3 Steps to Strike Out IMPOSTER SYNDROME [Bullpen Sessions Episode 42]

Foreign.

Hey. Hey. Welcome back. It is Friday. You know what that means. It is time for Friday Bullpen sessions. My name is Andy Neary and this is episode 42. Today we're going to dive into an emotion that you very well likely have experienced at some point in your life. I know I have, and that is imposter syndrome. It is something that has impacted me in professional sports. It's something that has impacted me when I started growing within the health insurance industry. It's something that has impacted me now that I have my coaching business. Listen, you're not alone. We're going to dive into that feeling that it's okay to have that feeling of being an imposter and how you can overcome that and what I've done to help myself overcome that in hopes of helping you do the same. But before we do that, I want to give a quick shout out to our sponsor of today's episode. That's the Complete Game Mastermind. Listen, if you're unfamiliar with what a mastermind is, it's you surrounding yourself with a community of other high achieving, high level thinkers. And in that room, it's very easy to have imposter syndrome. That feeling of do I belong? Am I good enough to be in this group? Well, let me tell you, I am here to answer that question for you. It is a resounding yes. And if you are ready to join a community and get five months of coaching to take your prospecting game plan, your prospecting bag of tricks to the next level to make it unhittable, I want you to go check out Complete Game today. I've put a link to it in the notes. Go, click apply and let's jump on a call to see if you are a fit and if it's a fit for you. It starts in just five days, so you got to get going. Don't miss this opportunity. All right, back to today's episode. Shift your mindset. Yeah, let's talk about imposter syndrome. You've ever been there? Have you ever had that feeling, whether it's in your current career, if you're an athlete, that feeling when you were on the field of battle and you just didn't quite know if you belonged to, didn't quite know if you had what it took to compete with those around you? I know I've had this feeling many times throughout my career, whether it was professional baseball, whether it was in my health insurance advising, and now, you know, my new business that I've started in line with my advising, the coaching platform and I have to admit, imposter syndrome has planted the proverbial seed inside my brain far too often throughout my adult life. You know, going back to my professional baseball career.

Coming from a Mid Major Division 1 baseball program like the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, it's easy to have that imposter syndrome once you find yourself standing on the mound, standing on the pitcher's mound on the same field with guys who played at much bigger Division 1 colleges, right? LSU, Texas, Ole Miss, you name it, Arizona State. You're playing against high school kids that were first, second round draft picks that signed for millions of dollars. I mean, we're talking about some of the best athletes in the world. And here I am now playing on the same field.

And I can recall going back, you know, 20 years pitching in the Milwaukee brewers organization, how many times that that imposter syndrome hit me. You know, one specific story I love to tell is, you know, our first trip over to Missoula, Montana to take on the Missoula Osprey. I was pitching for the Helena Brewers. It was the summer of 2000 and I'll never forget this game. I was a middle relief pitcher for the Helena organization. I wasn't a starter, I was not a high draft pick. I also was not a closer. So my job was to come in, in the middle of a game if our starting pitcher was having a rough night to one, keep our team in the game and two, keep battling in hopes of helping our team win the game. And because my track record as a starting pitcher made me an asset as a middle relief pitcher because I could go three, four or five innings and I can recall this game like it was last night. I mean, it was the first game of the series. We're in Missoula, Montana, if you've ever been there. You can picture Missoula is a college town. It's the University of Montana. The students loved to come to the Osprey games. It was summer schools out, they loved to drink a little bit too much. And they made it a goal of theirs, like at many minor league parks, to make every game for the opposing team a nightmare. So here we are, it was a Friday night, mid July, and that night our starting pitcher was terrible. And the call comes down to the bullpen around the third inning, tell Neary to get up, get loose. So I jump up, I grab my glove, I grab a ball, I stretch out my arm, I stretch out my legs and I start warming up. And probably 10 throws later, I'm jogging into the game right towards the pitchers mound. Right into this loud, obnoxious, drunk crowd. And I get to the mound, I grab the ball from Dan Norman, the Helmet brewers manager, and I take a look at the Osprey dugout to see who I'm going to be facing, right? I got to know who the first batter is going to be that I'm coming in to face. And it's a gentleman of an athlete named Andres Torres, one of the best players in the Diamondbacks organization at that time. And so now I get a little jacked up, right? Here's my chance to make a statement. Here's my chance to prove myself at the pro professional level, because I'm going up against one of the best. So I start warming up, getting ready to face Andres Torres. And as I start warming up, the crowd starts chanting. And little by little, the chanting gets louder. And after the third pitch, I can now hear what the Missoula crowd is chanting. How can you pitch when you're 5 foot 6? How can you pitch when you're 5 foot 6?

And in that moment, my head went somewhere it shouldn't have. Instead of getting jacked up and using that chanting as motivation to go out and win the battle against Andres Torres, I let my mind listen to the crowd. I said, yeah, who am I? I mean, I'm not a high draft pick. I don't have an overpowering arm. I don't have the prototypical size to be a pitcher at the professional ranks. What right do I have to stand on this mound and face the best like Honors Taurus because I'm average?

And that imposter syndrome, feeling, the feeling that I really didn't belong, that I was maybe playing above my pay grade, completely affected my career in minor league baseball. It's why it lasted so short. Quite simply, I didn't feel like I belonged to. And now you take that into my business career. When I got into the health insurance industry and dating as recently as back as 2014, when I really started trying to take my brand, my message, what I did in the health insurance industry to the next level, trust me, imposter syndrome had a huge impact on my career. I looked around at the people I was hanging out with. I had joined a mastermind myself. At that point, the folks in that room and the success they had had in their careers, it was easy to sit at the table and how in the world do I belong here? Who am I?

And now that I started my coaching business, I mean, for any coach listening into this podcast, you'll probably know the feeling. What right do I to have someone pay me for my advice, for my coaching.

And that feeling of imposter syndrome can, can impact your life, your business in so many ways. Might be feeling that right now. So what I thought I'd do today is share with you how I've worked very hard to overcome this imposter syndrome, especially with the new coaching platform, the new coaching business I've built in hopes that it can help you overcome any feeling of not belonging or deserving of the success you might be having right now. So let's dive into a couple tips, couple strategies you can link onto to help you overcome the imposter syndrome. If you're feeling that, number one, I'm here to tell you you are valuable. If you wake up every day with the goal to impact others lives and if you wake up every day with the goal of creating impact over income, where you are focused more on the impact you are creating than the income you are bringing in, I'm here to tell you, my friend, you are not an imposter. You're real, you're legit. There are far too many people out there right now that are willing to do anything, willing to say anything, willing to be anybody to earn income. If income is your focus, you could very well be an imposter. But if your goal is to bring impact over income and you are not imposter, you are not an imposter, you are legit, you are bringing value to the market, therefore you are valuable and people should pay you for your advice. Number two, are you helping people make improvements? Are you helping people who may be just a step or two behind where you are at?

Hmm, that's an easy place to get caught up with imposter syndrome. Remember, in your business, if you are working with people, if you are helping people who just aren't quite where you are at, let me give you a very simple example. I have spent the majority of my career in the health insurance advising field. Every day I talked with employers, sometimes the highest level cfo. I knew when I talked to them about health insurance and health care, I knew that I probably had more knowledge than them on that specific area of expertise.

That's not imposter, you're an expert. So if you have that feeling of imposter syndrome in your profession, look at the people you are working with, the people you are helping, the people you are bringing value to.

Are you one, two, five steps ahead of where their knowledge is right now? Then you are not an imposter. Now again, if you're working with clients with prospects who are extremely successful and you're just making shit up to sell something to them. Yes, you might be an imposter, my friend. However, remember, if you are just a couple steps ahead of whoever you're helping, you're not an imposter. You are valuable to that individual, to that company in that given moment.

Last tip I'll share with you on how to defeat and how to overcome the imposter syndrome is figure out what you do, what problem you solve, the process by which you help people solve it, and the result they get after working with you. If you can clearly define the problem you solve.

You know exactly what it is you help people overcome, you help people attack. If you have a very clearly defined process for helping individuals solve that problem and you know exactly the result they are going to achieve after having you walk them through that process, there is no reason to feel like an imposter. And I learned that from a friend of mine, somebody I had on a previous Bullpen session episode, Joey Spears, and brought those three questions to light for me and it was a game changer. Yeah, I know who I'm helping, I know what problem I'm solving, I know the process to help people solve it, and I also know the result they're going to get by working with me. If you can clearly define that same thing for you and your business, you can defeat any imposter syndrome that might be residing inside your brain right now. So I hope those tips help out today. This wasn't a very long episode, but I wanted to help you overcome any feeling of imposter syndrome you might have right now. Quite frankly, I've been dealing it, dealing with it from time to time lately myself.

But if you can remember, it's about impact over income. If you wake up every day with the goal of making impact and knowing that if you create impact and value for others, the income will follow, you have no reason to fear imposter syndrome. Number two, if you are helping people who are just a couple steps behind you, you are extremely valuable to that individual, to that company. And again, there's no reason to fear imposter syndrome. You have no reason to feel it. And number three, if you can clearly define what problem you solve, the process by which you help people solve it, and the result they get after working with you. Again, my friend, don't let imposter syndrome or beat you down because I am here to tell you one last time. You are legit, you are real, and you are doing it for all the right reasons. So do yourself a favor, put a smile on your face, go out and get after it and know you are making an impact and bringing value to this world because at the end of the day that is all that matters. And last but certainly not least, when you have that clarity, you have that confidence you need and they collide, you know what happens. Action happens. Go out and make it happen today. Hey thank you for taking the time to listen to this Friday Bullpen session. If you are enjoying these episodes please do me a favor, go over to Apple, subscribe, give it a five star rating and if you know of anybody in your life, whether it's in your family, personal life, your friends, business colleagues that you think would find benefit in listening to these episodes as well, do me a favor, please share the bullpen sessions with them. I'd be extremely grateful if you did and again go out and make it happen today. Thank.

You.