Restoring Confidence and Overcoming Imposter Syndrom as EDM Producers
It’s no secret that as an EDM producer your highs are really high, but your lows can be even lower…
Sometimes secluding yourself from the world around you, all to create music, can shake your foundation to its core.
EDM producers, and just about every other creative out there, experience the same exact feeling… This feeling of crippling self doubt and intimidation of the others around them…
That, my friends, is what we call Imposter Syndrome.
Today, I’m taking a dive into what Imposter Syndrome is, how to recognize it, and most of all, how to beat it.
In this episode you’ll learn:
- What imposter syndrome is
- How to spot imposter syndrome
- How to overcome imposter syndrome
and so much more!
Episode Links
Electronic Dance Money Episode 016 – 3 Tips to Getting More Streams on Your Tracks – https://enviousaudio.com/episode16/
Show.co – https://show.co
Electronic Dance Money Community – https://www.facebook.com/groups/393782934612748/
Automatic Episode Transcript — Please excuse any errors, not reviewed for accuracy
Hey, guys. Welcome to Elektronik. Dance Money. You’re number one business resource for making money as Elektronik musicians and producers. Hey, guys, what’s up? Welcome back to a brand new episode of electronic dance money. I’m your host Christian Cas Ito Last episode has been getting really good reviews. Super glad that people are enjoying that one as well.
I mean, I think we’re on a pretty good role here with, you know, providing as much information to you guys as possible while learning something new and helping you improve. Getting to where you want to be is a full time producer. So I’m super happy with this stuff and with that being said, you know, a lot of the things we talked about here, a ways that you can improve the things you’re doing or start doing something that’s gonna help you make more money as a producer so you can go full time, and occasionally we kind of talked about the mindset of things. I think mindset is super important because if you don’t have a good mind set and what you’re doing, you’re not putting all of the energy that you should be putting into it and Not only that, but you’re not working at an efficient level. You’re not at 100% in when you’re not working at an efficient level, you can put out sloppy stuff. And when you put out sloppy stuff that shows on who you are and it can make you actually in turn lose money, you could be doing everything that we’ve discussed in this podcast so far. But if your mindset isn’t where it needs to be and you’re stuck kind of down on yourself, you could be losing way more money than anything. You’re just wasting your time and what’s more precious than your time? We can always get more money, but we can’t get enough time. And so some of the things that kind of going to that are like overworking yourself. But the one thing we’re gonna be talking about today is imposter syndrome. This is something that every single one of you listening this podcast has experienced and you might even be experiencing it now, which is one of the reasons why you want to listen to this podcast. And if you don’t know what imposter syndrome is, imposter syndrome is a mindset that every single creative person gets into and even people outside of a creative field. But basically it’s this feeling of you are not worth it. Your music sucks. You’re never gonna be good. Any successes you had were just made of sheer luck. Anyone else’s success was just They were at the right place at the right time. They didn’t work hard. It’s this mindset of putting you in a sense of failure. A sense of you don’t belong where you’re at. You’re not a professional. You shouldn’t make tutorial videos because you don’t know what you’re talking about. And if you don’t know what you’re talking about, other people are going to see that, and they’re gonna make fun of you. The same reason why you don’t release music. You don’t release music because you don’t think it’s good enough because other people are gonna listen to it and they’re gonna make fun of you because it doesn’t sound as good as the professionals music. As I’m saying this, I’m sure a bunch of you are going Yeah, that’s what I experience on a daily basis. And I believe you. I 100% believe you. I experienced this on a daily basis as well. A lot of the times when I’m coming up with episodes and even right before I’m recording episodes for the podcast. I’m thinking the exact same thing I’m thinking. What am I doing? Why am I talking into this microphone? Two people I don’t even know And why do they trust me so much? I don’t know what I’m talking about. Who am I? And I say these kinds of things and then I you know, I record a podcast, and as I’m editing it, I’m realizing No, this is good, useful information. This is stuff I wish I would have heard when I was a younger producer When I was a few years into the game, I wish I would have heard this stuff and someone told it to me because I think I would be in a completely different spot right now. So this is what we’re going to be discussing today. And the first thing I want to talk about is how you can spot imposter syndrome, because the first step is spotting it to get over this and rebuild the confidence that you deserve, because I’ll tell you right now you are supposed to be where you’re at. You’re supposed to be creating music for other people to enjoy, but one it just takes time into it takes work time plus work equals success. So the first thing about spotting imposter syndrome to get rid of it is to realize in the moment what you’re thinking in those moments because it happened. You know, sometimes it might last for a whole day. Or it might just be for a couple of hours when you see someone else’s track who’s just a little bit bigger than you and they’re track is amazing. You might be thinking, What the fuck am I doing right there? You should stop and think. Hang on. This is Imposter syndrome kicking in. That’s gonna be your first step to overcoming. This is understanding. Realize in the moment this is imposter syndrome. How should I be dealing with this? And there’s some other things that you might need to because, you know, there might be a few different moments when this happens, because, remember, it’s not just coming down on yourself, but it’s also coming down on others. So you have to really be really think about what you’re about to say or what you’re thinking in the moment. And you know, if you’re looking at other people in your thinking, well, they only got this because of that. Or they only did that because they would have gotten this. That’s that right? There’s imposter syndrome. Speaking to you is as well it’s you wanting to lower the their success so you can keep yourself up on a higher pedestal. This is impostor syndrome that you want to get rid of, and it’s not gonna help you out. When you dwell on other stuff, it’s only gonna bring you down and make you feel worse. And then you’re not gonna be working at 100%. You’re not going to be efficient. You’re not gonna be putting out the best things that you could be putting out in the moment. So be sure to pay attention to not just with what you’re saying about yourself, but what are you thinking about other people, other people who might get a little bit more success than you When you’ve been working at it for the same amount of time, it’s there’s nothing wrong with them. They’re doing what they need to do. And here’s the other thing, too, is they’re thinking the same thing is you. So that brings us to the next topic, which is how you can overcome Imposter syndrome, what to do when you’re overwhelmed by it when it seems like it’s consuming you. The first thing is to understand that every single other person is experiencing the same thing. I swear to God, if you know another producer, reach out to them right now and say, Hey, do you know what Imposter syndrome is? This is what it is. Do you ever experience this? I will put 10 times out of 10. I will put money down in un saying that they say yes. And if they say no, they’re lying. It’s just a boldface lie. Every single person experiences this, whether you are a top of the top or you’re the lowest of the low. Everyone experiences this, so you got to realize that this is not. This isn’t a journey you’re taking by yourself. There’s other people that are involved in this as well. By understanding that everyone experiences this imposter syndrome, it’s a lot easier to reach out to other people to talk about this kind of thing. And I highly recommend you do right now. Reach out to someone, ask them if they’ve ever experienced imposter syndrome. If they have that someone you can talk to and talking to people about this sort of thing helps a lot. There’s nothing that helps me out more. Then when I’m feeling like what I’m doing is not what I’m supposed to do, I don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m not skilled enough. II are enough hours under my belt, whatever it is. And then when I start talking to some my good friends and they’re asking me Oh, what have you been up to? And I just start going Oh, you know, I’m working on this. I did that, that I did that. And then I start to really think about what I’m saying, and I go, Oh, shit. Like within the past three or four days, these air, all the things that I’ve done. But I don’t feel like I’ve done enough. And then I realized, No, I’m doing enough. I’m doing plenty of things well, and it starts to dawn on me where I go. Oh, you know what I think I might be working too much, and this brings us to the other thing. When you are kind of feeling like Imposter syndrome is really creeping up on you, it might be time to take a little bit of a break, get some rest. We’re going to do a whole episode on rest and how important it is to take a day off. Every single one of you should be taking, at least ah, full day where you’re not working your day job. You’re not working on music. You’re not doing anything at all. Only things that are gonna help restore you. But that’s not this episode, but it is a part of it. Taking a break is a part of this overcoming imposter syndrome. When it’s overwhelming and it feels like it’s too much, it’s time to just step away for a day or two. Just turn the computer off, maybe go play video games on your consul, Watch some TV, watch Netflix. Whatever it is, just step away from music. Don’t go on Facebook and Instagram and look at other people’s music stuff. Just let your mind rest and get off of the topic. Taking a break is one of the most important things to do you to do for your music. The last part we’re going to be talking about with overcoming Imposter syndrome are two little things that I are kind of one in one in the same. The last thing we’re gonna be talking about is something that we talked about in Episode seven, which is stop failing and start succeeding. And it’s kind of a bridge off of one of the subjects we talked about in that which is framing your failures as lessons. This is a really key one when you feel like you’ve failed. It’s important to review what you learned in that failure quote unquote failure because I don’t like calling them failures. I think they’re all lessons when you can review what you did and where you went wrong. That’s when you can go. This is a big lesson that I can learn from. This is what I could have done to make this a little bit more successful, and with that comes framing a positive mindset. This is the second part to this last topic, which is staying positive when you can reframe these quote unquote failures as lessons you’re already reprogramming your mind to look at any sort of failure as a good thing. It’s a lesson you’re getting something out of this. You’re not just getting more plays off, whatever. Whatever it is, you’re not just getting the instant gratification. You’re really having to think in process what you learned and apply that in the next thing, which can take you so far. If you can reframe, everything is being a positive. When you see another producer who’s been working at the same game as you, that shouldn’t be a competitive thing. You shouldn’t look at that and go, Oh well, they got theirs, Where’s mine? I didn’t get mine. I don’t like that person. No, no, no, no. That’s not what you should be doing. Instead, you should be praising them. You should be reaching out when telling them how proud you are event and how great their stuff is. You should be, how trying to help them because if they’re going somewhere and you’re on their good side, you could be going somewhere with them. And if they’re in the same mindset that we’re talking about here than so many other people can help each other. This is This is one of the key things with everyone listening. This episode today is that if you can re program your mind thio getting this positive aspect, where you see someone succeeding and you want to help them and give them praise and push them even further. If everyone could do that in this episode, so many of you guys will be going so many different places and in a good way, as the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all ships. This is how you guys should be thinking. Any time you see a negative, you have to look for the positive, and this is gonna help you get out of this impostor syndrome loop that you might constantly be in. Trust me, I used to experience Imposter syndrome so frequently it was causing me so much stress anxiety. I had to start seeing a therapist for it, and it wasn’t until I started to really reprogrammed my mind to where Imposter syndrome doesn’t pop up very frequently. It still does, and I’m sure it always will. It will never go away, but it’s far less than it used to be, and it’s far less severe is well, which is what you’re trying to go for. So don’t let Imposter Syndrome keep you down. You’re supposed to be here. You’re supposed to be creating music for other people to enjoy again. Time plus work equals success. So you have to work at it and know that it’s not gonna come over night. There’s so many people that don’t have a career until they’re 10 years into it. So if you’re only on year two, you gotta buckle up and understand that you might not get anything remotely successful for another eight years. It’s a possibility it might not. You might get it in two or three, but you have to get in this mindset of urine the long game here. You gotta play your cards right in the long game. Get to that 10 year mark and then re evaluate if you need Thio. But understand that it takes time. You’re not gonna be an overnight success. More than likely you could be, who knows? But more than likely, you’re not gonna be an overnight success. So be patient and know that other people are writing this journey with you. They’re feeling the same way and talk to each other. Reach out. That’s it for today, guys. It’s Christmas Eve that I’m recording this podcast episode, so I gotta get to prepping. Something’s spending some time with family. I’m also feeling a little bit sick, so I don’t want to run your years into the ground for another 45 minutes, especially because I’ll be dead for Christmas. And I’ve got a six and 1/2 pound rib roast for tomorrow night that I’ve been dry aging for nine days now, So I want to enjoy that. But you guys, as always, head to the Facebook community. Electron dance money community Apple podcast to rate in. Review The show share this episode of the friend you know, someone struggling with imposter syndrome or they don’t know much about it. Share this episode with them. They deserve to know what you’re learning in this episode as well. So take care, guys. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. We’ll see you guys next time
Recent Episodes
Want to help support the show? Leave a usefull review of the podcast, and let me know what you think!
Electronic Dance Money Episode #110 – How Finding The Right Job Can Make You a Better EDM Producer
#110 - How Finding The Right Job Can Make You a Better EDM Producer In this day and age, finding the right job can be difficult, but not impossible. "The right job" means you have balance in your day job and your hobbies outside of it. You need flexibility, support...
Electronic Dance Money Episode #109 – Why You Need to Make a Move on Threads
Why You Need to Make a Move on Threads Ever wonder what it's like to get first dibs for an audience on a new social media platform? Well now is your chance! In this episode we're talking about why you should be getting on Threads ASAP. If you missed out on the...