One of my biggest mistakes as an entrepreneur

2016 was a rough year for me, even more so than 2020, and dealing with the pandemic. It was the beginning of a couple of years of deep physical and emotional anxiety.

As my inner turmoil increased, my connection to the world diminished.

Go to that networking event? No way, too exhausted. Meet that friend for check-in and chat? I’d just feel inadequate. Put me out there on social media? No. Thank. You.

Unfortunately, this is common when someone deals with mental health challenges: they isolate themselves. Perhaps it’s due to shame. Perhaps it’s because of a lack of energy. Maybe it’s both and more.

As time went on, I isolated myself both personally and professionally more and more. Work opportunities started to dwindle (increasing my anxiety and continuing the cycle). Engagements and invitations stopped coming in. Fresh ideas and inspiration withered.

Bit by bit, my inner chatter told me I was getting less relevant than ever, which fed my sense of fatigue and self-doubt.

The process of climbing out of that hole often felt counter-intuitive. Despite the protesting of every cell in my brain, I started to take small steps to connect with colleagues again.

And then something interesting began to happen.

My income went up.

The offers started coming in again: to be on a podcast, teach a master class, be a keynote speaker.

Ideas started to come to me again for content, workshops, podcast topics.

Showing up became less difficult, then easy, even fun… (despite being an introvert).

My anxiety started to recede, in part because so many of the professional things I’d been anxious about were reversing.

With income and offers and content flowing, I was able to start to plan for the future again, rather than living each day as something to survive.

I started to dream again.

Dreams became goals, and goals became actions, and actions created effects that gave me more hope.

It wasn’t that my anxiety went away, and that allowed me to get back to connecting. Getting back to connecting started to shift my anxiety and my business.

With the vantage point of time, I can clearly see the pattern. Isolating was a self-fulfilling spiral. When I focused on connection and community, it brought growth, vision, and opportunity.

My experience made me realize how many essential things we get from being part of something.

Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey. It’s easy to isolate whether or not you have mental health challenges.

We get stuck in our own world, working hard on the day-to-day, and we forget to look and reach outside of ourselves.

Entrepreneurs are resourceful and independent. But our independence sometimes leads us to neglect to find a community, a place to turn to on a regular basis for support, feedback, accountability, and more.

When I emerged from my isolation, I vowed not to repeat the same mistake. Further, I decided I wanted to offer a place for coaches and consultants to find belonging, support, and inspiration.