Latest / Callum Walker | Figuring It Out / Episode #5: Silencing Your Inner Fraud: The Simple Trick To Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

Transcript

Episode #5: Silencing Your Inner Fraud: The Simple Trick To Overcoming Imposter Syndrome · Callum Walker | Figuring It Out

• 0:03
  Callum Walker: If fear is the only thing stopping us from achieving our dreams and we only fear what we don't understand, then the antidote to fear is knowledge. All we have
• 0:12
  Callum Walker: to do is find out who
• 0:13
  Callum Walker: has the knowledge that we need to conquer our fears and achieve our entrepreneurial dreams. My name is Callum Walker, and welcome to the podcast that will help you figure it out and conquer this lonely entrepreneurial journey.
• 0:28
  Callum Walker: So it's finally, finally, getting a little bit warmer. Well, you got two layers on today. But big welcome. Hello, everyone again. So I wanna talk about one thing today, one core thing, which is probably the thing that is most crippling to, I would say, every coach that I've met.
• 0:51
  And in all honesty, it's been the thing that has been most crippling to me, my progress, and my success, which is self doubt impostor syndrome. That self doubt has camped in my head for far too long. It stopped me from being able to live the life that I want, stopped me enjoying the process as well. But I think about it in multiple ways that that self down impostor syndrome has caused me previously to not take opportunities that I know I should take purely off the back of, a lack of self belief in my ability to do it. I'm not good enough.
• 1:25
  I get found out. That was a massive, massive, massive, massive statement that would run through my head. I'm a fraud. I'm gonna get snapped. I'm gonna get found out.
• 1:35
  Yeah. Here is like a fucking record on replay in my head for about seven years. You're a fraud. And do you know what's been amazing and actually incredibly comforting for me? And I probably shouldn't take pleasure in other people's pain, but it seems that every other coach I've met has had that exact same record going through their head.
• 1:55
  And the reason why I'm a bit, like, smiley about it is because I'm not fucking alone in that. So, actually, if we all feel like we're a fucking fraud, then no everyone's a fraud. So if everyone's a fraud, then no one's a fucking fraud. So my point is that I think this comes down to a variety of things. I think the thing that's really helped me is being almost like my my expectations of myself maybe.
• 2:22
  And I think that that fraud nature and feeling like a fraud and feeling like I'm experiencing impostor syndrome comes down to who I'm comparing myself to. That being other people, but then also who I'm not. And the thing is I've focused so much on who I'm not and forgot about who I actually am and what I've actually done. And, you know, it's just like for myself, for example. I'm 28.
• 2:48
  I so I'm a similar sort of age to Ben Francis, Hodor Gymshark, similar sort of age to Stephen Bartlett. Ben Francis runs the fastest growing fitness company ever. Steven Bartlett has the number one podcast in the fucking world, and he's pretty much a household name now. If I compare myself to them, I'm gonna feel like a fucking failure. And for a long time, I compared myself to people like that.
• 3:18
  Whereas actually when I realized who I really needed to compare myself to was me six six months ago. Where was I? What was I doing six months ago? And who was I six months ago? And when I look back on what I was doing six months ago, I really don't feel like a fraud.
• 3:36
  I'm like, wow. I can't believe I've done all of that. And, you know, one of the most powerful exercises that I I do on a relatively regular basis when that sort of self doubt, I'm not making progress, I'm not good enough, really starts to get louder and louder and louder and louder is so I'm just gonna sit down here. I'll open up my calendar to what I was doing this time last year, And I'm like, fuck. I don't even recognize that life.
• 4:02
  I don't recognize that person. And I can't believe I've managed through that so quickly. So I think the comparison is a massive thing. I also think, again, I come back to our expectations, and this probably comes in with comparison that we're like, right. Okay.
• 4:19
  There's so much I don't know. There's so much I don't know, so therefore I'm not good enough. And I say this to my clients. I'm like, so again, if any of my clients are listening to this, which you should be, should be, that and take this the right way. This is not coming from a place of arrogance.
• 4:38
  This is coming from a place of reality. If my clients try and compete with me on a level of nutritional knowledge, like, they're not gonna win right now. I they may feel like, oh, I don't know enough. I don't know anywhere near as much as Callum when it comes to nutrition. Well, you can't expect yourself to because all I've done is be immersed solely in nutrition for the last twelve years.
• 5:02
  So you can't expect yourself to know that much. The same way with I can't expect myself to know as much about physical training as my clients because you focus so much more on not only learning about physical exercise, but also delivering that. So I can't expect myself to even try and be anywhere near your level when it comes to exercise. So my point is that, like, you know, I say to them, I say, look, remember who you're actually working with. Remember who you're working with.
• 5:33
  You're not delivering a nutrition lecture for me that I'm gonna rip it apart and say that's wrong. That's wrong. That's wrong. That's wrong. You don't understand it at a complex enough level.
• 5:43
  You're delivering it to your clients. And and I learned this off my mom. My mom was a fucking genius. My mom's like the oracle. And she said she was just like, how?
• 5:53
  When did this would happen to me so often? I'd be like, I don't know enough. I don't know enough. And and she'd be like, look. Remember, you're not delivering a lecture to a professor.
• 6:03
  You're helping Jane down the road who doesn't know what protein is. So you do know enough. And one of my favorite stories so I'm a big film fan. Big, big, big film fan. And this film called Catch Me If You Can.
• 6:17
  If you haven't watched it, fucking watch it. It's amazing. So Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks. Leonardo DiCaprio basically plays a young guy. I think he's 17.
• 6:26
  His name's Frank Abagnale. So this is a true story. And, basically, he poses as a like, he he learns how to make fake checks, and he poses as loads of things like a pilot, a lawyer, doctor, all this sort of stuff. And my point is that there was a part in that film. They kind of brushed over it.
• 6:45
  But if you actually look at the story of Frank Abagnale properly, that's the guy who the film is based on. He he actually so he's 18, I think, at the time. Don't quote me if I'm wrong on his age, but he was young. K? And he he posed as a sociology professor at a university for a whole year.
• 7:05
  So for a whole year or semester. Is it semester? I say no. Whole year at university, he poses as a sociology professor. And and when he got caught spending money wasn't a sociology professor, but he delivered a class for twelve months.
• 7:21
  When he got caught, he asked they the people who caught him asked him, how did you do it? How did you do it? Like, how did you manage to, like, pose as a sociology professor? And he goes, all I did was that I made sure that when I turned up to class that I had read the chapter that I was actually teaching, and I was one chapter ahead of the people that I was teaching. I was like, wow.
• 7:48
  Yeah. So all I have to do is make sure that because it's like, alright. Technically, I show I show my clients how to get amazing results with their with their clients, how to level up their nutritional knowledge, and also how to make money. I show them how to make money. Now I'm not a multi, multi, multi, multi, multi billionaire, but I know enough about how to make money to help someone else make money.
• 8:11
  So I'm one step ahead of my clients, just as they're one step ahead of their clients. And my future mentor is one step ahead of me. So that's all I need to be. And that's all you need to be. Just be one step ahead of your clients.
• 8:25
  Make sure that you just know enough to help them solve the problem that they do, but also continue that learning. You know, I'm again, big film fan. One of my favorite sayings and the whole purpose of this podcast in Batman Begins, Falcone, bad guy, sits down opposite Bruce Wayne, gets a gun out and goes, you only fear what you don't understand. So again, whole point of this podcast, if fear is the thing that is stopping us from achieving our dreams and we only fear what we don't understand, then the antidote to fear is understanding and understanding is acquiring knowledge. So then if the only thing that is stopping me from achieving my dreams is fear and the antidote to fear is knowledge, then the antidote to me achieving my dreams is to just acquire the knowledge on how to do it.
• 9:21
  You have to back that up with action. But the action, I believe, also comes down from a place of understanding. If you have that understanding, if you have that faith and that belief in yourself, then you will take the action because you become excited about it. You're like, shit, that makes sense. And I promise you, there's so many things that I've put off in my business because I didn't know how I was gonna do it.
• 9:44
  It's like advertising, for example. It's like, I know the strategy. I knew how to do this, this and this, I didn't know the mechanics of how to use fucking Facebook ads. So I put it off for so long. And then it's like, well, I'll just buy a course, go on a course that teaches me how to use Facebook ads.
• 10:05
  Amazing. So, yeah. So if you are struggling with imposter syndrome, that's fine. First of all, you're not alone. We all do.
• 10:15
  So like I said, if we're all frauds, then everyone's a fraud, which means no one's a fraud. But secondly, if you're struggling with that self doubt, just take it as there's something I'm missing. What is causing me to have that self doubt? Right. Okay.
• 10:30
  There's something that I don't know. It'll always be that. Always be that. There's something I don't know. So there's something you don't know, then go, right.
• 10:36
  Okay. What is it that I don't know? Okay. Cool. Who who knows it?
• 10:42
  Who knows the answer to that? Okay. Right. I'll find out who that person is. Then all I would do is just devour every single podcast, book, audiobook, lecture that they give, anything that they're on, and I will find the answer out of them.
• 10:57
  I'm a big believer. Tony Robbins talks about this all the time. You want to go do something, find someone who's already done what you want to do and learn how they did it. And then model that all based on their story and what they did. So my point is if there's if you're feeling a bit of imposter syndrome self doubt you're not good enough.
• 11:15
  I promise you it's just something that you don't know. So if there's something that you don't know that knowledge can be acquired. So just then go right okay who knows this? Who has that knowledge? And then how can I gain access to it?
• 11:25
  And then how can I apply it to my situation? And I promise you that self doubt would disappear instantly as soon as you open the book and you're like, my answer. So, yeah, I also think well, I'll find I'll think on this because I'm gonna be late. I'm I'm making a resolution not to be late anymore. Well, final thing is being surrounded by people in the same boat helps massively.
• 11:53
  Really does. One of my one of my favorite clients, Sam, on on her first session, it's like, oh, have you got any feedback? And she goes, honestly, it's so nice to see I'm not alone with these problems. I'm not the only one experiencing these challenges. I was like, yeah.
• 12:14
  That's why I wanted to create a place where people can feel like, right. I'm not the only one. It's a very, very lonely business, this entrepreneurship game, very lonely. And being around other lonely entrepreneurs with the same record of I'm a fraud. I'm a fraud.
• 12:32
  I'm a fraud. Fuck me. That helps. Oh, sun's coming out. Look at that.
• 12:40
  Oh, that is the divine, whatever you call it, whether whether you believe in God, universe, whatever saying, yeah, well done. Good content. So good on that. Yeah. So, anyway, one final thing.
• 12:56
  I'm really excited. I've got my course starting in two weeks. So, yeah, hopefully, new guys coming into the program, bit of fresh blood. Got an amazing community of people already anyway. And I just want to say, I want to give a big shout out to all of my guys because I genuinely, genuinely, genuinely believe my program is amazing.
• 13:17
  The only reason my program is amazing is because of the people in the program. The way I've done it, it doesn't matter, but it's the quality and the caliber of people that are in the group that make it amazing. So, there we go. Right. Have an amazing day, everyone.
• 13:31
  Oh, sun. See you later.