Imposter syndrome.
Speaker:I wanna overcome...
Speaker:imposter syndrome.
Speaker:I wanna overcome...
Speaker:imposter syndrome.
Speaker:Steve Worthy...
Speaker:Steve Worthy...
Speaker:help me please!
Speaker:Imposter syndrome...
Speaker:Im-podcaster syndrome.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah!
Speaker:Welcome to episode 199 of the Confident Live Marketing podcast.
Speaker:I knew I can do it.
Speaker:I had the skills to do, but man, that imposter syndrome was like, oh my gosh,
Speaker:now I got to go back and lead these same people that I just leapfrogged.
Speaker:Or, I'm in a position now where I'm in a room with people who are
Speaker:just as smart as me even smarter.
Speaker:Now, how do I communicate?
Speaker:Hello, my name's Ian Anderson Gray, and in this episode of the Confident
Speaker:Live Marketing podcast, we're talking about imposter syndrome.
Speaker:Do you sometimes doubt your ability?
Speaker:Have you ever thought of yourself as a fraud?
Speaker:Maybe you are suffering from what is called imposter syndrome.
Speaker:And if so, you're not alone.
Speaker:It's a common issue for creative people, business owners, and entrepreneurs.
Speaker:What are you going to do about it?
Speaker:I think we need to get on with the show, bring in my special guest and
Speaker:we'll talk all about imposter syndrome.
Speaker:Let's do it right now.
Speaker:Well, hello.
Speaker:Welcome to the show.
Speaker:Very exciting.
Speaker:This is episode 199.
Speaker:We're almost at the 200, but before I talk about that, a
Speaker:few little housekeeping things.
Speaker:First of all, right now at this precise time that I'm going live,
Speaker:Ecamm Live version 4 is out.
Speaker:So if you have been listening to this show or watching this show for a while,
Speaker:you know the Ecamm live is my favorite live video tool and content creation tool.
Speaker:The guys at Ecamm have been working so hard at version 4, and it's come
Speaker:out just now at 4:00 PM UK time.
Speaker:I think that's 11:00 AM eastern.
Speaker:And it's got so many cool features.
Speaker:We've got multi streaming now.
Speaker:We've got a new camera switcher.
Speaker:We've got Amazon Live comments.
Speaker:What else have we got?
Speaker:Oh, yeah, the bit I'm really excited about is we've also got isolated
Speaker:video recording, which means that I will get a clean feed of me, clean
Speaker:feed of my guest today, Steve, which makes repurposing so much easier.
Speaker:So if you wanna find out more about that, you can take it for a test drive.
Speaker:If you're already an Ecamm live user, you can also upgrade.
Speaker:The prices have stayed the same, which is amazing.
Speaker:All you need to do is go to iag.me/ecamm.
Speaker:E-C-A-M-M.
Speaker:And I also wanna say this is going to be the last live episode of the Confident
Speaker:Live Marketing Show for a little while.
Speaker:I'm having a little bit of a break.
Speaker:I've been broadcasting this show since May, 2019, and as I prepare for episode
Speaker:200 and the fourth year anniversary, I'm taking a little bit of a break, so that
Speaker:I can just reboot things and I'd love to hear from you what your thoughts and
Speaker:ideas are as we go into episode 200.
Speaker:I'm going to be doing a big episode.
Speaker:We're going to have a party.
Speaker:We're going to have some really cool things, but if you wanna find out
Speaker:more about that, then do subscribe to my newsletter, iag.me/newsletter.
Speaker:Now, this is really important.
Speaker:The podcast is going to continue every week.
Speaker:Every single Friday, the episode will come out.
Speaker:But instead of being a new live episode, I'm going to be going back
Speaker:into the archives and we'll be looking at some of the best moments from
Speaker:previous episodes, so the podcast can be found at iag.me/podcast.
Speaker:In today's episode, we're talking about the dreaded imposter syndrome.
Speaker:It required a scary voice, and it's something that so
Speaker:many of ours struggle with.
Speaker:I've got a special guest to bring in on the show and to introduce to you.
Speaker:It is the fabulous Steve Worthy who is a podcasting veteran he began in
Speaker:2007 with By husbands, for husbands, a podcast and business focused on
Speaker:helping entrepreneurial husbands succeed professionally and personally
Speaker:by balancing work and family.
Speaker:Steve is a seasoned business leader with over 25 years of executive
Speaker:retail leadership experience.
Speaker:His career is focused on assisting podcasters and leaders to find
Speaker:their unique voice and understand how to fit within their culture to
Speaker:advance their podcasts and career.
Speaker:Currently as an entrepreneur, Steve teaches both novice and experienced
Speaker:podcasters how to livestream to his podcaster's live academy.
Speaker:Steve views this as the best medium for podcasters to grow and engage
Speaker:with their audience authentically, and I totally agree with that.
Speaker:Welcome to those shows, Steve.
Speaker:What's going on?
Speaker:Lemme see if I have the funny voice thing here too.
Speaker:I don't know if I have it or not.
Speaker:Let's see.
Speaker:No, that's the wrong one.
Speaker:There it is.
Speaker:There we go.
Speaker:Together we can go live.
Speaker:I love your intro, man.
Speaker:Oh, thank you.
Speaker:Then we got all the family in on that one.
Speaker:So when I do the new one, the thing is my son's voice is broken
Speaker:now, so it's going to be too good.
Speaker:Oh, we could go, like, it's going to be like that.
Speaker:That's interesting.
Speaker:His voice, the Peter Brady thing, that's what we call over here.
Speaker:It's a famous old show, the Brady Bunch and Peter Brady's voice, they were doing
Speaker:this singing and it starts cracking.
Speaker:So, that's so funny.
Speaker:That's so funny.
Speaker:Yeah, maybe at the moment it would be a bit like that.
Speaker:But anyway, I'm excited to have you on the show because I
Speaker:feel like we haven't met yet.
Speaker:We haven't because last year in May 2022, we were both at PODFEST
Speaker:or VIDFEST in Orlando, Florida.
Speaker:I know you couldn't speak and then you had to dash off.
Speaker:But we briefly caught each other and we had a few words, but I knew that
Speaker:I wanted to get to know you more.
Speaker:I wanted to have you on the show and it's taken a bit of a while,
Speaker:but you're here now, exciting.
Speaker:Exactly, man.
Speaker:No, I'm really excited to be here.
Speaker:Yeah, we chatted for a minute and, I'm a little upset because
Speaker:I wanted to be number 200.
Speaker:I'm 199, but that's okay.
Speaker:I'll take 199.
Speaker:I'm sorry about that.
Speaker:You were trying to get in there.
Speaker:I can see what you're doing.
Speaker:You're trying to get there to 200.
Speaker:I was delaying.
Speaker:I was like, what?
Speaker:97?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I think if I book now, I'll probably be 200.
Speaker:It didn't work.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There we go.
Speaker:As I said, I'm having a bit of a break because I think sometimes we were
Speaker:talking about this just before we started recording, that you've moved to Atlanta.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:As we say in the very British voice, Atlanta, I should say.
Speaker:And you've moved there, one of the reasons you mentioned was because it
Speaker:has this, this creative side to you.
Speaker:Yeah, I used to live here from 2000 to around 2009.
Speaker:And during that time of my life, I felt and I knew I was actually probably
Speaker:the most creative entrepreneurial from an entrepreneurial standpoint,
Speaker:creating concepts, helping people with their business, helping people with
Speaker:their marketing, all these different aspects of my life really started to
Speaker:germinate here and propel me forward.
Speaker:And then as we were talking earlier, the corporate will took over.
Speaker:You started making more money, you started to do all these other
Speaker:things, and you start to move away from those creative juices.
Speaker:And then when I realized that I needed to go back, when I say needed, I internally
Speaker:needed to go back to that creative side as I was ending my career in retail.
Speaker:Atlanta was just a place, and we called it and I told you I had to
Speaker:come back to the source and I really felt like Atlanta was the source.
Speaker:It has been.
Speaker:And it continues to be the source for my creativity.
Speaker:We have so many things going on and I'm excited to be back in this great town and
Speaker:enjoy the vibe that it's been giving me.
Speaker:Definitely.
Speaker:If you are listening or watching I'd love to know from you where
Speaker:is your source of creativity?
Speaker:What gives that creative spark for you?
Speaker:For me, I don't know.
Speaker:It's going somewhere different.
Speaker:I think if I'm in the house all the time, sometimes I get stifled,
Speaker:so getting out of the house.
Speaker:I love my little trips to the US.
Speaker:I need to go back to the US this year, but I'm not quite sure
Speaker:when that's going to happen.
Speaker:But that always helps me to be creative.
Speaker:And one of these days I'm going to actually visit Atlanta.
Speaker:I've only ever visited the airport, which
Speaker:I was doesn't count.
Speaker:I was just about to say no, it counts because it's own city,
Speaker:if you will, in this city.
Speaker:But I was just about to say that.
Speaker:Man, dude, you got to come to Atlanta.
Speaker:There's so many great things to do here.
Speaker:You bring your kids and your wife.
Speaker:So many great things to do, restaurants, and we can show you around.
Speaker:So just let me know.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Thank you for that.
Speaker:Before we get onto imposter syndrome, I'd love to know a little bit about
Speaker:how you got into what you're doing.
Speaker:I mentioned in the bio that you had this podcast for husbands.
Speaker:That piqued my interest.
Speaker:I think that's not something I hear very often.
Speaker:How did you get into what you're currently doing, which is
Speaker:teaching podcasters to go live?
Speaker:And I totally agree that it's a fantastic medium.
Speaker:Particularly for people like me who are maybe a bit, I'm going to
Speaker:admit it, recovering perfectionists.
Speaker:So going live, you just get it done and then you can repurpose it
Speaker:into all these different places.
Speaker:You're preaching to the choir here with that, but how did you get
Speaker:into what you're currently doing?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I'm one of those fortunate people.
Speaker:I think there's a lot of us out here.
Speaker:I found my trifecta, so to speak, which is leadership,
Speaker:podcasting, and live streaming.
Speaker:The leadership portion came first where I started teaching a whole bunch of
Speaker:different people different leadership skills, how to start a business.
Speaker:And then I was at my church in Atlanta actually at the time, teaching
Speaker:people how to start a business.
Speaker:And a good friend of mine, he came on board.
Speaker:We started teaching a class together and we said we need to do something different.
Speaker:So, we came up with this idea of helping husbands balance the idea of
Speaker:being a husband or of being a husband and actually being an entrepreneur.
Speaker:It is a balancing act because you want to invest so much time in your business,
Speaker:but you also have to make sure that you're balancing time being a husband,
Speaker:father, and things along that line.
Speaker:And so By husbands, for husbands was born and we started actually utilizing,
Speaker:back then was called Blog Talk Radio.
Speaker:Then we got turned in 2007 to podcasting by a CEO friend of ours.
Speaker:And so we started stripping out the audio.
Speaker:I'm downloading, using RSS feed to upload and then sending out to people.
Speaker:Apple was the only spot pretty much at that time where people can
Speaker:actually download the RSS feeds.
Speaker:And my podcasting journey started then.
Speaker:I think for me, as I ramped back up in the podcast, I took a break
Speaker:from 2007 to around 2012, started back up again around 2018, 2019.
Speaker:I started back just podcasting and then this whole live streaming
Speaker:bug, I just started watching it on LinkedIn share Sharon Jones* a couple
Speaker:other people who were just doing it.
Speaker:They were pioneers in some of that stuff.
Speaker:And I said, this is actually a really cool medium.
Speaker:And what happened was I was part of this international podcast group, and we would
Speaker:meet once a month, four of us broke off and started our own group and we would
Speaker:meet every month, almost twice a month.
Speaker:I said, "Dude, this should be a podcast.
Speaker:Podcasters talking about podcasting."
Speaker:And next thing I was already dabbling in live streaming with
Speaker:my retail leadership podcast.
Speaker:We can talk about that one later.
Speaker:But what happened was, it was international Podcast day.
Speaker:I ended up going live with two other podcasters, and that was 2021.
Speaker:Right after that, Podcaster's Live was born.
Speaker:I just said, this is the best way, I think for podcasters to, one, get over
Speaker:their fear of a podcaster syndrome, which we're going to talk about, but
Speaker:it's also one of the best mediums to grow their discoverability and audience.
Speaker:That's how Podcaster's Live and my journey into podcasting
Speaker:and live streaming was born.
Speaker:That's awesome to hear.
Speaker:I'd love to hear people's stories and everyone has so many different
Speaker:stories, but there are a few little strands that seem to be very similar.
Speaker:Now, I've talked about imposter syndrome on the show before,
Speaker:but not in any great detail.
Speaker:It's something that I've definitely struggled with from time to time
Speaker:and sometimes in my life, it's been even more than others, I think.
Speaker:But how would you define what imposter syndrome is?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Imposter syndrome is really that feeling of inadequacy that you feel when you are
Speaker:involved to embark on something that's unknown or undiscovered within how you
Speaker:actually live your life or the journey that you're currently on, the tendency.
Speaker:You don't get imposter syndrome when you are doing something that you're already
Speaker:adept at or that you're comfortable doing.
Speaker:The tendency sometimes is that we start to internalize imposter syndrome
Speaker:and make it into this bad thing.
Speaker:And I have flipped it on its head in the context of realizing and
Speaker:helping people realize that, man, you're about to do something that
Speaker:you've probably never done before.
Speaker:Like, how cool is that?
Speaker:So how do we get past that feeling of like, I may not be good enough
Speaker:to the point of, wow, this is something really dope in my life.
Speaker:Now let me take advantage of it.
Speaker:So we've been able to flip it on its head.
Speaker:But what we've found in our research is that the imposter syndrome, of course,
Speaker:about 70% of people actually deal with it throughout the entire world.
Speaker:It is an equal combination of, how we were reared, our socialization as
Speaker:a kid, but then also as we move into adulthood, really trying to figure
Speaker:out who we are, and sometimes we start to emulate other people and we don't
Speaker:really have a good grasp of who we are.
Speaker:And so, we end up taking on all these different personas and not
Speaker:really figuring out who we are.
Speaker:Because once you figure out who you are, a little bit more, now you're able to
Speaker:become a little bit more comfortable.
Speaker:But impodcaster syndrome is something that takes place when you're really
Speaker:about to embark on something that's really new in your journey, something
Speaker:that you've really never done before.
Speaker:Oh, that's fascinating what you said about how it can come from the fact
Speaker:that we maybe don't know ourselves.
Speaker:And I think that in my mid to late forties, which is where I am now, that I
Speaker:feel a lot more comfortable in who I am.
Speaker:So imposter syndrome has had less of a hold.
Speaker:I think three or four years ago, it was a lot more.
Speaker:And part of that was because it was what I thought other people thought about me.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:hundred percent
Speaker:I started to get success.
Speaker:I started to get asked to speak at events and this voice in my head was thinking,
Speaker:but do they not know that I'm not an expert, I don't know anything about this.
Speaker:Surely they're going to find out.
Speaker:And I really doubted myself and it was what I thought other people thought of me.
Speaker:Can you expand a little bit more on that?
Speaker:Because I think it's what we think of what other people think of us.
Speaker:That could be a big problem here.
Speaker:100%.
Speaker:We have broken down.
Speaker:So we have a book coming out that's called 'How to Beat Impodcaster Syndrome'.
Speaker:And what we've done within the book is really broken down the book into
Speaker:two different type of triggers.
Speaker:There are internal triggers and external triggers.
Speaker:Some of the internal trigger is that internalized fear of being found out.
Speaker:Another internalized trigger is embracing the ideas of what
Speaker:happened to us as a youth and how those things impacted our life.
Speaker:The other part of it is a trigger relative to like, I may not feel adequate.
Speaker:Even though I know that I actually have what it takes to actually be here,
Speaker:there is still something inside of me that feels that I'm not adequate.
Speaker:And whoever I'm looking at or whoever I'm talking to, they can see right through me.
Speaker:Doesn't matter how much confidence that I'm speaking with.
Speaker:And all of those internal triggers are really just rooted in, honestly,
Speaker:us telling ourselves a lie.
Speaker:And what I mean by that is, when you have done the work, when you have put in the
Speaker:time, when you have educated yourself, when you have prepped and done all these
Speaker:things, the psyche sometimes tells us, we tell ourselves a lie that we're just
Speaker:not good enough because we are, we are looking for the approval of someone else.
Speaker:And when we're doing that, man, that just wasn't good enough.
Speaker:How do they feel about that?
Speaker:We're not particularly sure.
Speaker:You know what?
Speaker:Stop the process of seeking the approval of other people
Speaker:and trust who you truly are.
Speaker:And that just takes time.
Speaker:That takes confidence in learning who you are.
Speaker:That takes you having some wins under your belt, some successful shows.
Speaker:But then also as you and I know, going live, I just did
Speaker:a live streaming Saturday.
Speaker:I felt it was horrible, but man, I got through that puppy because I knew that
Speaker:I needed to get through that process.
Speaker:So helping helping yourself get through that process of understanding, once again,
Speaker:more about who you are can actually help combat the lies that we tell ourselves.
Speaker:So true.
Speaker:And I think sometimes we'll need some help from other people.
Speaker:I've definitely felt that although you've got to find out who you are,
Speaker:sometimes getting help from coaches or from a husband or a wife or
Speaker:whatever, somebody who knows you.
Speaker:I've mentioned this before on the show, but years ago, I went on this course
Speaker:called The Growing Leaders Course, and one of the questions was list your strengths.
Speaker:What are your strengths?
Speaker:And I couldn't list a single one.
Speaker:I didn't list anything.
Speaker:And it was my wife who said, "Ian, don't be silly.
Speaker:You're good at this, you're good at this."
Speaker:And I started to think, oh yeah, I am quite good at that, but I needed
Speaker:somebody else to help me with that.
Speaker:Hundred percent.
Speaker:You've mentioned, impodcaster syndrome.
Speaker:That's your phrase for imposter syndrome, but tell us a little bit
Speaker:more about that word you're using.
Speaker:Yeah, it's a direct derivative of imposter syndrome.
Speaker:But we deal with it of course because we deal with the content creators,
Speaker:podcasters, and live streamers.
Speaker:And the reason why we wanted to utilize and differentiate that is because
Speaker:there is a measure of difference when it comes to content creators
Speaker:and somebody in the business world.
Speaker:In the business world where I first struggled with the content or with
Speaker:imposter syndrome, I was able to mask a little bit of the imposter
Speaker:syndrome with my degrees, with my position with authority, with money.
Speaker:I'm able to mask my feelings of inadequacy with all these other veneers.
Speaker:However, when we start talking about content creators, you are really creating
Speaker:the level of intimacy with your content and who you are with your audience.
Speaker:There is absolutely no room for you to hide.
Speaker:You will be found out if you don't come across as authentic or as real
Speaker:as possible with your audience.
Speaker:So the imposter syndrome is not so much unique, but there's a unique aspect to it.
Speaker:I feel that we'll be talking about in the book as it relates to
Speaker:content creators because once again, there is a level of vulnerability.
Speaker:You know that during a podcast, the level of intimacy that you have and
Speaker:you alone connecting with your audience from an audio standpoint is intense.
Speaker:So, the impodcaster syndrome is helping us as a unique aspect of the industry,
Speaker:content creators, podcasters, the live streamers understand that the
Speaker:authenticity part of it is actually a little more unique, and that's what
Speaker:intensifies the impodcaster syndrome.
Speaker:That's fascinating.
Speaker:I think for me, live streaming and podcasting has been simultaneously the
Speaker:most difficult thing that I've done, but also the most liberating thing
Speaker:that I've done when I first went live.
Speaker:I could have called myself the reluctant live video guy.
Speaker:That could have been my brand name, the reluctant live video guy.
Speaker:But because I went through that process, of allowing myself to be vulnerable,
Speaker:it has helped me become more confident.
Speaker:It can be, for some people, a really scary thing, but it's so important to do that.
Speaker:Now, I do want to bring in some great comments from Alec Dorling.
Speaker:Great to see Alec watching on LinkedIn.
Speaker:And this is really interesting because Alec is a consultant.
Speaker:I'm a consultant too, and I definitely feel this.
Speaker:He says "Imposter syndrome for me is being an expert in my field
Speaker:and not wanting to get caught out with questions I can't answer..
Speaker:how did I solve >>." That's a hard one because when you are seen as an expert,
Speaker:and I find this, I'm sure you do too.
Speaker:I'm an expert.
Speaker:I'm seen as an expert in the world of live video podcasting.
Speaker:But if somebody asks me a question that I don't know, surely that would
Speaker:make me look like a complete idiot.
Speaker:Now, I don't feel that personally because I think the role of a consultant is if
Speaker:I don't know the answer, I can probably find out or I'll know somebody who does.
Speaker:But I'm just interested in your thoughts is what Alec is saying here.
Speaker:Yeah, this is when the leadership side of me kicks in.
Speaker:Because as a leader, I have learned throughout my entire career that
Speaker:I don't have all the answers and that the team around me, we
Speaker:collectively we have the best answers.
Speaker:But when you're by yourself and someone asks you a question, I have
Speaker:learned as a leader, sometimes if I don't know the answer, I'll say,
Speaker:"Hey, I'm not sure about that.
Speaker:How about we trying to discover this together?
Speaker:It's a really great question.
Speaker:I don't know the answer."
Speaker:And what I try to do is I try to get back to them as quickly as possible
Speaker:with a potential answer, but it is okay.
Speaker:Honestly, not knowing something or saying that you're not knowing
Speaker:something is more important, is more powerful than you trying to talk your
Speaker:way into knowing something or trying to say, "Tell me a little bit more.
Speaker:What do you mean by that?"
Speaker:You know exactly what they mean.
Speaker:You just don't have the answer.
Speaker:So just say you don't have the answer.
Speaker:That's what happens.
Speaker:We start to try to dance around.
Speaker:But you end up actually getting and gaining more credibility.
Speaker:A lot of times when you say you don't know something confidently and try your best
Speaker:to get back with them with the answer, it's the hardest thing to do because we
Speaker:feel like we will be seen as a fraud.
Speaker:But I've learned that in my life and as a leader, that I don't know all the answers.
Speaker:So, I have become more comfortable in saying, "I don't know the answer.".
Speaker:Yeah, I think people actually want to hear you say that because there's nothing worse
Speaker:than being fobbed off with other stuff.
Speaker:I remember going into an Apple store.
Speaker:I don't think it was an Apple store.
Speaker:It was some computer store, and we knew that this new Mac came out
Speaker:without the CD drive, the DVD drive.
Speaker:It was the first one without that.
Speaker:And we asked the guy, "So, where's the DVD driver?"
Speaker:He said, "Oh, I don't know.
Speaker:I think it's under here somewhere."
Speaker:he obviously didn't have a clue and he was trying to fob us off with something
Speaker:and we'd just lost confidence in the guy.
Speaker:If he just said to us, "Oh, I don't know.
Speaker:Let me find out, I'll find out for you."
Speaker:And if he went away and came back, "Oh, this new computer,
Speaker:Apple now removed the DVD drive."
Speaker:Then that would be much better.
Speaker:So yeah, don't fob people off.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:No, not at all.
Speaker:Not at all.
Speaker:Now, Alec also says, "I started to go live on a totally different subject of stepping
Speaker:up to live going from zero to hero status.
Speaker:This allowed to make mistakes and not to get embarrassed.
Speaker:Now I have confidence for anything."
Speaker:And that's awesome just to be able to do that.
Speaker:So Steve, I assume that your interest in this has been because you have had
Speaker:experience with imposter syndrome.
Speaker:Is that the case?
Speaker:Have you struggled with imposter syndrome and maybe tell us a little
Speaker:bit about your experience with it and or other people that you've
Speaker:worked with and how you got over it.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:Once again, it hit me professionally first in the context of
Speaker:accelerating in my career.
Speaker:I was very fortunate to be able to get promoted quickly in
Speaker:different roles that I was in.
Speaker:And part of that almost promotional gain came a little bit of angst because I
Speaker:was literally leapfrogging people that were in the position 10, maybe 15 years
Speaker:more than I was, and now I'm leading these people, but I'm leapfrogging.
Speaker:I knew I can do it.
Speaker:I had the skills to do, but man, that imposter syndrome was like, oh my gosh,
Speaker:now I got to go back and lead these same people that I just leapfrogged.
Speaker:Or, I'm in a position now where I'm in a room with people who are just
Speaker:as smart as me or even smarter.
Speaker:Now, how do I communicate?
Speaker:What do I look?
Speaker:How do I dress?
Speaker:All these different things that I was dealing about from an external
Speaker:standpoint, not realizing I had all the internal wherewithal to actually meet
Speaker:the needs of whatever situation I was in.
Speaker:Jump forward to podcasting, same situation where initially
Speaker:I was nervous about podcasting.
Speaker:Then we actually met a gentleman named Herman Cain when we were in
Speaker:Atlanta at a leadership conference.
Speaker:And he had a really big radio station, a really big radio show.
Speaker:My buddy and my co-host and I, we got a op opportunity to talk to
Speaker:him and we said, "Dude, help us.
Speaker:We're both nervous about doing this."
Speaker:And he said, "You got to figure out that one person that you want to talk to.
Speaker:And just talk to that person."
Speaker:And we were like, "Dude, that just seems too simple."
Speaker:He said, "I'm telling you right now, it works."
Speaker:And it worked.
Speaker:Here's the thing, Ian, if you and I were just at a coffee shop, I wouldn't really
Speaker:be concerned about imposter syndrome.
Speaker:You and I would just be having a chat.
Speaker:And we would just be sitting down just like two guys talking
Speaker:about Manchester or whatever.
Speaker:That right there, if you are able to translate that to a live stream or
Speaker:to a podcast standpoint, guess what?
Speaker:Now it takes a little bit of the weight off because the tendencies that
Speaker:we start to think we're talking to thousands of people and you're not.
Speaker:So if you can actually turn that mindset and shift it once again to just
Speaker:having a conversation with just Ian, man, it takes a lot of the weight off.
Speaker:And so, I've been able to translate that to help me with my impodcaster syndrome.
Speaker:Isn't it annoying when the answer to a lot of our problems is actually really simple?
Speaker:Super simple.
Speaker:It's like almost too simple.
Speaker:But you're so right.
Speaker:For example, if I started to think about all the millions of people that could
Speaker:be watching in today to watch this, first of all, I'm deluded because there
Speaker:are not millions of people watching me.
Speaker:Anyways, great if that was the case.
Speaker:But the thing is, think about the individual and if you are a content
Speaker:creator, if you're an entrepreneur, a business owner, you are wanting to
Speaker:do what you're wanting to do to help people, I assume, and to serve people.
Speaker:Yes, you wanna make money if you're a business owner, but
Speaker:you also wanna help people.
Speaker:So if you think about the individual there, that is the way to think about it.
Speaker:And it has really helped me.
Speaker:It has helped me with all my content creation.
Speaker:Now, I do wanna bring in Cher Jones has put a fantastic comment down there.
Speaker:In fact, Alec Dorling says, "Good comment."
Speaker:Cher is saying, "What you don't know is actually powerful confidence builder.
Speaker:Because you can always bridge it to, "Here's what I do know..."
Speaker:(when possible.)" And I think that's great.
Speaker:You mentioned that before about flipping imposter syndrome.
Speaker:In our minds, often there's this negative voice.
Speaker:Now, we've talked about this in the show.
Speaker:Sometimes I like to personify this voice.
Speaker:So my daughter talks her voice in her head.
Speaker:It sounds really weird, but her anxiety is called 'Albert'.
Speaker:Mine's a librarian.
Speaker:And he likes to check everything in the library first to
Speaker:make sure everything's okay.
Speaker:And then he starts to speak to me.
Speaker:He says, "Ian, you don't really know what you're talking about.
Speaker:You're not organized enough.
Speaker:You need to look it up in the books first before you go on the show.
Speaker:Otherwise, you're going to look like a complete idiot."
Speaker:And I think as once I've started to personify a little bit more, I
Speaker:actually realize how stupid it is.
Speaker:A loss of the time.
Speaker:And I can say back to the librarian, "It is all right.
Speaker:I've got it covered.
Speaker:It's okay.
Speaker:I'm going to come on the show.
Speaker:In today's show, I've got Steve.
Speaker:I don't need to know anything because I'm going to ask Steve all the questions.
Speaker:It's how we, interesting how we trick ourselves.
Speaker:In the upcoming book, we talk about external triggers and gear
Speaker:acquisition syndrome is one of them.
Speaker:We talk about skill stacking.
Speaker:That's another one in context of, we surround ourselves with all these
Speaker:different external factors to make ourselves appear more than what we are.
Speaker:And really they are just covering up these gaps in our persona.
Speaker:So if we can remove these gaps from our persona and really focus in on who we
Speaker:are, the better off we'll be and the more authentic, I think that's such a
Speaker:overused word, but the more authentic that we'll come across with our audience.
Speaker:Yeah, it is a word that's overused, but it's so important,
Speaker:I think, to be yourselves.
Speaker:If you are a business owner and you are acting like somebody else and
Speaker:then they hire you, they're going to be really confused when they get
Speaker:somebody that's not on the screen, this completely different person.
Speaker:So, that's really important.
Speaker:And Alec is saying, "Flipping imposter syndrome - now that's a good show hook!"
Speaker:Yeah, definitely flipping.
Speaker:I'm that one.
Speaker:I'm using that one.
Speaker:using that one.
Speaker:Definitely, yeah.
Speaker:You need to trademark that quick.
Speaker:Get the domain name.
Speaker:Cher says, "I love that strategy of personifying those voices.
Speaker:It allows you to separate them from who you are."
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Because that is not what defines you.
Speaker:So, we've got quite deep.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But I think this is really important.
Speaker:And in only like half an hour, we're not going to be able to
Speaker:do justice to all of this stuff.
Speaker:There's going to be some people watching and listening who hear what you're saying,
Speaker:really resonate with what you're saying, Steve, but they're thinking, what next?
Speaker:What do I do?
Speaker:All of these things sound simple.
Speaker:But I really need help.
Speaker:I've got into my thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, whatever age you
Speaker:are, and they feel that this has stopped them from achieving what they
Speaker:were put on this earth to achieve.
Speaker:What would you say to somebody like that?
Speaker:What are the next steps for people who are struggling with these things?
Speaker:The question I'll answer before that one is people tend to ask me, "Do you
Speaker:ever get over impodcaster syndrome?"
Speaker:And my answer is no.
Speaker:I'll use a quick movie illustration.
Speaker:I don't know if any of you have seen A Beautiful Mind with Russell Crowe.
Speaker:He plays John Nash, a Nobel Prize mathematician who over
Speaker:time ends up losing his mind.
Speaker:Kind of like Schizophrenia, sees three different voices and things like that,
Speaker:but he's still super brilliant and the government still wants him on his team and
Speaker:he gets to the point of his career where he's just a fixture on the university.
Speaker:He's still seeing all of these voices.
Speaker:But the Nobel Peace Prize people come to him and they say, "Hey we want to
Speaker:give you the Nobel Peace Prize and we just wanna know if you're still okay."
Speaker:And he said, "Really?
Speaker:You want to know if I still see the voices?"
Speaker:And they're in the cafeteria in the university, and he looks over and he
Speaker:sees the three voices that he's been dealing with all his entire life.
Speaker:Like you were just talking about those voices personified.
Speaker:He sees those three voices.
Speaker:He says, "You know what?
Speaker:They're still there, but I choose to ignore them.
Speaker:So I think as we start to think about impodcaster syndrome, we have to
Speaker:think about those voices and those things that are going to be there.
Speaker:They're going to continuously be there at every level that we go to.
Speaker:The voices are going to get louder or they're going to get
Speaker:softer, they're going to be there.
Speaker:It's our choice whether or not we actually choose to listen to them.
Speaker:One of the things that we talk about in our book from a strategy
Speaker:standpoint, we call it TAT.
Speaker:It's called take notice, assess, and then take action.
Speaker:One of the first parts that you have to do is you actually have to take
Speaker:notice when you are delving into this mindset of imposter syndrome
Speaker:or the triggers of imposter syndrome and understanding that, oh, shoot.
Speaker:This situation right now is triggering me to actually feel inadequate.
Speaker:And then you actually have to assess the feelings.
Speaker:Am I really not prepared?
Speaker:Because sometimes when you're about to go live, you're about to do
Speaker:something, you're really not prepared.
Speaker:Okay, great.
Speaker:If you can assess that you're really not prepared, then fix that.
Speaker:Make sure you prep.
Speaker:I'm about to go speak somewhere.
Speaker:Assess, are you really prepared?
Speaker:No, I'm not really prepared.
Speaker:Do what you need to do to actually get prepared.
Speaker:That will actually lessen the anxiety that you're feeling.
Speaker:And then the last portion is take action.
Speaker:And whatever that requisite action is, whether it's the prep work that you
Speaker:need to do, whether it's working with somebody in your speech, whether it's
Speaker:going live in a private community to build your confidence, those are the
Speaker:actual strategies or the framework.
Speaker:Now, here's the one thing that we talk about all the time and we're going to be
Speaker:talking about, is that it's not linear.
Speaker:Going through this strategy or this framework isn't linear.
Speaker:Your assessment at the very beginning or at the very middle is larger than
Speaker:some other people because you're dealing with more stuff than another person.
Speaker:And that's okay, but it's just actually going through the process.
Speaker:Going through the framework will actually help you come out on the other end.
Speaker:Fascinating stuff.
Speaker:That's really helpful.
Speaker:How much does us comparing ourselves with others come into this?
Speaker:Because this has been an issue for me.
Speaker:I remember when I was speaking at some big conferences in the US.
Speaker:I think that was when my imposter syndrome was the strongest, when I
Speaker:was there and I was thinking, why have they asked me to speak here?
Speaker:Even though deep down I knew my stuff, I'm good at what I do, but
Speaker:I still have this negative voice in my head thinking those things.
Speaker:And I even got to the point where I didn't want to tell anyone that I was speaking
Speaker:because mean, it's absolutely ridiculous.
Speaker:Now I look back on that and I think how silly it was.
Speaker:But a lot of that was to do with me comparing myself with others who were
Speaker:speaking at the event, and people that I looked up to thought they were amazing.
Speaker:Now I've felt since then.
Speaker:I've come on a long way, but it was a real struggle back in those days.
Speaker:What would you have said to me back in those days when I was feeling like that?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I would say it's natural.
Speaker:It is natural to compare yourself to other people.
Speaker:The tendency is that we want to run away and say, no, we
Speaker:shouldn't be doing something.
Speaker:Certain things are natural as a human being.
Speaker:When you get a new car or your car's getting old and you see a nice little
Speaker:flashy car that comes past you, you're like, "Ooh, that's nice."
Speaker:Then you start to look at the car that you have and you're like, oh my gosh.
Speaker:I may need to do something different with this car.
Speaker:The comparison piece is just natural.
Speaker:It's natural in sports, it's natural in business.
Speaker:Understanding that that's going to take place, the biggest piece is
Speaker:that the confidence that you need to actually have within yourself
Speaker:and what you actually have to offer.
Speaker:One of the things we talk to people about all the time is that somebody's out there
Speaker:waiting to hear what you have to say.
Speaker:People who wanna start a podcast or people wanna go live.
Speaker:And they move.
Speaker:I know this sounds super pollyannish, but they can't move until you
Speaker:actually say what you need to say.
Speaker:They are stuck.
Speaker:Like that one person that we just talked about earlier, they're literally
Speaker:stuck until you actually get on the mic and say what you need to say.
Speaker:I know people are like, "Oh my gosh, but I'm only Ian."
Speaker:No, it doesn't matter, Ian.
Speaker:That one person is still waiting to hear what you have to say.
Speaker:But the other side of it is that someone has seen something.
Speaker:This is the leadership part of me coming out again, because as a
Speaker:leader, when I was a young leader, I didn't want to be a leader.
Speaker:I ran from leadership so fast when I was a teenager, until I moved into
Speaker:the Air Force, until someone told me.
Speaker:He said," Steve, leadership will always find you out.
Speaker:Meaning that when you're called to lead, lead.
Speaker:And people are going to see something inside of you that you
Speaker:don't see inside of yourself."
Speaker:It's the same thing when you start to go to these speaking engagements.
Speaker:People will hear you, hear Ian or Cher Jones or Alec, and they're like, "Dude,
Speaker:ooh, I got to have them on stage."
Speaker:So trust in the fact that someone sees something inside of you that is of
Speaker:such importance that you need to get on that stage and speak to that audience.
Speaker:And so, the comparison piece is going to be there, but trust the process
Speaker:and trust what people are saying that are going to actually get you on that
Speaker:stage, and also trusting your abilities.
Speaker:So true.
Speaker:Trust in your abilities.
Speaker:Trust in the people that put you there and those voices.
Speaker:I love the Beautiful Mind comparison there.
Speaker:They will probably always be there, but at some points, hopefully with
Speaker:work, they'll be a lot quieter.
Speaker:You won't be able to silence them completely, but you'll
Speaker:be able to dampen the sound.
Speaker:I'm not doing a very good job here, Steve, because it is all your fault because I'm
Speaker:really enjoying this conversation so much.
Speaker:You're delivering so much value, but I am trying to do my best at making these
Speaker:podcast episodes a little bit shorter.
Speaker:So, I'm going to try and wrap things up, even though really, I would love to talk
Speaker:to you for the next two hours about this.
Speaker:It's absolutely fascinating.
Speaker:So you've mentioned this book you're writing.
Speaker:Tell us a little bit more about when is that going to be available?
Speaker:Do you know when that's going to be coming out?
Speaker:Or a little bit more about how we can find out about it when it does come out.
Speaker:Yeah, it's in rewrites right now, so we're going to have a landing
Speaker:page coming up here pretty quickly.
Speaker:And that's just going to give you the opportunity to
Speaker:be part of our beta readers.
Speaker:And hopefully within early mid-spring, is the goal for us
Speaker:to actually have this book out.
Speaker:I just met with my publish.
Speaker:He's actually over in the UK outside of the leads.
Speaker:And I had a great conversation.
Speaker:So we're about like one and a half rewrites from actually
Speaker:getting it to where we want it.
Speaker:And he's excited about it, so that's cool when your publisher is excited
Speaker:about about your book, and not just you.
Speaker:But the focus is truly on.
Speaker:Helping podcasters, live streamers, content creators
Speaker:work through that process.
Speaker:And we all go through it.
Speaker:But the TAT framework is really going to be the glue that
Speaker:holds everything together.
Speaker:We actually have people inside of the book that have actually used it.
Speaker:So we actually have a real use case for it as well.
Speaker:The book in and of itself has been something I've been
Speaker:wanting to do for a while.
Speaker:And so I'm excited to actually get it out to you as soon as I possibly can.
Speaker:Believe me, you will hear more and more about it.
Speaker:And hopefully when it comes out, I can come back on here and we
Speaker:could talk more about it then too.
Speaker:Definitely, we'll have to do that.
Speaker:And if people want to find out more about you, I've got your website up here.
Speaker:You've got a couple of websites, so you've got podcasterslive.com.
Speaker:Tell us a little bit more about podcasterslive.com.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Podcasterslive.com.
Speaker:One of the things that we've been focusing on initially was how to
Speaker:use livestream to actually help podcasters with their discoverability.
Speaker:That was our first iteration.
Speaker:But now we've moved into more of a platform to help content creators
Speaker:from a global community standpoint, utilize podcasting and live
Speaker:streaming to grow their platform.
Speaker:So instead of it just being about this local discoverability we're
Speaker:taking a global perspective to it.
Speaker:And we've actually did that last night by actually having our very
Speaker:first international addition.
Speaker:We had some of the top minds in podcasting in the Philippines on last night.
Speaker:So we're going to be doing that on a monthly basis, picking a different
Speaker:country and having some of the top podcast and livestream voices actually
Speaker:on there talking about the industry and what people can learn as well.
Speaker:So, we've actually been growing a brand from that standpoint as well.
Speaker:We're actually going to do the UK in March.
Speaker:So let me know, Ian, if you wanna be part of that panel in March
Speaker:because we're going to be in the UK.
Speaker:Not in the UK, but we're going to have the UK podcasters and live streamers in March.
Speaker:Oh, count me in on that one.
Speaker:That sounds awesome.
Speaker:Really interesting to find out more all about that.
Speaker:So that is podcasterslive.com.
Speaker:Your website is asksteveworthy.com.
Speaker:And how people find out more about you or follow you online on the socials?
Speaker:Where do you tend to hang out these days?
Speaker:LinkedIn is going to be the best place first to connect with me.
Speaker:Of course I'm Steve worthy everywhere.
Speaker:But LinkedIn is going to be that very first place.
Speaker:asksteveworthy.com is like a repository, if you will, because invariably, you
Speaker:know leadership is my first thing that I deal with and I go after.
Speaker:And typically on different podcasts, I will talk about Podcasters
Speaker:live, but more often than not, I end up talking about leadership.
Speaker:And so, I end up getting a lot of people who want to talk to me about leadership.
Speaker:So we've created the asksteveworthy website.
Speaker:So, you can pick and choose.
Speaker:You can say, "Hey Steve, I need help with my podcast on livestream."
Speaker:"Hey Steve, I need help with my leadership journey so I can help you there as well."
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:It starts with the podcasting, but it all leads to leadership,
Speaker:I suppose, at the end of the day.
Speaker:Thank you so much, Steve.
Speaker:Thank you for all the amazing stuff that you've shared with us today.
Speaker:It's been a real honor to have you on the show and we'll definitely do it
Speaker:again once I've got episode 200 out.
Speaker:I know you've been wanting the episode 200, but it might be 203 or 204.
Speaker:We'll see how we get on.
Speaker:That's fine.
Speaker:Thank you for having me, Ian.
Speaker:I appreciate it.
Speaker:Oh, it's been great.
Speaker:Thank you, Steve.
Speaker:We are at the end of episode 199.
Speaker:As I said at the beginning, the podcast will be coming out every single Friday.
Speaker:Do go to iag.me/podcast and I will also let you know when the next
Speaker:live episode, episode 200 will be.
Speaker:We're going to be doing something very exciting for that, but
Speaker:I'll be talking about that on the podcast and the newsletter.
Speaker:But that is it for this time and until next time, I encourage you
Speaker:to level up your impact, authority, and profits through the power
Speaker:of Confident Live video season.
Speaker:Bye.
Speaker:Imposter syndrome.
Speaker:I wanna overcome...
Speaker:imposter syndrome.
Speaker:I wanna overcome...
Speaker:imposter syndrome.
Speaker:Steve Worthy...
Speaker:Steve Worthy...
Speaker:help me please!
Speaker:Imposter syndrome...
Speaker:Im-podcaster syndrome.