#348: Rediscovering Your Core—Finding Clarity and Stability in Your Business Amidst Chaos

Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia.

Hey there. Welcome to another episode of the High Income Business Writing Podcast, the number one podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to earn more and less time doing work they love for better clients. With over 1.3 million downloads from listeners just like you across 101 countries. All right, so let me ask you a couple of questions to see if this resonates. Are you starting to feel more stressed or burnt out or anxious in your business? Have you been feeling this way for a few months or maybe longer? Are you sometimes ready to throw your laptop out the window and just get a part time job at Trader Joe's or maybe become a greeter at Walmart? Right. Do these thoughts enter your mind sometimes? And is it happening more often than it has in the past? You know, maybe you felt this way before, but you're now starting to feel it more frequently. And maybe it's becoming a noticeable pattern. I know it has for a lot of people that I've been talking to over the past few months. And look, there's plenty going on right now to keep anyone in fear mode. You know, there's the economy, Are we in a recession? Things seem to be slowing down. There is the threat of AI. We got an upcoming election here in the US and actually in many parts around the world there are geopolitical tensions, war, lots to really be worried about, lots to keep you up at night for sure. But here's the thing. Stuff is always happening. Stuff is always happening. My son was telling me the other day, and he's 21, that he feels that he was born into a really difficult, challenging time. In, in his mind, we didn't have these challenges. You know, we had kind of a really nice, peaceful childhood and we didn't have to deal with a lot of the things that his generation has to deal with. And he didn't like it, but I had to correct him. I said, well, that's your perception. But really, when you look back, every generation has had their own set of challenges. There's stuff always happening, all kinds of negative things that happen. And nobody necessarily has a better or worse. We can get into that argument, but I don't think it's very productive. Stuff is always happening. And it's important that we not fall into the trap of believing that, okay, this is it, this is the end of everything. If you look back objectively at human history, there's a pattern. There's always been a pattern here. This is no different. There's always something crazy going on. And in fact, you'll find that overall things are actually pretty darn good right now when you look at it through the lens of human history. In fact, I hope you'll bear with me because there's plenty of good news to talk about. And I know that by telling you all this, I'll get plenty of hate mail from people who disagree with me or who choose to take a glass half empty outlook. That's fine. I respect that. But I need to speak up about this stuff because it seems like few people really are bringing this different perspective to the general discussion out there and certainly in our industry. I'm just going to mention a few things, okay? And this is not me. Look, I'm a natural optimist. That is my natural state, okay? But I do get down and I'll talk more about this in a few minutes. I do get down, just like anybody else. I'm human. However, it's important to not lose perspective because it's very easy to go to a dark place and think that everything's over and that it's hopeless. And that is not true at all. So let's bring a little bit of that perspective into this discussion, starting with technological advancements. We live in an era of unprecedented technological growth which has dramatically improved lives all over the world. And I'm talking everything from healthcare advancements that increase life expectancy, cure diseases, keep people healthier for longer, to technologies that connect us globally in an instant. Let's not forget that it wasn't that long ago that a video zoom call with somebody on the other side of the world was a dream. That's something that you saw in movies. That was not reality. And here we are, we take it for granted, okay? Simple things like that. Let's talk about improvements in standard of living. So globally, poverty rates have declined significantly over the last few decades. And more people have access to education, to essential services than ever before. Between 1990 and 2019, the Global Extreme poverty rate saw significant reductions, going from 2 billion people living in extreme poverty to 660 million living at that state by 2019. Think about this. Two billion people, 1990, I was in college. That doesn't seem like that was that long ago for me. There were 2 billion people living in extreme poverty in the world. And we're down to 660 million people at least as of 2019. Must be lower by now. This reduction, to give you an idea to Put it in perspective, translates to an average annual decline of approximately 46.6 million people over that 29 year period. Or essentially about 128,000 people moving out of extreme poverty each day. That is serious, serious improvement. Let's talk about life expectancy. It has nearly doubled globally since 1900. And that's been partly the result of improvements in public health. Well, I should say largely public health, medicine and nutrition. Access to education has expanded significantly and that's empowered more people with the skills they need to get better, higher paying jobs and live an improved quality of life and enjoy improved quality of life. Greater awareness in action on social issues has also been a huge area of improvement, especially over the past few years. There's greater awareness of social, environmental, political issues. And this has led to better, more productive, more robust discussions and actions toward equality and sustainability. Let's talk a little bit about resilience and adaptability. History shows that humans are incredibly resilient and adaptable. We have overcome numerous challenges, crises, and often we emerge stronger or more united than we were going into these events. Access to information. I kind of touched on this a few minutes ago. Unlike in the past, we have immediate access to an incredible amount of information that allows us to educate ourselves better, make more informed decisions, improve our standard of living, improve our income, just improve the, the quality of life. Scientific understanding and rationality Our understanding of the world through science and through rational inquiry has never been better. It allows us to address problems more effectively and avoid past superstitions and harmful practices. You know, we take it for granted today, but it wasn't that long ago that medicine was all based on ideas and superstitions that have been passed down for hundreds and hundreds of years. The scientific method, that's a really new thing and we take it for granted today. So look, that's just a glimpse. I, I don't want to belabor the point. I could go on and on and on. There's some great books on this topic. And the point here is that there are plenty of things and circumstances and people and events and trends and movements to be grateful for. But it's hard to see that when we're surrounded by negativity. We're also wired for hedonic adaptation or the hedonic treadmill. And this can backfire. Many times it's the psychological effect that makes us normalize our experiences, no matter how extreme. So we become used to, you know, this comfort or standard of living and our emotional reactions adjust accordingly. So if we have any kind of setback, it really feels painful. It feels like a massive loss. So any improvement in our condition becomes the new normal for us. It's what we now expect. So again, when we get hit with a setback, it's very easy to lose perspective. It doesn't need to be a massive setback for us to really start feeling a high degree of loss, fear and anxiety. So I just want to call attention to this because I find that many times that's one of the issues. You know, it's. If you haven't experience, just as an example, massive setbacks in your business before, it's gonna feel like the end of the world for you. We've all been there. We have all been there, but you've created a new normal and that's what you expect. And when things start getting difficult, it just feels like it's all over. Look, I'm not trying to lecture you here. I want you to know that very often I do these shows as a reminder to myself of the lessons that I've been forgetting or the principles that I find myself getting away from. I've been self employed full time for 18 years, and during that time, I've gone through many very difficult periods. Some of them really got me questioning everything about my business, in my career path. It's happened multiple times. Okay? These challenges and setbacks really tested me and they continue to test me. And in fact, as I recently mentioned at the end of episode 3:40 that I did with Sarah Greisenbach, my business revenue has been trending down over the past four years. Now, much of that has been by design. So starting in late 2019, early 2020, right before COVID I made some significant changes in my business model to purposely scale back. And, you know, it was done by design. But ever since then, things stabilize. And then about two years ago, things started coming down through factors or as a result of factors that I can't control directly. And that's okay. I mean, but between that and everything that's been happening in the US and around the world, especially over the past four plus years, I have to be honest, it's really tested me. And sometimes I found myself becoming an angry old man. I'm like, kids, get out of my lawn. I've gotten grumpy, I've gotten outrage, despondent, sometimes even a bit depressed. I'm not proud of it, but I just want to be honest with you here. I just want you to know I'm a business coach, but I am human. I'm dealing and deal with my own stuff all the time. I'm not impervious to the challenges, to questioning myself, to wondering if I'm even on the right path, wondering if I should just quit all quit everything and just go again, get a part time job at Trader Joe's. I've since come out of a funk that I was in, on and off for about a year or two in. Partly because of coaching that I've gotten, some deep work that I've done, partly because I took a hard look at myself and the trajectory that I was on and I didn't like it. I didn't like it one bit. And partly because again, I stepped into a different place starting early last year, did some deep work that enabled me to take a harder look, closer look at my situation and these emotions and address them head on. I started doing some soul searching and that search has even intensified and taken some interesting twists and turns this year, which I'm actually really excited about. You know, it's every challenge contains the seed of something pretty amazing, and it's something I think we all intuitively know, but when we're in the middle of the storm, it's really hard to see that, to accept it, to take a step back, zoom out and look for those seeds. So all this to tell you that, look again, I'm not immune to challenges, to setbacks, to disappointments, to falling into a pit of negativity. I'm no different from you. So with that as a backdrop, here's where I'd like to share with you today. If you're finding yourself in a funk, if you realize that maybe you used to be a fairly happy and positive person and now you typically feel like you want to question everything, maybe you still feel great about being a solo professional, but now you are finding yourself questioning this path. Not all the time, but maybe you sometimes wonder and maybe sometimes the challenges feel too intense, like maybe you're be. You'd be better off getting a full time job somewhere, working for somebody, or changing careers altogether. None of those are bad in and of themselves. But it's important to step into a space where you can ask yourself the right questions and let the right answers, the better answers, emerge. And those are the times when it's important to go back to the founding principles of our business for guidance. And a good way to do that is to ask yourself some key questions. Questions that are really gonna make you think these are not easy questions to ask yourself. And I'm gonna share these with you. You're gonna want to take your time with these questions, answer these in one sitting. You want to take at least a few days, maybe even a few weeks, to address one question at a time at a deeper level. Don't overdo it. Don't try to force the answers to emerge immediately. Many times these questions and your thoughts need to marinate a little bit, and then the really good stuff comes out. Now, I should tell you that some of the answers to these questions may not be that palatable. You may not like them. You may experience anger and frustration as you write your thoughts. And if that's the case, then you need to accept that that's okay. I would urge you to write down whatever comes up. Just be honest with yourself. So I'm going to share these with you. I'm going to make sure that these are in the show notes so you don't have to, you know, if you're driving right now, you don't feel like you're missing out on this. You're going to have to come back to this and take notes. So I'll make sure that these are somewhere where you can easily access them. All right, I'm going to go through them fairly quickly again with the understanding that you're going to take your time with these. I'll maybe provide a little context for some of them and then we'll wrap up. So question number one. Why do I do this work? What do I do better than most people? So as I look back at my career, what activities or parts of my work tend to put me into a state of flow? What have clients and colleagues commented very positively about before? So, for example, you know, when have they said, wow, you're really good at this, or this is really solid work, or I really enjoy working with you on these types of projects? Because why does my business exist beyond just making money? What are my top three core values? How well is my freelance business enabling me to live those values? And if I'm not happy with the answer, what do I need to change about my business so that it's better aligned with those values? What are my biggest financial fears as a solo professional? Reflect on a time in your business when you were really fearful. Did that fear materialize? And if it did, how did you deal with the situation? What did you learn about yourself in the process of addressing those challenges? What am I fearful about right now? How is fear and anxiety guiding my actions? If you find yourself in a really bad situation right now, ask yourself, how much worse could this be? What would worst case scenario look like? And as an aside, the reason you want to ask yourself that question because sometimes it feels like this is worst case scenario. Again, hedonic adaptation, the hedonic treadmill. You want to make sure you put the challenge in perspective, your situation in perspective. Reflect on a time or two when adapting to change led to unexpected opportunities. How can I apply those lessons to my current situation in my freelance business? How can I leverage AI and new technologies to enhance my value proposition to clients rather than to replace my services? What is the vision for my business and how does the current situation match that vision? What would a perfect workday look like for me? Make it up. So I want you to design it however you would want. No rules. This is an opportunity for you to exercise a high degree of imagination and creativity. There are no rules, no constraints. Seriously, write out your day as if it's the end of the day and you're just creating an account of how it played out, maybe hour by hour. If I'm seriously looking for full time work right now, what am I trying to run away from? And what do I honestly feel that a full time job would give me that my current business can't? And finally, who do I need to become to have a business that brings me joy again? I want to stress one word here, become. Who do I need to become to have a business that brings me joy again? So again, I urge you to take your time with these questions. Find a quiet space when you do this work. Open a journal and think through one question at a time. Don't write a couple of sentences or bullet points. I want you to, in many cases, write at least a page or two in your journal. I want you to let the words flow. Then put your journal away and go for a walk. Do something else. The answers may not come when you write. They may not even come during your walk. But you need to trust that they will come because they will. In the act of taking that time to think and to ponder, to connect with your higher self, that's a beautiful act of self love. In fact, making time for thinking and for reflecting, creating that space for yourself and being present for yourself during that time, that is a wonderful act of self love. And frankly, that is something we all need to do more of to love ourselves more. My coach and mentor, Pellet Top, always says most of us are suffering from a serious lack of self love. We have a self love deficit. He is absolutely right. Things are weird right now. Things are challenging. There's no doubt about that. Okay, not for everybody, but for many people. And this is not the time to retreat. This is a time to remind ourselves that the obstacle is the way. The challenges that we face contain the seeds to a much better future. Don't look at your current situation if you don't like where you are right now. If you don't like the challenges and the obstacles in front of you, don't look at your current situation as solely a negative thing. There is a lot of positivity in these challenges, in these obstacles. What those are, I cannot tell you. But there's always a blessing there, and eventually we all find out what that blessing is. So if you enjoyed this episode, I have a favor to ask of you. Would you be willing to forward it to a friend or a colleague you think could use it? I suspect that there are thousands of writers and solo marketers out there right now who could really benefit from this discussion and the questions I've posed here, and I would love for more people to come across them. So that's it for today. Thanks for listening and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. Well, that's it for today. I hope you enjoyed the episode. And just a quick reminder to grab your free copy of my latest book, Earn More in Less Time the Proven Mindset, Strategies and Actions to Prosper as a Freelance Writer. You can get your freelance copy@b2b launcher.com where you will also find the detailed show notes to this and all my other episodes. Enjoy and have a great day.