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One of the most powerful tools that you can have in your toolkit as a business owner, is to learn how to trust ourselves. You, my friend, are the expert of your life and the expert of your business. I know you've heard me say this before. And even though you've probably heard me say this multiple times, we still innately look outward for answers, we often think that others know more than us. And that's simply not the case. I wanted to have this conversation with you today to help you to learn how to cultivate your own self trust your own knowing and to listen to your intuition. So if you're constantly looking outward for reassurance or the answers, or You're disregarding your own intuition, I know you're gonna love this conversation. Are you ready? Let's go.

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You're listening to the run your business like a boss podcast. Hello, and welcome. I'm Kristy Robinson, your host I'm here to advocate for you the business owner who is knee-deep in the messy middle. If you're tired of feeling stretched, overworked and overwhelmed, you're in the right place. My goal is to help you streamline systemize and create a strategy that enables you to step from stressed-out worker to the boss of your business. Now let's dive into today's episode. Hello, boss, and welcome back to the Run Your Business like a Boss podcast.

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I'm sat here in my office on this beautiful October day, I'm actually recording this episode in between noisy work here at the house. So we are doing a renovation at the moment if you don't already know. And I think maybe we've got four to six weeks left of the renovation. And it's quite interesting because even going through this process of renovating has definitely been an exercise of self-trust and leaning into your own knowing. And whilst I'm pretty good at doing that, on the business side of things, it's also been really valuable to learn to cultivate that on a personal side.

But the reason why I wanted to have today's conversation with you is because I think that as business owners, we are led to believe that everybody else knows more than us. And I see it so many times, not only with my clients but also with prospects that I meet on a clarity call and hear it as I'm listening to business owners speaking. And the problem is when you believe that everybody else has the answer, you stop trusting yourself.

And there are so much that you bring to the table in terms of how to take your business forward and what to do next, and all the things. So I wanted to chat about cultivating self-trust and how to do that in your business so that you can learn to lean more inward rather than outward when it comes to the answers as well as not disregarding that intuition or the screaming gut that tells you what to do. And you do the opposite with I know you know what I'm talking about. Now I know you're keen to get into it. So let's dive in.

The first one is to do just that. Listen to your instincts and your gut and your knowing or your inner voice all of those things. As humans, we are designed with an innate knowing that the more that you tap into it, the more you realise just how powerful it is. And it can manifest in a thought in your mind. It can also be a bodily experience, it can be a bodily feeling. You know, when you get that feeling and you're like you have tingles when you know Yes, screaming this is right, or you kind of get this kind of eerie feeling where you're like, that's not a good idea.

And even though you might think one or the other, you let the modern part of your brain come in and talk you out of what your instincts are telling you. So how are ways that your instincts start to show up. Now, here are a few examples, but it's certainly not limited to. The first one might be that you have this niggling feeling when you're on a discovery or a clarity call with a prospect and you're like, that is not the right fit.

 For me, I don't feel like I can work with this person or this person. Just I can't put my finger on it. They're saying the right things, but there's something energetically not right between you and it's not that that person is a bad person. It's about what you can do as the business owner to help them or it can be that, you know, just the vibe isn't there and that's okay. You don't have to vibe with everybody. And yet, when you don't listen to that, nine times out of 10 You're gonna get into the work and go, I should have listened to myself I should have listened to my instincts. So that's a really obvious way that this shows up.

Another thing can be with the designing new offers, I kind of liken this to the universe, tapping you on the shoulder. Now, you might be spiritual or you might be religious, you can use universe interchangeably with God, if that works for you. But it's that sense that something is tapping you on the shoulder and whispering in your ear. And I feel like this happened to me before I started my coaching business. So as I was working in a position, and I was in a senior leadership position, I just kept thinking that I'm going to launch this coaching business, I just knew this was using years before I actually did the thing and launched it. But it was just this little whisper in my ear, it was this little tap on the shoulder. And I just knew instinctively, this is what I was meant to do. And that's how it can show up for you. But sometimes, again, intellectually, we think, Oh, I didn't have the ability to do that. Or, I'm not good at that, or this, this and this and tell ourselves all these stories for why we can't. And I'm going to explain a little bit more about that in a moment. So the first way that you can build more trust as a business owner is to trust your instincts and listen to that inner voice.

The second one is to take action on your goals. Now, I'm sure you're thinking, Well, isn't that obvious, take action on your goals. But here's the reason why it's so important. When you set goals for yourself, and you don't work towards them, and you don't achieve them, then you lose trust in your ability to achieve what you say you're gonna achieve, or do what you say you're going to do. And this is so integral, in fact, it's the backbone of building self-trust. If you can't trust yourself, and your ability to do what you say you're going to do, then it will mean that you'll forever be going against yourself, you'll always have this friction between yourself in the business. And you'll always think, well, I can't do that. So I will look outward, to get the answer to that because I don't trust that I know, or I don't trust that I can, I don't trust that I will, or I don't trust that I can get myself there.

So it's so important that when you are setting goals, and I've got a couple of great episodes around, why you're not achieving your goals in your business. And on that I have an excellent episode of the 10 reasons why you're not achieving goals. If this is a sticking point for you, and you don't trust yourself, then go back and listen to that episode.

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But if you are really clear about what goals you're working towards, and actively work towards them, and even if you don't always hit them, but you get close to it and you move your business forward. As a result of being intentional with the work that you're doing toward your goals, then you will trust yourself. So to cultivate more trust is to not only set goals, but to actively work towards them, and in turn, either achieve them or get close to achieving them. The third one is to challenge your inner critic, we are so mean to ourselves, we get so down on ourselves. And I know you've seen this on the internet before where we say we'd never speak to someone else in the way that we speak to ourselves, but it is the truth. You would never verbalise what you say in your head to yourself to another human being. And so, in order to trust yourself, you have to get really good at challenging that inner critic.

We believe every thought that pops into our head, even if those thoughts are irrational thinking or fear based thoughts. Now, your brain is very complex. And I'm not a neuroscientist, but I know a little bit about how our brain works. And the truth is, is that your brain is doing its job, when it is giving you thoughts around, you're not good enough, because it's afraid that you're gonna fail. And because it's afraid you're gonna fail. It wants to keep you safe and wants to keep you where you are, and keep you in a zone where you can control the outcomes and whatnot. Right? This is the ancient part of your brain, the fight and flight you know all about that, I'm sure.

But the truth is, is that you have to get really good at recognising that what you're telling yourself is not actually fact. And that in some cases, it's just a downright lie. And instead, take radical responsibility for your mindset, because mistakes and failure are part of the journey and that's not a bad thing. So if you do, if you trust yourself, take action, do a thing and it doesn't turn out the way that you want it to. The chances are you've got a lesson out of it, you're further along and you have an opportunity to fix it and try again. That's part of the journey.

The other part of challenging your inner critic is that you'll be scrolling social media and you'll come across A post that is designed to agitate you and make you feel like you're not doing a good job, it will feed that fear that you're not good enough, and that that other person is the expert. And that then perpetuates your thinking that you're not good enough or you don't you do this thing wrong, or you're not worthy of going after this thing over here, or whatever it might be. And so you need to get really good at discerning between content that fuels your inner critic and scrolling on by. Because that content is only going to provide further evidence that your critic is right, when that's actually not the case. So be very mindful of how other things feed into your inner critic.

The next thing to cultivate self-trust is to know what is important, and your guiding principles. And last week's episode, if you haven't had a chance to listen to that one, I talked about how you align your value system to your version of success. And this is kind of linked to that conversation. So if you haven't had a chance to listen to it, I really do think that everybody should listen to that episode, by knowing what is important in your life, and what your guiding principles are both your value system, and just all of the key aspects that are important in your business and in your life. It helps you to decipher through the content I was talking about a minute ago, not all advice is created equal. And aside from the linkage between content triggering you and then feeding into your self-critic, you also have to decipher whether that piece of content or whether that advice from the internet or well-meaning family member, a friend or you know, another business owner, for instance, is actually relevant for you and your business. Right.

So this is about trusting yourself and having faith in what you believe to be the important aspects. Now, this isn't to say that you have a closed mindset or a fixed mindset, nobody else can, you know, provide any insight or guidance. That's not what I'm saying at all. But what it is, is, is it's about being really clear on what is important and what isn't important, and trusting yourself to decipher between those two things. And when you know, what is important to you, you're able to figure out whether you're going to investigate or pursue that information further, or on the flip side, what you're going to cast aside as something that's not relevant for you. And the final way that I wanted to unpack today because of course, there is plenty more I'm sure.

But today, I just wanted to touch on one final aspect. And that is to honour your seasons. And this is a big one because as business owners, we're often told that we need to be consistent, we're often told what a successful business looks like Check, check, check, we need to be doing all the things all the time. And as a modern online business owner or as a service provider. The truth is, is that there is other things going on in our life for you it might be that you are wanting to travel, it might be that you've got kids, and you might be coming into a particularly busy season with them. It might be that you know, for me as an example, this year, I've had a renovation. On the flip side, also honouring seasons in your business and knowing that you might be seeing all this advice around how you have to be showing up in this way to live a successful life and having these big, long, luxurious morning routines.

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And yet you are under the pump, you've got deadlines, you've got things that you're trying to achieve and to deliver. So to cultivate self trust is to lean inward and to honour the different seasons in your life and your business. Because when you do comes with that that knowingness internally that will help you to guide decisions around what you need to say yes to what you need to say no to and not having guilt around what you are letting go in a particular season. And the reason why I wanted to bring this into the conversation is because I wasn't always good at this. I would often just feel this sense of obligation to do certain things in my life and in my business, that I wasn't honouring the different seasons of of either, and that I felt like I had to operate at full throttle in both sides and never felt like I was successful at either. But these days I have such a strong trust in myself that I know what decision I need to make next.

So there you have it, boss. I have stepped through five ways to cultivate self trust. First one is to listen to your Your instincts your gut your knowing. So starting to recognise those signs, and not disregarding those as little wishy washy things, but actually doubling down into that and thinking about what that looks like, for your business.

The next one was to take action on your goals, because when you are not working towards your goals, and you are the person who sets goals and never achieves them, then you lose trust in yourself, which is obviously the opposite of self trust.

The next one was to challenge your inner critic and knowing that your brain doesn't always tell you the truth, and knowing within yourself what is right and what is a fear based thought.

The fourth one is knowing what's important and using your guiding principles to make decisions. So I've spoken about this in many different ways across episodes, but this is essentially looking at the advice that you see and receive not all being created equal, and instead digging deeper, inward and trusting yourself to make the right decisions.

And the last but most certainly not least, is to honour the seasons in your life and business and adjust the course accordingly. Cultivating self trust is at the forefront of my programmes. I've spoken extensively on the podcast that you are the expert of your life and your business. And this is part of how I help my clients to get results. I don't believe that every life and business will look the same. And therefore when I'm working with my clients, I help them to be guided by what's important to them and helping them to really tap back into their own self trust.

And with that said, in 2023, you will be able to join the run your business like a boss Academy cohort number three, the doors will open in February of next year. However, if you are keen to learn more and want to get on the waitlist because anyone on the waitlist gets first access to the programme then be sure to head over to the link in the show notes and join the waitlist today you'll get the heads up for when that programme is launching before everybody else.

The second way we can work together is by a private business coaching one to one business accelerator coaching programme, which is a six month private coaching container. And I will be taking on new clients for 2023 in November. So if you are keen to learn more about that, head over to the website and be sure to complete an application form. I'm currently doing complimentary Clarity Calls to see if we are a good fit ahead of taking those enrollments so head down into the shownotes. For that one. My intention here today is to really get you thinking about how you can lean deeper into your self trust, cultivate that self trust because believe me when you trust yourself more, you stop looking at everyone else as the expert and really truly embody that you are the expert of your life and your business.

And boss if this one spoke to you, there are two things that you can do from here on out. Firstly, you can leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts, I would be so grateful This helps the show be found but also, I really love hearing how the show is positively impacting you. And the second way is to take a screenshot of wherever you are listening to this episode and tag me over on Instagram stories I would love to say thanks again for joining me. And as always, I look forward to chatting with you next week.

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Thank you so much for joining me if you enjoyed today's episode, please consider leaving a review and if you're not already doing so connect with me over on Instagram. My handle is Kristy Robinson underscore consulting and listen up. If you're keen to learn more about how I can support you to run your business like a boss, check out the website Christy robinson.com.au Thanks again and I look forward to chatting with you next time.