Twitter as X, Imposter Syndrome as a Creator, Replying to Comments, & more - Ep. 67

In this episode, James talks about Twitter rebranding to 'X' and shares his experience with imposter syndrome in influencer marketing. He gives tips on growing as a creator, embracing new challenges; interacting with online communities; responding to DMs and comments; & more.

Below is a portion of the episode transcript for your reading pleasure. Make sure to subscribe to the Fohr YouTube channel to get notified of new episodes, and watch the full episode below.

How can creators overcome imposter syndrome?

Viewer Question: How can creators overcome imposter syndrome? I've been doing this for years, and I still feel like somehow I'm tricking people every time I do a new campaign. I feel like brands must think I'm an idiot for asking for so much money.

First question, this one's, I love this question. I think it's so important. First of all, I looked at the account of the young woman who asked this question, and your content looks great. I'm sure that brands are very happy to give you that money, and you deserve every cent of it. It's important to remember that you are part of a marketplace, and what you do has real value. You shouldn't feel bad for extracting that value out of it.

Since building a community of that size requires a huge amount of work, very few people can do it. And while it may look easy, it is actually incredibly difficult. So, on the brand side, it's a value exchange. They're paying for it, and they're happy to do so. Before we get into the imposter thing, I do want to say that I think it's actually really admirable and healthy to feel a certain level of responsibility for taking that brand money. You know, while this is a value exchange and the market sets the rates, you are still part of a much larger multi-billion dollar industry that is growing very quickly. That money belongs to someone, and they are spending it with you. Taking ownership over that, feeling the weight of that responsibility, and being responsible for it are all really important.

I think becoming entitled to money is a sign of being an a**hole. It's when you stop putting in effort and view your brand partners as annoying gnats that fund your lifestyle without showing any respect. Feeling like an a**hole for taking the money is actually a breath of fresh air and a positive thing.

At Fohr, we have core values, one of which is ownership. One of the subpoints is that we expect our team to treat our clients' money as if it were their own, with respect and by providing as much value as possible to the brands for the money they spend.

And I think that if you can keep that mindset and understand that whether you're getting $500, $5,000, or $50,000, that is real money and it could go to any number of thousands of other influencers, you should be working really hard to make sure that the brand is getting value out of it. Because when you lose sight of that and start to feel entitled, that's when you probably start to lose. I guarantee that the people who are most successful in this space are the ones that treat their partners the best, do the most for them, and really enter those relationships as partnerships and take the money that they're spending seriously.

The last point is the idea of imposter syndrome. I have a unique relationship with it. I think that there is a lot of advice out there that tells you that you shouldn't be feeling that way and that you should understand that you deserve to be where you are. Imposter syndrome is somehow something that is supposed to be avoided.

I think ultimately, it is unavoidable that if you put yourself into new situations and strive to continue growing as an individual in your career, you will constantly feel like you have no idea what you're doing and don't deserve to be there. And that's okay. Every day, I feel the weight of the responsibility of running this company. I don't have a playbook to tell me how to do it, nor do I have somebody above me telling me what I should be focusing on or how I need to change. However, the way I ran the company a year ago cannot be the way I run the company today or in six months. Growth asks a lot of somebody.

And a big part of growth is putting yourself into situations that you are not prepared for, where you are the least skilled, least experienced person in the room. Owning that and not deluding yourself into thinking that just because you're there, in that position, whether the room's physical or proverbial, that you're the sh*t and that you don't have to work on anything or think about any of it. I think that ultimately, it's a nice thought and one that probably can help you go viral on TikTok or something by saying that you deserve this, but it's f*cking bullsh*t.

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