026: Battling Imposter Syndrome With Guest Talks

In this episode, Jules White shares her experience of overcoming imposter syndrome and stepping outside her comfort zone to participate in a panel discussion about SEO. She reflects on the importance of recognizing your unique strengths and expertise, even if you're still learning and growing in your field.

Jules also emphasizes the value of starting small and gradually building your confidence, whether it's through participating in online talks or other opportunities to share your knowledge.

Key takeaways:

• Embrace your zone of genius: Identify your strengths and passions and focus on helping others in those areas.
  
  
• Overcome imposter syndrome: Remember that everyone starts somewhere and you don't need to know everything to be valuable.
  
  
• Start small and build confidence: Take small steps to share your knowledge and expertise in a supportive environment.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Join the community for encouragement and support
  
  
• Free Beginner's SEO QuickStart Guide

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Transcript

AI-GENERATED TRANSCRIPT - MAY CONTAIN ERRORS

Morning.  It's really miserable here today. It's absolutely tipping it down. Just got soaked walking around to the coffee shop with the dog.

Exciting Week and SEO Panel Experience

So , this week's been quite exciting. I went on  the best year of business lunch club, which was a guest panel about SEO. I went on that on Tuesday night and  so I had to  batter down my imposter syndrome with that one.  if I'm going into a group and teaching people who don't know anything about SEO, then I'm more than confident with that. You know, I know I can help with beginners, but I think because there was going to be other SEO experts in there.

I, and it was going to be lots of men as well. It was quite a male,  the, the intro videos that I'd watched about how the lunch club works and everything. And there was quite a, quite a few guys. I think there were only two women in the intro video and maybe. I don't know, 10, 10 guys in there.

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

So  that was, um, that was a little bit of,  you know, I had to sort of battle through that one and decide, no, I'm trying to push myself to do these things that are, are scary, push myself out of my comfort zone.

And I'm so glad I did. And it was interesting because the other guys that were on there, you know, everybody was really lovely. They made me feel really welcome. I didn't feel like I was, you know, shouldn't be there or anything. They were really lovely. But. The other people that were there all had, again, different, different areas of expertise, different,  perspectives on SEO.

And there was a guy who has been an SEO person for 20 years. He's had an agency for 20 plus years, I think he said, and The host asked him a question at the beginning and said, Oh, can you explain SEO? What SEO is? And he went on and he  didn't really explain it. So he was talking about his story and talking about SEO, but didn't really explain it in a way that I think I would have done.

I  , that's one thing I feel like I, that's where I, I do shine is being able to explain it in a very simple way and a very easy way.

Recognizing Your Strengths

And I think that it, it just reinforced to me that there is a place for everybody, even if you only feel like you're just a little bit ahead of your clients, if you are teaching people something,  , I think we all get this imposter syndrome.

So just recognizing the fact that You don't need to have been doing what you're doing for decades and you don't need to know everything and you'll never know everything.

And I   think if you're ever in that point where you think you know everything,  then that's the kind of person that people generally wouldn't want to learn from.

I think  acknowledging where you have some sense, acknowledging how you can help other people is more important. The thing that came across when this other guy was talking was that he was talking more about his story rather than. What SEO is and how it can help businesses. I think he, it sort of turned around to talking about his, his story.

, and that's not to take anything away from what he did or I'm not criticizing him for that, but just having that perspective of actually.  I am, I am good at doing that. I'm good at actually breaking it down to the simple beginnings. And that's where my strength is and working with people who haven't really started and haven't, and just don't know where to begin with trying to make their website better.

Is definitely my zone of genius and what I love to do as well. It's not even necessarily that that's just what I'm good at. It's what I absolutely love to do.

Helping Clients with Website Improvements

Just seeing that little light bulb moment where people recognize that actually it's not that hard to make my website actually work for my business.

I just need to make a few tweaks and I don't need to throw my website out the window. And the number of times I speak to people where they say, don't look at my website. Oh, don't look at my website. It's awful. And it's, I'd probably say, you know, when I start conversations with people about what I do,  70, 80% of people, if not more, if not closer to like 90 or a hundred percent of people say, oh yeah, don't look at my website.

Or, or, or they'll say, oh, I need you to look at my website. And then they'll think about it and say, Oh no, but don't. And it's, and I always say, you know, you should never ever be embarrassed to feel like you need help with things like that. And actually that's what I love. I love just being able to look at something and just say, well, actually, if you just made this little, this bit a little bit smaller, and if you just changed it, so you've only got one H1 heading on your page, or if you just changed it so that you talk about this thing a little bit more on the page in these places, then that could have a massive effect on your business. And I think that's, yeah, definitely something that.

Building Confidence Through Speaking Engagements

It has made me realize from doing the panel that A, I can do these scary things and it seems and it is really scary and like the night before  I was sat here and just the amount of anxiety I was feeling over actually, what am I doing? What if they, What if somebody calls me out for being an idiot, or what if I say something stupid, or what if I don't know what to say as well?

That's the other thing with me, is I often, like, if you sat me down and said, right, name your, tell me what your favourite meal is, tell me what your favourite film is, what's your favourite colour? I'm like, oh, my brain doesn't seem to work that way, that actually, if we have a conversation about it, then  That will come out naturally, but I'm not great at thinking of things  on the spot.

And even that, telling myself that, okay, it will be alright, and it was. There wasn't anything, and even with a couple of the answers, I was a bit like, Hmm, not sure, and, you know, or didn't, not, didn't say not sure. I was just,  I felt like I was stumbling over my words a little bit, but even then it wasn't the end of the world and it still, I still felt like it was a positive experience.

I still felt like I, I was an expert. I was there in the group. I came across as an expert and I really enjoyed it and hopefully I bought something to the group. I'm confident that I did. And yeah, I really enjoyed it.

Encouragement and Final Thoughts

So I would say if you're, if anything is holding you back from putting yourself out there to get on these kind of panels or, or to get any kind of opportunity for speaking, start with something that you feel comfortable with.

I think I've developed my, a bit more confidence with  this from doing some  business development talks. So just  10 minute talk.  over zoom with a very friendly and encouraging environment has been amazing just for getting my confidence up there.

So I would say start with something like that. Something where it's not, you're not standing in front of a stage going from doing nothing to standing in front of a stage of a hundred people.  Then, um, yeah, I, I would definitely suggest going down that route and just be kind to yourself, gradually  push yourself a little bit further.

And if you need any encouragement, come into the group  and we will encourage you and. Give you a nice gentle lead along the way or push along the way if you need it.  So I hope you have an amazing day. Hopefully the sun will come out a little bit later or at least stop raining and I'll see you soon.