How To Fight Imposter Syndrome

Something I often hear in the personal finance blogging community or the blogging community as a whole is the concept of imposter syndrome. 

Imposter Syndrome is:

a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a “fraud”.

Some bloggers even state that “I feel weird giving advice” or something similar, yet here they are putting their thoughts out to the world.  And those thoughts often look very similar to advice.

But why wouldn’t you want to give advice?  And why do you think you don’t have advice to give or worse yet are a fraud?

In my experience, pretty much everyone can give advice, on something. 

Look at it this way, are you a best friend or a good friend to someone?  It’s very likely you are.  Isn’t part of being that friend, that bond, giving advice when needed?

Let’s make it practical for a second.  If you’re a personal finance blogger and you overhear one of your good friends at a party say they don’t understand the difference between an IRA and a Roth IRA and they would really like to, would you chime in (assuming you can explain it)?  If not why not?

Would you at least refer them to some of the great bloggers or simple resources out there to help explain it?

In other words, you’d probably give advice, if not directly, at least in the way of a resource.

So when it comes to the harder stuff about money, the lifestyle and behavioral stuff, why would you act any different?

Are you really an imposter if you try to give your advice on how you saved tons of money by being frugal? 

I sell graphic designs online as a side hustle and I’m not a professionally trained graphic artist.  Sometimes I do feel a bit like an imposter, but people keep buying my stuff. 

For me, focusing on the results instead of my insecurities has been the best way to defeat the imposter inside of me.

 

Strangers

You may be thinking “it’s one thing to give advice to a good friend, but another to try to give it to strangers on the internet who didn’t ask for it”. 

Ah, let’s address that. 

But they DID ask for it!  Why would they have opened your post titled “How I Optimized My Business Taxes” if they didn’t want that advice in the first place! 

To just read for the sake of it? 

No, silly. 

They want to see how you did it, and if they could learn something.  In other words, you don’t have to wait to be asked, the “askers” will come to you. 

The mere fact they’re spending precious time reading your post means they’re asking – so help them! 

Share what you know.  Someone’s listening.

 

Lifestyle Gurus

I’ll admit, many years ago when Tony Robbins and folks like him first came to prominence, I was cynical.  I mean, here’s this brash, fast talking, and overly confident dude spouting out all of this advice about how to live your life better.

As if he’s got it all figured out. 

“He must be perfect, or at least think he is”, I would think. 

Well, now that podcasting and blogging have allowed anyone and everyone to give advice, I’ve changed my thinking.  I really believe pretty much everyone has advice to give.  And I’ve read enough and listened to enough to appreciate that I can learn from anyone, assuming they tell their story. 

To be clear, I’m not saying everyone’s advice will benefit everyone else, but that’s okay.   You have to find the people to go to for your situation. 

But the concept of feeling self-conscious or fraudulent about giving advice for fear of being an imposter or someone who isn’t “important enough” to do so, is frankly crap. 

You have a story.  You’ve lived through ups and downs like everyone else.  I haven’t walked in your shoes, nor you in mine.

I can probably learn something from you, and vice-versa.  And here’s the thing, Tony Robbins is no more important than you, he’s just more confident about his opinions and doesn’t have imposter syndrome. 

He even admits he doesn’t have life figured out either, and struggles with much of the very advice he gives. 

There’s probably a financial advisor out there who will read this and think “great, this guy is telling non-trained folks to give advice about investing”. 

Investing isn’t rocket surgery, first of all.  And secondly, if you or anyone publishes incorrect advice or instructions on say, how to do a backdoor Roth, it’s very likely you’ll be called out on it and corrected. 

In other words, you’ll find out soon enough if you really are an imposter on certain issues. The internet will help you find your lane. 

 

Your Song

The Happy Philosopher is one of my favorite writers.  He recently said in a post: 

As I read through other blogs about these topics, it felt like that movie Groundhog Day, the one where the reporter wakes up every day and it’s the same day over and over and over again. Everyone was saying similar things, and arguing over semantics and little details that didn’t matter. I started to wonder if anything I wrote even mattered.

He has a point.  There are tons of posts from financial bloggers on frugality and budgets, as well as the fuzzier side of things like discipline and finding purpose.  But I think that’s awesome, and we need more.  Why? 

Think of it this way.  How many love songs are there in rock music, like 60 bajillion?  Most have similar lyrics full of cliche’s and platitudes. 

Love is hard, love doesn’t last, the first cut is the deepest… yada yada yada. 

But the melody, tempo, song structures, instrumentation, and singer make them different, and that’s why we still like new ones.

I kind of feel that way about bloggers out there, they each have their own melody and chord structure.  Sure, they may be publishing the 20 billionth post about saving on groceries, but their story, their style, and their life circumstances are unique. 

And it’s very likely someone will relate to that story and circumstance more than the other 19.99 billion.  The message might not be new, but the “music” it’s wrapped in is.  

That’s why new silly love songs are written and still become wildly popular.  And that’s why we need your voice.  You have a story and a song, and you shouldn’t feel like an imposter for writing it and telling it.

We’re all on this journey together, and if we trade our knowledge and experiences, however small they may seem, we can help each other. 

I know…. cue the “kumbaya” and get around the fire, but damn if I don’t think it’s true.