5 Steps to Being a More Confident Businesswoman
Talking about marketing and sales funnels is easy, but talking about being confident and the times that I didn’t feel confident feels hard. That makes sense, I’m a 3 on the enneagram and so I like to show up like I know what I’m doing, but just like you, I stress over how well my Reels are doing, or my podcast is growing, or my team is working. Being the CEO of your business is the best because you get to be in charge and it is the hardest because you get to be in charge. (Don’t consider yourself a CEO? Stick around, girl, we are going to change that.). This post will cover the 5 steps to being a more confident businesswoman.
The truth about confidence is that it comes in the pursuit of it. The more podcasts I create, the more confident I am as a podcaster. The more clients I help with their marketing strategy, the more confident I am as a marketing expert. I don’t just turn on confidence, I gain it by taking (often scary) action. With that said, I’m excited to share my 5 steps to being a more confident businesswoman.
5 Steps to Being a More Confident Businesswoman
How to Be More Confident in your Business Step #1: Remember who you are and why you’re here.
I know, I’m sounding a little bit like your mom here, but it is true. There is a reason that you are doing this business. There are people that only you can serve. If you know in your gut that you are supposed to be doing this business, and you feel called by God to do it, then you have the capacity to do it. Trust in the process of becoming.
How to Be More Confident in your Business Step #2: It’s not about you.
When I spoke at the GLOW Conference, I was slated to speak after THE Rachel Hollis. She had just finished up her book tour, so she was fire on that stage. Leading up to the conference, I was absolutely stressed and overwhelmed by comparing myself to Rachel. I felt so much doubt about my ability to speak for 45 minutes to 1,000’s of people. I was not in a good place mentally and then my friend said to me, “Michelle, it isn’t about you. You are there to serve. They need your message.” Hearing that turned me around. The reason I had so much doubt and lacked so much confidence is that I was making my speaking all about me and how I looked and what people thought about me and my expertise. My confidence came back when I realized it had nothing to do with me and everything to do with how I serve.
This is true for creating a Reel or podcast or course or whatever. Want to feel more confident? Take the focus off of you and focus on the people who you can help and serve.
How to Be More Confident in your Business Step #3: Stop the bad voices.
Did you know that we have 6,200 thoughts per day? And, a huge percentage of those thoughts are negative thoughts. That is staggering! We have all of these thoughts going on in the background of our lives and we rarely stop to listen and correct the negative and untrue thoughts in our heads. In those times that I am feeling most unconfident, I try to pinpoint the thought that is making me feel that way. Once I find that thought, I examine it and ask “is this absolutely true?”. Most the time it is not, so I rework the thought to something that is true. For example, a thought could be: I can’t grow on Instagram. Is that absolutely true for 100% of everyone on the earth? No, so it is a thought that needs to be reworked. I like growing my audience on Instagram. There are a lot of possibilities for growth on Instagram.
Another tip for stopping the bad voices is to create your own mantras. I have mantras I repeat while I’m exercising, getting ready, or making dinner. I also like to use my mantras to get my brain back on track when it is stuck in a rut.
How to Be More Confident in your Business Step #4: Trust the process and accept mistakes.
Years ago, I had a client that was a great person, but a really hard client. They called me in the early morning, would yell at me on the phone, and had a lot of unrealistic expectations. After working with them for a few months, we parted ways. Guess what I’m really confident with now, setting healthy boundaries with my clients. I would have never had the confidence to establish those boundaries if I wouldn’t have experienced the process of failing at making and keeping boundaries with that client.
You won’t know if a content topic is going to be good until you put it out there and see how your audience likes it. That is the beauty of social media. You can have real-time feedback from your audience. Instead of looking at your Instagram Stories analytics and feeling sad that you aren’t getting the views you want, go back and see if you can learn what your audience is telling you. What things do they like? What are they responding to? Don’t look at mistakes as failures. Look at mistakes as ways to learn and get more information.
How to Be More Confident in your Business Step #5: Say “yes” and take massive action.
This tip is really the reason that my business is as successful as it is. Like I said at the beginning, confidence doesn’t just happen. My first Live was on Periscope and 6 people showed up. I was terrible, but seven years and hundreds of Lives later, I feel really confident going Live. You can’t expect to feel confident the first time you do something. It takes time and practice. Get really good at saying, “yes” and then just do the thing. Almost all of the things that I am most proud of in my business and life were things at the beginning I didn’t feel confident doing, but I said “Yes!” to them. I showed up, I made mistakes, had successes, and in the process, I gained confidence.
BONUS Step: How to be more confident in your business
Want more confidence? Come learn with me and my Money Makers. Money Makers is my group coaching program where you get the knowledge, skills, and coaching to get your business built.
Confidence is a funny thing. We think we need it to accomplish big things, but it turns out that chasing confidence helps us find it. If this was helpful, come find me on Instagram @iammichellegifford and let me know what resonated with you the most.
Luvs,
Michelle
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