Ep 35 - Discover These 6 Tips to Create More Resilience as a Small Business Owner

(Note: This transcript was computer-generated.)

Have you ever hit a roadblock in your business journey? Well, of course you have. After all, you're an entrepreneur and a visionary leader! Today, we're diving deep into the art of bouncing back from setbacks, because let's face it: we all encounter obstacles, and how we deal with them defines our path to success. Join me as I unveil 6 steps to not just overcome, but thrive after setbacks. This isn't just about resilience, it's about coming back better and stronger than ever. Stay tuned to discover the secrets to quick recovery and efficient growth. Are you that driven entrepreneur who believes that working harder holds the key to your dreams? Are you drowning in the day to day task wishing you had more time to strategize and cast the vision for your business growth? Hi.

I'm Donna Dube, your guide on this entrepreneurial journey. I've walked in your worn out shoes, burning the midnight oil, convinced that sheer hard work was the secret to success. Just one more email, one more task, until I found myself on a one way track to burnout. But here's the twist in the tale. I discovered that success isn't just about working harder, it's about working smarter. It's about being intentional with our time. It's about steering our ship with focus because no team, system, or automation can outperform a lack of direction. In this podcast, I'm sharing with you all the strategies for business growth that it took me years to learn.

If you're ready to step out of the daily overwhelm so you can amplify your profits, then I'm ready to teach you. I believe the only limit to your business growth is the one you set for yourself. Go grab a notebook, warm up that cup of tea and let's do this. Welcome back to another episode. So glad you're here. So obstacles and setbacks. I mean, we've all had them. We're all going to have them.

Right? Broken links, tech doesn't work, something goes wrong in the middle of a live session, get locked out of Facebook or Instagram team members leaving or ghosting us and dropping tasks halfway through. Oh my, the list goes on and on and on. Setbacks and obstacles are part of our journey. I mean, there's no entrepreneur out there who can say they haven't met setbacks and obstacles. Right? But today I don't want to focus on what those obstacles or set backs are. I really want to focus on what we do when we hit 1 because balancing back and how we go through that process is so, so important to our growth and to us being able to be resilient and to be able to come back stronger and better than we were before. So I want us to learn how to grow as fast as we can to get up and to try again. I want us to learn how to deal with it and learn from it and how we can quickly bounce back when we do hit that brick wall, that obstacle, because becoming better and stronger is exactly what we want to do. So I want you to challenge yourself when you're listening to this episode.

I want you to keep these 6 steps in the back of your mind for when you do hit that next setback or obstacle. And I want you to take action because knowledge is one thing, but as you know, you've heard me say before knowledge is nothing without taking action. So challenge yourself to put these 6 steps into place the next time you hit an obstacle. Because my friends, let's face it, as entrepreneurs we don't have time for drama, right? We need to get in and get out. Make the best of the situation we've got. We can weather the storm quickly, effectively, and efficiently. All right, so let's dive into what these 6 steps are. I'm going to use an example so that, you know, we can easily see at each step, how we should respond.

So let's say we've, we're an online business owner and we're offering online coaching programs and we've got a live event that we're gonna do in a few days. And right before the live event, we realize we've had a technical glitch, The website and software program that we were going to use to host this live event is down. It's crashed. We've got a large community in our Facebook group who are planning to attend this live event and we've been promoting this event all over the place for the last 4 weeks. Now is not the time for a technical glitch, but we have it. So what do we do? Step 1, do not react impulsively. Now I know because I've been there and this is my natural tendency is to react and respond impulsively when something like this happens. "Oh no, I've got this live event and the website doesn't work.

I'm going to have a fit." That's my reaction naturally, but I need to step back. I need to figure out what's triggering me and I need to defend myself from having that reaction because when I succumb to the panic, the result I get is not pretty folks, right? We have to resist the urge to react impulsively and instead of blaming ourselves or blaming the tech or blaming whoever, we have to take a moment to collect our thoughts and try not to have these knee jerk reactions. Step number 2, we have to allow ourselves to feel it. Yes, I said feel it. We have to allow ourselves to feel it but not to let it fester. So it's right and it's just to acknowledge that we're upset. Just sit in those feelings.

It's okay that we have those feelings. Where we have to be careful is how long we stay there. Right? So I suggest set a timer 30 minutes, 15 minutes, whatever you need, but cap it. Don't ignore the feelings that you have, but don't let it fester and continue forever either. So in this situation, we've got a live event coming up. We're disappointed. The software is not working. We're frustrated because now what are we gonna do with all these people who want to attend? We have to allow ourselves to feel the weight of this frustration.

Set a timer, sit with our emotions, and understand that if we try and suppress our frustrations, it won't be helpful. Right? So we may have to get frustrated. We may have to say some words we don't want others to hear but we don't want to dwell in that spot for too long because that can certainly be counterproductive. Okay, so first not being impulsive. 2nd, allow ourselves to feel it for a controlled amount of time. Step number 3, speak about it. Yes. Speak about it.

Who is the person that you can talk to that can help you and that can understand you? Who is the person that can lead you in a mature way? Someone who's a little bit beyond you experienced level headed and can help guide the situation. You don't wanna go to someone where you're just complaining and being miserable because misery loves company and that's not the type of help that we need at this point in time. So in our example, we have to recognize the importance of seeking guidance, right? Reach out to a fellow entrepreneur in the same scale. Choose someone who is experienced and got some level headedness about them so that they can make sure the conversation is focused on constructive solutions rather than dwelling on the problem because it's so easy for us to show up and just start complaining. "I've got this live event, my tech isn't working, now what am I going to do? I've got all these people!" No. Slow down. Let's focus on what the constructive solutions are. So be wise about who you speak out to and make sure that you've got a couple of people in your back pocket that you can do this with. Step number 4, reframing the situation.

We have to look at the situation through a different lens changing our thought process on what is going on and a lot of times this is about saying, "This is not about me. I have to take the high road here. I have to see it from the other side. I have to show compassion." And this is where we're going to start looking at things from the other side, not being defensive, not being angry, but refaming our perspective. So in this case, we've got a tech glitch. It was out of our control, right? There's nothing we could do to control that. So instead of viewing it as a personal failure, let's consider it as a challenge to be tackled. Take a step back and let's adopt a problem solving mindset where we can focus on finding solutions rather than dwelling on the setback itself.

Alright. Step number 5, release it and let it go. This is where we really have to see that some things are in our control and other things are simply not, and there is no point blaming ourselves, worrying about it, or getting frustrated about the things that are out of our control. And if you need to, like, think about 2 circles, what's in your control and what's out of your control, make a diagram and actually jot down the points if this helps you. But I want you to focus on what's in your control because those things that are out of your control, you cannot control. So in this situation, understand that these technical issues were beyond our control, right? Decide to release that frustration. "I can't do anything about that.

What I can do is acknowledge that if I dwell on this glitch, I won't fix the problem. But if I redirect my energy towards actionable solutions, then I can make a difference." Alright, and step number 6 is to move on. Move on from it. Don't sit and obsess about it because there are many other things more important in your life and more important that are gonna come up. You don't wanna get distracted by this one set back. So retrain your brain to move on. Don't get fixated on the setback, but redirect that energy to providing value.

Right? So in this situation we've got people who want to come to a live event. What can we do? How can we provide value to our community, to our audience? Well, first of all, we can openly communicate the operations, right? "This was out of my control, but I've got a tech glitch. I can't offer it this way at this time," and offer an alternative. Right? What's an alternative solution, a different way of getting that content out to those people. Shift your attention to positive actions and retrain your mind to help you move forward. Alright. So those are the 6 steps to go through. The next time you hit that obstacle, you hit that brick wall and that setback.

And then the important thing here is to really look at how fast can we get through those 6 steps. So the next time you hit that obstacle, I want you to actually time yourself. How long did it take you to go through those 6 steps? And that's going to be your benchmark. And that each time you hit a setback, I want to evaluate how swiftly or quickly you can navigate the setback. In this case, we have to recognize that in the online space, time is of the essence, right? We have to learn that we can be resilient and weather the storm efficiently and effectively. Sure. We had a tech glitch. That's a learning opportunity and we can recover from it.

Right? We need to be open. We need to be transparent and respond to the challenges in front of us Because in this fast paced digital world, resilience is oftentimes the key to sustain success. So I hope you got those 6 steps. I'll just recap them from the top so that they're clear in your mind and the next time you hit that setback, I want you to put this into action. Step 1, don't react impulsively. Step 2, allow yourself to feel it. Just don't sit there too long. Step 3, we want to be able to speak about it.

Reach out to someone who's level headed and experienced who can help you. Step 4, reframe the situation. Think about it from the other side. Step 5, release it and let it go. Don't worry about what's not in your control. Worry about what is in your control. And step 6, move on from it. Don't sit and obsess about it.

Alrighty my friends, I hope that helps you and the next time you run into a setback you can put this into action. I'd love to hear your thoughts about these 6 steps and if you've tried some of them before. If you want to hop over to the CEO amplify facebook group and leave your comments there, I'll be happy to read them. Thank you for joining me on this episode of CEO Amplify. I appreciate you being part of our thriving community of ambitious business owners. If you enjoyed today's episode, I kindly ask you to share this podcast with a friend and take a hot minute to rate and leave a review. It would mean the world to me.

Your feedback helps me reach more people and continue providing valuable content. Thanks so much for your support. Keep shining, and we'll catch you on the next episode.