As an entrepreneur, coach, consultant, speaker, or business owner, you know how important it is to forge your own path. Unfortunately, sometimes that work gets in the way of your confidence in your own abilities. This leads to you undervaluing your work, overextending yourself, and charging less than you should for your hard work.
You need to own your experience! Your hard work to get where you’re at shouldn’t be discounted, least of all by you. Here’s what happens when you don’t stand up for yourself and your skills.
You Teach Others to Devalue You
This is the first thing that happens when you don’t charge for your time, share your experience, or make advantageous deals, and it’s devastating. Why would a potential business partner or customer value your time or work if you don’t?
They say “you teach others how to treat you” for a reason!
You Give In to Imposter Syndrome
One of the reasons why you might not value your work is because you’re suffering from Imposter Syndrome. If you feel like your success is undeserved, or that you’re a ‘fraud’ or otherwise undeserving of success, you’re punishing yourself with Imposter Syndrome.
You’re not alone! Research shows that 70% of people surveyed suffer from Imposter Syndrome. Just because it’s common, however, doesn’t mean it’s not harmful; overtime, this belief will lead to self sabotage and less success in the short term and the long term.
You Don’t Find Your Ideal Audience or Client
There’s a perfect audience out there for you, but if you don’t put in the work to represent yourself, you will never find them.
A mistake many business owners and entrepreneurs make is trying to be everything to everyone. This universal, catch all approach is a mistake. If you try to speak to everyone, your message and offerings will be muddied. Commit to owning who you really are, and then commit to discovering who your ideal client is.
You Miss Out On a Network of Peers
If you don’t know how to own your experience and sell yourself as an expert in your field, not only will your customers doubt your brand: so will your peers.
Having a network of peers brings so many benefits to your experience as a professional. It gives you a place to brainstorm and ask questions, as well as crucial industry connections and business opportunities. This all can’t come without your buy-in to yourself.
If you don’t believe in yourself, how can you expect others to?
You Set Your Mental Bar Too Low
It can admittedly be difficult for entrepreneurs and independent professionals like coaches and consultants to set goals for themselves. It’s too easy to let your vision get lost in the daily grind.
However, if you don’t embrace a growth mindset and work on continuously learning, you’re going to stagnate, and then decline. “The key is an understanding that all skills and talents can be improved,” shared Jaime Faulkner at TTI Success Insights. “This requires an investment of time, of belief, and of self.”
If you lose sight of the big picture and stop pushing yourself, you’re going to lose confidence in yourself.
Don’t Let It Happen to You!
You might have thought that by downplaying your success, you were being humble. It turns out that you’re doing everything listed here, which will snowball into bigger problems for your business overtime.
Let the first person to understand the value of your time and work be you. Advocate for yourself and aggressively pursue your goals— you’ll be surprised and pleased at the results.
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