If you’ve ever felt worried about changes which are happening in your life, there’s now a free app which can help.
Scared So What will ask you questions about the change you are facing to help you work out how you feel about it and what steps you should take next. It was created by Dr Grant Van Ulbrich, who realised while there were lots of resources available for managing organisational change, there was nothing when it came to personal change.
Keen to teach people how to manage change in their own lives, he created the first personal change model while completing his master’s degree in Leading Sales Transformation at Middlesex University. Now the first ever Doctor of Professional Studies in Sales Transformation, Grant wanted to create an easy-to-use app for individuals which is available free all over the world.
Grant, whose TED talk on managing personal change has been viewed 1.6 million times, said: “Every single one of us will experience change constantly throughout our life. But the first thing we do is we go deep within, we recoil, we go into fear, worry, stress, anxiety, assumption.
“And that mental process also has a physical impact – we carry the stress in the back of our necks and muscles and experience headaches, fatigue, rapid breathing and sweating. People just aren’t taught how to manage change.”
The Scared So What app asks people 30 questions about the change they are going through to help them work out how they feel about it and explore their options so they can make a plan for the future. And Grant says he wishes the app had been around when he was younger to help him navigate some of his own major life changes.
Originally from Kansas in the United States, Grant has been homeless and found himself having to rebuild his life from scratch twice. He was discharged from the US Navy, where he worked as an air traffic controller on an aircraft carrier, because he was gay and found himself sleeping in his car while he searched for work.
He eventually built a successful career in sales before losing everything again when a skiing accident left him with devastating injuries, crippling medical debt and unable to work. After losing his home again and staying on friends’ sofas, he applied for an entry-level job on a cruise ship, which was the start of more than 25 years of working in the cruise industry.
It was while he was working on creating the first ever sales manual for Royal Caribbean, that he discovered his passion for personal change management. And during the Covid-19 pandemic, he worked with the cruise line to help their staff manage the changes they were going through so that when restrictions were lifted, Royal Caribbean emerged as an industry leader.
Grant, who lives in London, added: “My mantra is that change management must change which is why I’ve made the app free for individuals and education.”
Scared So What also works with corporate clients, including Royal Mail and City of London Police, helping them support their workforce as they go through changes.
Find out more at www.scaredsowhat.com