Do You Trust Yourself Enough To Succeed?
To a large extent, people judge you as you judge yourself.
If you feel unworthy of the expertise you are claiming, or if you are selling something with a lack of total trust that what you offer has value, you will send out signals that cause others to feel uneasy about you as well.
If you are naturally withdrawn or shy and insecure, this can be a huge problem when you are growing your business.
You need to find good ways to communicate your value and encourage others to appreciate what you do and how well you do it.
A good way to get started is to create simple, heartfelt answers to the most common questions people will ask about you, your business and your products or services, and then find ways to naturally weave these responses into both formal and informal conversations.
The bottom line is that at some point in the process of growing your business you have to ask: “Do I trust myself enough to succeed?”
If you do, it gets easier after that. Once you have established that you trust yourself, grow your confidence and demonstrate your value by moving out of your personal space and into the realm of helping others through volunteer work.
When you volunteer to lead high profile projects in your community it demonstrates to others the values you support in your community, and that speaks a lot about your own values.
When you are able to build a resume that shows that you care about yourself, and also that you care about others, your value is visible to all.
Once you trust yourself and you know your story and can tell it with confidence, remember to use the best words to put your story forward and gain the trust from the customers to whom you are selling.
Every word carries connotations that extend far beyond the weight and number of its letters. For example, like and love are both four letter words that demonstrate affection, but love has a connotation of being stronger and more intense. When you are building a relationship, it is easier to tell another person that you like them than to tell them you love them, because the connotation of saying “I love you” takes the relationship to a whole new level.
At a professional level, we all instinctively understand word connotations. You don’t hear a sales professional say to a potential customer: “Can I pitch this product to you in the hopes that you will buy it and I’ll hit my quota this month?” Instead, they talk about how they can present a product that they sincerely believe will add value to the customer’s life or solve a problem for them. We know the difference in the message they are sending.
But when it comes to talking about ourselves on a personal level, we get nervous. We forget to use our words with the same loving care and strategy, and instead, sometimes we just open up our mouths and let them tumble out.
We exaggerate. We call ourselves unique or revolutionary when we are merely capable and aware of the latest trends in our industry. Be careful about these things. Don’t say your facility is state of the art if you have all the same stuff your competitor two blocks away has. Talk about what you do have that distinguishes you and adds value to those who use your services or buy your products.
In the same way, if you want people to describe you the way you want to be described, you can even accomplish that too. If you need a testimonial from a busy person, it’s okay to ask and say…”if you are busy, can I compose a short message and send it to you and see if it represents what you want to say?”
Ninety-nine percent of the tie people say yes, receive your message of well-chosen words of praise about you, and email back saying “that’s great…sign my name and go with it.”
The same goes for letters to support your project bids and even testimonials for your website. If you want the right words to be selected to get your value message across, find subtle ways to put them into other people’s voices.
And is that just a shameless act of self-promotion?
Of course it is. And it is taking self-promotion to an actual art, something every entrepreneur and professional who trusts themselves enough to succeed needs to do.
Paula Morand is a leadership building, revenue boosting, strategy expanding keynote speaker, author and visionary. This dreaming big and being bold leadership expert and brand strategist brings her vibrant energy, humor and wisdom to ignite individuals, organizations and communities to lead change, growth and impact in a more bold fashion. 24 years, 27,000 clients, 34 countries, 15 books, former radio personality, 11x award winning entrepreneur and humorous emcee.
Check out Paula’s best selling books: “Bold Courage: How Owning Your Awesome Changes Everything”, “Dreaming BIG and Being BOLD: Inspiring stories from Trailblazers, Visionaries and Change Makers” book series; and due to be released December 6th “Bold Vision: A Leader’s Playbook for Managing Growth” go to Amazon http://ow.ly/i8yW307ix67
Speaking inquiries email bookings@paulamorand.com or call toll-free 1-888-502-6317.