16/08/2026
What does a lack of belief cost you?
"Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve." Napoleon Hill
Such a great quote. I find myself thinking a lot about belief. Actually I observe it more. Watching what happens when someone has it and what happens when they don't.
At Speakers Institute I have this incredible privilege to watch and observe people. My radar is on at all times even before we've started.
It starts with our team, as what they feel and project is what the participants will feel. Then I move to the participants. I'm scanning the room noticing subtle changes in body language, non-verbal and verbal communication.
Who's making eye contact? Who's talking? Who's gone quiet? Who's sitting at the back? Who's smiling because they're excited and who's smiling because they're absolutely terrified?
The Other Conversation
You start to notice these things after coaching, facilitating enough rooms and being fascinated by human behaviour. There's usually another conversation going on at the same time. The one inside my head.
Craig, don't rush this. Give them time. They don't trust the room yet. Who needs you right now? Who's pretending they're OK? And probably the biggest one how do we get them to believe?
Someone came up to me recently and said, "Craig, I'm just not confident like you." I remember thinking, if only you knew. If only you knew the conversations I've had with myself.
The doubts, moments before walking onto a stage and times I've questioned whether I'm good enough. Whether I'm ready and whether anyone actually wants to hear what I've got to say.
I don't think belief means the absence of doubt. Maybe that's where we get it wrong. Belief is deciding the doubt doesn't get to make the decision. That's different.
There's a moment early, in our 3 Day Premiere Bootcamp, when I can almost feel the room holding its breath. People know they're going to have to get up, speak, be seen and I can see the negotiation happening.
"Please don't pick me". "Maybe I'll go later." "Everyone else is better than me." "What if I stuff this up?"
I know that conversation well. I've had versions of it myself. So I'm having another one in my head. "Don't rescue them, Craig."
That's an important one. Because sometimes leadership isn't making someone comfortable. Sometimes it's believing in them enough to leave them in the discomfort.
Leave Them in the Discomfort
"Hold the space." "Let them struggle." "They can do this." and then "Don't let them disappear."
There's a fine line there. Pressure without belief can break someone. Belief without pressure can leave them exactly where they are. We need both.
Sometimes I'll look someone directly in the eyes and say, "You've got this." Three words. Nothing particularly clever. But I mean them. That's the difference.
My words, eyes and body language have to believe it. Because people have excellent BS meters. You can't fake it. They know when you're giving them encouragement because it's the nice thing to say. They also know when you've genuinely decided, I'm not giving up on you.
Conviction transfers and so does doubt. That's something I've become increasingly conscious of as a leader. What am I transferring into the room? Why? my state doesn't just stay with me, it also rubs off on other people.
That's probably one of the things we are proudest of about our team at Speakers Institute. We train this, talk about it and expect it.
You Are Creating Belief
Whether you're a facilitator, coach or volunteer, you are creating belief. Not just delivering an exercise, moving chairs, giving feedback or helping someone find where they're supposed to be. You're affecting someone's internal conversation and that's an important responsibility.
One of our coaches might be sitting beside someone saying, "Try it again. You've got more in you." A volunteer might notice the person standing alone during a break and walk over. A facilitator might deliberately push someone further than they think they can go and I'll be watching it thinking, "Yes. That's it. They saw them."
People need to feel seen before they'll allow themselves to be stretched. Every interaction either deposits belief or withdraws it. I keep coming back to that.
There probably isn't a neutral interaction and when an entire team understands that, something changes. Belief stops being something I have to manufacture from the front of the room.
It becomes the room, culture, conversations happening at the coffee station and feedback after an exercise. It's also the applause when someone finally breaks through, hand on the shoulder and person saying, "Mate, that was really good. Do that again."
Suddenly belief is coming from everywhere. Then the magic kicks in. Participants start giving it to each other. That's when I know we've got it.
The Cost of Disbelief
I am always aware about the cost of the opposite. What does a lack of belief actually cost us? Not emotionally, actually cost us.
How many people stay in roles they've outgrown because they don't believe they're capable of the next one? How many leaders stay quiet when they should speak?
How many employees have a brilliant idea and never put their hand up? How many entrepreneurs never start? How many speakers never step onto the stage? How many authors have a book sitting inside them that we'll never read?
How many coaches know they could change someone's life but keep telling themselves they're "not ready yet"? How many experts remain the world's best-kept secret because they don't believe they have the authority to be visible?
It also gets more personal. How many relationships do we tolerate because somewhere along the way we stopped believing we deserved better?
How many environments do we stay in because leaving would require us to believe we could create something different? How many dreams slowly become, "Maybe one day."
That's the real cost of disbelief. It's not simply that we feel less confident. We make smaller decisions. Again and again and again. Until eventually we create a life that matches the size of our belief.
We Make Smaller Decisions
That's confronting. Even writing that makes me stop. Because where am I doing that? Where am I currently making a smaller decision because my belief hasn't caught up with what's possible?
Then I look at what happens when belief becomes strong. Really strong. Almost unshakeable. Not arrogance, pretending everything will work or motivational BS.
Something quieter. "I'll work it out." "I don't know how yet, but I'll work it out." That's powerful.
When someone genuinely believes they move differently speak differently, take the meeting and ask the question.
They have the difficult conversation, apply, publish, sell, lead, get back up and most importantly they don't require immediate evidence before they're willing to move.
That's what fascinates me about belief. At some point, someone has to go first. Belief creates action. Action creates evidence. Evidence strengthens belief. Then suddenly the thing that once terrified you becomes something you simply do.
I see this happen at the Premiere Bootcamp all the time. Someone stands up early in the program. Hands shaking, voice disappearing and eyes searching for somewhere safe to look. "Craig, I can't do this."
My internal response? "Yes you can." I don't always say it immediately. Sometimes I wait, ask a question, push, soften or just stand there and let the silence do its work.
Knowing When Not to Say Anything
Facilitation isn't always about knowing what to say, sometimes it's knowing when "not" to say anything.
Then they go. They speak. Maybe for 30 seconds. It could be messy. Who cares? They did it and I'm thinking, there. There's your evidence. Now we build from that.
By later in the program, they're different. Actually, maybe they're not different. Maybe we're just seeing more of who was already there. That's probably closer to the truth.
The shoulders are back, voice has changed, volunteering rather than avoiding, encouraging someone else and occasionally I catch myself standing at the side of the room just watching.
Those are probably my favourite moments. Because I know what I'm seeing. Belief becoming identity.
Then we have another challenge. How do we amplify it? A breakthrough is beautiful, but a breakthrough without the right environment can disappear remarkably quickly.
Don't Underestimate the Power of Monday
You leave the room, you go home and Monday happens. The old conversations return and the old environment returns.
People who didn't experience what you experienced start questioning what you're doing. And slowly, if you're not careful, the old version of you starts negotiating its way back in.
That's why proximity matters so much and it's why our advanced programs aren't simply about learning more. They're about being around people who keep expanding what's normal.
Ambitious people. Positive people. Connected people. People building things. Writing things. Speaking. Leading. Taking risks.
People who don't look at your ambition and say, "Why would you do that?" They say, "Cool. How big are we making it?" That's a very different environment and environments matter.
The more time I spend leading, coaching and facilitating, the less convinced I am that people need more information. Information is everywhere. We can Google it, YouTube it or Ask AI. People don't have an information problem, it's usually a belief problem.
We Need Leaders Who See Something in Us
Employees need leaders who can see something in them before they can see it themselves. Leaders need environments where they can admit they don't have all the answers.
Speakers need someone to tell them their story matters. Authors need to believe their ideas deserve to leave the laptop. Coaches need the conviction to challenge rather than simply please.
Entrepreneurs need enough belief to keep moving when the evidence hasn't arrived yet. Expert authorities need to stop waiting for someone else to give them permission.
That's leadership. Not having all the answers. Not being the loudest person in the room. Not having people follow you.
It's something much simpler. Seeing what's possible in another human being. Holding that belief long enough. Creating enough safety for them to try, pressure for them to grow, honest feedback for them to improve and proximity for the belief to stick.
Eventually they don't need to borrow yours anymore. They've built their own and perhaps that's the moment I'm always looking for at the Premiere Bootcamp.
The moment I can stop thinking, "Come on. You've got this." Because I can see it in their face. They know. They finally believe it.
Who is someone who believed in you first before you did?
