Small Dog Mentality

“Who am I to teach?”

When I was starting out as a health coach, it was just one of those things I heard in my head every single turn.

I would wake up in the morning, I'd hear it.
I'd go to bed, I'd hear it.
I would sit down at the computer, yup, I would hear it.

A lot of times it was debilitating, putting me in a state of fear and paralysis, which got me nowhere.

Then I’d start thinking about how someone else, some big time health genius billionaire already said it… I call this the “small dog mentality” where you feel like you should just give up and let the big dogs do it.

Well, every big dog started out tiny with paws that were too big and clunky…

When I began coaching, I needed clients. I learned that teaching is a surefire way to get clients because it gets you in front of people who want the information you have, people who you can help.

I knew I had the knowledge part down, so the issue was that I just needed experience standing in front of people. But how was I supposed to get experience if the very thought of teaching sent me quaking in my cowboy boots?

Join me as I share:

• How to make talking about what you love fun instead of something that gives you hives
• Quick breathing exercises you can do (including a fun little gadget that helps you relax)
• The life changing TEDTalk on retraining your nervous system
• Plus one of the biggest secrets for those working or starting an online practice

This confidence-boosting advice has worked for me in all kinds of situations. I’ve used these tips to help me rev up for an online telesummit, webinars, or even talks in front of hundreds.

Comment below and let me know what would be different about your life if you were to completely overcome “Small Dog Mentality”? Where would you be in 2 years if your thoughts were no longer plagued with small dog mentality? Share and inspire someone — maybe even yourself!

TRANSCRIPTION
Hello everyone, I'm Summer Bock, welcome to Guts & Glory. I want to answer a question that we have today from Robbie.

Robbie says, “How to get over the ‘who am I to teach' or ‘I don't know enough' mindset? I know I have a ton of knowledge and experience but the little voices tell me to let the ‘big dogs' do it.”

Oh gosh, Robbie, thank you for this question, this is fantastic. I'm remembering back to a time where I heard this on a regular basis in my own head, the little voices telling you that other people are better at teaching this, that maybe somebody else should be in charge of this.

It was just one of those things where I heard this every single turn. I would wake up in the morning, I'd hear it, I'd go to bed I'd hear it. I would sit down at the computer I would hear it. A lot of times it really was debilitating, it would put me in a state of paralysis in terms of fear. I just want you to know I really get it, and I still hear these voices today, they're there, it comes up. It sounds different, it's not at loud and I don't believe them as much anymore I guess is the biggest difference, and some of them have stopped talking altogether, so it is different.

Here's my advice for you: I want you to focus on what you love about what you're teaching. What are you enjoying? Because when you make it fun for yourself and you're doing this for you, I know that sounds odd and it sounds sort of counter intuitive and slightly selfish, but when you do it for you where you're having fun, you're on your game. That's when you're teaching from your highest intention and your highest potential and really the highest, strongest, most powerful version of yourself when you're having fun. I want you to focus on teaching from that place. Think about how would you set up a class that just put you in your strongest, brightest light. What would that class look like? That's what I want you to start to teach from.

Then there's a couple tips I also have, which is you want to do breathing exercises, they're very important. Especially you can use HeartMath, it's that little doohickey that you clip to your ear and practice breathing and getting your mind in a state of high coherence they call it. Then there's that TED Talk, that really good TED Talk that's all about doing the power poses where you do this little pose for a while and then you hands on the hips, two minutes this way, two minutes this way. You just spend a little bit of time doing some of those activities before you do each of your classes. That will make a big difference because it will retrain your nervous system to be relaxed.

All you need is experience. I shook my way through many of my first classes. I was a terrible teacher at first, and now I just love it. I love conveying information and I also love watching people get it and have those ah-ha moments. That's the most powerful experience for me. I also love being a student as well, so it's really fun being a student when there's awesome teachers around. That's what I know, that's my sweet spot. In terms of doing this, you just have to do it. Experience, experience. I mean these voices can be yelling at you.

What you need to do is you need to book the talks, you need to book the classes, you need to get them on the calendar and you need to get them on the calendar in a way where you can't back out. If you're really nervous and you need to do this in front of friends and family first, book a regular weekly series at your house until you've practiced enough times, because practice, practice, practice. You just got to get the nervousness out of your system and you have to learn how to talk, you have to learn how to teach in a way that's effective and lights people up as they're listening to you. The way you do that is by being in front of other people and teaching.

For those of you who are practicing online and trying to figure out how to do that transition or starting online, one of the biggest secrets in terms of being good at that is still practicing teaching in front of real people because you need to see the reactions, you need to feel that connection. You need to know that what you're saying makes sense and is landing for people, and the only way you can know that is by being in a group of people and watching their eyes light up and watching whether they start texting on their phone if they're getting bored, or if they're totally engaged the whole time. That's how you know.

Alright, everyone, go text on your phone, go update yourself on your Facebook, go look at your emails now. Alright, but for you Robbie, I hope that you take this information seriously, I hope that … I hope this makes sense. All I'm really asking you to do is just teach as much as you possibly can. Yeah, you might be a small dog for a while, there might still be big dogs and you might be a small dog. You don't need to leave it to the big dogs, it's just that over time you'll become a big dog once you've practiced enough times. That's just how it works. I want you to be able to master this stuff and mastering something just takes consistent time, consistent effort, consistent doing; and you're doing that. I know you are.

I hope that helps everyone who's watching this. The Showcase Club is actually a really good resource for you if this is something that interests you at theshowcaseclub.com.

We have a trial for those of you who haven't tried it, but that is a great place where we talk about more questions like this and give resources and support for people who want to be better at what they do as an online wellness practitioner or virtual healer. Alright everybody, this is Summer Bock signing out.