In this solo coaching video, Margaret Spence – founder of the Employee to CEO Project and the 10X Leadership Academy for Women – delivers Day 21 of her 30‑day Career Transformation Challenge. She asks viewers to examine the subconscious messages they send about themselves and their careers when they enter a room. Using a conversation with a friend who feels her work is meaningless as a case study, Spence explains how self‑doubt, feelings of unworthiness, and internal narratives manifest as external signals that colleagues and leaders pick up on. She argues that “faking it” is ineffective because inauthentic energy is detectable, and instead urges conscious alignment between one’s internal mindset and outward presence – the energy, confidence, and clarity one brings to meetings, presentations, and everyday interactions. The video concludes with a bold question for viewers to assess whether they are showing up from a place of power or self‑doubt, and a call to share the challenge with others.
Chapters
Day 21 of the 30/30 Career Transformation Challenge. Hi, my name is Margaret Spence, and I'm the founder of the Employee to CEO Project and the 10X Leadership Academy for Women. Thank you for joining me on this 21-day journey, um, to empower you to manage your career differently. I'm so glad that you're here. 9 more days to go in this challenge. Today's bold question: What message are you sending about your career and what message are you sending about yourself when you walk in the room? Are you leaving a lasting impression that people say, "Wow, I want more of what she has to offer," or are you leaving an impression of, "Oh, I think she's not ready yet," or, "I think he's not ready yet." I had a conversation with a friend a few weeks ago, and she described her work as meaningless. "I show up every day and I do meaningless work." And I said to her, "You know, how do you show up every day and do meaningless work if in your mind You're doing meaningless work. That means that when you show up to work, everything you do throughout that day has no meaning. What she didn't realize is that the messages that she was sending about herself and her career was the reasons why she was having the results that she was having as she tried to advance in her organization. If you send a message of, "I'm not ready. I'm not empowered. I can't find my voice. I'm not sure why I'm here. I don't deserve to be here. I haven't earned the right to have this position. I'm not ready. I will never be ready. I have so much self-doubt that I don't know how anybody could see me in this position." If that's the message that you're sending and you're thinking in the back of your mind, that's the message that everyone else is getting about you. Because messages that we send, even subliminal messages that we send out, are picked up by other people. When you have self-doubt, your boss, your co-workers, your team members recognize that you are coming to them from a place of self-doubt. There's an adage that you can fake it till you make it. I am of the— I am of the firm belief that you cannot fake it, because when you're faking it, everybody knows you're faking it. People can see through you. It's important that you understand the messages that you're sending about yourself, about your career, about your vision. And I'm not talking about how you show up in a room because of what you're wearing. I'm not talking about your makeup or your outfit or your shoes. I'm talking about the energy that walks in the room with you. And when you're in that room, when you've been given an opportunity to show up at a meeting or to do a presentation or to discuss the work that you're doing, that you're not showing up there with mediocrity, that you're not showing up with self-doubt, that you're not showing up from a place that leaves the impression that you're not ready. You know, there's a saying, you're not ready for prime time. If you're not ready for prime time and that's the message you're sending, everyone is going to know that you're not ready for prime time. So if you want your vision to become a reality, you have to be conscious of how you show up. Because if you show up with a vision that's in your head but the reality of what you're putting out is something different, you're sending miss— mixed messages about who you are. It's important that you become conscious of how your thoughts and your thoughts are exuding into your messages. How what you're thinking in your head is showing up in your work, because what you think is what you deliver. What you deliver is what you think. If you think you've got it, you show up delivering a message of, I've got this. So today's bold question: How are you showing up in the room? What messages are you sending? Are you coming from a place of power, or are you coming from a place of self-doubt? Check the message that you're sending before you walk in the room. Make sure that you've aligned yourself so that what you're presenting is the real you. Thank you for joining me for the 30/30 Challenge. If you've enjoyed the video, please share it so your friends and colleagues can experience what we're doing in the 30/30 Challenge. See you tomorrow. 9 more days to go. Thank you.
