When Met With Resistance by BOSS Member Miji Hope
Sometimes I am fortunate to have moments of pure silence; it doesn’t happen regularly. Between running a full-time business, loving my new Husband and the proudly performed sounds from my precocious, Mommy-mocking two year old daughter, one can see why quiet times are NEVER.
But silence does visit, and when she does I am able to refocus, gather my thoughts and reflect. Every time I have a chance to reflect, I enter into ateach. Ateach is a mindset, a place I go that puts things, life into perspective. I call it ateach, because this place allows me to separate myself from myself and look onto my current situation and learn from it… in turn making it a self-inflicted ‘teaching’ moment. Often times, ateach leads me into a thrust creating a yearning for knowledge and information to supports or bring light to whatever it is that I am experiencing, which brings me to the subject of this column…
When met with resistance.
When I began Premium Public Relations World in August of 2009, I was in my last year at Tennessee State University. Because I was more concerned with creating the business, my main focuses were the logistics and legalities of the company. Now thinking back, I didn’t announce it or ‘launch’ it, I just sort of started.
After graduation, I began to get the hang of things. I set up shop in my home-office and held down the fort full-time, working 16-18 hours a day; both on the business and in the business. I get excited just thinking about that summer of 2010, when I announced that we were going to revamp and breathe some new life into ourselves; we even hired an Executive Assistant!!
As the transition from summer to fall took place, it occurred to me that we were in serious need of repositioning and rebranding. The longer I spent in the industry the more I saw changes that needed to be made in order to stay afloat and compete in the ever evolving marketplace. So our team began to prepare to make the change at the beginning of the 2011 year. We were rolling out a new website, branding materials, logo, and brand messaging, hosting our first seminar in Chicago and still working with our current clients. I remember vividly how our team would camp out in my living room, working 24hour days on a few occasions. We were focused!!
January 1, 2011 our new brand was born; Premium World Brand Management, Where we teach, lead and challenge; our team our clients our people YOUR brand… IT’s A PREMIUM WORLD! Our new message was well received or profits sky rocketed. There was so much business, that we were on the brink of being filled to capacity!
My point…
When a business is new, or in our case seems new, everyone wants to play a part and try it. This is normal when you start a business or launch a new product. This is an exciting time; it’s the pre-game, a celebratory experience. The adrenaline rush of it all keeps you up for 24hours at a time, working! I’m sure if you’ve ever been in a similar situation you can relate. The ascension and that peak that many entrepreneurs experience can be best visualized by thinking of a mountain hike. The climb is the fun part, but what happens when you have to descend?
The mountain-valley paradigm is one that is experienced by independent professionals everywhere! The valley or the “dip” as Seth Godin describes it is common in every profession and necessary to experience success. In that “dip” we are met with resistance, self-doubt, fatigue and sometimes external opposition. Everyone who ever grew to great has experienced countless “dips” and been faced with unimaginable amounts of resistance.
When you find yourself in a valley, be patient and counter that resistance with consistent pushing towards your goals and objectives. The constant opposition to the resistance will eventually offset it, creating enough momentum to allow you to climb again. Most entrepreneurs and independent professionals don’t make it through because of the “dip”. Today I challenge you to make a choice to continue on while looking forward to the next climb!!
Miji Pearse-Hope is a new wife to a Memphis born foodie, her business partner and mother to Yoruba Princess. She is the founder of Premium World Brand Management, operating within the firm as the Principal Consultant. She works with entrepreneurs, independent professionals and small to medium sized businesses as a brand coach and advisor, assisting them with their brand’s design, position, perception and personality. To contact Miji for a consultation email her at miji.pearse@thepremiumworld.com.
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