Episode
Feeling Like a Fraud
- Podcast
- The Buoyant Leader
- Published
- May 19, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 403
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Summary
Fraud Today I feel like a fraud. On the one hand, it’s Monday, and time to draft this week’s Buoyant Leader newsletter. On the other hand, I’m feeling decidedly non-buoyant: sluggish, sad, scared, and stuck. I open my note-taking app and looked through all the newsletter ideas — and I got pissed off at my past self for offering all this smug advice that I really need right now. Because when you’re not buoyant, the last thing you want is someone telling you how to right yourself. Which is a useful thing for future me to remember when I’m out of my funk and feeling helpful again. But I don’t want to abandon this feeling of fraudulence that quickly. I want to twist on this hook for a few more paragraphs, in case you might also have a touch of “who the hell am I to…?” now and again. Fraudulence The fraudulence has two parts to it. First, I’m the guy who has supposedly figured this stuff out, and here I am again. I feel like calling some coaching clients and paying them to coach me today. And I know, conceptually, that having off-days doesn’t disqualify me from — well, from anything really, except maybe surgery or air traffic control. But it’s hard, and frankly annoying, when the advice and empathy and perspective I can dole out like the world’s best bartender falls so flat to my own ears. Probably it’s an example of why bootstrapping isn’t a thing — while self-coaching can help with surface issues, in order to lift spirits we need each other. But I wouldn’t want my clients to see me this way, and if I had a call this afternoon I’d fake energy and charm and positivity. The second part of the fraudulence is the old refrain, Do As I Say And Not As I Do. Because, honestly, this funk was pretty preventable. I’ve neglected my morning practice for a couple of weeks now. I’ve avoi…