103: Imposter Syndrome & Content Overload in Private Practice
Imposter Syndrome & Content Overload in Private Practice
I see SO MANY therapists who either haven’t yet moved into private practice or have but haven’t implemented things who say or tell me “oh I know all about niching” And they DO! They can explain them inside out and upside down, but when I look at their website, it’s still niche-less and super generic. Or I talk to a therapist who is OBSESSED with profit margins and premium pricing, but they are still charging $95 per session because they are waiting for the right time to raise their fees.
These therapists are great learners, but struggle to implement. But it’s not their fault! We’ve been trained to learn, listen, and trust others, but haven’t had explicit training on how to dial down the noise so we can build private practices that work for us.
Imposter Syndrome in Entrepreneurship
Imposter syndrome is what happens when you doubt yourself and your abilities, often coinciding with comparing yourself to others or comparing yourself to how far along you think you should be. In entrepreneurship, imposter syndrome can be detrimental to the business’ sustainability and longevity. When entrepreneurs experience imposter syndrome, they can feel bad, isolated, or alone.
Imposter syndrome is super common in entrepreneurship. Kajabi surveyed over 600 entrepreneurs about the phenomenon and 84% of them said they experienced imposter syndrome. Some of the main ways imposter syndrome manifested was in the belief that they were behind, or that they’ll be “found out” for a lack of knowledge. And a little sidebar, Asian business owners reported the highest entrepreneurs had the highest percentage of respondents who experienced frequent or intense feelings of imposter syndrome.
When someone experiences the thoughts and feelings associated with imposter syndrome, they usually try to "prove" to themselves that they aren't an imposter by working harder, taking on more tasks, or raising the bar on their standards. When imposter syndrome interweaves with entrepreneurship, I find that it can lead to freezing and procrastination.
Content Overload
A big way I see imposter syndrome show up in private practice owners is with content overload. Every day we are overwhelmed with content. In therapists in private practice, content overload is when we decide we need to consume more information in order to be “good” or “ready” to take action. We listen to podcasts, attend free webinars, download spreadsheets and PDFs, all in the name of educating and preparing ourselves to do the thing.
According to data giant Domo, content creation is intense and not slowing down. Per-minute, in 2020:
Facebook users upload 147,000 photos
Tik Tok is installed 2,704 times
Instagram users post 347,222 stories
Reddit sees 479,452 users engage with posts
Comparisonitis in Private Practice
When content overload and imposter syndrome intersect, we get comparisonitis. Comparisonitits happens when we compare ourselves to others and decide that we are behind. Comparisonitis isn’t a real diagnosis–but it sure does feel real, especially when you’re a private practice owner.
Remember that “feeling behind” that the Kajabi study found? I think it has a lot to do with seeing others’ perceived success and experiencing comparisonitis. And because of all the content so many people are putting out into the world, it can be relatively easy to see where others are (or where they say they are) and deem yourself to be “behind.”
You know the comparisonitis thoughts. Thoughts like:
They charge $50 more than me!
They have a waitlist!
They were a guest on a podcast!
They just went viral!
What I find to be so interesting is how comparisonitis intensifies our imposter syndrome around things we didn’t even think we wanted. For example, if we hate Tik Tok, seeing someone go viral on Tik Tok can make us feel behind. Which is so strange! Or if we don’t like public speaker, but a peer lands a speaking engagement at a therapy conference, we can feel bad about ourselves.
Create Before you Consume
Take a step, literally any step, in creating or growing your private practice. A great rule of thumb? Create before you consume. This means taking the time to take action steps in creating things to help create sustainability in your practice before you consume more content. So what have you been sitting on that you need to do in your private practice? Do you need to update your prices? Publish your website? Send a networking email? Do that thing–create that action before going down the rabbit hole and consuming even more information and perpetuating more imposter syndrome.
For example, if I need clients now, I’m relying on my network, if I need clients in six months, I’m relying on search engine optimization (SEO).
Think back to when you were learning about CBT, or psychodynamic theory, or parts work. You could recite who the founders of those methods were, statistics on outcomes, which diagnoses and demographics the interventions were best for, but at the end of the day, doing that thing (aka actually practicing being a therapist) is the best way to learn.
Start the practice of cultivating your self-trust. I have a whole episode on that, episode 96 Building Self Trust as a therapist in private practice.
Help with Imposter Syndrome in Therapists
As established today, you aren’t alone if you’re a therapist who experiences imposter syndrome. For help dealing with imposter syndrome, start cultivating self-trust, taking small actionable steps, and creating things before consuming more info.
If you need more guidance in trusting yourself and overcoming content overwhelm as a private practice owner, I can help. In my group coaching program for therapists in social justice or of marginalized identities, we cover the foundations of fee-setting, boundaries, self-trust, and marketing so you don’t have to overwhelm yourself with everything from everyone. Having a small, supportive community of other therapists can be so helpful in adhering to your private practice boundaries. Learn more about the program and what else we cover below.
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I have a past episode on how imposter syndrome impacts your relationship with money. But as I was kind of reviewing my podcast and thinking of ideas to bring to y'all, I realized that I had never created an episode specifically about imposter syndrome and private practice owners and how it shows up, and how it leads to this cycle of content overload and overwhelm. So in today's episode, I'm going to cover impostor syndrome and content overload in private practice and give you some steps to take so you can just start putting things out there and start trusting in yourself.
I see so many therapists who either haven't moved into private practice yet--it's on their to do list, it's on their goal list, they have an idea that that's what they want to do, or they are in private practice, but they haven't implemented certain steps in their private practice. And what I mean by that is, they'll tell me something that they know they need to do, they'll say something like, oh my gosh, Lindsay, I know so much about niching. And they do, they can explain why a niche is so important, what the difference between a niche and a specialty is, what a niche is, what it isn't, what niche even they're interested in. And then I go and I look at their website, and there's still no niche there. It's super generic. It's still a plain giant photo of a stack of rocks that says something really, like generic and boring, like, helping all wander through creative blocks into peace and harmony. Like what the fuck does that mean? Or I talked to somebody who is like obsessed with profit, first and profit margins and premium pricing and charging, you know, an appropriate fee. But then I asked them what they're charging. And they're like, Oh, well, yeah, like, I'm charging $85 a session because like, it's not time for me yet. But because I know everything about profit, first and profit margins and how to raise my fees to a premium price. I'll be ready when it's time, but it's just not happening yet. If you feel called out, my apologies, and you're not alone. So many of us in entrepreneurship, which is what you are, you're an entrepreneur, if you're in private practice, struggle with this. So let's just rewind and talk briefly about what imposter syndrome is, and how I think it's leading to this content overload and consuming more cycle. Imposter syndrome, quite simply is what happens to you, when you doubt yourself and your abilities. And in entrepreneurship, it can be detrimental. And I know that's a strong word, but I mean it to the business's sustainability and longevity. Because as an entrepreneur, as a small business owner, when you experience impostor syndrome, you can feel bad about yourself, you can feel isolated, you can feel alone, which can sometimes lead to feeling like there's nobody to talk to about this, that you can't do it. Or it leads to kind of chasing perfectionism in content overload, or procrastination. You know, when somebody experiences thoughts and feelings associated with imposter syndrome, they often try to prove to themselves that they actually aren't an imposter, by working harder, by taking on more tasks by learning more by taking more certification courses by really raising the bar on their standards that they have for themselves or for their practice. And when imposter syndrome interweaves with entrepreneurship, I find that it can lead to freezing and in procrastination. And just so you know, you're not alone here. There was a survey done of over 600 entrepreneurs that I'll link to, in the show notes about imposter syndrome, in 84% of them said they experienced it. 84%--that's almost all entrepreneurs that, yup. I've been in a place where I feel like I'm a phony. I feel like I'm fake. I feel like I here by dumb luck. I'm not as smart as I am. And some of the biggest kind of ways that imposter syndrome manifested in this group of entrepreneurs was in two things: in a belief that they were behind, or that they will be found out as being a fraud or not being smart enough or having a lack of knowledge. And as a sidebar, Asian business owners reported the highest rates or percentage of respondents who experienced the most frequent or intense feelings of imposter syndrome. So just something to noodle on for my fellow Asian private Practice owners and entrepreneurs.
Okay, so now you know you're not alone, we've defined entrepreneurship. How does this show up? Well, as I mentioned, it often leads to trying to consume as much as possible, because if the fear is that I'm not as smart as I think I am, obviously, I'm going to do something that I've learned which is consume, consume, consume, consume. And the way that this looks is we consume a lot of content. And when I'm talking about content in private practice owners, I'm talking about, you know, going on to listening to podcasts about creating, growing, sustaining private practices, attending free webinars about private practice, or about a particular therapy, intervention, downloading spreadsheets, reading books, getting all these workbooks and PDFs, all in the name of educating ourselves and preparing ourselves to do whatever it is we think we need to do, whether that's raising our rates, or, you know, saying goodbye to an office, that doesn't work for us anymore, or niching, down, or finally, fully moving into private practice from taking it on the side, we tell ourselves, we're not ready yet. But when I consume X, more things, then I'll feel ready enough. And what it ends up doing is just adding to so much more decision fatigue. So let's just look at some more data here. When we think about content, this is anything that goes out into the world that can be consumed as data. And in 2020, content creation continued to just skyrocket, especially as more and more people stayed home and more businesses pivoted to online. There is a I don't know exactly what they are, if they're a data giant or content creation giant doesn't matter. They're called Domo, I'll link to them. They did this huge data analysis of how much content is being created on all of these different platforms, I'm not going to list all of them off. But I just want to give you some some information just to see the scale of the amount of noise that is coming our way. So per minute, per one minute, that's 60 seconds in 2020, here's the amount of things or times or whatever that have gone on in terms of more content being out in the universe, permanent. In 2020. Facebook users uploaded over 147,000 photos. Tik Tok was downloaded or installed 2700 times. Instagram users posted over 347,222 stories. Reddit sees 479,452 users on their platform engaging with their posts. And if you've never been on Reddit, when I say engaging with post, it's not just like uploading or downloading. It's also like replying to things. So when we think, oh, I need to learn more, so I can know more and do more. What ends up happening is we end up into this like content universe, where there's just so much more. And the thing with all of these algorithms, whether you're on Facebook, Tik Tok, Google, Instagram doesn't matter is that the more you start clicking on things like how to build a private practice, or how to specialize in Mindfulness Based CBT, the more content like that you're going to get. So what happens is you think you just need, you know, to take one more course on how to niche or listen to one more webinar on how to niche, but then you click on that person's information, you pay for that webinar, or whatever. And then the algorithm Gods go, ooh, this person wants more content like that. And so then you're fed more things about niching. About how to create your ideal client, about ideal client avatars, about what's bad about niching, about what's good about niching. And then your entire feed is full of that thing that you were already experiencing some imposter syndrome around and it no longer feels like you can master that thing it feels like you're even farther behind, which again, is another big thing that happens in entrepreneurship is we feel behind in terms of imposter syndrome we feel behind. So it's this it's this, to use some therapist jargon here. It's a double bind situation. We think that if we learn more than will feel soothed that we have the knowledge but because of the way these systems are created when we go to learn more, we're just fed more and more information about how little we actually know, which then further perpetuates our imposter syndrome and makes us want to consume even more content. And to me, when content overload you imposter syndrome syndrome intersect. We get, drumroll please, that that comparison itis. In comparison itis is what happens when we compare ourselves to other people in our field. And we decide that we're behind. Now we're therapists here, we know that comparison itis is not a real diagnosis. But dammit, if it doesn't feel real, especially when you're a private practice owner, it has a lot to do, in my opinion, with seeing others perceived success. And experiencing this feeling of comparison, itis don't believe me? Think of the last time you logged onto your favorite social media platform of choice. And you're scrolling of other people who are in your field, maybe they're even friends or colleagues. And you see their wins, right? I love celebrating wins. I love seeing people's wins. But then this is what happens. You start seeing or thinking things like, oh my god, they raise their rates, they charge $50 more than me, I'm so far behind. They have a waitlist, I can't even get another client in the door. I'm behind. They were just a guest on the podcast, I haven't even tried to pitch myself to a podcast and so far behind. Oh my gosh, they had a real go viral. I haven't even made a real I'm so far behind. And then it leads to this thing, where we retract, I don't know if that's the right word, we hide into our little turtle shell. And we get down on ourself. And we're like, look, if I try this thing, I'm never going to be as far along as these other people. It is so devastating to me to watch clinicians who are more than competent, more than capable of creating and building sustainable, profitable practices, of creating positive ripple effects in their community--It's heartbreaking to me to know that their good work won't get out in the world or won't go as far as I think that it can, because they're experiencing this intersection of imposter syndrome and content overload that's manifesting as comparison itis. It's awful. It's awful to me. Like, I'm getting a little bit emotional, but it's just heartbreaking to me, when I work with clinicians, and they're fucking fantastic at what they do. But they're terrified of taking a step. They're terrified of uploading a picture of themselves onto their About Me page, they're terrified of updating their rates on their website, they are terrified of telling a former colleague that they have a private practice and that they're taking on new clients. And it makes me so pissed that a lot of the clients that I work with who are super interested in social justice, or are of a marginalized identity, continue to hide, because we need more people who are out here, helping people with mental health, and it's intersectionality in all of these different ways. We don't need more and more people doing shitty therapy out in the world. We don't, we don't need more blank slate therapists. We don't need more people who embody this old school therapist who's laying on a couch with elbow patches, not engaging with clients. We need high quality therapists who are willing to address systemic issues, who are willing to talk about things beyond just thoughts and feelings who are willing to talk about systems of oppression, who are willing to talk about trauma, and who are willing to help their clients move towards embodying joy and liberation and healing. But we can't do that if we don't come out of the shadows and push through this imposter syndrome, which by the way, is a tool of white supremacy. You know, enough, I trust you deeply. What you have to do is start taking a step. In online business there is this saying that goes around when it comes to content creation that is create before you consume. And all that means is do the thing before you start consuming more data about how to do the thing or at least that's how I interpret it when I'm thinking of working with private practice owners. So take a step. I know this is like harsh love, but I'm gonna say it anyway. Take a step literally any step in creating or growing your private practice. Okay.
It's all theoretical until you do it, meaning you can talk to me till you're blue in the face about niching or about premium prices. But until you actually Have a niche and have implemented it, or have had your premium fee up on your website and landed a client from it. It's all theory. And what I mean by that is think back to when you were in school, and you were learning about cognitive behavioral therapy, or psychodynamic theory or strength of all parts, you could recite who the founders were the statistics on outcomes, which diagnoses and demographics the interventions were best for. But at the end of the day, how did you become a good therapist using some of those modalities, you actually sat across from a client and did the therapy. That's what makes us good therapists is our ability to go out there and do things, we are so good at sitting with discomfort with our clients, this impostor syndrome garbage, I need you to push through it,
I need you to find space where you feel safe enough to do the things that you need to do. So here's your loving homework, I want you to ask yourself, what is the thing that I'm currently sitting on doing that I need to do in my private practice that is being impacted by impostor syndrome and or content overload? So I want you to think about it, you can hit pause, you can jot it down on your notes app, you can write it down. I'll give you some ideas. Do you need to send a networking email? Do you need to update your fees? Do you need to hit publish on your website? But I want you to do that thing, I want you to create, I want you to put that action out into the world before you go down that rabbit hole and consume even more information and perpetuating more imposter syndrome. So if you have to send a networking email, please do not Google how to send a networking email, you know how to do it. If you need to update your prices, update your prices, let your clients know, you don't need another webinar on how to do it. Do you need to publish your website? Look at it--hit make public, you don't need to watch another webinar on how to do it. Because I can guarantee if you've chosen to listen to this episode, and you've listened this long, you are incredibly talented at consuming information and finding answers to your problems. So start this practice of cultivating self trust, I have a whole episode on that episode 96, building self trust as a therapist in private practice, because again, you're not alone. But I want you to do that thing. Okay. And when you've done that thing, please tell me literally go to, you know, Instagram @MindMoneyBalance and DM me, or you can email me Lindsay@MindMoneyBalance.com and say, Holy shit, Lindsay, I finally did that thing. And if you want some help, I'm going to be doing a free group coaching session for private practice therapists on Friday, June 24, at 11am Eastern so if my math serves me, that'd be 9am Pacific and about 4pm BST if you're over in some parts of Europe. And the first five people to register and show up live will get to have their questions, answered by me. And if you're not one of the first five people to register and show up, you should still come because you will be amazed at how many people have similar questions or struggles or anxieties. And you never know what kinds of nuggets of wisdom will come your way as showing up as a participant and I will be carving out a few minutes toward the end of the free session to talk about and answer questions about my small group coaching program Grow a Profitable Practice From The Inside Out. That is my small group coaching program, specifically for therapists who work in social justice or who are of a marginalized identity. It's a five-month program. I'll get into that later. But if you want to register for the free coaching session, go to MindMoneyBalance.com/FreeCoaching, that's all one-word free free coaching, and you will be able to register. So again, a free group coaching session. If you haven't attended one before, it's exactly what it sounds like. You and a bunch of other private practice therapists will register, you'll show up and all just kind of take a look at the participant list. And the first five people who've registered and showed up live will get the chance to ask me their questions. The last time I did this, we had questions about niching, about pricing, about honestly imposter syndrome a little bit, about how and when to market yourself when you're an online therapist versus an in-person therapist. We had a lot of great questions and really rich discussions and you're not alone. It can be so hard to feel like you have the things within you to do what I know you are capable of doing. So if you want to show up and maybe you do have a car about imposter syndrome, or maybe the thing that's on your to-do list, you could use a little extra guidance on again go to MindMoneyBalance.com/FreeCoaching to register for that free coaching session on Friday, June 24, 2022.