MENTAL HEALTH COMES FIRST

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Today on the Tradies Success Academy Podcast, it's a special episode as we mark R U OK? Day, a day dedicated to reaching out and checking in on our mates. As a business owner who knows the weight of responsibility, I get it. We often don't ask for help ourselves. But sometimes, all it takes is a simple "Are you OK?" to make a world of difference. In this episode, I share my own experiences and strategies for dealing with stress and anxiety as a business owner. Let's make today count. Reach out to a friend, ask the question, and let's support one another. Because any day is the day to ask, "Are you OK?"

Podcast Transcript

Greg Allan

Hey, my friends, Greg Allen from Tradie Success Academy here and in honor of, “RU OK?” Day today, I just want to share some strategies that have worked for me personally and for our clients that we work with at the academy.

So for me as a business owner, first and foremost, I feel like the business over time took over my authentic self. You know, I, I sort of became the business and I lost my separation between Greg Allen and my trade business. I became the business.

And I think there's a huge risk in when we do that, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves because if we say get a tough time in the business, it's, it impacts us personally. So I think it's for me, it was learning how to really separate myself from the business and to find my authentic self.

Again, I stopped being you know, Greg Allen. I knew when I started getting stressed and getting anxiety from the business.

You know, I stopped playing music. I stopped being playful, I stopped, you know, being my true authentic self.

And I think some of you guys have seen me like now bring my authentic self back out into what I do to the public, you know, singing parodies and joking about, you know, that's me. And I love, I love doing that because I'm being authentically me. But when I was trying to be what society thinks a business owner needs to be. I wasn't being my authentic self and that pulled me away and made me more anxious and more stressed.

So I think another thing for me was learning some strategies to overcome stress and overwhelm. So I learnt how to journal through learning stoic philosophy. Journaling became a massive tool that I used to create awareness around how I'm actually feeling.

Because before that, I would just say, “yeah, no, I'm all good.” You know, I, I would say “I'm all good”, but I wasn't, I was really struggling all the time often. And so journaling was a great way for me to just be honest with myself.

I didn't have to tell anyone, but by being honest with myself, I could see what I needed to do.

I could take action on the things that I was struggling with.

And so, you know, I think people think that journaling is girly or whatever, but I think it's one of the most powerful tools for sure, for me, that has helped me overcome a lot of stressful times and still continues to even last week I used it to, you know, handle a tough situation.

And so journaling is probably my number one go to.

Exercise have to make sure I look after my exercise exercise for me helps me manage my stress and anxiety.

And I think if you guys aren't finding, but when you're getting busy as business owners that you exercise less, then that might be something that you need to find a way to bring into your daily rhythm and cadence so that you can feel at your best at work and have more awareness around your situation.

Making sure you're looking after your sleep was a massive thing for me.

You know, I, I would find myself waking up in the middle of the night with all of the thoughts in my mind and wouldn't know how to handle all of these things.

And so by getting up and putting in my journal, all the things that I had to do, it helped me release those things and know that I could come back to my journal in the morning.

And I would see all of the things that I had to do and I couldn’t go back to sleep. I would always end my journal entries with.

“Now you can go back to sleep” and then I would go back to bed and fall straight to sleep. And it was great.

Also, as a business owner, I found that with less time I had less time to organize good food, I think, stick to real food as much as I could made me feel at my best.

You know, if I, I was eating bad food,, a lot of takeaway food, then I wasn't feeling at my best.

And that further compounded the way I was feeling, I was feeling more stress and anxiety.

So eating well was something that really helped me overcome stressful times.

And last, but not least, and probably one of the most important things is to communicate with your loved ones, communicate around your situation and what you're dealing with.

And let's remove the stigma around seeing a psychologist or a counsellor for getting support around your mental health.

It is one of the best investments I had ever made because I actually could talk to someone who is trained to understand how the mind works and my mind works and helped me discover why I behave a certain way in different situations.

I really want to encourage everyone, you know, to dig deep and, and just be honest with yourself and, and it's OK, it's OK to see someone about what you're going through and by seeing someone you're investing in your mind and understanding yourself.

So you can have more awareness next time down the line.

So really want to encourage everyone to support “RU OK?”, Day today, reach out to a friend, communicate, share what you're going through and you'll be surprised at the amount of love and support you get in return all the best!