Get to know your Human Design: I believe that this is crucial to get in touch with our inner wisdom, which is the root of all confidence. For me, as a Pure Generator, it is trusting my gut response. Simple like that. I can remember as if it was yesterday, me having a call with a potential client, and she was saying all the right things, checking all the boxes, but I had this feeling that it wouldn’t be a good partnership. I didn’t listen to my gut, and working with that client was not a good experience: to me or her! I was not the right professional to her and vice-versa! The moment I didn’t trust my intuition, I signed an out of alignment client.
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 Gigi Bier.
Gigi Bier is a Mindset Coach + Profit First Strategist who helps entrepreneurs build profitable and sustainable business that supports their lifestyle.
Before starting My Cats And Me Profit Alignment, Gigi already had 10+ years of experience in the backend of businesses in all industries, from wedding planning to SaaS. She has had a successful career in helping businesses get financially organized and become more profitable. During this journey, Gigi has learned that success is more than just your sales numbers; success is how profitable and aligned your business is with your mission. Gigi now focuses on coaching and mentoring entrepreneurs to get clear on what success looks like to them and building a holistic framework — CATNIP — that ties mindset, pricing strategy, and money systems into their profitable and impactful business well.
Gigi is a Profit First Certified Professional, certified in Mindset Coaching, EFT, Hypnosis, Neuro Energetic Wiring, and Neuro Energetic Encoding with Yes Supply. She is currently working on her Human Design certification.
Gigi loves a good book, a nice glass of wine, skiing, and cats. Gigi has courses available for kitten entrepreneurs and is available to work 1:1 with clients.
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?
Absolutely, I’m originally from Brazil and I’ve been living in the US for 9 years now. I was from a middle-class family, and a typical large Latino family. Growing up, we’d have lunch at grandma every Sunday, she’d home cook the most delicious food from scratch — from Italian to Syrian food. While being deeply loved, I was always the “black sheep” of the family, and I never quite fitted in. So, I always had the longing for belonging.
On a side note, and this is something I share a lot with my clients, is that I was not that good with math — I was more of a history and biology kind of kid. This really shows that we all can learn and develop new skills as an adult, as long as we believe that to be possible.
What or who inspired you to pursue your career? We’d love to hear the story.
Believe it or not, my cats inspired me to start my business. Let me backtrack a little. I went to college for Hotel Management and Hospitality, and early on I knew I did not want to work in the hospitality industry. Dealing with people can be a challenge to me. So, at that time, I gravitated towards the back end of business. And I had so many internships and jobs during and after college — from working front desk at hotels, to being an environmental education guide to wedding planning — and they were fine jobs, but nothing that I was deeply passionate about it. When I moved to the US, a friend of a friend was hiring — and I got the job as an Officer Manager. The job responsibilities grew very quickly, and I ended up overworked and underpaid. That led to burnout. While recovering from the burnout, I spent quite some time with my cats, and I had a realization: I wanted to live the life of a house cat: follow my cycles, self-confidence, prioritize sleep and self-care, have clear boundaries — just to name a few things. And that is when I decided to create a business where I could honor my inner cat.
My business has experienced so many iterations: I’m a believer or trial and feedback to find the correct “thing”: I started as a bookkeeper for creative entrepreneurs: the rationale was “If I was able to teach myself the language of money and finances, I can teach others the same”: at the end of the day, a business financials are telling us a story if we are curious enough to listen to it.
Now I work, primarily, as a Mindset Coach and Profit First Strategist, and the evolution was natural: as I evolved as a human and entrepreneur, I could see all the ways that I could support my clients and my audience with tools that allow them to build a business that supports their lifestyle. The tools are mindset tools and money systems tools: magic really happens when we integrate the masculine and feminine energy. I’m fascinated by Human Design as a tool to find alignment and accessing our inner wisdom.
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?
I do think we can learn SO MUCH from “mistakes”. And I say “mistakes” in quotations because I believe that what society considers to be “mistakes” or even “failures” are just feedback.
When I first started my business, I did believe that someone out there had the recipe and the strategy for a successful business, and I was fully devoted to following it. In 7 months, I was able to surpass my corporate income — and that felt so good. My bank account was happy! But I was not: I was, again, on the path to burnout. I hadn’t noticed how much of the “corporate/employee mindset” I was carrying in my business. I was working as if my business was a job, I was accepting more clients than I could handle, for the fear of “not enough”. Looking back, I find it amusing that it took me quite some time to identify the mindset that kept me making not aligned decisions and stop looking for answers outside of myself. The lesson: this is my business, and I can run it the way I want: I’m the one with the answers of what is correct or not.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
I’m working on creating a human design report tool — with both free and paid options. Human Design has been revolutionary for my personal and business development. Human Design is the alchemy of various ancient knowledge with a hint of quantum physics, and it pretty much lays out our design as humans and it can be so supportive in connecting with our inner truth to find alignment.
Every Human Design mentor has a different angle, my angle is a pinch of business in a pan of permission: Permission to be you and release any external pressures.
I know that the report — free or paid — will be able to impact and support so many entrepreneurs to leave behind a few non-supportive conditionings: the cycle of feast to famine; create offers because “everyone else is doing”, doubt their prices, overcommit, just to name a few.
I have added Human Design to my coaching last year, and I’ve seen an instant positive change for me and my clients.
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?
Self-belief is the root of confident and aligned action. And I say it with a full heart.
As an entrepreneur, we must be the first one to wholeheartedly believe in ourselves and our abilities. And this doesn’t mean that I believe that I’m perfect — because I clearly am not. I make mistakes, clients get frustrated, I get frustrated. I pivoted more times than I can count in one hand. The thing about believing in oneself is the knowing that I’m making the correct decisions for that time — with the information and experiences that I have at that one moment. I recently was in a networking event and the host position the question of “what would you do differently in your business if you were just starting?” — my answer was nothing and everything: because of “mistakes” that I made in the past, I learned and I was able to evolve. The biggest thing was believing in myself.
You see, when I started my business in 2018/2019, I was looking for all the answers of a successful business outside of myself. I truly believed that someone “out there” had a blueprint of what I should do. And this was based in my insecurities. Following this path of seeking an “outer authority” lead to burnout and resentment. Shifting it was, and still is, a journey of connecting with myself and my vision.
I can think of a few decisions that I made based what “people” saw as success was:
- Accepting a new client to reach a revenue goal, even though I knew they are not the correct client.
- Overcommit
- Overpromise
- Create too much structure in my working day.
- Hire before I was ready.
- Taking too long to pivot and change my message.
The main thing about being confident in myself has been sharing my gifts, and my passions without filters: this allows people to deep connect, and I can see the positive impact that I’m making.
When we believe in ourselves, we can step outside of our comfort zone and pave new paths that were made for us: this is how we can reach alignment and bliss.
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?
In my humble opinion, believing in yourself is not believing in things like you mentioned “be a gold medal Olympian when you’re not athletic”, it is believing in your potential and your ability to learn. It is also believing in your intuition, or inner wisdom, and know that you are the only one that knows the next step. I do see it as trusting that you’re taking the correct steps, even if you can’t see the full staircase.
When I first started my career in America (English is my second language) I had to believe in my ability to communicate in English — even though I was not proficient. (I had no idea what “What’s up” meant!). I didn’t think I was proficient — I believed in my ability to learn and adapt. The same thing when I started my accounting career — I was not considered “good with money” or even very good in mathematics — I did believe (and still do) in my ability to learn and find the answers.
Finally, I feel that believing in oneself is the confidence of doing things in a different way, trusting that you’ll get your results. It’s not about being unrealistic about your abilities or circumstances; it is about knowing your ability to grow and evolve with knowledge and practice.
Was there a time when you did not believe in yourself? How did this impact your choices?
Absolutely, my childhood and teenage years was fill with insecurities and trying to fit in. And I made a lot of decisions that I wouldn’t otherwise, for fear of rejection or even that “this is too different, it’s not going to work out”.
At the end of the day, I do know that all those experiences led me to believe in myself today and caused a lot of growth — but it also caused a lot of pain.
When we don’t trust ourselves, we end up making decisions based on other people expectations or even to please others: and this always causes disappointment.
Oh! And believing in yourself is not thinking you’re better than other people: it is just trusting in yourself, period.
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?
I think that throughout my life there were a few moments that I knew I needed to work on my self-believe muscle, most of those times are when I needed to advocate for myself.
The most recent was regarding my business and a peer randomly message me “I don’t even know what you do anymore” — while I was in the middle of a pivot. I know they meant no harm, but it really triggered me because my biggest fear was confusing people on what I do, and what I don’t do. The previous version of my business was very straightforward: Bookkeeping and Tax Strategy. The new one: Mindset Coaching and Profit First Strategist — at a time where Mindset and Systems were opposites.
This one message allowed me to share exactly what I do, and really believe in the vision — even though people were saying that “it didn’t make sense”. Because I believed in my vision and ways of being, I was able to support over 100 entrepreneurs in overcoming mindset blocks and develop an intimate and healthy relationship with their finances with sound money systems.
And looking back, understanding my Human Design, seeing my gifts and my processes, allowed me to really sink into that deep trust that I am the only one that knows what is the correct action to take next, and trust that I don’t need to explain it to anyone. I just take one action at the time, with an open heart and the belief that this is the correct decision and path.
What are your top 5 strategies that will help someone learn to believe in themselves? Please share a story or example for each.
1 . Get to know your Human Design: I believe that this is crucial to get in touch with our inner wisdom, which is the root of all confidence. For me, as a Pure Generator, it is trusting my gut response. Simple like that. I can remember as if it was yesterday, me having a call with a potential client, and she was saying all the right things, checking all the boxes, but I had this feeling that it wouldn’t be a good partnership. I didn’t listen to my gut, and working with that client was not a good experience: to me or her! I was not the right professional to her and vice-versa! The moment I didn’t trust my intuition, I signed an out of alignment client.
2 . Release the external pressure: this one can be delicate, because this pressure is from society in general and from our loved ones. But… if you’re doing things because you are “expected to” but they feel wrong- what is the point? I remember when I started my professional career in the US and I was unable to set boundaries in my job: because I was told I’m expected to be available after workhours, I’m expected to work overtime, just to name a few. After 5 years, I suffered an incredible burnout, and all that hustle was affecting all my personal relationships. The lesson learned here was I was never happy, and my employer was never happy [they always wanted more].
3 . Reframe mistakes/failures to “feedback”: This might be my 3/5 profile in Human Design, but one of the most powerful shifts I made is seeing mistakes, failures, and successes as simple feedback: an indicator of what worked, what didn’t work, what I will no longer do, what I can replicate and what I can improve. When we take the lessons, we do not identify as “the mistake” or “the failure”, and we are able to move forward with new skill set and knowledge.
4 . Trust that you are always making the best decisions with the information you have available today: This opens room for forgiveness and the trust that we’re always doing our best. All those things in the past that you would do differently? You are only able to see that now because you made that decision, you took that path. Keep on learning, keep on trusting. Afterall, it’s all feedback.
5 . Do your best every day, while knowing that your best will look differently: If you’re sick, you will not be able to “show up” the same as when you’re feeling amazing. Give yourself grace, and space, to just do the best you can that specific day. When I first started my business, I was obsessed with “consistency”, even though it’s not something that comes natural to me, and I literally forced myself to create content, to show up, to interact the same way all the time, which was leading me to the same cycle of burnout. Once I allowed myself to be me, and do my best every day, I was able to not only make more money, but to be happier.
Conversely, how can one stop the negative stream of self-criticism that often accompanies us as we try to grow?
There are so many ways to do this, and they are simple. But simple doesn’t mean easy. I can share a few of my favorite ways that really help me overcome those snags:
- Stop comparing myself to others: It’s so easy to go to our IG account and see the curated life of people and feel incredibly bad. When I remember that I’m unique, I know that I can’t compare my real life to someone’s curated feed.
- Journaling: that negative self-talk usually come from conditioning and beliefs we have about ourselves and the circumstances we are in. When we allow to honestly open about that conversation, it brings those hidden pieces to the light, and we are able to fact check them. I like to write down all the things I’m telling myself and go item by item disproving them: because they are factual lies or because I know examples of people that have done it
- EFT/Tapping: This is my favorite somatic tool because we are processing the self-criticism. And when we process it, it’s unlikely it’ll show up again. The Tapping Solution website has amazing free resources if you want to learn more [I’m not affiliated with them]
Are there any misconceptions about self-confidence and believing in oneself that you would like to dispel?
Confidence is not the same as being cocky. When you’re cocky you act as if you’re better than others because you don’t have confidence in yourself.
Confident people are the first to pull others up — because they believe in themselves, and they see that everyone has different gifts to share with the world.
What advice would you give to someone who is struggling with imposter syndrome?
It’s OK. And it’s normal. The thing is: you’ll never know everything about everything. You already know more than other people. Your angle, your perspective is important in the world. And do some tapping!
Ok, we are nearly done. You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
What a beautiful question. I feel that it would be the movement of uniqueness. When we are able to see how unique we are (and Human Design really can support this) a lot of things just cease to exist: impostor syndrome, comparison, self-doubt. And this is for a super simple reason: we know there’s no one like me, no one like you, no one like he/she/them; so what’s the point on bringing all the baggage?
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 🙂
Taylor Swift and Dolly Parton — they are my idols! (And Xuxa from my Brazilian roots).
I feel that all of them were able to create prolific careers while having kindness and generosity at its core. It’s rare to see this level of storytelling, profits, and impact.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
www.instagram.com/gigibier/ , www.tiktok.com/gigibier , or my website gigibier.com
Thank you for these really excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success.