How Do You Shake Imposter Syndrome?

When I first started my brand coaching businesses, I was FAR from confident.

Heck, there are still days when I hear that pesky voice in the back of my head that says,

"Who do you think you are to teach someone about branding? There are people who've been in the industry longer than you've been alive. You don't know anything. Just leave it to the "real" professionals."

I don't know about you, but sometimes those voices can get pretty loud... so loud that you want to just quit and forget about even trying.

But why does this even happen?

Deep down, I know that I'm qualified to be giving back to the world in this capacity... yet there's some part of my brain that refuses to accept this as fact.

This is what happens when...

There's a discrepancy between what you're feeling, and how you choose to put yourself out into the world.

Now I'm not saying that we should share about everything that goes on our lives on the internet. As one of my good mentors once said,

"There's a difference between what's personal and what's private."

What this means is that it's TOTALLY possible to share about what's going on in your life without doing it in a way that violates your privacy or takes away from what you're doing in the world.

Because let's face it...

We all have our own problems, and no one is an exception to this.

The reason why we feel "imposter syndrome" is because there's a part of you that is asking to be addressed so that you can fully show up as the person you want people to experience.

What do I mean by that?

Let me tell you a story about my first-ever coaching experience to show you what I mean.

The first time I ever coached someone, I felt like a fraud.

I was just one month into my new coaching business, and I was terrified about the fact that I had never "coached" someone before.

While I had many years of prior experience with setting up brands for other people (including my own), never in my life had I ever walked someone through that process from start to finish from the perspective of a coach.

In a sense, I knew that I was fully capable of helping my clients, yet I felt strangely helpless in doing so. It felt like the "chicken & the egg" dilemma where I knew that I needed to start coaching... in order to gain the confidence the coach.

This threw me for a tail-spin, and I remembered having a complete breakdown the night before my first-ever coaching call.

"I can't do this."

Was the only thought that kept running through my mind as I was frantically preparing for my upcoming call.

As my thoughts spiralled, I found myself getting closer and closer to the root of the problem:

• I realized that I wasn't feeling confident because this was a new experience for me, and that there was no way for me to avoid that feeling

• Deep down, I was afraid that my client would have a bad first experience, and reflect back to me what I was already telling myself in my own head... that I wasn't "good enough"

But then something interesting happened when I allowed myself to acknowledge that this was how I was feeling. I suddenly felt a sense of calm because...

I knew that my first shot at anything was going to suck.

And knowing this helped me release any pressure I had put on myself to "get it right" on my first try.

Suddenly, I felt excited to be on my first coaching call because I knew that regardless of how it would pan out, I would learn something valuable that I will take with me into my future calls.

I recognized that this call was a stepping stone for me, and that by facing it head-on, I knew that I would be one step closer to gaining the confidence I was looking for to show up fully for my clients.

In short, the best way to beat that sense of Imposter Syndrome is to...

Figure out the areas where you don't feel confident, and find a way to get good at them!

And while there are ways for you to "look good" on the outside without putting in the work, there is no shortcut to gaining true confidence in what you do.

One way I like to think about it is this — If you're learning how to walk for the first time, you are absolutely guaranteed to wobble and fall... because you're not used to it! But if you practice and do it enough times, not only will you get better, you gain confidence along the way.

Because confidence is about having trust in yourself to be able to follow through with the thing you're set on doing.

So don't be that person who's all talk and no show... be patient with the process, expect your first few tries to suck, but whatever you do, make sure you keep showing up yourself!

If you need some more help with your branding...

Book a quick call with me to learn more about how I can be supporting you with your branding and see if we're the right fit to be working together! 👇

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