In a previous blog post, Why Do Female Entrepreneurs Struggle With Closing The Deal? I discussed the number one reason women struggle, self-worth. This negatively impacts the ability to close the deal.
The good news is there is a way around this common sales challenge for women.
Before we dive into how you can close more deals by improving your self worth let look at the the deffiniton of self-worth.
According to Google:
Self-worth is the internal sense of being good enough and worthy of love and belonging from others. People confuse self-worth with self-esteem, which relies on external factors such as successes and achievements to define worth. It can often be inconsistent leading to many struggling with feeling worthy.
Even Google distinguishes between our inner and outer struggle. Self-worth is another way of saying self love. To be successful in life and business, it must begin here…
5 Steps To improve your self-worth as a female entrepreneur:
- Self care:
Self care is the foundation for loving yourself. You must train yourself, especially mothers, to show up for yourself, FIRST! This is how you develop your self worth. If you do not value yourself enough to make time for yourself, then why would anyone else value you? You are worthy of your own time.
- Slow down and make a not “todo” list:
When you slow down and bring your life into focus, you begin to take an honest look at it. Look at the “shoulds” in your life (the expectations you and others place on you). You may begin to ask if this is really what you want.
For example, do I really feel the need to go to dinner with certain friends or do my kids have to have activities everyday of the week, etc. The more open and honest you can be with yourself, the more you will open up to who you are.
Cultivate a deeper, more trusting relationship with yourself. Instead of always doing what you are supposed to do, take yourself off the hook, start from scratch. Just ask the questions…and be honest with yourself about what you want your life to look like.
- Sit quietly, journal, or meditate:
The more quiet time you spend with yourself, the more you take yourself off of autopilot, and stop numbing out. Autopilot is how we end up in misalignment between the inner and outer world. We don’t connect with our inner self.
Many have shut off all contact and guidance from our higher self. This causes you to be out of touch with what drives YOU, what your fears are, and many haven’t even considered whether or not they love themselves. Make an effort to be conscious, conscious of your thoughts, your fears, your beliefs, and your dreams. Inner listening and connecting is the next crucial step in self love.
- Identifying and releasing fears:
As you spend more time in this present space, you create a place for honesty with self and introspection. Perhaps you realize you have been running on autopilot and numbing out. The biggest reason anyone goes on autopilot and numbs out is fear. Looking at what drives you and holds you back, is crucial in cultivating self worth. I know it is scary to go there and be honest with yourself, but the bottom line is, whether you choose to look at “your stuff” or not, it is still there. It is still driving your thoughts, beliefs, and actions. The irony is, if you take the time to sit and look at these fears, you can see the untruth in them. Once the untruth is seen, the fear dissolves. It no longer weighs you down.
- Knowledge is power- Replacing fears and beliefs
As you release your fears and “stories” about yourself, you now can reprogram your belief system with new beliefs about you, your life and your business. This is where the transformation and improving your self worth really pays off.
I find this is a great time to read inspirational stories of others or listen to podcasts about the power of a positive mindset and self love. Now you have made room to integrate these new beliefs.
This is how you change your inner world to impact your outer life. Suddenly things like asking for what you want don’t feel so scary anymore. You have found that inner freedom and let go of the fear and now it cannot hold you back.
You have transformed your belief system from the inside out. This is what improving self-worth is all about. You can now look someone in the eye, ask them for their business, and not even flinch when you tell them the price. Your self worth comes from within and is no longer tied up in the “feedback” from the outside world or the response of a customer, and that shift changes EVERYTHING. This is transformation in a nutshell. If you have the courage to be still, go within, and look at what is holding you back. You can let it go!
Remember…
You have to claim the fearful thought to clear it!
Once you clear it, you are now in charge of how you want to feel and how you want to show up in the outside world.
The process to improving your self worth is simple but not easy, as it is with most inner work. If you no longer want to struggle with closing and feel comfortable with your offering, then I suggest you give this practice a try.
If you feel you would like more guidance around this process, please check out my online program called “The Connection to Close” and consider joining our next session where we will be covering this process in great detail and more. You can find all the details here at http://www.jananiksa.com/theconnectiontoclose