After working together with a seasoned, powerful and intelligent business owner, she recently faced one small challenge after another, without much time to recuperate from one before she got hit with another. None of them were earth shattering, but the timing took its toll.
I’m just so tired. I’m not sure if I’m going to continue this after this quarter. 
The “this” she was referring to was her business. The whole thing.
After 16 years of being a business owner and experiencing the highs and lows, I’ve been there many times – I’m ready to shut the door, throw in the towel, hang it all up…
The challenges are real – bringing in new clients, making the income funnel stable, dealing with difficult situations, managing expenses….
What gets me thinking positively and productively is focusing on the people who have come to me for services, what I’ve done for them, how much they appreciate it, and how extraordinary it feels to help someone get to their goals. Then I feel pumped, and ready to hit it for another 16 years.
So back to my client story.
Her plea was sent to me via email, a few days before our scheduled meeting, so I replied via email purposely to give her time to think. I sensed that calling her on the spot would make her feel pressured and she was already feeling down, so I wanted her to gently lift herself out of that line of thinking. It was crucial that I provide just enough guidance so she could get back to positive thinking on her own.
Now if this was truly her desire, to quit the business entirely, I would have supported her and guided her through the shut-down, but I knew her a little better than to believe that was her real goal.
I wrote to her about the positives that recently occurred and how the challenges were really minor bumps we can manage. Most importantly, I assured her that we would explore what she was feeling and why, and get her to her real goals together.
She responded that she felt better and when we had our meeting, she was ready to work. I had lots of questions.
What’s making you tired? How do you feel when you work with your clients? How many hours are you working? On what are you mostly spending your work hours?
We kept digging through what’s happening today and where she wanted to be – not 5 years from now – but a few weeks from now.
We made a lot of little discoveries and explored many options. I can hear her voice starting to lift out of sadness and into positivity. By the end of our call, she saw a better future and was excited about it. And as her strategist, I knew that I didn’t talk her out of anything, I just got her to the place she really wanted to go. She couldn’t see a way there by herself, but with a great strategy call, she saw real, positive, do-able actions ahead. We both walked away with some tasks to tackle, knowing we really can get her there together. None of it was insurmountable. And I felt that I got to know her even more than I did before. How wonderful!
Do you have a mentor, a guide, a coach, a strategist? Honestly everyone should be working with someone. Working alone can be debilitating, crushing. It’s next to impossible to build a new business or grow an existing business under this much weight!
If you’re just starting a new business, I’ve got something for you to look at Here.
If you’ve been managing your business and are ready for next level growth, start Here.