Today I’m going to share with you what it’s been like for me being self-employed. Maybe you can relate.
When I started Simple Significance, I was oozing with excitement! I was out there to go and grab hold of my life. While it’s exciting there are many things day-to-day that bring me back down to the real world.
One of the hardest things I have had to learn is to ignore people. Sounds bad right? I know. When I say this, I mean it with as much kindness and love as possible. Tons of people want to give advice and opinions. Some even say the way I’m doing things makes no sense.
One example is creating a niche. When I was in the process of listening to my teachers and mentors, others who didn’t own a business told me it didn’t make sense to narrow my audience. They told me I should include as many people as possible.
Not true. I could turn red in the face trying to explain that even though that seems like the oblivious thing to do you need to narrow down your audience as much as possible when you’re first starting.
Everyone and I mean everyone including myself wants to feel like a VIP. We want to feel spoken to. Everyone is so unique in the way they think and the things they’re going through, it would be really hard to speak to everyone when we’re all living such unique lives.
Every single one of these people telling me I was doing it wrong was coming from a sincere place of love and support. They wanted me to succeed.
Eventually, I had to just say I see where you’re coming from, thank you, and let it go…
Another expected yet unexpected challenge was working from home. It gets lonely and can sometimes be challenging to focus on the tasks at hand.
Most I had talked to about working from home said to keep up on joining groups or meeting up with people so you don’t seclude yourself too much. They were so right. What a learning curve. I’m still learning to navigate that one!
Another experience I encounter now that I am learning to think more like a businesswoman is that while my loved ones say they support me it may not always feel like it.
Sometimes you might find that people support you following your passion and starting/growing a business. What they might not support is the way you think it needs to be run and invested in. They might not even understand or be open to understanding what it is you do.
It can be frustrating at times but also a chance to up communication skills, which is always a great opportunity.
The bottom line is it takes a lot of self-awareness to work for yourself and by yourself every day. You need to show up for yourself, it’s gonna be worth it.
It’s okay that other people don’t and won’t get it. Let that fuel your fire!
https://simplesignificance.com/
Email me at: alex@simplesignificance.com