Lucy Gernon (00:01.454)
Do you ever doubt yourself and your capabilities as a leader? You are successful for a reason, my lovely lady. You would not be where you are today if you weren’t competent. Yet despite this, you doubt your abilities and you can often find it hard to manage the negative voice in your head. But what if you could break free from those invisible chains? Imagine what you could achieve if you stepped outside your comfort zone and fully embraced the leader you were meant to be.
In this week’s episode of the podcast, I’ll be sharing with you the number one thing you need to hear right now to build confidence and one powerful action you can take so that you can become the leader you were born to be. I hope you enjoy.
Lucy Gernon (00:48.366)
Hi there and welcome back to another episode of the 360 Leadership Podcast. Can you believe it is nearly back to school time? my God, if you’re anything like me, I am counting down the days as much as I adore my children. And you’ve got three kids who need feeding and you work at home, you know the gist. So I’m like, okay, let’s go. Let’s go back to school. Are you prepared? If you’re not, here is your invitation. If you have kids to…
get on it and start getting everything in. I’ve got most of it. Most of the stuff sorted at this stage. Thank God, because I like to try and get ahead. But I still have a few more bits to pick up. I don’t think you’re ever done. But because I’m thinking about kind of back to school time, I know that lots of you are mothers listening to the show and I know that you are probably putting your family first over the summertime. And even if you don’t have kids, I know that if you’re in a leadership role, a lot of your
you know, a lot of your team may be on parental leave because of those beautiful pesky children that take us away from our work. And it’s kind of time then for us to really start thinking about who we want to become as we end 2024. And today, I really want to talk about something that you really need to know when it comes to confidence. OK, now, the reason I want to record this show today, that’s going to be a super short episode.
is because I want to share some things that I wish that I knew earlier on in my career, because the Lucy you see today was not always this way. Back when I was working in corporate, I struggled so badly with my feelings of unworthiness. I was a nervous wreck, guys. I was anxious. I was suffered with depression. I was on medication for anxiety. I was on medication for depression.
I had a lot of deep rooted trauma from my childhood that I had not resolved. And I had to do a lot of work on myself. About 20 years, this journey of development is going on. And I didn’t realize that all of this was making me feel not confident. OK, so I think I want you to know that everybody, you know, the person you see in front of you today, when you’re looking at me, you know, people say to me, you’re so confident.
Lucy Gernon (03:09.806)
And I am right now, but it wasn’t always that way. I used to feel like the little girl in the room. And I really wanted to feel like a proper woman and a leader who could command the room and get that recognition and to get feel that sense of accomplishment. But that inner critic held me back for too long. And I do not want that for you. You have talents. You are smart. You have ambitions. You have drive.
And anything that you want for yourself is possible. What the number one thing you need to do to create anything in your life is confidence to take the action required. And that’s what separates the most successful people in the world from those who stay in their comfort zone, wishing they could achieve things like their peers or people you see on TV or
whatever your aspiration is or your own heart’s desire. Unless you take confident action, nothing changes. Nothing changes. I know you’re ambitious and driven and you’ve worked so hard to get your to your level of seniority. And now you are ready for more. Right. For too long, you’ve been the good girl. And now you’re ready to show the world what you’re capable of.
Well, at least you want to if that pesky imposter syndrome didn’t come calling, right? So, like I said, I want you to know it’s not your fault. I’ve been there. And the real reason you lack confidence, and this is what I want to share with you today, is because of your conditioning. So let me explain what I mean by your conditioning. As a little girl, when you grew up, you were
trying to survive. So all of our beliefs about ourselves, others and the world are formed under the age of seven, typically. So when you were growing up, you were either a compliant child or maybe you were a rebellious child. I was the compliant one. I was the yes teacher, no teacher. I was the yes, mommy, no mommy. Three bags full, sir. Whatever I could do, I was the compliant one.
Lucy Gernon (05:33.39)
And I was conditioned by the environment I grew up in, which wasn’t a bad environment, by the way. OK. But as children, we all ever look at like your siblings and wonder how you all turned out so differently. Even though you’ve got the same parents, the same school, potentially the same, a lot of things in common, it’s because we’re all individuals and societal conditioning and the environment that you were in as a child has shaped who you are today.
In fact, as part of my executive blueprint course, which you can grab at lucygarden .com forward slash EP, there’s a module in there and personal branding. And I literally have just come back from a session with a corporate today on the power of telling your story. And there’s an exercise I do where I get you to write out your life kind of decade by decade. So you can really understand. What has molded and shaped you today?
Some of the experiences will be negative, but they have made you who you are. Some of the experiences will be positive and they too have made you what you are. And you would not be who you are without either of those things. But it’s important to understand that the lack of confidence comes from your conditioning as a child, which you’ve brought forward as an adult with your belief systems and all that good stuff.
And that’s something that I can get into in other episodes. I’m pretty sure we did an episode with Pat Dively on limiting beliefs. And I’ve done an episode with Alva Harrington on limiting beliefs as well and childhood stuff as well. So I will link those both in the show notes for you. I recommend you listen to them. But I honestly think as women, we are living in a society where girls were told to be seen and not heard where I came from, whereas the boys tended to get away with a lot more. And it’s not.
That’s, you know, a lot of people say, like, you know, why does confidence, lack of confidence affect women more than men? And it’s because of our societal conditioning, our conditioning as children to be good. So when I often hear people say to me about the boys at work, promoting themselves, getting visible, taking their credit and.
Lucy Gernon (07:47.726)
To be honest, I feel weird when I actually talk about men in this way, because I have such great respect for male leaders. I have so many, you know, I have so many great male colleagues that I used to work with. And I believe it’s on you to learn from them, not to go around bashing them for doing that. You can’t envy their success. They’re doing nothing wrong. But I invite you to learn from it. So.
I want you to understand you are the way you are because of your childhood, your upbringing, your belief systems, etc. But to break that, there’s one thing, the only way you become confident. Do you know what it is? It’s to take action. It’s to take action. I delivered a post -psychology training with our 360 leaders recently when I was sitting on my balcony in Spain.
I was sitting there looking out over the ocean delivering the training and I absolutely loved it. And I shared with them about the importance of taking imperfect action. It’s one of the golden rules in 360 leaders club is that confidence comes from taking action when you’ve got proof that you survived it, right? Whereas when you stay in your comfort zone and you’re in the pick me energy and please, you know, come tap me on the shoulder, give me the opportunity. That’s not how you are actually going to.
get what you want, okay? How you get what you want is taking action. Now I get it, right? I totally get it. Imposter syndrome can take over. Self -doubt is there. And I have something really special for you that I’m so excited to run again. If you’re listening to this live when the show is released in August, September, I think this episode is out.
I’m excited to share that I am running the Impostor Syndrome Breakthrough Masterclass live very, very soon in September. And the women who attended last time had such huge breakthroughs. I actually couldn’t believe I was doing this class for free because I got messages from people saying, my God, it changed my life. So if you want to come along and I get into a lot more detail, you can ask me questions. I’m happy to give you all the personalized support at the masterclass.
Lucy Gernon (10:04.75)
head over to lucygarnon .com forward slash master class and you can join and we can be there together live so I can be there to support you. If you’re ready for more and you want to break free of good girl syndrome and quash this imposter feeling once and for all, please come to the master class. OK, so go to lucygarnon .com forward slash master class. So that’s it for this week’s episode of the show. The real reason why you’re lacking confidence despite your professional success.
is from your childhood conditioning. And that’s okay. But you know this now and you’re a big girl. And the only way to break free from that is to take action. So what action are you gonna take? I hope the first action you’re gonna take is you’re gonna whip out your phone right now and head over to lucygarnon .com forward slash masterclass and come and join me live.
so that I can be there for you. If you’ve been listening to the show, I cannot wait to hear from you. Please come on with your questions. I’ll be teaching you my five step method to overcome imposter syndrome. You’re going to leave the call and you’re going to feel so much less alone because there’s going to be so many other women there at your level or above who have the exact same challenges. And you’re going to leave feeling totally inspired, totally ready to take action. And I cannot wait to see you there.
So, my lovely lady, I will leave you with this. Life is not a dress rehearsal. You only have one life. Stop sitting in the sidelines of your own movie and become that lead character. Take control. Listen to what you really want and go after it with conviction.
because in the next, you know, we’re not going to be here in the next 50 years. We’re probably going to be gone from this planet, right? I want you to take action now because the world needs more women leaders to step in, step up, own your voice more than ever before. That is it for this week’s episode of the show. I can’t wait to see you at the masterclass. I will link it below. Until then, same time, same place next week. Bye for now.
