Read the full episode breakdown + show notes: https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/blog/ep185-the-promise-you-keep

She's spent 20 years helping other people finish their hardest work. Her own sat unfinished for three years.

My guest this week is Jenn Farrer, certified executive coach, keynote speaker, and author of Make Them Think: How to Coach for Ownership, Insight, and Action. Jenn has coached and trained thousands of executives, athletes, and teams. But this conversation is about the season most people never see, nearly three years into what was supposed to be a six month creative sabbatical, with nothing finished but a Notes app full of half-started ideas, and what it actually took to change that.

In This Episode, We Explore:

• Staking the Ground: why putting your own point of view out is a different kind of vulnerable than helping other people think
• The Real Fear: the specific worry underneath the freeze, and why it has nothing to do with actual competence
• Clearing the Creative Backlog: the phrase from a meditation teacher that finally moved Jenn off the sidelines
• The Public Deadline: what a twelve week timeline revealed about self-trust that years of achievement never had
• Data, Not a Verdict: how to receive feedback as information instead of proof of who you are

Episode Chapters:

00:00 Introduction: The Hardest Thing She's Ever Done

01:18 Three Years Into a Creative Sabbatical With Nothing Finished

03:29 The Vulnerability of Staking the Ground

08:57 Why This Felt Harder Than Surviving a Stroke

11:21 The Real Fear: Being Seen as a Hack

17:31 The Turning Point: Clearing the Creative Backlog

22:56 Making the Twelve-Week Deadline Public

28:36 Redefining Self-Trust: From Outside In to Inside Out

Connect with Jenn Farrer:

Instagram: @jennfarrer

Website: https://jenniferfarrer.com/

Additional resources: Make Them Think, available on Amazon and at barnesandnoble.com

Join the Conversation: This one is for the expert who can solve everyone else's stall in five minutes and has been circling their own for years. You already know how to do this. The book, the framework, the offer, whatever it is, is waiting on the same permission you'd give a client on day one.

Take the Self-Trust Identity Map. Before strategy. Before motivation. Before more effort, you need to know where your foundation is operating from. Because that is what determines everything that follows.It's free. It takes three minutes. And it will give you a precise read on where your decisions are actually coming from right now, and exactly where to focus next.

https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/identity-assessment-page

Want to go deeper? The Floor: Your Build is available now. Self-paced, structured, and built around the same framework. https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/the-floor-your-build

Read the full episode breakdown + show notes:https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/blog/ep184-reversible-decisionsHe had every financial goal he'd ever set. And he still felt like something was missing.My guest this week is Ray Higdon, founder of Higdon Group, where he helps sales reps stop chasing and start closing with confidence. Since 2018, he's helped students generate over 300,000 new customers. But this conversation isn't about sales tactics. It's about the decision Ray made in November 2022 that cost him a multimillion dollar contract, reshaped his marriage, and changed how he runs his business, and what it actually takes to trust a direction that doesn't come with guarantees.In This Episode, We Explore:• Success Without the Feeling: why hitting every goal on the list doesn't automatically close the gap you built the goals to close• Reversible Decisions: the framework for telling the difference between a choice you can undo and the one cost that truly can't be undone, regret• The Real Risk: why staying exactly where you are can be riskier than the leap you've been avoiding• Releasing Instead of Adding: how dropping eight to ten projects that no longer fit created more freedom than any new offer could have• Naming the Idols: learning to spot the specific areas where emotion and desire get mistaken for true directionEpisode Chapters:00:00 Introduction: Trusting a Direction That Doesn't Make Sense01:00 Success on the Outside, Empty on the Inside04:00 The Moment Everything Changed: November 14th09:00 Waking Up a Different Person13:00 Learning to Trust the Voice in Prayer17:00 The Multimillion-Dollar Contract He Let Go Of27:00 Losing the YouTube Channel and Finding Freedom32:00 Reversible Decisions and the Real Risk of Staying PutConnect with Ray Higdon:Instagram: @rayhigdonWebsite: https://higdongroup.com/Youtube: @saleswithrayhigdon Join the Conversation:This one is for the entrepreneur who has hit the numbers everyone told them would feel like enough, and still feels the gap. You already know something needs to change. This conversation is about what actually happens once you stop waiting for certainty first.Take the Self-Trust Identity Map. Before strategy. Before motivation. Before more effort, you need to know where your identity is operating from. Because that is what determines everything that follows.It's free. It takes three minutes. And it will give you a precise read on where your identity is actually operating from right now, and exactly where to focus next.https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/identity-assessment-pageWant to go deeper? The Floor: Your Build is available now. Self-paced, structured, and built around the same framework.https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/the-floor-your-build

Read the full episode breakdown + show notes:https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/blog/the-decision-before-clarity
He sold 13 businesses, retired, and came back for something that might never turn a profit.
Sam Yehia spent 35 years building and scaling 13 businesses across hospitality, entertainment, and real estate before selling everything in 2019, just ahead of the pandemic. He didn't stay retired. He returned to build a platform for firstperson journalism, not because the math made sense, but because he decided it was necessary before he had proof it would work.
In This Episode, We Explore:

• The Exit Before the Crisis: what it meant to sell everything right before theworld shut down, and why timing isn't always something you can plan for.
• The Pull Back In: why a venture with no clear financial case kept calling him back, and what that reveals about conviction versus justification.
• First Person Storytelling: the model behind his platform, and why verified, firsthand accounts matter more as trust in media erodes.
• Self-Trust as a Decision: how conviction, not clarity, is what actually moves people forward.
• The Honesty Question: what he believes everyone owes themselves before committing to a mission that might cost them.

Episode Chapters:
00:00 Introduction: Sam Yehia and thereturn to first person journalism
00:58 Selling 13 businesses right beforethe world shut down
04:06 What kept pulling him back to aventure that made no financial sense
07:29 Building a platform on verified,first person storytelling
13:47 Letting go of profit as the onlymeasure of success
20:07 Redefining self-trust as adecision made ahead of time
22:34 What to ask yourself before youwalk away from something that matters
28:52 Where to find his work and connectwith him
Connect with Sam Yehia:
Website: https://orato.world

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/oratoworld
Join the Conversation:
This one is for the person sitting on a decision that doesn't fully add up on paper yet, who keeps circling back to it anyway because some part of them already knows it's necessary.
Take the Self-Trust Identity Map. Before strategy. Before motivation. Before more effort, you need to know where your identity is operating from. Becausethat is what determines everything that follows.
It's free. It takes three minutes. And it will give you a precise read on where your identity is actually operating from right now, and exactly where to focus next.
https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/identity-assessment-page

Want to go deeper? The Floor: Your Build is available now. Self-paced,structured, and built so you can establish the floor that makes ceilings unecessary.
https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/the-floor-your-build

Read the full episode breakdown + show notes:https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/blog/decision-before-confidenceHailey Rowe didn't go all in on her business because she felt ready. She went all in the afternoon her startup let the entire team go, before any version of confidence had a chance to arrive.In this episode, Dawn sits down with Hailey Rowe, marketing and sales coach for wellness professionals, online entrepreneurs, and host of the top 1% globally ranked Health Coach Nation Podcast. Underneath Hailey's story is a sequence Melissa needs to see in real time. The decision came first. The practice came second. The expression of confidence came years later. Hailey made the all-in choice from a place she described as "not knowing," and the evidence she was hoping to feel before deciding only showed up after she had already decided.In This Episode, We Explore:• Choice → Practice → Expression: why Hailey's "you cannot fire yourself" moment is the sequence in real time, not a courage story• Waited-For Confidence Trap: the felt certainty most coaches are pacing around that has no mechanism to arrive• The Relitigation Loop: how reopening the niche, the price, and the offer is yesterday's work done with today's energy• Data Over Drama: Hailey's weekly evaluation practice that turns "this isn't working" into clinical information instead of a verdict on you• Outsourcing Your Safety: why the day job felt safer until it wasn't, and what internal safety actually rests on• Identity First, Strategy Second: two coaches with the same script, one closing from desperation and one closing from conviction, get very different resultsEpisode Chapters:00:00 The dream job that ended in a single afternoon04:30 Embarrassed at the question "how's your business?"08:30 Why the day job was never the safer bet13:30 Anchoring the decision vs. relitigating it17:30 Evaluate weekly for data, not drama19:30 Solving the right problem: the five core areas of a coaching business26:00 Why the same strategy works for one coach and not another31:30 What Hailey would tell her 2017 selfConnect with Hailey Rowe:Free class, From Crickets to Clients: https://haileyrowe.kartra.com/page/liveeventWebsite: https://www.haileyrowe.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hailey_rowe Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/themarketinghubgroup Podcast: https://anchor.fm/health-coach-nation Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haileyrJoin the Conversation:This one is for the coach who has rewritten the bio, mapped the launch she hasn't taken live, and is privately waiting to feel like the kind of person who does this before she actually does it. The decision is what starts the thing. Not the feeling that hasn't shown up yet.✨ If today's conversation stirred something in you — I want you to take one next step before you close this episode.Take the Self-Trust Identity Map.Before strategy. Before motivation. Before more effort — you need to know where your identity is operating from. Because that is what determines everything that follows.It's free. It takes three minutes. And it will give you a precise read on where your identity is actually operating from right now — and exactly where to focus next.👉: https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/identity-mapAnd if you're a coach or expert who already knows what's in the way — if you're done operating from almost and ready to claim the authority that makes your business vision a reality — Claimed is my private six-month coaching container for exactly that. Not a curriculum. Not someone else's strategy. Identity-level work that changes the person leading the business.👉: https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/claimed📩 Have a self-trust story to share?: https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/yourstory⭐ Subscribe and leave a review if this episode resonates — it helps more people find these conversations.

Read the full episode breakdown + show notes: https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/blog/ready-is-not-a-feelingYou have been almost ready for the same launch, the same offer, the same price increase for months, and you keep mistaking that hesitation for good judgment.In this episode, I sit down with Brittni Schroeder, business coach, marketing strategist, founder of the Compassion Club nonprofit, and former high school senior photographer featured in the Wall Street Journal and Good Morning America. We talk about what actually moved her from waiting to building, and why the readiness most entrepreneurs are chasing has no delivery mechanism.In This Episode, We Explore:• Waited-for confidence: why the "ready" feeling most entrepreneurs are waiting for has no mechanism, and what to choose instead.• Embodied competence confidence: how Brittni built a website in six months of one-hour days, and why that sequence (decide, do, repeat) is the only one that compounds.• Do It For Data: reframing a "failed" first summit, a launch that underperformed, or a challenge you have never run as data collection, not verdicts.• The Momentum Loop in real life: Brittni's bathroom sink story as a working illustration of decide, do, have your own back.• Identity Lag in costume: the entrepreneur who wants one more certification, one better website, one more credential before charging her real rate.• Choice before evidence: why self-trust is decided in front of the action, not earned after it.Episode Chapters:00:00 The early entrepreneurial path: photography, publishing, and learning by doing04:30 Two successful businesses and the discipline of outsourcing07:00 Loss, the Compassion Club, and discovering coaching13:30 Two kinds of confidence: past evidence vs. the leap16:00 Failure as a chapter of learning, not a verdict22:00 Ready is not a feeling: permission as a decision23:00 Awareness, thought, and the action that follows30:00 Where entrepreneurs get stuck before they scale31:00 The website she could not build, until she did35:00 Self-trust as identity, and the ripple effect outwardConnect with Brittni Schroeder:www.instagram.com/brittni.schroederwww.facebook.com/groups/redefineyourbizwww.linkedin.com/in/brittnischroederwww.pinterest.com/brittnijoFREE GIFT: http://brittnischroeder.com/funnelsJoin the Conversation:If you are the certified coach with the drafted launch, the half-built funnel, and the price you have been "almost" ready to raise for two quarters, this one is for you. You are not missing a credential. You are waiting for a signal that was never going to arrive.✨ If today's conversation stirred something in you — I want you to take one next step before you close this episode.Take the Self-Trust Identity Map.Before strategy. Before motivation. Before more effort — you need to know where your identity is operating from. Because that is what determines everything that follows.It's free. It takes three minutes. And it will give you a precise read on where your identity is actually operating from right now — and exactly where to focus next.👉: https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/identity-mapAnd if you're a coach or expert who already knows what's in the way — if you're done operating from almost and ready to claim the authority that makes your business vision a reality — Claimed is my private six-month coaching container for exactly that. Not a curriculum. Not someone else's strategy. Identity-level work that changes the person leading the business.👉: https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/claimed⭐ Subscribe and leave a review if this episode resonates — it helps more people find these conversations.

Stop fixing your business ceiling when your floor is shaking.

If you are stuck in a constant loop of tweaking only to hit the same ceilings over and over again, join me live on July 8th for The Floor.

This is an intimate live implementation experience designed to help you claim your true authority, build unshakable self-trust, and establish the firm foundation your business is asking of you next.

How to join: Registration is handled personally. Slide into my Instagram DMs @theselftrustcoach and message me the word FLOOR to claim your invitation.ONTO THE SHOW:

Read the full episode breakdown + show notes: https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/blog/toxic-positivity-vs-real-self-trust

The version of positivity you've been resisting isn't real positivity. It's avoidance with better marketing, and your nervous system has known the difference the whole time.

Christopher Butler is the co-founder of Power of Positivity, a platform now reaching more than 60 million people. In 2009 he was laid off, freshly bankrupt, 320 pounds, with a baby on the way and, by his own description, no trust in himself to lead his own life. This conversation is about what actually rebuilt that, and why the sequence almost everyone gets backward is the reason their self-trust never holds.

In This Episode, We Explore:

• Outsourcing Your Safety: Why being a "loyal follower" was an adaptive strategy that outlived its usefulness, and what it costs when you keep running it in a life that no longer requires it.
• Do It For Data: How Chris reframed 320 pounds as a system he was already running, not a verdict on his character, and what changed when he asked which direction to point it.
• Servant to Steward: The distinction that lets you care deeply about other people without erasing yourself, and why "stop people-pleasing" is the same binary just flipped.
• Real Positivity vs Toxic Positivity: Why turning the lights up on what's hard is self-trust in action, and why turning the lights out is the actual fracture.
• Choice Before Practice: Chris wore a "Future Millionaire" shirt at his lowest point, not because he felt confident, but because the choice came first. The sequence is choice, then practice, then expression.
• The Expansion Record in Real Time: Why celebrating day one the same way you'd celebrate year ten is not soft, it is precise evidence collection.

Episode Chapters:

00:00 Cold open and introducing Christopher Butler01:38 2009: Laid off, bankrupt, baby on the way04:13 The loyal follower pattern and where it came from08:40 The $5,000 credit card that started Power of Positivity10:00 Rebuilding self-trust piece by piece11:31 Affirmations that actually work versus ones that fracture you14:25 Servant to steward: caring for others without erasing yourself22:01 Real positivity vs toxic positivity24:51 Gratitude as a trained skill, not a mood26:30 What to remember if you're still on the floor32:00 Where to find Chris

Connect with Christopher Butler:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrisordad

Facebook: The Peaceful Christopher

Power of Positivity: https://www.powerofpositivity.com

If you're a coach who has quietly suspected that "positivity" was just one more performance being demanded of you, this conversation is the permission to stop performing and start telling the truth about what you actually have influence over right now.

✨ If today's conversation stirred something in you — I want you to take one next step before you close this episode.Take the Self-Trust Identity Map.Before strategy. Before motivation. Before more effort — you need to know where your identity is operating from. Because that is what determines everything that follows.It's free. It takes three minutes. And it will give you a precise read on where your identity is actually operating from right now — and exactly where to focus next. https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/identity-map

⭐ Subscribe and leave a review if this episode resonates — it helps more people find these conversations.