Episode 357: Reflecting on Day 1
In this episode, Fiona talks about the importance of comparing her progress with her day one. She also shares insights from her own experience, highlighting the transformations faced throughout the years in business. Tune in!
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
The host's personal business journey, including changes, challenges, and adaptations over the years
Reflection on the initial aspirations and uncertainties faced on day one of starting a business
Emphasis on the evolving understanding of personal values and business alignment
Addressing comparisonitis and the dangers of negatively judging oneself against unrealistic standards
Conclusion
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Resources and Recommendations mentioned in this episode:
Welcome to episode 357 of the My Daily Business Podcast. Today is a quick tip episode. Depending on where you are in business, this may be reflective, and I hope you stick around for it. Before we get stuck into that, I want to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians on the land on which I record this, and that is the Wurrung and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. And I pay my respects to their elders, past, and present, and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded. Let's get into today's quick tip episode.
I run a Group Coaching program, and that is where I help small business owners for a whole year. We work together for an entire year, and we meet every two weeks with other small business owners, and we work through everything from finance to psychology, mindset, content marketing, and all sorts of things. In one of the earlier sessions for this, I go through my own business journey and how much that has changed since I started this business at the very end of 2015. Something that always comes out of that discussion is that people say, “I didn't realize how much you have changed,” or how much your life changed, such as having another child, my parents passing away other things, moving house impacted the business, and how you then changed and were more strategic in the offers that you created in order for your life to be the way that you wanted it to be.
I just thought today that so often when we are looking at small business owners, whether it's our competitors or even our own business, we are judging it against some future date as opposed to looking back at day one and feeling like, have I achieved more than I thought was possible? When I look at day one, so in my own business, when I started my day one literally looked like How do I replicate the job that I'm in, even though I hated it, I didn't hate the job. I have to say I didn't hate the job. I really disliked the work environment that I was in at that stage. That's what I thought I was going to do. I thought I was going to go into big corporates and create marketing strategies and brand plans for them, and my whole business is so different from that day.
But on day one, I had no idea how I was building this. I had some plans, I'd done some work, but I didn't know what I was actually building. I didn't really understand my values, even though I'd helped so many other businesses do that, even to that point in the full-time and contract roles that I'd had to that point. But in my own business, I was like, “These are my brand values,” but I didn't know exactly how I was going to show up to them, how I was going to align my offers with them. I didn't know what channels I was going to use, even though I'd worked in marketing for 20 years prior. I had these ideas, but now I'm so much more certain, and that certainty has come from years of experience. The certainty didn't take the full time that I've been in business.
It came a lot sooner than that. But if you are in that position from day one, just know you don't need to know all the answers right now. But also, if you are further along, sometimes it's beneficial to look back on day one and reflect on how far you've grown, both as an individual and a business owner, rather than always looking forward to this future date where we imagine that all the money's going to come in, everything's going to just be perfect, our systems will never stuff up. Often, we can focus on that future thing and reflect and judge ourselves against where we are now against that future date, as opposed to looking back and thinking, “Where am I in comparison to my day one?” That's just it. Very simple question. Reflect on where were you on day one and how far have you come, as opposed to constantly judging ourselves.
Quite often I know from experience of working with so many different clients, we are negatively judging ourselves against some future date when everything is perfect and it's just it's never going to happen in terms of that perfectness because business and life are so intertwined and they change all the time. That is it. Just a short, quick tip episode on reflecting on your own day one. Again, if you are somebody who's maybe being hit by comparisonitis at the moment, know that whatever you're looking at, whatever other businesses, it's not their day one, they didn't start like that. They have done the work or they've put in the effort to create something, but you can guarantee that on day one, they did not know exactly where that was going. That is it for today's quick tip episode. I would love to know what your day one look like and what your business looks like now. Don't be a stranger. You can send us a DM @mydailybusiness_, or you can find us on TikTok @mydailybusiness. I look forward to hearing from you. See you next time.
