Have you actually heard that saying, fake it until you make it?
Now before you go hog wild on me because you know, we just finished learning how important authenticity, let me actually give you a scenario, then you can decide if you still need to argue with me about faking it until you make it.
IE 328: Fake it Until You Make it
I want you to picture that you are at a conference to help you develop your business.
The first speaker walks up to the podium with her head held high and a slight smile on her lips.
She takes holds of the clicker for the slides projected on a screen behind her.
You can see her take a deep breath, and then she starts addressing the crowd.
Her voice is strong and she’s making eye contact with the audience.
She even asks the audience a question and ribs them for not participating, which of course sends a ton of more hands in.
She delivers the content at a quicker than usual place, but has delivered value.
Now visualize the second speaker.
She walks up the to the podium with index cards in her hand and makes a half-hearted joke about how she’s so nervous that she’s sure she’ll have her slides playing backwards.
She reads her title page of her presentation and flips to the next slide in the right direction.
She continually looks down at her note cards and back at the screen with her projected slides on it.
Her voice is soft and she keeps nervously flipping her hair.
She gets through her first couple of slides and then loses her train of thought and goes off on a tangent that isn’t quite related to her topic.
She makes another half-hearted joke that she can feel her heart beating in her ears, but continues forward while shuffling through her cards to try to find where she left off.
She finishes her presentation and has delivered some value, but in a roundabout, hard to follow way.
Based on these two different scenarios, who would you want to hear, hire to speak at your next event, or even to work one-on-one to help you grow your business?
Who is faking it until they make it?
If you guessed the first one, you’re right.
The second presenter didn’t attempt to fake it.
Her nerves got the best of her.
Would you be surprised to learn that the second speaker has spoken at multiple conferences in the past, but she changed her topic at the last minute and was unfamiliar with the material while the first speaker had practiced her presentation multiple times?
Here’s the kicker.
It was the first speaker’s first time presenting in front of an audience.
She faked it until she made it.
She didn’t have the experience that the second speaker had, but she put in the work on her presentation and faked the confidence that usually comes from having presented before.
She didn’t let her lack of experience hold her back and no one in the audience would know that this was her first time speaking.
Her confidence would likely land her new clients who may even be her first clients, but she is clearly going to put the work into understanding her new clients need.
Of course you’d feel confident hiring her.
Confidence is developed as part of faking it until you make it.
In order to have confidence in a situation that you’ve never been in before, you absolutely have to fake it until you make it.
You need to act as if you’ve done it a hundred times in the past.
This is especially true when you are trying something new for the first time.
So whether you are launching a new product or offering a new service, you have to have confidence in yourself and fake it until you make it.
If you’ve done your research and talked to your audience, then you know that the product you’re offering is going to solve their problem.
That is what should matter.
Don’t focus on the fact that there isn’t any proof in this product yet.
What about all the valuable content that you’ve put out in the past that has helped people?
Just because you’ve never launched a paid product does not mean that you should play small.
This is also the same thing when it comes to video.
I often hear from clients and students that they’re afraid to get in front of the camera.
They’ve never done it before.
They’re totally uncomfortable.
They can tell that they’re stammering.
The only way to get past that is to practice it.
You have to actually put in the practice, take the leap, be ready to play bigger than what you potentially are at right now.
That is the only way to grow.
Growing your business with fake it until you make it.
If you are looking to grow your business, you have to be willing to take that risk of trying something new.
Something new is going to feel uncomfortable.
That is usually a sign that you’re about to grow.
You have to learn to push through it, and if you make a mistake, pick yourself up and continue forward.
Like I said in those two examples of those presenters, the first one didn’t have any experience speaking live in front of an audience while the second had a ton, but came unprepared for the content that she was delivering.
Figuring out a way to make yourself feel confident is faking it until you make it.
Whether it is wearing those shoes with the dress, putting on lipstick, or just listening to music that peps you up before you get onto stage and or in front of the camera.
Everything that we talk about, you can turn around and look at your own business and see where you are holding yourself back by not trying.
So fake it until you make it and see where it can take you.
Be sure to grab the workbook that has the exercise that will walk you through this.
Action Steps:
- If you liked this episode of Influencer Entrepreneurs, please subscribe and leave a fabulous review!
- Join the conversation on Instagram by tagging Jenny when you’re listening to the podcast. She’ll send you a personal message whenever you tag her.
