The Studio CEO: Business Coaching For Yoga & Pilates Teachers & Studio Owners

From The Yoga Boss Vault: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

• Jackie Murphy

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Ever feel like someone’s about to “find you out”?

In this episode of The Studio CEO Podcast, we're talking about the sneaky voice of imposter syndrome that shows up even after you’ve built the business, filled your classes, or hit six figures. And I share the exact moment I realized how success can still trigger that quiet fear of being “a fraud.”

You’ll learn why our brains are wired to doubt ourselves, how to spot the subtle ways imposter syndrome hides in your thoughts (“I only sold out because …”), and a simple framework to retrain your mind toward confidence and ownership.

If you’ve ever minimized your accomplishments or felt like you “just got lucky,” this episode will give you the tools to recognize that voice, rewrite it, and keep climbing.

Key Takeaways

  1. Imposter syndrome isn’t proof you’re failing, it’s proof you’re human.
  2. Awareness through meditation gives distance from false thoughts.
  3. The Thought Ladder helps you replace “I’m not enough” with beliefs that serve you.

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Studio CEO, the only podcast that empowers yoga and Pilates teachers and studio owners to step confidently into their role as CEO. If you are ready to show up with passion, take your business seriously, and scale to new heights without burning out, you are in the right place. I'm your host, Jackie Murphy, an award-winning certified business coach with over 12 years of experience inside the yoga industry. I have seen firsthand what it takes to build a comfortable and scalable business. Join me as we dive into strategies, insights, and real-world advice that will help you grow your company, build a thriving team, and create a business that serves you as much as you serve your students. It's time to embrace your inner CEO and make more money without working more. This is just the beginning. Hello, it's Jackie Murphy. And before we jump into today's episode, I want to tell you about something I'm running that I think you're going to love. If you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you know I talk a lot about the real reasons yoga and Pilates business owners struggle to grow. And spoiler alert, it's usually not what you think. It's not having the perfect intro offer. It's not your pricing, it's not your schedule or your competitors, or the fact that you're not on YouTube yet. It's your marketing strategy, or more specifically, the three mistakes almost every business owner makes that sabotage growth before it has a chance to really build momentum. So I created a free workshop called The Three Marketing Mistakes Most Yoga and Pilates Studio Owners Make. And in it, I walk you through exactly what those mistakes are, why they're so common, and most importantly, how to fix them. This isn't theory, it's not fluff, it's the exact framework I use with clients who are tired of spinning their wheels and ready to fill their classes and grow their revenue. You can sign up in the link below the show notes. It's free, it's right around an hour, and I promise it's going to shift the way that you think about marketing in your business. All right, let's get into today's episode. This is one of my favorites from the vault, and I think it's going to hit differently after what we've been talking about lately. Let's go. Hello. Welcome back to Yoga Boss, episode number seven. Just cruising right along, aren't we? So we're diving into the imposter syndrome today. But before we do that, I wanted to give a shout out to Bailey who left a review on Apple Podcasts. She said, Hells yeah. Dude, this podcast is everything I've been searching for. She has been answering questions that I've quietly been asking myself for so long. Plus, it's helpful to have the perspective of a successful yogi right in your ear. We need more people like Jackie. Thank you, Bailey. Right back at you. We need more people like you. I really want to thank you for your review on this podcast. It helps me reach more yoga teachers. And then those yoga teachers build their businesses and reach more students. And more people doing yoga is how we change the world. So truly, I appreciate it. Thank you so much for taking the time to do that. If you have been listening to Yoga Boss and you haven't left a review yet, do it today. Do it right now if you're not driving, or do it when you get to your destination if you are driving. I have on my calendar for this weekend, go buy a brand new Apple Watch. And I'm going to give away that Apple Watch in an upcoming episode to one person who has rated and reviewed the podcast. So there's still time if you haven't reviewed it yet, and I would really, really appreciate it. You're helping my small little business grow, and that's amazing. As we dive into today's podcast, we're covering the imposter syndrome. And this might be something that you've heard of before. It's pretty commonly used nowadays. And if not, I'm going to explain it perfectly to you. But before we really dive into the heart of it, I want to give you a little personal story, my experience with imposter syndrome that just happened. I just landed back in New York City from a vacation in Charleston, South Carolina, one of my favorite places in the whole world. And while I was there, I caught up with some other yoga teachers that I've worked with and some friends and was just sharing them about like what's going on in my life. And what I realized is as I was sharing is that I've gotten everything that I dreamt of. I had a goal to make six figures as a yoga teacher. I had a goal to be able to travel and work anywhere. I'm headed to Dallas this week, Charleston last week. And I had a goal to meet and be engaged to the man of my dreams. And we actually got engaged in Charleston this past weekend. So I now have a fiance, which is so exciting. And while I was catching up with the friends, I am so utterly grateful for all of this. And I know I've worked hard to create what I have. It's all been through coaching, just so you know. I saw in their faces that they can see all of the success that I've had. Like they view me as someone successful, someone smart, someone who has figured it out. And I had this tiny little thought sneak up from the back of my head that sounded like, oh no, what if they find out? And that, my friends, is the imposter syndrome at its finest. It's this idea that we might be found out, that somehow you might be an imposter. The fear that you will be found to be unqualified or revealed as a fraud. And it comes up in just small little thoughts again and again and again. And you want to be able to recognize it because that's the first step. So, how do you know if you've experienced the imposter syndrome? Consider this. When you speak about your accomplishments, do you credit luck or chance? Or do you credit your accomplishments even to your appearance or the connections that you have? If you credit the accomplishments that you have in your life to anything that isn't your own smarts, your own drive, your own talent, then it might be the imposter syndrome at work. So, one way to know. The second thing you can look for is how do you feel accepting praise? This is a funny one because typically after yoga class, I'll stand outside of the door and I'll hold the door open and I'll say thank you to each person that came and talk to them about the class and connect with them. Or I did do that when I was group teaching. And what would happen is people would say, Oh my gosh, that was an amazing class. Your theme totally spoke to me and it resonated and it was so beautiful. And I would like dismiss it. Oh my gosh, that came from so-and-so. I read that in a book of, oh yeah, that's what I'm dealing with in my life. Instead of just saying thank you. So notice if you have a hard time accepting praise, accepting praise by just saying thank you and looking the person in the eye and then letting it sink in. You might also worry about being exposed as a fraud. And this could kind of sound like I am not smart enough, I might be dumb. You're focused on what is wrong. Here is the thing: your limbic brain, this primitive brain that we have, is designed to focus on what is wrong because that used to keep us alive. We needed to know where danger was, what could go wrong, what might go wrong, so we could look out for it. And so your brain just has this pattern of focusing on what is wrong. Now, this could look like comparison and judgment, thinking that everyone around you, every other yoga teacher is smarter or works harder or does a better job than you or has a better sequence than you or has a better playlist than you. Everyone else is fill in the blank. So what I hear from my clients, the yoga teachers that I work with, is that they think everyone else, this is a really, really common one, has more knowledge than them. That they left their 200 hour with not enough knowledge to teach a great private or to lead a retreat. And every other yoga teacher around them has more knowledge. And this can't possibly be true because you're all saying the same thing, right? If everyone had more knowledge, then everyone else wouldn't be thinking the same thing. So the imposter syndrome will take any fact and almost use it against you. Your brain will look for a fact, turn it around, and use it as a reason that you aren't the same, that you might be missing something, that you are not enough somehow. It's not that, like I know I have accomplished a lot in my life, and I know I have done some incredible things. So logically I can see that, but deeper down, it's like you don't believe it. I don't believe it in my heart of hearts when I'm listening to the imposter syndrome. So other people who are looking in on your life might be like, wow, they are really successful. Some yoga teacher is looking up to you at this moment, right now, thinking that you have it made, that you have it all, but you don't believe it. That is the imposter syndrome at its finest. It kind of sounds like only or because. So I only have that sold-out class because it's a good time slot. I've heard that one a lot. Or I only was successful at selling out my retreat because it's a great location. It's like pushing away the accomplishment to something else, only or because. And you know that it's not logical. Like you have been successful, you know you are successful, but you don't believe it, you don't feel it. So your brain, you want to be able to see the imposter syndrome at work in play, notice the thoughts that are going through your brain, but then be able to shift it and manage it. So to clarify just one more time, the imposter syndrome is the feeling that you are an imposter, the feeling that you'll be found out to be unqualified or revealed as a fraud. And it doesn't always make sense. It's not always logical, but it's more of a deeper fear feeling that makes you question everything. Right? I'm looking at my business, making six figures, engaged to the man on my dreams, traveling to different places, and I'm saying, oh my gosh, I don't, I this isn't because of me. This is because I knew this person or I had that connection or they worked with me because they liked my hair. Like this is literally what my brain says. And instead of explaining the accomplishments that I have as I've busted my butt. I have had one sole focus of building a six-figure yoga business for so long. And I've solely stayed with my niche, with my target market again and again and again through the discomfort. I've left jobs when I needed to leave, and I've made the leap from employee to entrepreneur, and I've stayed committed to my relationship. Like I could also tell the story that way, but with the imposter syndrome, I don't. Because it's this fundamental conviction that we feel like we're unworthy in some like unclear way. And I hear this from so many clients. And I think I dealt with it in my 200-hour teacher training and my 500-hour teacher training, that I'm not enough. This is kind of the crux of being human. It's part of the process. It's like, congratulations, you've got a body and you breathe air and you need to drink water, and you're gonna think that you're not enough sometimes. It's just part of the human condition. We all tend to go through some sort, some sort of variation of I'm not enough. Sometimes it's the flip side of that coin and it's I'm too much, but the same thing in either one of those. The imposter syndrome pulls on that, plays on that, and uses that and tries to prove it true. See, you're not as smart as her, you're not as good of a teacher as her, you're not enough. So instead of trying to solve that belief that we have, I want you to just know that it's part of being human. That imposter syndrome that I'm not enough will come up again and again in your life, and it's totally okay. It doesn't mean anything about you, it's not necessarily true. You don't have to believe it. You can just let it be there. So, this is kind of where we go next. What do we do with imposter syndrome? The first thing is you want to understand where it is coming from. This is where I really, really love meditation. The point of meditation, some meditation that I've done, is to sit and notice what thoughts go through your head. The way my first teacher described it is as if you were sitting on a riverbank and you were watching the ships pass through. And each ship is one of your thoughts. And some ships come in and they might get stuck, they might stay a while, some ships will zoom right down the river, but you just stay on the side of the riverbank and you watch it all happen. You build the awareness of what kind of ships are going down your river. You start to know what kind of thoughts, what you are thinking in your head. Another way to practice meditation like this is to sit there and ask yourself, what am I thinking next? What is my next thought? And see if you can notice the next thought because often it moves so, so, so fast. We get lost and distracted that pulling yourself back to the next thought is a beautiful practice. Now, insight or the awareness of what you're thinking may not lead to changed behavior. It might just lead to you knowing that you have a thought, I'm not good enough, or I'm not smart enough, or I'm not skilled enough yet as a yoga teacher, but just aware of it while it's still happening. So this is where meditation is going to give you perspective and distance. And then you've got to coach your brain, learn to manage your thoughts using the model, using coaching to really determine what do you want to think, what do you want to believe, let go of old thoughts that aren't serving you and choose new thoughts that do. This will be key to rewriting the self-talk soundtrack that plays in your head all day, every single day. A lot of us, that self-talk soundtrack is the imposter syndrome just so loud, on repeat again and again and again. And that is a tired soundtrack. It's time to let it go. Here's what I want you to look out for. When you're finding the thoughts that sound like the imposter syndrome, that have some sort of variation of the I'm not enough, be weary of perfectionism sneaking in there too. Because what will tend to happen, let's say yoga teachers who graduate their 200-hour certification, they think they're not smart enough. They don't know enough yet to teach a private or to lead a retreat. That's the imposter syndrome at play. Here, what happens next is they think that if they get their 500-hour certification, then they will feel smart enough. So they go and they try and get their 500-hour certification, and there's no surprise, they still have the voice of the imposter syndrome at play. So they don't feel smart enough. So they're constantly waiting to be perfect to reach that next level, hoping at that level the imposter syndrome will just naturally go away. And this is where I'm here to tell you it won't just naturally go away. One, it's just part of being human. You just want to make space for it and let it be there. It's no problem. And then two, you want to manage your mind so that you can start to direct what you're thinking on purpose so it does serve you. So the tool that I'm gonna teach you today in order to manage your mind is called the thought ladder. And this was the concept created by Britt Castillo at the Life Coach School. The first step in working a thought ladder is currently, what are you thinking? It's perfect to sit down and meditate, write down the thoughts that came into your head. What are you thinking? So if you're currently thinking, I'm not smart enough, that would be at the very bottom of the ladder. And you literally like draw a ladder on a piece of paper if you want to. When you do this, only do one thought at the bottom of the ladder. You can do multiple ladders, but just one thought in each one. Step number two, you're gonna figure out what do you want to believe about yourself? What do you wish you could believe? One of my favorite ways to do this is ask yourself, what do you want your students to think about you? She's so knowledgeable, she's smart, she gives great themes, she delivers a lot of information in class. When you know what you want them to think about you, then you just flip it. I am so smart. I have a lot of knowledge to give. I deliver great themes. That's what you wish you could believe about you. And if you don't believe it quite yet, that's totally okay. That's exactly the point. We're gonna put that thought at the top of the ladder. So bottom of the ladder is I'm not smart enough. Top of the ladder is I have so much knowledge to give. Now, step number three is to create the rungs of the ladder, how you'll move from where you are to where you want to be one step at a time. So you want to create three thoughts that you actually could think now, that you believe now, that are more neutral or more positive than your current I'm not smart enough thought. So you want to go to neutral. Try I have a brain, I have the knowledge from my 200-hour teacher training. Then find thoughts that you believe. I'm learning how to be knowledgeable in class. I'm capable of being knowledgeable in class that will get you closer to believing that goal thought of I'm so knowledgeable, I have so much value to give. Here's how you check in and see if you believe the latter thoughts. You repeat them in your brain. I have a brain, I have knowledge from my 200-hour teacher training. Notice where you feel it in your body. Check in. Most of the time when you believe a thought, when it actually settles, you'll feel it deeper down in your stomach. Not so much in your head and your throat, but it'll actually settle into your being. And that's how you know, oh, okay, this thought, this one I can use, this one I believe. Step number four is to practice the thoughts that you want to think. The way I did this when I first started coaching is I had an alarm on my phone come up every hour with one of the thoughts I was practicing. So you could put an alarm on your phone that pops up and says, I have knowledge from my 200-hour teacher training. And when it pops up, you want to look for evidence of how that's true. You could write a list of all the anatomy that you learned, all the cues that you learned, all the history that you learned. So your brain starts to believe this thought more and more and more. That's how you change the imposter syndrome from running your life, telling you that you're not good enough, making you feel fear and not go for what you want, to letting it be there. It's okay, it's part of being human, and still getting to become the person that you want to be. Becoming the person who feels knowledgeable and smart and capable and has a self-talk soundtrack that actually serves them instead of holds them back. The other way you can think about the thought ladder is you're gonna move up through four steps. The bottom of the ladder is I can't build a yoga business. The next step is I could build a yoga business. The next step is I will build a yoga business. And then finally, it's I did build a yoga business. Move one thought at a time into the next version of who you're going to be. Move one thought at a time away from believing you're not enough and into believing that you are enough, that you are a hundred percent lovable and capable and deserving and worthy. Own your accomplishments. Own what you've created in your life. Show up, believe in yourself because how you believe in yourself, what you think about yourself will determine your impact that you have on other people. The relationship that you have with yourself is exactly what your students will feel when you put things out there. So you've got to be your own first student. You've got to be able to hold space for yourself and to then transform. The relationship that you have with yourself is exactly what your students will feel when you teach a class or put up a blog post. Have your own back. Let that imposter syndrome be there. It's nothing to worry about because you have the thought ladder. You have the tools to overcome it. Own your accomplishments. All right, y'all. That's the imposter syndrome. If you have questions, if you want to do a thought ladder with me, send me a message on Instagram or email me at Jackie at Jackie Gskinner.com and we'll set up a one hour session where I will take you from imposter syndrome to self belief, self confidence so that you can go out and build your business. Have an amazing day. Talk to you in episode number eight.