Alex Ayin on conquering anxiety!
Alex Ayin is the Marketing Director at Wiser, one of the largest employer branding and early talent agencies in Europe. He’s worked at Social Chain, and is a marketing mastermind helping businesses to grow rapidly, ramp up their culture, and attract industry-best talent.
See Me Be Me is a podcast that spotlights diverse talent across any and every career path.
What am I going to do right? A lot of the anxiety and the stress comes from thoughts of the future, or trauma of the past. But if you can get yourself into the present, which is no mean feat; if you can recognise yourself and your own internal and external triggers… 90% of the things we think are going to happen don’t happen.
An old mentor said this to me when I was pitching and thinking about things going wrong. He said “just write down on the left hand side how many things you’ve worried about over the last six months. And then on the right hand side, how many of those things actually went wrong?”
Did you lose that contract? Were you unable to afford your rent? Did anything happen? When you analyse it with that rationale, in a better state, it gives you so much confidence, and helps you to understand that it might just be in your mind. And your mind is the worst – it’s tricking you into worrying about something that you either can’t control, or probably won’t happen.
I remember in my younger entrepreneurial days, one of the things you worry about the most is rejection. When you don’t get things, you feel deflated, but then you realise that things aren’t always going to go to plan. But then when other opportunities come along, and you look back, and it’s a good thing!
You learn how to overcome those barriers, and think ‘is this the worst thing that could happen in life? Is this really going to break me?’ No. Focus on forward planning, always thinking next steps. Rather than thinking ‘what could go wrong’, thinking ‘what am I going to do right?’.
If you’d like to hear more from Alex, about his career at Social Chain and beyond, his inspiration from sport, and his secrets to success, check out the full podcast.