3 Tips for Overcoming Fear in Your Business
If there is one stumbling block that affects photographers more than anything else in their businesses, it’s fear. Fear is the anticipation of an impending threat, whether real or imagined, and I think we can all agree that it can be crippling and paralyzing, and impact your ability to run your business.
Maybe you’ve been afraid of failure, or afraid of disappointing someone else - or yourself. Maybe you’ve been afraid of what your family or friends will think of you, or what your clients will say to you if they don’t like their images or think you charge too much. You might even worry about something going wrong in a session, or sleeping in and missing a wedding (or is that just me that has anxiety dreams about this exact scenario every so often?).
It’s important to remember that fear is a survival mechanism. We are designed to be able to perceive threats, and our bodies react with a response which is often quite physical as well as psychological. I remember walking up to the DC apartment building where I would be holding my very first in-person sale. I was lugging a large bag stuffed with canvas and print samples, and hoping my clients would like them enough to make a purchase… that is, if I could even get through the presentation in one piece. I was so incredibly anxious and fearful walking into that building, my hands were literally shaking as I reached out to grab the door handle, and throughout the sale I had to excuse myself to the restroom several times to splash water on my face and try to get the nausea under control. Of course, there was no real physical threat to me in that apartment. My clients were wonderful, the sale went smoothly, and they ended up placing a nice order. But by the anxiety I felt, you would have thought there was a lion crouching somewhere in that apartment ready to eat me alive. And my body, perceiving that there was grave danger, responded with a rush of adrenaline and the “fight or flight” instinct, to try to give me the best possible shot at outrunning the imaginary threat to my survival.
Now nerves like this are fairly common when trying something for the first time or pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. But what do we do when fear isn’t just an occasional bump in the road, but it’s actually in the driver’s seat? How do we manage when fear is keeping us from making decisions that we need to make as business owners, and it’s holding us back from our true potential?
In short, we need to learn to live at peace with fear. We need to stop fighting being uncomfortable and realize that it’s just part of the ride of entrepreneurship. Once we make peace with that, we can channel that energy into something more productive. As I walked into that first sales session, I didn’t assume the fear was a sign that I wasn’t meant to do IPS. I didn’t allow it to keep me from doing what I needed to do. I simply accepted that those extreme nerves were a rite of passage, and I made peace with them as much as I could. The next sale, my fear was not nearly so extreme, and after about 10 sales, my anxiety had been reduced to just a few butterflies in my stomach (which I still get to this day, by the way).
As I often tell people, “It’s ok to be scared. Do it scared.”
So how do we act despite the fear and anxiety?
Let go of perfectionism
The first step is to acknowledge that we are not perfect, we will NEVER be perfect, and aiming for perfection will only trip us up and stall our progress. If we are expecting to have every detail ironed out and perfected before we move forward, we will allow that fear to stop us from growing and learning. We need to detach our self-worth from the outcome of our efforts in order to pursue ideas freely without fear of being judged.
Develop your emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence is a learnable skill, and it involves becoming aware of negative emotions as soon as they creep into our minds, and identifying them as counterproductive. If we train our brains to pause and reflect before we react to these emotions, we can make a conscious decision to respond differently and stop them from influencing our actions. Of course, this takes practice, but the more we practice it, the more instinctive it becomes. The key is to learn to be alert to the sensations of fear as soon as they come into your consciousness, and decide not to let those feelings create roadblocks to your progress.
Create strong relationships
With the right support system, being an entrepreneur doesn’t have to be as scary as some people think. Surround yourself with likeminded people who understand the journey we are on. For example, being in the Revive group, you have the support of hundreds of people who have been right where you are, who care about your success, and who can relate to the fear and anxiety you sometimes experience. There is tremendous relief in knowing we are not alone. So lean into those relationships and surround yourself with people who can help talk you through those tough moments.
Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”
