I read a fascinating newsletter this week from a millenial financial educator and podcaster.
He’d been asked for his thoughts on whether you should apply for a job even if you don’t have everything listed in the job ad.
His response …
If you have 60% of the requirements, absolutely!
And if you REALLY want the role and you have less than 60%, go for it anyway.
I was struck by the contrast to what I see in most of my clients, who wouldn’t even dream of applying until they could meet at least 100% of the requirements.
The reason it’s relevant today is I was recently asked,
Where does your confidence come from? Is it authority, or something else?
If your confidence relies on authority - that is, the authority attributed to you by qualifications or experience - then you might not ever feel confident enough to share your magic.
If your confidence comes from your own sense of self, your own belief that you can figure things out as you go … then you’ll ‘step up’ and put yourself forward for more opportunities.
So, where does your cofidence come from?
Well, I say authentic confidence is a function of your competence + experience, amplified or diminished by the stories you tell yourself.
Expressed as a formula, you could say,
Your competence and experience are the foundational elements of authority; though often your immediate colleagues or peers aren’t familiar with the breadth of your experience. So bringing your experience AND competence to the fore will build external authority.
And the REAL source of confidence in this equation is the S … the stories you tell yourself.
The stories that diminsh - we’re familiar with - ‘oh, everyone can do this’, ‘my skills aren’t that unique’, ‘I don’t have formal qualifications’, ‘I could never do ‘that’’.
The stories that amplify - the wins, the evidence, the career and life highlights that, when we become present to them again, we realise we can, we have, we could and we will.
So this notion of where does your confidence come from?
It comes from you.
It’s a choice you make, to see yourself in a certain way (note, you’re already making that choice, the question is, is it a useful perception). It comes from your competence and experience (which are both facts) and the stories you tell yourself about that competence & experience.
My ‘I Am …’ Story framework, along with my brag bag stories, is a POWERFUL, game-changing framework that helps you find and then tell more useful stories about yourself. It just so happens we explored it recently in the 7 Day Speaking with Impact Practice Series and I haven’t yet taken those episodes down off Spotify. So if you’d like to tell more positive stories about yourself, listen to the day 4 session - Overcoming “I’m Not Good Enough” here. (this is different to the podcast that’s featured at the top of this week’s newsletter, which is another perspective on where does confidence come from).
Communicate with Impact
My new Communicate with Impact group coaching program started this week.
It’s a little bit of magic 🤩
I’ve had a few people join ‘late’, that is, they missed the first coaching call on Tuesday.
If you’re keen to join too, but thought you’d missed the boat, you haven’t. The Communicate with Impact ‘boat’ is pulling back into port for you to board if you like.
And if you have questions about it? Just ask.
Startup Life
This week I’ve been in Sydney co-facilitating startup accelerator and pre-accelerator programs.
It’s one of my happy places.
In particular, in the pre-accelerator program, the enthusiasm and curiosity of the aspirational founders is EPIC. They are asking questions, they are exploring ideas, they are bouncing ideas with us and each other.
It’s such a delicious contrast to the energy of the world right now, where the underlying conversation is ‘it’s tough’.
And I’m not saying it’s not tough right now … and just like we can choose our stories, we can also choose how we hold ourselves in the world.
Enthusiasm.
Curiosity.
Freshness …
They build momentum and positivity.
Wishing you a very happy Friday and a gorgeous weekend …
See you when I do :-)
Cat
