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Quick Lift: How to Overcome Self-Doubt and Build Executive Presence · Loud & Lifted

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  Welcome to Loud and Lifted. I'm your host, Betsy
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  Hamm. And in this quick lift episode, we're revisiting
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  the powerful conversation with Jill Avey, leadership
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  and career coach and founder of Sister Smart,
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  who helps women step into bigger roles with confidence
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  and clarity. This episode unpacks what's really
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  standing in our way. And spoiler, it's not just
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  a lack of skill or experience. It's our mindset.
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  We talk about limiting beliefs, saboteurs, and
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  the pressure to please, and what executive presence
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  really means. And under 10 minutes, you'll walk
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  away with powerful reframes, tactical tools,
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  and a reminder that confidence is a practice,
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  not a personality trait. Let's dig in. The first
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  key takeaway, your saboteurs are loud, but you
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  can talk louder. Jill talked about limiting beliefs
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  and how they're your saboteurs. And just to clarify,
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  a limiting belief is the internal story that
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  you believe because you've been telling it to
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  yourself for so long. So we all do that. Maybe
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  I'm not good enough. I'm not smart enough. I'm
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  not outgoing enough. Any of those things can
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  be limiting beliefs you have about yourself.
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  So what do you do? You have to change that. And
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  it starts with one identifying what are those
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  limiting beliefs that you have been telling yourself
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  that aren't true. Then you have to challenge
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  those limits. limiting beliefs that you have
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  and you need to reframe them. You need to start
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  telling a different story. It's just a shift.
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  Jill said about saying, and that's not like me.
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  When you think of some of those limiting beliefs,
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  you're retraining your brain to become the version
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  of who you want to be. I gave the example when
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  she was talking about it, even sometimes it can
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  be something very tactical. In the beginning
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  of my career, I remember thinking I wasn't good
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  with numbers. I wasn't good with accounting or
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  finances and that kind of thing. And I started
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  to believe that just because at that time marketing
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  people weren't typically good with numbers. And
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  I realized that wasn't really true. Sure. It's
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  not my strength, not probably the best thing.
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  I'm never going to be hired to be a VP of finance,
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  but I started to believe that. So I had to really
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  start to flip the script. I did some work, so
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  I became better at that as well. But I started
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  saying, no, I like numbers. I'm not bad at math.
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  I'm not bad at numbers. And eventually, I started
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  to believe the story, essentially, that I was
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  telling myself. And I stopped saying that to
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  other people, because that's part of it, too,
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  is when we're constantly putting ourselves down,
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  oh, I'm not organized was Jill's example, then
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  people start to repeat that back to you. So now
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  you're having that reinforced as well as having
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  it in your own head, which we just have to kill
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  it all. We just have to stop. and we need to
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  reframe it and we need to start telling ourselves
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  a different story. So action item for this one,
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  pick one of those limiting beliefs, one of those
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  thoughts that you have in your head and rewrite
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  it. Start with a that's not like me and follow
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  it up with the behavior or mindset you want to
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  embody. Second takeaway, executive presence isn't
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  a buzzword, it's your next level. Executive presence
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  is what signals to others that your leadership
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  ready. It's made up of communication, gravitas
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  and appearance. But it's also your authenticity
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  and how you treat people. Am I? Previous career.
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  I heard that word a lot when you got to a certain
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  level a director level and you wanted to be at
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  that VP level or management level They would
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  talk about executive presence and I remember
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  not completely understanding what that means
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  because let's be honest It's sort of subjective
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  and it's different to everyone and I think depending
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  what company you're at the expectation is different
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  So all you can do is think about how are you
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  showing up? And I think I've mentioned pie on
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  multiple episodes and I'm really excited that
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  we'll have Linda here to talk about Pi soon,
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  but part of the Pi performance image exposure
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  is that image. So it's how people talk about
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  you when you're not in the room. How do they
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  describe you? How do you portray yourself? How
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  are you perceived in meetings and on teams calls?
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  Are you present and engaged and poised and confident?
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  Or are you sitting in the back of the room? Are
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  you not speaking up? Are you sort of slouched
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  over and just coming across like you aren't the
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  expert in whatever area that you probably are?
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  So Executive presence is really important whether
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  you want to be a VP CEO or just you want to continue
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  to grow in your career you really need to think
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  about how you're being portrayed and how you're
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  showing up and what you need to do in order to
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  be to that next level and I'm sure if we all
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  stop and think about people on leadership teams
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  that we've worked for in the past you can think
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  okay. Yeah, that person was really good, but
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  their executive presence they walked into the
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  room and everybody knew that they were in charge
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  and they were going to be the ones making the
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  decision so It's a confidence thing, right? Again,
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  it kinda goes back to that confidence part. It's
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  how you carry yourself, the confidence, the poise,
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  the relationships. So this week, the action item
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  is ask yourself, do I carry myself like a leader
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  that I want to be? And then pick one area, whether
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  it's your voice or your posture or boundaries
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  or kindness, and level it up. And actually, I
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  think the great part of this is too, is somebody
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  that you trust, have that conversation, ask them
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  for feedback. How do I show up? What do you think
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  about my presence when I'm in the room? Whether
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  it's your boss or a peer, it's great to get that
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  outside person. The next key takeaway is busyness
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  is not a badge of honor. We as women are socialized
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  to be helpful, pleasing and nice, but too often
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  that turns into chronic busyness and burnout.
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  Now let's recap. Have you been listening to prior
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  episodes? How many times we talk about being
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  busy and overwhelmed and work -life balance.
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  I mean, it's come up so much and that's because
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  it's an issue. It's an issue for us as women,
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  especially where we try to take on so much. So
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  the juggling and the prioritizing is so important.
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  So how do you get better? There's a reason we
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  just kind of have to take a step back as we've
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  talked in other episodes about looking at our
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  calendar, being intentional, setting boundaries,
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  scheduling time for what really matters, and
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  just chill. Action item for this week. I know
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  this has been an action item in the past, but
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  say no to one thing this week that is not aligned
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  with your goals. Reclaim your time with intention.
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  And if you need more details on that, go back
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  and also listen to Julia's episode from a few
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  weeks ago. And the last key takeaway, confidence
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  is built through gratitude and wins. Now, again,
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  confidence has come up a lot in prior episodes
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  and we've talked about you have to grow your
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  confidence the same way that you grow your muscles
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  and it's through practice and reps. Now, I really
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  liked what Jill talked about with the mindset
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  work and being intentional and the positive affirmation.
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  She recommends that a very simple but powerful
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  habit that you can do daily is write down three
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  things you're grateful for. and what's going
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  well every day. It's so easy, right? There's
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  always three things to be grateful for. Maybe
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  it's something really big. Maybe it's something
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  really small. Maybe it's something as much as
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  a client that you were trying to get a hold of
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  finally called you back or gave you a compliment
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  or you got put on a great project. It can be
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  little things and it could be bigger things,
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  but think about what you're grateful for every
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  day and write it down. It's a great habit to
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  get into. We also talked about keeping a victory
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  folder or a win journal. And I love this. And
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  as I mentioned on the podcast, it's something
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  that I did and I don't know why I stopped, but
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  having a victory file or folder or a wins journal,
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  whatever you want to call it. It's just taking
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  anything that was a win or a victory and putting
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  it in one place, whether it's an email or somebody
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  says something really nice about you, gives you
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  a compliment. Maybe it's results of a campaign
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  that you were part of, but put all of that in
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  one spot. call it your wind journal, call it
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  your victory notebook, but just continue to compile
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  that. It's such an awesome thing in order to
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  go back and look at that and say, oh, okay, wow.
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  It helps to build your confidence, helps you
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  to give you that credibility. And hey, let's
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  be honest, honestly, if you were thinking about
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  interviewing for a job in the future, you have
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  this little wind folder that you can go back
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  to and be able to pull ideas of things that happened
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  that went really well. That to me is the bonus.
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  The more important part is building your confidence
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  by keeping track of those wins and what you did
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  well. You're not too busy, too emotional, too
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  under qualified or too late. You're capable and
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  the only thing standing in your way right now
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  just might be the story that you're telling yourself.
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  Huge thanks to Jill for helping us reframe those
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  beliefs and show up as the leaders we were meant
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  to be. If this quick lift episode resonated with
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  you, please send it to a friend who needs to
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  hear it. Make sure you're following us on Instagram
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  at Loud and Lifted Podcasts and subscribe wherever
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  you listen to podcasts so you don't miss the
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  next conversation. Until next time, keep leading,
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  keep rewriting and keep getting loud and lifted.