If you remove yourself from your brand would you lose real connection?

Yesterday, I was researching social anxiety. It’s not something I talk about liberally, but it occurred to me yesterday that perhaps more people suffer with social anxiety than I initially thought.

I came across an entrepreneur who talked a lot about women and anxiety. She explored the effects of anxiety and what it was costing women in business.

I was stoked by her message and decided to reach out and connect through LinkedIn.

I got a response but it wasn’t from her. Someone else was managing her page. The person attempted to sound all upbeat and enthusiastic. Promised to share my sentiments but it was like a splash of cold water. I felt let down.

It made me think of us business owners as we grow.

When we are struggling, we are willing to talk to everyone. We yearn the connection. Our popularity increases and so does everything else; pretty soon we are overwhelmed. We need order. We need to delegate. In order to focus on what we do best, we let others handle the smaller things, like responding to messages.

This is a challenge we will face especially solo professionals.

What sold followers in the first place was you.

Now you are removing yourself.

I guess one could say this is inevitable. A movie star starts off acting off, off Broadway and then makes a debut on the big screen. One minute she is responding to your IG comments on her thread next minute she no longer responds. Crickets.

Are we conditioned into thinking that perhaps we need a guru, an expert, an influencer…someone else other than ourselves, to lead us towards positive and profitable results?

Too much is placed on hero worship.

Those that we choose to worship owe us nothing really. It’s the trajectory of growth and expansion. But we must choose growth and expansion for ourselves. We must choose to take the message but not worship the messenger. And we must balance external seeking and internal adventure, awareness and knowing within our own lives.

That way, when someone grows to the point where they can’t connect personally, we don’t feel empty inside, or hurt by their actions. We would take nothing personally because we have such a sturdy unwavering foundation within…our go to place if we ever feel off kilter, needing direction or simply needing to connect.