So Glad You Asked
Conversations on career, leadership and living an intentional life with CliftonStrengths® Certified Life & Career Coach and Founder of Whole Human Co. Jean Madison
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So Glad You Asked
How to Overcome Self-Doubt or Imposter Syndrome? So Glad You Asked.
What if imposter syndrome isn’t a flaw to overcome, but rather a natural part of being a beginner? As your host, Jean Madison, I'll guide you through the often underestimated journey of embracing vulnerability and authenticity. Drawing from my own experiences, I'll share the challenges I faced transitioning from a high-performing collaborative role to a more isolated position, which forced me to confront tasks outside my comfort zone. This episode promises to reshape your understanding of self-doubt by challenging the cultural norm of "faking it until you make it" and exploring how accepting our beginner status can be liberating.
You'll gain insights into how recognizing and leveraging your natural strengths can transform struggles into opportunities for growth. With the help of a strengths coach, I learned the importance of identifying external factors that impact confidence and productivity, leading me to a more fulfilling career path. Discover actionable strategies for building self-confidence, such as utilizing the CliftonStrengths assessment and the power of asking for support. By focusing on what you do best and unlearning the myth of complete independence, you'll find a pathway to genuine self-assurance and personal development.
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Welcome back to so Glad you Asked, a podcast where we have conversations on career leadership and living an intentional life, and conversations with me, jean Madison, certified Gallup Global Strengths Coach and founder of Whole Human Co, where I'm focused on intentional career life and relationship coaching, as well as organizational and team development and well-being. Join me as I answer questions I'm asked by my clients and audience, as well as personal experiences and growth opportunities that I feel we could all learn from. If you have a question or topic suggestion you'd love to hear discussed here on the podcast, visit my Instagram at JeanMadison underscore, comment your questions here on the podcast or tap the link in the show notes that says send questions here to email me directly. Now let's dive into today's episode. All right, everyone, welcome back to so Glad you me directly. Now let's dive into today's episode. All right, everyone, welcome back to so Glad you Asked.
Speaker 1:On today's episode, we're going to be talking about all things self-confidence, self-doubt, imposter syndrome and more. I got a question this week on a discovery call about if I had ever had to overcome self-doubt, and so that's the question I want to address in today's episode, along with some of my beliefs around self-doubt, and so that's the question I want to address in today's episode, along with some of my beliefs around self-doubt, some of the things I've seen from my clients as well as myself, and just give you all an opportunity to really maybe rethink the idea of self-doubt, the idea of imposter syndrome, et cetera, et cetera, because I have a little bit of a different view on this, which I'm sure you're not surprised by. Let's go ahead and dive in. So in this discovery call this week, we were talking a lot about self-doubt as a challenge that this potential client was having with finding a new role, exiting the current work environment that they're in and feeling like they were really stuck because of this feeling of self-doubt. And as one of the questions that they asked me, they asked if I had ever experienced and overcome self-doubt myself, obviously wanting to know how I did that, so that they could see if that's what they were looking for in a coach as well, which I loved this question because I've actually never been asked it before.
Speaker 1:But before I dive into my answer for the question, I want to talk just a little bit about self-doubt and imposter syndrome and some of my thoughts on them. So first things first, at Whole Human Co and in my coaching practice I work a lot with people who mention self-doubt, imposter syndrome, et cetera, et cetera. It's probably the number one reason people mention, when they come to work with me, as something that they are looking to overcome and looking for support from a coach and a professional to do so. And the reason I want to talk about this a little bit is because I feel that there is this really strong belief in our culture, particularly our culture of women, that we have to fight this feeling. We have to fight the feeling of being inexperienced, we have to fight this feeling of self-doubt, we have to fight this feeling of imposter syndrome and simply lean into this idea of faking it till you make it. But that's not really my approach. Yes, there are going to be times in life where you kind of have to show up, even if you're not 100% sure, or you're not the expert or whatever it is. But this idea of simply faking it until you make it does not take into account your nervous system. It doesn't take into account a lot of things, actually, and that's really what I want to get at right now.
Speaker 1:So this is not an original idea of mine, but something I learned from someone that I can't seem to remember right now, or I would credit them with this, but it's an idea that I've really been leaning into a lot, especially in my own entrepreneurial journey, which is the question do you have imposter syndrome or are you just new at something? Are you just a beginner? Yes, there are times where you are qualified and you feel nervous, you feel scared to share what you know, you feel like you're going to be shot down, and that's kind of what we typically label as imposter syndrome and something we can work with. However, there are a lot of times where I have people coming to me who feel a lot of self-doubt and a lot of imposter syndrome about something that they've never really done before, that they're a beginner at it, that they're trying for the first time, and that's really where I like to bring in this question of is it imposter syndrome or are you just new at it?
Speaker 1:We're not very comfortable with being beginners in our culture. We're not very comfortable with doing things that we're not automatically good at, and by we I mean me. I am not very good at being a beginner. I'm not very good at doing things that I'm not good at. My husband, on the other hand, very good at doing things he's not good at. Very good at learning and trying and being okay with not being good at it at first with the intention of getting better. So I'm just here to remind us all that you do not have to fake it till you make it with everything, and it is okay to be uncertain, new, a beginner and imperfect at things that you're doing in your life.
Speaker 1:I've also found that the best way to not have people quote unquote in your life. I've also found that the best way to not have people quote unquote, find you out or see you as a fraud is to learn to lean into your strengths, to learn to be vulnerable and to learn how to ask for help. Because if you are in a space where you know what you're good at, you know where you need some help and support. People aren't going to find you out because you're not faking anything. You're not trying to keep this idea that you're perfect and that you can do anything and everything. You've put it out there that like, hey, I don't know everything. I'm trying to learn in this area. This is what I do know who can help compliment me here. So those are just some things that I want to share. I want you to kind of noodle on hold on as we go through this conversation I want to share. I want you to kind of noodle on hold on as we go through this conversation.
Speaker 1:This doesn't mean that you won't ever feel out of place or underprepared or even yes like an imposter. But so many situations folks claim imposter syndrome when really they're just a beginner or they're just not the expert. There's a big gap between someone who knows what they're doing and someone who is the expert. You are perfectly capable of knowing what you're doing 75% of the way, while still not being the expert, and that's okay. We don't all have to be experts at everything, especially depending on your strengths. Some of you don't really care to be experts. I'm one of those people where others of you may be like what do you mean? I'm not going to do anything until I am an expert on it, and that's great. Let's know our strengths, let's know how we show up, how we operate, what kinds of supports we need, so that we don't have to feel stuck in these cycles of imperfection and imposter syndrome and self-doubt and lacking self-confidence, right? I also want to be super clear that when I'm saying this.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying this to make anyone who has identified with the term imposter syndrome feel bad or wrong. I say it really just to invite you to hold the belief and identity lightly and really consider an alternative way of thinking about how you show up when you feel uncertain. I want this word of uncertainty to really be one that we think about, maybe to put in place of imposter, because one is a thing you can change right when you are uncertain, you can learn, you can practice, you can grow into certainty. When you are an imposter, it's just an identity. It is who you are and there's really no path forward. So I just want to invite you to bring that term into your mind of uncertainty.
Speaker 1:If you have felt like an imposter or you felt like you've had imposter syndrome great, a lot of us have I'm just inviting you to bring in some additional language to see if we can put a more developmental term in here, a more like asset-based term. I know uncertainty is not really an asset-based term, but in my mind it is because it's changeable, it's something you can work on, and I just don't feel that imposter syndrome or feeling like an imposter gives you a lot of space for growth. So that's why we're focusing on language here. You'll learn by listening to me and working with me at Whole Human Code that I focus on language a lot. I think it's very important to be very clear in our language about how we feel and what is showing up for us, because that's what we work with when we're trying to improve and move forward. I'm also putting this challenge out there because something that I've noticed over the years in my coaching and working as a leader in an organization is that I often find that the humans that I interact with who speak openly about their doubt, their imposter syndrome, et cetera, et cetera, are also the ones that I find to be incredibly impressive.
Speaker 1:I see so much potential for success and strength in these people and really am oftentimes surprised that they feel such incredible doubt and imposter syndrome, and this ultimately makes me really, really determined to mirror that strength, that potential, that impressiveness back to them. Just the same way you didn't have to figure out everything on your own, you also don't have to overcome self-doubt. You don't have to overcome imposter syndrome feelings on your own. Let someone like me be the mirror to show you and remind you how impressive you are. And I always say this to my clients borrow my belief, borrow my confidence, because I see great things in you. I see great things in people, specifically those who feel tremendous self-doubt and imposter feelings, and I want to be able to help you see past those, step past those and into really this power of who you are.
Speaker 1:And some of the ways that we do that in coaching is through strengths, through having these conversations, through really picking through the things you see, the things you believe, and really getting to what is true. What do you know to be true? This is a question I would love you to just write down. If you tend to struggle with imposter syndrome or feelings of self-doubt what do I know to be true? Because when you ask yourself that question, a lot of the times, those feelings that you have you don't know to be true, it's an assumption that you're making about yourself. So write that question down what do I know to be true? And also write down is this imposter syndrome or is this uncertainty? And take those with you. Feel them out. Let me know what comes up for you in the comments or shoot me an email.
Speaker 1:But let's dive into my personal story of overcoming self-doubt, imposter syndrome and getting to a place where I, for the most part, can fairly confidently step into spaces whether I've been there before or not, into conversations, whether I've had them or not feeling at least 75% confident, which is really all that I'm going for most of the time. So have you had to overcome self-doubt, and how did you do that? The first thing that comes to mind for me when this question was asked was I actually have not experienced significant self-doubt all that often in my life. I am blessed to be a fairly confident person. I don't know how that came about. I don't know what my parents did exactly to instill that in me, but I've always been a little bit more confident than people around me, particularly the women around me. This doesn't mean that I don't have moments of uncertainty, that I don't have questions in my mind of can I do something? It also kind of goes back to the comment I made earlier about how I don't like to be a beginner. I don't like to not know what I'm doing. So I'm kind of the person who's going to figure out everything I possibly can about the thing that I'm supposed to do before I do it, to make sure that I'm not that much of a beginner. I'm not saying that's a healthy approach, that's something that I'm personally working on, but I just share this to say that I haven't had a significant amount of personal experience living in self-doubt, living in imposter syndrome, but I have had a couple experiences like this.
Speaker 1:So if you listen to my podcast about my story and how I got to founding my business, whole Human Co. You'll know that I really struggled in the previous professional environment that I was in that some team dynamics got shifted around that really kind of rocked my world because we had been working so well within our strengths and really made me question my ability. I had gone from being a very high performer who was pretty much promoted to a new role, or a new role was created for me to kind of promote me to because we didn't have a lot of structure in the organization. Every year and a half two years I moved very quickly into a director role where I oversaw a team of recruiters, I oversaw the budget for the recruitment team, I oversaw the strategy for the recruitment team, and at that point I was 27. So yeah, there were some feelings in there of I'm kind of a young director here, never done this before, never led people formally before, and so I did experience a lot of struggle and a lot of uncertainty. But I think, because I had been such a high performer and I had done so well in my roles leading up to that experience, that I did feel confident in being able to lead my peers, being able to lead the people that I hired to be successful in their roles as recruiters, and I will say I was confident for the first year or so of that role.
Speaker 1:It was challenging. I definitely made some mistakes. Looking back on my leadership, there are, of course, things that I would change about how I showed up in that role and in that environment, but I did the best with the information that I had, with the experience I had, and so I am proud of that. However, when that team structure changed and it went from being a very team-oriented work environment to one where I was really responsible for the entire process, a to Z, it became very siloed. That's when I started to really struggle in this work, because at the time I didn't have a good understanding of my personal strengths. I had taken the CliftonStrengths assessment. I had read it, but I didn't really understand what that meant, and so I hadn't put together yet, that this moving from a very collaborative environment to a siloed environment where I was responsible for final products and everything from A to Z that that was not a good shift for me. Products and everything from A to Z that that was not a good shift for me.
Speaker 1:I'm not the final product person, I am the ideator, I am the strategizer, I am even the like. Put together the bones, the rough draft. I can do all of that Great. You need me to have a polished, beautiful PowerPoint presentation to go with that. You need a final beautiful document to represent the ideas that we've established and come up with. You need a spreadsheet. God forbid, not me. I'm not your girl. I don't do well with that stuff. It's not that I can't do it, but the amount of time and energy and distress that goes into doing those things is not great for me and my well-being. It's also not great for the organization. You're not going to really get the best that you want.
Speaker 1:And what had happened in that previous work environment was that I had people around me who weren't the ideators, who weren't necessarily the strategizers although we all could work together on strategy but they were the executors, they were the ones that would take my ideas and they would turn them into something beautiful and usable and trackable, and it was just incredible and I loved that. And so when that went away, I just really struggled. That and the fact that I was wildly overworked and had way too much on my plate. I should not have been doing a lot of the things that I was doing anyway. So it was just a real kind of clusterfuck of challenging situations. But the biggest part for me was that I was having to do a lot of things that were just not natural to me. They were not part of my strengths and I don't like I'm not using strengths as an excuse to not learn things or grow or do things well. It's just a reality that that's an area where I struggle, especially when time bound and when overworked and there's too much on my plate, I'm not going to be able to produce a really, really great final product.
Speaker 1:And so I started to really get frustrated. I started to really question my ability. I was, like you know, last year I was so good. Get frustrated. I started to really question my ability. I was, like you know, last year I was so good at this. Before I was a director. I was so good at this work. Why am I suddenly so bad? Like, why can't I not do my work? Why am I getting? I feel like I'm getting yelled at every time I talk to my boss. This is just like and maybe I wasn't even getting yelled at, but just like in my head it felt like that because I felt like I wasn't good at anything. So this was probably one of the lowest places for me in really in my life.
Speaker 1:When it comes to self-doubt and burnout, that's another question I would love to just have you put out. There is like is this imposter syndrome? Is this self-doubt, or are you burnt out? Are you overworked? Are you not being appreciated for the things that you're doing in a work environment, in your life, et cetera, et cetera. And that's leading you to question your abilities, it's leading you to question your worth, when in reality, it's some of these external factors that are kind of playing a role in that.
Speaker 1:And so that's what I learned when I started working with a strengths coach so about probably almost a year into this experience, where I was in complete burnout. I could not really function. I was struggling immensely to just do my day-to-day work. I found, thank God, and started working with a strengths coach who really helped me to understand, beyond the CliftonStrengths report, what those things actually meant for me in a work environment, what it meant when I was burnt out, what I could do to lean into my strengths to regain some energy, to regain some confidence and really just understand myself and the way that I process so that I could better advocate for what I needed.
Speaker 1:This was not a situation where, like learning my strengths meant like oh okay, everything's better. It meant I finally knew what to ask for, and so one of the examples I give often is that you know, my boss always wanted these really pretty final products. That's to be expected. There's nothing wrong with that request, but I really struggled with it. So one of the things I asked her was can we have you know if you want this report by this date? Can we have like a midway check-in where I give you a rough draft and you tell me if that's actually the direction you wanted me to go? If that's what you were expecting, what else you're looking for? Because I'm a procrastinator. That's never going to change If we just waited until the last minute and we only reviewed the work when it. Was that supposed to be that final product? She was often disappointed and I was often very, very stressed out.
Speaker 1:So this was something I was able to ask for. You know, did it cure my burnout and did it keep me at that organization? No, but it was a way that I could advocate for myself to my boss, who was trying you know, it wasn't like she was this terrible, terrible boss. She was trying to, like, figure out how to work with me, how to motivate me, how to get me out of burnout. It just wasn't her skill set. Her skill set was the strategy and the structures and the data and those sorts of things. It wasn't necessarily the people part, and so I had to learn how to advocate for myself. Learning my strengths was a way that I had language to do that, and ultimately, it's what allowed me to get to a place where I could make the decision of whether it was important if I stayed or if I needed to go. And it also helped me get to a place where, when I was making that decision, I had two options. I finally decided I was not going to stay, period. But I had two options when I was leaving. I could either leave and start my own business.
Speaker 1:Or I was in the interview process for a VP of recruitment role at a similar organization. That interview process did give me imposter syndrome, right, because I had been struggling so much in this director role. I'm like, how could I possibly apply for a VP role? But because I applied for that role at the same time that I was doing the strengths work, it made it so much easier for me to say, hey, I may not be able to check off 100% of the boxes on this job description, but I can check off about 90 to 95% of them and that's good enough for me to apply. And had I not done the strengths work, had I not really done this work to kind of get myself to this more neutral place not a super confident place, not an imposter place, but a neutral place I would not have pursued that role. And while I ultimately exited that interview process and chose not to take on that role, I am glad that I was able to actually step into the process with a fair amount of confidence and if not confidence, at least a fair amount of confidence, and if not confidence, at least a fair amount of curiosity around whether or not I could do the role and what the people interviewing thought of my skills and experiences.
Speaker 1:Now, if you haven't guessed yet, I did not go that route. Instead, I went the route of creating my own business, whole Human Co, and stepping into the world of coaching, which has been the ultimate right decision for me, the ultimate aligned decision to the life that I want to be living at this moment, and that also was a big leap. That also was scary and felt challenging and very, very, very unknown. And, again, because I had this understanding of my strengths and I continue to work with this strengths coach. Over the time that I was starting my own business, I was able to really nip a lot of those feelings of I have no idea what I'm doing. How dare I think that I could start a business? What do I possibly have to offer to the world in the bud? I didn't have to carry those around with me and fight against them while I was trying to build my business. Instead, I was able to approach the business building experience with curiosity, with minor confidence that I could figure it out and do it, and with a knowing that if I leaned into my strengths, I would at least have the energy to keep going and if, for any reason, I decided this wasn't the path anymore, I could always go and apply for another job and find another path. I didn't have to be stuck in this particular decision. I didn't have to be stuck in this particular path. Instead, I just got to experience it and see if it's what was going to work for me, and ultimately it has been.
Speaker 1:Now let's talk a little bit about how you can take this story and some of the things I've mentioned in this podcast so far and use them for yourself. If you are someone who's feeling a lack of confidence, you're feeling some imposter syndrome, you have a big transition or choice to make coming up and you really would love to feel more grounded, intentional and confident in that decision or action. Let's take a few minutes to answer the question how do I instill more confidence in myself? Something that I am asked frequently and I think really plays into this conversation around self-doubt and imposter syndrome. To start with, as I've mentioned several times in this episode, already know your strengths. I cannot say this enough. I know that this is core to my coaching and maybe you've heard me talk a lot and you're like okay, enough with the strengths thing, but I can't, I can't give you enough of the strengths thing.
Speaker 1:I want you to know the ways that you most naturally think, feel and behave, because when you know those things you are empowered to lean into them, you are empowered to make decisions about what you do and how you act based on those things. You feel more confident asking for the help that you need and deserve, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I cannot stress enough how much I want you to know your strengths. And of course, you can do activities where you kind of come up with your own strengths and you come up with your own language, and that works too. But if you are really feeling uncertain, you are really feeling kind of on this like quicksand sort of area in your life where you're just not sure where to step and you feel like everything you're about to do might come tumbling down or fall apart, I just want to encourage you to go take the CliftonStrengths assessment preferably the full 34 report, if you can, because one through 10 of your strengths can be so, so interesting and have such a big impact on the way that you act and the way that you operate and, ultimately, the way that you manage burnout and self doubt, I am going to be doing a whole episode on strengths coming up here soon and I also have my strengths series that you can purchase, which is an email series where every day for 34 days, you get an email with four videos talking about this strength in life, this strength at work, and some tips and tricks on how to best maximize that strength if you have it in your top 10. And it just helps you learn about some of the other strengths as well. If you're working with people who have different strengths than you, which is very, very likely, you can find the link for that series in the show notes. If you want to dive into that In addition to your CliftonStrengths report, I highly encourage it. It's really fun. It was a lot of work, it's a lot of content for a really good price and it's a great place to start. If you're not quite ready to do a strengths session or do one-on-one coaching, that, plus your report, can give you a lot of helpful information. So that's number one know your strengths.
Speaker 1:The second way that I always encourage people to instill more confidence in themselves and this might feel a little backwards is to learn how to ask for what you need, to learn how to ask for help, learn how to ask for what you need to. Learn how to ask for help. What I find is that so many of us are so driven by this independence messaging that we receive growing up in this country, in our education system and even our work environments where go, go, go, pursue, pursue, pursue, be independent. If you didn't do it yourself, then you didn't really do it. If you had to get help, then you can't really say you succeeded, et cetera, et cetera. I call extreme bullshit on that belief and at Whole Human Co, we really, really, really work to unravel that messaging. Unravel that idea that if you didn't do something by yourself, that it's not worth doing, or that you don't get to claim success because you had to ask for help. And woe is you, you are now a failure because you asked for help. That's how I feel about that belief.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, something that can really help instill confidence is knowing what you're good at, knowing where you need help and even if it's not a situation where like I'm good at this, but I need help with this, or maybe, let's say, for example, I am a year postpartum, in the immediate postpartum phase, one of the best things that someone can do is learn to not just ask for, but to also accept help. That is a really key part of this step to helping build more confidence in yourself is. It's not just about asking for help. It's about actually letting people help you letting people offer to help you and accepting that help.
Speaker 1:This can be really really, really challenging, especially for women who have this drive to be independent. I am one of them and I've really had to unlearn this in my life. I've had to look around and say, okay, I cannot do all of this. I you know this is not within my strengths, this is not within my capacity right now. I have to let someone else in, I have to let someone help me here, and by doing that, it's actually allowed me to really lean into the things that I'm good at, the things that I do have time and capacity for, and do those things better, which then instills more confidence. So hopefully that makes sense, like if you are spending a lot of your time doing things that you don't naturally do super well or that are really really really challenging for you.
Speaker 1:It's not that you shouldn't embrace challenge. Yes, let's all do things we're not good at for the sake of being a beginner, but when you are overwhelmed, when you have too many things on your plate and you're trying to continue doing the things that you're just not the best at, that's when you really wear yourself down and that's when you really feel a lot of this self doubt and lack of self confidence. Whereas, if you can hand those things off, you can ask for help in those areas. It allows you to channel your energy into the things that you're good at, and by channeling your energy into the things you're good at, those things actually give you back energy instead of sucking it from you, and that having energy and feeling good at something builds confidence. So I want you to think about what are the areas in your life where you can ask for and accept help that allows you to spend more time doing the things that you do well.
Speaker 1:Naturally, now, number three and number four are conflicting ideas, but they do go together. So, number one well, number three, I guess, as a way to help instill more confidence in yourself, do shit that you're good at, like, just occasionally, do things you're good at because it's fun, it's energizing, it's easy, and you walk away being like look at me, I'm good at that thing, and this could be literally anything Like. Let's say, you're really good at organizing items, like organize a room in your house, or you're really good at painting go paint a picture. You really like writing, or you love reading. Like I know some people think it's weird when I say someone's good at reading, but like I'm a really really slow reader and I don't feel awesome a lot of the time when I walk away from that. But if you do, great, go spend some time reading.
Speaker 1:Whatever it is that you need to do to make yourself feel good. Carve out some time whether it's every day or a chunk of time every week where you can really dive into something that you are good at and you can really like feed that part of you that needs to be good at something. Right, it's okay, we all have that part. We all want to be good at stuff. We don't have to like ignore that part or fight it or pretend that like that makes us less than because we want to be good at stuff. Just do some things that you're good at. It's as simple as that.
Speaker 1:But then number four is the opposite of that, which is also carve out time to pursue something new or something that you know you're not good at, and this does not have to be high stakes. It doesn't have to be something that anybody ever sees. You can use the same examples I used for what you're good at Maybe you're terrible at painting, or it's really hard for you. You find it challenging to garden, for example, I don't know. Challenging to garden, for example, I don't know. Spend some time doing those things, because in doing them you will inevitably get better at doing them and by getting better at doing them, that will instill self-confidence. But again, these can be really low stakes things. They don't have to be things that, if you never end up being good at them, that it's going to like ruin your life.
Speaker 1:I'm saying, like maybe it's yoga right. Like maybe yoga is really hard for you. You feel like you're not good at it. As a certified yoga instructor, I have to tell you that it's not about being good at yoga, and you are good. As long as you show up on the mat, that's yoga. But that aside, if you want to feel more confident in yoga, you are going to have to do it. So show up at home for 20 minutes a couple days a week. No one has to see you. No one has to know, but you'll start to feel the difference. You'll start to see the difference and that will start to build your confidence.
Speaker 1:So, number three and four do shit you're good at and do shit you're not good at. I know. That's so helpful. But finally, the last thing that I want to encourage you to do when it comes to, especially if you are really feeling significant self-doubt right now, if you are feeling significant imposter syndrome, if you're just feeling like what am I good at? I don't feel like I can do anything right and how am I supposed to make a change or take action or do anything when I'm feeling that way? First of all, I just want to acknowledge that that is an extremely challenging place to be, and the reason this is number five, but it's really not number five. I might encourage you to do this second, or after strengths, or maybe even first, is build your support system and then lean on it.
Speaker 1:Self-doubt, imposter syndrome, burnout are all things that are not escaped easily and they are not overcome on their own. It is very, very important that you have people around you to not only support you as you navigate some of these challenges, but to also be that mirror I mentioned earlier in the episode, who can reflect back to you the truth about who you are, rather than the stories that you have made up in your head or that you have been told by uncaring people about you that make you feel less than that, make you feel incapable. Build up a group of people around you who are going to be your cheerleaders, who are going to hold you up when you need it and who are going to give you a boost when it's time. This is also a really great opportunity to seek out professional help, and that could be in the sense of a therapist if you don't work with a therapist already or hi a coach, maybe even a whole human coach. Like me, I love when people have the courage and take the leap to show up to a discovery call with me. Discovery calls are free. They are not a commitment to work together. They are simply that a discovery call, an opportunity to learn a little bit more about my coaching style for me, to learn about you and what your challenges are, and to offer how I might be able to support you through those challenges.
Speaker 1:If those challenges are self-doubt, imposter syndrome, burnout, I can help you through those things and I can be that mirror and I can be that support system for you, with tools and training, in addition to just being a caring person going on this journey on your own and know that there are lots and lots of people who want to see you succeed in the world, and all you have to do is ask them for help and they will likely be there for you. So those are my five tips on how to really instill more confidence in yourself. If you are feeling a lack of confidence, if you're feeling imposter syndrome, if you're feeling burnout, I have whole workshops on things like playing to your strengths, you know, learning how to ask for help, building and utilizing support systems and networks. So if you want more information on those, those will be up on my website here in the near future for you to purchase and do on your own time. If you're looking for a little bit more of that one on one personalized support, again, I would love to encourage you to schedule a discovery call. Let's spend 45 minutes together getting to know each other, talking about what your needs are, seeing if what I have to offer can be supportive to you and, if not, what other options are out there for you that might be more supportive.
Speaker 1:I know this is a little bit longer episode today than we've had in the past and hopefully you got some good information and ideas out of it. I'd love to hear your questions, your reflections, things that came up for you as you were listening to the episode. Feel free to leave those in the comments. I always appreciate a rating If you did enjoy the episode. That's how the podcast gets shared with other people and again, you can click the link in the show notes. If you have a question you want me to answer on the podcast, email that my way. Otherwise I will see you over on Instagram or I will see you back here for our next episode of so Glad you Asked. Until next time, bye, friends.
