Finding Your True Self: A Discussion on Imposter Syndrome and Creativity

Ever feel like you're just playing a part and everyone's about to realize you're a phony? You're not alone. This episode pulls back the curtain on the all-too-familiar feeling known as imposter syndrome. I lament how this phenomenon can manifest in anyone, especially those bravely pursuing their passions. I believe in the power of allowing yourself grace as you grow, and the importance of trusting your instincts. This conversation offers practical ways to acknowledge and navigate through these feelings of self-doubt, empowering you to own your talents and achievements.

Much of overcoming imposter syndrome lies in nurturing our inherent creativity. I dive into this topic in the latter part of our discussion, drawing inspiration from the likes of Austin Kleon. He offers a fresh perspective on viewing your own work without intimidation and emphasizes the significance of sharing it, imperfections and all. I also believe in the potential of networking, and how it can offer invaluable opportunities for personal and professional growth.

To wrap up, I underline a message of acceptance - that we are each uniquely crafted, and should find comfort in that knowledge. Embark on this journey with us as we demystify imposter syndrome, advocate for creativity, and champion self-belief.

Resources:

Austin Kleon - Steal Like An Artist

Austin Kleon - Show Your Work

Austin Kleon - Keep Going

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome back to Brutally Made. Today I wanted to talk a little bit about imposter syndrome and how a lot of people who have big dreams, they can be creative, they could be small business. You feel like you're not really representing what you have in your mind fully and you feel like you're just pretending and it's just a lack of believing in yourself to begin with. I mean, there's a lot of things that contribute to it, but I just know that I have felt it, I still feel it very often and I think a lot of people, even when they're established, feel like man, I'm not representing fully, you know what I want to be and I feel like I'm a fraud. So just realize that you're not alone and I'm gonna try to just give you a little bit of, I guess, peace of mind to realize that everybody goes through this and it's a real thing. So just give yourself some grace and you'll hear me say that a couple of times in this episode because we all need to remember we are learning how to do things on our own, in our own way, no matter how much experience that you have, and it's okay and just lean into your instincts and what you have passion for. So let's dive in. Hey, happy Friday, welcome back, very excited to have you on this next episode of Brutusly Made.

Speaker 1: 1:46

We are going to look up our sketch, our little doodle prompt for today, so get that together on one and draw. And it looks like it's an owl. Has a barista? How interesting. At least it's an animal. I feel like I have a lot more, I guess, forgiveness with myself when it's an animal, because it can be my interpretation of an animal, but today I wanted to share a little bit of insight in just my personal opinion and experience with really defining who you are as an artist or as somebody kind of chasing their dreams and wanting to achieve something that they have been thinking about for a long time.

Speaker 1: 2:40

I feel like there is a lot of imposter syndrome that happens, and imposter syndrome if you've not really heard of that term or maybe don't understand what that term is is that you feel like you aren't being true to yourself, that you're pretending to be or do what you're dreaming about instead of all-in or fully believing in yourself, and that's very common. It's especially common, I feel like, in the creative realm that is discussed in every class I've ever taken and any circle I've ever been involved in and people just continuously feel like they're never good enough. Yeah, I don't know how to get past that other than to really support people and ask for really some grace with yourself. I think that a lot of us look towards one another for not just validation, but we look towards one another to have belief in what we're thinking and wanting to do is doable, is achievable. And I think about some of the great people or amazing people or the people that are in, I guess, more of the public eye, that when you watch their documentaries or their stories, like, oh, they'll never achieve that, you know, or that's never been done before, and you hear that always, always at the beginning of their stories. Like this person wanted to develop an amusement park and the swamp of Florida, and no one's ever done anything like that. And then Disney World and Disneyland and everything has come from that mind and that creativity. Apple products with Steve Jobs no one ever had set that groundwork.

Speaker 1: 4:44

Henry Ford with the car I always love the statement and I'm just gonna just totally botch this, but you know, when was asked how could he make something go faster, and he said you know they would have wanted more horses rather than thinking outside of the box and doing something completely different by developing a car. So being true to your instincts and sticking to your dreams and wanting things to happen that needs to be almost like 90% of your motivation. I don't think that it is helpful to rely on everybody else believing in you too. It's really important to surround yourself with people that support you and you support them, and I feel like that also has to ebb and flow and it has to grow with you, because there's a lot of things that happen behind the scenes with small businesses and with creative people that maybe you don't see and that's not shared and you don't understand. And so when you feel like, oh, no one's liking my work or nobody is choosing me for the latest request and my art isn't being selected, it's okay, because that's just not that audience at that time, that totally acceptable. The world is huge.

Speaker 1: 6:18

Think about all the people that have been denied any kind of audience and then eventually meet their dreams. Of course, jk Rowling has won. Books got rejected. Tons of writers, for example, have been rejected over and over and over again. I saw a quick TikTok this morning and it was like the little videos of Taylor Swift when she was younger and taking on Nashville and going at 11 years old, dropping off CDs, wanting people to hear her music and getting rejected over and over and over again. Of course, that was an 11 year old's dream and just pursuing that. And then recently her tours have just exploded.

Speaker 1: 7:04

It's okay to have big dreams. That's the whole thing. Having big dreams, that's not the hard part, it's believing in yourself. That is what you have to continue to do and you're not gonna get the audience that you want every time that you put something out there, and that's okay. You have to understand that Not everybody is going to like you. Not everybody is going to want what you're doing all the time, every day, and you have to understand that that's not a failure. Failure and fear and fear of failure I feel like those are the biggest obstacles. I mean, we only have a certain amount of time. Everything is limited when it comes to time and you just have to continue to pursue it. And you really have to believe in yourself before you expect anybody else to believe in you and just put the effort into it and enjoy that process. I can't state that enough. I have no other way to just say do what you love. You really have to do what you love and if you're doing something that you don't love at the moment, find a way to just sneak in a few moments of time per day and do just what you love for yourself.

Speaker 1: 8:33

I literally have to get up in the morning very, very early usually 4.35 o'clock to do my art before I start work, and I absolutely have to do that because it's like breathing to me. It's like I have to get that out of my system. I talked to a few other artists that feel that need and that can understand that and do something very similar. But it is also one of the reasons that I doodle. Well, I take notes and stuff because I'm just a visual person and it helps me learn and it helps me comprehend and I feel just making marks makes me remember things that are being said and I was doing it in a meeting yesterday. I mean I was drawing like these boxes and squares and stuff, but it just helps me process what's going on and that's how I work.

Speaker 1: 9:33

Everybody has their own thing. Everybody has their own approach to achieving their dream and doing something that they want to do, and opening a small business or pursuing a career, going to college and pursuing a trade or finding something that you love to do. That's all something that takes belief in yourself. I know when I went to college, my parents had never gone to college and I had no idea what to expect, and I shared that in the first episode. By the time, I had children and wanted them to go to college. I wanted them to experience a hundred times different things than I did, because I wasn't able to live on campus and I didn't really get to pursue 100% what I wanted to do, and it was just like whatever you want, do whatever you want. And raising girls as independent as I could was just a top priority to me because I wanted them to feel supported in everything that they chose to do, even if I thought it was going to be a really tough decision. That was their decision and I feel like, as an artist, however you tumble upon your style, that's your decision. You can get inspired by other people, but that's okay. Just continue with your path and how you do it and practice it.

Speaker 1: 11:08

If you're pursuing a business and there's a hundred of them already in your area that you're passionate about what you're doing, bring that passion and bring that difference into what you're doing and make it stand out. It's okay that there's competition I can't even explain how that's okay and support the competition network with the competition, because some people really enjoy, I guess, sharing in those veins they always have. Like, for example, there's a company here in town that they arrange these little kind of like tours, and it's not like we're only going to go to one restaurant or we're only going to patronize you know one location. No, we're going to show you 10 of them that are here and that you're going to get to enjoy the variety that they all bring, because they're all different and that's what you want. What variety is the spice of life? These little cliches? It's okay that there is competition. You don't have to get upset about it, you don't have to feel threatened by it. There is so much to offer that you do that nobody else does.

Speaker 1: 12:25

Hey, just a little pause. I wanted to share some resources that may be helpful for you. And you know, imposters we're not frauds, we're not imposters this imposter syndrome, thinking that you know you're really not valid enough to be in the space that you're taking up doing what you love because you don't have enough experience, or that you're not licensed or you know you don't have a physical location and you're only doing it this way or that way. These are. They could be different goals and really stop measuring yourself against everything that is either already out there or hasn't been done. Just do whatever you can do in that moment to make yourself happy with what's in on your heart and in your mind, and I'm telling you that's the best that you can do.

Speaker 1: 13:21

I love Austin Cleon. There's a few books that he has written. Steel Like an Artist is just a great inspiration to think. Everything is done. Nothing is, you know, unique and I'm just copying someone. You're not, and just take a look at that, it's a real quick read. I'm going to put links in the show notes and I don't get anything for these. They're not linked to any kind of content that I get anything from. I just wanted to share some resources that may help. He also has two other books Show your Work and Keep Going, so don't be afraid that it has to be perfect before you put anything out there. Just show people love to feel the authenticity of the process, and so don't feel intimidated if it's not just picture perfect or movie quality or I don't know. Just share you and you know, keep going, find inspiration, the little things that make you want to continue to pursue what you love. So those links will be in the show notes, thanks.

Speaker 1: 14:30

And I just feel like everybody suffers from this imposter syndrome and everybody is worried like someone's doing this or someone's doing that, and I can't do it this way. Share how you're doing something, teach what you know. There's never going to be a time in my life where I'm not going to want to learn something. I'm constantly taking classes, learning new techniques, meeting other artists, meeting other business owners working in different technologies. I absolutely love learning and wanting to know what's going on out in the world and I'm, you know, drawing this little owl and thinking you know how many coffee shops are here and I love them all. I love shopping and getting the different flavors and telling people to go to them and supporting them. And it's okay that there's multiple ones. My gosh, that's what makes it brilliant that they can all stand on their own, because they're all different and that's all right.

Speaker 1: 15:42

So I really just want you to feel that internal push from yourself that you need to believe in yourself before you want anybody else to believe in you. So continue to share on social if that brings you joy and if you get 10 views, who cares that it's 10 views? It's okay. It will eventually become what you want it because you're gonna have passion in it from yourself. And, yes, if you're wanting to, like, make a livelihood from these things, you got to give yourself some grace.

Speaker 1: 16:20

I mean, there's very, very few people that can just dive right into their passion and organically Be able to make a living without any other support whatsoever. I mean, if you're working a job, like me, and you're still making and creating as a freelance opportunity on the side in your spare time, that's totally okay. You can still dream one day that that's going to be like the full time thing that you do Do what you need to do. But continue to create that dream and don't let it die, don't let it go, and Find the joy in it, because then you're gonna inspire other people and that's what makes them want to support you and To care about you and then they feel like they can do the things that they want to do. It really is a positive ripple effect and everybody is going to have struggles, but that's the best thing about networking with everybody that's trying to do these things because then you oh, you're, you're dealing with trying to get financing, or you're dealing with trying to get a space, or you're also dealing with trying to build up community, and then you can like work together to do that, and sometimes those relationships, you know They'll find an end, then they'll start again, or maybe that they'll change because someone's growing faster than the other, or maybe that product line isn't something that they need anymore.

Speaker 1: 17:52

My gosh, don't take it personally, don't get upset about it. It's okay. There's so many times that I have worked with so many different Organizations and it was like, okay, we were able to use you for this and that was great. I'm still gonna patronize them, I'm still going to shop from them, I'm still going to support them. It's okay that you don't need my services anymore. That's life, I mean. I'm not gonna get mad about it. So that's what you need to do, that's what you need to remember. That it's. It's okay that things move and change, but Never, never, let that deter. You. Always, always, believe in yourself first.

Speaker 1: 18:33

So I just wanted to share those thoughts today, because imposter syndrome is a real, real thing, and Even people that have done it for, even people that have been in their businesses for years. They also feel it, and they're usually the ones that sometimes don't reinvent who they are because they're so afraid of change and they feel like everybody's already copying them and so they feel like they've set that threshold, that they've set that bar, and they haven't. And we've seen multiple big conglomerations, you know, fall that had been around for decades and centuries and they're no longer here. So always be open to learning and growing and Collaborating and recalibrating and supporting one another, especially in small business, especially in small circles, and there's creativity in everything. There really is.

Speaker 1: 19:37

It's really important to to support creative people, because you're going to need creativity for everything from from not just art, but marketing and Business and finance, just everything. Everything needs to have a creative spin. So Somebody feels a connection to it. But I just wanted to to share those thoughts with you today and hope you have a wonderful weekend, happy Friday, and just remember that you're brutally made. Hey, thanks for listening. And if you doodle along with me today, search for the hashtag Brutifully made and share your doodle to with that hashtag so I can find your little doodle and share them.