Managing the Self-Care Hustle: Top Three Tips
Hustling is part of the game when it comes to being a female founder. But how do you project strength when you’re taking blow after blow? It’s hard enough being an entrepreneur, but female founders face even more setbacks than their male counterparts, especially when it comes to getting that all-critical VC funding. Not only that, but issues such as anxiety and depression are on the rise, particularly amongst female founders. A recent study by Inc. saw that 81% of founders surveyed reported mental health issues, including anxiety, insomnia, and exhaustion.
Here are a few tips to stay strong, healthy, and mindful from other founders:
Tenacity and fearlessness
Being a founder can be synonymous with failing. The key difference between a successful entrepreneur and a failed one is that the former is someone who picks herself back up. Once you acknowledge that that failure is going to be an important part of your business growth, it’s easier to take the knocks on the chin as minor setbacks, as opposed to huge obstacles. Many founders face financial hurdles, work-from-home struggles and the ability to balance work and family in a healthy way. It takes tenacity and fearlessness to acknowledge failure and to learn from that to lead to success.
Grow your community and rely on it
All too often founders fall into the trap of saying they’ve built a great team around them without ever actually utilizing their collective power. Don’t do everything by yourself! Diversify your team and empower them to dream as big as you do. Great founders give their teams opportunities to excel, growing not only the individual but the company as a whole.
Don’t focus on financial validation
Unicorns are unicorns for a reason. While it’s important to keep that vision and to reach for financial success, it’s equally crucial to remind yourself of the reasons why you started the company and the problem you are looking to solve. The founder’s journey is a wild ride; don’t rest your laurels on financial validation. Look at your team, your traction, your customer feedback and testimonials to remind me of your purpose.
At the end of the day, be fair to yourself; nearly every successful founder has had a door slammed in their face. Their persistence, drive and ability to get back up may have initially been projected strength, but by the time they got their first yes, it couldn’t have been more internalized.
Self-care and inner strength have never been more critical
As we’ve researched solutions to helping female founders balance the growing pressures of work, life, family, pandemic, pets--whatever it is, we’ve learned that founders are taking more time out of their day than ever before to focus on improving their work-life balance, promoting self-kindness and projecting strength until it becomes truly internalized.
Here are some quick tips from some female founders who are integrating self-care into their daily routine:
Kristina Unker, MA'AM Creative: Kristina prioritizes taking a step back and finding new perspectives. She advises founders to stop valuing yourself on the success of the business – you’re more than your startup.
Zoila Darton, WORD: After a bad episode while working from home, Zollie learned how to reach out and scale back. No person can do everything alone – reach out and reconnect with your personal communities.
Amy Nelson, The Riveter: After her husband saw her struggling with mental health issues, he encouraged her to talk with a mental health professional. There are many forms of therapy, and it can be one of the most useful ways to get back on track and increase your health and productivity.
Of course, there are other ways to practice inner strength. Mindfulness exercises, journaling, exercising, meditation, and yoga (and let’s not forget a good meal, glass of wine, and baths) are all very popular ways to deal with stress. At the end of the day, we are all human, and our teams, our families, and our work benefits from having a leader that also looks after themselves.
If you’re a founder and have some advice or tips to share, please contact our team - we’d love to share with our SheWorx community!