Episode 17: How I overcome imposter syndrome

When I was an SDR and had decided to pursue alternative paths, I started with the customer success team. I was really interested about spending all my energy on helping drive the unique outcomes each customer wanted and help grow our product footprint in the organization.

I interviewed with the manager all the way through the VP of customer success at the company and was rejected.

No feedback whatsoever was given; I was just told I didn’t get it. The self-doubt creeped in and I wasn’t sure I was good enough for the role. That feeling went on for months and started affecting my performance as an SDR; I was constantly in my own head questioning all of my strengths.

It took me 4 months of experimenting to find a system that helped decrease that voice in my head. 

1) Talk to others in your role (at different companies)

Build out thought partners of peers in similar roles at different companies. Your goal should be to regularly knowledge share about the challenges you are currently working on and learning from others about their challenges. Once you have enough data points you can map this out into a spectrum of phases and then pinpoint which phase you’re currently in.

For example, I have started a win/loss program at 3 companies. Each one had a slightly different starting point but the goal was always the same. I know that the beginning is about the foundational data — what to collect and from whom. The latter phase is focused on providing more tailored context to teams like the difference in a loss of a current customer (churn) vs the loss of someone who had never used you before.

This process also taught me that the challenges others are solving now (my peers) are ones I have solved in earlier stages. This information gives me confidence to know I’m ahead of the curve here and that brings me confidence.

2) Talk about imposter syndrome regularly

With the people you trust regularly bring up imposter syndrome. Sometimes you need those affirmations from your village of how far you’ve come.

Acceptance is the first challenge but normalizing dialogue is the second. Talk to others to identify your triggers (when do you feel this way, if certain types of projects/tasks make you feel it, and where you need help like sharpening a skill). People most often mirror your approach, so starting candid conversations will encourage people to respond with the same in return.

Now you can expand your group of confidants and get the encouragement or reminders as you need. 

3) Find someone to mentor yourself

This one took me way too long to realize. When I was feeling down about a rejection from a job or being passed over for promotion I would get stuck in a rut. One day when I was in that rut I serendipitously got a message from someone asking for some help breaking into product marketing. We got on a call and ended up talking for over an hour.

At the end they shared how helpful the call was for them and suddenly all those emotions of feeling sorry for myself were completely replaced with pride and gratitude for how far I’ve come. I’ve also found these outlets to be a great way to get educated on the challenges the next generation is facing.

Now whenever I’m in a rut I know I can get out of my own head by refocusing my mental capacity on helping someone else get to the next step for them.

Imposter syndrome is normal and common - particularly amongst minorities and women. In the beginning I was uncomfortable even mentioning the words imposter syndrome, but I had to move through those feelings and embrace the discomfort. In every situation I approached the conversation by sharing my story, I was reciprocated with a sigh of relief followed by some powerful conversations. It’s those days that the colleagues turned into friends and those are still the people I reach out to when I struggle today 

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✨ Special thank you to Gigi Marquez who suggested I start this newsletter 🙏7I