#59 - Keep Showing Up & Taking Baby Steps Because Your Work Matters

Have you ever felt like the world is just too heavy to keep showing up? 

Like no matter how much you want to create, sell, or connect, everything around you is making it harder?

I get it. Right now, it’s winter—the coldest, darkest time of year. People I know have lost jobs overnight. Small business owners feel lost, unsure how to show up when the world feels like it’s unraveling. Social media is about crisis management. 

And it’s easy to wonder… does what I do even matter?

But my short answer is yes - in fact, we need you and your work more than ever. Because people are still searching for connection, hope, and solutions—and you can be the person who shows up for them, even in the midst of uncertainty.

In this short episode, I'm sharing 3 quick stories of entrepreneurs who show up against the odds and three ways you can take a baby step today:

1. Post One Thing – Share a tip, an insight, or a behind-the-scenes moment. You don’t have to be everywhere—just show up for your audience somewhere.
2. Help One Person – Answer a DM, offer a quick voice note, or create something useful for your audience. Small actions create impact.
3. Decide One Next Move – Don’t get stuck in overthinking. What’s one action—big or small—that moves you forward? Write it down and commit to it.

If you like this content, please take a minute to rate and review the podcast, that's the only way it gets seen and heard by other listeners and I'd be so grateful! 

I hope you have a wonderful start to your week and as always, may you be vibrant!

Mindset to Market is a Luminous Creative Production. If you'd like to learn more about our business coaching program and group coaching container, please visit us online at DeborahcSmith.com.

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Transcript

 Have you ever felt like the world is just too heavy to keep? Showing up, like no matter how much you want to create or sell or connect, everything around you is making it so much harder.  I get that so much. Right now it's cold. It's winter. It is the darkest time of year. It's actually a real winter in the Northeast in America here.

So it's very cold, lots of snow. Uh, people that I know personally have just lost their jobs overnight, like told to pack up their stuff. and leave their office. Um, there's huge shifts in how our government is overseeing, you know, sort of  the civil distribution of funding to manage, um, social services. And a lot of small business owners that I know feel really stuck, like unsure how to show up.

When the world feels like it's unraveling right in front of our eyes  and as a result, of course, social media doesn't feel like it used to. It's less about connection and it's slightly more about crisis management. And in times like this, it's really easy to wonder, does what I do even matter?  But here's the thing.

I truly believe that it does. And today I want to show you a couple of examples of why. And Also give you some very simple tips on how you can keep moving forward even when The world feels like it's falling to pieces in front of your face.  Hey there, welcome to the mindset to market podcast, your go to place for practical tools and solutions for the everyday challenges of being a creative and spiritual solopreneur living in a material world.

I'm your host. Debra Smith. I'm a holistic business coach with 17 years of experience, and I help my clients bust through mindset blocks and build a daily practice that prioritizes your business's financial growth, as well as your personal health and wellness.  I'm here to offer you support, creativity, mindset, practical, how to's and getting into imperfect, messy actions.

So you can find balance while building the dream. business. If you're a purpose driven solopreneur who's working on that dream one day at a time, then you're in the right place. Let's dive in.  Okay. So I have to keep this very short this morning because I have a packed day today. It's day one of the love your digital offer challenge, and I've got a group of entrepreneurs, uh, scheduled to meet me in a few hours.

We're going to kick off with. Some high level overview of kind of how a digital asset can truly be the seedling for exponential growth. It is not too late to join that. If you're like, I really wish I had said yes to that. Just contact me. Um, there will be replays of everything. So you could technically just jump in today and also I've got a great episode coming out later this week with a woman named Meg Calvin, who is basically a book doula.

She helps people give birth to their first book and publish their first book. So that's going to be great. So I'm going to keep this kind of short, But it's Mindset Monday, and I want to help you kick off the week with some positive energy and some, some thoughts about how you can keep showing up this week and move forward despite all of the challenges that we are facing.

So look, I know right now is very, it's a hard moment. It's hard to be confident and bold, which are two kind of stalwart components of being an entrepreneur, it's hard to be visible. It's hard to keep going when life is throwing you curve balls, whether it's personal struggles, market shifts, or just sort of the weight of everything that's happening in the world, right?

Like literally environmental destruction, literally, you know, a shifting government narrative. It's, it's been a tough couple of weeks here, but here's the thing, your voice, your message and your business still matter. Because even when it's tough, I would say, especially when it's tough, there is someone out there who really is waiting for your story and your support.

Something that only you can offer.  So I had a client named Kristen, who's a single mom and she built a coaching business. at like between the hours of midnight and 2 a. m. She worked a full time job. She raised two kids alone and dealing with a lot of grief and in the evening she took classes and she kept showing up in tiny tiny baby steps every day.

She was able to build a thriving service based business basically in the middle of the night. Was that easy for her to do? No, but what she did was she focused on small consistent actions that added up to and accumulated to this body of work that she was doing. It's a real testament to the fact that when we show up for ourselves and we continue moving forward, taking baby steps, we can, in fact, arrive at a different place in our lives.

Also, I think a lot about another entrepreneur who I know. He's not a client of mine, but he's through a friend of a friend. I know him. He lost his entire business in a financial crash that was just unexpected. But instead of giving up and deciding, I'm done, I'm ruined, he used his expertise and his knowledge to Um, teach other people how to, they could recover and rebuild their business.

So he started over after losing everything. Honestly, it reminds me a lot of the Martha Stewart story and the documentary, which I just watched recently. If you haven't seen it, I do recommend it because it's really, she overcomes a lot of adversity and a lot of public humiliation. Um, anyways, this guy can now, he runs a very successful online membership that empowers other entrepreneurs.

On how to navigate setbacks. So he took his failure and he turned it into a thriving membership.  And then the third story I want to just share is honestly is my own still work in progress story, you know, about being a founder and an entrepreneur who I've basically been running a business while co managing.

A major family health crisis for the past four years. Um, I've shared about this in much more detail. Episode 36 is called Coping Strategies for Caregivers. But, you know, in a nutshell, my mom had a stroke and it's really taken over my entire life. Um, and in a, you know, I wouldn't change anything, but. I've had to make a lot of adjustments and what I've had to do is make time every single day to take consistent baby steps and just keep moving forward despite a lot of uncomfortable challenges.

You know, I completely pivoted my business. I launched a group coaching program. I launched a weekly mastermind oftentimes from sitting at my mom's hospital bedside or doing live streams in a hospital elevator. Or taking meetings at a rehab centers. Like I did not wait for perfect conditions because I knew after years of doing this, that it was much more important for me to serve my people, show up and work with what I had than it would be to wait for, for better conditions. 

So on that note, I just want to give you some ideas about ways to take a baby step that you can do today, something that you can do this week. If you feel stuck, if you feel lost, if you feel confused, if you feel overwhelmed, or if you're feeling like I can't, how could I possibly work on a business given the state of the world, which totally valid feelings,  but here are a couple of ideas.

So one thing is just. Post one thing instead of having a content plan for the month, instead of having, you know, perfect reels and all the special social media stuff or whatever, just share a single tip, a single insight, a single peek behind the scenes, just like a tiny glimpse of a moment. You don't have to be everywhere, but just show up someplace one time for your audience.

And with that, tip two is just think about helping one person. Answer one single DM. Offer just a quick voice note. Like something you can create on the spur. Just something you can do right now in the moment. Something useful that you can share with somebody that you know that helps them get a tiny little shift in their own energy. 

Small actions create impact. So when you take a small minuscule action, it actually has a big impact. So just help one person. That's it. And then the third thing you can do that is totally valid and makes a lot of sense and will help you is just decide on one Next move. Don't get stuck in overthinking.

Don't worry that you don't have a full plan in place. What is one action, big or small, that moves you forward? Write it down, commit to it, set a deadline, get the accountability that you need to show up, but Just, just decide on one tiny next move. Don't get caught up in overthinking it or in procrastination.

Just post one thing, help one person decide on one next move. Very simple, very tiny actions make an impact. So you know, showing up is not about perfection. It's not about doing it right. It's about persistence. It's about believing that what you have to share is needed. And it is. It really truly is. So even if things feel messy, even if you're tired, even if you're exhausted, even if the world is heavy, your work still has impact.

You still matter. Your voice matters. So today, just take one baby step and let that be enough. Let that be good enough. Because when you keep going, you give people permission to do the same. So when we all show up, we support each other and, and rising up together. So keep showing up, keep breathing. The world needs your creativity, your voice, your service.

All the things that you do matter and I just wanted to breathe a little breath of hope into our lives today. Maybe it's honestly just what I needed to hear. So I hope you have a great start to your week and until we meet again later this week as always may you be vibrant.