What if the biggest problem holding you back isn't strategy, traffic, or time—it's your business owner mindset and the quiet lies you believe about yourself? You show up online but second-guess every post, compare yourself to others and feel behind, or secretly think "who am I to do this?" This episode is the first of a two-part series that helps you identify the lies shaping your business decisions so you can move forward with clarity, peace, and confidence.
Just like David was a shepherd before he became king, Walt Disney was fired for "lack of imagination," and Max Lucado faced 14 rejections before publishing his first book, your early failures and smallness do not dictate your calling.
✅Why business owner mindset matters more than strategy when you're building an online business
✅What to do with lies business owners believe
✅How false identities stop you from success, keeping you either striving to prove yourself or shrinking back and hiding
✅What David, Walt Disney, and Max Lucado teach you about how your identity forms before influence expands
Ready to identify the lies affecting your business owner mindset? Grab the Truth Worksheet and Living Fearless by Jamie Winship to start uncovering what's holding you back!
Resources Mentioned:
Living Fearless by Jamie Winship
Truth Worksheet (PDF download)
Show Notes:
Hey everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family eBiz, where we help families start and scale online businesses so they can find the freedom in their life to fulfill the calling where they are called to be and serve. And that's really what we're talking about this week and next week.
But let's back up just for a minute and let's talk about who this is for. If you are building a part-time business, these two episodes are for you. If you have not sort of got to the level you want, or you're just still trying to find your footing, or you're not making any money and you're wondering, what in the world am I doing?
The Quiet Lies Holding You Back
What if the biggest problem holding you back in your business isn't strategy or traffic or time? It is the quiet lies you believe up here. The lies you believe about yourself.
You show up online, but you second-guess every post. You compare yourselves to others and feel behind. Haha, that's me sometimes.
You secretly think, who am I to do this? Well, today we're going to look at a few examples, actually 3 examples. We're going to name the kind of lies that business owners believe, and we're going to walk away with a simple exercise to start uncovering them.
In our next episode, we're going to take those lies and we're talking about replacing them with truth and a simple exercise for you to get past those lies and move forward in your business. A lot of this comes from a book that I have read called Living Fearless by Jamie Winship, and it's all about finding our real identity.
A lot of what he has to say is maybe more in a personal way, but I think there is so much truth in what he says that we can apply this as business owners as well.
Common Lies Business Owners Believe
So let's talk about business. You're refreshing the analytics and you are feeling discouraged. You're creating content, but you're wondering if it even matters.
Or maybe you're starting projects, but you stop halfway, you're a little afraid to pull that trigger. You know, this is common and you're not alone.
You're thinking, I'm not consistent enough to succeed. I know a lot of y'all struggle with consistency, but we can overcome that.
Other people are more qualified than me. That's probably true. There are a lot of qualified people, there are a lot more than I am.
But we can overcome that too. That is a lie that you are believing. If I were really called to this, it would be a lot easier.
Oh, no, it wouldn't. Even the successful people have to work hard at it at times.
You see, why do lies matter so much in your own business? Lies shape the way you do many things, what you launch, or you avoid launching at all. Again, you're afraid to pull that little trigger, you're just not sure what's going to happen.
You're not really sure about how to price your offers, and so you just don't do anything whatsoever. Or maybe you're not sure about being bold and showing up, so you just hide and you sort of go through the motions, but you don't really do anything.
You see, there is a framework that Jamie Winship teaches that I think can apply to you. These false identities, these lies that you're believing about yourself in your business, keep you striving and trying to prove yourself or shrinking back.
It just depends on the kind of person, how that affects you. And I still deal with this, you know, I still wonder why, why. But I've learned some ways that I can overcome that, because what happens is, when you start speaking the truth to yourself, you bring clarity to your mind, so you can make wise decisions in your business.
You will find peace within yourself and then be able to move forward, and I think it gives you confidence to be able to act well.
David: Identity Formed in Obscurity
We're gonna look first at a person in the Bible, historical figure. They're all historical figures. Y'all know I'm a person of faith, and so I really like this guy, he's a king, and yet when he was 10 and 13 years old, he was sitting out in the fields watching sheep.
Who would have ever thought he was a king? But you see, his identity, his calling was to eventually become the king of Israel. His name is David.
He was a shepherd. He was unseen, unimpressive, and overlooked by even his dad. His dad overlooked him.
He had no audience to be a king, no title as king, and no public affirmation. You may feel the same way. You may think, I don't really have an audience, I don't really have a public place to do all of this.
Let's listen to his story and see how it plays out. You see, his identity was formed in obscurity, maybe in a small list that you have, you're forming what you need to be successful.
He was called to be a king, and that means he was a leader. He was a worshipper, and he was a protector. He was a protector of sheep from lions and bears, eventually of the men that followed him.
He was a worshipper. He wrote songs out in the fields. No one heard these songs, and eventually he wrote some of the most famous songs in the Bible.
As a leader, he learned responsibility long before he had any recognition. Maybe you are mom and dad, and God is preparing you for those kinds of things in the future, and He's using those skills to prepare you for business.
Or maybe you have a small business. You have a small list, you're like, huh? That is preparing you for your calling and identity in a successful online business.
You see, a small audience season matters. God forms identity before He expands your influence.
Now, David didn't become confident or king after his success. You see, his success revealed who he already was. Who are you right now?
That's what we want to get to. Who are you as a business owner? I know for me, I am a networker, I am an encourager, I'm an educator.
And so those are 3 things that I know in my business I can do well, and then be able to affect the people and hopefully come up with success like that. Who are you, and who are you called to be in your business?
Walt Disney: Fired for Lack of Imagination
Let's look at two current examples. The first one, Walt Disney. Did you know he was fired from the newspaper for lack of imagination?
You know, the people that work at Disneyland are called Imagineers, I think, something like that. They said he didn't have imagination.
His first animation studio went bankrupt. He could have just believed the lie, I'm not creative enough, that's what they told me.
But his identity was, and continued to be, he was a creator, a storyteller, and a visionary. So he stayed aligned with who he believed he was, that storyteller, that visionary, and then look at what's happening.
There's many things he affected, but let's just take a look at Disney movies. Look at the beginning of those movies with a little black and white. Mickey Mouse did not look like that, and they've continued to improve their movies, but very creatively.
And Disneyland, probably one of the first amusement parks ever. I think it probably was. Maybe there were some things in Coney Island or something like that, but he changed the way it all operated.
He started his businesses and really believed in the people that worked for him, and the people that worked for him, he gave them the ability and the leadership to get his customers happy all the time. Did you know they have an allowance that if they see a crying kid, they can go talk to them, go into a store and actually pick out whatever item might help that kid get over his attack or whatever it is as well.
How does this play out for you as a business owner? You see, your early failures or your smallness do not dictate your calling. Walt Disney learned that. He walked in that, even during the time periods when he was not doing well.
Max Lucado: 14 Rejections Before Success
Another person I love is author Max Lucado. You may or may not be familiar with him. He's an American author and pastor.
He has literally reached millions upon millions of readers around the world. He has a great heartfelt storytelling as well, maybe a little bit like Walt Disney, and practical insights that can encourage you in your own life.
But that is not how he started. He pursued writing when he was a missionary in Brazil. He was a pastor down there, he had no platform, no publishing deal, or guarantee of success.
But while he was down there, he would spend his evenings working on manuscripts. He took those early newsletters, those early manuscripts, and mailed them to publishers. Like, paper in a paper envelope, mailed them to publishers.
And you know what? You think, oh, yeah, of course, he got a great deal. No, his first attempt resulted in rejection after rejection after rejection, keep going.
14 times he was rejected. They said no before he ever got a yes, and on the 15th submission, Tyndale House Publishers agreed to publish his first work called On the Anvil. It was released in 1985, and it was a milestone that began a remarkable writing career.
You see, let's take a look at what happened to Max Lucado. Some really good points that you should be applying to your own business.
Persistence despite rejection. He had to go through 14 no's, didn't stop him. You know, when I was in a network marketing business, they kept saying, count your no's instead of your yeses.
It takes sometimes 7, 8, 9 no's, and then you get a yes for $300 or $400. Same with Max Lucado. He simply kept believing his voice mattered, and that was his calling. He believed in his calling, he believed in his identity.
Since his first book was published in 1985, he is one of the most widely published and read authors. Let me say, he's written over 40 adult nonfiction books. This is since 1985.
What is that, 30, 40 years ago, yeah, 40 years ago. He's written dozens of children's books. I have some, and I've read some to my kids and grandkids, devotionals, gift books, Bible studies, over 150 million products are in print, books and devotionals, and translated into dozens of languages around the world.
A global reach. Some of his works still remain on the bestseller list, and he's won multiple industry awards.
What does this say? He did not wait until he had a platform to write. He just kept writing.
That's what I encourage you to do. If you're a blogger, if you're a podcaster, keep producing, keep publishing.
Max Lucado kept producing content while serving in a ministry and taking care of his family. So he did it as a part-time business. That's how you can get started.
And he didn't let rejection define him. He knew his calling, and he persevered to go down the path he felt like he was calling.
His story reminds us that identity, that is who you are before any success, matters more than whatever analytics, metrics, or platform you're looking at.
How to Name the Lies
So how can business owners talk about the lies? How can we name the lies? You've got to name them, and naming them is clarifying.
But let's talk about what is a lie in a business world. It is something like, this always happens, or I never get any sales, or I never this, or I always that, or everyone else gets invited to do this.
That is a lie because it's not true. Lies are accusing who you are inside, they mess with your head, they add shame to you, so you're dealing with shame on top of that lie, and they are very vague and very heavy, sort of pull you down.
What about truths? We need to contrast that with truths, and we're going to talk all about truths next week. But truth is specific.
It is clarifying, not condemning you. It will lead to action, not paralysis. We're gonna talk more about that.
So what sentence do you repeat in your head about something at work? What is it that you are believing? Leave a comment wherever you're listening to this.
What label do you quietly place on yourself or on your business as well? I want you to take a step back. I want you to take a deep breath, seriously, even if you're driving, you can take a deep breath and just say, what lie am I believing about myself as a business owner, content creator, a podcaster, or a blogger?
And if you're a person of faith, ask God what it is. He'll show you. He already knows what it is.
And I would really encourage you to be honest with yourself and write it down. Writing it down is not agreeing that's true. It is exposing it out there, and we can get rid of that thing.
We'll talk next week about replacing our lies with truth and identity. So your homework from now until the next episode is to write down any lie that you are believing about your business and about you and your business.
It might be one or two, it might be three or four. Next week, we'll only choose one, because you just need to start with one. You don't want to get too overwhelmed.
But think about that. And the other thing I would really encourage you to do is grab the book, Living Fearless, by Jamie Winship. The link will be in the notes.
And then I have a truth, it's my truths, but have a little PDF that you can use. It's the things that I have said to myself to replace the lies in my head, but it also comes with a blank worksheet for you to write down the truth, so we will really use that next week, but you can go ahead and grab that and download that as well.
Thank you so much for spending time with me. If any of this resonates with you, would you please share it with one coworker, another person that's in the business world, another blogger or podcaster or content creator? That would mean the world to me.
Hey, thanks so much. I am Kerry Beck with Family eBiz. We'll talk to you next time.
