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Laura Nicole: 0:02

Welcome to your Virtual Assistant Coach, the podcast for moms who want to make money from home on their own terms. I'm your host, Laura Nicole, a successful six-figure earning VA and coach, who replaced my college professor salary in just five months back in 2020, after my daughter was born, and I have never looked back. I'm here to help you build a profitable, flexible VA business that fits into your family's lives, so you no longer feel like you're living just to work. Let's dive in. 

You keep thinking about becoming a virtual assistant and you know you want this so bad. But every time you get close to actually starting and actually taking action toward doing that and becoming a VA, that little voice in your head sneaks in and starts filling your brain with all these negative thoughts. Who do you think you are? You have never done this before. Why would anyone actually pay you to do these things? What makes you think that this is going to work for you? It doesn't actually work. It just works for the few people who get like kind of lucky. If these thoughts sound familiar, then this episode was created specifically with you in mind, because imposter syndrome is so freaking common for moms who are starting something new, especially something like this that's outside of your comfort zone. Becoming an independent contractor, becoming a freelancer, as a VA it's very different than what you've been used to being in a traditional job. Or maybe you've been out of the workforce for a bit and you've been a stay-at-home mom. So it's really, really, really easy for imposter syndrome to kick in and try to keep you stuck where you're at, instead of allowing you to actually take action and get the ball rolling. So today we are going to unpack why imposter syndrome shows up and what to actually do about it to move through it and be able to take action. So, first and foremost, we need to identify and define what imposter syndrome actually is.

Laura Nicole: 2:02

Okay, it is a psychological response where super capable people just like you will doubt their own competence. This most commonly arises in scenarios like this one, where you're stepping into something that's new. It's not that you're actually bad at something, it's just that you're stepping into the unknown and the uncertainty, when you are thinking about becoming a virtual assistant and you get excited, but then you're constantly met with these repeated feelings and thoughts that are telling you that you're incompetent and that you're not good enough, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, whether it's being super successful in your nine to five or managing a household fantastically and keeping everything organized. You clearly have shown that you have the skills to do this and yet when imposter syndrome kicks in, it's going to make you feel like there's absolutely no freaking way that you can do this successfully. And even if you're someone who can recognize okay, I have these skills in a professional setting, your imposter syndrome is likely still kicking in and convincing you that those skills don't actually translate into the virtual assistant industry, because that's the new arena. So instead of being able to jump in confidently, we're going to hear thoughts in our head like, oh, I need to go learn this new thing first or I need to get better at this program first before I can step into actually becoming a VA and actually doing this work for clients, when in reality you have all of the skills that you need to do it. And I just want to take a second to remind you and encourage you that dealing with imposter syndrome is really, really normal. It would actually be like a little bit weird if you didn't struggle with any imposter syndrome as you're moving into this new avenue of being a VA and, honestly, it's not something that's only going to pop up at the beginning. It's going to pop up again when you go to sign a new client or you expand. I have been doing this for five years. It still pops up for me. I have been coaching for two and a half years and it still pops up for me in new ways all the time. So I just want to make sure that that's very clear.

Laura Nicole: 4:12

This is not like a you thing, it's not a weird thing, it's not a sign that you're not meant to do this. It just occurs largely because we are part of a really large comparison culture. We see other women doing this who are super successful and having all this time with their kids and making all this money, and we assume that they've never struggled with what we're struggling with mentally right. We assume that they've always been confident or they always had the right network to make this happen for them, combined with kind of like our societal conditioning right. Especially as women in our society, we are praised for being perfect. We are praised for working hard and getting it done right the first time. We don't really get praised for just like stepping out of our comfort zone and trying which makes it really really hard right To go from the safe and the certain into the unknown and the unfamiliar and the new territory.

Laura Nicole: 5:10

This actually reminds me of a theory that I used to teach when I was a college professor. Back in the day, I taught communication courses and one of the theories that we always touched on was uncertainty reduction theory and long story short. Trust me, I'm not about to go into like professor mode on y'all, but long story short is that, like humans innately do not like uncertainty, right, we don't like the unsure, we want to have a plan, we want to know the next step, we want to know how it's going to turn out. And so when the road ahead of us is uncertain, that triggers our brain, that freaks us out. And then that's when this imposter syndrome pops up to convince you falsely remember, falsely convince you that it's too uncertain and that it's too unfamiliar and that you're not going to succeed. This isn't going to go well, so let's not even try. There's not guaranteed success down this road, so let's just stay right here, safe, where we are right.

Laura Nicole: 6:19

But I know that you're here and you're listening to this and you're looking into becoming a virtual assistant because you don't want to stay right where you're at anymore. Maybe you're not necessarily looking to replace a nine to five, maybe you want to supplement it. But even adding supplemental income, that's changing where you're at right now, whether you're looking into be a VA to add $500 to your monthly income or to add $5,000 to your monthly income, in addition to the added freedom and flexibility that comes with earning an income this way. You're here and you want that because you're not okay with being where you're at right here, right now, and so I want to give you a couple tips of things that you can do instead when this imposter syndrome, when this voice in your head pops up, things that you can do to help you move through it, which number one is normalizing it right.

Laura Nicole: 7:13

Everyone experiences this. You're going to experience it at all different times throughout this process, throughout building a virtual assistant business, but it is not a stop sign. Okay, it is a fork in the road. It is not a stop sign. It's a chance for you to make a choice about if you're going to let that little voice in your head control you and keep you stuck and talk you out of going after what you really want, or if you're going to tell it to shut up and keep moving right and keep taking action, because taking action is what is going to build your confidence. You don't need to feel wildly confident before you act and before you take steps to make this happen for you and your family, because you will gain that confidence by getting out there and networking, by building up your services and framing them around your skill sets that you feel so strong in, by setting rates for those services that align with your value and your years of experience, and by signing clients and actually doing work with them. That action is what is going to boost that confidence. That will help you silence that voice a little bit easier down the line.

Laura Nicole: 8:25

I also want you to look for proof when this voice pops up in your head. Go grab a sheet of paper and write down on that sheet of paper all of your responsibilities that you have. Do half of your paper with you have. Do half of your paper with a life column, half of it with a work column and just brain dump. All of the things that you are responsible for, what are your tasks, what are your responsibilities, what things, both at work and at home, aren't getting done unless you do them, because each and every one of those things are transferable skills that we can be turning into income. As a VA, you have the proof in front of you, but it can be easy to forget sometimes, and so grabbing a sheet of paper and actually writing it out and seeing it is really helpful.

Laura Nicole: 9:06

I also want you to borrow belief right. Surround yourself with stories and support and other women who are doing this too. That's one of the really, really cool things about the Superstar Assistant Academy is that not only do you get the resources right and the actual logistical support that you need to build out your business in a really strong way, but you also get this community of hundreds of other women who are going after the same thing. You can see their successes and see that as proof that hey, this works. You can vent when you're frustrated and get some encouragement and uplifting stories from other women who get it. And if you decide to step into the superstar accelerator and be in that group coaching space where you can talk to me five days a week, then you better believe that I am going to breathe belief into you every damn day.

Laura Nicole: 10:01

We just had a group coaching call last week and we ended up talking a lot about mindset because multiple women were kind of hitting these mindset blocks and as we worked through each individual scenario and figuring out what step they needed to take next to kind of break those blocks down, one of the women commented in the chat on Zoom and said something. I don't remember the exact words, but something to the effect of you never let us forget our worth, and I never will. I will never let you forget your worth. I will remind you until I am blue in the face and until you start to believe in yourself. But guess what Belief and confidence is going to come from taking action?

Laura Nicole: 10:39

And the last thing that I want to leave you with to really just think about when you start to feel this imposter syndrome creeping up and convincing you that you're not good enough and that you won't really be helpful to a client or that someone would be crazy to pay you to answer their emails, I need you to root in and reground yourself and remind yourself that you do not have to be perfect. You do not have to be the best, you do not have to be the most tech savvy. You just need to be ready to show up, be helpful, offer support and help your client reduce their workload in their business. Truly, you showing up and giving it 100%. That's what clients are looking for. They're looking for someone who is just freaking, reliable and excited to show up for their business and help them. They're not looking for someone who's quote unquote perfect. So you need to stop holding yourself to a standard that no one else is expecting of you.

Laura Nicole:11:37

If imposter syndrome has been the thing right, if this has been the main sticking point for you, that you feel like is really holding you back, no matter what form imposter syndrome is popping up in, right, no matter what message it is, no matter what that little voice in your head is saying, if it falls in the category of this imposter syndrome. I really want to help you get past that. One of the best ways that I can do that is inside of my event Discover your Superstar VA Skills. It's a four-day workshop where I will show you how to take real simple steps forward by identifying all of the skills that you already have that you use on a daily basis, that are super valuable in the VA industry, and then turning those skills into services right, monetizing them into services that clients can actually pay you for those two steps. There's more than that, but those two steps alone are going to boost your confidence and shut down that imposter syndrome so freaking quick. I have seen it in every round of this workshop that I have hosted.

Laura Nicole: 12:39

Literally after the first two days, women report back when we're talking during our live training about the fact that their confidence has doubled and that building of confidence and belief in themselves is how we can start to shut down that imposter syndrome in its freaking tracks.

Laura Nicole: 12:57

Once we know your skills and services, I will also help you put them into a professional resume so that you can get out there and start sharing that with potential clients, which is freaking great.

Laura Nicole: 13:08

But the root of this event is helping you to identify your skills and build belief in yourself that, oh my God, okay, I do, I have everything I need already, because you truly do not need more credentials, you do not need more experience, you need to take action and you need to build some momentum, and this Discover your Superstar VA Skills Workshop will do exactly that.

Laura Nicole: 13:31

I will link that in the show notes for you and I would love, after you listen to this episode, if you would pop into those show notes and click at the very top of them. You'll see a spot that says send us a text message and let us know your biggest takeaway from this episode. I would love to hear from you, let me know what resonated, what stood out, what tip to help silence this imposter syndrome you plan on implementing and how it helps you. I cannot wait to hear from you. Thanks for hanging out with me today on your Virtual Assistant Coach. If you loved this episode, be sure to share it with your best friend, your sister or even your favorite coworker, who you know wants to start making a flexible income. I'll see you all next time.