Confidence – you’ll need it but how do you build it?
Now, being an entrepreneur can be a really lonely place. In the early days, it can feel like it’s you against the world. And even as you’re building your business and it’s starting to take off, you’re taking on staff, it can still feel really isolating because it’s not always easy to ask for help when you’re the boss.
And then inevitably, when things don’t go right, it can feel like there is nobody else there to give you the pep talk that maybe you need. I know what that feels like firsthand. There’s another episode I do where I talk about the role of mentors and how they can offer you some welcome guidance and support if you want to go and watch that one.
But today, I wanted to talk in more detail about confidence and some of the specific strategies that I’ve used that I want to recommend to you to help you build your confidence.
Now confidence is a vital attribute as an entrepreneur, it’s about believing in your own abilities, qualities and judgment.
It’s about the belief that you can handle challenges and perform what you set out to do and be successful in doing that.
If your confidence takes a bit of a dip, it can have massive consequences not just for you, but also for the overall business. However, on the flip side, when your confidence is high, you’re going to be way more likely to handle risk, pursue opportunities, and really importantly, inspire all of those around you.
Now the good news is that confidence isn’t just a personality trait, although some people do seem to have naturally higher levels than others, it’s actually a skill that can be developed over time, and it is a trait that’s worth developing as it will lead to better decision-making, improved leadership, masses of increased resilience, and when you’re facing challenges you need these things.
Now one of the key ways to develop your confidence is to adopt a growth mindset – go and look it up!
A growth mindset is about believing that you can improve your business skills through dedication and hard work and knowing that whatever your abilities are today, you can still enhance them over time with continuous improvement.
Having a growth mindset is also about being open and keen to learn so that when you encounter challenges you will see them as opportunities to grow rather than being obstacles that are going to slow you down.
It also changes the way that you react to failure. Instead of filling you with disappointment or even despair, you’ll see every experience as a valuable lesson, a lesson that’s going to ultimately enhance your skills and really expand your knowledge. That’s growth mindset.
The next technique that will build your confidence is setting small achievable goals.
I talk about this in another episode but in simple terms, the more goals you achieve, the more your confidence begins to build.
Recognising your progress is going to reinforce your own self-belief and be motivating for you. It’s going to help you to tackle the next challenge with even more confidence.
Now my third tip to building your confidence is getting a supportive network.
As I mentioned earlier, being an entrepreneur can be a really lonely place, but it doesn’t have to be if you go and look. Look for your tribe, find your people, online forums, vocalise some of your worries, listen to other people’s stories and it’s only when you do that you’ll recognise that you are not alone.
The challenges that you are going through, everybody’s going through them and then not only will it boost your confidence but it will also provide a safety net during really challenging times.
Lastly, I want you to practice a bit of self-compassion by recognising that setbacks are just a natural part of the entrepreneurial journey.
You’re not going to judge, and instead you can reflect on what went wrong, you can learn from it, you can move forward, those are the key things we need to do.
So let’s think of a summary to bring all of this together, we’ve got four key things I want you to remember.
Number one, you’re gonna develop a growth mindset so that you can see the opportunity to learn from every experience. Number two, set small achievable goals to reinforce your confidence. Number three, that support network, the one that you can tap into if you can feel your confidence start to wobble a bit. And finally, I just want you to not be too hard on yourself. Learn from the experience, and move on to the next thing.
Now I just want to add on the end here you probably look at me and think “oh she’s got bags of confidence she’s a naturally confident person that’s in her personality that’s in her demeanour” – well it’s not.
If any of you ever met me as little Sarah as Sarah as a teenager I was one of the least confident kids at school. I was so painfully shy I remember I used to stand at the bus stand every morning, I was too shy to talk to people, I didn’t have any confidence.
You know that is my demeanour, this confidence that I exude now. I’ve taught myself to do this and I’ve learned to do this by using tips and tricks and techniques that I’ve talked to you about.
So I don’t want you sitting there thinking all right for her, she’s full of confidence. She might appear full of confidence, but she appears full of confidence because of the hard work she’s put into building this confident persona.
I want you to understand it is within your gift to focus on that growth mindset, cut yourself some slack, have a bit of compassion, find your tribe, do the things I’ve talked about and you too will come out the end appearing to be this really confident person.
It’s a brilliant way of ensuring you’re going to be successful in business.