Latest / The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson / Mental Armor: When Everything Goes Wrong in Business With Jennifer Ann Johnson
Transcript
- 0:38Jennifer Johnson: Today, we're talking about something that many entrepreneurs face, but not many talk about openly.
- 0:44Jennifer Johnson: How to protect your mindset and your mental resilience when everything seems to be falling apart.
- 0:49Jennifer Johnson: Let me paint a picture for you that may seem a little familiar.
- 0:53Jennifer Johnson: It has been one of those weeks, actually, one of those months.
- 0:57Jennifer Johnson: A major client just pulled out of a contract unexpectedly.
- 1:00Jennifer Johnson: Your biggest competitor launched a feature that makes your product look outdated.
- 1:05Jennifer Johnson: You're dealing with a cash flow crunch that's been keeping you up at night.
- 1:10Jennifer Johnson: Each of these problems individually would be manageable, but when they pile up and when it feels like the universe is conspiring against you, and when your mindset becomes your most critical asset or your greatest vulnerability, I learned this lesson in what I call my year from hell.
- 1:28Jennifer Johnson: 12 months where I felt like everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
- 1:32Jennifer Johnson: I watched my confidence erode with every setback and I started questioning every decision that I made.
- 1:38Jennifer Johnson: Started to wonder if I was actually cut out for entrepreneurship after all.
- 1:43Jennifer Johnson: The problems were real, but the damage to my mindset was making everything worse because it paralyzed me.
- 1:51Jennifer Johnson: I couldn't make decisions.
- 1:53Jennifer Johnson: And that's when I realized that protecting your mindset during really difficult times isn't about feeling better, it's about survival.
- 2:00Jennifer Johnson: You need to think clearly and stay resilient and maintain perspective.
- 2:05Jennifer Johnson: And that's what it is sometimes being an entrepreneur.
- 2:10Jennifer Johnson: It's not easy.
- 2:12Jennifer Johnson: When things go wrong in business, that is when you really have to dig deep.
- 2:19Jennifer Johnson: And today, I want to have a conversation about what I've learned about building what I call a mental armor that protects your mindset when everything goes wrong in your business and helps you navigate those tough times.
- 2:33Jennifer Johnson: So when you're in crisis mode, your brain naturally starts preparing for the worst-case scenario.
- 2:38Jennifer Johnson: I mean, honestly, this served our ancestors so well because they faced physical threats.
- 2:44Jennifer Johnson: But in business, it creates a mental spiral where every problem feels like it's a setback, and every problem makes it feel like we're a failure.
- 2:53Jennifer Johnson: And then you start thinking, well, gosh, if that client leaves, then the next one's gonna leave.
- 2:58Jennifer Johnson: Or if that product doesn't work, then the whole, my whole business is doomed.
- 3:02Jennifer Johnson: Your brain starts connecting dots where there actually aren't dots to connect.
- 3:07Jennifer Johnson: I remember during my difficult year, I convinced myself that one bad quarter meant my entire business model was flawed.
- 3:13Jennifer Johnson: I was just dealing with a temporary market shift, was all.
- 3:17Jennifer Johnson: But I saw it as hopeless.
- 3:21Jennifer Johnson: So each setback chips away at your confidence and your own judgment, your own abilities, and you start guessing, second guessing everything.
- 3:28Jennifer Johnson: And then oftentimes, as entrepreneurs, we go into what I call the isolation and shame cycle.
- 3:37Jennifer Johnson: A lot of entrepreneurs don't go out because they're ashamed or they're embarrassed or belief that they have to handle it all alone.
- 3:44Jennifer Johnson: It cuts you off from that support that's so vital for you.
- 3:49Jennifer Johnson: And many times we have identity crises because for a lot of people, their identity is closely tied to their self-worth, which is tied to their business.
- 3:58Jennifer Johnson: And when they start questioning questioning these things, then they go, Well, what does that say about me as a person?
- 4:07Jennifer Johnson: So when I talk about building your mental armor, what I mean are a few different tools that you can put in your toolbox.
- 4:14Jennifer Johnson: One of them is developing a growth mindset about failure.
- 4:18Jennifer Johnson: Now, the foundation of this mental armor is just that.
- 4:30Jennifer Johnson: You have to first separate your identity from your outcomes.
- 4:34Jennifer Johnson: You are not your business.
- 4:36Jennifer Johnson: You are not the value.
- 4:38Jennifer Johnson: The value for you is not your business.
- 4:42Jennifer Johnson: And that's a really hard thing for entrepreneurs sometimes to really get a grasp on it.
- 4:48Jennifer Johnson: Then building your support network before you need it, that is so important.
- 4:52Jennifer Johnson: I call it my bench, I call it my board of directors.
- 4:56Jennifer Johnson: But put together those trusted people before you actually need them.
- 5:01Jennifer Johnson: And then develop emotional regulation skills.
- 5:05Jennifer Johnson: Crisis management requires the ability to feel your emotions without being controlled by them.
- 5:10Jennifer Johnson: This means that you need to develop skills for managing that anxiety and frustration and that disappointment so that they don't cloud your judgment and paralyze you for making decisions.
- 5:21Jennifer Johnson: Now, I know from time to time you'll get into emergency situations where you're like, I feel like I need to throw it all out the window, but you don't.
- 5:29Jennifer Johnson: There's a few things that you can do.
- 5:31Jennifer Johnson: One is what I call the 24-hour rule.
- 5:33Jennifer Johnson: Take 24 hours from the time the crisis happens to make a decision because we've had time to cool down, we've had time to think strategically, and you're going to make better decisions that way.
- 5:45Jennifer Johnson: Then the worst case scenario.
- 5:48Jennifer Johnson: Write down the worst case scenario.
- 5:49Jennifer Johnson: What is the worst possible thing that can happen?
- 5:52Jennifer Johnson: Now remember, 98% of the time, those things don't happen.
- 5:56Jennifer Johnson: But write it down and then come up with a plan.
- 8:24Jennifer Johnson: Then you're at least prepared.
- 8:26Jennifer Johnson: And then the daily minimum practice.
- 8:29Jennifer Johnson: What are the daily minimum activities that you need to do to keep your business stable and your mindset stable?
- 8:37Jennifer Johnson: What do you need to do?
- 8:39Jennifer Johnson: And write it down and document it.
- 8:43Jennifer Johnson: Then the perspective time change time frame shift.
- 8:47Jennifer Johnson: When you're in the middle of this, is what you're worrying about right now going to matter in a year?
- 8:53Jennifer Johnson: Five years, 10 years?
- 8:56Jennifer Johnson: Again, most of the time, it's not going to matter.
- 9:01Jennifer Johnson: Now, when you're going through a crisis in your business, there are a lot of pieces of information that are coming at you.
- 9:09Jennifer Johnson: So I'm going to give you a few tips now for handling that information management.
- 9:13Jennifer Johnson: So limiting crisis information.
- 9:15Jennifer Johnson: That means TV, watching the news.
- 9:18Jennifer Johnson: That means social media.
- 9:20Jennifer Johnson: It means reducing your exposure to other people's crises or stories.
- 9:26Jennifer Johnson: Okay.
- 9:26Jennifer Johnson: So it's not just yours, but it's other people's.
- 9:29Jennifer Johnson: And it just helps so much when you're not listening to all of that.
- 9:35Jennifer Johnson: Focus on information that you can actually use.
- 9:39Jennifer Johnson: Financial data, researching the solution, whatever that looks like, focus on the information.
- 9:45Jennifer Johnson: And then create information boundaries.
- 9:48Jennifer Johnson: You know what?
- 9:48Jennifer Johnson: We're not going to have any of these talks after 5 p.m.
- 9:51Jennifer Johnson: Because you know that you need to get a good night's sleep.
- 9:53Jennifer Johnson: And guess what?
- 9:54Jennifer Johnson: If we talk about those things after 5 p.m., what's going to happen?
- 9:57Jennifer Johnson: You're not going to be able to sleep.
- 10:00Jennifer Johnson: And then one of the most important things is seeking multiple perspectives.
- 10:04Jennifer Johnson: I'm not talking too many cooks in the kitchen, but I am saying that talk to a few of your trusted advisors and get their opinion because sometimes it's great to have someone else's opinion.
- 10:18Jennifer Johnson: Now, I know one of the biggest challenges is maintaining that strategic thinking under pressure when you're under this constant pressure of a crisis.
- 10:27Jennifer Johnson: So practice taking a strategic pause and look at what you want the ideal outcome to be before you actually move forward with doing anything.
- 10:39Jennifer Johnson: And then train yourself to look for the opportunity.
- 10:42Jennifer Johnson: Because out of a crisis, there is always opportunity.
- 10:45Jennifer Johnson: I know I just heard this.
- 10:47Jennifer Johnson: There is a Chinese saying for this, I don't recall exactly what it is, but it's opportunity from crisis.
- 10:55Jennifer Johnson: And it could not be truer from anything.
- 10:58Jennifer Johnson: I mean, it is absolutely the truest statement I have ever heard.
- 11:04Jennifer Johnson: And then look at your long-term vision and use that as your anchor.
- 11:08Jennifer Johnson: Again, it kind of goes back to is this going to matter in a year, five, 10?
- 11:13Jennifer Johnson: Probably not.
- 11:15Jennifer Johnson: Another important part of all of this is taking care of yourself physically, your health, that non-negotiable self-care, working out, maybe taking a bath, reading a book, watching a mindless TV show, whatever that is, because that's going to help you with your stress relief.
- 11:33Jennifer Johnson: It's going to have help you with your energy because you're going to have to keep your physical energy up.
- 11:38Jennifer Johnson: It's going to help you with sleeping at night.
- 11:42Jennifer Johnson: And it's just going to be so good for your health.
- 11:45Jennifer Johnson: You just have to make sure that you pay attention to it and make sure that you are not shortchanging yourself because of a crisis with your business.
- 11:54Jennifer Johnson: And keeping in mind, like I've already said, sometimes and 99.9% of the time out of these crises, they are the best learning opportunities.
- 12:06Jennifer Johnson: We get real-time learning.
- 12:09Jennifer Johnson: We are learning, we are in the trenches.
- 12:12Jennifer Johnson: You develop skills that you never would have developed otherwise.
- 12:17Jennifer Johnson: But keep in mind, it's important to document everything so that you know how you did it last time.
- 12:24Jennifer Johnson: And then it builds resilience.
- 12:26Jennifer Johnson: It helps your mind and your body know, I did this once.
- 12:30Jennifer Johnson: Hey, I can do hard things.
- 12:31Jennifer Johnson: I can do this again.
- 12:33Jennifer Johnson: And then having very strategic communications.
- 12:38Jennifer Johnson: You want to make sure that you're balancing transparency and strategic communication with your team and all of the other stakeholders.
- 12:47Jennifer Johnson: And that goes along hand in hand with asking for help strategically.
- 12:51Jennifer Johnson: Don't let pride prevent you from asking for help when you need it the most.
- 12:57Jennifer Johnson: Because that will go hand in hand with stakeholder confidence as well.
- 13:00Jennifer Johnson: Because a lot of times your stakeholders are going to be like, why didn't you ask me?
- 13:04Jennifer Johnson: I could be able to help you.
- 13:07Jennifer Johnson: And I think that's a really important piece of the puzzle here.
- 13:12Jennifer Johnson: Now your goal isn't to just survive, but it's to build a long-term resilience that makes you stronger and more capable over time.
- 13:21Jennifer Johnson: That is that is one of the reasons why these things happen in our life, why these things come to us.
- 13:27Jennifer Johnson: They don't happen for us.
- 13:28Jennifer Johnson: Again, they happen, or they don't happen to us, they happen for us.
- 13:32Jennifer Johnson: And you can't prevent all crises.
- 13:34Jennifer Johnson: You can build systems that reduce the times that they happen or the impact.
- 13:38Jennifer Johnson: You can diversify revenue, build cash reserves, and all of those things.
- 13:42Jennifer Johnson: Have a contingency plan.
- 13:44Jennifer Johnson: Treat each crisis as data for improving your business systems and your decision-making processes and your crisis management capabilities.
- 13:55Jennifer Johnson: Create feedback loops that help you get better at preventing and handling problems over time.
- 14:00Jennifer Johnson: And then you can build a playbook.
- 14:02Jennifer Johnson: You can build a playbook on how to handle this when something like this happens again.
- 14:08Jennifer Johnson: So as we wrap up today's episode, I want to remind you that your experience, that when you're experiencing crises, it doesn't make you a failure.
- 14:16Jennifer Johnson: It makes you an entrepreneur.
- 14:18Jennifer Johnson: Every successful business builder has faced moments when everything has seemed to fall apart.
- 14:23Jennifer Johnson: But I'm going to say the difference between those who thrive long term and those who don't is whether they face the crisis head on, how they protected their mindset and how they responded.
- 14:35Jennifer Johnson: Your mindset is your most vulnerable and important asset and your most powerful tool.
- 14:42Jennifer Johnson: When it's not protected, stress and fear can cloud your judgment and erode your confidence.
- 14:48Jennifer Johnson: Remember, the goal isn't to avoid feeling disappointed or frustrated.
- 14:52Jennifer Johnson: Those emotions are natural and even valuable signals that help you understand the significance of situations.
- 15:00Jennifer Johnson: The goal is to feel these emotions without being controlled by them and to process those challenges without being paralyzed.
- 15:08Jennifer Johnson: Every crisis that you navigate successfully builds your confidence and capability for handling them in the future.
- 15:14Jennifer Johnson: You're not just solving today's problems, you're developing the mental armor that will serve you throughout your entrepreneurial journey.
- 15:21Jennifer Johnson: Your business will face setbacks.
- 15:24Jennifer Johnson: Markets are going to shift and clients are going to leave.
- 15:27Jennifer Johnson: Mistakes are going to happen.
- 15:29Jennifer Johnson: And that's not a bug.
- 15:31Jennifer Johnson: It's a feature.
- 15:33Jennifer Johnson: But with the right mindset protection and crisis management, these challenges become stepping stones rather than stumbling blocks.