Episode 391: Tactic to help when you're feeling overwhelmed or anxious about business
In this episode, Fiona talks about managing feelings of overwhelm and worry in your business journey. She also discusses the importance of celebrating milestones and reframing perspectives along the entrepreneurial path.
You’ll learn how to:
Discussion on managing feelings of overwhelm and worry in business ventures
Importance of celebrating milestones
Reframing perspectives to focus on the positive aspects of new challenges
Acknowledgment towards vulnerable clients and supportive individuals
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Resources and Recommendations mentioned in this episode:
Welcome to episode 391 of the My Daily Business podcast. Today is a quick tip episode, and that's where I share a tip, tool or tactic that you can implement immediately in your business. Today I have to give a shout out to both my sister who is a business owner and one of my wonderful clients who will know who she is if she listens to this because conversations with both of them this past week have inspired today's episode. Before we get stuck into that, I want to let you know that Marketing for Your Small Business course and coaching program is available now, and it will kick off on March 19th. It is available to anyone in the world. We often have people who don't necessarily turn up live to the calls, but are part of this, and what they do is go through the modules like everybody else, and then email us through some questions, which I then answer live on the call.
In addition to getting the whole course, you go through the course and each week you can come to a live coaching component where we talk about that particular module that you've just covered. You can ask any other questions as well. It doesn't have to be just related to the module, but any quick questions around marketing brand or anything else that is going on in your small business. If you want to be part of that, it is kicking off, like I said, on the 19th of March, 2024. It will be on Tuesdays for nine consecutive weeks. You can find all the information over at marketingforyoursmallbusiness.com if you already have access to the course, and if you've bought that from us at some point, firstly, thank you. Secondly, look out for an email because you'll be able to upgrade to the course and coaching version and the program and have those nine consecutive weeks of live coaching for one hour per week for a very small fee. As I said, all the information can be found at marketingforyoursmallbusiness.com.
The other thing I want to say is to of course, acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of the land on which I work and play and run all sorts of programs, including the Marketing for Your Small Business. 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.
As I said at the start, something that has come up a few times in recent conversations is the idea of feeling overwhelmed or worried, anxious, and petrified. And across the whole spectrum of worry when we are faced with doing something that we have never done in our business before. So with one particular wonderful client of mine, we were talking about something that she's about to do in her business that she's never done before. Even though she's had years, decades of experience in what she does and is incredibly good at it, she's doing something new in that space and it's something she hasn't done, and she's just worried, and there's so many things that potentially could go wrong. She has been filling her mind with all of those. And I was telling her about a conversation that I'd had with my wonderful sister where I was worried about things that her coming up for me this year in my business.
One of the things that I remember my mom saying to me at some point, and my sister reiterated this as well, was this idea that the journey is just as exciting as this destination. Often we put so much pressure on the final point of something as opposed to the journey with this client when she was talking about something new that she's doing. And we were going through literally item by item what could go wrong, and then how would you feel if that went wrong? She realised that she's dealt with that same thing, things going wrong so many times in business, and she's been able to figure it out. She's been able to draw on her skill set and her experiences to fix things and change things. She knows deep down, she knows rationally that she'll be able to do that same thing.
It's just that she's going to be in a situation that she's never been in before. Likewise, I have a few things that I've felt like this about recently, but let's say the second book that I'm going to be putting out later this year, I've never put out a second book. I've only published my first book. I mean, I've been a ghostwriter for other people, but in terms of a book that has my name on it that has been published by a traditional publisher and gone down that whole method, this is the second time that I'll be doing that. I don't have anything to draw on. I don't have any comparison to do it because I've never done this before. And just like my client. What we were talking about is creating a list of all the things that we are proud of in that journey, rather than making it so much about the destination.
With my client, I was like, "This is amazing." You've put yourself forward, you've put yourself out there, you're doing something on a grander scale than you have done before. All of those things should be celebrated in the same way that I'm proud that I've been able to get to a point where are literally about to send this book to print. And getting to that point of having written a second book in the middle of last year when we were suddenly selling our house and suddenly moving that is huge in any year, let alone a year where you're also trying to write a second book. I was also travelling a lot and had created all of this travel, which was amazing, and I was very privileged and lucky to be able to do that. But doing that at the same time that these book chapters were due.
I had just overloaded myself with a lot of stuff. Plus the usual stuff of looking after young children, being a good partner, a friend, all the things. I'm proud of myself that I've got to a point where I've written the second book and that I didn't give up halfway through thinking, it's just too hard. This is too hard. And there's been so many setbacks with this book. There's been so many things changing at the last minute. There's been a whole bunch of things that have not gone as smoothly as you know. You would hope that they go. And it's just part and parcel. This is what happens all the time. But because you are doing something for the first time, it feels bigger and scarier. I guess today's quick tip episode is about if you have something in your life right now that you're feeling anxious or overwhelmed or worried about, and you keep thinking about the worst case scenario, or you keep thinking about just what will happen at the end, I would ask you to reflect and reframe it and think about that journey and think about the things within that journey that you're so proud of.
Let's say, for example, you're about to hire a senior staff member and maybe you've never paid somebody that amount of money, and it's a huge change for the business, and maybe they're going to take off elements of your role. That is also a huge change for you to have to let go. You could drive yourself crazy thinking about all the things that could go wrong, how much money this person's going to cost, what if they come in and stuff it up? What if they take over everything? And you can send yourself crazy as opposed to thinking, isn't it amazing that my business is at a stage where we have the capacity to hire a senior member where we have the money to hire a senior member? And how amazing for me to be able to get time back and do these other things in the business or work on whatever it is outside of the business because this person is going to take that role on.
Thinking about that from that perspective as opposed to, what could go wrong? And focusing so much on the negative. And I think we can all do that. We can all focus so much on the negative as opposed to looking at the journey, not just the destination, the journey, and rewarding ourselves and congratulating ourselves on the steps that we have taken along that journey to get to that point. I hope that makes sense. I just want to, acknowledge this wonderful client who is so open and real and vulnerable, and I just have so many clients like that, and it's just such a joy and privilege to be on their journey with them. Also, I want to say thank you to my sister who talked this through with me and reminded me that the journey is just, I know it sounds so cheesy, but it's so true that the journey is just as important, often more important than the destination.
The other thing is, what is it? Like 90% of things we worry about will never happen. The brain is wired to kick in to minimize risk and to make sure that we are aware of everything that could go wrong, even though most of those things will never happen. I hope that has been helpful to you. And if you're dealing with something right now, just remember to enjoy the moments along the journey rather than focus so much on what could but probably won't go wrong. Thank you so much for reading this. And if you want to go through this in text format, you can find it at mydailybusiness.com/podcast/391. Again, if you're interested in Marketing for Your Small Business, go on over to marketingforyoursmallbusiness.com and you can sign up and join there. I look forward to helping you with your marketing goals in 2024. Thanks for reading.
