It’s Not Imposter Syndrome

About twenty years ago, I was sitting at my kitchen table, working from home.

My firm, the Firefly Group, was still new. It was just me. No team, no office. When the phone rang with an opportunity that felt bigger than anything I had taken on before, I remember leaning in, pen in hand, trying to keep up as I listened.

The truth is, I didn’t fully understand what I was being asked to do. And yet, by the end of that call, I had been recommended as the right person for the work.

I hung up thinking, Why me?

I went to the meeting, got the job, and walked out equal parts excited and unsure of myself. Looking back, that feeling had nothing to do with whether I was capable. It had everything to do with stepping into something new, complex, and important before I felt entirely ready.

There’s a name for that feeling: imposter syndrome. That sense that you don’t quite belong, that maybe someone made a mistake, that at any moment you’ll be found out. It’s incredibly common and for a long time, I assumed it was something to push through or get over.

But over the years, I’ve come to see it a little differently.

In the kind of work I do in marketing and communications, you’re constantly stepping into unfamiliar territory and getting up to speed quickly. You don’t walk in knowing everything. You have to listen, learn, connect the dots, and then help others make sense of it in a way that brings people along. At first that can feel like being in over your head, but it’s not. It’s simply the work itself.

The subject matter changes but the skill set doesn’t.

And that distinction matters, because it means you’re not pretending your way through something. You’re relying on your ability to learn, adapt, and navigate complexity in real time. What feels like uncertainty is often just the process of growth happening while you’re in motion.

Recently, I found myself facing another complex, high-stakes issue, and for a brief moment that old question surfaced again: Do I really belong here?

But this time, the answer came quickly: YES!

Because experience teaches you that you don’t have to have all the answers.  You just have to learn, ask good questions, trust yourself to navigate what comes next.

So you don’t have to wait until you feel completely ready to move forward. More often than not, confidence is built by moving through the experience itself.

That’s not imposter syndrome. That’s what growth feels like.

Have you ever experienced imposter syndrome? I’d love to hear your story! Send me an email at stacy@fireflyforyou.com