If you start to make the scary thing more about the value that you are
sharing or the impact that you are having, then your self doubt becomes less
important. If you're on the fence about starting a new business and you're doubting
whether you can do it, remember how much of an impact you might be
able to have if you actually go ahead and do it. If you're doubting
whether you can start a podcast, like I was six years ago, I
realized that I had so much value to share and that I was doing my
potential audience at big disservice by not sharing that stuff. 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 dollar year. 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 step Taylor dot Co, forward slash
DBB, or at the link in the show notes. Hey, welcome back
to Imperfect Action. This episode six hundred and eighty nine. Today we are
talking about self doubt, and I think this is one of the things that
holds back so many business owners. No matter what level you are at in
your business, it's going to be one of those things that pops up whenever
you're doing something that is a little bit unfamiliar, a little bit outside of
your comfort zone. It's going to probably be that voice that pipes up that's
like, Ooh, can I really do this thing? And it often feels
like when that voice pipes up, we really can't do that thing. But
a lot of the time it's really our brains trying to keep us safe from
the unknown, safe from failure, safe from rejection, safe from some unknown
thing that might hurt us. So today I'm sharing five little tools that can
help you to work through that self doubt when it does pipe up. Number
one, know that it is your mind trying to keep you safe, and
that we all struggle with self doubt. Every time I do something new,
I always come up against that little bit of self doubt that can I really
do this? And I know it's really it's hard to believe that the people
you follow online, the podcasts you listen to, the people you watch presenting
live, all of those things, it's hard to believe that those people struggle
with self doubt. But believe me, we really do. I no longer
feel the self doubt when I hit record on a podcast episode because I've been
doing it for so long. But when I first started this show, oh
my goodness, every time I hit record, every time I went to outline
an episode, there was always that doubt of is this going to be valuable?
Is somebody gonna learn something out of this? Should I really be doing
this? I came up against it recently when I was outlining a presentation for
a conference that I'm speaking at in the next couple of weeks, and I
noticed the voice in my head saying, Oh, is this going to be
valuable? And are they going to find this any good? Is this going
to be as good as the other presenters? I don't know enough to be
presenting on stage, all of those sorts of voices started to pipe up.
But because I'm aware that it's my mind trying to keep me safe, trying
to stop me from embarrassing myself on stage or being rejected by the audience,
then I know, Okay, I'm not going to listen to this voice.
I'm still going to go ahead and do the scary thing right, And some
of this might be imposter syndrome. Back in episode six forty three, six
hundred and forty three, we talked a little bit about how imposter syndrome can
show up without you realizing in your business. So go back and listen to
that episode. You can send me a DM on Instagram, send me the
number six four three. I'm over there at Steph Taylor dot Co. And
I'll send you a link to listen to that episode. There's also a really
great TED talk by Mike cannon Brooks, who is one of the founders of
Atlasian, which is I think Australia's largest software company. It's a global company.
They're huge, and you know, he's a multi billionaire, and he
talks about how he also felt that impulse to syndrome and how he was sitting
at an event next to somebody who was even more successful than he was,
and they also felt like they didn't belong in that room, right, it's
all. It's so completely normal to have that self doubt and then impulse to
syndrome. It's healthy. But when you allow it to stop you from doing
the things that you really want to do and the things that will create a
bigger impact in the world, that's when it becomes a problem. So we
want to keep it in check when it pipes up. And it might just
be a simple question like saying, hey, can I know for sure that
I'm going to fail at this? If the voice in your head says you're
going to fail, can I know that for sure? Is that real?
Is that true? No, you don't have any evidence that you're going to
fail. The only way to actually get that evidence is to do the thing.
The only way to know for sure is to do the thing. And
if you do fail, guess what you'll survive. You're still closer than you
were before because now you've learned something. You've learned from the mistake, and
you wouldn't have learned that if you'd stayed in your comfort zone. Grappling with
that self doubt overthinking it. Number two, remember that it is not about
you. It is about the people that you can help by doing that scary
thing. If you start to make the scary thing more about the value that
you are sharing or the impact that you are having, then your self doubt
becomes less important. If you're on the fence about starting a new business and
you're doubting whether you can do it, remember how much of an impact you
might be able to have if you actually go ahead and do it. If
you're doubting whether you can start a podcast, like I was six years ago,
I realized that I had so much value to share and that I was
doing my potential audience at Big disservice by not sharing that stuff. And if
you were to go back six hundred and eighty nine episodes back to episode one,
you would probably laugh. It's terrible. It's absolutely terrible compared to the
episodes that I released now. But I had to do those early episodes to
learn how to be a good podcaster and to grow the show to where it
is today. I didn't just suddenly pick up a microphone and produce great quality
audio and have lots of listeners. But even those really average early episodes meant
that I could impact a lot more people than if I had just stayed in
my comfort zone. Number three, Make a list of all of the things
that you once doubted you could do and that you actually successfully did. This
is a fun one because we often will sit in self doubt for a long
time, and then when we do the thing, we're like, okay,
cool, onto the next thing. But if we actually reflect, you'll probably
notice that there are a lot of things where you were in that self doubt
and then you succeeded. And maybe once upon a time you doubted whether you
could start a business and you did it. Or maybe there are some things
that aren't even related to your business, like maybe you doubted you could give
a speech at your best friend's wedding and you did it, or you doubted
you could run a five k and you did it. This list becomes a
really nice reminder of how capable you actually are. And once you have that
list, ask yourself, if I can do all of this, what else
could be possible for me? Come back to it whenever you're feeling that self
doubt popping up. Come back to the list. Remind yourself of all of
the things that you didn't think you could do and that you did. And
then ask yourself, this thing that I want to do that I'm doubting whether
I can do. Is it possible that maybe this thing could be on the
list one day, the list of things that I didn't think I could do
and actually did. Number four Start a little happy feedback folder. Whether it's
in your inbox or on your phone and your notes app, wherever it is,
just have somewhere where you can save every piece of happy client feedback,
every positive comment that somebody makes about your content, every podcast review, any
time that you are making any kind of a difference to someone's someone else's life,
Screenshot it and save it, because this then reminds you of the impact
that you can make when you put yourself out there. And if you can
make this kind of impact right now, imagine what else you could do if
you tiptoed out of your comfort zone a little bit further. Number five Lean
on others for support. I could never have grown my business and this podcast
to where they are without having really close friends who also run businesses. I
would say most of my wider friendship group now are business owners as well.
It's just happened organically now since I started my business. Oh my goodness,
like seven years ago. I don't even know anymore. But two of my
now best friends, like life best friends, not just bisbsties. They also
run businesses, and we didn't know each other pre business, and we now
have this group chat where we are constantly supporting each other when we are feeling
a little bit of doubt or when something's not going well. It's so nice
to know that I have these two awesome humans who have my back and I
have theirs. But when I first started out in my very first business,
it was lonely, and I made an effort. I'm quite an introvert by
nature, but I made an effort to go to events, which felt a
little bit scary. I'm not gonna lie, it was a little bit scary.
And then you know, connecting with people online on Instagram, meeting people
in real life, joining Mastermind groups, going to retreats, going to other
events, all of those things where I could have that connection with real human
and that's how I built those friendships. It's taken a long time, but
they are one of the most It's probably one of my favorite things actually,
if not the favorite thing about running a business. And then when that self
doubt that can I really do it? Pops up, you have a support
network you can share it with. You can talk to them and they will
remind you that it's totally normal and that they deal with it as well,
and that it's not a sign that you shouldn't do the thing, but it's
rather just a sign that you are on the edge of your comfort zone and
you're about to do something really, really awesome, and it just feels really
scary at the moment, all right. So there you have it. Five
little tools to help you overcome that self doubt. Number one, know that
it is your mind keeping you safe and we all struggle with it. Number
two, remember that it's not about you, it's about the people you can
help. Number three make a list of all the things that you once doubted
you could do and that you actually did. Number four start a happy feedback
folder in your inbox on your phone. And number five lean on others for
pot now as part of my happy feedback folder. I love reading podcast reviews
because every time somebody leaves an awesome review about this podcast, it reminds me
that this is why I do what I'm doing, and it reminds me of
the impact that I can have. So if you haven't already left a review
for this show, please take thirty seconds to do it. It means so
much to me. I read all of them, my team reads them,
and it really just reminds us hey like the work that goes into creating every
single episode. It's worth it. Thank you so much for listening today's episode.
Catch next time.