How to Tackle Imposter Syndrome as a Course Creator: 10 Life-Changing Tips
Who am I to be teaching this? I'm not good enough. I'm not qualified enough, and there are a million other people who are better at what I do.
Have these 👆 thoughts stopped you from selling your course with confidence, or even creating it in the first place?
Then keep reading because I'll be sharing practical tips on battling and poster syndrome that actually works.
What is imposter syndrome?
Imposter Syndrome is a feeling of inadequacy that persists despite evidence of success. It's the belief that your success is not yours and that you achieved it on your own merit and instead somehow cheated or tricked your way into being recognized as an expert in your field.
Nearly everyone struggles with it regardless of their achievements. For example, Maya Angelou, American poet and activist admitted to having battled Imposer syndrome every time she started a new book.
"Each time I write a book, every time I face that yellow pad, the challenge is so great. I have written 11 books, but each time I think. Uh oh, they're going to find me out. Now. I've run a game on everybody and they're going to find me out," She says.
Even Albert Einstein, who's widely acknowledged as the world's most renowned physicist, admitted to his friend, "The exaggerated esteem in which my life work is held makes me very ill at ease. I feel compelled to think of myself as an involuntary swindler."
So two things become evident here.
One, everyone has Imposter Syndrome. You're not the only one, and you are in pretty good company.
Two, Imposter Syndrome has zero correlation with your actual skills and with external recognition.
You cannot drive Impostor syndrome away by achieving more.
In fact, you might be worsening it by following this path because there will always be a next milestone to achieve. There will always be a competitor who's better at what you do, so you will be setting yourself up for failure.
So how can you keep it at bay instead? Here are 10 practical tips for you that will work.
Tips for dealing with Imposter Syndrome as a Course Creator
Imposter Syndrome tip #1: Know your enemy
When we understand something, we can manage it better. So congrats on reading this article.
You've already come one step closer to overcoming Imposter syndrome.
If you believe that feeling like an imposter is a sign that you suck at what you do and that it's a sign that you should give up and just stop trying, you probably will.
But if you know that this is just a natural part of the journey that everyone goes through. You know that you have to just stick it out for a little bit and implement some tricks and actions to not feel like an imposter.
With time it feels that much easier showing up and presenting your work.
Imposter Syndrome tip #2: Reframe how you view your shortcomings
It's impossible to know 100% of everything, and the people who claim to know every single thing in the area of expertise are probably the real imposters.
Instead of viewing your blind spots as a sign that you are an imposter and a failure, look at them as the learning potential that they are, because your blind spots are not immutable.
Any skill can be learned and any knowledge can be attained. If you are aware of your shortcomings, and understand where you're lacking skills, this is actually a sign of a true leader. In other words, if you want to overcome Imposter syndrome, adopt a growth mindset.
P.S. I LOVE “The Mindset” by Carol Dweck on precisely this topic.
Imposter Syndrome tip #3: Embody the best version of yourself
One of the best ways to trick our subconscious mind out of sabotaging our goals is to play pretend. Here's a powerful tip that if you implement, can completely change your life.
Grab a piece of paper and a pen and for a second, imagine what would it be like if you were the best in the world at what you do.
How would you feel like? How would you behave?
What would you think of yourself? How would you talk to yourself?
How would you talk about yourself to your clients and your students? How would you show up online on socials? How would you sell your offers?
How would you work with your clients and your students?
Jot all your answers down.
Then look at this list and determine what you can start implementing already because when you embody the version of yourself that is an expert in the world at what they do, you will start acting like one. Additionally, embodying this persona and stepping into that expert role, will make you feel way more confident.
Imposter Syndrome tip #4: Select your target audience properly
Many times feeling like an imposter comes from us trying to jump way over ahead and sell our course to people who are a little bit above our level. This doesn't mean you cannot teach the same area to a target group that's just not as advanced.
For example, a university student that is looking for career coaching services or a course on how to build a career lands their first internship and soon after gets an offer for a full-time job.
This student does not need to be trained by a Fortune 500 C-level career coach. But a junior at their dream company might be the perfect coach for them. This is because the junior went through a similar experience. So look at your area of expertise and the level you feel comfortable teaching, and select your target audience appropriately.
There's a market for every level of expertise. Regardless of your field, there will always be beginners, intermediate, and advanced people. You just need to choose where on this scale you and your course fit.
Imposter Syndrome tip #5: Unfollow your competitors
Constantly spying on your competition by looking at their successes and new product launches while overanalyzing their credentials and their wins is a surefire way to feel inadequate and like an imposter.
Sure, you do need to do competitors analysis, but you don't need to do it every single day.
You could just time block a time every month or every two months to look at your competition so that they're not in your head daily.
Surrounding yourself with content from your competitors is a surefire way to kill your creativity because whether you want it or not, you will be copying some sort of information that they put online. Instead, follow people from adjacent fields.
People who may become your partners. This way you will be more creative to your potential students, and you will feel far less like an imposter.
Imposter Syndrome tip #6: Celebrate all of your wins.
Admittedly, this is a cheesy one, but it's also a tip that works wonders.
So what I want you to do is to start screen shooting every single piece of good feedback you get and paste it in a special folder, either on your laptop or on your phone, and whenever you feel like an imposter, and whenever your mood is down, go through that folder.
Look at all of this good feedback that you've gathered. Yes, this might feel cheesy and childish, but this is a great way to remind yourself how many lives you've already positively impacted.
And it also trains your brain to look for positives in what you do instead of constantly concentrating on the negatives.
Imposter Syndrome tip #7: Be authentic
Pretending like you know it all and are the ultimate expert when on the inside you don't feel this way will not make you feel more credible, it will just exhaust you.
So instead, just be authentic and vulnerable with your audience. Imposer Syndrome thrives on this idea that people will discover you, uncover your secret, and find out that you are not a real expert.
If you honestly share your thoughts with your audience, and if you tell them that you're still learning new information every day in your field of expertise, guess what? Your imposed syndrome has nothing to go off of.
You might think that sharing these vulnerabilities with your target audience will make them see you as less of an expert, but in reality, this will add one more connection point. They will recognize that you are a real human.
They will connect you on a deeper level, and they will see that you also have the same struggles that they have.
Imposter Syndrome tip #8: Trust your clients
If you are the kind of person that gets the shivers, every time someone books a one-on-one call with you or purchases your course-this tip is for you.
Acknowledge that your clients are adult people. They have done their due diligence, they've researched experts. They have compared you with your competitors and they decided to go with you.
So respect their choice. There is a reason why they decided to book with you and not your competitor. There's a reason why they were attracted to your offer, so stop second-guessing them and start respecting their choice.
Imposter Syndrome tip #9: Start teaching
This might feel counterintuitive, especially if your thought process goes like, oh my God, who am I to be teaching people? Teaching people about your area of expertise makes you more inquisitive.
It makes you revisit things that you thought you knew and search for new information. You constantly educate yourself on your area of expertise, and during this process, you become better and better day by day. And you also realize that you're constantly learning, so that keeps your imposter syndrome at bay.
There's no better way to be seen as the go-to expert and to increase your own self-confidence is to start sharing the information that you already know.
Imposter Syndrome tip #10: Be the guide, not the hero
When people buy an online course from you, you are not the hero of the journey.
Your students are.
You are there to just guide them, to bounce ideas off of them, to give them relevant information, to point them in the right direction, to point out any underwater stones that they might not be aware of and make their journey of the transformation from point A to point B easier.
But you're not there to be the star of the show. You're not there to be the best expert they've ever met in the world. You're there to guide them whenever you make this mindset shift.
When you realize this, there will be a huge weight lifted off of your shoulders because you will not need to prove anything to anyone.
You just need to guide your students through their transformation.
You'll see how much more easy it will become to show up as an expert when you don't feel the weight of being the coolest, the best, the most well-known, et cetera in your field.
Let me know when the comments below which tip will you be implementing first and what your online course topic is.
