Fear Gremlins!

No. No. Hello and happy Friday. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and leadership coach. Tonight I'm going to be talking about a couple things that happen when you start your business. Mainly the fear gremlins that attack and take you down and convince you that this is not a good idea. Now, I want to be totally open here. I'm doing this based on some cards that I pulled from Mystic Mondays. I love this tarot deck. I love it because it, like, speaks in real language. One of the things that business owners really struggle with is coming up with ideas for content. And I want you to see how I do it so you can see you can do it in any way you want. What I love to do is just, I don't know, like, maybe I'm just connecting the dots and finding things that relate to anything, but. But I love shuffling this deck and, like, kind of like keeping my ideal clients in mind and just kind of thinking, okay, what do they need to hear right now? And then pulling three cards. And the three cards, it's really funny. Sometimes they. They make perfect sense and sometimes they don't. And so this evening, I pulled. And I just love this deck. I think it's so pretty. So the Princess of Swords pulled the lovers. I love the flamingos. I'm a big fan of flamingos. And then the nine of wands. And it was upside down. And apparently that means something because each page has a right side up one and an upside down one. Okay, so let's start off. We're going to start off with, like, what happens when you start your business. Okay, so the Princess of Swords is a sign of inquisitive, verbose, and lively. Okay. It's a really positive card. So sparks fly high with a twinkle in your eye. There are a million ideas floating around your head, and you can't wait to tell anyone and everyone about them. And this is so perfect for when you start your business, because when you're about to start, like, you're just telling everyone because you're so excited about getting your coach certification or going out on your own or you have this idea, right? Combusting with excitement, your creativity and brilliance cannot be contained. The Princess of Swords urges you to put your ideas into action and to go for it. So here, like, I want to call out my soon to be business owners. It's so easy to get wrapped up in talking about the ideas and talking about the ideas and talking about the ideas. We all know someone who has a lot of ideas for businesses that they never Start, they never start them. And so it's really important to start taking action. Young, idealistic truth seeker, you have a gift for gab that has the ability to translate effectively to others. Writing and speaking come easily to you, which will aid you when it comes to time to spread your ideas and message. So here's, here's where you get to utilize that voice, that excitement, and your ability to articulate what you want to be doing is in, in marketing. Marketing, telling people what you're up to, okay? With a thirst to learn, you constantly ask questions and want to note the why of how things work. Your high energy and curiosity are endless and feed off your willingness to find the answers. With time comes experience. And the more you go after what you want, the more wisdom and experience you will gain. So I love, I love this card because it really does portray what happens when, when someone is like on the verge of, of starting a business. Like, they have all these ideas, they know the gift that they have to give the world. And because they're just so inspiring, inspired by this idea and this desire to go and do it. They talk about it a lot. And it's really bridging that gap because you can talk about your idea and your, your want to be business all you want, but if you don't take action, it's never going to happen. Okay? Action is the, the absolute most important step in starting a business. You don't actually have to have the perfect strategy when you get started. This is something that I talk to my clients a lot, especially my coaching clients, right? Because, for instance, like, I can, I can coach until I'm blue in the face. I can tell them the strategy. I can train them, I can, you know, tell them how to run a sales call and how to market, but if they don't go out and do it, if they don't go and take action and actually follow through on the work now, no business is going to happen, right? They're not going to get clients, they're not going to, you know, grow a following. They're not going to make any money. And for my coaching clients who are wanting to go into this work, they feel like, oh, my God, like, I have to make sure that my clients do the work. It's like, no, the accountability does not sit with the coach for doing the work, okay? The client who signed up for it. They are accountable to themselves for doing the work, okay? And doing the work is the most important part. It's the only thing that's going to get results. And I want you to remember this for yourself. You can have all the ideas in the world. You can be so excited for them. And if you don't do the work to make them real, they're never going to be real. Okay? That's just, that's the nature of this. So, okay, so we've. We've left our new business owner. They are so excited. They're like on the verge of doing this. The next card is the lovers, which obviously is a card of romance, but it also has some other meanings. I'm going to jump to that because, you know, I mean, I hope. I hope you all have lots of love in your life, but let's jump to where this makes sense for a business owner. Okay? So the lover stands for love. Alignment and choices. Choices, my people, okay? In alignment, okay? Besides partners, this could also mean that you are aligning yourself much more closely with your core values. Guys, guys, this is what I hear my clients say all day long. They've discovered this work that they love doing that is so aligned to their core values. The things that light them up, that make them feel like they're here for a reason, okay? And they're so excited to do this work. So choices will be presented to you, testing your assessment of what feels best for you, okay? Choices will be presented to you, okay? You have the option to start this business. You have the option to do it. You also have the option to not. You have the option to do it pro bono. You have the option of just having it be a hobby, okay? But you have the option to turn it into a real honest to goodness, making you fucking money business, okay? You. You can do the work you love, that feels in alignment to you and make good money doing it, okay? But this is a choice. You have to choose that, okay? It comes from you. It's not just going to be handed to you. You're not going to accidentally trip and fall into this. You have to choose to build this business that is in alignment with you. Stay true to yourself, even if outside noise may say otherwise. So if outside noise says otherwise. So there are going to be people in your life who hear you say that you want to start a business, who hear you talk about the change you want to make, about the services you're going to offer. And they're like, are you crazy? Are you nuts? Like, who's going to pay for that? That sounds ridiculous. What are you going to waste your time with? You're going to burn down bridges like no one's going to hire you again if you go and do this, you really have to choose which voices you want to listen to. Okay? Only you know what your true desires are, and only you can make those decisions. To be honest with yourself, your intentions will point you to the path of your heart's deepest desires. Basically this, I mean, I think this card is basically just saying, stop being a weenie. Like, you know what you want, you know what you want. Stop messing around and just go for it already. Okay, now this, this next card, this is the nine of wands. I'm really excited about what this has to say because this is, this is all that fear that bubbles up. All right, so it's upside down, that means something. So the upside down version means claustrophobic resentment and tentative okay, so here's what happens. Okay, so I'm going to read this and I'll tell you what happens. Drudgery from the past may leave you feeling paranoid that people are out to get you. This leaves you unwilling to make long term commitment with fears of being trapped by responsibility. Guys, this is what happens with my clients. Sometimes they have found the work they want to do. They're so excited about it, they make a choice to go and do it. They get a little freaked out in their head though, and they start questioning, what if I hate this? What if I get too far into this and I can't back out? You know, what if, what if I don't like running a business? What if I have an awful time with my clients? What if I've made up like this fantasy story in my head of how this is going to go? It's actually going to go terribly. And then you start thinking of all the business owners that you know and. Hi, Leandra, great to see you. Welcome. Then you start thinking of, oh, sorry, that was really quick. And then you start thinking of all the business owners that you know who fucking hate their lives. And like, that could be me. That could be me. And then you start scanning the world for all the stories of people who like quit their jobs, went and started a business, didn't go well, tried go back to go back to their job and couldn't get hired, right? So like, this fear of commitment and being trapped by the responsibility of your business really does fuck people up before they get started, right? And I just want to tell you, if you're thinking about starting a business, thinking of starting any business, the good news is that if you decide that you hate it, if you decide that you absolutely hate it, you don't want to do this anymore, you can break up with Your clients, you can go to them and say, hey, listen, you know, I have decided this isn't actually what I want to do anymore. I really, I care about you as a human and I really enjoyed our work together, but I just don't want to be doing this anymore. So let's create an exit strategy. Let me either find a resource for you to be handed off to and I can make that instruction happy to vet, or, you know, maybe it's just we end and you're able to go and find someone else to support you in this way. You have, you have full control over your life at every single moment. Okay? You have full control. I want you to know this. The rest of this card says you've gotten this far on your own, but you are lacking the skills that will take you to the next level. I mean, here's what it boils down to is when you're thinking about starting a business, it's really intimidating. It's intimidating and it's scary because it's chockabock full of doing things that you've never done before and doing things that you don't have a natural skill set in. Okay? So it's really important when you're starting a business to look to see, like, what are the things that I'm going to need to do to get this business up and running. I'm going to have to do marketing and sales and create offerings and a whole other slew of stuff like, do I know how to do these things? And if the answer is no, go and get trained. Okay? The skills are out there. I promise you. I teach a lot of them, but they're out there and you have to get them if you want this to be successful. Okay, the next sentence is, look for someone that has skills that will complement yours, whether it be a financial planner or a creative designer, etc. Hello? I, like, I can't. I can't make this up. Like, I wish. I wish I knew this book well enough to be like, oh God. To be like making this up and, and lie and say that I pulled these cards and I didn't, but I literally pulled these cards. Okay. I don't know this book well enough to be able to know which cards I should say I should put. I pulled and I didn't. That was a very confusing chain of thought. Apologies. It's Friday, it's been a long week. Okay, but literally go and get the help that you need. If you don't know how to do the thing, go and get the help to. So that you can do the thing. Survival mode has you in a state where you think that you are under attack when nothing dangerous is actually happening. These fears could be, could also be protecting you from moving forward, preferring that you stay in your comfort zone, make peace with your fears, so that you can move forward towards your big dreams. So I want to, I want to just end this, this, live with this message. Is that those voices of fear, okay, in coactive coaching, we call them saboteurs. I'm referring to them as fear gremlins. They're also the what if monsters. They're the voices that are constantly, like, spinning out of control and playing out your worst case scenario. Like, what's the worst thing that can happen if this doesn't go the way I want it to? And I want you to know that these voices actually care about you. They have served you very well throughout your life. They want for you to be safe. They want for you to have food and shelter and to be accepted by the people around you. They don't care if your food is moldy, however. They don't care as long as you have something to put in your belly, like, they're happy. They don't care if the food tastes good either. They don't care if your roof leaks. As long as you have a roof over your head, you should be grateful, right? As long as you have a job that gives you an income, you should be grateful for that, whatever it is. And as for friends and the people that you're connected to, doesn't care if you, you get anything out of that. As long as you're accepted by the tribe, that's all that matters. You should be grateful that you have these people in your life. They're not great voices to listen to, okay? They have your best interests at heart, but they're not great voices to listen to. So it's really important when you're starting a business, when you're venturing out on your own, when you're doing something, anything, that requires a little bravery to have a little talk with these voices and say, hey, listen, I know you're gonna freak out and I know you're gonna like, go to like Defcon 7 about this, but I got this. And if you need to freak out occasionally, that's okay. But let's trust me for a bit that I know what I'm doing and really lean into that higher self where you're in alignment with the things that really matter to you. With that. I think my pizza is arriving, so. Yep, it is about a minute ago. So have a great Friday, everyone. Thank you for joining. I hope this is useful, and I hope you have an amazing weekend. I'll see you next week and bye. Leandra, great to have you.