This is an archived blog from when I ran Conscious Public Relations Inc. from 2008-2018. Excuse the potential outdated-ness!
I felt really funky this past week, and I think I’ve figured out why. I’m cocooning. I’m in the dark. And it’s always scary being in the dark when you really want some enlightenment.
I had a great start to the month speaking at a networking event hosted by The Self-Employment and Entrepreneur Development Society (SEEDS), which is a great organization that has been helping people with entrepreneurship for 20 years. I wondered why I hadn’t heard of it before! Everyone who wants to start a business could be using them to build their business plan for less than it costs to go to school.
Conversations continue to be high quality (thank you, Universe) and the side hustle of selling my Dad’s hobby trains is going well (I’ve made $272, Gary!). Friday I had a meeting with my Mastermind group and Board of Advisors, and this is when the funk started to settle in.
One of the great gifts of having others to vent to is that they call you on your bullshit. I was telling them that I wanted to write a rant-y blog today about how Vancouverites just don’t do business like the rest of the major cities in the world. And while that may be true, they could hear my blame game. And blame never wins. I should know that from Gary.
I was also advised to feel more, be more (which is hard, because for me, doing is being), and trust myself. Because I hold the vision, I’m just pissed because it’s all happening so slowly. But I know that there’s also divine time, so I have to be patient to find the people who want to actually do business with us, not those who just want free advice on PR or want to think about hiring us two years down the road.
My experience last year with horses taught me this. The horses don’t give a shit about tomorrow. They’re perpetually in the now, even if it’s in the dark. They’re cool with the dark because they know their power.
This past weekend I also felt pissed because I didn’t feel like I got enough rest. Even though I didn’t have much of an agenda on Sunday, I still felt behind on all of my personal tasks. Which is a sign I’m still hard on myself. And I realized I’m just in a dark place and I’m like a pissed off kid who wants out. And that’s totally okay.
I created a new routine schedule last night (I’m all about routine) and I feel good about it. It’s going to mean less time on e-mail, focused time for meetings, and carving out personal time to be.
Sometimes we just gotta be cool with the dark.
I’m reading Gary V’s The Thank You Economy and I can’t believe how, six years later, people still don’t get how to use social media. It’s not about selling, it’s about conversing. And people either think it’s easy, or it doesn’t work for them.
This passage also made me appreciate Gary for the feminine qualities he has (yes, he has them!): Intuition, gratitude, and patience.
Most people’s DNA simply doesn’t allow them an entrepreneur’s anticipation skills. They don’t see potential in the unknown, they see a threat to their comfort zone, so their knee-jerk reaction is to draw a deep line in the sand between themselves and anything new or unproven, especially when it comes to technology.
Are you cocooning, and what do you do when you deal with the uncertainty of what’s coming after the darkness?
