Building the Business of You

Every day you are either building up or breaking down.

Your body and your mind, are your business. And you're the one responsible for making that business work.

Your actions make that business succeed or fail.

Everything that happens, is because of you. It's your business, and you need to build it to succeed.

Over the past few months, I've been building my business. I mean all the parts. My actual business, Snowbeast Performance, but also my personal business. My body, my mind, and my family.

It's been bumpy, it was actually scary at a time, but it's been exciting and purposeful, and that is part of my road to happiness and success.

Starting with the actual business, I've been growing in clients and visits steadily. I've approached just about my capacity to operate as a solopreneur, and I need help if I'm going to continue to deliver to more people, and have a greater impact in my community. I need to start investing in an asset that will make me quicker, more productive, and physically healthier with better rest, workouts, and stress management. I need to hire.

This is a new endeavor for me. I've never actually hired someone. I've been involved in the process, but it was never my decision before. Nor was it my risk, or responsibility. This is a landmark event in a business, and I'm in the thick of it!

This is a time for business growth, but it is also a time for personal growth. Anytime you grow in life, it accents all the abilities you already have.

If those abilities haven't grown, and aren't supported, then the business will collapse. It seems like this would be a spot for a good analogy, but I don't know one.

What I do know, is that I wouldn't be able to move to this point of business growth if I wasn't already paralleling the journey with personal growth.

I know that I wouldn't be setting new work PRs if I hadn't already grown into the person and provider I am. I couldn't do this years, months, or even weeks ago. I wasn't a person that was capable.

I've had to grow quite a bit personally to support the business goals I have.

Backing up six weeks ago, I had a concerning event happen.

I didn't tell many people about this, but I had a panic attack. That's a first for me, and it is not a good experience. I feel for the people that experience them with any frequency. Here's the story.

I was at home on a Thursday night, awake by myself as I normally aim after 9pm. I was feeling relieved that I did not have any work that needed to be done. I usually am working later into the evening, but this day, I felt good about what was done and nothing needed to be thought about. I was looking forward to relaxing, stretching out, and sitting quietly. I felt like this was the first time in months that I felt this way.

I sat on the floor and felt slightly off. Just a bit, but noticeable. It started to spread through my body, but I couldn't describe it. Not pain, not numb, not warm, not cold, not any of the dozen more descriptions I ask people about.

I quickly settled myself into calm breathing. That's a thing for me when I'm feeling stressed. I'll try to get my breath under control so it can help me think clearly and react best. I don't know how I learned it, but I've always done that since I was a kid. I now know it's a validated practice, but it's something I learned intuitively.

When I'm in a calm mental state I feel that I can assess my body best.

My mind is the CEO of my business, and my body has multiple departments.

The right shoulder department. The left knee department. The vision department. The balance department. All sorts of departments. The CEO needs to keep calm and rational, while it gets reports from all the departments. My mind decides what to do with that information, and how to react.

As I start scanning my body and my symptoms to determine what's going on, I realize that I don't know what's going on.

I can feel everything. I can move everything. I can see, hear, and talk normally. My balance is normal. I can walk and jump, although I don't want to. It doesn't sound like a stroke or even a TIA.

I don't have any chest pain. No throbbing. Nothing uncomfortable in my arm. It doesn't sound like it's my heart.

I've got my breath under control, but it does feel odd. It doesn't seem to be respiratory though.

It's not blood sugar. It's not fatigue. It's not medication. It's not anything I can think of.

It lasts 75 minutes in total. 20 minutes of it was intense. I go up to bed, tell my wife I just had something happen, but I'm fine, and I go to sleep.

The next day, I wake up, feel mostly normal, but soon into the day realize I'm exhausted.

It took a day for me to realize that it was a panic attack.

It took me just minutes after that to realize it was a wake-up call to change what I was doing.

I was building the business Snowbeast Performance so quickly, that building my body and mind weren't keeping up to support it. I have to build up the business of me if I don't want that to happen again. And I don't!

This event happened at a time that I had been working longer hours, spending less time with my family, missing workouts over and over, neglecting sleep more than ever, and generally feeling uncomfortable throughout the day. It happened slowly over time though, and I didn't even notice it until this event.

To get back on track, I had to start with a few basics.

I needed to block out more family time, have better boundaries on my working times, and actively try to get more sleep. The workouts became intentional activity during family time. More kid carrying. More treading water when we swim. More crawling like a bear when we play. Also, two minutes of meditation a day. Only two minutes, but every day.

Would you believe what happened next? I started working fewer hours, spent more time with my family, and reached new high marks for Snowbeast Performance.

By actually working less and living more, I had my most successful month in business.

Who would have thought?

This has allowed me to think clearer and make better decisions for my health, but also for the health of the actual business. This lets me grow the business to include another person that can help us impact more lives with healthy outdoor activity. It's the next step toward a better business. Toward a better me.

I've been working on the business of me for three years now. Obviously, you're always doing that throughout life, but I mean intentional daily tasks that work toward a better self.

I'm talking about having a plan, having a strategy, and having accountability to execute on building a better self.

When I had a panic attack, I saw that as an opportunity to recognize what I need, and to take that experience as motivation to change the direction I was headed. We all have moments that we can use as guiding points, but how often do we lose track of it, only to be drawn back toward the problem?

When you have the opportunity, (and it's every single day), you can build a better business.

You've always been in charge of your own business, and the way it operates, the way it succeeds, are reflections from the CEO down to all the departments.

Your mind, your choices, are what determine if your business succeeds or fails.

Your business needs attention and focus to grow.

Find something you're good at, and keep doing that. For me, it was breathing.

Find something you're bad at, and get good at it. For me, it was time boundaries.

Find the support that you need, so you can build all the parts of the business of you.

For me, it was my wife. It was my kids. It's my coaching group. It's my daily rituals. It's going to be my new hire.

By building my own business, by building my own self, I have grown into a better husband, father, colleague, and human. By having intention toward this over time, I am now more available for my family, more available for my clients, and more available for my community.

By working on being a better me, I am being better for all of you.

This is part of our deeper mission. This is why we do what we do. This is the business of me.

What about you? What's your business looking like?