So, imposter syndrome. First of all, let’s define it, it’s that feeling when you’re ready to go live but you have this feeling or thought of what’s everybody gonna think? what are they going to think when they see this? What if they knew that I don’t know all the answers? What if I’m live and somebody asks a question that I can’t answer? Those are just a few of the questions actually that came up this week.
In the last six days I’ve been doing a build your business boot camp for fitness professionals, primarily females helping other females in midlife that may not be your niche, but the things I’m about to talk about with imposter syndrome belong to all of us.
You’re Not Alone
No matter what level you’re at, one of the things that I want to assure you of before I go any further and help you break through the imposter syndrome that we can all feel is that everyone does experiencing it, everyone experiences it at every level. And what I mean by that is if you’re teasing yourself and imagining that when I get to that place, maybe you’re looking at someone else who appears to have all of it together, or all have their shit together. And you’re thinking when I’m in that place in that position, then, then I’ll have confidence, then I won’t have that imposter syndrome because really that’s what imposter syndrome is all about. You lack the confidence in yourself.
You Do Deserve It
Somewhere deep down you don’t believe that you deserve it. Now, that’s a topic for a lot more than a 20-minute podcast, and there’s really one I give you here is something really short and sweet to take away, and some tips to maybe listen to, or habits and routines and rituals to get into before you go live. That will get you up. Excited enthusiastic and remind you, who you are. It actually is very helpful to talk about a topic that makes your blood boil a little pain. If you feel that there’s an injustice.
The World Needs Your Voice
Among those fitness, quote, unquote, professionals who really aren’t qualified, who really can’t help, who are making mistakes because of not intentionally, but because of a lack of education. Do you know, quick fix, crackerjack box certification that really is a weekend certificate. That doesn’t allow them to really be working with some of the people who’ve got special injuries special conditions and need TLC. And you know, that what’s between you and helping that client. And the person who got them, who’s helping that client is very likely being in the right place at the right time with the right message that my friend is marketing.
Get Angry
So, if it upsets you that someone who’s unqualified can win that customer because they have the better marketing strategy. Okay then think about that before you go live. Because if you don’t get your message out there. Strong enough, you don’t get your message out there, frequently enough. And you don’t get your message out there with enough heartfelt clear conviction. You can’t win clients.
And if you can’t win clients you can’t help clients, and if you can’t win and help clients, you can’t win revenue, and you will then convince yourself that you are an imposter you can’t make any money doing this and you have to get a quote unquote real job. Is that where you want to go. So, wow, that went downhill quickly didn’t it.
Everyone Has Imposter Syndrome
So let’s back up, back to this place. First of all, everybody feels imposter syndrome, on a regular basis. I would guess, daily, if they’re actually putting themselves out there and listen here’s the thing, maybe this is the gauge of whether or not you are actively doing enough in your business. And that is if you don’t feel imposter syndrome on a regular basis, you’re probably not working hard enough
At outgrowing your current comfort level.
Get Uncomfortable
You’re not stretching yourself, you’re not reaching new people, you’re not being the first one to walk into the room and stick your hand out and be the one approaching someone instead of waiting to be approached. And what I encourage you to do is if you’ve got a mentor somebody that you really respect and you can open up to about questions you’ve got, knowing you don’t have to have all the answers without certain person. I would ask them, Do you ever feel this way?
Everyone Has Imposter Syndrome
Here’s what I know, from mentors. When I first began spending the kind of money that I do now for masterminds. When I first plunked down my first $20,000 for a mastermind on an annual basis. First of all, I had never joined a mastermind for anything less. I just went right for the top, pretty much the way I went from doing a sprint triathlon to doing an Ironman distance, most people work their way up. I was all in.
And when I did that, the first day of the first mastermind of the year. I walked into the room, and I literally met that coach at the door and I said, Okay. Have you ever felt like a really small fish in a really big sea? And she said, all the time, she said I put myself there on purpose, said My goal is to always be the most naive person in the room. I want to be surrounded by people who were smarter than me, who I can learn from it doesn’t do you any good to be surrounded by people who know less than you do, or who know just the same as you do so that you can share ideas back and forth.
To Grow
You have to be surrounded by people who have a difference of opinion, who have different experiences, and who can help you grow and stretch, because they don’t always think that everything you say, is correct. And it’s very uncomfortable, but I still do that, and it’s now five years later, I’m reaching out to even more groups and doing the very same thing. So being the quiet person on the call or on the video really doesn’t help you at all.
Getting Over Imposter Syndrome
How do you get over it though, because saying you’re not alone, not so much helpful when it goes to the lights on, that cameras pointed at you, and somebody is waiting for you to talk. I want you to remember this, that it’s about them. And I first gave you that one tip, if you can think about something that gets you upset.
Like, There are so many marketers out there, winning people over by their quick fixes by their fast game z sales the, this is going to work and you’re going to lose 14 pounds in 14 days, you know there’s a lot of that out there in January, but listen there’s 11 more months in the year and it happens all year round and you know it, and soda why. Think about those things.
What’s Your Why
Because if you don’t speak up, if we don’t have more voices out there saying the right thing, then it is the squeaky wheel, right, get the grease. It’s true. The message people hear over and over and over again. Are is the one that they’re going to respond to. If you go dark and you go quiet. There’s not much response on the other end right?
It’s About Them
So, think about those things and then remember, it’s about them. When you’re about to go live if you start all getting up in your own head about what are they going to think, you know, are they going to think you’re trying to be some big thing you’re in your own head. You’re in your own ego worried about little old you and your quote unquote reputation will listen sister, maybe brother, I don’t know who’s listening, but maybe you think a little bit too much of yourself.
Maybe you don’t have a reputation and maybe they’re not even thinking about you in the first place. And the whole goal of you going live is not about you. It’s not whether your hair is actually bleached as blonde as you want it, or your teeth are as white or your hair is combed correctly or not sticking up. It’s about the message that you’re about to tell them how strong, are your conviction in that message and getting it across.
Be Human
Do you know that it doesn’t really even matter if you get a little tongue tied, while you’re on a live video, because that’s human people actually need to be able to relate to you. So if you take 10 takes to get it perfect. You’re probably never going to be satisfied with any one of them. You’re always going to be imperfect, that will never be good enough. And all those messages my friend said gently with respect, are about something in your past, somebody didn’t think you were good enough and gave me that message. Somebody was always critical of you. I don’t know who it was, but they’re not here anymore.
What Do They Need?
And now it’s up to you to shake that off and think about the people on the other side of the camera, and make it about them. What is it that they need to hear from you. What is it that they need to hear from you right now today before they go sit down on the couch instead of taking a walk before they go to the cupboard and get something with a barcode, instead of going to the refrigerator to get something that was recently alive, what do they need to hear from you.
Right now, today.
Define You’re Why
The next thing to help you get out of that imposter syndrome is really to think about what is your why. And a little secret. So I’ll share a little piece of one little inkling that we did on the five day build your boot camp challenge. And that was having a riveting go on and talk about their why. Because, what is your why is the reason that you will be there in the first place, you’ll be reminding yourself as you reconnect with your audience, they need to like you. Yes, but more so they need to believe that they’re a little bit like you that you’re like them.
You can’t be up on a pedestal and perfect. Isn’t that ironic. The reason that you’re going to stop yourself that you’re feeling imposter syndrome is because you feel like you have to be perfect, you have to know the answers to every question in the universe that a client might possibly ask you. And if you don’t, or if you don’t have a degree and you don’t have a certification in this and that thing you feel like oh I’m not quite ready I can’t really do that, you know, it’s crazy, because nobody has all those things.
You’ll Never Have All the Answers
Nobody ever knows all the answers in every instance in every situation. And you wouldn’t expect that of anyone. Think about your mentors, the people you most respected, whether they were your professors or your major. Professors you’re maybe
parents maybe they were friends of your parents. Maybe it was someone in your church, those people that you really respected in your life Do they really have all the answers. Did you ever hear them saying you know I’ll have to find out. I’m not sure about that one but I will get back to you, because that’s a logical answer for intelligent people, to give.
You’ll never have all the answers, and you don’t have to be doing it perfectly. listen. Didn’t you have an overweight coach at some point during junior high or high school or even call it mean, they weren’t perfect, but yet that didn’t mean that they couldn’t be a winning coach. Remember your role. you are not there to do it perfectly. You’re there to interpret it perfectly for someone else.
Find a System, a Method, a Blueprint
It’s called Personal Training, it’s called health coaching but it’s one on one. And that really means you’re not telling them the way you did it, or how you would do it and what would work for you. You’re telling them the path the blueprint to get them there. So it takes the pressure off of your need for perfection. But let’s come back to the number two thing that I gave you. Number one was it’s all about them number two is, what’s your why go into that tell it. Why are you here, why are you not a teacher or a plumber or a nurse or a doctor or a foot salesman bicycle repair.
Tell Your Story
Why are you not one of those things instead of a health coach or a personal trainer. If you can get into that mindset about well here’s my why this is my why, because I know you’ve got one, you’ve got one is probably emotional. Maybe it’s because of what fitness did for you how it lifted you up when things are dark. Maybe it’s about saving the life of someone that you love. Maybe it’s that someone you love with sick, and with the right help and how they have this information they wouldn’t have been, I don’t know what your, why is.
But I know you’ve got one.
What If You Never Do It?
And if you could tap into that right before you go on, even tap into that as the first thing you do when you go on, you introduce yourself you tell them what you’re going to talk about. You tell them your why and then you launch into what you’re going to do. Okay, number three. I want you to think about this. This is putting fear in you. For something that could happen. If you don’t do this. So this is what I call that could have been me.
You don’t want to be in those shoes of somebody who, in a year or two or three or five see someone else who took a risk who took a chance. And look at them and say, that should have been me. You don’t want to be in those shoes. But unless you get out there, take a risk put yourself out there and start getting clear on what your unique and distinct messages.
You’re the Only You
Look, we all may be talking about core exercise or functional movement, but you’re going to describe it in your own unique way with a unique tone of voice that is a mind. It isn’t somebody else’s. And you’re going to resonate with someone listening, because it’s you. So if you ever heard Marie Forleo heard of Marie Forleo. She’s a fantastic marketer. She’s a fantastic motivator. But one of the things she will say, in her show in her preamble and her PostScript is that you’re sharing, only the gifts or the gifts that only you can share. And that is the whole point.
Don’t Miss Out
But if you don’t get started, potentially, you will still be there in that moment you felt that haven’t you somebody invents something and you think, Oh my gosh, I had that idea so long ago. I should have done that I should have done something with that could have been me or you see another trainer. And they’ve established some kind of credibility or maybe sense of sense of shame, however big or small it is, but you might just have a little bit of envy or jealousy.
Well, harness that that’s a piece of your that could have been me, or that should have been me and you don’t want to be that person in five years thinking. Had I done this, that could have been me.
Review imposter syndrome
Number one, remember this, we all have it. And you have it now. And you will when you level up, because as you level up, you will sure you’ll gain competence, but you’ll only have the competence when you’re looking down as you’re looking up to the people and the peers and people you aspire to be, like, later you will still feel like I don’t quite belong here yet. And there will always be just a little bit of that.
- it’s about them.
- what’s your why.
- remember that that could have been me, that should have been me. And you can stop that from happening.
- Remember the thing that makes your blood boil, what gets you going.
Got Comments?
All right, if you’ve gotten comments or questions, or you just want to admit that right along with me. You too, sometimes have imposter syndrome. But you’re going to commit to not letting it stop you from doing what you need to do to help the people that you know you can help.
Leave a comment below the show link at Fitness marketing mastery.com, forward slash imposter. What are you waiting for, the world needs us right now, more than ever.
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