RESILIENT ENTREPRENEURS PODCAST
SEASON 1
Practicing Resilience; Insights from Entrepreneurs.
The Art of Resilience with Laura Bell
So we call this Resilient Entrepreneurs, what does resilience mean to you?
Laura: I think it's perseverance. You know, it's really just keep going through the hard times. I will admit I've had a couple of years ago, a whole month where I had $0 in my bank account like nothing, clients owed me money, couldn't get them to pay and I still had to buy groceries and all the things. It got really scary, the cupboards were bare and the bills were piling and I was getting really stressed up and scary, but it was just keep going through it, you know, just keeps pushing through it. And then the next month was better and the next month was better and then I was determined to never see that again, right? That does kind of help. You kind of learn, because entrepreneurship is a roller coaster it really is. There's going to be months when you're swimming in it and fantastic and everything is ticking along and it's easy and it's flowing and everybody's, clients are all paying their bills, and there's nothing going on. And then things like pandemics happen and you know, everything shuts down and life turns upside down. And it's just about pushing through because there's always something better the next month, is just a whole other month, the next year is a whole other year and every year has grown and built and gotten better. So you have just got to keep pushing through.
How to Get Back Up When You Fall with Vicki Abraham
What does resilience mean to you?
Vicki: So I guess my story is one of resilience which we have identified in this process. I think it's about giving yourself the grace to make mistakes and fail, it's about learning along the way, always learning, having that curiosity about yourself and how you navigate the world. Yeah, just also to know that we're having a human experience so no matter what happens, it's OK. We don't have to attach shame or fear to it, it just is, it's just a human experience and guess what, there's a bunch of other people out there who've either been through or are going through, in this very moment, the same thing, and that we're never alone even though we might not be in touch with the people who are doing that, going through it. So that would be it and I guess in short, you know, it's just being OK to roll with the punches and to not turn them into anything more than they are. They're not huge, they're not insurmountable, they don't mean anything about who you are. Life is meant to be easy. I firmly believe that life is meant to be easy and I do whatever I can to make that so.
Surviving a Global Economic Crisis with Rose Zuill
What does resilience mean to you?
Rose: So resilience I find is a very heavy word especially being a woman of colour. Being a woman from immigrant parents, resilience was part and parcel of who I am, like Rose Resilient Zuill, that would be me. Mental resilience to me is coming from a different country in France, understanding a whole different culture resilience would be to keep at it to keep being true to yourself and still understanding that it's okay. Resilience is such a heavy word I find because it almost means that failure is not an option in my brain. And so resilience, that's what it would be because failure is not an option.
The Human Reinvention Formula with Mia Munro
I guess resilience means different things to different people, so what would you say it means to you?
Mia: Yeah, I want to share really vulnerable here. I used to think that resilience meant being a superwoman pushing through not looking like I was struggling, and keeping a smiling face no matter what so I'd be a role model for everyone watching me. And the truth is, that was a fake resilience in a way because the truth is inside I needed help, I needed support, and I wasn't looking for it. So the sense of life was challenging and I must be a resilient entrepreneur was a persona that I carried, then I got it.
And actually for me now resilience is about being able to ask for help, being able to say, Guess what, this is my skill and my expertise and my genius, and I'm going to keep going no matter what, and there's nothing gonna stop me, but I can't actually do it on my own. I need to be complemented by other amazing people. And resilience to me is a commitment to my health, my brain detoxing, my biohacking and my identity work. That's what it means to me now. It's a commitment to being human and accepting all aspects rather than kind of masking the things that didn't quite suit the way I was meant to be showing up. So it's this deep, genuine commitment to myself. And I think without vision, and without strong legacy or spiritual leadership in some way it would be challenging, but I never seem to give up no matter what. And I seem to have those aspects of reaching out now that I, in fact, Vicki, I reached out to you a while back, I said, Hey, my mojo is wavering you know, can you help and you know, as an amazing peer you did, which was awesome, super grateful for.
Profitability, Scaling Your Business and How To Bring Your Best with Kidist Emery
What does resilience mean to you?
Kidist: Someone told me something the day, it was ‘forward ever backwards never’, and that is it. That is it. I'm a really, really strong believer that ‘everything is happening for me, not to me’, for one reason or the other. I am a child of the Universe and they teach you lessons, you don't listen, you don't listen, but it comes in all forms. And I'm also a true believer that ‘this too shall pass’.
Passion & purpose saved this business with Michelle Viera
What does resilience mean to you?
Michelle: You have to get up when you get knocked down. You have to have that plan A, plan B, plan C, and you have to ask yourself, and this is one thing that I did when I homeschooled my children, I said to one of my homeschooling friends, how, how are you not throwing your kids back in school? Because, you know you have those ups and downs through everything, including business, but what I can relate from homeschooling my kids, she said to me, you have to ask yourself Why did you do it in the first place? And when I ask myself that, when I start anything now, I say if I'm feeling like, oh the world's just getting too heavy on my shoulders, or I feel oh I gotta quit this - I'm not a quitter by the way - but when I feel that way I have to ask myself, What got you, what made you make this decision in the first place? Why did you start this? And then if you can go back to that initial reason, why did you start this, then it seems to validate everything for you.
Because I'm not a quitter, my parents sometimes say that I'm too loyal sometimes and it's because I don't like to see something I've worked at just fall to pieces, to me that sad, when you work so hard at something and then you just let it go, all those hours that you put into something that meant something to you at one time and then to give it up, that keeps me going even when I am down in the dumps and I'm thinking, Oh it's not worth it anymore, I have to say Now pick yourself back up, you're doing this because A, B and C.
Fill the Gap, Learn to Fail and Be Resilient with Coral Wells
So Coral, we do like to ask our guests, what does resilience mean to you?
Coral: So I would have to say it's being able to bounce back from those hard, I would say those hard decisions. So I'd like to say failure as well. But it's not always going to be failure. So you have to learn from, I'm really big on, it's okay to fail. In actual fact it's really good to have a failure experience, because you're gonna learn from that. And I think that's all part and parcel of becoming resilient. I'm gonna learn from companies telling me no, so when we go to ask for money from grantors and they say no and I have to understand why and then I have to figure that out. But being resilient to know that the product that I have, and the service that I'm offering, is actually very much worth it and being able to bounce back from, whether it be a failure, or whether it be a challenge that you might not have gotten to where you needed to get to, where you wanted to get to, that is all part and parcel of making you resilient. I want to say it is having the passion, having the drive and the confidence to say “I can do this,” I'm an entrepreneur and I know what I'm doing is going to not just benefit me, depending on what your service is, but for me, it's going to benefit, like these 5000 - 6000 kids that I've been teaching for the last seven years, and benefit Bermuda, because those kids are coming back to become the tech geniuses of Bermuda. I think that you can get a lot of negativity thrown at you, quite a bit and being an entrepreneur you have to have broad shoulders and be able to hold that and say it's okay, I'll take that on and I'll figure out a way to switch that around and make that a positive. And I think that's all part of how you build up your resilience, how you become a resilient entrepreneur is being able to transition from the negative to the positive, the failures and turning those failures into successes. We actually, we teach our kids quite a bit about failure. So I think, unfortunately, I think in today's world, not just Bermuda, in today's world, we don't teach our kids how to fail. Our kids are really struggling with that and so when they come to our class we trick them up. Because not everything's gonna be all sunshine and roses for you, you’ve got to figure it out. And they get really frustrated. But unfortunately, we have not taught our kids how to fail and it's important because you're gonna learn so much from that failure.
Conversations with Laura & Vicki: Double-down for a Recession
What does it mean to be resilient? It seems almost a heavy word ‘resilient’. Are we tired of being resilient for such a long time?
Yeah. Doesn't resilience lead to burnout? Because just pushing through and pushing uphill and trudging through it? No, that's not what resilience means to us anyway, it's very much about being aligned, it's about a daily practice of being mindful of what you're doing in your business, are you focusing on the right things, are you focusing on the things that deliver results? Does it feel hard or does it feel aligned? Are you in flow? That's it, when you're in flow the creativity just comes, you are already thinking clearly and differently. You're seeing opportunities that are right in front of you. Because opportunities are always right in front of us. Always right in front of us. It's just about whether or not, whether we are in a state where we can allow ourselves to see it. And I think resilience is a state. It's a state of mind, but it's a state of being. It's when you're in flow and these are things that you can do, there's all kinds of personal tools that people use, some people meditate, some people go for a morning walk, some people like to go to the gym and pump iron. Whatever it is, moving your body, what do they say, move a muscle, move a thought. If you're stuck in a funk, go for a walk, get some fresh air, to move your mind, you move your body.
Building your Business by Solving Real Problems with Abigail Chee, a Parent Coach.
So Abigail, what would you say resilience means to you?
Abigail: I think it means persistence and always trying to see how can I make this work. I think one of the biggest problems and pitfalls for me being so distracted all the time is consistency. I hate this word! And I feel so called out on it every time, Oh you're not posting consistently on social media, you are not doing this consistently, you're not going to get consistency. But I can start, I want to, but I just fall off the bandwagon after a while. But recently I read that persistence more than consistency. So I think the idea is that we will fail to be consistent, but we can always come back to it and be persistent about it. We don't have to beat ourselves up, oh you're not consistent and therefore we stop doing, when we stop posting on social media we can always come back and restart the ball rolling again.
"Opportunity is everywhere!" with Michelle White
What do you think Michelle would be your definition of resilience? To me you're a shining example of resilience but is that something you could put into words?
Michelle: First of all, it just goes to show that brilliant minds think alike, because that was my word for the year, when you came up and said that your word for the year was resilience, so we're all on the same page. But for me it means stick-to-it-ness. Stick-to-it-ness. It just means that you go, you move forward, I won’t say stay on the path, you stay forward-focused, and recognise that the path may veer to the left, it may veer to the right, sometimes it's just safe to go straight forward. But as long as you stick to it and you move forward, then you're making progress. And each of those steps forward is your marker of success.
Thoughts on Property Development & Personal Development from Dr Dionne Payn
How do you describe resilience? What's your take on it because you're also talking about burnout and some people think resilience is just pushing through and getting it done. I'm guessing that's probably not your definition.
Oh no. I think I can illustrate that point by telling you two stories. So the first, as a child, I grew up in a church community and even though we as a family didn't have much money, and we always looked after people that were less fortunate than us, and we were always looked after within that church community. So that was my first experience of community. Now, it came with some other stuff and religious information, which I don't necessarily subscribe to now but that feeling of you know, somebody's got my back. That's resilience. Pardon me for saying, if the sh*t hits the fan, I know who's got my back, that for me is resilience.
And also the other story that I want to share with you is We recently, February, this year, had severe flooding. It was devastating, it was all down on the east coast, but hit communities here really hard. And it had been quite a divided community before then, because Mullumbimby, which is where I live, is known as the anti-vax capital of the world. So you had some people that were very strongly “we’re not getting vaccinated” and some people who were very strongly well, “we're getting vaccinated and you're being really selfish.” So it was quite divisive and I've never seen anything like that before in this community, it was quite painful. But then the floods happened and all of that just metaphorically washed away and everybody was there to help everybody else. And it didn't matter whether you were vaccinated, had COVID, were coughing on people, it was just like, there is a deluge of mud and crap and whatever in each of our houses, how do we help each other to get through this? And it was sh*t,it was sh*t that flooding happened but at the same time, it was amazing to see the resilience in the community again. So I have a belief that with what's happening with the climate, these things are gonna happen more frequently and if we can't come together to support each other in that, then what hope do we have? So that's, that for me is what resilient community is all about, just people that are there saying, Yeah, I've got your back no matter what.
Finding Work-Life Balance with Sandra DeSilva
What does resilience mean to you?
Sandra: When I think of resilience, I think of how quickly I can bounce back from something that perhaps didn't go the way I hoped and so whether it's a failure or whether it's a decision, or whether it's, whatever it may be, how long does it take me to go back to my neutral and feel good about it. And sometimes, just how thick is my skin, I guess, to kind of take the brunt of things that otherwise would make me feel less than. And so to me, resilience is about finding the shortest time between something happening and just being able to say, “Right, that's fine. Let's move on.” So definitely I am and probably still am quite mushy, not quite thick yet, in my resilient skin, but it's a journey.
Cabin Crew to Leadership Consultant, Felicity Lerouge
What resilience means to you and how does a person get resilience? How do we become resilient?
Felicity: I'm really glad you asked this question. As you can see, it's very, it's something I'm really passionate about and I think the old definition of resilience was bouncing back from. But the definition that HeartMath used which they actually created with the Navy Seals, the American Navy Seals is actually being prepared, being adaptable, and being flexible so that when challenges come to them, they're prepared for them. They've already got what they call resilience capacity as well as the ability to jump, to bounce back as well.
"I'm not an Entrepreneur" - Marty Lewis
Marty we've talked about resilience, what does that actually mean to you?
Marty: I would just call it the ability to endure. It's an interesting concept because I think of my grandparents who are very resilient people, they know and have experienced very tough times, they walked to school, they milked cows, they butchered their own meat, they did everything because they had not much. And they're resilient people but if you ask them if they're resilient, it's not a skill that they learned, it's not something that, you don't learn resilience by thinking about it, you learn resilience by putting yourself in uncomfortable situations, and establishing a belief that you are more capable than you realised. And unfortunately, one of the very rare ways that we get that is to be put in situations where we don't think that we're capable of getting through that and we have to then be faced with a choice to get through it or not get through it. And that's not to say that you should get through every scenario like that there's certainly plenty of valid and proper times where it's okay, you're just banging your head against a brick wall here, let's turn in a different direction. But resilience is to me, the ability to endure and work through a scenario that you have doubt around, or I'm not certain about.
"Print is your secret weapon!" with Daniel Edwards
So Daniel, have you felt that you have needed to be resilient through this journey? Over the last 20 years?
Daniel: Yeah. I mean, look, being self employed, as you guys would know, is a very tough game. And disappointments or mistakes come straight out of your pocket, it's not the boss's pocket. I mean, resilience and being able to get back up again after having disappointment is hugely important. I mean, you couldn't do it if you weren't resilient.
Making Good Decisions with Samantha Rush
What would you consider resilience to be? How would you define that?
Samantha: So resilience for me means not giving up, as I've said before and that doesn't mean making that conscious decision to move away from something based on information that you've collected, that is not giving up. That is, this is the information I've collected, this is an informed decision. So resilience for me is not listening to those voices that are telling you that you're not good enough, you shouldn't do this, no one's going to want to buy this. And also where there's a situation where you just feel this is just too hard because that's all in here, that’s resilience. So when you feel that in your mind, this is too hard, I'm just going to give up, keep moving, find something to break that cycle of unhelpful thinking and keep moving. That’s resilience.
Why it's right to put yourself first, with Virginia Walker
Well, we call this podcast Resilient Entrepreneurs, do you have thoughts, a definition perhaps of what resilience is?
Virginia: Resilience for me is when you choose to hold on to that bigger picture, that bigger reason why you're doing something when it gets really tough. And when you have that purpose or that reason that's bigger than you, when it's not about the short term pain but it's about where you're trying to go then you will do resilient things, you will find a way of getting through. I think the second aspect of resilience is that ability to pull out of it and understand whether you're interpreting things correctly. So there's a psychologist called Rick Hanson, who wrote a very lovely book called Just One Thing and in it he talks about what's the truth. So when something seems really hard or really difficult or you think you're being treated really badly or things are going really well, he’ll say, what's the truth? And often the truth is quite different to how we feel. Yes, so we've.. something has happened and we've made it mean something. And the thing we've made it mean is now the thing that we're experiencing and so what's the truth? And so for me, resilience is about can you pause? Can you distance yourself from what's happening and see whether you're seeing it accurately? And with that new perspective can you do something different? Can you do something different that's going to allow you to get through it a little bit more easily?
Accounting - Creating order out of chaos with Giles Belfrage
So Giles, we talk about resilience on this podcast. What does that mean to you?
Giles: Not giving up. So I might wake up one morning feeling depressed and I’ll say no you don't have to be depressed, you're doing well, you're doing everything right, and helping all these people and just move on.