How to Stop Playing Small and Get Your Worth Out of Life with Jessica Canty

In a society where money is shown but never really discussed, negotiating your salary or requesting a raise that is commensurate with your value can be an intimidating discussion to initiate. Luckily there’s a solution for that. Jessica Canty a licensed Social Worker and powerhouse behind Proverbs 15:22 Personal Growth Coaching where she works with melanin millennial moms to optimize success in career, life, and beyond. Her niche is working with career transitioners, passion pursuers, and promotion seekers to get what they want by tackling internal struggles like imposter syndrome and lack mindset, while also helping them gain tangible skills like resume writing and overcoming interview anxiety. Here’s a few things we discussed during our time together:

Faith starts where knowledge stops. It doesn’t take faith to believe in situations where the answers are obvious and laid out for you. Faith requires belief despite not fully knowing the next steps to get to the desired outcome. This was Jessica’s story when she started Proverbs 15:22 Personal Growth Coaching. She had a clear vision and message, but didn’t know how she was going to make ends meet to walk in her purpose. Despite her fear, Jessica had faith to push through the fear of the unknown and is a successful business owner today.

If you want your worth you’re going to have to ask for it. Most people (and businesses) operate with the logic that their money looks better in their pocket than yours, so when it comes to salary or getting your worth out of a client project, you’re going to have to ask for it. The key is to know that you are worth it and negotiate from a place of confidence.

It’s time to stop selling yourself short. Your goals should be about what you want for yourself, not what you don’t want, and to be confident enough to express it. Sometimes we begin playing small because we’ve never actually seen someone achieve the things that we want to do for ourselves. However, just because you’ve never seen it doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Jessica recommends stepping into the mindset of acceptance and self worth and claiming what you want in your life by being vocal about it and knowing that it will come to pass.

Don’t fall into the trap of compartmentalizing your skills. Through working with clients across various industries, Jessica has noticed that people have a tendency to compartmentalize their skills, which ends up backfiring when they are looking for a job or promotion. When you’re thinking about your skillset and capabilities, take the time to map out and consider all of the work that you’ve done, whether it be a full-time position, unpaid internship, or volunteer work. All of the skills that you’ve employed and amassed along the way are worth mentioning, even if they weren’t things that you were paid for. When you look at the big picture in this way, you may just notice that you’ve already been doing the work that you’re claiming to be unqualified for.

Imposter syndrome starts in childhood. As Jessica eloquently explains, imposter syndrome starts when we’re young when people begin to question who and what we are. Those statements become our own internal valuation and narrative of who we are, when in fact they are other people’s projections that they are placing onto us. It’s time to break that mold and become comfortable in our own skin. It’s time to recognize the lies (that are often masked as lessons) that we’ve been told about ourselves and begin de-identifying with them.

Appreciate your best. If you’re showing up as your best self and trying your hardest, please trust and believe that it is good enough. We can’t always operate at 100%, but what we can do is be 100% authentic, which includes recognizing your progress, capitalizing on opportunities, and even acknowledging when you need a break. Success comes one step at a time, so rather than being hard on yourself, trust the process and the fact that you’re on the right path.

There is always a better “next”. It may sound cliche, but the best really is yet to come. When you’re feeling down or existing in a space where you’re not feeling like your highest self, it can be helpful to remember that better is coming. We can’t wish away the hard stuff, but we can work through it and get to the other side.

Slow progress is still progress. Sometimes we downplay our success because we’re not seeing results quickly enough. However, as Jessica reminds her clients, slow progress is still progress. We have to give ourselves credit for the work that we are doing and keep in mind that while success doesn’t happen overnight, we are making sure and steady progress one step at a time, one day at a time. When you look back at where you’ve come from, you begin to see all that you’ve done and how far you will go.

What fun is the destination if you don’t enjoy the journey? Oftentimes we get so caught up in meeting our end goal that we forget to enjoy the journey that our day-to-day lives have to offer us. It’s time to live in flow and appreciate the ride.

Your mental health has the power to impact other areas of your life. Mental health is about more than just feelings and emotions. Our brain chemistry and how we feel on the inside impacts the way that we think, perform, and show up everyday. It’s important to actually do the work that you need to feel safe, comfortable, and confident in your own headspace and know that it’s okay to not feel okay as long as you are doing something about it.

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Feeling inspired by Jessica’s Confidence Conversation? Us too. Head over to her website to get 50% off of her Work Journal: A Place to Record How Awesome You Are using code CC2021.

Book a free consultation with Jessica to help get a diagnosis of career opportunities and strategies today!