An Entrepreneur's Toolkit for Overcoming Self-Doubt

Jim James (00:02.338)
Hello and welcome to this episode of The Unnoticed Entrepreneur. Today we're going to Austin, Texas, and we're going to talk to Dr. Benjamin Ritter, who has a master's degree in leadership development. And he is going to talk with us about what we can do when things change, when we may suffer some trauma, either because something happens in society. We know there are some terrible things happening at the minute, but also in business when our businesses maybe fail or we...

We struggle because the things that we had planned for the business don't work out as we'd hoped. We can suffer some trauma. And I'm really interested in the mindset and how we can help to overcome that. And so Benjamin spends his time coaching entrepreneurs and helping them with their story. And he's got an innovative three C's conversation and pillar piece that he's gonna share with us. And also the importance of taking pride in what we do. So.

Dr. Benjamin Ritter joining us from Texas. Thank you so much for taking the time to come on today.

Dr. Benjamin Ritter (01:06.485)
Happy to be here. And I know my degrees can be kind of confusing. So the doctorate's in organizational leadership. The master's is in entrepreneurial management. The other master's is in health policy administration. And then I have a bachelor's in marketing. And I have to say this because it's important to why I'm here where I'm at today. I have also a minor in nutrition, which was supposed to be actually my major initially. So I'm not very much of an academic. I have people, I have entrepreneurs come to me all the time and ask if they should go back to grad school. And I...

We have a long conversation that basically leads to no or not yet. And so it's interesting that I ended up getting so much schooling in my background.

Jim James (01:44.042)
You did. I mean, you should have lots of doctors in front of you, you know, and then I should think, oh, you must need a really long business card, uh, then to, uh, get all those things in. It means that you're super well qualified and you're also though, an investor. You're a coach. You've been an entrepreneur on your own, right? So really, really interested in what you're going to share with us today. Tell us, you know, before we were recording the challenges right now, all over the world.

Both from wars, but also economically we've got interest rates going up. Funds are not necessarily coming in for entrepreneurs in the way they used to, for example, creating some pressures, a lot of dislocation, relocation. With the work you're doing, share with us what kind of work you're doing, how you're helping entrepreneurs to tackle the challenges, the mindset challenges, the motivation, and just the feelings of being able to carry on with what they're doing.

Dr. Benjamin Ritter (02:46.529)
Very important to be aware of environmental factors as an entrepreneur, but they shouldn't really be dictating your level of success. They're just another ingredient to the cake that you're baking. And so I work with entrepreneurs that are at various stages of their businesses, some that are CEOs now. So to become a entrepreneur or founder to the CEO, you talk about having a larger team in multiple locations or a certain revenue stream that you now have different responsibilities in terms of how you live your day to day.

But then there's also founders and entrepreneurs of much smaller businesses that are kind of the sole entrepreneur, the bootstrapped entrepreneur. And actually if you're a bootstrapped entrepreneur right now, which means you're kind of, if you didn't raise any money, you're investing in yourself and your own business, maybe you have a smaller scale. You actually have a lot more freedom right now. You can actually take advantage of this market in many more ways than a CEO might be able to do. So the people I'm working with right now are more so adjusting to how they're going to act in this new market, which

we can talk about a little bit more because I feel like you want to respond to.

Jim James (03:45.418)
No, no, no. Mic is yours. I did the introduction and I think that, you know, I'm interested to hear how you're helping people to see this as an opportunity and how to be flexible. And sometimes in my own mind, and I was just reading as well, the new Gladwell book, you know, what the dog saw, and he talks about the difference between, you know, choking and freezing up and about how some people can't think through the moment. And then they can't throw the ball or they can't make the decision.

Take us through that. How do you help people to get through that then, Ben?

Dr. Benjamin Ritter (04:20.725)
I just have to keep in mind that it doesn't matter what's happening around you. It matters how you're going to respond to it. So the market today is just the market you're operating in. You still have customers that still want to buy things. You still have a product that you're selling. Now what you sell or how you sell or how you message may change based on those things. And it's your role as an entrepreneur just to be aware of that. Not to

make excuses for why you're not successful, but instead to find reasons on how to be successful. We were sharing earlier that I have multiple income streams. I have multiple levers that I pull on my own business based on what's happening in the environment and what's happening to the client that I'm being, that I'm serving at the time, the issues that are being faced within the broader economy. And then also I'm going to talk about certain topics that are different. Like we're talking about now, we're talking about the current situation that we're in, it's going to resonate with people. It's going to draw people to your content, it's your website.

And so the entrepreneurs I work with, some of them are like product based entrepreneurs. And so for them, it's more so if they're investing, like right now, their investment is drying up. And so, okay, so have they been smart about money? And so are we evaluating expenses? Are we looking at profit margins? Are we looking at manufacturing contracts and deals? And that's kind of the nuts and bolts of it. But really, what is at the foundation of all this is. What are you working for? Do you believe in yourself while you're working towards it?

And have you cultivate an environment that is going to serve that. And that actually is the foundation of self leadership. And that tends to be what you have to start with. And then everything else is just a checkbox, right? It's a to do list.

Jim James (05:59.414)
But you say that it's easy, that you have to separate yourself from the environment. But sometimes, and I did this myself in China, you set up a business because of that environment, because of the environmental factors, right? If those environmental factors change, you can find your business no longer in existence, right? So how do you help people to kind of overcome the sense that they got it wrong? You know, they were in the wrong place or they got themselves into the wrong position.

Dr. Benjamin Ritter (06:28.825)
Well, it's not about the business. It's about you doing something that you love. So for example, a manufacturing company, which was initially maybe selling reagents and buffers, and this is something that happened, goes through a pandemic and so everyone that was purchasing their materials before is not anymore, and so now they are pivoting to providing COVID solution, you know, so solution for the testing kits for COVID or to utilize your manufacturing capabilities to create masks. And you saw a ton of companies do this where they're saying.

Okay, so we're not going to sell what we were selling before, but we're going to sell something that the customer wants. And as an entrepreneur, if you go to yourself, okay, so now I built this business to be in this specific market. The customer doesn't want this anymore. Great, can you utilize your current capabilities to pivot your business, to still do something that you enjoy? Or do you have to go on to something else? And as an entrepreneur, hopefully you've been operating your business in a way where you can close

at least in break even or profitability or with some sort of level of profitability. And you have a community and a network that can serve you towards your next path. We're entrepreneurs. We don't, we're not doing one thing. We're doing, we're doing many things and hopefully you gain value, not from the product you sell, but the fact that you get to sell it.

Jim James (07:38.71)
Right. So if you've got multiple things going on, how do you gain clarity then on what the priorities are? Because I certainly find now, you know, on LinkedIn or any of the social medias, it can be bombarded by, you know, you could do this, you could do that. And if the environmental factors are changing so quickly, interest rates was environment, the environment.

How do you help people to find clarity then, Ben, on what they can love and be committed to that has longevity?

Dr. Benjamin Ritter (08:19.181)
Well, longevity debate if it matters or not. So I do what I do because I get to do the work that I love through the work that I currently have the opportunity to do, but I can change what I do as long as I still get to do the work that I love. That's kind of a tongue twister. So I'm working with an entrepreneur right now, who sold a business, wants to buy another business, has no idea what business he wants to buy. Okay, so that actually really hinders your ability to purchase a business. And it also is going to probably help

make you feel stuck, it's going to make you feel as frustrated, drained, and hopeless because you are not pointed in a specific direction. Now you can always change your direction, but it's important that you at least have one initially. And so you need to spend a lot of time when you're, if you're in a place of unknown or in a place of, I want everything, figuring out what you want to actually do. And there is a variety of different activities, different exercises. You can find them everywhere around career clarity

that are going to help you find that answer. I do not suggest taking an assessment that's gonna tell you what job you should have or industry you should be a part of. I actually suggest you do some reflection on when you were happiest, when you were the least happy. There's some values exercises. There's that exercise I shared with you about why I'm here. We can dive into any of those more specifically, but ultimately what happens is you find out what you stand for. You find out what really sparks your interest right now, cause that can change.

And then you, with that information, start exploring opportunities and you create goals based on that to take action to explore them further, which then leads to potentially more of a direction. And so I'm going to rewind all the way to the beginning of this response, and I'm happy to dive into any specific exercise that you'd like to double click on.

Jim James (09:59.854)
Okay, so you talked there about finding clarity. Can you give us a simple exercise then, Dr. Ben Ritter? Can you give us a simple exercise that we can all do, whether we're in the gym right now, just staying in our cars or walking the dog, that helps us to define that sense of purpose?

Dr. Benjamin Ritter (10:23.397)
Still you won better, I'll give you two. Because why not? Why not give you two? Yeah, and you get a bonus one. So before you start setting goals, before you start making an annual plan, and then set your daily tasks and goals and such, what you need to do is figure out what really sparks your interests and is gonna help you to energize and motivate it. And as an entrepreneur, if you can't be attached to the meaning behind your work, then your work isn't going to be meaningful because you're not gonna stay motivated and you're gonna give up and not be resilient.

Jim James (10:25.886)
Okay, it's a bonus, you get a bonus.

Dr. Benjamin Ritter (10:53.069)
So the first thing you actually have to figure out is what are your values? And you can do that, there are two activities. The first one, it's easier. So I'm gonna say it first. It's writing down the question, why am I here? And then answering that question 20 times. And trying to create different answers for each one of those 20 different answers on why you're here. That's going to hint at the things that you truly care about and what you wanna work towards. That's one exercise.

Really simple. You could do it right now. I highly recommend you write it down instead of type it out and then you share it with somebody and then have a conversation around it. Because when you share things with people, more information comes. Can I go to number two?

Jim James (11:34.81)
Please do. Yes, that's it. Just to clarify this writing down. Why am I here? 20 times, but it's actually 20 different responses right to triangulate back.

Dr. Benjamin Ritter (11:43.405)
Yes, and not like I am here because I'm on a podcast. I am here because I live in this house, but why am I here on this planet in existence, living the life that you are living, what you stand for basically.

Jim James (11:59.286)
That's wonderful. So that's clear. So Ben, what's our second one?

Dr. Benjamin Ritter (12:04.425)
Okay, second one, a little bit more context and direction. So you want to explore memories, memories of when you're happiest and when you're unhappy. The reason why we look at memories is because the things that leave the greatest emotional imprint in our mind are the things that we generally tend to care about the most and that we stand for. And so we can derive our values from exploring our memories. So you will list out the five greatest memories you've ever experienced in your life, from your relationships,

work from your personal life. And this will take time, I promise you. It is actually very difficult to find five of your happiest memories. Then you will define what's happening in those memories. So who was there? What was going on? Spend a second, close your eyes, remember what it was like, smell the air, remember what it smelled like. Write all that information down. It's incredibly important. To do this activity, now you have five specific memories. You have the details of those memories.

Now review those memories for themes. What is it that's generally happening in these memories? Where are the similarities? Are there threads, through lines between these memories? And just write down any sort of kind of overlaps that they may have, keywords, themes, et cetera. Great, part one done. There's a lot of parts, at least a couple parts. Part two, explore your unhappy memories. So you're doing the same activity but for your unhappy memories. Who were you with? Where were you at?

Jim James (13:24.622)
Okay.

Dr. Benjamin Ritter (13:32.521)
older you, what did it smell like, just write down everything that you can. It's may be difficult. It may be uncomfortable, but, uh, hey, also you can have a healing opportunity for confronting those moments too. Uh, but we're also looking for keywords and themes and we're looking for similarities between those memories. Again, work, life, relationships, anything you can think of. And five, because often we can't think of that many, but we want to create five. I promise you in your

entire life you've had five memories that are unhappy and happy. Part two okay so should we go to part three?

Jim James (14:11.182)
Yeah, let's do that. That's great.

Dr. Benjamin Ritter (14:13.437)
Okay, part three is answering a very similar question to why am I here, but with more context. So now it's what are you happy about, what are you unhappy about, and what does this mean about who you are? So who am I? You answer that question. Who am I? And so you look at the memories, the themes, the keywords, the similarities, the overlaps, and you write down phrases. We can write down paragraphs. You can write down single words.

What you're doing is you're going to brain dump for about 10 minutes based on what you've now uncovered about yourself. That's part three. Ready for part four?

Jim James (14:48.61)
Go for it. Yep, we're following along.

Dr. Benjamin Ritter (14:49.805)
Part four, part four, look at all the gunk that you just put on a piece of paper that you just dumped out that is about who you are and start pulling out the most important words to you. So the five to 10 most important words that resonate from you, you write those down. Okay, that's part four. So part five, can I move on? Okay, so now you have these words and now you wanna actually start prioritizing them. So if I could have this word,

Jim James (15:09.962)
Yep. Yeah, move on to part five.

Dr. Benjamin Ritter (15:19.957)
would I give up everything else? Okay, do that. Figure out what that number one word is. Then look at the second. If I could have this word, would I give up everything else? And this is these words that resonate about who you are and what you stand for. So now you have a list of five to 10 things that are in order that represent who you are at your core. And it's not over. So part six would be defining them. So actually, what do they mean for your work, for your professional life, for your relationships? And you can have a different definition for each aspect of your life.

And then the last step is to then actually say, okay, how do I get more aligned with this in my life? What can I do with this information? How do I take action to make sure that I'm living true to this? And then you integrate those into your goals, into your business. And you can also use them to assess for areas that you're not aligned and ultimately have a tool that helps you live a more fulfilling life. And you have your values and what you stand for, now you can derive where you go.

Jim James (16:14.25)
That's wonderful. You've got sound like Indian seven different steps. Of course, that will also be in the transcript. So don't worry if you're following along and trying to replay, it's in the transcript as well. Ben, we talk about finding clarity, but what about control? How can people then take control of the decisions that they've taken around that clarity? Because many people

know, what they want, but it's the getting it done that's the hard part.

Dr. Benjamin Ritter (16:48.241)
But then do they really want it? So clarity itself is creating transparency around what you stand for. And then you define this to your goals. And then you select actions about that align with what you stand for, which builds confidence. And then you create confidence within yourself. So now you have belief in yourself and you know what you want to achieve. You know why you want to achieve it.

If you find that you still aren't taking action towards those things, you still can't create an environment around yourself that supports it, then we need to take a look at what you're truly committed to and if those are things you actually really care about. Now, let's say that you do really care about them, but you're struggling to show up. Great, let's take a look at your environment. Where do you live? Where do you work? Who do you engage with? Who do you talk to on a daily basis? Who are your closest friends? Where's conflict coming from?

Who do you know in your community that's related to what you care about in your goals? You take a look at all that stuff. And honestly, simply it's just, you're trying to stop eating cookies. Don't have cookies in the house. Don't buy cookies. It's very simple. It's very, very straightforward when it comes to, is the community around you, is the environment around you support you? And I tell you, every entrepreneur that I work with, it's who do you know in your network that's related to what you're trying to build?

Who is one step above where you're at. And if you don't have at least three people in your community that you can ramble off right away, we need to go start doing some work.

Jim James (18:18.094)
Okay, so this idea that we are the sum of, I think five is the number that's quoted often as you're the sum of the five people that you spend most time with. Ben Ritter over there in Austin.

Dr. Benjamin Ritter (18:30.097)
More than that, by the way, and more than that, you are the product of the media that you consume. And too often, and this goes to skill development as well, you work with an entrepreneur and they go, I can't do this thing. And what's the thing? Most entrepreneurs complain about sales. Great. How many podcasts do you listen to a week about sales? How many books are you reading? How many role-playing sales conversations are you doing? How many programs have you purchased?

I can't tell you if there's something that's keeping you stuck, you have the right, you have the permission and you should feel empowered to go learn it. That's why you're an entrepreneur and go invest that time.

Jim James (19:08.418)
How do you help people that are lacking in self-confidence? Because all of those things that you've mentioned before, people may feel like that's what they wanna do. They may feel that they need to commit and meet people. But they may be feeling, especially after working from home or hybrid, and maybe they've had a relocation or a dislocation, some kind of trauma, how do you help them to feel confident enough to, if you like, step out of

the place that they're in that eventually becomes more and more comfortable. Obviously, we talk a lot now about mental health and about depression. How do you help people to take the step? What do you help them to do? What action do you do?

Dr. Benjamin Ritter (19:42.881)
Yeah.

Dr. Benjamin Ritter (19:52.089)
So there's a lot of steps that actually need to be taken when you're reframing internal belief systems. But for the sake of this conversation and the time that we have, when you create clarity of intention and you commit to something, confidence tends to derive from it. So it tends to automatically build from it. We tend to hold ourselves back as entrepreneurs. We tend to lack confidence because we care less about the things that we care about than we care about other people's opinions of us.

So we are more worried about the fear of the perception of others doing something wrong, of basically what they're going to say about us or how they're going to judge us than we do about the things we care about, the impacts we want to create in the world. Which is why clarity is so important because if you become so committed and so clear and you attach yourselves to so much meaning about what you want to do, then...

other people's opinions start mattering less because you know what you stand for and who you are. And so the number one thing that all starts with is how committed are you? How clear are you? And why do you want to do the thing that you want to do? And then you build a community around yourself that supports that, which also helps with confidence. But when you have limiting beliefs, a lot of it, there's a lot of reprogramming that needs to happen outside of that too.

Jim James (21:12.606)
Okay. And I think that what we've also touched on there is this story that you have for yourself. So is there something that you can give people if you like as a script, Dr. Benjamin Ritter, in terms of a story where maybe people are coming from a reframing or a trauma event? What storyline do you like to give clients?

Dr. Benjamin Ritter (21:37.101)
But it's less about it's so it's more about when you have fear, when you lack confidence in yourself, it's because for some reason, some part of you is trying to keep you safe. So the story that you have to tell yourself is that you're safe. Now you have to believe it. So there's a great book called reframing by Richard Bandler, the founder of the linguistic programming, who talks about you have to talk to and honor the part of you that is trying to keep you safe. And

if you are afraid of something, you say, great, thank you so much for making me afraid of this. I really appreciate it. Why? Because up to this point, it's been really helpful in making sure that I am safe and secure in my life. But I want to ask you, would it be okay? Because I promise you all be safe because I'm doing these other things. Would it be okay for me to change his belief? Would it be okay for me to take this action? You have a dialogue, you close your eyes, you talk to you. This is a very big leap in terms of an exercise, but there are

programs that you have in your mind that it's developed over time, 100% because of fear of you not being safe. And that literally that's what everything drives to. So do you believe that you're safe? I promise you that you are. I promise you that if something doesn't go right in your business that you will be okay. You'll figure it out. But do you believe that? And so a lot of coaching actually works on making sure that the client believes that.

Jim James (22:55.97)
Well, okay, so that's wonderful. And it's actually very, very positive as well. But you're an entrepreneur in your own right. If there's one thing that you would like to share that you found works or rather that doesn't work when it comes to sort of reframing and rebuilding and rebranding yourself, is there something that you'd like to share that you'd say to people, if you're rebuilding, don't try this one?

Dr. Benjamin Ritter (23:27.713)
Well, most entrepreneurs think that they need a thousand, 10,000 million people to be successful. And so they try to get on the most podcasts, they try to get on the news, they try to go viral, but unless you're selling a very low cost product, you don't need that many people. And so I highly recommend that when it comes to branding, you start small, you start in your current network, you start in your community, you start in people that truly need your product.

And then from there, that tends to build momentum over time. But I see entrepreneurs try to try to get the whole pie instead of just a slice or a nibble, and that really is defeating to them. It's deflating. It's discouraging because they're not, they don't, they're not reaching the outcome that they want to achieve. And I was coaching a client the other day, he's launching a consulting practice. And he was talking about how he had to, you know, get out there and get all these clients and what should he do for his career and where is he going to get his income? And I go.

You're attaching way too much to the beginning of your business. Get one client. That's it. Find other ways to make the money you need to make right now. Get one client. And it just changed the perspective on how big of a lift you need to actually take in the beginning of a business.

Jim James (24:45.014)
That is wonderful. Dr. Benjamin Ritter in Austin, Texas, as you know, we don't have that much time. If people want to get hold of you, where can they come?

Dr. Benjamin Ritter (24:56.889)
Check out liveforyourselfconsulting.com. My free ebook will pop up too when you go to that page. If you don't have an ad blocker, if you have one, send me a message on LinkedIn, look up Dr. Benjamin Ritter. And let me know that you heard me here and I'm happy to share that ebook with you too. So.

Jim James (25:10.766)
That is absolutely wonderful. You plainly have so much wisdom, and I'm sorry that we have such a short amount of time, but hopefully what we manage to do is to give people a guide in you. Excuse me. Do that again.

Jim James (25:31.222)
Dr. Benjamin Ritter over there in Austin, Texas. We have so much wisdom in you that we're trying to cram into such a short amount of time. Thank you so much for joining me and giving us some essentially positive encouragement about finding clarity, starting on a human scale and believing that we will be safe and that we will be secure in the future. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Dr. Benjamin Ritter (25:59.617)
Yeah, and thank you so much for having me. It's been fun.

Jim James (26:00.254)
It has been brilliant. So we've been all the way over in Austin, Texas, listening to Dr. Benjamin Ritter. He has so many qualifications and they're all absolutely amazing because he's managed to bring those into a coaching practice and in just a short amount of time today, given us some insights into his amazing wisdom. Do check out his website and he has an ebook that you can also download from his website. And for me, one of the main takeaways really is this idea that we have to find clarity first.

we have clarity in what we're doing in our purpose, then we'll get confidence and then we can build the business, whatever business that is that we want for ourselves now and for the future. So thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Unnoticed Entrepreneur with me, Jim James. And if you've enjoyed it, do please follow the show. I wouldn't want you to miss another great guest like Dr. Ritter. And until we meet again, I just encourage you to keep on communicating. Thanks for listening.