We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tim Boatwright Johnson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Tim, so great to be with you and I think a lot of folks are going to benefit from hearing your story and lessons and wisdom. Imposter Syndrome is something that we know how words to describe, but it’s something that has held people back forever and so we’re really interested to hear about your story and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
Overcoming imposter syndrome is a constant battle. The way I overcame it was by sharing my thoughts with people I knew for a fact who cared about me and my journey. I didn’t feel I was good enough to start a business. I didn’t think I could help people. I didn’t feel I had the skills, experience, or enough knowledge. I was constantly comparing myself to others. I felt guilty when I took a break because I thought I had to work every minute. I felt like a fraud. This kept me in the cycle of doing busy work to feel better and blame others for what I hadn’t done.
I was reminded of where I was in life and that the people I was comparing myself to had 10 years more experience than me. I had someone remind me of what I have accomplished to date. People told me how much I’ve impacted them. There’s even been a couple of people I compared myself to who told me I was ahead of where they were at my age. This taught me that everyone has their own race to run and to win mine, I had to focus on myself.
That started with listing out my accomplishments and congratulating myself on them. After that, I created a morning routine that included motivational audio, meditation, journaling, and stretches. I then set a mid-day reminder to speak words of affirmation and three things I’m grateful for daily. The last thing I did was get around the people who were where I wanted to be in life. To overcome imposter syndrome, you must insert as much positivity into your life as you can. The more you empower yourself, the further you distance yourself from this syndrome.
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?
My business, Develop with Tim, has a mission to uplift, inspire, and transform the lives of individuals one mind at a time. We fulfill this mission via transformational speaking and books. The most exciting thing about speaking is realizing that we all have a voice and there’s someone that needs to hear it. It’s also knowing that everything we’ve endured in life could be shared to assist and guide others to be better than us. The special part is while sharing these things, you can see the look of understanding on the faces of the audience.
I have a rewritten version of my popular Introduction to Financial Literacy Book releasing September 8, 2023. It will be available on my website www.developwithtim.com along with how to book me to speak.
I’m also the Community Outreach Coordinator of a nonprofit organization, Young Brothers Academy (YBA) located in Greenville, SC. YBA is a mentoring program with roughly 40 scholars enrolled. We are committed to educating, empowering, and exposing our young brothers to the world around them, along with the greatness they hold within themselves. This has been the most special organization I’ve been around and it has given my life a new meaning. Not only are we impacting the lives of these young men, but we’re able to be for these young men what we wish we had growing up.
Young Brothers Academy is always accepting donations, volunteers, and connections to continue exposing our scholars to more. You could email me at [email protected] or visit our website www.youngbrothersacademy.org.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Easy question. Self-awareness, discipline, and community.
Self-awareness is critical in all aspects of life and growth. When looking to develop or improve this quality, do a self-evaluation. Ask yourself and be honest about what you like and dislike, what brings you peace and chaos, where you see yourself in 5-10 years and where do you not want to be in 5-10 years, how much time are you spending with productive activities and unproductive activities, what careers are you interested in, what makes you happy and angry or sad, what are your goals and what do you need to accomplish them, and what sacrifices do you need to make to get the life you desire? These are a few questions to ask yourself to ensure you can align your activities with your goals. The more you know about yourself, the clearer you will be on your goals and the easier it is to be aware.
Discipline has been impactful to me because I lacked it for a long time. It wasn’t until I hired a business coach, that I fully understood the grasp of it. It’s really just doing what you say you’re going to do regardless of any outside factors. For example, if you said you were going to exercise 3 days a week for 1 month, don’t let a rainy day delay you from going to the gym or doing an at-home exercise. By accomplishing the goals you set, you are building a habit of completion which strengthens your discipline. I would advise you to pick an area you know you need discipline in and set small goals to accomplish to build consistency. Then gradually increase that goal as you continue practicing this skill.
Community is an overlooked aspect in my opinion. I was able to lean on fellow community members and leaders to build valuable connections and opportunities. It starts with meeting just one person. Find someone who does what you want to do in your community and ask them to lunch, show up to one of their events, do business with them, or volunteer at an organization or event they may be at. You could also volunteer at an organization that’s fulfilling a passion of yours to be a part of the change and connect with like-minded people there. We often look for the most popular people online and we forget there are people out there doing the same thing a few miles from where we live.
Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?
My biggest area of improvement has been commitment. I read a book, titled “One Word,” in 2022 and the purpose was to understand how focusing on one word could be very impactful to your productivity. As I read, I reflected on my past and noticed that I half-did just about everything I ever started. I discovered that I would go from idea to idea, job to job, and book to book, to avoid fully committing to what I started. I had big dreams with no commitment to those dreams.
After reading the book, I decided to commit to myself to be the best I could be and wrote out what that looked like. I removed services from my business, and people from my life, and threw away my book of ideas to start fresh. This commitment to myself strengthened my relationship, gave me clarity, improved my business, helped me find an amazing organization in Young Brothers Academy, and awarded me the opportunity to get a Master’s Degree. People often think self-improvement is for rich people, but you can’t fully reach your dream life if your real life is in shambles. It all involves your level of commitment.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/nxtgenceo
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtgen.ceo/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-boatwright-johnson-62279315b
- Other: Support Young Brothers Academy: www.youngbrothersacademy.org
Image Credits
Jalen Washington Justin Irick
