How You See Yourself Shapes Everything

Running your own business is about strategy and structure. But its also deeply personal. It asks everything of you. Your ideas, your creativity, your courage and what often gets overlooked is the role your own sense of value plays in it all.

"How you feel about yourself shows up in how you show up."

In our recent Master Your Mind session, we explored the link between how we value ourselves and how that affects the business we’re trying to grow. And it became clear very quickly. This is core work for your business.

It’s what shapes your pricing, your visibility, your boundaries, your offers, your partnerships, all of it.

Here's what gets in the way of owning our worth, how it shows up daily and what we can actually do about it.

What We Tell Ourselves

Do you ever catch yourself thinking this?

• “I can’t charge more than this, people just won’t pay it.”
• “She’s more qualified than me, I shouldn’t be doing this.”
• “They probably won’t want to work with me anyway…”

These thoughts are so common, but that doesn’t mean they’re not quietly eating away at your potential. One of the most powerful realisations from our session was that many of the ways we hold ourselves back aren’t conscious. They’re subtle, internal habits of thinking. The quiet stories we don’t even question.

Often, it’s not a lack of talent or knowledge that’s stopping us. It’s a lack of permission. And guess who’s withholding the permission? We are.

How This Shows Up in Business

Here are a few real examples of what it can look like when our sense of self-worth isn’t where it could be:

• Pricing too low because deep down you don’t believe people would pay more for what you offer.
  
  
• Staying hidden on social media because there’s a lingering fear that you don’t really belong or that you’re not “expert” enough.
  
  
• Not reaching out to collaborate or ask for help because part of you assumes others won’t be interested.
  
  
• Saying yes to the wrong work because you’re afraid of losing the income, even when the work doesn’t light you up.
  
  
• Playing small and telling yourself you’re being “realistic” when you’re really just staying safe.

It’s not always obvious that these are symptoms of low self-worth, but they are. They’re protective behaviours that can end up limiting the very growth and freedom we started our businesses to create.

Reframing Your Relationship With Value

One of the things we reflected on is how to gently start shifting this.

It’s not about faking confidence or saying affirmations you don’t believe. It’s about getting honest, kind, and curious with yourself.

We started with a simple but powerful exercise: giving yourself a score out of 10 for how much you value yourself right now. Not in a judgemental way but as a check-in. A way of tuning into what’s really going on internally.

If you scored yourself a 4, for example, we asked: why a 4 and not a 2? What tells you that you're at a 4? What evidence is there that your value is higher than you give yourself credit for?

This helps draw your attention to the proof of your value that already exists. Because the truth is, you’ve likely done things that took courage, served people well, made a difference. But when we don’t pause to reflect, we don’t integrate those experiences into our self concept. And that’s where doubt creeps in.

Three Practical Shifts to Strengthen Self-Worth

📝 Write it down 

Self-worth isn’t built in your head alone. Write about your value in a notebook. Do this by hand rather than typing as it's been shown to deepen the mind-body connection. List out:

•  What you’re good at

•  What people thank you for

•  Times you’ve shown up even when it was hard

•  What would make your younger self proud

💬 Talk to yourself differently

The way we speak to ourselves is powerful. Start small. Look in the mirror each morning and say “I love you” out loud. It might feel awkward at first – most of us aren’t used to it – but your nervous system and body do respond. Over time, your mind will catch up.

🫟 Let go of perfectionism

This one’s huge. So much of our self-doubt is tangled up in comparison. In trying to be “the best” or have it all figured out. It’s exhausting and unattainable. We’re all just figuring it out as we go. Let that be okay. Be human first, business owner second.

When I Had to Let Go of a “Successful” Version of Me

There was a time I was working with a lot of corporate clients. I was pushing myself hard. On paper, it looked successful. But it wasn’t me.

But I continued longer than I should have because I thought I should. I thought it was what success looked like. I thought leaving meant failing. And it took real inner work to realise that staying in something that didn’t fit was the real disservice, to myself and to what I was actually here to do.

Letting go of that version of me wasn’t easy. It challenged my identity. But in doing so, I made space for work that feels aligned, energising, and deeply fulfilling. I wouldn’t have found that if I hadn’t faced my own self-worth head on.

Three Journal Prompts to Help You Uncover Your Value

Take a few minutes to sit with these:

1. What am I no longer available for in my business or life, because it no longer aligns with my value?

2. What do I know I’m good at, even if I don’t often say it out loud? 

3. What would I do differently in my business if I fully believed in my own value? 

Onwards with Kindness

If any of this resonates with you, there’s nothing wrong with you. You’re not behind. You’re not broken. You’re just navigating the invisible, internal work that comes with being a solopreneur.

The more you bring kindness, curiosity, and truth to that process, the stronger your sense of value will become. Not because someone else gave it to you, or from anything externally but because you claimed it for yourself.

When you value yourself, everything changes. Your yes means more. Your no gets clearer. Your business starts to reflect who you really are.

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These are reflections from our monthly Master Your Mind session on zoom. If you’d like to receive details of our next session subscribe to our free newsletter here.