Every woman I have ever brought onto my team has underestimated herself. Every single one.
I have thought about this a lot. As a leadership coach and three years building a team of over 200 gives you a particular vantage point on patterns. And the pattern I see most consistently is not a lack of skill, a lack of intelligence, or a lack of resilience. It is a deeply practised habit of discounting.
We discount what we have done because we were just doing our job. We discount what we have survived because other people have it worse. We discount what we are capable of because we have not done this specific thing before, and we confuse unfamiliarity with unreadiness.
Those are not the same thing.
The women who move fastest on my team are not the ones who arrived most confident. They’re the ones who took the first step before they felt ready, and discovered that confidence is not what gets you started. It’s what starting builds.
What you have already done is evidence. Evidence of exactly what you are capable of, so stop discounting it.
If any of this sounds familiar, stop underestimating yourself and give yourself permission to try something new.
Rox Holohan
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Former corporate exec turned travel entrepreneur. I help you create income and independence through the travel industry. Freedom. Flexibility. Fulfilment.
Helping busy mums build freedom, flexibility, and income through travel. I help women create income and independence. No gatekeepers, just opportunity.
Dublin has a heatwave this week and for once, I am actually here for it.
Tuesday afternoon, laptop closed, daughter beside me in the sun. She’s heading to university in a few weeks and these afternoons are numbered now in a way that feels very real right now.
We didn’t do anything remarkable and that was the point. I used to spend afternoons like that half-present, mentally somewhere else, running through my inbox while pretending to be in the room.
I built my travel business so I didn’t have to do that anymore. Not for the income alone, for the unremarkable, irreplaceable Tuesday afternoons.
What’s the moment you’d most want to be properly present for? Tell me. 👇
18/06/2026
I was once told I was too loud. Not long after, I was told I was too quiet.
Same person. Same year, give or take. Two completely different verdicts, depending on who was assessing me and what they needed from me.
I spent a long time trying to find the right setting on a dial that didn’t actually exist. The advice was never really about volume. Be confident, but not too confident. Speak up, but not too much. Be quiet, but never invisible. Nobody tells you where the line is because there isn’t one. It moves, depending on the room.
I stopped calibrating myself to a target that wasn’t fixed. I built something instead where the only standard I’m measured against is one I set myself.
Have you ever been told you were too much, or not enough? Tell me below. 👇
16/06/2026
Nobody hands you a manual when you’re building a business alongside a full-time corporate job. I wish someone had handed me one.
A mentee who started her travel business on maternity leave asked me the question every founder asks eventually: what would you do differently?
Here’s what I’d tell her and what I wish someone had told me.
1. The first 90 days feel slow. They’re not. You’re building habits, not results. The discipline of showing up when nothing’s happening separates the women who end up with a team of 200+ from the ones who quit in month two. Results come later than you expect and compound faster than you imagine.
2. Your corporate skills are worth more than you think. Managed a team? Navigated a brutal stakeholder conversation? Written a business case that had to land? You already have most of what this takes. The women I mentor from HR, finance, legal and ops consistently outperform people who’ve never had to think commercially. Your background isn’t a detour. It’s your advantage.
3. You will feel like a fraud at some point. Post anyway. Every woman on my team has felt it, the creeping sense someone’s about to expose them, that they’re not qualified or confident enough. The ones who succeed aren’t the ones who never feel it. They post anyway. Show up anyway. Send the DM anyway.
4. The support matters as much as the model. I reskilled as a leadership coach before building my travel business because income alone was never the point. I wanted purposeful work. Women need mentoring, structure, and someone in their corner who’s actually done it. That’s why coaching sits at the heart of everything I do.
5. Structure isn’t optional. Neither is protecting it. Set your goals. Set your time. Guard both like your business depends on it, because it does. When you build something that goes against convention, distractions and detractors find you. People who love you will question you, sometimes without realising it. You don’t owe anyone an explanation. Close the door, trust your gut, go anyway. Fear doesn’t mean stop, it usually means you’re onto something.
Which one landed hardest? Tell me in the comments 👇
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