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It can happen to the best of us. We can be going about our own sweet business when all of sudden lack of motivation strikes and the passion and drive that got us out of bed for our business just isn’t there. This happened to me back in June. I’m a bit of a go-getter so once I get an idea for something I go all out.
In May, I hosted a Telesummit with 11 fabulous women business owners, all sharing ways to rock your biz. At the same time, I was also finalizing a draft for my editor for some co-authored chapters of a book, Awaken Your True Potential, and I decided to add in yet another challenge for myself – to set up my podcast show. It was incredibly hard work, but exhilarating at the same time. I would rest once May was done.
Fast forward to the beginning of June, complete burnout.
I talk a lot about having a maintenance strategy for self-care where you practice it every day, instead of a coping strategy where you only practice self-care in an emergency. I’d decided that for this year self-care would be more of a priority. Overall I’d taken my own advice really well up until that point.
And then.. I fell into that trap of over committing. Have you ever been there? I’ve never been great with time – I always think I have way more time to do things than I actually have (which I’m sure drives my hubby nuts, although he still smiles sweetly at me). I have to multiply up my tasks by 3 to come up to the amount of time required to do something, that’s how far off I am!
So for June I slowed down, as best I could, as there was still follow up work to do from May. I then thought I’d slow things down for July and August and spend time figuring out what was next and then it really hit me. I didn’t know what direction I wanted to take my business in. I think there was a huge anti-climax because I’d done three big things and while the other 11 Rock Your Biz girls had a specific area they focused on my business was really a mixture of everything.
I realised I needed to revisit everything about my business. I spent the whole of the summer chatting with coaches to find out who would be the right fit to help me figure it all out. As you know, if you’ve been listening to previous podcasts or reading my blog posts I spent a lot of time chatting with my business friends too but I was really stuck.
I felt that I needed to figure this out or my business would start failing where I had no direction. One of my lovely friends spent a day with me challenging me to think bigger than where I was and what I was doing, to think outside of the box.This triggered some different ideas and then I started coaching with my new coach, Louise Presley-Turner and everything started to fall into place. I didn’t need to give up my business, I didn’t need to make massive changes.
Once I’d sat down and figured things out I realised what I loved, what I was good at and how I could make a difference again. I’ve now rebranded as a Visibility Coach for Solopreneurs. I love working with clients on the confidence side of things.
So, why am I telling you all this? Well because I was at the point where nothing was coming to me in terms of direction and I seriously questioned whether it was time to give up. I chose to work with someone to help me untangle my messy brain and formulate some kind of direction. The result is excitement and passion again. I’m full of creative ideas and excited to get out of bed to do my work again. I’d lost some of that, which made me so sad as I’m so passionate about my business. I LOVE it but then I didn’t.
So if you’re at the place where you have lost that passion, start to figure it all out again.
It’s truly worth taking the time. You might need to step away from your business for a bit, to reflect and explore what you’ve done so far, what you might like to do differently. If that’s the case set up some systems so that your business can continue running along in the background (i.e. schedule blog posts, social media, newsletters etc). It might involve working in a completely different area, with different clients, or it might just be expanding what you already do. Think about some of the skills and experience that you already have. What could you add to that? What do you love to do that isn’t part of your business right now?
It might mean that like me you’re going to use a lot of notebooks, have many conversations and/or spend loads of thinking time figuring this out, but it’s SO worth it.
Maybe your business has changed, maybe you’ve changed.
The only way you’ll know what to do is to sit and figure this out. What do you really want for you and your business? If, like me, you need some expert help then get it, it may be the thing that gives you the clarity you need.
So for my little announcement (NB: If you read my blog last week then you’ll already know about this) going forward I’m going to be sharing lots of ways to boost your confidence and your visibility in your business. My podcasts will be focused on Solopreneurs, yes that includes my lovely coaches. I’ll still be doing all things procrastination, perfectionism, self-care etc as they all affect us as business owners too.
Often, it’s a combination of not knowing what to do next and/or not having the confidence to push through your comfort zones and self-promote, and sometimes just not marketing in the right way to the right people. My clients are savvy already, they just need someone that can help them to generate new ideas, be held accountable to take action and have someone on their side to support them to be brave and step up in their businesses.
When running your own business you need to promote it so that people can know, like and trust you.
It’s a noisy environment out there, so if you just sit behind your computer and do nothing nobody is going to know you’re there. It’s very easy to think we are being visible, but just one little post now and then isn’t being visible. Lurking in groups and not participating is not being visible. ‘Promoting’ your business doesn’t have to be uncomfortable though, it’s about showing up authentically and helping others, building relationships with people. That way people start to know who you are, what you can do and how you can help. You need to get out there and be noticed for what you do.
I’m here to support you by helping you have the confidence to put yourself at the front of your business, to be awesome at self-promotion in a fabulous way (not all pushy and salesy) and to teach you how to put the business principles in place that will help you to launch and/or grow your business; covering things like niching, pricing, marketing, visibility etc and some of those techy tools that you need too.
So, no more hiding – it’s time to share your fabulous businesses with the world!
I’m really looking forward to the next part of our journeys together 🙂
