You are spending a lot of time at home lately and it feels great, right? It is exactly what you have been wishing for all during those long work weeks. Time to be productive, tackle that project, blog about your mad home design services, jumpstart your gluten-free, sugar-free vegan bakery business. Sounds ideal, right? What happens though, when it doesn’t look how you pictured it in your head? What if the ideas are flowing but you are talking yourself in circles, stuck on the perfect image in your head, instead of taking action? If you are in pursuit of excellence like me (aka reformed perfectionist), adjusting can feel too much like compromise and we stand in our own way. What would happen if we get out of our own way and learn to recognize opportunity when it is beating down our door?
Here is a tool I use with my clients; start by simply allow yourself to give your expectations closure. Allow yourself to be disappointed that your 5-year plan has been thrown off track, mourn for the loss of that amazing studio space you had your eye on or the wedding photography gigs you booked and now face the prospect of returning clients deposits. It’s okay to feel sad about these things. Give yourself permission to take the time you need…then move on and accept that you still have plenty of opportunities. When you acknowledge your loss, and accept that moving forward with your future plans will look different than you originally intended, you give up the desperate need for control and can move into a place of action.
Here are examples of what that might look like. Let’s say your dream is to open a neighborhood cooking school. You sit at your corporate day job pinning recipe ideas and Googling resources for authentic harissa while designing your dream modern test kitchen. The good news is, since your day job scaled back on hours, you now have time to get started. Instead you sit, paralyzed by the idea that it must happen according to your “Perfectly Modern Kitchen” Pinterest board. Sure, it’s true, you won’t be able to welcome students into your gleaming stainless kitchen with redwood butcher block countertops, and I am sure they would have loved the custom sheet pan rack, but there are still tons of opportunities to help people and tell them about your great business idea at the same time. You can teach classes on Facebook Live, host a webinar about cooking with seasonal vegetables, blog about that amazing Moroccan dinner your family raved about for days, or offer a downloadable quarantine friendly recipe guide with dinner ideas using only pantry staples and freezer items. The list goes on! Interior designers may not be able to go into clients' homes but they can offer virtual design sessions, using a clients existing furniture to refresh a room or offer a course teaching clients how they design a room using a color palette. Hairstylists can send clients their custom mixed color and host a webinar on how to apply it.
The options for opportunity are endless when we get out of our own way, when we give up the need for control when we stop trying to do everything perfectly. There are so many things you can do right now, with the skills you have, to help people and provide a service people are looking for. Does it look exactly like your “Perfect Business Plan” Pinterest board? Probably not exactly, but it might just be even better.
Lisa is a Branding Coach and Founder of The Golden Brand. She lives in Pasadena California with her husband, her 14 year old daughter and two rescued border collies.
She has spent the past 20 years of her professional career as a serial Entrepreneur and Freelancer. Lisa is the founder and CEO of multiple businesses. These include a Los Angeles based catering/private chef service and an ethically sourced clothing shop where she was an advocate for women’s success in the workplace.
With a newly minted website, Lisa has been slowly building The Golden Brand for the past two years. While running the shop, she began mentoring other female entrepreneurs, sharing her knowledge and cheering them on as they joyfully grew their businesses. Shortly after beginning to mentor, she had her first paying client. During that session she felt completely alive and fulfilled... she sold her shop and followed her instincts to coach full-time.
Lisa is a Brand Coach but also an entrepreneur, she knows what her clients are going through because she has been in their position. She helps her clients embrace their value, identify the next steps in their business, and most importantly, lead with their best brand!
