I am sure you, like me, have felt overwhelmed by what we see online. We spend hours scrolling through LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, etc and sometimes we start to let that doubt creep in… the doubt that we are finding “success” fast enough. We start playing the comparison game and we compare ourselves to others in our network. In this episode, I talk about why I took a step back from LinkedIn and social media after writing my book on personal brand. I needed to take a step back from the toxicity and overwhelming feeling of imposter syndrome and remind myself to walk my talk. I hope this show is a reminder to you, that you are unique because your journey is your own, keep making things happen! Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review.
I am sure you, like me, have felt overwhelmed by what we see online. We spend hours scrolling through LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, etc and sometimes we start to let that doubt creep in… the doubt that we are finding “success” fast enough. We start playing the comparison game and we compare ourselves to others in our network. In this episode, I talk about why I took a step back from LinkedIn and social media after writing my book on personal brand.
I needed to take a step back from the toxicity and overwhelming feeling of imposter syndrome and remind myself to walk my talk. I hope this show is a reminder to you, that you are unique because your journey is your own, keep making things happen!
Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review.
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INTRO
00;00;01;00 - 00;00;46;21
Rob Napoli : how we doing bear nation. Rob Napoli Here and today I wanted to talk about something that has I've seen a lot happen and I've had a lot of conversation with a lot of people about this lately. And the topic of conversation is why I took a step back from platforms like LinkedIn, especially LinkedIn, after I wrote a book on personal brand earlier this year, back in back in January, my book, The Social Soul, launched and living up to that and even after that was a big push for me across all the socials.
00;00;46;21 - 00;01;12;29
Rob Napoli : And, you know, getting my posts out weekly. I was doing a lot of video content. There was a lot of things I was I was ranking high on the algorithm on LinkedIn, and I was growing quickly on Instagram as well. So it's really exciting about excited about continued growth. But as this kind of the spring wore on for me, I realized that there is a lot of toxicity.
00;01;13;23 - 00;01;35;03
Rob Napoli : What's happening on LinkedIn. There's a lot of people talking about this or talking about that. You're seeing everyone has like had to be promoted to this or starting a new job here or here. It's this. And then you had some people that would be like, I'm never going back to an office again. If any company thinks that workers need to be in office, they're crazy.
00;01;35;03 - 00;01;55;17
Rob Napoli : But there's two sides to every story, right? Some people want to work remote and never have to set foot in office again. Me, on the other hand, I'm a social worker. I want to be back in the office. I love taking the subway into the city. That's when I my brain turns on. I do my best work. I do my best thinking and best ideas and action comes when I'm in motion.
00;01;56;27 - 00;02;34;27
Rob Napoli : And so that toxicity of this or that in regards to we had the great resignation, everyone was leaving because companies aren't treating them right and they're going to find their dream job through six months later having a lot of layoffs because tech companies valuations were so overvalued that they had to cut costs and that's through labor. Right. Scaling back to think about a company scaling is adding headcount. that's spending money.
00;02;34;27 - 00;02;55;01
Rob Napoli : I saw a great post on LinkedIn about this earlier so we laid it out. scaling is can you grow the company and headcount but continue to create your LTV or your contract value sales revenue, whatever your businesses can that continue to grow. that your amount of people that you hire should be relative to the speed at which you're growing.
00;02;55;01 - 00;03;33;07
Rob Napoli : Now you've got to spend money to make money, right? Growth, growth, growth. We all, If you haven't seen we crash on Apple TV. Go watch it. it is a very cautionary tale about why we need to stop thinking that scaling equals headcount right now. We saw this this craziness happen and through all of this and through all of the announcements and people doing this and people doing that and they're speaking at this conference and that stage on this panel, on that podcast, all that toxicity and all of that overload really took a toll on my own imposter syndrome.
00;03;33;07 - 00;03;57;24
Rob Napoli : And this year I have been growing the podcast really focused on that. I just written a book, you know, the book came out the day my grandfather's funeral, which was a really tough time for that all to happen. But it is what it is and life goes on. Plus, I have some other great projects happening, but it just felt like and I sold my company early this year.
00;03;58;03 - 00;04;26;21
Rob Napoli : So having all these things that I had done, it just felt like it wasn't moving fast enough or I wasn't, you know, I wasn't keeping up pace. And so I needed to walk my talk a little bit. So I decided to take a step back and say, You know what? I am where I am and I am who I am, and that this is how it is meant to be.
00;04;26;27 - 00;04;47;13
Rob Napoli : And I'm growing and building and making things happen on my time at my pace, and my successes are my own. And it's really easy to get kind of stuck in our own mind comparing and playing that comparison game with others. Right? And we always like to compare, well, you know, it's too late for me to do that or I'm too old to do this.
00;04;47;13 - 00;05;09;09
Rob Napoli : Ah, I don't, you know, I've missed my chance. Fuck that you always had a chance. You always have an opportunity, right? Life is not linear. Time is not linear? We should grow and do the things that you want to do. So I really wanted to kind of come on and share that. You know, I made that conscious effort.
00;05;09;09 - 00;05;28;18
Rob Napoli : It's okay to take a step back from social, it's okay to take a step back from going out or doing these things. If you're feeling overwhelmed and overloaded, it is okay to take a step back and know that things are happening to you at the time which was to happen. now you have to go work for it, right?
00;05;28;18 - 00;05;46;03
Rob Napoli : That doesn't mean that you can just sit back and say, Oh, Rob said this, oh come to me. no, you have to go make it happen, right? You have to believe it, feel it, see it and go work towards it. But that doesn't come instantly. It's okay. It takes time and it takes value and it takes putting one foot in front of the other.
00;05;46;23 - 00;06;13;17
Rob Napoli : So out of this episode to be, you know, a reminder not only to myself but to others that it's okay, don't play the comparison game. Keep building. As entrepreneurs, it's even more easy to get caught up in all the craziness and company scaling. This company got funding and that company got funding and this person got promoted. So take that step back and continue doing you because you will get there.
00;06;13;17 - 00;06;46;13
Rob Napoli : You will do the things that you need to do to make it happen. And that is powerful. Powerful to know when you're feeling overloaded, when you feel that imposter syndrome creeping at it, take a step back and have a conversation with yourself. I'm here because this is me. I'm here because I made this happen. I'm here because I am unique and I always tell people, you are unique because no one else on this earth walks your journey, that's what makes you unique.
00;06;46;16 - 00;07;12;01
Rob Napoli : You so own that, believe in that, live that truth and let that kind of help take you and carry you through those times of imposter syndrome. It's time to toxicity and you know, one thing I hope to see to continue to happen more on social is we post all these great things. remember showing our authentic social soul. It's all about the good and the bad.
00;07;12;01 - 00;07;36;12
Rob Napoli : It's showing everything it is, talking through challenges and experiences, the good and the bad. And it seems that people do that talking about times they failed and what they've learned from that. That's great. Continue to do more of that. Be human. Not every day is success after success after success, right? We do have failures. We have pain. We can't feel joy.
00;07;36;12 - 00;08;02;26
Rob Napoli : We can't be happy. We can't experience success without feeling sense of loss of value. So let this pod be a reminder that you're not the only one going through it. That imposter syndrome is real and the toxicity of social and the way social can overload you when you start playing the comparison game can cause that. So don't let it. know that it's okay to take a step back.
00;08;03;20 - 00;08;31;24
Rob Napoli : Know that it's okay to go at your own pace. So don't play the comparison game. Remember who you are and why you're doing what you're doing. Continue to go make things happen. So I appreciate you. Bear Nation. You have forever supported me. If I can ever be of service, please let me know. If you could, please subscribe to the show, like us.
00;08;31;24 - 00;08;44;23
Rob Napoli : Give us 5 stars, do all those things. Write a review even better, helps make this show continued growth. I really appreciate you all, till next episode. Stay well. Rise up.
OUTRO
00;08;47;05 - 00;08;56;25
Rob Napoli : Bear Nation. Thanks for listening to the bear necessities of entrepreneurship. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review.