Your Professionalism Is Costing You Millions

Welcome to the Paul Vette podcast. I'm not going to talk about how things should be done, but mainly about who you need to be. I challenge you to become the owner of your true identity. Time for your breakthrough and joy in your business. Your professionalism is costing you millions, simply because it means you're not being yourself, because you've hidden away so much of your behavior, your thoughts, maybe even your environment and your emotions under the label 'No, that's not professional'. But what if we're actually waiting for that entrepreneur who doesn't behave professionally? By that I don't mean doing inappropriate things, of course, but just being that lovely unorthodox billionaire. You know them. Iron Man, well he's fictional of course, but if you think of Richard Branson for example or Elon Musk, both are quite unorthodox. You could even say that in certain respects they don't conduct themselves very professionally. If you think about it, I have one image in mind right now that I'm thinking of. I believe when Twitter was taken over by Elon, what he did was, and I don't know why at all, walk into that office with a sink. He entered that office with a sink. That's not professional at all, man! No, but meanwhile he was, I believe, the richest man on earth while I'm recording this. So it might be that you think yes, I really have to behave professionally. I have to show up neatly in a three-piece suit. I know this isn't a three-piece suit, but that's how you should show up. Neat shoes on, hair always groomed. The beard also has to be done by the barber every day, every week. I always have to conduct myself this way. At parties I can't show myself at all and before it gets really fun I withdraw myself as director, because that's proper. I can say I once worked at a company when I was quite young where we thought it was fantastic when the director would stand behind the bar and start pouring beers. Yes, we thought that was great. And honestly, in my view you're also a bigger person then, because you're being yourself instead of that role you've started playing. That narrow, professional role of someone who's tied up all tight in a suit like a kind of armor. That's how I picture it. And I see those kinds of entrepreneurs. And then I don't find it strange that they don't grow. Because orderliness, organization, boundaries, yes they ensure that it doesn't get bigger. A football field never gets bigger. There's just a line around it, it always stays the same size. That applies to your business too. If you draw a line around it, it stays the same size. And what would happen if you just, and I don't mean that you should go completely wild. So please don't hang from the lights in a bar and then say yes Paul said I should behave less professionally. But what if there are a number of things that you don't do now under the label, at least then I'm conducting myself professionally. Maybe you don't share certain things online in videos or on LinkedIn. Or you don't fully share your opinion in a meeting either. Or you don't completely let go from your emotion. While people might actually be waiting for that. And look, that can of course also happen when you let yourself go and conduct yourself a bit less professionally, in quotation marks. You'll naturally get certain reactions to that. But then it's up to you to determine. Okay, who's giving that reaction? Are those people really important to me or to my growth and my business? Do they not matter at all? And what is the reaction then? Do they just need time to adjust? Because every environment needs to adjust the moment you're just being more yourself again. I once weighed 120 kilos. Yes, then I became more myself after that. I started exercising, I started eating healthier. And by exercising I mean mountain biking hard five times a week. And healthy eating went from eating badly once a day and drinking a lot of beer in the evenings to drinking much less beer and eating six times a day. And suddenly instead of weighing 120 kilos I weighed 100 kilos. And people just walked past me, friends of mine who didn't even recognize me. Yes, they thought, whoa what happened here? And suddenly I wasn't drinking along in the evenings anymore and I wasn't going out anymore. Or when I was a DJ, well yes, I had to drive myself eventually with the car, so I didn't drink anymore. Yes, you get very different reactions to that. But what the case is, then you could say okay Paul, you did start behaving more professionally. Although you can question whether that's more professional for a DJ. I believe it is by the way, but I started behaving much more according to who I am. And that didn't match at all with the environment I was in. So my behavior became different. The things I told myself became different. I'm talking about the layers of identity, number 3 and 4. The environment layer 5 therefore also automatically became different. My emotions became different. My core beliefs changed too. But that all comes because I simply brought myself much more in line with who I am. By conducting myself less professionally or not necessarily behaving as it should within that circle. And man, that was liberating. That's really nice to just do things not as they should or not necessarily do things as they should, as they've always gone. And you as an entrepreneur also never started a company to do things as they should. Because you've always done something in a way that it shouldn't be done. And from there you started building a business. You started solving a problem for people and you got money for that. And then you started building your business around that. Using levers and teams and every way you've done it. But the chance is just great that now you're stuck in that armor that I mentioned, that you've started behaving too narrowly. What if you would just start being yourself. Just being yourself as it should be, I would say. Being yourself and much less professionally outwardly and operating much more from yourself, from your passion. What would that do to your business? What little voices are coming up for you now that are telling you, and just write them down. Yes that's not possible Paul? Can't do that? No what will people think of me? Yes I'd like to but no no I'm really not going to do that. Those little voices are bullshit. They're really bullshit. Because what would happen if you didn't listen to those little voices and you would start telling yourself yes, I can just really listen to myself and I can just do what I want, what I think is wise, that it's smart, that it's good, that it's fun, that it's fantastic. That it's great, that it will lead to more impact and more revenue. Because if you're going to listen to that little voice of yourself, what would you do then? What would your day look like then? And write that down too. So on one side write down the little voices that tell you no that's not possible Paul, because this and this and this. And on the other side write down what would you want to do? And then it's just a matter of how much self-confidence you have, to just do all of that. And when you have less self-confidence, choose one that you do first. Then just behave differently than you do now, namely more like you are yourself. Then go and see what's going to happen for you, but especially how that's going to be for you. That you just give yourself permission to just find yourself a fun entrepreneur and then from that fun entrepreneur that you are, start doing things. That would be fantastic, right? Do you hear those little voices? Well that's not possible? We'll see. I'll just quickly write it down. First those little voices, because they're naturally top of mind. Give them attention and then okay what would I do? And it's of course very nice if you just let me know here under the video what you would do or what you're now going to do that you actually didn't do all that time under the label of professionalism. I'm very curious. Your growth is further ignited. Ready to take full ownership? Then check the link in the show notes. --- This transcript has been translated from Dutch.