6 Steps to overcoming imposter syndrome as a female business owner

You land a new client. The invoice goes out. And instead of celebrating, a little voice appears in your head…. “Wait until they realise I’m not as good as they think I am”. That’s imposter syndrome, and I actively work on overcoming imposter syndrome in one way or another with most of the women I work with.

If you’ve ever experienced imposter syndrome yourself you can take some reassurance from knowing that you are definitely not the only one. A 2024 UK workplace study found that 58% of employees experience imposter syndrome, with women and people in their twenties and thirties reporting the highest rates. Research suggests 37% of women entrepreneurs say self-doubt is actively stopping them from growing their business. I have thoughts on why women are feeling that at such a young age. It kind of makes sense to me to feel like that in your twenties, but once you find your feet in business you’d think that would start to disappear, right, and that with moving into your thirties and up you’d start to feel more at ease. Apparently that logic doesn’t apply here though.

So here is what I want you to hear clearly in reading this – that feeling is not evidence of actual incompetence. Just because you think you don’t match up to your competitors for example, does not mean you’re terrible at business. It is a pattern, and patterns can be interrupted.

As a mindset coach, I find that imposter syndrome comes up in almost every first conversation I have with women. Not occasionally, but almost every single time. As it’s so prevalent, let’s look at the root causes, the business behaviours it triggers, and six practical steps you can start this week.

Why imposter syndrome doesn’t stay in your head

Imposter syndrome is usually described as a feeling of not belonging. You don’t feel like you fit in with the people around you, don’t feel like you are entitled to talk about your area of expertise, that sort of thing. What people don’t talk about enough is how that feeling affects your networking, your pricing, and your social media… your whole business.

Why imposter syndrome affects more women than men

At its core, imposter syndrome is driven by attribution bias. When things go well you say it’s just luck, or the kindness of others. When things go wrong, you blame yourself entirely. Then throw perfectionism in the mix and it becomes a coping strategy – If everything is flawless nobody can find fault, and the exposure and judgement you’re worried about can never come.

For women in business, there is also added specific cultural pressures at play. Women are bombarded with the messages that they must be highly capable AND modest about it simultaneously. Confidence is arrogance. Knowing your worth makes you unlikeable. Speak up and you’re obnoxious. Challenge people and “what do you know?”. Men are accepted for those qualities, even praised for it in business circles, but for women it’s a no. That messaging feeds the internal fraud narrative.

Once you know what to look for, you start to see that those footprints are everywhere. Which of these can you resonate with:

• Undercharging for your services because you’re not sure you’re worth the money you’d really like to charge.

• Over-preparing for every client call so there is no chance of being caught out in the moment, live.

• Saying yes to unsuitable client projects because saying no feels too risky.

• Deflecting compliments so smoothly that even the person giving them feels awkward.

• Delaying a launch for six months because it isn’t quite ready yet.

These are all self-protection responses often driven by limiting beliefs. Recognising these patterns is the first genuinely useful thing you can do.

Recognising which type of imposter you are

I have created seven distinct imposter archetypes, and knowing yours may help you tailor which strategies feel most relevant to your situation.

• The Meticulous Honeybee – the woman who makes everything beautiful and then keeps it to herself. Your work is ready. You just don’t see it.

• The Mighty Beaver – The woman who does everything herself and is exhausted by it.

• The Wise Owl – The woman who knows everything there is to know on the subject, but still doesn’t feel ready.

• The Perceptive Chameleon – The woman who sees everything in her industry except her own unique value.

• The Secret Nightingale – The woman with a beautiful voice, who sings where nobody can hear her.

• The Curious Magpie – The woman who starts everything, distracted by shiny objects, and is still waiting to finish something. 

• The Gracious Rabbit – The woman who keeps everyone happy at the cost of her own happiness.

Each of these archetypes comes with it’s own amazing strengths, but also it’s very limiting beliefs. Which do you think you are? I’ve created a quiz where you can find out. Go to https://terripugh.xyz/is-quiz to take it. It’s an educational tool, not a diagnosis, but many women find it clarifying to see their patterns and take the next steps to addressing them.

What your imposter syndrome archetype reveals about your coping patterns

Each type has a signature coping behaviour that keeps the imposter feeling alive. The Meticulous Honeybee never launches. The Mighty Beaver spends so much time on the tasks that could be outsourced that she never does the high level business driving tasks. The Wise Owl keeps spending money on courses instead of raising her prices.

Once you can see your specific pattern you have something concrete to work with, and the six steps below stop feeling generic and start feeling like you’re making personal progress.

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

Skipping straight to action before addressing what’s going on internally is a bit like painting over damp walls, the problem resurfaces quickly. You have to do a bit of the underlying mindset work first. That is where the real shift happens, and then you build on it.

Step 1: Name it

When the imposter feeling rears its ugly head the instinct is to believe it. However, the trick is to label it instead. Rather than thinking I am a fraud, try there is the imposter syndrome thought again. That small language change creates distance between the feeling and your actual identity. It becomes something you are observing rather than a truth you are living.

Step 2: Build your evidence file

This is not a gratitude journal. This is an actual well practiced, structured CBT tool. Start a running document where you record specific, factual statements. Qualifications you’ve earned, outcomes you contributed to or achieved yourself, positive feedback you have received, problems you have solved. No minimising allowed here though. Blow your own trumpet. The point is to build a reference document that contains objective data, then when self-doubt appears andyour brain defaults to distorted views of your own ability, the evidence file can prove otherwise.

Step 3: Complete a thought record

A thought record has four columns:

1. The trigger situation
2. The imposter thought it produced
3. The evidence for and against that thought
4. A more balanced replacement thought

Say you are considering raising your prices. Here is what your thought record might look like:

1. The trigger is putting the new prices on your website
2. The imposter thought is clients won’t buy because they will think I’m overpriced
3. The evidence against it might include that three clients have told you recently that you undercharge, your results are consistent, and you have not lost a client to price in two years
4. The balanced replacement could be my pricing reflects genuine value and my expertise, and raising it is a business decision

Use a thought record any time self-doubt surfaces. The more consistently you practise it the more automatic that balanced perspective becomes.

Waiting until confidence arrives is itself an imposter-syndrome trap though. Confidence follows action, not the other way around. These next three steps build real-world proof that contradicts the internal story, and that proof is what gradually shifts the narrative.

Step 4: Accept praise

As women I think it’s naturally easier to deflect a comment. It feels polite, but when you do that you are actually reinforcing your own self-doubt. When someone praises your work say thank you. Simple!

Not thank you but it was nothing or the team really did all the work. Just thank you. Feel free to add to that thank you, but only if it’s to add to how brilliant you have been. I appreciate you saying that or I put a lot of work into it will be well received by the person giving the compliment too. Afterwards, write the compliment down in your evidence file as a factual statement. My client said my proposal was the clearest they had ever received. No editing or justifying or minimising it. Just the fact.

Step 5: Run a small behavioural experiment

The goal here is not to prove you are brilliant. The goal is to feel more confident over time in sharing work that is not perfect. Share a piece of work before it feels completely finished. Post a professional opinion on LinkedIn. Ask a trusted client for honest feedback. One experiment per week is a practical starting point for gathering that evidence.

What usually happens is that the huge, catastrophic outcome the imposter brain predicted would happen does not arrive. No-one slates you, no-one criticises you, no-one judges you, and the world does not end. In fact, it may be the complete opposite – great conversation, compliments, sales. And each prediction that doesn’t happen will chip away at the imposter syndrome a little more. These confidence-building exercises work because they create lived experience, not just reassurance.

Step 6: Bring the conversation out of your head

Isolation is where imposter syndrome thrives. The moment you say I feel like a fraud sometimes out loud to another business owner it’s like something brilliant has happened. You feel less alone. You discover it is not just you. You hear your own thought in someone else’s voice and realise that you’re not the only one. You have conversation and find other ways to deal with it, and maybe other evidence too.

Whether that conversation happens in a mastermind group, a peer network, or with a professional coach, speaking it aloud disrupts its power. My clients often describe that first honest conversation as the moment they can finally breathe and let go of it. The magic of a coaching session!

Why working with a mindset coach helps remove imposter syndrome

The steps above align with well-evidenced approaches. Cognitive restructuring, behavioural experiments, evidence logging and self-compassion practice all have strong support in the research. Doing them alone, inside the same thought patterns that created the problem, is slower and harder than it needs to be. That’s just how brains work.

A mindset coach helps to identify the beliefs driving your imposter feelings, and then interrupt the patterns. There is also added accountability should you want it, and gentle challenging of your limiting beliefs so that you can dismantle them and get rid of them for good.

I work specifically with women business owners on this kind of internal barrier. My own lived experiences of imposter syndrome makes the coaching really relatable.

The right starting point if you’re not sure

If you want to explore whether my support is the right fit before committing to a longer programme, the Breakthrough Session is a great start. It’s a focused 60-minute coaching session designed to tackle one specific challenge and create immediate forward momentum. It is a low-risk way to experience what combatting imposter syndrome looks like with a guided framework rather than alone. Get in touch to find out more or to book your session.

If you would prefer a more community based approach, where you can be in amongst other women business owners who understand exactly where you are coming from, then The Rise would be great for you. The Rise is a membership dedicated to the mindset of being a woman in business. We support, encourage, celebrate, and help each other there, and we’d love for you to join us.

The business you’ve built is real evidence

Go back to where we started, and that imposter syndrome that you’re feeling. You know its name now. You know where it comes from. You know the business behaviours it hides behind, and you have six practical steps to interrupt it. Imposter syndrome is not proof that you don’t deserve to be here in the business space. It is simply a mental pattern of self-criticism that formed a long time ago and has been going largely unchallenged ever since. It’s time to change that.

Overcoming imposter syndrome is a practice that compounds over time, just like any other skill you have built in your business. Use the six steps, lean on the community in The Rise or work with me so that you can keep the momentum going. Let the evidence do what evidence does, accumulate. And when you receive a compliment this week, please just say thank you. The business you have built is real and brilliant, and you are more than allowed to own that and celebrate yourself for it.