Suzanne Proksa:
Welcome to the Suzanne show with me, Suzanne Proxa, HR and business strategist, former featured Etsy seller, plant addict, concert lover, gardener, landscaper in training, and human straight up obsessed with helping others and cheering on women. Here we talk a little business, personal development, women's health, and a whole lot about things that matter, help people and give them joy. Grab your coffee or your wine, break out 1 of your hundreds of notebooks, light that soy candle, and let's dive in. Hey, hey, Suzanne Show fans. So we are going to be talking about 1 of your favorite topics today, and that is creating the confidence to go After Your Dreams with Christie Pratt. I cannot wait to dive into this conversation. Christie is a luxury brand copywriter, freelance ghostwriter slash copywriter and contributor to some of the top women's empowerment, digital and print magazines in the industry. She's the founder of hustlepretty.co, a brand centered around empowering women in their passions and careers to find unstoppable levels of success. As well as Ghost Girl, a freelance writing service for women-owned brands and businesses. Christy loves watching women reclaim their power and rise into their fullest potential all while leading the way for the next woman. She is a girl after my own heart. Christy, do you have anything else to add to that? Beautiful introduction. I am so thrilled and honored to be here today. Thank you, Christy. So first of all, let's get to know you a smidge better. How did you get started with your writing career?
Christi Pratte:
A little bit of a roller coaster, as most passion based discoveries usually are. I was prior to jumping into my writing career full time at the start of 2020. I was a kindergarten teacher, women's boxing instructor, tutor, coffeehouse manager, and waitress. Yes, simultaneously for 7 years. And I'm sure you're thinking, Oh my gosh, that's crazy. And perhaps, but I always feel very fulfilled in it. And I always got the question of like, how are you not burned out? Like, how do you have the energy for that? And I really started to take that question into consideration, which is why I started blogging in 2016. I started a platform that was then called the Passion Warrior Project, where I spoke to nurse, I spoke to women's health. Um, I spoke about obviously like finding your passion and how that can really be very fulfilling beyond physical demand. And, you know, I think society, we see burnout as 1 little niche, whereas there's very different forms burnout can take. So I was really trying to speak to that in the beginning and that little blog ended up taking off. So I ended up early around 2018, I rebranded into what is now Huckle Pretty Co. Where I speak to women-based businesses, brands, entrepreneurs, mostly about power, resiliency, self-confidence. So yeah, it's been really fun to see how it's evolved over the years. And you know, when I started blogging, I also found other women in the industry who had bigger platforms, I started writing for them and contributing to different e-magazines and now print magazines, which has been so fun. And I took my writing into a different little pocket of the industry and started doing copywriting for women's empowerment brands and women-owned businesses. So helping, you know, other women start their dreams and move their dreams forward to reach more people.
Suzanne Proksa:
Okay. That could not have been easy. How did you find the confidence to get out there and gain that type of success? We are new and starting out in anything,
Christi Pratte:
it can feel really intimidating because you're new, You don't have any past experience really to compare anything to. You're, and I think that perpetuates doubt and kind of knocks at our confidence a bit. Right? Because it's 1 thing when you have all this past experience and you can draw upon those past experiences to move you forward. Like, wait, I've been here before. I know how to handle this or, you know, it really builds your confidence and you can do that. But when you're new to something, that's a different playing field. And for me, I definitely had those moments of doubt. I had those moments of, I am no good at really pitching myself or being in this industry, like I don't know what I'm doing at all. If we really undersell ourselves in that way, because what I definitely know for sure and what was true for me was I felt very passionate about writing and you know as much as I loved everything I was doing I felt this deeper calling though that I needed to pursue writing more intensely than I was. I needed to reach more women. I felt very passionate about the message I had to share and I wanted to support other women in building their dreams too. And I had no again I had no idea what that looked like. And all I knew is that I was feeling called to do it and I was passionate about it. And I think when we're being guided towards a deeper purpose, we can be very confident in that because I look back and some of the opportunities that presented themselves right out of the gate for me really logically made no sense. It's because again, I had no past experience. I had no connections. I really was just winging it, so to speak, but I definitely had a lot of confidence that I knew I needed to pursue it. And I think as women we're really blessed with a deep intuitive nature and if we really dial into that and follow it I think things align the way that they're supposed to. And in my experience, it, and when you're following it with this pure intention of just pure passion about wanting to go for this next phase of life, those opportunities unfold themselves pretty effortlessly. Not to say it's easy. It's certainly not. There's a lot of mindset things to work through, there's a lot of logistical things, but I think you've figured those out. But the opportunities and the people you're meant to meet, that those doors really do open and I think that's all just pure alignment and it's such confirmation that, hey, you're on the right path. That is really encouraging.
Suzanne Proksa:
Thank you so much for sharing that with the audience I think it's always great to hear those examples of women and how they did that So what types of things then do you see attributing
Christi Pratte:
to lack of confidence in women? Undersell our intuitive knowing. And that comes from just outside noise most of the time and internal noise, right? Like when we're passionate about something, it's easy because, you know, our mind tries to protect us. And with that comes fear, right? And that's where self-doubt and not get our confidence comes in. Who are you to do this? And that's just a defense mechanism to protect us, which, you know, we can be appreciative of in some regard. But in other regards, We need to ignore that to move forward. And I do see a lot of women get stuck in this like second guessing self doubt, not good enough cycle. And I think that just comes from overthinking. And then also when the dream is young, sharing it with a ton of people can be really hard because again, like I think it all stems from fear and very well-meaning, but not everyone's going to be supportive or understanding even, right? And that can easily derail a premature dream because we're already in our own cycle of self-doubt, right? And then if someone confirms that, it's easy to feed a lot of confirmation in that and take that as truth and like keep ourselves back. So I think for, for women that are looking to go for their, their dream, their passion, they're new to it. My advice would be to really laser in and get solid in yourself and your why power. Why you want it. What like what's your attention behind it. What's your passion. That's the why power right And when you get really solid in that, like I don't, I think you really do become unstoppable and you get mislead by the noise. So, you know, keeping like getting really true in that with yourself first before sharing to the masses, before sharing to other people, I think is so getting so intentional so that you don't get easily derailed. And then of course, you know, cultivating really great friendships and family members and people that are going to be supportive of your journey, you know, reaching out to other people that are further along in the process of where you want to be is that was really helpful for me. And, you know, we always, we always tell ourselves, this is another thing I see happening a lot too. And it would certainly be part of my stories. You know, I was telling myself like, ah, they're not going to want to reach out to you. They're not going to want to help you. Like you're, you're the small fish, right? Like we, we undersell ourselves before we even take the opportunity to see what happened. So my, my thing is, you know, take the chance, take the risk. If it means something to you, reach out, ask for help, ask for support. And 99% of the time, you're going to surprise yourself with the outcome you find from that because a lot of other people have been there too. Like every expert has had a mentor. I guarantee it. Every expert was once a beginner and they're going to want, they're going to want to help you succeed. They're going to want to help you find your, your passion in life for sure.
Suzanne Proksa:
Thank you so much for humoring me with that question. I know it might seem self-explanatory to some, but I think there are a lot of women out there who really don't know why they're struggling with this lack of confidence, and they get super frustrated. So you're lacking confidence, you're super frustrated, you just feel like, oh, I'm sure a lot of women out there totally are in that boat. So how do you see that lack of confidence showing up for women in the day to day
Christi Pratte:
that perhaps they don't realize? So thank you for asking that because I have also found myself here too. Even like they say new levels, new devils, right? Every time and we're constantly evolving and growing as people, as humans, that's just part of our life experience. And I've even found myself when, you know, even being experienced, even being in this for a couple of years, a few years now, I still find myself battling imposter syndrome. And that's a big 1, I think, for a lot of us. And we think everything that's led up to this play is just luck. We're just, we're just winging it. We're frauds, right? We don't deserve this kind of success or we don't deserve these opportunities. And this is all like a, it's a mix of a self-worth thing. And then also just again, I think it comes down to being really solid in your Y power because there's nothing fraudulent if your intention behind it is to help others to... Your Y-power is so potent. And when you get really anchored in that, there's really nothing that can derail you that's more powerful than your Y-power. So, you know, I think on a day-to-day basis, we can get wrapped up in the noise. We can derail ourselves with our thoughts of, oh my goodness, I'm such an imposter or second guessing what we're doing. And, you know, when they always say you can connect the dots looking back but never looking forward, right? So it's like this fear of the unknown and we know how fear transpires. It's just, you know, I think constantly anchoring yourself back into why you started in the first place, it's such a great way to bust through the fear and bust the noise and really just get laser focused on what you're here to do and serve. And you know what? That also may mean evolving that I feel like even as you evolve and grow, your Y power stays the same. And an example, you know, I'll refer this to my story is, you know, my Y power has always stayed the same throughout my, my career path. So like I said, in the beginning, I was doing kindergarten, women's kickboxing and working at a winery and a coffee house and, and I was a tutor. And when I look back and connect these dots, these were all entrepreneurial in nature. The kindergarten program I started right out of college at a local private school. The winery I worked at was a woman-owned business, very grassroots bar to table situation. I started there in year 1 and got to watch it grow. Same with the coffee house. And there's a friend from college. She started out downtown and I got to be there for again, the first year and watched that realm expand. And tutoring, It was my former elementary school teacher, believe it or not. She started her own tutoring business and I was able to support with that for some time. And the gems I worked at the dojos for women's hit boxing was all private owned gems with female owners. And now I stepped into a career path that's completely different, right? Writing. And yet my why power is to support women-owned businesses and brands, entrepreneurial entrepreneurs. And when I, you know, that's where to me, the why power is so clear. My wife, how is, I wanted to help women do this and achieve their dreams. And that's always been my nature. And it's interesting to see how that actually was a through line, no matter what the outside looks like. So for anyone in this boat of like, you know, your white color is always going to anchor you, always going to follow you. But that may look very different on the surface, right? It's like, it's comparable to like your core values. So as you've grown up, obviously like the external has changed, right? You know, your taste in clothes, music, and you know, maybe makeup for some of you, right? Was anyone else into blue eyeliner? It could just be like those things evolve and change as our worldview changes, as our, as our passion changes, our taste in anything changes and that's natural, but the Y power, the core values, they're always there. And if you look deep enough, if you journal on this, if you sit on this and you'll see it for yourself. So I really encourage anyone to take the time to just kind of reflect back and see what that through line has been for you. Because I think that will be very telling. And it's just so, it's just so empowering in a way to know that that is always going to be with you no matter what else changes.
Suzanne Proksa:
Thank you, thank you for that little bit of gold there. Thank you. Talk to us about the definition of imposter syndrome and how that can show up for women. This is actually a request for my listeners. They want to learn as much as they possibly can about imposter syndrome. So whatever you would like to give us and help us with please please please please share.
Christi Pratte:
This is such a great question I'm so glad your audience is asking this because it's something I actually wish I dove into a little bit earlier than I have. It's something I know I shared a little bit earlier in this episode, how it recently come up on surface for me and what I will share, cause I, I'm honestly moving through it myself and I'll say that in full transparency and I'm also going to own that because I think part of being confident too is claiming the shame, right? Not hiding it, not being taking her responsibility and just taking right for what it is. We're all not going to be perfect all the time, right? Self-respect, honoring these things, acknowledging these things, and then living through them is such a confidence tool and I recently hired myself a mentor because I think every, everyone should at some point, no matter what your goals are in life, physical or otherwise. Just hearing from someone who's overcome these blind spots and they're at a different phase of where you want to be. It's so, so inspiring because you can also like leapfrog over these pitfalls faster. Anyway, I say this because I'm on 1 of my calls with my mentor and I was sitting there really just disempowering myself. I was kind of underselling myself, like we're talking about earlier. I was doubting myself And I really wasn't aware that I was doing it. And she just stopped me and she said, Whoa, what, why? She's like, what did you sitting here? She's like, and just talking down to herself, like, let me ask, how is that working out for you? And then I was like, Oh, wow. And she's like, you know, you're being so hard on yourself. And I didn't even notice it, but I think a lot of women find themselves being very, very hard on themselves. And I think when we're hard on ourselves, we also hold ourselves back because we're like dealing with all that noise and we can make it really heavy with just our thoughts alone. So you know when we're feeling like that we're very less inclined to take risks move forward to go after our dreams. So if you are dealing with imposter syndrome right now and feeling like you're not good enough for your dream or who are you to do it? Who are you not to do it? There are so many examples out there of people who started from the bottom of people who had no past experience of people who are now experts in their industry who, you know, started just exactly where you are and they followed a passion, they followed their purpose and they followed a vision. And I think when you get very, again, dialed into that about why you want to do it, I think that really does triumph over imposter syndrome very much. And I think it's something you'd have to actively do every day. Get right, like get right with your wide power, get anchored into yourself and just ignore the noise as it comes through. Be very discerning with it. And I think when you get in the habit of doing that, these episodes in imposter syndrome become far less frequent. So that would be my advice to anybody right now who's also going through imposter syndrome.
Suzanne Proksa:
So incredibly helpful. Thank you so much. What are some tips that you would share with someone then looking to build their confidence, especially as a beginner? Yes, This is so important, especially at the beginning, like we've been talking about.
Christi Pratte:
And my advice would be to definitely get yourself in the rooms with people who, again, are either farther along or also on the same journey as you and to whatever your goal may be. That was really, really life-changing for me. It's because I was able, when you get yourself into these environments outside of what you're typically used to, you start thinking differently And you also start believing differently, right? Like I felt so inspired by other people I saw doing this when I started getting into masterminds at events and places that and even like something as simple as podcasts. And a lot of you are here and that's wonderful. I know Suzanne's shitting you with the best, you know, guess and advice that she has too. And I think if you're already putting in this work, you're halfway there because getting, you know, reading books and listening to podcasts and finding mentors and getting in events and rooms, these are all tools that eventually add up. And it feels like in the moment, it's not really doing anything, but trust me, it takes years and years and it's like, it is actually starting to rewire your brain because from every 1 of those things, you take away something new, you get a bigger vision, you start believing it is possible. Look at what happened for so-and-so. This can happen for me. Wait, this is actually possible? Like these questions start to come up, these experiences start to shape that vision. So my advice would be definitely, definitely, definitely surround yourself with people who really want to see this vision unfold for you and who or who have made it happen for themselves because you will certainly learn something new and it does it like it's like these little micro doses and then you know 2 years later all sudden it all just clicks together and you're like oh wow all those experiences really just they felt so small but they created something so big. Okay y'all I hope you were writing those notes down.
Suzanne Proksa:
Did you get that down? If you didn't, make sure you listen again. Erin, how can people create their own opportunities to ensure their success?
Christi Pratte:
I believe creating your own opportunity comes from again just betting on yourself. I mean no one's gonna be more confident in you than you. And that comes from, it comes from building yourself up, right? So again, like reading the books, listening to the podcast, rewiring the brain out of fear, getting anchored into your why power, and then starting to reach out to the next step in whatever that is. So for me in writing, that was reaching out to bigger platforms to build my readership and to share my message with the larger group. And I could have sat there all day, which sometimes I did saying like, I'm not good enough for this opportunity. They're never going to want to work with me. Yada, yada, yada, fear, fear, fear. Right. I have no idea. Don't assume someone's response. Cause I had no idea what their response would be. That was me making an assumption out of a fear-based thought. And when I realized that and I reached out anyway, I was really surprised by how many opportunities unfolded simply because I had the courage to reach out. And when you're really genuine in your reach out, cause a lot of these platforms, it wasn't about just building my readership or about what I wanted. It was like, It was very anchored into my wide power. It was, it was platforms I was very aligned with. I was really inspired by their message as a longtime loyal follower, reader of theirs. And coming at it from that approach of just pure, authentic connection, people crave that and they can feel that too. So again, it's just getting really self-honest about what it's about for you, why you want the opportunity and just making sure that it's a mutual, you know, give and take situation. It's not just about you. It's, you know, it's mutual. It's so crucial to that. And I think that's just part of the connection and part of the beauty of the whole jerk. Oh my gosh. You are just giving the best information today. Thank you. Thank you.
Suzanne Proksa:
So, Christy, I think you're really going to love this next question. I think this one's going to be a fun 1. What special message do you want to give directly to the woman who has tried incredibly hard to build their confidence and feels like she's just got nothing left in her. I think we both know that exists. And so what message would you give to her?
Christi Pratte:
Oh, yes. Well, first I would say, hey, girl, I know what it's like to be there. And for me, while it feels so crummy to be there, I think this is the most beautiful place to be and I'll explain why. It's like planting a seed, right? In total, total dark. You think it, you don't see what you're gonna become, right? You don't see the blossoming, you don't see any of that. It just feels dark, it feels unsure, it feels all sorts of unknowns. And yet the best is yet to come from that place. And I think when you're in this place of, oh gosh, like I'm unsure, I am totally lacking confidence and yet you choose your purpose and your why power anyway, that is the most like I just actually think that's just like the most transformative experience you can ever give yourself and it's the biggest form of self-love you could ever have is choosing that anyway and not even just self-love like self-love like yeah I can accomplish this I can do this I can go for this I'm going to give myself permission to do that but also love for your purpose and who it's going to help along the way. There are people out there who need what you have to offer that only you can offer in a way you can offer. So being able to declare your purpose and bring it out in the world is going to serve others so much, and it's going to also fulfill you. So if you're in that place right now, know that this feels horrible in the moment, but it is the testing point to see if this is really what you want. Again, get anchored into that why power. Sit with why you want this in the first place. Get passionate about it again. Feel that fire burning up in your soul and go for it because when you choose that, girl, you're going to be
Suzanne Proksa:
unstoppable. Thank you so much for that message, Christy. I think that is going to be so helpful for a lot of listeners. So we are at the point of the show where I ask, how do people reach out to you? Where do they find you? And then also, if you haven't already given away enough, so no pressure, do you have 1 or 2 things that you want to make sure that people take away from the episode? And if you do, please feel free to share those as well. Thank you so much for having me. This was such a wonderful, thorough conversation
Christi Pratte:
and I hope it has served everyone listening in some way. You can find me on social media at Christy Pratt. My name's that's C-H-R-I-S-T-I-P-R-A-T-T-E. Um, and you can find me on my website, hubblepretty.co and at ghostgirlwriting.com. And if you take away anything from this episode I would say anchor into your why power, be confident in your purpose and go for it. Awesome! Thank you so
Suzanne Proksa:
much for joining us today and giving such great information and Guidance you when it comes to confidence and imposter syndrome and all of that You know, this is just information that we need to hear over and over and over again, I think. And so I'm so appreciative of your time and I look forward to seeing you out there on the interwebs and the social media. And Yeah, I look forward to seeing you again soon. Thank you so much.
Christi Pratte:
Oh, thank you so much, Suzanne. Those were such kind words and it was just such an honor to be here today. So thank you for having me. Thank you for providing this wonderful show for all of your listeners. And I'm wishing everybody the best of what's to come and all the success to come with it. So thank you again, and I will see you soon. I hope that you loved this episode.
Suzanne Proksa:
If you did, give me those shout outs, show me some love on iTunes, give me a rating. And hey, if you want to know where to find me, you can find me on pretty much all social media at Suzanne Proxa. That's S-U-Z-A-N-N-E-P-R-O-K-S-A. And you can also head over to my website, SuzanneProxa.com. Until then, I'll see you in the next episode, and Here is the party music for you.
