Episode 592: 5 Ways to Deal With the Entrepreneurial Envies (Mindset & Self-Care)

EBT592 – 5 Ways to Deal With the Entrepreneurial Envies

Intro  00:01

Hey food bloggers. Thank you so much for joining me in this mindset and self-care focused episode here on Eat Blog Talk. One of the reasons I started a blog talk was to hold a space to talk about the importance of mindset and self-care. Being an entrepreneur can be a lot. If we are not taking care of ourselves, then getting actionable information about SEO Pinterest or whatever else is all moot. I will meet you back here every Wednesday to discuss various mindset and self-care topics. So you have the energy and space to tackle the rest.

Sponsor (Brittany Roche)  00:36

Hey, food bloggers have you always wanted to diversify your income with brand partnerships but don’t want to feel gross and salesy or maybe you’re just overwhelmed by all the advice out there about working with brands and don’t even know where to start. I’m Brittany Roche, a food blogger at PlantPowerCouple.com and a blogging coach who focuses specifically on helping bloggers like you build a system for working with brands that helps them reach their business goals, but also feels natural and genuine to them. Whether you’re looking to make brand partnerships a consistent part of your monthly revenue or just want to have a solid system in place that you can pull out of your back pocket. Anytime you see your RPMs take a hit and you need to bring in some extra income. My three month goal and mindset based coaching and support program can help you break through your own mental barriers and start making it happen. If you have any questions about coaching or want to sign up just send me an email at [email protected] That’s Brittany with two T’s A N Y You can also sign up for my free weekly blogging email for brand work focus tips, ideas, motivation and support by going to plantpowercouple.com/coaching. Thanks for taking time out of this episode to listen back to you, Megan.

Megan Porta  01:46

Hello, food bloggers. How are you today? Welcome to the self care and mindset focused episode of eat blog talk. In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about five ways to deal with the entrepreneurial envies This space we’re in is a very competitive one, meaning there are 1000s upon 1000s, probably 10s of 1000s upon 10s of 1000s, or even more than that, hundreds of 1000s, I don’t know. Anyway, there’s a lot of us food bloggers vying for Google rankings, top Pinterest searches, traffic, revenue, landing brand sponsorship deals and so on. It is really easy to get in the mindset of seeing one another as direct competitors. When I think of the word competitor, I think it’s me versus them. One of us has to win and one of us has to lose. In food blogging, it’s not like that, though. It does not need to be this way. In fact, it’s so much more about collaborating and connecting than it is about competing with other food bloggers. I was thinking the other day about actors and how there are so many successful actors out there and actresses who are talented and lovely and just loved by people who watch their movies and or their shows, while technically they do compete with each other when landing roles, there is also space for every single actor and actress in existence to shine in his or her own unique way. For example, the wittiness and likability of Robert Downey Jr does not detract a bit from how funny and likable Ryan Reynolds is, right? There’s space for both of them. In fact, I can’t imagine Hollywood without either of them and so many others. I think this same concept applies to food bloggers. There is space for all of us to shine in our own unique ways. We all have gifts, talents, skills, personalities and stories that make us uniquely unique. There’s nothing or nobody who can replace you, ever, never, ever. That is a super cool thought so embracing what makes you uniquely you and allowing others to be uniquely them gives you space to shine, gives everyone else space to shine, and fosters a positive environment of community support and collaboration. Feeling envious or jealous of others can send you into a spiral of self doubt, fear, worry, anxiety, all of those negative things that bring us down. None of these things will fare well for your business or for your soul. Learning how to transform envy into support and love will fare well for your business and for your soul. There is space for you. You deserve to be here. It doesn’t matter what anyone else is doing around you. What matters is what you are doing and how you are showing up for your people. So let’s talk through five ways to deal with the entrepreneurial envies. 

Megan Porta  04:54

Number one, change your mindset: collaboration over competition. This teeny, tiny mindset tweak needs to happen first and foremost, and it’s a pretty simple one. Instead of thinking of or talking about other food bloggers or just entrepreneurs in general as your competition, start thinking about them and talking about them as though they were your teammates. We’re all on the same team. We’re all rising together. We’re all trying to score the same goals together. The more we act like teammates, the faster our businesses are going to grow. If we were on a soccer team together, for example, trying to score a goal on the same side of the field, would we do best when working together or working against each other. Of course, we’d do better when working together, right? We’d help each other out. We would have one another’s backs. We’d pass the ball to one another, cheer each other on, and we’d offer a hand if one of our teammates fell. It’s a no brainer. I have lived in a mindset of competition. I did it for a lot of years, and guess where it got me? I didn’t experience growth. I have never felt so alone as I did during that time. It was not a shining time in my business, and it was a long stretch for me. I validated my view at the time, saying that I didn’t need anyone else. I felt envious of a lot of people during that time, and I avoided connecting with others in our space because of that envy, this was a huge disservice to my business. You are an important player on a really cool team known as food blogging. Play like you’re a part of the team. Treat others like they are valuable parts of the team, we are all in this together, this journey called food blogging. So start seeing other food bloggers and entrepreneurs as your teammates, and stop seeing them as people you are competing with. Collaboration over competition all day long. 

Megan Porta  06:58

Number two, celebrate and support others with a generous spirit. Once you make that tiny mindset tweak, you can start celebrating your teammates. This can feel really hard and weird, especially if you’ve never done it before. After I pulled myself out of my competitive stupor years ago and got to know a few of my fellow food bloggers, I realized how smart and talented and just awesome they all were. I truly was in total awe of them, smart, talented and awesome people deserve to be celebrated. This can be something you do outwardly or inwardly, or preferably both. I will never forget the time we were in Montana for our yearly summer RV trip, when I was in the checkout line in Walmart. I was browsing the magazines next to me as I waited to check out, and I noticed that a prominent blogger that everyone knows had her own freaking magazine, my first knee jerk reaction was to start feeling the envies creep in, but I remember stopping myself, and I had two distinct thoughts that I still remember to this day. The first was I imagined how exciting this must have been for this person to get their own magazine. I felt so much happiness for them. And the second thought was, if they could reach incredible heights like this, then so could I, so could all of us. It feels so good to have happiness for others, also by seeing what others are capable of accomplishing, we raise our own standards and beliefs and what we can accomplish. It’s a total win win. There’s really no downside here, if you landed your very own magazine that was displayed in every grocery store in the country, wouldn’t you want people to celebrate along with you? Of course you would. So do that for others. Celebrate others as much as possible, both in your head and outwardly, tell people who celebrate wins of their own how much they inspire you and how happy you are for them. Get into the habit of doing this, and this magic thing happens, where good things start happening to your business. That generous spirit really does come back to you in dividends. 

Megan Porta  09:13

Number three, celebrate you. I think that a lot of the reason people feel those entrepreneurial envys is because they might feel like others are doing such cool, successful, awesome things and that they aren’t. It’s that mindset that other people’s traffic, revenue, page views, followers, fun projects, etc, are doing well, and mine are not. First of all, I promise that other people are looking at you with envy about something, so keep that in mind. Secondly, if you sit down and evaluate your own success, your own numbers, projects, etc, that you will see that you have so much to celebrate yourself. Take just 15 minutes with a blank piece of paper or a Google Doc. And write these words, I celebrate these wins that I have accomplished in the past year. And just start writing some examples. My page views have increased by 25,000 or maybe even just 1000 that’s something to celebrate. My Instagram followers have gone up by 1000 or 200 or 20. I finished two email opt ins that are performing well. My email subscribers have gone up to over 250 or 250,000.

Megan Porta  10:30

I signed up for an in person retreat. I signed up for a conference. I went to a conference, I went to a retreat. I achieved most of my goals this quarter and on and on. You might be surprised about how much you have to celebrate and how much you have accomplished once you start writing. Do this exercise regularly for a great boost of confidence, also to show yourself that you are awesome. You rock. You are taking action and you are making waves. 

Megan Porta  10:57

Number four, own your story. Every single time a food blogger says to me, but so and so got into MediaVine in six months, or some other version of how an equally talented entrepreneur achieved things more quickly, or in a way that appeared, quote, easy, I respond with great. That’s awesome. That’s their story. It’s not your story. Everyone has a story. I feel so passionately about this topic. Every food blogger brings a unique set of talents and skills and perspective to their journey that literally writes their own unique book. Some people have marketing backgrounds or web design skills, or are professional writers or photographers when they start food blogging on day one, some people start their journeys with an advantage, and others just start, maybe without any extra skills, or perhaps even with a lack of experience in a lot of the different pieces of food blogging. Some people have full time jobs in addition to being a food blogger, along with a bunch of children and a spouse and a home and pets. Others might not work outside the home, and maybe they don’t have a partner or children. Some people are dealing with illnesses or disabilities, or they might have children with illnesses or disabilities. My point is that you just never know what is going on behind the scenes or what led up to the point where each food blogger is at. Don’t ever make assumptions about somebody else’s journey. People share their stories of envy with me all the time, and one of the common themes is x blogger and I started at the same time, and look where they are and the hidden messages look where I’m not it’s like comparing apples and oranges. Blogger journeys cannot be compared ever. The story that you are writing about your blogging business makes you uniquely you. It provides you with the lessons that only you need to experience. Embrace this. When I look back on my own blogging journey, I could point to so many points on my timeline that at the time felt like a complete disaster or a totally negative thing that happened at the time or didn’t happen. Now, with some perspective, I can see that those times absolutely 100% needed to happen. They led to exact challenges and exact lessons that prompt me to do things such as start Eat Blog Talk and start a mastermind program and take leaps of faith in my business. Really owning our stories is such an important piece of the puzzle, it gives us immunity against those feelings of envy when they start to creep in. 

Megan Porta  13:37

Number five, immerse yourself. This one was hard for me. A few years ago, putting myself into the center of the people who I once thought were competitors seemed totally crazy. I had to force myself to do things like attend in person, conferences and other events. Honestly, you guys, I had to force myself to start this podcast, these things and so many other things, felt extremely scary to me at the time. Once I did them, though, it gave me an opportunity to get to know these, quote, competitors I had been avoiding for so long, and to see that they were actually lovely, smart, kind humans who were all just doing the same thing I was doing. In a nutshell, food bloggers are freaking awesome people. They are supportive, kind, intelligent, totally badass, driven people who you can’t help but love. Once you experience this, you’ll never see anyone in this community as a you versus me competitor ever again. A food blogger friend asked me a question a while ago that stuck in my mind. She said, a good friend of mine is ranking for XYZ recipe, but I was thinking of trying to rank for that keyword. Should I stay away from it? My response was, heck no, no way. Don’t stay away from it. I have friends who outrank me for keywords I want to higher a position for, and I outrank some friends for keywords they want to higher a position for. There are no hard feelings. I’m happy for my friends who outrank me. I encourage people to go for any keyword they want to write about and that aligns with their niche. Immerse yourself in this community and these things will not bother you anymore. And here’s a little tip, if you are struggling with the envys about someone in particular, if there is someone you’re particularly envious of, reach out to them. I challenge you to do that today. Befriend them. Tell them how much they inspire you. Extend some sort of invitation to them. If you feel inspired, I bet you will end up liking them, and you will eventually start cheering them on, and those envys will decrease. 

Megan Porta  15:47

That is all I have for this episode. Let’s recap the five ways to deal with the entrepreneurial envys. Number one, change your mindset, collaboration over competition. Number two, celebrate and support others with a generous spirit. Number three, celebrate you. Number four, own your story, and number five, immerse yourself. Remember there is plenty of space for all of us to shine uniquely and brilliantly in this food blogging community. Let’s support each other so we can grow as a community, grow as individuals, and do so with a spirit of collaboration versus competition. Thank you for listening. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week, and I will see you back here next time. 

Outro  16:28

Thank you so much for listening to this mindset and self-care episode here on Eat Blog Talk. If you are a food blogger providing a service for other food bloggers, and you want to spread the word about the value that you offer. I would love to offer you a free way to do just this. Send me a 60 second audio clip to be featured in a mindset and self-care episode here on Eat Blog Talk in 2024. Go to eatblogtalk.com/audioclip to learn more.