Have you ever thought to yourself, “I can’t actually do this”? Or, “People think I’m good enough, but if they only knew. It’s not that I’m qualified, I’ve just been lucky before and that’s why I appear successful.”
These are the lies that imposter syndrome tell us. And these lies keep us from taking that big step (like becoming a virtual assistant) and rob us of potential happiness (like the freedom of life a virtual assistant enjoys). But, once you recognize imposter syndrome in your life, you can work towards taking down that beast and living confidently as the treasure you are.
Putting a Name to the Monster
Isn’t it funny how just having a name for something instantly makes it less scary? Shout out to psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes, who came up with the term imposter syndrome in the 70s. At the time, Clance and Imes believed the feeling was a uniquely female experience. Of course, since then the psychological community realized men absolutely can feel imposter syndrome (but it is much more common in women than men).
Clance and Imes described it as that feeling of “phoniness in people who believe that they are not intelligent, capable or creative despite evidence of high achievement.”
This terrible sinking gut feeling is found in highly successful people who are motivated to achieve, but live in fear of being exposed as frauds.
Do you see the irony here? It’s those who should be the most confident that doubt themselves the most.
Imposter syndrome is often confused with a few other things, so let’s clear that up right now. Imposter syndrome is not humility (which is an accurate view saying your worth isn’t more than someone else). Imposter syndrome is a warped and false view of your “lack” of success and ability. You’re not failing to express your talents out of humbleness, but out of self-doubt. You believe your talents aren’t worth talking about (even though they are).
Imposter syndrome isn’t just being a realist (which involves a calculated hesitation to taking a chance by weighing the risks and benefits). Imposter syndrome is a paralyzing fear preventing you from acting, which undermines your own success because you’re convinced you can’t (even though you can).
Imposter syndrome rears its ugly head to keep you from being all you can be. It stops you from expressing initiative at work, pitching ideas, or even starting a new career. It’s like a bird who clips her own wings before she has a chance to fly because she’s falsely convinced she can’t.
Imposter Syndrome and Success
Remember, imposter syndrome occurs in highly successful people. Our brains have to reconcile the poor view of ourselves and our objective success, and it does so in two ways.
It tells us we just got lucky. It wasn’t our hard work, talent, and ambition that got us that success. We just happened to be at the right place at the right time (which, by the way, is why you shouldn’t take a chance now because your luck may run out).
Or, it tells us our success is overblown. Our hard work, talent, and ambition aren’t really that great. Other people make a way bigger deal than they should (and because of it, you should really feel like a fake and an imposter for believing you’re capable of achieving more).
Imposter syndrome is a terrible, agonizing feeling. And the worst part is we don’t (and shouldn’t) have to feel this way!
Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
Here’s the good news about imposter syndrome: you don’t have to live with it! It will take a bit of time and effort, but you can live a life free of imposter syndrome.
- Recognize you’re not alone. Please, take comfort in the fact that you’re not the only one struggling here. Heck, even famous people like Maya Angelou, Kate Winslet, and Tina Fey all vocalize to the media that they deal with imposter syndrome. You’re definitely not the only one feelings these feelings right now. And there are plenty of people who came before you, took on the beast, and came out the other side victorious.
Don’t try to fix it with success. Sometimes people think the way to overcome imposter syndrome is to pursue more accomplishments. But, the underlying root of imposter syndrome is not being able to accurately internalize your own success and abilities. Simply piling on more success won’t do anything to make imposter syndrome go away.- Stop telling people in your life what you think they want to hear. Part of imposter syndrome is feeling like a fake. When you give the answers to your boss, co-workers, family members, etc. that you think they want to hear, you just add to feelings of being a phony.
- Identify when you fall into the trap. If you start thinking imposter syndrome thoughts, take a moment to stop, recognize it, and then re-frame your perspective. Maybe you’re thinking “there’s no way I can become a virtual assistant. Who would hire me with my lack of experience? I know a business has so many people to choose from, and I simply can’t compete.” Take that thought and shift it to be more accurate, like “While I haven’t done a specific virtual assistant job before, I completed very similar work at my old job. I do have the writing and analytical skills needed to do this type of work. And with this course, I’m getting the job-specific information I need. I can do the work of a virtual assistant, and do it well.”
- Read through others’ experiences. It’s important to not fall into the “I’m the only one feeling this way trap”- it leaves us feeling powerless and stuck. Read books like “Lean In” by Sheryl Sandberg, which discusses common fears of women in the workplace. Or read these celebrity quotes on imposter syndrome.
- Physically write your success. Make a list that you can re-read when you’re experiencing imposter syndrome thoughts. Include not only your success, but what you did to achieve them in order to combat any “it was just luck” false thinking.
- Place yourself in positions of applying your expertise. By actively sharing and discussing what you know, you’ll be able to see that you know more than you give yourself credit for. Volunteer as a mentor to someone else in your industry (or even someone interested in your industry). Join industry-focused Facebook groups and answer questions and offer advice. You’ll quickly see that you know more than you realized.
- Reach out to loved ones. It’s scary, but it’s important to share with others what you’re going through so they can be a support system. Try to find people in your life who feel the same way. It’s therapeutic to talk with others who understand from experience how it feels. Get one or two cheerleaders who can talk down your negative self-talk with reminders of your capabilities and successes.
Imposter syndrome is a terrible thing to feel, but it can get better! Know that you are capable, you are smart, and you can do this!
Until next time,
Jessica
Twitter is a great tool to direct individuals to your website. In this way you can think of Twitter and your website like a news story. The headline and the lead are the Twitter post: it draws you in and provides just enough information you know what you’ll be reading about. The body of the article is your website post: the substance and entirety of what you want your audience to read. While posts can be great at directing individuals to your site, not every post needs to. Some posts can be a short story or message in of themselves. 
Linkedin is great for increasing brand awareness and acquisition. Individuals can publish articles on 
Marketers post content to help boost their SEO. Oftentimes marketers strapped for time post their Facebook posts on 
Creating engaging videos is a great way to turn out shareable content, engage audiences, and improve SEO. 
Like Twitter, 
you avoid too many keywords (which can make your profile a dry read). You really want to think about what your audience is looking for and write for that. Answer those questions, and use those words. Utilize a few strategies to establish the best keywords for you. First, brainstorm words and phrases likely to be searched by the individuals you want viewing your profile. Second, read through profiles of leaders in your target markets to find common keywords they use. Third, examine keywords used in job postings by your target employers. Integrate these keywords throughout your profile, from your specialties section to your link descriptions.
Affiliate marketing happens when your marketing efforts bring another organization visitors and/or customers. In return, the other organization provides you with monetary compensation for each visitor/customer. Affiliate marketing can involve providing links on your website to products from other organizations or including ads for other organizations on your website. If your link provides the organization with a sale (someone purchases a product after clicking on your product link), you receive monetary compensation. A great place to start with affiliate marketing is with Amazon Associates. They offer a simply set up (or get your VA to help you set it up) and Amazon has a huge product selection, so you can always find something to tell your viewer they should use.
Here you want to brainstorm ways to convert your expertise into a practical service to meet your customers’ needs. For example, a travel blogger could offer a trip 
Here the idea is to brainstorm ways to convert your expertise into a tangible product to meet your customers’ needs. You will want to build something that once it is created, it is ready to go and doesn’t take any effort on your part. For example, if you’re a photographer, sell photos through stock photography. If you’re a food blogger, sell e-books that are collections of recipes. Most of the work is with creating the product. Once that’s completed, you’ll just need minimal advertising efforts. You can even just link to the product on your website, and make the occasional promotional social media post, and call it good.
Take all that industry expertise and knowledge you’ve got, and monetize it! Ask yourself, “What does an individual need to know to become an expert on given topic, tool, etc?” Answer that question with your knowledge in the form of an online training session or webinar. When you first start out, focus on creating “evergreen” content (information people can use over and over at any time). Something that you don’t have to do live or be there for. For example, “How to advertise your organization on 
For some topics, presenting the ideas in person makes more sense than presenting them online. That’s where the idea of a seminar or class comes in. Take the knowledge you’ve got and present it to a 
You can study your audience as a whole, or break up your audience into segments (such as only looking at female followers, or only individuals 18 to 25). To segment the audience, enter in information (such as age bracket) on the left-hand side. How much you want to segment your audience depends on the campaign you’re gathering data for.
The “
Yes, your time is stretched thin right now. That’s probably why you 
of communication
is working with several clients and each one has their own set of preferences and procedures, as does your virtual assistant. A broad term like social media management can mean anything from creating a few posts a month to creating a thorough multi-page digital 
trades. Any task you can imagine, they can handle. Choosing the best tasks to pass on, however, can make your work with a virtual assistant more efficient. The ideal task is one you and your team lack the time/energy/experience for that the virtual assistant has the competence for. Usually these fall under the realm of administrative tasks (like scheduling or addressing envelopes). But don’t underestimate the value of using a virtual assistant to handle social media, blog writing, and other aspects of digital marketing. If they bring experience in that industry, they can really help your business grow. You can use
task. Are there any unnecessary steps you can remove? Is there any way to make the task less time consuming? Can you batch tasks to make the process more productive? The more efficient the process, the less money it will cost you for the 
virtual assistant or a team member, should know how to complete the task. Remember that how-to manual you are creating? In the event the 
better than perfect. If someone else can do it 80% as well, delegate. To find tasks, do a time audit for a week. You’ll see how you’re spending time (and which simple tasks are draining your time). Delegate anything that can be handled well by another team member.
team member is on track. Check in at various points and provide opportunity for the team member to ask questions and receive guidance.
Why is cohesion of core values so important? First imagine what happens when conflicting values are at play. Employees who value efficiency over relationship building won’t engage authentically when a boss encourages small talk among the team. A company that values timeliness will encounter conflict with an employee who sees deadlines as suggestions. Employees utilizing different values when handling 
This is the writing the recipe stage, where you’re figuring out what you want the end result to look like. Explicitly stating the core values is the guiding direction to the authenticity and trust in a 
This is the stirring, mixing, pouring, and heating of the brownie batter stage. Here are several steps you can take to reinforce values in your organization:
Focus on the process, not just the results. Bosses who narrowly focus on results don’t care how it gets done, just that it does get done. Employees internalize this mentality and will often lose sight of company values (learning and improving one’s work, positive collaboration with team members, etc.) while they work for the results. As much as possible, reinforce values in your employees’