Denise Damijo on How To Bounce Back Stronger in Business
Denise Damijo is creator of “The Healer's Realm Podcast” brought to you by The Shamanic Group and knows what it takes to face challenges in business and bounce back stronger. They took some time out to share their insights with The Industry Leaders.
Can you start by telling us a bit about your journey as an entrepreneur, focusing particularly on your experiences with setbacks and challenges? How has this shaped your understanding and mastery of resilience in business?
When I first started my journey, I was excited. I had always wanted to be a businessowner, and the door finally opened. Unfortunately, when I walked through the door, it was really only the beginning of my challenges.
I didn’t know how to be an entrepreneur, and I didn’t know what I needed. So, I invested in every course and program I came across – but I still wasn’t seeing the success that I wanted to see. If all you are doing is spending money and not making it, it’s a sure way to go out of business quickly. That was a difficult lesson I had to learn when I was forced to go back to work.
But this taught me that I needed to trust my intuition, to do the work that I already knew how to do, and to be patient and disciplined enough to see results before investing in anything else. Doing this required me to find the right business coach or program, one that was completely aligned with who I was and where I wanted to go.
In the world of entrepreneurship, failure is often seen as a stepping stone rather than a dead-end. How do you perceive failure, and can you share an instance where a failure led to an unexpected growth or success in your business?
Failure never feels good. It hurts and can cause embarrassment. It can also cause a loss of confidence in yourself, leading you to doubt your dreams and desires. But, as painful as these things can be, they’re sometimes necessary for entrepreneurs.
A true entrepreneurial spirit will never have just one business idea. A lot of times, the mind of an entrepreneur is flooded with different ideas!
What it takes for any of these ideas to manifest is pivoting and changing up what you’re doing, depending on what’s going on in the economy and your own life. A lot of the businesses that survive know how to do this, mine included.
When I was inside the pivot, I had to have a certain belief and faith in the unseen and unknown. I had to decide that the direction that life and business was taking me in was not mere coincidence, but divine design. That helped me to stand firm in what I believed to be true, for myself and my business.
Then, when I finally said ‘yes’ to going all in on my business, everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. But that’s usually how things happens in life. It was in those moments that I had to have unwavering faith and belief to keep going, and know that this was the path for me. It was challenging, and there were some points where things got rough, but I kept inching forward.
What strategies have you employed to cultivate a culture of resilience within your organization? How have these strategies made your team more adaptable and innovative, especially during trying times?
I wouldn’t call them strategies – I would call them rituals.
1. I am very clear on my ‘why’. I believe it with all of my being, and it’s non-negotiable for me. My ‘why’ is something that I think about often, especially when things get a little cloudy and it becomes challenging to keep my eyes on my target. I also invite opportunities that remind me of my ‘why’ into my experience.
2. I do mirror work along with other self-recognizing practices. It’s important for me to remember and give myself credit for all that I have survived and how far I have already come.
3. I have a check right next to my laptop that has an amount that I am going to be able to cash by a certain date. I believe that it is already done, time just needs to catch up.
You've spoken about bouncing back from failure, but I'm curious to know if there is a methodology you follow to analyze what went wrong and how to correct it. Could you describe your process for assessing and learning from mistakes?
I always tell people that two things will constantly present themselves in their lives: unlearned lessons, and their purpose.
If I am in an uncomfortable situation, I start to ask questions like, ‘what is this trying to tell or show me?’ I believe that everything and everyone that crosses my path is here to bring me something of value. That being said, I may need to strengthen myself somewhere or release something that no longer serves me.
I reevaluate each challenging situation and consider where else it has shown up in my life, which gives me the tools to decide what to do to avoid repeating it. Or, if I feel it is my purpose, I see how the situation aligns, and I always check for signs of confirmation. Then I act even if I am unsure how it will pan out.
I’ve learned that, most of the time, successful people have no clue how things are going to work out. But the wise thing to do is take the risks that you feel aligned with, and that you’re called to take. All of this is done by getting very clear and confident in your discernment abilities.
Many entrepreneurs fear failure to the point that it paralyzes them. How do you balance taking calculated risks with the fear of failure? What advice would you offer to other entrepreneurs who struggle with this?
First and foremost, I know that I was not given a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. That means that if I am afraid of something, it is not something that I need to focus on. Instead, I need to be focused on the cause of the fear.
This is perfected through getting to know yourself. If you haven’t spent enough quality time with yourself and honored all parts of you – your child self, your present self, your future/highest self, and your spiritual being self – then you still do not know and understand yourself.
Take the time to get to know these four beings, because they live inside of you all at once. Once you do this, you will start to understand more about your choices, and particularly your fears.
Sometimes, resilience requires knowing when to pivot or even walk away from an idea. How do you recognize the difference between a challenge that requires persistence and a situation that necessitates a change in direction?
Excellent question! You can recognize this by how much you know yourself and accept where you currently are. Who did you have to become to get where you are today? Some things you discover may be things you do not need or like anymore.
Now also ask yourself who you have to become to get to where you want to be? What is it you need today, in your present state, to be able to release what no longer serves you and to learn and grow into who you need to be?
Finally, ask yourself whether this thing, experience, or goal is aligned and going to help you, and if so, how? If it is, keep going and believing. If not, pivot until you are aligned with what will.
The global economic landscape is always changing, and recent years have seen some extraordinary disruptions. How have you adapted your business to overcome unexpected global challenges? What were the key factors in your successful navigation of these waters?
I have the spiritual gift of sight. My sight helps me to see things that can prepare people for what is to come, meaning I know what people will need going forward. I can see some of the main challenges that they will face and the things that can really prevent them from meeting their success. This allows me to prepare material courses and experiences that will assist them.
In most cases, I have also had the opportunity to live through their experiences myself already. So, once I get on the other side, I have even more insight into how to help people with their challenges.
One of the things that I would advise people do is be cautious of those who teach something they have never experienced before. There are a lot of people who will have no clue how to do something, except from the course they took a month ago. This can be devasting for the person exchanging time with them.
Another thing to be aware of is people who give a lot of fluff and no substance. It may be that they don’t have a lot of substance to share, or they may be in the category of the people who took a course and now are simply regurgitating information.
Resilience in the face of failure is often linked to personal growth as well. How have your business experiences shaped you personally? Can you share a moment where your professional resilience translated into a personal transformation?
My business resilience is completely connected with my personal growth. It has made me cut off people or things that were not healthy or helping me reach where I was going and who I was becoming.
It has also strengthened my faith and belief, so now when I look back I see all the things that I have overcome and how far I have come. I have no other choice but to believe because it works.
I’ve also been able to reimagine myself in different times of my life as a result of my resilience. When I unexpectedly became a mom with five kids (three of them under two-years-old), I had to reimagine myself. When I went through a divorce, I had to reimagine myself. When I finally accepted my identity as a Shaman and embedded that as part of my business, I had to reimagine myself and my Christian background.
Reimagining and reinventing yourself is challenging. It takes courage and resilience, and you can and will lose people. You will have to face the unknown and believe in things that may not make sense right away. But you must decide to trust the process enough to commit to it and believe that, on the other side, is a better you and a better experience than any you could have imagined or hoped for.
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