Lessons from Layne Beachley

Layne Beachley is one of the most authentic, grounded, unassuming people I’ve ever met. I had the privilege to spend time with her in Fiji at Nurture Her and I was so blown away by her wisdom that I wanted to share a few key takeaways with you. These are so relevant to us as business owners.

Layne is regarded as the most successful female surfer in history. But here’s the kicker. That’s not because she’s a talented surfer. Of course, she is a talented surfer, but that’s not the reason she won 6 consecutive world titles between 1998 and 2003, and went on to win a 7th in 2007. She put in the work. She made sacrifices. She levelled the F up.

It’s easy to mistake persistence, discipline, dedication and sacrifice for talent.

My key takeaways from Layne:

Don’t surround yourself with dream thieves; surround yourself with those who lift you up. 

Who you surround yourself with is so important. You’ve probably heard the saying “you are the top 5 people who you spend your time with”. And that’s true. If you spend your time with people who are constantly complaining or talking negatively about others or telling you why you can’t achieve something, you will inevitably be affected in a negative way.

On the other hand, if you spend your time with people who are positive and supportive and encourage you to slay your goals, you will be elevated, inspired and motivated.

Action: Take a moment to list out the 5 people you spend the most time with. Are you happy with your answer? Now I’m not saying you should sever your friendships and burn your bridges (although in some cases you should!) but do you need to expand your network, join a mastermind or up-level your connections and network?

Start with your identity. The process and outcomes will follow. 

You may have heard of Simon Sinek’s TED Talk “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” about starting with why. It’s currently got over 46million youtube views and at least 20 of them are from me!

Well, Layne introduced me to James Clear’s 3 levels at which change can occur:

  1. Identity
  2. Process
  3. Outcome

As business owners, we often focus on outcomes. And many of us begin the process of affecting outcomes by focusing on what we do. This leads us to outcome-based habits.

The alternative is to take action based around our identity. Who we believe we are. With this approach, we start by focusing on who we wish to become rather than what we want to achieve. You can read more about this here.

If it’s not a HELL YEAH, it’s a F*CK NO. 

This is a simple, yet really powerful process for making decisions. As business owners, we are presented with dozens, if not hundreds of opportunities every week. We need to decide what to do with these opportunities. We can often say “yes” to these opportunities out of fear. Fear of scarcity or fear of letting people down. If we say yes to everything and everyone we can become burnt out, resentful and miserable. What we need to do is create boundaries and know what to say yes to and what to say no to.

Layne’s process, which I love, is to feel into it. This is your immediate initial reaction you get when presented with a opportunity before that little voice in your head starts to give you all the reasons why it will/won’t work or is/isn’t a good idea. Pay attention to that feeling. If it’s a HELL YEAH then do it.

Now, I am a “jump out of the plan and build the parachute on the way down” kind of person, so this is easier for me, than someone like Karyn who likes to have all her ducks in a row before taking off. We make such a good team because we are so different.

So that’s how you make the yes decision. And if it’s not a HELL YEAH, it a F*CK NO.

Flip it

I love this concept and it’s something we can all start doing straight away.

When we start to imagine what could go wrong, flip it, and imagine what could go right.

When we start to think about why we shouldn’t do something, flip it, and think about why we should.

Think about our dialogue.

  • “Don’t forget your wallet”
  • “Don’t miss the train”
  • “Don’t, don’t, don’t”

It’s so negative. Let’s flip it to be positive.

  • “Remember you wallet”
  • “Catch the train”
  • “Do, do, do”

So there are my takeaways from the lovely Layne Beachley. I hope this inspired you too.

Written by Megan Winter

Megan is an award-winning marketer and has worked with some of the fastest-growing eCommerce brands in the world.

Megan loves helping ethically-produced, heart-centred, soul-driven online store owners to make more income and achieve more impact. 

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About Karyn Parkinson

Karyn (“with a Y!”) is an eCommerce marketing specialist with a knack for high-converting Facebook ad funnels and website optimisation. Through her eCommerce marketing agency and on-the-pulse training programs, Karyn’s helped hundreds of eCommerce store owners across the globe boost profits, generate more revenue, and achieve an ad-spend ROI of their dreams. 

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