— By Laura Maguire
The first time you record a video for your business, put a price on your work or step up to lead a team, a voice tends to pipe up: what if they work out I don't really know what I'm doing?
Most of us have felt like a fraud at some point, and that feeling is common across all walks of life including healthcare.
A 2026 Australian study found that 97.6 per cent of new graduate allied health professionals reported moderate to intense feelings of imposterism (Barber et al., 2026).
It does not only affect people at the beginning of their careers. Experienced clinicians can feel it when they take on an unfamiliar caseload, grow a team, step into leadership or put themselves in front of a larger audience.
Feeling like an imposter does not necessarily mean you are unqualified
It can mean you are doing something new. You have reached the edge of what feels familiar and are being asked to grow.
You may have learned how to be a strong clinician, but not how to lead a team. You may know how to deliver a great service, but not how to market it. Hiring people, managing a business and speaking publicly can all feel unfamiliar at first.
It is easy to ask: who am I to do this?
But you do not become a leader by waiting until you feel like one. You become a leader by leading.
You do not become comfortable promoting your work by waiting for the discomfort to pass.
You become more comfortable by writing the post, speaking at the event, having the difficult conversation and trying again when it does not go perfectly.
Confidence usually comes after the action, not before it.
I felt imposter syndrome the first time I recorded a video for LinkedIn. I felt embarrassed and silly, and honestly, I was awful at it.
I have only shared a few videos on LinkedIn, but what you do not see is that I have probably recorded each one at least ten times before deciding it is good enough to post. Even then, I am not completely happy with it.
For now, I am aiming for good enough. I know that if I keep practicing, I will get better. Waiting until I can create the perfect video would mean never posting one at all.
I had the same feeling when I published my first LinkedIn post. You might find that strange as I'm a marketing professional but knowing how to market a business does not shake the feeling of vulnerability when putting your own face out there.
Now I post on LinkedIn without blinking an eyelid. Video still feels uncomfortable, but I am slowly getting better at it. The discomfort has not disappeared completely, but it has become easier because I am a few videos in.
That is the part we often forget when trying something new. How we feel and perform at the beginning is not how we will always feel or perform.
The embarrassment passes. The discomfort becomes more manageable. We improve.
Psychologist Albert Bandura described this through the idea of mastery experiences. His research found that one of the strongest ways people build belief in their abilities is by successfully doing the task themselves (Bandura, 1977).
Experience builds competence and competence builds confidence
Encouragement can help. Watching someone else do it can help. But neither replaces the experience of doing something and discovering that you can handle it.
This does not mean ignoring a genuinely large gap in your knowledge.
If you are taking a huge step outside your comfort zone, you may need supervision, training or support. Moving through imposter syndrome is not about pretending to know everything. It is about being honest about what you need without allowing discomfort to make every decision for you.
Moving through it sounds like this:
This feels uncomfortable, so I will prepare, ask for help and do it anyway.
Getting stuck sounds like this:
This feels uncomfortable, so I must not be capable of doing it.
One response builds experience. The other keeps you where you are.
Moving through imposter syndrome also means accepting that you will make mistakes
You will sometimes misjudge a situation, handle a conversation poorly or realise afterwards that there was a better way. I know I have had my fair share of growing pains. They were a necessary part of my journey.
It is how competence is built. We try, reflect, adjust and go again.
Every person we look up to has made mistakes while becoming good at what they do. We just didn't see that part.
I have felt imposter syndrome many times, and I expect to feel it again. I no longer treat it as a reason to stall. I see it as a sign that I am challenging myself and I'm growing.
I believe imposter syndrome isn't something you have to defeat before moving forward. It is something you move through by moving forward.
Sometimes, moving forward also means getting support with the parts of business that are new to you.
Drawing on 15 years in marketing and my own experience growing an allied health business, I offer business growth and marketing consulting for allied health business owners. If you think I might be able to help, you are very welcome to book a free 30 minute discovery call.
However you decide to take your next step, remember that you do not have to feel 100% ready before you begin. Often, beginning is how you become ready.
References
Bandura, A. (1977). Self efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191 to 215.
Barber, S. J., Flavell, C. A., and Smith, M. (2026). An exploratory study: The presence of imposter syndrome in new graduate allied health professionals and its relationship to location of practice. Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice, 24(2), Article 19.
Clance, P. R., and Imes, S. A. (1978). The imposter phenomenon in high achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 15(3), 241 to 247.
Shanafelt, T. D., et al. (2022). Imposter phenomenon in US physicians relative to the US working population. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 97(11), 1981 to 1993.
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