Have you ever felt like you don’t quite fit in on YouTube? Do you doubt that you’re skilled enough to be successful, so you hesitate to even create? If so, don’t worry. You aren’t the only one who has struggled with imposter syndrome. It affects so many creators and leads them to feel embarrassed and give up on their dreams.

I’ve totally been there, but I’ve learned how to overcome it. That is what I will share with you today. ​

​Creator Spotlight ​

But first, I want to introduce you to Nancy Bradshaw. She is a pilot who started an aviation channel years ago out of a desire to share information, inspiration, and motivation for people who wanted to become pilots as a second career. One of her biggest struggles was reaching her target audience. Her niche is so specific that she tried to go too broad and focused too much on SEO. But after working with us, she changed her focus from SEO to using emotion in her titles to draw people in as she thinks specifically of her target audience and what they think and feel. This has been a huge shift for her to focus on people instead of thinking the algorithm is this almighty being that decides her video’s fate. All of this has allowed her to really thrive on her channel and feel far less discouraged. She now encourages creators, “Don’t worry about the algorithm. It’s all about you and the people you want to impact.”

Comparison

I hear a lot of people thinking they aren’t good enough to succeed. Comparison is a huge part of this. There’s a fine line between inspiration and comparison. I love for people to find inspiration in others but once you start to feel like these creators are your “competitors,” it is no longer helpful. You begin to compare their perceived success to your own and that is not only discouraging, but inaccurate as well. Remember, you are only seeing their views and subs. You have no clue what their retention graphs look like. You also don’t know if they paid for views or have any ad money behind their video.

If you are looking at other creators as “competitors,” I would encourage you to put your blinders on. Stop looking at other content in your niche. But instead, focus on yourself and what you can control. What can you work on right now for your channel? Compete with yourself and try to get better retention or higher impressions. Instead of spending time watching other people’s channels, spend time ideating better videos for your own channel. Spend more time on your titles and thumbnails and hooks. Those things are WAY more important than how Joe Shmoe is performing.

Also, remember that you have your own target audience. These “competitors” might be in the same niche, but you are your own unique person. You are trying to reach a very specific person in your niche. That specific person is probably different than who your competitor is trying to reach. Plus, HOW you reach them and WHY you teach or present your material is going to be different than why and how others are trying to reach them. That makes a huge difference. Focus on your why and not on what others are doing.

Fear of Failure

Another thing that holds people back is fear of failure or negative comments. It’s so common to get 100 nice comments and be unaffected. But when that same video gets 1 negative comment, creators start to doubt everything. When this happens to you, remember your why. Remember your target audience. Remember all those people who you are showing up for and don’t let the haters hold you back from reaching them.

And remember that getting non-believers is a good thing. The fact that your content is polarizing enough that people disagree with you is actually an indicator that you are making a good video. If you’ve developed the know, like and trust factor with community content, your tribe will often show up in the comment section as well. They can fight those battles for you. And seeing that can be some of the most encouraging things to witness.

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

A great way to start to overcome this imposter syndrome is to change your perspective. A lot of people get discouraged that they live-streamed and only got 5 views. That’s 5 people in your community that you were able to talk to directly! That’s great! Shifting the perspective from numbers to people can really help change the way you think about things. Every comment is an individual who gave of their time and felt strongly enough about your video enough to say something. It’s far better to have a strong engaged community of less people than to have a huge sub count and no one ever being engaged.

Go back to your goals for your channel. Are you trying to sell something? Because a smaller engaged community is going to have way better sales than a large passive community.

Plus, there are a LOT of smaller niches. Not every niche is going to have 100 million people in it. There are a lot of niches where the top creator is only going to have 50k and that’s ok. That’s where you focus on depth within that community instead of how wide your reach is.

Remember that real success on YouTube takes time. Don’t expect to knock it out of the park on the first try. Embrace a failing forward. This doesn’t mean that you’re trying to make mistakes. But learn the lessons from your failures. Your video wasn’t a dud without reason. Give it a month, then look back and see where you could have done better. Were you just thinking about yourself and what you wanted to talk about or were you talking to the camera like it’s your best friend and you were trying to help them? Find other creators and give each other constructive feedback. Having a second set of eyes that can give you constructive criticism can be a game changer for your channel. VidIQ has a discord group that you can join for this very purpose.

Just be a student and never stop learning. The important thing is to enjoy the process and be graceful with yourself. When you let imposter syndrome hold you back, you get in your own way and that prevents you from having that real connection with your audience. By recognizing and dealing with it, you can boost your confidence and grow your channels in a healthier way. You can beat imposter syndrome and find success on the YouTube journey.

Power Tip

YouTube used to only allow the option of having community posts for channels with 500 subs. But now you can start utilizing it, no matter your size. You can access it by going to the YouTube Studio and going to settings – channel – feature eligibility – then opt into advanced features. Then, you can use this feature to post polls, ask questions and share more information about yourself and your channel. And since YouTube is doing away with YouTube stories, the community posts are having an even bigger impact on your audience.

Keep Changing Lives!

Tim Schmoyer

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