When Self-Doubt rears its head
Being an entrepreneur requires non-stop belief in yourself. While every one of us had to find enough of that belief to even take the leap to start our own business, sometimes it can feel like that fountain of belief is wavering, sputtering, or even has a block.
It’s totally common that at times you’re going to doubt yourself. And when it comes to promoting yourself and your business, that self doubt can feel overwhelming.
This shows up in a lot of small ways - ways that you might not recognize. It might seem that suddenly you can’t find even a spare moment to create a social media post. Or like suddenly you’re procrastinating nonstop and just NOT planning your launch event or building your website or emailing those suppliers who were interested in your product.
Overcoming Self Doubt so you can Rock Your Business
This self doubt and the anxiety that goes with it are big culprits in keeping you from achieving your business dreams - whether that’s to launch a business, promote it, or grow it.
Very few entrepreneurs are living their lives free of this. But, that doesn’t meet that you can’t overcome it and rock your business and rock your marketing of your business. How you overcome it is by really knowing your business and your audience.
When you are prepared with this knowledge, it can be used to quiet self doubt while also helping you to create and promote a business is a better more meaningful way.
This knowledge can take you from feeling like you don’t know what you’re doing to being confident in what you’re doing and how you’re doing it.
Here are the three areas of knowledge that you need to shed self doubt and move forward with confidence:
- Understand that you are solving a problem
What a great and successful business DOES is SOLVE A PROBLEM. You are offering something that makes your customers’ lives easier. Something that eliminates a problem that they have.When you nail down the problem you are solving, and how you are doing it in a way that no one else is doing it, you can feel confident in that knowledge. - Know your audience
Knowing the problem you are solving and feeling that confidence in your business offering and marketing starts with really knowing your audience.Using your audience as a guide will also help you to stop comparing yourself to other businesses - a big cause of self-doubt. With your rock solid knowledge of your audience guiding your business decisions, it won’t matter what other businesses are doing because you will know that what YOU are doing is right for YOUR audience. - Know your why
Being clear on your vision for your business will help guide you through moments of doubt. A clear vision allows you to focus your energy and quiet the distractions. A clear vision is the foundation. It helps ground you when self doubt starts to set in and you are feeling lost.
Self doubt is an inevitable part of being an entrepreneur. When it gets overwhelming, and when it starts to have a paralyzing effect, just know that you are not alone and go back to your vision, audience, and business problem to overcome the doubt.