Jen Gottlieb

It was when I finally let myself shine that actually got me the gig.

I get this gig by being myself, ironically, but I immediately reverted to, I have to play this version of myself that wasn't me.

I had to become heavy metal Jen.

I wore super tight spandex pants and I cut up all these rocker shirts and I pretended I like heavy metal music, even though I didn't.

And before I knew it, I had this big audience of all these metal guys that thought I was like this metal girl.

I had built this brand that was a lie.

I got to meet all these huge rock stars.

One thing that I learned about people from this experience is that everybody, even the biggest rock stars in the world have imposter syndrome because even the biggest people that perform for years and years in front of millions of people would come backstage and they would be so nervous to go on and be interviewed.

And they would come backstage and they would say to me, did I do okay?

Was that good enough?

I'm like, dude, you're slash.

Are you asking me if you were good enough?

Are you kidding?

So it was a really nice reminder to me that people are people are people.

And like every time I get nervous or I feel like an imposter or I feel not good enough, everybody experiences that it's a human condition.

I lost myself along the way because I was playing a fake version of myself that couldn't have been further from who I really was.

And when the show ended, I had to reinvent myself and start showing the world who I am.

And that was a big lesson in a lot of ways, but I'm really grateful for the time.

It was fun.

And it gives me a really amazing story to tell.