55. Turn ANY Obstacle Into a Competitive Business Advantage
Every ambitious entrepreneur has experienced their brain becoming their biggest obstacle. Those late-night worry spirals, the endless what-if scenarios, and the paralyzing self-doubt that stops us from taking action on our business dreams.
But I've discovered that this same overthinking mind can actually become our most powerful strategic tool- one that turns every mental obstacle into a concrete business advantage.
Through this episode, I demonstrate how to partner with your brain instead of fighting it, transforming those worst-case scenarios into actionable business strategies. I walk through real examples of turning mental drama into immediate action steps, showing how the very thoughts that usually stop us can become the foundation for a stronger, more prepared business.
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What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
Why your overthinking brain is actually your free business consultant.
How to use worst-case scenarios as strategic planning tools.
How to build unshakeable confidence through systematic preparation.
Why mental drama should trigger strategic planning rather than paralysis.
How to transform business fears into detailed action plans.
Listen to the Full Episode:
Featured on the Show:
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The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday
Full Episode Transcript:
If you're anything like I was before starting my business, you're probably sitting there with a brilliant business idea burning inside of you. But every time you try to take action, your brain becomes your biggest enemy. It whispers that you're not ready, that you don't know enough, that you'll probably fail anyway. I know that voice too. I've absolutely been there. But what if I told you that same overthinking brain that's been sabotaging your progress is actually your most powerful strategic tool?
Your brain can often feel like the problem, but today, I want to talk about how it's actually the solution. Today, I'm going to show you how to turn every single obstacle your mind throws at you into a concrete action plan that builds your business stronger than you ever imagined.
Welcome to How to Quit Your Job, the podcast for moms ready to ditch the nine-to-five and build a life and business they love. I’m your host, Jenna Rykiel. Let’s go.
Hello, brilliant and beautiful moms. I'm really excited about this episode today because this is a strategy I keep near and dear to my heart, mostly because my brain is regularly going into a full-scale attack on my confidence every time I try to do something in my business. It shouts, "Who are you to think you can do this? People will judge you and criticize what you're doing. What if you fail and everyone sees?" And I know you've been there because this is how humans operate.
Here's what I've learned after years of coaching successful moms who see nothing but obstacles ahead of them: Your brain is not trying to sabotage you. It's actually trying to help you succeed. Those worries, those worst-case scenarios, the middle-of-the-night panic thoughts, they are not roadblocks. In fact, they're your next business strategy and plan.
So today I'm sharing a tool that will completely transform how you approach every obstacle in your business. And instead of fighting your brain, you're going to partner with it. Okay? Instead of letting fear and doubt and those thoughts paralyze you, you're going to let it fuel the most creative business strategy you've ever created. By the end of this episode, you will never look at your doubts the same way again, I promise.
So first, let's talk about the free business consultant on your team, which is your brain. And I want you to repeat after me: My brain is not the enemy. I know it feels like it when you're trying to post on social media and suddenly you're convinced everyone will think you're a fraud and it stops you in your tracks. But here's what's really happening: Your subconscious mind is doing exactly what it's designed to do. It's scanning for potential problems and trying to keep you safe. The problem isn't that your brain thinks of obstacles, the problem is what we do with those obstacles. Most of us either ignore them completely, which leads to overwhelm later, or we let it stop us in our tracks, which is paralysis.
But there's another option that successful entrepreneurs have been using for decades, probably without even realizing it. And it's the obstacle to strategy method. So every time your brain presents you with a worry, you're going to treat it like a consultant just handed you a detailed risk assessment. Because that's exactly what it is.
Here's how this works in real life. Let's say that you want to start offering virtual consultations, okay? But your brain immediately goes to, "What if the technology doesn't work? What if I look unprofessional? What if people can't hear me clearly?" Instead of thinking the default of, "I'm not ready for this," you're going to think, "My brain just gave me my technology strategy checklist." Now you know exactly what to prepare for, okay? You're going to test your platform, you're going to have a backup communication method ready, you're going to invest in a good microphone and lighting. You're going to create professional background setup, right? And maybe even practice troubleshooting common issues.
And I hope you see what just happened, right? Your fear became your action plan. Your obstacle became your competitive advantage in that space. You now have a plan to combat all those thoughts.
So let's dig in a little bit deeper to what I know we all are familiar with, which is worst-case scenarios, right? And this is where most ambitious moms get stuck. We have these elaborate worst-case scenarios playing in our heads, and we think having them means we're not cut out for entrepreneurship or that we are destined for failure, right? And it's absolutely wrong. Having detailed worst-case scenarios means you have the mind of a strategic planner.
And I want to talk about one of my clients who had this strategic mind that I'm talking about. She was somebody who was building a dog walking business, okay? And she was growing that business while navigating pregnancy and preparing for motherhood. Talk about perfect timing for your brain to go into overdrive. We worked together to prepare her business for, you know, this major life transition, and her mind was doing exactly what every entrepreneur's mind does: spinning through every possible disaster scenario. Instead of trying to quiet those thoughts or convince herself that they were irrational, we did something revolutionary, okay? We treated her brain like the brilliant business consultant it actually was. Her mind was systematically identifying every vulnerability in her business, every potential risk, every area that needed strengthening.
And I want to talk specifically about what her brain was telling her and the plan we came up with. So, her brain was telling her, "What if an employee gets injured and loses one of the dogs? What if my best walker suddenly quits without notice? What if someone with bad intentions gets hired? What if employees don't have reliable transportation?" Most moms that are starting businesses would hear those thoughts and either panic or try to push them away. But her and I turned each one into a strategic business strategy and ultimately a business advantage.
So the thought that an employee could get injured and lose one of the dogs, that thought led to us talking about safety protocols, right? Safety protocols that she could add to her training program. So implementing safety equipment, body leashes with metal clips, double leash systems, and also safety procedures that could protect not only employees that she was worried about, her older employees, but every single person on her team.
Suddenly, she wasn't just another dog walking service, right? She was the one with professional safety grade standards. Let's talk about the thought that she had, the fear of employees quitting. This thought sparked some methods of employee retention strategies. So, hiring additional dog walkers, right? Creating employment agreements requiring at least two weeks’ notice so she wouldn't be caught off guard. And one of my favorite strategies that we came up with, establishing monthly check-ins with each team member.
So she went from reactive management to truly proactive leadership, all from this thought that she was worried that one of her employees, one of her best employees, could randomly decide to leave right when she was going on maternity leave. And these new strategies that she implemented really could create the kind of workplace culture that actually prevents people from wanting to leave, which is a win-win.
The last one I'll talk about is the worry about potentially hiring somebody who could harm the animals. Because this one we dug a little bit deep for. I asked her, you know, what is the worst possible scenario that you can come up with? Just to see what would come up. And when she talked about this thought, you know, this worrying about hiring somebody who could be a dangerous hire, we really talked through what she could do to prevent that. We talked about implementing a more thorough screening process with background checks, maybe reference verification, detailed interviews and questions, right? And implementing that new process, this didn't just protect the dogs, right? It really gave her a competitive edge with clients who could see the level of care she put into building her team. Right?
What's beautiful about this story is that every single fear her brain produced became such a strong business strategy and really matured her business in a lot of ways. So the safety protocols could become not only great for the business, but also for a selling point with nervous pet owners. The employee retention systems created stable professional team, and the screening process could build trust with clients and even trust with those new hires. So her brain wasn't sabotaging her success, right? It was leading her to more success and a more mature business. Those middle of the night worry spirals were worth it, right? Because they were strategic planning sessions in disguise.
So, the other thing I want to talk about is something that might be a little counterintuitive with this concept and with this method. But the more obstacles you can identify and strategize for, the more confident you become as an entrepreneur. Because confidence as an entrepreneur isn't about knowing nothing will go wrong and safeguarding the business. Confidence is about knowing you can handle whatever does go wrong. When you practice turning obstacles into strategies, something incredible happens in your brain, right? Instead of seeing challenges as evidence that you're not ready, you start seeing them as opportunities to build a stronger business. Instead of fear creating this paralysis, it creates excitement about how prepared you're going to be.
I want you to turn your mental drama into immediate action. The biggest difference between moms who stay stuck in the thinking phase and the dreaming phase and moms who build successful businesses is not about the absence of obstacles, okay? It's what they do when obstacles show up. Those who are able to take action have learned to use their mental drama as fuel for immediate action.
But here's what I love about this tool. It is absolutely not just for business. It works in every area of your life where you feel stuck or overwhelmed. And I want to share a more personal example that shows exactly how powerful this is, just because I think it really drives the point home and really sells the tool.
A few months ago, maybe like five months ago, we moved my 2.5-year-old son Adley to a new daycare closer to home. And at first, the usual adjustment struggles seemed normal, right? He didn't want to go. Drop-offs were difficult. But we figured that's just how toddlers handle change. But then little things started adding up. The teacher would send occasional photos, but Adley always looked disconnected, almost like he was there in body, but not quite in spirit. And we kept telling ourselves that, you know, we were catching him at bad moments, that maybe she wasn't the best photographer.
And then one day, I arrived early for pickup and saw something that really made my heart sink. Some of the older kids, the 4-year-olds, were pushing Adley around, telling him he couldn't play with them. And he was just taking it, not fighting back, not crying, just withdrawing.
And when I shared this with my husband, he had his own concerning observations about drop-offs where Adley would hang back from the group, almost like a shell of himself. And so, as you can imagine, cue the parental spiral. For days, we were consumed with worrying, replaying every interaction, connecting dots that might not have even been there, right? Creating elaborate stories about what might be happening. We were stuck in complete analysis paralysis, all worry and all mental and no action.
And so finally one evening, my husband and I looked at each other and we said, "Okay, enough." Let's stop spinning and start creating a strategy. So we grabbed a notebook and maybe a bottle of wine and truly started to turn that mental clutter and mental drama into an action plan. So what this looked like was we looked at one of the biggest worries that we had, right? Which is the questioning of whether the teacher was really seeing what was happening and whether it was the right environment for our son. And we thought about that over and over again.
But when we thought about a strategy, we decided to schedule a direct conversation with the teacher, prepare specific questions about his social interactions and daily experience. Start taking action. Another fear we had if, you know, if this isn't working, where do we take him? We can't just pull him out without a plan. So we created a strategy, we created a plan. We contacted his previous daycare immediately to check availability so we'd have options if we needed to make a change.
The moment we shifted from worrying to taking action and truly planning, everything changed. Okay, the relief was instant. We went from feeling helpless to feeling empowered. After our conversation with the teacher, we realized that while she is a lovely human being, this environment simply wasn't the right fit for Adley's personality.
And so, within two weeks, he was back at his original daycare with his cousins. And yes, our commute went from 7 minutes to 30 without traffic. But seeing him light up at pickup, hearing about his friendships and the fun he was having, you know, watching him actually excited to go to daycare. That's when we knew our overthinking had actually led us exactly to the right decision. And not just the overthinking, but using that overthinking to create our strategy.
And here's the thing, instead of trying to silence that parental anxiety, we let it guide us towards information and actions we needed. Our worry wasn't irrational. It was actually helping us. It was intelligent. It was telling us something needed attention. And when we listened strategically instead of spiraling emotionally, it led us to the solution. Okay, instead of hushing our brains and the thoughts we are having, we need to use them to create strategies and an action plan. Okay, this tool works whether you're launching a business or navigating a parenting challenge.
Now, I want to bring this back to your business dreams and taking action in your business because here's what typically happens. You decide you want to start that blog, launch that course, open that Etsy shop, whatever it is. And you get excited for about 30 minutes. Then your brain starts. You start thinking, "I don't know anything about SEO. I've never created a course before. There are thousands of Etsy shops selling exactly what I want to sell." The moment you notice your brain spinning with obstacles, that's your cue to grab a piece of paper and start writing. Don't try to quiet your brain or think more positive thoughts. Let it go completely wild. It is trying to help you. It is trying to guide you. Write down every single concern, worry, and worst-case scenario your brain can produce.
Then for each obstacle, write down one concrete action that you can take to address it. Start doing that today. Start doing that this week. Not someday, not when you're ready, not when you know more, right? Start doing that today. So, some examples of the action plan could be, you know, if the obstacle is, I don't know anything about SEO, the action today or this week could be to sign up for one free SEO course or watch a couple of YouTube videos on SEO.
If the obstacle is I've never created a course before, the action today or this week could be to just create the outline of the first module and record a 5-minute test video. If your brain keeps telling you there are thousands of other Etsy shops, take action and research 10 of those successful shops in that niche that you're in and identify what makes them unique.
I hope you're seeing how this works because it is absolutely a game changer. Your mental drama is your weekly action plan. Okay, instead of obstacles paralyzing you, they can propel you forward with specific doable steps.
The final piece of this strategy is one of the most exciting, right? And it's learning to see every obstacle as a potential business advantage. And when you consistently practice turning problems into strategies, you develop something most entrepreneurs never have, which is a systemic approach to handling every single challenge and turning it into a competitive advantage. Your brain is unique and it will come up with unique ideas for each and every obstacle that it presents. Through this, you rid yourself of ever feeling stuck. Because no matter where you're at in your business, I know your brain can come up with obstacles. And if your brain can come up with obstacles, it can also come up with an action plan or solutions for that obstacle, right? Strategies.
All right. I want you to walk away from this episode today with a completely new relationship with the obstacles that your brain presents, right? It is not a problem. It is the solution. I want you to remember that your brain is not sabotaging you. It's trying to make you successful. Okay? Every worry, every worst-case scenario, every middle of the night panic thought is actually valuable. Okay? It's valuable business intelligence. It's just disguised as fear. Okay?
The next thing I want you to remember is that the obstacle to strategy method is your new best friend. Please keep it in your back pocket. Every time your brain presents you with a problem or with an obstacle, immediately ask yourself, what strategy could I create to address this? Don't fight the obstacle, use it, right? The obstacle is the way. There's a great book about that.
The next thing, confidence comes from preparation, not from the absence of challenges. The more obstacles you can identify and plan for, the more unshakable your confidence and your business become. So use it. And use your mental drama as an action trigger. The moment your brain starts spinning with problems and obstacles, that's your cue to grab paper and turn those obstacles into this week's action plan. The problems that scare you today could very well become your unique selling points tomorrow. Your brain is not your enemy. It's your secret weapon. So start treating it that way.
Your call to action for today and this week, I hope is obvious. I want you to try this tool right now, today, with whatever business dream has been swirling around in your head. Whatever the reasons are that you haven't taken action, whatever your brain is telling you could go wrong or get in the way, I want you to write it down. Write down every single worry, worst case scenario, every reason that your brain thinks you won't succeed. And then for each of those obstacles, I want you to write down one strategy to address it. Just one. You don't need to solve everything right now, right? Or solve everything perfectly. You just need to shift from problem focused thinking to solution focused thinking. And this is how you go from someone who has great ideas to someone who builds a great business.
I want you to keep tuning in because we're just getting started. Every episode of this podcast is designed to give you the tools, the mindset shifts, and the action steps you need to make that career transition, whether it's quitting that job, starting that business so that you can create the life and business you love. Okay? Build it one strategy, one obstacle, one action, one episode at a time. Let's turn these obstacles into stepping stones instead of roadblocks.
All right, thanks for sticking with me through this one. I really hope this is a game changer for you. I know it has been for me. I will see you next week. Bye-bye. Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. If you want to learn more about how I can help you stop making excuses and start making moves, head on over to www.jenna.coach. I’ll see you next week.
Your brain can often feel like the problem, but today, I want to talk about how it's actually the solution. Today, I'm going to show you how to turn every single obstacle your mind throws at you into a concrete action plan that builds your business stronger than you ever imagined.
Welcome to How to Quit Your Job, the podcast for moms ready to ditch the nine-to-five and build a life and business they love. I’m your host, Jenna Rykiel. Let’s go.
Hello, brilliant and beautiful moms. I'm really excited about this episode today because this is a strategy I keep near and dear to my heart, mostly because my brain is regularly going into a full-scale attack on my confidence every time I try to do something in my business. It shouts, "Who are you to think you can do this? People will judge you and criticize what you're doing. What if you fail and everyone sees?" And I know you've been there because this is how humans operate.
Here's what I've learned after years of coaching successful moms who see nothing but obstacles ahead of them: Your brain is not trying to sabotage you. It's actually trying to help you succeed. Those worries, those worst-case scenarios, the middle-of-the-night panic thoughts, they are not roadblocks. In fact, they're your next business strategy and plan.
So today I'm sharing a tool that will completely transform how you approach every obstacle in your business. And instead of fighting your brain, you're going to partner with it. Okay? Instead of letting fear and doubt and those thoughts paralyze you, you're going to let it fuel the most creative business strategy you've ever created. By the end of this episode, you will never look at your doubts the same way again, I promise.
So first, let's talk about the free business consultant on your team, which is your brain. And I want you to repeat after me: My brain is not the enemy. I know it feels like it when you're trying to post on social media and suddenly you're convinced everyone will think you're a fraud and it stops you in your tracks. But here's what's really happening: Your subconscious mind is doing exactly what it's designed to do. It's scanning for potential problems and trying to keep you safe. The problem isn't that your brain thinks of obstacles, the problem is what we do with those obstacles. Most of us either ignore them completely, which leads to overwhelm later, or we let it stop us in our tracks, which is paralysis.
But there's another option that successful entrepreneurs have been using for decades, probably without even realizing it. And it's the obstacle to strategy method. So every time your brain presents you with a worry, you're going to treat it like a consultant just handed you a detailed risk assessment. Because that's exactly what it is.
Here's how this works in real life. Let's say that you want to start offering virtual consultations, okay? But your brain immediately goes to, "What if the technology doesn't work? What if I look unprofessional? What if people can't hear me clearly?" Instead of thinking the default of, "I'm not ready for this," you're going to think, "My brain just gave me my technology strategy checklist." Now you know exactly what to prepare for, okay? You're going to test your platform, you're going to have a backup communication method ready, you're going to invest in a good microphone and lighting. You're going to create professional background setup, right? And maybe even practice troubleshooting common issues.
And I hope you see what just happened, right? Your fear became your action plan. Your obstacle became your competitive advantage in that space. You now have a plan to combat all those thoughts.
So let's dig in a little bit deeper to what I know we all are familiar with, which is worst-case scenarios, right? And this is where most ambitious moms get stuck. We have these elaborate worst-case scenarios playing in our heads, and we think having them means we're not cut out for entrepreneurship or that we are destined for failure, right? And it's absolutely wrong. Having detailed worst-case scenarios means you have the mind of a strategic planner.
And I want to talk about one of my clients who had this strategic mind that I'm talking about. She was somebody who was building a dog walking business, okay? And she was growing that business while navigating pregnancy and preparing for motherhood. Talk about perfect timing for your brain to go into overdrive. We worked together to prepare her business for, you know, this major life transition, and her mind was doing exactly what every entrepreneur's mind does: spinning through every possible disaster scenario. Instead of trying to quiet those thoughts or convince herself that they were irrational, we did something revolutionary, okay? We treated her brain like the brilliant business consultant it actually was. Her mind was systematically identifying every vulnerability in her business, every potential risk, every area that needed strengthening.
And I want to talk specifically about what her brain was telling her and the plan we came up with. So, her brain was telling her, "What if an employee gets injured and loses one of the dogs? What if my best walker suddenly quits without notice? What if someone with bad intentions gets hired? What if employees don't have reliable transportation?" Most moms that are starting businesses would hear those thoughts and either panic or try to push them away. But her and I turned each one into a strategic business strategy and ultimately a business advantage.
So the thought that an employee could get injured and lose one of the dogs, that thought led to us talking about safety protocols, right? Safety protocols that she could add to her training program. So implementing safety equipment, body leashes with metal clips, double leash systems, and also safety procedures that could protect not only employees that she was worried about, her older employees, but every single person on her team.
Suddenly, she wasn't just another dog walking service, right? She was the one with professional safety grade standards. Let's talk about the thought that she had, the fear of employees quitting. This thought sparked some methods of employee retention strategies. So, hiring additional dog walkers, right? Creating employment agreements requiring at least two weeks’ notice so she wouldn't be caught off guard. And one of my favorite strategies that we came up with, establishing monthly check-ins with each team member.
So she went from reactive management to truly proactive leadership, all from this thought that she was worried that one of her employees, one of her best employees, could randomly decide to leave right when she was going on maternity leave. And these new strategies that she implemented really could create the kind of workplace culture that actually prevents people from wanting to leave, which is a win-win.
The last one I'll talk about is the worry about potentially hiring somebody who could harm the animals. Because this one we dug a little bit deep for. I asked her, you know, what is the worst possible scenario that you can come up with? Just to see what would come up. And when she talked about this thought, you know, this worrying about hiring somebody who could be a dangerous hire, we really talked through what she could do to prevent that. We talked about implementing a more thorough screening process with background checks, maybe reference verification, detailed interviews and questions, right? And implementing that new process, this didn't just protect the dogs, right? It really gave her a competitive edge with clients who could see the level of care she put into building her team. Right?
What's beautiful about this story is that every single fear her brain produced became such a strong business strategy and really matured her business in a lot of ways. So the safety protocols could become not only great for the business, but also for a selling point with nervous pet owners. The employee retention systems created stable professional team, and the screening process could build trust with clients and even trust with those new hires. So her brain wasn't sabotaging her success, right? It was leading her to more success and a more mature business. Those middle of the night worry spirals were worth it, right? Because they were strategic planning sessions in disguise.
So, the other thing I want to talk about is something that might be a little counterintuitive with this concept and with this method. But the more obstacles you can identify and strategize for, the more confident you become as an entrepreneur. Because confidence as an entrepreneur isn't about knowing nothing will go wrong and safeguarding the business. Confidence is about knowing you can handle whatever does go wrong. When you practice turning obstacles into strategies, something incredible happens in your brain, right? Instead of seeing challenges as evidence that you're not ready, you start seeing them as opportunities to build a stronger business. Instead of fear creating this paralysis, it creates excitement about how prepared you're going to be.
I want you to turn your mental drama into immediate action. The biggest difference between moms who stay stuck in the thinking phase and the dreaming phase and moms who build successful businesses is not about the absence of obstacles, okay? It's what they do when obstacles show up. Those who are able to take action have learned to use their mental drama as fuel for immediate action.
But here's what I love about this tool. It is absolutely not just for business. It works in every area of your life where you feel stuck or overwhelmed. And I want to share a more personal example that shows exactly how powerful this is, just because I think it really drives the point home and really sells the tool.
A few months ago, maybe like five months ago, we moved my 2.5-year-old son Adley to a new daycare closer to home. And at first, the usual adjustment struggles seemed normal, right? He didn't want to go. Drop-offs were difficult. But we figured that's just how toddlers handle change. But then little things started adding up. The teacher would send occasional photos, but Adley always looked disconnected, almost like he was there in body, but not quite in spirit. And we kept telling ourselves that, you know, we were catching him at bad moments, that maybe she wasn't the best photographer.
And then one day, I arrived early for pickup and saw something that really made my heart sink. Some of the older kids, the 4-year-olds, were pushing Adley around, telling him he couldn't play with them. And he was just taking it, not fighting back, not crying, just withdrawing.
And when I shared this with my husband, he had his own concerning observations about drop-offs where Adley would hang back from the group, almost like a shell of himself. And so, as you can imagine, cue the parental spiral. For days, we were consumed with worrying, replaying every interaction, connecting dots that might not have even been there, right? Creating elaborate stories about what might be happening. We were stuck in complete analysis paralysis, all worry and all mental and no action.
And so finally one evening, my husband and I looked at each other and we said, "Okay, enough." Let's stop spinning and start creating a strategy. So we grabbed a notebook and maybe a bottle of wine and truly started to turn that mental clutter and mental drama into an action plan. So what this looked like was we looked at one of the biggest worries that we had, right? Which is the questioning of whether the teacher was really seeing what was happening and whether it was the right environment for our son. And we thought about that over and over again.
But when we thought about a strategy, we decided to schedule a direct conversation with the teacher, prepare specific questions about his social interactions and daily experience. Start taking action. Another fear we had if, you know, if this isn't working, where do we take him? We can't just pull him out without a plan. So we created a strategy, we created a plan. We contacted his previous daycare immediately to check availability so we'd have options if we needed to make a change.
The moment we shifted from worrying to taking action and truly planning, everything changed. Okay, the relief was instant. We went from feeling helpless to feeling empowered. After our conversation with the teacher, we realized that while she is a lovely human being, this environment simply wasn't the right fit for Adley's personality.
And so, within two weeks, he was back at his original daycare with his cousins. And yes, our commute went from 7 minutes to 30 without traffic. But seeing him light up at pickup, hearing about his friendships and the fun he was having, you know, watching him actually excited to go to daycare. That's when we knew our overthinking had actually led us exactly to the right decision. And not just the overthinking, but using that overthinking to create our strategy.
And here's the thing, instead of trying to silence that parental anxiety, we let it guide us towards information and actions we needed. Our worry wasn't irrational. It was actually helping us. It was intelligent. It was telling us something needed attention. And when we listened strategically instead of spiraling emotionally, it led us to the solution. Okay, instead of hushing our brains and the thoughts we are having, we need to use them to create strategies and an action plan. Okay, this tool works whether you're launching a business or navigating a parenting challenge.
Now, I want to bring this back to your business dreams and taking action in your business because here's what typically happens. You decide you want to start that blog, launch that course, open that Etsy shop, whatever it is. And you get excited for about 30 minutes. Then your brain starts. You start thinking, "I don't know anything about SEO. I've never created a course before. There are thousands of Etsy shops selling exactly what I want to sell." The moment you notice your brain spinning with obstacles, that's your cue to grab a piece of paper and start writing. Don't try to quiet your brain or think more positive thoughts. Let it go completely wild. It is trying to help you. It is trying to guide you. Write down every single concern, worry, and worst-case scenario your brain can produce.
Then for each obstacle, write down one concrete action that you can take to address it. Start doing that today. Start doing that this week. Not someday, not when you're ready, not when you know more, right? Start doing that today. So, some examples of the action plan could be, you know, if the obstacle is, I don't know anything about SEO, the action today or this week could be to sign up for one free SEO course or watch a couple of YouTube videos on SEO.
If the obstacle is I've never created a course before, the action today or this week could be to just create the outline of the first module and record a 5-minute test video. If your brain keeps telling you there are thousands of other Etsy shops, take action and research 10 of those successful shops in that niche that you're in and identify what makes them unique.
I hope you're seeing how this works because it is absolutely a game changer. Your mental drama is your weekly action plan. Okay, instead of obstacles paralyzing you, they can propel you forward with specific doable steps.
The final piece of this strategy is one of the most exciting, right? And it's learning to see every obstacle as a potential business advantage. And when you consistently practice turning problems into strategies, you develop something most entrepreneurs never have, which is a systemic approach to handling every single challenge and turning it into a competitive advantage. Your brain is unique and it will come up with unique ideas for each and every obstacle that it presents. Through this, you rid yourself of ever feeling stuck. Because no matter where you're at in your business, I know your brain can come up with obstacles. And if your brain can come up with obstacles, it can also come up with an action plan or solutions for that obstacle, right? Strategies.
All right. I want you to walk away from this episode today with a completely new relationship with the obstacles that your brain presents, right? It is not a problem. It is the solution. I want you to remember that your brain is not sabotaging you. It's trying to make you successful. Okay? Every worry, every worst-case scenario, every middle of the night panic thought is actually valuable. Okay? It's valuable business intelligence. It's just disguised as fear. Okay?
The next thing I want you to remember is that the obstacle to strategy method is your new best friend. Please keep it in your back pocket. Every time your brain presents you with a problem or with an obstacle, immediately ask yourself, what strategy could I create to address this? Don't fight the obstacle, use it, right? The obstacle is the way. There's a great book about that.
The next thing, confidence comes from preparation, not from the absence of challenges. The more obstacles you can identify and plan for, the more unshakable your confidence and your business become. So use it. And use your mental drama as an action trigger. The moment your brain starts spinning with problems and obstacles, that's your cue to grab paper and turn those obstacles into this week's action plan. The problems that scare you today could very well become your unique selling points tomorrow. Your brain is not your enemy. It's your secret weapon. So start treating it that way.
Your call to action for today and this week, I hope is obvious. I want you to try this tool right now, today, with whatever business dream has been swirling around in your head. Whatever the reasons are that you haven't taken action, whatever your brain is telling you could go wrong or get in the way, I want you to write it down. Write down every single worry, worst case scenario, every reason that your brain thinks you won't succeed. And then for each of those obstacles, I want you to write down one strategy to address it. Just one. You don't need to solve everything right now, right? Or solve everything perfectly. You just need to shift from problem focused thinking to solution focused thinking. And this is how you go from someone who has great ideas to someone who builds a great business.
I want you to keep tuning in because we're just getting started. Every episode of this podcast is designed to give you the tools, the mindset shifts, and the action steps you need to make that career transition, whether it's quitting that job, starting that business so that you can create the life and business you love. Okay? Build it one strategy, one obstacle, one action, one episode at a time. Let's turn these obstacles into stepping stones instead of roadblocks.
All right, thanks for sticking with me through this one. I really hope this is a game changer for you. I know it has been for me. I will see you next week. Bye-bye. Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. If you want to learn more about how I can help you stop making excuses and start making moves, head on over to www.jenna.coach. I’ll see you next week.
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