Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Jacques Dallaire, Owner of Performance Prime, located in Concord, NC, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Fundamentally, I'm an educator, and my business centers on education. The primary goal of my business activities is to help my clients to understand with great clarity how they mentally sabotage themselves... and how they can avoid that trap. I help them to understand how the way that they think impacts how they feel, how they behave, and ultimately how they perform. I've been doing this work for over 50 years, and I've worked with thousands of high performers from around the world and more than 100 professions. My clients come from the upper levels of the performance world, and many are recognized as coming from the top 1/2 of 1% in the world at what they do. I've learned a great deal from these proven top performers over the past 5 decades, and my role is to transmit this knowledge to others.
Tell us about yourself
My academic background is in exercise science. I have a Ph.D. in Performance Physiology, and I've taught at the university level. I served as the Manager of Science and Medicine Programs at Sport Canada for 8 years. I've been active as a service provider and mentor for more than 50 years to individuals seeking to be successful at the highest levels of performance in their respective worlds. The single biggest thing that continues to motivate me to get up in the morning and dive into what I do with vigor is the realization that so many people struggle to deliver the kind of performance they know they're capable of (because they've done it in the past) and with the corrosive emotion of anxiety, and I have information which they can use to help themselves to bring the best version of them to their performances while crushing anxiety from their life.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Over the decades, my clients often told me that the knowledge and tools I helped them acquire changed their lives not only in their sport or occupation but in every aspect of their life. This is my greatest accomplishment because I know they're not saying this just to be polite. The framework of knowledge that I've assembled over the years is proven. It has resonated with everyone, regardless of language, culture, age, gender, or job function.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
For me, the hardest thing about being a business owner is attending to the tasks that are part of a business owner's responsibility. I have no difficulty whatsoever interacting with my many clients around the world and delivering the service that is the core of my business, but I don't really enjoy the business part of this mix.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
The 3 tips I would offer center around what I believe are 3 key attributes for success generally.
- Passion: You'd better believe in what you're doing, and you'd best be passionate about it because if you don't believe in what you're doing and you're not excited to get up every day and take on the challenges that are part of running a business successfully, you likely won't be successful.
- Perseverance: Running a business is hard work, and you will find many challenges and obstacles that will litter your road to success. If you're not committed to the goals you've set for yourself and are 'all in' with respect to the work that it will take to achieve those goals, you'll be more likely to give up at the first sign of major difficulty. If success was easy, everybody would be successful.
- Correct Focus: There are so many distractions in life and our work environment that it's easy to get sidetracked and end up wasting a lot of time and energy focusing on things that are outside of our control and that haven't even happened yet. I believe, based on my experience and the scientific literature, that the true key to success (in anything) is the ability to control my focus of attention so that it's directed to what I can control...to what matters at the moment that it matters, to the exclusion of everything else that exists as the noise at that moment. If we're able to do this, not only will we figure out how to get out of our own way, but we'll also that the first important step in crushing anxiety from our life.
Is there anything else you'd like to share?
In the moment when you're asked to perform, it's impossible to do better than the best you can do! If you strive to do the best you can at that moment, the result you get will be the best you can get, except for the things you can't control. But worrying about the outcome and the many things you can't control never makes the result better.
Food for Thought...
Where can people find you and your business?
Website:
https://www.performanceprime.com/
https://linktr.ee/drdallaire
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PerformancePrime/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drdallaire/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/drdallaire
LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3Sa2viw
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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