48. Proven Strategies to Overcome Imposter Syndrome

Are you struggling with imposter syndrome as a digital nomad?

In this episode, Austin and I discuss imposter syndrome, a common feeling experienced by high achievers and new beginners alike. It’s something all business owners and entrepreneurs will experience.

Imposter syndrome can make individuals feel like they do not belong in the space they are trying to achieve in and offer techniques and tools to overcome this mindset.

You’ll gain insights and tips on developing an entrepreneurial mindset and building a sustainable location-independent lifestyle.

Join us on the Profitable Nomad Couple podcast as we share our proven strategies for overcoming imposter syndrome.

You'll learn how to:

• Recognize the signs of imposter syndrome
• Focus on your qualifications and experience
• Practice self-compassion

Book your FREE discovery call with me!

-----------------------------------

Schedule a free Coffee Chat with Monica!

Get access to my Trust Your Gut Decision Making Guide.

Visit me at my home on the web for more resources.

Chapters

• 2:01 Imposter syndrome.
• 4:17 Imposter Syndrome in high achievers.
• 9:31 Reticular activating system.
• 10:40 Imposter syndrome and positive self-talk.
• 14:07 Be Your Own Best Friend.

Transcript

0:58

Hello and welcome to the Profitable Nomad Couple podcast. This is a show where we share all of our secrets about building a sustainable location-independent lifestyle. We're Austin and Monica. We're a digital nomad couple here to help you develop an entrepreneurial mindset, ignite your passions, and develop a purpose-driven online business. Get ready for weekly insights and inspiring stories to empower you to live life on your own terms. So are you ready to unlock the nomad mindset and embrace a life of limitless possibilities? Let's dive in! Alright you guys, welcome back to another episode. Today we are talking about a really common phenomena, especially as online business owners. We are all going to face this at some point in our life and I'm sure you've heard of it before but we're going to give our own take on it. We're going to talk about it. We're going to normalize it and then we're going to give some steps, some techniques, some tools to get out of this way of thinking. So today, without further ado, we're going to be talking about imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome. This is like business owners Achilles heel. This is any high achievers Achilles heel. Imposter syndrome is, the name kind of spells it out, so an imposter, somebody who pretends to be somebody that they're not. Somebody who is in a place where they shouldn't be. So when you suffer from imposter syndrome, you have this feeling that you don't belong in this achieving space that you're trying to be in. So let's say you're trying to start up a business as a web designer or you are trying to be an artist and you're trying to get your art displayed in a gallery. Imposter syndrome is the name for that feeling when you feel like what the heck am I even doing? Like there's no way my art is good enough to be in the studio. There's no way that my web design skills are good enough for this client to pay me for that feeling that you you're not capable enough. You're not qualified. You don't have the right certifications. You don't have the right experience. You don't have the right background. All of that can our feelings that come up that we call imposter syndrome. I've also often heard it described as a fear of being found out. So it's like you sign a client and you start working on their website or you start working on their social media or you start doing copywriting or whatever it is for them. And then all of a sudden you have this deep fear that they're going to find out that you've only been doing this for a couple of months or a deep fear that you know Instagram changes algorithm and you don't understand it anymore because all the techniques you use have just gone out the window. And this is deep fear that once they find that out that you're going to be outed and they're never going to want to work with you again and they're going to shout that from Nobody is ever going to want to work with you. And it'll create this deep deep sense of shame around you and your business. Yeah, I'm really glad you brought that one up actually because that's probably the way that I feel it the most is this fear of being found out this fear that if we sign on a client you know just a week or two into it they're going to be like who the heck is this guy and then my cover is going to be blown. So as Monica and I were researching this before we started recording we were looking into some quotes because we love quotes for quote people and we're trying to look up some good quotes of imposter syndrome. And as we were doing that we were looking up all the people who had quotes about it and there's a big name people like think of the most high achieving successful people that you can think of some quotes that we found were from Michelle Obama Robin Williams Einstein himself the guy who created the whole theory of relativity like these high high achievers. They've experienced imposter syndrome and not only did they experience it on the way to their success while they were what we would consider successful while they're at the top of their game they're feeling these imposter syndrome feelings they're feeling like they don't belong there. So it's not a unique experience. You're not alone for feeling it. Everyone in the world or at least any high any achiever in the world anyone who's who's ambitious and working towards a goal is going to experience imposter syndrome at some point. How powerful is that right. Like when you feel that imposter syndrome just like take a second to realize that you feel the same thing that Michelle Obama feels that Robin Williams felt that Einstein felt right. You feel the same as these high achievers because you are pushing boundaries and you are working to achieve more. If you just were to settle down in the small town and take some minimum wage job and not ever try for anything more not try to step out of your comfort zone not try to create anything not try to do anything outside of the quote unquote norm you're never going to feel like an imposter. That's the only time you're going to feel comfortable. But the second you start saying you know what I I want more out of life and I I can get I have the power within me to start achieving more than those feelings of imposter syndrome are going to creep in. Then you're on the right track. I mean that doesn't mean they don't suck because it totally sucks and it can totally like debilitate you. But how empowering is it to know that when you start feeling that it means you're making progress. I mean you are achieving you are you are going towards greatness. That's so exciting. So the dark side of this is that imposter syndrome never goes away whether you're just starting or whether you've been doing it for decades and decades whether you're the top performer in your industry it's not going to go away it's going to be there. I mean that's the dark side. Don't focus on that. The the empowering mindset behind that same fact is that because it's never going to go away instead of waiting for it to go away in order for you to take action the action that you should take is learning how to live with it how to manage it and what can you do right now so that you don't let imposter syndrome hold you back anymore. So Monique and I have outlined six different strategies. These are things that we've done ourselves that can really really help with this feeling of imposter syndrome and it can help mitigate it and help you overcome it. Yeah the first one is possibly one of the hardest ones and that is to recognize it and start catching yourself in it. And this is can be really hard because imposter syndrome can be such an integrated part of our lives and our days that we don't even realize we're doing it or we don't even realize that we're feeling it. So something that I've used to really help me recognize imposter syndrome and put a name to it is it's journaling. It's just writing down like when have I shown up like an imposter when have I felt like an imposter and then I start to recognize oh like here when I feel like an imposter I immediately go to the kitchen and I want to cook or I immediately want to scroll Facebook or Instagram or I immediately want to do anything but move forward. And so I start to recognize these subconscious habits that I have that come up when I'm feeling like an imposter. The more you can recognize it and put a name to it the more power you're going to have over imposter syndrome. Our second piece of advice is to take action anyway and that's because imposter syndrome it's a roadblock. As soon as you start feeling these things it's going to make you want to not do anything. You're going to want to sit down and go you're going to be less likely to take action in the things that are going to progress you forward to achieving. So it's easy to say harder to do but when you have these feelings take action anyway be brave be bold be courageous and do the things that you're afraid to do. Yeah action is the killer of fear. So whenever you feel fear take action. You know that's definitely indicated that you need to take some uncomfortable action to move past that. All right number three is to recognize it as a common experience. You yourself are not flawed you're not broken you're not even unique for feeling this okay. Everyone around you feels it too. Your clients that you're going after they feel it too okay. Everyone around you feels this okay. Take comfort in knowing that there's nothing wrong with you. A lot of times we kind of feel that we are totally isolated in this that we're in a room full of high achievers and we look around and we think there is no way that they don't belong here right or that they feel like they don't belong here. That's not true okay. At some point in their lives and possibly right in this very moment they also feel like they don't belong. Yeah that's a big one. Number four this is a little bit of physiology and biology that we're going to mix in. So there's this part of your brain called the reticular activating system or RAS and The point of this part of your brain is to simplify your life because you get billions and billions and billions of data points coming into your brain every second of every day and there's no way your brain can process all of that. So you have this reticular activating system and what it does is it filters by importance all of this information so that you only pay attention to what is most necessary and so it trains your brain to be looking out for certain things. So the best like easiest example for me of the system is you could be walking down the street listening to cars and motors and the winds blowing and dogs are barking and kids are yelling and there's so much going on but as soon as somebody says your name you hear it your ears perk up and you turn to see who called your name because that's embedded in your reticular activating system and as soon as that piece of information comes you are it's highlighted for you. You're looking out for it. So when we have this imposter syndrome feelings what we need to do is we need to retrain our brain to search for evidences that we actually are capable that we are successful that we can achieve and the more that we repeat that information and find evidence of this the more likely we're going to be to latch on to that when we have these feelings. So this is a really big one for me because my big hold up has been imposter syndrome for a long time and especially when Monica and I started working as coaches I've had this feeling of who am I to coach other people like what are my qualifications what are my abilities like how can I be coaching someone especially if I'm still going through some of the things that I'm coaching others on but if I take a moment and pause and I can start looking at evidences that I am a capable coach so I've helped my brother and Monica's mom and sister start up businesses and I date these businesses and turn them into something bigger. We've helped handfuls of digital nomads on our podcast even if you go scroll back a few episodes you'll find some nomadic journey kickstarters where we have engaged with other people and helped them start their businesses. I'm life purpose coaching certified like I've gone through a certification course. I've had friends who have come to me asking for help or advice on different things and if I start collecting all these things I can create like this little filing cabinet in my brain so that when I have these feelings of not being good enough of not belonging of thinking who am I to be here I just go to that filing cabinet and pull out these examples like actually Austin you have a lot of experience in this and you're totally qualified for this and when I pull that out and I start reading it imposter syndrome runs away. This is such a powerful system in our brain we have the power like Austin said to train brain to go find the answers. Our brain is an answer producing machine right so I mean with the RAS function of your brain you can literally train your brain to go find all of the reasons that you belong there all of the reasons that you're successful and it is oh my gosh it is so cool because as you train your brain it starts to do it for you without much effort. That is by far one of the coolest facts I know about the brain. Okay so number five practice positive self-talk never let yourself talk to yourself in a way that you wouldn't talk to your friends and this is incredible to me because I am so mean to myself sometimes I am so mean to myself and I am a very nice person I would never say these things to myself but to other people that I say to myself I heard a really powerful exercise that a therapist had this guy do and he was you know over 40 for 40 years he had been totally beating up himself and that's how he was getting himself to be motivated as he would just yell terrible things at himself and so his therapist said hey you know what any time that you start thinking negatively about yourself I need you to write a letter to your best friend and say exactly what you're thinking no cheating you have to write down pen to paper exactly what you're telling yourself right now and address it to your best friend and then like to take it one step further the therapist was like and then send it to me you know and so instantly like all of these terrible things that he was saying about himself he had to see it on paper addressed to his best friend if he had been talking to his best friend like that they would not be friends so the moral of this story is is to make sure you are aware of how you are treating yourself be your own best friend be nice to yourself and I mean I'm telling this to you but most of them telling this to me like you need to be nice I need to be nice we all need to be nicer to ourselves this is hard life is hard starting a business is hard we don't need to be our own worst critic okay we can help ourselves really feel successful and feel good and build ourselves up instead of constantly tearing ourselves down I love it BYOBF be your own best friend write that on your mirror write it on your car make a sticker okay number six our very last piece of advice is to surround yourself with supporters this might maybe seem counterintuitive because if you're surrounding yourself with other high achievers maybe you think that would make it more likely that you have these imposter syndrome feelings but if you can surround yourself with other people who are experiencing the same things that you are other people who are also trying to achieve and also have these imposter syndrome feelings and especially if you can allow yourself to be vulnerable with them and open up to them and share when you're having these feelings they're gonna support you when you're in those low moments maybe they're gonna be the ones to come to you with that evidence that you are capable and successful or maybe they're gonna be the one to talk to you like your best friend and tell you what you need to hear and give you the the encouragement that you need maybe they're just gonna relate to you and say you know what man I've been there too like I've been in that same situation I know how hard it feels and sometimes that's what we need but if you can surround yourself with the support group that's gonna lift you up more than so many other things more than cut out the more than just it's gonna lift you up yeah so to wrap up to sum up all of these six points let's just go over them really fast number one to recognize and catch yourself when you're feeling imposter syndrome number two take action anyway even if you're scared just do it number three recognize this is a common experience and you are not defective for feeling it number four your reticular activation system train your brain to look for all the ways that you are successful all the ways that you deserve to be here number five practice positive self-talk be your own best friend and number six surround yourself with other people who are going through a similar situation who understand what imposter syndrome feels like who understand what it's like to be striving for something more and to be aiming to achieve greatness yeah put those six things into practice you guys and you're gonna beat this let's overcome imposter syndrome thanks so much for joining us here on the profitable nomad couple podcast we appreciate you listening to us today if you enjoyed this episode share it on Instagram and be sure to tag us at Austin and Monica together we can inspire others to embrace a location-independent lifestyle and while you're there we'd love to connect with you so make sure you follow us for more tips and inspiration on living your dream location-independent lifestyle until next week remember that you have the power to shape your own path so stay curious stay adventurous and stay connected