The imposter Monster
A Gargoyle of Notre-Dame de Paris, Paris, France Photo by Rita Chou on Unsplash
Have you met the imposter monster?
I know it very well! My inner critic often shouts at me and tries to convince me that I am just stubbornly sticking with a bad idea and not heroically facing the challenges that naturally occur when starting something new. Those critical voices might be helpful for selecting ideas, projects and review your own work, but they are a nightmare when it comes to presenting yourself and your ideas. Even more so at the start of a new career or business venture.
It is easy to dismiss potential business ideas or new career paths as pipe dreams. To feel that every attempt to pursue them is misguided and a wasteful investment of time and money. The fear of what friends and family might say about you as you are promoting yourself in a new, unusual role can be crippling for our confidence. The biggest leap of faith when starting something new is to trust that strangers will like your work - and not just like it but buy it, hire you or invest in your ideas.
My biggest struggle was my social media appearance. It took some courage to accept that although connected, I have to set a clear boundary between work and personal life. Clearly, I need hobbies and I might want to talk about them on Instagram. However, checking the performance of personal content, such as silly selfies or opinions on tv-series, on social media is toxic and deprives it of the much needed the fun and recreation.
Professionally however, those analytical insights are important to steer the new business into the right direction. Ultimately, the creation and publication of your first distinctly professional content is the step that turns you into the professional person you want to be. This is what makes it so frightening and hard to come up with your “About me” for your website, to launch a professional Instagram account for your brand, or to tell your customers about your product in your first newsletter.
Rest assured that you are not alone.
I tend think that the people with the most interesting ideas are the most reluctant. (I might be blowing my own trumpet a bit here, as it took my years to take this step.) To cheer you on, I would like to share my two tips on how to tackle the imposter monster and overcome the infamous writer’s block for content creation:
Tip 1
Get help from outside, and I mean not family or friends! They are either too protective and will keep you from taking any risk at all, or too nice to tell you the truth. But most importantly, they usually are not competent in your field. Try to find like-minded people who are you a similar position. Don’t be afraid to connect with possible “competitors” but test the waters by just starting a chat. Ask them for feedback and advice. This can start on LinkedIn, Instagram, via email, postcard, or even by politely starting conversation during a random personal encounter. Trust me, I am an introvert and despise small talk, but talking shop gets me going as soon as the ice is broken.
Tip 2
Try to approach the topic playfully and with humour. Interview yourself (out loud, in your mind or in writing). Play the good cop, bad cop game, and use foul language to ask yourself‚ who you think you are to come up with such a load of rubbish*? This has helped me personally. I eventually started to defend myself and found reasons and words to tell others what I do and gain confidence in myself.
* Don’t say rubbish - be bolder! Extra tip (totally for free…)
Compared to its benefits, a coaching session with a mentor who knows your business is a surprisingly small investment. This can create the necessary momentum to get going. In case you did not know - I offer mentoring sessions to help you become a confident communicator. Just get in touch via email or send me a message if you see me around on social media. Even if you do not want to book a session, I can possibly point you in the right direction.