Imposter syndrome impacts 7 out of 10 highly creative people during their lifetime. Knowing how to respond can make all the difference.
Imposter syndrome is loosely defined as doubting your abilities and feeling like a fraud. It disproportionately affects high-achieving people, who find it difficult to accept their accomplishments.
Let’s use an example:
Your new single comes out, and the response is overwhelmingly positive. As people reach out to congratulate you, something inside your head questions the legitimacy of their claims. People tell you that you’re special and that you’ve made something impressive, but you don’t feel that way. You may believe the opposite! You think your success boils down to luck, not talent, and that you play no role in your achievements.
If you recognize that feeling, then you’ve encountered Imposter Syndrome.
In this Music Biz update, host James Shotwell explains the causes of imposter syndrome and its research. He also shares more than a half-dozen proven methods of overcoming this dreadful disease, as well as his personal struggles.
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Break the silence. Shame keeps a lot of people from “fessing up” about their fraudulent feelings. Knowing there’s a name for these feelings and that you are not alone can be tremendously freeing.
Separate feelings from fact. There are times you’ll feel stupid. It happens to everyone from time to time. Realize that just because you may feel stupid, doesn’t mean you are.
Recognize when you should feel fraudulent. A sense of belonging fosters confidence. If you’re the only or one of a few people in a meeting, classroom, field, or workplace who look or sound like you or are much older or younger, then it’s only natural you’d sometimes feel like you don’t totally fit in. Plus if you’re the first woman, people of color, or person with a disability to achieve something in your world, e.g. first VP, astronaut, judge, supervisor, firefighter, honoree, etc. there’s that added pressure to represent your entire group. Instead of taking your self-doubt as a sign of your ineptness, recognize that it might be a normal response to being on the receiving end of social stereotypes about competence and intelligence.
Accentuate the positive. The good news is being a perfectionist means you care deeply about the quality of your work. The key is to continue to strive for excellence when it matters most, but don’t persevere over routine tasks and forgive yourself when the inevitable mistake happens.
Develop a healthy response to failure and mistake making. Henry Ford once said, “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” Instead of beating yourself up for falling short, do what players on the losing sports team do and glean the learning value from the loss and move on reminding yourself, “I’ll get ’em next time.”
Right the rules. If you’ve been operating under misguided rules like, “I should always know the answer,” or “Never ask for help” start asserting your rights. Recognize that you have just as much right as the next person to be wrong, have an off-day, or ask for assistance.
Develop a new script. Become consciously aware of the conversation going on in your head when you’re in a situation that triggers your Impostor feelings. This is your internal script. Then instead of thinking, “Wait till they find out I have no idea what I’m doing,” tell yourself “Everyone who starts something new feels off-base in the beginning. I may not know all the answers but I’m smart enough to find them out.” Instead of looking around the room and thinking, “Oh my God everyone here is brilliant…. and I’m not” go with “Wow, everyone here is brilliant – I’m really going to learn a lot!”
Visualize success. Do what professional athletes do. Spend time beforehand picturing yourself making a successful presentation or calmly posing your question in class. It sure beats picturing impending disaster and will help with performance-related stress.
Fake it ‘til you make it. Now and then we all have to fly by the seat of our pants. Instead of considering “winging it” as proof of your ineptness, learn to do what many high achievers do and view it as a skill. The point of the worn-out phrase, fake it til you make it, still stands: Don’t wait until you feel confident to start putting yourself out there. Courage comes from taking risks. Change your behavior first and allow your confidence to build.
Everyone is struggling with maintaining forward momentum this year, and that’s okay.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll repeat it: 2020 is a monster. No one saw this year coming, which is why many people in the music business are continuing to struggle. Live music is on indefinite hiatus, streaming stats are slumping, and jobs are increasingly hard to find. Those factors are enough to drive anyone crazy, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Everyone is feeling burnt out, including yours truly, but there are practical solutions that everyone can attempt.
Burnout is, in the simplest terms, a feeling of creative or professional exhaustion. Everyone experiences burnout in their lifetimes, often on a relatively frequent basis, and the effects vary greatly from person to person. Some describe feeling lethargic or stuck in a creative rut, while others cannot find the passion they once felt for the art they pursue.
But fear not because Music Biz is here to help. Our team has pulled together the leading causes of burnout in music today and paired them with simple solutions that offer swift relief to those in pain. We know feeling burnt out can create a cloud of doubt around your artistic and professional pursuits, so we’re doing our best to show you changes you can implement today to ensure a better, happier tomorrow. Check it out:
Burnout comes for us all, and it can have life-changing consequences. In this video, we will help you recognize the warning signs and take action.
According to a figure we just made it, burnout causes more current and aspiring music professionals to abandon their chosen career path. The human body and mind have not evolved to work around the clock, nor are those things meant to feel the pressure to create at all waking hours of the day. When you feel yourself hitting a wall, burnout is not far behind.
Burnout is the feeling of mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion. Everyone you know has experienced burnout at some point in their life, and how they reacted to that affliction likely shaped the person they have become. Music professionals have a higher likelihood of feeling the effects of burnout than most because we work in a field that is primarily driven by creative output. Whether you’re an artist hoping to top the charts or someone hoping to work behind the scenes, the business of music thrives on innovation, but no one is supposed to work all the time (even if some people in power may claim otherwise).
In this episode of Music Biz 101, host James Shotwell breaks down the causes of burnout and what you can do to prevent it from consuming your life. Learn more and watch additional clips by subscribing to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2W8bEis.
Burnout robs many aspiring musicians and music professionals of their dreams, but that doesn’t have to be the case.
The digital age has given us many gifts. We are more connected than ever, we have access to more information, and there are always cute videos of dogs and cats to distract us from the horrors of existence. It’s pretty good…For the most part.
But the access given to us by the digital age comes a drawback. People have become so obsessed with the immediacy of the Internet that they tend to expect the same from all areas of life. We want it all, and we want it all right now. Not tomorrow, not after several weeks or years of hard work, but right now. Give us the thing we want or give us death.
Nothing in life worth accomplishing offers immediate gratification. There is no magic trick to success that shortens the time it takes to reach the summit of your dreams or lessens the amount of work that needs to be done. In regards to music, there is no guarantee that you’ll ever become a star or have a chart-topping hit. On the professional side, there is no proven method to landing a lasting career. That has always been true, but something about the digital age has made this reality weigh heavily on people caught in the struggle.
The number one reason people in music experience burnout today is because they are impatient. No one wants to wait for success. It seems every week a new musicians or professional emerges from the crowd and achieves seemingly overnight success, often years before their peers, and that accomplishment causes others to question their own validity as music professionals. Once that happens, people in music tend to decide that they aren’t pushing themselves hard enough. They aren’t creating enough or working enough or sending enough emails. They push themselves to the limit in hopes that will make a difference, and when it doesn’t produce immediate results, they implode.
“If a teenager with a laptop can create a platinum-selling song in their bedroom, why hasn’t [insert whatever it is you do] taken off yet?”
We ask ourselves questions like that because we see the success of others as saying something negative about us, but it’s not. The success of another is not a slam against you. Maybe they did work harder, but they also may have gotten lucky. We can never predict what listeners will want in a week from now, let alone three to six months. A song like “Old Town Road” might top the chart for a month, but whether or not Lil Nas X can produce another hit remains to be seen. His current single could be his only hit.
Meanwhile, you are building a catalog of strong material you believe in that your fans want to hear. You might not have that lightning in a bottle hit that changes everything, but you have songs that people will pay to hear and own. You also have an engaged following, or you’re working towards building one, and that will allow you to continue making music for many years to come.
If you want to avoid burnout you need to avoid that voice in your head that assumes success is owed to you. Success requires time and sacrifice. There may be exceptions, but the longevity of careers for those who skip a step or two on the ladder of success are often significantly shorter than the careers of individuals who put in the work, take their time, and take care of themselves. As long as you’re doing the best you can do, then you’re already do everything that needs to be done.
Everyone in music works too much and has a million things they feel they must accomplish, but taking time to recover is just as important as getting ahead.
Movies and television based on the life of music professionals and the artists they support make the entertainment business seem like a nonstop party highlighted by epic highs and perilous lows. It’s true that there is a lot of fun to be had in this industry, as well as plenty of opportunities to cut loose, but work is work. Music professionals often put in 45-80 hour weeks, every week, for as long as they can convince their body to continue getting out of bed. It’s like the postal service motto about how no weather can stop the mail from being delivered, only without the exercise.
There are many professionals working in music today who are great at their jobs. These individuals are the movers and shakers of the industry. They pour every ounce of themselves into their daily tasks, exceed expectations, and quite often find themselves being praised for all they do on industry blogs. The entertainment business tells us to admire those professionals because they have the power to make dreams come true, but far too often celebrations of talent overlook one key to success that anyone who makes a lasting career out of music possesses: Avoiding Burnout.
If 100 people decided to pursue working in the music industry at the same time, how many would eventually have a career? Of those that make it, how many would last more than five years? Ten? Twenty?
These are questions I think about a lot. Having worked in music for a decade now, longer if you count unpaid work, I’ve lost count of how many friends and acquaintances have chosen to pursue other careers. Some feel they will never find stable employment, while others run themselves ragged trying to establish a presence in the industry.
Not long ago, a magazine Editor I had worked with for nearly six years abruptly exited his role. When I inquired as to why he stepped down his response was simple, “I’m just tired.”
Anyone who chooses to pursue a career in music is told from the day they make their desires known that success is a rarity guaranteed to no one. We are trained to believe music is a battleground where the hardest working people trample one another to uplift the most creative minds we can uncover. We are told to network, but also keep our cards close to our chest, and because of all this the stress involved in pursuing a music career can be downright overwhelming.
When you pour everything you have into something you’re passionate about results will happen. The problem is that no one is able to pour themselves entirely into their passion for as long as they have air in their lungs. Human beings did not evolve to be creatures of habit, living to work and working to live. To borrow a phrase from the band Switchfoot, “We were meant to live for so much more.”
But the music industry doesn’t recognize that. No business or industry does because businesses and industries exist to profit above all else. From a business perspective, time off equals time spent not making money, and who doesn’t want to make money?
Money is great, but it’s not everything. Your happiness and peace of mind are worth more than any paycheck could afford, but the need to realize that falls on the professional and not the people who employ them. If you allow it, working in music or any other industry will drain you of your passion, work you ragged, and keep you away from those you love. In a business as fickle as music, it’s hard for those working to feel strong enough to express a need for a break or vacation, but it’s something that must be done to ensure longterm success in this business.
With all that in mind, here are a few tips to help ease the burden of the nonstop pace of the music industry. The advice outlined below should be viewed as a treatment and not a cure. You need to get away from it all in order to remember why you gave a damn in the first place. Don’t lose hope.
1. Put a priority on face-to-face social contact with supportive people
Social media is a fantastic innovation, but all too often we confuse the connections the digital world provides with being a replacement for legitimate human contact. Too much time alone can cause legitimate sickness, sometimes with life-altering consequences.
2. Set a time each day when you completely disconnect from technology
You are addicted to technology. We all are, in fact, and because of this, our brains are rarely given a chance to decompress. Set aside a part of each day, even just 30 minutes, where you exist without the aide of a screen or device.
3. Move your body frequently—don’t sit for more than an hour
You don’t have to go to the gym, but it certainly won’t hurt. Physical activity increases the endorphins in your body, which in turn alleviates stress. Try to never go more than two-hours without fitting in physical activity of some kind. Take a walk. Try yoga. Be active.
4. Reduce your intake of alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine
In other words, “control your high.” You may think you need these things to function or fit in, but too much of anything is not good for you. In some instances, as with cigarettes, any amount is not good for you. Try to limit mind/body altering substances so that your body does not have to work as hard to reset your system from day to day.
5. Get all the restful sleep that you need to feel your best
The average American adult currently gets just 6.7 hours of sleep per night. Medical studies have related a lack of sleep to health problems and cognitive impairment. With this in mind, try to get anywhere from 7-9 hours a night. If you cannot make that work, maybe carve out a cat nap in the afternoon.
If 100 people decided to pursue a career in the music industry at the same time, how many would have a career? Of those that make it, how many would last more than five years?
These are questions I think about a lot. Having worked in music for a decade now, longer if you count unpaid work, I’ve lost count of how many friends and acquaintances have chosen to pursue other careers. Some feel they will never find stable employment, while others run themselves ragged trying to establish a presence in the industry.
Just last week, a magazine editor I had worked with for nearly six years abruptly exited his role. When I inquired as to why he stepped down his response was simple, “I’m just tired.”
Anyone who chooses to pursue a career in music is told from the day they make their desires known that success is a rarity guaranteed to no one. We are trained to believe music is a battleground where the hardest working people trample one another to uplift the most creative minds we can uncover. We are told to network, but also keep our cards close to our chest, and because of all this the stress involved in pursuing a music career can be downright overwhelming.
Allow me to let you in on a little secret: Everyone, regardless of their role, experiences burnout from time to time.
Burnout in the music business is as inevitable as one day dancing to “Thriller” at someone’s wedding, but there are steps you can take to ensure you make it through with your sanity and passion for music intact.
1. Put a priority on face-to-face social contact with supportive people
Social media is a fantastic innovation, but all too often we confuse the connections the digital world provides with being a replacement for legitimate human contact. Too much time alone can cause legitimate sickness, sometimes with life-altering consequences.
2. Set a time each day when you completely disconnect from technology
You are addicted to technology. We all are, in fact, and because of this, our brains are rarely given a chance to decompress. Set aside a part of each day, even just 30 minutes, where you exist without the aide of a screen or device.
3. Move your body frequently—don’t sit for more than an hour
You don’t have to go to the gym, but it certainly won’t hurt. Physical activity increases the endorphins in your body, which in turn alleviates stress. Try to never go more than two-hours without fitting in physical activity of some kind. Take a walk. Try yoga. Be active.
4. Reduce your intake of alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine
In other words, “control your high.” You may think you need these things to function or fit in, but too much of anything is not good for you. In some instances, as with cigarettes, any amount is not good for you. Try to limit mind/body altering substances so that your body does not have to work as hard to reset your system from day to day.
5. Get all the restful sleep that you need to feel your best
The average American adult currently gets just 6.7 hours of sleep per night. Medical studies have related a lack of sleep to health problems and cognitive impairment. With this in mind, try to get anywhere from 7-9 hours a night. If you cannot make that work, maybe carve out a cat nap in the afternoon.
The following post was written by Rey Roldan, founder of Reybee Inc. and a longtime Haulix client.
“What do you call an ex-music industry person,” a friend asked me recently.
“I dunno, what,” I asked.
“A realtor,” he chuckled, and took a swig of his beer. But then, almost instantly, his expression changed, his laughter stopped, and he slunk away.
The funny thing is, this friend of mine was once a really successful music industry guy, handling flashy names and pop stars. One day, while doing his PR gig at a major label, he decided he just couldn’t hack it anymore. He walked into his boss’s office and gave two weeks’ notice. He was done… spent… over it. He suffered career burnout.
I ran into him at the bar a few more times that night, and each time he asked me about the music business. When I’d answer, I’d temper my responses so it didn’t feel like I was rubbing it in his face, but still, he looked more and more bummed out with each of my answers. I could tell he really missed it. I guess realty just wasn’t as sexy.
The older I get and the more years I log in as a publicist, the more I worry about ending up like him, getting burned out at this job… What on earth would I do if I had to start over? And really, I hated the thought of selling houses.
Needing some sound advice and words of wisdom from editor friends and publicist peers who were still in the industry, I asked a few if they fear getting burnt out and, more importantly, how they overcame it, because, God knows, I have no intention of talking about square footage and how many parking spaces come with each unit.
Whether you call it Writer’s Block, work fatigue, or career burnout, the ability to “keep on keeping on” is something that every each one of us encounters. Whether you’re an editor, staff writer, freelancer, blogger or publicist, getting unstuck when you’re hopelessly trapped in a mental headlock is a very real and sometimes difficult obstacle to maneuver. How each of us deal with it was what I was interested in learning.
For some, like Jason Pettigrew, Editor in Chief of Alternative Press, the nation’s leading publication in alternative music, mental fatigue is easily overcome by completely unplugging and getting back to the basics. “Given the 24/7/365 cycle of the internet, burnout is positively inevitable,” he explained to me. “The demands of various people in a journalist’s life—management, readers, loved ones—are hard to navigate and negotiate.”
When I asked him how he avoids hitting that brick wall, he replied, “The best way I’ve learned to cope with burnout is to take a vacation from devices. Don’t go on a conventional vacation: stay at home and don’t plug your phone or laptop in for a day. Try it. See what you’ll actually miss. Don’t take your phone to bed; take the love of your life.”
Even though I don’t have a “love of my life” (unless my dogs count and cozying up to them in bed just sounds wrong), Jason’s advice about shutting out technology and unplugging for some time sounded like really great advice, though the thought of being away from my iPhone even for an instant seems like it’s create mass chaos and emotional decay for me.
I turned to my buddy Robbie Daw, Editor-in-Chief of Idolator, the uber-trafficked site for pop music and gossip. Like Jason, Robbie logged years upon years of employment in the industry. “In my experience, burnout can happen with almost any field you enter into — and I’ve worked in film, television, print and online journalism,” he told me. “What I always remind myself is that at the heart of everything, I’m a writer, and when I’m feeling a bit creatively spent at any job, I try to create some kind of other outlet for me to get the juices flowing again, even if it’s in my spare time. For instance, during my six years working at a print publication, Instinct, I created Chart Rigger, a pop music blog, at home one Friday night in January 2005. I still bang out the occasional post on there and work on other types of writing in my spare time, and it alleviates a lot of day-to-day job stress and helps keep everything in perspective.”
Personally speaking, when I was a full-time journalist years ago, I kinda did what both of those guys did but in a slightly different manner. Since smartphones hadn’t been discovered yet, unplugging wasn’t a problem, so I’d walk away from my computer and ride my bike around Boston. Or, since I freelanced for a ton of different magazines, if I hit a mental block writing one article, I’d switch gears and redirect my creative energy and work on another article. Either of those usually did the trick.
But now as a full-time publicist, I was curious how my PR peers dealt with it. Unlike writers, publicists suffering from a mental block aren’t just affecting their own careers, but their clients’ careers as well. Our own paychecks aren’t the only things at stake… our artists’ livelihoods are too.
So I thought I’d ask a hot shit whippersnapper publicist like Tito Bellis who works for well-known and respected indie music publicity and marketing firm Big Hassle Media. Considering the level of artists they handle such high-pressure clients as Against Me!, Jimmy Eat World, and The Replacements, among many others, Tito for sure must come dangerously close to breaking point. “Due to the sheer pace and pressure surrounding the job of a publicist, burning out from time to time is bound to happen,” he explained. “For me, this tends to occur more in the summer time due to every single band and their mothers being on the road, festival season being in full swing, and the constant expectations and requests being flung at you from so many directions.” I wanted to make a crack about bands and their moms, but before I could interject, he continued, “Making time for yourself is important, but from within the job, I try to do my best to keep my plate manageable and work to include projects that are a little out of my wheelhouse just to keep things interesting, challenging and personally fulfilling.”
Tito does raise some great points… I mean, at the end of the day, we work in music. We make a living out of writing, talking, and plugging away about music. So looking within our own spheres and finding something in there to keep things interesting and challenging must be pretty easy. And unless you’re a glutton for punishment and only work with music you absolutely despise, finding interesting stuff in our own artists is a great way to liven things up. I mean, think about it: Instead of balancing spreadsheets and discussing mutual funds, we shoot the shit about music all day. Whether we’re talking about the Taylor Swift/Katy Perry feud, oogling Miley Cyrus’ Instagram feed, or pitching the new Electric Six album titled Bitch, Don’t Let Me Die (yes, that’s the REAL name of their new album that comes out in October… Hit me up if you want a copy… Shameless self-promo. Oops?), the fact that we write about, talk about, and listen to music all day is probably one of silliest ways to make a living… so why on earth would we want to jeopardize that career because of something as transient as burnout??
Sometimes though, burnout isn’t due to our doing, but something that happens as a result. When I asked my pal Maggie Poulos, founder of Mixtape Media, the awesome Brooklyn-based music boutique firm who handles The Fontaines, BETS and Bird Dog among others, about her experiences, she relayed a story that sounded pretty soul-crushing… though the silver lining is that she regrouped her energy in… wait for it… Fiji. “I have absolutely suffered from publicist burnout,” she told me. “In 2009, I was laid off from a very high-pressure situation and was able to take some real time off and went to Fiji for a few weeks. That was instrumental in helping me overcome my burnout that time, but I can’t always take off for the South Pacific.” If only… but if you can turn lemons into lemonade while decked out on a tropical beach with a toucan on your shoulder and a pack of hyenas dragging buckets of Coronas to you, why not? (CONFESSION: I don’t know where Fiji is but I know it’s tropical). “Lately though, when I’ve felt burnt out, I’ve sought out publicist friends and asked for advice on certain situations. It’s always helpful to have a fresh perspective and some new ideas heralded in by others in similar situations.” Seeking solace from publicist friends and venting is also good because you can bitch about clients and they’ll understand you without stopping you to ask, “So wait, what exactly is ‘lead time’?”
A lot of times, it’s not just the work load that causes a mental and emotional shutdown. Journalism and publicity alike is rife with pressure to deliver, often with a client at the ready to constantly remind you of the impending deadlines. Managing client and editor expectations while delivering our journalistic pièce de résistance or brandishing our PR magnum opus is a balance we strive for, but achieving it can be extensively draining and soul sucking.
Detaching from the job, as Jason previously mentioned, seems to be the best way to relieve that stress and tackle it with a renewed sense of energy.
Similarly, Maggie feels the same way. “I’ve also made a larger effort to compartmentalize my work things and not let them bleed over into the rest of my life as they have in the past,” she explained. “It’s hard, but I find it’s better for me to stick to designated work hours. While it’s not always possible with this job, I do try to keep work in check. It’s also important to maintain a healthy social life – it’s always beneficial to me to remember that my life is more than my job. That all being said, music is still my passion and I still enjoy doing what I do.”
So with this precarious game of weights and pulleys, how does one stay connected and effervescent in our chosen careers… and is it possible to maintain a lifelong career in these fields? “I remember someone once telling me when I was working in print that most editors switch jobs within five years — and usually it’s to become a publicist,” laughs Robbie. “Whether or not that’s the actual case, I don’t know. But I do see writing as a lifelong career for me. Whatever form that takes as far as actual nine-to-five jobs down the line, we shall see.”
Jason agrees. Once a writer, always a writer. “In the journalism world, I don’t think anyone in this line of work ever leaves writing full stop,” he says. “Robert Christgau [music journalist, essayist, and self-proclaimed “Dean of American Rock Critics”] is still very much offering his personal take on eras, be it his youth via his personal memoirs (His recent memoir, Going Into The City) and on things that are very much all about right now (his “Expert Witness” series for Vice). What’s good for music writers who are aligned to a particular era or movement, is the old adage of “history is what’s happening now.” Those who are entrenched in something are documenting history. Then decades later, when the inevitable revival or interest in a cultural adjunct is revived, consider who should be read – a well-constructed press release or someone who was there? I didn’t fully realize consider this until Alternative Press turned 30 and music fans and industry types reminded me of that scope.”
The publicists agree as well… It’s like a chosen field. You don’t chose to be a publicist… it chooses you.
“I don’t believe this job [as a publicist] has a shelf life,” explains Tito. “There is always a story needing to be told and this is a job entirely based on relationships. So the longer you commit to it, the more valuable you are. Keeping up with the constantly changing climate (e.g. lower press budgets/decreasing editorial real estate, etc.) can be frustrating and exhausting in general, but those who can continue to navigate it successfully will find it to be a career they can enjoy for the long haul.”
“I’ve seen many people do this work for decades and on the flip, but I’ve seen plenty of people get burnt out and move on to entirely different careers,” adds Maggie. “I love music and cannot imagine my involvement with it not being a part of my career, but I am not certain that it will always take the form of working in music publicity. We shall see!”
******
I ran into my friend again last weekend. I asked him how the real estate business was going.
“Dude, I’m thinking of starting an indie label with my friend… Real small, working with local bands here in North Jersey, who don’t know what they’re doing, but at least this gives them an outlet and a sense of accomplishment, and it’s one foot back in the door.” I could see some fresh life pumping behind his eyes. The color was coming back into his face.
“What about the real estate business,” I repeated.
“It’s meh… It’s a job. But the label, I’m working on big things…” His voice trailed off as he detailed excitedly all the plans he had.
I guess it’s true that one does not choose to be in the music industry. It chooses you.
