Join us for our next episode of Fill My Cup to learn the value of having an abundance mindset.
Fill My Cup: Episode 4
In our conversation today, Angela and I will share how we connected over our many commonalities, including our abundance mindset.
We learn a scarcity mindset at a young age, how can we change it.
Angela and I will share how we view competition in business.
Fill My Cup Transcript
Kim (00:03)
Welcome to our fourth episode of Fill My Cup. Today we are filling our cups at The Well at Christ Wesleyan Church in Milton, Pennsylvania, and our topic is abundance versus scarcity. Thank you for joining us. Our format is going to be a bit different from previous episodes. We have a guest with us, Angela Hummel, from Angela Hummel Consulting, and we're going to chat about filling our cups.
But before we dive into our conversation today, let's review from our previous episode. We discussed moving from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. I hope you have spent the last few weeks being intentional and aware of your mindset. When you find yourself in that fixed mindset, engage in ways to move out of it, whether it's looking at the situation from a different perspective or connecting with others that have a growth mindset.
So now on to our chat with Angela. Thank you, Angela, for agreeing to join with me today.
Angela (01:05)
Thanks for having me. Excited to be here.
Kim (01:07)
I'm glad that you are here too. The reason I asked Angela to join me for our topic on abundance versus scarcity is because she and I connected over our abundance mindsets. Angela's story is featured in chapter 10 of my book, Burn The Plow.
Angela, I would love to start by sharing how we connected. It was the summer of 2021 and I was working with a mutual colleague, Anna Belle, here at Christ Wesleyan on an HR seminar that we were going to do the fall of that year for the community. I knew of Angela because we had a common client and we had common connections in the HR community. Both Angela and I have our own consulting firms, and some of our services overlap and some are different. At that point in the summer of 2021, I felt the nudge that I needed to reach out to you to see if you would be interested in partnering with me on this seminar. I never met you or never spoke to you. I just wasn't really sure how you would respond, but I stepped out and I sent you an email and we connected.
Angela, tell me when I contacted you, what your thoughts were and your initial thoughts about that connection.
Angela (02:27)
Sure. If it would've happened a year or two before that, I don't know how I would've reacted. I think might have been a little more resistant, but it was happening at just the perfect time for me because I was feeling a similar nudge to even connect with you and others and really move past that fixed mindset that I had and moving into that more open thinking and growth opportunity. So when you called me or connected, I was excited about the opportunity about what could come.
Kim(02:56)
Great. I am so glad that you were excited, because it is scary when you step out. You don't know how the other person is going to respond, and I am so glad that you accepted my call and accepted my challenge to work with me on the seminar. And we actually just completed our third annual seminar. I remember in our conversation, we had so much in common and we really connected. We had similar professional stories. We actually discovered we attended the same church. We have multiple campuses, and even though we're in different parts of the state, we attended the same church. That was exciting. But as we continued to talk and get to know each other, your abundance mindset philosophy, which is also what I had in common, I knew that I have found a great partner.
Tell me a little bit about, and it is also in the book, how you came to go to an abundance mindset.
Angela (04:00)
I think it was always part of my training. I've been fortunate enough to have some training by theFranklin Covey Institute. Many pieces of the same pie has always been part of whatI've tried to live my life doing. But when I really entered into the entrepreneurial space of running my own business, I found myself comparing myself to others and I found other people comparing me to them, and I started to look at people as competitors. There was one moment I was at the dinner table with my husband and I kind of had an outer body experience where I felt like I was looking down at the conversation and I found myself even using body language that was closed, and I thought, wait a minute here. I'm not practicing all of these great things that I know, which is I don't need to think of other people who are comparing themselves to me or me to them. There are so many pieces of a pie out there. I had to move from this. I felt myself kind of explaining things and this and that side or this person. I just really needed to open up my heart and my mind. So that's what I wrote about in the excerpt that you included in your book in chapter 10. And it was a physical and emotional release for me. It was really opening up my heart and my mind and just my soul.
Kim (05:29)
It's amazing to me how when you do open up the number of possibilities that come out because you're just so fixed. But when you just say, okay, I release it. Just the number of possibilities that happen and how you continue to get more work that you never even saw coming.
Angela (05:49)
Well, and the advice you get as a business owner is very different than that. They don't say, open upyour heart, open up your hands. Open up your mind to the possibilities. They say compete. Be thesmartest person in the room, be the most arrogant person in the room. And that was just not workingfor me. I was physically and emotionally exhausted by feeling that way. And when I did open up, a wholehost of opportunities came, and I can say that I've had growth ever since.
Kim (06:16)
I can't agree more. I think we tend to have a scarcity mindset and it's natural because when we're growing up, we're taught by our parents there's only so much money. If you are in a family and at dinner, this is all there is, and everybody's jocking for food. We also are taught if somebody wins, somebody loses. You always have to have a winner and a loser. I think that learning that not everything is scarce. Sure there are some scarce things, but what I find fascinating is when I talk to some people and they respond with this is how much money I make. That's all I can make. No, not really. There's other opportunities, and I know I'm seeing with some of my clients, they're telling me right now because we're in a situation where inflation is high, I prices are high, that people are feeling squished and employers can't keep up with the wages, with inflation. Employees are coming to their employers and saying, I need more money. I have this going on in my life and I need more money. Employers respond that this isn't how we determine compensation. Compensation is based on compensable factors on the work that you're doing. What are your thoughts about that? How can someone that's in thatvsituation, if they believe they need more money, what can they be doing if they had an abundance mindset or a growth mindset, what would they be doing?
Angela (07:47)
I think one of the experts on this topic would be Simon Sinek in his book, the Infinite Game. I think he talks about just how to lead a business around this and talk about things that are in short supply labor is in short supply. So we have a very changed workplace and a changed work ethic. I think there is a definite desire for people to move up in a company without necessarily doing all the prerequisite things that would require thebequal compensation. So I think maybe that's eroded a little bit or it's changing.
Kim (08:24)
For me, when I found times in my life where I may have needed more money, I looked for other revenue sources. I didn't go to my employer and say, I need more money. I looked for other revenue sources and I would take on part-time jobs if I needed to. Talking with our employees about the abundance mindset and what they can do, and here are opportunities for promotions or here's what you can do to get more money.
Sometimes people say no, they just want more money. They want the easy way out. The other thing that you mentioned that I think is very interesting is competition. So is there a place for competition in business, and what is your thought on competition?
Angela (09:12)
I think others make me better. I think about the times that I've felt compared to or even times that I've felt less than, I think women leaders talk about this a lot. I have really leaned into the opportunity to learn from others and know that not everyone is going to connect with me, and I'm at a point where I can't keep up with the requests that are coming in. This has happened to me. Once I opened up my heart and my mind to this, I changed my philosophy completely, and I think it's providential. I think there's a timing around this that's bigger than me. I was able to release some of that stress around comparing myself. I think competition makes you only look better, you better. And also I think that there's an opportunity for growth when you learn from others and partnerships. Some people are afraid of partnerships, and I've kind of leaned into them and have some really key partnerships in my business right now.
Kim (10:17)
Absolutely. We can't be all things to everybody. And you're right, we could have a client in common maybe, and they're like, Angela, I think you do this really well. You do that for them. I do this really well. I'll do this. And then we have a satisfied client because we partner. I have the same philosophy about competition, I'm a very competitive person, but I'm competitive with myself. I'm not trying to compete against someone else. I'm trying to compete against myself. What can I learn? What can I do better? And so I have to agree with you, competition makes us better. And if I see somebody that has something that I would really like to do, it's not a matter of being jealous. It's a matter of, okay, what do I need to do and what do I need to invest in to get there?
Angela (11:05)
Habit. I can't say that I'm perfect at this. I'll find times when I'm still having that dinner conversation with my husband where I'm like this and I'm like, no, this is a habit and a commitment to open up your mind to the possibilities of what a partnership could bring or what a competitor could bring. And I think that's just an amazing place to be in. But I'm not perfect, Kim. I'm still learning.
Kim (11:30)
That's the key, the first step is recognizing when we do that, when we're in that, we're on social media and we see that person, oh, they just got awarded that bid, or they're working with that client. I tried and I didn't get it, but they got it. And I've also looked at that from a standpoint of, God has something else out there for me. This wasn't the opportunity for me. And so that's why there was a no there. There's something else coming down the pike for me. I don't know what that is now, but there's something else. The
Angela (12:01)
Possibility thinking, right?
Kim (12:02)
It's the possibility. Absolutely. And I think it's really important we recognize that there's plenty of work out there. We may have to work a little harder for it, or we might have to try to figure out how do we differentiate, but it's out there and it's not a scarcity mindset. We just have to think a little differently.
Angela (12:21)
I think it's also how we talk to ourselves. I think we can really set ourselves up for failure or feeling that we're not good enough because we wouldn't say those things to a friend. Why do we say them to ourselves? I think that habit of positivity and positive self-talk and saying that it's not okay to think about the competitor this way, it's not okay to have that division or divide or that scarcity mindset, but instead a habit that says, open yourself up to the chance or the possibility or the growth or learning that's there for you.
Kim (12:58)
Absolutely. One other question that I know I think that happens to me, and I don't know if this happens to you or not, but as a coach, we sit down and we coach people, you coach people. Have you ever found yourself, you're going down a road and you think, Angela coach would say, I should do this .Why am I doing this? Do you have times where you stop and say, okay, I need to coach myself on this?
Angela (13:22)
Yeah. I'll often do hands up on that one. I admit that that's something that I struggle with too.
Kim (13:27)
I will say how would you talk to your client about that? Now I need to step back and coach myself.
Angela, it has been so much fun just chatting with you today. We could go on forever and maybe we'll have to do another vlog together. Thank you so much, and to learn more about Angela, you can connect with her onLinkedIn. Her email isangela@angelahummel.com. If you enjoyed our Vlog today, please like, please share, and please subscribe. We would really appreciate that.
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