I promise not to go all cheesy motivational speaker on you here… but I DO want to talk about an issue I’m seeing creep up more and more when I meet with clients. It usually goes something like this…

• “There’s no way I could get a client to spend more than X on my services.”

• “I’m not a good writer so I’m never going to be able to write decent Instagram captions / blog posts etc”

• “My followers aren’t interested in X so that feels like a waste of my time.”

• “I’m not a good salesperson.”

• “I’m never going to be as good as X.”

None of these statements are FACTS. They’re BELIEFS. And in the words of Marie Forleo, “Your beliefs create behaviours. Every belief has a consequence.”.

Let me explain why treating a belief like a fact is a problem. 

If you are convinced you could never get a client to spend more money on your product or service, you’ll simply stop trying. 

If you are convinced you’re not any good at social media, you’ll inherently invest less in it. 

If you are convinced your clients aren’t interested in a particular topic/service/approach, you’ll stop seeing and paying attention to changes in behaviour that begin to imply otherwise. 

If you are convinced you’re not capable of something, or can never be as good as someone else, you’ll adopt a defeatist attitude that holds you back from growth and success. 

In short, every belief has a consequence.

Here’s a couple of the beliefs I had before launching The Strategy Studio

• No one would pay to learn about business from a person who has only just started their own business. 

• There are business strategists with far more experience than me. My opinions aren’t valid alongside theirs.

I could have accepted these beliefs as FACT, and given up before I even started. 

Instead, I decided to believe I had something valuable to offer to the right audience. I decided to invest my all in continuing to learn with the belief that everything I learnt had the potential to benefit someone else. And in return, I would reap the benefits of my efforts. The more success I achieved, the more driven I would become. 

And the FACT is, it worked. 

This is more than “the power of positive thinking”. This is about challenging your brain and pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone with the belief that the investment in effort and the potential “uncomfortableness” along the way will be worth it. 

What’s one belief that’s holding you back? How can you reframe your thinking to turn this belief into an opportunity for growth?