Working on this will be the best thing you can do for your biz
How much of yourself do you share on your business' social media? This is a question I get asked a lot when I'm teaching workshops or doing live speaking gigs. And, of course, in the five years since I began this business it's been a question I have had to ask myself many times. I'm a mum to two young children and while I talk about them every so often, and have added the odd photo of them here and there, I don't promote them heavily on my business IG feed (which is one of my key social channels). Now, that's not blanket right or wrong, it's just a decision I have come to that feels right for me, right now.
On the flip side, I have spoken about my own grief numerous times on my business feed. In the five years since beginning this business, I have lost my mum, my dad and a number of other close family members. I have had to grapple with grief at the same time as trying to run a small business and I think that's something that is not discussed enough, even though many of us starting a business will be in our 30s and 40s, which is prime time to also be coping with elderly parents and, inevitably, grief. I also think buried grief can lead to larger mental health problems if it's not talked about, dealt with and brought into the light.
This past Saturday would have been my father's birthday, the first without him, and so I posted about it on my business IG. It just happens to be that his birthday is October 10, which is also World Mental Health Day and so when I sat down to write today's blog, I thought what is more important to discuss right now than mental health?
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I don't mean to be a downer, but according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, just under half of all small businesses will fail within their first three years. A large cause of this is cash flow and issues related to money. When you consider that, in Australia alone, there are more than 2m operating small businesses, that's a lot of people going through a lot of stress and potentially sharing that stress with their co-workers, suppliers, family, business networks and community at large. Multiply that by many, many more when you consider the global small business community. And then again when you consider the stress that's being caused right now by Covid-19.
What's perhaps scarier and more worrying though is that so many of those small biz owners won't share their worries or stress. They won't talk about what they're facing, they'll keep issues hidden or a secret until things get to the point that they can no longer.
This year has been one of the most challenging for small business owners and yet there's still this stigma attached to admitting things aren't going as smoothly as they potentially could be. I see it as I scroll social media, I see it on calls with clients when they break down because they're keeping so much under wraps, away from staff and suppliers. I see it when I ask my own suppliers and contractors how they're doing and of course, I am not immune myself.
I recently interviewed the brilliant filmmaker and small business owner, Genevieve Bailey about her films, I Am Eleven (2012) and Happy Sad Man (2018) for my podcast (you can listen to that here). Happy Sad Man is all about men's mental health and took more than 7 years to film, edit and produce. As such, Genevieve has had a lot of experience sharing stories around mental health and is passionate about changing the narrative, removing the stigma and enabling people to open up. To date, it's been one of the most popular podcast episodes, not only in terms of downloads but in the response it's had. I have been inundated with DMs and emails from people, all over the world, saying thank you both for bringing up mental health and business; thank you for reminding me to be kind to myself; thank you for letting me know it's OK to admit when things aren't great.
So, today, I wanted to remind you to consider your own mental health. How much time and effort do you put into maintaining it?
We see so much out there around fitness, eating well, exercise or even, hey, maintaining business systems and processes (which I'm ALLL for!), but when you map out your week or your next 90 days, how often are you inputting practices — even small ones — that work to support good mental health?
As small business owners we face SO many challenges in an ordinary year, let alone during a global pandemic. How might you instil daily practices— such as a walk, a phone call to a friend, listening or watching comedy, turning off the screens a few hours before bed or having a good ol' dance around the kitchen for five minutes — that can help improve your own mental health?
What could you do this week?
Perhaps it's going one step further and reaching out to a friend or even your GP to discuss a mental health plan.
Or, perhaps you feel mentally strong right now and it's about taking the time to check in on your friends, staff and family and let them know you're there for them. We can all fall prey to sending emojis in response to IG stories or hitting the heart button on a social media post, rather than taking ten minutes to phone someone we know we probably could check in on a bit more.
I started this blog with the question of, how much of yourself should you share on your business' social media. It's one I get asked all the time. Perhaps a better question might be, how much of ourselves should we share with our nearest and dearest? By opening up about how we're truly feeling, it may relieve some of the pressure and enable us to get through the more challenging elements of running a small business.
If you feel you need immediate help and you are in Australia, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit Beyond Blue for helpful links. (For those of you outside of Australia, please check your local mental health support, such as Mind in the UK, these support places in NZ and 7cups in the US).
And no matter what you're going through right now, keep in mind the words of Carl Jung:
"I am not what happened to me, I am who I choose to become".