How To Handle Imposter Syndrome
You’re Not An Imposter!
A bit of a different blog article for you today, one that aims to reassure you and help you feel more confident about your little aesthetics world and running a business.
When I began my career as an eager 18 year old, I bagged a Uni placement year at hip PR agency in London where we serviced super cool technology clients such as Apple and Sony. I was in awe of the managers and directors who ran the business. They were so confident, sooooooo grown up, so knowledgeable, so creative and so cool and ‘together’. I looked forward to the time where I was so established, mature, knowing and inspirational (I knew then I’d never be cool). A time where I just knew what the right answers were, and understood business and how to solve problems.
Skip forward 26 years (eugh), lots of jobs in big corporate businesses and many many meetings round the board table at a senior level, I have learned that nobody, really, ever knows what they’re doing.
Everyone, irrespective of their title, age and sex is in some way blagging it, they just feel more confident blagging. The more you sit around the table where you’re part of the decision making at a high level (which may impact hundreds of people and the future of a business) the more you realise that everyone is just, kinda, guessing! And eventually someone makes a final call and the dice is rolled.
With time and experience you just get more comfortable making a decision and going for it - it doesn’t mean you know that decision is right. We’re all still that 18 year old unsure person inside (perhaps with some added common sense) and still, now, I’m mostly blagging my way through life with a tiny voice inside saying ‘you have no bloody idea do you.’
Why Am I Telling You This?
I chat a lot to new practitioners who are just entering the world of aesthetics, setting up a business while working in the NHS. No matter how confident they might appear to you on social media, or how successful you think they are and irrespective of how established you believe they are, most of them are also blagging it and feel like an imposter.
I’m not suggesting they’re blagging being a clinician or their competency and ability to perform treatments - that would be a worry (leave that to the non-meds, eh?). There are some technical aspects in my career that I can’t blag. Like writing.
What I’m telling you, is that almost all aesthetic nurses, doctors, dentists and pharmacists feel anxious, nervous and unsure about running an actual business. They doubt their abilities as an entrepreneur. For new practitioners it’s completely out of their comfort zone, an alien world of marketing, VAT returns, patient management (beyond just treatment) and profit and loss. Practitioners often feel nervous and unsure. They sometimes feel stupid and embarrassed. They might feel shy or silly. They regularly feel lonely.
Imposter syndrome, where people doubt their abilities and feel like a fraud, is rife. And it disproportionately affects high-achieving people, who find it difficult to accept their accomplishments with many questioning whether they're deserving of accolades.
Social Media Imposters
Imposter syndrome and these insecure feelings are not helped by that confidence crushing pressure pot known as social media. It’s important to remember that on the whole people present the best version of themselves on social media. The smiling wife posting photos of her and her husband in the Bahamas (#blessed), while she’s actually having an affair, the ‘look at my wheels’ post from Beth in her new car, who is actually drowning in a sea of debt and can’t pay her mortgage, the perfectly presented happy family having Sunday lunch together yet the Mum has clinical depression. Social media creates a perception but it doesn’t mean it’s reality. The same can be said for businesses. Aesthetic practitioners who you perceive as confident, successful, thriving and fearless are often shy, struggling, floundering and scared too. They’re just blagging it, and some will feel like imposters as well. You don’t see that it took them 18 attempts to post a story, that they’re drowning in admin, or that they’re fretting about how they will fill their diary next week. You don’t see that they’re not sure how to do a marketing email, they feel stupid that they can’t set up their Stripe account, that they had a complication and haven’t slept all night and that they’re anxious about moving away from pen and paper. You don’t see they’re not making much money and they’re emotionally and physically exhausted from their NHS shifts.
You Are Not Alone
I am yet to meet a practitioner (or any entrepreneur!) who says they have nailed it and they totally get how to run a business, that they’re good at it and they don’t fret or worry. There are some who care less about how they are perceived, others who are naturally just more confident (doesn’t mean they don’t feel like imposters) and those who are less intimidated using technology, sure. But there aren’t many who feel they have ‘made it’. There aren’t many who watch what you do and think you’re a bit crap and useless, or laugh at you. In fact, they’re looking at YOU thinking ‘I need to do a bit more of that, I should try that, they’re funny, I like their branding, those lips are amazing, how are they so busy?’. The bottom line is that you have to just move forward, take a chance, do something that scares you and let go of what you think other people think.
What Can You Take From This?
Don’t compare yourself to anyone else, it’s a wasted use of time, emotion and energy
Blag it! Just blag it! Fake it til you make it!
Take control. Nobody is going to do it for you, you can’t outsource the success of your business.
You can outsource a lot of the admin and framework that holds up your business: use financial advisors, tax experts, accountants and GlowdayPRO to help you manage the administration and patient management side of your business
Take away some of the pressure of marketing and attracting new patients by ensuring your Glowday profile is plump with reviews and before and after photos
Talk - don’t be afraid to message other practitioners. Ask them how they use GlowdayPRO, how they created that reel, what products they’re using, if they rate the training they did or the skincare service they use
The only limit is your thoughts - they aren’t even real things!
Take a risk, what’s the worst that can happen? You’re not going to kill a patient by talking on Instagram
Try to stop worrying about things that ‘might’ or ‘could’ happen. Or try to imagine the opposite of the worst case scenario - go for the best case instead!
Remember you’ve got this far. You didn’t achieve your status by luck or accident, you have drive and ambition
Give back. Find a new practitioner and reach out to them, offer your support and mentorship - you’ll be surprised how much you know and this will boost your confidence.
Everyone doubts their abilities when they try something new or change their career - it’s natural - don’t dwell on it
Remember you are NOT the only person who feels it.
Everyone is blagging it!
Just go for it. It’s better to regret something you have done, than something you haven’t.