Pivoting in Practice: How to Embrace Business Change within a Pandemic

We’ve been riding the rollercoaster of this pandemic for months. It’s almost hard to believe. We can’t even begin to fathom the full results of this event and the impact on our businesses. As therapists, we know we must fortify ourselves for the mental health crisis that comes with COVID-19. As a colleague, I’m hearing that we are burning out, stretched too thin by grief, anxiety, and tragic loss. In the grand scheme of things, this means we will need more mental health professionals to carry the load. It also means therapists are maintaining smaller caseloads to allow for self-care in the face of overwhelm. As business owners, we are clenching our muscles and leaning in. As entrepreneurs, we are rallying. Now is the time for pivoting and planning. Months into COVID-19, we are looking for ways to pivot to allow our practices and businesses to not only survive, but thrive.

Planning to Pivot?

Pivoting is a term in business for shifting gears, changing direction, and/or finding new focus. As private practice owners, we get the opportunity to pivot in order to address life’s changes and challenges in ways we feel are a good fit for our business. For some of you, pivoting means:

·      Offering telehealth

·      Providing webinars

·      Speaking online

·      Developing online coursework

·      Writing blogs or a book

·      Identifying a secondary income stream

It can be exciting to start new endeavors, and it can also be challenging. Let’s recognize that creativity can feel limited when other responsibilities require your attention and stress levels are so high that they may hurt your ability to focus. You don’t have to do this all in one shot. You don’t even have to do this alone. Here are some ideas to help you move deeper into a creative mindset to better your business.

Schedule Time for Creativity

That’s right. Put it in your calendar. Where can you find time to work ON your business rather than in it? Can you map out time for brainstorming? Writing? Course creation? Conversations with other inspiring entrepreneurs? I too have learned that if I don’t schedule it, it doesn’t happen!

Move your Body

Have you ever noticed that some of the most brilliant minds are depicted as pacing in movies when trying to figure something out? There is a reason for that! Movement allows deeper processing, especially when it’s a repetitive, low-energy motion like walking or pacing. So get outside and take a walk, allowing your mind to mull over the possibilities at an easy pace.

Remember your ‘Why’

No matter where you decide to take your business, be sure to slow down enough to check in on your ‘why.’ Does this new endeavor support your values and brand? Does it support your mission as a person and as a professional? Carry a notebook and write down ideas as they come to you. Run new ideas by a trusted colleague or friend to see what they think. 

Invigorating Investments

For many entrepreneurs, if the pivot aligns with their business, it can feel both exciting and invigorating to have a direction to go and plan of action to take.  You see, entrepreneurs enjoy building and creating and they feel much more emotionally invested when creating something new or worthwhile. I hope that you too can experience the excitement (dare I say giddiness?) of pivoting in your practice to support your mission, vision and brand. Check out my book Perfectioneur: From Workaholic to Well-Balanced launching June 1st for other ideas on how to thrive as a driven entrepreneur. I can’t wait to see what you create!

Finding Your Passion Projects in a Pandemic

Limit screen time. Exercise. Video chat with family and friends. Go outside. Get restful sleep. America has been bombarded with advice as to how to cope with the current pandemic, and for good reason. This is a time of uncertainty. A time of adjustment. A time for reflection of what is most important. None of us were prepared for the life-changing event that is COVID-19, and as we enter week 5 of stay-at-home orders (here in Colorado), we find ourselves trying to pass the time and hoping for good news at the end of April. Will we get a normal May? June? July? Will we again appreciate live concerts, large gatherings, and colorful festivals that dominate the summer months? Will we plan vacations and travel in the same way as we did before? Will we embrace changes in how our businesses are run? It’s hard to say what the rest of 2020 holds, with many of us taking it one week at a time, both for our sanity and in wanting CDC recommendations to plan our next move.

So how do we stay sane? For some, it’s the escape that Netflix, video games, and reading a good book can offer. Successfully escaping into another world to get our minds off the here and now. For others, it’s framing COVID-19 as an opportunity to reconnect with immediate family, pick up a hobby, or complete projects at home that were pushed off in the past in having no time. I have to admit, my clients have so far reinforced my belief that finding opportunities supports sanity. I feel proud of them in their ability to stay hopeful and attempt to adjust amidst understandable worry, anxiety, and restlessness.

Of course, I need to name the privilege for both myself and my clients in having the luxury of creativity and time for passion projects. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs has resurfaced in the public eye and can be used to normalize the contrast between feelings of barely functioning to extreme productivity, and everything in between. Each person can place themselves at a different level of Maslow’s model during this uncertain time. The understanding is that a person’s basic needs of water, food, shelter, and safety MUST come first before anything requiring higher energy can be achieved. As a therapist, I’ve been quick to mention this to colleagues who were expressing their disappointment of moving to telehealth and feeling like momentum would be lost with their clients. I’ve reassured clients that we will take it day to day, week to week to determine how they adjust best and learn to cope. I too, have needed the reminder for days where worry creeps in a little louder than usual, worry that manifests in thoughts like, “What if I run out of projects? When will I have my meltdown? What if I lose focus? What if my mood tanks? What if I can’t hold hope for my clients that this will get better?” One colleague wrote it beautifully on social media. She named that she’s tired. Tired of holding space for others. Tired of the judgement. Tired of the news. I’m tired too. All therapists are tired. We all are getting tired of this. To make it tolerable, we find ourselves grasping for hope, something to look forward to, or something to help us hang on and keep going.

For me, it’s passion projects. You see, I must own my privilege as a white, middle-class citizen who is married with no children. I feel gratitude that my job and my spouse’s job are safe and secure by transitioning to working remote. I also recognize, as a Perfectioneur (Perfectionist Entrepreneur), I have stepped up my game to complete a variety of projects in the last four weeks to feel like I’m making progress, have momentum, and am still creating plans and goals that can make a difference. I understand that my story isn’t the story of all people. I understand that I am lucky to have my basic needs secure and solidified to allow for this higher work to be the focus. If you feel like you are fortunate enough to be in a similar situation, you too might be working hard to find your passion projects during this pandemic.

Why does passion matter? For Perfectioneurs and other entrepreneurs, we are happiest when we are creating, innovating, and supporting meaningful change. So it’s no wonder that we would do our best to embrace the opportunities the pandemic provides to work on things that have always felt important but have been pushed further down the to-do list due to busy-ness. As the result of COVID-19, we have been forced to slow down. To re-evaluate. To plan. In my first four weeks of the stay-at-home orders, I’ve written half a dozen blogs, finished a draft of a new book, created supplemental material for an online subscription service, and filmed and launched two new online courses. 

I’m not asking for a pat on the back because I’m not unique. In fact, some of our most celebrated creatives produced their best works while under quarantine. Check out these articles that named William Shakespeareand Isaac Newton, as two examples. Perhaps it speaks to the value of space and time to allow ideas to come forward. The ideas generated when we have time on our hands, can’t sleep, or when we are forced to sit with our own thoughts in the early hours of the morning when limited distractions are available. As you can imagine, this could easily shift into mental health challenges or crises when thoughts unravel our sense of purpose, identity, or make us question it all. 

But for others, these thoughts can lead to strokes of genius or passion projects. Holding onto hope that the challenges we face in the present will lead to something beautiful in the future! How do we embrace that gift of creativity? The ah-ha moments leading to meaningful change? 

1.     Take a walk

Walking supports bilateral (left-right-left-right) movement in the body that can support creative thoughts and ideas. It’s a reason why people find themselves pacing when trying to find an answer. Movement can be a powerful strategy in generating solutions to the problems we face.

2.     Write it down

Keep a journal or notebook handy. Or use your notes feature in your phone. Some of our best ideas come to us right before sleep, in a dream, or while we are chatting with a colleague or friend. Writing it down captures the idea for later while giving you permission to be present in the moment.

3.     Run it by a colleague or friend

There’s something powerful about sharing an idea with a trusted colleague or friend to see what questions come up. Do they see the same value you do? Do they have additional perspective that would help your passion project form? 

4.     Workshop it 

If your passion project holds the potential to help others, workshop it to take a deeper dive into its value. Who is the intended audience? Who are your competitors? What pain point are you addressing and why? What makes it stand out? How does your passion project offer a solution?

Passion projects, like hobbies, can support moments of joy and feelings of progress and momentum. In a world that feels stuck as the result of COVID-19, projects can be a welcomed escape from the stress of the unknown. Not everyone will have the ability to embrace passion and creativity in dealing with immense pain, grief and loss as the result of the pandemic. Passion projects could offer some respite from the heaviness and hopelessness felt throughout our communities. After all, we are allowed to feel both gratitude and grief at the same time. So I hope you will consider unlocking your creative potential during this strange moment in time. Embrace your own resiliency. Our passions can bring out the best in us while we adapt in the face of adversity, helping map out positivity and sense of progress in the current pandemic.

To Conquer or Die: Pivoting as a Recovering Perfectioneur

Control Freak.

Entrepreneur.

Workaholic.

Type A Personality.

Perfectioneur.

A Perfectionist Entrepreneur

Have you ever worked so hard at something that you made yourself sick? Maybe it was that time at the gym where you pushed yourself so hard in a workout that you felt physically ill. Or during dead week in college, that week before finals, where you worked so hard to feel prepared, only to get sick after finals were over. Working so hard to master something, it’s something I know a lot about as a Recovering Perfectioneur. 

There are many Perfectioneurs in this world, managing the workforce with the badge of busy-ness. 

How’s life? It’s busy! 

How are you? So busy! 

Responding to an American culture of independence and prosperity, we are a breed of Entrepreneurs driven by desires to create, to make an impact, and to lead change. A group of hustlers that epically fail at self-care and work-life balance. Running themselves into the ground out of a desire to accomplish things that feel important, meaningful, and worthwhile. A group of Millennial and Gen-Z ers who were taught to work hard for what they want, only to find themselves overworked, burnt out, and with higher risks of anxiety and depression.

A phrase that captures this experience: To conquer or die. It’s a family motto I believe to my core, even going so far as to tattoo it on my body! And as a result, I was nearing collapse and total breakdown. That’s when I learned I needed to recover as a Perfectioneur.

That’s me, now what? 

So maybe you resonate with this definition of Perfectioneurs. If this is you, there is hope! Let’s look at some ideas outside of the commercialized concepts of self-care that can help you heal and grow for the better.

1.     Rest versus Restoration

Self-care from an American standpoint might present like a vacation, massage, or other costly thing that is meant to encourage a person to slow down and take a breather. For many of us, the luxury of spending money on such items can be a struggle. Perhaps it’s not even the financial stress but the struggle to carve out a chunk of time in your full schedule to complete it. Feeling like we don’t have time is half the battle. With this in mind, it’s no wonder planners have come back into popularity, with the purpose of blocking out time for yourself, your friends, and your family.

So now it’s the weekend and you decide to binge watch Netflix and lounge on the couch to rest after a very full week. Do you find yourself feeling rested? What about restored? Rest is the idea of limited or low activity. There is purpose to rest. But for so many of us, rest doesn’t provide us with renewed stamina or energy to keep achieving and progressing. We are still tired. We are still overwhelmed.

Instead, perhaps we embrace the concept of restoration. What are some things that energize you, restore your energy, revitalize you, bring you back to yourself? Interestingly enough, the list of ideas for self-care shift when presented from the lens of restoration! Maybe now you are thinking about being in nature, cooking a delicious meal, or dancing to good music. Rest and restoration have value for Perfectioneurs and Entrepreneurs, it’s important to identify a balance of both.

2.     Who’s in your orbit?

As you think deeper about restoration, perhaps there are cherished people in your life that you want to be involved in that experience. Do you feel restored when surrounding yourself with loved ones? Fellow Entrepreneurs? Creative thinkers? Dreamers? Giving yourself permission to explore the relationships that energize you can be insightful into how you spend your time. Recognizing individuals who drain you, ask too much of you, or relationships that just don’t feel reciprocal, can be adding to your risk of burnout when feeling overworked and overscheduled. Give yourself permission to focus on the relationships that boost your energy and creative spirit, they will be the ones you’ll want to schedule and make time for because of how they make you feel.

3.     Find your Focus

Balancing your time, your relationships, and your goals can be difficult. And yet, now that you’ve identified the relationships and activities that energize you, you can bring those goals into focus. What if I asked you to write down some goals that are showing up in your mind in this very moment? What items are on your agenda? 

What if I told you that you can only focus on 7 goals in the next 6 months? For those of you who are hustling hard, this may feel restrictive, challenging, and create anxiety and resentment. What would you cross off your list, giving yourself permission to focus on only these 7 goals for the next 6 months? It may feel difficult at first, but it’s amazing to find yourself making more significant progress on the 7 goals because you are also saying NO to everything else. We know that multitasking can be done, but at the risk of lower productivity and limited outcomes since your energy is spread too thin. I encourage you to embrace this exercise of identifying 7 top priorities in your goals list and leave the rest to be added when these 7 are accomplished. You might surprise yourself in how you feel, recognizing more energy, focus, and progress as the result of your efforts!

These are just three strategies that I’ve worked on in order to come back to balance, health, and healing.  And like anyone else in recovery, it’s a choice every day to do something that’s in your best interest. If you decide to take the leap, recognizing yourself as a workaholic, a Type A person, an Enneagram Type 3, or as a fellow Perfectioneur, I can’t wait to see how these strategies work for you, not only to move closer to your values and feelings of fulfillment but to change the narrative of Entrepreneurs for the next generation trying to make a difference for all.

If you’ve run yourself into the ground, the only direction to go is up!