Detailed Notes
Are you struggling with impostor syndrome?
You’re not alone. In this episode of Building Better Developers, Rob Broadhead and Michael Meloche break down what impostor syndrome is, why it shows up for business owners and leaders, and how to overcome it.
🎯 Learn how to stop doubting your success, reclaim your confidence, and take back control of your growth journey.
🔔 Subscribe for more insights: https://www.youtube.com/@develpreneur 📧 Share your story with us: [email protected] 🌐 Visit us: https://develpreneur.com/
00:00 – Pre-show 01:08 – Intro 06:30 – Impostor Syndrome 21:00 – Weekly challenge 22:45 – Bonus Material
Transcript Text
[Music] All right, we are back. Uh, pardon everybody while I clear the red tape that happens to be too many stinking applications up on my machine. Um, or at least not in general, but for this moment. Let's see. So, we wanted to talk about So, last episode we did off the rails and I think we're just going to dive right in this one because we're going to talk a little bit about imposttor syndrome and that's we'll see where this one goes because there's a lot of ways we can go and I don't even know what's going to happen next which is totally why how every episode has gone almost since episode one. So, why should I change it up now? All right, the countdown with a little three, a two. Hello and welcome back. We are back on the rails. If you listened to the last episode, or maybe not. Uh, in any case, this is the developer podcast. This is building better developers. This season, we are building better businesses. This episode, spoiler alert, we're going to talk a little bit about impostor syndrome. What are we going to say? Even we don't know. But I do know that I am Rob Broadhead, one of the founders of developer and also the building better developers podcast, the site, the YouTube channel, all of those things. Also a founder of RB Consulting where we help you wrangle technology. Basically, it is one of the biggest things that you're going to deal with as a business owner. It is one of your biggest investments outside of your people. And it is for a lot of people sort of nightmarish because it changes all the time. The the people that are experts, some of them are, some of them are not, is sort of a scary place, almost like doing your taxes on a regular basis. Technology can be tough. But we sit down with you and help you craft a custom recipe for success for your business. We really sit down and work with you on your business before we even think about technology. And then we talk about the technology you have and the technology that you need to use to make your business better, not the technology that we think is the coolest or the most expensive thing. And we do this through integration, simplification, automation, innovation. We may build something for you or we may help you find the perfect tool that's sitting on a shelf somewhere that you can pull off and then leverage that to make your business better both today and into the future. Because along the way of learning your business, we help you develop a technology roadmap. We do an initial assessment, figure out where you're at, and then use that to build your path to a brighter future. Good thing, bad thing. So, this time around, um I guess I'll start with the bad thing is that we're in a we're in a a season where we have just recently like sold a house and we got an apartment and now we're taking some of this and we're going to find a a townhouse. So, we spent a good deal of the last couple of weekends going through and doing the house hunting thing and stuff like that. This last weekend in particular, we like had a very ciruitous route. Uh we sprawled out over the greater Nashville area looking for some stuff and it turned out that the last place that we went which was like we had a cluster of stuff and we had about a 45minute drive went to the last place and it was not good at all. It was like the worst of the list practically. Actually it was second from the bottom and the one that was on bottom my daughter that was going with us just referred to it when we're taking notes as scary house. So that tells you not a really good place that you're not something that you want to put on the top of your list unless you're doing Halloween hunting. So that was a bad news. Spent a lot of time probably had an extra little jaunt there that we could have done without. The good news related to that is that we did find a place. So the second to last place we went, we found an awesome one. Lots of fun stories with it. Short of it is now we don't have to go out house hunting in the near future. nor do I have to go out and do a podcast partner hunt because mine is right on the other side of the screen for me. And Michael, go ahead and introduce yourself. Thanks, Rob. Hey everyone, my name is Michael Malashsh. I'm one of the co-founders of developer building better developers. I'm also the founder of a company called Envision QA where we offer tailored software and quality asurances solutions to optimize the performance and reliability of your e-commerce platform or your current inter office uh software. You know picture a flawless user experience, increased sales and a competitive edge in the market. We do all this through creating and crafting precision and tailored software that meets your business needs. No two applications are the same. They're all tailored to your unique needs for your business. We do this through more than just websites, desktop applications, and mobile apps. We do this by actually walking through your processes, doing assessments, like Rob mentioned, understanding your business in and out, and then we build something that seamlessly identifies your products, your processes, or facilitates and streamlines your transactions within your business. Good thing bad thing. Uh, good thing. Uh, I had a chance to go catch Thunderbolt. I I'm a big Marvel fan and I was not disappointed. It was actually a very good movie. Um, bad thing I now can't wait for Fantastic 4. Uh, so that kind of not a super bad thing, but just uh I just ready for the next one. You're on mute. I also have learned to mute myself occasionally when I accidentally do. So, uh, recently saw Thunderbolts. Great movie. Uh, highly enjoyed it. If you like the sillier ones, I guess like the Guardians of the Galaxy, uh, very much worth it. And no, Michael did not give you any spoilers whatsoever in his earlier comments. So, we'll move along very quickly. Like, shuffle on. Nothing to see here. These are not the droids that you're looking for. What you are looking for is imposttor syndrome. Right now that is what we're going to talk about this time and we will start with as sometimes we have to do essentially a definition and now I am not going to go out to the book of knowledge known as Wikipedia or a dictionary or something like that. So my definition may not be completely what you hear from somebody else including those that have written books on it things like that. In general, imposttor syndrome is you're somewhere you have achieved, you know, some success of some sort and essentially it comes down to you don't feel like you should be there. You don't feel like you worked hard enough or you're smart enough or somehow that you have earned it. And that can be quite a challenge. And it's actually very common particularly these days when you have these uh you you have like people with the internet and some of these other things that they can be an overnight success that they suddenly are you hear their name everywhere and they've gone from especially you know it's part of the challenge if you've gone from like just slogging your way through life and then suddenly you get a big customer you get a big break or something like that and now you haven't really changed what you were doing but it did actually pay off and now you are you know rich and famous or whatever it happens to be. The sad thing is you don't have to be rich nor famous to have imposttor syndrome. It basically does come down to you just don't feel that you you don't feel that you've earned where you're at. You don't feel that you are worthy of the accolades or the success or something like that. Now the challenge with the thing that from a business point of view as I want to focus on a bit as an entrepreneur um what imposttor syndrome can do is it just it sucks. It can drag us out of the rhythm or even the things that we did that got us here because it's essentially imposter syndrome is going to come when we're doing some sort of a a sanity check or a selfch check of some sort to be like hey you know how are things going why am I here what did I do and it's it's usually very you essentially introspective because you're looking at it saying I didn't really do anything different last week than I did the week before but now suddenly my business is far more successful. I'm selling more products or something like that. And I think the first thing you want to do in this is think about the fact that like there are watershed moments essentially in businesses and a lot of processes. A good way to think about it would be uh if you're filling a cup, there's a certain point where you're filling a cup and it's like it's filling, it's filling, it's filling, it's filling and then at some point it overflows and now the water is going everywhere. it's not just contained in the in the glass. That's sort of what happens fairly regularly in business is that you're just doing the things you need to do and then you catch a break or the momentum builds enough that now you're actually able to, you know, the the things that were slowing you down before maybe no longer slow you down because there's too much momentum, there's too much size. There's things like that that there's there's obstacles, there is friction that essentially you are able to overcome and then suddenly now it's a that friction that was holding you back and slowing you down no longer is and you're off and running. And that I think is sort of what happens that is a good trigger for the in imposttor syndrome in itself is that you're sitting there going I shouldn't be here. I should be somewhere back here because I was pacing myself based on whatever I did, you know, the pace I was getting a year ago and now my pace has suddenly improved and I haven't really changed anything but it's because now you don't have the friction. So I think sometimes if you can think about it right because it's everything that's in our head is always that's the problem. It's in our head so we have to figure out how to unpack it. One of the things you may be able to use if you get into the imposttor syndrome situation is that consider that maybe the fact that you're questioning this shows that there was a payoff for some of the work that you did that it wasn't just dumb luck that it wasn't anything like that it was actually you were there that you worked that you showed up every day and that now you have a victory or a bigger victory for it. I'll pause there and let you sort of throw in your two cents and maybe even take us in a completely different direction, but let's see where that goes. Yeah. So, you know, you mentioned that imposter syndrome's kind of where we reach that achievement point or we reach a position where we we don't think we've achieved we should have achieved it. We don't think we deserve it. And in business, this can can happen on a whim. I mean, it could be uh you're growing your business. You land a a big customer that you know you could do. And at the start of it, you think, "Great, I can do this. I I've got everything I need to do it. I got the bandwidth. I got the employees." And you get into the project and kind of like we talked about last episode. Maybe your product's going off the rails or you're getting a little overwhelmed or you're starting to question, was this a good idea? because you could just start having self-doubt which leads you to think that, oh, I can't do this. Why did I do this? Uh, I don't deserve this. Um, what the hell was I thinking? And in some cases, some people throw in the towel. They they think, "Oh, I shouldn't be in this business. I'm not good enough for this." And that's a lot of times imposter syndrome just comes from a lot of self-doubt, a lot of questioning. Should I really be doing what I'm doing? Do I deserve this? Um, do I have the capacity to do this? And in business, a lot of times I've seen it happen where you get on a new project or you finish a project and now you're like, "Now, where do I go?" You know, um, you're str you might be struggling to find that next product or that next customer and you're thinking to yourself, "Oh, well, I can't do this. you know, I don't have the skills to do, but yet you do. And it's just a a lot of times, I guess to me, imposter syndromes comes stems from a couple of things. One, uh, overworked or you're on a very challenging project project that is taking a lot of time that typically in a smaller project wouldn't take that much time. Uh, two, you are having a hard time figuring out what to do with your business. You know, what direction is your business going in? Am I growing the business the right way? Are you having problems finding customers? That can lead to, well, am I in the right business? Do I even know how to run a business? You know, things of that nature can lead to that imposttor syndrome. And then the third one is feedback. You could get negative feedback about something from your customers, from social media, and that could tear you down, and you really start thinking, "What the hell am I thinking? I'm not right for this job." You basically are letting the negative thoughts or the negative feedback push you down, basically make you feel that you can't do the job that you're doing. And to me, that's one of the biggest things that makes me feel like I have imposter syndrome sometimes. You know, working for over a decade and a half in um healthc care, I got into a healthc care position, knew what I was doing, was doing great, got moved up to a higher position, and then immediately felt like I didn't deserve it, like this was not for me. And ultimately I left that position and went to another company cuz I just it made me sick to be there. It made me feel like I did not deserve this. And looking back on it, it wasn't me. It was the environment of the company, the project and just the way business was done was so negative that it is very hard to succeed or even feel self, you know, feel good about yourself if you're in an environment that is that toxic or that negative. So sometimes it's your environment. Look at your environment. If you are finding that you are surrounded by negative people or people basically saying that you can't do what your business needs to do, you may need a pivot. It could even mean firing a customer. That's sometimes firing a customer, firing an employee maybe if they're a poison pill. Sometimes that is the best solution. Um sometimes firing yourself uh much like Michael said is like sometimes you need to move out of that situation. uh will help you if it's now this is if it's something which is a very negative situation where it's a draining situation. Um but and sometimes that can like there's so many triggers. There's so many things that can trigger this whole you know imposture syndrome and it's it does take different forms if you you read like read about it and hear people talk about it. Sometimes it is very much a um I guess it's a like a negative that you're read hearing the negatives and it's like I'm not worthy of this. Uh, but then there's also times that it's actually it's almost more of a positive of like I've been working very hard and there's nothing really wrong with what I did, but it's just not as good as what the reward is. And so it' be like, you know, you get you expect to get your paycheck and you're like, "Oh, I've gotten my paycheck every week or whatever it is, and then suddenly you get a paycheck that's got an extra thousand in it." You're like, "What did I do different?" And it's it could be because now things cost $1,000 more. that's a problem. But it could be that things have moved on. It's like, you know, seniority in general, like you, you know, you go for a year and now you get a raise. Hopefully, if you, you know, you've been there, you get a review, you have a good review, you get a raise. Cool. In business, it's not always that. It's not going to work like that. It's not like clockwork. So, it's not like you've been doing your business for a year and your customers are like, "Hey, you get a raise. We're gonna bring more customers in or we're going to buy more products." No, it's it's, you know, much more a sometimes you have good days, sometimes you have bad days, and maybe there's a nice trend in the right direction, but overall, you don't have like a solid like that drum beat of like I work x amount of time, I get this pay, I get a raise, blah blah blah, and you move up. It can surprise us. It can shock us. And so this is where like the going into the negative side of it a little bit is it's like sometimes we don't actually I think a lot of times we don't understand where our limitations are. I think we limit ourselves far more than we actually are. And that's why you see these stories of these people have done all these incredible things and this great stuff they do. And usually it's because they were unshackled at some point. Whether they did it themselves, whether circumstances forced them into it or whatever it was that they were just like, I did it because I had to do it. I didn't think about there being another option. And that's sort of what gets us sometimes into that situation is that we can look at it and I know from discussions I've had where people be like, I can't believe you did X. and I look back at it and I can say I didn't have I didn't can't believe I did anything else because I didn't have another option. I didn't if you'd told me there was a way out I would have taken that other way. You know, there's things like that. And so I think it comes down to and this is the little secret sauce in all of this. It comes down to that nastiest thing that's out there which is comparison to others. Because their story is not your story. Everybody's got a different story. They've got a different they're built differently. the things that kill you would make somebody else stronger and vice versa. It's just the more we talk, we got this through the interviews. It was amazing how many people we talked through in the interviews, they went through all kinds of just really difficult situations and they came out shining on the other end because they didn't have any other option but to do so. And it's stuff that you would you can't put yourself there because you you haven't done it. You don't understand what it's like until you actually do it. So comparing yourself to what they did and saying that you measure up or you don't measure up is actually just a pile of horse crap essentially because everybody's unique. It goes back to sadly or maybe in a cool way. It's just why we talk to every one of our customers in my company is that everybody's different. Everybody's unique and you need to like you're going to leverage it different than everybody else. Yes, there's commonalities and all that kind of stuff, but at the end of the day, comparing yourself to somebody else is sort of a fool's errand. And so that hopefully would be a way for you to get out of the whole imposture syndrome because instead of saying I'm not this person is realize that you are that person, you are you. You got there. However you got there, you got there. It may seem harder or easier than somebody else, but you got there. you have skills and you can still move forward with those. Now, the challenge for this week is it's actually more of an introspective kind of thing. Have you suffered from imposture syndrome or are you doing it now? Is it something that's challenged you? Is there some little voice in your head that's saying you're not worthy or that you don't belong here or something like that? And instead of just tossing it out and saying, "Okay, that's worthless. I do belong here. I'm awesome." Is look for see if there are grains of truth in there. And it's that's usually where the power is going to come from is saying, "Okay, what is it that's making me feel like I'm not where I should be?" Now, this could go to a lot of different areas and could actually be very uh a very much a growth thing for you because what you're going to end up doing is looking into maybe it's like what are the things that drain me? What are the things that excite me? What are the things energize me? What are the things that I do well? What are my weaknesses? There's a lot of areas that you could end up covering when you're trying to figure out what am I doing here? Do I belong here? And then with all that, how do I take the next step forward? And that's where the actual challenge of this is is first assess where you're at, how you feeling, how you doing, and then taking that how do I take a step forward? Whether it is to uh affirm that I do belong here, or whether it is that hey, I belong here, but now I'm not done. I'm not I have not plateaued or I haven't peaked. I maybe have plateaued. So, how do I start taking that next step forward? If you can do that, then that is going to very much obviously help you out because that's going to continue on a growth path of some way, form or fashion. I would love to hear responses on this one. I honestly there's so many of the topics we've covered in the last, you know, year or so more. Love to get your feedback. [email protected]. Uh we'd love to, you know, we'd be happy to even sit down and talk with you about it if you're open to that. have a nice little interview and go through like some of the things to make you feel like yes, you do belong. Also, you can reach us on X at Twitter or I'm sorry developer or at Twitter. I'm not sure if that's going to give you us take a while to get there. Developer, but you can also catch us on YouTube there's developer channel. Wherever you listen to podcasts, we are there. If you find a place and we're not, let us know. We'll get there. And we also love to get feedback and you know pluses, minuses, voting up, down, whatever it is that you do for that. Feedback of any sort, good or bad is helpful to us because it helps us be better and build a better podcast. You go out there so today and build a better you because you deserve to be there. Have a great day, a great week, and we will talk to you next time. Bonus material. So, one thing I'll throw out is if you find yourself having that self-doubt, having yourself in that imposttor syndrome mode, take a step back and look at your achievements. Look at the things that you have done to get where you are. And if that doesn't reset, hopefully you you have a significant other or a good friend that can help you kind of get out of that funk, get out of that mindset that, hey, you can do what you put your mind to. You can do it. It could be like a previous episode, you could be off the rails. could just be doing too much and you're overwhelmed and therefore you're stuck in this imposter syndrome and maybe it's time to just reset and refocus. I think that's probably I'm going to go with that one is like sort of along those lines. Have somebody that can uh hopefully you do hopefully everybody's got somebody that you can talk to that is your inner circle that can help you. uh and if not you can always go to there's counseling and all kinds of stuff like that but it's just basically to like not compare to other people but instead to say okay let me like realistically assess like what did I do how did I get there I mean it was an old uh there was a little comedic bit from years ago where you know somebody was like I don't know I just worked hard for 20 years and the next thing I knew I woke up and I had a lot of money it's like you know stuff like that it's like you the world loves to beat us down a little bit on this stuff sometimes a lot. Um because there's haters out there and stuff like that and you see it all the time. You can see people that get to the top of their game and everybody hates them now. Even especially if they were the the underdog and now the underdog is, you know, super dog and everybody hates them. They loved them when they're underdog, now they don't anymore. Um those of you that are music lovers and you're like, I can't believe my band sold out, man. Yes, you are exactly one of those kind of people. Um, that I think is the is the thing to do is like have somebody to get some sort of like realistic barometer to help you out. If you're worried that you didn't do enough, you didn't deserve it or something like that, take a look at it because sometimes it it's actually going to be very cathartic and it's going to help you embrace more like, "Wow, I did come through a very difficult time." And that will allow you then the next time around to say hey I overcame that tough hard difficult thing in the past and now yeah this may be a new tough hard or difficult but I've done it before and I can do it again and that is going to be a recipe for success and continued success because you're always going to be able to say hey done it before I can do it again like I have done before and will do again right now is ask you for feedback but also I want to thank you for your time. Thank you for hanging out with us, for checking in with us every episode, for all these episodes that we've done as we are like marching towards I I heard something the other day that I think it was I think it's like only 2% of podcasts get past like 300 episodes or 500 episodes. I can't remember. It's something that's like way back there, like way lower than we have. Uh so we must be like right up in their number of episodes. Now, we're not going to be in the top 10 chart otherwise, but hey, we're gonna keep going, and that's why we are exactly where we belong. No imposttor syndrome here whatsoever. Ours is more why are we still here? But that is a topic for another day. Go out there and have yourselves a good one, guys. We will talk to you next time around. [Music]
Transcript Segments
[Music]
All
right, we are back. Uh, pardon everybody
while I clear the red tape that happens
to be too many stinking applications up
on my machine. Um, or at least not in
general, but for this moment. Let's see.
So, we wanted to talk about So, last
episode we did off the rails and I think
we're just going to dive right in this
one because we're going to talk a little
bit about imposttor syndrome and that's
we'll see where this one goes because
there's a lot of ways we can go and I
don't even know what's going to happen
next which is totally why how every
episode has gone almost since episode
one. So, why should I change it up now?
All right, the countdown with a little
three, a
two. Hello and welcome back. We are back
on the rails. If you listened to the
last episode, or maybe not. Uh, in any
case, this is the developer podcast.
This is building better developers. This
season, we are building better
businesses. This episode, spoiler alert,
we're going to talk a little bit about
impostor syndrome. What are we going to
say? Even we don't know. But I do know
that I am Rob Broadhead, one of the
founders of developer and also the
building better developers podcast, the
site, the YouTube channel, all of those
things. Also a founder of RB Consulting
where we help you wrangle technology.
Basically, it is one of the biggest
things that you're going to deal with as
a business owner. It is one of your
biggest investments outside of your
people. And it is for a lot of people
sort of nightmarish because it changes
all the time. The the people that are
experts, some of them are, some of them
are not, is sort of a scary place,
almost like doing your taxes on a
regular basis. Technology can be tough.
But we sit down with you and help you
craft a custom recipe for success for
your business. We really sit down and
work with you on your business before we
even think about technology. And then we
talk about the technology you have and
the technology that you need to use to
make your business better, not the
technology that we think is the coolest
or the most expensive thing. And we do
this through integration,
simplification, automation, innovation.
We may build something for you or we may
help you find the perfect tool that's
sitting on a shelf somewhere that you
can pull off and then leverage that to
make your business better both today and
into the future. Because along the way
of learning your business, we help you
develop a technology roadmap. We do an
initial assessment, figure out where
you're at, and then use that to build
your path to a brighter
future. Good thing, bad thing. So, this
time around, um I guess I'll start with
the bad thing is that we're in a we're
in a a season where we have just
recently like sold a house and we got an
apartment and now we're taking some of
this and we're going to find a a
townhouse. So, we spent a good deal of
the last couple of
weekends going through and doing the
house hunting thing and stuff like that.
This last weekend in particular, we like
had a very ciruitous route. Uh we
sprawled out over the greater Nashville
area looking for some stuff and it
turned out that the last place that we
went which was like we had a cluster of
stuff and we had about a 45minute drive
went to the last place and it was not
good at all. It was like the worst of
the list practically. Actually it was
second from the bottom and the one that
was on bottom my daughter that was going
with us just referred to it when we're
taking notes as scary house. So that
tells you not a really good place that
you're not something that you want to
put on the top of your list unless
you're doing Halloween hunting. So that
was a bad news. Spent a lot of time
probably had an extra little jaunt there
that we could have done without. The
good news related to that is that we did
find a place. So the second to last
place we went, we found an awesome one.
Lots of fun stories with it. Short of it
is now we don't have to go out house
hunting in the near future. nor do I
have to go out and do a podcast partner
hunt because mine is right on the other
side of the screen for me. And Michael,
go ahead and introduce yourself. Thanks,
Rob. Hey everyone, my name is Michael
Malashsh. I'm one of the co-founders of
developer building better developers.
I'm also the founder of a company called
Envision QA where we offer tailored
software and quality asurances solutions
to optimize the performance and
reliability of your e-commerce platform
or your current inter office uh
software. You know picture a flawless
user experience, increased sales and a
competitive edge in the market. We do
all this through creating and crafting
precision and tailored software that
meets your business needs. No two
applications are the same. They're all
tailored to your unique needs for your
business. We do this through more than
just websites, desktop applications, and
mobile apps. We do this by actually
walking through your processes, doing
assessments, like Rob mentioned,
understanding your business in and out,
and then we build something that
seamlessly identifies your products,
your processes, or facilitates and
streamlines your transactions within
your business. Good thing bad thing. Uh,
good thing. Uh, I had a chance to go
catch Thunderbolt. I I'm a big Marvel
fan and I was not disappointed. It was
actually a very good movie. Um, bad
thing I now can't wait for Fantastic 4.
Uh, so that kind of not a super bad
thing, but just uh I just ready for the
next
one. You're on mute. I also have learned
to mute myself occasionally when I
accidentally do. So, uh, recently saw
Thunderbolts. Great movie. Uh, highly
enjoyed it. If you like the sillier
ones, I guess like the Guardians of the
Galaxy, uh, very much worth it. And no,
Michael did not give you any spoilers
whatsoever in his earlier comments. So,
we'll move along very quickly. Like,
shuffle on. Nothing to see here. These
are not the droids that you're looking
for. What you are looking for is
imposttor syndrome. Right now that is
what we're going to talk about this time
and we will start with as sometimes we
have to do essentially a definition and
now I am not going to go out to the book
of knowledge known as Wikipedia or a
dictionary or something like that. So my
definition may not be completely what
you hear from somebody else including
those that have written books on it
things like that. In general, imposttor
syndrome is you're somewhere you have
achieved, you know, some success of some
sort and essentially it comes down to
you don't feel like you should be there.
You don't feel like you worked hard
enough or you're smart enough or somehow
that you have earned it. And that can be
quite a challenge. And it's actually
very common particularly these days when
you have these uh you you have like
people with the internet and some of
these other things that they can be an
overnight success that they suddenly are
you hear their name everywhere and
they've gone from especially you know
it's part of the challenge if you've
gone from like just slogging your way
through life and then suddenly you get a
big customer you get a big break or
something like that and now you haven't
really changed what you were doing but
it did actually pay off and now you are
you know rich and famous or whatever it
happens to be. The sad thing is you
don't have to be rich nor famous to have
imposttor syndrome. It basically does
come down to you just don't feel that
you you don't feel that you've earned
where you're at. You don't feel that you
are worthy of the accolades or the
success or something like that.
Now the challenge with the thing that
from a business point of view as I want
to focus on a bit as an entrepreneur um
what imposttor syndrome can do is it
just it sucks. It can drag us out of the
rhythm or even the things that we did
that got us here because it's
essentially imposter syndrome is going
to come when we're doing some sort of a
a sanity check or a selfch check of some
sort to be like hey you know how are
things going why am I here what did I do
and it's it's usually very you
essentially introspective because you're
looking at it saying I didn't really do
anything different last week than I did
the week before but now suddenly my
business is far more successful. I'm
selling more products or something like
that. And I think the first thing you
want to do in this is think about the
fact that like there
are watershed moments essentially in
businesses and a lot of processes. A
good way to think about it would be uh
if you're filling a cup, there's a
certain point where you're filling a cup
and it's like it's filling, it's
filling, it's filling, it's filling and
then at some point it overflows and now
the water is going everywhere. it's not
just contained in the in the glass.
That's sort of what happens fairly
regularly in business is that you're
just doing the things you need to do and
then you catch a break or the momentum
builds enough that now you're actually
able to, you know, the the things that
were slowing you down before maybe no
longer slow you down because there's too
much momentum, there's too much size.
There's things like that that there's
there's obstacles, there is friction
that essentially you are able to
overcome and then suddenly now it's a
that friction that was holding you back
and slowing you down no longer is and
you're off and running. And that I think
is sort of what happens that is a good
trigger for the in imposttor syndrome in
itself is that you're sitting there
going I shouldn't be here. I should be
somewhere back here because I was pacing
myself based on whatever I did, you
know, the pace I was getting a year ago
and now my pace has suddenly improved
and I haven't really changed anything
but it's because now you don't have the
friction. So I think sometimes if you
can think about it right because it's
everything that's in our head is always
that's the problem. It's in our head so
we have to figure out how to unpack it.
One of the things you may be able to use
if you get into the imposttor syndrome
situation is that consider that maybe
the fact that you're questioning this
shows that there was a payoff for some
of the work that you did that it wasn't
just dumb luck that it wasn't anything
like that it was actually you were there
that you worked that you showed up every
day and that now you have a victory or a
bigger victory for it. I'll pause there
and let you sort of throw in your two
cents and maybe even take us in a
completely different direction, but
let's see where that goes. Yeah. So, you
know, you mentioned that imposter
syndrome's kind of where we reach that
achievement point or we reach a position
where we we don't think we've achieved
we should have achieved it. We don't
think we deserve it. And in business,
this can can happen on a whim. I mean,
it could be uh you're growing your
business. You land a a big customer that
you know you could do. And at the start
of it, you think, "Great, I can do this.
I I've got everything I need to do it. I
got the bandwidth. I got the employees."
And you get into the project and kind of
like we talked about last episode. Maybe
your product's going off the rails or
you're getting a little overwhelmed
or you're starting to question, was this
a good idea? because you could just
start having self-doubt which leads you
to think that, oh, I can't do this. Why
did I do this? Uh, I don't deserve this.
Um, what the hell was I thinking?
And in some cases, some people throw in
the towel. They they think, "Oh, I
shouldn't be in this business. I'm not
good enough for this." And that's a lot
of times imposter syndrome just comes
from a lot of self-doubt, a lot of
questioning. Should I really be doing
what I'm doing? Do I deserve this? Um,
do I have the capacity to do
this? And in business, a lot of
times I've seen it happen where you get
on a new project or you finish a project
and now you're like, "Now, where do I
go?" You know, um, you're str you might
be struggling to find that next product
or that next customer and you're
thinking to yourself, "Oh, well, I can't
do this. you know, I don't have the
skills to do, but yet you do. And it's
just a a lot of times, I guess to me,
imposter syndromes comes stems from a
couple of things. One, uh,
overworked or you're on a very
challenging project project that is
taking a lot of time that
typically in a smaller project wouldn't
take that much time. Uh,
two, you are having a hard time figuring
out what to do with your business. You
know, what direction is your business
going in? Am I growing the business the
right way? Are you having problems
finding customers? That can lead to,
well, am I in the right business? Do I
even know how to run a business? You
know, things of that nature can lead to
that imposttor syndrome. And then the
third one is feedback. You could get
negative feedback about something from
your customers, from social media, and
that could tear you down, and you really
start thinking, "What the hell am I
thinking? I'm not right for this job."
You basically are letting the negative
thoughts or the negative feedback push
you down, basically make you feel that
you can't do the job that you're doing.
And to me, that's one of the biggest
things
that makes me feel like I have imposter
syndrome sometimes. You know, working
for over a decade and a half in um
healthc care, I got into a healthc care
position, knew what I was doing, was
doing great, got moved up to a higher
position, and then immediately felt like
I didn't deserve it, like this was not
for me.
And ultimately I left that position and
went to another company cuz I just it
made me sick to be there. It made me
feel like I did not deserve this. And
looking back on it, it wasn't me. It was
the environment of the company, the
project and just the way business was
done was so negative that it is very
hard to succeed or even feel self, you
know, feel good about yourself if you're
in an environment that is that toxic or
that negative. So sometimes it's your
environment. Look at your environment.
If you are finding that you are
surrounded by negative people or people
basically saying that you can't do what
your business needs to do, you may need
a pivot. It could even mean firing a
customer. That's sometimes firing a
customer, firing an employee maybe if
they're a poison pill. Sometimes that is
the best solution. Um sometimes firing
yourself uh much like Michael said is
like sometimes you need to move out of
that situation. uh will help you if it's
now this is if it's something which is a
very negative situation where it's a
draining situation. Um but and sometimes
that can like there's so many triggers.
There's so many things that can trigger
this whole you know imposture syndrome
and it's it does take different forms if
you you read like read about it and hear
people talk about it. Sometimes it is
very much a
um I guess it's a like a negative that
you're read hearing the negatives and
it's like I'm not worthy of this. Uh,
but then there's also times that it's
actually it's almost more of a positive
of like I've been working very hard and
there's nothing really wrong with what I
did, but it's just not as good as what
the reward is. And so it' be like, you
know, you get you expect to get your
paycheck and you're like, "Oh, I've
gotten my paycheck every week or
whatever it is, and then suddenly you
get a paycheck that's got an extra
thousand in it." You're like, "What did
I do different?" And it's it could be
because now things cost $1,000 more.
that's a problem. But it could be that
things have moved on. It's like, you
know, seniority in general, like you,
you know, you go for a year and now you
get a raise. Hopefully, if you, you
know, you've been there, you get a
review, you have a good review, you get
a raise. Cool. In
business, it's not always that. It's not
going to work like that. It's not like
clockwork. So, it's not like you've been
doing your business for a year and your
customers are like, "Hey, you get a
raise. We're gonna bring more customers
in or we're going to buy more products."
No, it's it's, you know, much more a
sometimes you have good days, sometimes
you have bad days, and maybe there's a
nice trend in the right direction, but
overall, you don't have like a solid
like that drum beat of like I work x
amount of time, I get this pay, I get a
raise, blah blah blah, and you move
up. It can surprise us. It can shock us.
And so this is where like the going into
the negative side of it a little bit is
it's like sometimes we don't actually I
think a lot of times we don't understand
where our limitations are. I think we
limit ourselves far more than we
actually are. And that's why you see
these stories of these people have done
all these incredible things and this
great stuff they do. And usually it's
because they were unshackled at some
point. Whether they did it themselves,
whether circumstances forced them into
it or whatever it was that they were
just like, I did it because I had to do
it. I didn't think about there being
another option. And that's sort of what
gets us sometimes into that situation is
that we can look at it and I know from
discussions I've had where people be
like, I can't believe you did X. and I
look back at it and I can say I didn't
have I didn't can't believe I did
anything else because I didn't have
another option. I didn't if you'd told
me there was a way out I would have
taken that other way. You know, there's
things like that. And
so I think it comes down to and this is
the little secret sauce in all of this.
It comes down to that nastiest thing
that's out there which is comparison to
others. Because their story is not your
story. Everybody's got a different
story. They've got a different they're
built differently. the things that kill
you would make somebody else stronger
and vice versa. It's just the more we
talk, we got this through the
interviews. It was amazing how many
people we talked through in the
interviews, they went through all kinds
of just really difficult situations and
they came out shining on the other end
because they didn't have any other
option but to do so. And it's stuff that
you would you can't put yourself there
because you you haven't done it. You
don't understand what it's like until
you actually do it. So comparing
yourself to what they did and saying
that you measure up or you don't measure
up is actually just a pile of horse crap
essentially because everybody's unique.
It goes back to sadly or maybe in a cool
way. It's just why we talk to every one
of our customers in my company is that
everybody's different. Everybody's
unique and you need to like you're going
to leverage it different than everybody
else. Yes, there's commonalities and all
that kind of stuff, but at the end of
the day, comparing yourself to somebody
else is sort of a fool's errand. And so
that hopefully would be a way for you to
get out of the whole imposture syndrome
because instead of saying I'm not this
person is realize that you are that
person, you are you. You got there.
However you got there, you got there. It
may seem harder or easier than somebody
else, but you got there. you have skills
and you can still move forward with
those. Now, the
challenge for this week is it's actually
more of an introspective kind of thing.
Have you suffered from imposture
syndrome or are you doing it now? Is it
something that's challenged you? Is
there some little voice in your head
that's saying you're not worthy or that
you don't belong here or something like
that? And instead of
just tossing it out and saying, "Okay,
that's worthless. I do belong here. I'm
awesome." Is look for see if there are
grains of truth in there. And it's
that's usually where the power is going
to come from is saying, "Okay, what is
it that's making me feel like I'm not
where I should be?" Now, this could go
to a lot of different areas and could
actually be very uh a very much a growth
thing for you because what you're going
to end up doing is looking into maybe
it's like what are the things that drain
me? What are the things that excite me?
What are the things energize me? What
are the things that I do well? What are
my weaknesses? There's a lot of areas
that you could end up covering when
you're trying to figure
out what am I doing here? Do I belong
here? And then with all that, how do I
take the next step forward? And that's
where the actual challenge of this is is
first assess where you're at, how you
feeling, how you doing, and then taking
that how do I take a step forward?
Whether it is to uh affirm that I do
belong here, or whether it is that hey,
I belong here, but now I'm not done. I'm
not I have not plateaued or I haven't
peaked. I maybe have plateaued. So, how
do I start taking that next step
forward? If you can do that, then that
is going to very much obviously help you
out because that's going to continue on
a growth path of some way, form or
fashion. I would love to hear responses
on this one. I honestly there's so many
of the topics we've covered in the last,
you know, year or so more. Love to get
your feedback.
[email protected]. Uh we'd love to,
you know, we'd be happy to even sit down
and talk with you about it if you're
open to that. have a nice little
interview and go through like some of
the things to make you feel like yes,
you do belong. Also, you can reach us on
X at Twitter or I'm sorry developer or
at Twitter. I'm not sure if that's going
to give you us take a while to get
there. Developer, but you can also catch
us on YouTube there's developer channel.
Wherever you listen to podcasts, we are
there. If you find a place and we're
not, let us know. We'll get there. And
we also love to get feedback and you
know pluses, minuses, voting up, down,
whatever it is that you do for that.
Feedback of any sort, good or bad is
helpful to us because it helps us be
better and build a better podcast. You
go out there so today and build a better
you because you deserve to be there.
Have a great day, a great week, and we
will talk to you next time. Bonus
material.
So, one thing I'll throw out is if you
find
yourself having that self-doubt, having
yourself in that imposttor syndrome
mode, take a step back and look at your
achievements. Look at the things that
you have done to get where you
are. And if that doesn't
reset, hopefully you you have a
significant other or a good friend that
can help you kind of get out of that
funk, get out of that mindset that, hey,
you can do what you put your mind to.
You can do it. It could be like a
previous episode, you could be off the
rails. could just be doing too much and
you're overwhelmed and therefore you're
stuck in this imposter syndrome and
maybe it's time to just reset and
refocus.
I think that's probably I'm going to go
with that one is like sort of along
those
lines. Have somebody that can uh
hopefully you do hopefully everybody's
got somebody that you can talk to that
is your inner circle that can help you.
uh and if not you can always go to
there's counseling and all kinds of
stuff like that but it's just basically
to
like not compare to other people but
instead to say okay let me like
realistically assess like what did I do
how did I get there I mean it was an old
uh there was a little comedic bit from
years ago where you know somebody was
like I don't know I just worked hard for
20 years and the next thing I knew I
woke up and I had a lot of money it's
like you know stuff like that it's like
you the world loves to beat us down a
little bit on this stuff sometimes a
lot. Um because there's haters out there
and stuff like that and you see it all
the time. You can see people that get to
the top of their game and everybody
hates them now. Even especially if they
were the the underdog and now the
underdog is, you know, super dog and
everybody hates them. They loved them
when they're underdog, now they don't
anymore. Um those of you that are music
lovers and you're like, I can't believe
my band sold out, man. Yes, you are
exactly one of those kind of people.
Um, that I think is the is the thing to
do is like have somebody to get some
sort of like realistic barometer to help
you out. If you're worried that you
didn't do enough, you didn't deserve it
or something like that, take a look at
it because sometimes it it's actually
going to be very cathartic and it's
going to help you embrace more like,
"Wow, I did come through a very
difficult time." And that will allow you
then the next time around to say hey I
overcame that tough hard difficult thing
in the past and now yeah this may be a
new tough hard or difficult but I've
done it before and I can do it again and
that is going to be a recipe for success
and continued success because you're
always going to be able to say hey done
it before I can do it
again like I have done before and will
do again right now is ask you for
feedback but also I want to thank you
for your time. Thank you for hanging out
with us, for checking in with us every
episode, for all these episodes that
we've done as we are like marching
towards I I heard something the other
day that I think it was I think it's
like only 2% of podcasts get past like
300 episodes or 500 episodes. I can't
remember. It's something that's like way
back there, like way lower than we have.
Uh so we must be like right up in their
number of episodes. Now, we're not going
to be in the top 10 chart otherwise, but
hey, we're gonna keep going, and that's
why we are exactly where we belong. No
imposttor syndrome here whatsoever. Ours
is more why are we still here?
But that is a topic for another day. Go
out there and have yourselves a good
one, guys. We will talk to you next time
around.
[Music]