Welcome to the "What's Your Problem?" Community!
March 28, 2022

686. 3 Ways To Weaponize Imposter Syndrome (Communication)

686. 3 Ways To Weaponize Imposter Syndrome (Communication)

From the rich, powerful, and famous, to the normal every day you's and me's, everybody feels like an imposter. Instead of resisting it, Adam Grant advises you to embrace it.

Adam Grant's book: Think Again. The Power Of Knowing What You Don't Know.

Please help support & grow TSL Nation by leaving a 5 ⭐️ rating review right here.

Watch this episode by subscribing to The Sales Life on Youtube. 

Keep it simple. Keep it moving. Never settle. Stay tough. 

Transcript

let me ask you a question. Have you ever been in one of those situations and you just like stop or maybe even freeze up and you question yourself, why am I here? I don't deserve to be where I'm at. And then it scares you even more. Cause then you're like, what if others find out I'm not supposed to be here, that's imposter syndrome. And today we're going to address that. But instead of resisting it, we're going to embrace it. You're listening to the sales life, a top 5% podcasts in the world. I'm your host Marsh Buice , and the sales life is taking skills that I've learned in the sales profession. And I'll show you how you can apply those to every area of your life, because there's no doubt that the skills that I've learned in sales skills of communication, curiosity, creativity, continuous learning, and productive confrontation. Those five skills saved my life. Everything that you've accomplished in life is because you sold your way there. And everything that you haven't achieved in life is because you settled. So if you want to have more, do more, be more than say no more. On with today's episode, it comes from think again by Adam Grant, the power of knowing what you don't know. And it's about imposter syndrome. Like I kicked off the episode and you know, what the rich and powerful and the normal everyday use amaze, man, we all struggle with imposter syndrome. And I don't know, man, for me, one day I can feel like a champ and other days I feel like a chump. And it's just like, I dunno. It's like imposter syndrome is sometimes like, uh, a monoxide gas it's odorless. I can't see it. And all of a sudden I go from king of the world to, I don't know, king of the crap. And I sit there and I just start beating myself up, like, come on, man. I mean, you want to go where you want to do what people want to listen to you. Why see it's all these kinds of different things. So that imposter syndrome man , it can debilitate you. And so in reading Adam Grant's book, and really the whole premise of the book is about challenging the way that you think and your deep held beliefs of what you think. And there's a section in there. About imposter syndrome, we all deal with it. And most of the advice when it comes to imposter syndrome is that you should just resist it, just run away from it. You're good. But Adam Grant in think again, Adam Grant tells you to think again, embrace imposter syndrome instead of resisting. And you can actually weaponize your imposter syndrome to make you lethal. So I want to go over the three ways that he outlines and kind of riff on those and how you can use imposter syndrome to your advantage. When you feel the imposter syndrome on you, the first way you can embrace imposture syndrome, grant rights, feeling like an imposture can motivate you to work harder. It can motivate you to work harder. See, there are many times, especially when you feel the imposter syndrome, you feel like that you're not ready. You feel like that you're not equipped. And those voices just bang away. But the fact of the matter is you're never going to be ready. You're not, you gotta begin before you're ready. There was an episode I did sometime back and the book was so good. I ended up buying it from my shelf. It's called the innovation stack, uh, by Jim McCalvi and he writes in there begin before you're ready. You're never going to be fully ready. And the time that you think you're ready, if you feel that way, you're already too late because there are other people too. Who feel the same way. And if you're waiting till you're ready, you're late, you're late to the party. So feeling like an imposture is a really good thing it's motivation because there are people who are counting on you. And there are people who are counting you out, show up for both of them. So you've used that. As logs on the fire, you use the imposter syndrome to make you work harder and to, to just go beast mode, you leverage it and you show up for both of them. Number two, imposter thoughts can make you work smarter. You ever been in a situation where you feel like you're just outmatched and the people that you're surrounded with. They're way more gifted, way more talented than you what a tremendous advantage that is, because see if that is true. If the people you're around are smarter, gifted, and more successful than you. They have more to lose what an advantage that is. Think about that for a second. If you're around someone and they've got all of the gifts, they've got all the talent, they got all the success and you don't, who could lose more. You or them? And sometimes when you have nothing to lose is when you stand to gain the most. So you have to use that to your advantage. When you feel I don't belong here around all of these people around, I'm going to tell these successful people what to do. Yes. Go for broke. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. See everyone else around. The more successful, the more gifted, the more talented they're going to play, not to lose, protect what they have and you just go balls out and play to win. This is where you actually, when you work smarter, you begin to challenge assumptions. You become more of a contrarian and less complimentary. And it's not that you just walk around as an ass. It's just where everybody else is saying what everybody else is saying that you say, Hmm, I'm not so sure about that. I'm going to come at this from a different angle and it's more of a provoking, but you can back it up because you've done the work. You've done the research, number three, feeling like an imposture can make you a better learner. I can because. Again, going back to people that you're surrounding yourself with, who are more gifted, more talented, more successful than you. They have an arrived mentality. They're going to position themselves as an expert, as a know it all. So what they're hired for, right? I already have all the answers and you. Because you feel I can imposter you're a no at all. I don't know at all, but I'm willing to do the research. I'm willing to go out there and seek out the answers. Cause see those experts, they think they already have the answers, right. But as an imposter you become more collaborative. You collaborate with other people who are way smarter than. You're not trying to outwit well I'm smarter than you. So I'm not that's, that's where, that's where the, the gifted, the talented, the successful. Some of those people go wrong, man, because they want to feel like they always have the answers. They want to feel like they're the smartest one in the room, but you're walking in the room. You're like, damn, I don't even belong in this room. What a blessing, what a blessing. So as I'm preparing, I seek out others who are way smarter. It's a benefit of having a podcast. I can seek out the best of the best. I got a guy that's coming on. Um, I'm, I'm actually going to talk to him tomorrow. I want to write a book. I don't know how to write a book. This guy has written three. How do you write a book? What's the process? Because again, the imposter syndrome for me is like the, hell's going to want to read your book, right? So I'm going to ask him, I'm a collaborate with him. He's going to give me some guidance. And there's other people, man, that I talk to all the time that helped me with these things. There's other people that I talked to through their books. They don't even know me, but I have a conversation with them because I'm reading their books. I learn from them. I listened to them on other podcasts and I use that to collaborate because then see, I can learn. I can apply. And then I can share it. And when I can do those things, it deepens my, well, it deepens my awareness. I have 685 episodes that I can draw. From books from podcasts, from guests, all walks of life, all kinds of different situations from rappers to authors, to pitchers, to everyday you and me, it doesn't matter. I learned from all of them, but see, what I can do is I can use these things. And instead of when I feel the imposter syndrome coming on me, , I don't resist it. A welcome that shit. Come on in. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad I'm feeling that way because it means I'm in the right place. And so are you, you got to use the imposter syndrome when you feel it, don't let it pull you down. Let those feelings propel you up. By embracing them with those three steps. So let's get outta here. Here's your TSL, never settle. Keep selling question. Think to a time. And hopefully it's recently that imposter syndrome just jumped on you like a monkey on your back. What'd you do with it? Did you resist it? Did you weaponize it? Did you talk to it? Did you talk a little smack to it? Did you show up or did you back down go back to that moment? Revisit it. Maybe even reignite it and go at it again. And the next time you feel imposter syndrome and you're going to man, that's something you're never going to get away from. You're going to feel it. I don't care how successful, how arrived you think you'll be. You're always going to feel that way because there's always someone that looks better than you talks better than you. It sounds better than you speaks better than you. That knows more than you it's richer than you. There's always that why even compare yourself to that. Why even worry about that? Instead embrace it. I feel it so I can weaponize it, use it to motivate me. I can work smarter and I can become a better learner. Also go to the sales live dot. And there, you will find everything about the sales life in the bottom, right? Is a mic from you. To me. I'd love to hear from you, let me know what's going on in your life and how I can help. I'm no hair, but I'm all ears. There's also links to all the socials where I hang out as well as blogs, videos, And of course podcast episodes. Be sure if you didn't listen to, the last episode before this one, check it out, man. It's about quantity versus quality, which one is more important or you to check that one out and also, alright. Remember the greatest sale that you will ever make is so you won't you because you're more than enough. Stay amazing. Stay in sales life.