Welcome to Visionary’s Pursuit, a podcast where we explore what it takes to turn your bold and inspiring ideas into reality. I'm Carolina Zuleta. I'm a life and business coach and your host for this podcast. I'm thrilled to have you here.
Hi, welcome back. This is episode 53 of the Visionaries Pursuit Podcast.
Some days ago I was having a conversation with a client , and she made a passing comment about how she seen herself as an underdog and not as a winning horse. And we ended up talking a little bit more about what that was. And since then I've been thinking so much about what is the difference between these two mindsets? What are the benefits, the pros and cons of each type of mindset, and that's what I want us to talk about.
So how do you see yourself? Are you an underdog or are you the winning horse? since that conversation with my client, I've been asking other clients and friends and family members how they see themselves, and many people have told me they see themselves as underdogs. Very few see themselves as winning horses, and some of them have said, Hmm, I'm kind of a mix of both.
And to me, when I talk about my clients, it's not surprising that they see themselves as underdogs because a lot of my clients are defeating the odds.
They might be the only woman in a boardroom or the immigrant who started a career from nothing and was able to grow their business. Or they disrupted industries or they won in environments where no one thought they were gonna be the winners. They had a lot of people doubting them. And also when they looked at the world, there were not a lot of people like them making it all the way to the top.
I've been enamored by stories of underdogs, anywhere from the entrepreneur who came from very humble beginnings, who maybe didn't have the education but had a big dream, had a compelling vision that just pulled them forward, that gave them the strength to overcome one obstacle after the other.
Stories like Jim Carrey, whose family struggled a lot financially, who had to quit high school so he could go and support his family who at times lived in a van.
Or j. K Rowling, whose book was rejected from 12 different publishers that went on to become an empire of more than $30 billion.
We love those stories. The story of the person nobody believed in because they are, they're admirable people that inspire us. That remind us of the incredible strength we all possess inside.
Underdogs are fueled by overcoming odds, by proving others wrong. By showing grit and a capacity to continue believing in themselves and in their dreams, no matter what.
What underdogs believe is that they have to fight harder than anyone else because no one believes in them. Because they are the ones who have to prove to others to show what they're capable of.
So of course that fuel and that belief system gives them a lot of strengths. Resilience . grit. The ability to innovate from necessity, scrappiness, creativity.
And they have a high tolerance for rejection and failure. An underdog knows they have nothing to lose, so even when they're losing, they're okay with it, or they can manage it better because they're focusing on all that they can win.
And I believe we all need to have an underdog inside of us. A part that is resilience, who's not afraid of failure or rejection, who can overcome one obstacle after the other and be resourceful in order to get to our biggest goals and dreams.
And now let's look at the people that we recognize as the winning horses. The Federers or the Djokovics, the Michael Jordans of the world. The people that one season after another know how to hold first place. The people who when, everyone expects them to win, they deliver.
And winning horses are exceptional. Because knowing how to maintain that level of excellence and how to manage the pressure of other people's expectations, it's incredibly hard.
The mindset of the winning horse is fueled by self-trust, inevitability, and owning the identity as a front runner. What they believe is, I'm expected to win and I deliver. Winning is who I am.
And of course, that belief system gives them a lot of different strengths as well. Confidence, calm execution, ability to attract opportunities because they know others are betting on them. So they know how to capitalize on those opportunities. And they have a magnetic presence. People wanna work with them, wanna be around them, wanna learn from them, wanna invest in them.
So as you can see, both mindsets are incredibly powerful. And both type of mindsets deliver amazing results, but also each type of mindset has its own shadow, its own limitations.
If we think about the underdog, their focus is to get external validation and they love the thrill of defying expectations. But if you stay always in the underdog mindset, you might get addicted to struggle. You might start creating problems without being conscious of it just to prove that you can do it.
Being successful, being at the top, being number one, has a lot of pressure there's a capacity you need to develop in order to hold that much success.
But if you identify yourself with being the underdog, you might end up sabotaging that success because it feels unfamiliar. Because it feels uncomfortable because what your brain knows, what your nervous system knows is the struggle, is the hardship. It's the difficulty.
And on the other side, when we think about the winning horse, based on their belief system and what they're fueled by their focus becomes having an internal standard of excellence, consistency, visibility, and leadership.
I was listening to a speech by Tom Brady and he said, you don't need to be special. You need to be what most people aren't: consistent, determined, and willing to work hard.
So when your mindset is a winning horse mindset that is always to be at the top, the shadow side of that is the pressure to maintain that image to appear always as the winning person. And what that can lead to is a big fear of failure because you're thinking I'm at the top. If I fail, a lot of people are gonna be disappointed.
So what can happen is that when you are at the top, when you're the winning horse. You stay in what is known to you. In what you know you can control. In what you've won at multiple times before. Instead of taking risks of trying something new, of exploring a new avenue.
So if you over identify with being the winner, always, you might start playing not to lose instead of trying to win, you might play to defend what you've created in the past, instead of creating something new from scratch, something different.
So underdogs have nothing to lose. They're willing to take all the risk because they know that there's so much potential for winning. While winning horses might be more risk averse because now they have a lot to lose.
So as any way we think in life, both mindsets have a lot of strengths and things we admire and celebrate, and both of them also have a shadow side.
So as I've been thinking about these two mindsets, and I've been thinking about this dear client of mine who inspired me to do this episode, the question I've been sitting with is, when do you switch mindsets?
When does being the underdog start limiting you and it's time to develop the mindset of a winning horse? And also when you've been seeing yourself as the winning horse, it's good to see yourself as the underdog.
So in the case of my client, we together decided that it was time for her to let go of the underdog mindset and to start seeing herself as the winning horse. Yes, she already knows how to face failure and take risks. But now it's time for her to start developing the capacity to get one win after the other, to not just strive to play the game at the top, but to be number one.
And that requires a development of more self-trust, a change in her self-concept, and even changing how she shows up for every opportunity, how she negotiates with other investors, how she doesn't think she has to reduce her revenue or her income in order to get a seat in the room to compete. But that she can walk into a room holding herself as the winner and create this space to be number one.
Last week with the students of the Visionary Mindset Program we were exploring the power of a belief that I think is a belief winning horses have, and it's the belief that we, our services or our products, are in demand.
Business owners who see their businesses as winning horses imagine that there hundreds, thousands of people who are ready and able to buy their products and services right now. Instead, underdogs think they need to go out and convince people to buy their products or services. So developing the belief that you, your products or your services are in demand, is cultivating the mindset of the winning horse.
And one thing I wanna highlight about this, believing you're a winning horse or an underdog, or that you're in demand, doesn't have to come from the circumstances. You can see yourself as a winning horse, even when the revenue in your business is not where you want it to be. Or when your brand is not as well known as you hope or you want it to be in the future.
You don't need to have evidence to develop this mindset. You don't have to reach a certain goal or milestone in order to see yourself as a winning horse. Seeing yourself as the winner is where you begin, and from there, you create your success.
So now for a moment, let's also look at what could possibly go wrong when you believe you are the winning horse, or when your business has had a track record of always winning.
Companies like Kodak or Blockbuster, who were the number one in their industries at a specific time, and who became overconfident, who thought they were infallible and that overconfidence stopped them from innovating, from taking new risks, from trying new things from disrupting their own business model in order to adapt to the new circumstances the world was presenting.
So here's your homework. Take a moment and ask yourself, do I see myself as the underdog? Or do you see yourself and your business as the winning horse? So that's step number one. Then step number two, think about the decisions you're making right now. And if you see yourself as the underdog, ask yourself, if I knew I was the winning horse, how would I show up to this meeting?
What decision would I make about my budget or investors or marketing strategies. And also the other way around. If you see yourself as the winning horse, ask yourself, well, if I was the underdog, how would I handle this new strategy, this new launch, this obstacle I'm facing?
Being able to look at a problem from both perspectives is gonna give you a wider range of options and abilities to solve the problems you're currently facing, or to find the opportunities you maybe can't see right now.
Maybe as you're listening to this episode, it's the time to tell yourself that you are no longer an underdog. And that you're the winner. I'm so excited for you to discover what becomes possible, what you achieve, what you create by seeing yourself as the winner.
Right now, the doors to the Visionary Mindset Program are open.
Helping my clients understand their mindsets and how their mindset is limiting them and step into new identities, upgrading their self-concept, seeing themselves as the leaders they know they are is what I do in my coaching programs.
If you wanna take your mindset to the next level, I want to invite you to book a 15 minute call to learn more about this program and to understand how learning these tools and strategies to upgrade your mindset can have an incredible impact on your business. The link to book this call is in the description of the podcast, and I would love to support you in becoming the version of yourself you really wanna become, you know, lives inside of you, and will create the most exceptional results for your business.
That's all my friends. I'll see you next week.
If you're currently pursuing a big, bold idea and would love some support, let's talk. In my coaching program, I'll teach you how to manage yourself, your own thoughts and emotions. as well as your team and your money so you can turn your beautiful idea into a reality. Go now to carozuleta.com slash consult that is c a r o z u l e t a dot com slash consult and complete the form to book a complimentary call with me.
See you there!
