Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

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From fumbles to fame, Ashlie and Whitney share their journey to becoming ambitious creators in Episode 5 of the C-Suite Chicks podcast. In this episode, they pull back the curtain on their personal reflections, how they conquered the podcasting learning curve, and why they’re passionate about inspiring solidarity through authenticity.

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The episode kicks off with Ashlie and Whitney reflecting on how much they have grown since launching their podcast, eagerly imagining what it will be like to look back on these early episodes in a few years. They admit that the process hasn't always been smooth, acknowledging how they stumbled during their initial attempts. Ashlie playfully recounts how she spent two years convincing Whitney to start a podcast before they finally dove in, despite facing uncertainty and imposter syndrome. However, this duo overcame their fears and stuck with it, recognizing that documenting their growth was a journey worth sharing.

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Despite occasional bouts of low energy and chaotic morning routines (Whitney jokes about becoming an F1 driver with her newfound need for speed), their dedication to podcasting keeps them motivated. The two emphasize the importance of carving out time for planning and prioritizing their goals. This led them to embrace the support of a podcast producer who helped them refine their strategy and execution. Their story illustrates how sometimes, knowing your limits and seeking help is key to building something bigger than yourself.

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Ashlie and Whitney sprinkle humor and positivity into every segment. They aren't shy about admitting their missteps in the beginning, explaining how they tried to create a solid plan last year but ultimately fell short. This time, they learned from their initial errors and took the plunge with a renewed mindset. They debunk the myth that a successful podcast requires fancy equipment or a studio, advocating instead for simply starting with what you have.

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Throughout the episode, they emphasize the power of vulnerability and authenticity. Their favorite podcasts are those where hosts share genuine stories, even if that includes kids screaming in the background or drifting off-topic. Ashlie and Whitney advocate for showing up as your true self, believing that even if you only help one person through your journey, that success is worth it.

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Statistics about podcasting also provide context. With fewer than 400,000 active podcasts and most new ones fizzling out before episode 10, the odds of success can be daunting. However, their message is clear: why not us? Ashlie and Whitney encourage others to embrace this mindset and give everything a fair shot. If they can share their stories and help just one listener, then they consider it a win.

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Closing out, they hope listeners are inspired by their courage to face the unknown, overcome their fears, and ultimately have fun sharing their experiences. They’re eager to continue helping others navigate challenges, celebrate victories, and push beyond imposter syndrome. Stay tuned as they move confidently into episode 11, knowing they’re already part of the 1% who will have made it past that 10-episode mark.

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Ashlie Marshall (00:00):

I was just thinking, can you imagine three years from now and we're like, oh, let's,

Whitney Ramirez (00:05):

I'll cringe.

Ashlie Marshall (00:06):

Let's look back at some of our podcasts. I think Cring, what's more interesting? Cringe. No, not cringe. Don't say that. It'll be interesting to see our growth, to see how we went from total amateurs at the whole podcasting thing to like, oh, look at where we are now, how much we've accomplished. All right guys, welcome back to the pod. Ashley Whitney. Hello. Sweet chicks. What's up? What's up?

Whitney Ramirez (00:49):

You guys are going to get the low energy version of me today.

Ashlie Marshall (00:53):

Why is that? Why are we low energy today, whi?

Whitney Ramirez (00:56):

I don't know. I am just tired. Yeah. Well, I didn't wake up to my alarms and then literally I woke up an hour before my first meeting of the day and it takes me an hour to drive downtown and back.

Ashlie Marshall (01:15):

I know. iHear you.

Whitney Ramirez (01:16):

I carved about 10 minutes off and made it to the office before my meeting.

Ashlie Marshall (01:23):

Well, congratulations. Well done carving 10 minutes off. I will tell you I woke up late today, well, later than I usually do. I didn't wake up late. That set me back, but I wasn't able to work out this morning. So there's that

Whitney Ramirez (01:39):

An F1 racer my next career path.

Ashlie Marshall (01:44):

You with your driving?

Whitney Ramirez (01:46):

Yeah, I was booking it today.

Ashlie Marshall (01:52):

Nice. Well, today and what doing, you're not going to talk in,

Whitney Ramirez (01:57):

You listen to podcasts.

Ashlie Marshall (01:59):

That's right.

Whitney Ramirez (02:00):

We're going to talk about podcasts.

Ashlie Marshall (02:03):

I do it every time my kids are not in the car or if they're sleeping, which was me yesterday afternoon. I, there's

Whitney Ramirez (02:10):

Podcasts you can listen to with your kids.

Ashlie Marshall (02:13):

I heard that. I did hear that from somewhere. I don't remember where I heard it, but I haven't actually tried it. I think my kids have listened to books. We've listened to books on Spotify and they do enjoy listening to those in the car, but they fell asleep on the way yesterday to tumble class and I took the opportunity to listen to podcast. Nice. So today that's what we're talking about actually. In fact, oddly enough, we are talking about why did we choose to do a podcast? What made us want to get here and work on this? Lots of different things I guess. But we're going to start off by talking about how we landed on the title for our podcast. And that was kind of a fun process. So I think I'll kind of let Woody

Whitney Ramirez (03:07):

Emphasize

Ashlie Marshall (03:07):

On that.

Whitney Ramirez (03:08):

It was like, it's hard because I mean, naming any sort of business or venture is not an easy thing because that's what it's going to be once you pick it and you can't just go change it. You could make a post and delete it. So we had so many options, but it was like, oh, we can't use this. It's taken, or we can't use this, it's taken, or we can't use this. It's the name of website because we had a lot of good names picked out. We did, but it's just not anything that we could go with.

(03:47):

And then there was just, I don't know, I feel like sometimes when my brain is in a creative mode, something will just click. And I remembered Office Chicks and I was like, I love their name. Because yeah, it was Office Chicks, right? Or Chicks in the Office. Chicks in the Office, I think. I don't remember. But because I don't listen to it, I didn't ever watch The Office, but I knew their podcast. So I'm like, that says something about them. They are funny and get their branding and name out there enough for me to know their name even though I never watched the Office. And I was like, what do I

Ashlie Marshall (04:28):

Never watched the Office either. C-Suite

Whitney Ramirez (04:30):

Chicks. Yeah.

Ashlie Marshall (04:32):

Office was after

Whitney Ramirez (04:33):

My

Ashlie Marshall (04:34):

Life cycle.

Whitney Ramirez (04:35):

Yeah,

Ashlie Marshall (04:37):

No, yeah,

Whitney Ramirez (04:38):

It's called Chicks in the Office

Ashlie Marshall (04:40):

Where we were was a totally different place too. We never were even discussing chicks, the word chicks or C-suite or anything like that. And so it's funny how we ended up landing on that, but I really do the name that we ended up going with, and it's been fun actually to promote it. So that's exciting. The stats that I kind of wanted to talk about, which I didn't know. So historically I was the one that was kind of like, Whitney, we need to do a podcast. We need to do a podcast. What? Two years ago I wanted us to start one and we just have to do one. We need to do one. We have so much to say. We have so much to talk about. It would just be a fun thing for us to do. And honestly, we were eyeball deep in other things.

(05:24):

I couldn't get to it, but I didn't know these stats before I was trying to get Whitney to start a podcast. I feel like if I would've known these, I probably would've really not pushed her to do it. So it maybe is a good thing that I had no clue. But some of these stats are shocking, and if I would've known them, I probably would not have encouraged Whitney to start a podcast. But there are less than 400,000 active podcasts, which when you think about how many people there are on the face of the planet, that's a very low number. And 99% of podcasts that are started stop producing content before episode 10, before they get to 10 episodes on their channel or on their podcast. So I find that to be alarmingly shocking. So if we make it to 10 episodes, we're winning like hashtag winning.

Whitney Ramirez (06:17):

It's so crazy because everyone starts them. Yes. I feel like you see it so often where people are starting one or want to start one. It's just like anyone can do it.

Ashlie Marshall (06:28):

It's true. And then we're going to get to that. Anyone can do it. You don't have to have fancy equipment, you don't have to have a recording space. You don't have to have headphones. You don't have to have any of those things to start a podcast. And yet only 1% of them that gets started keep going after episode 10. That's crazy. So there's important elements that come along with that. Creating a plan, which we attempted to create a plan this time last year, and

Whitney Ramirez (07:00):

We did,

Ashlie Marshall (07:01):

We didn't execute it very well, A and B, we didn't take carve out time and dedicate time to executing the plan that we put in place. And we kind of didn't know what we didn't know. We always say that you don't know what you don't know until you know it. And that was definitely an area we knew nothing about.

Whitney Ramirez (07:21):

I think we were in the same boat as everyone else that starts a podcast where it's like, they're like, I'm just going to do it, and then they do it one day. But it's like, okay, well what do I do now?

Ashlie Marshall (07:34):

That's very much where we

Whitney Ramirez (07:35):

Were,

Ashlie Marshall (07:38):

Very much where we were. And the other really important piece is to have encouragement. Are you a self encourager? Do you encourage yourself to do things that you don't really know you want to do or do you need outside influences to help you along the way? Whatever it is, make sure you have them. You have somebody in your corner or be heavily in your own corner. Commit to it.

Whitney Ramirez (08:04):

I think one thing that encourages me is because heard people say this a lot on YouTube videos and podcasts, and it's like if me sharing this helps one person, then that helps me feel fulfilled. And two hours ago I had a meeting with one of our clients about his LinkedIn profile, and he really wants to get into LinkedIn more. And he kept going back to, I'm sure this, I'm sure you've done this and I know you've had success. How do you do it? And I just screen shared my messages on LinkedIn and what I send to people. And I know that that helped him. It gave him ideas and Oh, I could do that. And so it's just sharing that little bit,

Ashlie Marshall (08:54):

It encouraged him and then it helped him and you could visibly see how it helped him because he was happy to have it. So see, it's little stuff like that that make your dick around stuff. It's little stuff. So if we're able to do that for other people through our crazy podcast, then hey, we're being successful at it.

Whitney Ramirez (09:12):

Yeah, I don't want to be recognized in the grocery store, but if I can help you write a sales email or give you some inspiration to take a job you don't feel like you could do. I love that.

Ashlie Marshall (09:28):

Yeah. I'm in that camp with you right now. Yes. So in kind of talking about podcasts, we both actively listen to podcasts we have for a while, Whitney, what are some podcasts that you like to listen to or type of podcasts necessarily?

Whitney Ramirez (09:45):

I think, okay, so my thing is with podcasts I spend all my day. My mind is so focused and set on accomplishing a task in a sense, or learning something or knowing something or having to do something. And so when I want to watch a podcast, I want it to be entertaining and kind of mindless at the same time. And I also, I just lighthearted stuff and I think I just kind of go towards the comedic side of podcasts. I'll watch Brittany Broski and the Yvonne and it's silly, but they'll bring on good guests and there's some fun tidbits of learning something new too. But I like hearing what others think about trending topics and what's kind of going on in the realm of social media. But I also think I learned from those podcasts too in a sense where a lot of the people that I watch are either my age, they're around my age, give five years on both sides maybe. But I learned how they have built a brand for themselves, and I have learned how they so effortlessly being themselves has made them successful in a way. Right?

Ashlie Marshall (11:29):

Oh, you hit the nail on the head being themselves. I had a conversation with somebody this morning about just being your true self is so important whether you are in a podcast or not, but I'm kind of with you on that. I feel as though when I got into podcasts listening to them, I think four or five-ish years ago, I am very drawn to the people that are just their authentic self in the podcast. And maybe there's a kid screaming background or maybe they are on one topic and segue into some story that might seem irrelevant. But if you follow the trajectory of that conversation, it's very relevant to what she's talking about or he's talking about. And those are the podcasts that I feel I have kind of gravitated towards.

(12:21):

I do a little of both. I listen to some that are lighthearted and true crime type of stuff to either keep me awake and intrigued by something or just to just, okay, I want to clear my mind. Let me hear something completely unrelated to what I have to do today, which is what I did yesterday afternoon. I completely segued away from everything I needed to clear my mind. And so I put on true crime and listened about some murder mystery in Utah. Okay. So it's interesting, but I like to listen to people who are motivational and they actually get to the meat and potatoes. They get to, well, this happened to me and I did this, and that's how I overcame it. I feel like that has been incredibly helpful for me. I don't like the podcasts that are more salesy where they like to like, oh, well, I can help you do X, Y, Z, and most people don't know this, and then they don't really give you any helpful information. And I'm like, that's not helpful.

Whitney Ramirez (13:18):

Yeah, they download my free course.

Ashlie Marshall (13:21):

Yeah. Oh, drives me nuts. But some of the people I've gravitated towards has been Rachel Hollis. She's an author and she has a podcast, but her podcast is very nonspecific to any specific topic at all. She covers all kinds of things. And Kathy Heller, very similar, all kinds of things, but they're both very authentic. They are who they are, and they're going to tell you the truth no matter what that might mean for them giving that information. And I enjoy listening to them. And then I also listened to a couple of business podcasts recently. I have been listening to Jenna Kutcher and Kelly Roach. I do like both of them. They're very helpful in terms of business and in terms of obstacles, overcoming obstacles and learning new ways to get through certain challenging situations. So those are some of the ones that I listen to, which is business related summer. No.

Whitney Ramirez (14:27):

And then I think some of them, it's like I have my podcast that I'm like, I'll fall asleep to this one and I'll fold laundry to this one. I guess it depends on what new has came out, but I dunno if it's an A DHD thing, but it's like I want to feel productive or I want to feel entertained while I'm also doing a task kind of thing.

Ashlie Marshall (14:51):

No, a hundred percent. I get what you're talking about. I'm very tempted to say that's not an A DHD

Whitney Ramirez (14:57):

Thing. I think it's just a human thing.

Ashlie Marshall (14:59):

You're just wanting to feel productive by either learning something or listening to something while you're doing a task like folding laundry or definitely driving. Listening to stuff while I drive has definitely helped me to not have road rage. And I living in a very populated area, I tend to have very sphere road rage. But I'm really curious to what our listeners listen to. I love feedback and I love hearing other people's stories. So if you're listening and there is a handful of podcasts that you're interested in, send 'em our way, please. We want to hear about them.

Whitney Ramirez (15:36):

I love podcast recommendations.

Ashlie Marshall (15:38):

Yes. Yes, me too. Which brings us to why would we want to start a podcast? Why would anyone want to listen to us ramble on about podcasts?

Whitney Ramirez (15:54):

Yeah. I don't know. My answer is I don't know why anyone would want to listen to me, but I don't know. In one way, I kind of do get it because if people, especially on LinkedIn, people are really only seeing, they're only seeing what I want them to see, obviously. And I'm only saying what I want to say, but I think podcasts are such a different view of someone that compared to normal social media where you get to hear their thoughts kind of just being portrayed in a long form version compared to seeing an edited video on social media or seeing a opposed photo. They can see the photo of you, but they don't really know how you interact with others or how you speak who you are as a person. So I think that's why I like watching them because it's like there's some people I like following on social media. I like their tiktoks or something, but then when they do a podcast, I'm like, whoa, that's a different person. I feel like I know so much more about that person, hearing them in a long unedited forum versus their day in the life TikTok.

Ashlie Marshall (17:23):

Yeah, no, I agree with that. There's a level of vulnerability to it too. There is, because we know on social media that a lot of people edit stuff out. I mean, people always harp on people who have visibly altered their photos or photoshopped this or edited out different things. And there's this level of vulnerability when you are fully authentic and non edited versions of you speaking like we are right now speaking to our little webcam on our computers. There's a level of vulnerability in that. And seeing somebody do that, I feel like to me, it's very inspirational. You can stand there in whatever you woke up doing, whatever you woke up wearing. It's a part of your schedule that day. You didn't do anything special to get to this point recording this podcast. And then you still posted it all over social media, no matter how on or off topic you were to the topic that you started with. And it is not only entertaining, but it's inspirational to see other people do that. I think that's why I've gravitated towards them. And then when I think of why would anyone want to listen to us? I mean, obviously I've had that thought because it took two years to actually get to a point where we started one. But

(18:53):

I think embedded in that comment, why us is also imposter syndrome. Like Whitney and I have definitely had our bouts of going through imposter syndrome. I mean, we still do in and out, right? Different moments of the day, different moments of the month, different events. We are involved in that week, month, year that we have had those feelings of imposter syndrome. But in response to that, why us? I say, why not us in the same breath or the same train of thought? It goes from why would anybody want to listen to us? And I'm like, well, why not? We're just talking about our own experiences. It's almost like a live journal of sorts where it's like we're just documenting things that we've gone through, experiences we've had, and maybe the way we handled it helps somebody else go through it. Or just hearing that somebody else has faced the same challenge can encourage you to be like, you know what? Bump this. I can get through it. I can do it. And like Whitney said, if we help one person do that, then it's totally worth it.

Whitney Ramirez (20:03):

It brings some level of solidarity to others to know things are not always the highlight reel that you see on social media. But then there's also a lot more to it because on social media, I am a decently private person. I'm not posting every day. I'm not posting every week or even every month, sometimes same. And so no one has a full true view of how I speak and how I portray myself and what I'm actually doing with my life. And so it is interesting to have this as a channel. It definitely gives a different side of yourself to someone.

Ashlie Marshall (20:53):

It really, really does. And at times it can be kind of nerve wracking, nerve wracking. When I have listened to different clips or different parts of the podcast, I'm like, oh, why did I say that? I'm so

Whitney Ramirez (21:06):

Terrible. Yeah, that's how I feel too.

Ashlie Marshall (21:09):

But I have to imagine that everybody else who's doing a podcast feels the same exact way. And maybe that's just me wanting that solidarity,

Whitney Ramirez (21:20):

I'm sure.

Ashlie Marshall (21:22):

But hey, it's okay. We all do things that we look back on and think, oh, I should have done that, but you know what? Well, I did it, so I'm just going to own it and move forward with life.

Whitney Ramirez (21:31):

Yeah

Ashlie Marshall (21:34):

But doing it anyway, I feel like I've said it before. I teach my kids what bravery is and courage. And when you're scared to do something, you still need to do it. Get through it. And every time you do it, even if you're scared, you are building your ability to be courageous and practice courage. And we talk about that all the time. And so it's like, I can't teach my kids that if I'm not willing to do the same exact thing. And so just because I'm a little bit scared to do it, it's okay, I'm going to do it anyway. I'm going to practice courage.

Whitney Ramirez (22:11):

And I think it's a cool thing in a sense where this is always something to be looked back on in a way. I mean the same way as photos and seeing what you posted on Facebook 10 years ago.

Ashlie Marshall (22:28):

Documentation.

Whitney Ramirez (22:31):

I think podcasts are such a cool way to document what's happening in life and business and trending topics and everything. And then can you imagine looking back on a podcast you recorded 10 years ago?

Ashlie Marshall (22:49):

I was just thinking, can you imagine three years from now? And we're like, oh, let's,

Whitney Ramirez (22:54):

I'll cringe. Let's look

Ashlie Marshall (22:55):

Back at some of our podcasts. I cringe. What's more interesting? Cringe. No, not cringe. Don't say that. It will be interesting to see

Whitney Ramirez (23:02):

Our growth,

Ashlie Marshall (23:05):

To see how we went from total amateurs at the whole podcasting thing to like, oh, look at where we are now, how much we've accomplished. I feel like that will be exciting in the future.

Whitney Ramirez (23:17):

I think so too.

Ashlie Marshall (23:18):

I totally feel the same way. So I did try to convince Whitney this time last year to do a podcast and we attempted. We even made some recording and it didn't go anywhere. We didn't do anything because we just failed at it. Let's just be real.

Whitney Ramirez (23:43):

Yeah. You don't know what you don't. It takes to plan for content and try to determine who do we want to listen to this and who do we want the audience to be for this, and how do we want to market ourselves and what are we comfortable with talking about and what's beneficial to talk about? I think it's a very much trial and error thing. And do we even still know everything right now? No. And it's very much as learn as you go.

Ashlie Marshall (24:19):

Yeah, no. Nailed it on the head. Learn as you go. I feel like Whitney and I say that every day. We don't know what we don't know until we know it. And so we make an effort to learn it. And that's what is able to get us to persevere through difficult situations is our willingness to learn what we don't know. And I feel like one of the things that we did this year was one when Whitney was finally, I feel like Whitney had to come to terms with being okay with doing it. I'm okay with actually being on recorded podcasts and documenting this side of my life, kind of how you just broke it down for us a minute ago. But we actually found out there was such a thing as a podcast producer, and we decided, you know what? We recognize our limitations time-wise.

(25:05):

We recognize that we are in the midst of trying to build and grow two companies operating under the same umbrella. And we are only two people, and we know that this one thing will benefit us and we really want to do it. And so the way in which we're going to carve out time to do that was to ask for help. And we did that. And it has drastically changed the trajectory of our podcast. And it's super exciting to see that there was time invested that we didn't have to invest the time somebody else did it for us and gave us this amazing platform to jump off of. And this great and lessons that we've learned from him have just been amazing. And so we're appreciative of that. And that was how we were able to actually move forward, was recognizing our limitations and realizing that we needed help and prioritizing that healthy start by having a good plan

Whitney Ramirez (26:09):

And understanding podcasting as an industry and podcasting as a service too. It's really cool to see someone actively doing what they said that they would do. And I'm like, I feel like a client right now. That's so cool.

Ashlie Marshall (26:36):

Yeah, no, a hundred percent. And I think too, Whitney and I actually, when we started entertaining the idea of a podcast producer and we met with one who we are currently working with, who's awesome, shout

Whitney Ramirez (26:53):

Out Doug.

Ashlie Marshall (26:54):

Doug, you're the best. We had a very real conversation too about making sure we were both comfortable and making sure what we knew what that meant, catering to each other and having the conversation of, well, I'm uncomfortable with this and I'm uncomfortable with that. Well, I can make up for it here and then I can support you there. And having that, seeing as how we are a team podcast, not just a solo one, which I think works better and makes it more fun.

Whitney Ramirez (27:27):

But

Ashlie Marshall (27:28):

Those are some of our biggest takeaways. And why did we want to start a podcast? Well, there you go. There you have it. That's our story.

Whitney Ramirez (27:35):

I think anything that you're like, oh, I kind of want to do that, it's like everything in that aspect, it deserves a solid shot. Yes. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't. But 400,000 of them did. And that's kind of a small number. It's a

Ashlie Marshall (27:58):

Really small number.

(28:01):

And figuring out how to give yourself that best shot. And for us, it was pulling a producer to help us in the areas that we just did not have the capabilities or the time to devote to it. And maybe that's not for you if you want to start a podcast, and that's okay too. One of the biggest podcasts I listened to, she's huge now, and she started in her closet and she'll tell you that story, and that's inspirational because you can start with nothing and do it with nothing. And it's okay to do it that way. We went a different route because we recognized our limitations and we wanted to give it a fair shot.

Whitney Ramirez (28:38):

That's our story, giving it a fair shot.

Ashlie Marshall (28:42):

Tell us what you think about our fair shot. Give us your feedback. Leave us a review

Whitney Ramirez (28:47):

On episode 11. Tell us how we're doing

Ashlie Marshall (28:52):

Episode 11. Here we come, man. Yeah,

Whitney Ramirez (28:55):

Give us some ideas. Thank you

Ashlie Marshall (28:56):

Guys. Yeah, give us more ideas

Whitney Ramirez (28:59):

For what you want to hear. Episode.

Ashlie Marshall (29:02):

Tell us what you want to hear. And we thank you for listening. Thanks for listening to our little spiel about why we started podcast and how we failed at it the first time, and how we came back stronger. So we hope you guys leave us a review, share us with your friends, and thanks for listening here.

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