EP125 Why Imposter Syndrome Isn’t the Problem (And What Actually Needs to Shift)

If you’ve ever said to yourself… “I know what to do… I’m just not f*cking doing it.”

This episode is for you.

And no, this isn’t about funnels, algorithms, job titles or another damn thing to fix. This is about the identity gap that keeps brilliant, amazing women playing way smaller than they were ever meant to.

Because the thing is… You don’t have a strategy problem.

You have an internal authority problem.

In this episode, I’m pulling apart the idea of “imposter syndrome” (spoiler: I hate that term) and telling you what’s actually happening when capable, experienced, intelligent women suddenly feel unsure, stuck, or like they’ve somehow blagged their way into their own life.

This is about the shift from being very good at what you do… to leading like a CEO — not as a job title, but as an internal position of authority.

Because without that shift? No amount of strategy will stick.

In this episode, we go deep into:

• Why imposter syndrome isn’t a flaw, diagnosis or “thing you have”.... it’s a sign your external role has outgrown your internal identity
• The outdated identity rules women are still operating from (earning your place, waiting to be “ready”, over-qualifying yourself into paralysis)
• Why calling it a “syndrome” actually gives your power away
• The real reason stepping into bigger work (leadership, impact, recurring income, visibility) suddenly feels wobbly (even when you’re wildly competent)
• How internal authority changes everything… your decisions, your energy, your sustainability, your confidence

There’s also a deeply personal story in here that completely reframes how I see labels, identity, and the danger of pathologising human experience… and why that matters more than ever if you’re building a life or business that actually fits who you’re becoming.

This is an episode for the woman who:

• Is done surviving but hasn’t fully stepped into her next era yet
• Knows she’s capable of more but keeps hesitating at the edge
• Is tired of collecting strategies that don’t land
• Is ready to stop asking for permission and start trusting herself

No hype.
No hustle.
No “just be more confident” bullshit.

Just grounded, identity-led truth.

This episode is about identity.. the internal authority that has to come before any strategy actually sticks. But the strategy part is where Lisa Johnson’s work comes in that I talk about as well.

I don’t recommend many strategy resources, because without identity work they just become another thing women know but don’t fully implement. But when the internal shift is happening? Strategy becomes supportive instead of suffocating.

Lisa’s work is clean, practical, and grown-up. It’s the how that works once you’ve stopped second-guessing yourself.

You can check out the free challenge HERE

This isn’t something I promote lightly…. it genuinely complements the identity work we’re talking about in t

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Transcript

Sarah Elizabeth  00:00

Hola, hola, and welcome to the reinvention era podcast, where as female leaders, we step into our full on Queen era. Yes, we do now. I want to start today by saying something that well it might just drop quietly, or it might land like a fucking brick. Kind of depends on where you are in life. Love. If you've ever told yourself, I know what to do, I'm just not fucking doing it. This one is defo for you, because today isn't about strategy. It's not about jobs or funnels or offers or algorithms or platforms and anything else. And if you haven't got a business yet, you might well think I'll just switched into another fucking language. But that's the point. It's not about any of that stuff. It's about identity, and specifically the identity shift that's needed to move from being really very good at what you do to actually leading like a goddamn CEO, and before you switch off, because you're thinking, Oh God, I'm not a CEO. I don't even want a big business. Stay with me, because CEO is not a job title in what we're talking about today. It's an internal position of authority, and without it, no amount of strategy in a job or business is going to stick where you want it to. It's just not. Because the problem is, I think most women I work with are amazing leaders. They've done so much hard graft like they're absolutely not beginners, smart, capable experienced. They're often wildly competent. They've built careers and held teams together and managed families and survived really, really hard shit and delivered results again and again and again. But why then, when it comes to stepping into bigger work, whether that's recurring income or whether that's just leadership at scale, why then do they suddenly feel so unsure and uncertain and lost? And it's not because they don't have the ideas. It's not because they're not good enough, and it's definitely not because they need more confidence. It's because they're still operating from an old identity, an old identity that says,I gotta earn my place, we need to be more ready. Oh I can't lead until I've perfected this. Maybe I just need another qualification, or a course or something. I don't know enough. Who am I to be the one? And therein exactly lies the issue as to why. It's not a strategy issue. It is how you see yourself. It's an identity gap. And we started talking about this bit last week, so I wanted to go a bit deeper into it, 

Sarah Elizabeth  03:31

because imposter syndrome is a goddamn thing. I mean, aside from that, it irritates the fuck out of me that we call it a syndrome, like it's genetic or incurable or something. I mean, where did you catch the syndrome? Is there medication you can take? You get the point? We pathologized the shit out of this stuff, which totally takes away from the point. In fact, the term itself was actually first known as imposter phenomenon. But of course, we have to syndrome it up. Don't worry, like it almost gives it power, rather than taking our own power back. Do you know what I mean? Like when we talk about having imposter syndrome? Ultimately, it's a core feeling of not seeing yourself as good enough, as worthy enough, right? We think we've somehow winged it to where we are, and all the time we label it as a syndrome, it kind of implies that it's something that is somehow in us, like it's a part of us, or something like it's a part of you. And just to be clear, imposter syndrome is not a personality flaw. It's not something you just fix with affirmations or something. Imposter syndrome is what happens when your external role hasn't come. Up with your internal evolution, but we still call it a fucking syndrome. And actually, do you know what? I want to kind of bring this to life, a little bit this syndrome thing, with something really personal, because this, I think, is where labels like syndrome get a bit dangerous. Like this week that's just gone was my granddaughter's one of my granddaughter's fifth birthday, right? She has Williams Syndrome, something she was born with. It affects her development, her strength, how her body works. She had to have open heart surgery when she was just two. And here's the thing, when someone has a label like that, even when it's fucking real as fuck, even when it's medical, even when it matters, it can quietly start to shape what other people believe is possible for them. There was this time once where her big brother, my grandson, was going to gymnastics, and she desperately wanted to go as well. She wanted to join in. She wanted to do it. And the instinct, totally human, by the way, totally loving, was the kind of thing she probably won't be able to because she doesn't have much strength in her legs. And, you know, she took longer to walk, and she can't really run yet, and, you know, all of those things. So we kind of made the assumptions based on her having Williams syndrome. And then one week, she tried it, and she loved it. And, I mean, loved it. No, she didn't do it quite the same as everyone else. She maybe didn't look how the other kids look, but she found her fucking way. And that kind of thing just sort of hit me a bit like a brick. Sometimes the label isn't wrong, but the limitations we attach to it are, and that's kind of what I think women do to themselves with imposter syndrome. We take a feeling like, Oh, this feels a bit stretchy. This is new. I've been here before, feels quite uncomfortable, and we turn it into a goddamn identity, oh, this is just how I am. I've got imposter syndrome. That's why I can't, dot, dot, dot, fill in the gap, and without realising it, we stop ourselves from even trying the frigging gymnastics, not because we can't, but because we've decided in advance what's possible for us. And I just want to reframe that a bit for myself, as much as you listening, imposter syndrome doesn't mean you're incapable, it just means you're in unfamiliar territory. And unfamiliar doesn't necessarily mean unsafe, although that's what our brains tell us, it's just doing its job. It just basically means that your identity hasn't caught up yet, not yet, not quite. You don't need to get rid of the feeling of being uncomfortable. You just need to stop letting it be the decision maker. Stop letting that feeling be the fucking boss, because the moment you start to treat it, that feeling like a diagnosis, you're building your life around it. And I just think that's how brilliant fucking amazing women stay smaller than they need to be. They've put the limits of on themselves, and it's not because they aren't ready, it's because they haven't given themselves permission to try something new and try a new way. You know, maybe you've outgrown how you've been operating. Maybe you've not maybe you're operating at a super high level, but maybe you also haven't quite updated how you see yourself yet. So when opportunities for leadership or leverage or visibility or whatever show up, your your body kind of goes, your nervous system goes, hang on, hang on, hang on. This isn't familiar. It feels a little bit bloody dodgy. And it's not because it's wrong, it's just because it's new. That's it. It's new.

Sarah Elizabeth  09:53

And so our brains and our bodies go on red alert to try and warn us, like, danger, danger, danger. And. We get this like an alarm, and we think it means we're somehow wrong, somehow not doing the right thing. And that's that imposter energy, and it's noisy as fucking here, because it over explains and it waits and it asks for permission it shouldn't bloody need. You know that icon energy is just different. It's not louder, it doesn't have to pretend, it doesn't have to chase validity and acceptance. It's just calmer, more decisive. And the bit that I think most of us miss is that that shift doesn't come from doing more. It comes from editing who you're willing to be, who you're willing to be available for, what you tolerate, what you respond to, what you keep proving that's where your icon energy actually lives. So let's shift that digest a bit there into what I really mean by CEO identity, without all the masculine bullshit that that CEO's traditionally implied and a CEO identity in any role, it's your identity, remember, and it's not about hustling harder. It's not about having to be everywhere, doing all the things, not scaling for the sake of it, not going up the ladder for the sake of it, definitely not becoming someone you're not see. Our identity is like leadership of yourself. It's It's owning the value of your perspective, not proving it, not justifying it, not padding it out with disclaimers, so that no one feels threatened it's walking into the room, the meeting, the conversation, the idea and feeling your voice lands before it leaves your mouth. None of that. You don't need to scan all the faces for approval, like, am I right place? You don't rush to think about a better way of saying it, or soften what you're saying. You don't follow a lot really. You make a really fucking strong point and then try and follow it with, oh, that's just my opinion. You've lived enough. You've seen enough, you've held enough. Your perspective isn't theoretical. It's fucking earned. You've earned this love and owning it feels a bit like you're standing still while all the fucking noise and chaos moves around you, like speaking without needing to convince anyone, like letting your words take up space without fricking apology. That's not arrogance. That's just authority that's finally, stopped bloody outsourcing itself. A CEO identity is also about making decisions from self trust. It's not flashy in you know, you wouldn't even see it from the outside, it's almost invisible. From the outside, it looks like less conversations, fewer conversations, but quicker ones. It looks like choosing without that in a committee, meeting in your head, taking over, like noticing the urge to just ask one more person, just in case, and then not doing it. Do you feel the decision land in your body first, like a bit like a tightening, almost like this, yeah, a grounded, no, even. And instead of interrogating it to fuck you, just out of it, and that kind of self trust feels like a fucking relief. It's like big exhale instead of bracing yourself and holding your breath like actually walking in and forwards and upright without checking over your shoulder, you stop asking, What if I get it wrong? And start asking, What if I finally back myself? 

Sarah Elizabeth  14:47

That's CEO icon energy, and that CEO identity is also about understanding that your energy sets the tone and. It's not outside of you. It's in you, and it's not your words or your plans and your strategies. It's your energy. You can feel it when it shifts. You Stop waking up already tense like your jaw is locked. You stop dragging yourself into the day absolutely bloody dreading it stop leaking energy into places that never replenishes it. It's like your whole presence just becomes more contained, more deliberate. And I think other people feel that before they understand it, like conversations start to change around you, and you're not reacting, you're responding. You realise that being busy. Busyness is not important. Burnout is not a bad fucking honour. Your internal operating system becomes the energy. And from that place, everything you touch works amazing, because it's that different energy that CEO energy, CEO identity, and it's also about letting your work, whatever that looks like, support you and not trying the fuck out of you. You know, because we, we were so I think especially us, Gen Xers, we were kind of told that worth somehow comes from effort. Weren't my like, value must be earned through exhaustion. Ease is dangerous. Rest is not okay. So when you let your work support you again, it kind of feels a bit unfamiliar at first, like we're not used to saying no without guilt, or resting without a reason, or even being paid without over giving it feels like just building something once and letting it carry you forward, and your work stops pulling from you constantly and starts holding you. You don't need to collapse at the end of the day anymore wondering where yourself went. You end the day with something left that's not laziness, it's sustainability and leadership that's built to last. And I guess what I want to leave you with is that this CEO identity is not loud, it's not hard, it's not more impressive, it's just more in tune with you. It's when you stop asking, like, what do I need to do to deserve this? And start asking, What would change if I just trusted who I already freaking am. That's the shift, that's the edit. That's imposters icon in real life. And the difference is an operator will say, what do I need to do? What do I need to do? A CEO identity says, Who do I need to be for this to work? That's the shift, and it's why strategy alone doesn't work, and where a lot of women get so damn stuck. And don't get me wrong, I've freaking done it, investing in courses and programmes and plans and blueprints and spending a fucking fortune on on on paper, it all makes sense. It all makes sense. But if you don't see yourself as someone who gets to lead, who gets to monetize, who gets to teach what you know, to create recurring income, to lead, if you don't see yourself like that, you'll fuck it up. You'll sabotage it, not consciously, but you'll overcomplicate it and undercharge and delay shit, procrastinate, avoid delegating your weight. You just keep just tweaking. Just just, let me just make that a little bit better. You keep learning instead of leading. Fuck me. I've done that way more than I actually get to think about learn more than lead, because strategy without that identity just feels unsafe. So we end up trying to do more and more and more and more and more until we burn the fuck out.

Sarah Elizabeth  19:38

And that's why one to many work and with recurring income, triggers so much imposter energy because it asks you to be seen and to trust yourself and to stop us for justifying and to the. To be of service to people, because most of us women were taught to over deliver and personalise everything and prove our worth. Stay small but helpful. Always helpful, always a good girl, but one to many demands a CEO lens like my work has value way beyond my time and that belief that's identity, it's not intellect, it's not intelligence, it's identity. And that is why I wanted to flag something that's coming up really soon. If you haven't seen it on the socials, there's this free challenge. Yes, free, zero cost, so much value for no money, and it's starting on the 26th of January, and it's all about recurring revenue and building one to many income. And you don't have to be an actual CEO or have a business, and I'm talking about it in this way, because if you are interested in that, before that strategy lands, and before you start focusing on the strategy, the identity has to now you really do not need to have a business or a perfect idea, any idea. You don't need to have a massive audience. You don't need to have years of experience in one particular area or niche. You just need permission from yourself to look at the possibility of stepping into something different. Now, during the said challenge, Lisa Johnson, who's been one of my mentors, will show you how this works in practice. She's a strategist that will show you the strategy. She'll show you how ideas become assets, and how knowledge becomes leverage. But this episode is about the who, and that's where I come in, because it's about who you have to stop being so that you can lead the life and business you're actually capable of. So this week, I just want you to have a think and kind of sit with this question, right. Where are you still operating as the doer when you're being invited to be the decider? Where are you still in imposter energy when the door is right there for icon energy. And what would shift in you if you actually trusted yourself with that invitation not to do more, but to be more. You don't need to become someone else. You don't need to hustle harder, and you definitely don't need to wait until you feel ready. Love you just need to make a decision to go from imposter to icon, from operator to CEO, energy, from effort to leverage. And that shift, it starts internally, and that's what I'm here for. So if you want to look at the possibility of building a recurring revenue, even if it's a side hustle, come and join us in the race to recurring revenue challenge, which starts on the 26th of January. I'm doing it as well. I do it every year because, genuinely, there is so much value. Lisa Johnson gives so much, and I do it every year because it always gives me new ideas, and there's always more value. And I think this year she's going to be talking about visibility and impact as well, which is, you know, you know my word for 2026, audacious impact, where we're there, Lisa, we're there. So I will leave the link to join in the show notes. If you want to ask any questions, just drop me a message and you know, happy to try and help. And if you're still even after today, operating from imposter, operating energy, then mate, we need to talk. We need to talk. Drop me a DM. We will talk. So that's it for me. Everything you need in the show notes down below. As always, if this episode landed in any way, shape or form, anything. Please do, share it, save it. Message me. I love hearing what hits. I really do. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for listening. You icon Queen you. I will be back in your beaut badass earbuds again. Next week. So until then, I'm sending you all the love. Bye.