5 Uncommon Traits of Every Chronic Illness Entrepreneur

You're listening to the She's Crafted to Thrive podcast, and this is your host Nikita Williams. On this show, we're talking about what it's like to start, grow, and scale a business while living with chronic illness. You will hear from other creatives and CEOs as they share their stories and the lessons that led them to learn to lean more into what works for them. You'll discover that success does not mean perfection, and fear, negative thoughts, and challenges are all a part of the journey, but there's always an abundance of wins. So stay tuned and you'll find the inspiration and tools you need to craft a life and business that thrives. Welcome back to the She's Crafted to Thrive podcast. I am super excited because we are at episode 99. Can you believe that? I surely cannot. I have interviewed well over 50, 60 women, I think, at this point, because only some of these episodes have just been purely me. And I have so many more to share with you, some amazing interview conversations with some women that I got to interview earlier this year. But I wanted this episode to kind of be a precursor to my 100-episode series that I'm going to be featuring some past clients, some past list— I mean, past guests who have been on the show. And I just cannot wait for what you're going to experience in that new episode. It's going to be a new style. It's going to be like a panel style. We're going to be asking some questions, and they're going to be asking me questions, y'all. I'm gonna be in the hot seat, and I don't know the questions as of yet. I will hear them like you hear them, in a sense, when you listen to the episode. So definitely be prepared to tune into the show at the end of September 2020 to hear and celebrate our 100th episode. And I'm going to do something a little special, so be sure to be following me on my Instagram to hear the deets of what the specialness I'm going to be doing to celebrate our 100th episode. Now, the reason this episode is called Claiming the Traits You Need to succeed even during the challenges of growing a business while living with chronic illness. I think we all have at some point either decided or fell upon this journey of entrepreneurship, and some of the things that so many of us, um, experience is like feeling stuck in where we are, like what's going on in our life and in our business. And what I wanted to say is that if you've ever started something and you took a pause on it, or if you've ever been going through something in your life and you're like, man, I could never see getting to the 100th episode, I could never see, you know, speaking live on some type of event, I could never see me making 10 $1,000 in a month. I could never see actually doing something even while I'm in a mini flare-up of my fibromyalgia. All of those things, you guys, are things that I used to think that I have accomplished. And I'm not saying that to like brag, I'm just telling you to share what's possible. And some of the things I was thinking about that has helped me and my clients up to this point to get to where we are is really developing and cultivating the traits we needed to create the possibilities, right? To actually make them come about and not like beat ourselves up for the imperfect actions that we've taken the whole way through. Do we do it? Yes. Do I totally beat myself up over imperfect action? 100%. I've had a period of time, especially especially this year with all of the change, you know, post-COVID and everything that we're all experiencing. Like, life is getting back to its new normal, and I'm used to Nikita having like a flare-up, a new, you know, a new diagnosis or something coming up and changing my normal to a new normal. But the whole world is on a whole state of new normal thanks to a pandemic. And so One of the things I have always really appreciated from my spiritual break, you know, my spiritual background and just growing as a person, is that we have always been intended to grow and have always been intended to learn and work on ourselves. Like, we weren't just born with the perfect ability to do all of the things. Like we were not that way. Even if we were living in a perfect world, we would not be that. We would have to work at it. And so what are some qualities that can help you work at becoming a more successful and having a more sustainable business while living with chronic pain, while dealing with ups and downs of life? And here are some of the things that I have found that are just really important, and I wanted to share like a point that research has shown about this particular point at the ivybusinessjournal.com. It says research indicates that entrepreneurs' persistence, despite the general low success rate of new ventures, can be attributed to personal traits such as optimism, passion, the need for autonomy, self-confidence, a willingness to take risks, and internal focus of control. The to the extent that you actually have control. Right. And I really like to say like that point really leads and lends to the, the point of being more humble and retrospective of realizing you're just not going to know all of the things. So being okay with taking some calculated risk and that understanding the consequences on both sides of those decisions. So I thought for episode 99, why not talk a little bit about the traits to help you cultivate? And I'm going to talk about 5 of them. And as I mentioned in that, um, um, report, um, that quote is definitely persistence. You know, I talk about this and I talk about this in the context that it definitely has even been something that I've had to cultivate living with chronic illness. I've had to not focus on consistency so much sometimes, but more focus on persistence. You know, it's a thing that helps you move toward a goal despite the obstacles or setbacks that you eventually will experience, but you will also eventually attain the thing that you're looking for or the thing you're striving for. I think about— when I think about this podcast, you know, that there's a statistic that the majority of podcasts that come out don't get past the first 10 episodes because of— I think of this— is like the uncomfortableness of feeling uncomfortable, of not knowing all of the things and not seeing instant results all of the time can lead to a lack of persistence. And when it comes to persistence, it really is based on a choice to keep moving forward toward a goal no matter what gets in the way. And as a person who lives with chronic illness and I have learned different tools and methods and holistic things that really support me so much better now, I'm like, it is such a— I would say comparatively for the 14 years I've been married, this is probably one of the more healthy you know, few years I've had in my life. And I'm so thankful for that. But that has been partly because of a decision to look for the possibilities, lots of prayer, lots of specific prayers, lots of doing the work from the inside out and just realizing that it's going to take time, but it can like grow to feeling a lot easier. And it's the same thing in business, y'all. I feel like we don't realize that statistically, you know, for people to see like a profit in their business is anywhere between 3 to 5 years, right? Like straight up, that's the average. And even then, you know, I am part of a couple of different like masterminds and different networking groups. And there are women in there that are like millionaires who have dry seasons where they have no clients, or they have like trinkle-in amount of clients, and they are still working and still figuring it out as they go, even at those higher income levels. So it's not about the money, y'all. It's never been about the money. I know that's how we kind of like get focused on, but it is in the discipline of keeping going and making the choice to do that. And that's persistence. So that is definitely a trait that we can cultivate. Optimism is the next trait that I feel is one that I have definitely learned living with chronic illness. And I give credit to my husband who, when we first got married, you guys have all heard the story, but when we first got married, like literally after our honeymoon, I was back you know, here in the States. And I was sick as a dog going back and forth to the hospital. And after that became like our new normal, like all of it was new. We over the years have come to this place of being able to laugh and look at the bright side of things and not like harp on all of the negative. And you have to make a choice. Again, these are all choices of traits that we need to cultivate to simply not focus on all of the negative things, but focus on the outcomes that are like, that are good, right? Like, what are the situations that you have in your life and in your business that help you be like able to stand where you are right now? You can make a choice to be optimistic, which is simply nothing more than focusing on the outcomes you want and that are actually in front of you and that you already have. I also like to think of optimism as being content, finding contentment in what is currently. And one of the things I had to do with my, you know, living with chronic illness is that I used to hate my body. My coach, that I work with, she's like, it is really hard to shift and change something that you hate because your mind, which is so true, will just automatically like avoid it. And so in the very beginning of living with all of these chronic issues, it was really hard for me to actually like thank my body for being so sensitive and alert to what's going on, to let me know so I can figure out what's going on. Right. I used to not even think those thoughts. You should just be mad and crying, right? So it's the same thing in your business. If you can look at your business through like, hey, this is giving me a vehicle to create some freedom or flexibility to create a way to support the things that are important to me. And I know it's going to take some time, some of that persistence, but I am looking on the good things that I've you know, that has happened. So when I first started my business, when I first started this podcast, the reason why I started this podcast was because I really wanted to create content. I wanted to connect with people. But that was shortly after my surgery, my big surgery, and I needed some way to connect with people. And I could have looked at like all of the reasons why I couldn't do anything, but I stepped into a more positive, optimistic mindset of like, what can I do?. And that really helped me to make the choice to see what I could do. Right. And it helped me to focus on what could happen and what was happening by my actions towards those little steps of like, hey, I'm just going to start inviting people to have a conversation, send an email. I'm just going to really start engaging with people on social media, like commenting and all of those different things that I talk about in other podcast episodes. But really it was taking the moment and the time in my life, in my business, even in this podcast, in times where I just felt like, ah, nobody's listening at times. Like just being like, you know what? There are people listening. There's one person that listens. I know that, like, I've never had less than one person listen to the show. So like having that as an optimistic place, like I am growing is something it's, a cultivation that you have to work on. One way you can cultivate that, um, that mindset is focusing on gratitude. Gratitude in your personal life, gratitude in your business. Even when you aren't signing clients, even when you aren't like rolling in the dough, what are you grateful for when it comes to your business? Gratitude is a great motivator, a great, um, clear commander in a sense of helping you become more clear on where you're going, where you came from, and you can keep going. So trait number 3 is self-confidence. I think this is one that as an entrepreneur we all want, right? We all want a measure of self-confidence. But with all of the noise out there, especially when it comes to marketing our business, telling us that we don't know anything and we can't do anything without this and without that, it can like kind of break down our self-confidence. Another thing that breaks down our self-confidence, y'all, is not taking action. One of the biggest things that I had to cultivate living with chronic illness and running a business was that I had to embrace the mindset and the thought that I can do something even when things are hard, right? I can find the littlest wiggle. And I say that in the sense my husband really helped me one day. I don't even remember I can't remember what it was, and I'm sure I talked about it on the show before of like, can you move? Like if I have been in a huge fibro flare and I have it, I finding it really difficult to move. He'll say like, can you wiggle your toe, your tiny or your big toe? Like, can you do that? Is that enough? And just finding that, you know, the, the mindset, the energy to focus on doing that one small thing and sticking to working on doing it until you do accomplish it is the thing that helps you create confidence within. One of the things you want to do or look at, especially at this time of the year in 2022, we're almost through the year. You want to look at some of the choices you've made and see, did you stick with them? Did you follow them all the way through? Did you stick with them and shift and pivot, or did you just abandon them because it was, you know, so many things were happening in your life? You build self-confidence when you decide and you choose to stick to your choices and make a commitment to yourself to do it. And if you have a hard time making decisions, do a commitment to yourself. I think part of that can be you may not be connected to the reason why you're doing something, and maybe that's something you need to journal and talk about with yourself. Pray, like, do some research on what is your purpose for why you're doing what you're doing. Because that will help you start to see what might be getting in the way of you honoring those commitments to do things that you say. My favorite verse, my husband hates it when I say it, and I hate it sometimes when I say it, because there are some times where I really wish, I really wish I hadn't said yes. There's a verse that says, you know, let your yes mean yes and your no mean no. I love to live by that principle, but when there are really crazy things happening sometimes in my life, I still choose to stand by that, even if it means like, even if it means that I may not be the most comfortable because that's a standard that I choose to try to live in. Granted, there are times that that doesn't always happen, but it's something that I really do hold true to my life and to like how I live my life, like not just in business, but also in like relationships and all of those different things. Taking action is what helps you to really find your self-confidence if you're lacking in it. So when you take action, you begin a systematic process of building on small successes, and pretty soon you create larger ones, like larger successes. I like to say it grows your evidence bank of your ability to do something or to create something or to stick to something. There's nothing like the achievement of building self-confidence when you feel like you don't have any. So really focus on cultivating that self-confidence in a very modest way for yourself so that you can see the possibilities of growing. Okay. The next thing to cultivate is a willingness to take risk. So there's something that I help my clients do within my coaching, something I call LEAR, which is a method in business specifically on how to make calculated risk based on return, the ease leveraging, like what you currently have, what you don't have, and taking like a view from a strategic way so that we're not just talking about making whim decisions, you that doesn't make any sense. It's not very wise to do that. So it is something to kind of consider, especially when you are trying to figure out where to use your most spoons, your most creativity. When I say spoons, I'm talking about energy. Like, what is the thing that takes up too much of your energy? What is the thing that pulls away from your most important thing in life? Right? So for me, it's my volunteer work. For me, it's my husband. I don't want my business can risk to, you know, overshadow those things. So having kind of like a system to see that is a really great way to feel more empowered, um, to make calculated or will— or be willing to make risk. Even taking small risk and stepping outside of your comfort zone can help create incredible momentum. I definitely did that with this podcast. I definitely did that with this podcast. I had no idea what a podcast was and I kind of have just run with it. And boy, am I excited and thankful for it. It's got me on stages to speak. It's got me opportunities to bring on clients who have been, you know, guests of the show to be a coach for other people's programs. Like, it has literally been the thing that has helped me to like get my foot in the door in some ways. And so it was a risk because I had no idea what I was doing, and I had to spend money and time to figure it out. But boy, has it paid off. And I've seen that in different areas. Like this year, like I said, the podcast really has helped me do speaking gigs. I have seen that in the way I market my business, like trying different things to see that, hey, what's going to happen, and being okay with the experiment. You know, I like to think of risk after you've done the calculations and you've really, you know, made a decision solidly. I'm like, well, this is an experiment. Let's see how it's going to work out. And that is something that is at the essence of being an entrepreneur, right? And living with chronic illness, you have to be willing to try things. If I wasn't willing to try essential oils when my health coach, um, like came into my world, I probably wouldn't be talking to you right now. I would be really depressed, really still dealing with pain, wouldn't have so many tools at my disposal at this point to, um, be less in pain, to be more, you know, cognitively aware of what's going on with my body and what I put in my mouth and how I move my body and all those different things. If I hadn't taken a little risk on what I always joke is like some oil in a bottle, I could have been like, girl, that's crazy. I don't know how that's going to work, but I'm so glad. And this is where I talk about humility, that I was humble enough to say, hey, I have no idea, but I trust that, you know, this person that I have, you know, trusted for a long time and I have like vetted them, that I trust that I'm going to give this a try. And see what happens. So the question for you is like, are you doing that for yourself personally, and are you doing that in your business? One of the last traits I think is something super like given but also difficult, and that is to cultivate passion. Whether you're in a good time or a rough time, if you have a goal you need to figure out a way to reach it. You also need to find a way to reach it so that it doesn't take away from your passion, right? I have found, especially with creative entrepreneurs, one of the things that happens is they're so creative and so excited that they allow these goals that weren't really theirs in the first place, or were these thoughts or, um, ways of doing things that have taken away their passion to do the thing that they started in the first place. And so the way you really cultivate passion as you grow— like, one of the things that I have totally, like, loved about being a coach is that I didn't know anything about coaching, but then I learned about coaching, and then I have never stopped learning about coaching. I have never stopped investing on how to be a better coach, right? And I have always been coached. I've always chosen that to be something I do in my business. And it's the same thing with your business. If you're finding like you're losing luster, you feel like things are like you're hating everything you do, take a pause. It's okay to take a reset. I did, I did that earlier. I think last year I did an episode about, hey y'all, I'm taking a break because I experienced that with podcast. And I was like, something's going on. And it was because I was trying to do it a certain way because someone said that I had to do it a certain way to, you know, have success. So I had to redefine what success was for me, what it meant for me, and why I started this in the first place and why I enjoyed it. Sometimes we just need to go back and remember why we're doing what we're doing and how come, why we like it, why we love it, you know, that kind of stuff. So passion is definitely something, a trait to cultivate, because as you go through the ebbs and flows of a business, you're going to have times where it could take your passion completely away, like your want to be what you are in your business and stop you altogether because you stopped and didn't remember or keep recalling or keep feeding your passion of why you're doing what you're doing, right? Or what it is that you love doing. So definitely these are some of the traits. So I'm just going to share them again. You know, it's to cultivate your willingness to, um, to take risks and be humble in those risks. And I know that seems counterintuitive. When you work with me, we really go deep on this. It's such an important part of growing your business. It's the thing that has literally helped my client. One of my clients this year has grown so much. She's gone from from, you know, making anywhere average between $6,000 a month to making $10,000, $15,000 a month. And it hasn't been because we— she's doing more. It has literally been from a willingness to take risk, calculated risk, and being humble and like asking for help and letting some stuff go. And that's how she's, you know, grown. And I said that's how she's grown so much more than that, but that's just like the surface level. So that is the, you know, one of the qualities. So taking risks, being humble, those are tied together. Passion, cultivating passion, cultivating self-confidence, because it's easy as we live in a world of entrepreneurship, of like competitiveness, to be pulled down and like told that we're wrong. That's really difficult. And so working on like taking action and being and sticking to your own commitments. Okay. The other thing is to be optimistic. Yes, we're going to have ebbs and flows, ups and downs, but always find a practice of gratitude to see why you're so thankful for where you are right now and what has been happening and what has happened in the past. And the first one was persistence, right? It's like the goal of just keeping going no matter what is happening. It's important if you are very clear on your goal, your why, and also if you're clear on the purpose behind what you're doing. So those are the 5 traits that I have found that has helped me get to what's coming up soon as my 100th episode after starting back in 2017. It's also the thing that has helped me grow as a person dealing and living with multiple chronic illnesses. It's the thing that has helped me to become a better coach and to help others be better for themselves and for their businesses and for the ones they love. All of those different things. It's really humbling to know that just learning how to get your mind right and talk to yourself and do mindset work can have such a huge effect on like a huge amount of people, like a ripple effect. So much so that I get, you know, responses from you all on an email and things like that about the show. And you guys drop in my DMs. I'm just so very, very, very, very, very thankful to all of you for being here for this journey. And I can't wait to continue it. And I can't wait for you to listen to our 100th episode. So stay tuned. And as always, remember that you are crafted to thrive.