199. Why The Thing You Already Know Isn’t The Thing You Trust
Episode Summary
In this episode, you’ll discover:
Why you can know something is right for you and still feel, deep down, like you’re not 100% sold.
The secret information revealed every time your curiosity gets piqued by an alternative you hadn’t considered, and how to use it to create remarkable new results.
What makes some beliefs “sticky” while others can be knocked sideways by one persuasive conversation.
Listen now to discover what your curiosity may be telling you about what you really believe, and how that insight can change what you create next.
Who This Episode Is For
High-achieving women entrepreneurs who are highly open-minded but still want to trust their own judgment and decisions.
Women business owners who consume a lot of expert advice and want stronger discernment, conviction, and self-trust.
Entrepreneurs who change direction too often or get pulled toward new ideas when they already have a solid plan.
Women leaders who want to know when to keep learning and stay open-minded—and when to stop seeking and develop conviction.
Founders who want stronger business execution, leadership, and momentum through a deeper sense of conviction and confidence.
High-performing women who want to turn information into conviction, trust their own perspective, and create more with less wasted energy and motion.Key Takeaways
Who This Episode Is For
Why you can know something is right for you and still feel, deep down, like you’re not 100% sold.
The secret information revealed every time your curiosity gets piqued by an alternative you hadn’t considered, and how to use it to create remarkable new results.
What makes some beliefs “sticky” while others can be knocked sideways by one persuasive conversation.
Full Episode Transcript:
In this episode, we will dive into why so often we don't fully trust the thing we already know and the secret information that gives you which can help you create some truly remarkable new results in your business and life.
Welcome to The Uncommon Way, where high-achieving women entrepreneurs and leaders ditch the rulebook and design success on their own terms. I'm your host, Jenna Harrison, a top-ranked business coach sharing business growth strategies, mindset mastery, and power moves to help you attract ideal clients, leverage your unique genius, and scale with freedom. Let's dive in.
Welcome, welcome back to The Uncommon Way. I am so happy to be here with you again. I feel like so much has been happening. Did I tell you I failed my Spanish driver's exam? Yes. Yes, I did. We've had to go back and take classes as if we had never driven a day in our life. This has been going on for about six months. Yeah, five months maybe. And the theory exam? I kid you not. The hardest exam ever. I talked about this previously, but you had to memorize all of these inane facts about trucks and motorcycles, where are the brakes? You're never going to drive one of these things, but somehow you need to know all about the load capacities and exactly the percentage that it can project. And of course, if it's a truck of this weight, it can project like 30%, but if it's a truck of this weight, it can only project two meters. So it's not even all percentages or all meters. And you just had to memorize all these different categories. Oh, and it was full of trick questions on purpose. They think that helps you study more, I guess.
But I got through that. And then I finally get to the practical exam. And I did know going in, there's a little bit of that same kind of trickster mentality. They take you down these roads with weird signs and lane merges and everything, but it was okay. My instructor had prepared me. And so I go through the test and I think it's going really well. And when we get done in park, I turn around, the instructor's in the back seat. So I turn around so he can tell me how I did. And I swear to God, I thought he was joking. He told me that I was going way too fast and would scare my passengers. Now, mind you, I never once exceeded the speed limit because obviously that's one of the main things they're looking for. So I never exceeded the speed limit. But in his estimation, there were certain places where I should have slowed down more than I had, I guess, for, I don't know, a street that was more narrow than another street, for instance.
So there was no way to argue with it, but they have very specific ways of thinking about speed. And I guess I anyway, it didn't matter that I've been driving for decades and I have a clean driving record or that I have held license since now in all different places because we lived in the military. So in Germany, in Japan was so frustrating. But really, that is the thing about some systems and some ways of thinking. It's so inflexible. There's no questioning if this even makes sense. We're not going to give this person who's trying to do everything correctly and, you know, crossing all the T's and dotting all the I's to be legal here in Spain, we're just not going to give her a license. We're going to make her go over and do it again. It's just how things are. And this is how things are going to be. And that gets so frustrating. But there is a flip side, right, where you're very open minded and available to new ways of thinking.
But it can create a lot of knowing what you know, but not fully trusting it because you're so open, right? You're so open to what else might be true. So that's what we're going to piece apart in this episode. And by the end, you will know why you can know something's right for you and still feel deep down like you're not 100 percent sold. You'll know the secret information revealed every time your curiosity gets piqued by an alternative you hadn't considered and how to use it to create remarkable new results. And what makes some beliefs sticky while others can be knocked sideways by one persuasive conversation? Because if you are listening to this, I'm guessing you're a lot like me in this way. We love to expand how we think and be really intentional about the things we're doing. We question the status quo all the time. We look around at the way everyone else is doing something and think, wait, is that actually the best way? That quality is part of what makes you exceptional. It's why you've probably created a life in a business that looks very different from what was handed to you. You're willing to experiment and learn and change your mind when you find something better. So much of what I've been able to create in my life is thanks to that kind of thinking.
I'm incredibly grateful for the skill set that I've built over the years, training my mind to stay flexible, questioning what I think I know and being able to change my mind quickly when necessary. When I look at this life I have, I can see just how much that way of thinking and being made it possible. But then there's the other thing, the truth that sometimes we're so willing to consider what else might be true that we don't give enough weight to what we already know to be true. Like, you know every bit of health advice basically comes down to a few fundamentals, but the more complicated supplement or process or whatever you just learned about is so seductive. Yes or no. Or you know you have more than enough, but you keep looking for the evidence that proves or disproves it. Or you know you've got a plan for the next quarter in your business, but a new piece of advice delivered in the right way can still make you question it. So interesting, right? Because what is that? At first I wondered if it was self-trust, but I don't think that's quite it.
Because you can trust yourself completely in some areas and not so much in others. Is it that we feel safer when we continue researching? I talked about that in episode 195. It's like research as emotional regulation. But in the way I'm thinking about it here, there are things in our lives where we have no problem saying, for instance, no, this is my life partner. And other areas where we're constantly looking for one more expert, one more perspective. But I don't think the answer is all about persuasion and influence by other people either.
Sometimes we're just genuinely interested. Sometimes we simply love learning. So what is happening? What describes the difference? That's when I remembered something I learned a long time ago about how beliefs work. The basic idea is that we're often more susceptible to changing our minds about things that we haven't really thought through rather than things we've wrestled with deeply. Say you brush your teeth twice a day and then someone presents this great argument about how that's actually too aggressive and it destroys your microbiome, leading to other health issues. So really what you want to do is brush at the end of the day to remove food. But in the morning, you just want to swish water around your mouth. I'm totally making this up, obviously. This is not health advice.
The point is that you're more likely to actually change your behavior to say, huh, that makes a lot of sense. You're more likely to change your behavior with something you do kind of routinely and automatically than if it were a different topic that you'd spend lots of time thinking about and deciding intentionally and coming up with a reasoning for why you're going in that direction. So that really started things clicking for me because we can be completely open minded without being susceptible to others' opinions. The difference is how much we've actually thought about something, thought it through in a way that creates decisions for us, right? That's creating judgment that's helping us explain our reasoning to ourselves. How much we ourselves have developed conviction about that belief. There are ideas we carry around because, you know, they're just like part of the background or something we tried and it worked, so we kept going. But if there's a better way, let me know, please. Right. I'm not married to this, but compare that to areas of your life where maybe you had some hard knocks.
You had to ask the hard questions, test things and live with the consequences, examine all the evidence, and you were able to develop such discernment that you know what side of the coin you land on. You're not going to come across something on the Internet and suddenly veer left. In fact, you probably don't even see the thing on the Internet or you swipe past it quickly without really thinking about it. It's like those people who are so vegan and who are so keto, right? They're not even considering the other point of view or me. Now, I'm so moderate. I'm so balanced Mediterranean diet. I'm not angry about it. I just have such full conviction in my choice by this point that I feel content and confident, right? This is what I believe. This is how I choose to live.
So with this lens, all of a sudden you have a fantastic self assessment tool. When you notice an area where you're suddenly open to a new way of looking at something, maybe that showing you a place where you haven't fully formed your point of view. Now, I'm not saying that having a fully formed viewpoint is always better than a growth viewpoint. Both are appropriate at different stages. I'm just saying you can gain a lot of information from observing yourself in this way, right? With this specific question, it might show you where you're deep down yearning to evolve. I know for so many of us that happened when we first started questioning the corporate model. Yes, but it might also show you where you've stayed in growth phase too long. And now it's no longer as useful as it would be to develop conviction, you know, done and done. So you can direct the energy and resources you were spending in considering things towards something else that you are certain about, right? That you have conviction about. It's the difference between the founder who has decided a course of action and everything she does and talks about and decides, supports that. And the one who's starting down a path, but then changing her mind, right? Spending money on this other thing. Now getting her team working on something else, but really spending her time thinking about another. When you can step back and see that in business or life, and then you can say, OK, interesting. I guess I wasn't fully bought in. Why? You know, why wasn't I? What's this telling me? What do I still need to understand? What do I still need to believe? What would I need in order to move forward, right? With that kind of conviction. Those are the women who seem to be accomplishing so much more. We all have the same number of hours in the day, but some people's actions seem to have so much more leverage. Or they're able to transform or be creative or come up with something so different than anything anyone else is doing. And I don't think that's because they're working harder. I think there's something happening underneath that potency. Really, their words, actions, desires, ability to get others on board. All of it becomes more powerful. There's something really compelling about watching a woman who knows what she's doing. You can feel it. Her team can feel it. Her clients can feel it. And these are the forces at play. Knowing when to keep your mind open and tolerate the discomfort of still being in a growth or a learning phase. And knowing when it's time to move from seeking into knowing. Because there is a cost to staying in seeking mode when you no longer belong there. Once I started looking at things through this lens, I began seeing it everywhere. Skincare is a great example. I actually talked about this too in episode 195.
I realized that I had a very well-developed philosophy about business. I'd spent years questioning the conventional wisdom and thinking about the kind of business I wanted to create and the way I wanted to operate in that business. And now I know, in quotes, I know, when more effort helps and when it simply creates more complexity. But I'd never done that work with my skincare. I had just accumulated information. This ingredient is supposed to do this. This product is supposed to stimulate that. This person swears by this. I wasn't thinking about, wait, what do I really believe? So suddenly I had a medicine cabinet full of things I wasn't sure I believed in. I didn't trust what I knew. It was so interesting. I've been operating on autopilot, and I do want to do work to develop my perspective on this. What do I actually believe creates healthy, resilient skin? And that really helped my research become more focused. And, you know, assumptions fell apart, but ultimately I came up with my equivalent of a Mediterranean diet for skin. And we can all do this. We are highly capable women living in an era of extraordinary access to information. We can find an expert to support almost anything. We can get five different opinions before breakfast. So our job isn't information. Our job is discernment. It isn't about becoming more certain about everything. It's about becoming more deliberate about what we want to be certain about, what we believe, what we know, where we're growing and expanding on purpose versus where we are dialing it in. And people start to feel something different when they're around others who have developed conviction, not because this is what the rulebook says or what their boss told them to do, but because they have thought it through. They've decided on purpose.
There's a steadiness there, a quality of judgment, right? You become someone whose perspective carries weight. People listen. They look to you, not because you know everything, but because you've learned how to think for yourself and then stand behind what you've decided. And there's a tremendous performance advantage to that, like I've said. Your energy is freed up. Your money is working for you intentionally. Your team is on board and knows what the company's doing, knows you're not going to pull back and have them then start working on something else instead. Your kids know you're serious about the shower every night. That's where the great execution comes from, the traction, you know, that infectious leadership. That's part of what it means to become elite at what you do, knowing what deserves your attention. That woman is powerful. People listen to her. People seek out her perspective. Her team trusts that when she says, this is where we're going, she means it. Her clients feel the clarity of being around someone who isn't constantly looking over her shoulder for the right way to say things or another best answer. That woman creates more with less wasted motion. She doesn't become less curious. She becomes more discerning about what deserves her curiosity. That's the difference.
So summarizing, when you feel yourself being tantalized by some new piece of information, something that contradicts your current way of thinking, you know what to do. You get to use that as information, knowing that beliefs that have been considered and been deliberated are far more sticky. And so maybe there's some work you could be doing in this area or maybe not, depending on what stage you're in. Knowing what deserves your attention and developing that conviction on purpose when the time is right is really what separates these people who excel so rapidly and create these lives that are so inspiring and everyone else. All right, my friends, so great as always being together, and I'll talk to you next time.
Episode Mentioned:
195. What's Catching My Attention: I Let ChatGPT Redesign My Skincare Routine... and It Changed More Than My Skin
Core Concepts in This Episode
Power Consolidation in Scaling
How developing conviction and committing to a direction concentrates a founder’s energy, resources, and influence rather than dispersing them across endless possibilities.
Leadership Capacity in Business
The capacity to think independently, make deliberate choices, and stand behind a direction strongly enough that your team and clients can feel and trust it.
Discernment & Decision-Making
Distinguishing between information that deserves further consideration and information that has already been sufficiently evaluated, so openness becomes discernment rather than susceptibility.
Trusting Your Own Direction
Developing enough conviction in your own thinking and experience that new opinions and possibilities can inform you without automatically pulling you off course.
Business Design on Your Own Terms
Questioning conventional wisdom, developing your own philosophy about how you want to build and operate your business, and knowing when you've found an approach that fits.
Identity Evolution & Expansion
Recognizing when continued exploration is helping you evolve into a new way of operating versus when you've already evolved and need to consolidate what you know.
Work with Jenna
Decisions on Demand — A practical mini-course designed to help you make cleaner, higher-quality choices — the kind that unlock momentum, authority, and follow-through. The framework mirrors decision-making principles used in high-stakes environments, adapted for real life and business.
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The Uncommon Way is a leadership and business podcast for ambitious women entrepreneurs, founders, and leaders who are scaling companies and expanding their influence.
Hosted by business and leadership coach Jenna Harrison, the show explores how power, authority, and leadership capacity shape business growth. Episodes focus on decision-making, founder leadership evolution, team stability, and the structural shifts that allow companies to scale without overwhelming the person leading them.
This podcast is especially relevant for women navigating:
• Business growth and scaling challenges
• Increasing leadership responsibility
• Team expansion and higher-stakes decisions
• Founder authority and executive presence
• Identity and leadership evolution during scaling
The Uncommon Way approaches growth differently.
Not through hustle, constant self-optimization, or endless inner work — but by upgrading leadership, strengthening decision structures, and expanding the capacity required to run the company you’re building.
Topics include:
• Founder leadership capacity expansion
• Decision-making at higher levels of responsibility
• Authority and power dynamics inside scaling businesses
• Structural business leadership
• Founder psychology and identity shifts during growth
• Sustainable scaling and operational clarity
Whether you’re an experienced founder, a rising leader, or building something that’s starting to matter at a bigger level, this podcast helps you access more power and lead accordingly.
