Friday Bullpen Sessions Ep 181: How To Overcome Imposter Syndrome

Hey. Hey. Welcome back to Friday Bullpen Sessions. My name is Andy Neary, and this is episode 181.

Today I want to talk to you about kicking imposter syndrome's ass. Yeah, you know what?

It's something we all go through, and it's something I think every single person I have ever talked to has gone through at some point in their career. And when I think about.

Imposter syndrome. So today I want to cover, you know, a couple views about imposter syndrome, but also some mental shifts, some mindset shifts you can make to just kind of p shift how you actually think about imposter syndrome. And when I look at or. Or think about imposter syndrome, I look at it from two lenses. One today as a business professional, but I also look at it as from a perspective when I was an athlete, because I think there's both, right? There's that feeling. Imposter syndrome, for a lack of better words, is just the feeling that you don't belong, that you're not good enough, right? Or that others are going to find out you are fake and full of. And so that's. That's really what I want to talk about today. You know, when I think about. I heard I was listening to a podcast between two very, very successful human beings who I admire. And I've had the chance to meet and get to know Mike Aiella and Jess Glaser DeRosa. They were talking about imposter syndrome on Mike's podcast. Freedom for Investing. Investing for freedom. Excuse me. And.

Jess made such a good point. Why is it called imposter syndrome?

It's not like it's a disease. As she said, it's a feeling. So just the name imposter syndrome is such a weird way to define it. But it's this feeling again, right, that you don't belong, that.

Others are going to find out you aren't who you are or you aren't qualified enough. And trust me, I have dealt with. With imposter syndrome both as an athlete and as a business professional. Even today, right, with my complete game consulting business, there are still days that I battle. In fact, I'm recording this episode on Monday, April 11. I had a little bout of it over the weekend. And so when I think about it as an athlete, I mean, it is. Imposter syndrome, in a way, was definitely one huge factor in why my pro baseball career was as short as it was is when I got to pro baseball, I didn't feel like I belonged, right? I. I didn't Feel like I was on the same playing field or level playing field with these other guys. And so that feeling of I didn't belong is what ultimately cost my career, if you want to know the truth.

Now, in sports, it's a lot easier, in my opinion, to overcome imposter syndrome just by your performance, right? If you play a sport, you're judged, as I was in pro baseball, by stats, right? It's easy to look at a leaderboard, whether it's in batting average, ERA, RBIs, home runs, you know, basketball, it's shooting, percentage points per game, whatever it is, it's easy to look at your stats and based on your stats, go, yeah, hell yeah, I belong, right? It's not always so easy in business.

And imposter syndrome definitely had a big factor, played a big role early in my, my insurance career. Because I would see these professionals, these peers of mine that were just killing it, and then I would go back and look at my own book of business, lack of success. And I go, man.

Am I a fit to even do this? Am I up to the, the task of doing this? And I would be sitting in front of prospects and having these doubts of, do I even belong in this room? Here I am talking to.

A CFO of a company with a couple hundred employees. Like, do I have the right, Do I have the skill and the knowledge to be here right now? And that's what I want to talk to you about today. Most of my listeners are probably the advisors I have the fortunate chance to work with. If you're selling a product right now, whether it be insurance paper copiers, I don't care. There's a, There's a good chance. And by the way, if you are, you're a coach of some kind, this is where it really hits you. If you're a coach or a consultant, it's really easy to let imposter syndrome impact your business, especially if you're a coach.

And when I started complete game consulting a couple years ago, you know, it feels like it's been so many years ago already. But, man, when I first started the business, it was only a couple years ago. I started it by coaching my peers.

And I have to admit, I mean, early on, imposter syndrome, just like early on in my insurance career, in my coaching career here, imposter syndrome had a big impact.

Because.

I was working with advisors who, on paper, statistically, remember the sports reference, statistically.

Had a better career than me when it came to sales.

If you look at how much this individual producer had sold over the course of his or her career, there's a decent chance they had had more financial success than me. And that really impacted how I went about my business early on. You know, what right do I have to be coaching this person? They've had more success than I have by, by way of sales, right?

And as the company started growing, I found myself in front of bigger opportunities. I can remember the first time I talked to an agency principal of an agency that had about a 5,6 million dollar book of business. He was bringing home close to a million dollars a year himself. And I'm going, man, really, I'm going to be coaching this guy, shouldn't he be coaching me? But then it hit me.

My business isn't about teaching you how to sell.

My business is about helping you get attention.

And when I realized that, when it, when it finally dawned on me.

It helped me overcome any doubts I had or any instances.

Of this imposter syndrome. Because my business, I did not build this business to teach you how to sell.

Again, there's advisors and industry partners I work with that probably are better sales professionals than me. I built this business to help you get the attention you need to do what you do best. And when I finally realized that, even for this agency principal with a five or six million dollar book, what I realized by gift is to help him get attention that I can teach, that I can coach.

And I heard this quote on a recent podcast talking about this fear we all have of imposter syndrome.

And it's if you are a step head, one step ahead.

Of the person you're working with.

You have the right to coach them, you have the right to consult them. And that's when I realized, aha. That's what this business is about. If there's one thing I do better than most in the insurance industry is get attention.

Ever since Amy and I decided to move out here to Colorado in 2008 years ago, 2014, my gift was getting attention.

You see, I was an advisor working for an independent agency in Longmont, Colorado. Yet my message, my ability to get attention, put me in front of a Fortune 50 company, PepsiCo. My ability to get attention as an independent insurance agent, agent for a small independent agency in Longmont, Colorado, allowed me to run a roundtable for companies representing 35,000 employees.

I was constantly putting myself in front of these opportunities that people were like, how in the hell did you do that? And that's when I realized, this is what this business is about. I know how to get attention. And it helped me Eliminate that imposter syndrome. Now, again, we all. I still struggle with it from time to time. And I believe part of it is because I'm constantly striving to figure out how I can bring more, do more, and create more results for my clients.

But this is the message I wanted to share with you today. If you know more about what it is you sell no more than the person you are selling it to. If you're a coach, if you know more about the topic you're coaching than the person you are working with, you have no reason to feel this imposter syndrome.

In my work with insurance agents, insurance advisors, benefit consultants, I hear this all the time. They get this opportunity to go upstream, as we call it, and all of a sudden they find themselves in front of this huge opportunity, right? Talking to that CFO of that 200, 500 life group.

And everything that has made them good.

Gets covered by this fear of being an imposter. All of a sudden you're standing in front of an opportunity you haven't earned before.

And everything you've done up until that point that has made you so good at what you do.

Gets overwhelmed by this feeling of being an imposter. And when I work with these advisors who are feeling this.

I simply look at them and I say, here's what I want you to remember.

Whether you're working with a group, small company with 10 employees.

Or a large company with 500 or a thousand employees, and you're talking to that CFO, that HR director of that large company company, do you confidently believe you know more about what it is you do benefits than the CFO or the HR director you're talking to?

And every single time the answer is yes.

And right there, that makes you qualified to walk in that room, walk in that boardroom, and do what you do best.

And I will say the same thing to you. If you are letting imposter syndrome get the best of you right now, maybe you are going after some business you've never gone after before. You're finding yourself in with bigger opportunities than they're used to. Heck, you might be an athlete listening in. And you're playing at a whole different level.

If you.

Feel you have the ability to belong, especially if you're in the business world, you know more about what it is you do than the person sitting across the table from you.

You have every right.

To be in the position you're in.

And that's the message I want to leave with you today. It's a message. That conversation I've had with myself in these last few days. When you allow imposter syndrome to creep up, remember, let's stop calling it a syndrome. It is not an illness. It's just a feeling.

But you have every right to be creating the opportunities you're creating right now.

And whether you're a sales professional, you're a coach, you're a consultant, if you can walk into that room with 100% confidence that you know your product, you know your solution, your strategy better than the person you're teaching and working with.

There is no reason to have that feeling of imposter syndrome because you are damn qualified to go do what you do best. I know this is a message, this is a. A perception that has helped take complete game consulting to the next level. Because when I realized what I do is not sales. My job isn't to help you close business. My job is to share my gift with you, which was grabbing attention.

That is something I feel confident I do better than most people, especially in the insurance industry.

That is what has allowed me to go into these large opportunities with these big insurance companies, big insurance agencies, and walk in that room with confidence, knowing I belong. I just wish I would have had the same confidence 20 years ago when I was playing professional baseball, because I believe if I would have had that same confidence that I belonged, who knows where that pro baseball career would have ended. Probably would have lasted a bit longer at a minimum. So I'm gonna leave you with that today. If you're struggling with imposter syndrome a bit, just know you belong, my friend. If you know what you do better than the person you're coaching, you're teaching, you're selling to, damn it, you have every right to be there. So you know what happens when you get that clarity, which I hope I just gave you? You mix it with a little bit of confidence, and those two come together, you are gonna take unbelievable action. Go take that action today.