Practicing Trust: How to Trust the Value You Bring to Your Business

 In this episode of Uncomplicated Business, we're talking about a challenge that can haunt us: trusting your value. If you ever wonder if you're really making a difference, this is for you! I'm sharing five practical strategies to help you both recognize and TRUST your business and work. You'll learn to collect evidence of value, do value math, and practice mini mantras that ground you in the difference you make. This episode is all about helping you shift from self-doubt to confident certainty. Listen on! 

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Transcript

Welcome to another episode of uncomplicated business. I'm so happy to have you here with me. We are still talking about all things trust this season, and today we are talking about one of the questions that almost all of my one on one coaching clients and all of the business owners I know struggle with at some point. It's something we struggle with as parents, as human beings, and it is this core question, how do I know what I'm doing is valuable, right? How do I know for sure that my work is valuable? And so today, what we're going to do is talk about some of the things that my clients do, some of the things that I do, some of the practices, because these are practices and trust that I find really useful for a range of people to really sit down and ground themselves in the value of their work, because The honest answer in the end, no matter which way you look at it, is that, yes, your work is valuable. Your work is valuable to at least one other person. Right now, as we speak, you may or may not believe that in this moment, that's the work of trust, right? But learning to trust that there are ways to make it easier on ourselves, because when we question our value, it's really hard to do all of the other business owner things right?

 It's hard to sell something you're not sure about. It's hard to be motivated to do work you're not sure about. It's hard to meet new people and tell them about your work if you're not sure about it, it's hard to do all the important business things if you're disconnected from your value and the meaning of your work and the fact that it helps people. So let me give you 12345, quick ways to practice this. Number one, this is a case when we're thinking about the value of our work, where we actually 99.9% of the time have evidence that our work is valuable and we are choosing to ignore it. So this is a case most of the time, where actually we don't have to just rely entirely on trust. 

This is trust is pre evidence. Remember, this is a case where the vast majority of the time we have proof that the work we're doing makes a difference. So for you, job number one, if you're not sure about your value, is turn around and look for that evidence. What are all the different times where somebody said to you, oh my gosh, that's so helpful, where you helped them with a tiny part of what you do, and it made a difference, where you had an impact, where you helped someone make decision, where you helped them do something they couldn't do otherwise, whether they paid you or not. What is the evidence that you have, that you have been able to help another human being. 

What happens is the minute we change the one variable in this So, for example, if you were offering something for free and now you offer it something that you offer that same exact thing at a cost, our brain decides they're completely different things, right? Even though all of the work is the same, the only thing that changed is the price, or, if you raise the price brain, human brain is like, nope, totally new, and you don't have any proof that works when actually you do. It's just not in this exact perfect, completely congruent situation. I always compare it to driving a car like today, I'm driving my husband's pickup truck because he has my car. I'm driving a pickup truck. 

But if somebody came to me and said, Hey, do you want to drive this? Maserati, I'm going to give it to you as a gift, I wouldn't say, oh, gosh, no. It's a different color than my husband's truck. I can't drive it, right? It's not blue, and I only know how to Blue drive blue cars. That's crazy. I'd be like, Sure, yes, thank you. Let me drive this car. The thing is, is, no matter what kind of car it is, I know how to drive it, no matter what kind of package you're selling, no matter what kind of work you're exactly doing, no matter what like part of your work you're doing, the value is still your value, right? That carries with you everywhere you go. It's intrinsic. You have value. Your work has value. 

You have proof of that. And so, yes, maybe the proof is in the blue truck, instead of the green car, you're still allowed to drive the green car, right? So let the proof carry across with you. The other thing that goes with this is to start to train your brain to actually continue to collect the evidence. So when somebody next week is like, oh my gosh, that was so helpful. Be like, Oh, I could collect this. This is part of the value that I'm giving if you do something. Thing, or you create something new, and you're like, oh, man, that's really valuable. Take a note. Create this little pile of the things you know are proof of your value, so that when you have days where you're like, Man, I don't know if anything is valuable, you can go back to the pile right, collect the proof. Train your brain to keep finding it, right? All you have to do is practice it. When you hear it and you're like, Oh, that was really valuable. You're like, oh, wait, there it is. I found it again, right? Collect them. 

The third one is to do some math. I know, I know it's not going to hurt. So think about the offer you're selling right now, right? And work down the list of things included, like, I have a client right now who offers coaching to women with ADHD right and a part of that has email support and message support, and they can talk every day. And then there are other tools and resources that get shared. It's all of these different things. What's the value of each of those components? Like, if you were to put $1 value on them, what would it be?

 I would be willing to bet, if you go component by component in the work you do and and you went through the dollar values of like, what they're going to get out of it. So, for example, if I help someone increase their pricing effectively, as a business coach, which I do all the time, they're going to see, you know, I have a client last year, for example, who we increased her pricing across the board like 40% so when she started and people didn't even blink, it was great, which is how under priced she was for the work she was doing when she's getting that increased money, the value of that one thing we did, we changed her pricing. Is going to pay her every time someone pays her forever, 40% more, right? And next time she raises her prices, it's going to be from a base that was 40% higher. So like the accumulated price, the accumulated money she's going to generate from that one change is going to make 1000s and 1000s and 1000s and 10s of 1000s of dollars for her, right? It's pretty valuable, and it was one thing that we've done together. So it's that kind of like math. 

Then sit down and be like, Oh, look at all this math. Look at all this value and quantitative value. You don't have to know the exact numbers that I've given people. Let me compare it to the price I'm selling this for, right? And then it's like, oh, the price is really good for the value I offer. Right? Making that comparison, once you go item by item, outcome by outcome, is super useful, because then you're like, oh, gosh, maybe I'm under charging maybe I have a lot of clients who do this, this exercise, and come to like, oh, maybe I'm not charging enough. Most of the time they're not right. Most of us are not charging enough. 

So it's curious to you. Can be curious and do this comparison and see where you land. It helps you to be like, Oh my gosh, I really do offer people a ton of value right over time. And I can think of that in dollars, but I can also think of that in impact, the other number 1234, number four, loss count is to actually listen to the people who have told you you are valuable. I know this goes kind of hand in hand with collecting the evidence, but it's slightly different, because here's what I think we do, somebody says to you, oh my gosh, this is so helpful. That was amazing. And your first reaction is, was it was really easy. It wasn't a big deal. It can't be that helpful, right? You discount it in your brain, like we automatically assume it wasn't as great as they said it was, when actually we don't get to judge their opinion of it, and that is what you're doing when you discount it. 

What you are doing is choosing not to trust the thing that other person said to you, the compliment that other person paid you, the value that person told you they got from you when you don't believe it, when you don't choose to be like, Oh yeah, it was awesome. And on board it, you're choosing not to trust them, whether you realize it or not. So one of the things you can do is to choose to believe what people say to you. You know, one of the questions my daughter asks me periodically, is like, how do I know for sure they're my friend? Like, well, have they said I'm so glad I'm your friend? And she'd be like, yes, how come you are choosing not to believe them, right? And that's different when kids are 12 and 13, I get it, and at the same time, no one in your world right now. 

Goes out of their way to pay you a compliment, just to make you paranoid, and that's what you're assuming when you don't trust them, you're doing you're like, they're just doing it to be nice to me. They're not. Nobody has that kind of time and energy. They're telling you it was valuable because it was valuable and it mattered to them. So why don't you go ahead and believe them, and then number five is to practice telling yourself out loud, things where you are sort of sitting down in your value, like my favorite ones are, to literally write in my journal. I am useful every time I show up. I am useful to at least one person. I always show up. Every time I show up, I make a difference. My work has value. My work has impact. My one of my favorites is I am a powerful creator, and my creations make a difference for other people. Pick some little mini mantras that feel like you and repeat them. Write them down so it's just like, oh, wait, my work does have value. Let them bring you back to yourself, right?

 When you feel like things are sort of spiraling away and you're like, I don't know if I do any good here. Everybody has days like that. I have days like that where you're like, Man, I don't know if I'm making a difference for this person. I come back into my journal. It's like, I helped at least one person today that help will make an impact on them for longer than I know I have helped people I have never met. I love that one. There are people I am helping right now, even though I'm not talking to them. All of that is part of the work I do and you do. 

So choose some little mini sentences that are useful to you, write them down and repeat them and use them as a way to ground yourself and your value. And that's some little tiny practices. So use the evidence that you already have that you're valuable. Choose to believe it. Train your brain to find more as it comes right? Do the math exercise where you compare the actual dollar amount that you give in value to what you're charging for it. And then practice. Practice telling yourself you're valuable. Practice talking to yourself about the value you give. And continue to ground yourself. Grounding yourself in your value is a absolutely vital part of the sales process. You can't sell. Maybe to people, it's really, really hard. It's like the hardest possible way to sell, because if you're not sure, how can they be right? Nobody wants to buy.

 Maybe this is one of the things I teach people in selling for weirdos, it is the first of three steps. We teach grounding, we teach connecting, and we teach inviting. And that is a flexible, fluid sales process that works, especially for people who are givers, like you and I. That's why it's called selling for weirdos, because we are the weirdos who would rather give than sell. This is a version of selling that is given for giving forward and grounded in being the most useful you can. If that is something you'd like to come play with, you can check it out. It's linked in the podcast information, but it's also on my website and all the places you can just search for Sara Torpey and selling for weirdos. 

If you're not in my Facebook group, come on and play. I would love to see you there. It's called uncomplicating business for teachers, helpers and givers, just like this podcast, I will see you guys in a couple weeks. We're going to keep talking about trust. Thanks.