In this episode of the Impostor Syndrome Files, we talk about the gap that often exists between our confidence and competence. How often have you looked at someone with lots of confidence and thought, “That person is all confidence and no substance?” Too many of us have so much to offer but struggle with self-doubt while others toot their own horns with very flimsy evidence to support their greatness. My guest this week, Annie Margarita Yang, is a finance guru and author of the book The 5-Day Job Search. Here she shares her journey with impostor syndrome as she launched a career in accounting with no formal training. Over the years, Annie has come to believe in her own greatness by closing the gap between her competence and confidence. She also shares practical strategies to help you build your confidence, including embracing courage, which always comes first.
About My Guest
Annie Margarita Yang is the go-to finance guru for Millennials refusing to lose in a system stacked against them. A candid, no-fluff YouTube personality and best-selling author of The 5-Day Job Search and 1,001 Ways to Save Money, Annie is a part of the group she educates—the demographic most misunderstood because they must overcome finance challenges previous generations didn’t.
She is skilled at creating easy-to-follow systems, intentional in addressing the unique concerns of Millennials, and relentless about creating financial independence.
With more than 1 million views on YouTube, her witty approach to tough talk sets her apart from others.
She lives with her husband in Boston, where she is fully committed to learning the piano!
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Connect with Annie:
Website - annieyangfinancial.com - to buy the book and get a 10% off discount code on a signed paperback copy
YouTube - https://youtube.com/c/anniemargaritayang
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Connect with Kim and The Impostor Syndrome Files:
Join the free Impostor Syndrome Challenge.
Learn more about the Leading Humans discussion group
Join the Slack channel to learn from, connect with and support other professionals.
Schedule time to speak with Kim Meninger directly about your questions/challenges.
Websites: https://kimmeninger.com
Transcript
Kim Meninger
Welcome, Annie. It's such a pleasure to meet you today. And I'd love to start our conversation today by inviting you to introduce yourself.
Annie Margarita Yang
Kim, thank you so much for having me on the impostor syndrome files a little bit about myself. So I'm someone who didn't go straight to college. In high school, I was all throughout high school, I was like a straight-A student. But because I come from a poor family background, I didn't go because I didn't want to take on any student loan debt. So after high school, I worked like just the whole string of minimum-wage jobs. I remember back then my guidance counselor, she told me that I would be a failure for the rest of my life if I didn't go straight to college. And, you know, a huge part of me didn't want to believe what she told me. So a lot of the times, I did doubt myself, because, hey, this adult who has real-world experience has told me I am doing the wrong thing in my life, right? Eventually, I did go to college, and I got a degree in communications. But afterward, I came out and I was working a job at Domino's Pizza. And then after that, you know, I was really sick and tired of not being given any opportunity, because I feel like I'm capable. I'm so capable and smart. But it seems like nobody wants to give me opportunity. Nobody just wants to give me a chance to prove myself. So when my husband and I, we moved to Boston for his PhD program, I had it I was like, You know what, I'm moving to a big city, it has opportunity. And I don't care what people say, I don't care what people think I'm just going to apply to accounting jobs without an accounting degree. Because for several years, I, I learned to save money on a really tight budget, I got really good at money management in our personal life. And I managed our household finances perfectly, right? And I'm like, why can't I do this for a business? Why do I need an accounting degree to do this? So I just started applying to 50 jobs a day to see how it would go. And then I ended up getting an accounting position in a week, and this happened for three, I swear, three different job searches, I managed to get an accounting job with no degree in less than a week. But all throughout, I had impostor syndrome, because I'm like, why are people hiring me? Why do they want me to do this? Like, don't they understand? I don't have the formal qualifications to be here. You know, why are they hiring somebody who graduated from like Harvard to do this job? I don't understand. Right. So it took me a really long time to overcome my imposter syndrome. And I, actually wasn't until this year, specifically, when I finally stepped into confidence.
Kim Meninger
So what's so interesting about that story is that you set out to find these jobs because there was a part of you that believed you could do it, there was a part of you that thought this is what I want, you know, degree be damned, right? Like, this is what I want. But then once you got it, that's when the self-doubt creeped in. So how did you navigate that? Were you actively trying to overcome that doubt? Like, did you use specific strategies? Or did you just kind of plow through it? What How did you cope?
Annie Margarita Yang
Well, I, I'll be very honest, I was also inexperienced, I did not know what I was doing. So you cannot feel confident in doing something if you don't know what you're doing. Right. So the first thing that I did was I had to go on accountingcoach.com. And I read all of the material, I went on Udemy. I watched accounting videos, right? So I tried to get as much knowledge as I could. And every time I came across a problem at work, I was like, Okay, how do I solve this problem? Can, can Google help me with this? You know, so every time I had a problem, I had to look up how to solve it. And then eventually, it took a few years, it took like, maybe five years before I felt like fully comfortable. I'm like, Yeah, I know what I'm doing. But even after logically understanding, like, I know what I'm doing the work is perfect. The CPAs looking at my work at year-end, they always tell my boss like, this is good. There's no mistakes in it. Right, like, so no one was checking my work. It wasn't until tax time when they're like reviewing my work. Like, Annie's job is like she did a great job. But even despite them saying that I'm like, they must be kidding. There's no way you know, this, there's got to be something wrong here. I mean, I am like self-taught, I'm self-taught, right? So while I logically understood it, I didn't like emotionally connect with that. Right? Even though like people were complimenting me and praising my work. I couldn't. And what really flipped the switch for me was, you know, Elizabeth Holmes, with the Theranos scam. And as she like, really tucked up this big game, and she got like billions of dollars in investments and then she just like lied and scammed people. And I was like, Oh my god. Gosh, that woman has so much self-confidence in herself, but no substance behind what she does. She speaks amazing things out of her mouth, and about how great she is. But her work is terrible. In fact, it ruins lives. Right? And so when I saw that I was like, I'm someone who actually deserves credit. And, and I need to step into that, right because we I, we have people in this world like Sam Backman freed, right, who get all the credit, they get all the glory, the news media, like they chase after them, they write up these like 30, under 30. And then like the self-made, not millionaires, but billionaires because the stock options in their companies are worth, worth billions, right? And I was like, that's not right. These people have not worked hard, they have not studied like I have. And they, they get to get all this praise. So finally, I was like, you know, I just need to accept that. Even though I don't feel confident. I do know what I'm doing. And then so when I finally just accepted that, and then I did some affirmation work on that. I was like, you know, I deserve everything. Everything that I have everything that I've built, I bought a house by 25 years old, with no financial help from my parents, I have never asked my parents for money. I save like 10 always saved at least 10% of my income most of the time 25 to 50% of my income, like all of the great, amazing things that I have done. I deserve it. Like I was always like, I don't deserve it. Why? Why has God given me such great things? No, it's because I worked hard for it. And when I finally just acknowledge, this came from my hard work, I deserve all of this, my imposter syndrome just went away.
Kim Meninger
I love that story. There's a there are several things that I love about what you're sharing the sort of evidence-based approach to it. Because I think so often we breeze right past all of the data that shows we actually do deserve to be in the roles that we hold, we actually do deserve credit for our successes, we're so quick to explain it away and to zoom in instead to what we don't know or to the mistakes that we've made. And so to be able to look at, no actually I'm doing, I'm doing really good work. I'm self-taught, I think that's such a powerful thing, too, is that we often think, oh, I need some fancy degree in order to like you need external validation…
Annie Margarita Yang
Like you need external validation from some third party, institution or person to say you are worthy. That's really what it is. I have nothing against college, right? Like, some people need it. I admit, like some people learn better in a formal institution, they need to be held accountable, it helps them have discipline, it gives them like a social network, it's all in one place. Right? But like, in the end, your self-worth has to come from within. Like, I have a friend. She does amazing work. Her photography is beautiful. Now she's an accountant, but like her hobby is photography. And she wants to build a side business in photography as well. Her photos, I look at them. Amazing, right? And she only started doing this a year ago. And every time she shows me her photos, I tell her this is so beautiful. And then she's like, Do you really think so? Like she's always questioning me, you must be lying to me. And I'm like, How many times do I need to say to you every single time? This is gorgeous. This is the most beautiful picture I have seen. Like if I had to hire a photographer, I would pay for this. Right? It doesn't matter how many times I say it to her, she doesn't believe me. So in the end, like, that's work she has to do on her own. Yeah, you know, it doesn't matter. Like, how many times someone, a friend family member like tells you, you're not a loser, you're amazing? You're not gonna believe it and, and that's on you. Like, you need to figure out like, how to build up your own security, your own confidence and courage.
Kim Meninger
You’re absolutely right. I think that's such an important point, too, for us to think about when we do that to other people. Because we are often the one dismissing feedback from others around us and making assumptions that oh, they're just trying to be nice, or they're just telling me what I want to year. And my philosophy and that is do you trust the judgment of the person who's telling you this in other situations? Is this a person whose opinion you generally value or who you think is, you know, generally a smart person? If so, why would you have any reason to doubt what they're telling you here? Exactly. I also really liked the comparisons that you made because I think too often we get dragged into the comparison game in a really negative way, we start looking around and thinking this person is so much more qualified than I am, this person is so much smarter than I am. But you brought up examples of people who have skyrocketed to success. I mean, obviously, ultimately crashed and burned but who have had nothing but confidence? And I think that's really important to look at, too, is look at the examples of people who, with very flimsy evidence to support their confidence to support, you know, the persona, that that they are pushing to the outside world. And really compare that with the substance that we have, I think that's a great if you're gonna compare yourself, that's the way to do it.
Annie Margarita Yang
Thanks. So. And the problem is, there are so many people who are experts in their field like they really know their stuff. They're brilliant. They have got great ideas they can execute. But the problem is, they haven't these people specifically, they have impostor syndrome because they don't know how to market themselves. Like they don't know how to sell themselves, in a way. Like they're just kind of detached, almost objective about how they are to the point where like, wow, this is amazing. Like, for example, I used to like, so I wrote a first book, when I was 22, is called 1001 ways to save money, which eventually went on to sell 2000 copies, right? Most books like over 90% of books don't even sell 2000 copies. So the fact that I was able to sell 2000 is amazing. But I remember I applied for a mortgage. And then after moving in, I kept getting emails from the mortgage company. And one of them was like this talk given by three best-selling speakers, right? Three, best-selling and award-winning. And then I was like, Wait, if these are like best-selling and award-winning, Why have I never heard of them? How come they're able to put best-selling in their in their bio, I don't understand. And then I Googled all of them. I'm like, I have a bigger YouTube following on all of them as well. I mean, why are they getting talks and not me, I look up their book. Because you know, if they're a best-selling author, they've got to have some book, right? I find it on Amazon, they have hardly any reviews for the book. And I'm like, my book has more reviews than this now, not review count is not reflective of how many sales you've made. But you can make the assumption that the more sales that you've made, the more reviews you have, right? And I was like, wait, I have more following than these people, I have more book reviews. And these people probably have sold more books, how come they're able to call themselves a best-selling author and not me and award-winning as well, right? And then I do a little digging. And I finally realize you don't have to be a New York Times bestseller, or Wall Street Journal bestseller or Business Insider bestseller like all these like lists to become a bestseller. Amazon has 16,000 book categories. So if you're able to place in the top 100, if any of those 16,000 categories, you are a best-selling author. And so I looked up my placement in one of those like categories like that out there. I was number 39 in the personal money management category. And I was like, Wait, I've been a best-selling author this whole time. And I didn't even know. This is crazy, though, right? But like, it's all marketing, like then I realized after that wait to win an award, no one just knocks on your door and says, Hey, I loved your book so much. I want to give you an award like nobody does that I had, I realized that to win an award, you have to apply for an award. And to apply for an award, you have to fill out this application and pay $100. Right. So in order to get recognized for your accomplishments, you have to apply. That's it. And the fact that I didn't win an award is because I didn't apply. So for my new book, The 5-Day Job Search, I was like, You know what I'm gonna add award-winning author to my list of accomplishments, right? So what I did was, I applied to 50 Book Awards that I qualified for I qualified for up to 50. I was like, I'm just going to apply for all of them and see what works out because I don't know which ones I'm going to win or not. And then some of them have already come back. I've won three of them. So now I can add that to my title as well. So like all these like fancy, amazing things that you see in other people's bios, who are not as qualified as you and you're wondering, why are they getting opportunity and why not me? Why am I qualified? And I'm here sitting with impostor syndrome. Why am I not as amazing as them? And the reason is because you haven't worked on learning how to market yourself. Someone else who's not as qualified has learned how to sell themselves and that's why.
Kim Meninger
Wow, that's such a great point. I think it pulls back the curtain. A lot of what we think is happening, we look at these people Wow, she's award-winning, right? And I think about that all the time too. Because even in in my field, I get, I can't tell you how many emails I get with things like we want to feature you, as one of our of the top coaches in our magazine for only $3,000 you can be featured. And they it's something I've never heard of, and then they been I'll get to call myself right at the top of whatever their list is. So it's really great to sort of break down the, the mystique.
Annie Margarita Yang
Pay-to-play. That's what it is pay to play. Because when I worked for a real estate brokerage, the three partners while Yeah, sure they brought in like over a million and home sales, right? Especially in commissions as well. So yes, they're quite accomplished. But every year, they had like this magazine, that like got sent to our office. And they were always telling people in the office who they were training, like, you gotta like pay to be in his magazine. You know, like, even if you're brand new, and you haven't sold any homes, apply and pay for that placement in the magazine. So you can call yourself a top 100 real estate agent in Boston. Because like, once you get that title, it's like people were like, wow, and then like, this is a look around you and people want to work with you.
Kim Meninger
So tell us about your current book.
Annie Margarita Yang
So The 5-Day Job Search, I just released it back in August. And basically what I do is, I don't just like cover imposter syndrome, I also talk about how you can improve in your own skill set. So because a lot of like imposter syndrome is like wondering, validating, do I actually know what I'm doing? I feel like I met only 50% of the requirements on this listing here. So I must not know everything. But people don't realize that the listing is just a wish list. It's like a wish list for Christmas for the employer, right? So what I do is I teach in the book, How to fill in those gaps. So then once you fill in those gaps, you can actually feel more confident and knowing like, hey, you know, they're asking for these 10 things, I actually do know these 10 things I am qualified, but the fact is, even if you meet half of them, you are qualified. And then what I also do is I teach you how to package yourself. So if, if we're thinking about this analogy, you are a present, you are a gift to the world, you have certain gifts and talents that you are here to share God has bestowed them on you, right and you have a mission, you have a vision, you're here to serve other people with these gifts, right? So your, your actual skill set and experience is the present. But in order to make it more attractive for other people, you need a nice wrapping paper and a bow, bow to go with it and everything. So that people were like, Oh, what's this pretty present? You know, I want to open it up and see what's inside. So basically what I do is I help people brand themselves so that you are more attractive in the marketplace and people want to call you and give you opportunity?
Kim Meninger
I love that. I love the, the imagery to around the wrapping paper in the bow because you know, so much of it is how you're packaging that skill set. What do you think people are generally getting wrong about it? What do you think that the most people don't understand about how to do what you're talking about?
Annie Margarita Yang
They think the most common mistake is not what they don't understand. Most common mistake is that they screw up their headshot. Like if you go on LinkedIn, or, or their Facebook or any, any social media profile. It's not a professional headshot. So what they're doing is they're, they're taking a selfie, and they're trying to take it in good lighting, but hey, you're not doing your career justice. If you are really serious about your career, the photo also needs to convey the seriousness like hey, I'm so serious about my career, I paid a professional to take this picture. Like that's how serious I am. And not just that like to also show up to the photoshoot and pay attention to the small details like the Polish details. Like for example, what are you wearing in the photo? That's something you can do before you go in, like try on all different clothes in your closet and put, you know, look, look yourself in front of the mirror with it and then take a picture of you wearing it because even if it looks good in the mirror doesn't mean it looks good on camera. So take a picture of you wearing it, right, and see does it look good in the photo itself? And then once you've picked your final outfit, make sure it's ironed. I don't want to see us see little wrinkles in your photo. It's just those little tiny details. And then also, you're even if you're not photogenic, you can put your best foot forward, right? Because a lot of attractiveness is about like grooming yourself. If you notice celebrities, they're not necessarily the most conventionally beautiful people, but they do know how to groom themselves to conventional standards, right? So, for your photoshoot go in there, and right before you go in there, you got to schedule that haircut, get a fresh haircut, right? Before you know chop off all the split ends. Just a trim if you need to. And if you're a lady, blow dry your hair, you know, so that's nice and sleek, gorgeous. And then also use a professional makeup artist because the lights in the studio, they're so bright and white. If you just do your makeup on your own, and you're not familiar with camera makeup techniques, then you're gonna look totally washed out like a ghost. So that's my tip for looking gorgeous because I believe that people should put in just as much effort into looking great every day, especially for their photo, just as they do for advancing their career skill set.
Kim Meninger
Yeah, I think that's a really important point as well. And I want to ask you a little bit because you've done so much of this yourself, for people who are feeling like, let's imagine this scenario that you described, where it's I meet 50% of the qualifications, and there is a certain amount of flexibility there. Because as you said, it's a wish list. It's not an expectation, what are some of the most efficient ways that you would encourage people to close gaps because one of the things that are there at all just take a step back for a moment, one of the things that I encourage people to think about when they're looking at these lists is, if I don't meet certain bullets on the job description, is that really going to keep me from being able to do the job? Or is it something I could perhaps learn on the job, right, there are going to be certain things that are fundamental and crucial to your ability to, to effectively perform that role? And if you don't have that, you're going to be in a constant state of anxiety and self-doubt. But there are also some nice to haves or some if you know if I had them, I might be able to do even more, how do you evaluate what the job description is asking for and then efficiently think about closing any gaps? Right?
Annie Margarita Yang
So what I'm recommending people right now to do is because chatty beauty is out, and it's so new, what I tell people to do is I want them to copy and paste a job listing for their desired title in the industry that they want. And, you copy and paste the entire listing into chat TPT, and you just prompt it, hey, this job is looking for an ideal candidate. Exactly what is the so-called ideal candidate that they're looking for? Like, what are the traits? What kind of skills does experience do an analysis for me? Right, and it will, you know, pop out this two-page analysis, you do 20 of those. So 20 of that same prompt, but for 20 different listings. And then after that you should have 40 pages of analysis, right? So basically, you're analyzing the analysis, not the job listing itself. And what you're going to see is there are trends, you're going to see over and over again, we want someone who knows how to use this specific software, we want someone who is a good communicator, we want someone who is a team player, we want someone who has experience and has this specific certificate. If, if you see this pattern again, and again, and again, it's very clear, this is important. And if you're lacking it, you need to fill in that gap. If there are some things that are like in there but are only repeated once or twice in 20 different job listings, then it's very clear that this specific thing they're looking for a specific for that company, only because every company, you know, when they're hiring you they have a certain way of doing things. And not every, every company follows a specific way. Like they're not always doing it the same specific way. So that's what I recommend people do.
Kim Meninger
I think that's brilliant. And I think it's so helpful to think about using technology to do that because it feels so daunting sometimes to figure out how am I gonna get this information. I'm gonna have to talk to, you know, 50 different people.
Annie Margarita Yang
Now you don't this is so quick and easy. You can bang this out in one hour. This is actually a way I recommend people to craft out their career plan.
Kim Meninger
Great idea. And, and then you had mentioned some of the strategies that you had used to do your own online learning. And are there things you've learned through that process that you would recommend do's and don'ts for how to go about filling gaps in your skill set?
Annie Margarita Yang
Yes. So one of the things I really liked is because I'm a visual learner, I learned better with video, I always use Udemy. So what I like to do is for any gaps that I had, if there was like a Udemy category for that gap, I would look in the category and I would look for the best seller course, or the top-rated course. And just watching, you know, two or three of those courses and taking notes wasn't enough for me. And then after taking the course, I would implement the information that I learned. So I don't just like passively learn. What I do is like I take action, anything, anything like if I read a book, I read an article, I always try to walk away with like, Okay, what's one piece of action that I can do based on the inspiration I got from learning this, right? Because I'm not like, Pat, a passive learner, I think the reason I get results specifically is because I take action. A lot of people like they learn to really book smart, but they're just sitting there, you know, like, for example, my husband, he says, I care about the environment, I was like, Okay, you care about the environment, that's all talk a lot about like making sure you really separate the plastic and the paper. And he is sometimes he argues with me, it doesn't matter. But then I'm like, your action needs to back up your beliefs. So same thing with the learning, you got to take action, not just like learn the material.
Kim Meninger
That's a really good tip for any of us because I feel like we're all consuming a lot of information. But where does it go? And how long does it last? And so at least for things that feel important to you to be able to, to identify what are those top two, maybe whatever feels realistic takeaways and action steps that you can put into place right away to cement the learning and really start to integrate it into how you go about moving forward?
Annie Margarita Yang
That's right. Yeah, I want to add this on. I, this AI startup has been trying to get in touch with me. They're trying to like partner with me, they said, you know, because we like the fact that you're an author. And we know in the future, you're you might create a course to go with this. And we've developed this chatbot that can take the material from your book. And instead of like you answering questions for people personally because that's very, really like time-consuming and not scalable. What we can do is we can have this chatbot analyze your book, and any anytime someone has a question, it will give them catered answers based on what's in the book. Right. So I tested it out. It's in beta mode, and I just got it from them yesterday. So I was like trying it out. And sure it's like spitting back out information that is based on one book like what is branding? What does it mean to have impostor syndrome? Like, how do you overcome impostor syndrome, but the information wasn't really inspiring enough to take action and then like, it wouldn't like push you to want to get up and take action. So while AI can teach you many things, and while you can read a book, in the end, that desire to take action has to come from within because like, for example, I'm teaching someone right now, on how to do a five-day job search makeover, I'm literally holding his hand walking him through it, I did his resume for him, you know, it was a two-hour thing. And I said, you're ready to go, we have your resume, all you need to do is you need to apply to 50 jobs a day, like literally go on, indeed, and zip recruiter and click the easy Apply button. And you know, so that's like only one minute per application. So if you're doing 50 a day, it's only a one-hour task, right? But he came back to me and he said he didn't do it. Right. So that's the reason you don't get the results you're looking for. It's because you're not taking action. And then when I looked at like the resume, he was uploading and stuff, he had removed the contact information. So he took all his number, he took out his email address, he removed his mailing address, and I was like, Hey, Peter. How is someone going to contact you if they're interested in you? You know, like, you can have all the right information. But if the action doesn't back. It sounds ridiculous, right? You're laughing It's really funny. But people self-sabotage themselves in this way. It's a form of self-sabotage.
Kim Meninger
Yeah, that's a good way to put it too. So how is your life different today, given everything that you've learned and all of the ways in which you've, you've all overcome your own self-doubt?
Annie Margarita Yang
I feel a lot more confident. You know, I think the difference is, for sure. This is also in the book, for sure. Before I, I've had to have courage because confidence comes from having repeated results of knowing that you know, you're doing a job, right, right? This is anything. Okay. Like, let's say, right now I'm learning piano, you know, I want to be a classical pianist. And people have been telling me you can't learn piano as an adult. And I'm just like, well, let's see what happens after 10,000 hours. Will I be really good at it? Or will I still suck? Right? But I'm not confident. I'm not confident, right? If you ask me to play in front of you right now, that's not confidence. That's courage. I'm scared. That's courage. Because like in my heart, like, my heart's like, beating fast, my chest is tight. My shoulders are tensing up. I'm like, Oh, my God, my fingers, gonna know what they're supposed to do. Am I gonna remember everything I practiced yesterday, right? That's courage. That's courage. You know, it takes a long time, with courage, like showing up despite feeling the fear. And you know, feeling the fear and doing it anyway is courage. Courage doesn't feel good. We think courage is supposed to feel good because when we see other people with courage, we see them as heroes and heroes in our head is connotated with good. But courage, when you think about the bodily sensations that you feel, feels terrible. So, for so many years, it was all courage. It wasn't until this year when I finally said, You know what, I'm a bestselling author. I'm an award-winning author, oh, my gosh. And I'm getting more, more, more opportunities that this has transformed into confidence. This was 10 years in the making.
Kim Meninger
And I love the way you said that because I think that confidence follows courage. For sure. We think sometimes that we're just going to wait until we feel confident, but that never happens. You don't develop confidence in a vacuum. Confidence follows doing the things that scare us. And eventually, our brain starts to realize, oh, actually, I am good at this. Actually, I deserve this. And so you're absolutely right, that courage does not feel good. It's not something that we rush into willingly. It's an experience that's worthwhile because on the other side of it, that's where we build confidence.
Annie Margarita Yang
That's right. And you know, what's so funny? Is the reason I think one of these things, the reason I've been thinking about it, I'm not so sure, I don't have the proof. But the reason why we lack confidence when we're as we're learning to do something is because we are with ourselves all the time. So we see like the results that suck like, I am learning piano, and every day I sit down, I am fully present with myself, the fact that I made a mistake here, my fingers aren't able to do this, this and this, right. But other people, they don't see us 24/7 They are not with us every second of the day. So they will see like us at different intervals of the progress. So they don't see like the minutiae of it. And then finally, one day when you are good, all they see is the fact that you are good. But your brain hasn't caught up with that. Yeah, your brain still remembers all the memories of you not doing it very well. That's why it's because that's why other people they point out like, wow, like, for example, I'm telling my friend, your photography looks really good. Because all I see is what it is now. She's probably looking at it and thinking like, oh, but you know, I started learning and I was making all of these mistakes. So in her head, she's mixing that with what it is today. Like, she's probably collapse all of it into like one big salad bowl.
Kim Meninger
Yes, I love that visual, too. I think you're absolutely right. And especially in an age of social media, where we're only seeing people's highlight reels, especially to your point earlier around, you know, sort of having all of these different trappings that aren't even necessarily real, we look at people and we think, Oh, they're so much better than I am because we are so aware of every little thing that goes wrong. But that's really important to remember because what you're seeing within them is not the full picture. And so just keep that in mind as we're evaluating ourselves. Yeah, this has been such a great conversation. Andy, thank you so much for having it with me. For anybody who's interested in learning more about you, getting more of you, where can they go?
Annie Margarita Yang
Kim, your audience can find me on Annie Yang financial.com. And if they really enjoyed everything that I've shared with them today on overcoming impostor syndrome, they can find so much more information in my book, The 5-Day Job Search. So, on annieyangfinancial.com, they can add the book to the shopping cart. And with the coupon code, imposter, i-m-p-o-s-t-e-r, they can get a 10% off discount on the signed paperback copy for a limited time only.
Kim Meninger
Wonderful. Well, thanks again and it was such a pleasure to meet you and so great to have this conversation with you.
Annie Margarita Yang
Thank you so much for having me today. Kim, really appreciate it.