Ask Steph: "I've got 2 businesses and I'm overwhelmed!"

Weekly, I get around to answering your most pressing questions. Today’s is a common one.

Q: I'm a ceramic artist and a photographer. The idea of trying to market both individually is overwhelming, but I don't really want to give up on one or the other. I'm stuck in a holding pattern. Do I have to choose just one area and focus on that to be successful?

This is a great question. Let’s break this down into some components. You all know by now that I’m a Certified Life Coach and I bring all of that magical training to business. It’s practical. It’s magical. But it’s definitely a method / way of approaching our lives and businesses that many of you might not be familiar with.

Let’s start here.

“The idea of trying to market both [businesses] individually is overwhelming…..”

“……but I don’t want to give up on one or the other.”

This person is stuck in a holding pattern because they’re getting overwhelmed in the moment, however they do express a desire to have both businesses / endeavors.

The answer is pretty clear. If you want to keep both businesses and market both but the situation triggers overwhelm, that’s what we solve for. There are 3 choices, as far as I can see:

• Coach your brain out of overwhelm- it’s totally your choice to feel overwhelmed at the idea of marketing 2 businesses. It’s not a given that marketing 2 businesses is overwhelming. Lots of people do this. And they don’t get overwhelmed by it. I’m one of them. There are a million ways to solve this issue IF you decide that overwhelm is not necessary. Once your brain gets all overwhelmed, creativity is out the door so of course you can’t figure out how to effectively solve it.

• Decide to accept that you don’t want to market two businesses and let that be your decision and be 100% committed to it. Hey there’s no right answer here. What we want is to move forward though, right? Loss will be a part of our lives and here’s a good example. If you truly don’t want to do it, accept the results of that decision and then THANK YOURSELF for choosing it.

• Hire someone to help you. Business is all about paying people to do things you don’t want to do.

As we begin the journey of Personal Responsibility for our lives our feelings our businesses, we’ll get into situations like this. Ones that feel like there is no right answer or ones that are confusing.

The truth is that we are fully responsible for solving for the life we want to live and the businesses we want to have. Usually the plan of action is directly in front of us, we just refuse to see it.

Overwhelm is a choice.

But if you truly want to opt out of marketing and let overwhelm be your brain’s intuition rather than it’s inexperience at solving this particular issue, that is your choice and there is nothing wrong with that.

This is your life, after all! You’re just meant to enjoy it as much as possible. So, get yourself out of suffering and move forward.