Trusting yourself in business feels like it should be easy.

After all, you've started your business because you wanted to do something different outside the norm.

You knew there was something else you were supposed to do with your life.

Or, maybe you started your business because you needed to.

Maybe you were let go from a job, could not find a job that justified the cost of daycare/commute, etc., or knew that if you didn't start something for yourself, your mental health and quality of life would continue to decline.

My reasons for starting my business were sort of a combination of all of the above.

I had been working full-time in retail management most of my adult life, and after losing my husband in a car accident at 32, with a six-year-old and a two-year-old at home, I knew something needed to change.

Prior to that job, I had tried a handful of entrepreneurial things, but it wasn't until I discovered what people were starting to do online (first discovered this space in 2006) that I knew "this was it!"

I had no idea what that looked like, but something lit up in me and grabbed hold of me.

I lost my husband in 2003 and started my business in 2008.

The five years in between were some of the hardest years of my life. It's too long to go into here (we'll save that for another podcast episode), but if I could go back and tell myself anything during that time, it would be to be gentle with myself.

On top of grieving, I was in massive judgment of myself all the damn time.

My therapist used to say I would "get myself coming and going." No matter what I did, it wasn't enough.

Learning to listen to our own intuition and trusting ourselves are incredible gifts you give to yourself if you're willing to do the work.

Intuition in Action

Until probably 12 years ago, I don't think I ever would have considered myself "intuitive." In fact, I was probably a little judgmental about that word and associated it with people who were a little "out there."

Regardless of how you define intuition or your perception of it, we're all intuitive.

We just haven't learned to tap into our intuition or trust ourselves with it.

A simpler, maybe more acceptable way to talk about intuition is learning to trust your gut.

I'm going to try to mesh the tangible with the intangible here, if you will - because in order to grow and scale a successful business, you need both.

And I'm on a mission to bring more of this language and discussion into the marketing space.

Here's a great example from the first year I was in business.

There was an internet marketing who I had discovered prior to starting my business. I had been listening to a CD set by Mark Victor Hansen (co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books) about becoming a speaker.

This internet marketer was talking about how he was making money with the internet with niche sites, affiliate marketing, and teaching.

I didn't understand half of what he was saying, but I was fascinated.

So when I finally made the leap into starting my business in 2008, I sought out this marketer and signed up for his coaching (which was 5k and the most I had ever spent on something like that).

Part of his coaching was coming to his house for a private retreat with a few other coaching clients.

By the time I went to this retreat, I had been in business for over a year and was building my first brand, The WordPress Chick.

This coach had been building websites with 'Frontpage' and was what he recommended.

Nothing in me wanted to learn Frontpage or HTML, and despite him telling me WordPress wasn't anything I should pursue, I trusted my gut.

I absolutely knew WordPress was worth it, would only continue to grow, and was where I was planting my flag.

Something in me (my intuition) told me that regardless of his financial success, this piece of advice wasn't worth listening to.

He was also of the mindset that you should pick...