[00:00:00] Welcome to the Aligned and Thriving podcast. I'm your host, Jada Dego, and this is where ambitious female entrepreneurs come to align systems, strategies, and self for a more sustainable success. Episode three, stop telling yourself you're not good at things. Your brain. Is listening and so is your subconscious, my friends, and that is where our beliefs and our actions really stem from.
Let's dive in because this is so incredibly important to your growth and your success in yourself and in your business, because the thing is, as entrepreneurs, we are consistently having to do new things. Face things that we're uncomfortable with and be beginners again. And so hopefully you already know about having a growth mindset.
Hopefully you already know [00:01:00] that. It's important that we continue to have a beginner's mindset and face things with a, an open mind and the bravery and ability to ask questions even when we feel silly because we have to do this over and over again. As entrepreneurs, and I know that there are some pretty common areas that tend to feel like, but so many, uh, entrepreneurs I speak to tend to feel they're not good at things like finances, numbers, things like tech or being on video or speaking.
If you stop and think right now, maybe you relate to some of those, but if not, I would like you to pause and have a think about something that you really need to be able to do in business, in your business that you feel like, or you have a belief that you are not good at, [00:02:00] and probably you even tell yourself you're not good at it.
Maybe even that stemmed from other people making comments that you're not very good in that area. Maybe as a child you found maths difficult, and so now you believe that you're not good at numbers. Or maybe people have made comments about the way that you look and so now you're not comfortable showing up on camera.
Or maybe when you've tried to do things that feel techy, you have found it difficult. But the thing is, we weren't just born knowing all of these skills, and many of them are very new. When we come into running our own business, most of the time people come into business because you have a skill, a skill set that helps other people or create something people want, and you are passionate about sharing.
That [00:03:00] skill or those things that you create with other people and generally want to make a big impact doing one or both of those things. And so you come in and you decide you're gonna create a business, and now all of a sudden you have to learn all of these new skills that are business skills. Many of which you've never done in your life, and many of which might draw from areas that you only dabbled in as a child, and certainly not to the degree that you're going to need for your business.
And so we can bring into this feelings of not being very good at something or struggling to go back to the beginning, and that goes into that beginner's mindset. I can remember so clearly a time when I was sat. Uh, in an office late at night, everyone else had gone home. This office had absolutely no windows.
I remember feeling so stuck and [00:04:00] frustrated and exhausted, and my mind just felt blank. I was staring at a spreadsheet, a financial spreadsheet. For our business and one that I had just recently, a business I had just recently, I guess, taken over. It was my husband's business really. I had worked on and off in it, uh, for many years in other roles.
But things weren't going well. And so finances felt very, very stressful. And in fact, I say that I came in and I took over 'cause I literally came in and I said, I am taking over. I am taking over all of the business side of things because this has gone too far. And pretty much I thought I could do it better.
I won't go into that whole story, but things were pretty challenging. So I was staring at this. Spreadsheet, this financial spreadsheet, and [00:05:00] I felt really stressed about it. I felt really stressed about money, but every time that I would go to look at the finances, I felt like my mind went blank. So I was stressed, I was exhausted, and I always thought that I wasn't good at numbers.
I wasn't good at maths. I had never been good at maths as a child, and I felt like I wasn't good at maths now. And so I was staring at this. Spreadsheet and I literally felt like my brain was blank. Pretty sure that night I ended up giving up, but then the next day I had a meeting with our bookkeeper and I sat down with our bookkeeper.
She opened up the spreadsheets and we're looking and we're talking, and I felt as if this whole fog just came down over my mind again. Like my mind was going blank, like I couldn't think properly. But I needed to, I needed to [00:06:00] wrap my mind around these figures. I needed to figure out solutions. I needed to understand what was going on.
And so I was pretty okay with asking questions. So I was asking questions and the bookkeeper was answering, but I still felt like my brain was kind of like moving through mud, moving through fog. Like I, I couldn't wrap my mind around it. And I'm thinking, what is going on? I feel like I'm a pretty clever person.
I've figured out lots of things. My main way of learning through life is figuring things out. When I need to know something, I learn something. Little bit of background there. I was mostly homeschooled or unschooled really, and so all of my life, when I've needed to know something, I've gone out and I've learned it as I've needed to know it.
So I knew I could figure things out. Generally speaking. But I couldn't understand why my mind, my felt like my mind was like turning to mush whenever these financial spreadsheets, or there was financial conversations. And so I [00:07:00] realized that I would have to make a decision that was not gonna work for me.
It was not gonna serve me, and it was not gonna help me to make the changes in the business that needed to happen. So I had to decide. I had to decide that I could and that I would. Understand the numbers. I had to decide that I could figure it out, that I could keep a sharp mind while we discuss numbers.
I had to decide that I am good at numbers, even before I felt like it. Now, maybe you can relate to this. I've had a similar experience as well with tech. Oh my gosh. I felt like I was terrible at tech, like. I wasn't a technical person. I've never really been good at computers. When I get a new phone, I'll often leave it sitting there, but thankfully they're a lot easier to set up these days.
You just kind of follow the prompts. But literally, uh, I remember when [00:08:00] smartphones came out and my husband was all over it, he wanted to start phones straight away. He got a smartphone. Literally, it was years of him being like, you need to get one of these phones, Jada. I'm like, I don't want all the tech, like, I don't like tech.
I don't, I just wanna be able to send text messages and make phone calls. I don't, I don't wanna be able to do all these other things on my phone. I don't like tech. I don't like tech. I don't like tech. I'm not good at tech over and over telling myself this. So I felt like, and I believed that I was not good at tech, but of course when it comes to building businesses, especially online businesses, and when I started moving into.
Learning about video marketing and needing to be able to use editing software and external hard drives and uploading to particular platforms and linking the different platforms together and setting up the very first online course that I ever made back in, I think it [00:09:00] was 2018 or 2019. Uh, and having to link different platforms together, all of these things, oh my gosh, I had such a resistance to it because I thought I was bad at tech.
I didn't just think I was bad at tech. I literally believed I was bad at tech. Thankfully, I was working one-on-one with mentors who were able to walk me through things, and I learned step by step how to do all of these things. The editing, the linking of platforms, all of the things. And it was quite incredible because it felt hard.
It felt so hard. And you know, when you go to, you know, you Google the steps of how to do something and it has all of the steps, and you go along the steps and you go back to the page you're trying to sort out, and the step that it told you to do, like, okay, when you get to this point, you're going to click on this button, and you go back to the page and you're like, I can't see that button anywhere.
Is it just me? Why can't I figure this out? Why is it always me? [00:10:00] What I realized in working with mentors and then actually beginning to start to help other people in business as well, was that I wasn't the only one. In fact, even my mentor would come across that same page that I was struggling with and find that, yep, the page has changed, that button's no longer there.
You're not going crazy. It's not because you're not good at tech. And what I started to understand is that many of the experiences that I was having when I was trying to build online platforms and join the different platforms together and get them talking together. Everyone else was having those challenges as well.
It wasn't just me. It wasn't because I wasn't good at tech, it was because it was new. And so again, that lesson around having a belief and how much that blocked me, how much it slowed me down until I understood that actually it was just because it was a new skill that I hadn't used [00:11:00] before, I hadn't learned before, and I needed to learn it as a beginner and go through all those steps.
And importantly, I needed to shift my mindset and my belief to one of believing that I can, and that I'm good at tech, so much so that I still, even though I'd, I'd built online courses and was running Facebook ads and linking up different platforms and using, you know, email, CRMs and all of the things and building full digital businesses.
Helping other people to build theirs, all of that. I still actually had this belief that I wasn't good at tech. And one day I made this comment about it, and my mentor at the time just looked at me aghast and they're like, Jada, you are one of the most tech savvy, or the most tech savvy people that I've actually ever taught.
And I was like, shocked. I'm like, really? What? And they were shocked and I was shocked. And it was just that moment where [00:12:00] I had carried this belief, even though I was doing all of these things. They're like, no, you're amazing. You pick up all these things, you get in there, you do it, you work it out. But I still believed I wasn't good at tech.
So that was a lesson. And from that moment on, I was like, oh, right, okay. I am good at tech. And it was a mindset shift. And so when I come across technical issues now. I know I'm not alone, and I know it's not because I'm not good at tech. It's just that it's tricky. It might be a new platform that I've gotta work out or a new thing.
I have to learn to be able to link them together. Or maybe it's changed from the steps that I'm following or whatever it might be. But I now believe that I am good at tech and I do believe I can figure out the numbers. Probably that's an area I can continue to work on. And I'm hoping that as I share all of this, you can relate whether it is about tech or whether it is about finances and numbers, or whether [00:13:00] it's about.
You know, being on camera or working out how to film and then edit something and or whether it is how to work a new social media platform, or you believe that you're not good at whatever it might be. Like, what is it that you think that you're not good at? And check yourself. Is it just that you haven't done it before or is it a belief that you maybe need to look at shifting?
So what do we do about these beliefs? Let's circle back to what I've called this episode. Stop telling yourself you're not good at things. Your brain is listening. Probably more correctly or further to that is that our subconscious is listening. Now it is from our thoughts and what we say that we feed our subconscious, and it's really from our subconscious that we build our deep beliefs.
And it's really from our subconscious that we take action. And so it's important on so many levels [00:14:00] that we are feeding our subconscious helpful, supportive messages through the thoughts that we think and the words that we say, and we can rewire ourselves and we can change our beliefs through that repetition.
So I wanna go through a few. Ways that you can support yourself in shifting from a belief that you can't do something or you're not good at something to believing that you are. And you can. One thing that you can really look at doing is using I can statements, or I am and I can statements. So this is something you can do in your journal every day and you can really target the major things that you know will be most impactful and supportive.
For you. So you need to really reframe some of the narratives or thoughts, things you say and kind of beliefs things from, instead of, I'm bad at [00:15:00] this, or I can't do this, or I've never been good at this. And you need to catch those thoughts and you need to catch yourself when you say those things and reframe to things like.
I'm learning this or I can figure this out, or even directly to, I can understand complex financial structures. I am good at tech, I am confident on camera. I can figure out new online platforms, whatever it might be for you. So creating statements, I can, I am kinds of statements. That are supportive to. The self, the life and the business that you really desire to be and to have.
So this can be done through journaling. You can do daily journaling with I Am and I can statements and make sure that they're really pinpointing to those core areas that are most supportive to you. But it is also [00:16:00] really about catching ourselves throughout the day. Anytime we think something that is unhelpful or we say something that is unhelpful, it's about catching ourselves in that moment, reframing it and thinking a different thought or saying different words and correcting yourself.
So these are two things that you can actively do every single day to help shift beliefs, catching that negative talk and writing down those. Positive statements that are supportive. Another thing that you can do is use small wins to build your confidence in any particular skill. So start small, have that beginner mindset and work on something step by step and celebrate when you set up one small step of a new platform, celebrate, congratulate yourself.
Write it down and affirm that you can do this. Which also leads into collecting evidence. If you are here [00:17:00] saying, for example, that you are not a techie person, that you're not good at tech, I want you to think about all of the ways you do use technology and that you can use technology and that you've done it well.
Like, I'm sure you've got a phone and you've set it up, right? So that is evidence that you can use technology. I'm sure there are many circumstances where you've used technology, even if you kind of discount it. It where you have been able to do it or you've been able to figure it out, or it hasn't felt as hard as you thought it was going to once you got started.
So this is really about looking for and collecting evidence to the contrary of what you might be believing and thinking about yourself to support shifting towards a more positive outlook on yourself or belief that is supportive to who you wanna be, how you wanna be, and what you're building. And we can also go about seeking support, being okay with the fact that we're [00:18:00] at the beginning of something and that we're learning a new skill.
Seek support. Ask questions. Ask questions. Even if you think you might be perceived as silly or not very clever. We need to be okay with asking those questions. Ask the question even if it feels uncomfortable. Be okay with being at the beginning again and build the new skills that you need to build the business that you desire.
Because avoiding the things that we feel uncomfortable with or we feel like we're not good at, like numbers like tech, like being on camera, like speaking to camera. Whatever it might be for you is going to limit your business growth. It's going to limit your personal growth, which at the end of the day, your business will only grow so far as you grow.
So avoiding these things, maintaining those beliefs, not being willing to give it a go, not being willing to move through that discomfort and avoiding those [00:19:00] things that feel uncomfortable, hard, or that you think you're not good at. It is only going to limit. Your growth and your success personally and therefore in business.
So what I'd like to invite you to do is to have a think about and reflect on something that you've labeled yourself as not good at. And. Think about ways that you can support yourself that I've shared on a daily basis through I am an I can statement through catching and reframing your thoughts and what you're saying through asking for help through not avoiding it, through moving through the discomfort and the fear and really thinking about and reflecting on what's one thing you think you're not good at that you maybe have been avoiding, and what is one small action you can take.
Or that you will take to shift that approach. Now, hopefully you have really been able to identify with some of the [00:20:00] things that I've shared or a version of that, and hopefully this has inspired you to move through those beliefs and support yourself to believe the opposite, so that you are supporting yourself towards the growth that you desire in yourself, in your business.
I would love to hear from you. One thing that you have been believing or thinking that you are not good at that from this episode, you have decided you are going to tackle head on, and you're going to change that belief into a more supportive one that is going to help you to move towards that success that you desire in life and business and beyond that as well.
One action one. New statement, one new way of approaching things that you are going to take to help you shift. Into believing that you can do that thing. I would so love to hear from you. Thank you so much for joining me. I look forward to bringing the next [00:21:00] episode to you next week. Until then, bye for now.
That's a wrap on today's episode of the Aligned and Thriving podcast. Thanks so much for spending this time with me. I hope you're walking away with insights, inspiration, and something you can take action on. Right away. If you loved this episode, make sure you subscribe so you never miss a future one.
And if you know a business bestie who would find this valuable, please send it their way, because thriving in business is even better when we do it together. I'd also love to hear your biggest takeaway. You can screenshot this episode, share it on Instagram, and tag me at Jada Business Mentor. Or send me a DM so we can connect.
Until next time, keep aligning, keep thriving and I'll see you in the next episode.
