If you've been an entrepreneur for more than a minute, I'm guessing know about the wilderness, you know what I'm talking about that season where you just feel alone, lost, burned out, and today's show we're going to be talking all about that and three ways that I am suggesting that have worked for a lot of people to get out of that wilderness season. So I hope today's episode encourages you.
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I am Jen Argue, I have been leading masterminds for the past five years for six and seven-figure entrepreneurs, and I would love to help you start your own mastermind as well so that you can create a really big impact with those around you and work a lot less and make a lot more at the same time.
So this morning, as my husband and I were driving back from our exercise time, we were talking about the day each of us was going to have, and I was sharing with him how I was so excited that in one of my appointments, I had today was with a former mastermind member.
And like I've mentioned before, people who join masterminds really grow close. It's this special type of format when you're meeting with all these other people in a small group and you're sharing the behind-the-scenes and you're taking your mask off and you're getting real with each other. It's really one of the rare times that you feel like you can really do that with other entrepreneurs when you can just bear it all and say, I had this really successful lunch.
But I really didn't make anything because I had all of these expenses. Or I'm just not feeling it because you know, I'm tired, or I got this diagnosis of this illness, or, you know, any of these things like you have to care for somebody who's sick.
Any number of things that happen in our lives that affect our businesses. And in Mastermind we talk about all of that because it's all connected, right? everything's connected, and so this woman who was in my mastermind was on my schedule, and I was telling my husband just like raving about her that she is really an extraordinary person.
She's one of those...I'm going to say rare people, cuz I really do think it's rare for an entrepreneur to buy a course and to diligently go through every single module and lesson and do every single part of the homework. And not only once, but multiple times like this...this woman goes through courses like multiple times.
She would be the one who would take our mastermind recording and re-listen to the whole two hours, like an implement. And she implements and she's so smart and she's a fast action taker. For example, in our mastermind, she would take action on things so quickly and she grew her list from pretty much zero to 25,000 while she was in the Mastermind, like phenomenal.
And since then, she's built it up to almost 60,000. So I was just super excited to catch up with her, see what she was up to. And so when we did, I was really surprised and yet, you know, really honored that she would share with me that she has been in this wilderness time, that she had this big boon where she was selling a lot and growing her community and her audience, and offering courses and memberships, and then the pandemic happened, and then things happened in her personal life.
And as it does all of us, right? But it really weighed on her very heavily, and even though she still had her business going, there were parts that were needing to change, and those parts were heavy and really weighing on her. And I know that if you've been an entrepreneur for a while that you've probably experienced this too.
I know I have, and I don't think if you're human, you're exempt from this. I just think it's life, right? And so you got me thinking like...this is a thing and I know that there's even a book written on it. I think it might be Seth Godin who wrote "The Dip." There's definitely lots out there on this, and I want it to address it because I feel this sense of dissonance in the world right now where we've been, you know, in the pandemic.
And there were times where people were just trying to survive and then there was this next phase of like trying to find the new normal, okay, now that we have this, you know, going on and we've figured things out and people are meeting back together again. But yet there's maybe a little caution still.
What is this new normal? And everybody's on Zoom now too, which is incredible. [laugh] I remember before the pandemic, like trying to explain to people how to get a Zoom account. Literally, everybody has a Zoom account now it feels like. But there's this next season where there's this message like, this is the thriving season.
This is the season where we're all thriving. But yet I do sense there is this little bit or a lot of people who are still exhausted to their core. And it's like this energy that's expected but isn't being generated and maybe this confusion about what it's about. So, Whatever the case is, if you are experiencing it or you know somebody who is, or if you have in the past, it's not abnormal.
It's very normal. It's part of being human, especially as a solopreneur or an entrepreneur with a very small team, if you as the leader and the founder are experiencing something in your life, whether it's an illness or a family crisis of some type, either a big "C" or a small "c" crisis, it's still a crisis.
And there just might be a lot of questions going on and a lot of uncertainty and a feeling of being out of control. All of this is very much part of the human condition, and yet we have these businesses and how do we keep operating as a business with all of this uncertainty and feeling out of control and feeling lonely and maybe not full of worth and having self-doubt?
What I want to offer to you today are three ways that you can find your way out of the wilderness, and I'm going to phrase them for you as "Get Out," "Reach Out" and "Work It Out." So, "Get Out," "Reach Out" and "Work It Out." Number one, "Get Out," what I mean by get out is get yourself into groups of people, whether that is at in real life conference or seminar, or workshop, or meet up, get out and rub shoulders with other people.
And I don't mean just get out and observe. I mean, get out and interact. Interact with people. Put yourself out there. I've been to conferences and I've been to local meetups and at the local meetup that I went to I made a point, even though it was uncomfortable. I made a point to get to know people, and I didn't have expectations of perfection from myself.
I really just wanted to do it no matter how clumsy and awkward that it felt, because sometimes I feel really awkward when I'm in person, and I kind of just told myself, it's okay, I gave myself permission to be awkward and my goal was to meet a group of women entrepreneurs and just get to know them simply for that purpose with no attachments to the outcome.
And it was wonderful, I met like probably five women at this local meetup and one of them ended up being a great contact. And so I was just glad. I was just glad for the practice. I was glad to get to know people, to rub shoulders, to hear new ideas from the stage that sparked something in me. It's, it's really amazing when you can see other people getting excited about whatever excites them because it reminds you of what excites you and why you got into this in the first place.
And so I would encourage you to get out to rub shoulders with people and to interact with them as well. The second point is to "Reach Out, and this is what my former mastermind member did is she reached out to me. I don't know that she reached out to share that she was in the wilderness.
Maybe I was just a safe space for her. But I do encourage you to reach out to somebody who you trust whose value and perspective you trust. And be honest, you know, if this is a safe person you can connect with...then do that and reach out and be honest. Take the mask off because that is the way to move forward is to speak truth to get it out there.
And to have your experience validated and also to remind you that there are next steps and there are ways to think outside of the way that you're thinking and I think most entrepreneurs really appreciate that. I'm not sure that that's for everybody. I'm a therapist, so I actually know that that's not for everybody.[laugh]
A lot of people want to have you sit and validate and really hear and understand them but aren't really looking for next steps? and that's okay, everybody's in a different spot. Do you think entrepreneurs are a different breed and really value that and certainly, you know, if you're feeling like you'd like that, then ask for that...
And if that person that you're meeting with is someone who you truly value and you trust and respect. I think that interaction is going to be so encouraging and give you new hope for the future, which when we start to be able to plan research shows this, that when we start to be able to plan and can see.
Maybe even just our next step into the future that is energizing and that is the little sliver of light that you need to see to get out of the dark wilderness. So reach out is that step. And third, is "Work It out," and what I mean by that is to journal, journal it out, map it out, sketch it out, brain dump on a piece of paper, all the thoughts that you're having.
You might want to revisit your values. You might want to revisit what offers you have that really give you joy, what sales mechanisms you have that really give you joy. And what audience you like to serve, what audience gives you joy? And just listen to your heart, listen to your gut, your intuition.
It's never wrong, and especially if you have done the work before your time of reflection, like getting out and reaching out, that can help you form your thoughts in a more cohesive way because now you have this new energy. You have maybe a little more focus, a little more clarity, but journaling it out or mapping or brain dumping will definitely give you more clarity for your next step.
And that's all you need to know. That's all you need to know is your next step. And that will definitely get you out of the wilderness because when we start to take action is when we get even more clarity and feedback. And here's a thing, I trust you...I trust that as you, the entrepreneur who had this vision and mission when you started your business that you are smart and you know the way.
It's just that the way that you've been doing has changed and when you're used to going. At a really high RPM and moving really fast and getting results, oh, it's so hard to like be slowed down and to have to rebuild something. But you know, rebuilding, that's a part of it. People are always rebuilding, companies are always rebuilding.
And so I think that if we don't have a grasp on that being the way entrepreneurship is and we expect that it's going to be the same all the time. And I'm not saying that my friend had this expectation at all, or that you do for that matter. I just think that it's a normal human condition to want to think we set something up and it's going to stay that way.
It's the low energy, our brains just don't want to expend more energy, right? And so we're always looking for that path. But the truth is in entrepreneurship that the path is changed and adapting to it is always what we need to do because...society is changing, you know, there's the introduction of AI there, everybody's on Zoom.
There's new problems in the world to be solved. The environment and the culture is always changing. And what's also always changing is you. We are always changing. There is always something new coming up in life. A new season that you're entering. Maybe you just had a baby and you don't have the energy to run one-to-one services anymore, and you want to dive more into courses now.
That's a change. Maybe you've been doing courses for a long time and you really missed that one-to-one, and that's a change. And all these changes are good and okay, and we need to listen to our hearts and to our value to know what it is that we need. At this moment because...just because you build a business in one way doesn't mean it's ever going to stay like that forever.
So that might be a new thought to you. Maybe you thought what you build is what will forever be. And that's not always the case. In fact, it's usually not. So getting used to the currency of change as being the way to success in your business, because you define success, nobody else does, and it has to be right for you.
That is what's going to get you there is that mindset. So I hope this was encouraging to you today that you can do it and you're not alone. We've all been there and you're going to make it. So let me know if this spoke to you in the comments or email me or let me know on social media. I would love to hear about it.
Thank you so much for listening today. I hope that if you found value in this that you would subscribe to my podcast and share it with a friend and leave a review.
Thank you so much!
