We recently connected with Madhurima Sappatti and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Madhurima, thank you so much for opening up with us about some important, but sometimes personal topics. One that really matters to us is overcoming Imposter Syndrome because we’ve seen how so many people are held back in life because of this and so we’d really appreciate hearing about how you overcame Imposter Syndrome.
One of my favorite ways to overcome imposter syndrome (that I dive deeper into in the article linked below) is to “Remember the value and impact I create!”
For me, my impostor comes from my stories of “not being enough” or “not doing enough”, and the best way to help me step out of this loop of hate is to remember that I am doing my best right now and constantly supporting people.
So, here’s my tip in a nutshell –
– Grab a transparent jar
– Grab colorful sticky notes
– Write down testimonies, reviews, or anything that people have shared on a note about how your work has supported them,
– Fold these notes and stick them in the jar,
– Watch the jar fill, and use it as a visual reminder of your impact!
Read more on it here – https://www.madhurimasappatti.com/post/unmasking-impostor-syndrome-a-colorful-jar-of-proof-for-brilliance-and-stress-management
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
As a Global Stress Management Facilitator, I love supporting Multipassionate, Ambitious, Dreamers, Manage their Stress and Prevent Burnout, so that they can achieve their dreams without their own selves holding them back. I am also on a Mission to Make Stress Management Fun.
As someone who has been stressed out for the majority of her life and been through 2 major burnouts with the last one lasting for about 2 and a half years, I always believed that stress was always going to be a burden I had to carry. The alternative was to give up on my ambition and big dreams, and those were two major parts of my personality and life that I was unwilling to give up because the result would leave me feeling inauthentic and unmotivated to keep going on this journey.
Lo and behold, when the pandemic came, I had lost 2 jobs in less than a span of 6 months, one I had quit because of its toxic work environment that had led me to experience burnout, and the second was in an industry that was directly affected by the pandemic leading me to resign. For a super ambitious kid, that felt like moving backward instead of forward, and I went through a “mid-life existential crisis” in my early 20s.
With this abundance of time, I was slowly but surely guided towards exploring the coaching industry, and got into the space of wanting to help people reconnect with themselves, especially since a lot of them were feeling just as lost as I had felt at the start of the pandemic.
With a lot of guidance, coaching, and mentoring, my mission evolved into adding burnout to the mix, and eventually helping people manage their stress (burnout is essentially improper stress management over a long duration of time, so if you manage your stress and do it regularly and properly, you prevent burnout from occurring).
This journey further evolved by adding my personality and energy into the space, leading me to my mission of – Making Stress Management Fun! The intention behind this mission is to also create strategies and activities that people would love to practice because it is fun, and stress is inadvertly managed in the process.
One of the ways that I am doing this is by hosting Freedom Fiesta – A Global Virtual Stress Management Conference on 17th and 18th May 2024. We aim to destigmatize and raise awareness around Stress and learn actively and passively from 25 global experts on how we can manage our stress! You can grab your free passes to the event here – https://lu.ma/freedomfiesta!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
This is such an amazing question. For me, the three most important qualities, skills, and/or areas of knowledge were –
1. Self-Awareness – A major factor in my journey leading me to this point was having self-awareness of –
– How I should proceed,
– If something felt right or not,
– Would I like to do this in the future,
– Does it make sense for me to respond this way to a request or should I respond differently, etc?
2. Reaching out for support – I wouldn’t have reached this far if I didn’t have the necessary support in the form of Coaching, Mentorship, Masterminds, Support groups, etc. The people who supported me in my journey have provided me guidance while still providing me with the space to grow and evolve. I was constantly reaching out for support, investing in myself, and learning from others!
3. Drive to learn – Whether it was about learning from other sources, people, or even my mistakes, wanting to learn and keep learning is huge. Not learning something new creates stagnation and prevents you from helping people to the best of your capabilities. Learning gave me the opportunity to expand my resources and confidently support my clients and myself!
If you are starting out, these 3 skills or qualities are crucial. But I would also invite you to listen to advice with the help of the Garlic Theory. The Garlic Theory is something I came up with, where essentially just like you would use garlic in different cuisines in different styles and quantities, you bring this idea into listening to advice. There are so many people who are in this space to tell you how you can grow and evolve further, it can get overwhelming to listen to so many sources of advice. Listen to advice and then choose how much you would like to implement into your own journey (you can also decline the advice completely), and how you would like to implement it! You got this!
Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
If you are feeling overwhelmed here are some steps you can follow –
1. Step out and step away from whatever is overwhelming you – As annoying as this sounds, this is actually a good strategy, because every time you experience friction or struggle, the overwhelm just increases and overpowers you. So step away, not for ages, just for a few minutes.
2. Include some sort of movement – This can be going for a short walk/run, or simply dancing or stretching. This helps relieve some of the excess energy that is built up when you are experiencing stress and overwhelmed.
3. Breathe deeply – Once you feel your muscles relax and the tension leaves your body, breathe deeply for a few minutes until you feel yourself grounding into the present and calming down.
4. Approach the problem from a different and fresher perspective – Once you feel relaxed, look at the problem again and see if there is a different angle from which you can approach it. Oftentimes, after this entire process you might have an inkling or the start of a new answer appear for you.
5. Reach out for support – If you still feel like you have no idea as to how to solve the problem, simply reach out for support from someone who can help!
Hope these 5 steps help you on your journey!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.madhurimasappatti.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iammadhurimasappatti/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/madhurima-sappatti/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_Fmc17ljdGCNbKrBsXaSqQ
- Other: Let’s connect – https://cal.com/madhurima-sappatti/partnershipconversation
