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Why You Should Embrace Impostor Syndrome
If you're not struggling with impostor syndrome just a little bit, I question your grasp on reality. I'm not saying you must go out there and cultivate self-worth issues. However, a little impostor syndrome probably means you are approaching life with an adequate degree of humility.
I:
Founded one of the top marketing agencies
Published one of the top marketing books
Co-founded one of the top marketing masterminds
Co-host one of the top marketing podcasts
Created one of the top marketing courses
And yet: I feel like an impostor. Every. Single. Day.
However, we can't let the impostor syndrome get in our way. As soon as it stops you from moving forward, it's time to kill it with fire. To combat impostor syndrome, we need to reframe what it means to be an expert. Listen to this episode to learn more about impostor syndrome and how I deal with it.
How do you combat impostor syndrome? Do you think it ever goes away completely?
0:00 Why You Should Embrace Impostor Syndrome
5:53 Best way to get over impostor syndrome
11:08 Are you willing to accept the impostor syndrome?
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Transcript
You don't know what you're doing.
Kasim:You're gonna get found out.
Kasim:You're stupid, you're gonna look dumb.
Kasim:People are gonna make fun of you.
Kasim:Other people are better than you.
Kasim:Who do you think you are?
Kasim:These are all things I say to myself before, like 7:00 AM and I'm
Kasim:pretty sure you're the same way.
Kasim:So I'm shooting this video.
Kasim:Just all my entrepreneurs content creators, anybody trying, you know,
Kasim:just to try as an act of bravery.
Kasim:I really like what Brene Brown said.
Kasim:She said that creation is the ultimate attempt at vulnerability.
Kasim:And I think being vulnerable is so critically important,
Kasim:but it's, hard to do.
Kasim:I wanna talk a little bit about imposter syndrome.
Kasim:And how do to get over it in some instances, by the way, I'm a student
Kasim:along the way with you in this journey.
Kasim:I don't know how to get over imposter syndrome full stop,
Kasim:but I know how to address it.
Kasim:If you don't mind, I'll start with something We will call
Kasim:it a self-serving example.
Kasim:Okay.
Kasim:Because if I wanted to offer up my resume to somebody, and you know, I'll do this
Kasim:on podcasts, if I'm being introduced, they ask me to send the bullet points over.
Kasim:And you know, I founded one of the top marketing agencies on the planet.
Kasim:I published one of the top marketing books.
Kasim:It was number one in both marketing and advertising on Amazon worldwide.
Kasim:I co-founded one of the top marketing masterminds in the world.
Kasim:I'm the co-host, one of the top marketing podcasts on the planet.
Kasim:I created one of the top marketing courses in existence.
Kasim:yet, I, none of that's real.
Kasim:I, go one by one.
Kasim:I founded one of the top marketing agencies.
Kasim:I own a Google Ads agency, and I've never run Google ads.
Kasim:I have a business partner , who's unbelievably brilliant and dedicated,
Kasim:and he's just one of the smartest people in the whole wide world.
Kasim:And he cracked the quote on Google Ads.
Kasim:So, you wanna talk about imposter syndrome, like, oh my goodness.
Kasim:I published one of the top marketing books.
Kasim:I didn't write that book, patience who's brilliant and used to work for us
Kasim:and has gone off to greener pastures.
Kasim:She watched my videos in mostly John's videos in order
Kasim:to pull that book together.
Kasim:So, you know, I published a book that was number one worldwide.
Kasim:I didn't write that book.
Kasim:I wrote the title.
Kasim:That is the extent of my participation in the writing of that book.
Kasim:Co-founder, one of the top marketing masterminds.
Kasim:That was a, Unbelievably generous gift from Perry Belcher Perry, who's one of
Kasim:the godfathers in the world of marketing.
Kasim:I knew Perry from War Room and I didn't know him very well by the way.
Kasim:We'd never hung out while in war room outside of like group settings.
Kasim:And Perry had seen me win the Wicked Smart Award a couple of times.
Kasim:And so I think he was just impressed.
Kasim:But I didn't earn, he wasn't impressed enough to justify
Kasim:giving me a full partnership in.
Kasim:The next iteration of War Room, what would end up being, what I
Kasim:think now is going to be one of the top marketing masterminds ever.
Kasim:And dude, that's just kinda who Perry is.
Kasim:You know, I was right place, right time and lucked out.
Kasim:I'm the co-host, one of the top marketing podcast.
Kasim:Same story.
Kasim:I was a guest on Perpetual Traffic because one of my buddies
Kasim:referred me I think it was.
Kasim:Garrett, if I'm not mistaken, and I'm, I hope I'm attributing this properly, but
Kasim:Garrett over at Digital Marketer referred me up to Ralph, at the time, perpetual
Kasim:Traffic was a digital marketer property, and Ralph was like, all right, yeah, we'll
Kasim:have the guy on and hopped on the podcast.
Kasim:Me and Ralph got along and then, He had, just lost his co-host,
Kasim:like, I didn't build, create, ideate Fund, the Top Marketing podcast.
Kasim:I was just given this co-host position created one of the top
Kasim:marketing courses, same story Ryan Dice over at Digital Marketer.
Kasim:I'd known Ryan Five years at this point.
Kasim:Six years to my credit, I paid my dues over at dmm.
Kasim:I, give as much value as I possibly could.
Kasim:was always trying to help support.
Kasim:I, was chosen as the elite traffic coach.
Kasim:I'm not calling myself the elite traffic coach, by the way.
Kasim:That was the name of the program, was the Digital Market Elite program.
Kasim:And then, so when they needed somebody to create, to update the course, because
Kasim:the course that they had was pretty old.
Kasim:It was the same course from the Molly Pitman days.
Kasim:I think that was the obvious choice at that point I didn't do the things that
Kasim:you would assume need to be done in order to earn that position just in life.
Kasim:And there's a couple of points that I wanna make about this.
Kasim:It's really easy to explain away your own successes, and while that's.
Kasim:A little deflating.
Kasim:It makes you realize, you know what?
Kasim:I bet you it's probably really easy to explain away other people's successes too.
Kasim:Malcolm Gladwell proves this, by the way, I don't like Malcolm Gladwell very much.
Kasim:He's very brilliant.
Kasim:I like some of his books, but I read the Outliers and and he does this often.
Kasim:He likes to use data in order to deflate prowess.
Kasim:Strikes me as a very jealous person.
Kasim:And so instead of looking at like what Bill Gates and Steve Jobs
Kasim:did for instance, and being like, my goodness, that is amazing.
Kasim:He went in there and been, well, statistically that was
Kasim:gonna happen no matter what.
Kasim:And they were the ones that were closest to the computer, geographically speaking.
Kasim:And if you take the number in, it's just like, all right, dude, fine.
Kasim:can we not have heroes?
Kasim:You know what I mean?
Kasim:Can we not celebrate people for what they did instead of sitting there and
Kasim:tearing 'em down every step of the way?
Kasim:And so if you're going, This is the game you have to opt into playing, okay?
Kasim:You have to opt into playing this game.
Kasim:If you're going to have heroes, then you have to allow for heroic acts.
Kasim:And if you're allowing for heroic acts, then that needs to include you two.
Kasim:And I think that's one of the best ways to get over imposter syndrome is to realize.
Kasim:if I'm gonna explain away my own successes, that puts me in
Kasim:a position of trying to explain away other people's successes too.
Kasim:I don't wanna be the type of human being that goes in and
Kasim:like pops other people's bubbles.
Kasim:Like if you've got something, if you've worked for something, if you're
Kasim:positioned somewhere, if you've got the bullet points on your resume, I just
Kasim:wanna look at that and be like, wow.
Kasim:Like good for you.
Kasim:I'm inspired.
Kasim:I want to do what you've done.
Kasim:You know, let's go.
Kasim:I think if you're not struggling with imposter syndrome just a little
Kasim:bit, I think that there's probably something wrong with you to be frank.
Kasim:Like, we've met those people too.
Kasim:You know, those folks that are just a little too proud of themselves.
Kasim:little too confident, too self-assured.
Kasim:You know, on one end of the spectrum is obviously like narcissism or conceit,
Kasim:but even setting aside like severe psychological issues, I'd rather be on.
Kasim:This side of the line.
Kasim:Hopefully a healthy degree close to the center.
Kasim:But I'd rather be cautious in my assumptions about myself
Kasim:and my views of myself.
Kasim:And again, if you're struggling with imposter syndrome that means that
Kasim:you're on the right side of the line.
Kasim:Now, you might be too far in one direction.
Kasim:And when you're too far in one direction, it's when you're paralyzed,
Kasim:it's when you're fearful, it's when you don't wanna try, you don't wanna
Kasim:create, you don't wanna move forward.
Kasim:You know, imposter syndrome to some degree, it means that you're approaching
Kasim:life with an adequate degree of humility, which is what we want.
Kasim:It's what we want from you.
Kasim:But if you allow it to get into your way, if you allow it to stop you, I
Kasim:feel this way about public speaking.
Kasim:I.
Kasim:Public speaking is really interesting to me.
Kasim:when I'm on stage and I've been on the biggest stages in the marketing world
Kasim:now, and what that tells me is it's not the smartest guy on stage guy or gal.
Kasim:It's the smartest person who's also willing to take that risk.
Kasim:And that's a really big asterisk and I've noticed consistently throughout
Kasim:my entire professional life, it's never the smartest person speaking ever.
Kasim:I run a mastermind.
Kasim:Now, the Driven Mastermind, I see this in the Mastermind all the time.
Kasim:You know, we'll have a conversation for 45 minutes on a topic, and it's
Kasim:the same two, three, or four people, the loudest, most boisterous people
Kasim:offering the most fervent advice.
Kasim:And then right at the very end, somebody kind of like keeps their hand
Kasim:up and says, well, you know what, if we tried and then drops, Insane value.
Kasim:you dig into what it is that they're saying and you find out that they
Kasim:actually have 20 years of experience here and through trial and error and,
Kasim:know, real actual data, but they weren't willing to put themselves out there.
Kasim:And, you know, one, it's tragedy that, and we should be better at
Kasim:creating an environment where those people feel comfortable speaking up.
Kasim:Two, you need to do other people.
Kasim:The service of speaking up.
Kasim:You need to allow for the idea that what you have to say is
Kasim:important, maybe vitally important.
Kasim:Maybe what you have to say, what you have to create, what you have to
Kasim:put out into the world is going to impact people in a substantive way.
Kasim:And by the way, this doesn't have to be like life changing,
Kasim:Tony Robbins, hurrah, whatever.
Kasim:This could just be helping people fix their plumbing, right?
Kasim:Like that's actually, is such a benign example, and I don't know why we
Kasim:always go to plumbers for examples.
Kasim:Probably because it's a dirty job, but, If you've ever had like a clogged
Kasim:toilet that you couldn't get unclogged, that's a, that's a very big problem.
Kasim:It'll stop your whole life, you know, especially if you have kids.
Kasim:It's like, dad, I need to go to the bathroom.
Kasim:It's like, well, you can't right now.
Kasim:and you hop on YouTube and then there's somebody who took the time to explain,
Kasim:Hey, here's how you isolate the problem.
Kasim:Here's how you fix the problem.
Kasim:that is a person that's taken.
Kasim:Their voice and used it in a way that's made other people's lives better.
Kasim:Alrick heck's a really good example of this he's, before he was the World
Kasim:Authority on YouTube, he was just teaching people how to use their iPhone.
Kasim:And if you go back and look at his videos, we were poking fun
Kasim:of him and perpetual traffic.
Kasim:He started when he was 12 years old.
Kasim:Videos aren't good at all.
Kasim:It's just 12 year old al Rick's hand and a camera on the iPhone, and he's kind of
Kasim:explaining how to use the various apps.
Kasim:And you think, man, these videos they're not great.
Kasim:It's a young kid you know, he's got a lot of ums and ahs and
Kasim:they're so easy to beat down.
Kasim:But then, you know, flip the script on that and think, well, gosh, especially
Kasim:at the time, who else was willing to put themselves out there and start
Kasim:telling people how to use their iPhone, except this 12 year old insanely
Kasim:brave kid who's like, I'll do it.
Kasim:You know, you can make fun of me and my lighting's bad and I don't really
Kasim:know how to record media and you know, I'm not an adept public speaker yet.
Kasim:He's phenomenal now, by the way.
Kasim:But, you know, at the time he's kind of just figuring life out and because
Kasim:he was willing to put himself out there that way, you look at him, he's, he was
Kasim:financially free before he could vote.
Kasim:It's amazing.
Kasim:What an amazing story.
Kasim:And there's something about.
Kasim:Being willing to do that, being willing to accept the imposter syndrome.
Kasim:You don't necessarily even wanna get over it.
Kasim:And I think maybe that's the concept that I've been trying to find here to do with
Kasim:you as I brainstorm live on this video.
Kasim:Maybe it's not about getting over imposter syndrome, maybe it's about accepting it.
Kasim:Wearing it like a badge of honor and then doing it anyway.
Kasim:with thought authenticity.
Kasim:That's where I think people get really freaked out as they think
Kasim:like, oh, I need to pretend I need to present this image or anything.
Kasim:You don't.
Kasim:And if you don't know the answer, don't pretend like you know the answer.
Kasim:That's different.
Kasim:lying.
Kasim:Imposter syndrome is different.
Kasim:It's why it's syndrome.
Kasim:It's not just imposter ' cause you can also just be an imposter, by the way.
Kasim:But imposter syndrome is feeling like you're an imposter when you're not
Kasim:necessarily you know, maybe you're a level seven and you feel like it should
Kasim:be a level 10 explaining these concepts.
Kasim:Well fine.
Kasim:The level ten's not willing to do it.
Kasim:Be brave.
Kasim:There's a classic mythological archetype that says that the
Kasim:savior is prefaced by the fool.
Kasim:In order the fool becomes the savior, which is really weird.
Kasim:, you see this in Brandon Sanderson's storeman archives, by the way.
Kasim:hope I didn't just give it part of the major plot away to you.
Kasim:You see Star Wars, right?
Kasim:Like Luke Skywalker in the very beginning is a bumbling.
Kasim:Dope idiot doesn't know anything.
Kasim:Messes up all the time, keeps getting zapped by that little floaty bot.
Kasim:You have to be willing to be foolish.
Kasim:and to be seen being foolish.
Kasim:That's the hardest part.
Kasim:But then it puts you in a position to really be able to help people.
Kasim:when I used to do my talks, I was always terrified of qa.
Kasim:And, you know, the q and a piece of the talk is not my favorite, but
Kasim:at the time I used to talk a lot about Facebook ads, which is really
Kasim:funny and should layer on to the complexities of my imposter syndrome.
Kasim:I don't know if anybody knows that.
Kasim:We were full funnel agency, we were deep, deep, deep into Facebook.
Kasim:I taught Infusionsoft's entire team how to use Facebook ads.
Kasim:we'd put a deal together with them at some point where we were
Kasim:actually gonna run Facebook ads for all Infusionsoft to customers.
Kasim:They ended up.
Kasim:Going back on that deal in a really shady way, to be honest with you.
Kasim:But I, was the, Facebook ad expert.
Kasim:I spoke at Icon, I spoke at Partner Con.
Kasim:On Facebook ads, advanced Facebook ad strategies, and when I would get up there,
Kasim:I was so afraid that somebody would ask me a question I didn't know the answer to.
Kasim:I would days before and then especially the night before the talk,
Kasim:I would just sit there drinking as much content as I possibly could.
Kasim:Like little teeny tiny nuances I'd read, like development journals.
Kasim:Look at the A p I documentation, everything John Luer ever produced.
Kasim:I, get so scared to be on stage and have somebody ask me something
Kasim:I wouldn't know the answer to.
Kasim:And two things happened.
Kasim:First one is all the questions I was going triple PhD deep, you know, deep.
Kasim:And the questions were all like surface.
Kasim:Alright, well how do I make sure the pixel fires on?
Kasim:You know?
Kasim:And it's like, oh, number one.
Kasim:Number two, when I finally was asked a question I didn't know the answer
Kasim:to, I just said, I don't know.
Kasim:And what was really interesting about that is I earned more trust from the audience
Kasim:in that moment than I possibly could have spouting all the answers for 45 minutes.
Kasim:Everybody's like, oh, cool.
Kasim:Thanks, dude.
Kasim:I appreciate Now you don't, you can't just say, I don't know, and walk away.
Kasim:It's, I, don't know, but, you know, I'll figure that out and I'll crack the code.
Kasim:Or here's maybe what I think.
Kasim:But it's funny, people are willing to, they're willing
Kasim:to watch the student learn.
Kasim:They're my children go to Montessori school.
Kasim:I'm obsessed with Montessori education for so many reasons.
Kasim:If you take the five most important brands in the world, you'd have Google,
Kasim:apple, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon.
Kasim:Four outta five of those founders went to a Montessori school.
Kasim:80% of the most impressive brands in the world.
Kasim:The founders come from Montessori education and you think like,
Kasim:oh, that's pretty impressive.
Kasim:It's more impressive when you realize that Montessori makes that 0.0,
Kasim:0, 0, 0, 0, 0 2% of the available education in this, North America.
Kasim:It's unbelievable what Montessori can produce.
Kasim:Montessori has very, very strict.
Kasim:Pedagogical rules and then a lot of non-st strict things.
Kasim:But there's a couple of things that, that Maria Montera was obsessive with,
Kasim:and one of 'em was multi-age classrooms.
Kasim:if you're a four year old, you're also in the classroom with five and six year olds.
Kasim:And what's cool about that is the four year old learns from the five-year-old and
Kasim:the five-year-old while teaching the four year old learns to, learns to be a leader,
Kasim:learns to, grow, learns how to learn.
Kasim:Because to learn something in order to do it is way different than learning
Kasim:something in order to teach it.
Kasim:And the four year old is at a, better position because they're learning
Kasim:from somebody who understands their, context from a recency perspective, I'm
Kasim:just learning to, my spelling, let's say, or whatever sentence structure.
Kasim:I know where you came from 'cause I just learned this last year.
Kasim:I know where I struggled.
Kasim:I know the, things that really helped make sense to me and so I can
Kasim:communicate it to you way easier than the 35 year old master's degree guide.
Kasim:and I think that's obvious.
Kasim:Well, you can be, that you can be the four year old, other people's
Kasim:three year, three-year-old.
Kasim:That's okay.
Kasim:That doesn't make you an imposter as long as you're honest about
Kasim:who it is and what you're doing.
Kasim:Who you are and what you're doing . So I think that the imposter syndrome.
Kasim:The problem is one, that it's so pernicious because it takes maybe some
Kasim:of the people whose voices would be the most helpful and the most valid,
Kasim:and it puts 'em on the sidelines.
Kasim:And then in equal measure, it allows people who maybe don't deserve the
Kasim:spotlight to take it because the room's been cleared and they've got
Kasim:real high opinions of themselves.
Kasim:And I think as a collective, honestly, I think we're actually
Kasim:starting to get over that.
Kasim:I think the way we're being taught to use social media applications
Kasim:is helping people understand like, oh, I can just hit record and talk.
Kasim:You know, I can just be casual.
Kasim:It's just me talking to my buddies, you know, just shooting
Kasim:Instagram reel or whatever.
Kasim:that's my ask maybe, is just get out there, create, be
Kasim:authentic, be vulnerable.
Kasim:Accept the imposter syndrome.
Kasim:Wear it, it like a badge.
Kasim:Don't try to dump it entirely.
Kasim:That's the wrong thing to do.
Kasim:That's a really good signal.
Kasim:So, just a really good thing to pay attention to.
Kasim:But don't allow it to limit your ability to serve.
Kasim:That's the take home message.
Kasim:I hope this is helpful.
Kasim:I really appreciate y'all watching everybody who's subscribed, y'all make my
Kasim:day every day I get to wake up, I go and I check my YouTube channel and I'll see
Kasim:like 700 views, 1200 views, 500 views, and I'm like, that's 500 real people.
Kasim:You know, 500 souls that I've been able to somehow impact.
Kasim:Maybe not all positively but it's a big deal and it helps me
Kasim:get over my imposter syndrome.
Kasim:So thank you.
Kasim:I shoot a video every day, like come and subscribe.