We walk in, tell him what we'd like him to focus on, he listens, conducts his own diagnosis, and maybe works on what we asked him to work on...and sometimes he goes to a totally different part of our body to get to what's REALLY causing the pain and discomfort.
But we each essentially say
Here is my body. Make it work better."
I wish I had someone that I could just hand over my website and my business plan and my presentations and my webinars and say
Here. Adjust whatever is out of alignment and make it all work better."
After being in sales full time for since 1997 and owning my own business since 2006, I can tell you I (sometimes) feel just as dazed and confused today as I did decades ago.
When I originally made this post I had a big team, an office, a big website—multiple websites, in fact— multiple products and programs, we were working on sprucing up and/or launching more products and programs, and we were testing and monitoring and measuring everything I did from social media to blogging to direct mail to affiliate marketing to podcasting to video marketing and it was enough to make a grown man cry.
Then the team got squirrely on me and the internal leader went out on her own and took the team she built under me with her...
On a Saturday...
On a holiday weekend...
While I was out of town at a conference...
And my dad was flying into town to visit for the first time in many months...
I scrambled and I hustled and I plugged the holes and implemented new policies and procedures and I scraped my knees and banged my head and emerged leaner, more focused, stronger.
It was miserable at the time, though.
I didn't speak to that person for nearly a year.
We would email and text to continue supporting clients but she slow-paid me on deals we had together...then kept some and didn't pay me at all...and then I put it all behind me and continued growing my business.
I adjusted my trajectory.
I changed vehicles a bit.
I joined a Mastermind.
I hired a business mentor and coach.
I discovered that I really am in this for the long haul.
What to do when you don't know what to do
So if you find yourself crying in your beer or milk or soda pop, know this with all certainty:
- You are not alone.
- You will get through this.
- Good people are out there that want to see you succeed.
- Those good people will help you succeed if you let them.
- You're stronger—not weaker—for opening up and asking for help.
Since then my business has shrunk in some areas and really grown in others, but in some ways it has grown in ways I did not intend.
Two years ago in the midst of the chaos I was literally taking a moment to STOP thinking about the direction I wanted to take my business and just cleared my head by penning this post.
While you may get something out of it—and I hope you do—I assure you I am greedy and selfish in writing it because it is for me.
That was a dazed and confused stretch in my business and I needed to hop off of that merry-go-round for a moment and clear my head, which I do by blogging. (Don't turn to booze or drugs to literally put you in a haze to clear up your daze. Buckle up, put on your big boy and girl pants, and endure it until you get clarity. Being a mature person in business doesn't mean you don't have any struggles. It means you find the strength to get past them when they arise.)
If this is a dazed and confused time for you, click the video above and allow yourself a moment to unwind as you rock out to some Led Zeppelin.
Jet the mind go blank to help it adjust and reset so you can see through the daze.
The crazy spinning world will be right where you left it, but maybe you can pick your jumping-back-in-point with a little more confidence and gusto after you chillax a bit.
Who knows. You may decide to not jump back in at all.
Either way, it's all good.
Need a little outside help coming out of the haze?
Maybe I can help. Apply for your success call.
Market like you mean it.
Now go sell something.
