In this motivational video, Shelley Young shares her personal journey from a nanny and a failed business to becoming a top‑1% female sales rep earning $38,000 a month and founding the Female Sales Accelerator coaching academy. She explains how she cultivated unshakable self‑belief despite skepticism from friends, family, and society. The talk is structured around concrete steps: (1) clarifying a deep, internal "why" through iterative questioning; (2) stopping the need to explain or justify one’s path to others; (3) moving forward in silence and letting results speak for themselves; (4) finding at least one supportive mentor or community; (5) committing to small daily actions that build competence and momentum; (6) protecting one’s energy by distancing from draining people and habits; and (7) understanding that belief follows action, not the other way around. Throughout, Shelley emphasizes discipline, self‑validation, and the compounding effect of consistent effort, urging viewers to trust themselves enough to take the first step even when no one else does.
Chapters
How to believe in yourself when no one else does. When I left my stable job as a nanny to pursue sales, no one believed in me, especially off the back of coming from a failed business trying to follow my hopes and dreams that completely crashed and burned. My friends thought I was crazy, my family were a little bit concerned, And honestly, I don't even know if I barely believed in myself. But now, sitting here at 26 years old, 3 years later, after becoming a top 1% female sales rep in the industry and now starting my own coaching academy for women, helping them achieve their goals after I was able to be making $38K a month as a closer, I finally realized I've done it. And I did it because I learned to believe in myself when no one else did. And in this video, I'm going to share, I guess, the exact steps really that helped me go from doubting myself every day to having unshakable self-belief. Because if you're on a path that no one understands and you're starting to question yourself and starting to doubt yourself, then this is going to be the message you need to hear. So let's get into it. First of all, what we want to do is we want to get clear on your why. Why are you doing this? What is your foundation? Why are you putting yourself out there and doing what most people won't? The why is the only thing that's going to keep you going. My why was I was so desperate to get out of financial scarcity. Like, I wanted it truly more than I could ever breathe, and no one was going to get in my way to achieve that. So maybe you're a little bit unsure of your why. Maybe you think it's because you want a new car or you want a new designer bag, and those materialistic things and travel, whatnot, are your why. But they're probably not, because that is a thing that can be taken. We're talking about a true internal feeling in your heart. What I want you to do is I want you to write your goals and everything that comes to mind first when you think of your why, but then ask, but why, but why, but why? And keep working backwards until you get the true meaning of why all those things— what do those things mean to you? For me, they meant getting out of financial scarcity And that exercise in itself will absolutely help you uncover what that true why is, so you stay tunnel vision on it and you can visualize it and you can make your dream life a reality. Once you have this and once you've done this, it's going to almost build like an unshakable moat around you, because no matter how many people question you, or no matter how many people doubt you, or even on the days where you doubt yourself, you will have that why that is truly your purpose and truly your meaning. So that's a very important exercise to do. Number 2, stop explaining yourself. My goodness, did I have to learn this the hard way. I used to always over-explain myself with what I was doing and why, and why it made sense, and why everyone should believe in me. So have a think about it. Are you trying to justify your decision? Are you trying to defend yourself or seek approval by not telling anyone and actually living in the dark and not living your dream life because you're scared, it's exhausting. It's so counterproductive and it's not gonna make anyone happy, even yourself. Or it might make others happy because you're not doing what you wanna do and you're doing what they wanna do, but it's never gonna make you happy and you are the only person that matters. The more you're seeking validation that you're never really going to get, the more that you are putting your happiness and your purpose onto other people, and that's not their responsibility, that's yours. I realized I didn't owe anyone an explanation when I was around 3 months into my sales journey. So I started my sales journey, I invested in a mentor, I didn't tell anyone but my mom, um, and I started making money. So I was working as a nanny in the day and sales at night., and I started making more than my nannying salary for doing part-time in sales. So that's when I started to tell people, and that's when people didn't believe me, thought I was crazy, thought, is it scammy? Like, what is it? And people were doubting me. And I was 3 months in and I'd made triple my nannying salary, and I thought, you know what, this has to stop. This is working. This is a proven concept. I could not care less. And they'll all look back at this and be like, wow, when she actually is achieving these big goals. And they all did. So you have to truly believe in yourself. I got lucky, I had a proven concept for myself. You might not, you might have to dive in without it. Obviously I invested in a mentor without a proven concept and without any gratification from anyone else. So I guess to not discredit myself, I did really take that step before anyone believed in me. But then I had some tangible results that really gave me that fire and really made me realize I don't need to convince anyone. As long as I'm happy and I'm in congruent— like, I'm being congruent with the life that I want, then who cares? So I'd encourage you to move in silence first. Do it for you first. Figure it out first. Figure out all the roadblocks and everything first, because if you don't and if you tell people too soon, in my opinion, people will just start questioning you, and then you're not going to know the answers yourself, and then you will doubt yourself, and then you're I don't want to do it in the first place. Next, I would say find your people, even if it's just one person. This is so crucial because at least one person you know won't think you've gone completely crazy. Doing this alone is very, very isolating. For me, I invest in a mentor, and although that mentorship was full of men, I did have my mentor who knew I wasn't crazy. Now, what I love about the Female Sales Accelerator, my program that I've built, is we have women all over in the world that are supportive and connecting and absolutely amazing around each other and are so genuinely kind, and that is their community, and I'm so proud I've built that. I didn't have that when I started. Oh my goodness, I wish I did, but I was so lucky with the mentor that I found that I had that support system there, even if it was just one person, and that made me feel like I wasn't going completely crazy. Because if everyone else thinks you're kind of crazy, you might start to believe it too. So find a mentor, find the community, find people around you that actually make you feel confident and at home. Because you'll never feel more at home than when you're with a room full of people who just get you. When I did my in-person event with some of my girls in the TFSA, in London 2 months ago or a month ago. There was like 50 of us in a room, and I'd never felt more at home. And I've only ever met these ladies over Zoom, like I'd never met them in person, but it just felt right. And I got so many comments saying the same, and it's so true. Like, be around people who uplift you, uplift you, and who get you. Next, I want you to take small actions every single day. Because small actions build confidence, competence, a proven concept. They build trust in yourself, they build a momentum, they build self-belief. It is keeping your own promises to yourself every single day. So that could be a role play, a training call, a Loom video. That could be going through some training modules. It's doing tiny little things. Maybe you're super tired and you just want to do half an hour after work, or maybe you have all the energy and you can do 4 4 hours, at least you're chipping away and doing something, because it will take time for the results to compound. Obviously everyone's journey is different. Some people it will move quick, some people it won't. So you want to make sure that you're not relying on just pure motivation. You have your discipline locked in, so no matter what, no matter how long it takes for your first paycheck or whatnot, you're good and you're locked in and you're laser focused on your goal. Another thing that I think this is really good for is you're not waiting to feel confident. You're not waiting to have that belief. You're just doing. Another thing that I think this is really good for is you're not waiting for that gratification. You're not waiting for the result or for the confidence to come. You are just doing, because confidence comes in action. Most people think, oh, I feel really nervous, I shouldn't do the thing, I don't feel confident. That is the reason you should do it. Confidence will only come once you've kept your promises to yourself and you show up for yourself to learn and master the craft. And that's going to build confidence so much quickly so everyone around you's kind of doubts and thoughts can't get into your head anyway. Protect your energy and your vision. Distance yourself from people who make you feel drained. Distance yourself from people who drown you. Stop doing the habits and the daily things that you are used to doing that are draining you have to think about what it takes. I always say you can't have a 10K outcome with a 1K effort and a 1K strategy. You have to have a 10K effort, a 10K strategy to get a 10K outcome. For me, I had to cut off a bunch of friends, to be honest. I'm not saying you have to do that too, but from that period of my life, people who just really didn't get it, I just completely cut off because I was so focused in making this my reality. And to be honest, my back was up against the wall and I had no other choice. So I really took this seriously. I also stopped doing things that weren't productive. I stopped scrolling on social media less. I stopped watching Netflix less, and I did things that were going to be productive to my growth. And I truly think this is the reason that I was able to scale my career and income so quickly, because I took this so seriously. You have to protect your energy. You just do. You are the only one who matters in this journey. This is your life. You have to create space for you and your goals. It's like so, so important. And remember that the belief comes after the action, not before. Like I was saying earlier, confidence won't just be there. It grows over time. It grows with discipline. It grows with action. It grows with failing and getting rejections and getting nos. We're not taught that in school. We're taught a no or a rejection or a failure is bad. It is not. Trust me, I've had many and I'm here to tell the tale. It builds over time. You have to just take the action before you're truly ready. You have to just believe in yourself delusionally because you're going to be so surprised what you're actually capable if you do that. If you believe in yourself before there is anything to back it up, if you just take that first step and keep on walking step after step after step. I promise you, you'll look behind you and you'll realize how far you have come. So get clear on your why, stop explaining yourself, find your people, take small daily actions, protect your energy, and understand that belief comes after action. Self-belief isn't about convincing yourself that you're capable before you start, it's about proving it through time and action and yeses and nos. And if no one believes you right now, that's okay. You just need to believe in yourself enough to take the first step.
