How to Deal with Agency Ownership Stress (Worksheet)
Key Takeaways
- A simple 5-question worksheet can convert anxious thoughts into clear, written action plans
- Documenting the specific thought driving your anxiety often reveals that the feared outcome is not imminent
- Identifying one preventative action you can take in the next 24 hours breaks the cycle of overwhelm
Gray MacKenzie talks with Pete Brand, agency owner at MINDSCAPE and host of the Hike Your Own Hike podcast, about one of the least-discussed aspects of running an agency: the stress and anxiety that comes with ownership. Pete has developed a practical, one-page worksheet that helps entrepreneurs transform anxious thoughts into actionable plans.
The Reality of Agency Ownership Stress
Running an agency is stressful. Revenue is unpredictable. Client relationships can shift without warning. Team members have needs and expectations that sometimes conflict with business realities. Most agency owners carry these pressures silently, believing that stress is just the price of being an entrepreneur.
Pete shares openly about his own experience with anxiety as a business owner. He describes the spiraling thoughts that keep agency owners up at night - the what-ifs about losing a major client, missing payroll, or making the wrong strategic bet. These thoughts feel urgent and overwhelming in the moment, but they are rarely as imminent as they seem.
The 5-Question Anxiety Worksheet
Pete’s solution is deceptively simple. He created a one-page worksheet with five questions designed to pull anxious thoughts out of your head and onto paper, where they can be examined rationally:
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What is the challenge? Name the specific situation causing stress. Getting it on paper immediately reduces its emotional weight.
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What thought is driving the anxiety? Identify the specific fear or worst-case scenario running through your mind. Often, just articulating it reveals how unlikely or distant it is.
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Is it reasonable that the anxiety-causing outcome is imminent? Honestly evaluate the timeline and probability. In most cases, the feared outcome is not about to happen.
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What can be done to prevent that negative outcome? Brainstorm concrete steps you could take to reduce the risk. This shifts your brain from fear mode to problem-solving mode.
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What preventative or proactive action can you take in the next 24 hours? Pick one specific action and commit to it. This breaks the cycle of overwhelm by creating forward motion.
Why Documentation Works
Pete explains that the power of the worksheet is in the documentation itself. Anxious thoughts are vague, looping, and feel enormous when they stay in your head. Writing them down forces specificity, which almost always makes them feel smaller and more manageable.
The 24-hour action step is particularly important. It bridges the gap between recognizing a problem and doing something about it. Even a small action - sending an email, scheduling a meeting, reviewing a financial report - creates momentum and reduces the feeling of helplessness.
Normalizing the Conversation
Pete encourages agency owners to talk more openly about the mental health challenges of entrepreneurship. The industry tends to celebrate hustle and growth while ignoring the toll those things take. By normalizing the conversation and sharing practical tools like this worksheet, agency owners can support each other through the harder parts of building a business.