32. 3 Strategies to Strengthen Your Self-Belief
Do you remember the last time you truly believed in yourself? As we approach a new year, it's easy to start setting big, audacious goals. But without belief, it's impossible to achieve them. In this episode, I share why belief is the key to making next year your best year yet.
As moms, we often rely on evidence and past success to feel confident taking on new challenges. But when it comes to entrepreneurship, we need to be able to do things we've never done before - and that requires a deep belief in ourselves and our abilities.
If you're struggling to find that sense of belief, don't worry. Join me this week as I share three powerful strategies to help you tap into your inner confidence and take action towards your dreams. You’ll learn how your corporate success has shaped your current belief system, and I share how you can start strengthening your belief in your ability to become a successful entrepreneur today.
If you want to realize your dreams of leaving corporate and starting your own business in 2025, join me for a free strategy session by clicking here!
If you're looking for the right environment to start your networking journey, look no further than my group, the Mom Entrepreneurs Circle. Sign up below for mutual support, advice sharing, and the tools you need for both you and your business to thrive. We meet on the 2nd Thursday of each month and participation is totally free!
What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
Why your corporate success might actually be holding you back from believing in yourself.
How to shift from an evidence-based mindset to a belief-based mindset.
The crucial difference between confidence and belief (and why you need the latter to succeed).
How to create a personal belief statement that will motivate you to take action.
Why saying your belief statement out loud makes it feel more real and attainable.
How to plan your first belief-based action and remind yourself daily of your ability to succeed.
Why treating belief as a skill means you can strengthen it over time, just like a muscle.
Listen to the Full Episode:
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Full Episode Transcript:
You know what I love about kids? Their absolute, unwavering ability to believe. I was watching my son at his weekly toddler class that he does on Saturday mornings, and do you know how they start every single session? All the kids stand together and say, I am strong, I am brave, I can do this. Just imagine that for a second, starting every day, every new venture, every challenge with that pure, powerful belief. I am strong, I am brave, I can do this. And here we are on Christmas day. Of course, that's if you're listening to this on release day, but it's a day that's all about belief and magic and possibility.
Whether you're listening to this while prepping Christmas dinner, sneaking a quiet moment during the holiday chaos, or maybe even on your morning walk, getting some much needed alone time, I hope, I want you to find that childlike sense of belief in yourself and hold onto it. Because today we're talking about how belief is the key to making next year the best year yet. And if you're sitting there thinking, geez, Jenna, I don't know the last time I truly believed in myself, don't worry. I'm gonna show you how to tap into belief and get more out of it in the new year.
Welcome to How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. It’s a podcast that helps working moms just like you, optimize your time, manage your mind, and start a business that helps you create more freedom, flexibility, and, yes, fun. I’m business and mindset coach Jenna Rykiel. And I offer practical tips to help you ditch the nine-to-five. I have been exactly where you are and I know what it takes to make the transition without trading one form of burnout for another. So, let’s get started.
Hi mom friends, I'm so glad you're here today and Merry Christmas to all of those who celebrate and certainly Happy Holidays and Happy New Year's to all of those who celebrate other festivities in this time of year. But I'm glad you're here today because we're diving into one of the most important things that makes all the difference between staying stuck and creating real change. And that's belief in yourself.
As we approach the new year, there are so many of you out there that want to make big changes, right? You've set big audacious goals and hopefully you've listened to episode 30, which is all about how to make it happen. But before you can take any type of action, you have to believe in yourself. You have to at least have moments where you're like, I can do this. This really can happen for me. Without belief that it can happen, it simply can't.
And here's the annoying part. Sometimes our corporate success can actually make believing in ourselves much harder, not easier. The impressive corporate career you've built up that looks amazing on a resume can often be your biggest obstacle. And I see it all the time with women I work with. The more successful you are in your corporate role, the harder it can be to make a change. The more you know in your company and industry, the harder it is to sign up for something you've never done before, like entrepreneurship.
Comfort is one vice, but the other thing is that when we're in corporate, we're trained to rely on evidence. We make data-driven decisions and we wait for proof that we can do something before we act and before we get that promotion. And we have mentors and leaders showing us how to do things before we go at it alone. We're involved in robust trainings to start us off when we switch into a new role. And like I said, when we get a promotion, it's often because we've already been performing the job that we were promoted into. And that works brilliantly for corporate success.
But when it comes to entrepreneurship, we need to be able to do things we've never done before. And yes, sometimes fail at those things in order to build a successful business. We need to take action before we have evidence that we can do something because everything in entrepreneurship is new for us moms whose careers have always been in corporate. There's not a neat little course that teaches us everything we need to know about entrepreneurship.
And if you think you need a business degree before running a business like I did, you're wrong because MBAs are basically the antithesis of entrepreneurship. Even though I earned my MBA from a highly ranked, great business school, shout out to UNC Chapel Hill, when I started my own business, I still had zero confidence, zero. I'd never started a business before. I'd never built a website, never created a program. The MBA doesn't teach you how to do that.
But confidence isn't what drove me in those early days. It was belief. I believed that coaching was what I was meant to be doing. It's the perfect marriage between mental health and professional development, which were two paths in my career. I believed in the flow state I felt during coaching sessions, which made me believe that somehow, some way, I could figure this out. And I still believe that today. And honestly, I lean on that belief every day because there's a crucial difference between confidence and belief, right?
Confidence comes from having done something before. It's based on evidence on past results. In your corporate role, you feel confident presenting to the board because you've done it successfully many times, right? You feel confident managing your team because you have years of experience. But if we wait for that same kind of confidence before starting our business, we'll be waiting forever. Because how can you have evidence for something you've never done before?
I want you to think about where your corporate success might actually be holding you back. Where are you waiting for evidence before taking action? Maybe it's wanting proof your business idea will work before you start. Maybe it's waiting to feel as confident in entrepreneurship as you do in your corporate role. And if you're not in a corporation, I want you to think about one area where you've been waiting to feel confident before taking action. Maybe it's raising your prices, maybe it's pitching to that dream client. Now, here's the million dollar question. Why not believe you can do it right now, even if you don't know how it will turn out? Seriously, what's the worst that could happen if you choose to believe in yourself right now?
The worst thing that could happen isn't failure. It's never knowing what could have been if you don't try. And here's something that might surprise you and hopefully motivate you. One in three women-owned businesses, and I think women own a little less than 50%, I think it's like 47% of businesses in the United States. One in three women-owned businesses in the United States is owned by a mom. That's 4.7 million businesses. Think about that. 4.7 million moms figured this thing out. They believed they could do it and they did it. They didn't have proof it would work. They didn't feel completely confident. They just chose to believe and took action from that belief.
And if you're struggling with this, if your brain refuses to believe, I'll let you in on a little secret that will help you to feel better. Belief is a skill. Just like those kids in my son's class practicing their daily affirmation, we need to practice our belief every single day. Every single day, I have to choose to believe in myself. I choose to believe that I can figure out the next obstacle. Even if that means admitting I don't know how to figure it out, and so I hire someone with more expertise, which I've done many times.
So what can you do if you're stuck waiting for evidence before taking action? I want you to do three things to start shifting from an evidence-based mindset to a belief-based mindset, okay?
The first is I want you to come up with a written belief of your own, something that will carry you into taking action. It's your version of, I am strong, I am brave, and I can do this. This isn't what you know you can already do, it's about what you're choosing to believe is possible. Make it specific to your goal. If you wanna quit your job in 2025 and start a business, make sure your statement captures that. If you wanna create more clients and revenue in 2025, make sure it's in your belief statement. Yours could be, I believe I can build a successful business that helps other women while giving me the flexibility my family needs.
I lean on two belief statements regularly. One is, I'm meant to be doing this, like I shared earlier. It's simple, but it captures this greater purpose that helps me to believe that it's my duty to keep going. Another is if 4.7 million other moms can do it, why not me? Those are my two mantras that have helped me to believe in any given moment that I can try something new and figure it out.
Once you have your belief statement, I want you to say it out loud. I want you to share it with your partner or a trusted friend. I want you to say it in front of a mirror. Yes, it might feel uncomfortable, just like doing things for the first time and not knowing how it's gonna turn out is uncomfortable. Once you say it out loud, it becomes more and more real. This is part of practicing the skill. Make it a daily mantra, put a Post-it on your laptop, say it to yourself when you're brushing your teeth or when you're in the shower. Practice reminding yourself regularly of the belief until it feels less absurd to you, until it actually becomes something that you believe through and through.
Finally, I want you to plan your first or next belief-based action, okay? Something small, but significant. Remember, we're not waiting for confidence, we're acting from belief. Write down one action you'll take this week that scares you a little bit. Write down the belief that will drive it, not the evidence that supports it will be okay. So this is the specific belief statement for that particular action. And think about how you'll remind yourself of this belief daily.
So I'll give you an example from my own business. I'm in the midst of creating a membership space for mom entrepreneurs. It goes beyond the monthly mom entrepreneurs circle I host and is going to be a space for group coaching and group support around very specific business strategies. It's the first time I'll be delving into a membership structure. So of course it scares me and I don't have evidence to support that it will work.
One action I'm taking this week is meeting with someone in my network who specializes in operations to talk through the vision and what is needed on the backend to actually launch it in the new year. The belief statement that's driving me is, moms have been waiting for a space like this that combines community and strategy to help them move their business forward. And I'm practicing this statement by having a Post-it on my laptop that reminds me that this is something my clients and mom entrepreneurs out there want and need. So it's my duty to keep going even when my brain is telling me to stick to one-to-one coaching.
The beautiful part about treating belief as a skill is that it means you can get better at it. Just like you developed your corporate skills, you can develop your belief muscle. And here's the thing, you will eventually have evidence to support that you can do this. But early on, and when you're trying something new, belief is what you need. So before you check your e-mail in the morning, before you get lost in the day's chaos, remind yourself of your belief statement. Build it into your morning routine.
Next week, I'll be talking about how to create a daily routine for 2025 that serves you and your business. And I'll talk about setting aside time just for you and practicing your belief is a great activity for that block. So definitely tune in next week. I'm really excited about that episode.
Speaking of belief, this is a little random but I feel like there's no better time to ask since it's Christmas. I'm about to talk about something you may not want your kids to hear so here's your heads up pause or put in your headphones if you don't want the littles to hear and if they're around. So for those of you who celebrate Christmas out there I'd love to hear from you about how you talk about Santa with your kids. Adley is too now and so this is the first Christmas that he's learning about Santa and I'm frankly curious what everyone thinks.
As we wrap up this Christmas day episode, remember, whether you think you can do it or you think you can't, you're right. So choose to believe because you are strong, you are brave and you absolutely can do this. Here's to making 2025 the year you stop waiting for confidence and start choosing belief instead. I'll see you next week.
Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. If you want to learn more about how I can help you stop making excuses and start making moves, head on over to www.jenna.coach. I’ll see you next week.
Whether you're listening to this while prepping Christmas dinner, sneaking a quiet moment during the holiday chaos, or maybe even on your morning walk, getting some much needed alone time, I hope, I want you to find that childlike sense of belief in yourself and hold onto it. Because today we're talking about how belief is the key to making next year the best year yet. And if you're sitting there thinking, geez, Jenna, I don't know the last time I truly believed in myself, don't worry. I'm gonna show you how to tap into belief and get more out of it in the new year.
Welcome to How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. It’s a podcast that helps working moms just like you, optimize your time, manage your mind, and start a business that helps you create more freedom, flexibility, and, yes, fun. I’m business and mindset coach Jenna Rykiel. And I offer practical tips to help you ditch the nine-to-five. I have been exactly where you are and I know what it takes to make the transition without trading one form of burnout for another. So, let’s get started.
Hi mom friends, I'm so glad you're here today and Merry Christmas to all of those who celebrate and certainly Happy Holidays and Happy New Year's to all of those who celebrate other festivities in this time of year. But I'm glad you're here today because we're diving into one of the most important things that makes all the difference between staying stuck and creating real change. And that's belief in yourself.
As we approach the new year, there are so many of you out there that want to make big changes, right? You've set big audacious goals and hopefully you've listened to episode 30, which is all about how to make it happen. But before you can take any type of action, you have to believe in yourself. You have to at least have moments where you're like, I can do this. This really can happen for me. Without belief that it can happen, it simply can't.
And here's the annoying part. Sometimes our corporate success can actually make believing in ourselves much harder, not easier. The impressive corporate career you've built up that looks amazing on a resume can often be your biggest obstacle. And I see it all the time with women I work with. The more successful you are in your corporate role, the harder it can be to make a change. The more you know in your company and industry, the harder it is to sign up for something you've never done before, like entrepreneurship.
Comfort is one vice, but the other thing is that when we're in corporate, we're trained to rely on evidence. We make data-driven decisions and we wait for proof that we can do something before we act and before we get that promotion. And we have mentors and leaders showing us how to do things before we go at it alone. We're involved in robust trainings to start us off when we switch into a new role. And like I said, when we get a promotion, it's often because we've already been performing the job that we were promoted into. And that works brilliantly for corporate success.
But when it comes to entrepreneurship, we need to be able to do things we've never done before. And yes, sometimes fail at those things in order to build a successful business. We need to take action before we have evidence that we can do something because everything in entrepreneurship is new for us moms whose careers have always been in corporate. There's not a neat little course that teaches us everything we need to know about entrepreneurship.
And if you think you need a business degree before running a business like I did, you're wrong because MBAs are basically the antithesis of entrepreneurship. Even though I earned my MBA from a highly ranked, great business school, shout out to UNC Chapel Hill, when I started my own business, I still had zero confidence, zero. I'd never started a business before. I'd never built a website, never created a program. The MBA doesn't teach you how to do that.
But confidence isn't what drove me in those early days. It was belief. I believed that coaching was what I was meant to be doing. It's the perfect marriage between mental health and professional development, which were two paths in my career. I believed in the flow state I felt during coaching sessions, which made me believe that somehow, some way, I could figure this out. And I still believe that today. And honestly, I lean on that belief every day because there's a crucial difference between confidence and belief, right?
Confidence comes from having done something before. It's based on evidence on past results. In your corporate role, you feel confident presenting to the board because you've done it successfully many times, right? You feel confident managing your team because you have years of experience. But if we wait for that same kind of confidence before starting our business, we'll be waiting forever. Because how can you have evidence for something you've never done before?
I want you to think about where your corporate success might actually be holding you back. Where are you waiting for evidence before taking action? Maybe it's wanting proof your business idea will work before you start. Maybe it's waiting to feel as confident in entrepreneurship as you do in your corporate role. And if you're not in a corporation, I want you to think about one area where you've been waiting to feel confident before taking action. Maybe it's raising your prices, maybe it's pitching to that dream client. Now, here's the million dollar question. Why not believe you can do it right now, even if you don't know how it will turn out? Seriously, what's the worst that could happen if you choose to believe in yourself right now?
The worst thing that could happen isn't failure. It's never knowing what could have been if you don't try. And here's something that might surprise you and hopefully motivate you. One in three women-owned businesses, and I think women own a little less than 50%, I think it's like 47% of businesses in the United States. One in three women-owned businesses in the United States is owned by a mom. That's 4.7 million businesses. Think about that. 4.7 million moms figured this thing out. They believed they could do it and they did it. They didn't have proof it would work. They didn't feel completely confident. They just chose to believe and took action from that belief.
And if you're struggling with this, if your brain refuses to believe, I'll let you in on a little secret that will help you to feel better. Belief is a skill. Just like those kids in my son's class practicing their daily affirmation, we need to practice our belief every single day. Every single day, I have to choose to believe in myself. I choose to believe that I can figure out the next obstacle. Even if that means admitting I don't know how to figure it out, and so I hire someone with more expertise, which I've done many times.
So what can you do if you're stuck waiting for evidence before taking action? I want you to do three things to start shifting from an evidence-based mindset to a belief-based mindset, okay?
The first is I want you to come up with a written belief of your own, something that will carry you into taking action. It's your version of, I am strong, I am brave, and I can do this. This isn't what you know you can already do, it's about what you're choosing to believe is possible. Make it specific to your goal. If you wanna quit your job in 2025 and start a business, make sure your statement captures that. If you wanna create more clients and revenue in 2025, make sure it's in your belief statement. Yours could be, I believe I can build a successful business that helps other women while giving me the flexibility my family needs.
I lean on two belief statements regularly. One is, I'm meant to be doing this, like I shared earlier. It's simple, but it captures this greater purpose that helps me to believe that it's my duty to keep going. Another is if 4.7 million other moms can do it, why not me? Those are my two mantras that have helped me to believe in any given moment that I can try something new and figure it out.
Once you have your belief statement, I want you to say it out loud. I want you to share it with your partner or a trusted friend. I want you to say it in front of a mirror. Yes, it might feel uncomfortable, just like doing things for the first time and not knowing how it's gonna turn out is uncomfortable. Once you say it out loud, it becomes more and more real. This is part of practicing the skill. Make it a daily mantra, put a Post-it on your laptop, say it to yourself when you're brushing your teeth or when you're in the shower. Practice reminding yourself regularly of the belief until it feels less absurd to you, until it actually becomes something that you believe through and through.
Finally, I want you to plan your first or next belief-based action, okay? Something small, but significant. Remember, we're not waiting for confidence, we're acting from belief. Write down one action you'll take this week that scares you a little bit. Write down the belief that will drive it, not the evidence that supports it will be okay. So this is the specific belief statement for that particular action. And think about how you'll remind yourself of this belief daily.
So I'll give you an example from my own business. I'm in the midst of creating a membership space for mom entrepreneurs. It goes beyond the monthly mom entrepreneurs circle I host and is going to be a space for group coaching and group support around very specific business strategies. It's the first time I'll be delving into a membership structure. So of course it scares me and I don't have evidence to support that it will work.
One action I'm taking this week is meeting with someone in my network who specializes in operations to talk through the vision and what is needed on the backend to actually launch it in the new year. The belief statement that's driving me is, moms have been waiting for a space like this that combines community and strategy to help them move their business forward. And I'm practicing this statement by having a Post-it on my laptop that reminds me that this is something my clients and mom entrepreneurs out there want and need. So it's my duty to keep going even when my brain is telling me to stick to one-to-one coaching.
The beautiful part about treating belief as a skill is that it means you can get better at it. Just like you developed your corporate skills, you can develop your belief muscle. And here's the thing, you will eventually have evidence to support that you can do this. But early on, and when you're trying something new, belief is what you need. So before you check your e-mail in the morning, before you get lost in the day's chaos, remind yourself of your belief statement. Build it into your morning routine.
Next week, I'll be talking about how to create a daily routine for 2025 that serves you and your business. And I'll talk about setting aside time just for you and practicing your belief is a great activity for that block. So definitely tune in next week. I'm really excited about that episode.
Speaking of belief, this is a little random but I feel like there's no better time to ask since it's Christmas. I'm about to talk about something you may not want your kids to hear so here's your heads up pause or put in your headphones if you don't want the littles to hear and if they're around. So for those of you who celebrate Christmas out there I'd love to hear from you about how you talk about Santa with your kids. Adley is too now and so this is the first Christmas that he's learning about Santa and I'm frankly curious what everyone thinks.
As we wrap up this Christmas day episode, remember, whether you think you can do it or you think you can't, you're right. So choose to believe because you are strong, you are brave and you absolutely can do this. Here's to making 2025 the year you stop waiting for confidence and start choosing belief instead. I'll see you next week.
Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. If you want to learn more about how I can help you stop making excuses and start making moves, head on over to www.jenna.coach. I’ll see you next week.
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