Have you ever thought things like, “I don’t know enough yet. I don’t want to spend money on this because what if it doesn’t work out? Why would anyone pay me to teach them this? What if they find out I didn’t go to college for this?”
If you haven’t, then you are a total rock star. But I’m guessing if you’re listening to this podcast, some of those crappy things that we say to ourselves in our mind that we would never say to anybody that we loved or cared about have come up for you.
Those are the things that I was saying to myself and I was doing some affiliate marketing inside of my 5 Day Website Challenge. I was earning a few hundred dollars a month from affiliate commissions and by recommending things that other people created and giving all my own stuff away for free, but when it came time to market my own course, I totally choked up.
I was totally confident in telling people why they should give me their money for someone else’s online course, but what I couldn’t do is confidently tell them why they should spend their money on MY online course!!!
And when my course launched to crickets,
I thought things like:
I just need to improve my copy.
I just need to change all my colors, graphics, and fonts.
I just need to get it in front of the right people.
So I changed my website 3 times. I wrote and re-wrote copy. I posted my course in a million Facebook groups (which I now know is like, the total wrong thing to do, but that’s beside the point)!
I decided that my problem was that I didn’t know how to sell, so I invested all the money I had made in a premium sales program. And I followed through and did everything it told me to do, but none of it really worked. Still, no one was buying.
Why? Because I hadn’t solved the REAL problem. Which was a severe case of Imposter Syndrome.
7:10 TRANSITION: So what is imposter syndrome? What does that even mean?
High-achieving individuals marked by an inability to internalize their accomplishments and a persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud.”
Most common symptoms are negative self-talk; a need to constantly check and re-check work; shying away from attention in the workplace; and forms of overcompensation like staying late at work or not setting appropriate boundaries around workload. Internally, people struggling with the syndrome experience persistent feelings of self-doubt and fear being found out as phony. They over-internalize and blame themselves for failures, even when other factors played a role.
For me, I felt completely fine recommended a product or service that someone else created, but when it came to my own products, I just got really awkward.
I didn’t intrinsically value my knowledge, experience, and expertise the way that I valued everyone else’s.
Honestly, this is something that I still struggle with every time I try to level up in my business, so to speak!
SO BEFORE WE GET INTO WAYS YOU CAN OVERCOME IT, WHY DOES THIS EVEN MATTER??
When you don’t value your skills and experience, you can’t convince anyone else to.
And when you can’t convince yourself of your value, you won’t charge enough.
And when you don’t charge enough, you won’t think you can afford to invest in the right tools, services and education you need to run your business.
And when you’re not charging enough and you’re working on a shoestring budget, you will be frustrated with the work that you are doing.
And when you’re frustrated with the work you’re doing, you’ll quit.
Ways to Overcome Imposter Syndrome:
- Your value comes not from being the expert, but from having the knowledge and experience to solve a problem and help someone else get results.
Beginner
- no experience at all.
Advanced Beginner
- Starts to be able to recognize patterns and do things based on experience.
Competent
- Can do it and needs help when running into a problem
Proficient
- Can actually solve the problem on their own
Expert
- Contributes & helps evolution
- There’s always someone just behind you on the journey that needs your help. The people ahead of you don’t need your help! They are not your customers.
- Figure out who your ideal client is. There are people that you feel more comfortable working with than others.
- Your experiences have value to others. Think of all the time and effort you put into learning what you know – and you’re packaging it up as a shortcut for others – there’s value in that!
- You don’t have to wait until the feeling is gone, just push it aside and do it anyway. It will fade over time!
- Be honest and authentic – you’re figuring this out along the way and sharing your journey!
- Get help. Your limiting thoughts and beliefs about your value are what’s holding you back.
- Not everyone will value your expertise, and it’s not about you, it’s about them. Your people are out there!
- It’s totally possible that you’re not quite where you need to be on the novice to expert scale to teach what you want to teach, so just start where you are and don’t try to be something you’re not!
So again, if you’re feeling like a total imposter, like you’re not good enough, like you’re going to be FOUND OUT, like it’s so important to work on that negative self talk and just be where you are – it’s okay if you’re not an expert yet.
Today’s pep talk is brought to you by Bluehost. Go to www.shannonmattern.com/bluehost and get 36 months of web hosting for just $2.95 a month. That’s less than one trip to Starbucks a month – and if you’re anything like me, you’re at Starbucks more than that!
Then you can sign up for my Free 5 Day Website Challenge at www.shannonmattern.com/5day and I’ll show you step by step how to get started building your new website for your side hustle.
