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 74: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Build Resilience For A Faster Recovery
Every entrepreneur faces setbacks - revenue dips, client losses, failed launches - but your ability to recover quickly is what truly defines your success. This episode dives deep into what I call your "comeback rate" - the speed at which you bounce back from business challenges without sacrificing your wellbeing.
As a fractional CFO, HR consultant, and single parent, I've learned firsthand that pushing through exhaustion doesn't work. The first course I launched that failed kept me from trying again for a full year - far too long! Through experience, I've discovered that improving your comeback rate isn't about becoming emotionally numb; it's about becoming emotionally resourced.
I share my practical three-part framework: Reflect (honestly observe what happened without shame), Regulate (process your emotions through movement, breathwork, or whatever helps your nervous system find balance), and Re-engage (take one brave step forward). This approach builds not just business resilience but deep self-trust. Rest isn't the opposite of resilience—it's actually required for it. When we honor our human needs first, we recover faster and make better decisions.
Your comeback rate is a muscle that strengthens with each repetition. Each time you navigate a setback using this oxygen-first approach, you increase your capacity for future challenges. Ready to strengthen your entrepreneurial resilience? Visit dotrockconsulting.com for resources including my Oxygen First hiring ROI calculator to help you make data-driven decisions about support. Remember: strong back, soft front - take a breath, take a break, then take one brave, messy step forward.
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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 podcast friends. Welcome back to another episode. This is the business episode, which you can use in your career, in your workplace or as an entrepreneur. As you know, I'm Dot Rock, I'm a fractional CFO, I'm a fractional HR consultant we say the holistic HR whisperer I am an adventurer, a pilot and I am a single, solo parent to a 12-year-old little boy. And what I'm saying with all of that is I navigate a lot in my daily life. I choose that. I also believe deeply in pouring into myself, into all of my dreams, my desires, and honoring my needs, and that's not traditionally aligned with running a business, but for me, I have found ways to make that work, and this podcast is about fusing the oxygen first principles into the workplace. So today we're going to just talk about something that every entrepreneur faces.
Speaker 1:I recorded a similar episode for my Tuesday episode, just on the personal side, but it's all about the comeback rate. Really, how you improve your comeback rate without sacrificing your nervous system, your values and your joy. Because the truth is every one of us, we're human. Every business hits bumps, revenue dips, clients ghost us, people don't pay us, launches, flop Courses don't work out, but your ability to come back, that's really the secret sauce, and if you can improve your comeback rate, you can really shift your business. It's all about pivoting as an entrepreneur. When your comeback rate is strong, you can build something even more powerful than momentum. You build resilience that feels good to live inside of. It feels good to be an entrepreneur when your comeback rate is high. So, again, comeback rate is how quickly and how clearly we recover from our setbacks, and it's not just about bouncing back, it's about how you feel bouncing back. Hopefully you don't need six months to regroup after a failed offer. Maybe at the beginning of your business you do. But if you want to be successful and if you want to feel good in your business, we've got to improve that comeback rate, because if you can honor your feelings, learn from those failures and shift within a week instead of six months, that's powerful. And no, the goal isn't to become emotionally numb, the goal is to become emotionally resourced.
Speaker 1:Right For me in my life, the first course I tried to launch that failed made me not touch another course for a year, and that is just too long. And now my comeback rate is a little bit better. I tweak what I already have. I keep moving forward. When I have a client that I lose, I immediately start looking for a more aligned client, and now I'm to the point where I fire clients that aren't aligned with me, so it's a quicker comeback rate.
Speaker 1:This is where the oxygen-first mindset really comes in. If you can't make a powerful comeback when you're depleted, that's like really trying to drive a car uphill with no gas. So you have to constantly be asking yourself okay, have I eaten today? Am I sleeping? Have I let my nervous system, actually feel what just happened and, let's be honest, have I rested? Because rest is not the opposite of resilience, it's actually a requirement. We have to rest, we have to honor that and then maybe the next day get back up and try again. High performance business owners really improve their comeback rate without burnout because they prioritize sleep, eating, fueling their bodies, honoring their desires, and not working all the time. When we prioritize our human needs, truth is, our comeback rate is just faster. So let's talk a little bit about a practical framework for improving your comeback rate. So here's one that I use with my clients One, let's reflect. Let's. Two, regulate and three, re engage. So, one, if we were reflecting, we'd ask what actually happened here in this failure, this so-called failure, like, remove shame and just observe, because maybe it's just pointing you somewhere else, right? So then, regulate, move your body, breathe, journal, do breath, work, cry, go on a walk, tap, go to the gym, spend time with friends or family. Let yourself regulate.
Speaker 1:I had a really intense phone call with my lawyer yesterday and my ex-husband over a business-related matter and it was intense for me just being in that. It went really well, I felt like, but just the feeling of it felt intense in my body and I needed to regulate. So I sat there. I sat in it for a few minutes and then I took the dog on a walk and then I went and got really healthy fuel and fueled my body right. I was like asking myself what do I need in this moment? And that's what I needed. I did not need to sit there and try to start working on the project that was due that day because there's no way it was going to get done in a efficient manner or productive manner. I needed to honor myself and then get back to it once I was self-regulated and then, after we reflect, after we regulate, we can re-engage, because once we're grounded, we can get curious, we can say what would I try next if I wasn't afraid? And then we can take one more step in that direction.
Speaker 1:You don't need a 30-point plan, you don't need it all mapped out. You just need one clear next move to the direction you're being called. Because remember, comeback. Your comeback rate is a muscle. It gets stronger over time. Each rep that we put in, each time we fail and choose to get back up in a kind of aligned way, we actually build self-trust in ourselves and when we trust ourselves in our business, we stop fearing failure, we start actually seeing it as redirection that we need, and we stop really hustling for approval and we really start taking braver steps. And that is how we build sustainable businesses. Okay, so today I'm just here to invite you to honor your next comeback, and not by pushing harder, but by actually softening first. Remember strong back, soft front, take a breath, take a break and then take one brave, messy step forward. That's all I have for you today.
Speaker 1:If this episode resonated, I'd love for you to share it with a friend who's in some kind of rebuilding season or needs to be reminded about their comeback rate. And if you're ready to improve your comeback rate with some fractional CFO or HR help, a little HR whisperer in your corner. You know exactly where to find me dotrockconsultingcom. And until next time, keep putting on your oxygen mask first. That can help you shift into understanding why hiring or just plain asking for support, can help you save precious resources and increase your time, your energy and your freedom, and they can help you delegate in your business and personally. And it's backed up by data. So head on over to dotrockconsultingcom to access the very first oxygen first hiring, return on investment calculator, you'll be able to finally hire with confidence, make some data-driven decisions, but also really shift into the mindset of receiving this support and how it's going to add to the bottom line of fulfillment and joy in your life.
Speaker 1:I hope you enjoy it. Thank you from the bottom line of fulfillment and joy in your life. I hope you enjoy it. 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.
