What narrative have you told yourself during your biggest moments of self-doubt? I have a self consciousness around intelligence, which I’ve written about before. My credibility has been “questioned” throughout my life, and I have some theories as to why that happens. (You’ll have to wait for the talk to be live to hear those theories.)
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At the end of last month, to conclude a six week whirlwind book tour, I stood on a circular red carpet in the middle of a stage and shared my biggest vulnerability with 300 people as I gave my very first TEDx talk.

I’m pretty comfortable with public speaking. I’ve given keynotes, countless client presentations, and appeared on-air at dozens of news studios for live interviews.
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Yet stepping onto that TEDx stage was the most intimidating speaking engagement I’ve done in my entire career.
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Not only because I felt the pressure to make sure my talk lived up to the cache of the TED name, offering a new perspective to adhere to their tagline, “ideas worth spreading,” but because in doing so, I openly stated the thing I’m always afraid people are thinking.
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As I was practicing and preparing for weeks leading up to the talk, I realized I was letting that self-doubt get in the way. I was preparing the talk with the doubters in mind. Thinking they’d be watching just waiting for me to mess up. Asking, “how the hell did SHE get invited to speak on that stage?”
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Just another accolade I assumed I didn’t deserve.
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I shared this sentiment with several people who told me I was out of my mind. That this talk was imprinted in my cells. That I’d be absolutely fine. That I was certainly deserving, qualified, and more than capable of doing the scary thing.
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And then I realized, that’s exactly what the talk was about. How so many of us are always focused on addressing those who question our worthiness, and yet, most of us have an entire universe of people who have always been in our corner, showing us how capable we are. I realized if I just delivered the talk with them in mind, I'd be fine.
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So that’s what I did. I took my own advice.
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When I get the video I’ll share it, but in the meantime, here’s an excerpt that I want you to save for when you let your self-doubt narrative take over:
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Take my advice. I certainly did. I stood up on that stage and even though my voice shook through the first few lines I delivered, I did the scary thing and made my way through it. When the crowd applauded, I thought back to my career setback that led me to write the book, which is what led me to stand in that moment. It felt very "Emerge."
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And once you do your scary thing, I highly recommend celebrating by crashing all the parties around Washington D.C.’s most glamorous event.

As I wait impatiently for that video to get posted to the TEDx website, here’s what I’m:

My mother and all the moms/mother figures in my life. Every year I try to do a donation themed gift and I just love these bracelets from my friends at Social Goods that benefit Every Mother Counts.

Palak Patel (yes, The Setback Cycle’s very own star of Chapter 8!) just published her cookbook, Food is Love. Her philosophy around food is that both cooking and eating are ways of connecting with our loved ones, expressing affection and celebrating life.

The latest insane news on women’s ever decreasing reproductive autonomy. Turns out, women in Missouri can’t get divorced if they’re pregnant.
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Also, did anyone see this piece about toddlers who remember their past lives? I can’t stop thinking about it!

Your big moves, the scary, bold ones propelling you into your next chapters. Like Courtney. She's a teacher, a mom of three, friend and Amy’s Antidote reader who decided to run for her local school board. She’s doing the scary thing because she cares so deeply about her community and I doubt you'd find anyone more qualified for a school board position than a mom who is also a teacher.
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What big scary things are you working toward? Let me know if you want it featured here so we can make this place a collective hype galaxy, always cheering each other on.