Who are you to leave your little town? Who are you to get up on stage? Who are you to ask those questions, write those words, have those ambitions?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had voices in my head my whole life—like an owl, asking who? Who? Who do you think you are?

Imposter syndrome. That obnoxious internal busybody with nothing better to do than point out your flaws.

My approach to dealing with that voice has changed over the years.

At first, I thought the goal was to make the voice go away for good. Once you stopped having those thoughts, then you’d know you really made it!

I figured silencing the voice was a matter of doing the thing. I took the advice to "Do it scared," and proved the voice wrong—again and again.

But the thing about doing things is that the more things you do, the bigger things you want to do. And that imposter syndrome voice just comes back every time you set your sights higher.

So this is what I’ve started doing instead.

Rather than reasoning with the voice or trying to silence it, I engage it in conversation.

Here’s a chat we had yesterday, when I found out about a conference I really want to attend.

I started to notice my imposter syndrome voice would always list off the reasons I couldn’t do the thing I wanted to—and those reasons fell into three categories:

• Reframable: So I don’t have a TEDxTalk. But I’ve been on a stage before, multiple times. I already meet this criteria if I reframe my experience, instead of always moving the goal posts.
• Attainable: Yeah, my website and online presence could use some polish. Good thing I have time to knock that off my to-do list.
• Bullshit: My hair looks fine and I have plenty of nice clothes—my style is just different than some of the Instagram gurus out there, and that’s okay. I’ll schedule a cut the week before I go.

When I hear my imposter syndrome voice speaking up, I’ve started using it to make a deliberate list of the criteria that someone who “belongs in that room” has.

And—here’s the key.

Instead of using that list as a way to make me feel down about myself, I use it as a way to make myself feel more confident about the opportunity.

I ignore the bullshit items, I reframe the reframable items, and I add the attainable items to my to-do list.

I’ve done this constantly over my years in business.

When I was starting my business over a decade ago, the conversation looked like this: You could never work for yourself. Oh, why? Is it because I'd need X, Y, and Z? Well, I can learn and do those things.

Almost everything is learnable.

Almost everything is addressable.

Almost everything is a puzzle that can be figured out.

And the things that aren’t probably belong on the "bullshit" list. They’re just things your imposter syndrome voice is throwing out to keep you stuck and “safe.”

I've spent the last year transforming business from freelancer/author to book coach/teacher. And I've had to have these conversations with my imposter syndrome voice at every step of the way.

Fortunately, like I said, everything is learnable. And there are incredible resources out there for anything you might want to learn.

That’s why I teamed up with my friend Allison Hardy for a resource bundle.

The business resources!

It’s Allison’s 42nd Birthday Bash Bundle, and it’s an incredible sampler platter of free resources for whatever item is on your business checklist.

You need better systems? Check.

Smarter ways to run ads? Check.

More polished branding? Check.

Whatever your imposter voice is telling you is missing from your toolkit, you’ll find a resource for it here.

Inside the Bundle, 60+ contributors are pulling back the curtain and sharing their best strategies, systems, and tools to help coaches, experts, and online entrepreneurs build businesses that are profitable, sustainable, and actually fit their lives.

So go grab the bundle. It's only running through Friday.

And, friends.

For the most part, the voices in our heads are just trying to keep us safe. If you can spark up a conversation and understand why the next step feels scary, you can figure out how to approach it with confidence.

Of course, that mental shift may not work for everyone—but it’s worked wonders for me.

Give it a shot.

And go check out Allison’s bundle!

Talk soon,

Jessie

P.S. Allison put this whole thing together to celebrate her 42nd birthday, which feels very organized and generous considering my idea of birthday planning is sending out a bunch of last-minute texts to tell people I’ll be hanging out at my local favorite bar. Go grab the free resources and wish her a happy birthday while you’re there!