There’s been times he’s felt that way, that’s for sure. For example, one time Tom was added into this WhatsApp group. He was super stoked ’cause it was full of founders he idolized. Some of the guys and gals were doing hundreds of millions a year in revenue. Running brands you’ve not only heard of but probably even bought from before. And yet, Tom didn’t say a word, didn’t introduce himself, didn’t ask them a single question. How come? Imposter syndrome.
“I didn’t feel like I belonged in the group,” Tom admits. “I felt like I was a small fish in a sea of sharks. And I felt like everybody was contributing different things and I had nothing to contribute. Or whatever I’m about to say would just be like, ‘Yeah, of course, we know that already.’ So I was just extremely shy and not talking to anyone, not meeting anyone. Where, one day I questioned myself. I was walking my dog and I’m like, ‘Man, why am I not being myself in that group?’”
“And the answer dawned on me. It was imposter syndrome. I didn’t feel like I belonged in the group and these people were clearly so much better than me. And yeah, that might’ve been true when it comes to business and success, but there’s other things in life that I can contribute as well. I know Amazon better than a lot of them. It was just funny. So I wanted to share that story with you that even for someone like me, not that I’m the greatest or anything, but everyone goes through this. Probably even them.”
Then, as you know, Tom and his wife built Sdara Skincare into a 7-figure Amazon FBA brand before selling it for 7-figures, right? And, as big as that accomplishment was, he always sorta felt like he got lucky. So especially now, when he’s selling his FBA Masterclass course for $8,000, those I’m-not-good-enough thoughts are tough to deal with. “Maybe I’m not the right person for the job. Maybe there’s other FBA gurus who’ve built multiple 7-figure brands, who know more than me.”
“I feel like I don’t deserve to actually teach other people what I learned along the way,” Tom says. “Because, again, I feel like I just got lucky. Part of me feels like sometimes I hope my students don’t find out about this because then they will think I’m a fraud. Or they’ll think that like I don’t really know my stuff. But in reality I’ve sold more than $10 million worth of products on Amazon. Like, that’s big, but I still feel sometimes that I don’t know enough. I feel like I’m getting left behind. And that creates a lot of insecurity.”
How Tom got though that was by doing the deep work with his life coaches: Chad, and, more recently, Elliot. And one of the breakthroughs they helped him have was that, in order to be successful, you do have to get lucky. But you can do your part to create that luck, can’t you? Tom worked a grueling full-time job making cold calls for the Yellow Pages, then would come home and work on his FBA biz, hardly sleep, then ignore his family and friends on the weekends to work even more on FBA.
He paid his dues. And that’s the thing with business. You can’t cheat the system, you can’t skip the grind. You gotta walk up the mountain. There’s no elevator. That ah-ha that like, “Okay, yeah, I deserve to be where I’m at,” has made all the difference. Today Tom feels so much lighter, so much freer. He can work on the things he’s passionate about; he doesn’t have to hit another FBA homer just to prove himself. Hmm. Do you agree? Or do you think it’s only ethical to sell a course if you still walk the walk?
