3 common business fears and how to overcome them

Perhaps you’re the sort of person who:

• talks about your ideas a lot but never quite seems to start making them happen
• does everything you can to avoid a task (a ‘procrastifaffer’)
• finds yourself making excuses for why you’re not acting
• sets wildly unachievable goals only to miss them and then feel bad about yourself.

If any of these sound like you, you could be stuck in a fear mindset.

I know, I know, ‘mindset’ is such a business coach buzzword. But I must use it to help describe the icky brain burps that pop out when we think about doing something new, something challenging.

Put simply, fear is an emotional response induced by a perceived threat. That threat can be a real danger happening right now (e.g., a giant, moody hippo is about to eat you) or an anticipation of a perceived future threat (e.g., when you are going camping and fear a spider will crawl into your ear and lay baby spider eggs—shh, it happens).

Fear messes with our bodies – it literally fiddles with our physiology, changing the way our metabolism and organs function.

Fear also changes our behaviour. That feeling of wanting to run away when you arrive at a networking event? Fear. The need to hide under the duvet rather than work on your passive income project? Fear.

So, what do we do? We won’t succeed by pretending we’re not scared and pushing the fear down deep into our belly.

Here are a few common fears, and some tips on how to overcome them

Fear 1: This isn’t really ‘the done thing’ in my industry

One of my members, Ingrid Fernandez, wants to start a membership offering legal advice but was told that this wasn’t ‘the done thing’ in the legal industry. She was fearful her peers would challenge her or think it was a foolish notion.

My retort: Someone has to be the first, someone has to be the brave one, and that might as well be you. So many SEO types were sceptical about me running an SEO course. They said it couldn’t be taught. But they were likely just jealous, and many of them now have SEO courses.

Fear 2: This thing has already been done

Another member, Stephanie Holdsworth, was worried that her digital products wouldn’t sell because there was already so much out there in the industry (allergies). And, of course, there are a million YouTube videos, courses and resources.

My retort:

1. People buy more than one thing from more than one person. We love choice. Do you have more than one book on your bookshelf? Do you buy more than one brand of clothes? There really is room for everyone.
2. Just because you know everyone in your industry is doing similar things doesn’t mean I know that. I only know you. If you’re my trusted person, I will buy from you. So, your job is not to be dramatically different but simply to be deliciously you, and then shout that from the rooftops.

Fear 3: Who am I to be ‘the expert’?

Another member, Tony Cosentino, felt that, despite years of experience and his desire to coach other WordPress people, he wanted to get the right level of person. He didn’t want to end up with a group full of ‘wise owls’ who argued with his advice and heckled every post.

My retort: You’re not trying to be the expert; you’re trying to be an expert, part of a collective of people who talk about a topic. You’ve also done this for a while, right?

And while people can argue about facts and stats, no one can argue with your lived experience. Try writing down everything you’ve done and achieved, and then read through it.

Guess what? It looks good on paper, right? But you’re not just good on paper; you’re good in person.

You’re not expected to be an orb of all knowledge; instead, you’re sharing your know-how and experience, and no one can mess with that.

There are other fears, of course, fear of failure and fear of success, but I’m fearful this article is getting a little too long.

So finally, I’d ask you to realise that everyone is terrified.

I don’t know anyone who wanders around feeling 100 per cent confident and brave all the time.

You may look at someone and think, Well, it’s okay for her, it’s so easy for her. No, it’s not. The person you admire who is ‘doing the do’ has likely struggled through the fear and come out the other side – or, as in my experience, they are still fearful, but they’ve found ways to cope.

I find it quite comforting knowing that everyone is scared. When I see other humans just like me who have overcome fear, it gives me hope that I can too.

Fear is innate and serves a valuable purpose, but we can learn to overcome our fears and achieve our goals. In truth, we must accept and acknowledge our fears.

The goal isn’t to eliminate fear altogether and become some mindless, fearless beast. Instead, we can use our fears to build character, teach us lessons and find the courage within to face difficult situations despite our fears.

We need to ‘be more shark’ and change that fear mindset to a positive, abundant, ‘There’s room for me, I can do this’ mindset.

Kate Toon‘s new book, Six Figures While You Sleep, is available now from all good bookstores. You can also buy it directly from Kate. 

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