Episode 271: Move to Live More℠ in a Pandemic

A delight of insight, Dr. Amy Bantham shares how she started her business in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, as part of her doctoral research at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. You will discover why she has connected healthcare, physical fitness, and community to improve long-term health outcomes through her company, Move to Live More℠. Amy helps people live healthier, longer, more active lives by translating research into public policy and programming. She is also a personal trainer and health and wellness coach.

The research looks grim right now. Amy says, “We’ve seen incredible drops in physical activity, which was low, to begin with. Severe lockdowns, some people cannot go to parks, playgrounds, and are cut off, isolated. Mental health is suffering significantly. Before the pandemic, only 23% of Americans met the higher physical guideline standards for strength conditioning, cardiovascular health, and aerobic activity. The numbers have dropped another 30% since the pandemic began last March.” We have traded physical activity for screen time which Amy says is up about 30%. “The bottom-line,” she says, “is the majority of us are not moving the way we need to move, and we’re hungry for connection.” How can we handle this post-pandemic? Amy has some ideas for the role business owners can play as we re-envision office work post-pandemic.

We begin with the qualities Amy most admires growing up in her home. The focus of both parents was on education and being lifelong curious learners. Every experience was seen as a learning opportunity. Her Dad’s favorite question to ask people is, what are you reading? He is known to be reading fiction and nonfiction books at the same time. One of her favorite things growing up was going to the library every Saturday, book bag in hand, with her Dad to check out library books. After acquiring degrees from Yale University, Northeastern University, and Harvard University, Amy is excited to return to reading some books for fun. DOWNLOAD

As a school librarian, Amy’s mother noticed an opportunity for Amy to apply for a scholarship program studying abroad for her junior year. The United States government and the Japanese government award two scholarships per state for high school students to study in Japan for a year. Amy won one of the two scholarships for the state of Connecticut. It was a life-changing experience meeting senators and touring the Embassy of Japan in Washington D.C., visiting the Japanese parliament, studying, and living with a host family in Japan.

Amy and her husband, Ben, are raising three young children in the City of Somerville, MA.  Somerville is near Boston and has a population of 81,562.

Hear about these areas too:

* Where and how Amy learned about entrepreneurship.

* Birth order matters. She is the youngest with two older brothers.

* Turning a volunteer position into a contract position.

* The infrastructure of our communities.

* Amy’s podcast featuring thought leaders in healthcare, health & fitness, and communities.

* The Blue Zones research.

Amy’s mission is similar to a prior Guest Mentor, Tony Buettner, in helping people live longer and better. Tony works with his brother, Dan Buettner, at Blue Zones. An organization inspired by the world’s longest-lived cultures to help people live longer and better by improving their surroundings. “Blue Zones are regions in the world where a higher than usual...

Episode 270: Acquiring An Entrepreneurial Business Acumen, Part 4 of 4

Last week, we left off with Jim Conn’s longtime friend and mentor, Dick Harper, a clinical psychologist, helping Jim implement an open-book management system at BW Integrated Systems. Jim worked closely with the owner, Mark Johnson, to grow revenues from $7M to $13M with 60 employees. People, products, and performance continue to be the company’s success formula as an industry leader in designing and manufacturing end-of-line packaging equipment and robotic automation solutions and the execution of integrated packaging systems.

The open-book management system was the vehicle that empowered employees to be accountable and educated in how their efforts contributed to the bottom line. After five years and a heartbreaking departure, Jim does something completely different.

He and Anita return to where his childhood venture began, Alexandria, MN. For six years, Jim does odd jobs as a contract pilot and becomes primary caregiver and executor-manager of his parent’s estate, as the eldest of six siblings. His parents needed day-to-day care as their health declined and helped in managing their estate. To do this, Anita and Jim bought a cabin and year-round home in Alexandria.

Around 2007 and after his parents passed away, Jim meets a retired financial executive from 3M while working as a SCORE counselor (Service Corps of Retired Executives). SCORE is a non-profit organization founded in 1964. It has the largest network of volunteers in the U.S. Members of SCORE are current or retired business owners and corporate executives who specialize in various business skills. The SBA partners with them to build vibrant small business communities across the country through free consultations, mentoring, and education.

 The Great Recession hit in 2008. Jim describes his journey to becoming a 20% owner and managing partner with Thawzall, LLC, a Glenwood, MN company purchased by Tamarack Industries in 2018. They provide ground thawing and space heating equipment for the rental and construction market to keep builders building year-round. One usually doesn’t factor in an economic downturn before it happens when you perform due diligence on a venture opportunity. Jim found that out with Thawzall, LLC.

His last venture before retiring was a short stint with the aviation company Tanis Aircraft. Jim intended to buy the company but used his investment monies to keep Thawzall, LLC afloat. He retired in 2012 after a year with the company.

A tragedy occurred in 2017. Anita and Jim’s only son, Brian, dies from an opioid overdose at age 42. A big trauma like this takes years to untangle as a parent, and complex questions that arise can never be answered with satisfaction. Jim reflects on Brian’s spirit and kindness in helping others, how he could have been a better father, and what his two daughters, Laurie and Jackie, are up to.

You will learn how Jim is volunteering as a pilot with a purpose and his four takeaways from a 60-year entrepreneurial career in eight ventures (Angleworms and catching frogs for Norm Lund at Lund’s Bait Shop at age 8 to Lakeside Spraying from 12 years of age to 18. Wood & Conn Corp., Rice Lake Weighing Systems, BW Integrated Systems, Streamfeeder, LLC, Thawzall, LLC, and Tanis Aircraft). You can follow along as Jim talks about each lesson.

Jim’s Four Entrepreneurial Life Takeaways:

* Everyone needs a mentor, even if you feel you don’t need one. You need one, especially when times are tough. Proactively reaching out is never regrettable with so much help available.

Episode 269: Acquiring An Entrepreneurial Business Acumen, Part 3 of 4

How would you rate yourself in these four emotional intelligence areas: social awareness, social skills, self-awareness, and self-management? Jim Conn said he lacked two of the four skills. The consequences have been significant for him, as you will hear. An honest assessment provides an opening for Jim to have some new insights into himself during our conversation about business acumen and situations that test his emotional intelligence.

 “Self-inquiry helps us recover from habits while reflection helps us recover from thoughtlessness,” writes Deepak Chopra, M.D. (Total Meditation, 2020). Jim reflects on what was underneath his self-proclaimed cockiness and identified what caused him to mess up and burn a bridge in a significant relationship. I felt it was one of those tender moments in the conversation when I would have given Jim a hug.

You will learn the meaning of a helpful acronym to investigating your feelings, R.U.L.E.R. We start this conversation where we left off; Jim Conn was forging a comeback over ten years joining Mark Johnson at Rice Lake Weighing Systems, Inc. in Rice Lake, WI.

* As Vice President of Sales and Distribution, Jim helped build the business from an $8M business to $40M in annual sales with 300 employees and eight salespeople.

* Jim was the company pilot. In 1985, Jim raised over $500,000 to fly both polls in 11 days with a fellow pilot out of Nigeria. The PolarFlite from the North Pole to the South Pole earned them 16-certified world records.

* While Jim generated the money, Anita raised their three children: Laurie, Brian, and Jackie. The strain of imbalance takes its toll on the family.

* Tension grew after the PolarFlite trip with Mark to the breaking point. What broke Jim’s spirit?

After Jim resigns, he works with a Venture Capital firm and with partners buys into BW Integrated Systems, an industry leader in the design and manufacture of end-of-line packaging equipment and robotic automation solutions and the execution of integrated packaging systems. The attributes Jim says for its success boiled down to people, products, and performance.

Jim’s longtime friend and mentor, Dick Harper, a clinical psychologist, comes into his life again. They work together to implement an open-book management system that attributed to a more empowered workforce. Jim explains how they educated employees on how money was generated in the company and how they used a rating system to reinforce their cultural values. While Jim was there, the revenues went from $7M to $13M with 60 employees. Things did not end well at the end of those five years. Jim forges ahead with his optimism and resiliency. DOWNLOAD

 

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Episode Resources

Daniel Goleman 25th Anniversary of Emotional Intelligence

Episode 268: Acquiring An Entrepreneurial Business Acumen, Part 2 of 4

This series underscores the unpredictable nature of an entrepreneurial lifestyle.  Entrepreneurship for Jim Conn started at age 8, selling frogs and angleworms to Lunds Bait Shop in Alexandria. A cherished resort area in Minnesota. While Jim discovered how to catch bait for local fishermen and help resort owners tackle mosquitoes, his dad, Clair Conn, decided to form a business with his friend, Walter Wood, after WW II (1947). They built out two territories selling grain handling machinery and grain storage products in MN and North Dakota. Walter fostered a territory in Redwood Falls, and Clair forged a northern territory in the Fargo/Moorhead area.  In the photo, Jim and his 1st plane for Wood & Conn Co. accompanied by his three children: Laurie, Brian, and Jackie.

Walt died suddenly of a heart attack three years into building Wood & Conn Corporation. Clair asked Walt’s son, Dave Wood, to come back from the Navy to run its Redwood Falls side. Clair Conn and Dave Wood ran the business until Clair retired in 1973. Entering the family business, another impressive and self-described cocky sales guy was Jim Conn.

The two sons, Dave and Jim, capitalized on having supplies and grain handling equipment farmers needed especially sugar beet equipment. BER-VAC Cultivators were popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s, so Dave and Jim leveraged the business to get as many BER-VAC Cultivators in stock as possible. That machine prepares seedbed for sugar beets. Annual sales went from $300,000 to $4M over ten years in each branch or $8M combined with 40 employees.

                                                                    1980s BER-VAC Cultivator

Today's Beet Cultivation Set-up.  

Then, beet farmer crops froze, gas prices surged, and the farm crisis hit in the mid-1980s, “completely altering the fabric of rural America,” as reported on Iowa PBS. “American farmers confronted an economic crisis more severe than any since the Great Depression. Agricultural communities throughout the Midwest and across the nation were devastated. Families were forced from the land, lenders collapsed, and businesses on rural main streets closed—many to never reopen. It was a decade of turmoil and activism.” 

I remember this rough time as a high schooler on our dairy farm in Parkers Prairie, MN. We were fortunate; our family managed to survive. Farmers and anyone doing business with farmers was affected, including Wood & Conn Corporation. In stark terms of the devastation, Jim talks and ascribes his subsequent boost in business acumen and leadership development to these two years.

Dave Wood was utterly devastated, needing time to address his mental health. Jim stepped up and quickly learned how to take the business through Chapter 11-reorganization, stabilize the business, and set-up a 10-year plan. Solid business relationships were a big part of their comeback. You will find out how Dave returns and how Jim deals with the shame and emotional exhaustion at the end of the turbulent two-year period.

Dave would run the Redwood Falls branch and mentor Tim Gilk until he became the third-generation Wood & Conn Corporation owner in 2006. Tim is the first non-family business owner. Dave Wood passed away on April 17, 2020.

Life after Bankruptcy.

* Shame. Self-blame.

* Falling behind on his home mortgage.

* The pressure to provide.

* An opportunity to begin anew breathes life into the desperation.

* A 10-year delay in being able to look back and process what happened.

Episode 267: Acquiring An Entrepreneurial Business Acumen, Part 1 of 4

Words I would use to describe my mother, Rosemary Adeline (Welle) Meyer: loving, kind-hearted, and generous in spirit, always giving to others. She was a devoted wife and mother and a devout Catholic (lived this life preparing for a life in heaven), instilling and role modeling a strong moral faith-based foundation in us six kids.

She was a homemaker extraordinaire; cleanliness was next to godliness. We grew up in three Minnesota homes. A house in Bloomington, Sauk Centre, and dairy farm in Parkers Prairie, each house impeccably maintained. She always made sure we had plenty of home-cooked, garden-fresh (a one-fourth acre garden), canned food, and baked goods. She was known as an award-winning bread maker and cake decorator. Mom made sure each home had smelled of fresh home-cooked meals and cookies, cakes, pies, muffins, puddings, cupcakes, brownies, and all sorts of other seasonal delights.

Mom was a dedicated home health care worker after raising six children and volunteered at St. Williams Catholic church for over forty years. She could count on one hand the number of times she missed church before Alzheimer’s disease ceased her ability to go to church the last year of her 82-year-life. She crossed over peacefully as my sister, Joan Ronning, prayed and sang to her on March 10 of 2020. Mom, rest in peace.

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 Today’s Guest Mentor: Multi-venture entrepreneur Jim Conn grew up in Alexandria, MN. Twenty-three miles from Parkers Prairie, where I graduated high school. He had a much different upbringing than I did that shaped his entrepreneurial life. Lakehouse living vs. dairy-farm life. You will notice in our four podcast conversations how Jim acquired his entrepreneurial business acumen traversing six decades. In this conversation, we explore Jim’s adventurous upbringing and resilient family, as he describes how his life took shape before he joined the family business of Wood & Conn Corp. in 1973.

Jim’s entrepreneurial spirit took hold at age 8 with a burning need to earn some nickels to ride his bicycle to the Gang Plank/Triple R/Rolling Roller Rink to buy an Orange Crush caramel roll or candy bar. Norm Lund of Lund’s Bait Shop recognized Jim’s need and casually mentioned that he would be willing to trade some nickels for frogs and angleworms. Norm became Jim’s very first customer. Jim initiated a pesticide spraying summer business at age 12 from their 13-acre lake property. Lake homeowners were able to get rid of those pesky mosquitos with Jim around. Businesses discovered in a resort area by a resourceful budding entrepreneur. DOWNLOAD

His life sounds quite picturesque, like you might imagine Lake Carlos to be in the middle of a resort area. A different picture began to emerge as he described his parent’s public and private personas and mental health challenges. Women with depression were treated with harsh remedies in the 1950s. You will learn what happens to his family and how Jim self-medicated to ease the emotional disruption and homesickness caused by traumatic separation.

Episode 266: Getting Real About Mental Health in the Workplace

Here is where we are at in America. The State of Mental Health in America 2021 report results show the number of people looking for help with anxiety and depression has skyrocketed to a 93% increase from 2019 to September of 2020. I’m glad people ask for help; that is the first step. What are we doing in the workplace to address the anxiety and depression uptick in ourselves and those we employ? Recovery coach and educator Laurie Healy joins me to discuss how business owners can have real conversations about mental health to redesign their work culture. Yes, it can be tricky. We have ideas, including where to start.The report’s sample size was from over 1.5 million people who have taken a Mental Health Assessment (MHA). It was noted in the report that more people are reporting frequent thoughts of suicide and self-harm than have ever been recorded in the MHA Screening program since its launch in 2014.Lost revenues as a consequence. Did you know the cost of this mental health crisis? “Across the United States economy,” Laurie says, “depression is the leading cause of mental health and costs the nation $210.5 billion annually.” That is a considerable amount of lost revenues. Caregivers and family members dealing with mental health put in roughly 32 hours/week providing unpaid care. The shame and stigma are masked in secrecy. We need to help find access to care for people and normalize mental health conversations in the workplace. This research tells us that we can no longer avoid difficult conversations about mental health in the workplace. Asserting self-leadership to address your own mental health prepares you to take the needed risks to redesign your work culture. What would a work culture that promotes resiliency, compassion, empathy, and empowering people to speak up look like? You can create your own courageous plan. That is where the fun comes in. DOWNLOAD Genogram as a resource. In getting trained as an Arise interventionist, Laurie was introduced to the Genogram. It is a tool to gather four to five generations’ worth of information about substance use, psychological factors, and physical health from your family tree. Laurie uses the Genogram as an intervention technique discovered by Murray Bowen in the 1970s as part of his family systems model. Laurie says, “I help people understand that substance use and mental health challenges likely didn’t start with the user. Others suffered from addiction in prior generations, too.” This creates a larger context for understanding and is a shame resiliency technique.You can use the Genogram to break things down by reminiscing with family members about family gatherings, uncover patterns of communication, and learn how challenges were handled. For instance, what traditions are in place when someone dies? How did the family deal with sudden death and trauma-based situations? How was addiction talked about or addressed in your family of origin? You could discover the resiliency level in your family tree and the traditions that connect one generation to the next. Laurie has other insights worth hearing, too, like normalizing mental health conversations.Normalize Mental Health Conversations in the WorkplaceHave you ever had a speaking engagement where you walked away wondering why that c...

Episode 265: What “little t’s” and “big T’s” in Trauma can Teach Us

Clinicians and therapists in the field of trauma divide trauma into two categories: “little t’s” and “big T’s.” Laurie Healey, recovery coach and educator, describes the difference between each type of trauma and tips on addressing them. Examples of little “t’s” and “big T’s” contained in Laurie’s life adventures can help you observe them in your own life.                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Laurie says, “Trauma is our body and brain’s response to painful experiences that can lead to an inability to cope.” Trauma is complex with dimensions that take unpacking. Those curious to investigate one’s inner life’s emotional nuances use a shame resilient technique we talk about. You will also hear what trauma isn’t and the variables in how we each respond to the “big T’s” and “little t’s.”Laurie was born in picturesque Honolulu, Hawaii. Her love of adventure came from international family travels and moves that brought her and her two siblings (Brian and Jackie) to Moorhead, MN, Fargo, N.D., and Rice Lake, WI. She describes her mother, Anita Conn, as devoted, patient, thoughtful, creative, and artistic in how she creates through knitting, quilting, and homesteading. Each place they have lived is welcoming and filled with compassion and fun. Her Dad, Jim Conn (whom you will meet in March), is described as an adventurer, mentor to many, contemplative, responsible, genuine, and safe (an adventurer who also creates safety for others).Laurie’s training to be resilient started early with steady doses of risk-taking. On a family vacation, their small plane her Dad was piloting needed to make a fuel stop. Her Dad asked then 12-year-old Laurie to use her Spanish skills to speak with two heavily armed Mexican airport guards. What did that teach Laurie about planning adventures, trust, and taking her Spanish studies seriously? Did that experience create a “little t” trauma? Or did it depend on the outcome? DOWNLOADMost of us know the “big T’s.” “Those events anyone would find disturbing. A defeat or wound to the heart,” says Laurie. A big singular event like the death of a loved one, divorce, being cheated on, accidental death, a business failure, military combat and war, et al. Or collective experiences such as natural disasters connected with climate change where many people are affected, like the winter freeze in Texas or wildfires in California. The coronavirus pandemic is a collective experience. Within the pandemic, you have probably noticed a range of how individually people are addressing or denying and dealing with the trauma-induced pandemic or using conspiracy theories as a coping mechanism.The “little t” in trauma are events that can accumulate over time. You might not even realize the effects or toll the “little t” has taken on you and the impact on close relationships until much later. You might even trivialize those experiences of high stress or how you felt not being included in a peer group, losing a friend or a shift in friendship, job loss, financial disruption, change in a relationship, and others. The absence of having somebody who has empathy toward you in life can be a “little t” or a “big T” depending on a wide variety of factors we outline. Are you noticing the complexity here? This is why we need to keep bending our pointed fingers inward.Although we talk about trauma, Laurie has a ton of experience working with entrepreneurial start-ups bringing international marketing...

Episode 264: Leading with Self-Love

An inner feeling of love bubbled up right before lunch. The lingering and sweetly satisfying feeling of connection. Where did it come from? Awe, yes, my thoughts turned to what I just listened to, a luscious conversation with Aneela Idnani and Sameer Kumar, co-founders of HabitAware. Today’s Guest Mentors. I am curious to know if you have a similar experience after listening to our podcast conversation about leading, parenting, and mentoring from a place of self-love. Let me know.We start our conversation with a few definitions of self-love. My husband, Matthew Foli, and I took a self-compassion workshop from Kristin Neff, Ph.D., in 2019. Kristin is a pioneering self-compassion researcher and author (Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself). She has found that love, connection, and acceptance are our birthright.Jeffrey Borenstein, M.D.  has a standard definition of self-love. It is a “state of appreciation for oneself that grows from actions that support our physical, psychological, and spiritual growth. Self-love means having a high regard for your own well-being and happiness.”Jeffrey goes on to write that “self-love means accepting yourself as you are in this very moment for everything you are. It means accepting your emotions for what they are and putting your physical, emotional, and mental well-being first. Self-love means taking care of your own needs and not sacrificing your well-being to please others.” This is the one I am going to master. My needs are as important as anyone else’s.Aneela and Sameer apply these self-love definitions to their lives as entrepreneurial leaders, as a married couple, as parents, and as mentors. In last week’s conversation, Aneela described how her coping strategy to address anxiety, stress, loss, and boredom through hair pulling and eyebrow plucking evolved into a self-harming injurious habit that affects 1 in 20 people. Sameer had a kind intervention method with Aneela that initiated their search for a cure. Aneela found a name for her compulsive tendencies called body-focused repetitive behavior known as BFRB (self-grooming routines that become injurious habits of hair pulling, skin picking, and nail-biting). After trying methods that didn’t curb the compulsion, Aneela and Sameer invented something that would work for Aneela and others.Self-love is at the heart of Sameer and Aneela’s focus in inventing KEEN, a smart bracelet, and selling it through their business entity, HabitAware. KEEN tracks hand movements helping the sufferer of BFRB build self-awareness and gain control over their compulsive habit. KEEN2 is out on the market right now. Aneela talks about what is new and how people use the smart bracelet, including her own use. DOWNLOADPerfectionism and putting higher regard on another’s well-being than your own are enemies that can show up on your path toward self-love. Putting in place regular daily routines of self-care can make perfectionism and meeting others’ needs before your own uninteresting.One way to understand self-love is to reflect on your family of origin. Were your birthright needs for love, connection, and acceptance met? Were those needs as important as everyone else’s in your family?Below are other questions Sameer and Aneela answer as we explore self-love:* When would you say you each learned about self-love?* What are your self-loving habits?* How do you support the practice of self-love in relationships?* With yourself* With each other* With your children* With those you lead and mentor* What are the benefits you experience in practicing self-love every day?* How do you show up with self-love when you lead?

Episode 263: Becoming HabitAware

It started innocently early enough in her tweens—a self-grooming technique of plucking eyebrows. Over time the habit intensified, altering her looks (no eyebrows) and became a secretive compulsive coping strategy and a mental health condition. Aneela Idnani outed her 20+ year habit to the world in a real, raw, and riveting 2019 TEDTALK.Self-Harming has many secretive, creative, and seductive companions that slowly over time suffocate our birthright to love, connect, and accept oneself (self-love). One in 20 people or 21M Americans are obsessed with three repetitive and injurious habits connected with self-grooming routines: hair pulling, skin picking, and nail-biting. Body-focused repetitive behaviors, known as BFRB, are used as a compulsive coping strategy to relieve stress, anxiety, and boredom. DOWNLOAD To break up with self-harming habits, few people go to the extent today’s Mentor Guests Aneela Idnani (Kumar) and Sameer Kumar have; unless you are entrepreneurs and disrupt the behaviors by inventing a smart bracelet solution. They have won prominent awards and research grants for their 2017 KEEN, smart bracelet:* TIME Magazine’s 2018 Best Invention,* 2018 MN Cup and MEDA Small Biz Startup Competition,* 2018 Tekne Best Startup,* 2019 MEDA $1 Challenge, and a* 2020 Phase 1 research grant from both the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) for their ground-breaking work in mental health technology.Two other co-founders have been instrumental in leading HabitAware to their gesture detection technology early successes. Johan Pritchard is the lead hardware engineer, and Kirk Klobe is the chief technology officer (CTO). They round out this four-person founding team. Designed with love, KEEN tracks hand motions to help those suffering from BFRB and curb their compulsive hand habits. Their second smart bracelet KEEN2 was launched this month, providing a holistic approach to healthier soothing strategies so you can go from autopilot to aware to control by exercising the freedom to choose behaviors that increase self-esteem.The scientific names for the three nonfunctional habits that cause significant distress or impairment are trichotillomania (compulsive hair-pulling), dermatillomania (excessive skin picking), and onychophagia (chronic nail-biting).The regular self-grooming routine temporarily relieved the stress Aneela felt as her Dad lost the battle to overcome leukemia. Her Dad’s passing cemented Aneela’s unconscious soothing companion into a 20+-year coping strategy. To alleviate stress, anxiety, or boredom Aneela would compulsively pluck.  Sameer had a lovingly thoughtful way to help Aneela become aware of her hands and her feelings. We could all adopt more loving ways to intervene with loved ones. Hear how Sameer created the safe emotional space for Aneela to emerge from the shame and embarrassment of a habit people think is easy to stop doing. “Ew, why don’t you just stop plucking?” others have said. Awareness is KEEN.Hear Aneela and Sameer’s personal entrepreneurial journey in becoming HabitAware. We go from how they each grew-up, meeting one another to launching HabitAware and discussing their latest KEEN2 smart bracelet invention. When you have meaningful conversations, you can cover a lot of territory with fulfilling depth and satisfying insight. We round out our conversation with three lessons they have le...

Episode 262: What Is Happening to Small Businesses in Europe?

Weighing risk, ambiguity, and uncertainty are some of the skills to be mastered as entrepreneurial leaders. When you ease into the truth of uncertainty, one quickly realizes you aren’t the only one who can’t keep it all together during times of change. Countries don’t even have it all together either. In Europe, ambiguity and uncertainty are swirling around Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, vaccines, and Brexit. After 47 years of membership within the European bloc, the United Kingdom (England, Ireland, and Scotland) voted in 2016 to withdraw membership. Most things were kept the same until this year. You will learn of the nightmare for truckers/lorries and the impact of these changes on middle-class people. DOWNLOADSmall businesses are teetering on the brink of disaster as travel has changed, red tape at the border is causing fresh fish spoilage for some. A new immigration system is being implemented. Buying and selling have become trickier. The list of changes is extensive. John Patching offers his perspective on how he and other small businesses deal with this year’s changes. His research and what he learns from small business owners give you a sense of what is happening in the UK, Brussels (Capital of Belgium), France, Italy, Spain,  and Germany. Some countries in Europe weren’t online with their goods and services, which adds to the complications of small business survival. The entrepreneurial spirit needs to be unleashed.John Patching is not a reporter or a small business expert. He is a holistic healer, meditation tutor, and experienced life coach from Oxfordshire, England. I have been mentoring John in his private practice over the last year and a half. He also consults with me as I work through my own traumas; he is a gift from the Universe. I was floored when he described what they all are needing to do just to survive right now.John gives some history of why Brexit was appealing to voters, the pros and cons. He poses legitimate questions about fairness regarding the United Kingdom and its rights within its borders. The UK is in a lockdown for an indefinite period due to Covid-19 numbers. The circumstances have become even more distressed with the new rules of Brexit.Underlying any bad breakups are lies and deception to keep the interested party from discovering the truth. That seems to be the case with the United Kingdom as it works out border agreements. Red tape for small and large businesses has slowed getting food and other products to their regular trading partners within the EU. They now have to pay taxes on all their goods and services and limits on some goods. Living amongst the countries will involve having a visa and other negotiated Brexit changes. Citizens are disillusioned about the full implications of Brexit and reckoning with what they have been sold, their own assumptions, and the truth of their reality. Tears of release can shed light on the ambiguity of the circumstances they are in and release some of the trauma encircling us all. We finish with some inspiration and the silver-lining kind of news we crave. Oxford has developed its own vaccine. The UK is on target to meet incredible targets of vaccinating 15M people. Despite the bleakness, the Government rollout is unified and coming togeth...