This episode is going to a be a little bit different, however I wanted to address the situation at hand. Things have been a little overwhelming and the world is now in a very strange and unique place. Although I don’t usually post episodes midweek, I wanted to have a chance to talk about what is going on and my thoughts surrounding the current situation. I’m also going to touch on a few personal tips when it comes to responding to adverse situations as a business.
KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST
- It’s important to mention that I batch content and in future episodes that I have going live over the next couple of weeks, there is no mention of Covid19, because at the time we didn’t know what was going to happen.
- Try to step away from your news feed as often as you possibly can. Although you can’t ignore it, spending your whole day looking at what is going on is going to have a negative effect on your mental health.
- Working on what you’re grateful for is a great way to help when there’s a lot of negativity around.
- Stay as routine as you possibly can, especially with the things that you can control. Wake up at the same time, eat dinner at the same time etc.
- In times of panic, people will turn to those that appear to be steady.
- Be gracious and gentle with people that may be struggling, especially when it comes to their business.
- You have to do what is right for your business in times of adversity.
- We don’t know how long this is going to last and when we return to a state of normality, you’re still going to need to run your business. Although you may not want to launch anything brand new during this time, you still need to think about how you’re going to maintain aspects of your business.
- Are there things you can be doing in your business that could help you in the future? Whether that means working on your SEO or scheduling your social media content in advance.
- If you are scheduling social media content, you may want to schedule it for a couple of months in advance, rather than straight away.
- Supporting your community around you is important.
- If you are running an ad or a campaign that you cannot change, don’t take your results too seriously. The world is in a completely different place right now and you can’t take things as read.
- Find new and creative ways that you can turn up for your customers.
THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…
Remember to take care of yourself as much as you possibly can. Your health is incredibly important.
HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS
Transcript below
Hello and welcome to this slightly different and unique episode of the podcast. Now you're probably wondering why am I releasing an episode midway through a week when normally every Monday is when you get to hear from me. Well this week I guess is a little bit different and I thought it was probably best if I come on here and have a really quick chat with you guys just to kind of give you a bit of a heads up in terms of a few thoughts I'm having and also in terms of things that I think might help you. So obviously, you know right now, no matter where you are in the world listening, I know we have lots of people from all over the world listening that the coronavirus, and I don't want to say the C word, but I've had to uh, has hit us with an absolute force.
The world is in a very strange, unique place that it wasn't in a few weeks ago and I just wanted to, I guess like said, come on here and give you a couple of thoughts, but also give you some good positive stuff. Hopefully that will help you out. And I was really conscious, I didn't want it to feel like I'm jumping on the bandwagon, but like, so I'm doing this for a couple of reasons. Reason number one is I batch content. You know that I do episodes a few episodes at a time and I've already recorded episodes ahead of this one. And obviously in those episodes, I make no mention to the sheer fact that this thing's going on. So it didn't want you to think that I was so rude or I was ignoring it because I'm obviously not. But I wanted to explain why you might hear me not say anything or I might not reference it.
And it's because we've had those recorded already. Well, obviously there's nothing sensitive in those. If I thought there was that might upset people, then obviously I would remove them. But they're just normal episodes of me sharing tips, tools, advice, and me bringing on awesome guests who talk about cool things. But the reason I wanted to do this episode is because basically I'm just gonna talk a little bit about it and then I'm basically gonna leave it and you're not going to hear me talk about it again. But like I said, I didn't want you to think that I was. So, um, what's the word that basically I just didn't want to talk about it or that I was ignoring it because obviously it's a massive thing, our business. So what I really wanna talk about today is how in adverse situations like this, how we can manage as business owners.
And I don't think my advice is the most perfect and brilliant out there, right. Also didn't have anything to add from a, you know, what's actually going on in the world's point of view. I just wanted to reach out and say I'm here, you're my audience. I love the fact that you support me and I'm here to support you too. And I want you to know that I am around if you need any help with anything or if you're sat there worried about it. I just wanted to, like I said, just come on and have a really quick conversation about it. So there's a few things that have come up for me. As you know, I have been on a fairly, uh, I guess big personal development journey since having my business and I've talked about it before, but actually what it's done is it's really helped me out in terms of managing situations and this is boy's situation that we have to manage.
Mindfulness in Adversity
So let's just talk to that first and then I want to give you a few ideas of things you can be doing while things are different in your business, which that obviously going to be, no matter what type of business you have. So I guess the first thing that I want to talk about is about trying to keep in your own head. With all this going on now I am one of these people that will scroll through my feed aimlessly looking and reading and watching all this stuff, and you find yourself spending really valuable hours looking at the stuff. And actually for me, it's not worth doing it. It's not worth spending all that time. So I've made a decision to step away from the newsfeed and not look at anything that's particularly related to it or watch too much stuff. And it's not that I'm ignoring it.
I will catch on the news maybe once, twice a day, but I'm not spending all my time looking through social media because obviously the media has a real problem of exaggerating and scaring and really kind of catastrophizing things. And believe me, I am not sat here saying it's not all of those things. I'm just saying that right now there's nothing I can do about it other than what I can manage myself. So for me it's more about knowing that all this is going on and being respectful and mindful about it, but also looking to myself and looking to things that I can control because I can't control the government. I can't control the news, I can't control the virus, I can't control anything in that case. So really sitting and panicking about it is not helpful to me. And like I said, that's just me.
You may agree or disagree, but I just wanted to let you know that how I was dealing with it. So like I said, one thing I'm doing is I'm not going through my newsfeed as much as I have been because for me, reading this stuff just makes me more anxious and I don't want to be anxious about something I can't control. So then the second thing I, I do is, you know, I do it anyway, but I work even more on my gratefulness. So I really spend time thinking about what I'm grateful for and high very lucky we are, because in situations, whether this grave and this sort of worrying, we do forget that actually there's still an awful lot for us to be thankful for. And like I said, believe ma'am, I'm so cautious about doing this episode cause I certainly don't wanna upset anybody and I don't end up just think I don't care or I'm not feeling sorry for the people that have been affected by this or people that have died.
But I just wanted to say that right now in my current position with my family that, you know, I think if we can work on being grateful for what we've got and concentrate on ourselves, then that's got to be a positive thing. So I guess that's the other thing I think about that, you know, it's a bike kind of trying to do everything as we possibly can, as normal as we can. Now obviously there's some stuff that we can't do. I've just had some events, councils, I'm not travelling to London, I'm cancelling something else towards the end of the week. And I'm waiting to see if my daughter's school's going to close. And obviously that's big impacts on us and and as business owners, that impacts us massively. But what I'm trying to do is stay steady with the stuff that I can control. So I am still getting up at the same time every single day.
I'm still doing my morning routine. I am still doing my work. I'm showing up for my Academy members. In fact, I'm showing up more of my family members because they need the support right now. I've done this extra episode because again, I want to show you that I'm here to support you and I'm trying to stay steady because I think in this kind of the situation, not that I've ever been in this situation before, and not many of us have, I don't think, but in this situation, I think the more I can say study and the more I can keep things as normal as possible, the better for me, for my family, for my membership, for my 90 day people, for my podcast listeners. And therefore I think in times of panic, people look for those people that are steady, they look for the kind of people that are still carrying on and still doing their thing and going forward.
Granted with a lot more sort of, well I guess slightly more cautiously walking forward, but still walking forward and still still doing your thing. So those are kind of some of the things I took for it. The other thing I've taken from this is that it's a really good reminder that am I taking care of myself? Because you know, and I've said before that I am terrible at taking care of myself and actually when there's something as scary as this virus going around and, and obviously you know you need to be in a good place from a health point of view, it's making me think, okay, is this now a time that I need to do this? I do want to add, by the way, my hygiene has not changed at all. I am actually fanatical about washing my hands. I have two dogs and honestly they gross me out.
Your Business in Adversity
And even as like when B was a little baby, my daughter was a baby. I used to wash my hands incessantly and I do still. So I am just carrying on with my normal routine that but, but like I said, it is making me think, okay, you know, how much sort of fruit and veggie my eating, what sort of good food am I having? What, how am I looking after myself? So today I've taken a walk, I've walked the dogs and I, I've had a good salad for lunch and a few different things. So if that helps me think about that then cool. And then the other couple of things I want to just touch on is if I was trying to be really gracious with other people right now, so people are having to make decisions in their business that are so hard. And I am seeing this in the membership a huge amount that depending on what people's businesses are, they are getting affected some harder than the others.
And I think right now that we just need to be really gracious of people and gentle with them in the sense of, I guess I don't want to pass my opinions onto people though on the podcast. I just wanted to talk generally about it. But really you've got to do what's right for your business. So I can say anything. Anybody can say, you've got to do what's right. And I think I want to be as gracious with people as, as I can be in terms of their decisions that they're making. So if they've got to make a decision that I want to support that decision with them rather than judge them. So I know that one of my members had to cancel some things cause it was obviously affected and she got a bit of stick, not from other members, I hasten to add, but from someone else and you know, telling her that she was overreacting and this sort of thing.
And it's like she's got to do what she needs to do to keep happy herself and we've got to do the same. So if I'm happy to continue posting on social media and still showing up in the membership, then that's, you know, that's what I'm doing to manage this situation the same way as if you need to counsel things and hibernate then that's absolutely cool too. So like I said, I'm just thinking that you know, staying a little bit gracious to people and trying to be considerate of their decisions is probably a nice thing to do right now. But what I want to talk about is the fact of, and kind of moving onto more businessy stuff is we don't know how long this is going to last for. We don't know what's going to happen obviously and we can't control that. So no amount of worry is going to change that.
However it is going to end and we are going to get back to a normal, whether it's the same normal, I don't know, but we are going to find some norm I would see. And at the end of it, you still need to have a business. You still need to make money. And I know right now that obviously you are up against some serious challenges and potentially it's really affecting your business, but when it ends we're going to all be back to it. So I think what I'm thinking now is I'm not going to perhaps start anything brand new. I'm not going to launch anything particularly. Not that I didn't think really it's a launch if I'm honest, but I am going to still think about maintaining a level of my work and doing my stuff. Now I am very lucky that my business is predominantly online.
Even some clients that the agencies still work with could all be done online. I've obviously I speak for living Burt, that just has to pause for a bit because that's not going to happen. One of the events I'm doing is going to do an online version of it so it's not like I don't, and I can't work all together. I know that some of you right there aren't going to be in that position. So one, I think, you know for me, I'm very grateful that my business is set up the way is that I can still carry on. So that's good. But I appreciate not everyone's like this, but if you find yourself in these next few weeks sitting there thinking I can't do my normal business you've been given and I said I am so cautious with this episode because I don't want to come across as frivolous and go, you know every time there's a silver lining.
But I do want to say to you that we're always really short a time and if we're being forced to take time and you know, self isolate and stay in then actually is there things that you can be doing in your business to help you. But when all this kind of it comes to its conclusion, then you are in a as good a place as you can be. So I've got a few thoughts for you of things that you could possibly think about doing over these next few weeks if you want to. And if your business is affected, if your business isn't effective, then cool. I'm really glad for you, but if it is and you find yourself for the bit of time that you weren't expecting, then why not take a look at some of these things. So when did you last review your website? Why not go through and have a good look at it and think about reviewing your site and updating it and tweaking it because those, that's one of those jobs that we never get to do.
Also SEO, I have an email from one of my lovely members about SEO and in fact in a couple of weeks time we have an SEO episode and I've done nothing with it because of course I've been too busy. So if I find myself with a bit of extra time cause I'm not doing the school run or because it can't go anywhere, which to be honest it'd be a killer. Cause I did as you well know, love going to the pub. Although I have stopped up on gin and uh, I'm going to do a wine order soon as well. But you know, if I'm going to do, if I'm going to stay in the haste, then maybe now's the time to look at my SEO. Also. What about thinking about scheduling some social media content? Maybe not to schedule to go straight away. Maybe it's a case of have it already and then press the button on it when everything is starting to to come back to some kind of non normality, but why not sit there and create those social media content ready?
Also if you create content like me, why not batch load of episodes of a podcast or write lots of blogs or you know, do what you need to do from a content point of view because again, these are things we can do on our own at home or when we have some downtime, but when we're busy with meetings and going out and doing, obviously it gets much harder. The other thing I want to remind you to do is support the community and customers you've got already. What's interesting is there's all full lot of information out there about supporting your employees and what businesses are doing to support their employees. And not that that isn't important obviously cause it is. But actually for me, you know, my team will work from home anyways so we're pretty cool with that. But for me it's how do I support my members?
How do I help my customers? So I reached to them, I posted in the group just the other day, you know, what do you need me to help you with? How can I support you? And even if it's just so much a rant or even if it's just somewhere to have a slight panic and then you know, us help support you to feel better than just say the word because that's really, really important. And then this is a perfect time for learning. Upping your skills, doing that, some of those online courses that you've paid for already or learning something new or doing some research or using that time wisely to develop the skills for your business. And again, planning. So I have just finished a five day email challenge. And what was interesting, and actually this is one of my points is that my challenge was, was really good.
I really, really enjoyed it. Got loads and loads an interaction. They did some amazing work, got great feedback, but ultimately the number of people that then went on to join the Academy was not what I expected quite far from it in, in all honesty. But we did it a week. That was a really bad week. It literally just finished last Friday. And I don't want to use those stats. I don't want to make any rash or knee-jerk decisions based on the results of something that happened last week when the world was in this position. So what I'm saying to you is if you are doing an ad at the moment, if you are running something, if you're halfway through a campaign and you can't change it, then don't take those results too seriously or don't take those results as red. So for instance, like I said, in terms of a conversion activity, the five day challenge didn't do what I needed it to do.
However, because it was a lot of effort. If I put a lot of work into it, it was brilliant. I loved it. And so did they. But, but from a conversion point of view, it didn't quite do it. So I'm not taking those results and going, Oh, well there you go. It doesn't work. I'm not gonna bother with that again. I'm going to do it again. And then I'll see what happens then. Because like I said, with what's going on in the world and what happens, I don't know that that hasn't had the result or cause that result. So don't make any knee jerk decisions. Don't make any rush crazy decisions right now based on some results you might have had in the last few days. So what am going to do is I'm going to plan, I'm going to think to myself, right when this finishes, what am I going to do?
What folks have I got? How am I going to reinvigorate things? But I'm not going to disappear. I'm not going to not put my podcast out. I'm not going to not show up on social media because you know what? In this world, it takes literally days and weeks for people to forget you. And I don't want people to do that. I don't want people to, or for me to go and hibernate somewhere and then when I do need to come back out and go, right, come on, then let's get going because everything's fine. Then I, you know, that's going to be so hard to do if I haven't maintained some level of exposure or some level of kind of visibility. Like granted, I work in a world that really is not sensitive as in, it's not like I'm in a medical industry. It's not like I'm in a, you know, industry that is a new, one of my members, they do events, so I am in a very different position so I can keep turning up but find new and creative ways that maybe you can turn up or again, I've got this lovely member who does events and she's not going to be going live every day this week because she's wanting to make sure that she's still supporting her members even if she can't do the in-person things that she normally does.
So like I said, I think for me, I was really cautious and really nervous about doing this episode. I didn't want it to look like I was jumping on the coronavirus bandwagon because I have seen a few people trying to profit from this and it, it's not nice. It doesn't feel great, but I also didn't want to ignore the fact. So this is it. This is as much as you're going to hear me talk about it now obviously if things change I might talk about it again, but hopefully we will let it run its course and fingers crossed. You know, it all comes out the other end as we hope and expect. But I'm going to carry on the podcast as is. I've got, like I said, normal episodes lined up. I won't be talking about the virus or very unlikely to be talking about it, but I wanted to do this little app.
So just so that you knew I wasn't just ignoring it. Yeah, I do want to acknowledge it. I do wanna acknowledge that you and your business are in a real, in a real tricky spot right now potentially. And I'm here for you and I'm here to support you. And if there's anything I can do, then just come and find me, send me a DM. I just want you to know that you're not on your own because it's scary. It's scary to think that you lose money or you're losing customers or you can't do your job. And, and this is a very unprecedented situation in the sense of this is so out of our control and it is and it's so worldwide, a big and, and I just wanted to come on here and talk to that for a little bit. Give you my support and love. Give you a couple of ideas. Fingers crossed. They might might've helped, but yeah, like I said, if there's anything I can do then please do just say the word because that's what I'm here to do to support you guys. So I really appreciate you listening to this. Like I said, if there's anything I can do, just say the word. Okay. I will back next week. Oh, Monday as normal with a yet more marketing now haha. Until then, please stay safe and be well and I will see you then!
