Oh man, has the last month been rough. Like, super rough. And I'm not even talking about the election, or Covid, because that's just, like, persistent, weapons-grade rough for everyone, all the time. I'm talking about my business. And my expectations around it.
I'm at that inflection point where I've been working on my consulting business for three and a half months, and I *expected* to have more traction by now. The goals I set for revenue and client acquisition on August 1st now seem laughably high, ridiculously high, and the fact that they are taped to my computer monitor where I can see them every day is rough. I even shaved a zero off my revenue goal and it STILL seems unattainable.
It is to the point where, intellectually, I know that all businesses, especially brand-new consulting businesses, start slow, but that my belief in my own exceptionalism blinded me to that fact early on. And because my expectations were so high, I'm now terribly disappointed in my own performance, which makes it harder to sit down every day and act as if I know what I'm doing. In other words, the imposter syndrome is real here. I wonder all day if it is this hard for everyone, or if I'm just particularly bad at business and also a fraud.
I know that we, as a people, don't like to talk about our struggle, except in terms of what we've overcome when we become ridiculously successful. The only good struggle is the one that leads you to being a millionaire, in other words. No one wants to admit to the struggle while they are in it, so struggling can make you feel even more isolated.
So I guess the point of this blog is two-fold. First, to be authentic, and to let people know that yes, struggle happens, and you are not alone if you are struggling. The other is to ask my readers—are any of you struggling? Do you need to talk about it? Or, if you are through the struggle part of your business, would you care to share that part of your story? (Not the abbreviated, "this was tough but look at me now!" version, but the "yeah, I was really in the depths at one point and didn't, honestly, think I was going to make it, and this is how I kept my head up AT THE TIME.")
If you are in either of those camps, let's get 30 minutes on the calendar and jam. No sense feeling alone, when I suspect that yes, it is this hard for everyone.