The Power of Oxygen 1st
When my son was little, I was a single mom who was doing it all alone. I was putting everyone else first and my own needs last. To everyone around me, I was successful but little did they know that my success was tied to pushing, stressing, sleepless nights and early morning workouts pushing my body and my limits to the extreme. Until one day I was flying alone and nearly crashed an airplane and I realized that I needed to take care of my own needs first before anyone else. You see, when you’re a pilot, if you have any issues in the plane, you put on your oxygen mask 1st, not your passengers. They need you to land the plane.
This podcast is all about this journey to healing, to getting clear on the desires of your heart… and stepping into them with courage while leaning into, asking for and receiving support. I hope you feel inspired to do less, to follow your passions and infuse them into your daily life and truly claim the life you were meant to live: a life filled to the brim with epic ADVENTURE.
The Power of Oxygen 1st
EP 68: What Nobody Tells You About Business Setbacks
Every entrepreneur faces that moment when things go sideways—when the launch flops, the numbers disappoint, or the year's revenue falls short of expectations. In this raw and honest episode, I open up about my own recent business setback that emerged while doing my taxes after a challenging year balancing divorce, my son's illness, and the inevitable business slowdown that followed.
These moments of perceived failure test us profoundly. They make us question our abilities, wonder if we're cut out for entrepreneurship, and can undermine years of confidence-building. But what separates successful business owners from those who don't make it isn't how often they fail—it's how they respond to those failures.
Drawing from personal experience and years of consulting with business owners, I share transformative strategies for rebuilding confidence after setbacks. You'll discover how to separate facts from feelings, why viewing failure as data rather than identity changes everything, and the critical importance of reconnecting with your "why" when momentum falters. The most powerful revelation? Confidence isn't built through constant success—it develops when we face uncertainty, take action despite fear, and learn we can handle whatever comes next.
Whether you're facing a minor business disappointment or recovering from a major setback, this episode provides the perspective and practical tools to bounce back stronger. Don't miss the introduction of my new Hiring ROI Calculator, designed to help you make data-driven decisions about delegation and support. Download it today at dotrockconsulting.com and transform how you approach getting the help you need to thrive in business and life.
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Hey guys, this is the Power of Oxygen First podcast, and I'm your host, dot Rock. I am an entrepreneur, a mom, a stepmom and a scaling consultant who is obsessed with the art of hiring, support and that dirty word we call delegation. I'm a recovering perfectionist who pushed my body and my limits to the extreme until one fateful day I learned that, just like pilots, I needed to take care of myself first. This podcast is all about the journey to healing, to getting clear on the desires of your heart, stepping into them with courage and leaning into and asking for support. I hope you feel inspired to do less, to follow your passions and infuse them into your daily life and truly claim the life you were meant to live. Well, hello my pod squatters. How are you doing today? Welcome back to the Power of Oxygen First, where we talk about what it really takes for us to thrive in business and in life.
Speaker 1:I'm your host, dot, and today we're tackling a new little topic. It's a tough one, but it's what happens when things just don't go as planned in your business, when your launch flops, when the deal falls through, when the numbers don't add up, when you look back at the year and you realize you didn't make as much money as you thought you would and we feel like we've failed. I just had that moment this last week. I was doing my taxes and you know it was a tough year with a divorce and Dominic being so sick. I really didn't work very much. I didn't take on new clients, I didn't finish some of the projects I wanted to. It was all consuming to do my trash bag move and, quite honestly, it's been a little bit of a hit to my self-confidence in my business because it feels a little bit like things fell apart because they did. And you know it's okay. It's okay to question ourselves after we feel like we have these setbacks. It's okay to feel like maybe we're not cut out for this.
Speaker 1:But confidence isn't just built in success. I want to remind you, like when we have our kids playing sports, it's not about the wins, it's the losses that actually teach them more. I don't want my son on the team that wins every championship. I actually want him to experience loss, loss. I want him to experience second place, because it makes them work harder, and it does the same in our businesses. It's our business are built on how we rise after things don't go the way that we want them to. Our personal lives are the same. We're built in the areas that flop because we have to rise. So I want you to think about what and why setbacks can often shake our confidence. It's because business comes with risk and risk is full of uncertainty and we tie our confidence to outcomes. When things go well, we feel capable, and when things don't go well, we question everything. But failure isn't personal, it's just part of the process. Confidence isn't about never failing. It's actually about knowing you can handle whatever comes next, that you will.
Speaker 1:Pivot Pivoting is what keeps people in business. So there's a lot of power in reframing what we see as failures these launches that don't go well, the courses we build that don't go well, the clients that we didn't like working with clients that we didn't like working with. Every successful entrepreneur has failed, and the difference between a successful one and an unsuccessful one is that they don't let that failure to find them. They see it as data, not as their identities, and they use it to learn. They use it to do things differently next time. We have to let the stories we tell ourselves about failure help us determine how to move forward and not keep us stuck.
Speaker 1:So how do we really rebuild with confidence after a setback in business? Let's really separate number one the facts from the feelings. Facts let's say, the product launch just didn't meet its goal and it makes me feel like I suck at this. I'm not good at this. I am a failure, I'm not enough. And the truth is one outcome does not define our ability. The number of people who show up at your workshop does not define your ability. In fact, if only one shows up, if no one shows up, maybe you still got to practice, maybe you got to refine things. I can't tell you how many workshops I've had with hardly anyone show up. I've still learned things. We have to find the lesson and adjust.
Speaker 1:Business is an experiment. Life is an experiment. Test, tweak it, try again, keep going, keep pivoting. The most successful people in business keep pivoting Because confidence grows when we take action despite uncertainty. We have to pause and reconnect to our why. Why did this start? Well, why did I start my business? And then we have to remind ourselves actually we're playing the long game. I started my business to spend more time with Dominic and it does absolutely that for me. I started my business because I wanted to help change other people's relationship with leaning into support and leaning into taking care of themselves first, in their business and in their personal lives. And I'm doing that. But I'm playing the long game here. I have to surround myself with support, because confidence isn't built in isolation. It's built with mentors, peers, our teams, our virtual assistant and coaches who can help us. Offer help, offer us just very different perspectives than what we would come up with ourselves.
Speaker 1:Resilience really builds stronger businesses. It is why most successful business owners aren't the ones who never fail, they're the ones who just don't quit. So don't quit. When you learn to trust yourself after setbacks, you really become unstoppable. That's how I see this. Last year it was a setback, but I'm going to let it propel me forward, because self-confidence is not all about knowing that I know how to do it. It's about knowing I will figure it out, that, no matter what happens, we'll figure this out.
Speaker 1:The goal is not to avoid failure, it's just to get better at recovering from it. So if you're feeling upset, low self-confidence, I get it. I'm there with you. But let's keep moving forward. Let's keep taking messy action and take a moment to remind yourself I am capable, I am resilient and I am still in the game, and if you need any help, feel free to reach out to me to help you navigate your business challenge. Or if you need support, if you want to help hire a team, let's connect. You can find me on Instagram, dot underscore rock underscore, or at dot rock consulting dot com. But most of all, I just care if you remember one thing the power of oxygen first taking care of yourself, first in your business, because when you take care of you, your business follows. You're magnetic and things will fall in place.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, am I excited to share this new hiring return on investment calculator freebie that I have been working on for about six months. You're probably thinking what the heck is a return on investment? Well, that's when we take our revenue minus our expenses and calculate it's how much return we get by investing in something. I've applied this very masculine concept to hiring and to the art of receiving support. And so what this little tool does that you can just go and download from my webpage, dot rock consulting dot com. What you can do is go and download this and use curiosity 15 minutes total of your time. Go through this tool and it's going to help you make a little bit of data-driven decision making around hiring and why it can help you in either your personal or professional life. You don't have to be an entrepreneur, but you could be an entrepreneur and it's going to help you understand the impact hiring or delegating more or handing off more tasks, or even not spending any money on this and simply asking for more support how that could change your life.
Speaker 1:I'm excited about this freebie and I hope you will go check it out. Download it dotrockconsultingcom Enjoy. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to another episode of the power of oxygen first podcast. I hope you walk away feeling inspired to do less, to follow your passions and infuse them into your daily life and truly claim the life you were meant to live, and I hope that you start leaning into the art of receiving support. I'm here to support you on that journey. Find me at dotrockconsultingcom or dot underscore rock underscore on Instagram. I'd love it if you'd go follow me and shoot me a quick DM and let me know what takeaway from this episode hit you the hardest, sending you love and adventures on this beautiful day.
