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  Now let’s take that definition and break it down into its two core ingredients.

  Ingredient #1: the inability to internalize accomplishments and a persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud.”

  Have you ever walked into a meeting and felt that you weren’t worthy—or that you didn’t belong there? Perhaps someone on the selection committee, award committee, or board of directors had made a mistake in selecting you. Heck, maybe even some of your colleagues, family members, or friends validated your own suspicions and asked you the seemingly innocent question, “So why did they pick you?”

  I began to learn about the impostor syndrome back in 2009, around the time my first book was published. I was an academic staff member at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse. After my book became popular with small-business owners, several of the UW campuses around the state asked me to teach a class at their respective campuses. Awesome. One day I mentioned this opportunity to a family friend: I told him I was headed to the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay the next day to teach a class based on my search engine optimization (SEO) book.

  My friend looked at me and said, “Well, why are they having you teach the class? Couldn’t they find someone in Green Bay to teach it?”

  My friend was not trying to be hurtful—not in the least. But those comments hit me hard. Never mind that my SEO book was number 3 in the United States, or that I had just been interviewed for Inc. Magazine, or any of the other credibility indicators. When he asked me that question, I actually paused and thought about it. “Yeah, why are they hiring me to teach? Am I good enough? Do I have what it takes? Am I the best they could bring in? Do I deserve to be there? Am I a fraud? Do I even know what I’m talking about?”

  There is nothing unique about my story. We have all had experiences where we begin to hear the voice in our heads whispering—or in some cases shout-ing—“Who do you think you are?”

  The impostor syndrome will work hard to hold you back.

  High performers with impostor syndrome may work obsessively to prevent people from discovering that they’re “impostors.” And talk about a vicious cycle: The hard work leads to more praise and success, which only perpetuates the impostor feelings, leading the “impostor” to work even harder, which can lead to sleep deprivation, burnout, and worse.

  Ingredient #2: The “impostor” takes the proof of success and passes it off as luck, timing, or the result of deceiving others into thinking he or she is more intelligent and competent than the person believes.

  Has your business ever gone through a growth spurt that you couldn’t explain? Have you ever looked around your office and suddenly realized you have some amazing people working for you and looking to you for leadership—and, yet, you cannot figure out what they see in you? Have you ever felt uncomfortable before a presentation with a new client? Did you wonder why the client invited you to the table?

  Why do we ask ourselves such lousy and unfair questions?

  Here’s the important point that I really want you to get. When you ask yourself, “How on earth were we able to hire such amazing employees? Don’t they know that we don’t know what in the world we’re doing?” your brain does a funny thing . . . it gives you an answer.

  It’s a crummy answer but it’s an answer. Your brain doesn’t want to make you out to be a liar—so it gives you the answer to fit your story.

  You start hearing things like, “Yeah, you really pulled the wool over their eyes on that one. Hope Becky doesn’t figure it out—because if she leaves—then Tom is sure to leave the company, too.” Or, “Why did client X invite us here? We don’t really have a shot at winning this pitch, do we?”

  The answer you get back might be something like, “Nope, we have no chance of winning—especially if they knew about all the mistakes we made just last week on client Z’s account. We are lucky to have kept client Z; I hope X doesn’t ask for references. Maybe we ought to back out of the process now.”

  What nonsense. You were invited into the evaluation process because you have a stellar network—perhaps stellar credentials—and you deserve to be at the table. The voice on your shoulder—the voice whispering in your ear—is the impostor syndrome.

  And we all deal with it. It doesn’t matter who you are thinking of right now. Tim Ferriss, bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek, has dealt with it. Joel Osteen has dealt with it. All of the incredible business leaders who grace the cover of Entrepreneur magazine deal with it. Every business owner—every political leader—every leader throughout history has dealt with this. George Washington did not feel he was worthy to be this country’s first president. No one is immune from impostor syndrome.

  But what is unique—and what is special—is when someone faces the fear of potential rejection. To quote the beautiful words of educator and behavior expert Dr. Marcie Beigel, a two-time Onward Nation guest, “Stephen . . . be scared, and then do it anyway!” I loved that.

  Because it is oftentimes fear—which is another way of describing impostor syndrome—that gets in your way more than anything else. You may be your own biggest constraint. Not your ability to schedule guests on your show, not your ability to sell, not the market, not your lack of customers, not your pricing, not your product quality. No, it is you. You, as the owner, set the pace and tempo of your company: either fast or slow.

  I asked Dr. Marcie to share how business owners can reach that elusive next level. She was kind enough to map it out in three simple steps:

  1.Get clear on what the next level is—how will you know when you’re there?

  2.Walk through your fear; make a plan—and just do it.

  3.Find a mentor—we learn best from the people who have been there.

  And let’s look at all three of these.

  First, get clear on what the next level is for you and your business. Well, if impostor syndrome (aka fear) is making you believe that you are not even worthy of your current level of success, then how could you possibly believe you’re worthy of being the host of a top-ranked podcast?

  Great question, right? Instead, perhaps you need to spend some time being thankful for what you have already accomplished by consciously acknowledging that what you have achieved has been well deserved because you worked hard and you applied your God-given gifts and talents to get there.

  Now, to realize your full potential, it’s time to leap off your current plateau and move onward to that next level. You deserve to be at the next level. You’re an expert. The first step is to give yourself permission to define that next level so you know when you, your podcast, and your business have arrived.

  Second, be scared about the next level . . . and do it anyway. Kick fear to the curb. What’s the worst that could happen? Prospective customers could say no. You might make a bad decision and lose some money. An employee or a group of employees may disagree with how you’re redirecting the company and could decide to leave.

  Okay. Are any of these life-threatening situations? Did anyone die? No? Then move on!

  Stop making each decision more than it has to be. Just make a decision. Then move on. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that. As Dr. Marcie said, “Be scared and then do it anyway.”

  Finally, find a mentor to learn from, as Don Yaeger recommended in the Foreword of this book. More specifically, find a mentor or group of mentors who are all moving at a pace and tempo that is faster than you are. It matters who you spend your time with; if you spend your time with people who are moving at your current pace—or slower—those people may make you feel comfortable to be around, they may not challenge you, they may not push you or ask you tough questions, and it is easy to relax and unwind.

  Why? Because as Coach John Wooden once said, “You will never outperform your inner circle.” That’s just human nature.

  So you need to make sure the mentors you select are operating at a completely different level than you—a level to which you can reach and stretch. You want to get into a group of people where you don’t c
urrently belong and then work like crazy not to get left behind. In the process you’ll expand and grow. You will then be able to leap from your current plateau onto the next rung.

  As Onward Nation guest Scott McKain taught me, “Stephen, you cannot reach that next rung unless you are willing to let go of the current one you are hanging on to.” Wise words.

  You were meant for greatness. You are instilled with an infinite abundance of talent and gifts. Don’t let something as small as fear limit all you were meant to be.

  YOUR SUCCESS CHECKLIST

  Proactively confront the three primary challenges you will face while embarking on production and launch of your podcast:

  How will my podcast make money and help grow my business? You need a clearly defined monetization strategy, and “I’m going to sell ads” isn’t it.

  How much time will this take me? You must be able to invest at least four hours per month toward your podcast.

  How will I get guests? Defeating the impostor syndrome by following Dr. Marcie Beigel’s three simple steps is your key to success. And they are:

  1.Get clear on what the next level is—how will you know when you’re there?

  2.Walk through your fear; make a plan—and just do it.

  3.Find a mentor—we learn best from the people who have been there.

  And, lastly, follow the advice of Coach John Wooden and “protect your inner circle.”

  CHAPTER 2

  TAKE YOUR VITALS

  This chapter will help bring into focus what we at Onward Nation and Predictive ROI refer to as the vital metrics controlling the growth of a business. I learned the vital metrics principle directly from Darren Hardy, former publisher of SUCCESS Magazine. Darren, a former member of our Predictive ROI Board of Advisors, has been one of my most influential mentors in business.

  Darren taught me how “vitals” represent a snapshot and oftentimes a visualization regarding the overall health of a business at any given moment. This chapter includes the comprehensive Evaluation of Predictive Success Metrics (EPSM) as a tool to complete later to provide a snapshot view of the sales and marketing “vitals” in any business. This evaluation will help diagnose any critical areas that may need attention before you receive an inflow of new leads and sales opportunities from your podcast or any proactive marketing system.

  I met Darren when I was invited to attend one of his original High-Performance Forums held at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, California. I was one of twenty-three CEOs of fast-growth companies invited to spend two and a half days with Darren. We spent the time together working through the latest in sales and marketing strategies with some intense masterminding.

  To say I was nervous would be an understatement. But by the time the weekend was over, Darren had accepted my invitation to speak at an upcoming live event Predictive ROI was hosting. Darren and I also worked out an agreement for him to join our board of advisers for twelve months, during which he would personally mentor me on growing our business and new directions we ought to consider. It was the most intense year of my business career and exactly what I needed to learn, even though the process was challenging and sometimes painful. A great mentor pushes even when the last thing you want is to be pushed.

  Darren used a portion of the forum to teach all of us about the importance of our “success vitals.” What were they? How to measure them? How to assess our current business health? The lessons I learned were so impactful and have added so much value into Predictive ROI and our ability to generate revenue from Onward Nation that I wanted to devote this chapter to sharing the most relevant insights.

  At Darren’s forum I met Don Yaeger, New York Times bestselling author, owner of three companies, outstanding man of faith, devoted husband, and one of the most rock star fathers I have seen in action. After that weekend Don and I became accountability partners, agreeing to call each other every Friday morning at seven thirty to report our Wins, Losses, AHAs, and Fixes. We have maintained that weekly accountability for nearly four years. In that time, Don has become one of my best friends and trusted advisers.

  My hope is that this chapter will help bring into focus the vital metrics controlling the growth of a business. Your “vitals” represent a snapshot of your business’s overall health at any given moment.

  To assist in this process, I included our comprehensive Evaluation of Predictive Success Metrics (EPSM) as a tool for you to use. Your score will give you a quick view of the sales and marketing vitals in your business.

  Why is your EPSM score important as it relates to launching your podcast? This evaluation will help you diagnose any critical areas that may need attention before your business is ready to properly handle an inflow of new leads and sales opportunities as a result of your podcast. In addition, your outcomes/score may indicate several corrective actions that need to be addressed so your podcast has the highest probability of success.

  The corrective actions are also important because increasing the flow of leads and sales into an inefficient, ineffective, or absent system within your business is a recipe that could spell disaster. More companies go out of business from indigestion than from starvation. In other words, the problem is that there are too many opportunities, not too few. Having the right systems in place at the outset is essential to your long-term success.

  Let’s begin with several definitions to make sure we get the terminology right.

  We will focus on vital priorities, vital functions, and vital metrics.

  I will show you how to identify the five or six most relevant vital metrics for ensuring that your overall sales and marketing strategies are turning your business into what I like to call a “Sales-Generating Machine.”

  The first term we need to define is vital priorities. What are they and why are they . . . vital?

  Let’s think of vital priorities as your big goals over the next twelve months. If you were to accomplish nothing else, the year will still be a success because your vital priorities will have been checked off the list. On the other hand, if you don’t accomplish these vital few, then other accomplishments won’t really matter.

  What are the vital priorities in your business right now?

  Then there are the vital functions. These are the skills and the talents that make you the best person in your company at a certain set of tasks, processes, or projects. Vital functions are the tasks you cannot delegate and you cannot hire out. Not only are you good at them, but also you drive business growth by performing them.

  Take a moment to consider your vital functions. What functions are critically important to the success of your business and cannot be delegated away? Resist the temptation to let yourself say things like: bookkeeping, answering the phone, emailing customers, preparing proposals, and a variety of other functions. Are all of those important? Yes. Are they vital? Yes. Can they be delegated? Yes!

  What are you world class at? Or what could you be world class at if you dedicated the right amount of time and energy to it? What could you achieve world-class proficiency in that would move the business along a completely different trajectory? The answers are your vital functions.

  Then there are the vital metrics. These metrics are how you will quantifiably measure your success toward accomplishing your vital priorities.

  Before I share the vital metrics with you—let me try to preempt a question that tends to hook business owners and prevent them from moving forward. I am often asked, “Stephen, this sounds great but I have people on my team who are in charge of these metrics. Why do I need to care about these? I don’t want to learn this stuff, and I certainly don’t want this to become my vital function.”

  Excellent question. Consider this: You don’t need to be the one who pulls the levers or turns the knobs. These metrics do not need to become your vital functions. But if you don’t pay attention to them or care about them, no one else will either.

  In my opinion, your Sales-Generating Podcast has six vital metrics that you need to monitor consistently:
r />   1.Change (increase/decrease) in unique website visitors to your podcast’s website

  2.Change (increase/decrease) in conversion rate of unique website visitors into email opt-ins (list building to be used to increase size of audience/listeners to your podcast)

  3.Change (increase/decrease) in conversion rate of guests into leads

  4.Change (increase/decrease) in conversion rate of guest-leads into proposals

  5.Change (increase/decrease) in conversion rate of guest-proposals into sales

  6.Total podcast-related revenue and total business revenue

  Are you currently tracking and monitoring vital metrics similar to these in your business? If you are, well done! You and your business may already be a superstar at growing revenue from your podcast strategy.

  But if you’re not already paying attention to these vital metrics, the resources in this book will help guide you through making the necessary adjustments so you can put precise checklists and ROI scorecards into place to ensure a regular rhythm of evaluation.

  Evaluating Your Vitals

  Are you ready to take your evaluation of your vitals even deeper? Figure 2-1 provides our comprehensive Evaluation of Predictive Success Metrics (EPSM) as a tool to provide a snapshot view of the sales and marketing “vitals” in any business. This evaluation will help diagnose any critical areas that may need attending to before new leads and sales opportunities flow into a business from your podcast.

  Just answer the questions and then tally your score at the end.

  FIGURE 2-1

  How Did You Do?

  If you scored 33–50 . . . ugh. But no problem—this book will be a great guide for you.

  If you scored 51–75 . . . congratulations. You have a solid foundation and the sky’s the limit.

  If you scored 76–85 . . . You feel that? It’s momentum—and it feels awesome!

  And if you scored 86–96 . . . rock solid awesome. You better send me an email ([email protected]) because I want to interview you on Onward Nation! Well done.