By Kathleen Morris, as told by Sara Shelton
Part of our “My Blueprint Story” Series

As an event planner in the corporate world, confidence was never an issue for me. I knew how to do my job, and I knew I was doing it well. It was a path that felt familiar and successful to me, making confidence easy to come by.

But then, that path changed.

I became a mom, and suddenly, success looked different for me. My job required an intense amount of travel and time away from home, but that’s not the picture I saw for my family. So I had to change course. I had to make a shift, and for me, that shift was self-employment.

When I stepped out on my own as an event planner, something unexpected happened.

Just like that, my confidence was gone.

It felt like I was operating in a totally different world. I knew how to do the job, but I had no idea how to be an entrepreneur. I didn’t know anything about what I needed to do, or how my work should look on a day-to-day level, or even what it meant to work for myself.

And though I was doing my best to make it work, I was doing it with very little confidence that I could actually do what I set out to do as an event planner.

Because of that, I started to hate my business.

Finding more freedom and more time were my two core motivations for starting my own business, but 2 ½ years in, I didn’t feel like I had more of either.

That’s when I knew something had to change.

And fortunately, it’s also when I met Shanna. I came to the Blueprint Retreat at just the right point in my journey, and for me, it was a game changer. The tools I learned there helped me finally be able to operate from a place of confidence in my business.

I left feeling like I could say with full confidence, “Hey, you’re good at this! And you can be confident in that!”

That realization became the foundation for everything I did for my business from that point forward. And it started with three major changes.

1.

I changed the way I saw myself.

Up until that point in my business, I didn’t look at myself with confidence. Instead, I looked at myself in comparison to others. And in the process, I was discounting myself and my worth. But when I started to look at myself with confidence—like a real business owner—I saw a shift. I talked differently about my business to myself first. Rather than think of it as a side hustle or part-time thing, I started seeing myself as a badass business owner who was just as good as anyone else in the industry. When I shifted my self-talk, I noticed my confidence grew.

2.

I changed the way I talked about my business.

In other words, I learned to speak with confidence about what my business could do for my clients. I learned to sell myself with confidence by talking about my experience and expertise in a way that showed I believed in my worth. Did it feel awkward at first? Definitely! But the more I mustered up strength to talk about my business with confidence, the easier it got.

3.

I changed the way I treated myself.

Part of the reason I didn’t see myself as a confident business owner is because I wasn’t treating myself like one. So I shifted the way I worked. I set up an office and treated it as a sacred workspace. I set hours for myself every single day to develop some consistency. I got up, I got dressed, and I went to work, just like I would have done at my other job. Making a simple shift in the way I treated myself and my time was huge in helping me find confidence to see this as a real job.

I’m six years into self-employment now, and things are totally different. And I truly believe that’s because I made simple changes to the way I saw my business, my abilities, and myself. Now, I operate from a place of confidence, and that has changed my life.

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→ finally making money doing what you love!

→ providing real income for your family without having to sacrifice all your time and energy to the non-stop hustle.

→ transforming your business (and life!) just like hundreds of other men and women who’ve implemented this proven business blueprint.

If that sounds like a dream year, then I want to invite you to join us inside The Blueprint Model!

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