Where is Your Head Today?
I am a small business owner, and many of my friends in Pensacola, Florida are too. One of the hardest things (and there are many) about the Coronavirus has been watching their businesses struggle - especially the bars and restaurants.
There is so much uncertainty about the future, but I believe we are both created and creative beings who, at this very moment, are consciously or unconsciously creating much of what comes next.
Don’t believe that? Stick with me. I’ll show you.
The best way to predict the future is to create it.
-Dr. Joe Dispenza
I’m not trying to woo you out, or pull “good-vibes only” b.s.
You’re too smart for that.
No, I want you to fully experience every emotion you have. Scream into a pillow. Rage clean. Smash plates. Space out in consternation. Cry your eyes out. Hear, see and acknowledge every part of you that is furious about the coronavirus. Same with you, health care workers. Take your rage out for a run. Here’s your free pass to completely lose your mind.
Ready? Go.
Better?
Good. Now let’s get to work.
What does it look like to set your mind and keep it set?
Case Study #1 - Emerald Republic.
Friends of mine, Phil and Veronique, opened their dream brewery in Pensacola just three, tiny months ago. It was the culmination of 18 months of permit-gathering, concrete-smashing, setback-beating, blood, sweat and tears, not to mention the 10+ years of dreaming and planning that preceded it.
Now their brand-new baby gets to go toe-to-toe with Coronavirus.
I’ll bet they smashed some plates over that, but today they are selling crowlers of beer by take-out with these little love notes stapled to them. Do people need good beer during this? Absolutely. Are these two scrappy AF and passionate about their businesses? Yep.
So be like Emerald Republic and several of the other breweries in town - Get agile, get scappy. Be creative and kind.
Case Study #2 - Dog House Deli.
I swear this same burger pops up in my news feed every day at noon. It’s torture until I realize, all I have to do is make one call, rock up downtown and Nathan Holler himself will hand it through my car window, just like Dick’s Drive-in has done since the 1940’s in downtown Seattle. Beautiful! It’s like high school all over.
Many other restaurants in town are doing the same. In fact, there’s a Facebook group with 10,000 members in it now to let you know who’s doing to-go and take out and where they are in greater Pensacola. Shelter in place is coming, but it’s not here today. So take advantage while you can.
And be like The Dog House. Bomb people’s newsfeeds with your juicy, cheesy, delicious products that you know they absolutely want.
Case Study #3 - Andrya Allen
Andrya is a digital marketing maven who bends the Facebook algorithm to her considerable will on a daily basis. I can say with full certainty that Andrya has the best cultivated, most invincible mindset of anybody I know. For weeks, I’ve been watching her pump out service after service to her clients, pushing them, inviting them to come up higher, to keep growing and not succumb to fear.
I love her for that, but I also love that she’s a poet, with her first published collection available here.
The comment section for the post above describes the ways in which she is human too just like the rest of us. I know Andrya well enough to know that her mindset is no accident. She cultivates it, every day like a garden. Be like Andrya - weed your garden.
These and a million other people like them have DECIDED TO MAKE IT.
Be like them with your family, your job, your life, your business. Be the one who prepares not just for the storm, but for Day One after it’s gone.
Even if the terrible-awful happens, I have faith that those who choose to see the coronavirus as a species-wide recalibration and a test of our mettle, will be the ones to adapt the quickest and come back the fastest.
I will be one of them.
This storm will run out of rain, but it will be rough before it does. I implore you, to as the Apostle Paul said, to fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
It helps.
xoerin
ps. Did you know a bunch of us are meeting live in my zoom room every Friday for a little love, support and encouragement during the Coronavirus? This Friday 3/27 11:30 CDT. Reach out to me for the zoom link.
pps. The next cohort of the Meaning of Midlife program begins in late April. Book a call and we can talk through how to help you get unstuck, on purpose and building a happy second half.