13: Reframe: Shift the Way You Work, Innovate, and Think with Mona Patel

On this episode we are so excited to welcome Mona Patel, a dynamic and engaging entrepreneur with 17 years experience convincing leaders of some of the world’s biggest brands to understand value and optimize their customer’s experiences.

• Mona didn’t have a business plan when she jumped, she just followed her gut. She didn’t believe in herself and then one day she did. She used that momentum and started sprinting and has been doing that since.
• The benefit of not having a plan is you’re almost constantly listening for clues to create one.  That early stage for Mona was about figuring out what she wanted to do.
• Listening helped Mona land her first and second projects. She wasn’t pitching what she could do; she was listening for what they needed.
• UX stands for User Experience. The field is based around understanding what a user or customer wants and needs from a brand and then designing solutions to meet that need.
• At Motivate Design their version of UX has always been around using design to motivate people to change their behavior.
• Mona’s undergrad is in psychology and engineering. It was understanding how people think, memory cognition, behavior and then the application of that to physical product design.

Entrepreneurs, sit down with your team. If you don’t have a team it can be friends and family. Ask them to write down as many what if questions as they can in a three minute period that answers a problem statement that you propose to them.  The first set is not always the best answer so I’m going to ask you to do it three times. Nine minutes total and share in between.  The result will be:

• You will come up with an answer.
• You will get unstuck.

If you think about it the number of what if questions you ask are often negative. What if I fail? What if I can’t? What if I lose? What if people make fun of me? What if I have to go back to a job? That’s what holds you back. Use that opening what if for positive.

Shift from what if I can’t to what if I don’t? Working with a coach is really important. But it’s also important to list what you want to get done in your life.

Write down your life goals.  You aren’t going to get there if you don’t know

1. What your goal is
2. Why it’s important to you.

If a Ted Talk is one of your goals, when are you going to start? It’s not going to be easier by avoiding it. You can commit to watch one every week and get the rhythm of how it works. You can also get yourself on stages and get a public speaking coach so you’re refining yourself. Maybe it’s journaling everyday so you start to identify your story.

 

Three things to invest in when starting a new business

1. Get a coach
2. Don’t create a company around yourself
3. Networking

 

You can find Mona Patel at:

Website: www.motivatedesign.com

Email:  [e-mail]