228 | 4 Strategies to Combat Imposter Syndrome with Katie Hunt

Oxford Languages defines imposter syndrome as the persistent inability to believe that one's success is deserved.

Imposter syndrome is very common in the entrepreneur space. That feeling that we haven’t truly earned the success we’ve had. Imposter syndrome can mean feeling like a fraud or phony — like we’re not truly talented or good at what we do.

In this episode, I’m sharing a sneak peek into one of my monthly coaching calls inside the Proof to Product LABS program. During these calls, I answer pre-submitted member questions about how to run - and grow - a product based business. In this call, I shared four strategies for combating imposter syndrome, avoiding burnout, and building your confidence as a business owner.

You'll learn:

How imposter syndrome shows up in your businesses
Four strategies for combating imposter syndrome and avoiding burnout
How to rest and recover after an energetically-taxing launch

ON TODAY’S EPISODE:

Understanding which habits and patterns might be inspiring your imposter syndrome [3:39]
Why you might have experienced so much imposter syndrome this year [4:51]
How to reframe your thinking when you feel you aren’t good enough [5:18]
Setting smaller, achievable goals to help build your confidence [6:32]
Why rest is so important to avoiding imposter syndrome and burnout [7:23]
How to work through “Astronaut Syndrome” after a major launch [8:45]

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KEY TAKE AWAYS

“The first thing I tried to do when [imposter syndrome] pops up is really hone in on what is causing me to feel like this. Are there patterns that keep continuing to come up over and over again?” [03:59] Katie Hunt

“Why am I feeling this way? What is it that's bothering me? And how can I adjust my thinking and remind myself of the fact that I am really good at what I do and I'm bringing people joy through my products?” [06:12] Katie Hunt

“Set smaller, achievable goals that you will feel good about and it will help to build your confidence.” [06:36] Katie Hunt

“Imposter syndrome is kind of the precursor to burnout. They go hand-in-hand.” [07:33] Katie Hunt

“Imposter syndrome is our brain and our body telling us that it's time to step outside of our normal day-to-day routines and mix things up a bit so that we can get a fresh perspective.” [07:39] Katie Hunt

“Giving yourself space [after a launch] to process and kind of get yourself back to normal.” [09:25] Katie Hunt

RESOURCES

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Connect with Katie Hunt

Katie Hunt is a business strategist, podcaster, mentor and mama to four. She helps product based businesses build profitable, sustainable companies through her conferences, courses and coaching programs.

Website: prooftoproduct.com | Instagram: @prooftoproduct

Transcript for Proof to Product Episode 228

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228 | 4 Strategies to Combat Imposter Syndrome with Katie Hunt [LABS Sneak Peek]

We're taking you behind the scenes with entrepreneurs that run product based businesses. There is so much information out there tailored toward service providers, so we have carved out a space just for you, the creative entrepreneur making and selling physical goods, whether you are just starting out or a seasoned business owner. This podcast will shed light on new strategies, inspiration and action steps to help you grow your product-based business.

Hey, friends. Welcome back to Proof to Product. I'm your host, Katie Hunt. The other day I looked up the formal definition of the term “imposter syndrome”, and there were a few key words that stood out to me. Oxford Languages defines imposter syndrome as “the persistent inability to believe that one's success is deserved.” Basically, we don't feel like we've earned the success that we've had. Sometimes we don't even acknowledge the success we've achieved. We don't celebrate it. Imposter syndrome can sometimes mean feeling like a fraud or feeling phony, like we're not truly talented or good at what we do for work. When you hear imposter syndrome with feelings of burnout or you start comparing yourself to other businesses, it's an awful feeling. I've experienced this several times throughout my career, and I'm willing to bet that you have to.

Today's episode is an excerpt from a LABS coaching call where I shared four tactical strategies for combating feelings of imposter syndrome and comparison. These are good reminders to all of us as we wrap up the year and focus on what's still to come. If you want to join us for the next live LABS coaching call, head to ProoftoProduct.com/LABS and join my 12-month group coaching program. These calls are a lot of fun, and I often unmute people to talk through their situation or questions, so join us at ProoftoProduct.com/LABS. All right, let's talk about four ways to combat imposter syndrome and comparison.

We've got some really great topics here. There's some questions about imposter syndrome and questions about holiday breaks and shipping deadlines and selling your products plus other people's products. So we've got a lot of really good things to cover and sales reps. Annie asked about sales reps.

So I want to start at the top with the imposter syndrome question if that's all right. First of all, can I just see a show of hands in the chat? How many of you have ever felt imposter syndrome or comparison or anything like that within your business? I totally have, and I want to tell you guys like I was speaking at a conference, it was Sean West hosting a conference and I think it's 2016 and I was standing on stage and one of the very first questions anyone asked me during the Q&A, I gave my presentation. It went really well, and the first question somebody asked is, “Have you ever felt imposter syndrome?” And I kind of chuckled. It was like a nervous laugh, but it was like, Yeah, who hasn't felt that right? And that's not to belittle this question, but it's just, I guess I just want to emphasize, emphasize and empathize that you're not alone. Most people experience imposter syndrome or even comparison at least once in their career. But I would venture to say the business owners in particular experience that a lot more frequently because we are solely responsible for the success of our business, the creation of our products, the revenue that we're driving that is then going to pay for our team members or even things in our own life. So the pressure that that brings is pretty substantial.

And so the question really boils down to, "how do you effectively deal with imposter syndrome? In comparison, it's easy to say ignore those things and stay in your lane. But what are real, actionable ways to combat this, because it can be so detrimental to growth in both business and personally?" So, yes, absolutely.

So a couple of things I wanted to point out. I made notes here, so I'm going to look at those. The first thing I tried to do when this pops up is really hone in on what is causing me to feel like this. Are there patterns or things that keep continuing to come up over and over again? There's certainly times of the year where I feel a lot more stressed out, and that then causes me to feel this imposter syndrome. So I would say in your own life, look at what patterns, what are you doing at the times when it's coming up? What kind of habits have you formed that might be leading to this? For me, if I'm going down a rabbit hole on social media and I'm spending way too much time scrolling on social media, that is where I start to get, Oh, I should be doing this or I should be doing this, or everyone's doing better than me. And really, that's not the case. It's more like if I can take a step away from whatever that behavior is, whatever that habit is, then I can kind of reset myself and move forward in a more positive way, which kind of leads me to number two.

Annie says," I think it's often from feeling not in control." I will 100 percent agree with you on that. And right now, this year in particular, so many of us feel like things are out of our control, right? And so I will say I've been feeling this. I know a lot of other people we just saw in the chat, too, how many people have said they're in it? Let's see, Kate says, "I'm trying to snap out of it. I like to think there's always going to be people who are better than me. But what can I learn from those people?" That's a great mentality, Kate.

This kind of brings me to point number two. Like again, I want to give you some tactical things you can do. I want you to reframe this. I want you to remind yourself of the facts. So if you're feeling imposter syndrome about sending people emails from your business, right, like they're not good enough or I'm bothering people or whatever it is, remind yourself that people signed up for my email list because they want to hear from me. I'm not bothering them. We need to reframe it in our head. Or, you know, if we're feeling like, Oh, I heard somebody the other day say, Oh, my friends just bought from me during this launch because they felt bad for me or whatever. No, your friends loved your products and they wanted to support you as a friend. But really, the joy and the happiness and the usefulness of your products are why they ultimately purchased from you. So if we can identify the patterns and then we can reframe it in our head like, Well, why am I feeling this way? What is it that's bothering me? And how can I adjust my thinking and remind myself of the fact that I am really good at what I do, and I'm bringing people joy through my products? And yes, this is an area of discomfort for me to do X, Y or Z, but it's an important part of my business and I'm learning as I go.

The other thing I want to tell you, another tactic that I want to share with you is to set smaller, achievable goals that you will feel good about and it will help to build your confidence. So I start to feel some imposter syndrome or comparison stuff when I see everyone doing all these things and I'm like, I need to do that too, I need to be on Pinterest, I need my email game, I need to be releasing new product. So that kind of stuff is going to stress you out. So instead, what are three smaller tactical things that we can set, like goals or strategies? What are the things that we can set that we can then feel good about? So what are three reasonable goals that we can certainly have, and that's going to create momentum as we start to hit these goals, we're going to be able to add some new things to that, new things and new layers. But we can do it in a slower, sustainable way where we don't feel just overwhelmed or like we're not good enough.

And then the fourth thing I wanted to mention here is this may seem dismissive, but take a break. I sometimes feel like this imposter syndrome is kind of the precursor to burnout, or they go hand-in-hand. And so I feel like this imposter syndrome is our brain and our body telling us that it's time to step outside of our normal day to day routines and kind of mix things up a little bit so that we can get a fresh perspective on things. So I would encourage anyone that's feeling this way to take a break. Now, a break might be just taking an hour off an afternoon off. Maybe it's a couple of days. What that looks like to you is going to be different for everybody. Maybe it is making more time to play. Do things that excite you like paint or some arts or something. Or maybe it's just reading a book and having some quiet time. What that looks like for you is going to be very different. But I would encourage you to take some time off because we certainly don't want you to be burned out and we certainly don't want you to feel like you're not good enough. You all are good enough. You all deserve to see success and to continue moving forward. But we do need to recognize that this year in particular has been really difficult and it's just been challenging because so much is out of our control. So the things that we can control like setting smaller goals, taking breaks when needed and kind of reframing things in our mind, those are going to help us combat these feelings.

So OK, Cedric says another syndrome, "how do people deal with Astronaut Syndrome, the down feeling after the end of a huge, sustained energy event that took a long time to launch like a real big rebrand relaunch?" I know that's what you just went through, Cedric. "How do people manage and deal with that?" Yeah, it's kind of like a hangover. So for me, anytime we're doing a big launch or I'm running a big program like after paper, for example, when I run Paper Camp for either two full days or it's four weeks of interaction, I always give myself at least a week off afterwards just to decompress and to. I mean, some of that time is also playing catch up with different things that I kind of neglected during those times. But giving yourself space for sure to process and kind of get yourself back to normal. If other people–

Yes, Sandra says she feels the same way after trade show for sure. "When the shows would end on Wednesday, I would not do anything for the rest of that week. I would tell people we were out of office till the next Monday." So I think it's about giving yourself time and space to chill and relax and get back to it. But also, during that time, I would encourage you to clock how you're feeling like document how you're feeling. Document the analytics, so to speak. How many people did do email and what were your sales and how many people ordered? Because those kind of things are really great to look back on later when you're like, I did this thing, and here were the results. So I think it's a mix of still finishing it out by tracking those things, but then taking a break, too.

Yeah, Kristen says, "Rest and be sure to jump into a fun new project that keeps you moving." Absolutely.