What I Learned: Behind the Scenes of The Today Show

When getting ready to release our book, I was asked for a dream list of media outlets I would like to appear on - at the top of that list was the Today Show. That was a long shot. And then the COVID-19 pandemic made it mission impossible when the lockdown started a month before our first book “Own Your Greatness” was set to be released.

Everyone’s life was turned upside down. For a first-time author, I went into complete panic as every speaking engagement, book party, and every plan to get the word out about the book was slowly canceled one by one. Although my publisher encouraged us that the book was timeless and that we would have a long road ahead with this book, I feared it would flop in the chaos of a world none of us really understood. So, we did the only thing that we thought we could and started working on building a community around the topic remotely. Years passed, and I have done some very cool media spots since then including The Financial Times, Forbes, and ABCNews, but none of them were in person and I still wanted to appear on the TodayShow and would often watch Hoda and Jenna talk about Imposter Syndrome and wanted to so much to be on the show and share my thoughts with them. Then it happened!!! Fast forward to December and our second book later, my editor reached out to me with an email marked URGENT. It was a producer from the Today Show with Hoda and Jenna wanting to do a segment with me on the new book and Imposter Syndrome.

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It was THRILLING!

And my little old friend, Imposter Syndrome, was triggered in ways like it hadn’t been in years. After some time reflecting on the experience, I walked away with some reminders that I would like to share with you:

• Imposter Syndrome doesn’t only get triggered in negative situations (i.e., toxic situations, oppressive environments, etc), but also in positive dream situations. All you can think about it is how you are doing to mess up this opportunity you have dreamed about. It takes a lot to stay present in your competence and not flash back to some earlier version of yourself or some made-up version.
• Performance anxiety, if not dealt with, can really set up the self-sabotage dynamic in motion. For me, I struggled to practice the responses to the questions that I was given and only started the night before. I didn’t plan out my route to get there until the day before and had one plan. The night before, it snowed. Everything was delayed and the bus plan was blown. I couldn’t get my ride app to open. I started out way too late and 5th Avenue was shut down and the traffic was crawling. I was 15 minutes late. I did not plan well as I encourage all people who struggle with the self-sabotage cycle to do.
• The Automatic Negative Thoughts can be relentless. Because I was so anxious, despite meditating every day, I blacked out during the segment and couldn’t really remember what I said afterward. Of course, my recollection was that I wasn’t coherent, didn’t respond productively and only used one response from my preparation (which if you have completed “Own Your Greatness” or taken the Imposter Syndrome Bootcamp, you will recognize this as Emotional Reasoning). This plagued me for hours until I heard from another producer that they would like to have me on the SIRUSXM show – obvious external validation.
• It’s important to take in the data around your performance. I have a bunch of examples of how I didn’t take in the data that was coming in about my performance (rejecting compliments and previous experience), but I didn’t even want to watch the segment when it aired on Friday, but my Imposter Syndrome experts forced me to and it was uncomfortable and so important. It really forced me to deal with the actual data about what was happening and not what I thought was happening.
• When you have skills around challenging your Imposter Syndrome, you are likely to deal with it faster and get keyed into your true reality more effectively. While you can see that even the dream wasn’t a smooth road, my bout with Imposter Syndrome lasted far shorter than it used to. In the past, I could hold on to these difficult moments for months and sometimes years as proof that I wasn’t good enough or didn’t belong. Now, it just was an uncomfortable few days and I am able to take in this wonderful moment and be proud of myself and watch my dream(s) come true.? I think it’s very important to share with you that not only is it?normal to be triggered for your Imposter Syndrome even when you have worked on it significantly, but that when you build your skills and tools to overcome it, you can quickly turn it around, learn from it, and enjoy your success.

Can you relate? Drop me a line if you’ve experienced something similar. If you missed the segment, you can watch it here.

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