246: The Voice in Your Head Is Lying to You

Marketing Your Business - Marketing Strategies for Business Owners

Stu McLaren

Business, Marketing

4.9 • 679 Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2026

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Yesterday I asked a group of motivated entrepreneurs one question: "What is the voice in your head telling you about why you shouldn't move forward right now?"

The chat blew up. I'm too young. I'm too old. My audience isn't big enough. Who am I to talk on this? Nobody's gonna buy from me. I don't have time.

These aren't excuses. They are real beliefs that real people carry every single day. And here's what I've learned in 22 years of being online: you cannot out market a belief that says you're not worthy of success.

So today is not about tactics. Today is about the thing underneath all of it. I break down the three ways I protect my own confidence as an entrepreneur, share the story of getting cut from my soccer team at 16 (and how my dad got me back on the field), and give you a simple challenge you can start this week.

In this episode, you'll learn:
• Why higher self-confidence boosts venture success by 27% (even after controlling for funding and experience)
• How to "borrow belief" from a mentor when your own tank runs dry
• Why founders in weekly peer groups double their revenue growth vs. working alone
• The two Slack channels we use to capture wins and kill self-doubt in real time
• The 90-day wins challenge: one win a week and see what happens to your confidence

📥 RESOURCE: Grab the resources from this episode at https://podcast.stu.me

🎟️ FREE EVENT: Join me at the Audience to Income Summit free at https://membership.io/summit

CONNECT WITH STU:
• Website: https://stu.me
• Book "Predictable Profits": https://a.co/d/4GIi1uz
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/stumclaren
• Podcast: https://podcast.stu.me
• Membership.io: https://membership.io

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Yesterday I asked a group of motivated entrepreneurs, what is the voice in your head telling you
0:06.4	about why you shouldn't move forward right now? And the chat just filled up and their answers
0:12.6	broke my heart. Because these aren't excuses. These are real beliefs that real people carry
0:19.0	every single day. So today we're not talking about tactics.
0:23.2	We're talking about the thing underneath all of it. The one thing that if you don't deal with it,
0:28.1	no marketing strategy in the world will save you. Welcome to marketing your business. I'm Stu McLaren,
0:33.6	co-founder of membership.io, and author of predictable profits. Now, here's the truth.
0:38.3	You are one great marketing idea away from transforming your business. One strategy can be the
0:45.0	difference between struggling and thriving, between a business that drains you and one that fuels
0:49.9	your life. Every episode, you're going to get specific tactics you need to build your audience,
0:55.1	attract more customers, and scale your business, all without the burnout. These are real
0:59.9	strategies, real numbers, real behind the scenes. Buckle your seatbelts, my friend. Let's go.
1:07.1	So yesterday, I was delivering a live webinar. And it's for our summit. And it has been amazing. The energy
1:14.1	has been off the charts. The people on the lives are incredible, highly engaged. And we were
1:19.7	talking about confidence and the importance of confidence. I asked, what is the voice in your head
1:25.2	telling you about why you shouldn't move forward right now?
1:29.3	And people started sharing in the chat and the chat just literally blew up.
1:34.0	I'm too young. I'm too old. My audience isn't big enough. Who am I to talk on this? Nobody's going
1:40.3	to buy for me. Others have way more experience. I don't have time for this.
1:44.6	You are not different than anyone else. Like all of these crazy voices that people are listening
1:54.2	to. These are the voices in our head that tell us all the reasons why we shouldn't move forward,
1:59.1	all the reasons why we can't do something.
	...

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