As a business owner, do you think people choose to work with you because of your hands or your brain?

I recently had a mentor ask me this question, and my answer was somewhat mixed.

In the past, I truly believed my clients came to me for my hands (i.e. all of the implementation and tech magic required to make their launches go), but they stayed for my brain (i.e. my special brand of brilliance and ability to see the bigger picture). 

And while this is still true in some cases, I am learning to not underestimate the value and strength of my own big, beautiful, brilliant brain and to know that it’s genuinely my greatest asset as a business strategist and launch wizard.

The real question is… Why did I ever doubt the power of my brain in the first place?

The not-so-magical answer: Our society doesn’t value intelligence in girls. 

Think about when you were growing up in school. We all remember the Hermione-like girl who was constantly raising her hand and practically jumping out of her seat to answer questions. Heck, maybe you were that girl!

And that girl was always labeled as the “know-it-all”. 

So what did we learn to do? We squashed and hid away our big, beautiful, strategic brains. And instead, we focused on the doing, the hands-on rather than on the knowing and thinking — even if the knowing and the thinking were our strengths.

A study from Lin Bian, a psychologist at the University of Illinois, revealed that girls as young as six begin to question their brilliance. 

She found that “by age 6, girls were prepared to lump more boys into the ‘really, really smart’ category and to steer themselves away from games intended for the ‘really, really smart.’”

Of course, there were exceptions to the rule. Those Hermiones whose determination to use their brilliance hung on. (And thank goodness she did because where would Harry, Ron, or the rest of the wizarding world be without her?)

Unfortunately, for many of the rest of us, we became like the girls in Bian’s study who grew into women incapable of recognizing the value of our brains and unable to celebrate our magical brilliance.

It’s not just us either. Research supports that the majority of women are less likely to ask for raises and are less likely to have their ideas heard in meetings.

In my particular case, in addition to society stifling my brilliance as a woman, I also know I’m not wired like the normal entrepreneur. 

Because I identify more with the operational personality type, I naturally love information and systematizing it. I am amazing at visualizing, but also at being hands-on. And this contributed to why I went into marketing and have sold my hands over my brains in the past. 

But I’m now coming to recognize and fully step into my incredible ability to coach, consult, and create spellbinding strategies. It’s always been there, but I’ve largely ignored it or underestimated it.

The honest truth: My brain is a huge asset.

When I manage launches for my clients, their team often can’t see the forest for the trees. I, however, can hop on my trusty broom to fly above it all and give them a bigger, strategic picture so they can reach their desired destination (aka a magical, ease-filled launch). 

So, yes, while I can do the techy, backend stuff with the best of them, I’ve reached a point where I need to lean into my brilliance and step back to allow others to implement the many launch pieces my brain has conjured. 

Thankfully, I’ve managed to surround myself with a team of equally-brilliant, Hermione-like women here at Spellbinding Launches. And they are all more than capable of creating strategic, brain-powered magic for our clients right alongside me.

In all transparency, it’s a struggle for me to stop relying on the value of my hands and step fully into the power of my brain. It’s hard, and it’s scary. Because, just like Hermione, I can be casting every spell myself. 

But also like Hermione, my true brilliance really shines when I’m strategically putting all of the pieces together and allowing others to be the hands.