She's That Founder: Business Strategy and Time Management for Impactful Female Leaders

029 | From Corporate to CEO: 3 Secrets to Conquering Entrepreneurial Anxiety for Female Leaders

• Dawn Andrews • Episode 29

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Alright, let’s get real for a hot second. 

Have you ever had that entrepreneurial anxiety gremlin whispering, “You’re not cut out for this. Just stick to the 9 to 5”? And every time you try to shove that noisy critter into a corner, it gets louder and clingier, like bubblegum on a hot sidewalk. We've all been there, sweating bullets, feeling like our entrepreneurial dreams are slipping through our fingers. But drama aside, what if there was a slick way to kick that anxiety to the curb and strut into your business like the rock star you truly are?

Hold onto your headphones because today, we're spilling the tea on how to trade in that stale corporate cubicle for a swanky home office, all while making that anxiety your footstool. This ain’t your average pep talk. Picture less boardroom blues, and more Beyoncé vibes. Let’s crank up the confidence and do this thing, shall we?

In this episode, I cover:

  • The strategies for reducing your fear as you venture into the business world.
  • Conquering anxiety
  • Recognize the importance of making wise investment decisions
  • How to make your entrepreneurial dreams into reality
  • The value of creating your own identity as an entrepreneur


This episode at a glance:

[03:14]  Stepping into the entrepreneurial gladiator ring can feel like the ultimate doom, especially if your safety net has always been corporate cubicles.

[05:17] I also like to remind you that in today's environment, there's no such thing as corporate stability. Anybody could be laid off at any time. So why not bet on yourself? So why not bet on yourself?  

[10:39] You were somebody who has managed to figure out how to make your life work in a high-powered position. And you've managed to get hired and to level up in your position. So you will do it again. And this time, the rewards will be wholly yours.

[12:48] Once you switch to the solo salsa of entrepreneurship, It is about you, your ideas, and an open dance floor.  The good news is you call the shots. The bad news is you call the shots.  There is no one else to hold accountable but your lovely, hardworking self. 

[15:37] This is not about using people. It's about building genuine connections, exchanging value, and growing together.

Resources and Links mentioned in this episode:

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My Good Woman
Ep. 29 |  Goodbye Corporate, Hello Confidence: Conquering Entrepreneurial Anxiety


Dawn Andrews:

Ever dream of leaving your high-stakes corporate job to start your own business, but you're quaking in your Gucci boots over the fear and uncertainty stick around. 

Today we're smashing anxiety and building the confidence to leave your job and launch like a boss. 

Hello friends. Welcome to My Good Woman, the podcast for new and future Female Leaders. I'm your host, Dawn Andrews, a happily married hockey mom and the founder and CEO of Free Range Thinking Business Strategy Consulting. Grab a seat at the table with me each week for candid conversations with Culture shifting, glass-ceiling-busting, trailblazing women leading impactful enterprises. We discuss what makes them tick, how they get it all done, and actionable strategies to help you lead with confidence and grow the visibility, reach, and revenue of your business. We're classy ladies, but we don't bleep the swear words, listener discretion is advised.

Hey there, listeners. Ready to uncover your true entrepreneurial spirit and style? We've got a fun, insightful quiz to help you figure out building your own businesses for you. Find out if you're a born boss or a mindful Maven. Click the link in the show notes and join the fun. Go take the quiz now. 

 

Welcome back MG Dubs. This is Dawn Andrews and you're tuning into another episode of the, My Good Woman podcast where we believe your path to success should come with a generous, helping of fun. Our topic today conquering that stomach-churning anxiety you feel at the mere thought of leaving your high-level corporate job and making your entrepreneurial dreams a reality. 

Yes, we are talking about turning that corporate corner office into your home office and reducing the fear and anxiety that comes with that transition. 

 As you already know, I started my business more than 20 years ago after leaving a corporate position. 

I tend to be an optimist. When I had the opportunity to leave and start something, I leapt at it. And my first business coach, Donna Amos nicknamed me, Ready-Fire-Aim. I'm the first person to take action and then sorted out on the other end. I often make messes and have to clean them up. 

It's just the way I am. So when it was time to go, I had very little anxiety upfront about starting a business. But it all came crashing in on me about three months after I left my job and I was sitting in my home office alone.  There's a great quote by an anonymous source. Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won't. 

So that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can't. Well, I love that quote. And I've definitely found that to be true in my 20 years in business so far. But if you've ever lived your life outside a corporate setting, after being in one those years of living, like most people won't can seem insurmountable. 

 So let's take a hot minute to process that anonymous gem of wisdom. Stepping into the entrepreneurial gladiator ring can feel like the ultimate doom, especially if your safety net has always been corporate cubicles. But as we tiptoe into this beast called entrepreneurship. I want to dish out some game-changing moves to put those lurking monsters of fear and anxiety in their place. 

So here are three strategies to reduce your fear. As you adventure into your own business. 

Strategy one, identify your fears and neutralize them. 

 You know what I'm saying? Name it to tame it. That's what we're doing here. Your fears, lose a little bit of their power once you've identified them and challenged their validity. And the anxiety part is usually jumping too far ahead in the future and not dealing with what's actually right in front of you at this very moment. 

Some of the common fears that I had when I started and that I find with my clients, when I'm helping them get started. Are financial instability, a change in reputation or prestige, fear of failure, maintaining some sort of work-life balance, and dealing with uncertainty and risk. 

 Each of those concerns on their own can seem really big. And when you group them all together in one big ball, It's a lot to deal with. So, let me give you a little bit of insight, and let's break that big ball apart because once you start to break these things down, It's not so bad. 

 Financial instability. Totally get it. You've been on a regular paycheck, regular bonus schedule. you can plan and organize your life around your income. And you're talking about leaving that behind to start something that you have no idea how it's going to do, especially how it's going to do in that first couple of years. 

So. Really simply practically you can secure funding, grab a small loan, or borrow from friends or family. Or start saving now while you're still in your corporate job to create some runway. when I left my corporate job. I received a small severance package and I mean, small, like $20,000 small. And not that $20,000 is a small number, but it was small compared to what my annual salary was. 

Still, it was enough to get started and stand the business up on its feet and start selling. I also like to remind you that in today's environment there's no such thing as corporate stability either , anybody could be laid off at any time. So why not bet on yourself? 

 The next in that list of common fears is a change in reputation or prestige. 

As a high level executive, you may have spent years building your professional reputation within your industry or your organization. You might have achieved a certain level of prestige, respect and influence. 

And that can be challenging to replicate when you're transitioning to entrepreneurship. Leaving your corporate position to start a new business can be seen as a risky move. 

And there is the possibility it could be seen negatively by your colleagues, superiors or other industry peers. You might feel like you're going to lose connections. Your network opportunities that you previously had. But you can manage that transition. And usually what's behind it is that after we've been working for a notable entity for a long time, we start to take on that identity. 

 We believe that we actually are the brand that we represent. And the brand is what has been opening the doors for us, not necessarily our reputation, as much as we think that may have been true. 

Oftentimes, we get stuck in growth in our corporate positions because people can't imagine us any other way. Maybe you've made it to director VP. SVP EVP, all the PS. And you can't really get to the CS. 

It's because people can't imagine you another way. You stepping out of that role, gives you the opportunity to claim the C. 

 So here's what you do to conquer this one. You focus on maintaining your relationships and building the ones that you have and tracking them to your new venture before you leave your old one. You focus on building a personal brand. So taking that reputation that you already have, but staking it separately. 

In fact, I strongly recommend starting to write and publish on LinkedIn medium or other platforms to show and share your expertise outside the brand that you've been representing. 

 You can navigate this transition effectively. You wouldn't have climbed the corporate ladder the way that you have if you couldn't. 

 Okay, next in the list of common concerns is fear of failure. So nothing is without risk. But simple business planning and developing new skills is what you're already great at. Or you wouldn't be where you are professionally. And what happens is we get settled into our corporate jobs and it's sort of like we're believing our own hype. And then when we're put back into that beginner state, We feel really wobbly because. Maybe we're in our thirties or forties or fifties or even sixties. And we feel like we should already know all this stuff already. But we've been spending our time in a corporate setting, not building something on our own. So just remember that everything that you've done to get where you are today, you can do again and do it. More quickly. 

 And yes, you're going to fail. You are going to face plant, and sometimes you're going to have some real good bruises on your face. Early on someone helped me reframe the idea of failure into learning. Everything is a learning opportunity. And chances are, you've already learned that in your professional career anyway, so I'm just calling it back to the front of the queue. And letting that stand in front of your fear and anxiety. 

 Okay. We're knocking out these fears and anxieties. We're pushing them to the side and I hope that you're feeling more empowered and juiced up to go start your own thing. 

The next fear and concern. That I hear about is work-life balance. When I'm already overwhelmed in my corporate setting. How am I going to do that when I'm responsible for everything in my new startup? Well, y'all. This is real. 

And I've stopped using the term work-life balance. I like to think of it as more of a work-life tango. And in those first couple of years of business, you're probably going to feel like you're driving your car with square tires on for a while. It is really bumpy. 

 On the flip side, you can embrace the flexibility of working for yourself. 

 One of the big breakthroughs I had early on was realizing that I didn't have to start work at nine and finish at six. I could move my day around if I needed to take a break in the middle of the day. In fact, truth be told, I took a three-hour break in the middle of the day today. I got better at the tango. This is also your opportunity to start exercising regularly again if you've dropped it. It'll give your mental state of bump and provide consistency in an inconsistent lifestyle. The best thing about starting a business is you can decide how fast to grow and scale. And where and how to use your time. You don't have to leave corporate and jump right into a mature business. You can slowly build it from the ground up. And all of that contributes to a better work-life tango.

 Okay. We're moving on to the last of the most common fears that I hear. And then we've got two more strategies to really help you make the transition with as little fear and anxiety as possible. So the last common fear that I encounter when working with people to leave corporate and start their own businesses is the uncertainty and risk of owning your own business. We have all heard the stats about how many startup businesses or small businesses fail every year. And it's real and it's stressful. However, there's so much that you can do that can be done before you launch that business. Market research. Testing your idea and getting advice and mentorship. 

 Prove out your concept before you launch. And again, I want to remind you that you are a high performer already being paid for your high-level expertise and relationships. And this is the foundation of the business that you're building. 

You were somebody who has managed to figure out how to make your life work in a high-powered position. And you've managed to get hired, to level up in your position. So you will do it again. And this time the rewards will be wholly yours. 

 So leaving corporate can feel really risky. But if you do some practical things, It's not as risky as it feels.

 Okay, let's get into the strategies again. The first one which we just went through was identifying your fears and neutralizing them. We talked about the five common fears and how to neutralize them. 

 Strategy number two. Is embracing the entrepreneurial mindset. 

 this strategy isn't about getting a fancy title or adding CEO to your LinkedIn profile. It is about thinking behaving and thriving, like an entrepreneur which involves a whole lot of self-belief, resilience, and creative problem-solving. So what's the difference between a corporate mindset and an entrepreneurial mindset? Well, isn't that the million-dollar question? We're about to put on our haute couture comparison glasses and check out the fabulously, different landscapes of corporate and entrepreneurial minds. 

 Okay. The first one. I like to call it risk roulette versus the Safety Snuggie. And we talked about this a little bit earlier. In the buttoned-up world of corporate, you are snuggled up in that blanket of a steady paycheck, benefits, and clearly defined roles. You know, what's coming next. And there's a certain level of comfort in that, like those 11:00 PM reruns of friends, which I watch incessantly. But in the wild untamed jungle of entrepreneurship. It is all about playing risk roulette. Each day as an entrepreneur can be a fresh surprise, a chance to pivot or innovate. it's exciting, it's invigorating, but also terrifying. It's like jumping out of a plane and hoping you remembered your parachute and that it opens.

 The next difference between a corporate mindset and an entrepreneurial mindset. Is the group groove versus the solo salsa. Corporate life is a team dance departments, committees, and group projects. There's always a buddy to brainstorm with or blame. You may even have layers of assistance to turn to but once you switch to the solo salsa of entrepreneurship, It is about you, your ideas, and an open dance floor. The good news is you call the shots. The bad news is you call the shots. There's no one else to hold accountable, but your lovely, hardworking self. 

 And the last difference between corporate and entrepreneur. Is fulfilling agendas versus crafting a vision. 

Working in corporate is kind of like being a really important cog in a giant well-oiled machine. You've got a specific role and agenda to fulfill and all of your tasks align with that. You're important, but you're not designing the entire blueprint for what's happening. But when you flip it to entrepreneurship, Suddenly, you're not just crafting a vision, but you're birthing an entire universe. Every decision, every strategy, every flop and success. It's all on you. It's about as close to playing God as most of us will ever get.  The quick verdict. the corporate mindset versus the entrepreneurial mindset. They're about as different as night and day, like comparing apples and kangaroos. But remember neither is better or worse. It's all about where you do your best work. And when you're considering this entrepreneurial rollercoaster, make sure it's a ride that you're loving and embrace the entrepreneurial mindset. It helps you dance better.

 So I know I'm sharing a lot of the real, real. And I often find that when I'm afraid, Just tell me the truth. It always helps allay my fears because at least then I know what I'm dealing with. It's the unknown that makes things feel bigger and meaner and worse. we've talked about a lot. I'm going to share my last strategy to help reduce fear and anxiety when you're leaving corporate to launch your own business.

 Strategy number three. You need your people. You need your support network. 

Let's get real, Entrepreneur life might seem all glitter and #bossbabe vibes on Instagram. I mean, who doesn't love a photo shoot in like a great suit and some beautiful heels? But behind the scenes, it's often more like 3:00 AM self-doubt sessions and wondering if you've lost your marbles. So here's what you do. Find mentors. Having a mentor is like having Beyonce in your corner, telling you how to hit those high notes in real life. They've been down the road, they've tripped on those potholes and they can show you the shortcuts. Not to mention it's someone to cry to when your launch flops or celebrate with when you hit that first six or even seven figures. 

 The next is joining entrepreneurial communities. Joining entrepreneurial communities like chief, for instance, it's like finding your tribe who gets your obsession with email open rates. They're your people, your been there done that confidant who won't judge when you say you've got a crush on your latest marketing funnel. 

 And then the last is leveraging relationships. This is not about using people.

It's about building genuine connections. Exchanging value and growing together. And once you have those relationships and you walk through your entrepreneurial life with those people, they will be the best friends that you have ever had because they will see you at your most triumphant and your most vulnerable. It's like that price list designer dress that once you've got it. You wonder how you ever lived without it? 

 And as you grow into your entrepreneurial identity, Always remember to consume what resonates with you. Leave behind what doesn't and never stop being your fabulous quirky unique self. 

 entrepreneurship can feel like a lonely journey, but it doesn't have to be. Having a strong support network gives you the reassurance that you are not alone in this.

now that you're armed with strategies to slay your entrepreneurial anxiety, it is time to take action. With actual resources. 

Picture this you're on a deserted island called entrepreneurship, who's going to throw you a lifeline? Well, I am, of course. Visit DawnAndrews.com/Mastermind and join the wait list for the executive transition mastermind program. It's like the golden ticket to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory for entrepreneurs. You'll surround yourself with other ambitious souls. Get the structured guidance you need; the handholding to go step by step from leaving corporate to launching and making sales. And you'll stop feeling like you're shouting into the void or Spinning in fear. 

It's time to step into your entrepreneurial power my friend, no more playing small. Go check it at DawnAndrews.com/Mastermind.

 Well there you have it my good woman. Today, we've learned how to take those scary jitters and turn them into confident strides. I know it's daunting but remember the most exciting chapters of our lives start with a single step into the unknown. And I promise it's going to be one hell of a ride. 

 So that's it for this week. As always thanks for being fabulous and tuning into the, My Good Woman podcast. Keep betting on yourself and remember that life is always more fun that way. I'm Dawn Andrews signing off. Catch you on the next episode.

Thank you for joining me this week. To view the complete show notes and all the links mentioned in today's episode, visit mygoodwoman.com.  And before you go, make sure you follow or subscribe to the podcast so you can receive fresh episodes when they drop. And if you're enjoying My Good Woman, leave us a review on Apple Podcast reviews are one of the major ways that Apple ranks their pods.

So even though it takes only a few seconds, it really does make a difference and helps our show grow. This episode was produced by me and Julissa Ramirez. Thank you again for joining me, Dawn Andrews in this episode of My Good Woman.