examples of impostor syndrome

• ”I’m not really a good actor. I just got lucky enough to get a few good roles.”
• “I’m not sure why this agency decided to sign me. My friend is more deserving of the opportunity…they should’ve gotten signed before I did.”
• “The only reason I have a career is because I happened to be in the right place at the right time.”
• “I only got picked for this role because the casting director knows me and likes me.”
• “I don’t know why these people say they’re my fans. Why would anyone be a fan of ME?”
• “I’m not actually a professional. People just pay me to do these jobs for some reason.”
• “I was only cast because this other actor I kind of sound like was too busy or charged too much money.”
• “It’s just a fluke that I’m doing well right now. Sooner or later people will realize I’m not good and stop hiring me.”

“Wow, I feel pretty called out right now!”

If any of the above phrases sound familiar to you, it’s because you’re not alone. Many, many actors deal with impostor syndrome—including successful and accomplished professionals. The nature of the entertainment industry makes it easy for negative thoughts to creep in.

Why does the acting business make it so easy to fall into negative mindsets?

• The nature of the business is inherently competitive. You are often going up against hundreds or thousands of other actors for roles, and “rejection” is the norm.
• The self-promotional “highlight reel” nature of social media can make it seem like everyone else is succeeding faster and doing better than you are.
• Because the industry is overrun with actors looking to work, certain career milestones – such as booking one’s first lead, signing with an agency, or going full time – can feel out of reach.
• The majority of the work is concentrated in a few major hub cities, which can lead to actors feeling discouraged if they don’t want to or aren’t able to move to where the studios are.
• The cost of living these days is exorbitantly high, and it can be hard to make a living from acting work. Financial insecurities can easily contribute to the feeling of not being good enough.
• Even when you achieve one of your goals, chances are you’ll then have a new goal. There may never be one singular moment in your journey where you feel you’ve “made it“—even those already considered successful are constantly striving for more.

The points above are not meant to reinforce negative mindsets, but rather to explain why they are so common in the business. If you are still pursuing this career despite all the setbacks, congratulate yourself on your perserverance—you already made it this far!

reframing negative mindsets

There is no easy way to just “snap out of” impostor syndrome. However, the following perspectives may help you reframe the way you address these thoughts.

Know that you are not alone.

Virtually every actor in the business has dealt with self-doubt, impostor syndrome, or feeling like they’ll never be where they hope to be in their careers. And guess what: impostor syndrome never really goes away! It may surprise you to learn that even some of the top actors in LA who have long lists of IMDB credits, great agents, fanbases, and full-time work in the business have the same insecurities and struggles that you do.

Let go of the idea of “failure”.

The fear of failure can be so intense that it can cause would-be actors to quit before their career even really gets off the ground! But it’s important to understand that 1) you must define failure on your own terms, and 2) it’s okay to fail.

Take a moment to think about what failure means to you. Is it going a certain length of time without booking a job? Is it having to move back to your hometown, or never being able to move away in the first place? Is it not being able to make enough money to support yourself on acting work? Or even if you were successful on paper, would you still feel like a failure if you weren’t able to meet a goal that was personally or professionally important to you?

There’s no right or wrong answer to what constitutes ‘failure’ in the acting business. Some actors may never “make it big” or make acting their full-time job, or they might fall off the grid after a number of years as they pursue other endeavors. Yet they still may feel fulfilled and grateful for the opportunities they did get to have. Remember, there is no set timeline for achieving your goals as a voice actor!

Think of it this way: would you rather “fail” knowing you tried everything you realistically could to succeed? Or would you rather let the idea of failure keep you from ever possibly succeeding in the first place?

Get out of your head (it’ll make you a better actor!)

Believable acting involves being authentic in the moment. It’s hard to get into a character’s mind if you’re focused on how you sound and whether or not you’re doing a good job or whether you’ll get hired by these clients again or whether random people on the Internet will like your performance when the project is out. Any time or energy spent on these insecurities takes away from being in the moment and bringing your best self to the job. Your character isn’t thinking about whether or not someone else on the line thinks they sound good or not; they’re just speaking their truth! And often, the best and most raw performances come out when you get out of your head and into your character’s head. Leave your own emotional baggage at the door and allow yourself to experience the emotions in the scene itself.

Remember that social media is not reality.

This is mentioned over and over in our mindset articles, because it’s that important!
Social media does not give the full picture of someone’s life or career. Because social media is an important marketing tool for actors, most actors will curate their public posts to give off the image of being constantly “booked and busy”—regardless of how true that actually is.

Many actors, including highly successful professionals, deal with moments of feeling discouraged or frustrated in their careers. But chances are they won’t post about this on social media, because complaining about how they’re not booking enough can be a turn-off to potential clients. Remember that for every role announcement someone posts, there might be 100 other roles they auditioned for but didn’t book!

Here are a couple fictional examples of how social media can paint a false narrative for voice actors:

1. An actor vague posts about how they have video game sessions every single day and are “so blessed to be working nonstop.” This makes you feel bad because you’ve been having trouble breaking into the video game market yourself. You imagine that this actor must be recording for a different high profile client each time on AAA video games. However, in reality, they are working on a single low-budget title that requires a lot of small sessions because the client is difficult and keeps making them do nonstop pickup sessions but isn’t paying them fairly for it.

2. An actor you’re acquainted with posts a selfie at their first convention appearance, thanking all the fans that came out to see them and come to their panel. They haven’t been acting as long as you have, but because they got on a semi-popular title, they got their first guest appearance before you did. You feel a bit envious when you think about how this actor you know must be signing for lines of adoring fans and making great sales, and wonder if you’ll ever be known enough to get invited yourself. But in reality, only a few people showed up to this actor’s panel, and their table was largely empty the entire weekend. Rather than being invited due to fan demand, they secured an appearance by being a longtime friend of the Guest Relations Director.

3. A friend posts about how grateful they are to receive loads of auditions, claiming they often do 10-20 auditions in a day! You assume that these are high-level opportunities sent by their agency, and feel a bit down because you didn’t get any meetings when you tried to get an agent yourself. But in reality, almost all the auditions this actor is doing on a daily basis are “cattle call” opportunities on pay-to-play sites, which are highly competitive (and their auditions may not even be listened to.) They do get some auditions from their agent, but most of them have been sent far and wide to all the agencies in the country, meaning the chances of actually booking any of them are fairly slim.

In these hypothetical situations, the actors in question didn’t do anything wrong—they’re maximizing engagement and growing their brand by making it seem as if they are in demand for work or auditions or publicity appearances, in hopes it will lead to more opportunities in turn. In some cases, “humble bragging” or even outright bragging can be a coping mechanism to cover up one’s own insecurities! Again, there’s nothing wrong with putting your best face forward, but this illustrates how social media can paint a misleading picture of how well someone is actually doing.

Understand that “earning” a role is entirely subjective.

Your anxiety may compel you to cheapen your accomplishments by attempting to rationalize that you didn’t technically earn or deserve a role or opportunity you got.

Keep in mind that there are many factors that go into whether someone is chosen for a role. Some are in your control; some are not. Remember that casting is ultimately subjective, based on the opinion of one person, a few people, or a team of people who choose who they believe is the best fit for a role based on a variety of factors. Much of this is out of your hands aside from simply working towards being a good performer and turning in quality auditions.

Similarly, if you hear other actors snark about how someone only got cast for a role because they’re friends with the casting director, or because a more accomplished actor wasn’t available or was too expensive, or because they have a lot of social media followers, it can make you question your own worthiness when it’s your turn in the spotlight. Recognize that a lot of these comments stem from insecurity and jealousy. As long as you are not behaving in an underhanded or morally reprehensible manner to climb your way to the top, it is not anyone else’s business how you got cast in a project.

And even if you convince yourself that you only got hired because you’re friends with the casting director, so what? People like to hire people they know and like. This may not be “fair”, but it is the reality of the industry you chose to go into. And while knowing the right people or having a big online presence may help give you a little edge, at the end of the day, being a good actor is what’s going to get you farther than any of that. Most of the time, you would not have been cast for the role if they did not at least think you were a decent actor.

Do not discount all your accomplishments as “luck”.

There is a saying that “luck is when preparation meets opportunity”. While preparation and skill are still extremely important factors of success, “luck” is still an element of the business whether we like it or not. So even if you convince yourself that there WAS an element of luck in an opportunity you got – which there very often is, by the way – that doesn’t mean that you aren’t qualified or didn’t deserve to have that chance. Luck may work in your favor one day, and a colleague’s favor the next. You cannot control that. Focus most on the preparation aspect, so that when opportunity does come along, you are ready for it.

Resist the urge to rely on excuses.

If you’re not accomplishing what you hope to, it can be easy to fall back on excuses as the only reason you’re not succeeding. These excuses can still be valid explanations as to why you’re having roadblocks, but try to view them as obstacles that can be overcome as opposed to falling into a defeatist mindset.

For example, you might say “I can’t get any audition opportunities because I’m not with an agency, but it’s too hard to get an agent.” While these are legitimately valid concerns (the fact that you don’t have an agent, the fact that prestigious auditions can be hard to come by without an agent, and the fact that agencies can be quite difficult to get into), you can easily fall into rationalizing this as a reason to not bother trying. Instead, a healthy attitude would be allowing yourself to recognize these difficulties, but exploring alternative paths in the meantime (open auditions, talent rosters, casting sites, direct marketing, etc.)

One way to mentally address these roadblocks is to find real-world examples that prove you can accomplish certain things, even if it’s going to be more difficult. For instance, if you’re feeling insecure about your age, look at actors who didn’t book their first big role until later in life. If you’re frustrated about not being able to live in LA, read stories about actors who managed to book cool projects remotely. If you worry you’ll never get to appear on a convention panel because you’re not in anime, look at guest lists that feature voice actors who have only done video game work or even indie series.

Try not to view other actors as your “competition”.

Yes, you’ll hear over and over again that the acting industry is competitive. This means that when auditioning, chances are you’re up against a lot of other people—and it can be difficult to work consistently in an industry where so many other people are doing the same thing. But this doesn’t mean that you should view your peers as people who are out to take jobs away from you. You’re all in this together, so try to view them as your colleagues instead.

If someone else gets an opportunity that you really wanted, it’s natural to feel jealous or perhaps even resentful. But try to shift to an abundance mindset – remember that there are enough opportunities to go around, try to be happy for others’ wins, and trust that the projects that are meant for you will find their way to you.

Take a realistic and balanced approach to how you see yourself and your career.

The next time you catch yourself in a loop of negative self-talk, try to reword your statements to be more grounded in reality.

Example of negative self-talk:

“I’m a total failure. I will never be successful at acting. Other people around me who are much younger than me are already much farther ahead in their careers. I’ve already been at this for years and I only have a few professional credits, and only 500 Twitter followers, while my peers have thousands. I can’t get an agent because I’m clearly bad at what I do. And I only get auditions from a few talent pools, most of which I rarely book.”

Example of how you can reword the above statement to a more realistic and healthy perspective:

“I am not a failure, but right now I am feeling discouraged because I am not working as much as I’d like to be. Sometimes I feel like I am playing catch-up compared to younger talent, but that’s okay because it’s not a race and I still have many years ahead of me to achieve my goals. I’ve already been fortunate enough to have a few professional credits, which many people would love to have. There are 500 people on Twitter who care enough about what I do to want to follow my posts and interact with me. I’m having trouble getting an agent because it’s a tough and competitive market, but I’ll keep working to improve my skills. I am grateful to receive opportunities from several talent pools, but I would like to keep expanding.”

constructive actions you can take

Be aware of negative thoughts when they start to creep in.

Learn to recognize what negative self-talk looks like for you, and try to catch yourself before you start spiraling. Allow yourself to have these thoughts, but address them as the way you feel in the current moment rather than convincing yourself that it’s the reality.

It can be all too easy to see the worst in any situation, or make up excuses as to why your achievements don’t count or why you really ARE a fraud who somehow managed to trick people into thinking you’re good at what you do. But if you start falling down a rabbit hole of self-loathing, try to at the very least reword your statements into opinions rather than undeniable facts. For example, instead of “I am unsuccessful”, say “I feel unsuccessful right now.” This simple alteration of wording can help you remember that 1) your feeling – while valid – is only your perspective, and 2) it doesn’t have to be permanent.

Take stock of things you’re grateful for.

No matter how much you accomplish, it’s easy to slip into the mindset of feeling that it’s never enough. Even if you achieve your biggest goal, the natural instinct is to think, “what’s next?”

Continuing to be ambitious is a good thing, but don’t get so caught up in chasing the next goalpost that you lose sight of what you’ve done so far. Here are some “cheat sheet” journal prompts to help yourself stop and reflect:

1. Think about the moment in your life when you first decided you wanted to pursue voice acting. How have you grown since then?
2. What is something you’ve accomplished – big or small – that you didn’t expect would happen?
3. Listen to some of your old recordings or auditions. Do you notice ways you’ve improved since then?

Surround yourself with supportive, like-minded people – both inside and outside of the industry.

You are influenced by the people you spend the most time interacting with. If your friends always complain and gossip, it’s easy to start adopting those behaviors. If they put you down or pick on you, even jokingly, it’s easy to internalize it. You should be surrounded by people whom you can support and who will support you in turn.

Having actor peers and mentors is helpful for your well being. But it’s also vital to have a support system outside the entertainment industry. If you surround yourself only with other actors who constantly talk about “the business”, it can be easy to fixate on nothing but work—leading to feeling dissatisfied with your own achievements. Planning activities with non-actor friends can help keep things in perspective.

Ask someone you trust for honest feedback.

If you’re feeling bad about yourself or truly think you’re a mediocre actor who just managed to get lucky, see if you can get an honest opinion on your performance from someone whose opinion you trust. This could be a more experienced peer, a mentor, teacher or coach—but not random people on the Internet!

Yes, this also means resisting the urge to read comments and reviews about your work. If you’re already in a bad headspace, reading comments is almost always going to make it worse. If you post a video of your voice acting and you get 20 comments – 19 positive and 1 negative – guess which one you’re going to focus on?

Try voice acting just for fun again.

When you focus on making voice acting your career, it’s easy for everything you do in pursuit of it to feel more like a job than a creative outlet. Being business-minded is of course important when you want to make this your livelihood…but don’t forget to have fun doing it, too!

If you feel burned out or like you’re starting to no longer enjoy what you do, take a moment to remember why you wanted to pursue voice acting in the first place. Try making your own project – whether by yourself or with friends – where you have creative freedom. Without the pressure of making money or trying to impress a casting director with your audition, it becomes easier to truly enjoy yourself—and you may actually find it leads to some of your better work.

Revisiting your old inspirations can help, too – did you watch a show or play a game years ago that inspired you to get into voice acting? Was there a fandom you used to be a part of that got you started on the creative path? Going back to your roots can help you feel fired up again.

Channel your energy into something productive.

Feeling down about a slow period or lack of progress? Find actionable items to help get you back on track. This could be signing up for a casting director workshop, learning a new accent/dialect, studying a particular character archetype, cold-emailing potential clients, or updating your website.

And finally, recognize that your feelings are valid.

It is completely normal, especially in the entertainment industry, to feel inadequate or unworthy compared to others in your field. Recognize these feelings for what they are and own them, but try not to let them dominate your thoughts or keep you from pursuing your career.

What if none of this is working?

Consider the worst that could realistically happen and deconstruct why it’s not actually as bad as you think.

Let’s take a fairly common scenario that leads to insecurity in actors: You have a session with a new director, and it doesn’t go well. Maybe they’re not happy with your reads, maybe you feel you’re off your game or that the character is a miscast, maybe you’re messing up on your lines or doing take after take and still not getting it. You think, ”This session was absolutely terrible. I’m going to be blacklisted by this director and possibly the entire studio.”

First, give yourself a reality check. Understand that 1) many people have bad sessions from time to time, and 2) chances are it wasn’t as bad as you think and you are being extra critical of yourself. Things that you thought were a huge deal, like messing up on your lines? Perhaps the director barely noticed or didn’t think much of it because even established pros trip up here and there. Perhaps they are very particular and ask for lots of takes not just from you, but from everyone they work with. Some directors have mentioned being surprised to receive an apology from an actor who thought they totally bombed a session, because in reality they thought the actor was completely fine!

But if you’re spiraling in that moment, you probably aren’t going to be able to think rationally. So the next step is to imagine that fear actually coming true. Suppose your session was as bad as you thought and the director doesn’t want to work with you again. They may make a mental note of this, but very rarely is it permanent. Most directors realize that actors can improve and grow, so you could always get another shot later down the line. Or, they may forget about you entirely as they are working with so many different people! And even if you don’t work with this particular director again, chances are there are other directors at that same studio who will still work with you, and even if not, there are other studios and clients that will work with you. Most “blacklists” are unwritten and informal, and unless you do something horrendously bad, immoral or illegal, it’s actually quite rare to be “universally blacklisted”. One rough session does not mean your career is over!

So oddly enough, after going through this worst-case scenario in your head, you’ll realize it’s not actually as bad as you think.

Understand that you will make mistakes, and it’s not the end of the world if and when you do.

Everyone makes mistakes, but if it’s not your mistake, chances are you won’t hear about it. It is easy to beat yourself up to the point of “what if I never work again?!” But as mentioned above, it would take a truly serious offense to be tossed into the “never hire again” category.

So, what to do if you make a mistake?

1. If you are called out on the mistake by someone in charge, own it and apologize.
Depending on the severity of the offense, this could be anything from a quick verbal sorry to a more formal email. You do not need to go overkill on this—-for example, writing a full essay to a casting director to apologize for labeling your files wrong would be more off-putting than the act of mislabeling them in the first place!

2. Rectify the situation as soon as possible to minimize the damage caused.
Let’s say you accidentally announced a role in a project a day too early. Delete the post as soon as you are aware and do not call any further public attention to it. Thought your session was tomorrow, but it was actually today? Ask if they’d still like you to come in, and if so, get there as soon as possible ready to work.

3. Use it as a learning experience.
Take away what you can from the situation so you can hopefully avoid making a similar mistake going forward.

4. Recognize when not to put the blame entirely on yourself.
Let’s say a client is unclear or contradictory in their retake notes, and then chides you for not getting it right—but you’ve been complimented on how well you take direction by others. If you are doing your best to interpret their feedback and they’re still not happy, it’s probably not really your fault, so try not to take it too personally.

Resist the urge to publicly air all your insecurities.

There’s a difference between being transparent about the struggles of the business, and simply putting yourself down. Remember that when it comes to your public platforms, you are still selling yourself as a brand and trying to attract clients to hire you. If you post about how you think you’re a terrible actor and how you barely ever work, why would a potential client want to pay someone whom apparently no one else wants to hire? Being humble is good, but you can still carry yourself with confidence and take pride in your work.

Take a break if you need it.

There will still be projects that need voice actors, whether now or a year from now. Be sure to take care of your existing commitments of course, but there’s no shame in stepping back for a bit when submitting auditions is no longer bringing you joy.

See a therapist if you are able to.

While venting to friends or people on the Internet may temporarily help you feel better, it’s not a substitute for meeting with a mental health professional. Unfortunately, therapy isn’t always affordable or accessible—but if you have the privilege to do so, try to make your mental health a priority.

Acknowledge the negative thoughts and then let them go.

The more you try to bury self-defeating thoughts, the more they tend to bubble up all at once—leading to a possible emotional breakdown. It may sound counterintuitive, but allowing the negative feelings to have their moment can actually help take away their power.

For example, imagine you are upset because you worry you will never book an anime role due to where you live. You might write down, or even say out loud to yourself, something like: I feel like I’m not a “real actor” compared to my peers because I’ve never been in anime. It feels out of reach to me because I don’t live where the work is, and I can’t afford to move. This stresses me out and makes me feel discouraged from pursuing voice work.

Once you’ve acknowledged the feeling – even if it’s one you’re not proud of – figure out a way to let it go. In the above example, this might be by saying something like: I’m frustrated that the dubbing industry doesn’t feel accessible to those who live outside of very specific geographical hubs, but I’m going to keep working hard at pursuing the opportunities available to me. We don’t know the future, and I’ll keep reminding myself that the type of work I want to do can still come into my path one way or another—whether that’s temporarily flying out to do a job, working with a studio that allows remote exceptions, or saving up to find a way to live where I can pursue the types of jobs I especially want to do.