051 How Imposter Syndrome Is Robbing You

The only people whose opinions really matter are your customers, are people going to buy it?  And the only way that you know is to bring it to market. So stop second guessing yourself, stop trying to get it perfect. That will rob you of the opportunity to get it out into the world.

Welcome to the Hello Seven Podcast. I'm your host, Rachel Rodgers, wife, mother of four children, a lover of Beyoncé, coffee drinker, and afro-wearer, and I just happen to be the CEO of a seven-figure business. I am on a mission to help every woman I meet become a millionaire. If you want to make more money, you are in the right place. Let's get it going.

So I have been working on my book. I took this whole week off so that I could get these final chapters done. So I have been just writing nonstop this last week. I have the last few chapters to get done, and then I'm ready to submit this manuscript and cannot wait. And I'm ready to start my summer. We have this huge inflatable slide that we bought for my son for his birthday. His birthday was last week, so we can't wait for it to stop raining. It's been raining here for a minute and as soon as it stops raining, and as soon as I'm done with this book, we're going to set up that water slide in the backyard and slide endlessly.

Anyway. So I'm doing lots of research and writing and sharing stories, and some of the stories are amazing and fun and inspiring. And some of the stories are sad, and I'm like, “Ooh, I have a vulnerability hangover and I need to go lay down.” So, that's my week. And so this whole week I have been pajama time, I have been just having nice snacks and beautiful music, and I got my little plant and my candles. And just creating a coffee house vibe, since I am stuck in my house and I can't leave. So I'm just hanging out in this exact spot and this is where I sit all day, every day, and work on my book. And just jammies all week, I'm not getting dressed, I'm not putting myself together.

So my editor calls me and says, “Hey, I need to interview you today for the book.” Apparently, this is how it works in the publishing world where she is preparing all of the slate of books that she is editing, preparing it for their sales conference. So apparently publishers have a sales conference every June, and that's where they pitch these books to Barnes and Noble and people from Amazon and independent booksellers, and to get all of these bookshops to be interested in a book and to order copies of the book to sell. And my book doesn't come out until spring 2021, so this happens early. So I'm trying to write the book and I'm already involved in marketing for the book as well.

So she called me today and said that I must get on Skype with her and do an interview and look good while I do it, and pitch my book to the sellers. And what she said was that for all of our biggest books, we like to have a video directly from the author because that helps us to sell it. And so I was like, “Your biggest books? You think my book is going to be big?” I was so hype. I was not feeling well today. I just wanted to be in my little humble and keep writing, but I got myself together because I'm like, “Mama's got to sell some books.” So I put them a pink lipstick and my little Alice + Olivia kimono and got myself together, and set up my ring light and all of that.

So here's the thing, the challenges of doing something hard and growing in your career and growing in your wealth building and everything that you're trying to accomplish, it doesn't go away. It just continues and there's just new levels to it. So for me, the challenge right now is this book. And there are times where I write chapters and I'm like, “That was amazing. I am slaying this.” And then there are days where I read a chapter and I'm like, “This whole book is trash. I'm playing myself. They're going to laugh at me when I submit it.”

So I have all the imposter syndrome that you guys have as well, know that this is part of the journey and it don't go away. So get cozy with it and get very comfortable stretching that muscle. It's like working out, you've got to stretch that muscle of overcoming fear and living with uncertainty, because that is such a big part of the journey. Listen, here's the thing. When I started my entrepreneurial journey, I was making $41,000 a year as a law clerk. I was working for a state judge and that was my last job. That was the last full-time job that I had was working for a judge. Making 41K a year, I had a really good health insurance. And when I started on this journey, all I wanted to do was replace that 41,000. And 10 years later, here I am. So it's shocking how much money you can make, so I encourage you to believe in it.

And here's what happens, for every dollar that you make, every time you raise your price, every time you have a successful launch, every time you get another client, you are expanding your mental capacity to have more money. And that's part of the problem. We have this limited capacity to have money, and that's what worthy is all about. It's all about you starting to believe and expand that capacity, and really understand how the world works and how it as at play. Convincing you constantly, you are constantly subject to media messages about how you're not good with money and how you got to just stop shopping, and cut some coupons, and stop buying lattes. And it's all complete bullshit. This is just marketing messages that have been sent at us constantly to the point that we start to believe them.

And so even though we are aware of the Matrix, don't mean that we aren't still in it. And trust me, I'm right in it with you, but we have to challenge those beliefs every day. And by doing that, we make more money. And every time we make more money, we keep expanding that capacity to earn. So the work that you are doing is really going to help you believe in your ability to make a lot more money. My challenge is, will my digital work be as impactful as my programs with live coaching? Am I doing women a disservice?

So that's up to you. You have to decide, what do people need to know? I think because of imposter … I just wrote a chapter about imposter syndrome and you guys, I was disgusted by the end of it. All of the research that I did, I was like, “Imposter syndrome is robbing women.” It is taking money out of your wallets. Just all day, every day with questions like this, honestly. Where we ask ourselves, “Well, am I good enough?” There are guys out there that sell software for 50 bucks a month, there's zero interaction. You get a piece of software that sometimes work and sometimes it doesn't, and they don't ever ask themselves, “Is this good enough?” But we do, we ask ourselves that incessantly.

So I want to challenge you to stop asking that question. And I want to challenge you to just raise your prices and trust that you are good enough, and trust that your work is good enough. And don't throw everything in the kitchen sink in there, really only think about what do people need to know? What do they need to learn? What exercises do they need to do? What experiences do they need to know about? What stories do they need to hear, in order to take whatever action it is and have the transformation that your program provides. That's the key question.

The other thing I will tell you too, is that I usually combine them. So I do digital programs, but I also usually have some form of live coaching in there just because I enjoy doing it. And I think it helps to integrate what's being learned. And you can do that in a formal way, like we do weekly mindset calls and our Million Dollar addresses and the Million Dollar Decision Forum every month. Or you could do a spontaneous Facebook live once a week if you want to. You could promise very, very little and then choose to over-deliver if you need to. But don't over-deliver from day one, because then we're overdoing it and we're doing too much work for too little money.

Okay. I'm still on worthy, I could do worthy for the rest of my life. And you should do worthy for the rest of your life. Really the work in worthy is never done. It is just, you're always doing it. And that's why our weekly calls are about money mindset, because that is the thing that we have to … It's conditioning. It's like going to the gym, we need to go and stretch that muscle every single week. And remind ourselves every single week. What was the biggest shift you made that got you out of making not enough, to making more than enough consistently?

Okay. So here's what I would say. I think you have to do that mindset work every week, but the other part of it is you have to start taking action on it. And that's it. One tiny action leads to another. So if you just go ahead and bump up your prices by let's say 20%, something modest. Because I have a whole chapter in the book where I talk about doubling your prices. I'm not going to give you heart palpitations tonight, but just challenge yourself to raise your prices by 20%. The next potential client, you speak to offer them that 20% higher price point, and watch them say yes without hesitation. And then you'll be like, “Oh shit, I'm leaving money on the table.” And then that thought, that thought, “I'm leaving money on the table,” you will stop doing that. You will realize how you are robbing yourself.

I think we worry so much about other people's opinions about what we charge, about what are other people going to say? Who do I think I am? Is my work worthy enough? We worry about other people and whether they can afford us or not, we don't worry about our own broke-ass pockets. We don't worry about our empty bank accounts that are overdrafting. I used to be the overdraft queen, let me tell you, I had my story down to pat of exactly what I would say to the bank to get them to reverse those overdraft fees, because that's how often it happened to me.

That was my story. That's what I believe that I was capable of. We don't worry about our lack of health insurance. We don't worry about that we don't have enough money for retirement. Instead we're worried about everybody else's pockets. Don't be worried about that. Worry about how much you need to earn. And trust me, there is somebody out there in the world who offers exactly or something similar to what you offer, and is charging way more and is way less competent, has way less skills. Is not as expert as you are, and is charging probably double, triple or quadruple what you charge.

So I say, take action. And those actions will lead to other actions, and you'll start opening the door to that increase in money and those mental shifts. Every time you take action and prove to yourself that this stuff is not just something in your head but it works in the real world, then you'll keep convincing yourself. You'll keep creating evidence, a long list of evidence that it's true, that you are worthy. It's true that you are capable of making so much more money.

I was just talking to my friend today, who was telling me how we were telling embarrassing stories about how little we used to charge. And it's mortifying to just even name those prices from way back when. But she was saying that she used to charge 10 newsletters that would make one of her clients $300,000 in revenue. Just from those 10 newsletters, that was the only marketing they were doing. And she would charge a thousand dollars for it. And then she went to lunch with a friend who did the exact same work as her, had the exact same level of experience. And she was like, “Oh, I don't get out of bed for less than $10,000.” And you're like, “Oh shit, I'm playing myself.” That's why we have to talk to each other, that's why we need to be in community with other ambitious women. That's why we need to exchange information so that we can really realize how small we play.

Okay. So here's what I want to tell you guys, is that when you're going through Glow Up and working on your framework, or if you're in Multiply and trying to figure out what that product is going to be, there's going to be a lot of bullshit thoughts. There's going to be a lot of uncertainty. You're not sure if it's going to be a hit. I'm not sure if it's going to be a hit. I could tell you what I think, but it doesn't matter. The only people whose opinions really matter are your customers, are people going to buy it? And the only way that you know is to bring it to market. So stop second-guessing yourself, stop trying to get it perfect. That will rob you of the opportunity to get it out into the world.

We did a retreat last week for our Million Dollar Badass Masterminders, and a lot of them are taking imperfect action this week. They're launching things, and it's amazing how so many of our members have sales calls getting booked this week, just from putting a Facebook post out there, from declaring their worth, from putting their work out there. So don't spend months and years and weeks hemming and hawing and wringing your hands over, “Is it perfect? Will people like it? What will people think?” Let that shit go. Put your stuff out there and find out what people think. And if they don't love it, cool. Now you got new information, you can take that information back, go back to your lab, work on it a little bit more, then put it out there again. But now you'll have a better, more educated guess because you would have gotten feedback.

So you can't be afraid to put yourselves out there and sell yourself. And what we're trying to do here is give you the strategies, but we're also trying to turn you into CEOs. Helping you to think like a CEO. And what a CEO of a multimillion-dollar business is not doing, is sitting on gold. Sitting on ideas that can make millions of dollars, because they're not sure and they're scared to put it out there. You got to stop doing that. And you have to stop needing 1,200 people to validate you and 1,200 people to like your idea before you put it out there. You just got to stop doing that and you got to start putting yourself out there.

And really put your personality out there. I don't know if you guys watch Black as Fuck? Do you all watch Black AF on Netflix? My husband and I binged it last night. And there was such a good episode with Tyler Perry, I think it was episode number six. But Tyler Perry gave the most epic pep talk ever. And I was like, “Oh, I need to go back and literally write it all down and literally stick it on my desk.” You guys got to go watch that. It was so good.

And he really talked about, listen, he said, “I super-serve my niche. I'm not worried about what the whole world thinks about my stuff. I don't need the whole world to be impressed. They don't understand what I'm talking about. They don't understand the storyline. They don't understand the slang and the jokes. Fine, they don't need to. The only people that need to understand are the people I'm trying to serve, my niche. That's what I'm focused on. I ain't worried about an Oscar and I ain't worried about this industry giving me awards. I'm worried about serving my people and them being blown away and happy.”

And that's all you need. And when I think about Tyler Perry being really niche, it's like, that's insane. He has a niche market, except he's serving so many people in the world and he is a household name. So it just goes to show, stop overthinking it and stop getting everybody else to approve of your stuff. Because what happens is that it gets watered down and you start to lose yourself and you start to lose your personality in it. When I'm writing this book, I am putting in who I am. I'm putting in the slang that I grew up with. I'm putting in myself, right on the page, and that's what sells. What the publishers were telling me and agents were telling me, is that people want to hear a voice. People want to hear someone with opinions. People want to hear from somebody who has a strong point of view and personality, and who is not afraid to be themselves.

We've already seen the boring white bread version of it, everything. So the only thing left to do is to be yourself, and to sell yourself and all that you are, all the weirdness and quirkiness and strange stories and challenging upbringing. Bring all of that into your work. And that's what's going to make it rich and powerful and attractive. And authenticity is very attractive. People are very attracted to people out here telling the truth, being their honest, vulnerable selves. And it is a risk. You are taking a risk and know that you have to. If you want to make a lot of money, if you want to have a lot of success, you're going to have to take risks. There's no way around it.

So you're going to have to risk that people won't like your shit. You're going to have to risk that no one will buy it. You're going to have to risk that. Somebody's going to talk crap about you and write a blog post about what a horrible person you are. Hello, happened to me many times. Here I am and I'm still making money. So don't let the haters stop you, you don't let the imposter syndrome in your head stop you. Don't let waiting to get 12 people to review your stuff and give you feedback, stop you. And now I'm not saying don't … Share your stuff with each other, get feedback from each other, motivate and encourage each other, but also make sure that you're not using that as an excuse to not put yourself out there. And not share what you got.

So, that is what I have to share with you all today. You can do hard things. You are fully capable of launching an amazing digital product. You are fully capable of building a scalable, seven figure business. I wouldn't lie to you. I believe every single one of you can. It's just up to you. Are you going to think about it for six months and then eventually put yourself out there, or are you going to do it now? Are you going to do it quick fast, rip the Band-Aid off, put it out there, get some feedback. Maybe get some sales and be blown away by what happens when you start to put yourself out there more.

Be encouraged and go make that shit happen, all right. Think about all the money that could be sitting in your bank account right now if you just go ahead and do this work and put it out there. Can't nobody do it, but you. And let me tell you something, you're going to feel like such a badass and you're going to feel so powerful when you start seeing the fruits of your labor in the form of cash money. All right. Get these coins. Okay. I'll talk to you guys later.

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