This Is What Impostor Syndrome Looks Like

Summary

The Mindset Mentor - Episode Summary

Podcast: The Mindset Mentor
Host: Rob Dial
Episode: This Is What Impostor Syndrome Looks Like
Date: April 27, 2026

---

Episode Overview

In this episode, Rob Dial explores the deep-seated psychological phenomenon known as impostor syndrome. The focus is on what impostor syndrome really is, why so many competent and high-achieving people struggle with it, and actionable strategies to overcome it. Rob blends insights from neuroscience, psychology, and personal development to help listeners master their mindset and reshuffle their internal identity to match their evolving external success.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Defining Impostor Syndrome

• Not a Lack of Confidence

  • Most people mistake impostor syndrome for just feeling less confident. Rob corrects this:

    “The imposter syndrome is not a lack of confidence. That's what most people think that it is. It's something much more specific than that.” (02:57)

  • Impostor syndrome is a mismatch: your internal identity lags behind your external achievements.

• Identity Lag Explained

  • When you achieve or step into something new, your actions and results change first, not your self-concept.
  • Rob emphasizes the “lag” between your external accomplishments and internal identity as the root cause.

• The Brain’s Role

  • Predictive processing: your brain tries to “predict reality” based on past experiences, not present growth.

    “Your brain builds a model of you around your past and then you think you're not enough, but then suddenly you get promoted or you start a new business… Your brain doesn't go, ‘Wow, growth, I'm so awesome.’ Your brain goes, ‘Error. This doesn't match the internal model that I have of myself.’” (05:05)

Causes & Early Conditioning

• Childhood Patterns
  • Inconsistent praise, achievement-centric love, and tying identity to performance in childhood often fuel impostor syndrome later in life.

    “Maybe your identity was tied to performance. And because of all of that, you learned what I do is never quite enough.” (06:10)

  • Even when you achieve as an adult, you can still feel undeserving due to these early imprints.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect & Impostor Syndrome

• Competent People Underestimate Themselves
  • Rob contrasts impostor syndrome with the Dunning-Kruger Effect:

    “People who are incompetent overestimate themselves... Imposter syndrome is basically the exact opposite of that, which is competent people underestimate themselves.” (07:27)

  • As you learn more, you see how much you don’t know, contributing to feelings of inadequacy.

Behavioral Manifestations

• Common Symptoms

  • Over-preparing, perfectionism, downplaying achievements, attributing success to luck, waiting to “feel ready,” and not sharing ideas until perfect.

    “It also shows up as like over preparing for everything or not sharing your ideas until they're perfect... or you call your wins lucky, or you get praise from people and you feel anxious after that praise for some reason.” (12:12)

• Self-fulfilling Prophecy

  • Listening to impostor syndrome can lead to shrinking, over-planning, and avoiding risk, which ultimately reinforces the sense that you’re not good enough.

    “If you do that over time, you will become what you fear. Not because it's true, but because you acted like it was true.” (13:08)

---

Actionable Strategies to Overcome Impostor Syndrome

Step 1: Stop Waiting to Feel Ready

• Confidence is an output, not a starting point.

  “You'll never feel ready for something the first time you're doing it… Confidence is not the starting point of something. Confidence is the output that you get after doing something.” (13:50)

• Framework: Action → Evidence → Identity → Confidence

Step 2: Track and Recognize Your Wins

• Write down specific achievements, recent and past, to build evidence for your competence.

  “I want you to build evidence over time of how competent you actually are… Confidence is remembered competence.” (15:23)

Step 3: Separate Identity from Performance

• Failing at something doesn’t make you a failure.

  “Your behavior does not become your identity. Did you screw up? Sure. Does that mean you're a terrible mother? No, that's an identity thing.” (16:50)

Step 4: Normalize Impostor Syndrome

• Over 70% of people experience impostor syndrome, especially high performers.

  “If you feel like an imposter... you're actually like most people. Join the club. We all have imposter syndrome. But… it is actually more common in high performers.” (17:27)

• High performers feel it more because their environments demand growth and expose knowledge gaps.

Step 5: Reframe the Feeling

• Feeling like an imposter means you are expanding, stretching past your comfort zone.

  “Instead of saying, I feel like a fraud... go, you know what? I feel like a fraud, which means I am expanding myself.” (18:20)

• Humor:

  “How crazy would it be if you were just 100% confident that you could do something that you’ve never done before? ... If you saw somebody that was like, don’t worry, I can land the plane, and you’re like, have you ever landed before?... That’s a little cuckoo, isn’t it?” (18:52)

---

Memorable Quotes

• On identity lag:

  “Your actions will change first, but your identity will take months to, even years to catch up to your new results and new actions.” (03:56)

• On remembered competence:

  “Confidence is remembered competence.” (15:47)

• On normalizing the experience:

  “If you feel like an imposter or not good enough... you're actually like most people. Join the club.” (17:35)

• On reframing the feeling:

  “You don't feel like an imposter because you're unqualified. You feel like an imposter because you're evolving faster than your identity can keep up.” (20:25)

• On taking action:

  “Over a long enough time, you will always become who you act like you are.” (13:07)

• Mel Robbins advice:

  “Stop calling yourself an imposter and start calling yourself a beginner.” (15:07)

---

Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• Impostor syndrome defined, identity lag: 01:39 – 04:00
• Neuroscience & predictive processing: 04:00 – 07:00
• Childhood roots: 06:30 – 07:20
• Dunning-Kruger vs. Impostor Syndrome: 07:25 – 08:45
• Symptoms and behavioral traps: 11:45 – 13:08
• Overcoming impostor syndrome – actionable steps: 13:09 – 21:58
• Mel Robbins quote and reframing: 15:07 – 15:25, 18:20 – 19:20

---

Overall Tone and Takeaway

Rob maintains his signature motivational, practical, and compassionate tone throughout the episode. He validates listeners' struggles, demystifies impostor syndrome, and provides concrete, empathetic steps to overcome it. The message is clear: impostor syndrome is not a sign of failure, but of growth. Embracing and understanding this feeling is critical for personal and professional advancement.

---

For Further Motivation

Rob encourages listeners to track their progress, celebrate wins, and remember:

“Make it your mission to make somebody else's day better. I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing day.” (21:57)

---

Recommended for anyone experiencing doubt in their growth journey, especially high-achievers, entrepreneurs, and anyone stepping outside their comfort zone.

Transcript

[Rob Dial]

When it comes to health and wellness,

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

the most important thing for me is

[Rob Dial]

to be able to trust what I put in my body. So whether you are tackling fitness goals, a wellness routine, or shopping for family essentials, Iherb is the one stop shop for vitamins, supplements, sports nutrition, personal care,

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

and even grocery, baby and pet products.

[Rob Dial]

For nearly 30 years, Iherb has delivered authentic wellness products sourced directly from trusted brands and authorized partners to more than

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

15 million customers worldwide.

[Rob Dial]

And if something doesn't meet your expectations, iHerb makes it right with easy returns and simple refunds. Visit iherb.com and use the code MINDSET

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

for 20% off your order. The Mindset Mentor is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try [e-mail], progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states. Hey, a bad hire can really cost your business, and a great hire can really accelerate your business. Running a small business means every hire really matters.

[Rob Dial]

A bad hire can cost you time and money and momentum, and a good

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

hire can help grow your business immensely.

[Rob Dial]

Finding great talent isn't easy when you

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

don't have the time or resources to sift through resumes. LinkedIn's new hiring pro screens candidates for you, so instead of sorting through applicants, you can spend time talking to only the right ones.

[Rob Dial]

Get started by posting your job for

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

[e-mail] dial terms and conditions apply.

[Rob Dial]

Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so you never miss another episode. And if you love this podcast, send me a text message. 512-580-9305. I send out sporadic text messages throughout the week on Mindset, tips and tricks to help you learn and grow throughout the week. So if that's something you're interested in, text me right now. 512-580-9305. Today I want to talk to you about something that almost nobody escapes. And I want you to know that the more competent that you are, the more likely you are to experience it. And that is the imposter syndrome. I'm talking about that deep, quiet psychological version of the imposter syndrome, the one that shows up when you're actually doing well or you're trying to push yourself to step into something new, or you're getting new opportunities, or people are actually starting to respect you, or maybe you got a promotion and there's still that voice in the back of your head that says, yeah, but they don't really know who I am yet. Or, you know, wait till they find out that I'm not good enough to actually be here. So let's talk about what the imposter syndrome actually is. In this situation, I want to define it properly for you. The imposter syndrome is not a lack of confidence. That's what most people think that it is. They think it's a lack of confidence within themselves.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

It's not.

[Rob Dial]

It's something much more specific than that. It is a mismatch between your internal identity, which is who you think you are, and the identity that you will need to create, to create the life that you want. There is a dissonance between who you are and who you're stepping into. So externally, you're stepping into a new version of you. You're taking new actions. You are trying to become somebody new. You're getting better, maybe you're getting a promotion, but internally, you still feel like the old version of you. And you have to understand, I've said this many times recently, the identity that you have, there's always a lag in your identity. So your external world for your identity, the behaviors, the actions, the results will change. Your internal identity takes time to catch up to that, to actually go, okay, I guess this is who we are now. And so your actions will change first, but your identity will take months to, even years to catch up to your new results and new actions. And so this is because your brain, it starts to go, well, this, this doesn't really necessarily match, like what I know about myself, like, something's off. So they think we, we must be faking it, we must be a fraud. Do you see that? And so the psychology behind it, like, there's a concept in neuroscience that's called predictive processing, which is your brain is constantly trying to predict reality based off of all of your past experiences. So if in the past you've been a loser or had failures or screwed up or any of that type of stuff, like we all have, if your past identity from that came up with, I'm not good enough or I'm behind or I'm not the smart one, or I'm unlovable or whatever it might be, your brain basically builds a model of you around that. And then so you think that you're not enough, but then suddenly you get promoted or you start A new business that starts doing pretty well or you start leading people. Your brain doesn't go, wow, growth, I'm so awesome. Your brain goes, error. This doesn't match the internal model that I have of myself. So instead of like just updating itself, your identity doesn't go, oh, we have new results. Well, let me just go ahead and update. What it does is it questions your reality. That's what imposter syndrome really is. It is the feeling like maybe you don't belong where you are based off of who you believe yourself to be. And that is always based off of past, not future, and not present version of yourself. So let's go deeper and talk about why it exists. Because your imposter syndrome is not a mistake. It's not like a bug inside of a computer. It's just, you know, running the wrong code. Imposter syndrome ism isn't a mistake, it's adaptive. It is your brain trying to protect yourself by predicting who you are and what you're supposed to do in this moment. And most of this, obviously this conditioning starts early in childhood. Uh, there's research from Dr. Pauline Kaidens who found that common patterns that people have in their childhood that ends up having them think that they're not good enough or not smart enough or have the imposter system in some sort of way. It would be something like if you had praise that was inconsistent from your parents, like maybe you can't. Like I hear it all the time. Like you came back with a B and your parents were like, why wasn't it an A? Or you came back with an A and they're like, why wasn't an A plus? So it could have been like praise was inconsistent or you only got love whenever you won a baseball game, or achievement was expected but not celebrated. And maybe your identity was tied to performance. And because of all of that, you learned what I do is never quite enough. There's so many times I hear this

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

from people where they can succeed and

[Rob Dial]

succeed and succeed, and it doesn't really register from them because their childhood, they could never quite feel like they got to a point of all out success and love from their parents. And that just doesn't disappear when you do succeed. It scales with you. You still have that feeling from childhood of what I do is never quite enough. So even though you may be doing well, you might be killing, you might be crushing life, you might be doing better than you ever have, there's still a part of you that feels like you don't even deserve what you've accomplished. You, if you look at your external reality, it doesn't match your internal identity. You're actually starting to outgrow an old version of yourself. So instead of being like, wow, I'm doing great, I deserve this. I'm so proud of myself. Right? Very rarely do I hear people say that about themselves. They usually think I'm a fraud. I hope they don't find out. And so there's something in psychology that's really interesting. It's called the Dunning Kruger effect. And what this means is that people who are incompetent overestimate themselves. So incompetent people overestimate themselves. Imposter syndrome is basically the exact opposite of that, which is competent people underestimate themselves. So you got a promotion because everybody else thought that you were competent enough to get a promotion. But you are the one that's underestimating yourself when everybody else sees your competence. Right? The more you understand a domain or have knowledge in a specific industry, the more you learn, the more you see nuance and the more you see gaps in your own knowledge. And we will be right back.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Hey, showing up for yourself day in and day out and doing the hard things is what creates a better life. Noon Hydration helps you stay moving with the real deal activated hydration built to support you through those moments that challenge you. NOON hydration tablets deliver clean ingredients and optimize electrolytes that hydrate better than water alone, especially when you're sweating or on the go. The tablets dissolve quickly, taste great, and come in a single no mess tube that you can take anywhere. Noon is designed for people who value whole self growth, community and the joy of showing up for themselves through movement, exploration and effort. And at less than $1 per serving, it's easy to make part of your routine. Shop noon [e-mail] that's n u u n life.com and fuel your next hard thing. This is the time when kids benefit from reviewing key concepts and strengthening skills before assessments. IXL helps reinforce what they're already learning now so they feel ready and capable. IXL is an award winning online platform. IXL is an award winning online learning platform for Pre K through 12th grade with personalized interactive lessons in math, reading, writing and science that adapt to each child's level and pace. Prov in all 50 states to improve grades, students who use IXL score higher on tests. IXL is used in 96 of the top 100 school districts in the United States. And my best friend's wife is an ex school teacher who homeschools her children with this and says it is the best program she has ever used to homeschool her children as well. Make an impact on your child's learning. Get IXL now and the Mindset Mentor listeners get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when they sign up at ixl.com mindset mentor Visit ixl.com mindset mentor to get the most effective learning program out

[Rob Dial]

there at the best price Are you

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

tired of spending hundreds on crazy high wireless bills, bogus fees and free perks that cost you more in the long run then a premium wireless plan from mint mobile for 15 bucks a month might be right for you? Bring your own phone and number, activate with ESIM in minutes and start saving immediately. No long term contracts, no hassle. I'll be honest, switching to Mint Mobile was one of the easiest wins I've had lately. I used to stick with the big wireless carriers, paying way more than I needed to every month. I didn't question it until I finally did. Now I'm sitting saving a solid amount every single month and my service hasn't skipped a beat. Same calls, same data, just less money going out. And when you're building something on your own, that kind of saving adds up fast. If you like your money, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop [e-mail] mentor that's mintmobile.com mentor upfront payment of $45 for 3 month 5 gigabyte plan required equivalent to $15 per month new customer offer for first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details.

[Rob Dial]

And now back to the show. So it's like the more that you know something, the more you know how much you don't know about it. Do you get that? And so you might be like really advanced in your knowledge around some specific industry, but because you're so advanced, you see all of the knowledge that's there. I don't know as much as I could. And because of that you actually underestimate yourself. And so your brain says I see

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

all of these gaps in my own

[Rob Dial]

personal knowledge, then I must not be that good. Meanwhile, the buffoon that's less aware those people feel more confident. It's the this weird paradox that happens with it. And so it does show up like I'm not good enough or I'm a fraud in some sort of way. But it doesn't always show up that way. It also shows up as like over preparing for everything or not sharing your ideas until they're perfect and trying to become a perfectionist. Or maybe you have some success and you downplay your success, or you call your wins lucky, or you get praise from people and you feel anxious after that praise for some reason. Or you're constantly waiting to feel ready, but you never actually do feel ready. And so you achieve something and your brain says, I don't know. Like, I don't know if I was worthy of that. Maybe I did it one time too. Can I do it again? Like, that's actually the insecurity behind the imposter syndrome. And like when you look at the imposter syndrome, it's not just a feeling problem, it becomes a behavioral problem as well. And what happens is when you start listening to the imposter syndrome and you actually start letting that thought of not being good enough and that feeling of not being good enough dictate what you do, you'll start playing smaller. You will delay your actions. You will over plan or stay in like preparation mode. You will avoid putting yourself out there, being more visible to people. And if you do that over time, you will become what you fear. Not because it's true, but because you acted like it was true. And over a long enough time, you will always become who you act like you are. And so that's what the imposter syndrome is. So if that's what it is, how do we actually try to get past it? How do we work to get past it? I'm going to give you a step by step process. Okay? The first thing that you need to do is you need to stop trying to feel ready when you're trying to feel ready. Like you'll never feel ready for something the first time you're doing it. Does that make sense? Like you'll never feel ready the first time you do it. You'll feel ready the more that you do it. But you're basically like waiting for confidence. Confidence doesn't come to you like a bolt of lightning. Confidence is not the starting point of something. Confidence is the output that you get after doing something. So it's like you have to take action. From that action, you will get evidence of how well you did. From that evidence over a long period of time, you will start to build an identity around the evidence of how you did around something. And then from there, if you do it enough over and over and over again, you succeed and succeed and succeed, succeed or you improve, improve, improve. Then from that you will start to get confidence. It's not the other way around, it's action Evidence, identity, confidence. And so when you look at it like one of the things that I love, I had Mel Robbins tell me this when she was on my podcast a couple years ago, we were talking about the imposter syndrome, and she said, stop calling yourself an imposter and start calling yourself a beginner. And I love that because imposter feels like I'm a fraud, like I'm not

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

supposed to be here.

[Rob Dial]

But when you say I'm a beginner, even if you're a beginner in your new promotion, right, You're a beginner, you start to go, well, if I'm a beginner, beginners inherently really shouldn't be great at something, but they can always improve, and that's a good thing. So that's number one. Number two is to try to start updating your internal model. Like, your brain won't just update automatically. Sometimes you just have to kind of force it. So I want you to write down what it is that you do well. When you have a win, I want you to start tracking your wins and be very specific with your wins, not vague. I want you to look back over time and start to see your wins over the past five years or 10 years, whatever they might be. I want you to build evidence over time of how competent you actually are. Because most of the time we're not looking at it. Your brain will always look for the negative. It will always look for what's wrong. It will always look for the faults. It will always look for the places where you are not good enough. And if that's the case and that's the default, but we want our life to be different, then you need to intentionally find and search out what you are good at or what you're good enough at, or where you're good enough, or where you're qualified, or whether you're smart enough or where you're ready for a promotion. This is self efficacy. Like confidence is remembered competence. Because most of the time we're just defaulting to, I'm not good enough, I'm not smart enough, I can't do this. If the default is negative, then in order for me to build confidence within myself, it needs to be remembered competence, where I know I can do this stuff and I can see the data points and the evidence that show me that I am actually qualified to be able to do this. You need to find it and you need to remember it. Okay, so that's number two. Number three is you need to start separating your identity from performance. Because right now most people's brains say, if I fail, I'm a failure. No, you need to really try to break that. And you try to replace it with, hey, that attempt failed, or that strategy didn't work, or I found out what not to do next time. So don't let your behaviors become your identity. I'll give you a different example just so it could kind of click. A lot of people will, like, screw up as a parent, and they will accidentally yell at their children because they've had a hard day, and then they think, I'm a terrible mother. No, no, no. That was a behavior. Your behavior does not become your identity. Did you screw up? Sure. Does that mean you're a terrible mother? No, that's an identity thing. So you need to separate the. Your behaviors from your identity. It was something that you did. It's not something that you are. Okay, so that's number three. Number four is I want you to normalize imposter syndrome. Over 70% of people, according to psychological studies, experience imposter syndrome at some point. So if you feel like an imposter or not good enough or not smart enough or not qualified, you're not an outlier. You're actually like most people. Join the club. We all have imposter syndrome. But here's the part that most people really don't realize. It is actually more common in high performers. Huh? You would think the exact opposite, right? No. Why is it more common in high performers? Because the more that you grow, the more that you're stepping into environments that you haven't mastered yet, and you're realizing, oh, my God, I've still got a whole lot to learn. And you're constantly around people who are smarter or who are better or who are more experienced than you in that specific arena. And so your brain compares your internal uncertainty to their external competence. And so it assumes, like, they belong here. I don't. But if you think about, like, that's a really, really distorted comparison. You're comparing your behind the scenes and what goes on in your head to somebody else's accomplishments and highlight reel. So when you feel imposter syndrome, it doesn't automatically mean that you're not good enough. It often means that you're in a room that's stretching you, that you're trying to grow yourself. That's actually where your growth happens. So if you're a high performer and trying to be a high performer, you are more likely to experience imposter syndrome just because the fact that you're going to be pushing yourself to be better which shows you when you're better. Shows you that there's a lot of stuff that you lack and you're going to be around other people that are better than you in some specific arena, which also shows where you're not, quote, unquote, good enough. It makes you feel like an imposter. Okay, that's number four. Number five is I want you to reframe that feeling. So instead of saying, I feel like a fraud, something's wrong, go, you know what? I feel like a fraud, which means I am expanding myself. It's the same feeling, but it's completely different meanings. And meaning is everything in your life. I mean, I tell these people all the time that they say, oh, I feel like I'm an imposter when I'm starting this. I don't feel like I'm good enough. I always say, like, think about this for a second. How crazy would it be if you were just 100% confident that you could do something that you've never done before? Like, isn't that a little bit psychotic to be like, well, I should be 100% confident, and I've never done this before? No. If you saw somebody that was like, don't worry, I can land the plane, and you're like, have you ever landed before? Like, have you ever flown a plane? They're like, no, but I watch videos online. You'd be like, what the fuck? That's crazy. This person is so confident. It's a little bit. It's a little bit cuckoo, isn't it? So you should feel like you're not good enough in some sort of way, because at this point, you might not be good enough. And you can always get better. And so I want you to understand, like, you don't feel like an imposter because you're unqualified. You feel like an imposter because you're evolving faster than your identity can keep up. Your brain hasn't caught up yet, and it usually won't, especially if you keep pushing yourself to get better. And so if you feel the imposter syndrome, don't shrink, don't pull back. Like, that discomfort that you feel, that edge that you feel like you're on, that's where your next identity is being built. So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, please share it on your Instagram stories. Tag me in it. Robdial Jr R O B D I A L J R and I'm going to leave you the same way I leave you every single episode. Make it your mission to make somebody else's day better. I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing day.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Building a portfolio with Fidelity Basket Portfolios is kind of like making a sandwich. It's as simple as picking your stocks and ETFs, sort of like your meats and other topics and managing it as one big juicy investment.

Mmm.

Now that's pretty good. Learn [e-mail] baskets Investing involves risks, including risk of loss. Fidelity Brokerage Services, llc Member NYSE SIPC

You've never been one to settle, stand down or stand still. You're a lifelong learner, energized by excellence. There's a fire inside you you can't ignore. You've got competition to outrun, momentum to build on, and your own high standards to meet. Stop now. Not a chance. At Capella University, we help you catch what you're chasing because you've always had the drive. Now go earn the degree. Capella University. What can't you do? Visit Capella. Edu to learn more.

Breathe in. Feel the sense of calm that comes from having up to $300 in overdraft protection with Goto Bank. Now. Did you say $300? Yes. Now back to our breathing.

[Rob Dial]

So if I overspend my balance, Goto

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

bank has my back up to $300? Yes. Can we breathe out now? Less worries, more zen. With over $300 in overdraft protection, tap to open an account today. Eligible direct deposits and opt in required for overdraft protection fees. Terms and conditions apply.