Unlocking the Power of Trust: Practical Strategies for Navigating Perfectionism & Uncertainty Artwork

UNcomplicating Business for Teachers, Helpers, and Givers

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UNcomplicating Business for Teachers, Helpers, and Givers

Unlocking the Power of Trust: Practical Strategies for Navigating Perfectionism & Uncertainty

February 18, 2025 • Sara Torpey • Season 3 • Episode 2

In today’s episode of "Uncomplicating Business," we're talking about the many faces of trust. Not only are there lots of different versions of trust to consider in business, but also, those versions of trust aren't static—they fluctuate depending on many factors. Building a stronger relationship with trust in key areas like decision-making, time management, and self-worth leads to simpler, easier long-term success. Listen and walk away with practical strategies for improving self-trust, overcoming perfectionism, and navigating uncertainty, and more!

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Sara, welcome. Welcome to another episode of uncomplicating business. I'm so happy you're here. I am. Sara Torpey. I'm the creator of selling for weirdos. I'm a business coach. I run groups and I coach people one on one, and we talk a lot about trust my clients kind of laugh, because so much of what we do. When the word Trust inevitably comes up in our conversation, they just sort of shake their heads and are like, Oh, God, this again, you but we talk about it so much because it matters so much so today, what we're going to talk about are sort of the facets and the degrees of trust, because trust is not a thing that you either have or don't. You have more or less in a bunch of different areas all the time.

And it really depends on your day, the things going on, what you're trying to do, the weather, I feel like for me, you know, if the sun is out, I'm much more willing to try things. And so, you know, there's a couple of things to think about. The first is that I think of trust more like a dimmer switch than a light switch, right? It's a sliding scale at, you know, 100% it's at its brightest, and you're like, hell yes, I have this. And at off, it's like, Nope, I have no idea.

But generally speaking, we are always somewhere in between there and in any given area of business, of life that's gonna go up and down day to day. Like as a mom, I am 100% sure that I can help my kid with their math homework, because I've taught math to kids at elementary, middle, high school and college levels for 25 years, but I am not entirely certain, and I'm not at zero, but I'm not entirely certain how to navigate 13 year old girls that live in my house all the Time, right? Like, I, there's all kinds of things I come in and out of trust there, because there's a lot of unknown for me to be comfortable with. And, you know, there's just, I'm not always sure I'm doing it right, right? I'm I trust myself, but I, you know, it's I question things more.

So we're all going to have places where it goes up and down, and some days I got it, and some days I don't. So it is like a sliding scale, and not only does it change from day to day, but sometimes it changes from moment to moment. Somebody will say something, and your trust will go plummeting or flying, right? It is confidence in the unknown, right? So you know anything you can.

You know how confidence trips the same way Trust works with it. Sometimes somebody gives you a compliment and your confidence goes to 1,000,000% or they say, God, why'd you do it like that? And your confidence drops through the floor. Trust works the same. Business Success requires you to have trust in yourself in a lot of different areas. It's not just trust in business, right? I was making a list, and so for me, what came to mind immediately were value. I have to trust my value. I have to trust my expertise. I have to trust my skills. I have to trust my abilities in lots of different ways, to make connections, to meet new people, to sell effectively, I have to trust my own sense of worthiness. I have to trust time and my ability to manage it.

I have to trust my decision making. I have to trust how I handle money, in my relationship with money, and that is a lot of different areas to manage all at once. And what you're going to find is that maybe you have really high trust in your worthiness, that this is for you, but not your decision making. Maybe you have really high trust in your decision making, but not in how you handle money, or not your decisions around money, maybe you have super high ability, trust in your abilities, but not in your worthiness, right? So these things, one really impacts the other. Like I was talking to a client the other day, and she was telling me about a change she wants to make and what she's selling. And I said, you know, do you trust that the thing you've been selling is working? And she just kind of looked at me like, ew.

Because what it came down to is she was wanting to change because she didn't. And so we talked through, you know, what change and why, but also with a whole new sense of what was happening and that really made a difference. Trust is challenging because it's a moving target, because it's got so many facets. It's like, I was thinking about this the other day. It's like somebody saying, Oh, I'll get you some ice cream, and just giving you any old ice cream. Yes, right you. It's like, do you have trust? Well, in what, in what way, what amount? Right? Like, if you're going to give me ice cream, I want to know more. And, like, I can't have a lot of dairy, so I would love for it to be like, made of coconut milk or almond milk, so I can actually eat it and be really happy.

But like, I don't want ice cream with a million things in it, like I like playing ice creams, although there is this place by me now that makes this coconut raspberry swirl thing that has got flakes of coconut in it. And I'm a little obsessed. Separate conversation about ice cream, apparently, on this podcast today. But not all ice cream is ice cream, right? Not everything is the same, not everything is your favorite, not everything is what you feel like today, right? Sometimes I'm all in for ice cream, and sometimes I want something different.

So trust is the same. It's continually moving. So there are some questions to think about, what are all the versions of unknown for you and your business like? What are all the different things that you have to trust? What are all the facets of trust in the areas that you're thinking about? Are they the same ones I listed? What did I miss? Is really the question, which ones are you feel really good about which ones feel really good to you, and which ones are you like that? I really don't trust myself in that area, huh? And then, where on the scale of confidence and trust with the unknown, are you in each today? Right? Like, how do you feel about trust and money today? How do you feel about your expertise and your skills today?

Because you're going to feel different tomorrow, and there's nothing wrong with you if those things move once again, this is a reminder that, like, if I'm asking you questions and you're not writing them down, or you're walking, or you're driving because or you're in the shower, like have a friend who listens to this in the shower all the time, know that it's all on the transcript, and you can just hop over to the transcript notes and grab it there. So what I want to offer you today are a couple of really practical strategies to start building trust and practicing this, asking yourself, like, where am I? And trust today, in x area or in general, is a great place to start. It's a great place to be in your journal to check in on this, especially if you know right out of the gate that you have areas that are sticky.

Right for me there, there are occasionally in less than there used to be. But like, thoughts about worthiness, like my background, thought that is loudest sometimes, is, I'm just a teacher. I don't belong in the business world. And that's a worthiness thought, it's like, I don't belong here, but I do, right? And so I have to work on trusting that. What are the areas that are sticky for you? Is it money? Is it time? Is it decision making? Is it worthiness? Then you can do first. You can do all that in your journal. You can ask yourself every morning, you can do whatever it is your practice is for that, and if you don't have a journaling practice, this is me telling you it's time I have one under protest, because a journal makes me money.

Actually, had a client recently say to me, You know what? I always make more money when I journal. And I was like, hell, yeah, you do because there's less drama. The other thing is to think about an area where you're really high in trust. So for me, when I first started really thinking about this, I'm really high in trust in a classroom, I would think about, like, what was I like walking into a classroom? How did that feel? Because, like, if you drop me into a classroom today, I would be like, Oh, I'm good. I know what to do. I'll figure it out.

How do I carry that feeling that like, Oh, hell yeah, I got this into the area where I feel like I'm a little less trust. And can I practice borrowing that feeling and translating it from one place to another? That's a crazy thing it sounds like, but it actually really changes things to be like, Oh, I know how to trust myself. I'm just not doing it here, right? The other thing to consider is, one of the questions I ask myself a lot is, what does it look like to trust myself in this situation? If I was trusting myself, how would I be acting? If I was trust my trusting myself, what would I be doing? What does it look like? What does it sound like, and what do I do and not do? Sometimes I ask myself that question, and it's like, wait in this situation where I'm doing this new thing, what does it look like to trust myself?

What would I not do? And like, my answer is almost always, Well, I wouldn't spend this much time agonizing over it. And so it's like, oh, maybe I need to change my approach. And then the. Last thing, I would say, the last really practical thing, is to start to normalize uncertainty a little bit and know that, like, no one's ever certain all the time. So there are times where you're going to feel less certain and there's nothing wrong with you, like that's normal. You're a normal person.

Trust is a confident relationship with the unknown, with uncertainty, we all have uncertainty. You're a human. That's okay, so try these things. If you want to tell me about your experience, you want to tell me your thoughts on trust, send me an email. I'm Sara at Torpey coaching com. You can find me on Facebook or LinkedIn. You can share this podcast with people you think who need it, or subscribe on whatever platform is your favorite, or even share, write a review or leave a rating.

Those are both really, really important things for a podcast, and the next episode will be out in two weeks. But if you have questions, if there are things you're wondering about, just come find me on whatever social platforms you love, or come join my Facebook group. It's called uncomplicating business for teachers, helpers and givers, and I will see you guys in two weeks.