Imposter syndrome is a feeling of self-doubt and insecurity that 70% of us experience at some point in our lives. It can be paralyzing and lead to a sense of being inadequate or undeserving of success. While it is difficult to eliminate the negative feelings associated with imposter syndrome completely, there are steps you can take to reduce its impact on your life. Today I talk about how it may be a GOOD THING to have imposter syndrome.
You Have Done Hard Things
We have all done hard things in the past. One of the hardest things I had to do is let my Grandmother know she had outlived her daughter (my Mom). My last quarter in college was nuts as I was paying for myself to go to school. We all have a list of hard things, so we can do hard things.
It's Your Brain
For whatever reason (probably due to things that got tattooed to our brains as children), those negative thoughts are hard to control. In researching this topic again, it turns out that most people just understand that they will have these thoughts, and in some cases, it's a good thing. Don't underestimate the power of your brain to manipulate you. David Tennant (Dr. Who) shares how his brain will try to convince him that you can remember large amounts of words and recite them AS HE IS LIVE ON STAGE DOING THAT EXACT THING.
You Are Not Alone
In this episode, all of these people have imposter syndrome. I share clips from David Letterman with Billie Elish from his "My next guest needs no introduction."
Viola Davis from a 60 minutes interview.
Jason Sudeikis from his days at SNL.
Eddie and Wolfgang Van Halen
Other people I didn't mention would be Rick Springfield, and Meryl Streep
Why a little Imposter Syndrome is a Good Thing
You are going to put content in front of an audience. There are two extreme reactions.
- The extreme imposter feels they are not qualified and that nobody will listen, so they are frozen and never publish anything.
- The obnoxious ego maniac that feels everyone will love their content and publish everything (and probably is not fun to be around).
As Viola Davis put it, if you think you will never work again, you will take any gig. Taking any gigs gives you the opportunity to work on your craft which results in you being a better podcaster.
You can't improve something that doesn't exist.
The Goal is to Be In The Middle
You realize that you will always have that "negative voice" with you. As one person put it, "You can let them in the car, but they can't drive." Too many podcasts ae not being created because people are letting their own negative thoughts stop them from pressing record.
You want to build the habit of pressing the record button to feel comfortable behind the microphone without going too far to the point where you become obnoxious.
The Giant Carrot of Impact
One thing that motivates me to create my podcast is I want to help people avoid making podcasting mistakes. Recently, I've been pointing out how Listennotes shows a bogus stat that can be disproven quickly. Consequently, anyone quoting these stats is either uninformed (and setting themselves up to look silly) or is preying on the uninformed. I ran into one person who seemed to fit the "prey on the uninformed" category. This depressed me. I was shocked. I felt like I had done a bad job in this video, and that video showed how stupid this stat was.
Then I got an email from someone who had seen an interaction I had with this person on YouTube and basically said that THEY HAD SEEN MY VIDEOS and now understood how stupid that stat is. So while this one podcast guru did not, this person did. My efforts had impacted this person in a positive way. I was amazed at how this made me feel (I'm sure a large amount of dopamine in my brain was released).
If you are a person with a mission, and a passion, don't let imposter syndrome stop you from impacting the world
Ready To Start Your Podcast?
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QUESTION OF THE MONTH
This month the question is one I often do in January. What are your top podcasting pet peeves? Those little things that drive you nuts.
Leave Your Answer at www.schoolofpodcasting.com/question
Deadline is 1/27/23
Where I Will Be?
I look forward to seeing you all, please come up and say hi. To see my full itinerary, go to schoolofpodcasting.com/where
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