The other week, I shared a personal anecdote about my battle with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and while I hope it was an interesting read, I know that if you don’t personally struggle with anxiety, it might have felt like a 'that’s tough for them' moment before you moved on with your day.

But here’s why I think that story actually matters for all of us...

They call OCD the disease of "doubt" and I want to share with you how - even without a diagnosis - doubt may be hindering your business goals in ways you didn't realize.

Most business owners don’t get stuck because they doubt too much.

They get stuck because they treat every doubt as a thought that must be answered or resolved.

Now... if you're someone who doesn't doubt yourself or your plans much, you may get these fears infrequently enough, that when you do get them, you automatically listen to them, resolve them, and move along.

But if you're a personality that tends to overthink and worry, you might be getting hit with doubts every day. Or multiple times a day. You might have so many doubts in fact that answering them all is a full time job that keeps you from doing anything else.

Ironically, Category 1 is often more "at risk" of being misled. Because you don’t doubt often, you assume that when a doubt does show up, it must be a valid signal worth listening to (a rare "gut feeling") rather than just a random brain firing.

Whether you're in category 1 or 2 doesn't matter... the question is - does doubt require a response 100% of the time?

The answer is no. Doubt doesn't require a resolution or answer 100% of the time. Whether you doubt once a month or once every five minutes, doubt is something that must "earn" a right to its attention.

Let me give you an extreme example to make my point.

When I thought I had rabies from a feral cat bite, every single time I tried to relax after doing all the research I could, the thought would come, "But what if you're wrong?" "What if you missed it and you're going to die?"

These are thoughts of doubt.

The brain is firing off signals to my body because of these thoughts. And the brain wants a resolution. It wants an answer before it lowers the threat. If the brain could talk it would say, "Julie, just answer this question and I'll turn off your fight or flight and we'll go back to resting."

So I do my best to answer the thought (or resolve it). I google. I ask my husband. I call the doctor. I look for an answer to respond back to my brain with "Yup. I double/triple checked. It's all good. We're 100% safe. You can stand down."

And then the loop closes, the brain relaxes, and everything is well.

Or is it?

I just taught my brain that the doubt I had... DESERVED a response.

I gave it what it was looking for, thus subtly reinforcing that yes, that was a good doubt, I needed to check, and it kept me safe.

Folks with OCD get stuck because the brain just keeps firing off more and more and more doubts.

Now let's bring this into business.

You've decided you're going to do a weekly live webinar to a course and you've done your due diligence. You hired a coach, worked hard on the offer, built the presentation, and are getting ready to set up the ads. You're nervous but powering through.

Then you go to a conference and one of the speakers talks about how webinars are dead, and low ticket is the only way to sell.

A doubt comes in.

"What if I am doing the wrong tactic for 2026?"

A couple of things might happen now:

• You might reassure yourself that you are doing the right thing by rehashing all the due diligence you did when planning for the webinar
  OR
• You might change gears and stop that and start something new

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You might be reading and think "Well the second option isn't a good idea but the first option is fine."

The problem is - both options gave the brain important information about the thought which was, "Good thing you pointed that out to keep me safe. I resolved it so you can rest now."

And you've reinforced that the doubt you had, was necessary.

Again, if you're not prone to doubt, this can go on like this indefinitely because it happens infrequently enough that it doesn't impede day to day functioning.

But if you are the overthinking, procrastination, shiny object seeking, can't finish what you start, paralyzed by ideas, worrier, fear based decision maker... you might find yourself in doubt loops that never end.

There's a third option you must learn.

It's call the ACKNOWLEDGE and NON RESPONSE.

When the doubt comes in "What if I am doing the wrong tactic for 2026?" the response is as follows (say this out loud):

1. I acknowledge that's a doubt.
2. I don't need 100% certainty to keep moving.
3. I can stick to my plan even not knowing the outcome.
4. I'm not going to respond to that doubt.
   ​

Then immediately ground yourself in the present by playing the 5,4,3,2,1 game. I explain this more in the podcast episode.

Neurologically, you're teaching the brain that doubts can come in, and go out, and don't need a response or 100% certainty. Over time, the brain will interpret your non-response as "these thoughts aren't critical" and the doubts will slow down.

I know what you're thinking: How do you know when it's a doubt you should ignore vs. a doubt you should pay attention to?

This is the question of the hour. There is an answer- and it’s not “trust your gut.”

Here’s the reframe most people never learn: Uncertainty is not a problem to solve. It’s a condition you move inside of. In other words, we can still live without a crystal ball.

Most business decisions do not become clear because you thought harder about them. They become clear because you acted, observed, and adjusted.

The biggest issue here is that people start treating emotional discomfort as evidence. They mistake nervous system activation for insight. They assume that if a thought feels urgent or protective, it must be important.

This is why “trust your gut” fails so many smart people. If fear and intuition feel the same in your body, you cannot use “how it feels” as your decision rule.

Here's what to do instead:

A doubt deserves a response ONLY if:

• There is new information (not just a new feeling)
• The concern is specific and testable
• The thought remains after regulation, not during activation (when your body is lit with cortisol or adrenaline)
• There is a clear action that would resolve it
  ​

A doubt does NOT deserve a response if:

• It appeared after hearing someone else’s certainty
• It asks “what if this is wrong?” without data
• It escalates when you engage it
• It demands guarantees about the future
  ​

Go back to the webinar example and I'll show you how the filter applies. There was no new data outside of this person's story (and probably he/she had an agenda in pushing low ticket). There were no failed tests of your webinar to prove it was a failure. There was high emotional charge.

This particular doubt did not warrant a response.

I notice for me, doubt creeps in right as I'm about to relax. Or feel hopeful. It's like my brain sees I'm going to turn off my vigilance and it fires off a ton of doubts to keep me on alert.

I'm not suggesting you never pivot. But I see way more premature fear driven, doubt-leading pivots than not in my work.

Here's another client example.

I have one client who is swirling in an identity crisis about business. She's not sure whether to pivot or not, what to pivot to, and she's been paralyzed in this for the last six months.

Every time her brain goes "But what could I possibly sell if not what I did for the last ten years?" she attempts to answer it with:

1. Long ChatGPT convos
2. Journaling
3. Prayer
4. Talking to me
   ​

And sometimes she gets a glimpse of an idea or resolution, feels better, and then tries to move on that insight.

Until the next doubt that comes in.

And she's back where she started.

It's clear she's in a doubt loop. Her brain doesn't feel safe unless she's 100% certain of her next move, and keeps firing off doubts until that certainty comes.

Her work is actually to not respond to the doubts.

It's to move in action on a plan, and do the ACKNOWLEDGE and NON RESPONSE every time her brain says, "But what if no one cares? What if no one buys? What if this isn't the right path?"

So easy to say... INCREDIBLY difficult to do.

It will feel urgent and desperate. You might even have an adrenaline response. Your body will light up when you start non responding.

It'll take time. Again, my post the other week describes it.​

This week's podcast episode is all about the disease of doubt, and how it shows up in business. You can listen on Spotify or Apple.

• ​Listen on Spotify​
• Listen on Apple (it's not updating 😭 so I'm sorry, but it's only on browser or Spotify right now)
• ​Listen on Browser​

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I want to be very clear about what I am and am not suggesting.

• I’m not saying you should never pivot.
• I’m not saying doubt is bad.
• And I’m definitely not saying you should push through fear blindly.

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What I am saying is this:

Most people don’t need better ideas. They need to keep going with uncertainty.

If you’re someone whose brain is loud, the work isn’t to find the perfect answer. The work is to stop letting doubt quietly run the decision-making process.

You don’t build confidence by choosing “right.” You build confidence by continuing even when you don’t know yet.

Learning when to respond to doubt, and when to non-respond, is one of the most stabilizing skills you can develop as a business owner. It’s not intuitive. It’s not easy. But it’s learnable.

And for the right people, it’s life-changing.

xx Julie