The Impostor Syndrome Files

In this episode of The Impostor Syndrome Files, we talk about what happens when we assume everyone else has it together and we’re the only ones struggling. My guest this week is Teri Pruitt, a Broadway professional who has spent nearly three decades working behind the scenes. Teri shares an honest, funny perspective on comparison, insecurity and the stories we tell ourselves about other people’s lives.
We explore why saying our insecurities out loud to someone we trust can change the power they have over us. Teri shares what she discovered when she opened up to people she’d put on a pedestal and how those conversations changed their relationships. We also talk about the fear of burdening others and what it means to be the person someone trusts with their self-doubt.
And we discuss how to acknowledge the experiences that shaped us and take ownership of what we do next. Teri shares her perspective on giving ourselves grace and continuing to move forward, even on the days when confidence feels out of reach. Lastly, we explore her next chapter, including what the business world can learn from the people who bring Broadway shows to life.

About My Guest
Teri Pruitt is a Broadway professional, speaker, and founder of Open the Aperture, where she brings Theatrical Solutions for Business Problems to organizations and leaders.
With more than 30 years as a working theatrical professional—including 25+ years on Broadway—Teri offers a rare perspective on what it actually takes to build trust, collaborate under pressure, adapt when things go wrong, and deliver consistently at a high level.
Her work draws from the theatrical process and from her Journeywoman’s View: the perspective of someone who has spent a career leading, influencing, problem-solving, and helping complex systems succeed from the middle rather than the top.
Through Open the Aperture, Teri translates lessons from professional theatre into practical conversations about leadership, teamwork, rehearsal, resilience, communication, and sustainable performance. Her central premise is simple: Broadway is the setting. The theatrical process is the framework. The human beings doing the work are the story.
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Connect with Teri:
Website: https://teripruitt.world
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teri-pruitt/
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Connect with Kim and The Impostor Syndrome Files:

Join the free Impostor Syndrome Challenge:
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In this episode of The Impostor Syndrome Files, we talk about the pressure to prove ourselves and how it can keep us working harder without getting where we want to go. My guest this week is Drew Turner, a leadership coach who helps high-achieving women advocate for themselves and pursue the opportunities they want. Drew shares her journey from managing a retail store at 24 to working in leadership development at Tesla and how a layoff forced her to rethink her relationship with work.

We explore the rules many of us learned growing up about being helpful, staying humble and waiting for someone else to recognize our contributions. Drew shares how those rules showed up in her own career, including giving away credit for her wins and questioning whether she deserved to be in the room. We also discuss what happens when we tie our identity to our jobs and how making space for grief, reflection and joy can help us move forward after an unexpected career change.

We also talk about why being busy can feel like proof of our value and how that pressure makes it harder to set boundaries or prioritize ourselves. Drew shares practical ways to reconnect with what matters to us and make more intentional choices about where we put our time and energy. We explore how self-doubt can affect our relationships with other women at work and what becomes possible when we support each other’s success.

About My Guest
Drew Turner is a Jungian-certified leadership coach who helps high-achieving women in leadership who are exhausted from proving their worth be seen for everything they bring to the table, so they can get the opportunities they've earned. Before starting her coaching business, she spent over a decade in retail leadership and L&D roles, including at Tesla, where she experienced firsthand the exhausting cycle of proving her worth no matter how much she accomplished. She now helps women rebuild self-trust from the inside out for lasting change, not tactics that decay.
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Connect with Drew:
Free 3 Step Reset to Be Seen for Everything You Bring to the Table: www.drewturnercoaching.com/3stepreset
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Connect with Kim and The Impostor Syndrome Files:

Join the free Impostor Syndrome Challenge:
https://www.kimmeninger.com/challenge

Learn more about the Leading Humans discussion group:
https://www.kimmeninger.com/leadinghumansgroup

Join the Slack channel to learn from, connect with and support other professionals: https://forms.gle/Ts4Vg4Nx4HDnTVUC6

Join the Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/leadinghumans

Schedule time to speak with Kim Meninger directly about your questions/challenges: https://bookme.name/ExecCareer/strategy-session

Connect on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimmeninger/

Website:
https://www.kimmeninger.com

In this episode of The Impostor Syndrome Files, we talk about finding your voice when you’re afraid you don’t belong. My guest this week is Yutian Li, a Harvard student, public speaker and human rights activist who immigrated to the United States from China at age 11. She shares her journey from feeling too self-conscious to speak in class to using her voice to advocate for others.
We explore how our identities and experiences can become sources of connection, even when we’ve learned to see them as reasons to question ourselves. Yutian also shares her experience with impostor syndrome at Harvard and what she discovered behind the confidence of the people around her. We discuss the power of encouragement and how seemingly small interactions can change what we believe is possible.
We also talk about Yutian’s powerful choice to stay optimistic in a polarized world. Having grown up in a country where political expression was restricted, she brings a deep appreciation for the privilege of being able to disagree openly. She shares why she seeks out conversations with people whose views differ from her own and challenges us to consider what becomes possible when we approach those conversations with curiosity and respect for each other’s humanity.
About My Guest
Yutian Li is an award-winning human right activist, public speaker, and a student at Harvard College. From immigrating to the US at eleven without speaking English, to speaking at MA State House, MIT, Boston Children's Hospital, etc ten years later, she is passionate about using her story to empower youths from marginalized backgrounds. Yutian currently studies Neuroscience and Government at Harvard. She has worked on various national/state political campaigns and conducts psychology researcher on immigrants and AAPI youths' identity formation, resilience, and mental health. 
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Connect with Yutian:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yutian-li/
Public Speaking One-pager: https://www.speakhercollective.co/_files/ugd/bc5ad1_9ad478fc331a4e9689ae6e34b571ab7e.pdf
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Connect with Kim and The Impostor Syndrome Files:

Join the free Impostor Syndrome Challenge:
https://www.kimmeninger.com/challenge

Learn more about the Leading Humans discussion group:
https://www.kimmeninger.com/leadinghumansgroup

Join the Slack channel to learn from, connect with and support other professionals: https://forms.gle/Ts4Vg4Nx4HDnTVUC6

Join the Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/leadinghumans

Schedule time to speak with Kim Meninger directly about your questions/challenges: https://bookme.name/ExecCareer/strategy-session

Connect on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimmeninger/

Website:
https://www.kimmeninger.com

In this episode of the Impostor Syndrome Files, we explore how deeply held beliefs can shape the way we see ourselves and what we believe is possible. My guest this week is Janylène Turcotte, a hypnotherapist, hypno coach and executive coach who helps professionals move through limiting beliefs and self-doubt.
Janylène shares how an unexpected career transition led her to reconsider what she wanted and eventually discover hypnotherapy. We explore what hypno coaching actually involves, why it’s different from the dramatic versions of hypnosis we see on television and how it can help us access perspectives that are often drowned out by our inner critic.
We also discuss the beliefs that commonly fuel impostor syndrome, including the fear that others are better or will judge us. Janylène explains how changing those beliefs can lead to surprising shifts in our behavior and why real transformation doesn’t always happen in a straight line.
About My Guest
Janylène Turcotte is the founder of Hypnocoach and a clinical hypnotherapist who has guided 1,500+ one-on-one sessions. After 25 years as a senior HR executive — the last eight at Deloitte — she now works with founders and senior leaders through the identity shifts a résumé never prepares you for: selling a business, an ending that came on someone else's terms, reinventing after the title is gone. Her method, Peel Back · Rewire · Rise, works on the belief underneath the behavior. Practical, not mystical.
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Connect with Janylène:
Booking: https://link.hypnocoach.ca/widget/bookings/janylene-turcotte-personal-calendar-yqnwtklhsshegli
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Connect with Kim and The Impostor Syndrome Files:

Join the free Impostor Syndrome Challenge:
https://www.kimmeninger.com/challenge

Learn more about the Leading Humans discussion group:
https://www.kimmeninger.com/leadinghumansgroup

Join the Slack channel to learn from, connect with and support other professionals: https://forms.gle/Ts4Vg4Nx4HDnTVUC6

Join the Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/leadinghumans

Schedule time to speak with Kim Meninger directly about your questions/challenges: https://bookme.name/ExecCareer/strategy-session

Connect on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimmeninger/

Website:
https://www.kimmeninger.com

In this episode of the Impostor Syndrome Files, we talk about the power of our thoughts and why they can feel so convincing in the moment. My guest this week is Kay Tear, a business psychologist, executive coach and author who helps people better understand how their minds work.
Kay challenges the way we think about impostor syndrome, resilience and our reactions to change. We explore how our state of mind shapes our experience and why two people can face the same situation and walk away with completely different interpretations.
We also discuss what happens when we become consumed by fearful thinking and how we can loosen its grip. Kay shares why noticing our thoughts, creating space for fresh thinking and taking one small action can help us move forward with greater clarity and confidence.
About My Guest
Most leadership training is boring — and it's aimed at the wrong problem entirely. It teaches skills to people who are already too overwhelmed to take them in, and calls that development.  So Kay Tear built Business Reimagined to work with organisations that want to liberate their people from overwhelm, burnout and disengagement. They want to create an exceptional employee experience with unique yet proven approaches that redefine development and wellbeing. 
A Business Psychologist for over 20 years and an executive coach, Kay helps leaders learn about the human operating system — not behaviour, not competencies, but the inner world actually running the show underneath. Her approach is ruthlessly simple by design, because overwhelmed leaders don't need more content, they need less noise. 
Kay is the author of Overcome Imposter Syndrome and Overcome Anxious Attachment.
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Connect with Kay:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaytear/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Ms-Kay-Tear/author/B0F67BGCQ7
Website: www.businessreimagined.co.uk
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Connect with Kim and The Impostor Syndrome Files:

Join the free Impostor Syndrome Challenge:
https://www.kimmeninger.com/challenge

Learn more about the Leading Humans discussion group:
https://www.kimmeninger.com/leadinghumansgroup

Join the Slack channel to learn from, connect with and support other professionals: https://forms.gle/Ts4Vg4Nx4HDnTVUC6

Join the Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/leadinghumans

Schedule time to speak with Kim Meninger directly about your questions/challenges: https://bookme.name/ExecCareer/strategy-session

Connect on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimmeninger/

Website:
https://www.kimmeninger.com