What to Do When Imposter Syndrome Creeps Up

Only you do, what you do, the way that you do it, and your story and your experience and your motivation and your heart for it. All of that is what makes it different than what makes people want to be part of your space and want to be in your world and want to have that experience with you instead of somebody else.

This is the Entrepreneur School Podcast where we believe you can run a thriving business and still make your family a priority. This show is all about supporting you the emerging or early stage Entrepreneur on your journey from solopreneur to CEO while wearing all of the other hats in your life. My name is Kelly Sinclair and I'm a brand and marketing strategist who started a business with two kids under 3am, a corporate PR girl turned entrepreneur after I learned the hard way that life is too short, two ways to doing things that burn you out. On this show, you'll hear inspiring stories from other business owners on their journey, and learn strategies to help you grow a profitable business while making it all fit into the life that you want. Welcome to Entrepreneur School.

Hi. So, I often will be really strategic to be really strategic about what I'm going to see on the podcast and when certain episodes drop, and, you know, really wanting to help guide your experience through if you're listening, kind of as we go. But today, I am literally getting on here to tap into whatever's on my heart so that I can just speak from there without a script. I don't usually use scripts, but at least I do outlines. But without an outline, I don't even know what I'm going to talk about right now, as I'm saying this to you, because a lot of things have been going on in the last little while. And so I think we will start with a bit of a, you know, a life update a business update, what's really happening behind the scenes. And I think that's important because so much of what we see and consume from other people who we follow online and podcasts or however we're connected to other business owners or people who are looking to as leaders that we want to learn from, is filtered, right, it's like what we say is like Instagram versus real life, what's going on. And there's no context as to what you see. And then we start comparing ourselves, our earned against what we think is happening in somebody else's life, which we don't even know whether or not that's true, or whether or not that's the full picture, and most likely is not. And then we start doubting ourselves, and we're letting our beliefs of other people's experience and success at cetera, infuse in effect us when it doesn't need to.

Sometimes I think what I'm saying is like a message that I need to deliver to myself, which is very much what that is right now. And, you know, ambitious women with goals, who want to create amazing impact, who want to be able to serve and support people, and to really get excited about what happens when you deliver your work when you create meaningful work in this world. And we have so many areas of our lives, right, that are meaningful to us. Motherhood, being a partner, being a friend, all the different roles that we might have as part of our lives. But what does the business do? Right, and I've been thinking about this a lot lately is like, what is the role of my business in my life? And what do I want that to look like? And how do I want to shift that maybe, because I didn't create a business to be frustrated with it. I didn't create a business to make myself feel bad, because I'm not hitting the goals that I have for myself. That is not the point. The point of creating a business, for me anyways, was to be able to have the freedom and the flexibility in the schedule. Like really, if I think about it, that's one of the primary benefits to running a business is that the schedule flexibility, because like tomorrow, I have to drive to a three and a half hours away to go to a gymnastics competition. I've gone to two gymnastic competitions, on Thursdays at 8am in places that are at least an hour away from my house. None of this is possible. If I had to report for duty to a job somewhere else for someone else at a certain time. And I just I'm so over that I'm not doing that anymore. And so I have to remind myself that this is why this is why I want to be an entrepreneur. And I also want to be an entrepreneur because I want to be able to give to the people who I know benefit from what I do. I want to be able to support with the strategy and the thinking and the creativity that is required to help you and instill you with the confidence that you need to put yourself out there to be able to do more of what you do.

I truly believe that everybody has a gift that they are meant to share in this world. And in a lot of cases, that is very much possible that that gift can deliver, like directly become your business. And that's a beautiful thing. That if you get to wake up every day, and share your gifts with the world and make an impact and help other people, then that is amazing. And you get to make money while doing it. And you get to create your own schedule while doing it. Like yes, sign me up all day long, right. And so if you're in a position, like I have been lately, feeling frustrated, even just not just frustrated, but unclear maybe about what what you want to do next, or how to go about what to do next than that is exactly where you need to come back to is why, why what makes me excited, because I was in a room yesterday, full of women business owners. And when the keynote speaker was up, she was giving a very engaging, like, back and forth kind of conversational talk, which was awesome. And we're so many people are up, they're sharing about their imposter syndrome, and like they're afraid that they're not good enough at what they do. And we all experienced this in cycles, it's cycles. And sometimes I feel like the more cycles you go through, the worse it comes back and hits you. Like, at one point, there was a panel conversation happening, and somebody was asking, like what is the most important, like, What's the best advice that you could give to somebody else to other business owners in this room. And I thought to myself, it's, it's believe in yourself. And one of the panelists did say that because truly you are the only one in charge of your energy and how you feel and and how you present yourself all comes from your own self belief, and how you can internalize that, and bring that forward and make that connection with other people.

So believing in yourself, and reminder to myself believing yourself. Because what you have created, what you're able to do is only for you like what you have created, what you have as a skill set, what your gifts are, what your secret sauces is only yours, because you were uniquely you your experience, regardless of how many people are out there doing the same thing that you do, how many coaches how many people who are practitioners in your health and wellness space, how many people are delivering a similar service to you, it doesn't matter. Because only you do what you do, the way that you do it, and your story and your experience and your motivation and your heart for it. All of that is what makes it different than what makes people want to be part of your space and want to be in your world and want to have that experience with you instead of somebody else. That is the competitive edge. That is what sets you apart from other people. That is my pep talk to you and to me and to everyone else who at anytime when you're feeling like in a rut about, well, I don't have I don't know, my goals are right now I don't know what I should do next. I don't know. I don't feel like I'm hitting it. Then like also the reminder of everything takes time.

So I was having this conversation and it's going to be a podcast episode that comes out again in the next little while about context, right? Like I started here talking to you about, you know, what you see online and what you hear from people is not the full story. And so remember that right? unless somebody's actually giving you the full context, which is kind of what I'm trying to do right now. And say that regardless of like, yes, I've been in business for over six years I've worked with you know, all these clients, I've had 1000s of people come through my digital products. I've grown an email list I've grown a six figure business I've done all of these things and also I have times where I feel like like wtf is the next thing like where am i right now and and so I take time I'm currently at this is my theme for the year is allowing I'm allowing space and allowing things to be more inspired and be more you know, coming from from true like connection and intuition rather than trying to follow what I think I should be doing or also constantly seeking external resources to help me and somebody else like reflect somebody poke a hole in this somebody else come in. Somebody helped me somebody fix this. It's on me now. Like enough, it's enough, I'm enough, I'm enough to figure it out, I'm enough to move forward. And you're enough to create what you're meant to create.

I don't know if this is like a rambly message. But I think that if you're listening to it, and you're still here, you're like, resonating with it. So I'm glad for that. I'm also really glad to just have this platform where I have the opportunity to reach out and connect with you in this way. And just share like, a little bit more of the behind the scenes of what's going on. Like, I'm not saying that I'm sitting over here going, I suck. And I'm a failure, and I don't have anything in my businesses and doing what I want it to do. My business isn't doing what I want it to do right now. But also, I'm happy. I just, I've had like the best travel year of my life. I've been to Nashville and to Disneyland with my family. We're going to Europe this summer, like so many amazing vacations. And that is definitely a priority for me personally, is to spend time as much time as possible with my family and with my kids. And while we're all young and healthy and active. I heard a stat the other day about it was from a study that was done about time. And this is really hard to even think of, by the time your kid is 12 years old, you've spent 70 or 75% of your time that you will with them. And by the time they're 18. It's 90%, like you spent 90% of the time that you will with your kid, by the time they're 18. Like that makes sense. Because then maybe they're leaving and they don't live in your house anymore, and hours of percentage of your life. Yeah, all that. But it's a wake up call. And that is why I focus on vacations and fun and family time and doing all those things right now. While Yeah, well, I still want to while we still can.

And you know, some of you know the reason I started my business and went out on my own and then stopped doing the corporate thing had a lot to do with the fact that I lost my mom in 2017. And I realized very clearly how time can disappear, just ends, there's one day you wake up, and what you wanted to do isn't impossible anymore, because a person is out there. You just don't have the opportunity. So cool going on the podcast. So I think what I'm trying to say is that whenever you might feel in a the low self esteem period, you know, I'm not hitting my goals, and you're focused on all of the things that are not happening. Remind yourself of why you're in this in the first place. What gets you out of bed in the morning, what makes you excited what feels like success. That's not just related to your financial goals, because it's so much more than that. It's so much more than that. And you can have a successful business without making six figures. Yeah. The fact that you get to even just spend time with your kids or volunteer at the school field trip or, you know, go to a yoga class in the middle of the day instead of working, or wear your sweatpants to work or commute to your basement office, or whatever it is that can feel successful to you. And I always need to remind myself of this because like I said, it comes in cycles of, you know, when you're feeling connected to that and you're feeling like empowered about that, then you're in a different energy. And that just leads to so many more good things like you're creating opportunities, you're putting yourself out there, you're attracting new clients and new business and new ways of growth. Versus when you're in this like when you're in a negative space, which we get into. It's the opposite, right? It doesn't attract, you're less likely to put yourself out there. You don't want to show up on social media. You don't want to show up in person you don't want to you don't want to put on real pants or real broad that day. And then you start kind of like feeling like in that rat.

So maybe if you're connecting with this, do what I'm going to do after I hit the end button on this recording, and go to your journal or your notebook or go for a walk if you'd like to like invoice memo yourself about why you're already successful regardless of whether or not you've hit the goals that you set for yourself. Because there is something to be said about and I've talked to a lot of, quote successful financially successful anyways, people out there. And I always have asking about this balance between ambition and presence. So how do you set goals and have a drive and want for more but also be really happy and satisfied and already experiencing the joy that you want with what you have right now? You have to make that choice and recognize that what is joy? What is happiness? What is success for you.

And if you want to chat about it, I am open in my DMs on Instagram, send me a message if this resonated, I would love to hear from you. I do sometimes feel like I'm sitting behind this microphone. And I know that you're inviting me into your earbuds into your kitchen, into your car, wherever you're listening to me right now. And that's amazing. But it's very one way for me. So yeah, if you can take the time to send me a message and let me know that you heard this and that this hit the spot and what it brought up for you. I will be happy to chat about that further on Instagram, in the DMS which is what I use Instagram for talking to people not posting and trying to find new people, like building on the relationships that we have. And if you're listening to my podcast, we have a relationship and I want to be part of it. So reach out connect. And I hope that you have a wonderful day.

You did it you just listen to another episode of the Entrepreneur School Podcast. It's like you just went to business school while you folded your laundry, prep dinner or picked up your kids at school. Thank you so much for being here. I want to personally celebrate your commitment to growing your business. You can imagine I'm throwing confetti for you right now. If you enjoyed today's episode, please leave us a review. Make sure you're subscribed and let us know you're listening by screenshotting this episode, and tagging us on Instagram, head to entrepreneurschool.ca for tons of tools and resources to help you grow your business while keeping your family a priority. You can subscribe to our email list and join our community. And until next time, go out there and do the thing.