Ep. 11 The Stern Truth: How to Navigate Your Business & Life when Sh*t Happens

I know firsthand that being a small business owner means facing unexpected challenges head-on. On this episode, I tackle a topic most entrepreneurs avoid discussing - how to navigate your business when life throws you curveballs. 

My personal journey of losing loved ones is something I touch on, while emphasizing the need to step back when we feel the call. Small business owners, just like in their personal lives, must take radical responsibility rather than falling into victimhood when facing setbacks. Whether it's losing clients, dealing with difficult employees, or managing personal tragedy, I provide actionable strategies for founders to build resilience. 

Entrepreneurs might isolate themselves during tough times, and I explain why they shouldn’t, and how finding the right support network or business coach can be transformative/

This episode is a reminder that the best kind of entrepreneurship comes from developing the mental fortitude to weather any storm and emerge stronger. 

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Transcript

[00:00:00] In today's episode, this really is a Stern Truth Business Unfiltered episode. Because we talk about something that most of us are not talking about in business, and that's how to navigate when bad things happen to us. Have a listen, take some notes, and enjoy.

[00:00:25] Hi, I'm Marshall Stern and I've spent over 35 years in leading and growing multiple small businesses. I know firsthand the struggles of entrepreneurship, feeling isolated, lonely, overwhelmed, and feeling like you have to do all by yourself. I've been through multiple recessions, and I have felt the highs and the lows I've been there, and I get it.

[00:00:46] This podcast is here to change that. Every week I will. Bring you straight talking advice, real world strategies and honest conversations about what it takes to succeed in business without the fluff, the gimmicks, or the sugar-coated. If you're ready to stop spinning your wheels and start making real progress, then you are in the right place.

[00:01:08] This is the Stern Truth.

[00:01:13] Welcome back everyone, to another episode of the Stern Truth Business Unfiltered, and here today we are. I'm going to talk about a topic that I think most of us, if not all of us, deal with or will have to deal with at some point in their business evolution. And that is how to navigate our business and our life when bad things happen to us.

[00:01:41] But this is more about just bad things. And let me give you a little bit of context.

[00:01:48] What I have found is that not just business owners, but people in general tend to blame others for their circumstances. One thing I do know in business is sometimes things go well and sometimes they don't. There's no secret or surprise in that, and what I do know for sure is that at some point something bad unforeseen possibly may happen to you.

[00:02:21] You may have a client who actually leaves you. You may have an employee who may leave you. You may have an employee who actually makes a big mistake or a difficult employee, or a difficult client. You may have clients who don't pay you. The economy may not be doing well. You have competition, you have this, you have that, and a lot of people tend to become victims and blame others.

[00:02:56] And this is very time sensitive because we just had an election here in Canada last night. At the time of this recording, it was last night and 42%, actually probably closer to 50%, or more, of the country voted for the party that did not win. They voted for parties that did not win. So half the country, if not more, woke up the next morning or went to bed that night unhappy.

[00:03:28] And many of them will blame the new government for what is going wrong in their lives. And what I'm telling you right now is to not do that. Don't be one of those people. We need to take radical responsibility because that's where the power lies, because when we blame others, when we blame the economy, when we blame the government, when we blame our competitors, our employees.

[00:04:08] We blame other things. It's outside of our control. Don't be a victim. You may have heard that. Don't be a victim, be a victor. So ask yourself, what can I do differently? What can I do to change things? That's where the power really lies. We don't have control over who is in power. As a group, as a whole, yes.

[00:04:39] Individually for the most part, one vote. Every vote counts. I get it. But once it's done, it's done. And we can hold our government, our politicians, our leaders, accountable as much as we want, but put your energy towards what you can control and doing the action steps. And focusing on what today and tomorrow you can control.

[00:05:09] But yes, once in a while bad things happen. Other than what I have mentioned sometimes it's in our personal lives, we lose a loved one. Trust me, I know I have lost my mother and my sister within 18 months of each other recently.

[00:05:29] We get sick, our family gets sick. We got to take care of people. So it's not just our business where bad things can happen, but in our personal lives, and it affects our business. So what do we do? Well when we lose people we love, we obviously need to mourn the loss. It's no different. In our business, if something happens in our business, we need to mourn that.

[00:05:55] We need to step back. We need to take the time to feel it. So that's what I want you to do, is to feel it, but don't stay there forever. Now, obviously when we've lost someone we've loved, or we go through a breakup, we need to go through the different steps, the different stages, and we need to heal. We still don't want to get stuck in that victim hood because it's not going to serve us at all.

[00:06:26] And in the end, the people that we've lost wouldn't want us to stay there. They want us to move forward. So even in those dark times, we need to take radical responsibility for our lives and especially. When it comes to our business. cause if we rely on outside influences, when we, if we rely on our government or blame our government or blame the economy, we're holding them responsible, responsible, and then great.

[00:07:04] It's off of my hands. I'm holding them responsible. It's easy to blame others. You've heard people like that. They are those people who live a happened to me life. Oh, this happened to me, this happened to me. All these things are happening to me, boohoo me. The Stern Truth is that's not going to serve you. You will not achieve the happiness or the success that you want.

[00:07:35] But when you take responsibility, and that's what leaders do. They don't stay isolated by themselves. They take responsibility and they also surround themselves with people who support them, who lift them up. So who in your circle can help you? Who in your circle have been there before? They've been to on the front lines, they've been to the war and back.

[00:08:07] In business, in personal life, who can you reach out to when you are feeling like you can't stand on your own? Who can actually give you strength? Maybe it's our momentum group. Maybe be it's an accountant, another accountability group, or a mastermind or just a friend of yours who gets it and gets you and is who's been there.

[00:08:36] Maybe it's a coach and a mentor, someone who can guide you and give you the strength that you need in the time where you just cannot seem to stand on your own, but you will one day. But someone like myself or other coaches and mentors can help guide you and help give you the strength that you need in those times when you just don't see a way forward for your business or in your life.

[00:09:04] It's take making the decision today to take radical responsibility to make the decision today to be resilient and determined, but also when you go through these and know that you will go through them, bad things do happen. In life. That's the way it is. And when we are prepared for it, or I should say, when we expect that it can happen, when we know that it can happen, we can better prepare for it.

[00:09:38] We can better prepare to navigate these treacherous waters at times of entrepreneurship and of life. So this whole conversation today is really about business and life, and I invite you to come check out. One of our momentum sessions, if you're feeling isolated in your business, I invite you to reach out to me just to have maybe a chat.

[00:10:04] If you're going through something and you feel like the world is caving in on you and you don't have the strength to stand up on your own at this time, or just want to get an outside opinion, or some feedback or some guidance, I invite you to actually look within yourself and with your own circle. And who do you need to bring in your circle that could help you?

[00:10:30] Don't do this alone. Don't be one of those DIYers who thinks that they can just do it themselves. Because it can be very lonely and it can take a long, long time. So when you bring people on your team, they can help you much faster. You, they can help you to go through it. Now you do need to go through the different stages.

[00:10:51] You have to accept where you're at, accept what is going on, and then ask yourself, what can you do to move forward? So that's my question to you today. What can you do in those times? How can you prepare yourself in those times when bad things happen? We need to be resilient. We need to get through them.

[00:11:14] Business or personal. What can you do? How can you actually help others go through and get through? Go through and get through those times where they may be struggling because when we do it alone, we end up alone, isolated in a dark place as really difficult to see a way forward. That might be something that happened in her personal life, but it might be something also in our business.

[00:11:48] Trust me, I know if you're struggling even to make payroll or you're struggling with a particular client that's draining you of your energy or maybe someone who's actually left you a client, like I said at the beginning, if you don't have someone to talk to about it, it's way too easy to go down the black hole of poor me.

[00:12:12] I'm not good at this and that is negative. That's not going to serve you or your clients. So I'd love to hear your feedback and your comments. I would really appreciate it if you enjoyed these episodes to both subscribe and like and share with your friends and your colleagues and your peeps as well.

[00:12:34] But I also want to hear back from you as to. How do you navigate through these treacherous waters? And when bad things happen, the more, here's the one thing I want to say before we go. The more we try to suppress our feelings when these things happen, the worse it gets, the harder it gets. So my advice to you is to let it be, acknowledge it, sit with it, and then make the conscious decision.

[00:13:05] To move forward and you might need someone to help you move forward. If you want to check out one of our upcoming Momentum Group sessions, please reach out to me. Or if you just want to have a ta a chat with me, we can jump on a call for 30 minutes and have a chat. Just send me an email to Marshall@marshallstern.net.

[00:13:28] Again, share like, subscribe, and we'll see you again next week.

[00:13:36] Thank you so much for tuning in to the Stern Truth. If you found today's episode helpful, we would love to hear from you. Please like, share and leave us a review. Also, if you'd like to be a guest on the upcoming episode or join us in one of our Momentum Accountability Group sessions, simply email Marshall@marshallstern.net. That's Marshall@marshallstern.net, and don't forget to hit the subscribe button, so never miss an episode.Until next time, keep pushing forward and meeting with confidence.