251: Belief Is the Blueprint for Everything You Build in Your Business

Welcome to the She Thinks Big podcast. I'm your host, Andrea Liebross, coach, speaker, life balance architect, and strategic thought partner for high-achieving women who want to think differently, lead confidently, and create success on their own terms.

As an entrepreneur myself and the bestselling author of She Thinks Big, here's what I know: You've been at this for a while, but somehow you can still feel stuck in the day-to-day. And running your business like a to-do list does not fulfill the vision.

So around here, we're not about more hustle, we're about smarter strategy, bolder thinking, and leading a business that fits your life. Each week, you'll hear the mindset shifts, real-world tools, and CEO-level conversations that help you reclaim your time, grow with intention, and elevate your leadership. Now, let's dive in.

Hello, my friends, and welcome back to this special five-part series celebrating five years and more than 250 episodes of She Thinks Big. If you missed the first episode in this five-part series, go back and listen when you can. It’s episode 250. We talked about priorities and how aligning them with your future self can change everything.

But if you’re joining us here, that’s okay too. Each of these episodes really stands on its own as we revisit five themes that have shaped my business and my life, and my clients’ businesses and lives over the last five years. The five themes are priorities, beliefs, team, systems, and money. Today, we are going to talk about beliefs.

I would say beliefs—they are the invisible drivers behind every decision, every pivot, and every result that you get. I want to take you back to November 2020, which is when I started this podcast. We were deep in COVID, so no travel, no events, not much going on. So when something called Homearama came to town, my husband and I went one weekend, literally just for fun.

Homearama featured 11 homes in a new development. Each home was built by a different builder. They were definitely shiny and perfectly staged and perched on a golf course. But remember, we went to this with no agenda. It was just a way to get out of the house on a Saturday afternoon. But when we walked through them one by one, we were completely inspired.

Now, we truly loved our existing home—truly. There was nothing wrong with it. We had amazing neighbors who still to this day feel like family. Shout out to Glendurgan Drive and all the peoples of Glendurgan Drive. We had moved there when I was nine months pregnant with Brett. I sat on a lawn chair at the end of the driveway and watched the movers move not too many belongings of ours into this new house. We had only lived in apartments before then. A month and a half later, Brett was born.

Our kids really grew up in that house that we were in. It was like a center-entrance colonial house. I really loved it. Over the 22, 23 years that we were in that house, we had redone every inch of it. But walking through those model homes in Homearama that day—I remember, the day was beautiful, a fall day, the sun was shining—something shifted when I was walking through those homes. It wasn’t about the countertops or even the floor plans. It really was about possibility.

It was like a little teeny-tiny spark of curiosity that said to me, “Wait, wait, maybe this could be for us too.” My husband and I joke that we have a phrase called, “This could all be yours,” because when he was in residency, his attending physician—the head of the whole department—was trying to convince him to stay in academia and go to conferences that were all over the world. We were sitting in a casino in Monaco—he was in residency, we were babies—and the attending physician said to us, “This could all be yours. You need to stay in academia. You could be in Monaco every year.”

But that same feeling, “This could all be yours,” is really how belief starts. And it doesn’t start as a plan, it starts as this little whisper.

Back to Homearama. The weekend after our first visit, the following weekend, we went back—and this time with intention. My husband said, “Do you want to go back and look—really look?” So when we went back that weekend, we weren’t just looking at houses anymore. We were looking at land.

Remember, this was a brand-new development. We climbed into this ATV with a guy named Ben, and we rode out through what was basically just trees. There were no roads, no signs, no neighborhood. It was just a golf course and 11 completed homes and acres of open ground. Now today, that same community has hundreds of homes and winding streets, but back then, it literally was just potential.

We got back to this main office, which was like a farmhouse, and we thanked Ben and said, “Okay, we’ll be in touch.” We headed to the car, and I was driving. I remember—I looked at my husband. I was in the driver’s seat, and he was in the passenger seat. I looked at him and said, “I think we should just do it. I think we should buy a lot. I think we should buy some trees.”

Now, my husband’s a researcher. He likes to think about things. So he was like, “I don’t know. I mean…” and started to do all of this “let’s think about it” thing. So I asked my famous question, the one my clients know well. I said, “What exactly are you thinking about?”

He answered with some really normal questions. He said, “I’m thinking, can we afford it? Do we really want to build? It’s a long process. Do we even want to move?” Now, they were all fair questions. I said back to him, “We can always sell the lot back.” That was true—we could always sell the lot back. “But I believe that we can and we should do this. We should do it. We should buy the lot.”

So I turned on the car. We drove home. As we were driving, I told my husband to call the developer—to call Ben. “Text Ben. Call Ben. Tell him that we are coming back. We are just going home to grab a check for the deposit on the lot.” He thought that was ridiculous. He didn’t need to call Ben. We could just come back. I said, “No, no, no, no—call him. Tell him.”

So that’s an important fact here, people. Remember that story. Remember that piece of information because 30 minutes later, we were back. We were standing in that office again, and we were putting our pin on the map. We have a picture of us putting the pin on the map on Lot K21—sold to the Liebrosses, K21.

As we were walking out, another couple walked in and asked about buying K21, that same lot—but they were too late. Three years later, Halloween 2023, we moved in, and we celebrated our first Thanksgiving in November of 2023 on Strathmore Lane. My belief became a reality.

That moment, that experience, taught me something I now see over and over again with my clients. Belief is not about being reckless. It’s really about being ready enough. It’s trusting your instincts before the road is fully paved—literally. Belief is about being ready enough. When you make decisions from belief instead of fear, you don’t just create results, you create momentum.

That is exactly what we’re going to dive into today. So we’ll recap how I’m doing these episodes. I’m giving you some lessons. I’m giving you some action. I’m calling them hell yes action items.

I’ve put together the Five Years in Five Minutes resource for you, which summarizes all the lessons in all five episodes and gives you all the hell yes action items together. So I really want you to listen to this episode versus scribble down notes. I’ve got the notes for you. You can go get them at andrealiebross.com/five.

Now we’re going to dive into lesson number one about beliefs. Beliefs create results. Everything you have in your business right now—your schedule, your income, your team, your stress level—is a reflection of what you believe is possible.

This is not woo-woo, my friends. This is wiring, because beliefs are really thoughts that trigger a feeling, that trigger action, that lead to a result. If you believe that clients are hard to find, your brain looks for proof that clients are hard to find. But if you believe, “There’s always someone ready to work with me,” your brain looks for that proof instead. Same world, different filter.

Beliefs are really invisible architects. They design the structure long before you start building. Beliefs are invisible architects. They’re designing that structure before you start building. So lesson one: beliefs create results.

Lesson two: the belief upgrade. Every time you level up—and did you know the podcast at the beginning of time was called Time to Level Up?—every time you level up, an old belief expires. It doesn’t mean that the old belief was wrong. It just means that it’s outdated. The “hustle harder” belief might have built your foundation, but it won’t build your freedom. “Hustle harder” will not build your freedom.

Upgrading beliefs—so beliefs can get an upgrade—upgrading beliefs isn’t about rejecting who you were. It’s about thanking that version of you for getting you this far and then letting your future self take over the blueprint. Okay, so upgrading beliefs, they're letting your future self take over.

So ask yourself, what belief built this version of my business, and what belief does my next version need? That's where the evolution really begins.

So lesson three, the TRUST framework. This is where my TRUST framework comes in because belief alone really isn't enough. You need a way to move that belief from an idea in your head into action in your life. Here's what TRUST stands for.

TRUST stands for T, thought options, and I do have an episode on this, so go find that one, and we'll put a link in the show notes. T stands for thought options. It's where every result starts with a thought, and instead of defaulting to the one that keeps you stuck, I want you to create some options. Ask yourself, "What else could be true? What else could be true?" That's how you get to thought options.

The R in TRUST stands for real problem. So you've got to get honest about what's really going on. Is the problem the price, your client, your offer? Or is the problem your belief or a feeling? We can't solve what we're not willing to name. So name your feeling, name your belief. I bet that's where you're going to find your problem.

The U in TRUST stands for uncertainty and your need to embrace it. Every new belief brings a risk. That moment you start to think bigger, your brain freaks out. It is normal. Learning to sit in uncertainty instead of retreating from it is where confidence grows. Okay, so the U in TRUST stands for embracing uncertainty because every new belief brings a risk.

The S in TRUST stands for securing support. You don't build belief in isolation. You build it through community, through coaching, through people who hold you to the version of you that you say you want to become, okay? So you need support to hold you to the version of you that you say you want to become. That's where support comes in.

Then the T in TRUST, the last T, stands for take massive action because belief without movement is just daydreaming. Once you've explored your thoughts, you've faced the real problem, you've embraced the uncertainty, and secured support, it is time to go all in. That's how you build trust—not just in your business, but in yourself. Okay, so lesson three here about belief is knowing the TRUST framework.

Then finally, lesson four, behind the desk. I wanted to give you an example. I once kept paying for an expensive software platform for 18 months because canceling it felt like admitting to failure. Every month that charge hit my card, every month I reviewed my You Need A Budget, my cash flow, and I told myself, "I'll use it next month," what was really happening there? I guess what was really happening was that I didn't want to face the belief that I'd made a wrong decision. Because beliefs quietly protect our ego. But sometimes they sabotage our progress. Letting go of that subscription wasn't about saving money. It was about reclaiming clarity.

The moment I released it, space opened up for new beliefs, for new tools and systems that actually worked. So assess—is your belief protecting your ego? Is it sabotaging your progress? If it is, then you've got to shift. You've got to let go of whatever that is, and you've got to shift into a new belief.

Okay, here is your practical homework here. Here are your things that you can do in five minutes. Number one, it's like think big homework. Number one, you're going to write down one belief from 2020 that no longer serves you. One belief from five years ago that no longer serves you. So it's one belief that you've had for five years that no longer serves you.

Right beside it, number two, write the upgraded belief your future CEO self holds. Number three, I want you to read that new belief every morning for seven days. Then each evening, I want you to jot down one piece of evidence that it's already true. Because beliefs don't change through pressure. They do change through proof.

I wish someone had told me some of these things five years ago. So again, I'm going to tell you these things with the hope that I can save you five years of being on the struggle bus and go get that Five Leaps in Five Minutes, okay? You can access it at andrealiebross.com/five. You're going to download it and you're going to keep it on your Google Drive so you can have these coach-me moments when your belief is wavering.

Okay, here's what I know now. That day at Homearama taught me this: you can love where you are and still want more. I loved where I was, but I still wanted more. You can be grateful and curious. You can hold both appreciation and ambition at the same time.

Five years, 250 episodes, and hundreds of clients later, I really know this for sure. Your business, your results, your relationships—they'll never outgrow what you believe about yourself. So if you've been living in that old house of your beliefs—the comfortable, the familiar ones, the ones where everybody knows your name—maybe it's time to take a drive through a new neighborhood. Because sometimes all it takes is seeing what's possible to realize that you are ready for more.

Friends, if you're ready to start building the new-house version of your business, where your mindset matches your goals, this is exactly the work we do inside coaching. Whether it's a one-on-one partnership, an Activator Intensive, the Ascension Collective, what we do inside my coaching containers is we bridge the gap between what you believe and what you create.

So go book a call with me—andrealiebross.com/consult—or find the link in the show notes. I'm going to help you decide what kind of support, that S in TRUST—remember it stands for secure support—what kind of support fits where you are right now. What would coaching look like for you? Because through coaching, I'm going to hold that version of you that you want to become, that you say you want to become. I'm going to hold that belief that you can become it for you.

That's why coaching is so powerful. Sometimes it just takes seeing what's possible to realize that you're ready for more. All right, go book a call. Go download the Five Leaps in Five Minutes because once your beliefs really expand, your results will too.

So next week, the third episode in this series, we're talking about team—how to lead behind the scenes and build people who build your business. We're going to talk about what it really means to shift from doer to leader and why your team is really the ultimate reflection of your clarity.

So if this episode helped you see what's possible, share it with a friend who's ready to believe bigger. All right, you are my friends. I will see you next week. Have a great day. Remember, there's no time like the present to think bigger.

Thanks for listening to She Thinks Big. I know you’re committed to yourself and your businesses because you listened all the way to the end of this episode. But this isn’t really the end. It could be the beginning of your next power move.

If today’s episode gave you clarity, courage, or just a much-needed breath of fresh air, take that as your sign to take the next steps. So do it. Visit andreaslinks.com to take my Silent Saboteur Quiz and to discover our next steps in getting you to take action and achieve the success and freedom you crave.

You can also keep your momentum going by hitting subscribe right there on your screen so you don’t miss the next episode. Don’t forget to grab a copy of my book. She Thinks Big can be found on Amazon or at your favorite bookstore. Until next time, keep thinking big.