81: Why the world needs to hear from more women in business
Have you ever struggled with self-confidence and self-worth? You’re not alone in feeling like that.
Women are generally socialized and conditioned not to trust our own expertise and when we do, we are often not heard or ignored. It's no wonder we struggle to show up and present ourselves with authority, confidence, and command!
In this episode of ill communication, I’m sharing some tips to help you build your confidence muscle and shut down the negative nelly in your brain so that you can start showing up and sharing your voice.
Topics We Cover in This Episode:
How mindset coaches can help grow your confidence
How supportive communities can raise your confidence
The power of being scared… and doing it anyway
The need for diverse voices
I hope this episode inspired you to speak up and be more confident. The world needs more diverse voices! It doesn’t need another panel of overconfident white dudes mansplaining to the rest of us that we will never be as good as them. It needs you and your beautiful voice.
Reach out to me if you need help finding your voice or sharing it with confidence! You can DM me on social or fill out the contact form at https://www.kimkiel.com/contact-kim.
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[00:00:03] Welcome to ill communication, copywriting tips and sales strategies for small business. I'm your host, Kim Keel. I'm a copy coach, sales strategist, and direct response copywriter. It's my mission to help women leaders and change makers amplify their voices through copy. It's why I'm dishing out all the juicy tips, writing prompts, and sales formulas to help you generate more leads, book more calls, and get more high value clients on repeat. Sounds pretty good. It's time to ditch the overwhelm you might be feeling and find confidence in your copywriting so you can get your message out there and attract more soulmate clients. Let's get started. Hey there and welcome to this episode of the Ill Communication podcast. So a few weeks ago I signed up for a master class on email copywriting. It was hosted by three of the top male copywriters today. And by top I mean they're well known in copywriting circles, but not necessarily beyond that. A lot of copywriters hold these men and their skills in pretty high regard. For me personally, one of them I genuinely admire and enjoy, one I cannot stand and one I don't follow, so I don't have an opinion of him. Well, I didn't have an opinion of him until he gave the welcome to the participants who signed up for the master class. He began by welcoming us to the workshop, and then he said something along the lines of, I'm sorry, I can't promise any kind of outcome from today's session because there's no way a 45 minute presentation is going to give you the level of skill that the three of us have, and the way we think and are wired naturally for creativity and inspiration isn't something we can teach, but hopefully you'll pick up something that will help you become a slightly better writer.
[00:02:03] Uh, excuse me, I was so taken aback by the audacity, the incredible bravado and machismo of that intro that I honestly couldn't continue with the workshop. I have since tried to watch the replay a couple of times, but even when I fast forward through that intro, I still feel icky and I haven't been able to watch the full replay. And that's not to say there isn't any value. I am certain there is. But that intro, well, let's just say I am flabbergasted. Someone opened a workshop by essentially saying, I actually don't know why you're all here, because you'll never be as good as me. But anyway, now I realize that guy has a level of confidence and self-worth that I will never have. And even if I did have that level of self-confidence and self-worth, I would never start a workshop like that. The thing is, self-confidence and self-worth are two things I have really struggled with as an entrepreneur and a copywriter. And I know I'm not alone in feeling like that.
[00:03:09] When you're an entrepreneur, it feels like you're constantly putting yourself out there and taking risks, and in fact, it is risky. It was a risk when I quit my fundraising day job and started my own freelancing business. It was a risk when I started podcasting and added this expense to my time and financial budgets. It was a risk when I launched the Joy of Copy Club, and it's a risk every single time I push send on an email to my list. I remember the first few times I sent proposals or had sales calls, and I just wanted to crawl under a rock. I'm sure we all go through the phases where we undercharge and overdeliver, because we lack the confidence in ourselves to own our expertise and charge accordingly. Or we take on pain in the ass clients because we don't believe we're worthy of those champagne level clients. I've had to personally work really hard to ignore the part of my brain that tells me to stay quiet, play small, take the safe route. And I know a lot of women entrepreneurs and freelancers who struggle with this too, and I believe it's in large part due to how women, and especially women over 40, were socialized and raised. Women generally are socialized and conditioned to not trust our own expertise. When we do share our voices, they're often not heard.
[00:04:36] Our ideas have been ignored, so it's no wonder we struggle to show up and present ourselves with authority and confidence and command. It's something I've had to work really hard on, and I've found a few things that have worked for me to both build my confidence muscle and shut down the negative nelly in my brain. So I wanted to share a couple of them with you in case they're helpful for you. First thing I've done is I've invested tremendous amounts of time and money on mindset coaching. I've worked with some incredible mindset coaches who embody the level of confidence I aspire to have. I sometimes feel like I can just draft off their confidence and get a little momentum just by being in their presence. I've joined masterminds and communities with other powerful, successful women who lift each other up, cheer each other on, and remind each other how badass we are. I'm also really fortunate to have a husband and a few really great girlfriends who constantly lift me up, who tell me I'm doing amazing things, who say they're proud of me, who celebrate my wins and accomplishments when I'm feeling in the dumps, which is honestly more often than I'd like. I reach out to my squad and they remind me I'm pretty great at what I do, which helps me feel more confident. And in particular, I have to shout out my assistant Hannah of Life Raft VA.
[00:06:03] She is not just an admin assistant. A lot of the success I've had in my business is because she is constantly in my corner cheering me on, pointing out and celebrating my wins and telling me when I'm looking awesome on camera. That kind of emotional support is truly priceless for an entrepreneur. I've also built my confidence by doing, by being scared and doing the thing anyway. And after I do the thing, whether it's sending a $25,000 proposal for a project or doing an Instagram Live, which honestly feels way scarier to me, it's then my confidence grows. And I know we've all heard this, but it's true. If you wait to feel confident before you do something, it will never come. You get confidence after you do the thing and each time it becomes a little easier. But it's something I constantly battle. Whenever I see another copywriter or business owner celebrating a new client or a new accomplishment. I'm genuinely happy for her, but it often sends me into a tailspin of self-doubt, second guessing, and a heavy dose of imposter syndrome. And then I reach out to my squad who helped pick me up. I recently hosted a master class on the Top Messaging and Copywriting Trends for 2024, and during the Q&A, a few of the business owners talked about how they were holding themselves back from starting an email list or creating content.
[00:07:39] They worried they wouldn't know what to say or how to say things. They worried about being consistent, but I immediately saw that it wasn't about that. It was about their confidence and self-worth. It was about feeling confident enough to share your expertise, to share it, and invite people to share in it with you. I gave them a little pep talk about not overthinking and just putting one foot in front of the other and starting small. I loved seeing after the fact how these two participants in particular, both showed up on their social channels and started talking about their offers and inviting their followers to engage and sign up for their newsletters. Now I realize that this is my truest purpose and mission. My purpose and mission is helping women claim their voice and feel confident in their copywriting so they don't hold themselves back so they don't limit themselves and play small. Because I'll tell you what, the world needs to hear more diverse voices. We need to see more diversity in gender. We need to see larger bodies and deeper wrinkles. We need to see and hear from more marginalized communities and voices that have been traditionally silenced. We need to hear your voice. So please, after you finish listening to this episode, go and send that email. Go show up on social. Go pitch to speak on that stage because the world does not need another panel of overconfident white dudes mansplaining to the rest of us that we will never be as good as them.
[00:09:20] My friend, the world needs you and your beautiful voice. So even if you don't feel confident, speak up anyway. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'll be back next week with more writing prompts, copy tips, and sales formulas to help you share your beautiful voice. I'll see you then. Hey, would you like to hang out with me and other women business owners doing rad things in the world, just like you? Then you should join the Joy of Coffee Club. It's a group coffee coaching experience where you receive access to all my sales templates, writing prompts, and copy recipes so you're never wondering what or how to write. Once a week, you can pop into my open office hours, where we'll live, review and edit any kind of copy you've written. Seriously, you can bring a social post and email or even some edits to your home page, and I'll help you optimize it before you send it out into the world. The Joy of Copy Club gives you the tools and the confidence to get your message out there so you can grow your impact and your revenue. Find out more at Kim Dotcom Slash Copy Club. I'll see you next week.
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