Female Entrepreneur Mindset Shifts:
Why Growth Feels Hard (And What Actually Changes Everything)

 

The female entrepreneur mindset experience is the way you think, respond, and make meaning of your business journey.

It shapes how you handle failure, focus your energy, and seek support. When it shifts, your results—and how business feels—begin to change.

 

 

Your entrepreneur mindset could be the reason your business feels stuck—not strategy.

Something we NEVER talk about are the unique female entrepreneur mindset shifts that could help so many more women succeed.

Because beyond any business growth tips, there are three BIG mindset blocks we need to overcome first.

And if you really think about it? You’ve probably felt these pop up.

In this solo episode, I’m sharing the three mindset shifts that changed everything for me across 13 years in business—and that I’ve seen from interviewing hundreds of female entrepreneurs.

 

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 – Why entrepreneurship feels hard REALLY

03:05 – The first mindset shift: Stop taking business personally

08:55 – The myth of the “self-made” entrepreneur

14:40 – Why focus is the missing link in most business growth strategies

18:50 – Choosing your “one thing”

 

Listen for…

That exhale moment where you realise: oh… it’s not me. I just needed a different way of thinking.

Because when you fully own that female entrepreneur mindset, your entire business starts to feel lighter and more sustainable.

 

In this entrepreneur mindset podcast episode:

• How your entrepreneur mindset changes business (without you realising it)
• Why self-doubt shows up—even when you’re doing everything “right”
• What successful entrepreneurs understand about support, focus, and growth

 

 

LISTEN TO NEXT:

How to Be Confident in Yourself

 

RESOURCES
Instagram:@chardetryel

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MORE ABOUT THIS ENTREPRENEUR MINDSET PODCAST EPISODE

 

“The hardest part of business isn’t strategy…it’s battling yourself.”- Chardét Ryel, Podcast Coach and Visibility Mentor

 

• Your business isn’t stuck…here’s what’s happening

• Growth gets easier when you stop making every result mean something

• Scattered energy, not lack of effort, is what’s blocks momentum

• Real progress comes from staying with one thing long enough

 

Have you ever felt like you’re doing everything right… and it’s still not working?

 

You’re showing up.
You’re learning.
You’re trying the strategies everyone swears by.

And yet, something feels off.

Not dramatically wrong. Just… heavier than it should be. Slower. More confusing.

So your brain starts filling in the gaps:
Maybe I’m not cut out for this.
Maybe I’m missing something everyone else gets.
Maybe it’s me.

That quiet spiral is one of the most common experiences in entrepreneurship—and also one of the least talked about.

Because from the outside, business looks like strategy.
But from the inside, it feels like identity.

 

The Real Reason Business Feels Hard (And It’s Not What You Think)

Most business growth tips focus on action:

• post more
• sell better
• refine your offer

 

And yes, those things matter.

But they don’t address the deeper layer—the one that actually determines whether those actions work.

Your thoughts.
Your emotional responses.
The meaning you attach to every result.

This is where the female entrepreneur mindset becomes everything.

Because the same situation—low engagement, a quiet launch, a slow month—can either:

• shut you down
• or sharpen your approach

 

The difference isn’t strategy. It’s interpretation.

“Your results don’t define you—but the meaning you give them will shape what you do next.”

And what you do next is what compounds over time.

 

Why Even Successful Founders Still Struggle Here

It’s easy to assume that once you reach a certain level, this gets easier.

It doesn’t.

If anything, it becomes more visible.

Because successful entrepreneurs don’t avoid discomfort—they just relate to it differently.

 

They still experience:

• doubt
• frustration
• moments of uncertainty

 

But instead of collapsing into those feelings, they create space around them. They don’t make every challenge mean something about their worth.

And that subtle shift? It changes everything.

 

The Hidden Pattern That Keeps Entrepreneurs Stuck

There’s a pattern that shows up again and again in business:

Something doesn’t work → You internalise it → You hesitate → You change direction too quickly → You lose momentum

It happens fast. Often without you noticing.

And over time, it creates this underlying belief:
“I can’t trust myself to make things work.”

But here’s the reframe:

You’re not stuck because you lack ability.
You’re stuck because you’re personalising the process.

When everything feels like a reflection of you, every setback feels heavier than it actually is.

So instead of learning, you retreat.
Instead of adjusting, you question yourself.

 

A Different Way to Think About Business Growth

Imagine approaching your business the way you would approach learning any new skill.

If something doesn’t work, you don’t assume:
“I’m the problem.”

You assume:
“This method needs adjusting.”

That distinction might seem small.
It’s not.

It’s the difference between:

• shutting down
• and staying in the game long enough to improve

 

The female entrepreneur mindset isn’t about constant confidence.
It’s about creating enough emotional distance to stay in motion.

 

The Myth That Slows Down More Women Than Anything Else

There’s another layer that quietly impacts how you grow.

The belief that you should be able to do this on your own.

That needing support somehow means you’re less capable.
Less impressive. Less legitimate.

But when you really look at how successful entrepreneurs build their businesses, a different picture emerges.

They ask questions.
They get guidance.
They leverage other people’s experience.

They don’t treat business like a solo performance.
They treat it like a collaborative process.

“No one builds something meaningful entirely on their own—and trying to will only slow you down.”

This isn’t about dependency.
It’s about expansion.

Because the moment you stop trying to prove you can do everything alone…
you free up energy to actually grow.

 

Why Focus Feels So Hard (And Why It Matters More Than You Think)

If you’ve ever felt pulled in ten different directions at once, you’re not alone.

Ideas come easily.
Opportunities show up.
New directions feel exciting.

But here’s where things get tricky.

When your energy spreads across too many things, none of them get the depth they need to work.

And then it feels like:
“Nothing is working.”

When really, nothing has been given enough time or focus to become something.

This is one of the most overlooked business growth tips:
Focus isn’t just about productivity—it’s about amplification.

“Where your attention goes consistently is what eventually grows.”

Not because it’s perfect.
But because it’s sustained.

 

The Shift From Scattered to Intentional

There’s a moment in every business where you realise:

You don’t need more ideas.
You need more depth.

And that requires a different kind of discipline.

Not the rigid, force-yourself kind.
But the intentional kind.

The kind that says:
“I’m going to stay with this long enough to see what it can actually become.”

That’s uncomfortable at first.

Because your brain will offer you alternatives:

• something new
• something easier
• something more exciting

 

But growth doesn’t come from constant switching. It comes from staying.

 

What Changes When Your Mindset Shifts

This is where everything begins to feel different.

Not because your business suddenly becomes easy.
But because your relationship to it changes.

 

You stop:

• taking everything personally
• trying to do everything alone
• chasing too many directions at once

 

And you start:

• observing instead of reacting
• asking for support without hesitation
• committing to fewer things with more intention

 

From the outside, it might look like subtle changes.
From the inside, it feels like relief. Like you can finally breathe again.

 

A New Way Forward

If you’re in a season where things feel slow, unclear, or heavier than expected…

It’s worth asking a different question.

Not:
“What strategy am I missing?”

But:
“How am I thinking about what’s happening?”

Because the way you answer that question will shape everything that follows.

The female entrepreneur mindset isn’t something you master once.
It’s something you refine over time.

And often, the biggest shifts don’t come from doing more.
They come from seeing things differently.

 

Listen to the Full Episode

If this resonated, there’s so much more nuance inside the full conversation.

This episode goes deeper into:

• the exact mindset shifts that change how business feels
• real experiences from 13 years in entrepreneurship
• the patterns that keep women stuck longer than necessary

 

If you’re ready to approach your business with more clarity, calm, and confidence…this is one to listen to.

 

FAQ:
Female Entrepreneur Mindset

What is a female entrepreneur mindset?
A female entrepreneur mindset is the way women think about challenges, growth, and identity in business. It influences how they respond to setbacks and build long-term success.

Why is mindset important for business growth?
Mindset shapes decision-making, consistency, and resilience. Without the right mindset, even strong strategies struggle to deliver results.

How do successful entrepreneurs think differently?
Successful entrepreneurs focus less on personalising outcomes and more on learning, adapting, and staying consistent over time.

 

 

FULL TRANSCRIPT WITH CHARDÉT RYEL

Chardet Ryel (00:04)
Welcome to her first three years. From breakdowns to blunders, learn what worked and what didn’t. I’m your host Charday and whether you’re a new entrepreneur or you’re just starting something new, this is your space to learn and feel little less alone. I’ll see you inside.

The hardest part about being an entrepreneur, a business owner, isn’t the strategy. It isn’t the business ideas. I don’t even think it really is the marketing once you figure out your flow. The hardest thing, and I’m sure you will agree and you have seen this, really is battling yourself. It’s dealing with your emotions, your insecurities, anything that comes up for you in your life. We always say, know,

The most intense form of therapy besides therapy is entrepreneurship because it’s going to mirror back to you every single shortcoming, every single fear, every single thing that you have kept hidden. And there are so many different things that you as an individual will go through, have gone through that are different from me. But these three things, the ones I’m going to share with you are the mindset shifts

that if you can do these, if you can really focus on them, make them a priority just as much as being on Instagram or learning ads or whatever technical skill you want. If you can focus on this, you are going to see not just more results in business, but more fulfillment, happiness. Because if you don’t do these three things, I guarantee it will feel empty. And I’ve now spoken with over

300 people on both my podcasts, many of them entrepreneurs, hundreds of entrepreneurs over the years. And the thing honestly that makes a difference is these three mindsets. And I’ll share a little bit of my own messy, rough story in dealing with them. And the idea is that you can then really integrate this into your business outlook. That this becomes part of that three-year plan, five-year plan. This is the stuff that is going to carry you forward.

because I know I felt really stuck many times where I felt like I know what to do, or I think I do, but it’s just not clicking. And this June, so in a couple months here from the time of this recording, I will have been an entrepreneur for 13 years. And that makes it more of my adult life as an entrepreneur than not.

And the things I’m gonna share with you are ones that I really wish didn’t take me so long. One of them, if I’m really honest with you, is only something I’ve learned to do recently. And I guarantee this will bring you more happiness in your business and more results. Because it’s not a specific strategy or method, it really just is stuff that we must do to be good at what we do. So I told you that it’s gonna be 13 years as an entrepreneur. This one,

I am only now able to do. So it took me 12 years. It doesn’t need to take you that long, but I don’t think I realized how important it was. So in business, what you will find, especially in the beginning, but for many years even then, it will feel like your baby. It will feel like a reflection of you. If you launch something and people don’t buy it, it will hurt. If people don’t like the posts and the reels you spent time doing, it will hurt.

If a friend unsubscribes, by the way, we’ve been episode called my friend unsubscribe because they did, it’s going to hurt. All of these small little things come out. And especially if you’re someone who really seeks external validation, like you wanna be recognized by the world. You wanna show that you have success. That was me. So it’s not just me calling you out. This was me. I needed to show that I was of value, that I was.

successful. And so anytime something felt like it was against my business, it felt like it was against me. If there was criticism, if there was a failure, if something didn’t turn out the way that I wanted, it always felt personal. Like it was my direct failure as a person versus something else. I was speaking about this with someone, we were talking about how it’s wild

that in entrepreneurship we treat it this way because you don’t really do it with other difficult technical skills. We don’t accept that maybe the method needs to shift to work for us because we look at things and we compare it to other people and you’ve probably done this too. Like think about someone who is in your space just doing amazingly well and you’re looking at that person wondering why you can’t do it too.

How many times have you stopped to think that maybe the way that you need to do business is different from them or that maybe you need to really think about what you want from life because maybe the way they’re doing it doesn’t fit. Instead, we personalize it, right? We say, okay, it’s my fault this isn’t working and I was that person. I would feel…

every single unsubscribe, I would feel every single failed launch. There was a time I spoke about this on the podcast where just before the pandemic hit, I had spent $10,000 on a ⁓ program. I followed all the instructions. I launched it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t at a great time. And rather than me thinking about the circumstances or studying why it didn’t work, I said, I just can’t do it. It’s just me failing.

You know, that was only six years ago that I’m saying this, that I felt that as someone who had nearly seven years of experience in entrepreneurship, I was still feeling like this was because of me. I just can’t do it. I’m not cut out for this. There’s something that’s wrong with me. Do you ever do that? Do you think that the reason why you are not achieving what you want or why you’re stuck

or why people don’t buy or why something didn’t work is because of you.

So this is mindset number one is don’t personalize anything in business. You can learn any single thing that is a technical skill here. When I started business, I didn’t even know how to start a website. And this was also back in the day where it wasn’t exactly easy. WordPress wasn’t really simple to use, but I had no idea how to do this stuff. And I need to go back and see if I can find a photo.

of my fitness business that I used. It was probably the worst stock photo possible of this lady doing a plank. And I didn’t know how to crop the photo right. So when you entered my website, the homepage, it was this huge side angle of this woman in these pink hot pants bum, essentially. That was, I mean, it was a Brazilian bootcamp, so it works, but.

I’m just saying like I had to learn those technical skills. So don’t personalize anything. And I think where this became so clear to me is I recently spent seven days in the mountains of Sri Lanka in a monastery with a monk, there were four of us. Every day he would give us these meditation practices that we would do for 30 minutes at a time, five or six times a day. And the goal was to learn how to one focus.

concentrate, right? To be able to separate yourself from what you’re experiencing. To be able to step back from your emotions, not suppress them, but to be able to step back. And as I started doing this practice more and realizing, wow, you let your anger, your pride, your hurt so many times stop you. There are so many times where I was this close.

this close to making something work, but because of pride or anger or hurt or pain, I didn’t keep going because I kept failing. When I did things and they worked, it was because I didn’t personalize it. And there came a point where I think with the first podcast, Feel Good Naked in the first year, where I started to feel

that I was personalizing things. I was starting to say, okay, why isn’t it growing faster, et cetera. And I remember thinking you just, you need to keep doing this and look at it from a strategic standpoint. What can you learn? Who can you learn from? What can you fix? Instead of just saying that you are the problem or you’re going to let it fail, we’re wallowing in this. So one, try not to personalize things. It’s a-

continual process but really try not to personalize. If you start to spiral or you feel like you want to give up or you want to change really ask yourself is this something that if I put my mind to it I could actually learn? Is it something I could do? Am I personalizing the discomfort and the pain? Now I hope this stuck I don’t know if you heard I’m in I’m actually in Sri Lanka right now so you can probably heard the

We’re kind of in the middle of the jungle, so you might have heard the birds in the background. But don’t personalize things, you know? Don’t personalize them. Now the second mindset shift, and this is one that I did learn a lot sooner, and thank goodness, because there’s no way that I would have seen even a small amount of success in anything if I hadn’t learned this. We often think that there’s so much honor in doing something yourself.

in being self-made, especially in the States, there’s this culture of if you are a self-made multimillionaire, if you are a self-made business person, it feels like that is the ultimate goal. You did it on your own and you didn’t need anybody except for…

Remember how I told you I’ve interviewed over 300 people, many of them entrepreneurs, business owners, and I’ve also spoken to hundreds of entrepreneurs over the course of more than a decade as one. And you know what? There is not one single person when you dig into their backstory, not one single person who is doing well that did it entirely on their own. It’s a lie. It’s comp-

completely untrue. There’s always a mentor in the background, someone who gave the initial amount of funding, someone who offered a free space in their mentorship program, someone who strategically had a position at XYZ company so they could then get a partnership for you. There’s always something. No one is self-made. And when you hold on to that as an entrepreneur and you think you need to do it all and you need to prove that you can,

It’s just gonna hold you back. The self-made thing feels good to say, can do it on my own. I don’t depend on anyone. I feel like I have more control this way. But if you’re trying to do that, you will never get further along. One of the biggest reasons why this podcast and my first one did so well is because they aren’t self-made, right? I’ve had how many guests come on and I’ve had their audiences and their communities. It isn’t just me. It isn’t just me.

There are so many more people that have contributed towards this. Now I can say that I spent, you know, I spent a year just studying growth strategies, doing this stuff. I did that, right? I learned that stuff. That allowed me to take this platform of people and take it higher. If I had all of that and I didn’t understand how to seek help, I’ve had so much help. I have not done my business by myself.

because I don’t wanna spread the illusion that you as one person can do it. So have no shame about asking questions, asking guidance, doing programs, doing whatever it takes. Never think that, I just need to do it myself first. Now there’s definitely some value for some things. For example, does it make sense to understand how stuff works in your business? Yes. But you can also get help along the way. You can have someone else

help you to understand. So drop the idea that you need to do it on your own and that there is some sort of honor in it because it only amounts to struggle in the end. It took me a little while to learn this. I think in all honesty, I never tried to always be on my own. I always was seeking partnerships.

thinking of community, but I didn’t actively think about this, what I’m saying to you. I didn’t actively think it’s okay for me to do this with other people. My success doesn’t mean less if other people help me. That took a couple years. So hear it now and really think about it. If there is one area where you’re struggling right now, where can you get support? And drop this idea of I need to do it on my own. Now, the third thing here,

is something that most of you are not going to want to hear. And I avoided doing this for many, many years. And if I look back and I see what was successful and what wasn’t, it was often due to this. It is so important as an entrepreneur that you really focus on one thing and that you focus on it for a good amount of time.

a good amount of time being at least a year and I would really say even two to see a difference. If you look at the most successful entrepreneurs and you really study what they did, they had one product that they started with. One focus for years. Now I know for all of you multi-passionate people out there, that’s not a fun thing to hear, myself included. I really resisted this.

I was always thinking, I wanna start this offer and then I have this marketing idea and I wanna run this event and wouldn’t it be fun to do this? And you know what happens when you do that? You take all of your power of concentration, all of your mind power and magic and you put it in many different places instead of putting it all concentrated in one. Imagine the difference. It’s like you have this huge ocean of water

and you’re spreading it across so many different buckets that it no longer has the force of a big wave. I don’t know if that makes sense. We spread ourselves really thin. We don’t give time to an idea, to a concept, to really see it through. Now I’m not saying this guarantees that it works, and I’m not saying that you don’t pivot in the process. So maybe you have an idea for…

a marketing or a coaching program. And yes, you might learn, well, I need to change the messaging a little bit here. Maybe I need to promote it more this way than that. Of course you pivot, but don’t go from, had this coaching idea, so now I’m going to go and do this one before you fully see it through. Because it really means starting from zero every single time when you do that. And I think this was especially clear as well during this.

meditation retreat in the mountains in Sri Lanka because you are focusing on one thing. So in the meditation, you’re moving your attention to one thing at a time. And you can really feel there’s a physical effect of it, a physical reaction from being able to do that. If you can do that, if you can take all of the tabs and close them, only do one at a time, you really are going to start to see more of a difference. Now I know some people have

less ability than others to do this. Some people are built a little differently and so you need to take this in your way, apply it in your way. But the reason why we struggle so much is because we’re always trying to do multiple offers, target multiple audiences, start multiple things. We restart something or we don’t want to commit to something. I understand. I was the biggest commitment-phobe and I kept thinking like, well, what if I don’t want to do that in a year?

What if I don’t wanna do that in two years? So why am I gonna start? And you realize that if you can focus for just a little bit, one year, two years, it’s really not that long in the scheme of things. Think about how long you’ve had your business right now or the idea of having your business. It’s probably longer than that. So finding one thing and really focusing on it, focusing your energy, you are going to see…

so many more results. This is a mindset shift that’s so hard because we’re creative people. We wanna do many different things. And I know it gets boring. I’m the kind of person that I love brainstorming. I love coming up with a strategy. And I will have fun taking action on that strategy for about six weeks. And then it is so hard for me. Right now, for example, I’m in the middle of creating

I’ve run these programs on starting a podcast and growing a podcast for about two years now, but before that with one-to-one clients. And I’m now making it evergreen on demand so people can buy it and watch it and use it immediately. It was agonizing focusing just on that. It was so much energy, so much energy just focusing on that and thinking about it and seeing it through.

This, by the way, is why I say honestly, like do some meditation because increase those powers of concentration here. It’s now live. It feels amazing. But there’s no way that I could have done that if I would have kept the way that I had always been going with my attention divided in so many different places. So if you’re feeling like I’m just not seeing a lot of progress, if you look at where is your attention?

And this doesn’t even need to be just business. You for many years I would run events when I was living in London and it took so much energy from me, just social events. Of course I found it so hard to focus on work and do things because I had all this energy going into these other things. It’s great to have hobbies. It’s important to socialize. Just be mindful of your energy so that you can focus on one thing. But it does get more fun and enjoyable once that thing can walk on its own.

Just think about it as the incubation period. You know, when you get a puppy or a kitten, you need to be with them in the beginning, like focused, training, helping, so that you have a well-behaved pet later on. And then they can be a little bit more self-sufficient. You obviously help them and feed them and love them. But the beginning stage takes a lot of energy. And for some reason, we don’t do that.

in our businesses. We really struggle with that. And this is where many people find it helpful to work with someone because it forces them to do it. And so if you’re someone like that, you might want to consider that as a way to move you forward. I definitely would have benefited much sooner from that if I had gone to someone and said, look, I need to focus. I have so many things and I need someone to keep me in line. You see what I’m saying is like, look at how can you keep yourself on track?

So quick summary, one, not personalized stuff. So the next time you start going down that spiral because something didn’t work, ask, am I personalizing this? Two, where can I ask for help? Because I don’t need to be the self-made solo person. And three, focusing on one thing. What can be your one thing for the next six months?

find me on Instagram, Sharday Royale, and say this is my one thing for the next six months, because I think sometimes we don’t always have the community and friends and coaches to be able to do that. So I’m extending that to you if you’re someone who’s like, I need focus. Thank you so much for listening, for being here. As you know, it was a whirlwind. Speaking of imperfection and mistakes, the first six months that this podcast launched, I couldn’t speak.

had lost my voice, that’s another story. And luckily had prerecorded a lot of episodes, but it’s been a journey. And so I really appreciate you being here, coming to hear the truth behind people’s stories, wanting to know more than just the picture perfect Instagram feed. Thank you for supporting. Thank you for sharing the episodes and really helping other people feel supported too. And I will see you in the next one. Your story.

is your SEO. It is as powerful as those words people are searching for. Go to the Her First Three Years website or go to my Instagram, sharderoyale. Both of those links are in the show notes and get the private podcast series, How to Stand Out Online. You will listen to that series. You will probably binge it and you will find your way.

Thank you so much for listening. Share this with someone who needs it. If you enjoyed it, please leave a review. Share this energy. You know, it’s all about spreading, receiving. If you feel like it’s made a difference, made you think. Please, please, please share your thoughts.