Your Most Valuable Asset… Isn’t What You Think with Andrea Liebross

TL;DR

What is the most important skill I need to develop to achieve long-term business success?”

Your ability to think strategically—your brain power—is one of the most valuable and underutilized drivers of business success. When you improve how you think, make decisions, and solve problems, you increase your capacity to generate results without simply working more. Strengthening your mindset and decision-making processes allows you to use your time, energy, and systems more effectively.

How to Use Brain Power to Drive Business Growth

Most business owners focus heavily on managing their time and protecting their energy, but there is a third resource that often goes underdeveloped: your ability to think. Your entrepreneur mindset—how you process information, solve problems, and make decisions—has a direct impact on your results. When strengthened intentionally, it allows you to create more efficiency, better strategies, and higher-quality outcomes without simply increasing your workload. Developing your brain power is not about working harder. It is about thinking better.

Why Thinking Is a Growth Lever

At a foundational level, every result in your business is tied to a decision. Those decisions are shaped by how you interpret challenges, evaluate opportunities, and manage uncertainty. If your thinking is limited, reactive, or driven by fear, your results will reflect that.

On the other hand, when your thinking is expansive and strategic, you naturally identify better opportunities and execute more effectively.

This is why mindset plays such a significant role in business performance. Systems and strategies are important, but they are only as effective as the thinking behind them. Two people can use the same system and achieve very different results based on how they approach it. Strengthening your entrepreneur mindset improves your ability to use any tool or strategy to its full potential.

Expanding Your Thinking Capacity

One of the most practical ways to improve your results is to expand the range of options you consider. Many business owners get stuck because they approach problems from a narrow perspective, often defaulting to familiar or “safe” solutions. This limits innovation and can create unnecessary bottlenecks in growth.

When you intentionally explore multiple ways to approach a challenge, you create space for better solutions. For example, instead of assuming you need more clients to grow revenue, you might consider increasing prices, improving conversion rates, or introducing a new offer. Each of these options leads to a different strategy, and the ability to see them begins with how you think.

Identifying the Real Problem

A common issue in decision-making is focusing on surface-level problems instead of root causes. Many challenges in business are not operational—they are psychological. Feelings such as fear, self-doubt, or uncertainty can disguise themselves as strategic problems, leading you to look for solutions in the wrong place.

For instance, if you are avoiding visibility, the issue may not be your marketing strategy but a fear of judgment. When you identify the real problem, you can address it directly, which frees up mental energy and improves your ability to take effective action. This level of clarity is a key component of a strong entrepreneur mindset.

Becoming Comfortable with Uncertainty

Growth in business always involves some level of uncertainty. New offers, pricing changes, or strategic shifts rarely come with guaranteed outcomes. The ability to move forward despite not having complete information is what separates reactive decision-making from strategic leadership.

When you resist uncertainty, you tend to delay decisions or default to what feels safe, which can limit growth. When you accept it as part of the process, you become more willing to test, experiment, and adapt. This creates momentum and allows you to gather real data, which leads to better decisions over time.

Leveraging Support to Improve Thinking

Strong thinking does not happen in isolation. External input—whether from mentors, peers, or tools—can expand your perspective and challenge your assumptions. This is not about outsourcing decisions but about enhancing your ability to make them.

Engaging with people who think differently or operate at a higher level can help you identify blind spots and refine your approach. Similarly, using tools or systems that reduce mental load allows you to focus more on strategic thinking rather than routine tasks. Both forms of support increase your overall cognitive capacity.

Taking Action to Reinforce Thinking

Improved thinking alone is not enough—it must be paired with action. Execution provides feedback, and that feedback is what refines your decision-making over time. Without action, even the best ideas remain theoretical and do not contribute to growth.

One effective way to reduce hesitation is to reframe failure. Instead of viewing it as a negative outcome, treat it as data. Evaluating what worked and what did not allows you to adjust your approach and improve future decisions. This creates a cycle where thinking leads to action, and action strengthens thinking.

Building a Stronger Entrepreneur Mindset

Strengthening your entrepreneur mindset is an ongoing process that requires intention and consistency. This includes creating time to think strategically, questioning your assumptions, and actively working through challenges rather than avoiding them.

Investing in your ability to think—through learning, reflection, and experience—has a compounding effect on your business. As your thinking improves, so do your decisions, your strategies, and ultimately your results.

Your brain power is not just a personal asset—it is a business advantage. When you learn how to use it effectively, you unlock new levels of growth, efficiency, and long-term success.

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Transcript for Episode 320. Your Most Valuable Asset… Isn’t What You Think with Andrea Liebross

Amy [00:00:03]:

Oftentimes, as entrepreneurs, we think that our most valuable assets are time being one, energy being the other. But there's one that's even more important. And in today's episode, our guest is going to unpack that for us because I must admit I've said it before, your time and your energy, those are your two most valuable assets. But Andrea opened up my perspective even more, that there's something even more valuable than those two, and when leveraged appropriately, can help you as an entrepreneur to grow and to really promote yourself to CEO. So before we dive in today, I would love to welcome in Andrea Libros. Welcome into the podcast.

Andrea Liebross [00:00:49]:

Thanks, Amy. Thanks for having me. I'm happy to be here.

Amy [00:00:52]:

Super excited for this conversation because I just loved your perspective and take on this. It's a game changer for so many entrepreneurs. But before we dive in, tell us more about yourself, who you are, what you do, and who you serve.

Andrea Liebross [00:01:06]:

So I work with entrepreneurial women to really help them create more freedom of time, money, and brain power in their lives and businesses. So most people come to me for business coaching, but I always say everything's fair game. So we, it turns into a lot of life coaching as time goes on, because we realize that our lives are as entrepreneurs, our lives and our business are very much intertwined. So I really help people get through what I call the messy middle, which is kind of that place where you're in your business and it comes up over and over again. It's not just a one time occurrence, just so everybody's clear on that, but it's that place where things have been going well, you've got it going, and then you feel like you're in what I call stuck stress. You can't decide what to do next. Should I put time, money, or brain power towards this? Should I not? Maybe I don't have even have those resources. So how do we get through that messy middle? And in 2023, I released a book called she thinks big.

Andrea Liebross [00:02:16]:

You can find it at your favorite bookseller on Amazon. And I also have a podcast. So I have a podcast called time to level up. So those are all ways in which I work with entrepreneurial women.

Amy [00:02:29]:

So, so good. So let's talk about this resource that nobody is talking about. What is it?

Andrea Liebross [00:02:37]:

So, brain power or your ability to think, I think is your most valuable resource. So I often will ask my clients that question, what do you think? What's your most valuable resource? And time comes up and first, and money usually comes up second. No one really talks about the brainpower part. And I like to say, hey, I have some news for you, actually, some good news. That your most valuable resource is your own brainpower. Because you can use that to create, and I'm putting that in air quotes, you can use that to create more time or create more money or create anything actually you really want. And if you believe that, then you, if you believe that brain power is your most valuable resource, it actually makes things a whole lot easier. A lot easier.

Andrea Liebross [00:03:32]:

Because I say, like, you know, we could talk about success or whatever that means. We could have a whole episode on that. But really, I like to say that success just has two ingredients. It's like a secret sauce. It only has two ingredients. It's mindset and systems. And your mindset, or your brain power or whatever you're thinking about is really 80% of the game. You do need systems.

Andrea Liebross [00:03:53]:

But if you create systems based on with this, if the brain that before the system, you have brain a. After the system, if you haven't really worked on your brain or your thinking, you still have brain a. So it may not make that things that much better. So you do really need to invest your time and money into your brain. Is my, is kind of what it comes down to. Absolutely.

Amy [00:04:22]:

Absolutely. Those are two of my favorite things in the entire world, especially the systems piece. Systems are such a game changer. And I think most entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs view it as it has to be this really complicated process. But what it's doing, it's free freeing up your brain, because when we're making all of those little decisions, when we have all this information in our brain, it takes away that brain power. I would love for you to walk us through your process of how do we start to leverage that brain power in order to save us time and energy and money at the end of the day?

Andrea [00:05:00]:

So I think I created this acronym, trust. Trust, and it really is what all big thinkers do. And big thinkers are really good at making decisions. So let me just give you a little bit of my thoughts on decision making, too. If we can make a big decision, it actually makes all of the choices underneath that decision a whole lot easier. So I love to use the analogy, and I heard this from another coach, and I will give her credit, Jodi Moore. She told, she shared this, if you're married or you have a partner, partner and you know you've decided that that's who you're going to spend your life with. When you get invited to that holiday party and they say bring a date, you already decided who you're bringing most of the time, I hope.

Andrea [00:05:48]:

All right, so you made that big decision. So then it made that little choice a whole lot easier. And the same goes in business. If you can make some big decisions, which sometimes have to do with creating a process or a system, it makes the little decisions underneath a whole lot easier. So how do we do that? Or what does that really look like? So you have to. You have to. You've got to really hone in on your big thinking, which comes from future you. Okay? So past you, which we all can tell lots of stories on and kind of give you a little history.

Andrea [00:06:25]:

Like, that's. People say, right? Okay, whatever happened in the past, it's just a teacher. It is not a fortune teller. So even though you know yourself and that you know that you wait till the last minute to do everything or you know that you're not the best copywriter, okay, that doesn't mean that in the future, you won't wait till the last minute or you can't get good at writing. Okay, so there's the past you. There's present you, and present you usually is pretty comfortable in whatever it is, even if it's chaos, even if it's overwhelm. It's like, that's where our brains just used to being. I call it, like, a happiness set point.

Andrea [00:07:07]:

Like, it's just happy living in the chaos. Okay, so present you is really not going to leverage your brain power too much either, because, hey, leveraging your brain power, it might actually be a little hard or uncomfortable. It's definitely not efficient because you're. You're thinking new things. Okay? But if you go to future you, who's already succeeded, who's already, I don't know, reached your. Reached your revenue milestone or created, you're taking Fridays off, whatever that is, that ask that future you what to do. That's how you have to kind of start with big thinking. You really got to go to the place of future you.

Andrea [00:07:46]:

And this is hard work. Okay? This does not happen overnight. Sometimes need someone else to help you get there. Right? So this is kind of where visioning comes in or a little bit of dreaming. And then how do we turn that vision into action? So a lot of what I do with my clients, I call it a vision into action intensive. I help them extract that vision, and then how do we turn it into action? You need to trust. Okay, so this is where the trust thing comes in. The t in trust stands for thought options.

Andrea [00:08:23]:

Okay? So I spend a significant amount of my coaching time helping people think through their thought options. And what I mean by that is you could think that, okay, this morning, this happened. I love real life. Examples are good. So this client I have, she actually has a multiple seven figure business. It's a landscaping business. Okay. So it's kind of seasonal, or at least in her brain.

Andrea [00:08:54]:

She likes to think of it as seasonal. We've been working on that. It's not really seasonal. It's a year round business. But she's ready to kind of actually start consulting other business owners in the landscape world. But she hasn't done it yet. And I said to her, I said, why not? She's like, well, I just. I don't.

Andrea [00:09:17]:

Basically, when we teased it apart, she's waiting for someone to give her permission, some mysterious person here to give her permission. She hadn't come up with the thought option or the possibility that she doesn't need permission, that she could just go do it. She's like, well, would I need more training or another degree? I'm like, no, you would not need more training or another degree. You have tons of experience here. This isn't your first rodeo. So she hadn't thought of the thought option of, I can just do this with what I have. She hadn't thought of the thought option of, I can start doing this right now. I don't have to wait till some magical time her brain is focused on.

Andrea [00:09:58]:

There's going to be a time I need to do x, y, and z. So big thinkers, because this is kind of big thinking for her, recognize that they've got thought options. So that's the first thing. Second, real problem. The r in trust stands for real problem. This is another thing that I spend lots of time examining. I said to her, what's the problem of, what's the problem? What's getting in the way here? Well, the real problem is just that her feeling of feeling kind of insecure. So the real problem usually isn't a problem.

Andrea [00:10:35]:

It is literally just a negative feeling. Okay? But a lot of times we can't identify that. We think it's something external, or we think it's something that someone else did or how even you did. But really what the real problem is, what gets in the way of using that brain power to create different, bigger or better things is your feelings and the fact that you don't want to feel a negative feeling. And again, hard to tease apart. Hard to tease apart. But that's really what it comes down to. Third, you ready for you.

Andrea [00:11:13]:

The you and trust. The you and trust stands for unknown or uncertain. And big thinkers, people that are using their brain power, are embracing the unknown or the uncertainty because we don't really know what's going to happen tonight. We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. We don't know what this is going to look like in a year. Right? So if you're thinking big, you actually start to become okay with that unknown. I had a consult call earlier this week, and, you know, at the end of the call, I said, okay, where are you? Scale of one to ten? She's like, oh, I'm like, at an 8.5. I think.

Andrea [00:11:55]:

I think we should move forward. But I'm at an 8.5. Okay. I said, what would get you to a ten? Well, if I only knew that this was, this, whatever this is, was gonna work. Okay. It's like, okay, so what is this? Is it, it's. Is it the actual business, like where we're going with the business? She's like, no, I actually think that's a solid. I feel good about that.

Andrea [00:12:20]:

I said, so is it coaching? She said, no, I totally think you could help me. I said, so what is this? She said, well, it's kind of me like, am I gonna stay committed? Am I gonna, you know, quote unquote, put the work in? She's. I don't. We don't know. Right? So that's an unknown and we're gonna have to just wait and see and find out. So she's letting that unknown or that uncertainty, unease get in her way. Big thinkers are like, yes, it's there. They're not denying that.

Andrea [00:12:54]:

Like, we're not shoving this under the rug, but they're okay moving forward. So that's the third thing. Fourth s, okay, the s and trust s entrust, stands for securing support. So big thinkers, people who use their brain power to create more time and money, I don't know anyone who doesn't have support. And what I mean by that is there's different kinds of support. Software can be a support. Okay? That's even a support. Your family.

Andrea [00:13:26]:

Everybody comes up with their family. Oh, they're so super, super duper supportive. Excellent, good. But what I'm talking about is support outside of your family, outside of software, the support that another brain, or brains bring to the table. And that can look like a lot of things, that can look like a mentor, that can look like coaching, that can look like being part of a community, can look like tons of things. But I don't know any big thinker that doesn't have some outside of the family, outside of technology support. And I think that's a really hard thing for some early on entrepreneurs to recognize because they think they should be able to figure it out on their own. They should be able to YouTube it.

Andrea [00:14:09]:

They should be able to, you know, they're not. They're smart. They should be able to figure this out. Um, and they have this super supportive family. But I'm kind of here to tell you that I don't know anyone that doesn't have some outside support. So that's what the s stands for. Last one t. The last t in trust.

Andrea [00:14:29]:

The last t in trust stands for take massive action. Okay, so everyone out there, me included, we're really good at taking passive action. So in the passive action bucket, I put listening to a podcast. Now, clearly I like podcasts because we're recording one, and I have my own. But listening to a podcast, reading a book, clearly, I'm into books if I wrote one. Okay, so I love books, too, but that's passive action. Googling passive action. Are you taking the steps? Are you making the decisions? So this kind of comes full circle.

Andrea [00:15:07]:

Are you making the decisions that you need to take, make in order to take the action? And big thinkers are taking this massive action. They're making those decisions, and then they're seeing, they're reaping the rewards of all that because their brain power is really creating what they want to create. All right, I just did a lot.

Amy [00:15:29]:

Of talking, but it was amazing. And everything you said makes so much sense. I want to back up to something you said at the very beginning, and that was something that we need to hear over and over. As entrepreneurs, this is a long game. This process does not happen overnight. You will go through this over and over and over. Once you have that awareness of where these doubts are creeping in, that you don't need permission from others, that you are capable. And once you realize that and start taking that massive action, your life will change.

Amy [00:16:15]:

And you're not meant to do this alone.

Andrea [00:16:18]:

You are not meant to do this.

Amy [00:16:19]:

Right. We hear that time and time again as entrepreneurs, but exactly as you said, we like to think we can diy it. Yeah. All the information is out there, and we're trying to piece everything together. And I see this all the time when I'm working with clients. Are we implementing the right strategies for you right now at your stage of business? Because all of the strategy works, but you have to be strategic about doing what's best for you in the season of growth that you're in, in your business. And this is a long game. And I think this is where a lot of entrepreneurs get bored because it is doing the inner work.

Amy [00:16:58]:

It is doing the basics over and over and over. But something else you said, too, is, you know, the past version of us and the current version of us, it's comfortable. Our brain is constantly seeking comfort. So why would we do something that would stretch us outside of our comfort zone? Zone? We're holding ourselves back from the potential and reach and impact that we can have on so many people. And I think, you know, as to the, the client story you mentioned earlier, you know, we think we need this more training, we need more certification. So we're doing this passive, consuming instead of taking action. Our brain thinks that, oh, I'm just doing some market research. I'm going to learn the newest techniques by listening.

Amy [00:17:44]:

You have to take action. You have to learn to accept that it's gonna be uncomfortable. It is going to be uncomfortable, and that's part of it. But once you can embrace that, it's so freeing.

Andrea [00:17:56]:

It is. It's fun, too. Yes, it's fun. It's fun, I like to say. I mean, everything has to be simple, doable and fun.

Amy [00:18:02]:

Yes, we need to have more fun. I mean, isn't that what entrepreneurship is? We are meant to live this life on our terms, and I think we give so much of our power away because we're trying to please everyone else and do all the things that everyone else is doing that we forget to reflect inward and figure out what we actually want.

Andrea [00:18:23]:

I just recorded a podcast from my own podcast about, are your goals really yours?

Amy [00:18:29]:

Yes.

Andrea [00:18:30]:

Or are they someone else's? Right. Are they someone else's? And I think there's a lot of noise out there, right? And it's very hard to stay in our own lanes. And we think that someone else knows more than we do, in a sense. And I think it's great to, like, I'm always bouncing ideas off of people. I love all that, but ultimately the decision is mine. Right? So something that happened the other day was that this client was wanting. She's like, okay, I'm finally going to invest in having someone help me with my marketing. I'm going to have some.

Andrea [00:19:12]:

And I said, okay, what is this person exactly going to do? She's going to do all my social media, she's going to write blogs, and she's going to do my newsletter. Okay. I said, but here's the, here's the problem that I'm seeing. Do you have a marketing plan. Like, do you have a strategy that she's going to work off of? Because what you just described is you're wanting her to solve this whole marketing problem. But really some of this has to come from your brain, right. You have to kind of direct her and familiarize her with your business, and you have to set a plan that she can follow. So it's interesting that sometimes we want to, we don't want to take up space in our brain thinking about something, so we do want to outsource it, but yet we haven't taken enough time to think about it so that we can outsource it.

Andrea [00:20:07]:

I don't know why I went off on that little tangent. Oh, because you said using our own brainpower, wanting permission and things like that. So anyway, she's got to do some bigger thinking before she actually hands that off. And she doesn't. She's kind of scared to do the bigger thinking. That's really what it's coming down to. She's like, but I'm not comfortable thinking about where I want this to go or how I should position myself or what. So, yeah, but I'm here.

Andrea [00:20:38]:

I'm here to do it with you. We've got to do that. Before you get comfortable again and hand.

Amy [00:20:43]:

It off, can you recommend some strategies for us that when that fear starts to kick in and we're like, you know what? I just. I'm not giving myself that permission to dream big, and we're holding ourselves back, give us some strategies that we can use to really work through that fear.

Andrea [00:20:59]:

Yep. So, okay, here's my best strategy. I like to call it. So the best strategy is that you have to be willing to not be so good at it. I call it willing to suck at it. You have to be willing to suck at it. Okay. And I have my clients go through an exercise where I say, you need to write down 25 ways that you can fail at this.

Andrea [00:21:25]:

And she's like, what are you talking about, 25 ways that I could fail? And so the client this morning with the landscape company, this would be an excellent exercise for her. 25 ways you could fail. Well, I could put myself out there, and no one comes. I could start working with someone and their business isn't any better. After they started working with me, I could start to market it, but I'm really targeting the wrong person. So these are all things that could happen that maybe count. You might count as a fail. I would count them as a win or a learn.

Andrea [00:22:00]:

But in order to get over that fear, you just have to acknowledge what could happen. Okay. Then another strategy is to ask yourself, what is the worst thing that could happen? 99% of the time, the worst thing that could happen is no worse than not trying it at all. Right. Like, not trying at all. So this, the woman that's like, wow, I'm 85% there. Okay? I said, so is trying this or moving forward worse than just staying where you are? Which is worse? She's like, well, staying where I am is way worse. Okay, then let's go.

Andrea [00:22:41]:

Right. So you have to. That's another question you can ask yourself. What's the worst thing that can happen? And I think the third thing is really to figure out what you're scared of. What is it? Is it fear of success? Is it fear of judgment? What will other people say? Is it fear of judging yourself? Like, you're going to get mad at yourself that you're not good enough? Kind of like a little imposter syndrome. Are those. Any of those real? Like, is that a real thing? They're just fears. They're usually not facts.

Andrea [00:23:19]:

So, getting clear on what you actually are scared of, again, which kind of takes some teething apart. Right. Which is where that other person can kind of securing the support can kind of come into play. But those are three ways to do it. With 25 fails, what's the worst thing that can happen? And what am I really, really, really scared of?

Amy [00:23:38]:

Yeah. Such great advice. And when you take the time to go deep, to dive into this, that's where you're going to see the massive growth in your business, because you're growing yourself. You're learning. Okay, where am I holding myself back? Because so often, we're the biggest roadblock in our business. There's so much proof out there that what we want is absolutely 100% attainable to us. Yes, it is available to us if we get out of our own way. Andrea, these were phenomenal takeaways.

Amy [00:24:17]:

You have dropped so much value. Where can we learn more about you? Your podcast, all of the things you're doing.

Andrea [00:24:24]:

Tell us all the details, all of the things. So I would say my two best resources for you are, one, go pick up a copy of she thinks big wherever you want to. And there's a workbook, too, that goes with it. And then I'll give you a little bonus here. There's a toolkit that was part of the book, and it actually helps you work through some of these same exact things that we were talking about. And you can access that at, uh, andrea libros.com forward slash toolkit. Other place go listen to the podcast. Time to level up.

Andrea [00:25:00]:

Founded all your favorite podcast players and you can head to Andreas with an s, links with an s.com, and from there you're going to get a link to the book, a link to the podcast, a link to my all my social media handles, a link to my website and also a link to two quizzes. So I've created two quizzes that really, one helps you kind of figure out what is why aren't you getting done what you want to get done? It's based around productivity. And the other one is, how can I find more freedom in my business? Am I the bottleneck? So I call it the business freedom Finder quiz. So if you go to Andreas with an s, links with an s.com comma, you can find those quizzes and you can find the book and the podcast and all the things.

Amy [00:25:42]:

Absolutely amazing. Thank you, Andrea, for taking time out of your busy schedule to pour into our listeners today.

Andrea [00:25:49]:

Thanks for having me. This has been super fun.

Amy [00:25:51]:

Yes. And until next time, cheers to making the money you want so you can create the impact you desire.