We’ve covered a lot of ground. Let’s distill this.

(1) Summary

I interviewed 18 climate entrepreneurs from across the world. I learned that every single climate entrepreneur experienced self-doubt. The longer they’d been in entrepreneurship, the more they’d learned to expect and normalise it.

• Loneliness exacerbates self-doubt. The people who felt most able to navigate self-doubt were those who felt most supported. Unfortunately, self-doubt often makes us withdraw from others, rather than reach out and connect.

• The triggers for personal self-doubt change with different stages of business. Generally speaking, though, there are key areas that are catnip to self-doubt across the board.

• The experience of systemic self-doubt (eco-anxiety) is far more diverse. I found that four groups were particularly impacted by it Many others had experienced ‘dark nights of the soul’ when it came to climate change, and still had days where they felt overwhelmed. The majority of interviewees, though, were in this because they felt compelled to take action — and that action was the antidote to despair.

• Successful climate entrepreneurs had been proactive in going out and getting the support that they needed. They differentiated passive and active support. Active support equipped them to build resilience.

• Mainstream entrepreneurial support, while helpful in many ways, fell short in three areas: content, values, and paradigms. Climate entrepreneurs have specific values and contexts, and especially value working with people — coaches, consultants, programmes — who ‘get it’.

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(2) Resources

Personal self-doubt

• I highly recommend the work of Sas Petherick, a self-doubt researcher and coach. She teaches an evidence-based approach to healing self-doubt, both to coaches and non-coaches. Her podcast, ‘Courage and Spice’, is also excellent. Sas mentored me when I was a brand-new coach.

• The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield, tackles a symptom of self-doubt that many climate entrepreneurs experience: procrastination. His expose of ‘Resistance’ as the enemy of creative discipline is a no-nonsense guide to normalising, and navigating, this experience.

• Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life, by Dr. Martin Seligman, is all about our ‘explanatory style’: how we interpret bad things that happen to us. We want to avoid interpreting the cause as personal (‘it’s my fault’), pervasive (‘this is how it is across the board’) and permanent (‘this will never change’), and instead learn the skill of optimism. Why? Because it has a real impact on our leadership, health, happiness, and success. Reading this book catapulted me into coaching.

• Tara Mohr is the creator of the Playing Big women’s leadership programme, and author of Playing Big: Practical Wisdom for Women Who Want to Speak Up, Create, and Lead. This book has some very practical resources on identifying and befriending your self-doubt, and taking small steps to pursue big dreams.

• Taking a more behavioural change approach is How Women Rise: Break the 12 Habits Holding You Back, by Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith, both executive coaches drawing on their observations after coaching hundreds of women. This book is written especially for women (or those socialised as women) and speaks to specific habits that women’s self-doubt can often translate into.

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Systemic self-doubt

• The Work That Reconnects is a framework for group work that has been personally life-transforming for me. It provides a space and a structure to process our grief and hope for the world in a facilitated small group. I was wary of trying it, after having not-great experiences in other groups, but I found it deeply healing. Our facilitator was Kathleen Rude: a complete magician. The foundation for this work is explained in Active Hope, by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone. There’s also a free course on Active Hope, available here. This body of the work is the single most important resource I have found to process my own climate grief, despair, and anger.

• At Climate Change Coaches (where I’m a founding member) we run an ICF-accredited programme in climate change coaching. This equips coaches to help their clients navigate their own self-doubt, both personal and systemic. We also teach coaching skills to non-coaches, and run team coaching within organisations. Check out our flagship book: Climate Change Coaching: the power of connection to create climate action.

• Project Inside Out, run by climate psychologist Renée Lertzman, helps equip people to bring about effective climate action through a different kind of leadership.

• Be The Future wants to unleash the power of families, parents, and carers to navigate eco-emotions into playful action and hope. They also host a podcast, Hope. Act. Thrive, interviewing leading climate changemakers from around the globe with a fresh approach to the climate emergency, while still acknowledging the gravity of the situation. (I appear on Season 2!).

• The Global Optimism movement, founded by Christiana Figueres (chief architect of the Paris Agreement) and Tom Rivett-Carnac. Their book, The Future We Choose, and podcast, Outrage and Optimism, hold the whole gamut of the climate emergency: rage at apathy and destruction, fear at what could lie ahead, a staunch resolve to persevere, and an uncompromising commitment to a better world.

• The Climate Optimist newsletter is one of my favourites: practical, insightful, and human. Its creator, Anne Therese Gennari, launched The Climate Optimist Handbook: How to Shift the Narrative on Climate Change and Find the Courage to Choose Change in late 2022 (at the date of writing, only available on Amazon).

• The Climate Psychology Alliance has a database of climate-aware therapists (I found my own counsellor through this site) as well as a good podcast.

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Founders’ mental health

• Did you know that founders are the professional group most at risk for divorce? Burnout and mental health rates are high, but often not talked about. Founders’ Taboo was set up by founders who’d personally experienced the mental health challenges of growing a startup. They exist to help prioritise the mental wellbeing of founders, and to educate the ecosystems that support them. Great for all founders to be aware of.

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Coaching

• If this research has resonated with you and you’re curious about my approach, let’s talk. Contact me today.

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(3) Thank you

Thank you to all of my interviewees, for sharing so candidly. There wouldn’t be a study without your honesty, vulnerability, and openness.

Thanks also to all those who asked me questions about this project, via email or LinkedIn, who helped deepen my own understanding and thinking.

Quotes have been edited for clarity and brevity.