💛 Cracked Open with Alanna Banks

Part 2: From Vulnerability to Viral: The Ripple Effect of Self-Trust

• Alanna Banks • Season 2 • Episode 2

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Do you ever wonder if self-trust can really make a difference—or if it’s just another buzzword? Maybe you’re asking yourself, “What if I trust myself and fail? What if I end up making the wrong choice?”

I get it. I’ve been there too. But what if trusting yourself could create results you didn’t even realize were possible? In this episode of Cracked Open, I’m breaking down exactly how self-trust has created profound, real-life changes in my life, my relationships, and my business—and how it can for you, too.

Here’s how this episode delivers:

  • Turning Fear into Connection – I share how self-trust helped me open up in my marriage, creating a deeper bond and level of intimacy I’d been yearning for (and didn’t even realize was already possible).
  • Achieving Real Career Wins – Learn how trusting my inner voice led to tangible business results, including a viral Instagram moment, thousands of new followers, and my first $10K month—all without chasing trends or people-pleasing.
  • Elevating Client Sessions – Discover how self-trust has sharpened my intuition, made my work with clients more powerful, and helped them trust themselves on a deeper level.
  • Building the Right Relationships – I’ll show you how trusting yourself attracts the right people—clients, friends, and opportunities—effortlessly aligning you with your goals.
  • Reclaiming Freedom and Joy – Find out why self-trust made my life feel lighter, more authentic, and even a little bit like “cheating” at personal growth.

This isn’t about “trusting yourself” as a nice idea—it’s about how it leads to actual results: stronger relationships, unexpected career breakthroughs, and a sense of alignment that makes life feel exciting again.

Still unsure? You’re not alone—self-trust can feel scary, especially if you’re used to second-guessing yourself. But by the end of this episode, you’ll have a clear sense of how to start trusting yourself in small, tangible ways—and the confidence to see what unfolds from there.

Journaling Prompt: If I fully trusted myself, I would…
Give yourself permission to explore this. You might be surprised by what comes up.

Tune in now. I invite you inside :)

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Speaker 1:

Have you ever had one of those moments where you stop and wonder what if I just trusted myself completely? Like what if I stopped holding back, stopped second guessing every decision and just leaned all the way into what feels right? How would life change? What opportunities might open up? What relationships might deepen? I can tell you from personal experience doing this is a game changer, and today we're going to dive more into exactly that how choosing self-trust set off a complete ripple effect in my life, my business, my relationships, everything. And here's the thing it wasn't just a nice change. It was deep, it was profound and it touched every single corner of my life, often in ways I didn't even expect. So welcome back to Cracked Open. It's me, alana Banks, and if you're new here, this is the space where I explore self-trust, inner growth and what it means to live authentically. And today I'm going to share some more of my story. And if you tuned into the last episode, you know that I had a turning point where I chose to stop seeking validation and finally trust myself. And once I made that decision, I wasn't entirely sure what would come of it, but I knew I was done holding myself back, and what I didn't realize was that the self-trust would really lead to some of the biggest changes in my life. So thank you so much for listening. It was great to get back onto the podcast last episode for part one of this series and I would love to hear what's come up for you. Send me a message, follow me on Instagram at Alana Banks Coaching you can send me an email and let me know.

Speaker 1:

So one of the first major shifts that happened for me when I decided to lean in and really start trusting myself was my audience started to grow in ways that I hadn't imagined before. I was creating content and suddenly my posts were reaching thousands of people and I was resonating with them at a different type of level. And here's the thing I've been creating content for probably a decade and every day I create some type of piece of content for Instagram or Facebook, just like it's part of my routine. And last November I posted a reel, as I always did. But this time was a bit different. I decided I'm going to teach people a technique. I'm just going to go on Instagram and teach everybody what I would do if I was in a one-on-one situation on a coaching call. And that resonated and that particular post went viral and it now has 3.3 million views. I gained over 70,000 followers from that particular reel and I believe it's because I was showing up more authentically and people were responding to that energy. And what that did was then it continued to fuel more and more and more content coming from that energy and in that moment I wasn't really focused on pleasing or impressing people, right, I was just being real, and that honesty seems to be exactly what people want.

Speaker 1:

And this growth wasn't just about the numbers. It wasn't just about the vanity metrics and getting millions of views and getting more and more followers. It brought financial milestones to my life as well, because once I started showing up authentically, I was attracting people who wanted to experience my work, who wanted to work with me, who wanted to have a breakthrough, and shortly after going viral, I had my first $10,000 a month, which is really big for me, because this career has been a pivot right. This career for me was a pivot five years ago. It was something that I always felt deeply called to but didn't have the courage to go all in, and this was a huge validation for me. Number one, to kind of explode on social media, but then, number two, that it actually became lucrative, a lot more lucrative than it had been for me in the past. And so with that I got this new level of freedom, this new level of confidence, and I realized that self-trust wasn't just helping me show up better, it was actually creating real, tangible results, and that doesn't just mean financial results. That also means the work that I was putting out there was helping people, which is my primary goal. I want my work to help people. I'm showing up every day because I'm so passionate about the power of hypnosis and neuro-linguistic programming and it changed my life, and I know that it can change your life, and this is why I show up every day, because I want to help people.

Speaker 1:

So, moving on from that kind of number one unexpected shift, what happened after that was even bigger, and this one was happening in my personal life. One of the most meaningful shifts happened in my marriage, and I was not expecting this. For a while I had been carrying around a certain feeling and I was kind of feeling guilty about it. Things I didn't know really had a voice because they were kind of vulnerable and, honestly, it was a bit scary to open up and these were feelings that had been lingering beneath the surface for a long time and part of me worried about how my partner was going to react if I opened up. Would he understand? Would it create distance between us? I had all these worries swirling around in my head and I'm not going to go into the details about what specifically it was, but I think this is important for you to hear, because I think we all are holding on to something that we might be a little bit nervous to share about.

Speaker 1:

So, as I started trusting myself more deeply, I really felt this nudge, like this little push inside that said it's time to get honest, to get real, to get really real. And so, rather than pushing that nudge away, I decided to trust it and I went to my husband and I told him that I wanted to share something and that I hoped he could just hold space and listen. And it was one of those moments where you know when your heart just feels like it's pounding out of your chest, where you feel like you're sweating, you're kind of feeling like a little bit out of it. So my heart's beating out of my chest, but I knew that I had to go through with it anyways. And so we sat down and as I spoke, I realized how much I'd been holding back. And this is the thing with our patterns and feelings that we haven't processed. This is all lying under the surface and this is why we aren't vulnerable, why we aren't honest, why we haven't processed. This is all lying under the surface and this is why we aren't vulnerable, why we aren't honest, why we don't share the most intimate details of a people because we're scared. Right, there's a lot of fear.

Speaker 1:

So as I continued to talk to him, I realized how much I'd been protecting myself instead of being fully open. And on that day it was last December I was vulnerable in a way I hadn't allowed myself to be before. I shared some really raw and real feelings and I just trusted whatever came up and I trusted that ultimately, it would be for the benefit of both of us. And this is kind of the crazy part as I was talking, as I was being vulnerable, as I was sharing, as I was just dumping it all out, in that moment I had a powerful realization. I recognized in that moment that I already had the relationship that I'd been yearning for, the connection, the love, the support that I felt from my husband in that moment. It was right there and I hadn't fully seen it, because sometimes we only see what we're expecting and until I got truly honest and heart-centered and open, I hadn't seen the depth of our connection that was already right there, like right before my eyes. My fears had painted this picture of distance, misunderstanding, rejection, but the reality was completely different.

Speaker 1:

By trusting myself enough to share openly, I discovered in that moment a whole new level of intimacy and connection with him. And here's the thing he responded in such a compassionate, understanding way that it created this safe, expansive space between us and that space that allowed our bond to grow even deeper. And it just completely blew me away. And I think that's one of the most beautiful things about self-trust is it doesn't just change us individually, it enriches our relationships, because when we trust ourselves enough to be honest and vulnerable, we create room for real connection and growth, not this surface level stuff. Anyway, that experience showed me that self-trust is powerful. It has the potential to transform the dynamics of our closest relationships, deepening the love and understanding we share, and that, for me, was one of the most powerful lessons. Now, obviously, you know we have the conversation and we still have to move forward. But because there was that expansive space it gave us this jumping off place to go even deeper within our relationship, become even more honest, more open, more loving, more compassionate, more empathetic, and it continues to unfold so we can move on from my relationship discovery and now I want to just share how choosing self-trust transformed the way I work with my clients and, to be honest, the transformation that I had within my relationship also had a huge reflection on the way I was showing up with my clients, because then I was attracting women who were going through very similar situations to me and I was coming at it from a completely new level. I shouldn't even say a new level, it was more of a new perspective, of a new perspective. And so this ripple effect continued into my client sessions.

Speaker 1:

The more I trusted my intuition, my insights, my ability to guide people, the more my clients were able to trust themselves. And there's something incredibly powerful about holding space for someone and truly believing in their ability to find their own answers. And this is huge, especially if there's any coaches listening or other hypnotherapists or NLP practitioners. When you let go of the need to fix or direct and simply trust the process, it allows your clients to do the exact same thing. And this was something that I always knew at a kind of like intellectual level, but now I was experiencing it deeply. I was trusting in my abilities so much, and trusting in my intuition, my insights, my ability to guide people that I was able to hold such powerful space for people.

Speaker 1:

Having self-trust isn't about having a cookie cutter approach, right. In fact, it's the opposite of that. When I'm working with clients, no two sessions with me are ever the same, because everyone is unique and because I work intuitively, pulling from a wide range of skills, I can meet my clients exactly where they are, and that's what ended up happening in my client sessions. When I'm working with someone, I know when a particular technique or deep hypnosis session is needed and I trust myself to bring in the right approach at that right moment. And this kind of flexibility, this ability to adapt and flow with each client's journey, is what makes my work so effective and deeply transformative. Because I'm with you, I'm moving through you. My brain is thinking okay, what technique could we bring in now? What question could I ask that's going to allow you to go deeper? It's really about creating a session that's as unique, as you are right. That's what makes this work so transformative. That's why I had such a transformative experience and why I ended up leaving my career to study these skills and start this new life for myself. And it's amazing, because self-trust doesn't just give you permission to show up authentically. It invites others to do the same.

Speaker 1:

The more I started to embrace my own path and honor my own intuition, the more I attracted clients who were ready to dive deep, break down their barriers, unravel their patterns and trust themselves too. It became a shared foundation to my work. And then something even more unexpected happened self-trust started drawing like-minded people into my life, and I began connecting with other coaches and healers and entrepreneurs, people who, like me, were also committed to walking their own path and living from a place of truth. And these connections, they just started appearing out of nowhere. Because here's the thing when you're aligned with who you truly are, you're naturally going to attract other people who are resonating with that type of energy. And these relationships have been priceless for me, because it's been further validation to stepping into my own truth, to trusting myself, to trusting my intuition. And there's also something that's incredibly inspiring about surrounding yourself with people who get it, who are on a similar path to me and who are equally committed to living with integrity and courage. And now we support each other and we inspire each other other and hold each other accountable to keep growing.

Speaker 1:

And this sense of community, of being surrounded by people who understand the depth of the work that I do, is something that I wouldn't trade for anything, because when I was living on the surface, when I wasn't trusting myself, when I wasn't speaking my truth, I felt like I didn't belong. I felt like I wasn't trusting myself. When I wasn't speaking my truth, I felt like I didn't belong. I felt like I wasn't connected. I felt like people didn't understand me. But starting to choose to trust myself, this created such a ripple in my life that draws in these experiences, these people, new opportunities, and these people, opportunities, experience are aligning finally with who I am, who I truly am. So that's the true beauty of self-trust it's expansive, it invites others in, it opens up a whole new level of connection and possibility.

Speaker 1:

And I am just so blown away with how it all evolved and, honestly, looking back over the last year, one of the most surprising parts of this journey is that pure freedom and joy that came with it. Self-trust is incredibly liberating. You're no longer living for anyone else's approval, you're living for what feels right for you and there's a joy in that, a lightness in that. It's something that, honestly, I have not really experienced before, and each step I take deepens my sense of purpose and my life has just become so much more fulfilling. And let's be real, it hasn't been easy either.

Speaker 1:

Now I know I've talked about all the positive stuff of this ripple effect, but that wasn't easy. Right, that came with a lot of worry and doubt and uncomfortable moments and having to be open when I wanted to be closed and really speaking my truth when I wanted to keep it in right Like that's the work that goes into fully trusting yourself and fully stepping into this place. But each time I leaned in and trusted myself, I felt more aligned and more in flow, and so I just wanted to keep doing it right. The first couple of times felt really difficult, but when I recognized the impact that it had, when I recognized that the outcome was fulfilling and powerful, it almost became something that I wanted to continue doing. And this is what I say when I think in the last episode I said it felt a bit sneaky, because self-trust has really showed me that life doesn't have to feel heavy or forced.

Speaker 1:

It can feel free and expansive and joyful, and it honestly does feel like you're cheating, like you have some secret hack for life, because it starts to become really easy. Hack for life because it starts to become really easy. So if self-trust could do all of this in my life, imagine what it could do in yours, whether it's your career, your relationships or just how you feel about yourself when you wake up in the morning. I can guarantee you that if you lean into self-trust, it will create a ripple that reaches every part of your life. So I want to leave you with a takeaway, because my prime concern really is to help you. This is why I'm sharing this information on this podcast.

Speaker 1:

So here's something you can try. Take a moment to imagine what your life could look like if you fully trusted yourself. Moment to imagine what your life could look like if you fully trusted yourself. What would you go after, what would you let go of, what uncomfortable conversations would you have? And you could take out your journal and start writing right now or maybe you've already started to do so or take out your voice memo app and send yourself a message, or you could write down this journal prompt right now. You could write down. If I fully trusted myself, I would dot, dot dot and I encourage you to use this prompt as a way to explore what self-trust could unlock for you. Just set aside maybe a few minutes a day this week to write out your thoughts without holding back. There's no judgment here. The sky is the limit. You can say whatever you want and just imagine the possibilities, the changes, small shifts that could come from fully trusting yourself.

Speaker 1:

This is what I did Last November. I sat down and I asked myself what would bring me peace? That's another journal prompt. You could ask yourself but what would bring me peace? And I recognized I had so much inner turmoil going on that I needed to create peace in my life. And it was my own doing, because I was holding on to all of this kind of information in my mind that I wasn't sharing, I wasn't being vulnerable about, and once I was holding on to all of this kind of information in my mind that I wasn't sharing I wasn't being vulnerable about, and once I brought all that to the surface, I had peace.

Speaker 1:

So take the time to do this little exercise and I would love to hear from you. If you have an aha moment or something comes up for you or you have a difficult conversation and it really turns things around, please let me know. I would love to hear. You can send me an email, alanna, at alannabankscom, or you can message me on Instagram at alannabankscoaching. I answer all of my direct messages. Before I wrap up, I just want to say the journey of self-trust is one of the most transformative paths you can take. It's a commitment to honoring yourself, to living authentically, to allowing your true self to guide you, and the best part of it all is the freedom and the joy that comes with it. They're there, they're waiting for you, so thank you so much for joining me today.

Speaker 1:

If you found value in this episode or if you have any reflections from the journal prompt, I'd love to hear about it.

Speaker 1:

If you love this episode or if you have any reflections from the journal prompt, I'd love to hear about it. If you love this series, please send me a message, write a review, give me stars, follow this podcast so you can continue to hear more. We're going to dive into more practical ways to build self-trust and how to navigate the ups and downs of the journey in part three, which is going to drop in a couple of days, and I'm going to talk more about the road ahead, about how you can continue to maintain self-trust as a lifestyle rather than just like a quick fix. I'm going to talk about the things that I've done this year to maintain this self-trust as I've moved through difficult parts. I'm going to do a reflective exercise for you guys as well. I invite you back for part three and I'm so looking forward to it. So that's it for me today. I hope you're all having a wonderful day and until I speak to you again, trust yourself. The possibilities are endless, and that's all for now. Thanks for listening.