#62 - Entrepreneurship: 5 Tips For Overcoming The Fear Of Starting Your Small Business

Show Notes

Fear is one the most important emotions we have. It is responsible for motivating us to take action, quickly and decisively. It can also be an inhibitor that prevents us from accomplishing our goal of starting a business. In this episode Lori Vajda and Nola Boea explore the many facets of fear and offer 5 tips to help you overcome your fear of starting your business. Come take a listen so you can implement the tip(s) that are right for you. 

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In This Episode You’ll Learn 

• Why it’s important for aspiring entrepreneurs to acknowledge and address your fears so they don't control your life.
• What many people don’t realize is that courage is not the absence of fear, worries, doubt, but the ability to persist in spite of them. 
• Everyone feels fear. Research shows that fear is just as likely to be a motivator leading to entrepreneurial success as it is an inhibitor to even starting a business.
• In order to succeed as an entrepreneur, you have to acknowledge, address, and conquer your fears so they don’t derail your entrepreneurial dream.

Key points Nola and Lori are sharing in this episode:
(3:01:37) Although many women are empowered to start their own business, a third of them won’t move forward because they fear failing.  
(7:16:87) The 7 fears that are common to entrepreneurs. These 3 motivate and these 4 inhibit our progress.
(13:52.53) Five tips and strategies for minimizing fear so you can move forward in the direction of your entrepreneurial dream.

Resources 

You can subscribe to Lori and Nola's show, (we love you and want to make it easy) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Episode 33, where we talk about the One Page Business Plan

DWEN - Dell Women Entrepreneur Network

Books:

Radical Product Thinking, R.Dutt

The Creativity Leap: Unleash Curiosity, Improvisation & Intuition, Natalie Nixon - Episode 27, How to Open Your Creative Pathways to Entrepreneurship

Captivate, Vanessa Van Edwards

Rising Strong, Brene Brown

This episode was supported by: Be-YOU-nique
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ConvertKit: Our #1 Favorite Email Marketing Platform 
(This is an affiliate link)

Transcript

[00:00:00] Lori: While women and men may be equally matched in skillset and competence to start a business, the difference seems to boil down to one significant asset: Courage, the willingness to go after the seemingly difficult, the tenacity to act, and the belief she can do it. Stay tuned listeners because in this episode, we're exploring common startup fears and providing you with tips, tricks, and mindset strategies so you can anticipate, manage and face your entrepreneurial fears head on with confidence.

[00:00:33] Announcer: You're listening to the Sticky Brand Lab podcast, where time strapped professionals like you learn how to create a business you love in as little as three hours a week.

[00:00:43] Nola: Courage is not the absence of fear, worries, doubt, but the ability to persist in spite of them. In fact, recent research has shown that fear is just as likely to be a motivator leading to entrepreneurial success as it is an inhibitor to even starting a business. The key is in knowing how to leverage your fears so you can turn them into opportunities. But before we share strategies for taming your inner critic and managing your business apprehension, welcome to Sticky Brand Lab, the podcast where we share essential business tools, shortcuts, and advice from leading entrepreneurs, industry experts and our own real-world experience. So you can launch your business quickly and without breaking the bank or feeling overwhelmed. Because the only thing more empowering the knowledge is being able to take confident, decisive action.

[00:01:37] Lori: So Nola when I was exploring this topic on fear and entrepreneurship, especially fear and entrepreneurship, as it pertains to women, I came across this New York Times article, which reported a survey of 9,000 women across 15 countries, including 2000 in the United States. Global Entrepreneurship Survey had some fascinating results. One of them being three quarters of the women surveyed dream of opening their own business. And the top motivators? Guess what they were.

[00:02:09] Nola: Wanting to make more money? Well, I don't know.

[00:02:12] Lori: That would be a good one. One of them is common in it's actually I've seen this result across both men and women. Wanting to be your own boss. 61% say that. But the other one that I found really fascinating was that 62% of the women surveyed said part of the reason they wanted to start their own business was because of being in their current career. They didn't feel that they have the opportunities for promotion. Some of them felt like they weren't getting equal pay to their male counterparts. And 42% felt that they had been overlooked for a raise or a promotion simply because of their gender.

[00:02:55] Nola: Wow. Yeah, so they just said, well, screw this. I'm going to I'll do it myself.

[00:03:01] Lori: Yes. And the impact exactly the empowering part, 67% were empowered to hold onto the dream of starting their business, because they wanted to find an alternative way to break the glass ceiling. And they saw that. Yeah, they saw that as the ability to start their own business. But here's the flip side to so many who dream of starting their own business. 35%, or a third of them, won't move forward simply because they fear failing.

[00:03:38] Nola: That is sad. A third is a lot of people.

[00:03:42] Lori: It is. And it's the reason why I think this episode that we're doing is so important because we're talking to those women and men who dream of being their own boss, but something is getting in the way of their overcoming their fear.

[00:04:01] Nola: So how, exactly, would you describe fear of failure? What is that?

[00:04:05] Lori: Well, I found this definition and I loved it. So I'm just going to tell you what it is. I'm just going to share that here

[00:04:13] Nola: All right.

[00:04:14] Lori: A great way to think about fear is really as a temporary situation in the way that your mind and your emotions come together. We're perceiving a threat and a great way to think about fear is that it's A temporary state rather than a trait we possess.

[00:04:35] Nola: That makes sense.

[00:04:36] Lori: What about you? Do you have a definition for fear?

[00:04:39] Nola: How I would define it is. It's an emotion. An absolutely overwhelming feeling that if this thing fails, my entire world is going to fall apart. Things are going to crumble. And I don't think I can stand it. But I've also heard a very clever definition where it's actually false expectations, appearing real.

[00:05:02] Lori: I love that because it reminds me of an analogy. on understanding fear. So there's a lot that we can look at in science, neuroscience and evolutionary biology. And, and so there's some root to, to that. So our evolutionary, we were programmed to understand fear as a heightened awareness of danger.

[00:05:29] Nola: Yeah.

[00:05:30] Lori: And that's when we were out there hunting and, and,

[00:05:34] Nola: Well, it's when the Tyrannosaurus Rex was gonna come and trample us down

[00:05:38] Lori: That's true. Or the wild beast or the bear or any of

[00:05:43] Nola: Wooly mammoth.

[00:05:44] Lori: But in today's way of thinking about it is, imagine it this way. Our central nervous system is geared to respond to fear. That's primitive. And in today's way of thinking about it, it's almost like the doorbell and your burglar alarm system have the same sound.

[00:06:08] Nola: No, They don't,

[00:06:10] Lori: They don't, but, but imagine it that way. So we are programmed to understand fear that's rooted. In an evolutionary time where it was necessary for us to have a heightened awareness, because there was real life-threatening danger. But our nervous system hasn't evolved. our ability to think our way through it has evolved. We are still programmed to experience fear in our body in a similar way. So when you take the analogy of, oh, the doorbell ringing and my alarm system having the same sound, that helps you to understand that you can apply a cognitive approach to the feeling and the messages that your body is giving you.

[00:06:56] Nola: So it's like how you interpret that sound.

[00:06:59] Lori: Exactly.

[00:07:00] Nola: It's the way you interpret the sound that can determine whether fear can be a motivator or an inhibitor. And that's exactly what fear can do. And I also read some research

[00:07:14] Lori: Convenient.

[00:07:16] Nola: that shows that fear can both inhibit and motivate. This was done by a couple of researchers from, um, Warwick business school and they uncovered seven fears that are common to entrepreneurs, and they found that three of them motivate and four of them inhibit.

The three that motivate were mostly external motivation. So what they wanted was financial security. They had this fear of losing money. So by Jove, this entrepreneurial endeavor better work because we don't want to lose money. And it's that same mindset, fear of venture funding. Oh no. We may not get the from investors we need, therefore, I better really hit the ground hard and make this work. Or opportunity costs, which is, you know, what you've given up in order to pursue this entrepreneurial endeavor. And it's like, Hey, I gave up so much, or I miss out on such and such, so there is no way I'm not going to make this work. So this fear ends up being a motivator to move forward and give it your all.

But there are four fears that. Research found inhibited people. Held people back from starting their entrepreneurial endeavors. And those are primarily internal perspectives, ways of thinking and feeling and interpreting the situation.

And those are a sense of a lack of personal ability and self-esteem, where you really don't believe in yourself as a, as an entrepreneur. And there's also the fear that your idea, it may not be good enough and that it may not be successful. It's that fear related to a potential of your idea. Then there's a fear that's related to your ability to execute. You're thinking, well, that's a great idea, but I can't do that. I don't know how to do it, you know? And, a big one, that they found is that fear of social stigma, you know, that fear of being humiliated if you put yourself out there and then fall. But when I think about that one, I'm reminded of something Richard Branson said, and, you know, I won't say I'm like a super fan, but I really do admire much of what Richard Branson has accomplished in just, his whole concept on life. And he said, "do not be embarrassed by your failure. Learn from them and start again." And you think of Richard Branson as starting all kinds of companies. And so if he can say that he's probably failed more times than he's tried, but

[00:09:53] Lori: Just going to say that he, yes, he's had some significant public failures and some significant public successes. And we tend in analyzing somebody successful like that, we forget that they failed. We only see, we kind of put them on a pedestal and see them as successful without ever looking into the failures that they experienced on their road are on their journey to success.

[00:10:21] Nola: Yup. So those are those negative factors, of fear that can really inhibit. And I think that's what we're really talking about today in this podcast is really how do you take those negative factors and turn them around and look at them differently so that you can actually use that fear as fuel to move you forward.

 I adopted this tagline; it's based on the title of a book. I never read the book. I just embraced the title called, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway. I believe the author of that book was Susan Jeffers. But that concept, feel the fear and do it anyway, means you're going to feel it. You can't not have fear. You just got to walk through it.

[00:11:03] Lori: Absolutely. So Nola, can you recall a time where you experienced a fear that kept you from doing something that you knew you really wanted to do?

[00:11:13] Nola: Yes, actually. They say that the fear of public speaking is greater than the fear of death for most of the general public. And quite frankly, I did join my Toastmasters club many years ago and it was fantastic in helping me feel more confident at the time, but years later, when I was wanting to promote my side business, I had an opportunity to speak at a rotary club. I was asked to provide a speaker's bio and an outline of my talk. And it's like, oh, That means it's like real, um, um, uh, okay. I'll get back to you. And I just kind of sat on it. It was scary. And I'm really embarrassed because it was a prime opportunity to get out there. And I know I probably would have been super uncomfortable, and I would have had to put all of my old Toastmasters skills into high gear to get through it. And I wish I had done it back then. But I found every excuse not to.

[00:12:13] Lori: I can relate to that in general, because I think that's pretty common and it's being vulnerable is very difficult, especially being vulnerable in public. And I think that one of the things that people don't realize is the counter piece to addressing fear is finding courage. So courage. Is not the absence of it. It's the ability to move towards it. And I think when you think about it, even though that opportunity to speak in front of people has, you know, long gone, here you are today. And you speak to people. And we moved from our podcast being just something that's that people listen to, to recording it so that we can put out videos. So here you are doing the thing that you refused to do, doing it big.

[00:13:09] Nola: Yeah. thank you for that. Like I had said earlier, you know, feel the fear and do it anyway. I think over the years I have learned how to feel the fear. How to literally identify that emotion, separate my own self from that emotion, identify it, find it in my body, put my hand on it, especially if it's in my gut, and just, you know, make a nod to the cave man, woman inside and say, thank you for warning me about the mammoth coming this way, but I think I'll be okay.

[00:13:49] Lori: I think that's, brilliant.

[00:13:51] Nola: Thank you. I can't say I'm always successful, but it is a strategy, and speaking of strategies we have come up with five tips that we can share with our listeners for, like you said, it doesn't go away, but we can minimize it how to minimize fear and

[00:14:10] Lori: Absolutely. And our tip number one is, work towards developing your entrepreneurial mindset. So to begin with, you have to get comfortable being uncomfortable. Um, I tend to use that feeling of fear that I feel and combine that with the cognitive. So reminding myself that the opposite of fear isn't fearlessness, the opposite is courage. So how can two live together? How can I feel the fear and find the courage? And that often takes a mindset in order to do that. So I have to be vulnerable and approach fear with compassion and without judgment. This is scary, and. So I tend to take the "but" out of there, which can have a negative, and put an "and" in there. This is scary, and. What can I do? What knowledge do I have? Well, I can look it up. I can study it. I can talk to people about it. I can take action that moves me forward. I can put it into being a habit. So when I'm thinking about my entrepreneurial business, what small steps can I build in so that I develop the habit of feeling the fear and moving towards it?

[00:15:41] Nola: Getting used to it kind of desensitizing yourself around that feeling of fear. Huh?

[00:15:47] Lori: Yes. I think that being emotionally self-aware what are the tapes that happen in your head? So, one of the Tips when, negative thoughts come up is just to welcome them. Label them and welcome them. So Francine Fear, welcome to the party. do it. It just helps me embrace the fact that this is scary, and, I can look for a way to resolve that.

[00:16:18] Nola: Feeling that fear, and taking action kind of leads to Tip Number Two, make a plan and develop a strategy. Because you're going to have problems as part of running a business. Certainly, things may go wrong. However, if you're proactive and you develop that into your plan or your strategy, then you'll feel more prepared and a little less awkward. I would recommend our listeners to go to episode 33, where we talk about the One Page Business Plan. And download the one pager that you can get off of our website. That

[00:16:55] Lori: The one-page business plan.

[00:16:57] Nola: Yes. The one-page business plan. It's just a very simple blueprint you can make for yourself. And it'll allow you opportunity to think through the tasks you have to do, perhaps some of the problems that you may encounter and what you may do about them. And by going through that exercise, whether it's on the one-page business plan, or just your own notebook, you will walk away feeling more prepared. And that'll minimize it doesn't mean nothing's wrong is going to happen. it'll mean that you've thought through some of the things that may happen and how you might mitigate them. And you'll feel a little bit more prepared.

[00:17:33] Lori: Yeah, that's a great tip. Tip number three, embrace the messy. Inaction feeds fear. When we're just thinking and not doing, we actually raise our level of fear. Action reduces it. That's why we say small steps, big effects, because when you do one small step towards your business, and then you look back at all of the steps leading up to where you are, you can see how much progress you've made. There's a difference between having that thought process in your head and writing it out or speaking it. When you write it out and you speak it, you actually can edit it. But if you just play it in your head, it sounds perfect there, or it sounds messy there, but you can't do anything about it because you can't make those edits right there. So taking action gives you something that You can improve and rather than get focused on perfection, look at, that's done. Let me move to the next step. Because as I progress forward, there's a natural time to revise, but you can't do that if you're not moving forward with actions.

[00:18:53] Nola: Agreed. And actually, Michael Jordan would agree with you too, because he said, I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something, but I cannot accept not trying.

[00:19:05] Lori: Ooh! Yes.

[00:19:06] Nola: And, you know, as you were saying that, I'm reminded, there've been a few times now where I'd be so afraid of doing something that by the time I did it, I realized my fear had things built up worse than the actual doing it. It's just by taking that action. You're proving that fear as more false than not.

[00:19:28] Lori: You bring up a really good point. One of the benefits to fear is it reminds us that we're alive. Right? It heightens all of our senses. Our senses for eyesight, to be aware of danger. Our ears, to hear. Our body, to be able to move. So that's where that freeze flight and fight came from. But when we're just in our body feeling fear, we can cut off our thinking process. And when we're just in our thinking head and cutoff our body feeling it, then we intellectualize it. Repeating whatever the ego is saying. You're not good enough. It's like the inner critic coming in.

But it's the connection between your intellect and your body, when you can be the most productive. So if you allow yourself to feel it, and you then say, okay, now I can apply the cognitive, which you talked about having the business plan and the strategy. Then you can take decisive action. Because you've got a roadmap in front of you to guide it. It doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to get you on the path, moving forward.

[00:20:46] Nola: Great advice. Embrace the messy and just move forward. Another tip, tip number four: As you're doing that, seek support. It will really helps to have people around you that are going to cheer you on. They may not gloss over things if you're having issues, but they can be trusted to give you honest feedback, but they're there to help you. To encourage you. Not to pull you down, but to help support you in your endeavors. You can get that type of support from family and friends, or you might find it in an organization of like-minded women. I know you are a member of DWEN

[00:21:29] Lori: I love DWEN.

[00:21:30] Nola: What does that stand for?

[00:21:31] Lori: Dell Women Entrepreneur Network.

[00:21:34] Nola: Perfect. There are also groups in the chamber of commerce. And Women in Business Association arms to some of these SBA offices. Speaking of which the small business administration, is a another good resource and they can also point you to other resources. In addition to finding people that can surround you and mentor you and help you on your journey. Something else that can help give you support is just that continuous learning. You're already listening to our podcast. There are other webinars or plenty of books out there. The more you familiarize yourself with whatever it is you're pursuing, the more you become knowledgeable about it, the more that also minimizes fear.

[00:22:19] Lori: Do you have a favorite book or podcast other than our own, um, that you listened to specifically to address fear of failure or entrepreneurship?

[00:22:29] Nola: No.

[00:22:33] Lori: Well, I have a few books, um, because I'm a, I'm a big reader myself. So, some have even been, a guest on our show and one's going to be a guest on our show. Uh, so some books that I recommend, we're going to have the author of Radical Product Thinking, R. Dutt, D U T T, wonderful book. Can't wait for her to be a guest on our show.  I love Captivate by Vanessa van Edwards, that has some real science backed behind it, with tips and strategies, that she gives people and Captivate kind of speaks to what the topic is about, which is how do you get people interested in you? And when you're an entrepreneur, that's a big part of getting buyers and prospects and partnerships. So that's pretty important. I know that in the past you have talked about Brene Brown. And one of my favorite books of hers was Rising Strong. I personally loved that. And then an author that we had on, Natalie Nixon, whose book is The Creative Leap, Unleash Your Curiosity, Improvisation and Intuition at Work. And by the way, you can listen to her episode, Episode 27, how to open up your creative pathways to entrepreneurship. Great book. And for me, reading, I get to underline, I get to write out things. So that's why reading has always been important to me.

[00:24:02] Nola: That's great.

[00:24:03] Lori: Tip number five, trust your talents enough to push yourself forward. To me, this is really about tapping into your intuition. Being body centered, recognizing the difference between a heartfelt, which means I moving towards something, and fear, which is in your solar plexus, it's a little bit lower. It's not that you should try to eliminate fear. Courage isn't about eliminating it. It's about recognizing it. And then using your mind to ask yourself, is this real? Is this legitimate problem? And if those are, then what strategies can I take to put something in place so that I can work around the problem, work through the problem, overcome the obstacle that's getting in my way.

[00:25:06] Nola: That's excellent. And so listeners, these are just five tips. There are plenty of tips, but these, we think will really help you get started at minimizing fear if you suffer from that analysis paralysis. So again, just to recap, our five tips are, number one, work toward developing your entrepreneurial mindset. And by that we mean get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Get out of your comfort zone. Tip number two. Make a plan and develop a strategy and we recommend downloading our one-page business plan template from our website associated with episode number 33. Number three, embrace the messy. Inaction feeds fear and taking action reduces fear. Tip number four, seek support. You can do that through finding mentors, getting involved in organizations, and continuing to learn about your craft. Tip number five, trust your talents enough to push yourself forward. Tap into your intuition. It's important to learn, to trust yourself and trust your instincts.

[00:26:25] Lori: Right. Fear of failure is a state rather than a trait. It can have both negative and positive effects on our motivation decision-making and our behavior. So while fear is natural to the entrepreneurial journey, the ability to anticipate and manage it is a skill you can learn and learn to embrace.

[00:26:48] Nola: Thank you so much for listening to this episode. We hope it makes all the difference in you getting started on your side business so you can create your best and most exciting life. Not sure how to create a side business? Want help with your branding? Contact us at stickybrandlab.com/contact. We'd be happy to help you. If you found the information shared here today helpful, let us know by posting here, where you're listening, or over on our Facebook page. This way we can learn about your business goals and ideas, as well as sending you love, encouragement, and congratulate you on the amazing and courageous decision you've made.

[00:27:24] Lori: Be sure to come back Tuesday and every Tuesday for another informative, inspiring and motivating episode. And remember. Action creates results. So tap into your desire to create a business and brand you love by taking 1% action every day. Small steps, big effects.

[00:27:45] Nola: Do you have questions about creating a side business, developing your brand or adding a new income stream to your existing business? Sign up for one of our clarity sessions. For more information, contact us at stickybrandlab.com/contact.

[OUT-TAKE]

[00:28:03] Nola: Because the only thing more empowering than knowledge is being able to take cont...Bah!
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[00:28:11] Lori: So close! But it's the last line, so I think that's okay.