Do you doubt yourself when it comes to your business?

Good.

You’re meant to.

Here’s why, and what to do about it.

To be clear, I am talking about self-doubt when it comes to business, or marketing-related decisions – not an all-pervasive self-doubt that seeps into every aspect of life (that’s out of my area of expertise).

I am talking about the kind of self-doubt that sabotages your great idea, or a decision you’ve made because you run out of enthusiasm before you can get it done.

It’s the kind of self-doubt that:

• Makes you delete that social media post you enthusiastically wrote out, read back, then hated.
• Makes it feel impossible to write newsletters or create marketing content because every good idea turns into a crappy one after 20 seconds of focused work on it.
• Stops you from launching that new offer you’ve been thinking about for the last 12 months.

It’s that kind of self-doubt that nearly stopped me from writing this blog post (but thankfully, I’d already used a technique listed below, so I could get my momentum back and get it finished).

As the owner of a teeny tiny business of just you (and maybe a small support team), your greatest asset is your freedom, your agility, your ability to respond to your audience and create new content, offers, and experiences that they want and need.

But self-doubt makes it hard to make decisions, and even harder to implement them, snuffing out that flexibility and momentum you should be benefiting from.

Over the last 3 years, through my marketing mentoring, I’ve helped dozens of business owners move through the three stages of self-doubt.

Phase One: The Enthusiastic Rush

When we make a decision or get a new idea, the accompanying dopamine spike delivers motivation, hope, and optimism.

Since we can’t live in that dopamine-fuelled state for long, that chemical shift fades, but before it leaves us, we can put that energy to good use by:

• Documenting WHY we’re excited about the thing – this text will remain, long after the chemical-induced enthusiasm fades
• Take 10-15 minutes to get as much work done on the idea/decision/project as we can. The framework, the project plan, the thoughts running through your head – whatever you’ve got, write it down. When you come back to it, it’ll be easier to talk yourself into finishing something you already started than to start a new thing from scratch.

Phase Two: The Doubt Takeover

This is inevitable for lots of reasons, including:

1 – The brain runs two modes: exploration (ideas) and evaluation (should I do this, and how).

This balance is how our species avoids snuffing itself out by doing things that seem like a good idea initially, but actually aren’t. When evaluation kicks in, it feels like doubt.

2 – Negativity bias makes doubts feel more “true” than excitement. Our brains intentionally pay more attention to potential losses compared to potential gains.

3 – Your brain tends to prefer the lower risk, lower effort state of predictability, even at the expense of possibility,

During the Doubt Takeover:

• Notice how this feeling compares to what’s normal for you. Is the doubt stronger? Is this a familiar pattern? How does this normally resolve for you?
• Just like the rush that came before it, you can use this new wave of doubt. Thank your brain for its diligence and write down what it’s telling you to worry about, or look out for. Some (or many) of the worries are legitimate, and are problems you can avoid, counter or mitigate.

Phase 3: Reconsidering The Original Idea/Decision

Only revisit your now doubt-drenched idea/decision when you are feeling well-resourced – with time, energy, and headspace to spare.

Your brain doesn’t assess objectively ‘should we do this’, it is considering ‘should we do this right now, given our current state, resources and perceived effort required’.

The answer you get will be very different at 10am in a quiet house after two cups of coffee, compared to 6pm while cooking dinner at the end of an already busy day.

When the time does feel right to revisit your idea/decision:

• Review why you were enthusiastic about it in the first place
• Consider what’s the worst that can happen, how likely is that, and if that worst did happen what could you do about it?
• What’s the best that could happen? How likely is that? And what can you do to maximize the chances of it turning out that way?
• What’s the minimum outcome that would make the effort worthwhile – not just money, or subscribers, or something measurable, but also consider the insight, experience, connections, and new ideas that might come from doing this?
• What is the smallest tiny step you can take towards implementation – you don’t need a full project plan, you don’t need to make any big announcements, you can make progress with a quiet shuffle in the right direction.

What’s next

Let’s normalise the self-doubt rollercoaster. Share in the comments something you’ve recently doubted, and what the outcome was eventually – did you do it, or park it?

Talk to me 1-1 for 20 minutes so you can get your ideas untangled, a decision made, and your next steps actions in place.