do it. It is possible. We are, there are folks out there who are shifting the way that they think and creating their own reality, shifting their reality so that they can live with their highest values and

not be misaligned. Thanks for listening. Come on over to beabosscoaching.com to listen to our other podcast episodes. I mostly hold a lot of interviews. I haven't had too many solo episodes this month, but I'm excited to To have this solo episode, I do, it's sort of like my way of talking to myself and talking about the things that I've been thinking about.

And if I've been thinking about it, I'm sure I'm not the first or only one who has thought about this in my journey as a business owner. And if you've thought about it, I'd love to get to know you. Come on over, book a complimentary call and we'll see you there.