47: Angela Lussier on Being an Imposter, Living Life by Your Own Rules, and the Importance of Play

Angela Lussier is a coach, public speaker, and author of three books. In this episode Angela talks about her journey towards creating her own business, how to overcome the imposter syndrome, why you need to live by your own rules, and the importance of play.

Here are three things you can learn from Angela:

If you think you are the only one who feels like an imposter, you are dead wrong. We all feel like imposters in some way or another. Even those who look like they have it all together have their doubts to.

Angela believes we are all students at something. “Even experts. Even gurus. Even millionaires. Everyone is a student and they may know a lot about what they’re doing in their business, but they still have a lot to learn somewhere else.”

Don’t believe people who tell you they have all the answers. We are all learning together. The key is to have the right mindset. “As long as we have the right intentions of trying to help people and trying to do our best work, then that’s the most we can hope for.”

By talking to a bunch of successful people, Angela has come to realize that you can feel like an imposter and still be successful. Don’t let the imposter syndrome keep you from achieving your dreams.

Too often we feel like we have a standard we need to live up to. We need to be like this person or run our business like that person. But that simply isn’t true.

Angela believes the problem is our fear of being ourselves. “I think a lot of people spend a lot of times being scared and afraid to show what they really want to say and what they really want to do and that’s a major problem.”

Many people get into business without ever considering the lifestyle they want to live, and that’s a mistake. At one point in her career, Angela was living life for everyone else, and it drove her to exhaustion. It was only when she started creating and living for herself that she felt whole again.

Stop living by other people’s expectations. Stop living in fear of being yourself. Determine how you want to live, and make steps towards living that way.

While creating classes for her community, the Do + Make Business District, Angela had the idea of recording one of the lessons at a playground.

Before releasing the lesson, she was scared what her community might think. Would they think it was unprofessional? Would they taker her seriously?
The beautiful thing is, her community loved the idea. They enjoyed seeing her having fun and liked the idea of having fun with business. This gave Angela the courage to experiment even more. She did classes dressed in costumes and played different characters. She wanted to make learning fun again.

Angela also believes in playing as an adult. “Just because you’re a kid doing something doesn’t mean it’s a kid thing. It’s something you can do for your whole entire life, but you abandoned it at some point because you thought you weren’t allowed to do it anymore. That’s a really freeing moment.”

We need to stop being so serious all the time. Play can be an essential part of living a more fulfilling life. We just need to allow ourselves to do it again.

Read more shownotes from episode 47 with Angela Lussier