Ooooh, You Fool! How to Kill Your Imposter Syndrome With My FAVORITE Trick Ever 🔪

The other day, a journalist for The Guardian called and asked me about imposter syndrome.

(THAT IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU HAVE A BOOK WITH A SUBTITLE THAT HAS THE WORDS ‘IMPOSTER SYNDROME.’ 🤣)

I woke up at 4 o’clock in the morning for the call, as one does, and I’m pretty sure I said the word “shit” at least twice during our chat (which immediately revoked my posh British conversation card).

She wanted tips, because—FYI—all journalists want tips, so that is your first tip if you’re trying to get media coverage for yourself:

Publish. Lots. Of. Delicious. Slurpy. Hot. Little. Filet-Mignon-Bite-Sized Tips.

Tangible, perspective-shifting, unusual-but-effective tips are what make you a media darling. No need to pull out your boobs.

Anyway, I gave her 3 tangible tips—like the good girl that I am—but I wanted to share another one that’s helped me *immensely* with my new passion project—*launching this Tuesday!*—since this passion project isn’t something you’d normally associate with “Ash Ambirge.”

(Though “accidentally buying seventeen new domain names at 3AM” is extremely on brand. Ditto naming businesses after gas stations, dead fish, and questionable hygiene policies.)

And, sometimes, when you’re launching a side project, it can be ~~~weird~~~ if you’re trying out something totally new. That cutty little wench known as imposter syndrome 💕 loves 💕 to rear her head and cover you with snake spit. 🐍 There’s a lot of pressure to stay in your lane, as it were, lest you ‘disappoint people.’ Isn’t that weird? That we worry so much about disappointing people we’ve never even met? But, it’s also an identity thing. And, by adding something new to our identity, we’re diluting our old one. And, that feels like giving up power. But, guess what, snacks?

It’s not dilution, it’s evolution. Caterpillars don’t sit around worrying that the butterfly will ‘disappoint people.’

So, here’s a killer perspective shift that might help YOU if you’re also considering starting any new type of passion project yourself! (And feeling ALL the imposter-y ‘who am I to do X’ feels.)

• You know how it can be scary, throwing yourself into a new arena?
• You know how you don’t have a decade of experience in that arena, so you feel a little like a giant swampy-ass’d toddler?
• You know how you’re sliiiiiiightly worried the whole thing will completely flop?
• And, you know how you’re procrastinating launching because you don’t feel confident yet?

Well, here’s where you can *steal* some orange-hot confidence!

Ready?

My trick is this:

Bring the right set of glasses for the job.

Here’s what I mean:

Any subject you’re interested in, on its face, is a biggggg, broad subject, right?

• Gardening
• Poker
• Woodworking
• Cooking
• Dating
• History
• Linguistics
• Hiking
• Bird Watching

…the list goes on.

This is why it can be hard for ‘a nobody like you’ (I’m stealing your words!) to launch a passion project in something as vast as ‘hiking,’ because the subject matter itself feels SO BIG.

Who are you to do that?
There are already so many other people out there doing that.
You’ll never get traction or stand out from the crowd.
Where do you even start?
This just feels like an exercise in self-defeat.

That’s because it’s like looking up in the sky and trying to make sense of it all: it’s a big-ass place.

Which is why what you need?

Is a pair of polarizing sunglasses. 🕶️

See, regular sunglasses? They just dim the world. Everything’s still overwhelming, just slightly moodier—like you slapped a Valencia filter on your panic attack.

Polarized sunglasses are different. They don’t just make things darker; they cut the glare. Suddenly, the blinding reflections bouncing off the water vanish, and you can see the damn fish.

That’s the move with any new project. It’s not about “doing gardening” or “doing hiking” or “doing cooking” like a million other people already are. That’s just standing in the full glare of the sun and hoping not to get burned.

It’s about finding your polarizing filter—your weird, specific, deliciously-you lens that makes the ordinary look interesting. That’s the thing that separates you from the noise. 🫨

So instead of:

• a dating podcast → a dating podcast where your mom weighs in on your swipes before you do.
• “a gardening newsletter” → it becomes a gardening newsletter from someone who names all her plants after ex-boyfriends and documents their slow, tragic deaths.
• “a cooking show” → it becomes a cooking show where the oven’s always broken and you’re making Michelin meals on a camping stove.
• “a baseball blog” → a baseball blog that only talks about the concession stand food at every stadium.
• “a wine blog” → a wine blog written entirely by people who can’t tell the difference between Merlot and Capri Sun.

Same subject, totally different picture.

That’s why confidence doesn’t come from having the “right” subject—it comes from wearing the right glasses.

AKA—finding the right lens.

Oooooo, you see how we got there, right? LENS, BABY. Turning a mediocre idea into a marketable one *all* depends on the lens through which you choose to view a certain subject.

That’s what makes an idea compelling.

And, you HAVE a compelling lens, I know you do, because you are a human being who has lived a thousand lives. And any one of those lives would make for a super interesting lens through which you can view this new topic.

You’ll know it when you land on it—and *that’s* what’s going to boost your confidence.

Because when you know you got an orange-hot concept on your hands?

The concept can do the heavy lifting / buzz / marketing—

—and you can stop worrying that your project’s going to seem dinky and unimportant, but rather elevated and fascinating.

And this Tuesday?

I’ll be revealing how I’ve done this for myself. As a paid subscriber, I’ll be taking you behind the scenes with me and show you how I strategized this new brand concept—and where it’s going next!

Because you don’t need to be the expert in everything in order to start a passion project around it—you just need the right filter to make the ordinary look electric. ⚡️

That’s not “faking it.” That’s literally the job.

And when you find the right lens?

You stop worrying about whether you belong, because you realize you’re not supposed to blend in.

You’re supposed to see what others can’t.