E839 | What An NBA Point Guard Taught Me About Imposter Syndrome

Feeling Like an Imposter? Good. Use It.

Ever feel like you don’t belong as a business owner, educator, or leader? That sneaky little voice asking, “Who am I to do this?” That’s imposter syndrome—and almost every successful person has felt it. In this post, Doc Danny explains how to turn that doubt into fuel for your growth, not a roadblock.

TJ McConnell: The NBA Underdog Who Outworks Everyone

Danny opens with a story about his son’s favorite NBA player, TJ McConnell. McConnell is undersized, under-recruited, and not the most athletic—but he’s carved out a long NBA career through grit, high basketball IQ, and relentless work. His secret? He admits he feels like an imposter—and uses that as motivation to train harder than anyone else.

What If You Reframed Your Doubt as Drive?

Most clinicians experience imposter syndrome when they first start a cash-based business:

• “Am I good enough for someone to pay me out of pocket?”

• “Who am I to charge $200/hour?”

• “Can I really lead a team?”

The answer? You might not be there yet—but you can become the person who is. Use the feeling of inadequacy to learn obsessively, seek mentorship, and sharpen your skills until there’s no doubt left.

At Every Level, It Comes Back

Imposter syndrome isn’t something you outgrow—it evolves. Whether you’re hiring your first employee or scaling to a multi-provider clinic, you’ll face new challenges that make you question your worth. But each new level requires a new you. And that’s the game.

The Real Difference Between Confidence and Arrogance

People with imposter syndrome are rarely arrogant. In fact, it’s often a sign of humility. They’re confident enough to take action but humble enough to know they need to grow. That’s where the magic happens.

Your Next Step

Instead of asking “Who am I to do this?” ask “What would the person who deserves this outcome do?”
Then go do that. Over and over again.

Because success isn’t about erasing doubt. It’s about working until it doesn’t matter anymore.

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Podcast Transcript

 Danny: Hey, Danny Matta here. And have you ever felt like an imposter? Like you don't belong, uh, as a business owner or an educator or in a leadership role, this idea of imposter syndrome is something that often stops us from doing what we want to do. But I'm gonna talk to you about how you can use it to actually fuel the goals that you're trying to achieve.

So my son has recently gotten really into basketball. Like it's, he's obsessed with it. He just wants to play basketball and watch basketball. And his, uh, one of his favorite players is TJ McConnell. So TJ McConnell is a perennial backup point guard, uh, in the NBA and your sort of classic undersized. Not the most athletic, you know, just not, not the most physically gifted individual who, uh, you know, didn't get a bunch of Division one offers and, and, uh, and, and is not the person you think would be, you know, have a tenure NBA career or be a great NBA player.

And, uh, in the NBA finals this year. The starting point guard for the Indiana Pacers got hurt, TJ McConnell's the backup, and he ended up coming in, in the last game and being the starter. But my son loves to watch him because tenacious defender, you know, great, uh, a great passer runs an offense really well.

And so we've, we've sort of dove into, uh, anything we can find about TJ mcc. Well, we found an interview that he did that was a podcast, and he talks about his backstory and it, it's really interesting because one of the things that he says is the idea that he has this chip on his shoulder from only getting, you know, one bigger school offer.

I think it was Duane, uh, not, not a, any significant division one offers coming outta high school and even, you know, going into the NBA, not somebody that was. Highly, you know, sought after in, in a draft or anything like that, but has made a career off of, you know, great defense coming in, being efficient, not giving the ball up, um, you know, and facilitating an offense and trying really, really hard.

And he talks about the idea of imposter syndrome and he said if he has imposter syndrome, he's got it really bad, you know, and he, he basically said he uses that to fuel him working as hard as he does to be able to stay in the NBA, be able to, uh, play with people who are. Far superior athletes, much bigger, faster, stronger individuals, but from a basketball IQ standpoint, from an effort standpoint, from from a, you know, every day putting in the work that he needs to put in to be able to play at a level like that, nobody outworks him as far as that goes because.

This idea that he is an imposter, that he doesn't belong, that it's a place that he shouldn't be. And when I heard him say that, you know it, it was very interesting for me to think about imposter syndrome because at every stage of my career, I've had imposter syndrome. And in fact, I think the vast majority of us deal with imposter syndrome.

All the time. And we, we view it as a, a negative thing and, and it can be for sure a negative thing because it limits your belief of what you're capable of doing. It limits your ability to take a chance on yourself, maybe with something that you really want to do, uh, in, you know, your career, business, whatever, in this context.

But if you take that idea of imposter syndrome, if you take this. I don't know if I belong. I don't know if, who am I to, you know, charge somebody X amount to work with them? Am I a good enough clinician? Um, this is where a lot of us start, right? I don't know if people will pay to work with me. I don't know if I'm a good enough clinician to be able to charge people out of pocket to work with me.

That that's where it starts. And here's the flip side of that. Here's how you use imposter syndrome to actually drive you to get the result that you want. You say, okay, maybe I don't, but I'm going to commit to learning everything I can possibly learn. I'm gonna like, I'm gonna be the epitome of a lifelong learner.

I'm gonna seek out mentorship if I. Don't get the result that somebody wants. I'm gonna obsess over what do I not know? You know, what do I need to learn? What, what resources do I not have access to? Or what information do I not understand? So that I never make that mistake ever, ever again. You know, instead of, uh, you know, listening to music, you make your, your car, your classroom, and all you do is you learn about clinical things and you make yourself the greatest clinician you can possibly be.

And, and this is, this is for me, this is exactly the direction that I went. I wanted to make sure I was good enough to deserve. Being paid by people to work with me, uh, in a cash based clinic. After that, then what happens? Well, then you say, okay, well now I have a business and I need to hire other people.

But like, who am I to hire other clinicians? Who am I to run a business and employ people? I've never done that in my own clinic before. I feel like an imposter. I don't know if I'm a good leader. Well, what do you do? Well, instead of letting that stop you, you flip it on its head and you say, I'm gonna learn everything I can possibly learn about being a great leader.

I'm gonna learn everything I can about being a fantastic business owner. I'm gonna create an environment. That is a, a place that people want to work, a place that's special, a place that, that cultivates excellence and, and is gonna be the top clinician, you know, focused, uh, clinic in, in the entire country or state or whatever your goal is.

So instead of saying, who am I to do this? It's who do I need to become? What work do I need to put in so that I can take this sort of like feeling of being imposter And I can use that to my advantage and say, what do I need to do to get that to go away to where now all of a sudden. I'm building the person that is not an imposter anymore.

You know, I am, I am taking the, and putting the work in that I need to put in, in order to become the person that won't second guess if I should be doing this or not, or feeling like an imposter. And the funny thing is, the, the funny thing is that every stage that you're gonna go through, whether you're starting, you're growing, you're scaling, you're whatever it is that you're doing, you're, you're just outta school and you're trying to become a great clinician.

You still feel like an imposter at every single stage. And that's because you have to learn different things at different stages. It never stops, ever, and sometimes that feels really frustrating. Sometimes that feels, it feels like you're on this hamster wheel of, of lifelong learning and developing, you know, personally, professionally, forever.

That's the fucking game. That's it. That's how it goes. No matter you're playing in the NBA or you're running a a clinic, or you're just trying to be an amazing clinician. It doesn't matter what you do at every stage that you level up, you feel like an imposter again. And then it's up to you to make the progress necessary to squash that imposter syndrome back where it belongs.

And the only way that goes away is that you put so much effort and work into it that you can't doubt yourself. And then you become the person that deserves whatever that stage is. And you don't have imposter syndrome anymore. And then just a matter of do you wanna go to the next stage and the next stage and the next stage?

And that's up to you to decide that, right? But imposter syndrome is something that many of us deal with and we deal with it. In, in my experience, people have imposter syndrome. They are not arrogant. You cannot have imposter syndrome and be arrogant. You can be confident, but have the humility enough to know that you don't know things and that's where you want to be.

But if you're confident and lack humility, that's arrogance and that gets you into a very bad spot. So that is not typically the case with people that we work with or people that I've been around. If anything. They're confident, but they're, they're humble enough to know that they, they need skills, they need to, uh, improve in different areas, whatever that might be.

But that can also stop them. That can stop them from taking the next step. So instead of letting you stop, uh, stopping you from whatever you're trying to do, look at what you need to do to become the person that would never doubt. Whether someone would pay you $200 an hour or someone would want to work for your company, or someone would want to buy your company, or whatever the next stage is, put the work in to be the person that would never doubt that that's the path.

That's where you need to go. Use it as fuel to drive you to wherever your goals are. Look, I hope this helps you. If you're dealing with imposter syndrome, don't look at it as a negative thing. It's a positive thing. Use it that way, and you'll have success because of it.