Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Hanna Carroll. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hanna, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
The way I see it “imposter syndrome” is the feeling that you’re not good enough to do what you want to do / you don’t belong in your field.
Easier said… imposter syndrome is lack of confidence.
And I am very much in the biz of confidence generation. I help women overcome self doubt, fear, and overwhelm and become confident so they can start their businesses and quit their full time jobs.
I’ve worked with over 500 people and let me tell you…
So much of success lies in your confidence!
⚡️The confidence that you can handle it.
⚡️The confidence that you’re good enough to make impact.
⚡️The confidence to take messy action instead of needing your work to be perfect.
⚡️The confidence to be on your journey despite everyone else around you thinking you should do something more “legit”.
⚡️The confidence to keep going when sh*t get’s sticky
Confidence (and mindset in general) is everything. When you’re not feeling confident, you don’t take action and you don’t get results. Don’t shoot the messenger.
🦋 I’ll give you 3 big hitters to impact your confidence (and therefore say goodbye to imposter syndrome)
LET’S GO!
1️⃣ it’s a GOOD THING to feel Imposter Syndrome
If you’re feeling like “oh my god can I do this” because you haven’t done it before… it means you’re growing. It means you’re on the edge of your comfort zone. It means you’re about to expand into the next level version of yourself. It means you’re becoming the person you’re meant to become.
Imposter Syndrome is a GOOD thing
& you get to get used to feeling Imposter Syndrome and reminding yourself “okay this is actually good”!
2️⃣ The Self Recognition Daily Practice
If you’re anything like most humans are… you end your days thinking about what you didn’t get done & what you did wrong. How you forgot to do that one thing. That you forgot to meditate (again). That you said the wrong thing to your friend.
Automatically paying attention to the negative parts of your day is a normal human evolutionary thing. Cave men had to constantly aware of danger (hello Saber Tooth Tigers) so they constantly looked for the areas they’re falling short because if they didn’t, they’d die. This is not true anymore but that part of our brain can’t seem to move on!!!
This automatic replaying of negative parts of our days does nothing but mess with our self confidence (and therefore our ability to take action and move ourselves forward). So what do we do?
Every night… ask yourself this one simple question: what am I proud of myself for today?
When you do this Self Recognition Daily Practice, you give yourself a chance to look back on your day and notice the small things that you have to be proud of.
*major key alert: do not only look for big changes or productivity in your day. You neeeeeed to start being proud of things like resting when you’re more apt to do do do. You need to start being proud of taking a 5 minute break to dance. You need to start being proud of taking time to call your parents. You need to be proud of being nice to a stranger. If you cannot appreciate yourself for the small things, the big things will never be enough for you, either. Don’t shoot the messenger!
I’ve taught this Self Recognition Daily Practice to hundreds of people- I hope you will take it on as well. Confidence = action with ease.
Set your daily alarm for 9pm to ask this question: what am I proud of myself for today?
3️⃣ Follow Through
This one is easy…
Do what you say you’re going to do even when you don’t feel like it!
When you follow through, your confidence grows.
When you don’t follow through, your confidence goes down.
In order to do this, you HAVE to be realistic with yourself. If you’re anything like how I used to be… you get inspired, put 324 things on your to do list, which obviously doesn’t get done, and then you feel crappy about yourself. Your goal is to be really clear about how much time & energy you have and to be realistic with what you can get done. That way you actually DO get it done and your confidence remains high.
*the fine print: sometimes you put too much on your to do list or are having a Menty-B (aka mental breakdown). You get to practice Self Compassion and grace as well as follow-through. Ins’t mindset work fun?! There’s literally no correct answer that fits all scenarios.
When you don’t follow through, your confidence goes down.
When you follow through, your confidence grows.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I help new female entrepreneurs overcome self doubt, fear, and overwhelm and become confident so they can start their businesses and quit their full time jobs.
& I NEVER thought I’d be an entrepreneur. I always thought “I don’t have what it takes” and “I like the stability too much”.
Here’s the story…
Before starting my business I had a corporate supply chain management job which is what I studied. I was doing what I thought I “should” be doing.
I also taught fitness classes as a side hustle after work and I absolutely loved it. No matter how crappy my corporate work day was or how exhausted I felt… after I taught my 6pm class, I was on top of the world. Years went by where I’d think “I wish I could do this full time” but fear kept me stuck in my corporate job.
I finally grew the courage to quit my corporate job to be a personal trainer at Facebook which was a dream opportunity. But in the middle of my 2 weeks notice… Covid hit, everything shut down, and I was never able to onboard with Facebook. Cue heartbreak and panic!
With no job & no income … I had NO CHOICE but to start my own fitness business online.
I hired my first mindset coach to help me clear my self doubt, fears, and overwhelm and grow my business on strong foundations and it absolutely changed my life. I eventually pivoted into helping other new entrepreneurs overcome the fears, doubts, and overwhelm that stop us from starting and growing a consistent business income.
Personally, I’m really into:
🛹 skateboarding – learned at the age of 30 lol
🏄🏼♀️ surfing teeny tiny waves for joy
🧘🏼♀️ yoga – I’ve been known to tap out and do a 40 minute Shavasana
📚 reading novels – this is actually new in the last handful of months but I can’t get enough!
☕️ black coffee & morning self development books
📍 Currently living in San Diego, California
🏡 Grew up in Ohio > Seattle > Colorado > California
🌎 2x digital nomad – about to start again in Bali
🚑 building a camper van
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1.
Am I aloud to talk about self confidence again?! ICYMI: I covered “confidence” in question 1 and it’s insanely important especially as someone her started a business on something I was NOT a subject matter expert on. I was nottt a mindset expert when I began coaching 4 years ago. I was just someone who wanted to help BUT… ABC: Action Builds Confidence (and expertise).
… okay I talked about confidence again… lol
2.
The second most impactful quality I’ve gained in my whole freaking life has been…
Self Compassion.
I (like most people) have a strong inner critic. I’m hard on myself and expect high performance.
Come to find out, this inner critic was formed early on in my life to help me feel safe/good in a society that’s obsessed with achievement. As a young person I learned that I got praise and attention for doing well in school & sports so that’s what I thought I must do to be loved. Cue the perfectionism! The inner critic was formed to help me continue to be loved. Yours probably was too?
Self Criticism makes us less confident and more anxious/depressed.
Self Criticism makes us less makes us feel worthless when we’re not “there yet” in our goals (or in the case of my clients… they don’t have the big business income they want yet).
Self Criticism can actually make you LESS consistent in the pursuit of your dreams! Think about this… you’ve “fallen off the wagon” a bit and shame yourself into being more productive. Then you turn up the productivity x10 and expect perfection, neither of which is achieveable for an extended period. Then you get burnt out and go back to hardly doing anything. This yo-yo productivity is rooted in self criticism.
The good news…
Self Compassion is mental health & mental health creates progress forward towards your dreams.
Self Compassion makes you more confident.
Self Compassion allows us to feel good about the progress we’ve made while we keep taking steps forward.
Treat yourself like your sweetest best friend treats you.
After all… self compassion is much nicer way to live AND will push you forward towards your goals without wanting to throw your laptop out of a moving car 😉
3.
Learning to enjoy the present (even if your goals seem really far away).
Success does not give you happiness. So you need to be happy now. Success is the cherry on top (p.s. I’m really into re-defining success but in this case, we’ll go with the classic definition of success being financial and career/business gains)
Think about this… if success gave you happiness… everyone with a big business or a corner office would be happy. But they aren’t.
That means that if you’re waiting to be happy until you made your first 100k… you’re missing out on life. And you will KEEP missing out on life because as soooooon as you make that 100k, you’ll celebrate for like 10 seconds and then move on to the next goal. The goal post is always moved out. That means happiness is always moved out, too.
I’m all for “doing the work” to achieve your dreams AND I believe in the balance of living life right here, right now because tomorrow isn’t promised.
Image Credits
Kate Milford (INCREDIBLE photographer – would be great to interview)
