New things are hard (a surprise to me 🤦🏽‍♀️)

Alysha Khan • public
• 2 min read

I am two weeks into being a solopreneur full-time.

And the weird thing I keep running into is how hard it is to do new things.

Like most of us in Marketing Ops, I am no stranger to doing new things. We're always learning new tech, troubleshooting new bugs, wrangling new stakeholders, tackling new challenges, etc. That's what makes Marketing Ops (and consulting) so fun! No two days are ever really the same.

Launching a business has meant doing lots of new things: updating my website, finding and onboarding clients, writing this newsletter, etc.

So why then am I getting so, so frustrated in this particular season of doing new things?

I think it's because, in my mind, this should all be easy.

Because I already have all the raw skills necessary. Because I've done all this work in some shape or form before.

But like a chef trying a new dish, just because you've used those ingredients before, it does not mean that you'll be able to conquer a new recipe on your first try.

And oh boy, am I tackling a whole new encyclopedia of recipes all at the same time right now.

For you, this may look like:

  • Getting frustrated while trying to figure out why a record isn't syncing over (you've synced a million records over but SFDC found a brand new reason to reject your record)
  • Struggling to find the right words to hold a boundary with a stakeholder (you're a boundary queen but this is the first time you've had to tell an exec no and you're sweating)
  • Wanting to scream because your trusty Excel formula isn't working as it should (you're pulling this specific report for the first time and the data is just different enough to confuse our Microsoft overlords)

Tips for the coming week

  • When you find yourself getting frustrated while tackling something new, make a conscious effort to give yourself grace and take a break from the problem to give your brain a chance to reset. I have a fun, silly process of defining the problem in my mind, visualizing myself tossing the problem into the back of my mind, and then going to do something else until the solution percolates back to my conscious thoughts.  
  • Start compiling a Brag Book to remind yourself how awesome you are and how many other people also think you're awesome. The incredible Sara McNamara has a fantastic template here. Another easy approach is to take a screenshot every time someone compliments you and start saving them in a folder.

See you next week,

🫶🏽 Alysha

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