180. The One Decision That Changed My Entire Life (And Can Change Yours Too)

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Call Her Creator with Katelyn Rhoades

Episode 180: The One Decision That Changed My Entire Life (And Can Change Yours Too)

Date: August 6, 2026
Host: Katelyn Rhoades

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Episode Overview

In this deeply personal and motivating episode, Katelyn Rhoades shares the foundational decision that transformed her life—from struggling college student to building a multi–six-figure personal brand and agency. Her goal: to encourage ambitious women to stop waiting for permission and take real, uncomfortable action towards their dreams, leveraging visibility and social media.

The episode blends personal storytelling with actionable advice and research on confidence, showing that success comes not from waiting to feel ready, but from making a conscious decision and taking consistent, imperfect action.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The One Life-Changing Decision

• Katelyn emphasizes that there was no single “magical moment” where confidence or opportunity suddenly appeared.
• “Every opportunity I’ve ever had…traces back to one decision. A decision I almost didn’t make.” (03:01)
• The pivotal choice was to stop hiding, show up online, and let herself be seen—regardless of whether she felt ready.

2. Debunking the Confidence Myth

• She dispels the idea that successful women possess more innate confidence, money, or connections than others.
• “There wasn’t some lightning bolt of confidence that hit me and made everything seem easy.” (02:53)
• Success comes from acting before you feel ready, not waiting for certainty or approval.

3. Personal Background: Building from Scarcity

• Raised by a single teen mother in a household with a scarcity mindset, Katelyn learned to hustle early, starting work at 13.
• Shares candid recollections of juggling multiple jobs and internships during college, building self-efficacy through hardship.
• “I worked two jobs...I was a waitress. I also had multiple internships...just trying to build a future while also trying to just survive young adulthood.” (09:51)

4. The Psychology and Science Behind Confidence

• Katelyn references psychologist Albert Bandura’s work on self-efficacy: real confidence is earned through “mastery experiences”—taking hard action and surviving.
• “You have to do the hard things and survive them...And that teaches your brain, like, oh, wait, I can do this.” (13:03-13:18)
• This action-first approach builds the "muscle" of resilience, not vision boards alone.

5. Career Path: From Employee to Entrepreneur

• Details her years grinding through jobs: from leasing assistant to social media manager to agency work, absorbing skills and moving closer to her calling despite feeling unqualified at times.
• “I was never like, ‘Am I ready?’ I was more like, ‘How do I become ready?’” (20:02)
• Motherhood—and a manager’s comment ("You are not ball and chained to this job")—triggered her decision to finally bet on herself.

6. The Power of Consistency and Visibility Online

• Transformation accelerated when Katelyn started showing up daily on Instagram—posting, experimenting, and engaging, even when nobody appeared to care.
• Early wins: landing on the Explore page with carousels, leveraging the rise of Reels, selling coaching sessions, and scaling her agency.
• “Visibility, online visibility, changed my life. Because I still think I could have built this agency from the ground up with my network…but I do think that Instagram helps me reach people beyond that.” (26:38)

7. Resilience and Reality: No Overnight Success

• Candid about the persistence, discomfort, and financial insecurity behind her eventual success.
• “This is coming from a girl who literally could not pay her rent. I would sell my clothes to make grocery money.” (27:34)
• Every uncomfortable rep and setback becomes proof that you can do hard things; progress compounds over time.

8. Luck Versus Consistent Exposure

• Katelyn reframes “luck”—opportunity is a function of visibility and persistence, not random chance:
• “Luck often looks a lot like visibility. The more rooms you’re in, the more people who know your name, the more chances you create for opportunities to find you. That is not luck. That is exposure.” (29:36)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Readiness:
  “The life you are dreaming about doesn’t begin when you feel ready. It begins the moment you decide it’s worth betting on.” (04:33, 37:49)
• On Confidence:
  “You do not think your way into confidence. You act your way into it. Every single uncomfortable conversation, every scary post, every risk, every moment you survive something hard, your brain collects the proof that I can do hard things.” (37:56)
• On Building Opportunity:
  “At some point, you have to decide that your dream is worth backing and you have to choose yourself before the world does.” (38:29)
• On Visibility:
  “You cannot be discovered if you are constantly disappearing or hiding. You can’t create opportunities while hiding. How can you? No one sees you, no one knows you’re there. You do not exist.” (38:49)
• On Compounding Progress:
  “Every failure you go through teaches you something. Every awkward rep makes you stronger. So eventually, what looked invisible starts to become undeniable.” (29:36)

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Segment Timestamps

• [02:26] — Introduction to the main theme: one decision changed everything
• [06:01-11:07] — Early struggles, family background, and building self-efficacy
• [13:03-13:19] — Research on building confidence through action (Albert Bandura)
• [15:27-20:02] — Career path and learning through various jobs
• [20:02-22:54] — The catalyst: workplace discontent, motherhood, and finally betting on herself
• [25:55-27:32] — Early Instagram strategy, using visibility to scale business
• [27:32-29:36] — Perseverance, fighting through discomfort, the “compound effect,” and the myth of overnight success
• [29:36-32:50] — Visibility as “luck,” the real mechanics of opportunity, networking in person
• [37:56-38:53] — Katelyn’s 3 actionable takeaways for listeners

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Three Actionable Takeaways (37:56-39:36)

1. Confidence is built through evidence, not overthinking.
   – Every hard thing you survive becomes proof that you can do hard things.

2. No one will give you permission.
   – You must choose yourself before the world does.

3. Visibility creates opportunity.
   – Consistent visibility, not luck, brings new chances. You cannot create opportunities if you are hiding.

Final Homework Challenge:

• Write down what you’re waiting to feel ready for.
• Ask yourself what your “future self” would do this week to get closer to your dreams.
• Take ONE uncomfortable action in the next 48 hours. (39:36)

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Conclusion & Listener Encouragement

Katelyn closes with heartfelt encouragement, reminding listeners that the transformation begins when you stop waiting and start acting. She urges women to become “even 1% bolder,” to leave reviews, and to send the episode to a friend who needs a nudge—reinforcing the collective movement behind Call Her Creator.

“The world doesn’t need women playing smaller. It needs more women willing to be seen.” (40:20)

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For more episodes, visit: Call Her Creator Podcast
Follow: @callhercreator on Instagram

Transcript

[Kaitlyn Rhodes]

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your marketing further with Brevo and Aura. What if the life you've been dreaming about isn't waiting on you to have more confidence or more money or more time or even a better plan? What if it's waiting on you to make one decision? The decision to stop treating your dreams like something you'll get to one day. Because here's what I've learned. There was not a magical moment where I suddenly woke up feeling fearless. There wasn't some lightning bolt of confidence that hit me and made everything seem easy.

Every opportunity I've ever had, every business

I've built, every stage I've stood on, every person who knows my name. Today, it all traces back to one decision. A decision I almost didn't make.

Welcome to Call Her Creator, the podcast that teaches you how to get seen, build an unforgettable brand that creates opportunities and use social media to open doors

you never thought possible.

I'm your host, Kaitlyn Rhodes, a Forbes featured entrepreneur, founder of Influence Marketing Studio, and the creator of a seven figure personal brand. Everything I've built started with one decision. To stop hiding and let myself be seen. Every week I'll share actionable social media strategies, personal branding insights, and the honest conversations that push you to think bigger, show up bolder, and take action before you feel ready. Visibility changes everything. Your next opportunity starts with being seen.

Now let's get to work. Today, I want to tell you that story.

Not because I think my path is

the blueprint, because it's not.

But because I think you're probably standing

where I once stood.

And I have some good tips to help you keep going.

Right? Maybe you're wondering if you're good enough or you're wondering if now is the right time. Wondering if you should wait until you feel more ready. I know that feeling because I lived there for years.

And if I could sit across from the version of me who was still

waiting, I'd tell her this. The life you are dreaming about doesn't begin when you feel ready. It begins the moment you decide it's worth betting on. And to celebrate the Baddie Challenge this week, I thought that this episode was super important to replay for you guys because it is truly not only my

story, but it is my blueprint. It's not your blueprint, but it's going to help you get past the things

that are holding you back.

So if you're not in the baddie

Challenge, you still have time to sign up. This week, for the next 30 days, we are going to give you some Uncomfortable reps so that you can be the girl you've been dreaming about. But until then, I hope you love today's episode.

What's up, everybody?

Welcome back to Call Her Creator. Today, I'm not here to teach you some shiny business strategy or tell you the latest Instagram hack. No, today I want to tell you

the truth about how I have built

the life that I used to literally dream about. Spoiler alert. There was no magical moment where I suddenly just became confident enough to live this life. There was no moment where I woke up fearless. There was no giant opportunity that just fell into my lap and changed everything. And no, I did not have a fairy godmother who just handed me a six figure business and an audience.

Now, this whole thing that I've built

has been messy, it's been uncomfortable, it's been life changing.

But the stress, it's there, sister. It was years of putting myself in

rooms that I didn't really feel fully ready for. I was working jobs while chasing bigger dreams. I was taking risks before I had the proof that they'd even work. And honestly, I was getting out of my own frickin way. I think sometimes we look at women who have built businesses personally, personal brands, freedom, flexibility, and we assume they must have something that we don't have. Maybe they have more confidence, maybe they have more money, more connections, more certainty. But what if that's not true? What if the biggest difference is simply that they've moved before they felt ready? Because that is what happened for me. I need to walk you guys through my real story. I came from a mother who was 17 years old when she had me. She was still a baby. She was not ready to be a mother. She wasn't. She didn't know what the heck she was doing. So I built this life that I had my damn self. I want to walk you through what that story looked like. Because if you are feeling like you are at rock bottom right now or you're feeling like you're just going through some shit that you don't think you'll ever get out of. I promise you, all it takes is a decision to get out of it and you can do. I had very limited resources when I graduated high school and I still ended up going to a really great university. University of Florida.

Go Gators.

You know, I. I had student loan debt from that, but I put myself through that. I worked several different jobs, had several different internships, still managed to, you know, go to some tailgates and, and do the dang thing, but I Grinded my booty off to get where I am today. And I'm going to take you guys through that. Who I want to walk you through the real story. The jobs, the internships, the moments that I doubted myself, the pivots that I made, the scary decisions I made, and then that tiny brave move that compounded into this life that I now get to live. And I also want to unpack some really fascinating research around confidence. Taking action and while waiting to feel ready might actually be the thing that keeps you stuck. So if you've been sitting on an idea or questioning yourself or feeling behind or wondering if you've missed your shot, girlfriend, this episode is absolutely for you. All right, so let me take you back for a second, because if you only know the version of me with the podcast, the business, the audience, the social media career, it might be easy for you to assume that this all happened super fast. Like, oh, my God, within the last year, Caitlin just blew up. No, she did not. It definitely didn't happen overnight. I did not wake up one day feeling wildly confident and ready to take over the world. I've always been a worker. I started working when I was 13 years old. I understood that if I wanted a certain kind of life, I was probably going to have to create it myself. My parents lived in a scarcity mindset of money and all that. My mom was a teacher, my dad always complaining about bills and money. So I knew that I did not want that life. And I think growing up with that, you. You build this muscle that says, I want the complete opposite of this. And that's where I came from. So when I graduated college, luckily my saving grace, I have really amazing grandparents and my papa had paid for Florida Prepaid, which basically like pays for your college. Not all of it, I will say, not all of it, but most of it was done through this prepaid college. I also got Florida Bright Futures, which was a scholarship for having really good grades. So I had help paying for my schooling. Right now, what I didn't have help with was room and board, food, car insurance, health insurance, all that stuff that was on me. My health insurance actually was. Thankfully, I got that through my stepmother at the time, through her job, but everything else that was all on me. My parents did not send me money. I had to make it on my own. I think maybe I called my parents handful of times and they would send me, you know, 50 bucks here and there, but nothing like compared to getting it done for you or like taking care of things for you. That was just not an option for me. So I worked two jobs. I worked at the apartment complex that I lived at, which gave me a little bit of money off my rent every month. And then I was a waitress. And then I also had multiple internships. I did a radio internship. I did a news. TV news internship. Actually, I did two TV news.

I had three internships.

Now that I'm thinking about this, I don't know how I did all this. I guess because I was, you know, 18, 19, 20, 21. You're young. You can do all the things. You can live off of two hours of sleep. And that's what I did. I was juggling classes. I had a ton of financial responsibilities. I had deadlines. Just trying to build a future while also trying to just survive young adulthood. And if you've ever been in that chapter where everyone else looks like they're just floating through life while you're over here, literally, like, drowning, that's what it felt like. I had a really amazing roommate. I got to live with my best friend since pre K. Her parents took care of her. She still had a job because she wanted one, but she didn't even have to work if she didn't want to. And then my other roommate, who I had met in college. Amazing. Love her. Still love her to this day. She had everything taken care of her. She did not have to have a job. She drove a Mercedes Benz. I remember thinking, like, oh, my God, I hope I can do for my daughter what she is getting, because she's got it made. With that, she was able to go on, like, all these cool internships overseas and make really good grades and not miss any gator games. Like, I. That was. That was what I wanted. And that was my motivation, too, at the time. Like, I knew that I couldn't do all those things, so that was my motivation. Like, I'm gonna work really freaking hard and get through all of this so that I can do this in the future. Now, I didn't realize this back then, but I wasn't just working, but I was building proof. You know, there's actually research around this that I found fascinating. So there's a psychologist, Albert Bandura. He talks about something called self efficacy, which is basically your belief in your ability to succeed. And one of the biggest ways confidence gets built, it's not through, like, affirmations and vision boards, though I love those.

It's.

It's from mastery experiences, meaning you have to do the hard things and you have to survive them. And that teaches your brain, like, oh, wait, I can do this. And now that I'm, like, reading this all out loud, God, I, like, researched all this.

It's like, holy crap.

That's how I did this. Because I survived really hard things. And that just hit me really hard. Because when I look back, that's what was happening. Every single internship, every uncomfortable interview, every time I figured something out, every stressful season where I kept going. I remember, like, rent was due in a week, and I, like, had used up all my funds. I had no money left. I remember calling my grandpa, like, hysterically crying. And it was my birthday, and I'm like, papa, I can't pay my rent. I'm not going to be able to survive. And I had, like, one year left at uf. Like, I was so close, and he was like, don't worry about it. I'm going to send you money. I'm also going to send you a little extra. I want you to go get yourself a birthday present. What he didn't know is that the extra he sent me, like, covered my water bill. On top of that, like, I couldn't afford a birthday present. Are you kidding me? Although I wish I could have at the time. But no, that little extra he gave me paid for my water bill. He had to help me out. And looking back, too, I've talked to him about this and told him the truth now, because he never really knew how hard I struggled, because he would have given the shirt off his back, but he had already done so much to me. He bought. He bought my first car. He paid for my schooling. Like, I said, like, I wasn't gonna put even more on him. But talking to him now about that, I learned that this was also during the crash. Like, 2008-2009-2010-2011, even. Like, that was a time when, like, the market crashed for a little bit for a lot of people. A lot of small business owners took a big hit, and that was during that time. So, like, he's told me now that there was some moments where he didn't even know how he was gonna pay his employees. So thankfully enough, he was able to help me out during those times. But just looking back, I was unintentionally building confidence through all of that. You know, life wasn't getting easier for me, but it was me collecting evidence that I could handle hard things. So when I graduated, finally, I didn't immediately become an entrepreneur.

Right.

And I think that's important to say because sometimes online, it can feel like everyone just woke up one day, quit their job, launched a Business. And then they became this wild success story. But that was not my story. I had a couple different jobs before I ever started my own social media agency. And when I say I did the grunt work, guys, I mean I did the grunt work, like limited pto. I remember my very first job. They literally did not give you off for holidays. So like Thanksgiving, Christmas. Nope. I was working for a hotel industry, no holidays. And it's so funny to me now because at my agency I am so big on work, life balance, and like unlimited pto. Like, make sure you get your work done, but work from where you want. But I remember back then just being like, oh my God, is this adulthood? I remember my first week of full time work. I wanted to crawl in a hole. It was so hard. And I just, I can also remember in those moments, like, dang, is this what I worked so hard for? So that I could go work for someone else and not even be able to go see my family for the holidays? And don't get me wrong, I'm really grateful for every single season because every job that I had taught me something and I wouldn't be where I am today without it. But there was definitely moments where I felt like, holy crap, this cannot be it. I wanted freedom and flexibility. I wanted a life that felt bigger than just asking permission to live my life and for clocking in and building someone else's dream while putting mine on the back burner. And here's what's interesting. Even though I wasn't an entrepreneur at that time, I kept leaning towards what lit me up. I kept finding myself pulled towards marketing. Social media specifically. I remember my boss, at my second job, my boss dropped a. No, this was my first job. Sorry. My first job, my boss dropped a book on my desk and it was like likable social media. It was a book about like using social media to build influence and sell things. And like, if we take it a step back, like right before I left for college, I was working for my dad. He had an RV company where he was selling RVs and I would post them on Craigslist. So I knew about social media, but it wasn't like super duper powerful back then. So I got this book and I immersed myself into that book and I just really started learning social media marketing. And then I started my first blog actually. Sorry, it's a lot to remember all this stuff because it's been over 10 years. My first blog actually was a school assignment at the University of Florida. Had to create a blog. So my first blog was all about, like, me and my dreams to become a news anchor, because that's what I really wanted to do. So I had started a blog then, but kind of let it go. So then I get this job and I start another blog because of this book. And I just wanted to start a blog that could help others with social media marketing. Like, I wanted to basically, like, talk about what I was learning, because nobody else was really doing social media marketing at the time. It was, you know, like, very normal jobs. There was not all these creative jobs like there are today. So I use my blog as, like, a creative outlet to learn that stuff. And then what's cool is my boss noticed my blog, and she actually ended up sending me across the country to teach other leasing managers. I was a leasing assistant at the time, so she would send me to teach other leasing managers how to use Facebook and social media to sell more apartment homes. So it's just really cool. Like, your path doesn't have to make perfect sense in real time. Sometimes you fall into this opportunity, and then you use your skills and your calling and your passion to, like, pivot into something else. Right. But sometimes those clues are in what keeps calling you back to that. And for me, it was always the space. And so from there, I would take jobs that got me closer to social media marketing. I was the leasing assistant, and then I went and became a social media manager, and then I went to another place to be their social media and Facebook ads manager, and that's where I learned Facebook ads. And then from there, I went to another agency and I worked for a whole bunch of different clients, learning social media, SEO, web design, all the things. And then my final job, before I started my own agency, I worked for a very specific real estate marketing agency and did marketing specifically for realtors. So it's really cool to look back and see, like, how all my jobs led me to where I am today. But I took the jobs, I learned the skills. I was really good at working, I paid attention, I got better, and then I just worked my way up. And eventually what started as, like, something I was interested in became something I was genuinely excellent at, which actually ties into another really interesting concept, and that's growth mindset. There's research around this that basically shows people who believe skills can be developed are way more likely to keep going through setbacks instead of assuming they're just not cut out for something. And I think that's really huge because I never sat around waiting to magically be the most qualified person in the room. I Just kept becoming more qualified. And that's such a different mindset to me. Like, I was never like, am I ready? I was more like, how do I become ready? So I worked for other people from, let's see, the age of 21 to about 30. So for like 10 years. And then one day, something shifted in me. So I had had my second baby and I took maternity leave. And when I came back, I continued working that job for like almost a year later. But they started to change my role because I'm really good at marketing, but I'm also very good with people. And so they were gonna kind of like change my role into like marketing, but like more customer service based. And I was like, no way. I know what my calling is. I know what I want to do with my life. I know my passions. So I like fought for this not to happen. And they were like, I remember my manager at the time was like, listen, you are not ball and chained to this job, to this company. And I was like, okay. And like, right then and there, I was like, okay, that's it. So I had a long talk with my husband and we were just like, you know what? Writing's on the wall. It's time to just do your own thing. You're really good at what you do. Let's just go all in. I also think that motherhood has this really wild way of making you reevaluate everything. Because suddenly, like, time just hits differently too. 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So made the decision to leave and started posting on Instagram. And I told myself, I'm going to post every single day. And at the time, carousels were really big and they were getting you on the Explore page. And once you hit the explore page, that's when people could find your profile. So, like, that's when the algorithm really started shifting with Instagram too, because there wasn't the Explore page when Instagram first started. Like, you couldn't really find new people to follow at that time. Started to hit the Explore page and then reels came out and I was like, reels?

I love videos. Sign me up.

So I started posting reels and from that point, a couple of them just started taking off. And that is what really taught me too guys. Like, Instagram changed my life. Visibility, online visibility changed my life. Because I still think I could have built this agency from the ground up with my network because I have built a lot of people up in my network working for 10 years, right? But I do think that Instagram helps me reach people beyond that. And I started selling one on one coaching calls. And then it got to the point where people wanted me to manage their social media for them and help them grow. And then I got to hire Darby and then we got to hire Gracie and then we got to hire Abby and now we're hiring right now for a social media manager. And like, it just all snowballed into that. But let's take it back. Was that an overnight success? Abso freaking lutely not.

This is coming from a girl who

literally could not pay for her rent. I would sell my clothes to make grocery money. I ate. Oh my God, like I'm thinking about the dinners I would eat. I would eat macaroni and cheese for dinner. Like that would be the only thing I ate. Do you guys remember like those? It's like a ho ho, but it's like a strawberry roll up thingy. I would eat those. I don't even know how I survived. That's probably why I have my autoimmune disease, is because all the shit I ate in college. But that girl now eats at Michelin starred, Michelin rated starred, whatever you want to call it, restaurants and lives her mother trucking dream. Because I did the hard work, I put in the work, and I did not make this decision from some place of complete confidence. I was terrified. I was terrified to leave my full time job. I had the most amazing benefits, but I had to take the leap if I wanted something to change. And if you're sitting there and you're like, okay, I'm going through the motions every single day, I wake up and I feel this way, and then this happens, and this happens, all it takes is you making the decision to do something differently. And I will acknowledge the leap is horrifying when you have real responsibilities and you have children and you have bills and you have uncertainty and absolute zero guarantees.

Scary.

But I took it anyway. And I made a promise to myself. I will make this work. It's not like, okay, I'm gonna try it. Okay, let's see what happens. Okay, maybe. No. I decided. And once I made that decision, my behavior changed too. I started showing up every single day. I was posting, I was learning, I was testing, I was paying attention, I was improving, I was building. I was showing up on Instagram Live, I was commenting back to people and building real community every single day. And this is where I think people misunderstand what success actually is. Because they think that successful people are somehow either less scared to do it or they're just handed it to them. But that's not my story. Behavioral psychology will actually tell us something really interesting. Action reduces anxiety. Now, avoiding it will make your fear bigger, but if you actually take the action, it reduces your anxiety. And that means the more you sit there overthinking whether you should start the thing, the scarier it actually becomes. But movement will create that momentum for you. And that's exactly what happened for me. I didn't post because I was confident that it was gonna take off. I just posted because I had made a decision that the future me deserved a shot at a different life. And that is what changed everything for me. Now, here's the part that people don't always see. If you've just found me in the last few years, you might think like, oh, wow, she built an audience. Oh, she grew a business. Oh, she figured it out. And that's funny, because people love to assume that success happened super fast. For me, One viral moment, one lucky break, one perfect pivot. But nope, this has taken me years. Years, years, years. And I really need people to hear that because social media has done such a weird job of making success look instant. You see someone in their chapter 15 and you compare it to yourself who is in chapter one or chapter two. And that is so toxic because, yes, I started posting consistently. Yes, I made the commitment, but did I become massively successful overnight. Absolutely not. I posted when barely anybody cared. I remember calling my aunt and my mom and my best friend and my sister and being like, hey, I'm about to go live on Instagram. Can you please pop on for, like, five minutes so it looks like somebody's on there with me? I created content before I knew exactly what I was doing. I wasn't a newbie, but I wasn't an expert either. I tested things. Sometimes they'd flop. I learned my messaging. I learned my audience psychology. I learned what made people stop the scroll. I learned sales. Coming from a girly who was literally afraid to tell someone when they got my food order wrong. I learned sales. I'm now selling, like, $10,000 packages, guys. I learned storytelling. I got better because I kept going and I kept just working out that muscle. I was not magically gifted. And I think we need to talk about something called the compound effect, actually, because success usually doesn't look dramatic in the beginning. It looks very boring. It's actually very repetitive, like posting for 37 people to like it or even see it, or launching something and not hearing a dang thing. No sales. Been there, done that. Trying again. When your ego is screaming, girl, sit down. But repetition compounds. And every single post you share teaches you something. Every failure you go through teaches you something. Every awkward rep makes you stronger. So eventually, what looked invisible starts to become undeniable. And that's what happened with me. I also think this is where people underestimate exposure. People call some entrepreneurs lucky, but I have a different perspective on that. Luck often looks a lot like visibility. The more rooms you're in, the more people who know your name, the more chances you create for opportunities to find you. That is not luck. That is exposure. I kept showing up because I refused to disappear. Even when it was awkward, even when growth was slow, even when I questioned myself because I knew something most people don't want to accept. The women who win usually aren't the ones who were the most talented. They're the ones who stayed in the game long enough to become undeniable. Quick story with this, too. I was in New York last week for the personal branding workshop, and I realized, like, you think that people just connect with people on social media, and then they're best friends, yada, yada. Like, no, they connect because they're going to these events, they're putting themselves in the room, they're paying to be in the room, they're making the connections, they're networking, and then that's how it's happening. So before you go judge someone who's like, oh, she's always getting these opportunities, like she's putting in the work. She's leaving her family to go to these opportunities. She's spending three days on talking to people and then having to come home and just die in her bed from talking to people too much. She is me. I am she. You don't get these opportunities without putting in the work. You really, really don't. And it is not an overnight success. It is not. So if you're listening to this in your messy chapter and you're feeling behind or you're feeling like your growth has slowed, the chapter where everyone else looks like they've figured it out except for you, I really want you to hear me on this. You're not behind everybody else. You're just building. You're in your building era. And there is a massive difference between the two. The life that you want in the business you dream about, the confidence you think other women magically woke up with, they built that. It's built in the unseen reps. It's built in the moments where no one is clapping. Absolutely no one. No one is validating you. No one's dming. Oh my God. Keep going Queen. It's built when you choose to show up anyway. Does anyone else feel like August is

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Again, that's storyblocks.com CHC for 15% off annual plans. If I can leave you with something today, it's this. There was no magical moment where I became confident enough. Confidence was just the byproduct. Action came first. The courage came from the reps. The clarity came from the action. The opportunities came from the visibility that I was building. And if I had waited until I felt fully ready, I would still be waiting. There's that meme with that skeleton sitting on a bench. That's where I'd still be. So here's three takeaways from today that I want you to remember.

Okay?

Number one, confidence is built through evidence, not through overthinking. You do not think your way into confidence. You act your way into it. Every single uncomfortable conversation, every scary post, every risk, every moment you survive something hard, your brain collects the proof that I can do hard things. Number two, no one is coming to hand you permission. No recruiter, no algorithm, no mentor. No magical opportunity. At some point, you have to decide that your dream is worth backing and you have to choose yourself before the world does. And number three, visibility creates opportunity. People love calling successful women lucky, but luck often looks like consistent visibility. You cannot be discovered if you are constantly disappearing or hiding. You can't create opportunities while hiding. How can you? No one sees you.

No one knows you're there. You do not exist.

So your homework for me. I want you to do three things. First, I want you to write down the thing you've been waiting to feel, quote, unquote, ready for. And I want you to be super honest with yourself. Do you want to start a business? Do you want to post the content? Do you want to launch an offer? Do you want to pitch yourself for something? Do you want to apply for a role? Do you want to leave the thing that's no longer aligned? Write it down. Second, I want you to ask yourself, what would the version of me who gets the life I want to do do this week, not someday but this week, what is she doing? And then third, I want you to take one uncomfortable action in the next 48 hours.

Just one.

Not ten, but just one. One uncomfortable action. One brave moment. Momentum starts with movement. And years from now, you are going to look back at this exact moment as the chapter where everything changed for you. All right, I love you guys. If this episode hit home, send it to a friend who needs it. Share it on Instagram, tag me the Caitlin Rhodes or call her creator, because I love seeing what resonates with you guys. Leave me a five star review, you. And until next time, please keep showing up for yourself. Hey, if this episode helped you become even 1% bolder today, would you do me a favor?

Please leave a review so more women can find.

Call her creator podcast.

Then send this episode to one woman

who's ready for her next chapter. Because the world doesn't need women playing smaller. It needs more women willing to be seen. All right, I'll see you guys in the next episode.