Ryan DeissCo-Founder & CEO, The Scalable Company

Bad news for business owners

3 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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1:11

In this short monologue, the speaker addresses the common question of when a business owner will stop feeling like a fraud or experiencing imposter syndrome. He argues that the feeling never truly disappears for anyone who is still growing. Each new level of business development brings unfamiliar challenges, which trigger a fresh wave of self‑doubt. Rather than viewing this as a flaw, the speaker frames the fraud feeling as a reliable signal that the owner is operating outside their comfort zone and therefore learning. He notes that the only time the feeling ceases is when growth stalls, which is a warning sign. The talk concludes with an encouraging invitation to “welcome” the feeling, positioning it as a positive catalyst for continued progress.

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So when do you stop feeling like a fraud as a business owner? When does imposter syndrome go away? When do you feel like you finally arrived? And the answer is never. Never, never, never. If you are doing this right, you will always feel like a fraud every single day. And that's only true if you're growing. Because if you think about it, when you were first getting started in business, you felt like a fraud 'cause you didn't know what you were doing. Then you figured it out and you grew to the next level, and guess what? Now you feel like a fraud again 'cause you don't know what you're doing at that level. And then you keep growing, and every time you hit a new stage of growth, you feel like a new level of fraud, hypocrite, imposter. As crazy as it sounds, if you're feeling like a fraud, it means you're accurately collaborating, correlating the situation. You know what's going on. You're not a delusional narcissist. Good job. So when do you feel like a fraud? When you stop growing. When you feel like a fraud, I guess when you've completely failed and you've convinced yourself and everyone else that you do in fact suck, but I don't think that's going to happen. As long as you're growing, you're gonna feel like a fraud. If you're feeling like a fraud, you're gonna seek out ways to not be a fraud. When you stop being a fraud at this level, that creates growth, which means you just feel like a fraud. It's a good thing. Welcome, fellow fraud.