[Goal-Getter Series] Why mindset matters more than strategy


Hey, hey, Reader!

Welcome back to our October email series.

🌟The Life-Changing Magic of Getting Things Done 🌟

So far, we've covered part 1: Setting the Stage for Success, part 2: Activate Your Network and part 3: Make Starting (and Restarting) Easy.

Now, we're layering on one of the most critical pieces of goal-getting:


🥳 Is speaking on more stages in 2025 on your list of big goals?? 🥳


I want to help! Would you be interested in joining a small cohort of
women in a 4-week run of my
SpeakHer Accelerator Online course?

It's for women with a message ready to go and want to learn—and work!—
the process of finding stages to share your message, getting booked,
and maximizing the heck out of those opportunities.


Interested? Hit reply and let me know.
🚀 I'll shoot you all the details. 🚀


The night before we headed to the mountain for our 6-day trek to the summit of Kilimanjaro, we received the briefing of all briefings. Every day was described in alarming detail...miles, elevation, unpleasant conditions and likely body ailments.

Summit night was described as "horrid". Lawd.

Then, Jackson, one of the most experienced guides from the trekking company, said, "ou only need to do 5 things to reach the summit:

🏔️ Go slowly,
🏔️ Drink plenty of water,
🏔️ Eat the food you're given,
🏔️ Do what the guides tell you to do, and...

If you think you can, you can.

Why Mindset Matters for Goal-Getting

Let’s get real: Setting big goals is exciting, but it can also be intimidating. Whether it’s booking more speaking engagements in 2025, growing your personal brand, or tackling a new challenge at work, it’s easy to get stuck asking yourself: Do I have what it takes? Can I really do this??

That voice in your head matters more than you think.

In fact, research shows that self-efficacy—the belief in your ability to accomplish a task—can increase performance by up to 28%. Bottom line: If you don’t believe you can achieve a goal, even the best strategies and plans won’t get you there.

This is where the fourth step in the goal-setting framework comes in: You gotta believe!

Strengthening your belief ensures you stick with it...even when things get tough. And they will!

If you’re aiming for a big goal like landing more speaking gigs next year, cultivating the right mindset is essential.

The Importance of Belief on Success

Have you ever heard of Ernest Shackelton? (me either 😜 )

He was the captain of a ship called Endurance, undertaking an Antarctic expedition. An expedition many had attempted before. None succeeded.

They got behind schedule and got trapped in ice, surviving for months in brutal conditions without adequate supplies. Long story short, they had to cross impossible waters in small lifeboats, get to an island, and climb the mountains to cross the island and get to safety. It's an incredible, impossible story.

At the end of the day, the defining point was this: Shackelton believed he could bring his team home. He was unshakable in that belief, and it fueled his persistence until they finally succeeded.

What can we learn?

Your belief in your ability to succeed influences how hard you try.
And how likely you are to succeed.

When setbacks hit—and they will!—those with high belief don’t quit. You double down, try harder, and keep going, even when others give up.

Research confirms this over and over:

  • Students who believed they could complete assignments over the holidays were twice as likely to succeed.
  • Athletes who believed in their ability to perform trained harder and performed better.
  • Job seekers with high self-efficacy landed jobs faster, even in challenging markets.

If you’re pursuing a goal—landing your first speaking engagement or breaking into bigger events in 2025—you need to believe you can make it happen. Without that belief, even the best-laid plans will fizzle out at the first challenge

How to Build YOUR Belief in Success

Strengthening your self-efficacy is the key to sustaining effort, especially when setbacks happen (because they will happen). Here’s how you can build the belief that you can achieve your goals—step by step.

Step 1: Stack Small Wins

Every win, no matter how small, boosts your confidence and reinforces the belief that you can succeed. If your goal is to secure speaking engagements in 2025, break it down:

  • Start by pitching to smaller, local events.
  • Celebrate each positive response or opportunity, no matter how small.

The momentum from these small wins will fuel your belief that bigger opportunities are within reach.

Step 2: Watch and Learn from Others

Find people who have achieved what you’re striving for. Seeing their success reinforces the idea that you can do it too. This is why community and networking are so important.

  • Connect with other speakers who are already booking the types of events you want. If they can do it, so can you.
  • Learn from their stories: How did they overcome rejection? What habits helped them succeed?

When you model the success of others, you not only pick up new strategies but also start believing that success is possible for you too.

Step 3: Seek Encouragement from Credible Sources

Words of encouragement from the right people—those you respect and trust—can work wonders for your confidence.

  • Ask for feedback from mentors or colleagues who believe in your potential.
  • Surround yourself with people who support your speaking goals and can remind you of your abilities when self-doubt creeps in.

If a trusted mentor tells you, "You can do this. I KNOW you can." that belief becomes easier to internalize.

Overcoming Setbacks

Even when you belief, that belief will be tested over and over. The key is to persist through challenges and learn to restart quickly after a stumble. If you skipped last week's email on implementation intentions, go back and grab you some!

When pursuing your goals, expect setbacks—it’s part of the journey. Maybe you’ll pitch an event and get no response. Maybe life will get in the way, and you’ll miss a week of outreach. When that happens, remind yourself:

Setbacks are not failures. They’re just part of the process.

Use the mindset trick we discussed last week: restart as soon as possible. Set an if-then plan to get back on track.

  • If I don’t hear back from an event organizer, then I’ll follow up in one week.
  • If I skip a week of pitching, then I’ll send two extra pitches next week to make up for it.

The quicker you restart, the easier it will be to keep going.

Believe It, Achieve It

Achieving big goals—like stepping onto more stages in 2025—requires more than just strategy. It takes belief in yourself and your ability to see the journey through, even when the going gets tough.

So here’s your challenge for today:

  • Write down one small action you’ll take this week toward your goal.
  • Identify one person whose success you’ll model.
  • Reach out to someone you trust and ask for their encouragement.

Remember: The only person who can convince you that you can achieve your goal is you. But once you believe it, there’s no limit to what you can accomplish.

You’ve got this. Now go make it happen.

Next week, we'll move to the last step in our goal-getting series. One more way to make those goals reality!

Meantime...

Interested in joining a small group of women to learn and implement
a proven strategy to speak on more stages in 2025?

Hit reply and let me know.
🚀 I'll shoot you all the details. 🚀

Always in your corner, ❤️

PS Know another woman who needs to get her message out? Why not give her a little nudge to join us? If a friend sent this email to you, congrats! That means she believes in you and wants to see you pick yourself, too!

Hop over
here to join this amazing community. You'll get my Speak with Confidence quickstart guide and a 5-email mini-video series to help you implement the five steps to overcome fear and doubt and cultivate confidence.

See you there!


When you're ready, here are 3 ways I can help:

⭐️ Looking for an engaging, energetic, impactful speaker for your event?
⭐️ Ready to empower your leaders or team to communicate clearly and confidently?
⭐️ Not sure about your best next step to craft the message that grows your business and personal brand?

Let's taco bout it! 🌮

🎤 Speaking from Experience

Public speaking, communication and leadership strategies and principles to help women leaders rise and shine. Received weekly by 650+ business owners and exec-level leaders.

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