Hello and welcome back to the High Performance Nursing podcast. It's me Liam. I hope you're well. I want to apologize in advance because I sound like I've got a snotty nose and I do. So I sound very clogged up but that's okay we're here for it because We ain't missing no week in this High Performance Nursing Podcast.

We've got people listening. Thank you so much for listening. We want people to inspire, motivate, and move towards their nursing career goals. So, if you've been around the High Performance Testing Podcast over the last few weeks, we've had some incredible guests. We have had the amazing Rachel Bilton Semek.

I had so many messages from you all about Rachel and her just amazingness. I think it's the only podcast where I've said like three words. I love it. Rachel, I go back. She's incredible. Connect with Rachel. If you haven't listened to that, go back and listen. We also met the amazing Beth Montano again, who helps nurses land non clinical jobs.

Beth is an incredible good friend of the podcast and she's coming back on and we're going to be talking about strategic steps, how to actually. Jazz up your resume, your cover letter selection criteria, and your interview, and your confidence for those non clinical roles, because I know that can be a block for most people.

Then we had Rach Rachel. Then we had Emily, the amazing Emily Wilson, RFDS flight nurse. I mean, who hasn't wanted to be an RFDS flight nurse? I know some of you are like, hell to the no, but I mean, I thought about it for a while, but I was like, I'm not doing babies. It's not me. It's not my thing. So, That was an incredible podcast and I'm sure it inspired many of you.

We would love to hear from you. Please let me know. Also, please feel free to leave a review. The more people that review the podcast, of course, we would love you to leave first. Janice, I'm not telling you what to do, but the more people that leave as a podcast review, the more people that Apple put the podcast And we do this for free.

We're here to support you guys in navigating your career. and offering you all the things that, you know, literally I'm always wanting from nursing support. So today, short episode on underselling yourself and why when we undersell ourselves, it leads to under earning. You heard me. We are not making the money that we could be making as clinicians in all walks of our clinical life and career because we are so good.

And underselling ourselves. So what do I mean? I coach nurses every single day. And one of the biggest challenges is that we are just so unable to sell ourselves and communicate our awesomeness. And I spend a lot of time helping people see how great they are. And this makes complete sense. This is very, very human.

And often, when I tell people that they are underselling themselves, they go to the extreme of like, well, I don't want to be too confident. I don't want to be too egotistical. And if that's you, if you go to that place, then I want you to stick around today because this is really going to help you. So when we're underselling ourselves, what I mean by that is we're just undervaluing, underacknowledging, underappreciating our incredible awesomeness, our personal life And professional career skills, knowledge, and experience.

And I think all of us do this in some way, shape, or form, right? I do this with the podcast. I undersell how awesome it is. And I undersell how many people listen. And when people ask me about it, I just go, Oh, I've got a podcast, and I undersell the hell out of it. But I should be bloody proud of it. It's a lot of work that's gone into it, being consistent over 150 episodes.

And we've inspired and motivated and empowered over 65, 000 of you globally. Like, it's so inspiring and empowering. But when I spend a lot of time underselling myself and not seeing my achievements I become resentful about the podcast because I'm human, and I don't want to do it, I want to record it today, I don't want to do this anymore, and I go to that place, because I'm hashtag human.

But the reality is that through that process of under acknowledging and under valuing my contribution to the world, I ultimately, in some way, shape or form, under earn. There's a direct correlation. And this is true for you too. The more that I undersell my podcast and its reach and its growth and, you know, all of the people that we connect with, I reduce the opportunity to get to attract amazing podcast sponsors that can help me run this podcast and at least cover the cost of the podcast, right?

So if you're listening and you want to sponsor the podcast, get in touch with me. But for reals. When I undersell myself, I under earn. I do not create the amazing results that I want to create in my life and career. And who doesn't want more money? Can I get an amen? Who doesn't want more money? So how does this apply in your nursing career?

Whether you are an AIN, That is applying for your first AIM role or you're a Don that is applying for the CEO position. We have to get better at recognizing our amazingness, our strengths, our opportunities for growth and our achievements. I think that this is one of the things that needs to be deeply embedded within nursing clinical practice reflection and culture is this Milestone check in every quarter as if we were a business every quarter checking in.

Okay. What are my goals this quarter? what am I working towards and at the end of the quarter reflecting and reviewing and Seeing how amazing you are and what you've created because without that we constantly live in the gap You've heard me talk about the gap in the game before. When we are living in the gap, we are not actively choosing to see our amazing gains.

And when we live in gap, all we think about is lack. Lack of money. Lack of time. Lack of growth. Lack of investment. Lack of support. Because when our brain is consciously focused on that, that's what we will attract and see and find. Okay, it's kind of like a reticular activating system. You tell your brain to focus on something, it's going to focus on it and find all the evidence to prove it to be true.

Even if it's not true. Right? So, when we are actively underselling ourselves... As A-A-I-N-A nurse, an rm, an EN A cn, A-C-N-C-A, don, you are actively blocking yourself from attracting more wealth. When we undersell, we under earn. I'm coining that sentence, . It's mine. I love it because I see it so many times.

For example, I'm coaching some incredible nurses at the moment. And we always start off by acknowledging and seeing where they're at within their career and seeing what their career story is, okay? They might not know I'm doing this, but this is what I do. I help them uncover their career story. What do they tell themselves about their career?

And you know, a lot of the time, it's like, I've been a nurse for 10 years, but I haven't really done much. And, you know, I've stayed in the same job, and I don't really have anything to offer another role. And I'm not very suitable for this job. And I'm just sitting there in awe, like, because I've seen their resume, and I've seen what they've achieved.

Whether they've been in the same organisation for 10 years, or they've been in 10 for the last 10 years. It doesn't matter. All experience is valid, it's worthy, and it's worth acknowledging! Because again, if we don't acknowledge it, how in the hell can we ever expect an employer to acknowledge our awesomeness, and to give us What we went there for, which is an opportunity, growth, and money to earn, to earn more income.

Okay, we all need more money at this point in time, as the world stands. So, underselling becomes this self fulfilling prophecy in the nursing industry, where I see it time and time again, where we undersell, undersell, undersell, but we're asking for more, and asking for more. And we have to start learning how to sell and communicate our skill sets, so that when we ask for more, we receive more, and we're open to receiving it.

Because when we are underselling ourselves and underappreciating ourselves, it's really difficult to energetically attract what we actually want and need. It's really difficult to attract abundance, and money, and growth, and opportunity from the lack, and scarcity, and not being good enough. Can you see the connection there?

So when I'm coaching these nurses, we go down the queer story path, and they tell me this story that's very gap focused. Do you do the same thing? Get with yourself. Don't judge yourself. Do you do the same thing? Do you say that you don't have this yet? You don't have that yet? Or do you focus on...

Well, I'm so proud. I've been in RN for three years. I've got my postgraduate qualification. I've got three years of amazing, diverse experience. And I'm working towards my CN and I'm starting to do education, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Because that is a totally different mindset. Totally different approach.

That is not underselling. And those people are the people that will move forward. attract the opportunities that they want. Whether it's factually true or not, because I can hear some of you saying, but Liam, some of these people are delusional and they're not ready, they're not right for the opportunity.

Well, we don't get to decide that. Okay, I have argued for my whole career. He, she shouldn't have got that job. And guess what, they got the job. So there's just absolutely no point. And you know what really, I think, icks us the most about these people is that they sell themselves. Whether it's delusional, delusional, or data driven, and you know, confirmed that they are great for the It's out of our control. They have learned how to sell themselves, and by learning how to sell themselves, they earn more money. That's the simplicity of how the world works, unfortunately, in nursing at this point in time. So I want you to really get curious about, where in your nursing career are you underselling yourself?

Where are you not seeing how friggin incredible you are? If I could give everybody like a... awesomeness slap, to slap the awesomeness into you? I would! Because we are incredible and we do such incredible work and it's just not even an option to shit on ourselves because we have done that for decades and it's just not serving us now and the more that we learn how to communicate how good you are, how great you are how much you have achieved, how driven you are, how passionate you are The more you will attract great opportunistic pathways and possibilities within your nursing career that will lead you to new destinations that you never thought were possible.

This ain't some woo woo BS. This is how the world works.

So I want you to think about this. Even look at your resume. Look at your cover letter. Is it bland and boring? Or is it brilliant? And does somebody want to buy what you're selling? That is literally how the world of applications, interviews, and landing your dream job or your next nursing role works.

It's all about marketing, marketing, marketing. And there, I came to this realisation over the last year or so, where initially when I first started helping people, it was all about like... Hi, my name is Jane and I'm a nurse and I've got two years experience, but now people's attention span is so short You've got to catch the chase You've got to make yourself look incredible on paper and then go to interview and present yourself in a way That just is you know, pick me pick me pick me And that's not from a desperate lack place, it's like, I'm so aware of what I'm capable of, and what I can do moving forward, that here I am, pick me, this is why you should choose me, okay?

And yes, we could argue that the nursing industry at this point in time, there's such a shortfall, and such a shortage, that we think, okay, well why do I need to do that? Do I need to do that? And honestly, the answer is no. The answer is no. If you want to just go for, you know, any job and you're happy taking any role because you've got to pay your bills, like, you will get in and you'll get a job.

Okay, so take that and run with that. It's a great time to be a nurse. There are so many opportunities available to you. But if you're somebody that wants to get something that is becoming... like getting a job that is more highly sought after. For example, it used to be educator and numb because it was like less shift work, but I'm starting to hear nowadays that numbs and educators across the country are having to work night shifts because they have no staff.

So those roles are starting to become not that big. interesting to people because they're like, I don't want to do the pressure. I don't want to deal with the workload. I don't want to take the work home and I don't want to go and work night shifts and hours on that.

So we're now talking about roles that are very, very protected in the nursing space.

And most of them are going to be non clinical based roles. Cause if you've got a foot in clinical in any way, shape or form, you'll be pulled onto the floor. Because nursing seems to treat nurses like we're the military and that we have no autonomy, no capacity to make any decisions and we're not allowed to say no to anything.

We're a nurse, you're a nurse, you've got a registration, you can work anywhere. I'm squinting my face up because I find that really difficult. But the point is, if you want to go after a job that is, you know, don't want to say a generic job, I want to say just a job that you saw that you need, that you're like, I'm taking this for six months because I need it.

Sell yourself the best that you can, go for it and give yourself the best opportunity. And then if you are somebody that must really think about how you're marketing and selling and communicating your skill set through your application interview. And to yourself, most importantly, okay, lack does not attract opportunity.

Lack attracts lack. So if we're coming from that lack mindset, that lack space, that we're not good enough, we don't have enough, we're not capable. I need more. It becomes a real issue. We kind of spiral a little bit because what I see people do is they think they need more, then they get more. And they do the whole when I, then I.

When I get the postgraduate certification, then I will apply for the job. The problem is when they get the postgraduate certification, their brain then goes out looking for more evidence and like, oh well, actually I now need the master's. They won't take me at a postgraduate certificate. But you people haven't even asked.

You haven't even contacted them and said, will you take me without the cert? Will you take me with the cert? This is what I mean about underselling ourselves and under communicating and under exploring, under everythinging. What it is that we actually want in our nursing careers, if you don't ask, you will not get, if you don't ask, you will not get, and I'm coaching a few people at the moment that are amazing clinicians, and we've done a lot of this work, and we've been diving into, well, what is it that makes you, feel like you're not capable, not worthy that you can't apply for this job as you are incredible with your amazing experiences.

And what it comes back to and what it comes down to is a lived experience in their past, in their childhood, in their upbringing, in their personal professional life, where it's been deeply ingrained in their neural pathways that they are not good enough, that they are not capable. And, you know, sometimes if you've been told something long enough, you will believe that to be true.

This is how beliefs are formed. It is just a thought that we have received or we have thought ourselves that we've practiced believing time and time again that becomes a belief. It becomes part of our identity. It becomes part of who we associate ourselves as. And we associate ourselves with those thoughts and beliefs.

So it's really, really important that we don't just sugarcoat it and say, okay, well, you can just sell yourself and gaslight yourself and move forward. This is where the coaching and the inner work comes in because you can move forward and gaslight yourself maybe, you know, a couple of steps of the way, and you can tell yourself, I'm confident, I'm capable, I'm not, I'm so worthy.

But your brain and your body are smart. And they're going to tune into it. And this is what I'm starting to learn. That our nervous system knows. Your nervous system knows. When you are trying to override deep conditioning, deep patterning that's happened in your past. And, you know, your nervous system has held on to that.

It's going to want you to work through it. It's going to throw up some hurdles. It's going to show you that maybe there's something here to work through. It's a little message, a little sign. And this is where we see people go on this spiral of job hopping, job hopping, job hopping, underselling myself, underselling myself, taking jobs that actually are not at level for me.

Like, I'm taking a job that's not beneath me, but it's a job that is not one that I wouldn't actually progress to next and they self sabotage and they go through this pattern, okay? So I really want you to think about where in your life is underselling yourself. Maybe there's a root cause to that.

There usually always is a root cause and it's usually deeply ingrained belief or thought that we got to explore in order for you not to take that forward to the next position. Some of these experiences can be deeply traumatic, especially in nursing, because we see micro traumas, we see primary, secondary traumas every day, I'm not talking about trauma as in a trauma patient, I'm talking about, we see things that people should never see, okay, that humans really aren't kind of well set up to see, and we see them without the psychological or mental emotional support that happens after the event, and trauma doesn't need to be something that is really big and scary.

trauma is actually the event. It's what we do in reaction to the event that leaves imprints on our nervous system and our psyche that we then take and move forward. beyond the event of, the trauma event itself. So everything kind of starts to make sense, right?

People start to connect. Oh, well, I have self doubt because back in the day I had this experience and I was petrified that something was going to happen to my patient and I made it mean that I wasn't capable, I wasn't good enough, that it was my fault. And then from there, we continue to believe that time and time again, it actively blocks us from accessing the next level in our careers.

This is why when we leave a job that, you know, has been really challenging. with a team that's been really challenging. That's why I always advocate that you get some coaching, mentoring, clinical you know, psychology support in some way, shape or form, counseling, because you're just moving to the new job with the same thought processes, the same beliefs, the same brain that has now got a traumatic imprint on that nervous system, right?

On your nervous system. And it's so important to address that because over time, these imprints, I believe, compound. It's like a bank compound interest. They, they compound over time, and you know what it's like in nursing? We don't really talk about a lot of these things. We don't... We don't debrief as regularly as we should, and we don't look out for people mentally and emotionally as much as we should, and we don't get that support in the system.

So that's why we have things like the Nursing Midwifery Helpline, because there is just a lack of access to support. And the evidence in the literature shows that these traumatic imprints, these experiences that we have, they build over time until our body and our brain and our nervous system and our soul can no longer tolerate managing them.

And we will burn it. And that's what happens. So it's kind of like this full little cycle of like talking about underselling yourself. Getting curious about why we undersell ourselves. So curious about it, as to like, Okay, where did this start? Why is this a thing for me? And there will be some kind of root cause, where there was an experience or a time where you just didn't feel like you could sell and communicate yourself.

Or that you were told, like, if you're overly confident, it means you're cocky and you're dangerous. A lot of people have that belief. And it's about, okay, I get to rewrite the story, but I also need to process and acknowledge all of the things that are happening inside of my mind and my body and my nervous system and the way that I operate to make sure that moving forward to attract this new opportunity, I do not take this with me.

Or I'm aware of it and I get to work on it every single day. Underselling relates directly to under earning as a nurse, as a nursepreneur, as a clinician in any way shape or form. And I want you to have all the money. I want you to have the opportunities that give you the work life balance and freedom that you long for.

I want you not to be able to not have to bust your guts and worry about where your money's coming from. But if we acknowledge that right now, today, you could probably Acknowledge that you have amazing achievements that you've gained and you can go into the industry and look for potential opportunities where these could be leveraged.

That's a great first step. You don't have to apply, just look, just explore and see what might be possible for you. And from there you can start building that confidence, building that selling yourself abilities, dealing with any of the beliefs that you have from the past that are impacting your present.

And then we can go out there and we can make more money. Okay, doesn't sound overly simple Doesn't sound overly simple, but trust me I think anything that is not overly simple is always usually worth doing because it leads to a longer term reward Okay, it's gonna like invest the time in understanding this now for yourself and then moving forward you will You will be able to make more money as you uncover all of this stuff.

I'm a firm believer, if you're a nursepreneur that's listening to this podcast, that until we deal with all of our nervous system traumatic imprints and all of the things and the self limiting beliefs and the underselling of ourselves and the lack of ability to communicate how great we truly are, the longer we do that, the longer we delay making the money that you want to make in your business or your nursing life in Korea.

I will say that it's factually true. That has been my lived experience. When I am underselling myself and I don't think that I'm good enough, I see that direct correlation in my own business. And that's just the reality of being a human that runs anything that is a nurse that's in a profession. But we have the luxury and the privilege as the only species on earth that can do this work to go internal and to like work through this.

Because there's so much opportunity out there, there's so much abundance, there's so much money out there for nurses. But many of us, because we don't believe in ourselves, we don't believe we're capable of it, we write them off as opportunities and we under earn as a result of that. Would I like to add one sentence which I'm going to add because somebody's going to message me and say, But the hospitals need to pay us more money.

And I 100 percent wholeheartedly agree, we need absolutely . More money. I think if anybody in the world obviously third world developing countries need more money, but NHS, oh my god, if you go and work in the NHS for six months, you will see what it's like to work with no money. Australia, this pay is not as good as it could be, but it's at least triple, if not quadruple, the amount of money I was paid in the US, in the UK.

So, with that said, I will wrap it up there. Let's stop underselling ourselves. Let's do the work to build. our amazing awareness of what we have achieved. Spend some time today, sit there and just think about it. What have I achieved? Focus on the gain. The gap is always going to be there. Focus on the gain intentionally and go out and start looking for opportunities where you can earn more money.

I'll see you next time.