The Self Trust Solution | Real Stories. Real Self-Trust.

Dawn Ledet, The Self Trust Coach
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  • Entrepreneurship
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For entrepreneurs and leaders ready to grow their business, expand their impact, and build from overflow—not depletion. The Self Trust Solution Podcast features real conversations, tools and tips about the decisions, risks, and identity shifts behind sustainable growth. Season 3 shares powerful interviews, while Season 2 offers practical tools for clarity and follow-through. Start your next level with the Self-Trust Identity Map: theselftrustcoach.com/identity-map

  1. 1 day ago

    Certainty Follows the Decision | Chelle Neff on Leadership

    Read the full episode breakdown + show notes: https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/blog/ep189-certainty-follows-the-decision She had six chairs, one booth renter, and no proof any of it would work, and she moved anyway. Chelle Neff is the founder of Urban Betty, a four time Inc. 5000 salon company in Austin, Texas, built from six chairs into a business with nearly 100 team members across three locations. Every real structural shift along the way, the move to a commission model, hiring a business consultant, finally stepping back from doing hair herself, came after she had already made the call, not before she felt ready to make it. In This Episode, We Explore: certainty Follows the Decision: why the feeling of readiness never arrives first, and what Chelle did instead of waiting for it.The Booth Renter to Commission Shift: what avoiding that decision actually cost her, and what finally forced the change.Asking for Help as a Turning Point: the loan from her grandfather, her first hired assistant, and the business consultant she says changed her life.Fear of Stepping Into Her Power: why fear, not a skill gap, delayed the decisions that grew her business.The Slow Exit From Doing the Work Herself: the year long taper from five days a week to zero, and the physical signal that told her it was time.Community Over Gatekeeping: why she stopped protecting what she knows and started answering every message from other salon owners. Episode Chapters: 00:00 Meet Chelle Neff and the six-chair beginning of Urban Betty 02:30 Holding doubt and inner knowing at the same time 04:34 Self-trust in concept versus self-trust in practice 07:00 The fear beneath the shift to a commission-based model 14:15 What she'd change: bringing in a business consultant sooner 17:38 Quitting doing hair and stepping fully into leading the business 19:50 Community, gatekeeping, and building a personal platform 23:27 Certainty follows the decision, not the other way around Connect with Chelle Neff: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/urbanbetty/ Website: https://urbanbetty.com/ Personal platform: chelleneff.com Join the Conversation:This one is for the business owner who already knows which decision she's avoiding, the pricing change, the hire, the client she needs to let go of, and is waiting to feel more certain before she'll finally make it. Where Are You Standing? Before more strategy, motivation, or effort, know where you're standing in relation to your Floor — the foundation you're building your business from.The free assessment takes three minutes and shows you where your Floor is firm, where it may still be moving with your results, and where to work next.Know where you're standing. Then know where to Work. https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/identity-assessment-page Ready to Fix the Floor in place? The Floor: Your Build is a self-paced, structured experience designed to help you build from a Floor that holds — so you can keep uncovering the HOW without reopening the WHETHER of what you've already decided is possible. https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/the-floor-your-build

  2. 26 Aug

    Self-Trust Before the Evidence | Maggie Olson on Big Bets

    Read the full episode breakdown + show notes:https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/blog/ep188-self-trust-before-the-evidenceSix months into her business, with no marketing background and no proof it would work, Maggie Olson agreed to spend $40,000, half of what her company had made that year, on a single bet.Maggie Olson is the founder of Nova Chief of Staff, the leading destination for Chief of Staff education, certification, and development. Before starting Nova, she spent 20 years in retail, food and beverage, and technology, including building the Chief of Staff model at T-Mobile from scratch. This conversation follows the decision that shaped Nova's early growth, and what it actually took to make it, before there was any evidence it would pay off.In This Episode, We Explore:• Choice Before Evidence: why Maggie's $40,000 sponsorship decision had to be made before proof existed, not after, and why the wait for proof first was never actually available to her.• The Momentum Cycle in Action: how repeated decisions built the kind of confidence no amount of planning could have handed her in advance.• Clinical Evaluation Beyond the Outcome: why the decision would have taught Maggie something true about herself even if the sponsorship had failed.• Identity Lag and the Unfinished Update: why Maggie, three years and thousands of students into building Nova, still catches herself unable to fully believe she is financially secure, even when the results say otherwise.• Returning to the Inner Room: the practice Maggie uses to hear her own decision underneath fear and outside noise, including unplugging completely until she can feel the pull toward yes or no.Episode Chapters:00:00 Welcome and Introduction to Maggie Olson02:00 What a Chief of Staff Actually Does09:00 The $40,000 Decision12:00 The Competing Voices Inside Her Head15:00 From Gamble to Self-Trust Decision19:00 The Life Event That Changed Her Relationship With Herself30:00 Self-Trust Inside the Chief of Staff Role36:00 Advice for Anyone Waiting to Feel ReadyConnect with Maggie Olson:Instagram: @maggieolsoncosWebsite: www.novachiefofstaff.comJoin the Conversation:This one is for the founder a few months into something real, staring at an opportunity that costs more than she has made so far, waiting for the fear to go quiet before she says yes. It will not go quiet first. You get to decide anyway.Take the Self-Trust Identity Map. Before strategy. Before motivation. Before more effort, you need to know where your identity is operating from. Because that is what determines everything that follows.It's free. It takes three minutes. And it will give you a precise read on where your identity is actually operating from right now, and exactly where to focus next.https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/identity-assessment-pageWant to go deeper? The Floor: Your Build is available now. Self-paced, structured, and built around the same framework.https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/the-floor-your-build

  3. 19 Aug

    Telling Yourself the Truth | Tara Campbell on Reinvention

    Read the full episode breakdown + show notes:https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/blog/ep187-telling-yourself-the-truthHer panic attacks stopped the day she finally said the true thing out loud.Tara Campbell spent 26 years as a COO before founding Tangent Advisory, and this conversation traces the year everything she'd built on the outside stopped matching what she knew to be true on the inside. She and Dawn unpack the real difference between self-abandonment and self-honoring, and why practicing small truths, not confidence, is what rebuilds trust in yourself.In This Episode, We Explore:• Self-Honoring vs. Self-Abandonment: the real difference between staying quiet to keep the peace and speaking the truth in a way that's still aligned with you.• The Identity Gap: what happens when you give credit to your wins instead of the person who made them.• Practice as Expression: why small, low stakes truths build trust that no amount of confidence can front load.• Old Stories: how to test whether an inherited belief about who you are is still true.• Timing: why the years that felt like delay were never wasted.Episode Chapters:00:00 Welcome and the season that started with panic attacks04:29 Choosing internal peace over the status quo09:02 The shedding: closing a marriage and examining old rules13:00 Telling the truth out loud and the panic that stopped14:30 Self-abandonment vs. self-honoring22:04 Conditional trust, external validation, and the Identity Gap30:42 Trusting the timing of it all37:28 Building Tangent Advisory and where to connect with TaraConnect with Tara Campbell:Instagram: @tangentadvisory (business), @tatstar (personal)Website: https://tangentadvisoryllc.com/Also launching a new podcast, What I Make Up About That. Follow @whatimakeupaboutthat on Instagram for the launch.Join the Conversation:This one is for the woman who has done the internal work, therapy, meditation, the personal inventory, and still feels a gap between how steady she feels inside and how unresolved her outside life looks. If you have been swallowing a true sentence because saying it out loud would make it real, this episode is for you.Take the Self-Trust Identity Map. Before strategy. Before motivation. Before more effort, you need to know where your identity is operating from. Because that is what determines everything that follows.It's free. It takes three minutes. And it will give you a precise read on where your identity is actually operating from right now, and exactly where to focus next.https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/identity-assessment-pageWant to go deeper? The Floor: Your Build is available now. Self-paced, structured, and built around the same framework.https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/the-floor-your-build

  4. 12 Aug

    The Comparison Trap After Success | Jen Recla on Leadership

    Read the full episode breakdown + show notes:https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/blog/ep186-comparison-trap-after-successJen Recla's business was working. That is exactly when the comparison trap got louder, not quieter.Jen Recla is a leadership coach and the founder of Recla Coaching & Consulting, where she helps senior leaders build resilient, high performing teams after nearly 15 years across healthcare, nonprofit, and public sector organizations. Her second year in business hit real momentum, and the comparison spiral got sharper anyway. This conversation is about what happens when the safety you used to borrow from a job title has to be generated internally instead.In This Episode, We Explore:• The Comparison Trap: why the spiral got louder as Jen's results got better, not quieter.• Structure as the Downstream of Self-Trust: the difference between borrowing stability from a corporate title and generating it on your own.• The Lobby and the Inner Room: what changes when "am I doing enough" gets asked from curiosity instead of verdict.• The Gap and the Gain: measuring progress from where you started instead of the distance still ahead.• Data Over Drama: treating a quiet season, or a failed workshop, as information instead of proof of failure.• The Hollywood Chapter: what a season of shame in her twenties still teaches her about uncertainty today.Episode Chapters:00:00 Welcome and Meet Jen Recla01:06 The Comparison Trap When Business Is Actually Working04:26 Corporate Structure vs. Building It Yourself09:36 "Am I Doing Enough?": The Lobby vs. the Inner Room18:22 The Summer Spiral of 202421:26 The Gap and the Gain: Data Over Drama24:00 Going Backwards: Hollywood, Shame, and Resilience29:36 What Self-Trust Looks Like Today and Where to Find JenConnect with Jen Recla:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferrecla/Website: https://www.jenrecla.com/Free Tool: No Time to Think? Start Here!, https://www.jenrecla.com/notimetothinkJoin the Conversation:This one is for you if your business is actually working and you still catch yourself measuring your progress against someone six months behind you. You know the numbers are fine. The doubt arrived anyway.Take the Self-Trust Identity Map. Before strategy. Before motivation. Before more effort, you need to know where your identity is operating from. Because that is what determines everything that follows.It's free. It takes three minutes. And it will give you a precise read on where your identity is actually operating from right now, and exactly where to focus next.https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/identity-assessment-pageWant to go deeper? The Floor: Your Build is available now. Self-paced, structured, and built around the same framework.https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/the-floor-your-build

  5. 5 Aug

    The Promise You Keep | Jenn Farrer on Follow-Through

    Read the full episode breakdown + show notes: https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/blog/ep185-the-promise-you-keep She's spent 20 years helping other people finish their hardest work. Her own sat unfinished for three years. My guest this week is Jenn Farrer, certified executive coach, keynote speaker, and author of Make Them Think: How to Coach for Ownership, Insight, and Action. Jenn has coached and trained thousands of executives, athletes, and teams. But this conversation is about the season most people never see, nearly three years into what was supposed to be a six month creative sabbatical, with nothing finished but a Notes app full of half-started ideas, and what it actually took to change that. In This Episode, We Explore: Staking the Ground: why putting your own point of view out is a different kind of vulnerable than helping other people thinkThe Real Fear: the specific worry underneath the freeze, and why it has nothing to do with actual competenceClearing the Creative Backlog: the phrase from a meditation teacher that finally moved Jenn off the sidelinesThe Public Deadline: what a twelve week timeline revealed about self-trust that years of achievement never hadData, Not a Verdict: how to receive feedback as information instead of proof of who you are Episode Chapters: 00:00 Introduction: The Hardest Thing She's Ever Done 01:18 Three Years Into a Creative Sabbatical With Nothing Finished 03:29 The Vulnerability of Staking the Ground 08:57 Why This Felt Harder Than Surviving a Stroke 11:21 The Real Fear: Being Seen as a Hack 17:31 The Turning Point: Clearing the Creative Backlog 22:56 Making the Twelve-Week Deadline Public 28:36 Redefining Self-Trust: From Outside In to Inside Out Connect with Jenn Farrer: Instagram: @jennfarrer Website: https://jenniferfarrer.com/ Additional resources: Make Them Think, available on Amazon and at barnesandnoble.com Join the Conversation: This one is for the expert who can solve everyone else's stall in five minutes and has been circling their own for years. You already know how to do this. The book, the framework, the offer, whatever it is, is waiting on the same permission you'd give a client on day one. Take the Self-Trust Identity Map. Before strategy. Before motivation. Before more effort, you need to know where your foundation is operating from. Because that is what determines everything that follows.It's free. It takes three minutes. And it will give you a precise read on where your decisions are actually coming from right now, and exactly where to focus next. https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/identity-assessment-page Want to go deeper? The Floor: Your Build is available now. Self-paced, structured, and built around the same framework. https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/the-floor-your-build

  6. 29 Jul

    Reversible Decisions | Ray Higdon on Walking Away

    Read the full episode breakdown + show notes:https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/blog/ep184-reversible-decisionsHe had every financial goal he'd ever set. And he still felt like something was missing.My guest this week is Ray Higdon, founder of Higdon Group, where he helps sales reps stop chasing and start closing with confidence. Since 2018, he's helped students generate over 300,000 new customers. But this conversation isn't about sales tactics. It's about the decision Ray made in November 2022 that cost him a multimillion dollar contract, reshaped his marriage, and changed how he runs his business, and what it actually takes to trust a direction that doesn't come with guarantees.In This Episode, We Explore:• Success Without the Feeling: why hitting every goal on the list doesn't automatically close the gap you built the goals to close• Reversible Decisions: the framework for telling the difference between a choice you can undo and the one cost that truly can't be undone, regret• The Real Risk: why staying exactly where you are can be riskier than the leap you've been avoiding• Releasing Instead of Adding: how dropping eight to ten projects that no longer fit created more freedom than any new offer could have• Naming the Idols: learning to spot the specific areas where emotion and desire get mistaken for true directionEpisode Chapters:00:00 Introduction: Trusting a Direction That Doesn't Make Sense01:00 Success on the Outside, Empty on the Inside04:00 The Moment Everything Changed: November 14th09:00 Waking Up a Different Person13:00 Learning to Trust the Voice in Prayer17:00 The Multimillion-Dollar Contract He Let Go Of27:00 Losing the YouTube Channel and Finding Freedom32:00 Reversible Decisions and the Real Risk of Staying PutConnect with Ray Higdon:Instagram: @rayhigdonWebsite: https://higdongroup.com/Youtube:  @saleswithrayhigdon  Join the Conversation:This one is for the entrepreneur who has hit the numbers everyone told them would feel like enough, and still feels the gap. You already know something needs to change. This conversation is about what actually happens once you stop waiting for certainty first.Take the Self-Trust Identity Map. Before strategy. Before motivation. Before more effort, you need to know where your identity is operating from. Because that is what determines everything that follows.It's free. It takes three minutes. And it will give you a precise read on where your identity is actually operating from right now, and exactly where to focus next.https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/identity-assessment-pageWant to go deeper? The Floor: Your Build is available now. Self-paced, structured, and built around the same framework.https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/the-floor-your-build

  7. 22 Jul

    The Decision Before Clarity | Sam Yehia on Purpose

    Read the full episode breakdown + show notes:https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/blog/the-decision-before-clarityHe sold 13 businesses, retired, and came back for something that might never turn a profit.Sam Yehia spent 35 years building and scaling 13 businesses across hospitality, entertainment, and real estate before selling everything in 2019, just ahead of the pandemic. He didn't stay retired. He returned to build a platform for firstperson journalism, not because the math made sense, but because he decided it was necessary before he had proof it would work.In This Episode, We Explore: The Exit Before the Crisis: what it meant to sell everything right before theworld shut down, and why timing isn't always something you can plan for.The Pull Back In: why a venture with no clear financial case kept calling him back, and what that reveals about conviction versus justification.First Person Storytelling: the model behind his platform, and why verified, firsthand accounts matter more as trust in media erodes.Self-Trust as a Decision: how conviction, not clarity, is what actually moves people forward.The Honesty Question: what he believes everyone owes themselves before committing to a mission that might cost them. Episode Chapters:00:00  Introduction: Sam Yehia and thereturn to first person journalism00:58  Selling 13 businesses right beforethe world shut down04:06  What kept pulling him back to aventure that made no financial sense07:29  Building a platform on verified,first person storytelling13:47  Letting go of profit as the onlymeasure of success20:07  Redefining self-trust as adecision made ahead of time22:34  What to ask yourself before youwalk away from something that matters28:52  Where to find his work and connectwith himConnect with Sam Yehia:Website: https://orato.world LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/oratoworldJoin the Conversation:This one is for the person sitting on a decision that doesn't fully add up on paper yet, who keeps circling back to it anyway because some part of them already knows it's necessary.Take the Self-Trust Identity Map. Before strategy. Before motivation. Before more effort, you need to know where your identity is operating from. Becausethat is what determines everything that follows.It's free. It takes three minutes. And it will give you a precise read on where your identity is actually operating from right now, and exactly where to focus next.https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/identity-assessment-pageWant to go deeper? The Floor: Your Build is available now. Self-paced,structured, and built so you can establish the floor that makes ceilings unecessary.https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/the-floor-your-build

  8. 15 Jul

    You Have to Be Not Great Before You're Great | Diondra's Self-Trust Story

    Read the full episode breakdown + show notes:https://theselftrustcoach.com/blog/when-results-outpace-self-conceptHer clients already believed in her. She wasn't sure she believed in herself yet.Diondra Filicetti is a learning and development professional, bestselling author of Engagement Economics, two-time TEDx speaker, and founder of Driven By Co.In this conversation, she shares the early season of her speaking career—when clients kept hiring her back, her workshops were landing, and her self-concept hadn't yet caught up to the value she was already creating.Then one question changed everything."Diondra... is this lucrative enough for you?"She had priced three workshops for less than her client expected to pay for one.What followed wasn't just a pricing shift—it was an identity shift.In This Episode, We Explore: Identity Lag: what happens when your results have already moved, but the way you see yourself hasn't caught up yet.Why Pricing Reveals Identity: why undercharging is rarely a numbers problem and almost always a self-concept problem.When Old Thoughts Return: how to relate differently to the thoughts that tell you you're not ready, not qualified, or somehow moving backward.From Persona to Results: why focusing on the value you create—not the title you hold—is what closes the gap between doubt and confidence.The Audacity Asymmetry: what it really means when someone less qualified is already doing the thing you're still questioning."I Can't" Is Still a Choice: how agency begins the moment you recognize the story you're telling yourself.📰Episode Chapters00:00 Cold open: grief, identity, and meeting people heart to heart09:04 Welcome and introduction10:20 You have to be not great before you're great14:00 When results outpace self-belief14:45 "Is this lucrative enough for you?" The pricing conversation that changed everything20:00 From persona to results: leading with the value you create22:21 When old thoughts return: relating differently to self-doubt28:48 The audacity test: someone less qualified is already doing it30:15 Diondra's current work and where to connect💫Connect with Diondra FilicettiWebsite: https://drivenbyco.com/Instagram: http://instagram.com/drivenbycoYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiWolo8cM_McaxL7IFA4LpgCompany LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/drivenbyco/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrivenByCo Book: Engagement Economics🗣️Join the ConversationThis conversation is for anyone whose results have already outgrown the way they see themselves.Maybe people keep telling you you're ready.Maybe opportunities keep showing up.Maybe your work is creating real impact.And yet part of you is still waiting to feel qualified before you fully step into it.👉If you have not yet taken the Self-Trust Identity Map,start there. Three minutes. It names exactly whereyou are and what is moving beneath your decisions.Take the Identity Map →https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/identity-map-assessmentAlready know your result? If you are ready to takethat information and build the decided ground beneatheverything you are working toward, The Floor: YourBuild is where that happens.Build my floor → https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/the-floor-your-build✨If this episode resonated with you, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone whose results may already be waiting for them to catch up to who they truly are.

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For entrepreneurs and leaders ready to grow their business, expand their impact, and build from overflow—not depletion. The Self Trust Solution Podcast features real conversations, tools and tips about the decisions, risks, and identity shifts behind sustainable growth. Season 3 shares powerful interviews, while Season 2 offers practical tools for clarity and follow-through. Start your next level with the Self-Trust Identity Map: theselftrustcoach.com/identity-map

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