Inspiring Women in Business Podcast - Episode 19 - Why You're the Best Investment in Your Business

You are your best asset. That is why investing in yourself would be the best move that you can make.

In this episode, I talk about the benefits and importance of investing in yourself. I highlight some of the resistance that you might have and how to overcome that.

Key takeaways from this episode:

• Investing in yourself doesn't have to mean a financial investment. It could mean spending time reading a book on something. It could mean taking time spending time learning something. It could be doing a course. It could be working with a mentor. It could be making changes in your business.
   
• We're always learning. We are taught to be employees, and we are taught to do one thing. We have to unlearn this kind of thing, especially with the way things are changing all the time.
  
• You are your best asset for your business.
• You aren't supposed to do it all yourself. You don't know it all yourself.
  
  
• You aren't supposed to know everything.
  
  
• To know where and how to start investing with yourself, you have to start with yourself and your goals.
• Talk to someone about what you want, look at what you already have, and then look for the gaps. 

Episode Timeline:

00:04 Intro

01:08 Episode Intro

01:55 My former belief about education

03:14 How my belief changed

04:42 How to adapt in these changing times

05:20 Why women find it hard to invest in themselves

06:53 Reasons to prioritize investing in yourself

07:34 How do you know what to invest in

09:47 Outro

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More about Ruth:

Hi, I’m Ruth, a business coach specializing in helping freelancers and business owners adjust their mindset and marketing so they can get fully booked with clients they LOVE to work with. I’ve helped hundreds of self-employed women achieve the time and money freedom they craved.

I’ve started this podcast because when I first went all in and left the corporate world to be a freelancer, I was grateful for any work that came my way. After over 20 years of freelancing and working for other people, I started to realize I’d created a glass ceiling for myself.

In 2017, I finally started listening to that voice that had been telling me for a long time that I wasn’t doing what I loved and fulfilling my true potential.  It took a critical illness to give me that wake-up call.  I don’t want the same to happen to you.

You can expect practical advice, inspiring stories, and a lot of aha moments as we uncover and kick to the curb all the obstacles you have been putting in your way.

I’m on a mission to inspire women to start and play bigger in business.

Connect and know more about Ruth here:

Coaching: https://www.ruthgilbey.com/coaching

Free stuff: https://www.ruthgilbey.com/next-client

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ruthgilbeymarketingandcoaching/

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

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthgilbey/ 

Transcription 

Ruth Gilbey  00:04

Hello, and welcome to the inspiring women in business podcast. My name is Ruth Gilbey, and I'm a business and marketing coach. I'm on a mission to inspire women to start and play bigger in business. Now I started this podcast because when I first went all in and left the corporate world to be a freelancer, I was just grateful for any work that came my way. After over 20 years of freelancing and working for other people, I started to realize I'd created a glass ceiling myself. It was in 2017 when I finally started listening to that voice that had been telling me for a long time that I wasn't doing what I loved, and I wasn't fulfilling my true potential. It took a critical illness to give me that wake-up call. And I don't want the same thing to happen to you. You can expect practical advice, interviews, inspiring stories, and a lot of aha moments as we uncover and kick to the curb all the obstacles you've been putting in your way.

Ruth Gilbey  01:08

Today, I'm going to be talking about investing in yourself and the importance of investing in yourself. It's really interesting because I read a quote that by Warren Buffett that said the best investment that you can make is an investment in yourself. The more you learn, the more you earn. And it got me thinking about how I invest a lot in myself now, and what investing in yourself actually looks like. So investing in yourself doesn't have to mean a financial investment. It could mean spending time reading a book on something. It could mean taking time spending time learning something. It could be doing a course. It could be working with a mentor. It could be making changes in your business. It doesn't have to mean financial investment.

Ruth Gilbey  01:55

And I was thinking about this, that I really strongly believed that, you know, I'd spent all this time at school, went to college, went to university. So when I started working, my belief, the belief I had in my head, was that I'd done education, I've done education, it's now about working and getting experience. And of course, working and getting experience. We are learning all the time. But I was incredibly ambitious, in my 20s really ambitious. And suddenly, I found myself wanting to climb the corporate ladder and go into some kind of managerial role. And at no point did I say, Oh, I'm going to read a book, I'm going to do a course, I'm going to get a mentor, or I'm going to get a coach, and I look back at that. And I think, Oh my God, if I'd have done those things, how much easier would it have been for me, because, you know, it was hard. You know, as I was climbing the corporate ladder, I found it really hard. I didn't; I found that I didn't have all the resilience that I needed the experience. I didn't have the mentors around me to learn from, so why did I? But I didn't make that connection. I didn't make that connection that there was a coach out there or there was a book, or there was a course that I could have invested in. Because in my mind, education was done. And I find that really, really interesting.

Ruth Gilbey  03:14

So then, when I went freelance in 2011, and I had twins, and I took a career break for four years. And I realized that I couldn't go back to what I was doing before that I needed to do something different. And I started to do courses again, I fell into that trap of the first course that I do is the one that I must do, I must be that thing, you know, I must use that course I must decide what I want to do. I put a whole heap of pressure on myself to find that one thing that I should be doing. And I think it's because and I've talked about this on my podcast quite a lot. You know, I used to hate that question when I was a kid. What do you want to be when you grow up? And I used to think there's a right answer. And I used to think, you know, I remember being told if you can find the thing that you want to do, it's all going to get much easier. And that felt like an awful lot of pressure. And it also felt like a lot of pressure that I couldn't actually change my mind. So I have reframed it now, and I think I don't regret many things. But I'm the complete opposite. Now. I'm always reading books, about self-development, about business, because I've accepted that, you know, we're always learning and also because we are taught to be employees because we are taught to do one thing, we kind of have to unlearn this kind of thing if we are going to, you know, with the way things are changing all the time. 

Ruth Gilbey  04:42

Even if you hate the idea of being a business owner or you hate the idea of being an entrepreneur, things are moving and evolving all the time, and we kind of have to move with it. I'm not saying that we have to pivot our businesses or change our businesses, but we have to kind of be open and adapting because things are changing. The time so yes, I think we have to consider that we don't know it all. I used to be the know-it-all newbie who thought that I knew it all because I did the course because I knew what I was doing. And the best thing I did was when I actually humbled myself and said, I don't know it all, and I want to learn more. 

Ruth Gilbey  05:20

So I've just completely I haven't even looked at my notes here. But I have got some steps for you because I like to do steps for you. So if you're feeling guilty, if you feel like you don't have time, and I think a lot of women do, I think a lot of women feel like because maybe they've had a career break because of whatever reasons you might not have a family or whatever reason, a lot of us feel like because we do so much for other people, a lot of us are mothers, we've had career breaks, we feel guilty for investing in ourselves, even though we can see the evidence around us that people are saying that's the best thing I did getting clear on what I wanted to do and investing in myself. 

Ruth Gilbey  06:01

I think we also use time as an excuse. We use money as an excuse. But I also think that there's a lot of fears around investing in ourselves as well about what that might actually mean that it might because I used to be scared of doing courses or reading books or having a coach because I thought it meant, oh my goodness, they're going to tell me I'm doing it all wrong, which is really, really interesting. I think they're going to tell me I'm doing it all wrong when actually all it did was kind of uncover that I knew a lot already. It was just a bit of tweaking and a bit of refining. It didn't mean turning everything upside down. It was just some fine-tuning. To get me closer to the goals I wanted, to give myself permission to look for what I wanted to do. So let me just give you four reasons why I think you should prioritize investing in yourself.

Ruth Gilbey  06:53

Number one is you are your best asset for your business. As I said, the more you learn, the more you earn, not that you need to be the eternal student. It's just kind of like in the mindset that we're always growing and learning.

Ruth Gilbey  07:06

Number two, you aren't supposed to do it all yourself. You don't know it all yourself.

Ruth Gilbey  07:11

And number three is you aren't supposed to know everything. And also, sometimes you need someone you need to do something to remember how much you do know because you're doing it on autopilot. 

Ruth Gilbey  07:22

And number four is likely going to make it all much more enjoyable for you, less stressful, more, you know, motivated, clearer clarity to help you move in the right direction. 

Ruth Gilbey  07:34

And now I'm just a final note for you is how do you make a start knowing what to invest in? It all starts with you and your goals. But I asked someone in the group the other week. Someone said in the group the other week that they didn't enjoy they hadn't enjoyed freelancing for the last eight years. They haven't enjoyed it for eight years. And I said, I asked what would it look like? And it's something I asked on coaching calls as well. I asked one of my clients last week. She said I wanted to feel wonderful again. And I said, what does that look like? And that's the thing. It's not someone else's version of success. It's not what everybody else is doing. It's allowing yourself to explore what you really want to do, which is hard because we're not taught. A lot of us are not taught to think that way. But just we get busy. We get busy in our jobs. We get busy in our lives. And we don't reflect. We don't spend time thinking about these kinds of things until we have conversations.

Ruth Gilbey  08:31

So take a step back, talk to a friend or your partner talk about what you want. It might not need turning upside down. It might be some fine-tuning. But allow yourself permission to explore it. And then number two is to look at the resources that you already have, the things that you already have around you, the things that you already know, the books you have, the courses that you might have bought and never done. It doesn't have to be a massive, massive financial investment. And number three is then when you have identified that you've got clear on your goals, you've looked at what you've got already is looking for the gaps. Where are the gaps?

Ruth Gilbey  09:09

What is the thing that you really want? What's the thing that would help you move the needle move you forward, and then hopefully, number four will mean that you're closer to that actual goal. I hope you found that helpful. As I said, You are your best asset. I don't have any regrets. But I wish I'd realized this stuff a lot sooner because everything that I have invested in has helped me personally and professionally. Have a lovely day. Let me know if this resonates with you. Let me know if you invest in yourself or whether you need to change your mindset around investing, and whether this is helped at all. Bye. 

Ruth Gilbey  09:47

Thanks for listening to the inspiring women in business podcast. I hope you found this episode helpful. If you did, I would love it if you would leave me a review. Also, I would love to connect with you on Instagram. That's where I hang out most of the time. I'm @Ruth_Gilbey. I'll put a link in the show notes for you as well come and connect with me. Tell me about your business. And also tell me what you'd like to hear next on the podcast. And lastly, go and check out the business building hub on my website. There you can find more amazing free resources to help you take the next step in your business. And you can also find out other ways that you can work with me. I'll see you soon.