Meagan Kerlin

Whether you are pursuing a specific goal in your career, starting a business or simply trying to work on personal development, your mental toughness will have a direct impact on your success. The road to whatever achievement you are pursuing will be fraught with challenges, and you need to be sure that you have the mental and emotional conditioning to meet them head on and deal with these unexpected situation appropriately. Mental toughness does not come easily to everyone, and it may not be something you think you have, but it is something that you can improve and develop over time.

Success is never something that comes easy, no matter how attainable the goal or easy the plan may seem in the beginning. There will be setbacks, frustrations and variables that you never saw coming. Like people who train for marathons, you don’t just wake up one morning and decide to be mentally tough; it takes times and training. If one of your ways to prepare for what lies ahead is to build mental toughness, how do you go about reaching this particular self-improvement goal? The following practices can help you in your endeavor to build your mental strength:

• Express gratitude
• Build accountability for your actions
• Work on effective communication
• Challenge yourself
• Read and educate yourself whenever possible
• Work on other areas of self-improvement
• Make plans and be prepared

The mentally tough are the ones who don’t balk at unexpected challenges. They are those who meet challenges head-on, deal with these things in an effective way and move on. Many times, actually putting mental toughness into practice is easier than said or done. In fact, it can be quite a painful process. Like training for a marathon, you can only get there one mile at at a time — one challenge at a time.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

For many, fear is one of the great hindrances of life. Whether it’s in your personal life or your professional life, fear can hold you back and keep you anchored to the status quo, specifically fear of rejection. Rejection is really never fun. It can be hurtful and disheartening, and even the thought of rejection may keep you from ever taking the next step, no matter what it is. While the thought of failure is frightening, you may be encouraged to note that some of the most successful ideas ever presented to the world were first met with rejection.

Authors, inventors, innovators, visionaries and entrepreneurs — almost all of the ones you know by name and who have achieved success experienced at least one crushing rejection in their journeys. No one is immune to it; chances are you will experience it at some point. What will set you apart from everyone else is what you choose to do next.

Sometimes, big ideas take awhile to catch on. If you choose entrepreneurship, your path to success will be lined with setbacks, frustrations and failures. You have to decide if the fear of experiencing these things is enough to keep you from moving forward and pursuing your dreams anyway. Despite rejection, you may feel certain that your idea is destined to succeed at some point — don’t let go of that belief, even if you hear “no” once, twice or multiple times before you get there.

One of the most valuable things to learn as an entrepreneur is channeling both the fear of and rejection itself into something positive. Use these things to help you evaluate, improve and become even more certain of your idea. You can’t let fear govern your business decisions or how you pursue your goals. You have to harness it and let propel you onward and upward.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

Perhaps you’ve already started a business. Perhaps it’s going well. You are creating new leads, seeing growth in multiple areas, and hopefully, you’re even turning a profit. To get to this point, you likely invested hundreds of hours dreaming, planning, working and sweating the details of making your business work. Now that you are seeing that you do have a workable business plan, what’s next? Chances are, you are still very much involved in the day-to-day operations of your business. Whether you are afraid to step away for even a few hours or the thought hasn’t yet occurred to you, you may need to consider the concept of self-sufficiency for your business and how that would work in your life.

While there are many benefits to owning and operating your own business, there are sacrifices that come with that decision as well. In a sense, you may be married to your business, but there comes a point where self-sufficiency may not only be good for you — it could be good for your business. Having a self-sustaining business means a few things for you personally….a chance to take a day off, or even take a full vacation for crying out loud. It means your business is healthy enough to survive without you for a few hours, which is great news in case you ever get sick, have a family emergency or need a mental health day. It also speaks volumes about the benefit to hiring, properly training and retaining quality employees.

You may need to consider how you can establish some semblance of self-sufficiency if any of the following apply to your current situation:

• You feel compelled to make every single decision for your business, even the minor ones.
• You feel stress and anxiety at the thought of taking even just one day off.
• You are unsure of the capability of your employees to manage unexpected situations in your absence.
• Your business has had a negative impact on the quality of your personal life.

When your business is self-sufficient to some degree, it doesn’t mean that you are “coasting” or can fall into a state of complacency; it simply means that you have worked hard and have successfully established your business to the point where it will not fall to pieces in your absence. Not many people talk about the importance of self-sufficiency, but if you are an entrepreneur, you would be wise to consider adding that to your list of goals for the future.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

You’ve seen businesses fail and start-ups die almost as soon as they’ve begun, and it can cause you to doubt your own plans and ideas. For entrepreneurs or soon-t0-be entrepreneurs, the foundation of a successful business venture is a good, novel or timely idea. You may be holding back because you have concerns about whether your idea is really good enough to make it. How can you really know if what you want to do is something that can succeed? Here are a few questions to ask yourself in order to know if your business idea is truly a good idea:

• Is it needed? Be honest with yourself about the purpose of your idea — if it doesn’t meet a need, provide a solution or offer something of value to a consumer, it may not work in the marketplace. Keep in mind that while it may not work now, it could work in the future. Store it away until it’s the right time for your particular idea.
• How will people feel about it? It can be difficult to make a business idea succeed if it doesn’t stand out from the competition. A cup of coffee is a cup of coffee, so any new coffee shop must figure out a way to make what they offer exciting or unique in some way. Differentiation from the competition is the lifeblood of a successful business idea.
• Are you willing to put in the work? It’s no secret that entrepreneurs sometimes have to suffer for the benefit of a business. If you are willing to put in the hard work and sweat for at least a period of time, that’s a sign that you may ready to launch this business idea.

Starting a business is not an easy or painless process. While it is important not to allow the fear of failure to hold you back from moving forward, it is prudent to be sure that it’s the right time for this particular business idea. At the wrong time, a really good idea is no better than a bad idea. If you’re ready, and it’s time to go for it, don’t let your fears keep you from succeeding.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

No one knows everything there is to know about business — you included. Even the most successful business people find that there are still things to learn and areas for growth, even after decades of entrepreneurship. For this reason, you may find that it is in your best interests for you to seek the support and guidance of a career coach or business mentor.

There are many entrepreneurs who simply go it on their own. You may be inclined to believe that you are fine on your own, but in reality, there are always benefits to having a knowledgeable, more experienced ally in your corner. A career coach can help you avoid costly mistakes, provide valuable feedback and serve as a sounding board for new ideas.

A career coach is like a fitness trainer for your business. His or her role is to keep you in shape, push you to new levels, help you focus on improvement and more. You may benefit from a coach if you are looking for practical advice and pragmatic step-by-step instruction. If you need help achieving goals and guidance for reaching a certain level, a career coach could be the right choice for you.

You could benefit from a business mentor rather than a career coach if you want guidance and support from someone experienced in your industry or field. A mentor is appropriate for someone looking for advice regarding specific issues, which can only come from someone closely familiar with the challenges and struggles you are facing.

Whether you believe you could benefit from a career coach or from a business mentor, it is always smart to have a strong support team in place. Behind the scenes of every successful business is a safety net comprised of individuals who provide advice and insight for various challenges and issues faced by entrepreneurs. No matter what type of business you have, chances are, you could benefit from support team. Do you have the right people in your corner?

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

If you use Instagram at all, you have probably noticed the small circles at the top of your newsfeed. Each circle represents a profile that you follow, and when you click on one, you will be able to view that person’s Instagram stories. These “stories” are very short videos, pictures, boomerang videos, time-lapse and slow-motion videos, and more. Users have the option to add graphics, text and even embed hashtags and links within each “story”. If you aren’t familiar with this new feature on Instagram, you should explore this option next time you sign on. Instagram stories is a great way to show some personality and build your brand in an easy, non-intimidating format.

Instagram stories offers an excellent platform for visual storytelling. Very similar to the way some companies use Snapchat, IG stories is a great way to offer small glimpses into the way your company operates. By showing personality and telling the story of your business through these short videos or pictures, you can better engage your followers on this social media platform.

Storytelling is a key component to building your brand. You need to offer your customers and followers a way to emotionally and visually connect with your company. Not only is this good for your bottom line if more people buy your products, it can also elevate the perceived worth of your business and your products in the eyes of your followers. Essentially, Instagram stories is a free way to boost your digital marketing strategy and build better brand recognition and loyalty.

While it is informal and approachable, you should still be producing quality content for your IG stories. Whether you are showing off new products, providing a “behind the scenes” glimpse into your business or educating about your services, what you post matters. Be thoughtful, but have fun, and if you aren’t already using Instagram stories for the benefit of your business, consider employing this tool to tell your story — your followers will listen.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

When you make a contact or meet someone at a networking event, do you follow up? Following up can be weird, but simply stashing these contacts away for fear of awkwardness doesn’t do anything for your business either. There’s an art to doing the follow-up well, and it’s a useful skill, no matter what business you have.

Before you follow up, get to know your contact. One way you can do this is to do a bit of investigation on social media. Look at their Facebook page–do they use humor to engage? Do they take things seriously? How they interact with their followers will give you an idea of how they may interact with you, and this can make any follow-up conversations less awkward.

It is also important not to wait too long to follow up. Whether you call or email, you should not delay in following up, or else you risk your contact losing interest and the connection is gone. When you do actually make contact, make sure you maximize the time you have to make an impression, continue a connection and lay the foundation for a business relationship in the future. In your follow-up, be sure that you accomplish the following:

• Ask to schedule a time to meet again in person
• Refer to specific things you discussed in your initial meeting
• Offer your services — but don’t ask for anything in return yet

If you rely on leads for a significant amount of your business or need to follow up with contacts on a regular basis, you may find it useful to have a follow-up system in place. This can make it easier to take that step and make contact, even when it’s uncomfortable and potentially awkward. A follow-up system can take the pain out of the worst part of making new contacts and networking — the follow-up.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

Competition is an inevitable part of owning your own business, but the best entrepreneurs use this to drive this them toward success. For some, a competing business can be an obstacle, something to be feared, but in reality, competition is healthy—as long as you know how to use it to your advantage. Don’t fear it; let it push you to thrive.

Instead of being fearful of how competing could negatively affect your business, challenge yourself to raise the standard even higher. This forces you to be smarter with your resources, wiser with your marketing strategy and better with your customers. In fact, most business don’t close because of competition….they end up succumbing because they don’t have the will or the ability to fight, innovate and adapt.

To keep up with your competition, you will have to think outside of the box. Maintaining the status quo can be a trap, and competition is a great reason to get out of your comfort zone and work to establish your business as the leader in your particular industry or field. This can be challenging for any entrepreneur, but it can also be a great exercise in self-awareness. You will compete better and more effectively when you are fully aware of your strengths as a business….and your weaknesses. In fact, competing with another business may push you to compete with yourself—to be better and smarter than you were.

In addition to driving you to self-improvement in your business and as an entrepreneur, competition can propel you to find new ways to meet customer needs and find your specific niche in your field. Competition is not something to be feared, but instead, view it as an opportunity to stretch yourself and improve your business. Don’t be afraid of it, either with another business or yourself, but use it as a way to propel yourself toward future success.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC