This is an interview video with Stephanie Thoma, a Forbes featured leadership and life coach, hypnotherapist, and the best selling author of the transformational networking book, Confident Introvert. The main topic of the interview is about the way to identify and push through self-limiting beliefs to become a leader. She introduces useful tips on surviving as an introvert and having a positive mindset. 

At first, Stephanie was an ordinary office worker, and she worked from nine to five. Even though it was a stable income in a good position, she was not satisfied. 

She decided that she would start doing her business by trying various things beyond an ordinary routine rather than staying in a stable position. Despite the dissuasion of the people around her, she decided to find a new path. Through this journey, she realized that we shouldn’t judge others’ decisions because everyone has their own different role to play.

From the business she is doing these days or from this interview, people around her think she is an extrovert. However, she is an introverted person who gets her energy from solitude, even though she sometimes likes talking to other people. She put her personal experience on her contents and began to coach clients from career coaching to networking strategy coaching. She transitioned from career coaching into networking coaching in order to help people gain a level of fluency and comfort rooted in a deeper sense of self-knowing and connection.

Stephanie highlighted the importance of networking. She pointed out that networking is essential to not only entrepreneurs but all people because we are social beings. Since we are hardwired for connection, it’s going to be a lot harder to reach our potential if we don’t have any networks. She mentioned some tips for making networks and creating connections with others.

First, it is important to get rid of anxiety and understand the feeling of confidence. Although people in the room seem more established than us, we need to keep thinking that all of our worth as humans on a fundamental level is the same. Second, it is essential to leave a memorable first impression to others. She gave an idea to have your own unique interests so that others can remember you more easily. She also suggested that when you talk to others during the networking session, it’s better to ask unusual questions, not common questions that others often ask.

 Stephanie gave useful tips for having a positive mindset, and one of the methods is called the coin bridge. For instance, if you think you are not worthy, the opposite side of the sentence will be ‘I am absolutely deserving’. If Stephanie makes her client constantly repeat the sentence ‘I am absolutely deserving’ as a solution to fear, it will not work at all. Therefore, she found a way that neutralizes the positive and negative charge of each statement. The sentence ‘I have some values to offer’ is somewhere in the middle between the two sentences. Rather than repeating too unrealistic and super positive sentences, she argued that continuing to repeat realistic sentences in the middle stage can help people to have positive mindsets.