In this episode of the Impostor Syndrome Files, we talk about the power of an anti-vision. Visions can be inspiring but they’re often not powerful enough to break through fear. My guest this week, author and coach Scott Allan, talks about how he uses an anti-vision to push himself out of his comfort zone and face his fears. We also talk about the importance of reminding ourselves that confidence follows action, celebrating small wins and recognizing when we might be a little too comfortable.
About My Guest
With his books published in 16 languages, and over 500,000 copies sold worldwide, Scott Allan is on a mission to transform the human potential. Scott is the bestselling author of Fail Big, Relaunch Your Life, and Do the Hard Things First.
As a former corporate business trainer in Japan and Transformational Success Strategist, he has invested over 10,000 hours of practice and research into confidence development and mindset mastery training.
With an unrelenting passion for teaching, building critical life skills, and inspiring people worldwide to take charge of their lives, he is committed to a path of constant and never-ending self-improvement.
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Connect with Scott:
Website: https://scottallanbooks.com/
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Transcript
Kim Meninger
Welcome, Scott, it is such a pleasure to have you here today. And I would love to start by inviting you to introduce yourself.
Scott Allan
Sure thing. Well, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me on the show. Yes, my name is Scott Allan and I am a full-time author and coach and also a product creator. And I do a lot of other things as well. But I'll keep it to that for now. I've lived in Japan for about 25-26 years. Originally, I am from Halifax, Nova Scotia. And how I got here is probably more of a bigger story. I'd love to get into that if you want to. But just a little more on the book front, though, I've been publishing for about 11 or 12 years, I started out, probably back in 2012-2013, self-publishing my books and since then have built up a little library of books that I put out there just mostly just driven by my obsession to help people overcome their obstacles in life and help people to build a greater life. So yeah, let's see. I'll just leave it at that if, in case you have a question.
Kim Meninger
Sure. Thank you. So I do want to hear more of your backstory if you're open to sharing it because I feel like many people who eventually write about and coach people through obstacles, generally faced some of them. I'd love to hear more about before you went down this path, what were you doing in what made you decide to shift in this direction?
Scott Allan
Yes, great question. So going back a few years, as I mentioned, I've been in for Canada, when I was living there back in 97-98. Just before I came here, I was working as an electrical engineer. And they're going through a transitional period of my life where I felt like I needed to reinvent my life, more or less. I spent the better part of like a few months just putting together my goals and everything. And when I did that, I came to the realization that there were three things I wanted to do. First thing is I wanted to become an author, which eventually happened. Second thing I wanted to become a better human being, which was, you know, that's probably something we're always working on. And the third thing is I want to travel around the world. So looking at those three things, I thought, well, I could probably do the third thing travel around the world, maybe I could get the next year. So I decided to put a plan together. And when I made a decision that I was going to leave Canada a year from that date, when I made that decision, then everything just started falling into place. I started getting opportunities to teach overseas, I started meeting people who had traveled around the world. And it was almost as if I by making that decision, I was attracting that energy towards me. So what ended up happening actually, is when I decided, yeah, I'm just going to pack everything up and go to Thailand or Vietnam. A few months later, I did end up finding a job in Japan before I came here. And it was just by random. I was looking through the newspaper one day, there was an advertisement in there for a position and to teach English in Japan and I got hired copy brought me over, they set us up. And so I went from because from being an engineer to suddenly I was teaching business English in these Japanese companies. And I couldn't speak any Japanese and fortunately didn't have to. I just was going to classrooms and hanging out with people and getting paid really good money to do this thing that I have impostor syndrome. Yes. Because I don't have a background in teaching or education. But that was just that was okay. Because I just learned leaves just day by day, you know, I just learning something new every day. And that's the thing too is when it comes to, you know, if you're, you're not feeling confident in something you're feeling impostor syndrome, I found that it's just learning something day by day, which I think James Clear probably has something like that his book where he refers to it as like, getting better with like, just to get what you know, that 1% We're getting better at something just a little bit every day. And it's just an accumulation of that with everything I've been working on, I think, you know, but yeah, in the beginning, that was a little bit intimidating. When, you know, I had to go and, you know, teach, you know, business people how to, you know, conduct themselves in other cultures and things like that. And I had no training on this. The company gave us a little bit of it but a lot of it really just came down to be willing to learn. I think so.
Kim Meninger
And I think so many people have found themselves in that situation where they start to doubt who am I to do this? Right? They start to question, do I have what it takes to effectively dot-dot-dot, right, whatever that is. And what I've learned, I think, probably through my entrepreneurial ventures is you don't have to be an expert, to be of service to others. You just need to know a little bit more than they do. And I think that's what when you're talking about teaching English to people You know, English. There's no doubt about that. And so they're probably so grateful and appreciative of your support. They're not challenging every little thing that you're doing or scrutinizing your background and…
Scott Allan
Yeah, with where you're right, yeah, exactly. Yeah. You just have to be a couple steps ahead of everybody else. Well, what was interesting, though, when I was teaching is like, you know, I was never, you know, the greatest student when I was in school, I wasn't that good at grammar. I mean, it shouldn't sound that good. I was just, I didn't know the grammar rules, you know. So like some people who went through the formal training, they could tell you all about the grammar rules, and this that I didn't get grammar asked grammar rules all the time. And I just like, well, I'll get back to you on that one. And I had to go look it up, you know. So it's like, if someone asked me something that I didn't know, which happened all the time, I was just like, I'll get back to you on that. And let you know, and I would have to go and ask somebody, you know, what was the grammar rule about such and such so? And it's just interesting, because eventually, I got a job where I was managing other English teachers, and they all had like, degrees and masters. And, you know, I didn't have any of those things. And I was like, yeah, it was a little bit intimidating at first and I realized, like, well, doesn't really matter. I mean, I just have to know what I need to know to get the job done.
Kim Meninger
Right. So that's right. That's right. And that is a difficult mindset to adopt. Because we are naturally oriented towards what we don't know, we were so aware of things we don't know. But I think this applies to people in any context, that if you have people on your team that you deem as quote, unquote, like smarter or more qualified than you, you could let that intimidate you, or let that undermine your confidence. Or you can be grateful that they have that expertise, so that you don't have to write and your job is not to know their job, your job is to lead that.
Scott Allan
That's a great point. And what I something that used to really bother me, like, if I wasn't a room as somebody who yet had more education than I did, or I felt was smarter than me, like, I would be intimidated by that. So when I actually talk to this person, it would show in my, just the way I communicated with them, like I would be a little bit standoffish, or I just wanted to keep our conversation short, I didn't want to be in the same room with them. And I realized, like, it wasn't the situation, it wasn't the fact that they were smarter than me. And they had more education. It was how I was viewing the whole situation, right? So I, I did a complete flip around with that. I just, I actually told them, you know, I'm really glad you're in this meeting with me because you know a lot more about this than I do. And you're smarter than I am. And even if I didn't matter if they were they weren't, like I would just say it anyway because I just want to know that I was just being realized, like, I want them to know that I actually needed them on my team, because they had, they could do things that I couldn't do even though maybe I was running the team. And I felt like just putting that out there made everyone feel more comfortable now, because first of all, after that, I didn't really care what they thought of me. So you know, and that just removed my I don't know, if it was like impostor syndrome at the time, or delayed intimidation, just remove that completely. And I just let people know, too. I mean, I've walked into board meetings before I were, again, not the smartest person in the room. But when you when you feel like you have to be right away, you feel like an impostor right away, because you feel like you're putting on an error that you know, I have to be the smartest person in the room, because I'm the CEO, or I'm the leader of the team. And it just, you just come across, as you know, and you actually feel fake and you feel phony. And I just let everybody know, like, like, you know, I'm not the smartest person here. But that's why you're all here is to help us, you know, help me figure this out so we can get this project done. And I just found that when I took that approach to it changed my mindset around it. Yeah, things just flowed a lot better for myself and the people that I was trying to help, you know, whether, whether I was leading a team or whether I was part of a team so.
Kim Meninger
I love that. I think that that's kind of naming the elephant in the room, right? Because there's no doubt if somebody is an expert in a particular area. And we don't have that expertise. Yeah, they are smarter in that particular domain than we are. But it doesn't mean that we don't have other skills that qualify us for the role that we've been given. Right. And so to just name it, name it for yourself, name it for the person unapologetically without defensiveness. Like you're the expert at this and I'm gonna lean on you for that and just sort of establishes the terms, right?
Scott Allan
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, I think when I just going back into book publishing, so when I started writing, actually, like he was I started writing my content, you know, probably, after I kept coming to Japan, I was here for about a decade, and then I started getting a little bit itchy again. And what I mean by that is like, I was like, maybe there's something else I should be doing, you know, Oh, yeah. What about those books I was gonna write and that's when I kind of realized like, I've been teaching for a decade. They gotten pretty good at it, you know, and I thought, well, you know, this isn't gonna last forever, but I should be thinking about my net Next thing, you know, unless I want to be teaching throughout my life, which I didn't think I did. So, yeah, my passion really was in books and writing and publishing, although I hadn't published anything at the time. But I didn't know anybody who was writing books. And I just picked up a few books on how to write books. And I basically just started, I just dove right into it. But here's the thing, there's a difference between writing by yourself in a coffee shop and publishing something because what I realized is like, yes, it took me a few years to write my first book or two. But inside, I never really believed that I was going to actually publish it, even though I was telling people I was going to because I thought, well, you know, as long as I just keep these words, private, nobody has to see them. And then there's no, you know, no one's gonna, you know, criticize you for writing a bad book and all this. So they did that impostor syndrome was always there, I just kind of pushed it aside, until it got to the point where I realized, well, I've, you know, edited this book, now, six times is probably ready to publish. And around this time, Amazon had launched their self-publishing platform, and I was looking for a publisher and had a couple of they weren't offers, but they were kind of like bytes, right? But when I had the opportunity to self-publish it, I just went that route, put my books out there. And nothing happened. I didn't really sell any books. But I didn't tell anybody I publish books, either. I was still kind of playing like, you know, okay, as long as I don't tell people about it, maybe they won't buy it, you know. And so it was just like, I just wanted my book to be out there with my name on it. And I thought, you know, that was good enough. But turns out, some people did buy it. And then I got a couple of Paterno responses from that people said, I really liked this book. Some people didn't like it, you know. And sometimes that's can be something, it's hard to take, too. And you put your, your, your lot of effort into something and someone says, I didn't really like it. But what I realized is like, Wow, that's great that you didn't like it, why didn't you like it, I would actually ask for constructive feedback on that, and then just go make it better. And I realized, oh, like Ashley, I was talking to a mentor of mine at the time. And he said, Yeah, but that's how that's how products are made. He goes, you know, because he worked in a company where they put out products all the time, they were never perfect. He goes, they would put it out, they would get constructive feedback, or claims or whatever. And they just refine it and make it better and better. So I just took the same approach to publishing as well.
Kim Meninger
I love that. I think that, you know, that's what beta testing is all about in the software world and beyond the, the idea that you can have a base product, but it really you really shape it based on what other people are telling you. Right? And, and it all comes down to what is your what's your overarching goal here, I think about this a lot, is your goal to be perfect is your goal to be, you know, whatever it or is it to be of greatest service. And if you're writing for an audience, if you have a message that you think is going to help them, then it's not about being perfect. It's about serving. And I think that just sort of shifts the mindset in a way that allows us to be more open to that feedback. And to not be so concerned about, Do I have the right qualifications or credentials, like as long as you can be of service to the people that you want to help? That's what matters most.
Scott Allan
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, my bestselling book, which is do the hard things first, and was translated into like 60 languages was not the, the book that was written, there's not my best book, actually, that was, you know, I got, I just know that for sure. So I actually got a lot of feedback from that, like, good and not so good. And in fact, there, there are these two guys who did a like a one-hour podcast or an interview, not with me, just these two guys just go out there. And they do enter, like, they do reviews on books, right? And they did this book, probably about when it first came out, like first three or four months. And it was getting some good traction in the Amazon space and stuff like that. But these guys took this book, and they just trashed it for an hour like, and I didn't find the review until like six months ago. And since then, the books already had like a second or third edition. So it's a lot better than it when it first came out. But it's interesting to actually go through like, you know, and like it. They had a lot of reviews and downloads from that. So it's like wow, this like a couple years ago. And but my point to this is that if I seen this a couple years ago, and when I first put the book in there, how would I have reacted? I might have taken the book down and just like republished it later or not republished it, I don't know. But you know, I've had a couple of books like that where they're just like, didn't do very well. Maybe I didn't put enough into the editing but what I did is I went through their interview twice and there was I get an interview, it's just like, you know them basically reviewing the book and I took all the notes that they mentioned like he, he spoke could have been much better he did this, this, this and this. And I took that information. And I revised the book again, and then just republished it again. And so I just learned something from that, too, is like, hey, you know, it's alright to, you know, not everyone's gonna love everything you do whether you're speaking on stage, you're gonna make a lot of mistakes. You know, if you tried to get me onto a podcast interview a year ago, I probably would have been very difficult because of my imposter syndrome at the time was like, for public reading. And publishing was pretty easy to do that. But public speaking was a different thing. You know, I was like, I just wouldn't step onto a stage and I did interviews in the past, but it was like, you know, I was always like, kind of like, on the edge. Because what if I say the wrong thing? What if people don't like what I say? What if they asked me a question, I don't know. And like, all these things would just come up all the time. And, and then I remember, like, it doesn't really matter, like, what matters is you just get out there and do the thing and then see, you know, see how it works out. I mean, that's just, I don't know, like, I don't have a solution for overcoming impostor syndrome. But for the one thing I can say is, like, it's just taking it one step at a time and getting some small wins, by the way, like, you can get one or two little small wins, you don't have to start with something big, you know, because I get this question a lot through, like, do the hard things versus, it's actually about doing the hard things. But if you're really struggling with procrastination, and doing nothing, and starting with something really small, is really what you want to start with, like, get those small wins, and just build up to it. You know, so just take the public speaking as an example, you don't have to get out on stage in front of 1000 people, you know, get in front of 10 people or five people or, you know, put your pets on a couch and do whatever it takes, right, just do something, you know, because, like I used to, like, I would actually just stand in front of the mirror and practice speaking to myself before I would, you know, go on stage, for example, or, you know, go into like a like an interview. So, like, whatever it takes, because that impostor syndrome, like, it's not like you get confident, and then you do it, you actually. And that's the thing that I think the most important thing to take away probably like, for me anyway, I realized, like, once I get more confident, then I'll go and do this thing. And I realized, like, I never really had the confidence because I wasn't doing it anyway. So when I just dove in and started doing it, I built the confidence along the way, you know, and it just comes back to that 1% rule, it is getting a little bit better at it every time you do it. So and that goes for whether you're writing a book, creating artwork, or you know, doing public speaking, you know, that's all the same. And that impostor syndrome, by the way, is actually a good thing. Because that's a sign that you're doing something that you're not used to doing, which means you're doing something scared, which is actually good for you so.
Kim Meninger
Yeah, I love this, because this is very aligned with how I think about it to just what you said, competence follows action. It's not the other way around, we can't read our way into confidence, we can't study our way into confidence. And those of us who are perfectionist or high achievers that are used to relying on external resources in order to prepare for something, want the definitive textbook on how to build our confidence. And the simplest thing is what you just said, is to do the scary thing at a reasonable scale. So it's not diving headfirst into the deep end, but it's doing the thing you're afraid of, and then your brain catches up, and you're praying your lips. Oh, I live to tell about that. Right? The sky didn't fall, the world didn't collapse. And then you can do take that next step forward. And eventually, you build those muscles, you get stronger. And, you know, if you choose to, you're gonna keep moving forward and getting get more confident over time.
Scott Allan
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So what I found is that, like, when I start to get comfortable with what I'm doing, that's when I probably I feel really confident, like, Oh, I've done this, you know, maybe I'm publishing my 40th book, I'm like, Oh, I've done this before, no big deal. But that's actually like, okay, there's, that's fine. But I want to, I want the, want the imposter syndrome, I want to feel like I don't have a lot of confidence in doing this same because that means I'm moving in the right direction. So recently, I've been taking on some of the challenges where I feel that, you know, I don't have confidence in doing this thing. And I realize, well, it's probably because you haven't done much of it. That would be it's just, it seems like a very obvious Self Realization, but it's true, you know, so it's like, you know, a few like actually getting on doing tik-tok videos, for example, you know, it's like, you know, no way am I getting on tick tock and doing these live videos. And then I did a few of them. I was like, these weren't too bad. And I had a few people sign up for my so maybe I'll do more of them. You know, it's like, oh, so exposure therapy, the more of it you do, the better at it. She gets The more confidence you get, and then, you know, eventually, you'll have the next challenge, you know, so like, there's a big difference between standing in a room with, you know, maybe in front of 10 people doing a presentation, and now you're on stage in front of 200 people, maybe you're doing the same presentation. But when you step onto a bigger stage, you're gonna feel like, wow, I'm really scared, you know? And, and then you might go from 200 to 2000, who knows? 20,000? You know, just using that as an example. But you can probably apply that to a lot of other things, so. absolutely.
Kim Meninger
Absolutely. And I like what you're saying, too, I find myself checking in with myself from time to time and say, am I a little bit too comfortable right now? Right? When was it was last time I felt uncomfortable. And maybe that's a signal that it's time to stretch and do something new? Because yeah, when you're, you're in your comfort zone, you feel great, you feel confident. But that's not where we're growing. That's usually not in alignment with what we want for our lives. Over time, we, most of us would say we want to keep challenging ourselves, we want to keep learning. And if we're feeling too comfortable, then that's not happening. Right? So looking for those opportunities. I'm, I'm a big believer in one of the things I do is, if it's something I really want to do, it's something that, you know, I maybe don't know how to do yet, or I'm not quite sure. I haven't figured it out yet. But I know I want to do it. I'll say yes, before my inner critic has a chance to tell me, I can't do it. And then once I've made that commitment, I know, I'll figure out how to do it. I will follow through because it's a commitment that I've made. So it's always about looking outside of those boundaries of your comfort zone for what's next.
Scott Allan
Yeah. I like that, though. Like saying yes, before you really like and I have a tendency to say yes to pretty much everything anyway. Which sometimes was good. Sometimes it wasn't, but I figured, like, let's just say somebody, you know, yeah, asked me to, you know, do a presentation in front of, you know, 10,000 people and my, if I think about it too long, I'll be like, I'll try to find all the reasons why I shouldn't do it. You know, because yeah, I'm, I'm afraid and I don't want to stand in front of a bunch of people and look like a fool basically. Right? So. But if I say yes, now I'm committed now. I'm going to be feeling the fear and doing it anyway, one of my favorite books by Susan Jeffers, just love that book. But that's really what it's about is like, every time I said yes to something, and I felt really scared about doing it, I did it anyway, when it was over, I looked back and I was like, wow, you know, it was really, that was hard. I did a lot of prep for it. It wasn't perfect, but I got through it. And now I feel like I can take on, you know, the next challenge, you know, or if I did the same thing again, I'd be able to do it better the next time. And that's just how we, you're right. Like, that's where we grow is like when we're outside of that comfort zone, so.
Kim Meninger
Yeah, and rarely do we look back and say, I never should have said yes to that opportunity. It's more likely that we're going to look back and say, Ah, there's so many things that I didn't do because of fear. And that's what we're gonna regret.
Scott Allan
Yeah. No, that's a great point. Yeah. Cuz I think I always think of it this way, like, you know, when you get to the end of your days, and you look back, and you're like, Well, I'm, I might have a couple of regrets. But I mean, honestly, like, the only things that are really gonna regret are the things that I didn't do. And I think in those things that I, you know, like, I realize, Oh, those things I had that opportunity to say yes to? And I said no because I was scared. And knowing that I am almost ready to say yes to just about everything, but you know, like most things, but to your point, though, is like yeah, if I overthink it too much, or if someone says, you know, take some time to think about it, if you don't really want to do this, I'll probably come back with a no, because, you know, the that part of me that's really scared, we'll just be you know, fall back into the comfort zone again, which don't get me wrong, it's a good place to be sometimes. But we really want to grow both professionally. And personally, we've got to be ready to just push beyond that. And sometimes we need a, you know, we need other people to push us to, like, I need other people to be saying, you know, you can't say no to this thing. Because if you do this thing, you're going to get to that next level. And it's for me, I have to visualize what that next level of could actually look like. And I have an anti-vision of this as well. So, you know, we talked about people having a vision for the dream life they want and I think that's all good I have that I have a vision board and stuff like that. But I also have the anti-vision which comes back to, you know, getting to the end of your days, looking back and regretting everything that you didn't do. My anti-vision is actually, like, you know, it's the worst version of myself, which is like the version of myself that ran away from everything and didn't try anything and was basically you know, too scared to do the things that I really wanted to do. So, the anti-vision for me was always more powerful than the actual vision of like the positive vision of like, you know, rainbows and flowers and success and all this, right? So.
Kim Meninger
I love that, that was actually thinking about something similar this morning because our brains are so hard-wired to avoid loss, that we will often find what feels like a rational excuse to not do something. So like you said, when you have a lot of time to think about it, you'll come up with all these reasons why it doesn't make sense to do it. And that's satisfying in the moment, but then you get to the end of your life, and you realize, I played it too safe, right? I was too focused on protecting myself. And so what I love about what you're saying about the anti-vision is it sort of flips the loss avoidance on its head. And instead of prioritizing, loss avoidance in the short term, it's looking longer term at what, what do I want to avoid losing when I get to the end of my life, right? So you give yourself a long game to play that ensures that I mean, we're not always going to do it perfectly, right? There gonna be times in our lives when we're super stressed, or things just feel too scary to do. But for the most part, if you have this kind of guiding vision of, I want to make sure that I don't end up in this place, then your brain is sort of calculating the risks against that anti-vision, as opposed to what is the safest thing in this one moment in time? Right?
Scott Allan
Yeah, yeah, we start calculating the losses and like, you know, can I afford to lose that money? Can I afford to lose? You know, face in front of everybody? Can I start to look at it that way? And then everything just becomes like a minus-minus-minus? And you realize, like, yeah, I don't want to lose anything. So I'm just gonna not do anything. You know?
Kim Meninger
Exactly. And then you don't realize it usually until it's too late.
Scott Allan
Yeah, because you by you only have that one opportunity to do that one thing. I mean, you never know, like, it's, I think, when it comes to luck, you know, like, luck is one of those things where Sure, I mean, maybe we all get lucky at some point in our lives. But you can get really lucky if you set yourself up for it. So in other words, like, okay, just take, you know, if I write a book, and then I put it out there, and then it gets discovered by somebody, like a big publisher, and they pick it up, and I end up, who knows, like, it just becomes a lot more successful? Well, that's great. And that's good for a story. But the reason that it got picked up in the first place is because I put the book out in the first place actually set myself up for it. Now, again, you can take that example and use it for anything else, you know, I know, a friend of mine years ago, you know, he decided to enter a bodybuilding contest just based on I think it was a, he didn't actually want to do it, he just did it, because it was a bet he had with somebody else. And he ended up going out there and winning the contest, you know, so like, so I mean, he just created his own luck, right? But I mean, you can create your own luck for anything, but you do have to, you know, prepare for it. I mean, if, let's just say, if that publishing contract had come around my way, I would not have seen it, because I wouldn't have had a book ready if I hadn't written it in the first place. So it always has to start with one action, you know, like, what is it that you're working on right now, that is building momentum towards could be your big dream, it could be a goal you have, and also identifying what is the fear that's actually holding you back from moving forward, because here's the thing, like I work with a lot of authors who are writing books, and probably the one that topic that does come up a lot is the imposter syndrome, because sometimes they're afraid to actually do any of the writing at all. Or they I've seen people actually get to the point where they written the book, and they wouldn't publish it, you know? So it's like, okay, well just consider, like, you know, you've gotten this far. What's going to happen, you know, if you don't publish it, or better yet, you know, what could happen if you do publish it? So we try to try to go through all these like, the different scenarios and get them to see the different versions or like the at the anti-vision if you don't do this? And, you know, like, what could happen if you do actually do this? You know, we just don't know what's going to happen when you something out there, you know, or put yourself out there. So.
Kim Meninger
Yes, and I think your point about luck is really interesting, because, sure, there is luck in the world, but oftentimes, it feels like luck, when in actuality, it's that it's the intersection of opportunity and your preparation. Because you're, you know, like, if you hadn't been working on that book, you might not have even been paying attention to this. What felt like a lucky break. But, you know, only, only was on your radar because of all the steps you had taken to get to that point in the first place. And so, I think, you know, one of the hallmarks of imposter syndrome is that we check lock up our successes to lock. It's like, Oh, I was in the right place at the right time, or that was a luck? No, it's a consequence of the intentional behaviors that you've been engaging into that you were able to spot the opportunity when it came up. Yeah.
Scott Allan
Well, that's a great point. Yeah. I was just thinking another thing with impostor syndrome is who is that we tend to downplay our abilities a lot. So one of the things that was really hard for me to take in SIL is she has taken like compliments, right? If he will say, Oh, you did a great job on that, whatever, me, I was like, oh, you know, as anybody could have done that, or, like, I always would downplay it, and just kind of brush it off. And I could tell like, sometimes some of the other person was like, Well, I just gave him a compliment. He just brushed me off, you know, it's like, I started noticing this pattern again. And again, like, every time somebody would say something like that, this little voice and suddenly go, you know, don't, don't accept that compliment, like, there's going to be responsibility with it, they're going to want more from you. And, you know, like, the, all these voices will start popping up. And again, like, yeah, probably was like impostor syndrome, like, you know, not believing that I was actually good enough to, you know, receive such an award or receive such a compliment. And that's really something that was really hard to work through it still is because now when someone gives me a compliment, actually just had to keep my mouth closed, and not say anything. Like, thank you. And that's, you know, I've literally had to train myself just to say that he's if I say anything more, it's gonna be like, Oh, no, that was just, you know, I was just in the right place at the right time. And that was it. So.
Kim Meninger
Exactly. I always try to remind people thank you is a complete sentence. Don't. Yeah. This has been so great. Scott, I love what you're sharing is it's so aligned with how I think about impostor syndrome. And I want to make sure that anybody listening who wants to find your books he wants to connect with you has an opportunity to do that. Where can they find you if they want more of your work?
Scott Allan
Yes, I have a couple of sites. One is ScottAllanBooks.com. We sell everything direct on there right now. And we'll have courses on there as well. And ScottAllanPublishing.com, too. And of course, they can go to Amazon and they can probably find the books there as well.
Kim Meninger
Excellent. Well, we'll make sure those links are in the show notes as well. And thank you again, Scott, for the great conversation. I really appreciate it.
Scott Allan
It's been fantastic. It's one of my favorite topics. So thanks for having me on the show.