As I write this, people are experiencing a lot of stress and fear about politics, the economy and the state of the world. But whenever it is that you’re reading this, you’ve probably been stressed and fearful about something pretty recently, and it’s taken a toll. We feel those emotions so strongly that they can be debilitating. We can find it impossible to move forward and make progress.
If that describes you now, or if you’ve ever been in that place, please keep reading. There is something you can do about it.
Why Fear Is So Debilitating
Whenever we’re worried about something—a specific something like an election, a recession or war, or a more nebulous something like aging or the success of our kids as they grow up—fear is a natural reaction. It’s our brain’s way of alerting us to potential danger and spurring us to take action to protect ourselves.
This was really handy when the potential danger was a saber-toothed cat stalking us: We heard the rustle in the bushes, so our heart rate and respiratory rate spiked, our body flooded us with adrenaline, and without thinking about it at all, we were running like mad, turning to attack or curling up into a little ball hoping we wouldn’t be noticed.
Even though the dangers we face these days aren’t usually so physical and life-threatening, our bodies and brains still react the same way. They get all geared up to reflexively flee, fight or freeze, but we don’t actually get to flee, fight or freeze because we’re sitting in a meeting, caught in traffic, waiting for an important email or listening to the news. Our body can’t react, so our brain does—by catastrophizing.
You know what that’s like: You start down the path of worrying about how an economic downturn might affect your business, and the next thing you know you’ve lost your business, you’re mired in debt, your friends and family aren’t talking to you, and you’re living in a box on a street corner—all in your brain. Where your imagination has taken you is so real and so terrifying, you become paralyzed. After all, what’s the point in doing anything, ever again, if disaster is so inevitable?
That situation is why I like to talk about fear as an acronym: F.E.A.R., or False Evidence Appearing Real. Fear drives us to believe that the worst isn’t just likely, it’s absolutely, positively, no doubt going to happen. It’s so big and so certain, there’s nothing we can do about it.
But there is something you can do about it. In fact, there are three things you can do about it.
#1: Be aware when you’re afraid.
This is a little easier said than done, especially if you’re not used to tuning in to how you feel. But before we can counter fear, we have to know that we’re feeling it. To get started, stop right now and do a quick scan of your body. Is your heart pounding? Is your breath shallow? If your shoulders are up to your ears, your forehead is furrowed and your jaw is clenched, you’re feeling stress or fear or both. Take a survey of your thoughts. If they’re noisy and chaotic, that’s a sure sign that you’re not reacting rationally to whatever’s going on in there.
To get out of that place of fear, you have to first acknowledge that you’re in it. Take a few deep breaths. You might even say to yourself, “Man, I feel really scared and out of control right now.” If this is hard to do on your own, reach out to a friend. I recently freaked out and was catastrophizing about how I had disastrously disappointed a client. I told a colleague how I was feeling, and she was able to talk me down by sharing her own observations of the situation. Sure enough, she was right: My client was just caught up in her own stuff; when she finally got back to me, everything was good. That leads me into #2:
#2: Tell yourself that it’s not the end of the world.
I know it might feel like it, but with very few exceptions things right now are never as bad as you think they are. And though things in the future might get dicey, it really is true that our brains are amazingly good at convincing us that the future is going to be way worse than it actually turns out to be.
Let me give you an example: In a previous election cycle, I had a client tell me that he had to close his business because the new president was anti-small business and his business had no chance of surviving what was to come. I encouraged him to pause and to think about the transition period of any presidency: The new president wouldn’t take office for a couple of months, and it would take time to get oriented to office and to deal with the most pressing matters of state; he easily had a year or maybe even two before the worst could come to pass. Instead of selling his business in a panic, he should take that time to increase his cashflow and build up his business so he could get the most out of it when he sold it.
He took my advice and when he did eventually did sell his business about two years later, it was worth a lot more than it would have been if he had sold in a rush because of an election. I’ve had clients in similar situations who ended up not selling their business because doing the work of building their business made their business stronger and less vulnerable to the whims of politicians and a fluctuating economy.
When you can look at a situation calmly and with perspective and get past the False Evidence Appearing Real, you have room to take action.
That’s #3, but before we go there I want to make one more point: For the most part, who is president doesn’t have a huge impact on small businesses. I know there are tax and regulatory implications, but I’ve owned businesses through five presidents and three major recessions, and presidential policies and the state of the economy have never been the reason I succeeded or failed. My success or failure has always been about how I respond to those policies and the state of the economy. Which is why taking action is vital.
#3: Take action.
When you’re feeling stressed and fearful, the most important thing you can ask yourself is What do I need to do today? Then, do that.
In my experience, the three actions that have the most positive impact on your business are creating raving fans, bringing in business on a regular and consistent basis and getting your work done in a timely and effective manner.
Take action to keep creating raving fans from your existing customers.
The easiest way of growing your business is tapping into your current client base; the best way to do that is by building deep, sincere relationships with your clients that show them that you care about them. If you’re afraid, they might be, too. In addition to your usual tactics for adding value for your clients, take time to check in with them over a call or coffee and see how they’re doing. Don’t talk politics or economics; ask them how they’re feeling, personally and professionally, and talk about how you can help them reach their goals and meet their challenges. Keep the conversation positive and solution-oriented, and I guarantee you will both come away feeling better. After the call or meeting, act on what you heard; helping them reach their goals and meet their challenges is very likely to help you in the long run.
If you don’t have a good menu of tactics for adding value, check out my blog How to Add Value for Your Clients.
Take action to continuing to bring in business on a regular and consistent basis.
As I mentioned before, I’ve owned businesses through three major economic downturns, so I can tell you with confidence that there is always business to be had—if you’re willing to work for it. I had a client who told me that the economy was so bad, no one was buying his phone systems. I had just driven through Virginia, from Winchester to Charlottesville, and had seen several office buildings going up. I asked why he wasn’t going after the businesses that were going to move into those buildings. It would take work and some accounts might take longer to close, but there was opportunity right in front of him.
No one said running a business was going to be easy. Sometimes you have to hustle for it; sometimes you have to get creative and look beyond your normal avenues for business. But there is almost always more business to bring in. Check out my blog Do You Have Enough Money Coming In? for more about how to get in front of enough of the right kind of people.
Get your work done in a timely and effective manner.
When you create raving fans and bring in business on a regular and consistent basis, you’re going to be in the enviable position of having more work to get done. Having processes in place to do that work and do it well is how you’ll create raving fans from your new clients. You can’t do this on your own. Whether you get an in-person or virtual assistant, delegate to existing employees, hire new team members or use other outside sources, you need help. Please check out my podcast You Need An Assistant! and my blog and podcast on Hiring Right: Answers to Your Questions. If you’re an association executive, I have a podcast just for you: Getting Assistance for Your Association.
I am a true believer in the power of getting help. If you need convincing, or help figuring out what kind of help is right for you, please
One last thought about fear and taking action: Remember how our brains love to catastrophize? When you get busy creating raving fans, bringing in business and providing amazing work to your clients, your brain isn’t going to have nearly as much time and energy to worry about what might happen in the future. It will be all-in focused on right now, and that will do wonders for your mood.
You Can Conquer Your F.E.A.R.
Fear is real. It’s real in our bodies. It’s real in our emotions. It’s real in our brains. It is so, so compelling. That doesn’t mean it’s accurate. It truly is False Evidence Appearing Real.
You conquer it first by being aware when you’re afraid, and reminding yourself that—regardless of what your brain wants you to believe—it is very unlikely that this is actually the end of the world. Then, take action. Reach out to your current customers and cultivate those raving fans. Keep bringing in business; depending on the circumstances, that might mean getting creative and mixing up your current set of strategies if they’re not working for you anymore. (Another good resource for this is my podcast and blog on 7 Steps to Step Up Your Sales Success.) Make sure you have the team you need—internal, external or a mix—to help you get this influx of work done.
Because fear is such a strong emotion, and especially if you’ve been feeling it for some time, it can be challenging to break through it on your own. An outside perspective can be a lifesaver. I know, because I have my own coach to help me through times like this. Read about why he’s so important to me in Why I Love My Coach, and learn about what makes a good coach in my podcast How to Find the Right Business Coach for You. Or, skip that and
