{"id":10615,"date":"2016-08-15T03:22:38","date_gmt":"2016-08-15T08:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/?p=10615"},"modified":"2016-08-14T13:27:17","modified_gmt":"2016-08-14T18:27:17","slug":"the-beliefs-i-start-with","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/2016\/08\/the-beliefs-i-start-with.html","title":{"rendered":"The beliefs I start with"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-10679\" src=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Becky-McCray.-Photo-by-Deb-Brown-1-800x263.jpeg\" alt=\"Becky McCray. Photo by Deb Brown (1)\" width=\"800\" height=\"263\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Becky-McCray.-Photo-by-Deb-Brown-1-800x263.jpeg 800w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Becky-McCray.-Photo-by-Deb-Brown-1-300x99.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Becky-McCray.-Photo-by-Deb-Brown-1-768x252.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Becky-McCray.-Photo-by-Deb-Brown-1.jpeg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I operate with a set of beliefs\u00a0about rural places and small towns. I want to share them with you so you&#8217;ll know what I&#8217;m assuming whenever I talk with you.<\/p>\n<p>When I tell you that I help you shape a better future for your small town, that includes my\u00a0beliefs\u00a0that small towns in general have a future, that your town in particular is worth shaping and that what you do will make a difference.<\/p>\n<p>When I say we&#8217;ll do it no matter what the pessimists say or do, I believe\u00a0that you have pessimists, that you have at least a few optimists, too, and that you are strong enough to stand up again when those pessimists try to knock you down once more.<\/p>\n<p>When I say that I&#8217;ll deliver practical steps you can put into action right away toward that brighter future, I&#8217;m building on my belief that you want to take action and that the advice to you can be practical, do-able and realistic.<\/p>\n<p>Our underlying beliefs\u00a0shape our world view and all of our actions. If you believe all small towns are dying because you&#8217;ve heard it said all your life, then you&#8217;ll act like small towns have no future, like our actions don&#8217;t matter in the end. If you believe that the pessimists have power over you, you&#8217;ll squelch your own best ideas rather than bring them up and face potential ridicule.<\/p>\n<p>The good news is that your underlying beliefs can change. You can shift based on the new information you learn about the world and your small town. Spoiler alert: the pessimists can shift their mindset, too. It just takes a long time and a lot of love.<\/p>\n<p><em>New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the <a href=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/guided-tour.html\">Guided Tour<\/a>. Like what you see? <a href=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/get-updates.html\">Get our updates<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I operate with a set of beliefs\u00a0about rural places and small towns. I want to share them with you so you&#8217;ll know what I&#8217;m assuming whenever I talk with you. When I tell you that I help you shape a better future for your small town, that includes my\u00a0beliefs\u00a0that small towns in general have a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":10679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,8],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Becky-McCray.-Photo-by-Deb-Brown-1.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10615"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10615"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10681,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10615\/revisions\/10681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}