Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / Just ask Doone: How to Deal with Rejection as a Founder

Transcript

Just ask Doone: How to Deal with Rejection as a Founder · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:09
  Hello and welcome back to the show. It's Dune here, your host and hype girl. This is the second episode in our new community-led content series where you DM us a question or a topic and I just come right back with my thoughts. Quick reminder on the girl code before we jump in, if you love this episode, please do take a tiny action to give us some love in return.
• 0:34
  Today, we're hearing from Lindsay at Messy Mentoring, and this is her voicemail. Hey, how are you? I am Lindsay from Messy Mentoring. I just started my business this year, and I am struggling with moving past failure and, oh, moving past
• 0:56
  Rejection, I think, is probably the better word to say it. I've obviously got a bit of a problem with rejection, and I just ponder on it too much, and I then get myself into a bit of a hole with mental health.
• 1:10
  going down and what's the point and all of that sort of stuff. So I am trying to figure out how I can get past this. Journaling isn't really working. Meditation isn't really working. I need a more robust outlet to move through rejection. Lindsay, oh my gosh, I...
• 1:34
  resonates so much with what you're saying. Truly, I've been there. I am often there. And I have a couple of thoughts that I want to share with you. The first is that I think everyone in business goes through a really steep learning curve when it comes to dealing with failure and rejection, especially entrepreneurs and founders.
• 1:58
  Because when you're out there giving something or someone your all and you're trying to create the life you want, it's so hard when other people or other companies can't see that same vision or want to be involved in that same vision. Trust me, I totally get it. Literally a million percent.
• 2:17
  But the thing that's really important to keep front of mind, and I'm talking like front and center of your mind, and this is a very harsh reality, is that this will never change. One thing that we know for sure and we can bet on is the fact that rejection and knows and failures are a part of life and they're going to continue to happen.
• 2:39
  And instead of leaning away from that and fearing that, the more we lean into it and become okay with it is where the magic starts to happen. That's when we start to build our muscle of resilience. That's where we start to build our muscle of perseverance, our muscle of willpower, and our strength of character.
• 3:01
  And all of those things that are actually born out of disappointment or rejection or adversity, that makes us into strong people who can actually do anything. And that builds the story that you have.
• 3:17
  So when I think about rejection, it's really just a mindset shift. You have to learn to be okay with, or even better, you actually have to learn to be happy with rejection because especially when you're building a business, rejection is just a daily occurrence. And I know this because I experience this daily myself. Every founder I speak to deals with this.
• 3:41
  And I can bet that anyone listening right now who has a business is probably nodding their head along with me, knowing that this is just the way that it is. It's a roller coaster, and every day you're dealing with ups and downs. But what can we actually do about it? A few years ago, I was listening to a story about this guy who was doing cold calling to get business, which is brutal, right? Ugh.
• 4:09
  He was hearing no after no after no and being hung up on and being hung up on. And it was really getting him down. It was affecting his mental health. But in that moment, you have two options. The first is that you quit and you give up because it's too hard. Or you turn it into something else and you keep going. And his mentor gave him a tip that changed everything. Everything.
• 4:36
  set a daily goal for how many no's he could get and turn it into a game. So he set himself something like a quota of 100 no's a day, where he was like, I need to hit 100 no's every single day, and I'm just going to use that as my fuel to keep going. So,
• 4:53
  And over time, what happens is it gets easier. Firstly, because you need to give things time to flourish. So if you keep trying and keep tweaking and keep learning, eventually things start to work out. Eventually, you start getting more yeses. But also over time, it becomes easier to deal with that emotion that you feel when you're rejected or you're told no. And I know that probably sounds lame, but honestly, it's true. It changes over time.
• 5:24
  So practically speaking, another thing that you can also do is implement micro habits that help you in that moment of rejection to calm your mind. For example, something shit happens. You use that as your signal to go outside and get some fresh air and sunshine for five or ten minutes. Something shit happens. You get up out of your desk and you go and do a deep breathing exercise.
• 5:49
  Something shit happens. You go and take a cold blast shower to reset your mood. Something shit happens and you use that to trigger a positive micro moment, which basically means every time you get a no, it just means that it'll be followed by a positive habit in your day to day. Another practical tip is...
• 6:09
  When you get told no, use this as an opportunity to learn as much as you can. Always, always, always, always ask people for their honest feedback and get into the nitty gritty because you might uncover something that you didn't realize was blocking you and you can totally tweak or optimize that in your next pitch. You can craft that as an angle for the next time around when you're talking to someone else.
• 6:35
  And in that nitty-gritty, you might also learn or uncover roadblocks from the other person's side that you can actually totally work around. It might not actually be a big deal. I always like to keep in mind that a no today isn't a no forever. And in the words of Sophia Amoruso, there are three words that should boom inside your head every time you get told no. Let's go, motherfucker.
• 7:04
  Okay, that's all for today. If you want to feature in one of these episodes, drop into our DMs at Female Startup Club and leave us a voicemail with your topical question so I can get back to you. See you soon.
• 7:19
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 7:43
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 8:06
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that. Thank you.