End of the season - heading toward year 5

Speaker A: Hello, magnificent friends. This is your host, Clora Schiley. And welcome to a new episode of the Beyond Influencer Marketing podcast. And today I'm creating this short episode to wrap up the fifth season of the show. Yes, five years on air coming up pretty soon. Can you believe that? And, uh, I've been just so lucky to be able to bring to you expert guests and topics, to position yourself as the top expert in your field and collaborate with influencers. And today I thought, uh, it would be great to wrap up with an episode about overcoming challenges. And uh, I tell you, we all know about challenges and recently has been a challenging time for myself. Right. I don't know if you have heard, but I developed a severe immune reaction to the COVID booster shot, um, back on December 28th and developed this, uh, you know, just really bad reaction. It affected my entire nervous system and it has made it difficult, uh, to do day to day activities, let alone to run a business. Right. So if you haven't heard from me much over the past, um, almost, yeah, five months, then, um, you know why. And, uh, the recovery process continues. It's not a short process, right M. But, uh, through this challenge, of course, I've gathered lessons and done a lot of meditation and reflection. So I thought I would share with you some of the things that I have been reminded of that I have realized about overcoming challenges that might be helpful for you as you overcome your own challenges in your life. So the first thing, um, I think is essential to overcome any challenge is to accept, uh, the new situation in your life. To accept the challenge. How many times we resist the challenge, we resist the change, and then we become just really stressed out about it. That's what I did. I just wished, oh my God, I wish I hadn't gone. And I wish that day I didn't want to go. And I went against my gut feeling and that just that train of thought, um, of not accepting what had happened and to kind of want to change the past or go back in time, that created a lot of stress. Uh, so you have to come to a point. And I think with all challenges, of course we grieve, uh, we go through a period of, you know, distress, but then we have to just kind of gather ourselves back up and say, okay, this happened. This is it. Uh, this is what's happening now. Now what am I going to do about it? Right? This is what's happening now. This is my reality. I cannot change it. What is the first thing I can do to get through this? Right. So I Would say acceptance is the number one thing. Uh, and then patience, right? Because even if you decide, okay, this is what I have to do to get out of this, it takes time. As I said, I've been through this for more. More than five months now. It'll take many months more. I don't know how long. Um, and I learned that not only have to be patient, but let go of expectations in terms of when this is going to be over. Right? Like when you are working towards something. We want quick, quick solutions. Right? We want things to be done right away. Uh, and in that haste, once again, we bring that stress, and it doesn't allow us to make the best decisions. Plus, we don't enjoy the process of overcoming the challenge. Because, you know, overcoming a challenge should be a growth process. Should be. You should be able to enjoy the process rather than waiting until things are back to normal to enjoy life again. And then letting go of those expectations also allows you to calm down enough so you can make sound decisions. Um, I'm not saying that you shouldn't set goals, okay? By this date, I want to do X or Y. Xyz. But if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. You do your best. You do your best and leave the rest. Do your best and leave the rest. I was recently talking to a client who, he has done everything very methodically and deliberately to launch his business. Um, and one of those steps is to launch a show. Uh, and, you know, I asked him, okay, we said a couple of months ago you were going to be launching the show this month. And he said no, I decided to push the date back. He, uh, was very honest about it. And, uh, you know, he's committed to making the new date. Uh, and that's okay. That's okay. He's happy doing this. He's excited about it. He's not freaking out that he missed the deadline by two weeks. Right? So we have to be flexible and be detached from a set date, uh, to achieve our goals, Right. Or to overcome a challenge. Also, we need to seek help. Right? Uh, especially early in this process. I couldn't do much. I thank God for online delivery, but, you know, I couldn't do anything. Um, couldn't go out, couldn't drive, couldn't, uh, prepare food. It was just really, really challenging. So I had to seek help. Um, so don't be afraid. Especially, you know, in business, when, when we have a business challenge, we might feel like we have to do it all on our own. Right? And maybe do some research, but not Reach out to others. That's when your relationship with influencers pay off. You know, you got to go and reach out for help. And I did that a little bit with this chall. You know, my influencers connections are. Influencer connections are aware of what's happening, and they have been very supportive. Had to cancel all of my launches for the year, and they again, once again, very supportive and looking forward to continuing to work together whenever things are back to normal. But, you know, I, um, I sought help. I share what was happening. And, you know, most people are super happy to do whatever they can to help. So be vulnerable with your clients, with your audience. Um, be strong, but be vulnerable as well. And then the next thing is, I would say, from every challenge, you will learn something. Maybe not so much about the challenge itself, but about you as a person, about the way you solve problems, about the way you show up in this world. And that's a big lesson, and that's a big treasure to be grateful for. So regardless of the challenge, focus on, okay, how am I growing as a person and why am I grateful for this? What else am, um, m. I grateful for? Because regardless of how difficult things are, and I know that you might have gone through your own extremely difficult challenges. You know, think about it. Other people have it worse, right? It could have been worse. Um, and, uh, just be grateful for that. Be grateful for the little things, for the air you breathe and for your bed and, um, for being safe, right. For those around you. Ah. So what something I like to do actually is list in my mind, um, what I'm grateful for every single day. And I try to challenge myself and come up with 20, 30, 40 things. Uh, you'll see how many things there are to be grateful for, no matter what. Okay, so with that, I will, uh, I will say I'm grateful for you. Grateful for, uh, you being a loyal listener. And I'm grateful for future episodes of the Beyond Influencer Marketing podcast coming up, uh, sometime this fall, uh, so stay tuned and always, always reveal your magnificence.