79: For Your Coaching Business Courage Comes Before Confidence

This episode is part of the Smart Mindsets & Habits series.Today I’m talking about courage – something all successful coaches had to raise within themselves long before they felt confident about anything. Find the full transcript here.This episode is for you if you are feeling afraid of crossing any threshold large or small to launch your business and build it into something solid to support your family.If you’ve been looking for confidence in a crucial moment and feeling none here’s the truth … It is courage not confidence that will help you break through. Courage is the fire within you. Confidence is earned through repetitive acts of courage.Before we get into that, I want to share something deeply personal …Courage has been asking me to step up lately.I’ve lived a life boosted by centuries of privilege. My parents were middle class and worked hard. My dad was educated by the GI bill and got a good job. Their parents scraped by through the Great Depression in the South – Arkansas and Kentucky.But they were propped up by privilege, as were their parents before them going far back in the family tree. Until now, I haven’t questioned why the neighborhoods and schools I grew up in or why the companies I worked for in Colorado were homogenously white. I did not get it that those neighborhoods and schools weren’t available to people of color by design.Now, with the murder of George Floyd echoing centuries of similar murders in my country and others, I am finally realizing my own complicity in these crimes against humanity.By failing to see the roots of my privilege clearly I also failed to perceive the policies and systems that built and sustain that privilege for only some.I am an empath and a highly compassionate person who has always cared about fairness. But I have been asleep, accepting the ways of the world. I have accepted injustices that — were I truly courageous — I would not have simply lived with.So I’m making a pledge today to you that I will do more day to day to fight against injustice and systems that exclude black, indigenous and people of color from the privileges that I have taken for granted. I will use my ears to listen and learn. I will use my voice, my vote and other resources to work towards deep systemic change while also working on myself to be a better human being.Thank you for listening. Now let’s talk about courage that will launch and sustain your business …Intelligent Coaches Are Stopped By FearThe coaches I have the honor to work with are some of the most intelligent people I’ve ever known. Many of them are far more educated and have more impressive careers than I ever have. Most of them are brimming with passion that awes me every day.And all of them are afraid to take steps to launch their business and keep getting out there....Read the full transcript here.