We need to talk about the America vs. Belgium game on Monday. 🫣 (and don’t worry, I promise this ties back to our regularly scheduled entrepreneurial reflections)

It was embarrassing to say the least (don’t ask our goalkeeper how it went).

Just look at this headline from ESPN… oof

I’ve been furiously studying up on the rules, trying to articulate what made Belgium the clear winner in that game. When I was looking at the stats, there’s one that stood out to me as strangely poetic.

Chances created.

(It’s assists [passes that lead to a goal] + key passes [shot blocked or saved])

What made Belgium the winning team wasn’t number of passes or possession time, it was chances created and shots on goal.

“Chances created” is a bit of an oxymoron, combining chance (luck, out of your control) and creation (actions to bring something into existence).

There’s an understanding that once you take a shot, after you kick and the ball leaves your foot, the outcome is out of your hands.

When you miss a goal, you keep it moving into the next play. Next time you have the ball, you pass it to center and line it up for the best possible chance of a goal. Regardless of the outcome, you still get to collect that “chances created” stat.

It’s a beautiful term for the combination of luck and skilled action that we see off the pitch, too. The most successful businesspeople have developed a combination of skill set and mindset.

The skill set is the actions you work to improve. You can get better at marketing, at selling, at delivering your service.

But then there's also the mindset, this unfounded delusion self-belief. Holding a vision of something you know deep down as true, even when the stats don’t back it up yet.

I’ve made some goals and had some misses this year (some too fresh to speak of at this moment), and I’ve been at this long enough to realize that success comes when I create those chances.

It comes from setting up calls and meetings. It comes from sending the email and going to the event where I don’t know a single person.

Not every sales call will result in a new client. Not every client relationship lasts forever.

And yet, we continue.

At the end of every How I Built This interview, host Guy Raz asks the same question to every guest: How much of your success is due to skill and hard work, and how much is due to luck?

Unsurprisingly, the response is typically a combination of both.

And that's what makes us better at anything we do: being comfortable with the balance of intentional action and not knowing what the result will be. I'm in a season now where I’m not just doing the marketing, but also passing the ball to other business owners and helping them feel confident creating chances in their own businesses.

I’m SO thankful to be supporting other entrepreneurs with skill set (ads management) and mindset (taking ownership). If you’ve been wanting to pick up a skill that brings in new business predictably, I have something for you.

It’s the Steady Ads Cohort where we work together live, in a small group. It’s a space where no question’s too small. Want to save a spot? >>> Join the waitlist here.

And if you want to know more, info is in the doc here.

This week’s mini is a simple reflection question, and I’m curious what you think about how success is created.

Write it in your journal and then reply to let me know your thoughts!

I’ve read a bunch of sales books. I could take or leave the advice in most of them, but this one has so. many. gems. that apply to entrepreneurial mindset in general.

And this book applies to you, even if you’re not in sales.

In To Sell Is Human, Daniel Pink coined the term “non-sales selling” which is essentially any action you take to persuade, influence, or convince others in ways that don’t involve anyone making a purchase (like when I convinced my husband to watch The Drama during his week off work).

In a world where thorough comparison shopping can be executed by AI in a few seconds, the playing field between salespeople and buyers has been leveled by the accessibility of information. As Daniel Pink observes, it’s no longer a “buyer beware” marketplace—it’s seller beware.

For those of us who want to move others, the old tactics (like Always Be Closing) don’t work anymore. What does work? The new ABCs: Attunement, Buoyancy, and Clarity.

I won’t spoil the whole thing for you, but something I’m doing differently after reading this book is seeing my role in sales as problem finding through asking really good questions.

One of the best compliments I can receive is, “No one’s ever asked me that before.”

Whether you’re building something of your own, working toward a goal you haven’t yet achieved, or you’re a member of the USMNT, go easy on yourself this week. Even the best players in the world don’t have a 100% goal conversion rate.

Each day, what can you do to line up more shots on goal? Reply and let me know your take on my sports/biz analysis ⚽️

Let’s go out there and create our own chances.

Stay Steady,
Molly

P.S. The rates for the Steady Ads Cohort go up after July 15. If you’re thinking about it, just join the waitlist to lock in the founding rate.