Let’s now dive into a few strategies that you can use to start identifying your strengths and overcoming other areas that you may need improvement on. After all, starting a business and becoming an entrepreneur is not only about providing a valuable service to others; it’s about really knowing and owning your strengths, and how you maximize those qualities. This is how others will be influenced in finding value in your business.

1. Remember to put your strengths first

Being an entrepreneur is an iterative process of understanding who you are, what you’re made of, and then aligning your business with your strengths. Your personal strengths should be put at the forefront of your business, which will help you:

Feel proud and fulfilled while running your private practice
Avoid getting stuck in the mentality of doing things the way you think you should, even if it’s not really the right path for you.
Say “no” if it is not something that is aligned with your principles and values
Fuel positive thoughts to remind yourself that are capable of amazing things during challenging times.

2. Identifying your personal strengths

This relates to your personal interests and where you currently are at in life, which will help you bring out your authenticity and will later help you identify your ideal client profile (which we’ll get into during the Week 5 Module). It’s incredibly important to define your personal strengths before starting your business.

By having a strong sense of self, you help others feel confident in knowing they can trust you with their own health and business. By knowing your own strengths, this will give you the confidence you need in yourself to propel you forward as you are initiating the building process of your business, which will become an extension and reflection of YOU.

ACTIVITY

Identify what your strengths are and understand how you can leverage those traits in your business.

STEP 1: Ask yourself the following and write down what some of your key traits and strengths. Some questions to ask yourself are:

What are you passionate about?
Where are you currently in life that really inspires you to be your best that you want to pass along to others?

STEP 2: Next to each of these traits, ask yourself and write down how might these factors differentiate you?

Some examples of strengths to identify about yourself:

You’re a home chef and foodie who is talented at whipping up delicious restaurant-worthy healthy recipes.
You are a working mother, multi-tasking and juggling your home and family, while still managing to keep your health at the forefront of your priorities.
You are the most reliable person that your family and friends turn to in times of need, because they know you will help nurture a positive environment that they need to rebuild their confidence.
You are efficient at breaking down far-reaching health goals around specific biometric numbers into detailed, manageable steps for clients or patients.

3. Identifying your strengths in relation to others.

Knowing how you relate to others will help you better convey and communicate your strengths, which in turn will draw people towards working with you. It is important to remember that business is about your ability to form mutually beneficial relationship with others through the values and interactions that are exchanged. Here are some tips to get you started:

Observe how you carry yourself, and note how others react to you.
Be mindful about how you interact with other people, it can help you figure out the types of people that you can relate to the best.
Be aware of certain types of people that you get along with the best.

Admittedly, it is not always easy to step outside of yourself and to see how you interact with others. Another way to do so is by using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) as a constructive framework to analyze where your strengths are when you engage with others. It provides a relatively objective way to see where you lie on the spectrum of complex personalities by gauging where you are within 4 traits:

Are you an introvert or an extrovert?
How do do you take in information, by sensing or through your intuition?
How do you make decisions, based on how you’re thinking or how you’re feeling?
How do you deal with the outside world, by judging or perceiving?

Activity

Take this full ~12-minute version of the MBTI, which will provide you a detailed report on your personality traits.

STEP 1: From this report, take the time to write down the strengths about yourself in how you interact with others

STEP 2: Ask yourself how may that specific trait help carry you forward in your business, and write it down next to that strength.

STEP 3: Use this information to begin thinking about how you will reach your ideal client profile, and how they may perceive you and interact with your business.

Remember, you can take this test as many times as you need as you continue down your entrepreneurial journey to reassess and gauge where you're at.

4. Overcoming your weaknesses.

Knowing your weaknesses is just as important as knowing your strengths. It’s important to understand and know them, so you know areas that you need to actively work on and improve. You MUST set goals for yourself to overcome them...yes, that means that you need to get outside of your comfort zone in order to grow!

Here are a few tips to remember:

Set a measurable goal and practice - Settle on a cadence to practice and observe how you do each time. Note your improvement and notice how it gets easier each time..and just keep trying!
Don’t be afraid to ask others for feedback - You must be willing to open yourself up and allow constructive feedback from others in order to improve. It is especially important in the very early stages to get feedback so you know you’re headed in the right direction with your business.
Find people who can be constructive AND encouraging with you - Be sure to tell them that you need their honesty and constructive feedback, and assure them that you will not take it personally. The goal is to obtain the feedback you need to highlight areas that you may need to work on.

ACTIVITY