Why imposter syndrome is holding you back and why it nearly stopped Katie too

In your journey to building a successful clinic, one of the most insidious challenges that you may encounter is imposter syndrome. It’s that nagging voice in your head that whispers or sometimes, and in my case, shouts, you are not good enough. Now what I’ve come to realize is that there are very few business owners, if there is any out there, that haven’t experienced this in the past or are not still experiencing it now because Over the last year, as I reflect on what we’ve achieved in both my clinic and within Thrive, if didn’t have this voice that sometimes can shout loudly that you are not good enough, it’s likely that I haven’t been playing a big enough game.

So the fact that this voice has been fucking shouting to me for a lot, and a lot quite recently, then it suggests that I am stepping out of my normal. What is normal for me? What is the, what level I am currently at? New level, new devil, as they say. And so I think that it’s a very common phenomenon amongst high achievers.

And it’s highly likely that you listening to this podcast are one of those people because that’s why you listen to this podcast every week and that’s why for many of you, you are coached by us. And for many of you, you are investing in developing your knowledge around running a more successful, a more profitable clinic, because we never got taught any of this when we were at university.

It’s highly likely you are a high achiever. Now, you know when you go out and people ask you what it is that you do? How many times do you not want to tell them that you’re a physio? Because, ugh, then the conversation goes to, their latest ache or pain, and they basically want free advice, and it just bores me to tears.

But! I’m a physiotherapist by trade in inverted commas, and as I like to call it, I’m a recovering people pleaser, and I’m also a recovering work addict, as you all know. I actually missed an A in biology in my A levels by two points, meaning I didn’t get to go to university at the same time as all my pals did and, For me, I had to reset the whole year.

My, my sixth form went absolutely amazing and basically let me just turn up and do what I needed to do, which was very little. And I worked for British Airways, which is a whole other story. And then eventually I went to university one year later. Now, there were a hundred applicants for every place when I eventually started applying all for the second time.

And for as long as I can remember, I have always been a really hard worker, always achieving in sports, in school and whilst I was not liked by everybody, because high achievers often aren’t, did, and I really did wish I was, because this is what led me to be a people pleaser this knockback really affected me at the time.

Like, I remember you know, my 18 year old life was over. And so I almost didn’t pursue the career I’d always wanted to go into because of this knockback. And so I felt like I was not good enough, that I’d worked hard all my life, I’d never not achieved, like it, that just never was in my vocabulary.

And actually when you look at How you, what we do, all our personality testing when you join Thrive. And we know how you are wired. We know what color you are and if you came to clinic growth live, you’re gonna know what color you are now as well. But I’m a yellow, I’m a high yellow with a very big splash of red sometimes.

And my five key strengths are very much my first strength that I am led by. I, it’s hard hardwired within me is an achiever. It. There is no time ever in a day that I would wake up and not be able to achieve something because it’s just not in my nature. One of my other strengths is positivity the other one is activator, the other one is is competition.

So I always, can find myself looking at other people and comparing and then thinking I’m not good enough or I’m not doing enough or I need to be doing this instead. Now, I get the pleasure of speaking and coaching hundreds of clinic owners in a variety of ways and I know that for many of you listening to this episode this week, imposter syndrome is never very far away.

in any situation that you find yourself in. And my hope from today’s episode is that you have the permission to feel it, you have the permission to own it, and then you have the permission to tell it to off and deal with it so that you can move forwards. Because if you didn’t have this, you would all be living what I call your level 10 life.

For reference, a level 10 life is achieved when you can give the different aspects of your life, like your environment, your hobbies, your health, your relationships, your finance, perfect rating. And if anybody is listening to this podcast on their way to work and think that they are living their level 10 life, then honey, turn this episode off, put some music on, have a jam in your car, because you do not need to listen to this.

So, without further ado, let’s give this the time it deserves. Let’s delve into what it is, how it manifests, and most importantly, how you can overcome it to foster a thriving clinic and a really confident mindset.

Okay, so what the heck is impostor syndrome? It is a term that is banded about like mindset is banded about and gratitude is banded about and all of these sayings that we hear so much now. Well, I did some googling. An imposter syndrome is a psychological pattern where we as individuals doubt our accomplishments and can translate it, it translates into a persistent fear of being exposed as a fraud.

Even though we have loads of evidence to show we’re not only competent, but we’re chuffing amazing at what we do, it crops up knowingly, and often unknowingly. So, what that means is, sometimes you can be rocking about your day to day stuff in the clinic, and you don’t know that this is going on because you don’t have that level of self awareness yet.

One of the things we talked about at Clinic Growth Live is to create that successful clinic, it’s about being way more self aware, and this persistent fear of being exposed as a fraud is something that I think many of us struggle with, and your logic brain knows that you’re not a fraud, because your logic brain knows you know a lot of shit.

But we watch others. We see others. who might not feel the same way about this, about a certain thing, which means that they can be more visible, or they can be more vocal, or they call people out on stuff.

Those of us that experience this syndrome, I think it’s an awful word, syndrome, but because it puts a lot of weight behind it, but let’s just pretend it’s just a thing, right, that we all have, and it’s okay, it’s normal. When we have this, we remain convinced that we don’t deserve the success that we have achieved.

Right. When people say to me, oh, it was just luck, I think luck is as a result of hard work. Like, that comes after. I hate it when people say, oh, I was just, right place, right time, I was just really lucky. Bullshit. No way. It was because, it was a result of consistent efforts. Consistent work, and it, what it does is it means that we struggle to reflect on how far we have actually come.

We struggle to share our wins. We are like so not American with this. I’ve been listening to Six hours at the weekend six hours That is how long it took me to get the fecking leaves off the lawn in the garden. Don’t go there I’ve tried to get a gardener. They didn’t turn up. That’s a whole nother episode Anyway, six hours.

I was listening to Joe Rogan with Elon Musk and I was Listening to Joe Rogan with Donald Trump Because I was fully invested in what was going on in America, and I needed to be, I needed to be more well read, and I needed to know some stuff. So I was listening to this, and what really struck me is like, how much better they are at owning their own success.

Whether you like Trump or don’t like Trump, whatever, okay, we’re all entitled to our own opinion, as long as You are actually well read and not listening to all the propaganda that is out there, which is basically the entire of the media. But as long as you actually have gone about this in a way that gets, you’ve done your own research and you’ve made your own opinion fantastic, whether you like him or not, what he is f ing great at doing is saying how great he is.

There is no way he could do what he does if he allowed imposter syndrome to rule the show. So we need to be more like Trump. We need to be more able to celebrate our wins and share our wins. Because we often don’t ever start to To acknowledge what we’ve achieved, we all just focus on all the shit that we’ve not done that’s still on the to do list.

Now, this mindset is really detrimental in the context of running a clinic because confidence and authenticity are crucial for building trust with clients and staff. Like, a lot of us struggle with the sales aspect of our job because we are salespeople at the end of the day. We have to share the opportunity for our clients to get better.

We have to have those direct conversations. But if we do it from a place of lacking in confidence, or not from a real place of authenticity, the clients sniff it a mile off.

And you’ve got to build that confidence and that authenticity with your staff as well. So imposter syndrome can manifest itself in so many weird and wonderful ways. One of our amazing clients in Thrive is doing all the work. She’s following everything we are encouraging us to do. And her business has grown.

It not only grown, it has grown exponentially. She’s got more team members. She’s got more revenue. She’s got more profit. She’s paying herself more. She has more time to work on the business. What’s my point? Well, things on paper look great, but recently she’s had people leave the business. She’s back covering some of her reception hours.

She’s had a tricky member of staff who has behaved in a really strange way. And just some odd, well, is it odd or is it not odd? Some things have been going on for her. Right? On paper, you’re like, wow, that’s great. But this is what we call, and we sniff it out a mile off, self sabotage. It’s a sneaky chuffer because it’s a subconscious behavioural pattern where an individual, you hinder your own success and your own well being, right?

And we can spot it because we know what we’re doing. But self sabotaging behaviour can come from imposter syndrome or from fear of success. And all fear of success. So, like, you can have the best master plan, you can have the best marketing tactics for your business, but achieving consistency in business means dealing with this powerful stuff first.

We were like, okay, for you to move to the next level, we are gonna have to deal with this shit, because every time you get to that point where you can start to pay yourself more and you’re becoming more profitable, you are literally doing things subconsciously to self sabotage. How many of us do that?

Like, we do it all the time. We just eat that box of biscuits because we’re self sabotaging. It’s a self sabotaging behavior because We either are afraid of what people will think if we, I don’t know, lose weight, feel fit, look great, whatever it is. So you have a pattern and a set of beliefs that you hold on to.

And so your subconscious behaviours work to keep you there.

We are, I’m totally sidetracking here, but we are meeting. At the end of this month, all of our Thrive clients and I am doing a puppet show for them. What an absolute joy that’s going to be because I am going to use puppets to explain on a level that people understand what is going on in your brain.

All the different brains and parts of your brain that you have. And you need to understand this because this is also what your clients have. And so that by understanding the different parts of the brain and how people react and on what parts of the brain are talking at what time, it’s going to allow you to show up differently in your business.

It’s also going to really transform your sales strategy. I’m very excited for that. Anyway, I’ve totally sidetracked. Where was I? So, when you become aware of your unconscious patterns, because we bring them to the conscious level, like this client is now, she is, she was literally repelling success and more money.

away because of some of these deep rooted beliefs, which is I am not good enough,

but we’re doing the work. She’s showing up, we’re doing the work. So if you’re listening to this podcast and maybe you are driving to your clinic or maybe you are sat, I’m gonna, I’m gonna guess that you’re sat amongst a million bazillion things that you’re meant to be doing right now and you’re listening to me in the background, but I want you to take a moment To see what is coming up for you there, when you’ve listened to what I’ve just said.

Where are you not living the best version of your life? Health, relationships, business, money, confidence, rest, spirituality, whatever else you want to highlight. What happens when you hit success or you have an achievement? Do you just brush past it? Or do you start doing stuff to sabotage it?

Do you class yourself as a high achiever? And don’t be fucking modest here. I want you to own this.

And think about when you’re trying to move to the next level, and for many of you that is about taking more take home income home. It’s about your business becoming more profitable. It might be about you becoming more visible. It might be putting yourself out there in, in some way. When you start to see that success come through, what then happens?

What behaviors take over to try and keep you where you are right now? Now, imposter syndrome has many faces. I want to share some of mine and some of the clinic owners that I have the pleasure of coaching, but one of the big ones is perfectionism. We set impossibly high standards for ourselves and we feel like a failure when we can’t meet them.

We had a wonderful client on a pod last week say that she felt like she was failing because she And I’m laughing because this is just great. Because when she logs into the members area, we have like a whole members login thing, curriculum, so much information. She said, I see that I’ve only done 18 percent of it because we have like a thing that tells you at the bottom and I feel like a failure.

We’re like, where’s that come from? At what point did we say that this program was about working through an online curriculum? It is not. That is just there in the background to support you. And also, we keep adding shit to that online, online members area, so you can never complete just To put that out there, members.

Never gonna happen. Because we’re updating, we’re adding, we’re giving you new stuff all the time. It’s not, I have a coach, and I can’t possibly be, I turn up to exactly the things that I need to for where I am right now and what I need, and I can’t possibly take in the amount of stuff that’s on offer.

And I say that Thrive is like the most beautiful buffet you have ever been to in your life. It is all there for the taking but you can’t eat it all at once because this leads to overwork, it leads to burnout, it leads to constant dissatisfaction with your performance. So for those of you who are these perfectionists, you procrastinate endlessly because things are not quite perfect, meaning that you don’t really get an awful lot over the line, boxed off, done, dusted.

You’re always trying, just trying to make it perfect before you move forwards. So perfectionism is one of the phases of imposter syndrome. Overachievement. You may feel the need to work harder than everybody else to prove your worth, and this can lead to success, don’t get me wrong, but it comes at the cost of your well being, and it can create this unhealthy work life balance, if that is even a thing.

And this is something that we see a lot, we hear a lot, is that you’re working crazy hours, you’re unable to delegate, you become control freaks.

So, We have perfectionists, we have the overachievers. Like I’m taking both of those boxes. I know because at times this is where we go back to because your subconscious behaviors are working to try and keep you in what the ego knows, what is safe. And so when I make the decision that I’m going to stand up on stage in front of 120 people at Clinic Growth Live, and we’re going to do this big event for the first time for our industry, and we’re going to really up level everybody’s confidence.

And we’re going to transform how you think about yourself and your clinic and your business, and we’re going to give you the tools and the tactics to make more profit and get more time back. Boy, did this stand out for me. Boy, was I constantly thinking, What am I going to teach them?

Surely they know all this stuff. Maybe I’m not good enough. Maybe I’m not going to be inspirational enough. Maybe I won’t be this. Maybe I won’t be that. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. All that stuff. But what I have to do is remind myself if I don’t do this, if I don’t share the opportunity, with you guys. If I don’t show up on this podcast and be vulnerable and put myself out there, even when I have massive bags under my eyes today because whatever is going on, some allergy to something, do not know, not got time for it, not even thinking about it, I was like, oh god, maybe I shouldn’t record my podcast today because I’ve got to have my video on and I look like a bag of shit.

Who cares? Literally none of you actually care. And if you do, you know, you podcast. But if I don’t turn up and share the opportunity with you because my imposter syndrome has ruled the show, then I’m facilitating ongoing pain in your life. So that’s how I get out of my own way quite often. Anyway, the other thing that we do is we undermine our own success.

We have we, I’ve said this before, we actually we say that our success is down to luck, timing, external factors, rather than your skills or your hard work, and this just diminishes your achievements and it feeds into the cycle of self doubt. Luck has a way of showing up after a truckload of effort has been put in.

Luck to me is recognition of hard work. And then the other thing I see all the time is discounting praise. When others compliment your work or your achievements, we brush it off as them just being nice or not really understanding the situation or just saying it because they want to blow smoke up our arse.

Trust me, we do not blow smoke up your arse and Thrive. If you need to hear it, I’m going to tell you it. And we’re going to give you that positive feedback of that praise. And we’re going to build your confidence up because you all need that externally. Don’t care what everybody says about build it internally.

Yes, you need to do that as well. But for some of us, we need to hear it externally. That’s what our ego needs. So next time somebody pays you a compliment and say you are doing amazing, just say thanks. Not, well thanks but I’ve got a great team behind me, oh thanks because of this or thanks I’ve just been so lucky or whatever, just thank you.

And then fear of failure, fear of making mistakes paralyzes us. It prevents us from taking necessary risks and embracing new opportunities. And what this stagnates growth. Stagnate is literally the worst word. In the dictionary for me. Stagnate. It just stinks as a word, doesn’t it? Who wants to stagnate?

in their life and in their business. No, thank you. Most decisions we see clinic owners make when we first start working with you guys is from a place of fear rather than abundance. We’re so focused on what could go wrong, we forget to see what could go right.

I’ve just had quite a few conversations with a gorgeous person who came to Clinic Growth Live. I met her last year at the therapy expo. And she was actually with somebody else, and she was just supporting them as they were having conversations to make it through, so she said, you know what, I think I probably need to talk to you.

So we had a call last December, and she came to Clinic Growth live, and it was great, and she absolutely loved the day. And then she got another call because her, part of her brain, and she’s a green, so all of you greens know what that means, very high detail, need lots of information, need to analyse all the risks before you make a decision.

What is happening for this lady? is fear of not making the money back, is paralyzing her from taking necessary risks and embracing the opportunity to double her income, to get more take home, to have more time. We’re so focused always, and I’ve done it myself. We’re so focused on what could go wrong that well, what if I don’t show up?

Okay, what if you don’t show up? What will happen? Well, I’ll lose this much money. Okay, and then what happens? So sometimes we only focus on all the things that we don’t want and what I’m not gonna go right and we all know from listening to this podcast the law of attraction means that you are more likely to attract that to you because That’s where your attention is.

And that’s where your energy flows and therefore the universe You

So, where is fear of failure preventing you from taking the risk and embracing new opportunities? Where is it showing up for you, which means you are stagnating? Or, you are changing things but at such a slow, slug pace. Did it just feel like you’re not getting anywhere?

So what do we do about it? What do we do about overcoming imposter syndrome? Like, I just have to kick myself up the ass and just get over myself because actually nobody cares, Katie, about the bags under your eyes right now. Because if I help one more clinic owner today as a result of listening to this podcast, then my bags are worth it.

But overcoming imposter syndrome is not about eliminating self doubt entirely. Self doubt is really normal. It’s about managing it effectively. So, the thing that I often use is the 7 out of 10. This is the principle behind the 7 out of 10 rule is very simple. Instead of striving for perfection, or 10 out of 10 aim for a solid 7.

This helps you overcome procrastination and self doubt, ensuring that tasks are completed efficiently, effectively. You’re not bogged down by unrealistic standards. Sometimes, greens and blues listen to this. You’ve got to just figure it out along the way. You can’t have all your ducks lined up before you go.

And sometimes yellow and yellows. We need a few more ducks lined up before we go. Okay. But for those of you who are so worried, but I know that you’re all perfectionists, your 7 is most people’s 10 out of 10. So allow yourself to produce work that’s good enough to move forwards rather than getting stuck in endless cycles of revisions, improvements like, delaying, launching your marketing campaign until every single element’s flawless, not getting your website copy up and out there because Something’s just not quite right.

Get it out there. And then fix it.

Stop comparing. Have to do this all the time. And actually, being on social media for me is lethal. And you guys will know, I don’t spend loads of time posting on my stories or whatever, because frankly, I haven’t freaking got a minute. But, also have to limit my scroll time. And I generally don’t scroll in places that are not gonna serve me.

And I caught myself doing this on LinkedIn. I dunno what it was that I saw. And now I was down a rabbit hole. I was down a rabbit hole of why did they not include me in that post? And that must mean that they don’t like me. So they don’t like me. What can I do because I’m a recording people pleaser to get them to like me.

And I was like, what? What am I talking about here? So I just have to come off it. So, if you find yourself looking at social media, analysing everybody else’s service, measuring your success against theirs, comparison is the thief. Wait a minute, my husband says this to me all the time. What’s he saying? I should know this.

Comparison is the thief of joy. Yeah. Comparison is the thief of joy. Makes us feel inadequate. Makes us feel overwhelmed. We’re chasing to be like someone else. So, just go cold turkey. Like, unfollow all your competitors online. Shift your focus inwards. Concentrate on your clinic strengths. Your unique value you offer to clients.

Nobody is you.

By letting go of the need to compare, you cultivate a mindset of abundance rather than scarcity. Like, stay in your lane

and acknowledge your feelings. The first step to overcoming imposter syndrome is recognizing that we all have this. Like, it’s completely normal. And they are experienced by many of us listening to this. And for those of you who think you don’t have it, then I think you definitely do. You’re just not acknowledging it yet.

And it usually shows up when you’re about to take the next big step.

Have been seeding a surprise over the last few weeks. It begins with B, it ends in K. You’re all high achievers. You’re all very educated people. I’m going to guess that you’ve guessed what this is already, but I have a book launching.

I’ve used the word seed because that is reference to how I have created the book and how I’m going to take you on a journey throughout it. I have never done anything like this before. It is like wildly out of my comfort zone. I love writing, but if I let impostor syndrome rule the show here, I definitely wouldn’t have written this book.

But I had to ask myself, if I don’t do this, then what’s the impact? That I have in our industry. Like, small. So, here we are. I have a book launching in well, if you come into Therapy Expo, you are going to get first access to the priority list. You are going to get 50 percent off of the book when it launches in January, and you are going to get an exclusive access to a book in action workshop with me, where we are going to like, not only are you going to learn all the stuff in the book, because you’re going to read it, I’m going to help you implement stuff in your business and in your clinic.

Very exciting. All of you on the podcast are also going to get access to all of those things as well. There will be a link coming very soon for you all to to register and be the first to receive my book. I promise you, when you feel like you’ve got to take the next big step, if imposter syndrome is there, it’s usually a good sign.

If it’s not there, you’re not playing a big enough game. Playing too small.

And one of the other things that I would say with Imposter Syndrome, for all of us, I find, we find, I find this really hard, is celebrate your achievements. One of the things we do in Team Thrive is we share our hashtag Friday Cheers. So we have a Slack channel that we communicate through and every Friday we, we will celebrate one or up to ten things that you would like to celebrate and share that week.

And it ends the week in a really positive way. It shifts our focus. As the working week draws to a close, my husband and I also do it over a glass of something, of course on a Friday night. You do it in whatever way you need to, but shift your focus. towards all the great stuff to celebrate rather than all the things that you haven’t done.

And get yourself surrounded by the right people. You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, so you’ve got to surround yourself with people who are where you want to be

so they can understand your journey, they can offer you encouragement, they can give you the advice. And I’m going to be bold, you need to get a coach. All great coaches are coached. It helps me work through self doubt. It helps me work through imposter syndrome, confidence crisis. And it gives us, gives me the support that we don’t get from close ones.

And it’s not because they’re not amazing. It’s just because they don’t really get it. The right coach gets it.

So I hope you have loved this episode around cultivating this confidence and authenticity and putting imposter syndrome back in its box to allow you to take that next big leap, whatever that next big leap is for you. Thank you for listening. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to be vulnerable on this week’s episode.

I hope you’ve loved it and I’m going to be back next week with another juicy one. See you then