Welcome to Impostor Syndrome

I’ve been toying with the idea of launching this wardrobe styling and organizational consulting business for months, maybe years! What’s been stopping me? The answer seems so simple! I’ve been stopping myself; because who am I kidding? What do I know? I’m a mom who loves leggings and a big fuzzy oversized sweaters. Do I even have a personal style of my own? I see all these fashion stylists with outrageous, over-the-top, aesthetics on Instagram daring to wear things I would never dream of! I’d counted myself out. Why would anyone hire me? Sure I have the fashion marketing degree and a stylist certification, but certainly that isn’t enough…

Then something funny happened. I told one friend about my dream and her eyes got wide, she screamed “oh my god, you’d be so good at that!!!”. I was puzzled. Me? I could do this? Then I told a few more friends and they all nodded and agreed that I would be good at this. My friends believed in me when I didn’t, isn’t that amazing? Word spread quickly, and before I knew it, I’d booked half a dozen PAYING?!? clients before the website was even up, before I even had an instagram page. And even then, I still felt like a completely unqualified fraud.

Why is it that as women, we doubt ourselves so much? I am qualified, I graduated with a fashion degree for goodness sake! But I still doubt myself My youngest is six and he walks around with the confidence of an expert in every field. He is an Olympic athlete, a trained Michelin-star chef, and has the scientific brain of Stephen Hawking. If I can foster that kind of confidence in my children, I should be able to do it for myself, right?

So I’ve started a new way of thinking: Carry yourself with the confidence of a six year old.