Easy tips for how to shield yourself against stalking

This is a short and simple course geared toward independent professionals, owners of small businesses, bloggers and otherwise self-employed or independent business people. It's mostly for women who have to be active online and who have to list contact details online. I launched this a few years ago, but took it offline shortly after. In March 2024, I overhauled and republished the course.

Being in business for yourself also includes that you must plan for contingencies and take charge of your security. I'm not trying to scare you. I am merely telling you to be practical and proactive.

I started my first small business in 1997. I've operated it in two different countries. For the tax authorities, it currently still exists, after more than two decades, but it no longer generates much income. I've started two more businesses that I stopped within a year.

I suffered a major setback that I didn't see coming. I hadn't planned for this particular contingency and I want to share with you what I've learned. This is knowledge that I wish I'd had in the past so that I could have protected myself better.

• It happens increasingly often that someone becomes obsessed with an independent female professional, YouTuber or any kind of other independent woman who is in business for herself.
  

• This often forces the woman in question to keep relocating.
  

• It usually causes the demise of the business.

  
  

• I've been there too. It sucks.

  
  

• By contrast, helping you prevent such an experience is highly empowering.

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WHY YOU must CONSIDER ENROLLING IN THIS COURSE

Contingency planning should be part of running your business.

Once the horse has bolted, there is no point in still trying to close the barn door.

An ounce of prevention is worth a fortune - more than a pound - of cure within this context. 

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There are simple practical things that you can do to help protect yourself against stranger-stalking.

The course is brimming with tips and based on 15+ years of personal experience. Most of us are simply not paranoid enough to want to protect ourselves against the possibility that someone starts stalking us. That's good because it means that we've had mostly positive experiences throughout our lives thus far.

If you think that stranger-stalking will never happen to you, then let me remind you that none of us foresaw the Covid-19 pandemic either. We did not know that many of us would have to close our shops for extended periods of time or, by contrast, would become flooded with online orders.

Increasingly often, stalkers aren’t people who hang around in front of your place of work or home all the time, people you can take a photo of. These days, stalking frequently begins online. At first, you won't even know that it is happening and later, you still may not have a clue as to who exactly it is, where the person lives and what he does for a living.

While this course is not focused on preventing that people walk into your brick-and-mortar business one day and then start stalking you, it is useful for that kind of situation too. If you are a YouTuber or live-streaming on Twitch, you can also still gain useful insights from this course, even though it is not targeted at you.

Stalking is primarily carried out by men and affects mostly women. That's why this course is geared toward women. Stalking does happen to men as well, however, and there are also women who engage in stalking behaviors.

• The initial intention of a stalker does not have to be negative at all. Profound and prolonged otherization of someone who is slightly different - people often making fun of him - can make anyone who is for example kind and compassionate a target for stranger-stalking.

  
  

• Your understandable response to stalking can really anger a person who has become fascinated with you.
  

• There is often a mismatch in communication and understanding that results in this type of friction.
  

• An example? Sending someone flowers once is usually considered a very nice thing to do. Sending someone flowers every day is not nice at all. Why is that? Can you explain it? It's like saying that purchasing one box with cookies is great, but buying ten boxes to keep in your cupboard is creepy.
  

• These are simply unspoken agreements that we have in society. You do not send a person flowers every day. That's just really creepy.
  

• Someone who does not understand that and who is spending a lot of money on flowers to express how much he appreciates your general kindness and compassion can get very upset when you then start yelling at him and throw out the flowers.
  

• The root cause of this, of course, is the lack of inclusivity in society and the lack of support for people whose brains are slightly different.
  

• You and I cannot fix that overnight.

However, there are simple things that you can do to avoid such clashes. You can shield yourself against stranger-stalking. I cannot guarantee that it will never happen to you, but you can certainly limit the chance that it does.

• This course provides you with very simple, practical tips that are easy to implement.
  

• Some cost no money at all. Some cost only a little. Only one of them may cost you quite a bit.
  

• Not taking these steps could cost you your business and your health.
  

• These steps are part of good health & safety practices for you.