saw this photo of street art in Rio on a blog last week and it summed it up perfectly.
The moment I saw it, I smiled and agreed. Yes. Fear is a liar. Fear will make up stories in your head. Fear will stop you in your tracks. Fear would rather you shrink than grow.
This is my new mantra for those times when I feel like fear is running the show. It reminds me to look carefully at whatever it is that I’m fearful of and question it. What is it that I’m scared of? Is it even true?
Here’s what I know to be true. For most entrepreneurs, there are seasons of yes and seasons of no.
There are times when it feels absolutely right to say yes. Yes to new collaborations, to new projects, to new clients. Yes to opportunities that sound exciting & fresh. Yes to new ideas & new connections.
And during that time, work feels exciting, energetic and effervescent. It feels like someone has cranked up the dial on your business’s magnetism & new stuff is literally flying your way.
I’m not going to lie. For the first year or so in my business, selling felt HARD. I’d jump on a call with a potential client, chat for 25 minutes (recognising that they would really benefit from working with me) but in the last 5 minutes, I’d squirm around and struggle to know how to find the words to actually make the sale.
Thankfully, many of the worst cases of greenwashing were named and shamed, and consumers have become far more educated and are willing to ask uncomfortable questions of brands. We're not as gullible as we used to be, and most of us know that just because a bar of chocolate says 'natural' on it doesn't it comes from ethical or sustainable sources.
But there's a new kid on the block. And it's called social good.
Here’s the thing: Figuring out your why isn’t easy. It’s not just a case of reverse engineering and coming up with something that would look good on a bumper sticker.
But holy smokes, once you’ve nailed it? Once you’ve connected to your why? Powerful stuff happens. I could talk all day about the benefits of knowing your why and infusing it into your business. But I want to touch on just one area today, aligning your business to your why, and using it as a compass moving forwards.
I didn’t go to university. Well, I guess I did, but only for 8 weeks, and then I decided it wasn’t a good fit for me & left for another adventure.
I look back at that decision now and am pretty stoked with it. Proud, in fact, that at age 18 I was able to tune into my gut instincts and realise that I had made the wrong choice. I remember the 3 years that followed really well. The majority of my friends were off at uni studying and I was finding the balance between working 7 days a week for 6 months every summer (surf coaching, personal training & bartending ) with the freedom & adventure of jumping on a plane every winter with nothing more than a backpack, my surfboards and a pretty small chunk of cash to keep me going.
My first attempt went ok. I dropped the snorkel and tried to stay calm. Time felt as if it were going backwards, and after what seemed like forever (but was more like a minute), my brain kicked into overdrive. The voice in my head was getting louder and louder, more and more panicked. Telling myself that I needed to breathe …. right now. And in that moment, there was one single thought running through my head I can’t breathe I can’t breathe I can’t breathe.
Oh … yeah… this is what fear feels like.
