Building Again after Failure

Everyday Courage with Jillian Johnsrud

Two years after starting a business and excited about the enormous growth opportunities on the horizon, Christine Wheatley had to shut everything down. Was it worth it?

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When Christine started, A Little Local Flavor in downtown Nashville she was like all new business owners, excited about her great idea but facing her own imposter syndrome in light of the 136 other tour companies in the area. Her superpower to bridge the confidence gap was knowing that this new endeavor didn’t have to be her sole source of income.

Success isn’t a straight line. It takes a lot of experimenting, and sorting through your personal finances helps. You don’t have to have complete financial freedom, but:

“Have some financial runway with your business so you can try different things.”

There will be growing pains. You can’t know the perfect plan before your start. But, you will learn while doing the work (Learn more about how confidence and clarity come in the doing in Jillian’s book, Fire the Haters).

Christine emphasizes that the growing pains are worth it! Learning to be flexible and to trust yourself to overcome challenges helps you grow into your identity.

This wisdom didn’t come without its own price. Having dealt with her business’s growing pains and ready to take on the next season, Christine was excited! Until the pandemic.

“I shut everything down. It was awful.

I had no income.

I had to furlough my team.”

There is no guidebook on watching your business crash because of a global pandemic. You can plan for a recession, but how do you prepare for an immediate loss of all your business?

However, Christine pushes back against the fear that might prevent someone from starting a business.

“Do not ever not start a business because of what you’ve seen happen to hundreds of thousands of small businesses during the pandemic.”

When faced with her own introspective question, “Was it worth it?” instead of seeing all the hard things, she was met with a montage of all the good: happy people, her fantastic team, and the person she had become through it all.

“Even if I never reopened, I would never trade that.”

She is reopening, A Little Local Flavor and has a new superpower she is bringing into her business: fearlessness. She knows she can weather the storm, and she knows it’s always worth the effort, growing pains, and learning that come with any good adventure and endeavor.