Hello and welcome to the Limitless Entrepreneur Podcast everyone. I’m your host, Nicole Laino. We are here with a solo episode today we are going to be talking about a topic that I think we don’t hear it as much now, but I definitely, I don’t hear it being called out for what it is, but we talk, I definitely see it playing out in the entrepreneurial space and I wanna talk about it today.

That topic is imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome exists at every level. I think that it’s a misconception that, at some point you get over it, but particularly first of all, let’s define what imposter syndrome even means and how it gets in your way.

So I’m going to just read the definition of imposter syndrome that I pulled up, just on Wikipedia here. But imposter syndrome is a psychological occurrence in which people doubt their skills, talents, or accomplishments, and have a persistent, internalized fear of being exposed as frauds.

Does that sound familiar to you? Do you deal with that at all? I certainly do. I absolutely have. I deal with imposter syndrome all the time. It’s honestly,  in the entrepreneurial space. It’s new level, new devil. Imposter syndrome says, I don’t belong here or I don’t belong there.

There’s something inside of me that says that what I want, I am not qualified for. I don’t have the skills for or I don’t trust myself to go there. I don’t trust that it’s safe to go. And I believe that if I get there, everyone’s going to look at me and say, I’m a fraud. I hear this from clients all the time.

They may not be calling it imposter syndrome, but it’s basically, that’s what this is. So entrepreneurs, we’re always dealing with this, so it’s important that we learn how to deal with this. And today I wanna give you three steps. Honestly, it’s, we’re never going to get rid of imposter syndrome because again, it’s like that new level, new devil.

Unless you stop growing, you’re never going to, if you’re busting out of your comfort zone, then there’s always going to be this uncomfortable nature to reaching the next level. There’s always going to be a little bit of can I do it? Am I really good enough? Can I achieve this? And it’s up to us to be able to manage ourselves in that.

And that’s really what we’re talking about here, is how can we be so sure of ourselves that we say I know I can rise to the occasion. I know that whatever I need on the way, I will pick up.  I know that I can get there and when I get there, I am going to be everything that level needs of me, and I’m willing to do the work and I’m willing to show up for myself, and I’m willing to look at myself without criticism all the way on the way.

So I wanna break down three steps. So the three places that you can use to overcome imposter syndrome and while not making it a thing of the past, just really transform how it shows up for you. How you can use it as feedback for how you need to grow as opposed to confirmation for why you should stay exactly where you are and be happy in para.

Okay, so first if we’re going to talk about the three steps to get out of it, let’s talk about the three steps, the three causes that cause imposter syndrome. So what causes imposter syndrome? One is past trauma. Past trauma lived experience. This happened. Therefore, I no longer trust myself in this way.

This was told to me and I believed it. So it has become my. There’s a part of me that had this awful experience that never wants to experience it again. So I’m going to hold myself back from doing anything that might cause me to experience this level of hurt ever in the future. So there’s that trauma element to it.

And there’s the second piece, which I’m going to, I’m going a little out of order here, but I wanna call this one. You know what, actually I’m going to, I’m going to go in order. So then there’s this, the second cause is a low expression of who you are. A low expression of your gifts, not really leaning into them.

not really owning your gifts, not knowing who you are, allowing the outside world to tell you, I did this, therefore I’m worthy. I didn’t do it. Therefore, I’m not, I showed up like this. It didn’t go well. I guess I suck. That is, that’s a low expression that’s you living, that’s you living in the shadow, the shadows of your identity, of your person, of ultimately your why.

You’re living in the shadow instead of in your light. Okay. And then the third one is lack of action. So this is the one that gets a lot of play. This is the one where usually the emphasis goes on that you don’t have, you have little to no experience doing the thing that you wanna do, that you haven’t stepped on the stage so, you’re not really you’re not really an experienced actor. But you won’t step on the stage because you’re not an experienced actor. So that there’s, that, that fear of the, fair failure to launch kind of thing. Little to no experience in the realm and the area that you want to step into.

I haven’t done it before. I haven’t done it before. The unknown. So there’s often the biggest emphasis put on that last piece, the unknown and so the way to fix. That is common knowledge in the way that it’s mostly talked about is to say, well just do the thing, do it, and do it and eventually you won’t be afraid of it.

Now, that’s somewhat true. I don’t find that to be a sustainable model. I find that to be really painful. I find that to be even just a little disempowering because then you step up, you do it, it doesn’t get easier, it doesn’t quite feel right, and then you really think something is wrong with you or you can’t hold it.

I did the thing, I ran through the fire, but I was badly burned at the end’ I couldn’t hold it. I couldn’t stay there. I couldn’t hang at the level, so I went back down. This is that, I shot for the moon. I didn’t get the stars. I went right back down to Earth and then we’re really stuck because we’re like, wow, I guess I just wasn’t cut out for that.

And honestly, really what’s causing the pullback that shot back down to earth are the other two. The trauma and the low expression of your trauma is going to hold you back from experiencing more. It’s going to be that’s the real deep unconscious stuff that we don’t know is operating underneath.

This is the stuff that we’re like, I know I’m holding myself back, but I don’t know how, I don’t know why. I don’t know. I wish I could move this, but I can’t. So it’s really where we stay stuck. And until you clear that, until you, this is the energy. until you clear that you’re going to be bound to the tug of war between who you want to be and your lived experience that says, don’t you dare take me down that road again.

I’m going to fight you tooth and nail on the journey to wherever it is that you wanna go. because that’s scary. We’ve done something like that before and I’m so terrified of the bad thing happening again, that I’m not going to let you go. I am so terrified. I made an investment once before and it did not work out.

I am so afraid of doing it again because I don’t trust myself. I have deep shame about that. I feel like a failure. I feel like I’m not a good return on investment, so I’m never going to make that investment again. There’s a part of you that’s going to make it hard to make those investments again and make them in your power, and that’s just one example.

There are so many examples, , there are so many examples of past trauma. It could be your upbringing. It could be the way that you’re repeating patterns, and until you start to unravel those patterns on an energetic level, you’re doomed to repeat them. We have to heal. You have to heal the wound so that you can go forward whole and not be dragging like a dead leg along on the journey with you.

And the second part of I guess the third piece, but the second part of this that I want to draw attention to is the low expression. Because if you heal the trauma, a lot can happen there where you’re just like, I just move easier because I’m not, all of my limbs work. I’m using all of my faculties.

All of me is on this journey now. Yay. Now the second piece is the low expression. The second piece is not really being in tune with who you are, not really deepening that connection to who you are. Because remember the definition was it. It’s where you doubt your skills, talents, and accomplishments, right?

You doubt your skills. You doubt who you are. So this is where human design comes in. So if you’re looking at your human design chart, that’s who you. . And remember, I’ve talked about this on the show before, how I look at every element on the chart as a dial and the dial, if it’s in the low expression, it’s turned all the way to the left.

It’s turned all the way down, right? And what human design gives us the ability to do is to turn the dial up. Okay? This is a low expression of my Open G Center. How do I turn that way up? How do I be the highest expression of this? There’s certain elements of your chart that are more important than others.

That’s going to depend on the person. That’s going to depend on the chart. I’m always looking at things and being like, this is really jumping out at me. This is what you wanna do. Here’s this in your chart. Let’s turn that up. There’s certain places we start, and then there are certain universal places that are wonderful to start with.

Conscious sun, it’s one of them. Your conscious sun. That’s the light. You’re here to shine in this world. Turn that dial up. You’ll start to see. a level of confidence in yourself, because you’re going to start embodying the gift of that gate of your light rather than the shadow. Because when you trust who you are, when you’re living in those higher expressions, you start to really tune into yourself because of the clarity of self, then there is no imposter.

I don’t doubt anything about myself. There’s such strength in knowing who you are, knowing what your strengths and where your shadows are, so you’re able to look at yourself when you’re operating and say, I’m in the low expression of this thing. And that’s the really powerful one of, one of my favorite things about human design.

One of my favorite things about human design is that everything is a polarity. Everything is just a low or a high expression. There’s nothing that needs to go. There’s nothing that’s wrong with you. There’s nothing broken. There’s nothing that I need to get rid of or I need to stop being this.

You’re going to be all of your chart. You just have a choice of whether you’re in a low expression or a high expression of that chart and of that element of your chart. and it gives you such a beautiful map to say oh, like how a recording engineer would be able to fine tune in the mix the way that the song sounds, by turning up and down different elements of the recording, different instruments, making them louder, bringing the vocal up in certain areas, bringing the bass up in other areas, mixing the song.

That’s why that is so important. What do we want to shine in this? And how does it all perfectly fit together? And that’s what human design allows you to do. It allows you to very finely tune your energy and the way that you show up in the world and what you put out. And that changes the way that people feel about you.

They feel this confidence. There’s just something about knowing yourself that kind of eliminates the imposter. Then it becomes, I wonder what’s going to happen there. I wonder. It makes it easier to take steps because you can look at that next level and say okay, what do I need to learn?

Who do I need to know? What connections do I need to make? What needs to happen for me to get up there? Not do I belong up here? Because that’s the question that we need to get rid of. Do I belong there? You belong wherever you desire to be, and you have the capability to develop the skills to turn the dial up on the right things in your chart to increase your confidence.

You have the ability to be and the right to be at any level that you. It’s just a matter of fine tuning your energy and stepping into it. Now, do you have every tool that you need to get to every level? No, but that’s where it stops being about: do I belong up there to just saying who can help me get there?

That was a question I couldn’t even ask myself when I had imposter syndrome. I couldn’t ask myself, who could I collaborate with that would be a wonderful partner in this journey that maybe we could help each other. Because I didn’t believe I had anything to offer. And that’s a bit of a vulnerable statement, but there was a big period of time where I lived in imposter syndrome and I was so afraid that I did not have something to offer, that I wouldn’t even put the offer out there with people.

I didn’t think that I was good enough. I didn’t think I belonged. They tell you, if no one’s offering you a seat at the table, make one of your own, make one for yourself, or make your own table. That takes a certain level of confidence to be able to do that. If you feel like an imposter, that will be very difficult.

So following these three steps, clearing your past traumas, clearing your energy around past trauma and past lived experiences and getting yourself out of a low expression and getting you into a high expression of all of the elements of who you are and seeing yourself that way. That’s just a dial that’s turned to the left.

How do we turn it to the right? I wonder. Life becomes a fun game. You end up in control. You feel powerful. It’s a wonderful place to be. Then you take action, then you do the thing. Then you run with confidence and without anything hindering your journey without any resistance or with very little resistance, you run toward the thing that you really want.

You take action. You make the big bold moves then because you’re able to take them boldly and powerfully and not in fear. So I hope you found this helpful. I want this episode to be short and sweet. I hope you found this helpful. I hope that this helps you see how you can use energetic work and human design to overcome imposter syndrome because it has no place in your life.

Maybe it did for a time, but it’s time to overcome that and you don’t have to live with it anymore. And I hope that this episode shed some light on how you can start to take steps in the direction of stepping in and being the most bold and powerful version of. So if you loved this episode, please share it on Instagram.

Tag me in the stories. If you do that, you will be entered into our monthly drawing to win an HD reading here on this show. All you have to do is leave a review on iTunes. Take a screenshot of that review, put it on Instagram, tag me at NicoleLainoofficial and that will be your entry.

If you’ve already done that, then you can just take the screenshot of this episode and put that up. Tell everybody why you love the episode and tag me as well. We will put you in for the drawing for this month to win an HD reading here on the show. How fun is that? If you didn’t listen already, we aired our first one with Daisy Mack.

She was the first winner of this contest. We aired that just a few weeks ago, which was an awesome episode. We’re getting really great feedback from it, so I hope that you check that out. Please join our new Facebook group. We have a new Facebook group called Human Design for Entrepreneurs. Go and find that group.

We’ll link all of it up in the show notes for you, but that’s where you can get in on the conversation. Tell us what your design is, tell us what you are going through in your experiment, and you can commiserate with other people who are on the same journey as you. It’s a really fun group, really great people in there, and I’m loving the community we’re building there.

So hop on over there. If you have any other questions for me, check out my dm me on Instagram. I will be happy to answer any questions you have and hear all about your feedback for the show. And if you wanna dive into your human design with me, book a reading with me and we’ll link that up in the show notes as well.

It’s all on my website, but we’ll have those all in the show notes for you. Now remember, you are only limited by the limitations that you accept. And when you stop accepting those limitations, that is when you become limitless. So go out there, be limitless, everyone, and I’ll see you in the next episode.