Keep your word to yourself. When I was first starting out in business, I made a commitment to post every day on Facebook back in 2011. Every day I posted,no matter how I felt. I ended up growing a powerful personal brand and believing that success was possible for me.
Starting something new is scary. Learning to believe in yourself can be a critical precursor to starting a new initiative. Why is it so important to learn to believe in yourself? How can someone work on gaining these skills? In this interview series, we are talking to business leaders, authors, writers, coaches, medical professionals, teachers, to share empowering insights about “How To Learn To Believe In Yourself.” As a part of this series we had the pleasure of interviewing Cayla Craft.
Cayla Craft is a highly-rated motivational speaker, angel investor and podcast host with 10+ years of experience as a women’s coach and group facilitator. She works with thousands of women annually to amplify their financial earning power and empower them to become a better version of themselves. Cayla hosts the wildly popular podcast, CRAFTted Entrepreneur. A mom of three and self-made millionaire who went from saving lives as a nurse in the ER working 9–5 to coaching other women to live into their potential. Cayla has inspired thousands of women to believe in themselves as entrepreneurs and businesswomen. Her new book, What Do you Really Want? will release nationwide on March 5, 2024.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
I was raised by a single mom because my dad had a drug problem. He actually was incarcerated for most of my childhood. I saw my mom work really hard as a hairstylist and still struggle financially. So, I knew I wanted a stable job with steady income- I chose to be a nurse.
What or who inspired you to pursue your career? We’d love to hear the story.
I read T Harv Eker’s “Secrets of a Millionaire Mind”, his story of grit and determination inspired me to start investing in real estate when I started to make money.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
My book What Do You Really Want helps people learn how to ask themselves powerful questions, so they can get the results they truly desire in life. Thousands of people have used this method in my coaching programs and had massive success, now the world can have the same tool.
OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the core focus of our interview. This will be intuitive to you but it will be helpful to spell this out directly. Can you help explain a few reasons why it is so important to believe in yourself? Can you share a story or give some examples?
- No one will want it for you as bad as you want it for yourself. You have to be your greatest advocate. For example, when I decided to become a health coach- I went and got my certification through an online program. I started to believe in myself as a health coach because I was more educated in the business of health coaching.
- Education isn’t enough, you have to put yourself out there to get clients and I got creative in ways to share about how i could help people. My first viral video was on how to make bone broth- this video put me on the map as someone to learn from. Once I learned the formula for viral videos back in 2016, I believed in my ability to create a coaching business even more.
What exactly does it mean to believe in yourself? Can I believe that I can be a great artist even though I’m not very talented? Can I believe I can be a gold medal Olympic even if I’m not athletic? Can you please explain what you mean?
Believing in yourself comes from keeping your promises and doing the thing you said you would do. In return you build confidence and beliefs about yourself. I do believe we can rewire our brains and learn new things and build on skills and challenge ourselves.
Was there a time when you did not believe in yourself? How did this impact your choices?
Yes, of course. I know when I let my ego get in the way, which EGO stands for “Edging God Out” I start to make decisions that aren’t always aligned with my purpose and calling and they usually have consequences.
At what point did you realize that in order to get to the next level, it would be necessary to build up your belief in yourself? Can you share the story with us?
When I decided to leave nursing, I had to bet on myself as an entrepreneur. I decided to let my nursing license go because I didn’t want to have the temptation to go back to nursing when entrepreneurship got hard.
What are your top 5 strategies that will help someone learn to believe in themselves?
1 . Keep your word to yourself. When I was first starting out in business, I made a commitment to post every day on Facebook back in 2011. Every day I posted,no matter how I felt. I ended up growing a powerful personal brand and believing that success was possible for me.
2 . Invest in yourself to grow. In 2018, I invested into my first mastermind. At the first event you had to get up and declare what you were going to accomplish over that next year. I stood up and declared I was going to create a podcast and make a million dollars. That declaration publicly made me show up in ways I never had showed up for myself before. Which made me realize I was capable of so much more than I used to give myself credit for. Investing in that group was scary, but worth it.
3 . Surround yourself with people who believe in themselves. When you hang out with doubters, you will be a doubter. When you hang out with winners, you will have increased performance. For instance, when I moved to a new city, the first thing I did was find businesses in town that I liked and used their services. I then would ask the owner to go to coffee, to build my community in a new city. I found the winners, added value to the winners in my city and they were always so thankful for all my advice(and still call me for help). This built up my confidence because I realized my expertise was valuable to people. Everytime I hang out with these business owners they inspire me to dream even bigger.
4 . Challenge yourself in one area of your life that has always been easy. For instance, I was struggling in my business with scaling challenges. It was starting to affect my belief inmyself in a negative way. I decided to focus on my health because that is an easier and quicker win. I hired a trainer, counted my macros and felt really good about my body. That body confidence translated into helping me THINK like a champion in business to get better results.
5 . Focus on helping others. The quickest way to feel good is FULFILLMENT. How can you serve someone right now? When you start speaking life over people and helping them in the way you can help them, you feel better. I was going through a rough situation in my business during the pandemic and i felt confused. I looked at my customers and just asked God, How can I help them right now? I decided to put together a virtual happy hour where we talked business strategy and just spoke life over each other. This in turn made more people want to join my programs virtually and my business doubled that year.
Conversely, how can one stop the negative stream of self-criticism that often accompanies us as we try to grow?
Find the route of the negative self-critiscism and when you first started accepting that and do the inner child work to reparent yourself. I talk alot about this in my book “What Do You Really Want?”
Are there any misconceptions about self-confidence and believing in oneself that you would like to dispel?
I think a misconception would be confident people never struggle with doubt but even the most confident people have off days and have to work at it.
What advice would you give to someone who is struggling with imposter syndrome?
Take the focus off yourself and focus on who your trying to help and remember your “why” must be bigger than yourself. Write out the vision and keep it before your eyes.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them 🙂
I would absolutely love to learn from Barbara Corcoran. She is my shero!
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Book Launching March 5th 2024 — https://www.craftedoffer.com
Podcast: Crafted Entrepreneur Podcast
Thank you for these really excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success.