3 things every entrepreneur with chronic illness needs to know

Nikita Williams: [00:00:00] So what are the three things every entrepreneur with chronic illness needs to know? When I thought about this topic and thought about this, I was thinking to myself, what are the things I would have told myself? That I needed to know when I started my business before I even was like claiming that I live with chronic illness, like before I was fully accepting of what it feels like to live with chronic illness, like with the world knowing, was realizing that a part of this really came from a self acceptance place before I could even Uh, you acknowledge what I'm about to share with you.

So if you are not in this place of feeling like you have accepted where you are with your chronic illness, if you feel like you are still in kind of like this Pull and tug of war often with how you may feel like hating your body or hating your symptoms or just in this space of [00:01:00] despair please know that this message is Probably more important to you Now, and the gratitude and the appreciation for what I'm about to say will come when you start more leaning into what it feels like to be in love with your body versus in battle with your body.

And granted, I'm not saying that I don't still have battle with my body. Like I don't still have moments where I'm like so frustrated sometimes, but the way that valley ups and downs. happens, like that rollercoaster happen happens way less than it used to, and it's because of me realizing these very three important things.

And it helps you put your pace into perspective. It helps you put your dreams into a vehicle that is possible, that I really wish I had heard or knew or even thought about when I was starting in my journey as a chronic illness warrior.

INTRO: Welcome to Crafted to Thrive, the globally ranked podcast for entrepreneurs living with chronic illness.

I'm your host, Nikita Williams. And after being diagnosed with multiple chronic illnesses, myself, I figured out the surprisingly simple missing links to growing a profitable business without compromising my health. Since then I've helped dozens of women, just like you learn how to do the same. If you're ready to own your story and create a thriving business that aligns with your health and well-being, you're in the right place. Together, we're shifting the narrative of what's possible for entrepreneurs with chronic illness. This is Crafted to Thrive.

Nikita Williams: Where are you in your journey? Where are you? Are you just starting? starting. Are you in your [00:03:00] journey and you've recently been diagnosed with a chronic illness? Maybe you've been in business and you have a chronic illness and you've had a part of like keeping this secret. And there's no shame in that.

Some of the clients that I've worked with are like, I really just don't want people to know. And I will say for my own personal journey with this, this is a choice that you get to make. However, for me, I found that as much as I tried to hide such a huge part of my life, the harder it was for me to feel like I was whole as a person and not trying to navigate the reality of what it's like living with a chronic illness and building a business.

In order for me to get to where I've come, I had to fully come to an acceptance of what it's like to live with chronic illness and what does that feel like when you are feeling absolutely like disconnected with it. So. the body [00:04:00] that's operating in your business. And so for me, the benefit has come from really leaning into this tool of, yes, I am a chronic illness warrior.

This is part of me. And it is the reason why I get to choose the way I want to run my business. And I'm not afraid to share that with people because here's. The first thing I want you to know, and this is the first thing I realized that I think every entrepreneur needs to know, but specifically chronic illness warriors, is that a flexible business or flexible business strategies or sustainable strategies are what most people would benefit from.

in their life and business, right? We hear and I've seen, especially in the year of 2023, so many people have burnt out who are millionaires who have all of these amazing businesses, but because they were not working in necessarily taking care of the things that they needed. Most importantly, the mental health, the physical health, the [00:05:00] sustainableness of that they were not having those things.

And so because they didn't prioritize that some of those things got pushed to the back. They now no longer have a business or they've shut down and they're like taking a respites or, um, a sabbatical or whatever. Right? So these are the things that I believe have gotten in the, in, in, in the way of cause trouble for so many people.

And when I started my business, I thought I had to sacrifice and work harder than everybody else because everybody else was already sacrificing, right? Everybody else was working harder. Everybody else was doing all the things everybody else would do. And in, in a lot of different ways, they were talking about doing all those different things.

from a place of not living with chronic illness, right? When we see them on social media, how many times do you see people talking about the strategy, but not the life part of the strategy? Like, how do you implement doing this thing when you're in the middle of a flare up? How do you do this in the middle of [00:06:00] dealing with all of the things you've got going on, doctor's appointments, and, Like how do you pivot or adjust to the strategy?

Right. And as an entrepreneur, when you're living in a constant world, that's always talking about how you just have to get up and do this, the thing, or how you just need to show up differently and like, talk about your story. But when you are having trouble, like even identifying who you are in that story, how do you show up?

Right? And so in my journey of having my business, something I learned, and I think every entrepreneur living with chronic illness needs to know is that the people who are telling you to do your business a certain way also should be and would benefit from having a business that is flexible and sustainable.

And that is geared towards your life being the center and then your business. You're you're you're business serving your life versus the other way around. Right? And so many times did [00:07:00] I find myself in the very beginning, or even now I hear I kind of sometimes fight certain, you know, coaches thoughts or processes.

I'm like, well, that sounds fine and good. But I also have this thing that's going my life and that That stands first, right? That stands first. I don't want to get to the end of this journey, wherever that journey is, as far as my entrepreneurship and feeling like I have to give up all of the things that made me me, that helped me function, that helped me be happy just so I can say my business was successful.

Is my business successful if I physically cannot do it? Is it successful if I've sacrificed the things I needed to do to actually show up as my best self in my business, mind, body, you know, all of those different things? No, not to me. So as much as we hear about business strategies being this or that, everybody would benefit.

So regardless of whether or not you're a chronic illness warrior. You also deserve and [00:08:00] would benefit from having a business that is flexible, right? For you, most people would benefit from slowing down and running, running their business with more intentionality, right? Most people, even if you talk to some of.

The most successful business owners out there, they realize to along the journey that they need to slow down and stop doing all of the things. So as much as we all are already in the mindset that I have to hurry up, I have to sacrifice. I have to do so many different things in order to show up in my business to like even make it like the other people make it who aren't even talking about what they're doing or, you know, when it comes to living with.

whatever life hurdles they have, they're not talking about what it means to, you know, be in pain, be having protocols, have like a healthcare team and all of those different kinds of things while showing up in your business full time, being consistent, posting three or four times a day, um, all of these different things.

They're not [00:09:00] talking about how if they slow. down that their business probably would be in a much more sustained, sustainable and profitable place. So that is the number one thing as a chronic illness warrior, you do not have to sacrifice. You don't have to sacrifice your flexibility and your life of what you need in order for you to be on your journey of healing to being whole.

If you. Were to sacrifice doing business strategy versus your life. You deserve that you deserve to take your time You deserve to figure it out. You deserve to Prioritize yourself because without your health without your wellness without your pauses your pace Would you be able to get to where you truly want to go without it?

While we're rushing, I found myself in many times like trying to rush to get to where I thought I should have been. I missed out on a lot of things that would have given me cues to do business the way that I do business [00:10:00] now. And how much faster am I moving now? Even though I feel like I'm not really moving that fast.

Am I moving now by doing the things The slow intentional way. If I talk to my clients all the time, and it's a psychology, you guys, there's a psychology around the fact that oftentimes we are spending our time trying to hurry it up and actually spend more time trying to hurry it up, right? And not get to where we want to go any faster.

It actually takes us longer. And so this is the piece that I want you to remember that this is the number one thing. You deserve to take your time and get to where you want to go with intentional and sustainable energy that will build Profitableness in the end and even as you go like this is not something you have to wait until like years from now slow still creates Money and income and impact.

So that's number one. This is the number one thing. You don't have to be [00:11:00] rushing your way to try to make this money or make this impact or to do this thing. The more intentional you are, the more intentional you are with yourself and with how you show up doing what you want to do, the more profitable and the more sustainable your business will be for the long haul.

Okay. So number two, your story is your leverage. Oh, your story is your leverage. You will hear me talking, talking about how your story is such a powerful tool in an audience where Honestly, at this point, everybody has done something, there's nothing new under the sun, that's, that's, that's a scriptural verse, there's nothing new, a principle, there's nothing new really truly under the sun, it might be, you know, packaged differently, it might be said differently, but ultimately, most things are exactly the same.

However, Your individual journey in that is very unique to you. It's like a snowflake. It's like the fingertip. Yes. We all have our different challenges and [00:12:00] different things that are very much exactly the same in its own way, but our own lived experiences are ours, and those are the things that allow us to have a better view of ourselves in this journey we call entrepreneurship.

Right? Because in this journey of entrepreneurship as chronic illness warriors, there's a couple of things that can drag us down immediately comparison, right? Guilt, envy, um, frustration, right? Um, scarcity thinking like I just don't have enough. And I, you know, there's something I shared with my client recently, which was like, you can show up with what you already have.

That's how powerful your story is. That's how powerful your story is. And I'm saying this from a standpoint of me, like I think about my journey up to now. Something that I have over time really just leaned into is that my story literally has gotten [00:13:00] me opportunities, has helped me connect with clients on a deeper level before I had all of the things.

if you will, to be the thing, right? So your story is kind of like, um, how do you describe it? How do I describe it? Y'all like your story is kind of like the juice. Um, like those shots that you give, like for like antibiotics or whatever, like the, like the juice shots that help you with your immune system and all of that stuff is like the.

immune boost to you, like fighting or like living well or sleeping well or whatever. Your story is that, it's your leverage. Your story also helps you to like ground into a more positive, um, mindset around like where you have come from. It helps you tap into gratitude. It helps you tap into self compassion for yourself and for those you choose to serve.

That is something no one can take away from you unless you allow them to. So your story is leverage [00:14:00] and don't discount any part of it. You'll notice how I talk about this, um, this season specifically, how my business kind of has pivoted and I don't even, I don't call it a pivot y'all. I call it an alignment.

As you guys know, I've had this podcast for over six years at this point, right? This is our sixth season. And over the years, people have asked me to talk about my podcast, talk about how to start it. I've done masterclasses. I spoke on conferences and, um, things like that. And in my head, I've always thought like, well, how can I make this podcast thing?

Like a big part of my business outside of the fact that I just love doing it. It's been such a great tool for me to heal. And I. Couldn't figure it out because I kept discounting the fact that it was so easy. It came so easy to me, right? But this is a part of my story This has literally been part of my entrepreneur and like just life journey and when I think about it today when I think about How the [00:15:00] reason why even led to doing a podcast was because of my previous experience in my life, which is like, I love connecting with people.

I love to be of service to people. I love to get to know what they're doing and what they're doing. I would never have guessed now looking that I would discount that. I don't discount that to this day, but I discounted the power of this podcast. I discounted this part of my story. And because of that, I wasn't really fully leveraging it.

In order to create the alignment that I needed. So my question to you as an entrepreneur, where in your journey and your life and your story, are you discounting something that you feel like, Oh, I just do this and it's so easy, or, Oh, this comes so naturally to me. You know, what are those things for you?

Right. And so I want you really thinking about what does that look like? How does that feel coming from the experience that you're having with your story? Because if you feel like your story is like [00:16:00] this horrible thing and there's nothing good in it, you won't be able to find the golden nuggets that led you to where you are today, which is being an entrepreneur with chronic illness, right?

You won't see the gold. You won't see the leverage. You won't see the alignment. So find places in your story that you can give yourself compassion and you can see the growth that has happened. And that will help you more than you know in your journey as an entrepreneur with chronic illness. Number three.

A supportive community and collaboration are literally the things that you need in your journey to living with chronic illness and running a business successfully, right? These three things, having the goal of having a flexible business, having flexible business strategies, learning to look at your story as leverage, as a tool, as something you're thankful for and grateful for, and having community, a supportive community are the three things every entrepreneur needs to [00:17:00] check to see where they are in that part of their life, like in their life.

Are these things very intentionally thought of a part of going after for yourself to create the results you want to see I can tell you for me and I can tell you for even my clients who come to me and oftentimes, you know, I had a client recently in the last Six months who came to me at first. And the first thing she said to me was like, I don't want to be around people.

I don't want to have people. I don't want to, like, I'm not very interested in like social events, none of those different kinds of things. And because I'm always in pain and it's so draining and all of these different kinds of things. Right. And I knew. For my own personal journey, I've been there. I've been that person who said like, I'm on this entrepreneur journey by myself because I don't have to deal with other people.

I don't want to talk to other people. They drain me and dah, dah, dah, dah. I'm an extrovert. Yes. But this client that I'm talking about is not, not too much of an extrovert. She's kind of like an omnivert, like an extrovert and introvert. But anyway, I [00:18:00] have clients who are also introverts who see the importance of community.

and supportive collaborations in their life as a chronic illness warrior and in their business. And so one of the things that I realized, um, and she realizes that when she started working on it, you know, embracing and finding that self compassion with her story and seeing that flexibility is possible in the ways that she decides to show up in her business, the supportive community kind of just.

Started opening up because she started opening up. She stopped holding herself back from receiving, right? This is the same thing for me I stopped holding myself back from receiving or seeing what is possible and I talk about this in a lot of different episodes when I'm talking about like seeing things through a lens as a chronic illness warrior before you start on this journey of Entrepreneurship and like healing your like inner younger version baby you chronic illness you to seeing like a whole different [00:19:00] world is that at many points when you start on this journey or you're in a journey and then this happens you get diagnosed with something in the middle of it you realize there's like this film and you can't really see there's like this little Uh, there's a filter over the lens, and it's making it really difficult to see beyond what's actually around you and in front of you, and it starts with embracing some of these things I'm talking about, embracing that, doing things flexible, having more freedom when you're Um, openness to how you do something maybe in a different way and embracing your story helps you to kind of like Get that filter out of the way so that you can see there's a whole crowd of people who Have been trying to give you something of support and that's community.

That's love That's like inclusion that you wish you could have had but for so long you pushed it away Because you thought it was taking from you when it actually could feel you And that's the third thing Every person [00:20:00] needs to have is a chronic illness. Warrior is a supportive community. Um, they need to lean into how can they collaborate with others in their journey to figuring out how they can better function and those same things apply to you as an entrepreneur.

And so when my client, the client that was just talking about. Started doing some of this work. I initially like most of my clients currently in 2020 to 2023 during this time, I don't have a group program, but it's coming just to hint, hint it's coming, but I have all my clients are private clients. We work one on one, but I have one channel where we go on Mondays.

And Wednesdays and Fridays, we share things, we share experiences and that leads to like a little baby step into them seeing the community that I have built that you all have helped me build. And then them seeing other people like tap into that community, right. And be like, I have other people that are also a part of this.

And so this client. started doing [00:21:00] more events and like doing more like things with her friends and stuff like that. And, um, unbeknownst to me until one day we're on a call and I was like, Oh, this is amazing. But I've seen this trajectory happen every single time I have a client that comes to me, just, just frustrated with their journey as an entrepreneur.

And I've seen that first, that. Cycle becomes the cycle because they have not leaned into, Oh, business can be fun. Business can be flexible for me. I don't need to hustle and sacrifice all of these different things. I don't need to post. I don't need to try all of these different things. I can do business my way and the best way possible for my life.

Right. And then, Oh, my life, you know, my story is this, but you know, I have look how far I've come. I'm still here. I'm a miracle. Like all of these beautiful. Self compassionate and positive thoughts start happening, right? And so then they're able to open their eyes up to see what is around them or who is really there for them, um, helps them to lean into this supportive community.

And that's what happened with me in this [00:22:00] podcast. Y'all. I literally started on my own journey, living with myself, found out a tool. I started dealing with myself. I started looking at my business through the lens of like, man, I could, if I was. And if I wasn't like as more flexible in my business and wasn't like in this rigid way I could do so much more, I could be so much more.

So it started on that trajectory. And then I was like, I need to embrace my story of I'm out here having people share theirs. How can I not embrace mine? How can I not share mine? So that started. And then I. seeing all these wonderful communities. You guys know, I talked about chronic con you guys know, even within my own friend world, I started telling people about my chronic illness.

It's just kind of part of the journey. Now I don't like shy away or think nobody's going to want to be my friend because I have a chronic illness. I don't think that anymore. Also don't like leave with it like duh, duh, duh, duh. But I do help people to see like. If I say I can't do something, usually it's just because I really am physically drained.

But hey, we might be able to do something on Zoom or you might be able to come over for this or that. The same thing, my business, I was doing a group program [00:23:00] that was extremely difficult, especially during the pandemic, especially with some other chronic stuff I was going through. So I went back to my other tool, my other skill of like seeing my business through the lens of flexibleness.

right? And embracing like, this doesn't mean anything about me. This is just a part of my journey. And so these three things, you guys helped me to kind of lean into being open to a more supportive community and looking for other people to collaborate with me on this journey of entrepreneurship and living with chronic illness.

So these three things are the things every chronic illness needs. Chronic illness entrepreneur needs to know you deserve, and you need. And everybody else really does need and would benefit from a flexible business strategy. So if you get resistance from someone saying that, no, you have to do this, this way, question that question that, because there are people doing things in a more intentional, slow, meaningful way and still making money.

Do not fall [00:24:00] into the trap of thinking, Oh, if I don't do it now, I'm never going to be able to do it. Right? Don't fall into that trap. And number two, your story is a superpower. It is the thing that helps you to do the hard things in your business. It's the thing that helps you to see things in a different creative lens.

When you embrace your story. Okay. It's also the mindset piece of like loving yourself and then asking other people to receive whatever it is that you're giving. And number three, your supportive community and collaboration, having that in your life as a chronic illness warrior is powerful. And having that in your business is even more powerful because it helps you to get to where you want to go with more intention and also faster than you think trying to do it by yourself.

So those are the three things that I think every entrepreneur with chronic illness needs to know because I wish I had Knew that these things were so crucial versus me figuring it [00:25:00] out over the last. Oh my gosh What has it been eight nine years at this point, right? So I hope this is helpful and the reason why I wanted this to be like the first episode You know in our season chapter It's season six.

I was about to say chapter six. Apparently I'm supposed to be writing a book in the future, but we won't talk about that. And at season six, I really am going hard into entrepreneur with chronic illness. What does it look like? What do we need to do? How do we want to show up? How can we do different? What is the mindset that we need to, like, break up up in this world of entrepreneurship, period?

What things are serving us? What things aren't serving us? And what things are we afraid of that we don't need to be afraid of? What are some things that we can find resources and tools in order to not just have a great business, but have a great life living with chronic illness? And that is my whole point of the show.

It's a really lean into showing you that. Entrepreneurship [00:26:00] with chronic illness will just look different. It will look different and still be wonderful when you embrace that it's just going to be done your way. And what better way is that when you are building a business that you love and enjoy, that it's built around the things that matter to you and the people that matter to you.

What better way? So... These are some of the, I would say like the core beliefs and I have found that when I'm stuck, I have found that when I'm struggling, I have to go back to these fundamentals of realizing I'm stuck because I'm trying to fit into a mold that may not be for me. I tried it and it's not for me.

I'm trying to make something work, but it's not for me. Right. And that's okay. That doesn't mean anything about me and or I'm trying to make my story fit into something that is not my story, right? Because I feel like that's the way I should look or should be. And I'm also trying to do this by myself. I haven't tapped into my community.

I haven't found my community and [00:27:00] asked for help. So these are the things that can help you knowing these three things will help you not get stuck, help you thrive and help your business to grow. Now, as always, you know that I love working with my clients on these things on a much deeper level. And throughout this season and throughout the next several seasons, you'll learn how I love working with my clients to create this kind of holistic blend of life and business that serves you as a chronic illness warrior.

If you would like to work with me one to one or maybe in the future as a group client in a program that I'll have soon, coming soon, more information. That I want you to just go to the link in the show notes and book a call. My discovery calls are just like their sales calls where you get to share with me what's going on with you.

What's going on in your business? Where are you stuck? Where are you struggling? I can tell you all three of these things that I share with you in this. This episode of the three things that every entrepreneur. Every entrepreneur needs to know are things that I had to kind of see hindsight [00:28:00] 2020. And the only way I saw that was because I had a coach or I had friends and I had supportive people who were able to show me the reason why you got out of this was because of this.

And then I started to, like, kind of work backwards and discover a lot of those things of how I did that without even realizing it. And so it's so important to, you can collapse time and save energy when you have someone being able to look at it third party, pull out and see, oh, this is the only thing you need to tweak while you're thinking is something else.

Right? And so you'll discover that just in a discovery call, just in the sales call. There's no commitment, but it's a great way for you to see where am I and where do I want to go? What's getting in my way? And I love helping my clients come away from those calls, feeling just more clear, just from the sales call of what they need to do.

What is their plan, their unique plan, right? To doing that. So if you want to learn more about that, just go to the show notes and be in tune for the next episode because the next episode I'm going to be talking about. Your flare [00:29:00] up lasted longer than you thought. Now what? What do you do? What do you do when your flare ups like last Longer than you thought and you have all of these things planned or you don't have anything planned What do you do with your business?

Like where do you go? How do you start? How do you not start? Like what is it? So that is what's gonna be coming up in the next episode. So can't wait to see you then.

OUTRO: That's a wrap y'all. Thanks for tuning in to crafted to thrive the podcast that helps entrepreneurs with chronic illness to thrive and build a holistic business and life. Check out our website at craftedtothrive.com for this episode show notes and all the gifts and goodies connect with me on Instagram at thrive with Nikita for more tips and behind the scenes and more. Tag me to share what you loved about this episode and I'll feature you on it. Upcoming episode. So until next time, remember, yes, you are crafted to thrive.