Don't do it alone
Seriously, don't even try!
Mindset Mastery is a free monthly newsletter about the psychology of small business ownership for freelance creatives from me, Jenni Gritters. If you’d like to support my work, I invite you to become a paid subscriber for $5/ month! Paid subscribers receive monthly journaling prompts, along with other perks.
Welcome to a special mini series!
This week, I’m sharing three short newsletters with y’all to let you in on the curriculum for ADAPT, my new business coaching program for freelancers living with constraints. Registration for the program closes this Sunday, March 26th (my birthday!) at midnight PST.
I only have a few spots left in the live track, and I hope you’ll consider joining. Or if this program isn’t right for you, please share it with a friend!
First up: Accountability.
I’m a lone wolf. I’ve talked about this before. It’s due largely to an upbringing spent feeling like I didn’t fit into the evangelical Christian culture I was raised in. As a kid, I passed much of my time in my bedroom alone, crafting, reading and creating things. I still find alone time to be incredibly cathartic but as I’ve engaged in (a lot of) therapy, I’ve also learned that working and living in a completely self-reliant way isn’t so great.
Becoming a freelancer definitely added to my “lone wolf” mentality. It’s true for most of us: We go from working in an office or on a team to suddenly existing in our own worlds, alone. Maybe you work from home every day. Maybe you spend most of your day writing, so you don’t talk to other people very often. Whatever your days look like, chances are you have less social interaction as a freelancer than you did before you started working for yourself.
But loneliness isn’t great. When it comes to our health, social isolation sucks. It can cause a heightened risk for chronic conditions, like heart disease and stroke. It accelerates dementia. It can cause mental drag and brain fog, which makes it tough to focus. Research has also found that feelings of loneliness are linked to depression, anxiety and higher suicide risk.
I’m slowly learning that community, support and collaboration are integral to my wellbeing and the health of my business. Working with other people has major impacts on productivity, happiness levels and the quality of what I’m building. For some of us, finding community looks like joining a co-working space, creating a pod of other freelancers to check in with every week, hiring a coach, or joining a Slack channel.
For me, lately, it looks like bringing people together who are on similar journeys as small business owners.
In ADAPT, my newest coaching group, I’m focused on building community for people who are running small businesses and dealing with life’s many chaotic hands: caregiving, illness, grief, trauma, loss, disability. Spending time in a room with people who understand your lived experience can lighten the load. What once seemed like a burden might eventually feel like a connective thread.
There’s another piece of ADAPT that will help you feel more connected, too: I’m giving all attendees optional accountability partners. Why? Because research (and our own stories) tell us that we’re highly unlikely to get things done if we don’t have accountability built in. You have a 10% chance of accomplishing something new if you simply come up with the idea, a 65% chance of completing that goal if you tell someone else about it, and a whopping 95% chance of meeting the goal if you have a meeting on the books with another person!
In ADAPT, you’ll be accountable to the group, your assigned partner and me. It can be hard to change your business model alone; it’s one of those things that always gets swept to the side as you deal with the work at hand and the crises of life. The goal of ADAPT is for you to actually get that strategic work done. After five weeks, you’ll leave with a plan. You’ll leave with momentum. You’ll leave with support. You’ll leave with new friends.
If ADAPT sounds right for you, I hope you’ll sign up before Sunday. And either way, remember this: You don’t have to do this (life, work, business) alone. Doing it alone is harder and lonelier. You deserve support. Let’s build that network — and learn how to ask for help, which is the hardest part in an individualistic culture— together.
xoxo,
Jenni
Curious about my background? I’m a writer and business coach based in Central Oregon. I have two small children and I work part-time so I can spend a lot of time with them. Lately, I’ve been obsessed with non-linear business building and teaching people how to build successful businesses that support their human needs first. Check out my coaching offerings here and follow me on Twitter & Instagram!