tips to stay courageous when running your business

So if you're a coach, a consultant, a service provider, if you speak with your clients before they say yes to what you do, then this podcast is for you. I am Becky Colwell and I'm sharing everything that I know and everything that I learn so that you two can build your service-led business, gain more clients, increase your income and stay the wonderful authentic, you.

You have already made that step. You have already chosen to be in business for yourself. You have already started to consider what you want to offer. You are offering it and you are there. You've had a client or two or 10 or 50, and you are ready to grow your business.
So this is just fantastic. I want you to acknowledge that you've already been courageous. You've already had courage. You've already stepped away from the path that maybe others have expressed that you should be traveling, and you have chosen to take your own path, recognize how brilliant and amazing you are to have done that already.
And how courageous you are to have done that already. Some of you will have felt courageous doing it and others, perhaps not, but it's definitely something that you should be acknowledging for yourselves. You know, Brene Brown has an amazing quote on courage and she talks about you can choose courage or you can choose to be comfortable, but you can't have both.

Oh so true, it’s wonderful isn't it? When we're in our comfort zone and we don't have to do anything that makes us feel nervous or makes our tummy go over or, or makes our heart thump or throat go dry (or whatever symptom that you personally have; for me, it's my tummy for sure). You know, the reality is these things, these feelings often come up when we are doing something that we know will be good for our business. We know it's the right thing to do, even if we can't control the results of doing it. We know that by taking action that we learn something, we have to do these things to learn, to grow often that you. Better things come out of them than we expected to, but the nerves kick in because our minds want to keep us safe.

That, that bit inside us, that we've all learned has been there for centuries of evolution in the human body and brain that keeps us safe. But for me, I like to have a dialogue with that part of me. Who's trying to keep me safe. Part of that dialogue is. Is this really true? Is this a really dangerous situation?
If it's not, if I can name what I'm feeling or name what's going on, I'll, I'll talk to that part of me and go, thank you. You know, thank you for reminding me that I might not be safe, but you know what? I am safe and I can do this without fear, and I can do this without knowing what the outcomes. But thank you for trying to keep me safe. Thank you for trying to keep me comfortable. I am going to step out of my comfort zone, but I am still safe and I am safe to try these things. Thank you for your support and thank you for your kindness and what this does is it allows your body to calm and it allows all of those, uh, physiological things that happen.

Even with me talking about nervousness, I can feel some of this stuff in my body. So it's amazing how easily it is to, to bring this on. Um, so by talking kindly to ourselves, it removes some of those physi physiological responses. It removes some of those feelings and just allows us to get a little bit closer.
To being comfortable when we step over and do the thing that we've been nervous about and do the thing that we need a little bit of courage for. And I can tell you, I will be honest here. I get nervous with podcast recordings. I get nervous with. Posting on Instagram. I get nervous when I'm asking a potential client, whether they want to work with me, I, I still feel nervous in those situations, but if I don't do those things that I don't have a business.

And so what I try and do is not only remind myself of what my “future future self” will want me to do. I, my business this time next year. What will have happened if I consistently do these things, but also actually what will my “tomorrow self” or my “this afternoon self” thank me for doing sometimes it's those things, those smaller things that I'm still procrastinating over because I've still got a fear there.
And quite honestly, it's often fear of judgment for me. Um, but I still need to take those actions for me to get out there so that my potential clients can find me. How on earth are people going to find me? Otherwise, if I don't talk about what I'm doing, if I don't post about what I'm doing and if I don't podcast about what I'm doing, and if I don't talk to anybody about what I'm doing, and if I don't talk about what I'm doing, you get where I'm coming from.

We don't have to do all of these things, but we have to do one or two of them. Otherwise, no one's ever going to know that we're in business and we can hide behind certain things. But the reality is people by people, for people to buy people, they need to see you and to see you means taking action and taking courageous action, even when we least feel like doing it.

The other thing I want to remind you about is actually when we take this action. If you can divorce yourself from the outcome of the action. So my offer is out on Instagram and it's out in various other places. I cannot control where people will see that I cannot control. Whether people will respond to it. What I can control is what I post, how often I post, how often I mention these things and what I can also control. Is whether I learn from what I've posted and from the reactions and whether I decide I need to tweak what I'm doing or whether I'm happy with what I'm doing. I just haven't found the right audience.
It's often a mixture of both, by the way. So often we give up really early because we do one thing and we think, oh, no, nobody wanted it, nobody was interested. Only my kind mate, down the road who showed a bit of interest, but I'm sure they don't really want what I'm doing anyway. They were just being kind.
And so we tell our how these stories that oh, so sad because they are so not true. We do need to take consistent action because by taking that action, that uncomfortable action where we need to lean into our courage to do it, particularly when we've had crickets for a while, we, we need to lean into that because round the corner is our ideal client.

And around the corner is those 20 people who will are now going to be on our program. And who are going to buy what we have to offer. So lean in, lean into what you do believe in yourself. You've, you've validated it. You're doing this. You're doing this as a business. Please have the courage to continue to take action and to let go of the consequences of that action.

What about if you asked yourself what's the best thing that could happen? What's the best thing that could happen if I do this? Oh, it's just so exciting and so wonderful and so amazing. And if you can get that vibration going before you take action, then some of that fear will translate into excitement instead.
That's another trick for you actually, now, did you know that a lot of the feelings that come up in your body, a lot of the physiological responses of fear and, concern and that type of thing, a lot of the responses are the same as when you feel excitement. So if you, next time you get that feeling for me, like I said, it's in my tummy when my tummy rolls over a bit.

And I can reframe to I'm excited to do this. I'm excited to see what happens next. I'm excited to take action. I'm excited to take the step into the unknown and find out what's around the corner because what's the best that can happen. And if you can lean into that enthusiasm and those thoughts, then truly, truly the right vibe will come across to your clients and to the people who notice what you are doing, because I can tell you, you will have one or two people who never interact with you, but who are watching what you're doing, who are noticing what you're doing and who are being inspired by you, by what you can do and the gifts that you have to share.

So please do me a favour, take that action, lean into the courage to do what you need to do to grow your business today because you know what you need to do. You just need to lean in. Thank you. Thank you for today. Thank you for listening. And I look forward to having you with me again on this, on this wonderful ride.