Vanessa Van Edwards spends hundreds of hours preparing talks, reviewing 3,000 academic studies for an 18-minute presentation. She says intense work is the only way she silences imposter syndrome, though the perfectionism also strains her family life.
hard work is the only way I can conquer the imposter syndrome. Who am I to go up on Global Leadership Summit and speak to these leaders who should be on this stage too? If I'm working really, really hard, then I feel like I've earned some time here with thousands of hours of research put into an 18-minute talk. I'm at least putting in the work. That is the only mental trick that I have, which is also a problem when I'm a perfectionist and I work way too much, which is an issue in my family life because I'm wanting to get it right. I want to practice it to be perfect. If you see an 18-minute talk at the GLS Summit, what you might not know is that literally 3,000 academic studies, that's hundreds of hours of me poring over, cataloging, organizing, testing ideas, testing jokes, finding metaphors, creating the perfect gif. It's hundreds of hours of work. Then I feel like I can stand on something on stage.
