29. Podcasting Challenges? Are You Facing Self Doubt and Imposter Syndrome?

Are you letting self-doubt sabotage your podcasting journey? I've been there! In today's episode, I'm sharing my vulnerable and current experience with it, how I’m handling it, and how you can too!

Resources Mentioned:
Episode 5: What If Nobody Listens? Overcoming ‘What If’ Podcasting Fears

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www.ThePodcastTeacher.com/growthcall

REGISTER FOR THE FREE PODCASTING 101 WORKSHOP: www.ThePodcastTeacher.com/workshop

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This episode was produced by me, The Podcast Teacher! Contact me at Hello@ThePodcastTeacher.com.

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Transcript

Hey. Hey. And welcome back. Buckle up y'all. Today's episode is a bit of a vulnerable and wild ride. Ride. We're talking about self doubt and imposter syndrome. Specifically, my experience with them lately, how I'm handling them, and how you can too.

Be sure to stick around till the end to hear about a brand new opportunity for free 1 on 1 coaching with me. Now I've spent most of my podcasting career so far focused on helping people start podcasts. I absolutely love this stage of the podcasting journey. Helping people formulate their ideas, educating them about podcasting, and working side by side to put all of the pieces together. Perhaps it's the teacher in me, but I absolutely love talking to that beginner who has kind of, like, deer in the headlights thing going on, taking them by the metaphorical hand, walking them through the process step by step, and celebrating with them when their podcast launches. It lights me up and fills my soul like nothing else. I'm also really good at it. I've updated and refined my process over the years, and I have a solid and successful method for launching a podcast.

I'm confident tooting my own horn here. No impostor syndrome in this area. Before I move into sharing about what is causing me some self doubt and impostor syndrome, let me take a moment to invite you to my free podcasting 101 workshop. If you're listening to this at the time of release, the next one starts on June 24, 2024. This is a great opportunity to learn some of my best tips and tricks for launching a podcast. Head to the podcast teacher.com/workshop to register. And I run this workshop several times a year. So if you're listening to this in the future, you can still head to the podcast teacher.com/workshop to get details on the next event.

Okay. So after I successfully help someone start their podcast, at some point in the future, they inevitably reach out to me and ask if I can help them grow their podcast. I initially said, nope, that's not my area of expertise, but let me point you to some resources that may help. About a year ago, I started actively learning about strategies to grow a podcast. I've taken courses, attended sessions at conferences, read blog posts, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. It was nice to stretch my knowledge and continue to help my clients that wanted to grow their shows, But I felt like I was only just dipping my toe into the water and that I still didn't know a whole lot. Back in March of this year, Adam Schaeuble of Podcasting Business School announced that he was testing out a new mastermind for podcast coaches who wanted to become a certified podcast growth coach. He would teach us his proven methods and give us his stamp of approval to go and use the strategies with others.

Adam is one of the most respected and prestigious leaders in the industry. So, of course, I was interested in learning from him, but the timing could not have been worse. I was about to head off on a month long vacation involving a lot of time off the grid. And of even bigger concern though was the fact that in order to obtain the certification, I would have to do a coaching call with a cold lead, someone that I didn't know, and submit it to Adam for review, and he would decide whether or not to grant me my certification. Cue the sinking feeling in my stomach. That sounded fairly intimidating to this socially anxious introvert, and I wanted to run-in the opposite direction just at the thought of doing that. But I knew I would be glad if I pushed myself outside of my comfort zone, and I would be thankful that I did. So I enrolled.

Since then, I've been consuming the content, learning strategies, and completing my written homework assignments. I'm working a bit slower than the rest of my group given my vacation time, and so several of my peers have already moved on to doing their coaching session with a cold lead. I discovered that not only do we have to do a coaching session with a cold lead, we have to record it and post it in our Facebook group for everyone to watch, and then Adam will watch critique and post his comments for everyone to read. I understand why he set it up this way. And from a teaching perspective, it makes a lot of sense. Students who aren't socially anxious introverts probably haven't given it a second thought. But for me, adding the layer of peer viewing and my critique from Adam being public simultaneously makes me want to throw up, crawl into a hole, and quit my job. Okay.

Perhaps I'm being a tad dramatic. But the truth is that I am absolutely terrified to take this next step for my podcast growth coach certification. And I've been frozen, unable to move forward in the program for weeks now. So why am I telling you all of this? Honestly, it's a bit therapeutic to talk through all of these thoughts and feelings. I'm also determined to move through this challenge, and declaring my plan publicly is helpful for accountability. Plus, I think the chances are pretty high that you can relate to my situation to some degree, and you may find it helpful to hear how I'm working through it. So let's break down my thoughts and feelings here. Why exactly am I so terrified of this simple coaching session? I think it boils down to self doubt.

I worry that I'm not good enough. I've seen some of the sessions that my peers have done, and they are fabulous. I have thoughts that I can't possibly do it as well as they have. I get into a what if spiral. What if I get on the coaching call with someone and I can't answer their questions? What if the coaching call goes okay, but then I post it in my group and Adam points out all of the things that I did wrong for everyone to read. If you're thinking of starting a podcast, you might be having some similar thoughts. You might think that so and so in your space already has an amazing podcast, and yours could never be as good. I've been there.

I'm on the other side of it. You can be too. You also might get into a what if spiral, wondering if people will even listen or if they will leave bad reviews, etcetera. If this is you, go back and check out episode 5. I've been there too, and I did a whole episode dedicated to the what if spiral. As I'm dealing with this self doubt, imposter syndrome, worries of being good enough, and what that brings up in terms of my worth and my value and my ability to be Levine, all of that rabbit hole stuff. I'm thinking about how do I coach others when these types of thoughts come up? Because I've been told time and time again, I don't know if I should start a podcast because so and so has their podcast, and it's amazing. And why would anyone listen to mine? I'm also thinking of how coaches have helped me work through similar situations in the past being a socially anxious, self doubting introvert, this is not the first time I've encountered a situation like this.

So for me, one helpful strategy is to look at the facts. In my situation, I can look at the fact that I've successfully completed all of my homework assignments in the mastermind so far. I've done the work. I can also look back to a growth coaching session that I did very successfully with one of my clients recently. Another helpful strategy is to stop comparing myself to others. Bet you saw that one coming. Right? My peers in the mastermind are all great podcast growth coaches, but I don't need to compare myself to them. I know that I have a personality instead of strengths that are uniquely mine.

So I'm reminding myself that I will thrive in situations where my peers won't, And they will thrive in situations where I won't. There's room for all of us in the podcasting space. One of my favorite coaching questions is, what are you making this mean? It helps me remember that I am the only one who can assign meaning to an event. So if I get on a growth coaching call and I struggle to help the person, I get to choose what that means. I could choose to make it mean that I'm the worst podcast coach ever, and I shouldn't ever coach again. Or I can choose to make it mean that that person and I simply weren't a good fit to work together. I'm also remembering that I didn't become an expert in launching a podcast overnight. It took me years of learning and practice.

Now I excel at it, but I wasn't amazing on day 1. I've now learned about growing a podcast, and it's time for me to practice. I'm embracing the idea that practice makes progress. Not practice makes perfect. We're getting away from that perfectionist mentality. Practice makes progress. Something that terrifies you the first time you do it, and maybe you kinda suck at it, generally doesn't terrify you the 100th time you do it, and, generally, you're better at it by then. So I'm flexing my coaching muscle using my newfound knowledge about how to grow a podcast with my existing clients.

I know that the more I do it, the more comfortable and confident I'll become. And on that note, I'm opening up spots on my calendar to do some free podcast growth coaching with folks who are not currently my clients. If you already have a podcast that you'd like to grow, you can grab a spot by going to the podcast teacher.com/growthcall. That's growth call, all one word with no spaces. And if you don't have a podcast yet, I hope to see you at the podcasting 101 workshop. Regardless, I want you to remember that you can do whatever the hard thing is in your life right now. I have shared some strategies here today. Maybe they'll be helpful to you, maybe they're not, but you can do this.

I'm telling myself I can do things that scare me, the things that I'm not quite good at yet, and so can you. Until next time, happy podcasting.