My business breakthrough came from admitting two fears.

When I first left the 9–5 life and decided to try this entrepreneur thing, I feared being seen as two things:

Incompetent. “Oh, you silly little girl. You think you’re a businessperson.”

Greedy. “Wow, all you care about is making money.”

Instead of letting these fears hold me back, I chose to approach business in a way that directly counters them by focusing on three values:

Honesty first.
Value second.
Income third.

Along the journey of building my business, my biggest breakthroughs came from admitting two things:

1. I don’t know everything—and that’s okay.

2. I want to make money—and that’s not selfish.

By being honest, delivering real value, and embracing my desire to earn, I’ve not only grown my income but am now building a business that feels right for me.

Here’s how…

Be willing to say “I don’t know.”

Early on, I thought expertise was everything, but I’ve learned that clients value honesty more. Let me explain.

Pretend you’re running a roofing company and you’re thinking about hiring me for marketing. So, the end result that you want from me is more customers, but what you want before that is trust.

You wouldn’t hire someone you didn’t trust, and you wouldn’t pay someone who didn’t feel trustworthy to you.

Admitting when you don’t know something doesn’t make you look weak; it builds trust. A mentor once told me, “If someone asks you a question you don’t know, just say, ‘You know what, I don’t have a good answer about that, but I’ll get one to you by the end of the day.’” And it worked.

Being willing to say “I don’t know” changed everything for me—on sales calls, with partners, and in everyday business. It made me more authentic, and as a result, my income grew significantly.

I went from $5,691.90 to $12,362.90, within four months simply by building trust and being real.

Real Value Means No Selling

A major concern that I (and a lot of people I’ve spoken to) had in the beginning is feeling “like a salesperson.”
We have this fear of being pushy and “salesy” — but what does that actually look like?

I think it looks like taking actions that benefit me more than my client. It’s trying to convince someone to do something that I wouldn’t do.

So, how can I avoid this? It’s simple. If I provide an offer that I know will actually improve that person’s life, then I can just be honest about it. I don’t need to try to convince or sell. I just need to explain how I can help them.

If talking about it honestly doesn’t make people want to buy, then maybe what I’m offering isn’t valuable enough.

If I can’t sell it with honesty, I’ll never make real money from it.
And if I want to earn honestly, my offer must be worth it.

It’s Okay to Want to Make Money

I learned very early on in my entrepreneurial journey that if I ever wanted my goals to become real, I needed to own them. If I wanted to actually make money, I needed to stop being afraid to admit it.

After interviewing over 800 people about starting their own business, I’ve found that people often deny how much wealth they really want because they don’t want to seem selfish.
But here’s what I always say: wanting to earn JUST enough to “be comfortable” is actually more selfish.

If you only make enough money to get by and take care of yourself, how will you ever help other people?

You must have more in order to give more — and to have more, you need to first be willing to admit that you want it.

I’m no expert. This is just me documenting and reflecting on my journey of building something real, so that maybe other inspired idiots can learn from it.

Being real — about what I don’t know, what I offer, and the fact that I want to make money — is what “success” means to me.

Reply and tell me what your main priorities are in your business!