Episode #166: A coronavirus mompreneur pep talk
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Alright Mama, I think we need to have a chat about you, your business, and the coronavirus.
I have seen so much on social media about this virus and how it’s affecting our businesses. There’s a lot of fear circulating right now that I want to address. Now, normally I try to stay out of current events because I don’t really care to address them publicly, but I think this is a topic that we need to have a heart-to-heart about, or at least a pep talk.
Ok so most of us have been affected by the coronavirus in some sort of capacity. Maybe your spouse isn’t allowed to travel more than a short distance from y’all’s home due to his/her job, maybe your kids are off for an undetermined amount of weeks, maybe you’re nervous about a recession and how this might impact your business. Either way, you have concerns that are making you nervous and your life is interrupted.
And first and foremost, anytime anything is disrupted, it’s totally fine to get nervous or to have anxiety over this. So I’m not saying that your feelings are invalid or that you shouldn’t feel this way. You’re totally valid in feeling however you feel.
BUT, it’s not ok to stay in this mindset. To let fear or anxiety rule you isn’t fair to you, your spouse, your kids, or your clients. It’s my hope in today’s episode that I can offer up some ideas or ways to re-frame what you’re experiencing and use that energy you’re putting off to your advantage.
When you’re experiencing these thoughts it’s important to get yourself to a point where you can identify that these thoughts are happening. Oftentimes when we’re scared or things are uncertain, it manifests itself in a series of thoughts where you’re thinking about the worst case scenario. And we can spiral in our own thoughts and then it opens up Pandora’s Box. You’re constantly thinking about the worst case scenario and that thinking doesn’t serve anyone. You have to be able to stop the thoughts when they start.
Once you can recognize them and acknowledge them, then you can actually do something about them. An exercise I do is I ask myself a series of three questions.
“Is this real?”
“Is this fear surfacing?”
“Does my higher self worry about this?”
Start to try to think logically about your thoughts.
Now, once you can separate yourself from them, it’s time to reframe your thoughts.
So instead of, “We’re going into a recession.”, you could reframe that thought into, “I am resilient and during slower times, I can create new programs and resources to serve people in their times of need.”
Or instead of, “I’m dreading being home with my kids for 4 weeks.”, you could reframe that thought into, “This will be an adventure and will allow me to explore new ways our family can thrive together.”
Or instead of, “I’m scared that someone I love could get sick.”, you could reframe that thought into, “If someone I love does get sick, we have the resources, knowledge, and supplies to treat their illness and help them get started on the road to recovery.”
Bottom line: you gotta get a handle on your thoughts.
And I have the perfect example of this for you.
My little guy, Camden, is 6. He’s in first grade and is in this strange limbo between a little boy and a big boy. He acts like a big boy, but still processes his emotions like a little boy. And this past week he has been a wreck. He thrives on structure and his school was sending home packets of school work incase we get canceled last minute, without notice. And while I do appreciate them future-casting, the uncertainty was sending him over the edge. He was constantly asking us if he was going to go to school, what we were going to do if he was off of school, was he going to get sick, was anyone in our family going to get sick, what happens if we can’t go to the grocery store, everything and anything his 6-year old little mind could come up with, he asked.
And so this constant dialogue really started to affect him. He started to act out at home, he was constantly tired, he started saying he hated school (which is the farthest thing from the truth), and we finally realized that the inconsistency in the messaging he was getting through our words and actions, and what was going on at school, started to really affect him. So we stopped talking about the virus at home. Cold turkey. And as soon as it wasn’t something that followed him home from school, he was good to go. And our sweet Camden James came back to us.
So if nothing less, you gotta fix up that mindset to save your kids’ sanity, you are who they look to in times of uncertainty, and so what are you modeling? And how is that seeping into how they are interacting?
Ok so now that we talked about mindset, I gotta hit you with some tough love.
A little background for you so that you know where I’m coming from and why I have this perspective.
I graduated from grad school with a degree in painting in December 2008. In January 2009 the housing market collapsed and the economy tanked. My first job hunting experience as a professional was absolutely INSANE, because there were no jobs and I had a painting degree. I was basically unemployable. So I worked a TON of odd jobs until I finally landed on a Gallery Director’s job in May of 2009. I was a nanny, I worked at a frame shop, I was a personal trainer for a bit at a big box gym, I did whatever I could to bring in money while I searched for a job in my field.
And another turning point for me was when I got laid off from my “dream job” at 6 months pregnant with Camden. I got laid off in April, teaching jobs filled in March and didn’t start until August, so if I stuck with teaching, I wouldn’t be able to get a teaching job for a year and a half. And me not working wasn’t a possibility for my family financially. So that’s when I started my business. I was super pregnant, worked all the gosh darn time, hustled my face off, but I replaced my dream job’s income in the 3 months before Camden was born.
I honestly feel like my employment situation has always been insane. But the only thing that has brought peace and some sort of security has always my business.
And so I bring these experiences into what I’m about to say.
Your business can thrive during a recession (if that’s even what we’re about to head into) if you get creative.
I’ve seen a lot of social media posts talking about how we shouldn’t be promoting our businesses during this time. How this world we are in now is scary and we’re preying on scared people. And while I think it’s never a smart idea to prey on people, it’s an amazing time to be an entrepreneur. We aren’t limited by location or time or other people's demands, we create money and resources every single day. And so I think the world needs us now more than ever.
We help to change people’s lives and to help them thrive, and y’all people need to thrive right now. And the best way that they can THRIVE is to work with you. I think backing off your sales, or launches, or marketing is doing your audience a HUGE disservice. They need you more now than ever.
Yes, your approach might need to change. But I don’t think we need to take it easy or back off. I think this time can uncover some new ways of doing business for us, I think it’s going to give us the opportunity to slow down to speed up, and I think it’s going to give us the opportunity to really dive into what it is that we are doing and evaluate if your business is sustainable, no matter what kind of economy we are in. We have the unique opportunity as entrepreneurs to create money out of nothing, so mama, buckle up, it’s time to make that happen.
The coronavirus isn’t an excuse, it’s fuel. Just like your kids aren’t excuses, they’re your fuel.
We’re literally raising the next generation, which isn’t a task to take lightly. We’ve done some pretty miraculous things already, it’s time to take that same resolve and apply it to your business.
Yes, the coronavirus is a serious thing and these shut down are real, but they’re not reasons to be scared. Being scared doesn’t help anyone out.
So take a deep breath with me, here’s we’ll do it together, and know that you have the ability to flourish during this time. You can do this.
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