Field Guides / Mindset

Handling the imposter feeling in your video business

Many of the tactical questions video business owners ask ("is my price right?", "am I good enough for this client?") are a request for reassurance dressed up as a practical problem. Before you go looking for another tactic, check whether you have a skills gap (no method yet) or a confidence gap (you have the method and the track record, and still want permission). A confidence gap is answered with evidence: a written file of the projects you've delivered, what clients said in their own words, repeat work, referrals and your numbers.

Why do so many tactical questions turn out to be a request for reassurance?

Tactical questions turn into requests for reassurance because the imposter feeling rarely shows up as a feeling. It shows up as a practical question, so you go looking for a practical answer.

The questions I hear sound like this. "Is my price right?" "I lack confidence transitioning niche." And the one that comes back from one owner after another: "What are my five blind spots?" Each one asks for a tactic. Underneath many of them, what the owner wants is someone to say they're allowed.

Experienced owners feel this as much as beginners do. One producer, capable and established, kept talking himself in and out of his niche.

The cost is commercial. When the feeling is in charge it prices the job low, it holds back the follow-up, and it writes emails that ask the client to decide whether you're worth engaging.

How to tell a skills gap from a confidence gap: the method, step by step

You tell a skills gap from a confidence gap by writing the question down and running a short self-check on it. The answer usually isn't another tactic, it's evidence, and this practical tool is built on that idea.

Five steps: write the question down, run the self-check, go and get the method if it's a skills gap, open the evidence file and make the decision if it's a confidence gap, and give one person permission to call out your stories.

1. Write the question down in full. Before you message a peer, post in a group or search for an answer, write the exact question you're about to ask. Written down, it's easier to see what you're actually asking.
2. Run the self-check below. Four yes or no questions and one either/or, two minutes. The answers tell you which gap you're in.
3. If it's a skills gap, go and get the method. A skills gap means you couldn't write down the steps because you've never been shown them. Ask how the thing is built. For pricing that's how to price a video project; for a sales call it's how to qualify a video lead before you pitch. Done looks like a method written down that you can follow next time without asking.
4. If it's a confidence gap, open the evidence file, then make the decision. Read the file, then do the thing the feeling was holding up: send the quote, send the follow-up, book the call. Separate your feelings from the task, as I put it in my course.
5. Give one person permission to call out your stories. Pick someone you trust and tell them they're allowed to call out the stories you tell yourself that hold you back. Done looks like one person who has heard you say it.

How to build an evidence file that answers the imposter feeling

An evidence file is one document with five sections: projects delivered, client results in their words, repeat clients, referrals, and your numbers. It answers the imposter feeling with a written record you can read on a bad day.

Systems will beat willpower every single time, as I said in my course. Trying to feel more confident before a pitch is willpower. Keeping a written file and reading it before a pitch is a system.

• Projects delivered. Count them. All time, and the last twelve months.
• Client results in their words. Paste what clients actually said: emails, review text, a line from a testimonial. Use their words as written. If you don't have many yet, the marketing asset you already have shows how to collect them from jobs you've already delivered.
• Repeat clients. Who came back, and how many times.
• Referrals. Who sent someone your way, and what came of it.
• Your numbers. The figures you know for a fact: jobs this year, your largest job, your margin per day by client. If you don't know them yet, knowing your numbers walks through the three that matter.

If your best work is confidential (government, healthcare) and you can't show the footage, record the outcome and the process instead: what the client needed, what you did, what changed.

What to read before a big pitch

Read your evidence file, then read a short reframe that puts your attention on the client's problem. Real authority on a call comes from asking the right questions and letting the client feel you understand their world.

An old test from my course helps here. If you'd hired a CEO for your business on $150,000 a year, what would you expect that person to do on this call? Probably not apologise for the price or ask whether the showreel is good enough. More on how that sounds in the room is in how to show real authority on a sales call.

A worked example

Here's the method on one pitch, for an illustrative owner in round numbers (not a member's file).

The situation. Four years trading, and invited to pitch for a client bigger than any they've worked with. One owner put the thought this way: "I worry I'm not good enough for them." The instinct is to shave the price and ask a peer whether the showreel is strong enough.

The self-check. Done something close before? Yes, the same kind of film for smaller clients. Could they write the steps down? Yes. Asked this before? Yes, before every big pitch. "If someone gave me the answer, would I already know what to do next?" Yes. Asking what to do, or whether it's OK? Whether it's OK. That's a confidence gap.

The decision. The quote goes out at the price they built, with no discount. The call opens with questions about the client's problem.

The mistakes that undo it

The tool fails when the feeling finds another way back into the decision. These are the ways it does.

• Waiting for the feeling to go before you act. The aim is to stop the feeling making your commercial decisions. You act with the feeling still there.
• Asking the same question in a new form. If you've asked a version of the question before and the answer didn't change what you did, run the self-check before you ask again.
• Letting the feeling write the email. "Does that sound good to you?" hands the decision to the client. State what's happening and what the next step is. The follow-up emails guide has the wording.
• Keeping the evidence in your head. Write it down so it's there to read before the pitch.

The rule of thumb for the imposter feeling

Before the feeling changes a price, an email or a plan, run the self-check and read your evidence file.

The benchmark: five sections in the file, kept current, and a read-through before every pitch you'd call big.

Hold yourself accountable

Which of these have you taken on or put in place recently?

• You have an evidence file with all five sections filled in.
• You read it before your last pitch.
• The last time you reached for reassurance, you ran the self-check first.
• Your last quote went out at the price you built.

Your one move this week

What's the one thing you can commit to implementing this week? If you're not sure, start here.

Open a blank document and call it Evidence. Fill in the five sections from the last twelve months: count the projects, paste three things clients said in their own words from your sent and received emails, list your repeat clients and referrals, and write down one number you know for a fact. Save it where you'll find it before your next pitch.

One thing executed every week creates 50 strategic moves a year.

Related tools and guides. The marketing asset you already have and keep ignoring (collecting client words for the file), Why knowing your numbers lets you price with confidence, How to price a video project so every quote isn't a guess, How to show real authority on a sales call, How to qualify a video lead before you pitch, How to write a follow-up email that gets a reply.