February 05, 2020

[217] Finding the Confidence to Start Your Handmade Biz

16 minutes

So many makers let their lack of confidence hold them back from starting their business (or starting something new within their existing business).

There are many reasons to feel a lack of confidence – but while confidence breeds success… the inverse is also true.

By putting yourself out there, failing a LOT, and sometimes finding success, you’ll grow your knowledge, courage, and confidence.

Because success also breeds confidence!

The more little steps forward you can make, the easier the next steps will be.

In this episode I discuss a few techniques to overcome this lack of confidence, and move forward with your dream.

You can listen to this podcast below, or on your fave podcast app – or you can watch it on youtube!

Your Year to Thrive

Do you dream of running your own successful, thriving, & profitable handmade business?

Maybe all you have is a dream. Maybe you have a hobby you love and an inkling that you could make money out of this thing.

Or maybe you already have a business up and running, but know you don’t have everything figured out just yet.

You’re passionate. You’re dedicated. You know you want to make this happen. But you just aren’t sure if you’re doing all the right things, in the right order.

Imagine if someone could guide you through every single step that you need to take in order to turn that dream into a concrete reality?

What would that mean to you? What difference would it make to your life?

I’m offering you exactly that.

Your Year to Thrive is the program you’ve been searching for.

FIND OUT MORE

Watch on YouTube…

Support the show

You can make a secure donation (of the amount of your choice) via the Paypal button below.

Each donation helps cover the cost of hosting, show-note writing, research, interviewing, recording, editing, etc. etc.

In short – it helps to cover the time and financial costs of putting together a free weekly show to help you grow your handmade business.

You can also:

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Highlights from this episode:

Sure, confidence breeds success… but success can breed confidence, too.

Think back to the last time you learnt something new. Did you feel trepidatious about it at first? When did that change? Probably the first time you got it RIGHT – and got a burst of confidence. Because if you can do it once, you can do it again, right?

Most makers have never run a business before. They’re so afraid of not ‘doing it right’ that they never try at all.

Envision yourself like a kid learning to walk. If they gave up after the first time they fell down, they’d never learn!

Repeat after me – ‘I will fail. I will make mistakes. And that’s not only okay – it’s necessary’.

Seriously. Mistakes and failures are an integral part of how we learn. It’s how you get feedback. It’s how a lesson sticks in your mind.

Courage is feeling the fear and doing something anyway – not being free of fear.

Courage is also like a muscle. The more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes.

Stop looking outside of yourself for the confidence to start.

Only you have the power to click that button and open your shop. No-one else is going to do it for you.

Do some fear-setting (Tim ferris vid: https://youtu.be/5J6jAC6XxAI) “How can we overcome self-paralysis and take action? Tim Ferriss encourages us to fully envision and write down our fears in detail, in a simple but powerful exercise he calls “fear-setting.” Learn more about how this practice can help you thrive in high-stress environments and separate what you can control from what you cannot.”

This is based on the stoic philosophy of ‘the circle of control’ – much like the Serenity Prayer “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.”

Literally write down ALL your fears about what could go wrong. Everything from ‘my spouse might not take me seriously’ to ‘my business could cause us to lose our house’ – no matter how unlikely, if you have a fear lurking in your subconscious, this process will help you to bring it into the sunlight, where it can be properly examined.

THEN, you can make a list of how to prevent these things. Or, failing that, how to repair the damage if it happens.

THEN… you do another chart. What’s the cost of inaction in 3, 6, 12 months and beyond if you DON’T start?

You’ll have your own things here, but one I can give you right now.

Imagine you don’t start, and you stumble across this video/podcast again the same time next year – or even in 5 years time. And you’ve never even started?

How would you feel?

Now flip the script.

Imagine you DO start. Today, this week, this month.

Then you find this video in a year, 2 years, 5 years… how would you feel?

Your answer will tell you which direction you need to go.

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By Jess Van Den

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9595 ratings