The Imposter Syndrome No One Talks About When Scaling to Premium Clients (And How to Work Through It Anyway)

Here's something no one tells you about scaling a service-based business: imposter syndrome doesn't go away when you get better clients. It actually gets worse.

When you're just starting out, you're wondering if you're good enough at your skill. But when you start going after premium clients? Now you're wondering who the heck you are to work with someone more successful than you.

That little mean girl voice in your head will tell you every possible stinking reason why you're not qualified, why you should lower your price, why you should stay in your lane, why you're not prepared or ready enough to take on that client.

Today I'm gonna show you how to take that mean girl voice and tell her to get the heck outta Dodge. Because you are more ready than you think, and the only way you're gonna be able to move into working with better clients is if we fix how we think about ourselves.

1. Why Imposter Syndrome Gets Worse as You Scale (Especially With Premium Clients): The shift from “am I good enough?” to “who am I to work with someone more successful than me?” and why this version hits differently.
2. The Lie Behind Premium Client Imposter Syndrome: Debunking the belief that you need to be at the same income or business level as your clients to serve them well.
3. Imposter Syndrome as a Signal of Growth, Not a Red Flag: Reframing imposter syndrome as proof you’re stretching into your next level, not evidence that you’re unqualified.
4. 6 Practical Strategies to Work Through Imposter Syndrome (Without Waiting to Feel Ready):  Including collecting evidence, studying dream clients, acting “as if,” separating skill from story, and positioning for where you’re going.
5. How to Show Up Confidently on Sales Calls With Bigger Clients: Shifting from proving your worth to focusing on solving problems, and reframing the sales call as you interviewing them.

Find the full post at:  https://brandimowles.com/273

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Additional Resources:

Want help making the shift?

• From Chasing to Chosen is a hands-on workshop that shows you how to position yourself as the go-to expert premium clients seek out — without cold DMs or posting nonstop.
  Grab your spot at brandimowles.com/chasing (live or on-demand, depending on when you’re reading).

Want more strategies for scaling your service-based business without the hustle? DM me on Instagram @brandimowles with the word "PREMIUM" and let's chat about your next steps.

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Transcript

The Imposter Syndrome No One Talks About (And How to Work Through It Anyway)

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Brandi: [00:00:00] Here's something no one tells you about scaling a business. The imposter syndrome doesn't go away. When you get better clients, it actually gets worse because now you're not just wondering if you're good enough at your skill. You're wondering, who the heck are you to work with someone more successful than you?

And that little mean girl in your head, it will tell you every possible stinking reason why you're not qualified, why you should lower your price, why you should stay in your lane, why you're not prepared or ready enough to take on that client.

Today I'm gonna show you how to take that mean girl voice and tell her to get the heck outta Dodge because

you are more ready than you think, and the only way that you're gonna be able to move into working with better clients is if we fix how we think about ourselves. So let's jump on into this week's episode of the Serve Scale. So podcast. Hello my friends [00:01:00] and welcome. Welcome back to another episode of the Service Scale Soar podcast.

I am Brandy and oh, this one's gonna hit a little bit different. If this is your first time here. Hello my friend. This podcast is for service providers who want to start, grow, and scale their one-on-one services without the hustle culture, the bro marketing and wanna do it around creating a life.

And family they love. And today's gonna be a little bit different. It will be actionable as always, but we're not gonna talk about the tacticals. We're gonna talk about that little voice between your ears that does more harm than good for most of us. 

And this is something I don't think is talked about enough. People like to throw out the word imposter syndrome and stuff like that, but they don't give you any like tactical ways to fix it. And so I wanna show up and I want to give you some real case scenarios of what this looks like in real life and how that is such a small [00:02:00] thing that's holding you back.

And one that when we overcome that there is no limit to your growth, your potential, and your success.

And a lot of times when we talk about imposter syndrome, it's talked about when you're first starting your business, but imposter syndrome doesn't just go away when you hit 10 K months, 20 K months, 30 K months, y'all. I've had a 250 K month and still had imposter syndrome.

I've had a $1.2 million years and still had imposter syndrome. So there is no magic number where it just goes away. This is the work that you have to do on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis, and it's gonna show up even more when you start going after premium clients. And that's not the regular, am I good enough at my job imposter syndrome?

I'm talking about who am I to work with someone with a million dollar business when I'm still trying to figure out my own stuff. Imposter syndrome, the kind that makes you lower your prices before you even send the proposal. The [00:03:00] kind that makes you spiral on a sales call, the kind that keeps you playing small, even though you know you have the skill and should be playing so much bigger.

Yeah, that imposter syndrome hits a little bit different. So we're gonna talk about why is this imposter syndrome different, why it's actually a good sign that you're growing, and the exact mindset shifts and tactical strategies that help you move through it without waiting until you feel ready.

Guess what? Here's the truth, you're never gonna feel ready, but you gotta do it anyway. You don't have to do it, but you should do it because it's gonna make you a whole lot more money. So grab your coffee, your kombucha, the little one, whatever you got, and let's jump into this week's episode.

Okay, so let's just call out the elephant in the room and actually give a name to this type of imposter syndrome. There's I regular imposter syndrome and I'm just like, this is not scientific, this is how I'm [00:04:00] classifying 'em. There's regular imposter syndrome. Am I actually good at my job kind? Most of us deal with at some point, and some of you may still be dealing with that, but then this version that we're talking about today, the premium client imposter syndrome, sounds a little bit more like this.

Who am I to charge 5K when half my clients don't even spend five KA month on ads? How can I help them scale to seven figures when I don't even know what that looks like to do it for myself? They have a team with 10 people. I'm like trying to manage dinners and laundry between client work.

They've worked with some big ad managers that people know their name and I'm just me, like no one knows my name. What if they, what if I'm not good enough? What if their other ad manager did better? Does anyone else feel seen right now? Have you felt this before? Here's why this [00:05:00] version hits a little bit different than the just am I actually good at my job type?

Because it's not just about the skill anymore.

It is about your worth. It's about how you view yourself. It's about your permission slip. It's the voice in your head saying, stay in your lane. Work with people at your level. Don't get too big for your britches and the lie underneath all of that. You need to be at their level to serve them. I don't know why we get stuck in our head that like to work with a million dollar business, we also have to be doing a million dollar business.

Most of the execs at Coca-Cola don't make the same amount Coca-Cola does. But for some reason in the online space, we feel like we have to be at a certain level in order to work with clients at that same level.

So there's this underlying lie that you need to be at a certain level to serve them, or you have needed to work with certain clients in order to serve them, or you need to be spending X amount on ad spend per month to serve them. Let [00:06:00] me tell you the truth, though. They don't need you to match their tax bracket.

They need you to solve their specific problem and get them ridiculously good results. A marriage therapist doesn't need to be married. The football coach for the Super Bowl team doesn't need to be playing football. The business coach doesn't need to run your type of business.

The A manager doesn't need to be running ads and posting on social media. You're not hired to be their peer. You're hired to be their expert. But your brain does not care about logic. When you're sitting on that sales call with someone making a hundred, 200 K months and saying that they're spending all this money on ads, and they're shouting out all these big numbers and you're sitting there oh my gosh, I am so out of my league. So let's talk about why this happens and what to do about it.

Here's what I need you to understand. If you're feeling this, it means you're growing. Your brain is literally trying to keep you safe and familiar [00:07:00] territory because familiar feels safe. Even when familiar means playing small. When you start positioning yourself for bigger clients, your brain goes into overdrive collecting evidence against you.

You haven't had a million dollar a year. How can you help someone get there? You don't have a team. How can you help manage theirs? You still have money, stress. What makes you think you can charge premium prices?

And listen, I get it. This hit me like a ton of bricks a few years ago, back in the day because I'm so old now that I say back in the day. So this would've been like 2019. So back in the day, the ad guru that everyone knew, the person that literally taught me how to run ads, asked me to run his ads.

Y'all. I was like, what the actual heck? This person taught me how to run ads, and now he wants me to run his [00:08:00] ads. Like what the, what? I had all the feels like every single imposter syndrome thought you could imagine just flooded in. Who the heck am I to do this? I'm not gonna be as good as he is. Like he taught me, what if I royally f this up?

And he never talks to me again. Also, like I haven't, I don't have enough experience. Like he has so much more experience than me and this is gonna be big budget, this is gonna be the biggest budgets I've ever worked with. And I got so in my head. And at the same time I was also excited, but so in my head and I never got.

So in my head with working with a client before

and. Spoiler alert. I said, yes, of course. I'm not gonna give up that opportunity, even though it was so in my head. But it did. It affected my work so much because I was so stressed that I was gonna mess up. I was so stressed and I got so in my head about it. I was second guessing everything that I was doing.

But you know what, even with all that, I did the dang thing anyway. And I [00:09:00] was so good at it, like really, really good results. Y'all like better results than I could imagine. And then he referred me to his friends, and then I got even bigger clients and a whole new world of doors opened up to me because I took a chance on myself.

But I almost said no because that little mean girl in my ears was telling me I wasn't ready. And I see this happen all the time in Strategy Society. They have one-on-one Voxer access to me, so I get the nitty gritty.

I get to hear like them in their raw and real moments of what's going on, and I see this come up over and over and over again. We have a student, we'll just call her E, who took on a big client recently, and she was so in her head because the ad manager she was replacing was so well known in the industry.

Someone even told her, like a friend told her good luck doing better than him. What the what? So now not only do you have imposter syndrome, you have outward [00:10:00] validation of that little mean girl in your head. Can you imagine thanks for the vote of confidence friend. But you know what she's doing.

She took on the client and she's totally crushing it. She's getting better results than he did. The client's blown away. So happy. She's looking more confident in her skills every day and it's opening up doors for bigger and better clients for her because now she's become a referral machine. 'cause she has wowed this client.

But if she had listened to that voice in her set head that said, you're not ready for this. You can't do better than this other ad manager. She would've missed all of it. So here's the reframe. I need you to hear that. Imposter syndrome. It's not a sign that you're not ready. It's a sign that you're stretching.

It's a sign that you're growing into the next version of yourself, and you don't have to wait until you feeling goes away to do the thing. You do the dang thing. Then the confidence [00:11:00] comes. All right, so you got my pep talk. So let's get practical though

because you can't just positive affirmation your way out of imposter syndrome. You need actual strategies., We wanna collect evidence of your expertise. I'm talking testimonials, case study results you've gotten for clients. Put them somewhere you can see them because when the voice tells you you're not qualified, you need the receipts that says otherwise.

We keep a whole Slack channel where I'm always screenshotting and we have it like strategist Society. And we have Strategist Society certified in convergence for clients. And whenever someone is posting their wins and saying oh my gosh, Brandi, I couldn't have done this without you, and things like that, we drop 'em in there.

So when I'm having a student that comes and it's ugh. I purchased this and it wasn't worth it because like we all have that when we're enrolling hundreds of people. That happens. You may have a client where you have all these great results and then one client comes and they're unhappy and you think that everyone's unhappy and then you start doubting your [00:12:00] skills.

So we need to have that evidence of our expertise. And so I like to keep mine slack. Maybe you keep yours on your desktop. You have a folder. We have one strategist Society member who keeps everything in actual physical folders. She knows who she is if she is listening, and I feel like she should print hers out and put 'em in her folders.

And so whenever you're feeling those doubts or before you get in on a sales call, read through it. It's a confidence booster and it will help you so much on those days that you're feeling down, because we could have a hundred testimonials. And one negative comment, and we will focus on that one negative comment, rather than focusing on the hundred good testimonials.

So collect the evidence that you are the expert. Second, study your dream client's language and problems. We talked about this last week when we were talking about messaging, not to fake it, but to genuinely understand their world. Join communities where they hang out, follow them on social media, read their content, listen to their podcasts, because the [00:13:00] more you understand their actual problems, the less you'll feel like an outsider trying to break in.

Because you'll understand what their business is, what they're doing. You'll have more knowledge. And so B, whenever you're doing like your standards of excellence, I don't know if we have a podcast up so on that if we do, we'll include it. But instead of deciding we have a standards of excellence. And one of them's fuel your brain, move your body.

So a lot of times I like to move my body and fuel my brain at the same time. So while you're on your walking pad, while you're outside walking, while you're lifting weight. Put some of their podcasts in your ears. Listen, what are they talking about? What are the pain points their clients are having?

The more you can understand the audience that you wanna reach and what they're doing, or audio books on marketing become a pro. This voice lessons a little bit more. Third start before you're ready. I know, I know, I know. It's terrifying. But the confidence doesn't show up first. The action [00:14:00] shows up first.

Then the confidence follows. Update your website to speak to premium clients even if you haven't landed that premium premium client yet. Set your prices for what clients you want to work with, not the clients you have. Pitch yourself for opportunities that feel slightly outta reach. .

We're done playing small. We're gonna position for where you're going, not where you've been, and this like our, I was just telling you about E like her confidence. And her, she now has validation that her skill is there because she's getting the results with that premium client. If she didn't have that premium client, she wouldn't have realized how freaking awesome she is.

She had to get that client in order to see that. So then fourth, get in rooms with people ahead of you. Masterminds, group coaching programs, communities in-person networking, live events, wherever your dream clients are hanging out, because when you're around people at that level regularly, it helps stop feeling like such [00:15:00] a like.

Misalignment with who you're working with. You start seeing them as humans with problems. Instead of these, like people that we like talk up a story, like we give them guru or oh my gosh, do you know her on Instagram? They become not so untouchable, but they're like, now you're friends. Some of 'em best clients have landed from being on podcasts and in rooms.

Masterminds and live events like best clients. 'cause they get to know you, they see you're a real person and then you see they're a real person and it's, it takes away like all the scaries that we're having when we get on those sales calls because we've interacted with them. We know they put their pants on the same way as we do.

So get in rooms with those people. I have two more for you. So the fifth one is separate your skill from your story. You can be broken, brilliant. You can be building your own business and still be an expert of your craft. Your skill is your skill. It exists independently from your bank account, from your business account, from your business [00:16:00] model, or how many Instagram followers you have

an ad manager who gets three X ROAS is an ad manager who gets three X roas, whether you're making five KA month or 50 KA month. So your skill and your story or your numbers are not related in any such way. Don't worry about how many Instagram followers you have, how much you're making a month, how like how many clients you have, how many big name clients, none of that matters.

What matters is you get your clients ridiculously good results. Your skill and your story are separate. And the sixth and final action practical step you can take is act as if positioning. You hear a lot of people talk about fake it till you make it.

I don't like that. I don't think we should be faking anything. So act as if your website, your pricing, your sales call, your email signature, how you show up at events, position yourself as [00:17:00] if you already work with per premiumm clients. Not in a fake it till you make it type of way.

But in a, this is who I'm becoming way, because if your message says beginner, friendly, and affordable, you are never gonna attract champagne clients, even if you're talented enough to serve them. So we wanna act as if we're already working with the clients that we're dreaming about. Okay, so let me recap those real quick for you.

The first is collect evidence of your expertise. Two, study your dream client's language and problems. Three, start before you're ready. Four, get in rooms with people ahead of you and that you wanna work with. Five, separate your skill from your story. And six, practice that act as if positioning.

Okay, so here's the thing nobody warns you about. You can do all the mindset work. You can collect all the evidence, you can update all your messaging, and then imposter syndrome is still going to show, show up like it just is. Especially on sales calls, you're gonna get on a [00:18:00] Zoom and someone's gonna say, I wanna spend 50 KA month.

And your brain is going to scream, abort, abort, abort. What are you thinking? This is not a client for you and it's gonna spiral. They're gonna find out that I don't know what I'm doing. Ah, I should lower my prices. Maybe I'm just not actually qualified for this. So here's what you do.

I want you to pause. I want you to breathe and remember, they're on this call. They have a problem, you can solve it. That's it. They didn't hop on this call to audit your resume or your background or your life story. They hopped on this call to see if they can help you. And when you start spiraling, you need to get through it.

And I want you to remember, I'm not being interviewed. I'm interviewing them. They already wanna work with me, and now I'm gonna show them what that process looks like. This is about finding out their problem and seeing if you [00:19:00] can solve it. And the thing is, you don't have to have worked with a client just like them in order to solve it. Chances are you have every skill you need in order to solve their problem, even if you don't think you do.

Because here's the secret. At the end of the day, the only thing they care about is if you can get them results. So stop trying to prove you're worth on these calls. Try stop trying to prove that you're successful enough to work with them. Start showing them you understand their problems and you have a process to fix it.

That's all they actually care about. Alright, my friends, here's the mindset shift that changes everything. Stop asking yourself, am I good enough for them? Start asking, can I solve their specific problem? Because premium clients aren't hiring you to be their peer.

They're hiring you to be the expert in one thing.

The doctor doesn't need to have cancer to treat cancer patients, [00:20:00] right? The Olympic coach doesn't need to have gold medals to train a gold medalist. You don't have to have a perfect business to help someone run ads. You don't need to be making seven figures to help someone build their systems for their seven figure business.

You're not selling your life experience. You're selling your skill and your process. So here's your permission slip. You cannot have it all figured out and still be brilliant. Heck, you can be broke and brilliant. You can be building and still be an expert. We. Where you are in your business journey does not determine your ability to serve someone in theirs.

You're ready even when you don't feel like it. And every single person who's ever scaled past their comfort zone felt exactly what you're feeling right now. The only difference, they did it anyway.

All right, my friends, if you're still sitting here thinking, okay, Brandy, I [00:21:00] hear you. I know I need to push through this, but I still don't know how to position myself. So premium clients actually see me as the obvious choice. I don't know what to say, where to show up, how to build the authority without a huge audience or a perfect business.

That's exactly why I created. From chasing to chosen workshop, this is where I'm gonna walk you through the exact framework for becoming the go-to expert in your space. The person premium clients seek out and are ready to pay well. We're covering how to position yourself for clients who actually want, how to build authority, even when imposter syndrome is screaming at you, and how to create messaging that makes champagne clients say.

Finally, someone gets me. So grab your spot at brandy mals.com/chasing. We'll link that up in the show notes, but it's brandy mals.com/chasing this workshop is available on demand.

And if you know that imposter syndrome is the thing standing between you and the business you actually want, this is your invitation to [00:22:00] work through it with support instead of white knuckling it. Listen, you're more ready than you think you are.

That client who feels too big, you can serve them. The price that feels too high, you're worth it. The opportunity that fills outta reach. It's not. The only difference between you and the version of you working with premium clients is that she decided to do it scared. So go do the dang thing. I believe in you, and I'll see you in the next episode.

Go out, serve your clients, scale your business, and soar into the success you deserve.