3 Ways to Build Your Business Confidence

If you are re-entering the workforce, wanting a promotion or considering starting your own business, here’s three things you can do to present yourself as more confident.

1.     Take a look at your CV or LinkedIn profile.  Does it contain all your major accomplishments? If not, go and update them now!  If so, read them as if they are about a guy named “Joe Smith.”   What do you think about this guy?  Pretty impressive, don’t you think?”  Well, this is you!  You’re impressive. You’ve done all that and are clearly a winner.  Pat yourself on the back.

2.     What’s that little voice in your head telling you?  Let me guess.  “You’re a fake!”  “You don’t belong here!”   “You don’t deserve that promotion!”    These statements feel like “The Truth,” but they don’t have to be your truth.  You can decide what your truth is.  When you notice your little voice saying those things to you, you can do several things.  Try personifying it.  Mine is a little green guy that wrings his hands.  Yours might be a red blob with horns.   The funnier you make it, the easier it is to dismiss the statements as untrue.   Another thing you can do is write down all the statements that you regularly notice on one side of the page, and then write the opposite statements on the other side.  Then practice reading the new statements every morning or several times a day.  “You are the real deal!”   “You belong here just like everyone else.”  “You totally deserve that promotion!”   These can be your new “Truth.”

3.     “Fake it till you make it!”    Really.   Make no mistake that there’s a lot of women and men that you meet that appear to be really confident, but are intentionally pretending to be confident.    When you’re shaving or putting on your makeup in the morning, look in the mirror.  Stand with your shoulders back and head high and say, “You’re a smart, savvy business professional."  What do you see?  A smart, savvy business professional – right?    When you attend the next networking meeting, act as if you are an intelligent, successful person, and guess what?  That’s the way people will see you, and that’s what you are!

Try doing these 3 things before your next networking event or job interview.  It’s important to relfect afterwards.  Did you appear confident?  Did you speak highly of yourself?  Did you manage your inner voice?  If not, go easy on yourself, and plan to do better next time.