Do you have a support team?
September 27th, 2006 by Cristina Favreau
As a self-proclaimed workaholic, let me tell you that the reality of being 4-months pregnant and caring for our 12-month-old son has just settled in. Add postpartum AND pregnancy hormones to the fact that I’m feeling the pinch of working solo, and the time I spend on my business has been drastically reduced, we have a lethal combination of emotions.
I’m realizing that I’m human and can’t be everything and everywhere at once.
This is why having a reliable supportive system is imperative. My best friend and closest, most faithful business colleague had to readjust my thinking as I broke down and admitted… I’m human (which she already knew), I have doubts, I question my own success, I like to hear “You’re doing great!” every once in a while, and on, and on I went… I hadn’t realized those feelings were there until they came out.
In her typical no-nonsense, supportive style, she gave me some excellent advice that I’d like to share with you, as it may help you too:
- “Stop with the questions.” In other words, trust my instincts and just do it.
- “Accept that most people won’t understand what you do.” Selling and marketing a service is not easy, since it’s mostly intangible, and clients will only see the end result once the job is done. The point is, make what you do as clear as you can to yourself, market your services as a product (when possible), and talk with those in your field who DO get it.
- “What’s the worse that can happen?” This is an important coaching question, and I can’t believe I failed to use my own coaching techniques on myself (can you say ‘forest for the trees’?). In my case, it’s really true… Worse case, I’ll have received invaluable training, learned a lot about what I’m truly passionate about, made incredible connections and had fun. That’s not so bad.
- “Maybe you need a break!” The truth is, I need a vacation… a real one… In the meantime, I’ll settle with taking (most of) my weekends off and trying to get to bed at a decent hour (I’m saying this, as my clock flashes 9:51pm).
Have you dealt with feelings of overwhelm, lack of support, questioning, doubting, “analysis paralysis”? Are you going through them right now? What have you done to overcome them? Who is part of your support team (and I don’t just mean family)?
If you don’t have a support system in place, seek it out in networking groups or with colleagues and peers. How? Just be honest and ask.
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Good article! Having a good support team really makes a difference. (I can relate to the family care drain, and realizing we ARE just human.)
“Accept that most people won’t understand what you do.”
Ha! I’ve been trying to explain to my 91 year old grandfather for almost a year now what it is that I do! Forget about it!
But seriously, that is one of the most insightful tips I’ve read in a long time. It’s taken me awhile to deal with the fact that because my businesses are completely virtual, and I work from a home office, that doesn’t mean that I play on the computer all day or am always available for favors and fun!
I’ve recently been getting “feedback” from my father about my coaching practice, now that I’ve moved into coaching full-time (and have left my well-paying day job behind). Like any concerned father I suppose, he’s been dropping some subtle (and not so subtle) hints about going back to my lucrative job. Who cares whether I’m happy? I should just suck it up and make a lot of money… Needless to say, I’ve finally told him to cool it. Starting any small business is incredibly challenging. We already have those doubts in the back of our minds most of the time. Who needs those closest to us reminding us of them all the time, right?