Ep. 4 | Courage

Hi, this is Kate Zurenko, host of the podcast Practices is Progress. I've curated content and interviews to inspire and to help fast forward your solopreneur success by learning from others who are sharing real examples of what it takes to create and to run a business from within their own four walls. I hope these real-life experiences are inspiration to what is possible. I am driven every day not only to create a successful business, but one that is sustainable. And I know it's possible for you, too.

Hi all! This week's topic is about courage. I think it's important to first look at the definition. It's the ability to do something that frightens oneself. So when we have courage, we have the ability to do something that scares us.

And what I find so interesting about this topic is that it really feels central to the human experience, since we're often faced with having to show up in a way that makes us feel uncomfortable or fearful. And this could be for many different reasons. But what I find so inspiring is that we also have the power to use courage to our benefit, especially when we see how interrelated it is to gaining confidence. And so I was wondering if this has ever happened to you. Is there anyone in your life or professional space that you look up to and think, wow, they have so much confidence.

No wonder they have courage to do the thing. But in reality, the opposite is true. And this is for everyone. It's having courage to take action despite the fear it produces. And then, over time, is when confidence is built.

You don't have confidence and then have courage. You have to have courage to do the thing that scares you, to build towards confidence. And so when I'm thinking about business, which is so action oriented, I like to think of courage as taking courageous action steps. As a solopreneur, we're faced with wearing all the hats, especially at the beginning of business ownership. And the reality is, whether we like it or not, we become the marketer, the financial advisor, the designer, the it department, for better or for worse, the legal department, all of the things.

And let's not forget, we're also working toward feeling confident to sell our value to the world and ask people to pay us money for our efforts. And that right there is probably the most fearful part of business ownership, because it's so exposed, it's so raw. And even if you're a seasoned solopreneur, every time you build a new offer to sell that value to the world, you really do have to take a step back and work through courage in the steps it takes to gain confidence before you feel really solid about that offer. And so the grind is real and it's so easy to see how business can stall. And since I'm a visual person, I do well with frameworks or steps.

I find it motivational to know that our efforts have a likely outcome if we do the steps needed to get there. And since courage results gaining confidence, here are the steps that I find helpful to see that facing your fear and taking action is actually for a good reason. So you have to first get clear in your goal or outcome that you're trying to achieve. And once you start taking action, there is a high likelihood you're going to be pushed out of your comfort zone. And the only way to work through this is to have courage to take the steps needed over and over and over again, despite the fear it may elicit.

And throughout this process, you're going to gain a ton of clarity to help refine your actions, to build your capability to achieve your goal. And then, and only then, you'll have the confidence to do the thing. This only comes once you have courage and clarity to build out your capabilities, to then have the confidence that you've got it. And what I find so encouraging about taking courageous action steps is that it simultaneously builds our capacity to do scary things, to face those uncomfortable parts of business ownership that really need to be taken in order to grow our business. And without courage, it can hold us back so much.

And so really to simplify that approach to moving forward. Truly believe b minus work is okay. It makes taking action way less scary. And so this concept will allow you to get out of your own way and start working toward confidence. So the more you practice, the more progress you will make.

And as a result, you'll see your business grow. Just don't forget, it takes a lot of courageous action to get there. And remember, everyone has to start with courage in order to achieve their goals. This is often why people seem so confidence once they've reached their desired outcome, because they've put in the hard work and they've faced their fears and they've been uncomfortable. And the reward is the confidence now that they have to do the thing in their business.

So I hope this week's topic about courage was thought provoking and also motivational. As always, thanks so much for your time today and sticking with me as I'm still on the courageous action train, doing this podcast each week and all that it takes to produce it. So I greatly appreciate it and I'll leave you with this Brene Brown quote, the willing us to show up changes us. It makes us a little braver each time.