Is This Fear Impacting The Success Of Your Business?

A few days ago we celebrated my older daughter, Sydney’s, 9th birthday.

The occasion got me thinking about how she’s grown and matured over the past year.

One of things I’m most proud of is that she’s starting to realize that there’s a connection between your thoughts and your results.

This is something I’ve been trying to instill in Sydney over the last couple of years – especially at times when she was struggling or doubting herself.

I thought I’d been completely unsuccessful, because her response was usually something like “That’s not true. My thoughts can’t change anything.”

Total disbelief.

But then, a couple months ago, I walked in her room and saw this taped to the wall over her bed…

Such a change from her previous defeatist attitude.

It was such a proud mama moment, because if she can keep growing in terms of her mindset and believing in the power it holds, I know how much it will serve her in her life.

The same is true for your business.

Your mindset has a HUGE impact on the success of your health coaching practice.

Today I want to talk about one big mindset issue that coaches struggle with – the fear of promoting yourself.

When you decided to become a health coach you were fueled by your passion to help people feel better and live healthier, happier lives.

You weren’t driven by the desire to promote yourself.

In fact, you probably didn’t think too much about the marketing side.

But when you did start to realize that you’d need to “put yourself out there” if you wanted to get clients, I’m guessing a lot of fear cropped up.

The fear of self-promotion is something that’s likely holding you back from reaching your true potential, especially if you’re a newer coach.

This is completely understandable – self-promotion is hard. It’s scary to put yourself out there over and over again.

But it’s something we all have to do if we want to build a sustainable business that serves more than a few of our friends and acquaintances.

The good news is that when you identify what’s holding you back, it’s much easier to make a plan to manage your fears.

There are 4 big reasons you may fear promoting yourself:

• Lack of confidence in yourself or your knowledge
• Not having a plan of how to put yourself out there
• Not wanting to feel ‘salesy’
• Fear of rejection

If you really look at the limiting beliefs that are holding you back in your business, they probably boil down to one of these four categories.

Instead of Ignoring Your Fears…. Try Listening to Them

There are many people who will tell you that you need “push through” your fears.

I’ll be honest, for a long time that was my go-to strategy. I’m fairly driven and goal-oriented. I’m also an action-taker. So when a fear would come up, I didn’t want it to hold me back from moving forward.

But I learned the hard way that ‘busting through’ or ‘pushing through’ my fears was NOT the best approach.

Here’s why…

“Pushing through” is actually a code word for “ignoring”.

You don’t want to ignore your fears. You don’t want to “shut them up” or put them in a corner like a child who’s misbehaved.

Doing that simply creates a larger problem.

Because in time, your fears will crop up again. Only this time they may be bigger…and have more power behind them.

You see, your fears want to be heard.

Listening to your fears does NOT mean that your fears “win.”

In fact, it’s not a “win” or “lose” situation.

It’s actually a “win-win” situation.

Let me explain….

Your fears are actually important messages from a part of yourself. They’re there for a purpose.

When you hear them out, you’re able to have a dialogue with yourself about what would ease that fear. (This is where it gets GOOD – because it brings up things you were probably overlooking.)

To hit this home, let me give you a personal example…

When I was a new health coach I decided to go to networking groups as a way to meet people and get clients.

I’m often intimidated and quiet in large groups, so this was definitely outside my comfort zone.

I did some introspection about WHY I felt fearful in these situations.

There were a lot of layers to my fear of attending these groups, but the biggest initially was the fear of not having a plan.

What would I say to people I met?
How would I introduce myself?
Who would I prioritize talking to?

The gift of my fear was that it made me realize that by having a plan, I’d not only ease my fear, but I’d also get much more out of my experience at these groups.

Once I made a plan of who I’d try to speak with, how I’d introduce myself and what I’d say, my fear of attending networking groups eased and I was actually able to enjoy the experience rather than dread it.

You see how being in conversation with your fears (rather than ignoring them) can be powerful and incredibly helpful?

 
Now I’d love to hear from you!

What’s one fear you’re having right now about promoting yourself? Sit quietly for 5 minutes and talk to this fear. What is it trying to tell you? What would make this fear feel better?