How to grow a business when you have anxiety (or any other chronic illness)
If you are growing a business with anxiety, depression, another mental illness or disorder, or physical issues like an autoimmune disease, chronic fatigue, lyme, fibromyalgia, or any other of the hundreds of chronic illnesses out there, this blog post is for you.
I understand how you feel.
Pushing through the all consuming fatigue because you’ve got too much on your to do list. Pretending that you’re not having a panic attack while doing a live video because that’s the only way to “beat the algorithm”. Sacrificing everything your body needs because you have to be consistent. Ending the day with nothing left for your family or friends, much less to take care of yourself.
I understand exactly how you feel, friend.
This is my first blog post I’m writing after 3 weeks off due to my anxiety getting completely out of control. I couldn’t even look at my phone, much less run my business.
It took all I had to force myself to eat enough so my body could function, while also having enough focus and willpower by the end of the day to climb the stairs and put my son to bed while hyperventilating.
Having a chronic illness, whether it’s mental or physical, is exhausting. It takes all of you, and it leaves you feeling mad and frustrated with your body and mind, while you watch the rest of the world go on without you (and your family having to pick up all the slack).
You literally lose days, weeks, or months of your life, and sometimes feel like this world just wasn’t built for someone like you.
Working at a “real job” won’t work, because you need extra rest or can’t handle the stress, but you need to make money somehow to live. Building your own business seems to be the only solution.
But how can you possibly run a business when you feel like you can’t count on your body or mind to show up in the way you need it to, when you need it to?
After years of living with my anxiety AND growing a profitable business, I know it can be done, but it takes courage to look at things a little differently, along with blocking out all the “shoulds” coming from the online world.
I hope that by the end of reading this, you’ll have full confidence that you can grow your passion project and soul’s work alongside giving yourself the space and time you need to heal and take care of you, it just might not look the way you though it would, or happen as quickly.
Here are my best tips for how to grow a business when you have anxiety (or any other chronic illness):
#1 Know your triggers
In the self-help world, we’re bombarded with the messages of “life begins outside your comfort zone” and “if it scares you, that means you have to do it”.
Well that’s all well and good, until you’re dealing with a nervous system that’s already in fight or flight mode 24/7 and adrenals that are barely functioning. That’s what chronic stress does, whether it comes from your own illness or from the outside world.
You don’t have to live outside your comfort zone when every single minute of every single day already feels like you’re living outside your comfort zone.
Yes, there’s something to be said about trying new things, but if they literally leave you curled up the fetal position when you already spend time curled up in the fetal position, that’s just throwing gasoline on the fire.
There are about a million and one ways to build a business nowadays, so just because someone else shares that something helped their business doesn’t mean you HAVE to do it exactly like them.
But you do have to do something, money doesn’t magically appear in your bank account, so let’s figure out what’s going to feel easy for you and what doesn’t.
I want you to make a list with 3 columns titled easy, cringe, and fetal position.
Under the easy column, put all the things to market and spread the word about your business (many ideas below!) that you can do with the least stress possible.
Under the cringe column, put the things that make you go “Eek, I really want to do that but it’s scary!”. These are the things you’ll do when you’re having a good day and your body can handle a little stress.
Under the fetal position column, put all the things that are a hard no for you right now. This doesn’t mean you never do these things! It just means that as you hopefully heal your body and mind, these marketing activities might just move onto the cringe column, and you can try them once you’re in a period of feeling really good.
Here’s some ideas for marketing your business:
* = activities that are great for introverts or those who need more rest
** = will require a bigger financial investment
write guest blog posts (for someone else’s website)*
add content upgrades to your existing blog posts*
send an email to your email list*
start your own podcast
be interviewed for someone else’s podcast
Instagram or Facebook posts*
Instagram or Facebook lives
Instagram stories
IGTV*
start a private Facebook group
live webinars
recorded webinars*
create a lead magnet*
create a challenge
workshops/classes (cooking classes, DIY classes, info classes, etc)
corporate wellness talks
networking events
ask for referrals from friends, family and/or past clients
follow up with past clients
attend a trade show to network with fellow practitioners who might make referrals
run a contest*
pay for ads**
Surely there are at least one or two things in your easy column, so start with those!
The problem with social media is that you see everyone else doing ALL the things, so you think you should do them, too. And when you don’t, you feel overwhelmed and stressed, which never helps chronic illness.
On days when you feel a little better, pick something to do from your cringe list. Take advantage of that feeling like the skies have parted and the sun is shining on your face, and get something done that feels a little harder.
Be OK with the fact that you’re doing your best, and that’s the best you can do right now. Give yourself some grace.
#2 Get off social media
For the love of God, delete the Facebook and Instagram app from your phone.
Notice how I didn’t tell you to delete all your social media accounts, just take them off your phone!
Rarely will you find yourself sitting upright at your computer, scrolling for hours through Instagram or Facebook. But what happens when you’re stuck horizontal on the couch, haven’t showered in 3 days, and just want to be connected to the “real world”?
You spend 45 minutes scrolling on Instagram, double tapping all the pictures of people you don’t know looking insanely happy on beaches in sun soaked foreign countries, eating picnics with a glass of rosé, becoming more and more stressed that you’re getting left behind and not doing all the things.
Let me remind you that those people will not come over to cook for you, do your laundry, or help you wash your hair when you can’t do it yourself, but you might be letting them slowly undermine your confidence and self worth. Is it worth it?
You probably wouldn’t be mindlessly scrolling if you had to sit at your office desk while you’re doing it, so delete the apps from your phone completely!
You need to use your precious energy to do 3 things:
1) Take care of yourself
2) Take care of your immediate family
3) Take care of your business
Period.
I’ve found real friends on social media, it’s not evil, and I do believe it’s necessary to grow your business, but that doesn’t mean it has to take up your entire private life, too. It’s possible to have healthy (or at least healthier) boundaries with it.
Stats show that the average social media user spends 2 hours per day on it, and compulsively checks their phone 85 times a day.
Give yourself even a few weeks to see how you feel without those comparison fuelling, “I’m not enough” causing, full-on addiction creating apps taking up space on your phone.
If you need to do some Instagram stories, download the app onto your phone, do your stories, then delete it again. It only takes a few extra seconds, and apps like Planoly allow you to auto-publish Instagram posts without logging in.
For Facebook, use their native scheduling option to put up new posts in the future without having to actively log in.
#3 Pick a business model that suits your needs
Just like there are about a million ways to market your business, there are many, many ways to make an income … and just like marketing, some might feel easier for you than others.
Depending on what your natural strengths are, physical limitations, and how much time you want to/can work, some business models might work better for you than others.
This is by far an exhaustive list, but in my experience, here are the most common business models:
Each of these deserves a blog posts by themselves, with the pros and cons and who they might be best for, and that’s coming soon.
Yes, anyone COULD grow a business in any one of the ways above, but when you have a chronic illness, why not give yourself some slack and just do what feels easiest to you, when everything else feels hard?
#4 Get help
This goes without saying, but is the hardest thing to do. Get personal AND professional help.
In the last few weeks, I’ve been to my doctor twice, started on medication, visited a psychiatrist, and am starting counselling at the end of the month. I’ve had to ask my husband, Mom, Uncle, cousins, and friends for help, which doesn’t come naturally to me (at all).
Asking for help is hard, it requires you to be vulnerable and admit that maybe you can’t handle what’s in front of you. And that’s totally OK, it’s called being human.
Asking for help in your business can be hard, too, because it not only requires you to admit you need it, plus it feels like you’re handing over your newborn baby, but also you have to pay for it. Add money issues and mindset beliefs on top of everything else!
However, if you can afford it, hire help. Hire the people who can do what scares you FOR you. Other than the things that require your voice or face, everything, and I mean everything, can be hired out.
You can’t do everything, and you especially can’t do it all well, and thinking like that probably contributed to your health issues in the first place.
You don’t have to hire out everything or spend thousands, you can start with small things. I have a wonderful assistant who costs $200 a month, and she was amazing at helping me feel like my business wouldn’t fall apart when I was.
I also have a bookkeeper and a Pinterest manager that I pay monthly, and this helped ensure that my money would be managed and new potential customers were still coming down the pipeline when I was holed up on my couch for hours on end, watching the entire series of 30 Rock in less than 48 hours.
I’m about to hire someone to make new Pinterest pins for me each month so that I can take that off my list, too, and all of my (limited for the time being) energy can be focused on doing things that will bring in money.
Start small, if you can set aside even 3% of your monthly income to hiring help, you’ll be surprised how much weight can be lifted off your shoulders.
If you want to know how I divvy up my income each month to make sure I have all my bases covered, you can check out this super in-depth blog post here on how I manage the money behind my $200,000 a year business.
#5 Get a website & systems
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, thank GOD for my website working behind the scenes over the past few weeks when I couldn’t.
Since I was laid up on my couch, watching Friends reruns and willing myself to eat while keeping my sanity, I added over 60 people to my email list, and my email list is what runs my online course sales. I wasn’t on Instagram or Facebook, and I didn’t send any emails.
I also have a request for paid work sitting in my inbox from the contact page on my website. That’s right, someone contacted me to specifically ask me how they could work with me for a service I don’t even offer.
I literally spent 2 minutes checking my inbox for emergencies, and that’s all I did for almost 3 weeks. That’s the power of a website!
But this didn’t happen by accident, everything on my website helps my ideal client to determine themselves, and helps them to figure out if they’re right for me. I have a very intentional way that I attract potential new customers in a way that doesn’t feel sleazy to me, and ends up with people asking if they can pay ME (instead of the other way around).
Is your website doing the same for you? Do you even HAVE a website?
If you don’t, click here to see how you can work with me to create the website of your dreams … built by someone with anxiety, for someone with anxiety.
I hope that this is helpful. I know what it’s like to want to do something but you just can’t move, much less be productive. If I could send a virtual hug over the internet, I totally would.
It gets better. It WILL get better.
When you are feeling up to it, put all your time and energy into systems and strategies that allow for all of your best qualities to shine while minimizing the worst ones. Pretending your illness doesn’t exist or isn’t limiting you doesn’t help, but acknowledging it and making a plan to work WITH it does.
If you live with a chronic mental or physical illness, it’s imperative that you “you proof” your business, meaning that it could keep running on autopilot while you take care of yourself.
If you know someone who struggles with this, pass this blog post onto them. When they’re ready and able to read it, they can, and hopefully they’ll feel like there is someone else out there on this big planet, who knows exactly how they feel and can offer them hope.
There is room for you on this Earth with ALL your parts. Your flaws are what makes you human, and what makes you human makes you beautiful.
