Don't we all, in various ways, copy? It is human nature. We subconsciously mimic others' emotions, gestures, and behaviors because that is how we fit in. Sometimes it's admiration. Sometimes it's insecurity. Sometimes it's a desire to emulate success. The truth is, we are all copying someone. And that is not the problem. The problem is what copying does to you when you are not aware that it is a natural stage of growth.
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Inspired by Gabrielle Roth
The Five Stages of Finding Your Voice
There's this framework by Gabrielle Roth (a genius movement teacher) that completely changed how I thought about the typical "impostor syndrome." When you're building something—whether that's a yoga class or a coaching business or a podcast offering—you move through five specific stages:
STAGE 1
Inertia
You're stuck. Scared. You want to create but you can't seem to move.
STAGE 2
Imitation
You find someone you admire and you start imitating them. Their structure. Their energy. Their way of teaching.
This isn't just studying them. You're hiding inside their framework because "At least I know it works."
And that hiding? It starts to eat at you. You're managing who you're projecting and who you really are. Your confidence fractures because you're not being honest—not with them, not with yourself. You start to lose your identity in the process.
STAGE 3
Intuition
You start to hear your own voice underneath the imitation. You feel where you're different.
STAGE 4
Imagniation
You take everything you've learned and you start experimenting. You reinvent based on what you know to be true.
STAGE 5
Inspiration
This is when your spontaneous creativity kicks in. The work that only comes after you've done all the discipline work.
Most of us feel like frauds in stage 2 and quit.
That's the mistake.
My Humiliating Story
The Thing I Learned Young
I learned early what it costs to get caught imitating.
I took a concept from someone I respected—"burning for a breakthrough"—and started teaching it as my own. I was young. I was humiliated when it came out.
That moment taught me something crucial: You can't build a real business on someone else's foundation. Not because it's wrong to study them. But because the hiding will destroy you from the inside.
So I stopped hiding and started imitating with awareness.
I went to yoga class three days a week. I sat in the room and I watched. I came home and I sketched everything I could remember. I studied the patterns. I noticed what worked and what didn't.
Through that process of deliberate imitation—of studying, learning, sketching—I started to see my own creative process emerging.
And that creative process became a method.
And that method became my first book, Art of Attention.
How You Actually Move Through It
In Week 3 of Tabernacle, we do something called Saturation & Seduction.
This is where you deliberately study people, offerings, and teachers that excite you. Not in a "I want to be them" way. In a "This turns me on creatively, what is it about this?" way.
You saturate yourself. You research. You take notes. You study.
And then you ask yourself questions:
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What am I noticing about how they structure their offering?
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What about their energy draws me in?
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What's missing that I could add?
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What feels alive in me when I imagine doing this differently?
That last question? That's intuition. That's your voice starting to emerge.
When Conviction Becomes Contagious
We do something in Tabernacle on the Friday calls to help with impostor syndrome.
We ask you to say (out loud, in front of people):
Who do you help? What do you help them with? What's the product? What are the results?
And then we practice. Again. And again.
You can schedule your Instagram posts perfectly. You can write the most beautiful newsletter. But if you're not really present with your mission and your promise, people feel the inauthenticity.
When people feel your conviction—not your perfection, your conviction—they say yes to YOU.
What I'm working on:
I'm building three email sequences to help you get ready for Tabernacle before and after you enroll. Most of our Residents have followed me for years—they've been waiting for their moment. I realized they need tools to start building their audience, gathering feedback, and clarifying their offering before they come in.
So we're creating a faster onramp. Stay tuned—these sequences are coming soon.
What I'm noticing:
The Residents who move fastest are the ones who stop apologizing for being in the imitation stage and start studying with intention.
They're not pretending. They're learning. And people can feel the difference.
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If you've been feeling like a fraud because you're imitating someone you admire—stop. We're all aching to touch something real. That's why you want to build a business. That's why you want to teach. That's why you lie awake thinking about your offering.
You can't do that from inside someone else's framework.
You have to study. You have to imitate with awareness. You have to listen for that voice that says, Try this. Say this. Do this your way.
That voice is not your impostor syndrome. That's your intuition telling you it's time to step into stage 3.
That's what Tabernacle does.
Just hit reply and say "I'm ready to find my voice."
Until next Sunday, keep studying. Keep imitating. And start listening for what wants to come through you.
With soulful support,
Erica
That person I borrowed the concept from? She became one of my biggest supporters. Because she saw me move from imitation to inspiration. And that's what real mentorship looks like—not "here's my way," but "here's how to find yours."
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