Damon Stapleton: And remember kids, don’t waste your imposter syndrome.

A blog by Damon Stapleton, chief creative officer, The Monkeys New Zealand.

“I still feel very much an imposter in the whole music scene, which I’m quite happy about to be honest.” – Nick Cave

About a month ago, I was a keynote speaker at the This Way Up Creative Festival in Sydney. The name of my talk was called, ‘What the Fuck is Creativity anyway?’

I worked hard on my talk, as did my wife Minky who did all the brilliant illustrations. For me a 40 minute talk can take a fair amount of time to put together. I didn’t cut corners. I knew what I wanted to say.

And yet, about two weeks before I spoke I got this feeling. The feeling said you have nothing to tell all these brilliant creatives. Sure, you have been a creative for 25 years but what could you possibly know about the subject. You are an imposter and they will know. I even had a weird dream about being struck by lightning on stage. You know the usual.

The following stat helped me sleep a bit better. In a recent study as many as 82% of us experience imposter syndrome. And according to the same study Albert Einstein had it too. So, if he got it I am pretty sure we all get it.

So that’s the bad news. The good news? The trick as a creative is not to waste your imposter syndrome. Let me explain.

I asked a few creatives why they thought imposter syndrome happens. And creative director Christie Cooper eloquently solved it in 6 words.

There is no right or wrong.

She is very right. At its very core, creativity is not about right and wrong. There is no one way to do anything. There are many. This naturally creates doubt. In fact, if you don’t have doubt you are probably deluded or not that much of a lateral thinker.

Creativity is good at giving you many and new answers. But the world wants one neat answer. That creates a scary gap. Also, if you are doing something for the first time you can never be completely sure it will work. More doubt. The perfect environment for imposter syndrome.

Over the years, I have come to believe imposter syndrome is actually a part of the creative process. It is torture but it is also a way to test your thinking. A horrendous version of quality control that always appears. You don’t think what you are thinking or making is good enough. But, there is a little spark. There is something there. And if it’s any good, you will protect that thought against all the others. Bizarrely, you protect your idea from yourself. And if it survives it’s probably half decent.

And because I know it will be there I have tried to make friends with imposter syndrome. Actually, if you lean into it, you sometimes find new ideas. It makes you look again. When it came to my talk, I was waiting for it to appear. And it did. It made me look at my fear and pushed me to be honest and vulnerable with the audience about feeling like an imposter. It gave me a strange freedom. My doubts became my fuel. This gave me a whole new opening for my talk. And I committed to it. I backed my fear.

Honesty and vulnerability. Two qualities you definitely need to be creative. However, in our business we usually talk about confidence far more. I think the reason for this is confidence is needed to sell an idea.

However, before confidence, you need honesty and vulnerability to have an idea.

And often, imposter syndrome will give these ingredients to you.

Remember not to waste it.

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