We were lucky to catch up with Dena Patton recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Dena, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
Confidence and self-esteem were not things I was born with—they were built, layer by layer, year after year, through deliberate choices, failures, and victories.
First, I learned to trust myself. This was not an easy feat because, as a young girl, this was not a skill set I had. Like most teens, I doubted myself and didn’t have confidence or trust in myself. But I moved from Phoenix to New York City at age 21 and was determined to build my courage, confidence, and self-esteem. It starts with keeping your word to yourself daily. The little things matter. I also quickly learned that big success takes big courage, so I worked on building my courage by pushing through fear and doing things that scared me. The more I did that, the stronger my confidence, trust, and self-esteem became.
Second, I mastered my mindset. Negative self-talk will keep you small if you let it. I had to train my mind to recognize limiting beliefs and replace them with positive, faith-based truths that empowered me to live courageously. Through that, I could step into the greatness I was born with. We are all born with greatness, but we aren’t trained to access and use it. It’s a daily practice that will change your life, but I think it is somewhat overlooked. I wrote a book called The Greatness Game so everyday people can start to retrain themselves to play greatness games instead of smallness games.
Lastly, I embraced failure as fuel. Confidence isn’t about never failing—it’s about knowing failure won’t break you. Every challenge is helping you build your courage, leadership, and greatness, no matter how it turns out. Fail forward!
I’m also deeply passionate about helping girls build their confidence and self-esteem, which is why I co-founded Girls Rule Foundation—to help girls develop confidence, leadership, and financial literacy. Every girl deserves to believe in herself and have the tools to create an extraordinary life, and that mission continues to drive me daily through our summer camp and programs.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
First and foremost, I’m a wife and a mom, and those roles bring me the greatest joy. My faith is also the foundation of everything I do—it keeps me grounded, focused, and aligned with my purpose.
Professionally, this year is filled with exciting milestones! One of my biggest goals is to deliver my TEDx talk on the Greatness Mindset, which has been the foundation of my coaching, leadership retreats, and personal growth philosophy for the past ten years. I believe every person is born with greatness, but living and leading by it requires mindset shifts, courage, and the right tools. Sharing this message on a TEDx stage will be a dream come true.
Another passion project I’m launching this year is Camp CEO, a one-of-a-kind summer camp weekend experience in Prescott, Arizona, for business owners. It’s designed to help entrepreneurs step away from their daily grind, have fun, strategize at a high level, and connect with like-minded leaders—all while immersing themselves in classic summer camp fun!
Beyond my business, I’m incredibly proud of the work we’re doing with Girls Rule Foundation, a nonprofit I co-founded to empower teen girls. This year, we’re producing our annual Girls Change The World Summit on April 26th in Tempe, Arizona, bringing together hundreds of girls for a powerful day of leadership and confidence-building. Then, in July, we’ll host our 10th Annual Leadership Summer Camp called Wings To Fly, where girls learn 12 essential leadership skills and experience hands-on entrepreneurship training. One of the highlights is their pop-up restaurant challenge, where they go from concept to execution in just seven days—culminating in a fully operational restaurant serving 100 guests. Seeing these young leaders step into their greatness is truly one of the most rewarding things I get to do.
At the core of all my work—whether in business, speaking, or nonprofit leadership—is the belief that when people tap into their greatness and purpose, they create a lasting impact that has a ripple effect.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Looking back, three qualities have been game-changers in my success: mental toughness, clarity of vision, and mastery of sales & leadership.
1. Mental Toughness
Resilience is everything. No journey is free of challenges, setbacks, or moments of doubt. My ability to push through discomfort, rejection, and fear without letting it derail is why my company just turned 24. I have experienced many setbacks, but I keep failing forward, learning and becoming better, which is one of my biggest skills.
A Few Tips To Develop It:
• Train your inner voice (your greatness mindset) to be your greatest coach, not your worst critic. My book The Greatness Game can help!
• Build habits that strengthen your mindset, like morning affirmations, prayer, journaling, and movement. Motivation won’t last, only habits do so build routines and habits that build your mindset, business and goals.
• Surround yourself with people who challenge and inspire you to grow. Greatness begets greatness and smallness begets smallness.
2. Clarity of Vision
Knowing what I want and where I am going has been the foundation of accomplishing my goals. Success is never an accident and I believe that ‘clarity moves the train and confusion derails the train’, so focus and clarity are absolutely crucial to your movement every day. But as a wife, mom and cofounder of a charity, life gets busy, so I have to work extra hard on keeping focused. Having a good team is always an important part too so you don’t get pulled into the weeds.
A Few Tips To Develop It:
• Write down your 3-year vision—where do you want to be? Who do you want to become? What do you want to accomplish? What is your plan?
• Break it down into 90-day goals and take small, intentional steps daily. Your ability to take baby steps and stay focused on the long-term goal without getting tempted by instant gratification will get you to your goal. Don’t worry about the crazy guy next to you who is doing it ‘faster’, water your own grass.
• Eliminate distractions and commit to an accountability person. With focus, planning, support and accountability, you will accomplish epic things!
• I always say ‘move out of ‘vagueville’! Being vague is half your issue if you feel stuck. Without clarity, your train will not move.
3. Mastery of Sales & Leadership
This is something I learned with time (year 10 of my second business) but it changed everything! I came from a marketing background, but what I didn’t understand is sales and marketing are not the same thing. Sales is a learned skill, and when I learned it, my company and my client’s companies grew exponentially. The ability to attract my ideal clients, together with authentic sales and great leadership through onboarding and service, were the skills that helped me go global to serve business owners and leaders worldwide.
A Few Tips To Develop It:
• Learn to sell with confidence, integrity, and authenticity. Selling isn’t about pressure—it’s about listening and solving problems.
• Invest in leadership training and become the kind of leader others want to follow. Become a greatness leader!
• Build sales and onboarding systems that create consistency and results, so your business doesn’t rely on you.
Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?
I’m a firm believer that your brilliance and success lie in knowing your gifts and strengths. When you operate from what you’re naturally great at, everything flows. That’s why, as a business owner, it’s crucial to hire for your weaknesses—don’t waste time struggling with them. Trust me, if I spent my time on my weak areas, I’d get bogged down and things would move way too slowly. To manage two thriving businesses and still have time for family and fun, I stay laser-focused on where I can add the most value.
As a business coach, I’m passionate about helping others level up in both their strengths and their weaknesses. One of my favorite tools for this is True Colors International—an eye-opening communication and temperament training that truly transforms lives. It’s based on four core colors: gold, orange, blue, and green. Typically, we all have two strong colors and two weaker ones, and understanding these can be a game-changer.
The power of knowing your colors? When we know better, we do better. Let’s say your lowest color is blue. This often means you may struggle with showing compassion, kindness, or care in your communication. Once you recognize this and start learning simple ways to improve, you’ll not only become a more effective communicator, you’ll also grow as a leader. And the beauty of this? Working on these softer skills can have a profound impact on your marriage and parenting, too.
Here’s the thing: Communication is a lifelong learning process, especially in our weak areas. After all, most of life hinges on how we communicate. So let’s keep improving—because when we communicate better, we all live better.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://denapatton.com/
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/denamariepatton
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DenaPatton
- Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/denampatton
- Other: Email: Admin@denapatton.com
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Dena Patton
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