There I was, about ready to give a speech - a fairy tale, no less - at I Do Epic LIVE, a business event that Bart and I were hosting. The chosen fairy tale was “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and the irony is not lost on me that the psychological lesson of the tale is all about perfectionism and imposter syndrome…and there I was, feeling panicked and freaked out because I was experiencing an almost paralyzing cacophony of both at the same time.

Yep, I felt like the Emperor himself, standing naked for all the world to see. 

And yet…I’m far from alone. 

That pesky Imposter Syndrome Parasite worms its way into up to 87% of entrepreneurs’ psyches. 70% of the general population (that’s for all of us who actually admit it). With numbers like that, you can sure see why an entire fairy tale was devoted to it. Because for some unexplained reason, inside the human heart, we are all born with (or soon develop) a question about whether we’re worthy or not, and whether it’s okay for us to proceed with being who we are…or if we have to suppress to impress, over-exaggerate, or compensate somehow. 

The over-preparing, endless revising, concern for how we look, how we sound, or if we make a mistake or not is downright exhausting.

Perfectionism is one of the behaviors that imposter syndrome produces, but it lies downstream from something deeper. Perfectionistic behavior is basically an attempt to earn worthiness through performance. It’s that nagging idea in the backs of our minds that says, “If I can just be flawless enough, no one can take anything away from me.”

The biggest problem with perfectionism is that all roads lead to an unlived life because we never do the “thing” we want to do - we always wait for it to be perfect, and perfection never comes.

And yet, who are the people we love the most? The vulnerable, raw, authentic, “what you see is what you get” personalities. Take music, for example. We don’t love to listen to anything that is autotuned, do we? It’s the bend before the note, the tension of vibrato between the wrong note and the right note that evokes our emotions. Imperfection is what draws us to people. We can relate to them at a core, human level… and it endears them to us. As Victor Wooten said in his podcast, “Wrongness in the right way is what makes us FEEL.” 

But…here’s the tricky part for all of us: what do we actually do when it comes to the idea that what we create, produce, or put out into the world depends on the acceptance of other people? That is a ticking imposter syndrome time bomb waiting to explode

… unless.

Unless we get radically real about who we are, and decide to go ALL IN on that person. 

Yeahh…we know it sounds almost too simple, but stick with us for a second. 

Victor said: a copy is never worth as much as the original, even if the copy is better. You are always the original you. There has never been, and will never be, another you. That’s not just fancy Nancy philosophy, that’s hard core biology. Your fingerprint has never existed in the history of humanity, and never will again. Same with your tongue print, your iris, and the curve of your ear. If you really stop to think about it, your body has been absolutely insisting on your uniqueness since before you could speak. 

So then, how do we catch up to what our body already knows? 

Stop waiting for the world to confirm who you are. You’ll never find it “out there.” It lives inside of you.

The world will never tell you the truth - quite the opposite, actually. The world will gleefully hand you a character to play. One that is impressive enough, safe enough, and acceptable enough..and call it, you. And you’ll spend your whole life performing that hand-me-down character and wonder why nothing feels real. 

Real success in life (the kind that doesn’t evaporate into thin air the moment someone stops clapping or withholds their adoration) isn’t built on other people’s applause. It’s built on completely knowing and loving yourself, to the point where other people’s opinions become information rather than any kind of a verdict. 

Wooten put it simply and beautifully: “Your success isn’t dependent on other people. I’m not successful because you say I am. I’m not successful because I got awards. I’m successful because I love myself and I love what I do. Not sometimes, not on the weekends. Every moment of every day, I’m doing my best. And when I make a mistake, I do my best to correct it. That’s every moment. I know who I am, and I’m not an imposter. I’m me. Fully me.”

Let’s pull imposter syndrome up from its roots and cleanse that Imposter Syndrome Parasite out of our psyches once and for all. 

You might want to sit down for this one… 

What if imposter syndrome is simply a sign that you have drifted from yourself?

The only time you’re actually an imposter is when you’re pretending to be someone you’re not. When you’re fully, unapologetically you, there’s nothing to expose. There’s no gap between who you are and who you’re presenting. The jig can’t be up when there was never a jig to begin with!

If you’re serious about overcoming imposter syndrome, it’s crucial and critical to love yourself and to learn how to come from a place of presence and authenticity…and then simply do your best. That doesn’t mean everything is going to be rah-rah perfect all the time. But, we’re all human. We would be infinitely wise not to beat ourselves up over our mistakes, especially when we know we can’t grow without them. When you love yourself fully, you can't hide from yourself. You see your mistakes clearly and you don't collapse under them. You correct them. You grow. You stay in the game.

You know, hindsight in life is a real eye opener, isn’t it? The last 5 years of our lives have been pungently reminiscent of peeling an onion. And yes, along the same lines of that onion metaphor, many tears were shed in the process. Layer after layer after layer has been peeling off, bringing us to deeper and deeper levels of self-awareness and the core of who we are.

Performance and perfectionism are becoming more and more a thing of the past for us. What we didn’t expect was the identity shock that came with it. That realization of how deeply we had fallen into the trap of playing the character the world handed us and convinced us was not just an ideal way to live, but the right way.

We have learned that not “performing” is as simple as sitting with ourselves and asking the why behind whatever it is we are considering doing or saying. It’s getting in touch with our deeper natures and shooting videos or making words come alive on paper that resonate throughout our entire beings as who we are, what we believe, and (even when it’s hard) saying what is true for us instead of what someone may want to hear. 

Why is that even hard, you may ask? 

Loving yourself and feeling safely anchored in who you are is non-negotiable because perfectionism, performance and imposter syndrome all come down to safety. Yep, underneath it all, the nervous system never quite got the memo that it’s safe to be seen. Safe to be wrong. Safe to take up space without justification. Safe to love who you are.

Sit with yourself (or a journal) and ask yourself these questions:

Entrepreneurship puts that safety wound on a stage with a huge, glaring spotlight because suddenly your livelihood, your identity, and your self-worth are all sitting in the same seat. Let’s break it down specifically for all you entrepreneurs out there:

Do I feel safe enough to express myself fully? Do I feel safe enough to charge what I'm actually worth? To say what I actually believe in my content, even if it alienates some people? To show up on camera without the polished version of myself? To admit publicly that I don't have it all figured out?

Will people abandon me if they know how I really feel? Will I lose followers if I share a controversial opinion? Will clients leave if I raise my prices? Will my audience disappear if I pivot, change direction, or outgrow who I used to be?

Will I lose love if I'm not what everyone expects me to be? Will the market reject me if I niche down and stop being everything to everyone? Will my community turn on me if I evolve? Will people feel betrayed if I show up differently than I used to?

I am not worthy of love unless I show I am and prove I deserve it. I have to keep producing content, keep launching, keep achieving visible results because if I go quiet, if I slow down, if I have a failed launch, I will have proven I never deserved the audience I built.

I can't express how I really feel because I'm responsible for the emotions of everyone around me. I can't be honest in my marketing because I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable. I can't share my real struggles because I'm supposed to be the leader, the guide, the one who has it together. My job is to hold space for everyone else and  there's no room for my own mess.

If any of those landed, you’re far from alone. The kind of exhaustion where your business becomes the place you go to earn your right to exist is one of the loneliest feelings there is. From the outside, everything looks like it is crushing it. And on the inside, you’re white-knuckling every decision, every post, every launch, waiting to be found out.

But, again: this isn’t a business problem. That’s a self-love problem that no strategy, rebrand, or content calendar, revenue milestone, or award is going to touch. The good news is, that’s a problem that you have complete control over.

At the end of the day, all we can do is simply offer the best we have to give, and acknowledge that our best is good enough. 

We can speak and act not to be applauded, but to be whole. 

That is the cure for imposter syndrome. Not more preparation. Not a longer résumé. Not finally getting the recognition you deserve.

It's love. The specific, radical, unsexy kind that says: I know who I am. I'm doing my best. And that is enough. Not because someone told me so, but because I know it to be true.

You are the only version of you this world will ever get.

Don't give it a copy.

P.S. If this newsletter stirred something in you, we would love to go deeper with you in person!

On May 28th-30th, we are hosting I Do Epic LIVE 2026 at Mountain River Ranch right here in Idaho. I (Sunny) will be telling another fairy tale, because that's definitely who I am.

But more than that, we're going to spend three days doing the thing the big strategy gurus never actually do: teaching the 90% of success they keep referencing, but never explain. The stuff that makes every tactic you've ever bought finally start working.

We'll have hot seats, real conversations about AI, and the kind of breakthroughs that only happen when you're sitting around a campfire, soaking in hot springs, and finally not performing for anyone.

There will be cabins, horses, and mountains. Plus a room full of people who are done giving the world a copy.

Come be the original.

👉 Grab your tickets to I Do Epic LIVE 2026 right here