Overcoming Fear

Hey, there. Grab your coffee and let’s talk business. How to grow it, how to sustain it, and how to harness the wonderful world wide web to do it. With me your host, Jennifer Sakowski. Let’s get started.

Oh my goodness, we’re officially live. This is our first official episode of Raney Day Talks. I can’t even believe it. We’ve been talking about this and planning about this, and strategizing about this for about … a year. I thought, “I’m going to do it.” 

Then this year I got everyone on board within the team that we’re going to do it. It wasn’t until our last quarterly meeting that, we had all women at the time, so the ladies said, “Jen, we need videos. We need videos and we need you to be out there, so what is it?” And that was a huge kick in the pants, because when your own team is saying, “Hey, we got to get out in front, we’ve got to, I don’t know, tell the world about the goodness that not only Raney Day is, but the good things that we’re doing and the awesome people that we are connected with,” You do it. So, here we are. 

It’s not pretty. First few episodes, we’re just hitting record and rolling with it. The big picture of why we decided to do this is because I work with a lot of business owners.  There’s something that keeps coming up that’s driving me crazy. It’s in my own business that this shows up. It’s fear.

Fear of rejection. Fear of growth. Fear of the unknown. Fear of what people think. Fear that you’re going to launch this awesome new product and nobody’s going to buy it. Or even fear of your own success online, what happens if you put yourself out there. And that’s something that keeps coming up. That’s one of the reasons why it’s July and we’re now finally, or I’m finally hitting record. As an example to other business owner’s, we are launching.  Let’s get out of our own heads! 

People want to know your story, the thing that you’re offering, the thing that you’re selling. So, here we are.

Our first episode is going to set the stage. Right now we’re starting out with two episodes a month. As we grow, we want to be consistent with it because consistency is very, very important when it comes to putting out content in this nature. If it wasn’t for my team behind me, I wouldn’t be able to do this. So, shout out to the A team.

In the first episode of the month, I’ll be breaking down an item in the business, how to grow, scale, things to look out for. Tools that we use. Things that we found to help us to be successful.

And the second episode, I am going to pull in other business owners. Some are going to be in the marketing world that I’m in. Others are going to be local that are just doing their thing, but they’re realizing the value of marketing, the value of the world wide web and using Facebook and Instagram, using email campaigns to nurture client. And we’re going to talk about the fear, what was the thing that they had to overcome and how they did that.

So, not only is it going to be me talking, but we’re going to bring in other people who we can provide valuable tips, tricks, actionable steps that you could take away and immediately put into your own business.

Today, we are going to talk about what are the things that I’ve learned when I start to feel myself, talking myself down from the ledge.  We are talking about fear. Whether it’s putting out a podcast, starting a YouTube channel, launching a product and doing all that in one month. For me, I have to break through my emotions, because I mean, I am a female. I tend to operate by emotion. And for me, it was recognizing that. Recognizing not the bigger picture, but just how it makes me feel.

At the end of the day, it’s not about me, it’s about the people who we can serve, the people who we can help. And that puts it into perspective. So, when I start to get caught up in how it makes me feel, I hit the gas pedal. I go full throttle. And I turn it up. Recognize when you start to emotionally get involved with it and pull back on your emotions, hit the gas pedal, just do it. Just do it. Don’t think about it. You’ve already planned for it. You’ve already put the strategy in place. You’ve already done the work. You’ve already got your team on board. Whatever it is, just hit the pedal.

Number two is, oh this is good, this is good. I run into different business owners, and they’ll start complaining.

Like, “I really don’t like how we’re just not … have the finances that we want.” Or “Man, I really just don’t like the culture of our business.” Or “I don’t like our clients that we’re serving.” Whatever it sit hat they’re just not happy. Guess what? You are in control of how you show up in your business and how your business operates. So, if you’re a business owner, that is yours. That is your baby. Make the changes and fix it.

Some times we get so hung up on, especially in the social media realm, everybody wants to share. Everyone wants to talk about it. Everybody wants to complain. Well, here’s I guess my kick in the pants for you, is stop it. Just stop it. And do something about it. That quote about being a change, be the force now, do it now. If it’s an employee that’s not working out or that isn’t meeting your expectations, address it and either let them go or put a plan in place to help them get over it, so that way your business can grow. If you don’t like the clients that you’re working with, fire them and find new clients. We’ll do an episode all about your target market and really looking at who the people that you enjoy to serve. I use “serve” because I think that’s what we do. We’re here to help. So if I keep saying that, that’s why.

Identify what it is that you’re not happy about it and fix it. And I understand that that may not happen overnight and you may have to plan accordingly to address those issues, but stop complaining about it and do it. Let’s face it. If we wake up and we have breath in our bodies, we have life, we’re here. And we are capable of making change. That’s point number two. 

Number three is I’m a huge component of writing it down.

If it’s something in your business that you, once again, your fear is holding you back or you don’t feel like that you can overcome, write it down and put a plan behind it. Once you’re able to break down the situation, then it takes that fear out of it. It takes that scary away from it. Then you can actually see what you have to do to get from point A to point B.

A lot of times, I like to work from the end in mind and work backwards. Just today, I had a conference call with a client and we’ve been with them for a while. She is now ready to kick it up. She’s ready to do more research, really find out what the clients are using to find them, and then how that they can launch a review funnel. There’s a lot of things that we’ve created a solid start for them, but now she’s said, “Okay, all right. Let’s do it. Let’s kick it up.” So, talking with her, my first question was, “What is your goal? What are you trying to accomplish?” And as she was talking, I started putting a plan together. I started writing it down.

Because I wrote it down for her, not only I can send it off to her and make sure that we’re on the same page, but two, I’m able to implement that into my own business and strategy for her. Some times we get held up in our feelings, and our emotions, and not liking the situation, we forget that we have control over it. That we can make the change. Once we pull back emotion and write down a semi logical plan in place, then you’re able to accomplish what you set out to do. 

For today those are my three big takeaways.  Let’s bust through whatever it is that’s holding us back, whatever that fear is. Let’s handle our business, our … whatever it is that we are struggling with now so that way we’re not having the same conversations today, or in a year from now.

I leave you with this today. Great things never come from comfort zones. So, let’s get out of our comfort. Have a great day.

A huge thank you to Mark Lavender of Mark Lavender Productions for sponsoring season one of Raney Day Talks. It truly is because of Mark that we’re able to publish these podcasts. So, if you’re interested in launching your own podcast or need work with photography or videography, please contact Mark through MarkLavenderProductions.com.