Can we talk about fight of flight in our solopreneur business?
Julie Creffield
Innovation Director for OI | 30 Years in Business | Keynote Speaker on Innovation, Creativity & Social Mobility | 14x Author | 6x Marathon Runner | Mum to a Diva | Obsessed with BIG ideas ??
I woke up at 3am this morning in a panic.
Today my new book went live, in advance of it’s official launch day tomorrow.
I felt like running away and forgetting the whole thing, despite spending the last 6 months working on it.
My book is called?How NOT to be Broke…and it’s probably my most courageous move in business yet…and that’s saying something.
In 1994 (gosh that’s a while back) I was offered my first piece of freelance work as a drama practitioner. It was working on a community arts project, a play called “We all came from somewhere else” a story about immigration, culture and hope told by 30 year 7 students from 3 different Newham schools.
It was the start of my obsession with community, and storytelling. It was the start of my journey as a self-employed solopreneur.
Almost 30 years of working for myself in one form or another.
Now don’t get me wrong, I have had proper jobs too…in fact, I have been made redundant from nearly all of them…5 in total.?
But I was born to be an entrepreneur, I am a maverick, I don’t like being told what to do, I am a passionate problem solver, and I get bored easily.?
My top strengths according to Clifton strength finder…
But there is one side of the Solopreneur life that I really struggle with, and that is managing my fight-or-flight response to things.
Now I am no neuroscientist, but I do know this response it to do with the brain, my amygdala, and if left unchecked it has me behaving like a kid in the playground, or worse still a baby throwing all their toys out of the pram…I am not proud of some of the messes I’ve got myself into over the years but I am learning to better understand these responses and to manage them more appropriately.
It’s funny because as Solopreneurs we say we work alone, we say it’s a lonely game, we say all of the responsibility is on our shoulders…and yet often the situations that cause us to go into fight or flight are in relation to other people.
And if we are not careful we can create barriers to growth, no woman (or man) is an island, and we must collaborate, co-create, and support one another in our ventures if we really want to build safe, secure and ultimately successful businesses.
It is easy to dismiss some of this behavior as “just the way we are” but those repeating patterns become exhausting, and keep us stuck.
How they show up in business might look different for different people, but it might play out like…
When what is really going on…is you simply feel scared.
It is OK to feel scared, we have to find ways of making it OK to be afraid.?
Because lets face it there has been a lot to be afraid of over the last few years, and we don’t run our businesses in isolation from our lives and the wider world….chances are there are more challenging things to come.?
Solopreneurship can be scary.
So what do we do?
How do we catch ourselves before we reach crisis point, or even at that moment where we know something needs to change? How can we self-regulate?
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I developed something called my Bounce Forward Crisis Management Tool. which I talk about in the new book (you should totally grab a copy).?
I use it with my clients to help them through the challenges they face in business and life, and I use it to help myself, because even as an experienced business strategist, I still have my moments.
Also truth be told, I also use this process in my dealings with my sassy 10 year old who is still very much getting on top of her fight or flight responses.
The model follows 6 stages
Retreat – We must move ourselves away from the thing that is causing us harm. We need safe spaces, whether that is a physical place, a person or habits that ground us. It is very difficult to address an issue when you are in the middle of it. You need space.
Review – You need to take some time to review whats been going on. What led to the trigger? Who was involved? What part did everyone play in the crisis, including yourself? But with kindness and without shame.
Research – Before jumping to solutions spend some time thinking through some options, looking at what has worked and not worked for you and others previously in similar situations. We don’t want to keep bouncing back, we want to get beyond the challenge…to grow.
Resolve – We need to decide we want to change, we need to decide that we are willing to work on doing things differently, we need to get buy-in from the other stakeholders involved. It’s about committing to the process.
Resource – We need to understand the resources we have at our disposal to address the challenge. Is it money, is it time, is it effort, is it attention? what is the cost of taking action AND the cost of not taking action?
And then, and only then do we…
Return – Go back into the situation and start activating your plan of action to move forward, beyond the point of the challenge.?
So next time you feel that energy of fear bubbling away, and you think “OH shit…here I go again” take a quick look at this model and see if it can help you take a breath…gain a different perspective…give you some new tools and resources to find a better more appropriate solution.
Let me know how you get on.?
NEED SOME SUPPORT TO GET YOU BACK ON TRACK IN YOUR SOLOPRENEUR BUSINESS?
I am trialing a new service for Solopreneurs, it is a consulting package to help get clarity over your biggest challenges and barriers to growth, it includes a?
All delivered 121 via Zoom, over the next 3 months, so that you can hit 2024 in the best position EVER.
I am offering this at 50% off the full price for the first 5 beta testers. These are all services I do with my VIP clients, and folks in my various group programmes, so what I am testing is this package as a new service, rather than the individual pieces which I know work.? Get in touch?[email protected]?if you would like to discuss this further
Helping women who want to confidently prioritise their own joy without feeling selfish or guilty for putting themselves first. | International bestselling author |
1 年Great post Julie! I think I have gone through so many of these over the last 2 years! I