Episode 123 – Defining Your Identity + Sense of Balance as an Entrepreneur with Josh Berger

The Brand Strategy Podcast Mental Health Series with Josh Berger Identity and balance can both seem like these mystical unicorns for a select few entrepreneurs out there. How many times in your life have you wondered who you are? And how many times do you strive for this work-life balance that seems to change with every season? I’m so glad you’re here because we’re breaking down both of these topics just for you. Today’s conversation we’re diving back into the Mental Health Series with professional licensed counselor and my big brother, Josh Berger. Last time we talked a lot about fear of failure and fear of success. And today we’re diving into a topic that I know each and every one of us has struggled with and that is defining your identity and creating a sense of balance as an entrepreneur. As we dove into the conversation about fear it really made me start to analyze my relationship with fear and my different experiences around that. And as I was analyzing this relationship I began to think more about my identity and how I view myself. As entrepreneurs it’s easy to put our identity in our business and what we do, but we also need to slow down enough to think about what our identity is as a person, too. YOUR IDENTITY IS UNIQUELY DESIGNED Josh is the executive director at Alethia Counseling Center. Alethia is a Greek work which means “truth revealed”. “Alethia is not some kind of catchy mantra for us,” Josh explains. “For us it’s actually the way we care for ourselves and for our clients by seeing truth and the truth revealed in our lives.” For Josh he doesn’t just love helping people come up with affirmation statements like “you are enough”or “you are smart”, but rather actually being the one to walk with people about who you were designed to be. What are your skills? Strengths? Weaknesses? As entrepreneurs, it’s so easy to get our identity wrapped into our performance and our business’ success but unfortunately that “success” can be determined by the good or bad day/week that you had.  It’s helpful when you know your identity—when you know who you are, how you function and how you thrive—it is much easier to dive into winning over your fears of success or failure. It can be tricky to separate how we view ourselves versus who we are as entrepreneurs and the work that we do. And that’s why we need to understand the importance of knowing your identity. WHAT IS YOUR IDENTITY Josh explains that identity is basically going down to the very rudimentary question: who are you? Those three simple words you can wrestle with your entire life. Each day you can find new ways or nuances of understanding how you are wired. Whether it’s something as simple as introversion versus extroversion. Or even something more profound like, I’m very much a person who thrives as a manager while others may hate the idea of collaborating on a team. Start basic when digging into who you are and be sure to answer the question “who are you?” not “what do you do?”