Give Me 14 Minutes And I'll Eliminate Negative Thoughts & SELF-DOUBT Forever

It's funny, I sat down at my desk today to do a video about how much business owners can pay themselves by way of a salary and dividends here in the UK. So very practical, tactical video. Interestingly, I couldn't hit the record button. I couldn't figure out why. I took a deep breath and asked myself to look inside as to what on earth was going on. Why is there so much self-doubt in me? And it's not just this morning, I've actually been experiencing it for a little while. I was just compelled to put this into a video instead. I'll probably do the other video as well anyway. This might be what I need in order to galvanize me to build up the courage to go ahead and actually get back onto YouTube and start recording some videos regularly again. Who knows? Um, but it's ironic, isn't it? You know, you see the big sign behind me, Being Fearless. You know, being fearless should mean coming into the office, hitting record on the camera, and away we go uploading that video to YouTube. And yay, successful, prosperous business coach, you know. And Uh, I couldn't do it. Just couldn't bring myself to hit record, basically. I couldn't bring myself to actually do that video. So it's interesting, isn't it? Like, how self-doubt works. I don't know what it was about self-doubt. It wasn't procrastination. It wasn't— I know that I can do videos. I know that I can. I've got the camera. I've got the lighting. I've got the, you know, the microphone, the professional microphone here. So I've got all the gear. I've put out hundreds of videos over the last few years. Since setting up Fearless Business, and even in my old agency days as well. So I know I can do it. It's not a matter of whether I can do it or not. So I think it's something a bit deeper going on inside, and I think this is something which a lot of business owners get, you know, all the time. I mean, we have 130 members now in, uh, in the Fearless Crew, which is the, um, the group program which I run. Amazing business owners, any, you know, all sorts of different businesses, uh, different ages, different backgrounds. Different cultures, we've got clients all over the world and things like that. And this is something which crops up all the time. As a coach, you invite people to undertake tasks to improve their business, to go out and attract more clients, to put their prices up, to do marketing and have sales conversations, go and get speaking engagements, to write blog articles, to do all of this amazing stuff to promote their businesses. And just like me, many of them struggle with that. Many of them are very experienced like me, like, They've been doing all of this stuff for years and then just one day it all just stops. For me, one of the issues I've struggled with over the last 3 years, and this isn't— I don't want any sympathy for this, this is just hopefully helpful, you know, this might bring something up for you which you've experienced. Like, you know, here's a good question. Maybe pop this in the comments. If you've ever experienced an element of self-doubt, pop it in the comments, tell us about it. What is it? There will be somebody out there who can potentially help you with that, help you to overcome it. So I put my own self-doubt down to, you know, I've been doing, running Fearless Business now for 7 years. I have several books, doing the worst Weather Girl impression here ever, but several books which I've written, 2 of which have been bestsellers worldwide, only Amazon bestsellers, you know, but Online Business Startup, that the red one there, um, uh, you know, that's done, sold something like 15,000 copies worldwide over the last, I think, 9 years since it's been out. It was a bestseller on Amazon for 3 and a half years. It went up against, head-to-head with Daniel Priestley's books, Entrepreneur Revolution and Key Personal Influence, in the small business and entrepreneurship category. So I have credentials, I have credibility, I have authority. I've worked with hundreds of businesses. I've had a 6-figure income for the last 7 years, you know, since day one, since I started the coaching practice. I set it as an intentional goal to run a 6-figure coaching practice. That's what I wanted to achieve. I sold a business. There's all of these things which I know that are true about me. And yet even still, sometimes I wake up in the morning and find it really hard to hit record on a video. And like, not just can't be bothered or not just don't know what to say or any of those things. It feels like somebody has got control of my hands and they are stopping me from hitting that record button. And it is so hard mentally. It was so draining. It's really fatiguing. And there's a, there's a thing, you know, I've, I, because I've, maybe it's because I've made hundreds of videos over the last 7 years, you know, that have gone into the YouTube channel, into my Facebook groups and things like that. I've— I chose to run my business remotely. I do see some clients one-to-one, but a majority of my business is run remotely from my little studio here in the Cotswolds. It's, um, maybe it's just a matter of like I've just videoed myself out. I've just done so much. Then you get into the realms of— and this is where there's probably a bit of radical sort of honesty which I'll share with you. Maybe it's because I don't feel I've got the results which I justly deserve for all of that effort which I've put into this business. I know how much I've helped people. I get emails and messages from people every day telling me, you know, what an impact my content has made for them. But, and it's not even really about the financial reward for me, it's just about, you know, I look at the effort I've put into my YouTube channel, for example, and there's 2,000— I've got it down there— 2,430 subscribers. And I, I know I should be grateful for each and every single one of you amazing subscribers, people who have supported my channel. Um, there is a small part of me which is like, you know, and you're gonna judge me, like, fine, if you, if you judge me on this, no problem. Like, I'm, I'm, I'm the fearless business coach. I'm here to be challenged on stuff as well, don't worry. But I feel like I look at some of my peers who've done the same sort of work as I do, and they have got tens or hundreds of thousands of subscribers for the, the work and effort which they've put in there. Now I know I've not been consistent. I know that I've not put out a decent enough level of content recently, but I did. There was a point when I was putting out tons and tons of content and just the rewards didn't quite come in. And I think it just really affects my motivation to want to continue to put out like high— like put all this effort into really high quality content. And it doesn't actually take that much effort. I'm not like You know, to be fair, to record a video, keep— do a very simple edit, upload it, you know, and get out, it actually doesn't take that much effort. But I do feel like I should have tens of thousands of subscribers. Maybe that's really selfish of me, and maybe that's— maybe I don't deserve that simply because I'm having those sorts of thoughts. And I think this, this really plays on me when I, when I'm— and I think it really affects people when you do put things out into the ether and it's not— you kind of build it up in your imagination as to like, you've done all this effort and it's a really good piece of work, and then put it out there and then it's just not received. It's just like not, not as many people as you thought might see it would see it. You know, other authors, you know, who are getting publishing— like first-time authors getting publishing contracts with really notable like publishing houses, and I've chosen to self-publish my books. I, I probably could— I, I know I need to put the effort in to go and do it the right way to go and get those, but because I've done the books, I again, I think I kind of worn myself out. I've got a book which is written. It's 28,000 or 30,000 words written, I think. I've probably got about another 8,000 words to finish it, and I can't find the energy quite to finish it. So I've got— so I'm no different. I'm not— I'm still human. I'm no— I might be the Fearless Business Coach, but I'm not immune to the same thoughts and emotions, challenges that every other business owner faces. And my thing is, I do the little things well every single day. So having pride in my work means a lot to me. And I know that despite the fact that the results might not be there, I take an awful lot of pride in the work which I put out there. And I know that long-term it will produce the results which I want to get for my business and for my family, because obviously, you know, there's income here which they rely on. So those sorts of things are important. And when I say pride, I mean even just doing one simple task a day, Like each and every day. Make your bed every day, like, and take pride in it. It— no, you then know that you can then move forward with your day knowing that you've got at least one job really well done, even if it's just like the smallest insignificant thing. And I found that when I do that, that rolls up into the next task and the next task and the next task, and they get better and the energy builds. And then here we are producing a video. And I know it's not the video which I intended to do. I will make that video. I'm gonna make a commitment now to record that video after this one. Because again, I know somebody's asked a question in Facebook group, they need help with something, so I'll do it. So what about other people? So when I challenge them to do things like record videos, write podcasts, things like that. Now I felt massively incongruent sometimes when I encourage people to do this, and then I'm sat there thinking, well, you haven't. released a podcast for a while, you haven't released a video for a while, you haven't written a book for a while. What— who are you to tell other people to do this stuff? Well, because no, I have massively benefited from doing all of these things over the last 7 years. It's just that right now I'm feeling a bit fatigued by it and a bit demotivated, and I just need to take a break and find some space to re-energize myself so that I can lean back in and start producing content again like I used to. For me, it's really important that I sustain a certain level of quality with that content. So anything less than that, if I dip, just kind of taking a step back and just getting a rubbish video out kind of grates on me a little bit. So that's one of the hurdles which I've got to overcome. If I record a video, it has to be good. The challenge is though, when I'm telling all these people to do these things, and I know the benefit, if you've got a podcast with 100 episodes out there, if you've got a YouTube channel where you record a video or 2 videos a week for 2 years, you will get subscribers, you will get followers for that. You'll get clients from it. If you write books, you'll get clients from it. If you do all of these things, I know that they work. So I have to keep on being true to that message for my clients. And it's okay. Me, Robin Waite, business coach, and Robin Waite, the guy who does videos and books and things like that, there's 2 sides to that. And one, if I can motivate and encourage people to do the great things that they need to do to grow their businesses and to raise their own personal profile, but I wake up having a bad day, that's actually okay. And I think the key thing there for me is that I've learnt not to be hard on myself through this, through, you know, over the last sort of 2 or 3 years, which I've actually, it's been that long that I've been struggling with this, and many people may not realise that. So I'm not, I'm trying not to be too hard on myself. I try just to do the small things really, really well, you know, when I do choose to do them, when I do choose to step up and to add value, and certainly the really high-value stuff. So when I'm coaching, when I'm speaking, and things like that, I'm on my A-game. I'm the 110% version of myself, as Gary Vee puts it. I show up, game face on, and I deliver as much value as I possibly can in those moments, 'cause that's what people are actually paying me for in that moment, and to be a part of that experience. The other things, I just have to be patient and just wait for the right time to be able to lean in and do more of them. If you're experiencing this, if you're getting some element of self-doubt, your motivation has dipped, you're struggling to do some of the things that your coach or mentor or peers or gurus online are telling you to do, just take a break. Give yourself a break, re-energize yourself. Think about it this way, rather than trying to push through and burning yourself out, and if you burn yourself out, you're no good to anybody, it's much better if you just take a few days out, and I've done this, I took a holiday last week, it was brilliant, got some, a couple of coaches to step in and run my call for me, and things like that. Um, it, it might just be enough just to re-energize you so that when you do step back up and put yourself out there, that you're at the same level of quality that you wanted to appear, that you wanted to put out there. That's it really. That's all, that's all I wanted to say. Um, it's kind of more, more, more a way of just kind of, I suppose, just letting a bit out for me. But also, I know sometimes that when I share things like this, that there's other people out there who kind of watching it, maybe thinking the same and not knowing what to do. So, you know, I've told you a couple of— there's a couple of strategies within this video which I've shared with you that I use to help sort of manage my, my self-doubt, my inner critic, my motivation levels, and things like that. Um, another thing which I've worked very hard on is, for example, my fitness. So I had COVID when it all kicked off back in March 2020, and it really affected my health. I've since had an ankle operation And just the motivation to go from nothing, having done nothing for 6 months because of the operation, to then start again. God, that has been a grind, but I've learned an awful lot about myself. It's just like, do the little things, do the tiny little things. Like when the physio tells you to do the exercises, like he wants— he expects you and wants you to do it like 3 times a day, every day of the week and things like that. But actually, if you only get around to doing it once in a day, but you do it well, That's better than not doing it at all. So, and so, but, you know, even if it's just once a day, but if you can do it consistently once a day, that's, that's going to be massive, like monumentally better than not doing anything because you see it as being too hard a task. So that road to recovery has been long. Even like getting back on the bike and cycling, you know, I used to do like 40, 50 miles. And that's again been a struggle since COVID since the operation. The first ride I did, 7 miles. And I was like, God, I used to do 50, like, and here I am struggling to do 7. But it's that process of just starting again. Sometimes you do just have to start again. So this is me just starting again with YouTube and with videos and speaking from the heart a little bit more, being a bit more congruent as well, as in doing the things which I tell other people to do, doing the things which I say that I am. If I'm, if I'm gonna tell people I'm an author, I should be writing books. If I'm gonna tell people I'm a YouTuber, I should be doing YouTube. If I'm a blogger, I should write blogs. I want to make a commitment to be more congruent and, and do the things I say that I'm gonna do, especially if I'm giving advice to other people. It very important. Cool. Like I said, if you've got any— if any of this resonated, pop a comment below. Um, I'd love to hear from you. Happy to have a chat with you. You know, sometimes like problem shared is a problem halved. Just having conversation might be enough just to kick in your motivation again.