Episode190: Q: Help! Why Does My Brain Tell Me I’ll Get ‘Found Out’, Right When Things Start Working?

Episode Summary

What do you do when your brain starts turning on you, telling you you’ll get found out, even when things are going well?

You’re moving forward. Things are working.
And then that thought shows up: What if they realize I don’t actually know what I’m doing?

If you’ve felt that, this episode will land. Because this isn’t just about confidence in a single moment. It’s a pattern that can follow you across situations, and quietly shape how you operate if you don’t see what’s driving it.

You’ll hear what’s actually going on beneath that feeling, and why the moves that seem responsible can keep it in place.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

– The common way high achievers respond to self-doubt actually reinforces it
– Why more strategy, planning, or skill-building won’t resolve this, and what actually does
– The shift that stops this pattern from influencing your decisions as you grow

Press play to understand what’s really behind that “I’ll get found out” feeling, and move forward with clarity instead of second-guessing.

ally behind that “I’ll get found out” feeling, and how to stop letting it dictate your next move.

Who This Episode Is For

This episode is for the woman who is on the edge of her next level, but instead of momentum, she’s feeling fear about what will happen when the business expands.

Core Concepts in This Episode

Expansion Edge Distortion

At moments of growth, the brain loses reference points and misinterprets expansion as threat.
This creates convincing narratives (e.g., “I’m not ready” or “I’ll be exposed”) that distort decision-making right when capacity is actually increasing.

Pattern Reinforcement Through Avoidance

The common responses, over-preparing, changing strategies, staying busy, or seeking more validation, don’t solve the issue.
They reinforce the pattern by helping the leader avoid the exact moment that would expand their capacity.

Power Dispersion in Scaling

Instead of directing power into forward movement, decisions, and visibility, power gets redirected into protective behaviors. This creates stagnation, slower growth, and a business that reflects hesitation rather than leadership clarity.

Leadership Capacity in Business

Growth requires the ability to move forward without full certainty, operating from self-trust rather than proof. Leadership capacity expands not by feeling ready, but by making clean decisions at the edge of the unknown.

 Identity Safety Threshold

There is an internal threshold for how visible, successful, or “seen” it feels safe to be. When growth exceeds that threshold, the brain creates resistance to pull the leader back to familiar territory.

Clean Decision-Making vs. Compensatory Action

High-level movement is clean, direct, and minimally burdened by internal noise.
In contrast, compensatory actions (more learning, more planning, more validation) feel productive but dilute momentum and delay real expansion.

Key Takeaways

• The common way high achievers respond to self-doubt actually reinforces it

• Why more strategy, planning, or skill-building won’t resolve this, and what actually does

• The shift that stops this pattern from influencing your decisions as you grow

Full Episode Transcript:

Welcome to The Uncommon Way where high achieving women, entrepreneurs and leaders ditch the rule, book and design success on their own terms. I'm your host, Jenna Harrison, a top ranked business coach sharing business growth strategies of mindset, mastery, and power boost to help you attract ideal clients, leverage your unique genius and scale with freedom. Let's dive in. 

Welcome, welcome back to the Uncommon Way.

I received a question from a listener in my DMs the other day and she'd listened to a past episode where I encouraged people to send in questions and so she decided to just do it and I'm really glad she did. Her question was, why does my brain tell me I'll get found out right when things start working? And then she described the situation where her business finally felt like it's clicking, she's doing well, and she can see her path to scaling so she knows what she has to do, but she keeps bumping into this worry where she's hearing this voice basically saying, what if I get found out? As she grows, she risks having everything come crashing down because they'll realize that she doesn't really know what she's doing, right? It's all been a smokescreen and she's just been putting on a good show. The exact words she used in this description, which I thought were really, really on point, were it was like her brain turns against her. So let's talk about what's actually going on and what to do and not to do because I know others for sure can relate to this question. I can.

So in this episode, you'll find out the common way high achievers respond to self-doubt that actually reinforces it. Why more strategy, planning, or skill building won't fix this and what actually will. And the one thing you should be doing today to stop feeling underqualified or undeserving so you can grow into your next level.

But before we do, I just want to encourage you, if you have a question, send it my way. I'm always here. If we were in the same town, you'd see me in my baseball hat and my joggers. We'd bump into each other at the coffee shop. You'd be able to just casually ask me. And that's actually something that happens like once a week. It's a small community here and a lot of women are running businesses, starting businesses. So they'll hit me up. And I love that. I mean, that is why I'm in this game. That's absolutely my mission is to make more and more women have the kind of businesses that they want to have. And I know that sounds so cliche because, you know, have the dream business. But it's available to us in a way that it was not for prior generations. And there's a lot of misinformation out there. There are a lot of head games that we play with ourselves. And I'm here for all of it. So please just never hesitate, send anything my way. I'd love to hear from you. And of course, if I think it will relate to other people, I'll bring it here on the podcast as well.

Okay.

What is going on with this question?

What I'm reading into it, it might not be exactly what you think.

And I'm really glad we're talking this through because if you don't handle it correctly, the downside is not that you'll just keep feeling a bit insecure. The downside is you start making smaller decisions than you're capable of. And you delay in one way or another or force through it, which usually shows up as overcompensating in some form. And pretty quickly, your business starts reflecting that way of operating. In lower revenue, stagnation, just a heavier feeling when you go into work, wasted time spent on things that you realize later you didn't really need to do. It can show up in many different ways. Now, obviously, I don't have the full backstory on you, listener who sent in this question, but it's entirely possible that this is an imposter syndrome in the way most people talk about it. So nothing has gone wrong. You're definitely not becoming less capable. A little segue here, but there was this book that I read very early when I was much, much younger, and it was called The Peter Principle. And it was basically saying to managers that as people rise up in different managerial levels, they all get to a point where they've reached their capacity, their capability, and they're not really going to excel beyond there. And this just really shows the kind of thinking that I grew up in, like the mental soup what people were experiencing back then where it was such a fixed mindset, basically saying you got the goods or you don't. And even if you now didn't really grow up with that, maybe you had really enlightened parents or went to a great school or had a great role model or something, it's still kind of a coded hidden thought pattern that we have that like maybe I've reached my zenith, you know, maybe this is as good as it gets. But I just want to point out here that it might just be that you are at an expansion point where you've entered a level where your brain no longer has reference points. And that feels kind of unsettling. It creates some cognitive dissonance. So then the brain tries to protect you and that protection shows up as fear-based thinking, hesitation, avoidance, conscious or unconscious.

And the way that it does that sounds very reasonable, of course. You might think, I probably just need to learn a bit more before I move forward. So you sign up for a new course or even a new degree. I have seen all different forms of this specific reaction. I remember a client of mine, we worked together for a very brief period and then we kept in touch. Part of the work we did was around clarity and her really owning that she wanted to do art and graphic design. And I kept in touch with her. And I remember it had been maybe a year and I wrote to see how she was doing. And she told me that she had realized that in order to succeed in that industry or in a business like that, she needed to enroll in a degree at a junior college and do a two-year degree in this when she was already wildly talented. And really her only work was getting in front of people and in front of the right people that valued the kind of work she did. And I remember my heart dropping when I read that letter because I've talked about this in other episodes. And at the point where maybe your business really is just starting and you haven't earned that much or maybe you're at some higher level, but it seems like what you lose in that time isn't really that great. And obviously will be really worth it because of what will be on the other side. Otherwise, you wouldn't be doing that thing when actually our brains account very well for the opportunity cost of what's lost in those two years, right? It's not just the cost of the tuition you paid that maybe you didn't need to pay. It's how your business could have grown and where that would have set you up, you know, five years, 10 years from now. Or I've even seen people say, you know what? I know what I have to do next, but I'm not good at that thing. So I'll just create a different business model or I'll just do business in this other way. And you start looking for an alternate route. Maybe it's a different platform. Maybe it's a different strategy. But it's some way to succeed without fully stepping into that edge. And once again, it's hard to estimate what that actually costs you. But what we do know is that it wasn't a clean decision. Or I've seen people stay stuck at that exact expansion point by getting really busy in the minutia of their business or in some tandem issue in the personal life. And very conveniently, then you don't get the opportunity to be in a position where you'd be fully seen. All of those things feel productive in the moment. They feel like the right thing at that moment and they feel very responsible. But those moves right there are what actually keep you in this loop. It's helping you avoid the exact moment that would expand your capacity. So you make yourself less capable than you could be, right? And that's creating the very thing you were afraid of, is that you're not really capable. It's such a mind bender. Now, if this only shows up as you grow into new levels, that is a normal expansion edge. And it has to do with you adjusting to being seen at a higher level.

So your work is to navigate that bridge really cleanly so you don't waste unnecessary time, energy, and money. But if you have felt this same sensation in other areas of your life, across different situations, in different roles, then you're not just responding to growth. You're revealing a pattern. And patterns don't resolve on their own. They repeat with higher stakes as you grow. So this isn't something to wait out, it is something to resolve. Because otherwise, everywhere you go, there you are again. We can't escape our brains, although believe me, I have tried. And it shapes how you operate, and it shapes your outcome. Because how you operate is what creates your outcome. This is determining what you decide to move on, what you decide to delay, what you decide just isn't for you. So the question isn't, how do I feel more confident right now? The question is, what's actually creating this noise in the first place? You need to see that clearly so you can stop managing the symptoms and you can finally do something about the pattern. The good news is, if you are experiencing this, if you know right away, yep, it's a pattern of mine. Yep, it's right there. The good news is, this isn't who you are. This isn't a character flaw. But it is something that'll keep showing up until you actually resolve it. And you need to do that sooner rather than later, because of what I've been saying before. It influences so much of our behavior and our decisions. Because like I said, they don't just, those patterns don't just disappear. You just get better at working around them.

Now, sometimes when people recognize they are in a pattern, they do similar things to people who are experiencing a growth edge in a way that's more of an isolated incident. Some people know the patterns there, but they try and suppress it and stay busy. And they fill their time with all of these smaller tasks so they don't have to face the bigger moves. Some people maybe look for safety in structure. They layer in more planning or more strategy, more making sure they get it right before they move, more research, but none of those resolve the pattern. Nor does throwing yourself into therapy for 20 years to uncover every single childhood trauma, because no one has time for that. No one has time for that, I should say, before moving forward in their business. We're looking for growth now, not way, way down the road then, when we're finally ready for it, quote unquote. What actually changes things is learning how to resolve the noise at the source, but simply and quickly, with just the pieces you actually need, rather than all the other things that aren't going to serve you. If there is, let's just say, something rooted in your childhood, the truth is you don't need to process every single time that's come up for you in your life. But you will benefit from some awareness, some processing, and then moving into the business of brain change.

I personally believe that happens through both thought and body-based work. But so many people go to such lengths to try to feel ready or certain before they move. And rather than doing what I'm talking about, they will maybe dilute their messaging so they don't offend anyone, or they will add on different skill sets, like we said, in order to feel more deserving, or they will gather lots of validation, which then means, okay, now I'm finally ready, I can move forward. But those things may give you a boost of momentary confidence, but that kind of certainty is fragile, and it disappears when something then inevitably starts feeling uncomfortable. Instead, you want to be at the place where you're moving forward because it's just the right call. And that is available to you, that kind of drama-free movement. It's a completely different way of operating. I'm not saying I'm there 100% of the time, don't get me wrong. I am not saying that, but I recognize it more quickly now, and I work through it very differently than I used to. But you can spend a majority of your time where you sit down and your moves are clear. They're not burdened by all of that, by your brain turning against you. You feel like you belong and that there is no smokescreen, that there's nothing to be ashamed of. And you move like someone who trusts their own thinking and trusts themselves. That version of you isn't far away, but she operates differently. It's just that when you're in this, it can be hard to create it on your own because you're inside it. And whatever it is that you're thinking or whatever way you're trying to compensate for it, feels accurate. But I have seen women get 5 extra revenue  their revenue as soon as they believed it was safe to do so. So if you are noticing that fear that you might be found out, that maybe you're not quite ready or that growth isn't safe right now, don't just stuff it away to deal with later. Pay attention right here, right today, right now, to how it's influencing your decisions and your behavior this week. Because that's where the real impact is happening. And awareness is always the first most important step for real change. All right, my friend, if this episode landed, send it to the one woman you know who's doing better than she thinks, but questioning herself more than she admits. You know who she is. Okay, I'm so glad we got to chat today, and I'll talk to you next time.

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The Uncommon Way is a leadership and business podcast for ambitious women entrepreneurs, founders, and leaders who are scaling companies and expanding their influence.

Hosted by business and leadership coach Jenna Harrison, the show explores how power, authority, and leadership capacity shape business growth. Episodes focus on decision-making, founder leadership evolution, team stability, and the structural shifts that allow companies to scale without overwhelming the person leading them.

This podcast is especially relevant for women navigating:

• Business growth and scaling challenges

• Increasing leadership responsibility

• Team expansion and higher-stakes decisions

• Founder authority and executive presence

• Identity and leadership evolution during scaling

The Uncommon Way approaches growth differently.

Not through hustle, constant self-optimization, or endless inner work — but by upgrading leadership, strengthening decision structures, and expanding the capacity required to run the company you’re building.

Topics include:

• Founder leadership capacity expansion

• Decision-making at higher levels of responsibility

• Authority and power dynamics inside scaling businesses

• Structural business leadership

• Founder psychology and identity shifts during growth

• Sustainable scaling and operational clarity

Whether you’re an experienced founder, a rising leader, or building something that’s starting to matter at a bigger level, this podcast helps you access more power and lead accordingly.