The pain of impostor syndrome

Some skills allow you to figure most things out even when you’re facing brand new challenges. These are the skills that make it easier to achieve freelancing success.

Photo by Charis Gegelman on Unsplash

Have you ever felt like you don’t know what you’re doing? 

Ever felt your stomach drop because you’re in way over your head?

Did you ever consider refunding a client’s money and walking away from a project because it felt like you’ll never get it done (or is that just me...)?

Or - worst of all - have you ever experienced the certainty that any moment now, everyone else will discover your incompetence and your career will be OVER!

WELCOME TO YOUR IMPOSTOR SYNDROME!

If this whole mix of toxic feelings and fears weren’t enough, there’s also the sense that you alone must feel this way. 

You look around at all the confident, polished, smiling freelancers around you and think, Why can’t I feel like that? What do I need to do to be like them?!

But here’s the truth - you’re not the only one who feels like an impostor.

Everyone feels like that. And if you’re into learning new things and growing, impostor syndrome never leaves. NEVER. 

The folks who project confidence...yep, they’re feeling that old impostor syndrome, too.

But they’re feeling it with a twist.

Their confidence comes from knowing that they can figure out whatever is thrown at them because they’ve mastered a special skill set. So, while they may feel a moment of panic when they’re facing a new challenge, they know that they have a reliable system for getting the job done.

They have a set of fundamental meta-skills that enables them to break down unfamiliar situations into familiar components and tackle them with stellar results. 

They’re real-life MacGyvers, if you will...

For example, while the average medical writer may fret about producing an ad board summary for the first time, the confident medical writer reaches into his toolkit and pulls out his trusted process for converting a client’s sample into a template and writing a kickass ad board summary based on that template - on the very first try!

While the average medical writer may be floundering with imprecise client instructions about an article, the confident medical writer uses her client interview skills to not only get hyper-specific directions but also make the client feel like she’s just as passionate about the project as the client is.

While the average medical writer has a template or two for cold outreach emails for when work dries up (and keeps using them even if response rates drop close to zero), the confident medical writer knows how to efficiently create engaging, individualized emails that get a response.

And so on…

Maria and I have both been fortunate to study with people who drilled into us the importance of these meta-skills to building a successful freelance business and we use these skills daily. This is how we built our successful writing businesses in record time.

These are the tools that not only help you feel confident - but allow your clients to feel confident about their decision to hire you.

If building your toolkit of meta-skills is something you’d like to accomplish, you may be interested in joining our small group coaching program. Get all the details here.

To your freelancing success,

Jenn