Sure, you may have all your loving followers surrounding you and giving you all the support you can ever hope for. Sure, you’re making sales here and there, and the figures are just getting higher and higher each day. Sure, your brand is getting more and more popular, and new clients are lining up to try out your products and service.
You’re a success story. Your dreams are slowly coming true. You have established yourself as a leader, and there’s nowhere to go but up.
But why do you still have this dreadful feeling inside? It’s like something is missing. You don’t quite understand it, but you somehow feel inadequate. It’s certainly the opposite of what you should be feeling, especially because you’re winning this game. Where is it coming from? And why is it haunting you? Let me tell you this: all businessmen feel the same way, no matter how big or widespread their company is. We’re all human beings. We’re flawed, and we’re prone to doubting ourselves – sometimes for no apparent reason.
It gets even worse when you try to collaborate with a bigger brand, thinking they’ll pay attention to you because you’re a much bigger name now than when you first started. And then you get shot down…or even worse, downright ignored. I know this ‘cause I’ve been there. And it’s the worst feeling you can get when you think that all you’ve ever worked for has been leading up to this moment. It can be devastating. It fuels all the doubts that you already had from the beginning. Am I not good enough? Don’t I have enough connections? Are my ideas horrible? You start thinking and over-thinking everything, trying to figure out where you went wrong. Why did this company ignore me? Why won’t they pay attention to my pitches? Am I not on their level yet? Am I not good enough to sit with the big dogs?
This is one thing I learned back in March. I don’t know where I went wrong, all I know is that I worked hard enough to get that attention I deserved. And because of this experience I learned a couple of important things about getting over your fears. It’s all about maturing, and learning the right way to view things. Today, I’m going to teach you three ways to get over your business fears and doubts.
1. Understand Your Fear and Feelings of Inadequacy
As I said earlier, we’re all human beings, and it’s all normal for us to doubt ourselves sometimes. It’s a part of our nature. But what’s not natural is when you can’t get over those feelings of doubt and fear. You have to let go of these emotions – otherwise your business and brand will go down with it. Don’t let it take over your life. So what I learned from my experience back in March is that these big brands and big companies that I approached were all somewhat afraid themselves. I can’t speak for them on a personal level, but I think they may have been scared of what might happen when we collaborated.
My brand was continuously rising in popularity, and I’m getting clients left and right. So it’s understandable that these bigger companies would be afraid of a little competition, because they know that these people would come check out what I have to offer. I figured that this is the reason why I wasn’t getting those responses. That’s the reason I was being ignored – they were afraid that I might take away some of their loyal customers. But remember this, if people love your stuff, if people love your brand and what you do for them, they won’t ever leave your side. They won’t be going anywhere. They’ll remain loyal. So the key here is to understand what is making you doubtful and afraid. In this case, I was scared that my brand wasn’t big enough to collaborate with the big brands. But then I realized, it wasn’t my problem all along. Instead, I collaborated with smaller brands and smaller companies – and they were more willing to cooperate! And let me tell you this: so many doors opened for me since I collaborated with those small brands. It wasn’t what I was aiming for, but that’s what happened anyway. I got so much more opportunities to spread around my brand and my values, and I ended up bringing a lot of my stuff to the table too. In the end, I was able to let go of my fears.
Understand that this industry is almost always fueled by fear. Businessmen are always fearful. They have their doubts. They have their worries. But they understand that it’s a normal part of it all. Will their investments pay off? They don’t know. But they work with what they have until they succeed.
Click To Tweet: Understanding Your Fear and Feelings of Inadequacy is the 1st step to overcoming it.
2. Do something that you’ve always been Afraid to Do
We’re still talking about business fears here, mind you. So our first tip was about overcoming your fear by understanding that’s it’s a normal part of the job. This next tip is all about facing these fears – dancing with them until you’re no longer afraid. Let’s take this on a normal, day-to-day scale. If you’re afraid of the dark, you might be tempted to sleep with the lights on. But eventually, in order to let go of this fear, you’re going to learn how to turn the lights off before you head on to bed. Soon you’re going to realize that there was nothing to be afraid of in the first place, and you’re gonna have a good night’s sleep from that point on.
So now that you’ve stopped obsessing with the bigger brands, you can see more windows of opportunities surrounding you. You begin to see the light. This is the perfect time for you to do the things you’ve always been afraid of doing. Do something that you’ve always been meaning to do. Perhaps it’s because of the doubt, or lack of planning, or whatever this fear is that you’re facing – now is the time to shed off those fears. Pick one thing that you’ve always wanted to do, like a thing, or idea, and just do it. If you’re afraid to conduct webinars, conduct one this week and try it out. See for yourself how it feels. Are you afraid of charging money for some of your best services? Go ahead and do it. I want you to put no thoughts into this, because it stops you from doing business. We are entrepreneurs by nature, and we plan things as often as we could – which is good normally. But this is a very different case. This is something that has been holding you back, and you want to get rid of that. Do one thing that you’ve always wanted to do.
3. Connect With Your Customers Starting with their Pain Points
Find out what your people need. Focus on them, because they are the blood that keeps your business running. Instead of wasting your time on all of those doubts and fears, focus on the needs of your people. These are the clients that are keeping you in the business, and these are the customers that are giving you their time, and support, and attention. You want to give them everything you’ve got – because they are the reason you’ve gotten this far.
In fact, they are there to serve as solid proof that you have nothing to be afraid of. They prove that you are capable of delivering results. That’s the reason they stick around.
Find out their pain points. Understand their fears, and you’ll be able to react flawlessly.
Do your people need strategies? Do they need support? Do they need cheaper packages that they can afford? Do they need advice and motivation? Give them what they need and they will surely remain loyal to you.
Here’s what I learned through all of this: you always have to work with what you have. You work hard, you build yourself up to be a leader, and then realize that what’s for you is for you.
