.png)
Deep Dive Dialogues with Dan Woerheide
Deep Dive Dialogues is a podcast that goes beyond small talk, offering insightful conversations for coaches, entrepreneurs, and anyone passionate about personal growth and building an online business. Hosted by Dan Woerheide, each episode explores real challenges in the coaching industry and the deeper values that drive meaningful change. Join us for authentic discussions and practical advice to elevate your coaching journey and business.
Deep Dive Dialogues with Dan Woerheide
Imposter Syndrome Exposed: Why You’re Not a Fraud (and How to Keep Growing)
Hey everyone, Dan here! In this episode, I’m diving into the idea of ‘imposter syndrome’—and why it may not be what you think it is. We’ll look at how the term got started, why it’s so widespread, and what’s really going on when you feel that knot in your stomach telling you you’re not good enough. I’ll share why actual ‘imposters’ are out to deceive people (which probably isn’t you!) and how simple steps like practicing your coaching skills, investing in your own growth, and consistently filling your calendar can help you kick self-doubt to the curb. If you’re ready to gain confidence, get real experience, and build your coaching or consulting business without feeling like a fraud, you won’t want to miss this one!
Links and Resources
Krytal Proffitt - https://krystalproffitt.com/
Podcast coach, content strategist, best-selling author, lifelong cheerleader, and content marketer obsessed with boosting your confidence.
Hey, welcome back to Deep Dive Dialogues. I'm your host, or even a lack of confidence, but I want to challenge this in a way that asks the question does it really mean what we think it means? And I'm going to venture to say probably not. So I hope that with you today, we can redefine this. And then I want to jump into why your calendar might be the single most important tool in your online business, whether you're a coach, consultant or a creator of other sorts. And before we do any of that, one of my coaches in the world of podcasting it happens to be is Crystal Prophet. I'll link to her work in the show notes, but she has challenged me. She did a podcast review for me recently and she challenged me in that review to be more intentional about asking for reviews. So if you listen to my show and you've not yet taken the time to leave a review or a rating, depending on the app that you're using to listen I'd be grateful if you would take two minutes to leave me a review today.
Speaker 1:All right, let's dive in, shall we Rethinking imposter syndrome? The term comes, the phrase rather. Maybe it's a term, maybe it's a phrase it comes from, and the phrase I'm speaking about specifically, of course, is imposter syndrome. It comes from psychologists who labeled it back in 1978. I think it's important to note that if you do any research on this, you'll find that it's also referred to as imposter phenomenon, fraud syndrome, imposterism or perceived fraudulence. And I went and pulled the definition of imposter, the word imposter itself, and it is a person who pretends to be someone else in order to deceive others, especially for fraudulent gain. So what does that actually mean? Well, I think, simply put, feeling like a fraud implies intentional deception for personal gain, implies intentional deception for personal gain. That doesn't quite fit the bill for me, because, as a coach, as a consultant or as an entrepreneur, if you're being ethical in your work and what you're doing, even in your approach, you're not out to trick anyone, then I'm going to say it's likely you're not truly experiencing imposter syndrome.
Speaker 1:What is really going on here is that you're probably having some increased anxiety, maybe some fear or that self-doubt that I just mentioned. It often comes down to a simple, maybe complex, but lack of mastery in what it is that you're doing, or a lack of significant experience, or even just a lack of experience in general in what it is that you've set out to do. You simply haven't put the reps in to feel that next level of confidence. Yet Maybe you're feeling a bit intimidated, but that's just part of the normal stages of growth in business, especially in the online world. So if you I'll just say it this way, my two cents here if you haven't committed fraud, you're not intentionally trying to mislead anyone, there's probably no impostering going on and again. Instead, I think we need to recognize that what you're facing is normal anxiety of stepping into something that is new or relatively new to you. So then we might ask well, what's the fear to this experience? And it is practice, experience and consistency.
Speaker 1:As a coach, you've got to put your reps in, you got to coach your butt off. The quickest way to shake off that doubt, that self-doubt, that fear that you're feeling, is to coach more. You fill your calendar with free sessions, paid sessions, peer-to-peer practice sessions, whatever it is. Coach more. This is how you're going to gain valuable experience, build your confidence in your own abilities. The more you do it, the better you're going to feel about the results that you're creating for your clients.
Speaker 1:I'd say also that you might consider investing in your growth We've talked about this but get a coach. If you're not willing to invest in your own coaching, how can you expect your potential clients to invest in your coaching? Let yourself be challenged, the same that you plan to challenge your clients, or the same way you would challenge your clients. Stretch yourself. If you say something like, well, I'd love to hire a coach right now, but I can't afford it. Well, what would you tell your client? What are you challenging them to do? That's just out of reach for them. If you're not willing to do it, how do you expect them to be willing to do it? And then also always be learning right. Continue to educate yourself about coaching techniques or your industry specifically. Maybe you're into online funnel building, and that's great. Nothing wrong with that. But spend time learning more about that particular thing that you're into, that thing in your industry no-transcript and then, when you show up to a conversation with that knowledge about the person in front of you, you're able to instantly build trust with them. They're able to feel that you're invested in them. It's game changing. So I hope you know we've maybe had you start thinking about imposter syndrome in a slightly different light. Ideally, we've redefined that in terms that are relatable. You know, if you're not being unethical or you're not trying to intentionally commit fraud or, you know, convince somebody of something that's untrue, a lie, unethical, illegal then imposter syndrome may be the wrong phraseology.
Speaker 1:The other thing I wanted to talk about today and I realize this is a holiday week for most of us listening or participating, and I wanted to keep this episode fairly short because it will come out on in the US Christmas Eve. So the other thing I wanted to talk about is funny enough what's on your calendar? Are you scheduling conversations like it's your job? If you want to grow your online business, if you want to grow as a coach or consultant, then you have to talk to people. You have to talk to clients. You have to talk to potential clients. You have to talk to potential partners.
Speaker 1:If it's not on your calendar, is it even real? You have to make it intentional. You need to block off specific times, to connect specific times, to be in connection. That's the actual calls, right? You want to take off. If you don't have calls scheduled, then when are you working to schedule them? You want to make sure that you're doing everything you can in your business to get these things onto your calendar so that it is real for you, it is real for your business and it's real for the people that you're talking to.
Speaker 1:And when you do hop on a call, I want to challenge you to simply focus on the person in front of you. I don't want you to worry about your entire day or week of calls. I just want you to focus on being present with the person in front of you, taking the time before that call to learn everything you can about that person or at least learn as much as you can in the time you have about that person and then show up, be present, be genuinely curious about and interested in the person that you're on that call with. That one conversation could open doors for partnership opportunities. It could open doors for referrals or for future clients. Maybe that person, three years from now, has a challenge that they want to work with you on. Or maybe that person will never work with you but send you other people who are your absolute favorite clients. You never know where that one conversation could lead to. So being intentional with them, being focused on them and deeply curious about that person is going to be a tremendous factor in what you're doing with this time, in these conversations and then keep inviting people, offer sample sessions, offer workshops, make bold proposals Every opportunity you have, invite people consistently to experience your coaching.
Speaker 1:The more conversations that you schedule, the more your impact, your confidence, all the things are going to grow, especially your income. If you want to increase your income, the number one way to do it is to do the work in your business. And if it's not on your calendar, the question is are you really doing the work Right? If, if I think Dave Ramsey said it best I heard him say it sometime years ago and I don't remember if it was a podcast or maybe I read it or it was one of the live events that I attended with their crew. But Dave Ramsey said you know, if you were paying you to do the work that you're doing right now, would you fire you? Simply means is are you treating your business like it's your job or are you treating it like it's something that you spend time in when you want to? And hey, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with creating a life of freedom as you build your business. But if you're putting in a month worth of hours billable hours let's talk about this in billable hours If you're putting in a month's worth of billable hours over a year and expecting year results and not one month results, then you're probably looking at this from the wrong perspective.
Speaker 1:If you're expecting year growth, year results, year income, then you have to put in a year's worth of work. What does that look like for you? What does that look like for your business? All right, I told you I wanted to keep this episode short, so it's going to be super short. Here's your homework Open your calendar right now. I'll wait. Now take time to schedule your next conversation and then schedule the next one. Keep going With every conversation. Your confidence is going to grow Soon enough you're going to realize that there's nothing impostery about you or what you're doing. In the first place, you were just building your skills, getting your reps in. I want to thank you so much for listening to Deep Dive Dialogues with me, dan Warheide, and I want to remind you that if you're not intentionally deceiving anyone, you're not an imposter. You're simply learning. Schedule those calls and I hope that I'll see you in the next episode.