Monday is a busy day for me. I schedule all my client meetings back-to-back. Two 30-minute calls in the morning, four in the afternoon. I find it more efficient.
At 3:30 pm, I jump from one Google Meet to another for my final meeting of the day. A few minutes in, my client appears on screen and starts with: “Before we begin, there’s something I’d like to talk about.” Uh-oh… that’s never a good sign. You guessed it… I’ve just lost a client.
In the moment, I play it cool. And to be honest, I saw it coming — I’ve already written an upcoming piece about what it taught me.
But right after that short meeting, I’m hit by a wave of self-doubt.
My business isn’t falling apart. I work with six entrepreneurs, have two or three more in the pipeline, it’s not the end of the world. But have you noticed how one negative event can trigger a whole cascade of negative thoughts?
“I’m going to lose more clients.
What I’m doing isn’t working anymore.
Should I even keep doing this?”
I can’t stop that little shockwave that unleashes all the doubts hiding in the back of my mind. And you know what?
I’m convinced that’s a good thing.
I’ve been self-employed for almost three years. If you work for yourself, maybe you’ve noticed this too: things come in cycles. For me, it’s about every three months. Every three months, I get a wake-up call that forces me out of the comfort zone I’d slipped into.
My first instinct had been to send a few prospecting messages. The second was to finally act on something I’d been thinking about for a while: launching this second newsletter.
The first time I lost a client, I panicked. But a few days later, I remember seeing a little red dot on my LinkedIn inbox. It was a new client opportunity, almost like it had fallen from the sky. And funnily enough, as I’m writing this to clear my head, it just happened again.
It’s always like that, almost without exception. Things are going well, then a setback hits, I question everything, and then something good shows up and gets things going again.
These tough moments help me bounce back stronger and avoid stagnation. In the past two years, my revenue has nearly doubled. Those dips in morale were necessary. They helped me mature, trust my ability to rebound, and keep moving forward.
Things always work out.
Thomas