10 Ways To Be More Confident

Article by Digital Mums – 10 Ways To Be More Confident

Confidence – that ten letter word that just has so much meaning for so many women.  In fact here at Digital Mums, where we train women in social media management so they can find flexible work around family life, there isn’t really a day goes by that it doesn’t come up in conversation.

How do you stay confident during a period of change? How do you overcome imposter syndrome and guilt? How do you build a community around you of awesome people?

We recently interviewed several experts to get their tips, techniques and advice on how to be more confident. From Ruth Kudzi, Success Coach; Phanella Mayall Fine, Co-Founder, The Step Up Club; Vicki Psarias, Honest Mum; and Digital Mums’ Graduate, Ruth Thomson, check out the Digital Mums’ 10 Ways To Be More Confident. Whether you are currently looking for work after a career break, considering retraining or simply looking for life’s next challenge these tips will be sure to help you.

1. Accept

Even though all the experts we contacted are really successful and appear really confident, all of them agreed that there have been times in their life when they have suffered from imposter syndrome, guilt, fear and lack of confidence.

Take Vicki, aka Honest Mum, she is an award-winning vlogger and filmmaker but yet Imposter Syndrome still plagues her. Even when she reaches over 3 million people and is partnering with brands like Raymond Blanc, Herbal Essences and TK Maxx!

The key to letting those confident feelings flow? Know that you are not alone and accept these feelings as normal.

2. Remember The Reasons Why

When we are doing something challenging, scary and new, a part of feeling confident is reminding yourself the reasons why.

Phanella advises carrying a picture with you to remind you of why you are doing this specific thing and it should help you to overcome any confidence wobbles when they occur.

3. Build Expertise

Part of being confident is having skills and knowledge. No one likes the person who is all sales and no skills. At Digital Mums, we encourage all our students and graduates to hustle but it’s also important to know your stuff.

Ruth Kudzi recommends finding the right balance between building expertise through training that builds real skills and getting out there and using your skills.

4. Believe

Our beliefs about the world shape our experience every day. And beliefs can be changed.

Ruth Kudzi shared a technique for building new beliefs. She recommends writing down the belief you want to hold e.g. I am confident. Then look for evidence for that to be true. You may need to do this exercise over a period of days or weeks as you gather new evidence for your new belief.

5.  Build a Supportive Community Around You

Having supportive, positive, ambitious and successful people around you can make a huge difference to your confidence.

Ruth Thomson shared how she uses social media including LinkedIn to build her community. Also look at social media platforms like Instagram where this is an amazing community of women who are always supporting each other.

6. Stretch Yourself and Try New Things

Confidence is built by doing things that challenge you over and over again until they are no longer scary.

Vicki shared how, after winning an award from Channel 4, instead of getting comfortable, she took on a project that pushed her out of her comfort zone. She recommends trying new things whether it’s blogging, vlogging, social media, video.

How will you know if you like them if you don’t try?

7. Redefine Failure

Feeling like you’ve failed at something in the past can really knock your confidence.

At Digital Mums, we teach the ‘Test, Measure, Reflect, Refine’ model of evaluating social media campaigns. There is no ‘failure’, just a new opportunity to learn and improve.

Ruth Kudzi and Ruth Thomson approach a challenge as if there were no failure, only opportunity and learning.

8. Have a Confidence Ritual

Find something that makes you feel immediately more confident.

For both Ruth Kudzi and Ruth Thomson, putting on a bright lipstick gives an instant boost. For Vicki it’s her tassel earrings. Find your thing and wear it with pride!

9. Give Up Perfect

Comparing ourselves to a perfect, idealised version of ourselves or someone else is not the route to confidence. Perfectionism though is a hard habit to break.

When pushing herself to do something new, Ruth Thomson reminds herself ‘done is better than perfect’.

10. Take Action

And most importantly, take action. Even if you feel scared, like an imposter, guilty or under confident.

Don’t let these feelings stop you from achieving what you want to achieve whether it is finding a new career, retraining or finding flexible work.

You can find out more about Digital Mums Social Media Management training at www.digitalmums.com. We are currently taking applications for our Spring 2018 cohorts.