5 Myths Entrepreneurs Use to Avoid Contingency Planning (And The Reason It’s Not Your Fault)

TRANSCRIPT AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED Hey, Hey, this week, I am closing out our contingency planning mini series that we've been working through. And if you stuck through the series, I just wanted to send you virtual high fives. And congratulations, because I know that this can be a tough topic to really face up to. And some of the episodes have not been easy listening. But the bonuses that you are already more prepared than most entrepreneurs out there just by having thought through some of these scenarios. So today I want to walk through a few of the myths that I hear around contingency planning to just really encourage you to carry on thinking about these things in your business. the first thing that I usually encounter with entrepreneurs who've been in business for a while, was like, well, this can't happen to me or it hasn't happened yet. And I really hope that over this mini series meeting Kelsey meeting, Ebony meeting, Sarah, you have been able to see how something similar. Could happen in your business, maybe not to the extreme that they experienced and maybe not in that exact way, but is it possible that you could have your Instagram account blocked or hacked? Yes. Is it possible that you could post something on Instagram and your intention doesn't match the impact? Yes. We could all do that Is it possible that you are maybe too reliant on something in your business, a piece of software or a particular person. So I didn't introduce them to scare you though. Their stories are quite scary, Good more to show you that they're entrepreneurs just like you and me if it can happen to them, it can very much happen to us. And for all of them, they were all completely fine. And it had never happened to them either until that moment. The second myth or belief that I hear a lot. Is this feeling that a crisis has to be big? And the reason I think this happens is that a lot of people only see the crisis from the outside when it is big. You're maybe not seeing the smaller crisis. people are not talking about it publicly, or it hasn't. Gone outside of the business, but even something that small can create a domino effect when you're focused on trying to fix the small thing and make it not turn into a huge thing, you can drop another ball somewhere else in the business that can create another little crisis. And so things can start to spiral. The thing about a crisis is that it's taking time, energy, focus away from your goals and something doesn't have to be big to be doing that you could be having a complicated time with a client. You could be having a complicated time with somebody having fun, trolling you on your Facebook ads. It doesn't have to be this big explosion to warrant you thinking about it as a crisis. It's very easy for things to snowball when you're in a panicked and emotional state. So we need to stop thinking of a crisis as this big, scary monster that's lurking in the corner. actually the worst crisis is the teeny tiny mosquito size one that is buzzing around your head. Constantly keeping your attention away from where it needs to be. there's also this deep belief that a crisis has to be bad. So while you're listening to this episode, I can do one of two things. I can send a hacker to attack your website, or I can send you a million leads. Which of those would you prefer? So here's the deal. Both those things are more than likely going to crash your website. Both of those things are going to create a crisis. So whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, it still has the ability to create a crisis. So we need to stop thinking of it as the big, bad, scary thing that's going to happen And so we don't want to think about it. and , You're potentially not going to take advantage of opportunities that come your way because you haven't thought them through and haven't prepared for them. I think a lot of times when we do see crises in public, they happen on really big accounts with really big names and it's kind of going viral and that leads us to. Our next mesh or belief that we have to be really big for something like this to happen. And that's just not the case. Yes. The bigger you are, the more your opportunities are externally, but the smaller you are, the bigger opportunities are internally to create a crisis. If you're a team of two and one of you is suddenly not available, that's a far bigger issue for the business than if you're a team of 20. And one of you isn't available. I think also don't underestimate what's happening that maybe you're not hearing about. I know someone with a 2000 follower Instagram account that was hacked just yesterday. Somebody spoke to me about their account being closed and they had 1000 Instagram followers. So as Instagram is clearing out bots and fake accounts. All Instagram accounts that are real and genuine and have content of that really doesn't matter how big or how small you are. You are still exciting. The first thing I see a lot of is this fear that, thinking about the crisis is going to make you super anxious. Because now you're not just thinking about that one thing that might happen. Now, you're thinking about 20 things that might happen. And a couple of episodes back, I really went into you creating cliff hangers in your business, but actually not creating a plan. So I'm not going to dive deep into it here. But by not creating a plan, you're not closing the loop and you're actually increasing your anxiety. If you're not making a plan, because you feel like it's going to make you even more anxious, I really want you to go back and listen to episode 71. And finally, a big reason that people don't make a contingency plan is that it just feels so overwhelming. If you start to think about what could go wrong in your business, that feels like a lot of stuff you have to plan full. And even if you think about one thing that you need to planful, that can feel really overwhelming because no one's taught you how to make this kind of plan, in the entrepreneur world, very few people that you've been taught to make a revenue plan nine times out of 10 when I made this last year. So I'd like to make 20% more next year, and that's kind of how the revenue plan works. And then we divide by processes and then that's what we decide to sell. And while that's terrifying in its own, right, At least entrepreneurs, I've got the basics of those revenue plans down. The problem with a contingency plan is no one's taught you how to build this. So if this is you, if you're sitting there thinking, well, I just don't even know where to start. I want to invite you to my free you're one crisis away from losing your business workshop. And we're going to make that plan together. We're going to walk through what a crisis really is, why it's not what you're thinking. I'm going to introduce you to real-world entrepreneurs, just like you and me. Who've had stuff happens to them in their businesses so that you can learn from them. And I'm going to teach you my symbol step-by-step process to build a plan for the things that you can't plan for. I want you to get off this workshop with more peace of mind, then you get on. I want you to get off with a real plan. We will actually build a plan together on this workshop. So, if that sounds good, I want you to head to Diane mayer.com forward slash plan. And let's get you some peace of mind