Embracing the imposter
I’m sure you have seen these memes that float around joking about growing up and still not feeling like an adult. Like even in my 30’s, I still feel like I’m waiting for an adult to help, someone who knows what they are doing.
Spolier, you are the adult. And I hope you are sitting, no one really knows what they are doing. But that’s fantastic. Really I think it is. Not knowing what to do sometimes is the best space to be. If you knew what to do, how can you be creative and truly think outside the box? The known solution is the tried and true solution. Sure this is a good thing in medicine, car repair, and like a million other things. But we are running businesses that are category creators, mold breakers, and game-changers. Doing what is known is not unique.
In one of my first and really favorite marketing books ever, Purple Cow by Seth Godin, he explains that being unremarkable is a choice destined for failure.
“If a product’s future is unlikely to be remarkable – if you can’t imagine a future in which people are once again fascinated by your product – it’s time to realize that the game has changed. Instead of investing in a dying product, take profits and reinvest them in building something new.”
—Seth Godin
I think about this all the time, since the day I read this book 18 years ago. It’s principles have been applied to my logic almost daily. But marketing isn’t where I’m going with this post. I want you to embrace your remarkableness, your ability to NOT know what to do next and your ability to try something anyway.
The unknown and the imposter
Feelings of imposter syndrome and not knowing what to do with confidence are often connected. A few days ago a friend of mine was sharing his struggles of feeling like an imposter. Does he deserve the work he has, is he priced too high, too low, etc. Not knowing how to run his growing business and looking for the adult in the room to tell him what to do. We all face this when we venture out on our own. We know enough to do the work at hand but we doubt all the things around it.
It’s hard for me to pinpoint in my own journey where I gained some confidence in this space. For sure sticking to what excites me is a major help. When you are excited to do what you love, the unknown is a different mood. And I think that’s what we need to seek out and embrace. So let’s share some ways to find that.
Finding the spark between the unknown and the confidence to proceed anyway.
For me, I always look to what excited me. What part of this task has me thrilled to find a solution, get outside the box, do something unheard of. This excitement pushes me to keep going. And like a lot of skills, it’s earned, it’s nurtured, and it takes intention. Tapping into it often, daily if possible, will help build that confidence.
Another approach is just to dive in. Until just a few years ago, I had zero public speaking experience. And I dove in headfirst, speaking to a group of a few hundred business owners about marketing. Did I have any confidence? no. Imposter syndrome? yes, times 10. Fast forward a few weeks and I’m at another event speaking, this time it’s smaller. I felt 5x better and ran with it. Sometimes you just have to jump. This is basically how I started my agency to begin with back in 2004, with very little plan and a big leap of faith.
If you are running the business, guess what, you are the adult in the room, and it’s up to you to get into the unknown, embrace it, and just jump. You’d be surprised how graceful those around you can be when you do you.
