Turn on the Power Inside You

It's in me. It's in YOU. It's where we put our energy and our self-confidence. It's NOT "out there."

Photo by Thomas Kelley on Unsplash

Well, that didn’t go as planned.

Last week, I spoke to a creative women’s community that I’ve spoken to once before. I was expecting a group of women entrepreneurs perhaps in the early stages of business ownership and marketing.

It was a small turnout and my presentation — The Power of YOU — was on marketing and visibility.

I was 100 percent ready until … the entire group pretty much shared they were marketers. Gulp. I was suddenly filled with self-doubt and not enoughness.

What could I possibly add to their knowledge base that they didn’t already know?

How could I enrich their lives in a single hour on marketing when this is literally what they do for a living? (Ahem, nevermind it’s literally what I have been doing for a living for nearly 13 years).

I felt my inner power get shaky. I felt my self-worth begin to wobble. I started to question my entire presentation. Maybe I should shift real quick, I thought.

As I do with my private coaching clients and in team retreats that I facilitate, I grounded myself and the group with a question so I could actually read the room.

My question: Where do you put your marketing energy right now?

Instantly, the room lit up with exactly what I was expecting …

• we are too busy to market

• we don’t know how to gain visibility other than social media (which isn’t working)

• we put all our energy into social or we wish we had more time for social

• we are tired of the hustle - SO tired.

• we are tired of feast or famine

Ah, whew. I WAS in the right place at the right time. I felt my inner power realign and my core felt grounded.

I had plenty to teach and offer to this group.

The conversation was amazing. It was raw, real and energizing — exactly what we all needed. I left with solid leads and referrals, a happy heart and a mind full of buzzing ideas.

For a second, though, I almost lost my power.

Instead, I doubled down on it — a practice I’ve learned to do over the past decade.

What would happen if you doubled down on staying in your own power?

I talk (too much?) about what I call the Beginner’s Mindset Trap.

Lordy, last week I almost fell into my own Beginner’s Mindset Trap thinking I didn’t have enough to offer, that I wasn’t good enough, that OTHERS know more than I do.

I was wrong. Flat out mistaken.

Just about every time I step on stage to speak to a group, I experience this sudden onset of Beginner’s Mindset Trap. Luckily, I’ve learned to ground myself and the room to align and activate my energy and power in those moments.

This is a conversation I have all the time with my clients.

I’m obsessed with seeing heart-centered, mission-led women visionaries turn their ideas into power, their offers into power, their healing into powerful change.

And yet, most women entrepreneurs and leaders undersell, undercharge and underestimate themselves.

Before you can activate your power — or reactivate it, you must first understand who/what zaps your power.

Lack of power — or powerlessness — can be a sustained feeling or a sporadic feeling such as my experience to start that workshop last week. I walked in for sure in my power but I let my power get zapped — not by anyone but by an assumption.

Assumptions are often power deactivators for me.

What’s your power deactivations?

How Do you Activate Your Power?

Until I learned that I can turn on my power rather than fall prey to those who take it — even unintentionally — I was always at the whim of who was influencing me.

Then I remembered that I can influence and I can influence myself and my power. This is inner work I love doing with my clients, by the way!

It starts with a simple practice of pausing and noticing the gap.

Then … getting to work:

• Remembering your experience is more important than your title

• Focusing on your value and worth not your weaknesses

• Connecting before you correcting — especially when interacting with yourself

• Taking brave action — no matter how small each step is.

• Working with your fear and turning it into courageous action.

• Telling your stories and sharing your lived experiences.

• Surrounding yourself with those who can build you up and lift you up. There is strength in numbers.

• Investing in clarity and decision making. Action creates confidence.

• Recognizing when you are NOT serving your inner power and stepping away to correct course.

What would it look like for you to double or triple your inner power in the next year? What would need to shift? And, more importantly, what would shift for you?