September ALWAYS gets me in the mindset of back to school + starting over. This is the PERFECT time to commit to "Confidently Showing Up as a Leader". It felt fitting to discuss this and today I want to leave you with a few questions:
// Do I feel clear AND confident with what I do and who I serve?
// Do I feel confident in the message I put out there?
// What am I REALLY good at aka my Zone of Genius. Do I lead ONLY with this?
// If not, would I feel more confident putting myself out there if it felt more aligned to who I am and what I really WANT to do?
I am going to share a few tips that have worked for me.
Envision what a leader looks like to you.
Begin to think about what you would look like as a leader. How would you lead? How would you handle situations? How would you present yourself? How would you speak to people? What business activities would you engage in?
Now this is the hard one….get ready to get super uncomfortable.
You are now going to show up as that leader TODAY. In this moment. Exactly where you are. Even though you don’t yet feel qualified, it will be EASIER to start today than to wait.
Start by taking baby steps. This ties in with last weeks topic of getting Visible. And in order to get visible, you HAVE to do the inner work. Challenging limiting beliefs, false stories, fears, insecurities and building up that confidence.
It doesn’t and CAN’T happen overnight. You’ve got to do the INNER WORK. Dig deep, see what’s holding you back from showing up 100% authentically as YOU.
If you know my whole story, I have shared in the past I have been in recovery from a lifelong eating disorder since 2009. Was completely healed. HOWEVER, that doesn’t mean I feel super confident all the time. It just means I no longer live my life as a prisoner to food, weight, and body image. I eat what I want, wear yoga pants pretty much all the time and rarely wear makeup. COMPLETE opposite of past self. When confidence is WITHIN, those things no longer matter.
Even when I was in the midst of my struggle I figured something out. This was around the age of 20. Fake it til you believe it. Or as Amy Cuddy now says, “fake it til you become it”. I did this to get into a prestigious internship at Yale University at the age of 21. I did this to get into Columbia University for grad school at 22. I did this to get into special programs, internships, and later jobs. When I wanted to be promoted to supervisor, I would at that moment begin acting and making decisions just like I would if I were in that position. Now, this isn’t me being a fraud or pretending--what this is, is me showing up as the BEST VERSION of myself that I could see in the future, paving my way there, pushing aside the crap and feelings that would come up along the way.
How we perceive our future self is something that is attainable and I like to believe what is truly hiding under all of those layers. I was scared out of my mind when I even created this group. I can still remember “not feeling qualified enough to lead”. But deep down I knew I WANTED to lead. I knew I WAS qualified in many ways, but fear held me back. Well, I decided to kick that fear with full force and ended up creating it. And today, when things scare me in my current businesses, I literally attack them and pave the way for the next.
Always show up a few steps ahead of where you are now. Many people are shocked when I tell them I launched this business in October, assuming it’s been much longer. But that is what potential looks like WITHOUT boundaries. Diving in, exposing your vulnerabilities, peeling away all those layers of fear, limiting beliefs, insecurities, false stories, and showing up 100% unapologetically as YOU.
I want you to rate where you show up as a LEADER from a 1-10 based on the scale below.
Crawl in a hole and hide 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 I confidently show up each day as a Leader
Are you happy with the number you got or do you know this is something you need to work on?? I would consider doing some confidence work if you find yourself rated under a 7.
XO,
Kate