Instead of thinking, oh, I need to learn more before I can show
up and share my value, think about how much you've already learned, and
start to think about how exciting it is that there are still all of these
knowledge gaps ahead of you that you will one day learn. But you can
start by sharing what you already know, and as you start to progress and
move down that path, you can start to share the new things that you've
learned. What I shared back in the first hundred episodes of this show is
so different to what I share seven hundred episodes later, because I have learned
so much simply by showing up, by running my business, by podcasting,
by doing all of those things I have learned through experience, and now I
can teach through my own experiences because I've been down that path. 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 there.
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. Are you on 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 Stephtaylor dot co,
forward slash DBB, or at the link in the show notes. Hey,
welcome back to Imperfect Action. This is episode seven hundred and twenty six.
When self doubt starts to get in the way, here are a couple of
questions that you can ask yourself to try and move through it now. Self
doubt is something that I don't think anyone is really immune to. Even when
you're looking at somebody who's on a stage or presenting a podcast and you're like,
Oh, that person's so confident, I can almost guarantee you that there
is some area where they are still struggling with self doubt. I remember somebody
came up to me after an event recently and they were like, Oh,
I wish I could be a confident speaker like you. And five years ago
was the first time that I got given a microphone and put on stage by
my good friend Ronsley for his event We're Podcast back in twenty eighteen, and
I remember having so much self doubt in the lead up to that event.
I remember thinking, I'm speaking. I've been podcasting for six months at that
point, and all, like everyone here is a super experienced podcaster. What
on earth can I share that it's going to be a value. I don't
know enough, I'm too new in business. All of those doubts it started
to come up. And by learning, by putting myself out there and by
doing more of the speaking, that is how I got through that self doubt
and built that confidence. But then, you know, I still struggle with
self doubt in other areas that are new. For example, I've been trying
to write a book proposal for my next book, and you know that for
me is a completely unfamiliar world, and there is so much doubt that comes
up for me around who am I to write this? Do I know enough?
Will anyone want this? All of those doubts that I know come up
for many of you, my listeners, whether that is in showing up online,
creating courses, working with clients, whatever, aspect of your business.
I know that your doubt is totally normal and it's not a sign that you
shouldn't be doing the thing that you are doing. So here are a couple
of questions to ask yourself to work through that self doubt. Number one,
what am I really afraid will happen if I do this scary thing? All
of these thoughts that you have, the self doubt that is coming up about
whether you can do it, they are just there to keep you safe from
something. They are there to protect you from something that you are afraid of.
So what is the fear that is beneath that doubt? For example,
are you afraid that you're gonna put all of this effort into creating a course
and nobody's gonna want it? Are you afraid that if you start a podcast
people are gonna judge you. Are you afraid that if you record a video
and post it on YouTube you're gonna embarrass yourself? Or if you send that
pitch to be a guest on somebody's podcast, they're going to reject you.
What is the fear that is underneath the doubt? And when you know what
you are really afraid of, it's no longer about the doubts that are holding
you back. It's about accepting that this fear is totally normal and it's gonna
come up whenever you do anything that is outside of your comfort zone. You
know, with this book proposal, like the doubt that I'm feeling is coming
from this fear that I will be rejected when I send it out. Do
I know enough to be writing this? It's me questioning like, oh,
is somebody going to read this and laugh and be like, Ah, does
she think she is to write this? Right? That is the fear that
is underneath the doubt. So I like to come back and ask myself,
if what I'm afraid of really happy fans, what is the worst thing that
could happen as a result of that? So cool? If somebody rejects my
book twelve, I've just wasted a bit of time. That's all that there
is. But I've learned a lot in the process, and it has built
my resilience muscle. Because the more that you try and you fail, or
the more that you try and you get rejected, the stronger you get,
the easier you can bounce back from future failures, future rejections, future times
when people judge you online. Number two, Who am I doing a disservice
by not doing this scary thing? For example, the book proposal. All
of the people who might one day read the book that I feel called to
write, I'm doing them a disservice because they can't learn and they can't read
what I'm sharing. If I don't first do this one scary thing with this
podcast, if I hadn't overcome all of the self doubt that I had about
podcasting and my voice, I didn't love my voice and all of the fears
of what people in my life would think about me, who is she to
be starting a podcast? Then I wouldn't be helping you with this episode right
now. Okay, So if you don't do the thing that you are afraid
of doing, who is missing out? Who are you not able to help
as a result of you not doing that thing? And even if you're saying,
well, but Steph, like I don't have any value to share,
or yeah, okay, that's good for you, but like I need to
know a little bit more before I can help anyone. I'm not enough of
an expert yet. Even if you're thinking that, I want to remind you
there's this model. A theoretical model called the stages of competence, and there
are four main stages where you are unconsciously incompetent. It's the first one you
don't know what you don't know essentially. Then the next one is conscious incompetence.
It's when you first become you first start learning something and you realize just
how much you don't know. The next stage is conscious competence, so that
is something where you have learned how to do something, but you still have
to think about the steps involved and the process to actually doing it. And
then the final stage is unconscious competence, and that is something where you can
do something so well you don't even remember what it's like to not know that
thing. And this is the stage where I see a lot of online business
owners are at. They are at this unconscious competent stage where they are so
good at what they do that to them, they just brush it off as
like, oh, well, everyone knows how to do that, when in
fact they actually don't. Okay, it's a little bit like driving a car
almost You get in the car and you drive and you don't really pay any
attention to the fact that, hey, not everybody knows how to drive.
I'm sure there are some New Yorkers listening to this episode who are like,
what, we don't drive, perhaps, but you know, like, there's
things that you can do almost on autopilot that you don't have to think about.
And those are the things where you still have so much value to share,
even if it doesn't feel valuable to you. Okay, The third question
to ask yourself when the doubt pops up is where are my opportunities to grow?
So related to that last one, right, you will never know everything
you could possibly know about your particular area of expertise. You will never reach
this point where one day you are like, that is it. I am
done learning. I know everything that there is to know, Because how boring
would that be? Right if there's nothing left for you to learn? So
instead of thinking, oh, I need to learn more before I can show
up and share my value, think about how much you've already learned and start
to think about how exciting it is that there are still all of these knowledge
gaps ahead of you that you will one day learn. But you can start
by sharing what you already know, and as you start to progress and move
down that path, you can start to share the new things that you've learned.
What I shared back in the first hundred episodes of this show is so
different to what I share seven hundred episodes later, because I have learned so
much simply by showing up, by running my business, by podcasting, by
doing all of those things. I have learned through experience, And now I
can teach through my own experiences because I've been down that path. So if
you're thinking that you have to wait until you know everything before you can show
up, you're never going to know everything. So now is probably the best
time to start. And you know, as you learn more, you've got
to be open to everything evolving, be open to changing your mind. Some
of the things that I said in the first hundred episodes I probably don't even
agree with now because I've had different experiences that might have proven something wrong,
or I might have realized, actually, that was probably not a helpful thing
to say to my listeners back then, or you know, I know,
when I first started out, I said a lot of you know, you
should do this, you need to do this. Now I've changed it,
I'm like, well, actually, no, there's no shoulds or need tos
in business. It's more of a, Hey, this is my suggestion.
This is what I've learned from my experience, and you can take it on
board, or you can choose not to. That's fine either way, but
I'm just sharing what has worked in my experience. Number four, The fourth
question to ask yourself when you're doubting is what could go right if I do
this scary thing. We are so quick to think of all of the things
that could go wrong when we take a risk in our business. You know,
my launch might fail, people might laugh at my podcast episode. The
pitch that I send out might get rejected, But you know what else could
happen. Your launch might succeed. Your reels might reach somebody and teach them
something they didn't know. Your pitch might get accepted. There's so many things
that can go right. It's not just one way that it can work out.
Okay, And you're never gonna know what the outcome is gonna be until
you do the thing. The only way to find out what that outcome will
be is by getting out there doing the thing, not planning, not preparing,
not thinking about it. Even more, by taking that imperfect action.
That is how you're going to find out whether it works or doesn't work,
and if it fails, cool, you've learned something from it. You can
now take the information that you've learned from that experience and you can iterate.
You can go back to the drawing board, make changes and try again and
try better. Okay. Number five The fifth question to ask yourself when you
are doubting whether you can do something. If roles were switched, and if
it were my best friend who is in my situation right now, what would
I tell them? We are our own worst critics sometimes, right, you
probably wouldn't be anywhere near as critical with your friend as you are with yourself.
You probably wouldn't tell your friend now you don't know enough to do that,
to start a podcast, or you're not ready to launch an online course.
You wouldn't tell them those things. But yet you tell yourself those things.
Right. You'd probably tell your friend, oh, no, it's gonna
be fine, it's gonna work out. Even if it fails, You'll be
all good. But you don't tell yourself those things. So talking to yourself
as if you were a friend rather than an enemy can be a really useful
tool to work through that self doubt. And I know it doesn't come easily,
especially to the overachievers amongst us. I am guilty of this a lot
as well, But just remembering like you are going to be so much more
critical to yourself than somebody else would be to you. All Right, there
you have it. Five questions to ask yourself when you are experiencing self doubt,
when you're letting it get in the way of taking action. What am
I really afraid will happen if I do this scary thing? Who am I
doing a disservice by not doing this scary thing? Where are my opportunities to
grow? What could go right if I do this thing? And if a
friend were in my shoes, what would I tell them? Now? If
you've learned anything from this show, please take thirty seconds to leave a quick
rating and a review in Apple podcasts. I read every single one of them.
A lot of time goes into creating this show, and a lot of
the time I feel like I am just talking to myself into a microphone.
So if you have thirty seconds to spare, I really would appreciate knowing you
know. What have been your biggest takeaways? What impact has this show had
on you? It means a lot to me when you do so thank you
so much for listening, and I'll catch you next time.