Confidence is something you can only build by doing. And when you start to
take action and you start to realize, hey, I can figure this out
as I take that action, that is where you start to build confidence in
yourself. You know, oh, I've got this. When you start showing
up and sharing your expertise online, that is how you become confident in showing
up. Welcome to Imperfect Action. I'm Steph Taylor. For years, I
read all the books, downloaded all the freebies, and did all the courses,
but it wasn't until I started taking imperfect action that my business had its
first million dollars yere. Imperfect action is about doing things before you're ready,
prioritizing consistent action over perfect action, and moving forward even when you're not sure
you're doing it right. On this show, you can expect mindset advice,
actionable marketing tips and strategies to build a business that brings you more profit,
more freedom, and even more joy. You want the list to get my
daily businesses. Every day, I'll send you a bite sized prompt designed to
help you grow your business in a more intentional way. Sign up at Steph
Taylor dot Co, forward slash DBB, or at the link in the show
notes, Hey, welcome back to in Perfect Action this episode seven hundred and
twenty one. Five quick tips for building your confidence and expertise as an online
business owner. I know that showing up and owning your expertise can be really
tough when you are surrounded by other people in the online business world who probably
feel like they are, you know, more experty experts than you are,
and especially in your own industry if you're a little bit newer, or maybe
you are only just stepping out into doing this as your main gig as your
business, then comparing yourself to other people who feel like more of an x
but can really start to hold you back and stop you from showing up and
owning that expertise and being confident in what you have to offer. Now,
there will always be somebody who knows more than you do. And if you
are waiting around until you know enough before you launch that course, start your
podcast, decide to go all in on your business whatever it is that you
are waiting for, you're going to be waiting a really long time. So
today I'm going to share a couple of little tips that can help you to
step into that online business owner that you are step into owning that expertise and
feel confident in showing up with your knowledge and your expertise online. So tip
number one, take imperfect action and in case you hadn't realized it, by
the name of this show, I am a big fan of taking imperfect action
towards the things that we want to achieve. Imperfect action means doing that scary
thing before you are ready and just trusting that you will figure it out as
you go along the way. It's like jumping out of the plane and building
your parachute on the way down. When you jump, suddenly you can't go
back. You're like, oh, now I have to do something, and
you switch from thinking oh, should I do this? Can I do this?
To suddenly being like, oh, how do I do this? It's
not like oh, can I jump out of the plane. It's like,
cool, now I'm out of the plane. How do I build my parachute?
How do I make this happen? And you will figure it out,
but it requires a little bit of trust. When you have that skin in
the game, it stops being maybe I will do this, Maybe I can
do this one day, I will do this, to suddenly, how can
I make this happen, and that's a really awesome place to be. It
also means adopting a mindset of curiosity, of experimentation. What will happen if
I try this? If I step out there and I share this piece of
expertise that I've never shared before. Who's this going to resonate with? What
might they say? Is this going to land? And that's really fun?
And the journey rarely ever looks like what we expect it to, right,
And by taking action, By taking that imperfect action, you can start to
see where the things aren't going to plan and you can course correct a lot
quicker than if you're sitting there planning. But you have no real world experience
about what works and what doesn't work, so you can move forward a lot
faster than if you're just waiting for the right time to begin. This is
how you build that confidence, right. Confidence is something you can only build
by doing. And when you start to take action and you start to realize,
hey, I can figure this out as I take that action, that
is where you start to build confidence in yourself. You know, oh,
I've got this. When you start showing up and sharing your expertise online,
that is how you become confident in showing up now. Back in episode seven
hundred and fifteen, I shared a couple of steps to start taking imperfect action
in your business. If you want the direct a link to listen to that
episode, send me a DM. I'm over there at Steph Taylor dot co.
Send me seven one five, seven hundred and fifteen. Just that one
number and I will send you the direct link to listen to that episode.
Okay, Tip number two, invest in your learning and growth. Right,
you are already most likely an expert in what you do, but there's always
going to be place to keep learning, keep growing, keep adding more to
your toolbox that you can share with your audience. Now, the fact that
you are already listening to this podcast, this tells me that you are somebody
that does value learning and growth and listening to podcasts and consuming other free content
is a great way to invest in your learning and your growth. But free
content can also only get you so far. My students will be the first
ones to tell you that what I talk about on the show doesn't even scratch
the surface of what is inside my paid programs, and it's the same with
most other people's paid offers as well. They tend to focus more on action
and implementation rather than just giving you more knowledge, which then can lead to
you feeling a little bit overwhelmed. Right, A lot of the free content
is knowledge. It's more information which then you pocket in your little toolbox or
you pocket of knowledge that you're gonna one day implement. But because you have
no action plan or no implementation plan, it ends up feeling overwhelming and you
don't move forward. Now, when I say investing in your learning and growth,
it might be investing in working in a coach if you have the budget
for it. It might be investing in a course or a group program.
It can be any kind of thing that you are investing and feels a little
bit painful. You're like, oh, this is maybe a painful investment,
but that encourages you to show up, because now that you've made that investment,
you're going to put the work in and get the results. And I
know that in the past, when I've worked with coaches, it's always been
a pretty painful investment for me, but they pushed me to do things outside
of my comfort zone. And because I've made that investment, I'm like,
well, I'm obviously going to do it because I've spent the money, so
I want to get the results. And that is how you grow By stretching
yourself outside of that comfort zone. That is how you build that confidence.
Okay, Number three read books, and not just business books. Now,
in my first couple of years of business, I was devouring all of the
practical business books, you know, all of the how to the strategies,
the frameworks, the profit firsts, the Pumpkin Plan, all of those kinds
of books that gave me a framework that I could apply to my business.
And these served me to a point. But now I don't read them anymore
because most of the time they just overwhelmed me a little bit more, or
they give me shiny object syndrome where I'm like, oh, this framework is
completely different. All this strategy is completely different to what we do. Let's
pivot completely. And that's not really so my business and my team probably gets
annoyed at me when I'm like, hey, guys, we're going to change
how we do these things. So now what I read is I read a
lot of memoirs. I love memoirs where the author has overcome some massive kind
of adversity to succeed. It's a bit of a reminder of the power of
taking imperfect action right, being open to failure, allowing the journey, the
adventure to unfold in front of us. And you know, one of my
favorite books is Wild by Cheryl Strade, who walked the Pacific Crest Trail when
she had never done I think she'd never even really hyped overnight before, and
that to me is such a metaphor for business. It's like, you just
take it one step at a time and the path starts to reveal itself and
you build that confidence by doing it. And yeah, you're going to have
some obstacles that come your way that you could never have planned for, Like
she lost one of her hiking boots off the edge of a cliff and then
she had to walk I think in like her camp shoes, which we're not
walking. Uh So you're gonna have little obstacles you couldn't plan for, but
you can figure it out. And that's what I love about those kinds of
books. Now, back in episode six hundred and ninety eight, I recently
shared five books that I have read and loved this year. Go to Stephtaylor
dot co on Instagram send me a DM six ninety eight six nine eight,
and I'll send you a direct link to this episode. You can also find
direct links to the episodes in the show notes below this podcast as well.
Okay, tip number four, remember that you have the solution to someone's problem.
When you are showing up. You have the solution to a problem that
your ideal client is experiencing. Right, you have that solution. You can't
help them if they don't know about the solution. And when you think of
it like that, it's it becomes you. Showing up becomes about you helping
them. It's not about you at all. It's about how you can help
these people by getting in front of them. If you make it more about
the value that you are sharing or the impact that you are having, than
any of the doubts that you have about yourself become secondary, they're not as
important. For example, if you are doubting whether you can start a podcast,
like I doubted that whether I could start a podcast six years ago,
and then I realized I have so much value that I can share and I'm
doing my audience a disservice by not showing up and sharing it. So think
about that. If you are on the fence, about podcasting, about anything,
about creating it online course, think about how much value you can share
with somebody, And even if it doesn't feel like you know a lot,
put yourself in your ideal client's shoes. Right. They don't need you to
know everything. They just need you to be able to improve their lives a
little bit, help them solve their problems. They're not there to judge how
much of an expert you are, And sometimes being too much of an expert
can actually be I can actually be a bit of a drawback because when you
know too much about something, it's actually really hard to relate to somebody who
is completely brand new to your area. So maybe by being a little bit
closer to where your audience is or your ideal clients are, then you can
actually relate to them a whole lot better. Right, And even I think
now about this podcast, even the first couple of episodes, which were really
really average, you know, like the first hundred episodes, I would never
go back and listen to them now. I would never even link you to
go and listen to those episodes now because I have changed, my style has
changed, what I teach has changed, But those early episodes still impacted a
lot of people, and I needed to do those early episodes to get to
episode seven hundred and twenty one today. Now, back in episode six eighty
nine, I shared a couple of tools. I shared five tools to help
you overcome self doubt. If you want to listen to that episode, shoot
me a DM on Instagram six eight nine, six hundred and eighty nine.
I'm there at Steph Taylor dot com and you'll get the direct link to that
episode. All right, quick tip number five, Remember that you are going
to be your harshest critic. You're probably going to be at least ten times
harder on yourself than somebody else would be on you. Okay, when you
start to show up and share your expertise online, you are the only one
that is going through it with a fine tooth comb double you know, second
guessing yourself, thinking about how much you don't know. Your audience isn't thinking
oh wow, this person doesn't know much. No, they're thinking, wow,
this is new, this is interesting. I hadn't thought of it like
this before. Besides, right, the content that you share online isn't about
proving how much of an expert you are. It's not about proving how much
you know. And I do sometimes see this. People start to put out
all of their expertise to try and prove how much they know, and that's
often coming from a place of insecurity. It's coming from that place of self
doubt where they feel like they don't know enough, so they have to prove
how much they know. It's not about proving how much you know. It's
about helping someone. It's about maybe showing them a different perspective or a new
way of approaching something. It's about sharing your experiences, your stories, clients,
stories, stories of people that your ideal client can relate to who have
overcome that problem that they are experiencing. For example, I am not an
expert in building confidence and showing your expertise online. I'm not an expert in
that, but it's something that I have done in my business, so I
can share what has worked for me. And that's what I've done in this
episode. So there you have it. Five quick things that you can do
quick tips. Firstly, take imperfect action. Secondly, invest in your learning
and growth. Number three read books, but not just business books. Number
four, remember that you have the solution to someone's problem. And number five
remember that you are going to be your own worst critic. Now, if
you're not already subscribed to the show, hit the subscribe button or follow in
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podcast app every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Thank you so much for
listening. Catch you next time.