The truth about imposter syndrome
The stories you tell yourself aren't even true
Before we get started…
Last week I talked about how I reprogrammed my thoughts and beliefs around YouTube, where I struggled to gain traction.
Then this happened:
A dreamed-of hockey stick!
When you rearrange your thoughts and beliefs around a situation, the situation always rearranges in response.
Learn more about the mindset required to build a business around your truest gifts in my new, free 6-day course, Monetize Your Creative Genius.
Imposter syndrome is based on lies you tell yourself.
I know it doesn’t feel like a lie.
It feels like looking at people who’ve created mega-successful businesses or brands around their unique gifts and wondering: Who am I to put myself out there when I haven’t created success like that?
It feels like needing another course, certification, or expert’s stamp of approval before trusting your wisdom, intuition, or talent.
Imposter syndrome convinces you that you’re not qualified or capable. A fraud.
But the truth is —
Nobody knows what they’re doing.
The rules are all made up. They don’t have something you don’t.
And you were literally born to do the thing you feel called to do.
Decide you’re the baddest b, and the world will reflect that back to you.
My biggest goal in life is to help you feel that within every cell of your being so you create a life reflecting your highest potential instead of the limiting lies we all tell ourselves.
I understand that deciding your gifts are valuable doesn’t always feel easy.
Before I started my blog, I wondered: “Who am I to share my thoughts on life?” I wasn’t a self-help guru, psychologist or expert.
And I definitely didn’t have a mainstream publication willing to publish my personal writing.
Blogging felt like an incredible downgrade from my dreams of The New Yorker, but I was determined to share my story and help others.
I always felt deep in my heart that I was just as talented as other people, even if their names had made it into print while mine hadn’t.
This conversation does have nuance:
Brain surgeons need special schooling.
I only go to Ive League doctors, even though I don’t listen to everything they say. (Lowered my standards once and immediately regretted it.)
But for most of us who dream of fulfilling, financially abundant businesses based on our truest gifts, instead of wasting our creative potential on meaningless jobs —
The truth is clear:
You’re good enough now. You always were. You were literally born to do this.
It’s time to stop putting people up on a pedestal, and start believing in your value, worth, deservingness, intelligence and creativity.
In today’s blog, I want to systematically debunk the sham that experts, institutions and famous people have something you don’t. This will help you see how many of the stories you tell yourself about why others are more qualified or deserving, simply aren’t true.
These mindset shifts are how I went from feeling lost in my career path to finding my purpose and building a successful coaching business around it.
Exhibit A: Countless famous people have plagiarized from lesser-known artists.
Mel Robbins is a popular self-help guru with millions of followers on multiple platforms and a best-selling book called The Let Them Theory.
She’s made a substantial amount of money on this book and has millions of adoring fans who idolize her.
And yet, Mel Robbins plagiarized the Let Them theory, writing an entire book around a viral poem someone named Cassie Phillips wrote in 2019 and did not receive compensation or credit for.
Because virality for a woman like Cassie Phillips with no platform is nothing compared to what viral means for Mel Robbins.
Mel Robbins has still not given Cassie any credit for her famous poem — she even attempted to trademark the phrase, “Let them” — and is still somehow able to sleep at night.
Mel Robbins might be the one with the platform, but if she’s plagiarizing ideas to stay relevant, then she’s the fraud.
You have more ideas, heart, talent and creativity in your pinky finger than some of the people you compare yourself to.
Many famous people absolutely deserve their recognition and success.
The point is that:
Just because someone is famous, doesn’t mean their ideas are better than yours.
Exhibit B: “Experts,” are often paid off by industries to promote specific narratives. They’re not arbiters of truth.
For example, Big Pharma has paid psychiatrists $340 million through cushy speaking and consulting gigs so they prescribe more drugs, according to Mad in America.
That’s probably why, despite zero evidence of the chemical imbalance theory of depression, anti-depressant use skyrocketed by 400% between the late 1980s to the early 2000s, according to Harvard Health.
We’re taught to worship people with degrees. Anyone with letters after their name is a supposed authority, or anyone who works for a particular organization, or in a certain position.
But millions of industry dollars fund narratives that reflect profit more than truth.
A lot of these people deserve scorn, not applause.
You might think, “Who am I to write, speak or help others? I don’t have a degree or certificate,” but in many cases, life experiences matter more.
I’ll never forget being told as a young girl that my sadness at losing my father and sister a year apart from each other was a mental illness I’d never heal from.
I was determined to heal myself. And once I did, I shouted my story from the rooftops — even if I sometimes felt like a fraud.
Whenever I used to speak about the sham of the mental sickness industry, a lot of people would get triggered. They’d ask — “who are you to say these things? Are you a doctor?”
It wasn’t worth explaining myself. They were stuck in the illusion and wouldn’t understand.
By then, I knew deep in my heart that I didn’t need a degree to have an opinion on something I lived. The idea that you need credentials to discuss emotions is literally insane.
A lot of people can’t think for themselves today. The real problem is that we’ve outsourced authority to people who don’t always deserve it.
Just because someone has a degree, doesn’t meant they know more than you.
Exhibit C: People who’ve achieved the thing we want can help us, but our intuition is the ultimate guide.
Recently my business coach encouraged me to “show my versatility,” and expand beyond journaling homework in my free Monetize Your Creative Genius course.
I feel solid in what I have to offer, and yet I felt defensive, a little doubtful.
Maybe my simple skill of tuning into energy and asking the perfect question to help my clients grow isn’t enough. Even though it’s helped people release decades of past pain, find their purpose, and make money on their own terms. Right?
WRONG!
First, let me say I do really like my coach, and have received a lot of value from the program I joined.
The problem is that we all have a unique purpose, and a unique pathway to fulfilling that purpose.
Regardless of what any expert or success story says, your intuition is the ultimate authority.
This is why knowing, loving and trusting yourself — the inner mindset work — is 80% of achieving your financial goals in your business!
The next time you think, “Who am I to guide myself toward creating the business of my dreams?”
Remember this affirmation: Nobody else has the exact perfect answers for you, but you.
My job is to help you clear away the doubt, fear and confusion blocking you from hearing your inner voice.
Learn to trust that you’re meant for the thing you feel called to do.
Every day, people with less heart, less vision and less talent experience the money, freedom and fulfillment you long for —
All because they decided to believe in themselves before the world gave them proof.
You might think, I could never be that:
confident
successful
talented
disciplined…
But none of these skills are things you’re born with. They’re things you become.
Consistent inner work and focused action will break you into bigger levels of impact, recognition and money so fast it’ll make your head spin.
Believe that.
That’s why I created…
Hello beautiful members!
Today I wanted to drive home a point about somatic releasing through journaling that I’m not sure I detailed enough last week before your prompts.