Dr Terri Simpkin blew me away. Listening to everything she said, has given me the push to apply for something I have always wanted to do but never felt I could…. who knows where this may lead? Wouldn’t the world be a very different place if all women got to spend 1 hour with her. Thank you so much.
A mission | A community | A call to action
This a site for all those people who know they could take on the the world. If only…
If only they could get rid of the fear of failure, the fear of being found out as a faker, the fear of success or the fear of not being good enough.
Who’s behind the site?
Well, me. Dr Terri Simpkin. Researcher, author, academic, public speaker and self confessed ‘impostor’. I’ve been researching and presenting on the impostor phenomenon for ages. It’s a bit of a mission to shift the mindset about this illogical feeling of intellectual phoniness and so I hope the material you find here will be of use to you.
The impostor phenomenon (no, it’s not a bloody syndrome!) is an insidious beast that keeps people from being as good as they know, in their quiet moments, they could be. I’ve been interested in this ‘beast’ since 2011, I’ve been researching it for the last five or so years and have now made it a large part of my day to day work.
So, For Fake Sake is a place to find out more about what this beast looks like, how it behaves and some options for getting it under control.
For Fake Sake, at its most granular is a mission, a community, a call to action.
Welcome, ‘fakers’ all.

“…you are braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.!
AA Milne
Look What We've Been Up To
- All
What People Are Saying
“I felt that my soul was on a dissection table and that Terri was explaining what she was seeing“
Just wanted you to know how much I enjoyed your session in the imposter phenomenon at the Governance conference. A light bulb moment for me. Life changing in terms of me telling my own story in a different way. THANK YOU
Stuff For You To Read
One and Done
Yesterday I had the pleasure of delivering a workshop for the ICSA conference in London. As the premier conference event for company secretaries, and board and governance professionals, it was an opportunity to explore how inclusion and diversity in corporate governance, in all its guises, is being addressed. It was encouraging to realise that the issue of inclusion was not a discrete topic of discussion, but rather one that permeated many of the issues under scrutiny and discussion.
Feeling Fake? Why the Impostor Phenomenon is not only a personal concern.
The impostor syndrome has been receiving a good deal of social media coverage recently. Hardly a day goes by without a person in the public…
Continue reading → Feeling Fake? Why the Impostor Phenomenon is not only a personal concern.
Mythbusting the ‘impostor syndrome’ in the workplace – Online event with Macildowie.
I’ll be hosting a FREE online event with Macildowie, where I’ll be talking about: Mythbusting the ‘impostor syndrome’ in the workplace. This is the first…
It’s Not a Bloody Syndrome
Anyone who knows of my work knows that I have some considerable experience researching and educating on the imposter phenomenon. People often ask me why I…
Faking it: Why the diverse ‘future board’ is not right here, right now.
Dr Terri Simpkin is an academic, researcher, consultant, and self-identified ‘impostor’. She was recently named in the top 50 most influential women in the data…
Continue reading → Faking it: Why the diverse ‘future board’ is not right here, right now.
Feel like a phoney? Why feeling like an impostor is a workplace concern.
What do Michelle Obama, Neil Gaiman, Emma Watson, Sheryl Sandberg and Howard Schultz all have in common? They’ve all reportedly expressed the experience of feeling…
Continue reading → Feel like a phoney? Why feeling like an impostor is a workplace concern.
take on the world
