What to Say When Friends and Family Question Your Progress

It’s hard enough not putting pressure on yourself and your business progress, but when friends and family start questioning it, it can make you experience a range of emotions and thoughts too.

Whether you’re feeling pressured about your decision to quit your job and follow your passion or your friends or family members are expressing their worry about you not being as far as along as you should – it’s hard not feeling upset.

So what should you do or say if AND when it comes up? (and YES, I do me WHEN, because let’s be honest, we know it’s going to come up)

Recently a client told me that someone close to them felt compelled to give them unsolicited advice and feedback about their business and shared that they weren’t exactly too happy to hear it and didn’t know how to handle it. 

“Jeannie, what would you do? How would you handle it?” 

First it’s important to remember that most of the time our friends and family are coming to us out of concern – concern for our well-being and hope that their advice may in fact help us succeed in our business.

Sometimes it can be done for other reasons – possibly because of jealousy, fear, or lack of understanding of what we’re doing and why we’re doing it to begin with.

But no matter their reason for sharing their thoughts and feedback about our business development progress – when it happens, you need to figure out how you’ll handle it.

Now listen, if you’ve quit your job and you’re not effectively growing your business, i.e., you’re not generating enough revenue and you’re not focused on activities that are going to help you grow – then I DO think you need to have a reality check with yourself. You may in fact need to hear that you need to make some changes to grow your business.

However if you’re strategically growing your business, focused on effective marketing and business tasks that will generate revenue and you ARE starting to see growth (maybe not as fact as everyone else might like, but growth nonetheless)- then keep going, keep taking action and if necessary – ramp up your efforts even more. 

And then tell those “well-meaning” friends and family members “Thank YOU! Thank you for your concern. Thank you for your desire to help. Thank you for your advice. I’m seeing progress and making great strides every day, but I’ll be certain to reach out if I feel I need more support in any way”. 

Remember, sometimes we need to surround ourselves with those who fan our flames vs. extinguish our fire. Sometimes that doesn’t always come from those we love because they’re not in the ring with us and really don’t understand what it’s like inside this world of entrepreneurship.

So you’ve got a choice, let their “well-meaning” advice and feedback take you down or lift you up.

But at the end of the day what’s most important is that you take strategic action to develop your business and get the appropriate advice and feedback you need to help you navigate your journey to success and profitability.

And when you get there and reach those milestones you so desire you’ll be able to celebrate with those you love and allow them to share in your success.

Now it’s your turn. Are most of the people in your life supportive of you and your entrepreneurial journey? Or do you sometimes feel like no one gets you and why you’re on this crazy ride? I’d love to hear your comments below.

PS: And if you’re wanting to have a down to earth conversation about your business, your goals and how to grow it strategically, schedule a FREE Strategy Session here.