You overcome imposter syndrome by changing the story you tell yourself and repeating the new one every day. I call it a boot sequence for your mind. It has four steps: audit the story, see the powerful version of yourself, write declarations that state the truth, and speak them out loud daily.
- Imposter syndrome is a story you tell yourself, and you can audit it on paper.
- The world wants to hear from you. Build your new story on that truth.
- Declarations spoken daily work like a boot sequence for your mind.
- Feeling uncomfortable in a new room means you are in the right room.
What is imposter syndrome?
Imposter syndrome is the moment you look around and ask, "Am I supposed to be here?" It is natural for most people who do something new and keep breaking through new ceilings of achievement and success. I have gone through it numerous times myself.
A woman I spoke with was creating a series of YouTube videos for her brand. She had been hit by cancel culture a few times, and the doubt crept in. "Should I be doing this? Why would anybody care?" She knew she was an expert in her field and still felt that way. The advice I gave her became this guide.
What is a boot sequence for your mind?
A boot sequence for your mind is the set of declarations you speak out loud every day to create the best version of yourself. When you turn a computer on, it boots up a series of programs and becomes a working computer. Your mindset works the same way.
Every single morning I speak three I am declarations into existence. I only made the connection to imposter syndrome after the fact.
| Declaration | What it anchors |
|---|---|
| I am that the world needs more of me | I know what I create and the positive impact I have on others. |
| I am a champion for everyone | I am a champion for myself first, so I can be one for every person I see and their dreams. |
| I am constant creation of who I am | I can self-create anything I want in the world, from positivity and love. |
The truth is the world wants to hear from you.
How do you overcome imposter syndrome step by step?
- Audit the story. Write down the words you are saying to yourself. "I feel weird about doing this." "What if people see me as a fraud?" On paper you can see them as self-limiting beliefs, and you can throw them in the trash.
- See the powerful version of yourself. Anchor yourself in the positive side. When you help other people and come from positivity and love, the true story is that people want to hear from you.
- Write your declarations. Turn that truth into statements that tell you who the powerful version of you is.
- Speak them out loud every day. Consistency is how the new story becomes the one you live from.
Start with your intention, which Wayne Dyer covers in his book The Power of Intention. Set a positive intention that what you are doing is good, and you can let go of the story that you are somehow unqualified. The same audit works on negative self talk of every kind.
Why would anyone care what you have to say?
I was a speaker at a marketing conference in New York, and during the Q&A a woman stood up and said, "There are so many podcasts out there already. Why would anyone care about what I have to say?"
You can very easily overcome imposter syndrome with the power of consistency.
Rob Cressy
Others are saying similar things, and your experiences belong only to you. Focus on the one person who needs your voice.
Remember the silent majority and the vocal minority too. Most people who like what you create will stay quiet about it. A few noisy voices can feel like reality. Throw that in the trash and believe in yourself.
What is Know Believe Live?
Know Believe Live is a self auditing framework I created for myself. It asks three questions about any idea: what do I know to be true, what do I believe to be true, and what am I living?
When I lived in Chicago, I went to an entrepreneurship event hosted by Jeffrey Hayzlett. I looked around and decided I was the lowest person on the totem pole. I told Jeffrey, and he said, "Rob, you're in the right room." Being the smartest person there was never the requirement.
Run that advice through the audit. Do I know it? Yes. Do I believe it? 100 percent. Am I living it? That third question is where the discomfort lives, and discomfort is where growth comes from. Feeling uncomfortable means you are in the right room, so seek that room out.
How do you overcome imposter syndrome when you start with AI?
High performers are great in so many areas, and AI puts you back at zero. One member of my community, who is world class at what she does, told me her first AI call felt overwhelming and left her questioning whether she was clever enough.
We all started at zero, and I did too. So see AI as a new world to play in. You are learning a skill. Picture someone learning guitar and playing "Mary Had a Little Lamb." That is part of the journey. Get in the reps: start learning, start doing, start sharing.
My business partner Zach said it best while we were building a ChatGPT community from zero: "Rob, we don't have to have all of the answers. We just need the blueprint." Open a document, create an outline and start before you have certainty.
Do this today
- Audit the story. Write down the exact words you say to yourself when imposter syndrome shows up.
- Write three declarations. Begin each one with "I am" and speak them out loud today.
Listen to the episode
Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
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Read the full transcript
Let's talk about overcoming imposter syndrome. And I was having a conversation with someone this weekend who was challenged with imposter syndrome because they were feeling a lack in their mind in the story they were telling themselves. They were working on a project where they were going to be creating a series of YouTube videos for their brand. And things had not always gone puppy dogs and rainbows for them. They got hit by cancel culture a few times and they were just starting to doubt where they were in their mind on, should I be doing this? Why would anybody care? I'm not feeling confident about the things that I'm creating, even though I know I'm an expert in the field.
And this is something that I certainly understand and relate to because I myself have gone through numerous instances of imposter syndrome. And I think this is something that is natural for most people when you're doing something new that you've never done before and you continually break through new ceilings of your brand and your achievement and your success and your happiness. Boom. Sometimes you look around and you're like, am I supposed to be here? So what I want to do is share with you the advice that I gave her on how you can easily overcome imposter syndrome.
So the first thing that I want you to do, step number one is throw these feelings in the trash because they're not serving you. Because for me, mindset 101 starts with, all right, let's just audit this story that we're telling ourself. And when it comes to imposter syndrome, if you were to write it down, it says, I feel weird about doing this. I don't want the negative backlash of everyone who... I don't feel comfortable, dot, dot, dot.
When you write this down and you actually look at the words that you're saying to yourself, you'll realize these are all self-limiting beliefs and stories that are not serving you. And why would you continually focus on the negative? Well, Rob, it's easy and it's comfortable and I don't want fear or pain or negativity in my life. So these are the things that I'm worried about.
But when thinking about creating a life that you love and creating, whether it's videos or podcasts or a business or new relationships or whatever it is, anchor yourself in the positive side of things because this is the story that you want to be telling yourself. And for this, AKA the power of consistency. So the way that you overcome imposter syndrome is step one, audit the story you're telling yourself. Step two, if you notice that it's a negative one and it's not serving you. All right, let's create the true, powerful, real version of yourself.
The story that says, listen, if you have something inside of you that can help even one person in the world, it is your duty to share with the world because people do want to hear from you. And certainly if you're coming from a place where you help other people and you have positivity and love and intentions, don't focus on the few people that say something. Remember there's a silent majority and a vocal minority. So by design, when you create things, most people aren't going to let you know that they like what you're doing. So therefore the people who do mention something and when they're a little bit noisy and not what you like, whoa, you think that's the reality. Uh, throw that in the trash.
You got to start with your intention. And I actually just finished a great book about this, The Power of Intention by Wayne Dyer. It was absolutely fantastic where it talks about setting that intention. And if you set a positive intention for yourself, that what you're doing is good. Boom. Don't worry about this lack or not enoughness that somehow you're not qualified to do what it is you're, that you're doing. That's a story that is not serving you.
So once again, we'll repeat this step number one, audit the story that you're telling yourself. If it's not good, step number two, because the truth is the world wants to hear from you. So what I want you to do is to create that powerful story for yourself. Put it, the world wants to hear from me. And for me, there are three things that I speak into existence every single morning as part of my declarations that actually helped me with imposter syndrome in being a champion. And I put the connection after the fact, but number one is I am that the world needs more of me. And I speak that and I feel it because I know what I create. I know the positive impact I have on others. So boom, the world needs more of me. Yes, they do. Rob.
Number two, I am a champion for everyone. And this works two ways. Number one, I am a champion and I'm a champion for myself. So I can be it number two for everyone. And I also think about every single person that I see. I'm a champion for them and their dreams and what they want to accomplish. And why am I creating this video? Because I'm a champion for you or anybody who's challenged right now with imposter syndrome.
And then the last thing that I speak to myself, number three, I am constant creation of who I am. And for me, this anchors me in the ability to self-create anything that I want in the world. And when you come from a place of self-creation, we're not dealing with lack. We're coming from positivity and love. What would I love to create? Boom. We are speaking things into existence. We are creating things that do not exist so that we live an amazing life full of abundance, not lack.
And when you do these things, you can very easily overcome imposter syndrome with the power of consistency. So I speak these things into existence every single day as a way of priming my mind, like a boot sequence in a computer. So think about this for a computer to work like a computer every single day. When you turn it on, it boots up a series of programs and goes, boom, I am now an amazing computer. I do what a computer should do. Well, think of your mindset the same way. And certainly as it relates to overcoming imposter syndrome.
So your ability every single day to show up and say, all right, what is the boot sequence for my mind that I say to myself and speak out loud that creates who I am, the best version of myself so that I'm not thinking about imposter syndrome and the self-limiting beliefs and the fears and the cancel culture and the feeling awkward and weird. And what if I mess up? And oh my God, what if people see me as a fraud and all of these things? These are all things that are not serving you that don't exist, that you self-create for yourself. So the way you overcome these is by creating the consistency of the story in which you tell yourself.
So to wrap a bow on this one more time to make sure we hit this home, number one, to overcome imposter syndrome, audit the story you're telling yourself, write it down. Number two, I want you to see the powerful version of yourself because the truth is. Number three, write declarations that tell you what the powerful version and truth is of you. And then number four, consistency. Speak these out loud every single day because when you do this, you will be a champion and create anything you want in your life and certainly overcome imposter syndrome.
Transcript cleaned up for reading.