Recently, I watched the 2023 Roland-Garros (formerly called The French Open) grand slam tennis tournament. Novak Djokovic won the 2023 Roland-Garros championship in 4 sets. It was a masterclass in being tenacious--clearly one of his superpowers.

Djokovic uses data, habits, and technology, along with coaches to keep his mindset and body at "peak performance." His results are astounding. During his speech after the championship, Djokovic mentioned he wanted to be a tennis champion since the age of 7--now, at the age of 36, he has a record of 23 championships. A 2.5-3 hour match to him is "normal."

When you watch a match inside Court Philippe-Chatrier (center court), you can't help but notice the quote, "Victory Belongs to the Most Tenacious."

Reading this quote caused me to reflect on my own ability to be tenacious. I believe tenacity is one of my strengths and, a work in progress. In other words, it ebbs and flows based on the goals I pursue.

In high school and college, I remained tenacious while being classically trained as an opera singer. Similar to tennis, singing is a whole-body commitment that requires tremendous discipline and trade-offs. After ten years of teachers, coaches, vocal practice two to three hours a day, and dance classes, I knew I had developed skills that would last a lifetime.

During the next 20 years, I decided to build a different type of tenacity. I pivoted from music to business and pursued a career in retail management, corporate training, and ultimately eLearning business development and enterprise sales.

It was time for another pivot. Fast forward seven years and dozens of lessons learned, to March 2021. I was finally ready to get serious about building an entrepreneur's mindset.

For the past two years, building 10x Your Expertise as a brand and a business pushed me to take tenacity to a new level. I'm learning how to set realistic goals and remain laser-focused on business development activities that will impact growth.

Victory Belongs to the Most Tenacious

~ Roland Garros

One new action I took to be more tenacious is applying a "beginner's mindset" which is to unlearn old habits that prevent me from achieving what I want. This helps me set and achieve small goals that lead to bigger goals, repeatable processes, and executing tasks more effectively.

Using a beginner's mindset helped me discover my "secret sauce." That's when I began to experience steady business growth in my work with speakers, authors, and consultants.

In light of these insights, here's my question for you. Do you use a "secret sauce" as your business development engine for growth?

I have news for you--if you do, it’s highly valuable! Those of you who know your secret sauce and consider yourself tenacious have more growth potential than you think. You may also be surprised to learn there's an underutilized superpower being overlooked.

Here's what I mean.

When you build that muscle of being tenacious over time, something magically happens in the process--you discover your "secret sauce." Your "secret sauce" is a unique way of working, that when used properly, becomes a business development engine. What does this mean for speakers, authors and consultants? It means your clients and colleagues put a high value on certain aspects of your talent that are unique to you!

To learn more about how to turn your "secret sauce" into a business development engine, ask yourself these questions:

1. Which stories can I share that would inspire my target audience to want to be better and learn how to avoid pitfalls I can help them predict?

2. What tools can I use that would empower my target audience to up-level their knowledge and skills prior to working with me?

3. What offers can I create so that clients experience my "secret sauce" in follow-up engagements?

Once you're able to confidently answer these questions, tenacity will drive your success.

Remember Roland Garros' quote, "Victory Belongs to the Most Tenacious."