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

Dawn Ledet, The Self Trust Coach
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  • Entrepreneurship
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The Self Trust Solution brings you real stories of self-trust in action. In Season 3, entrepreneurs, leaders and experts share the decisions, risks, setbacks and revelations that changed how they build, lead and live. Hosted by Dawn Ledet, The Self Trust Coach. Where are you standing? Know where your Floor is firm. Know where it’s still moving with results. Know where to work next. Three minutes. theselftrustcoach.com/begin

  1. 1d ago

    Stop Waiting for Validation | Adam W. Barney on Permission

    Read the full episode breakdown + show notes:https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/blog/ep197-stop-waiting-for-validationHe walks into a live elevator pitch calm while forty founders around him are shaking, then admits he still doesn't give himself enough credit to believe he can win.Adam W. Barney spent 20 years in global advertising and technology, managing more than $100 million in paid media, before leaving corporate to coach founders and executives through the transition points where what used to workno longer does. He's the host of Is Anything Real? and the author of Make Your Own Glass Half Full. Underneath two layoffs, a resignation decided on a flight home, and a gold key he hasn't won yet is one question: who gets to decide whatyou're allowed to believe about yourself?In This Episode, We Explore: Capable as a Cage: why being the one who can untangle anything works right up until it starts costing you.The Next Honest Step: Adam's working definition of self-trust, and why it has nothing to do with certainty.Regret Minimization: the two-years-ahead question that made staying in corporate the choice he'd regret more.Control vs. Agency: what losing his mother to ALS taught him about choosing his next honest move inside what life handed him.Wanting the Win: why iterating and wanting to win were never opposites, and what it costs to let results decide which one you're allowed.Discernment Over Permission: why feedback can sharpen how you serve, but no one outside you can hand you self-trust. Episode Chapters:00:00  Meet Adam W. Barney04:59  When being capable becomes acage11:23  Two layoffs as identity moments15:09  The resignation on a plane andregret minimization16:44  Waiting for one more piece ofevidence27:15  Losing his mom to ALS: control vs.agency35:41  The elevator pitch and why notwant to win42:48  Transition is information, andwhere to find AdamConnect with Adam W. Barney:Instagram: @adamwbarney Website: https://www.adamwbarney.com/ Podcast: Is Anything Real? Book: Make Your Own Glass Half Full Newsletter: Plugged In LeadershipJoin the Conversation:This one is for the coach who keeps telling people she's entering the launch, the pitch, or the price increase "just to learn," because wanting to win out loud would mean believing she could before anyone confirmed it.Where are you standing?Know where your Floor is firm.Know where it's still moving with results.Know where to work next.Three minutes.https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/where-are-you-standing

  2. Oct 21

    Ambition as Protection | Anu Verma on Overachievement

    Read the full episode breakdown + show notes:https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/blog/ep196-ambition-as-protection What if the thing driving your success is also the thing keeping you from experiencing it? Anu Verma is a trauma recovery specialist and founder of Victim 2 Victor who spent years mistaking her own overachievement for ambition, when it was really a survival pattern in disguise. This episode isn't about trauma itself. It'sabout what happens when old protective strategies quietly follow us into leadership, business, and success, and how convincingly they can pass as drive. In This Episode, We Explore: The Protective Ego: why the ego forms as a genuine response to being hurt, and isn't the enemy it's made out to beStrength Redirected: how the same strength that helps someone survive trauma can turn into 70 to 80 hour weeks and a success that doesn't match what'shappening insideImpact Without Definition: the difference between being impacted by something and being defined by itAlignment Over Achievement: the self-reflective questions Anu now asks before saying yes to any opportunityForgiveness as Release: why forgiveness is a gift you give yourself, not a favor you extend to someone elseEpisode Chapters:00:00 Welcome and today's theme01:00 Who Anu helps and the origin of Victim 2 Victor03:00 The ego as protection, not a flaw09:00 Self-trust, toxic relationships, and outsourced decisions17:00 The ceiling that wasn't revenue: chasing external validation20:00 Noticing action as a response to uncertainty26:00 The self-reflective questions that check for alignment32:00 Forgiveness and how leaders begin operating differently Connect with Anu Verma:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/victim2victor_anuverma/Website: https://victim2victor.uk/Additional resource: Author of Victim 2 Victor, and host the Victim2Victor Podcast Join the Conversation:This one is for the person whose achievements keep landing without the relief they expected, who suspects the striving might be protection instead of ambition, and hasn't said that out loud yet. 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/begin Do your results keep putting things back up for a vote?The offer doesn't work quickly enough, and suddenly you're questioning the business. The response is quieter than you expected, and what you decided was possible starts feeling negotiable again. The Floor: Your Build is where we stop that cycle. Fix the Who and the Whether in place, so every result can teach you more about the How without sending you back to reconsider everything you already decided.Fix the Floor with The Floor: Your Build

  3. Oct 14

    Self-Trust in Hard Seasons | Jodi Lynn Karpes on Reinvention

    Read the fullepisode breakdown + show notes:https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/blog/ep195-self-trust-in-hard-seasons Self-trust doesn't keep the hard season from arriving. It gives you something to come back to once you're inside it.Jodi Lynn Karpes is the founder of GreenQueen PR, with 25 years of PR experience and client relationships that lasted a decade or more. She thought a difficult landing was someone else's story. Then it was hers, and what she did next is a real picture of self-trust practiced while the season is still in progress. In This Episode, We Explore:• The Grief Nobody Named: what changed when Jodi stopped asking what was wrong with her and recognized she was grieving.• Environment vs. Self-Blame: how she could see the environment was the problem and still point the blame at herself.• The Thirty-Minute Decision: what it took to go from carrying a decision to making the call on a Monday morning.• Holding a Decision vs. Acting on It: why the discomfort of an unacted decision was the signal to take the first bite.• Affirmations You Can Believe: why sentences you don't believe override you,and what Jodi used instead.• Integrity as Self-Trust: turning down a client she needed because it was the wrong fit. Episode Chapters:00:00  Welcome and Jodi's introduction01:02  Arriving in the US and what sheexpected02:46  Naming the grief04:15  Self-blame and a toxic work environment09:25  The wake-up call and the decision to leave11:45  Now what: rebuilding without a safety net15:15  What self-trust feels like on an ordinary day18:30  The tools that actually worked24:30  GreenQueen PR and her ideal client27:30  Closing reflection Connect with Jodi Lynn Karpes:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greenqueen_prWebsite: https://www.greenqueenpr.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodilynnkarpes/ Join the Conversation:If you're in a season you didn't plan for, in a role or situation that costs you more than it gives, and you've been asking what's wrong with you instead of what's actually happening, this one was made for you. Where are you standing?Know where your Floor is firm.Know where it's still moving with results.Know where to work next.Three minutes.theselftrustcoach.com/where-are-you-standing

  4. Oct 7

    Too Many Ideas? Decide First | Daniel Ruke on Focus

    Read the full episode breakdown + show notes:https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/blog/ep194-too-many-ideas-decide-first You keep waiting to feel ready for a decision you have not actually made. Daniel Ruke has launched more than 1,775 brands for clients including Disney, Marvel, and Epic Games, and runs Game Changers Business Club and his agency Blink. At thirteen he believed he had to pick art or technology, and one sentence from his mom changed what he thought a decision could hold. Dawn and Daniel dig into what happens when capable people treat wanting more than one thing as a flaw instead of information. In This Episode, We Explore: The Box That Does Not Exist: Why the pressure to pick one niche, one offer, or one version of yourself often comes from other people's limits, and how to tell whose rule you are following.Three Spinning Plates: Daniel's case against "focus on one thing" and how a small, playful experiment can feed your main business instead of competing with it.The Lobby and the Inner Room: How fear and all-or-nothing thinking get separated from the wisdom you already have, and why the decision has to come before the feeling of readiness.The I Behind the AI: Why the person directing the tool matters more than the tool, and how to build a living document so AI reflects what you actually believe.Comfort as Hidden Fear: Why "I'm still working on my vision" can protect you from finding out whether it works.Vision Firm, How Light: How 30 and 90 day data windows keep you from shrinking the goal every time a result disappoints. Episode Chapters:00:00 The 13-year-old who thought he had to choose05:38 Why entrepreneurs keep limiting themselves11:02 The Lobby, the Inner Room, and deciding first18:39 The I behind the AI23:26 What he would tell his 13-year-old self26:00 Comfort as hidden fear29:00 Consequences and the 90-day data window32:00 Vision firm, the how held lightly Connect with Daniel Ruke:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielrukeWebsite: https://www.ruke.comGame Changers Business Club: http://www.gamechangersclub.com Join the Conversation:This one is for the coach or expert who has been told to pick one niche, one offer, one version of herself, and has kept quietly adding, rebuilding, and waiting instead of deciding. If a slow month has ever made you shrink a goal you were sure about, start here. Where are you standing? Know where your Floor is firm.Know where it's still moving with results.Know where to work next. Three minutes. theselftrustcoach.com/where-are-you-standing

  5. Sep 30

    The Cost of Self-Abandonment | Renea L. Moss on Leadership

    Read the fullepisode breakdown + show notes:https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/blog/ep193-the-cost-of-self-abandonment She had already started pointing her school families toward other schools when she realized the business wasn't the problem. The question mark in her leadership was.Renea L. Moss, also known as Rai Renea, is an award-winning author, speaker,and performer, and the founder of Forge Independent Schools. For years she poured into everyone around her and called it strength, until a health crisismade the cost impossible to ignore. Underneath her story is a self-trust question every leader eventually meets: do my needs count as much as everyone else's? In This Episode, We Explore:• Self-Abandonment Dressed as Strength: how serving everyone can look like leadership from the outside while quietly costing you everything on theinside • Either/Or Leadership: why "either they're happy or there are rules" left Renea's school confused, stalled, and running on her exhaustion • Over-Ownership: what changes when you stop owning things that were never yours to own, from an employee's performance to a stranger's opinion of youroutfit • Removing the Question Mark: why direct leadership is not unkind, and how wishy-washy directions quietly invite "what can I get away with" • Rai Renea, All of Her: why Renea stopped splitting the educator from the performer, and why it takes so much energy to not be you • No Apology in My Throat: the spoken word album born from refusing to apologize for who she is Episode Chapters:00:00  Welcome and introducing Renea L. Moss01:14  Pouring into everyone except herself06:14  Boundaries, business fires, and a health crisis14:19  The ER doctor's question and choosing herself16:15  "Too sexy for this environment" and owning her full expression22:11  Leadership without the question mark24:39  Almost closing the school, and deciding to stay27:40  It takes so much energy to not be you32:39  No Apology in My Throat, rest, and what's next Connect with Renea L. Moss:Website: https://reneasworld.com/Books: Mumblings of a Maniac, The Book of Rebellion, and the memoir How a Honeybun Almost Took Me Out. Spoken word album: No Apology in My Throat.Join the Conversation:This one is for the business owner who answers the 9 p.m. message, softens every direction so no one gets upset, and has quietly started wondering whether it's time to close the whole thing down. Before you decide the business is the problem, listen for the question mark. Where are you standing?Before more strategy, more effort, or another decision — know where you're standing.Three minutes. Your results, your floor, your next move.https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/where-are-you-standing

  6. Sep 23

    You Knew All Along | Katie O'Malley on Trusting Instincts

    Read the fullepisode breakdown + show notes:https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/blog/ep192-you-knew-all-alongShe knew her business partner was a problem the moment she met her, and she ignored it for two years anyway.Katie O'Malley is an executive coach and leadership educator, and the founder of (en)Courage Coaching, where she helps individuals, teams and organizations build authentic leadership and healthier workplace cultures. Her work has been featured in Fast Company and Thrive Global, and she delivered a TEDx talk in Boston in 2025. Underneath the resume, Katie spent two years overriding thesame instinct in her marriage, her business partnership and her father's care, until her body forced her to stop. In This Episode, We Explore: The First Instinct: How Katie's body flagged her future business partner as a problem before her mind had the words for it.Whose Voice Was She Actually Hearing: Why she believed the people calling her "too critical" over her own gut, and where that belief started.Thriving Business, Disappearing Self: How her business kept growing while she was disconnecting from her own life outside of it.The Pattern Across Three Relationships: What her father, her ex-husband and her business partner had in common, and how each one used the same line againsther.Write It Down, Say It Out Loud: The two-step practice Katie now uses to rebuild trust in her own read.The Decision She Made Without Asking Anyone: Why moving to the suburbs became proof that her instinct was already working again. Episode Chapters:00:00  Welcome + Meet Katie O'Malley00:54  The Season Everything Collided: 202303:20  The First Instinct: Meeting the "Would-Be" Business Partner09:00  Why She Overrode Her Own Read 13:00  Thriving Business, Disappearing Self16:41  Naming the Pattern Across Father, Husband and Business Partner21:48  Rebuilding Trust: The Decision, the Body and the Permission She Gave Herself34:45  Building enCourage Coaching and the enCourage Foundation Connect with Katie O'Malley:Instagram: @encouragecoachchicagoWebsite: www.encouragecoaching.orgLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kateomalleyTedX Talk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUNGPk978uEJoin the Conversation:This one is for the coach or entrepreneur who has already called it, quietly, in a meeting, in a partnership conversation, in her own body, and then talked herself out of it because someone she trusted told her she was too critical tobe right.Where Are You Standing? Before more strategy, more effort, or another decision — know where you're standing. Three minutes. Your results, your floor, your next move. https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/beginReady to Fix the Floor in place?The Floor: Your Build The launch didn't perform the way you wanted.And somehow that reopened a decision you thought you'd already made. That's the Floor moving. This is where you fix it in place. https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/the-floor-your-build https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/the-floor-your-build

  7. Sep 16

    The Thought That Isn't New | Loren Finger on Career Change

    Read the full episode breakdown + show notes: https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/blog/ep191-the-thought-that-isnt-new What if "I don't know enough" isn't an honest assessment of your ability, but a familiar thought that has followed you into every room you were already qualified to enter? Loren Finger's career has crossed industries, professions, countries, and identities: executive recruitment, corporate law, nonprofit leadership, and CEO, before she built EmpowerHer Careers to help mothers navigate what comes next. This episode traces one recurring thought all the way back to her final year of school, and what changed once she recognized it as a decades-old pattern instead of a fact about her ability. In This Episode, We Explore: The Pattern, Not the Fact: how Loren traced "I don't know enough" back to childhood exams, long before it ever touched her business• Confirmation Bias in Real Time: why we scan for evidence of what we don't know while ignoring the evidence sitting right next to itPermission to Redecide: why a career decision made by an earlier version of you doesn't have to be honored by the version of you todayThe Golden Handcuffs: what keeps capable women in roles that no longer fit, even when the flexibility they're protecting is minimalRules That Aren't Real: how self-imposed rules keep people boxed into careers and decisions long after the rule stopped serving them Episode Chapters: 00:00 Welcome and today's theme 05:00 Loren's early definition of success and the move to New York 10:00 Reaching the law career goal, and what shifted after motherhood 15:00 Resigning as CEO and losing her sense of identity 22:00 Discovering coaching and permission to redecide 28:00 Tracing "I don't know enough" back to childhood 36:00 Breaking self-imposed rules and the golden handcuffs 42:00 Advice for the mother questioning her career today Connect with Loren Finger: website: https://empowerhercareers.com/ Instagram: @lorenfingercoaching Free Get A Job You Love Masterclass: https://empowerhercareers.com/get-a-job-you-love-masterclass Join the Conversation: This one is for the mother who has built a career that works on paper and quietly doesn't fit anymore, who keeps hearing "I don't know enough" right before her next move, and hasn't yet questioned whether that thought has ever been true. 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. Do your results keep putting things back up for a vote?The offer doesn't work quickly enough, and suddenly you're questioning the business. The response is quieter than you expected, and what you decided was possible starts feeling negotiable again. The Floor: Your Build is where we stop that cycle. Fix the Who and the Whether in place, so every result can teach you more about the How without sending you back to reconsider everything you already decided. Fix the Floor with The Floor: Your Build https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/the-floor-your-build

  8. Sep 9

    Knowing It vs. Living It | Dr. Ken Martz on Anxiety

    Read the full episode breakdown + show notes:https://www.theselftrustcoach.com/blog/ep190-knowing-it-vs-living-itHe could teach self-trust before he was actually living it. Dr. Ken Martz is a licensed psychologist with more than 30 years in mental health and addiction treatment, and the author of the international bestseller Manage My Emotions. This episode traces his path from a panic attack in a post office line, to a hospital gown, to building the Unshakeable series for high-performing men moving from anxious to unshakeable. It's about the gap between understanding something intellectually and actually choosing to live it, and why closing that gap is a relationship shift, not a strategy shift.In This Episode, We Explore: Knowing vs. Living: why understanding a concept, even well enough to teach it, isn't the same as choosing itInternal Metrics vs. External Metrics: the shift from tracking revenue and perception to tracking laughter, gratitude, and authentic presenceThe Backpack of Micro Wounds: how small, unregulated stressors accumulate for years until a single moment forces a reckoningNo Hospital Moment Required: why the body can change gears in seconds once it's actually invited to A Relationship Shift, Not a Strategy Shift: why the work underneath performance anxiety is a relationship with yourself Episode Chapters:00:00 Welcome and today's theme01:22 The exam story and chasing an undefined perfect05:15 The post office moment and the hospital gown09:00 Why capable people dismiss burnout as a capacity problem15:40 Outsourcing your worth to other people's perceptions20:15 Internal metrics versus external metrics26:30 What clients try first, and why it doesn't work34:15 Advice for the high performer who recognizes this Connect with Dr. Ken Martz:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.kenmartz/Website: https://drkenmartz.comAdditional resource: Author of Manage My Emotions, creator of the Unshakeable Men series and Unshakeable Prime, Leadership, and Relationships programsJoin the Conversation:This one is for the high performer who can explain exactly what needs to shift, sometimes for other people, and still finds themselves living the opposite of it. If that gap feels familiar, this conversation is for you.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-pageReady 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

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The Self Trust Solution brings you real stories of self-trust in action. In Season 3, entrepreneurs, leaders and experts share the decisions, risks, setbacks and revelations that changed how they build, lead and live. Hosted by Dawn Ledet, The Self Trust Coach. Where are you standing? Know where your Floor is firm. Know where it’s still moving with results. Know where to work next. Three minutes. theselftrustcoach.com/begin

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