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Ive spent over two decades on stages around the world as a charity auctioneer. Even in the earliest years of my career, my job exposed me to titans of industry and people at the highest levels of business. But even as I became more experienced in my career, I always had the same thought: What am I doing here? Everyone here knows so much more than I do. Any comments or thoughts I planned to share remained exactly thatthoughtsbecause when I opened my mouth, I worried everyone would remember I wasnt supposed to be at the table in the first place. What started as a feeling that stopped me from speaking followed me in my career. That feeling stopped me from putting my hand up for a promotion, a raise, or for anything at all. It made me feel like I wasnt supposed to be sitting in the boardroomor anywhere near the building, for that matter. Talk to any woman who has been in the working world or in a leadership position in the past two decades, and she can tell you all about imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is a feeling that stops many of us, particularly women, in our tracks. It keeps many of us from getting into the room where we would have the chance to fail. As you ascend the corporate ladder, no matter how deserving you are of a new title, a raise, or a new position, you may never truly believe you deserve any of it. When you look around a room of your peers, theres a little voice inside telling you that youre lucky to be in that room. Sound familiar? Its time to surmount the syndrome. Start with this simple three-step process so you can focus on the thing that matters most: you. 1. STOP THE SPIRAL Tell me if this sounds familiar. Youre having a conversation with someone in your lifea friend, someone senior in your office, or someone whose opinion you care deeply about. They mention they are so glad that they get to see you now that your children are getting older and you can be in the office more. The comment stops you cold. Now youre spiraling, your mind filling in a narrative. Ive been out of the game for years. Everyone here thinks I dont work hard enough, that Im not here enough, that I dont do a good job. I need to show them I do care. Ill start working on the weekends, do extra work . . . On and on you go with a spiral of self-doubt and insecurity about everything that you have ever felt about your job performance. What did this person actually say? Its great to see you in the office more now that your children are getting older. Period. Your answer? Thanks! End scene. 2. CONTROL THE NARRATIVE Believe in yourself enough to believe that other people are thinking the best of you, not the worst. To really slam that imposter syndrome, rewrite your own story. Lets go back and rewrite that scene, shall we? What did that person say? Its great to see you in the office more now that your children are getting older. Heres what I want you to hear: You are such a valuable member of this team, its really great to have your positive energy in this office. You must be an incredible multitasker to be raising kids at home and crushing it at work, too. What a role model for the people around you. We are lucky to have you. End scene. Cue applause. 3. ACCEPT THERE ARE NO GOLD STARS IN LIFE Never forget there are no gold stars given out when you are an adult. No one gives you a gold star for showing up to work, just like no one gives you a gold star for making your bed when you get up in the morning. You are responsible for everything that happens in your life and your response to it. Once you stop looking for affirmation from those around you and seek it from yourself, you can realize you have had the power all along.
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E-Commerce
I still wake up at 7:15 a.m. Not because I have a meeting. Or a commute. Or a list of deliverables thats longer than a CVS receipt. Im up early because something about lying in bed while my corporate counterparts clock in makes me feel like Im behind, even if theres no race Im actively running. The day kicks off with the usual: matcha, oatmeal, a spin on the Peloton, and a shower. But then? Stillness. No Slack pings. No check-ins. No one asking for a quick sync to circle back so we can get our ducks in a row. Just me, refreshing LinkedIn, wondering if today is the day a recruiter cannonballs into my DMs like Ron Burgundy. I launched this column five years ago as a mid-level marketing manager in Seattlecorporates middle child, navigating microaggressions, vague feedback, and vibes that often felt . . . off. I wrote about working through a pandemic, watching my well-meaning white colleagues bumble through a so-called racial reckoning, and climbing org chart rungs while staying woke to the wonkiness of upper management. Back then, I wrote as The Only Black Guy in the Office. Now? Im still him, but theres no office at allunless you count the one in my spare bedroom. For the first time in a long time, Im unemployed. There, I said it. I used to pray for times like this, imagining being unshackled from the chains of recurring standups, performance reviews, and a 27-tab document named Final_FINAL_V3_(1). Id see myself rewatching The Boondocks episodes on a random Tuesday afternoon, hitting up local museums during off-peak hours, day drinking with a pinky pointed toward the clouds. But since those first couple of weeks post-layoff, the fun in funemployment has hopped on a paper plane and gone MIA. Im over the midday mimosas and matinees, especially now that Im fresh out of severance dollars to spend and Severance episodes to binge. My savings and sense of purpose are each trending downward, dawg, without a namaste in sight. Theres an odd grief that hits the moment your work account passwords go inactive. Its the coldest closure, like an ex changing the locks while youre still packing your things. Except here, your belongings are stored in a shared Google Drive and a Slack archive youll never access again. I once thought I couldnt feel any more like an outsider. I was wrong. But that wasnt the only wake-up call. Things done changed for this era of job hunters. Im learning the futility of cold applying, the scams targeting desperate job seekers, the absurdity of stuffing resumes with keywords to appease the bots. Even when I make it past the algorithm bouncers and land in front of an actual human, I wonder if the HBCU degree I worked so hard for is a reveal that invites bias before Ive said a word. The hardest part of this all? Its not my obsessive clocking of banking apps and job boards, nor the dystopian friend-or-foe role of artificial intelligence in the application process. Its the identity shift with which Ive only recently come to terms. When youve spent your entire career outworking self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and perfectionism, being unemployed feels like failure, even when its not. Doesnt matter if its due to a layoff, a budget cut, or a strategic realignment. For years, my job was more than a source of income and fodder for my therapist. It was where I could be a rockstar in one conference room and a firefighter in the next. A place I could lift up others who looked like me and, when necessary, check those who didnt. If Im keeping it a bean, it was validation. Now, with no decks to compile or KPIs to hit, Ive had to sit in that stillness. Ive had to create the structure in my days that I once dreaded. Ive had to convince myself that the youre too talented to be in the market for long! sentiments shared by friends and peers are sincere. This column has always been a pressure release valvea space to process what it means to be Black and corporate and exhausted. I didnt realize how much Id need that outlet again. Maybe even more now than before. So Im brushing off the cobwebs and writing again. To make sense of this moment. To connect with folks who are navigating the same in-between. And to remind myself, and maybe you too, that being without a job doesnt mean being without value. The matchas iced, but the tea is still hot. Sip slow.
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E-Commerce
This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here. Most bookmark tools feel like cluttered digital filing cabinetsfull of folders, tags, and organizational overhead. mymind is a minimalist alternative. Its a clean, simple online hub for saving anything you find online. Create a gorgeous private scrapbook of images, links, articles or anything else you want to save, without the hassle of labeling. Its an opinionated tool thats not for everyonecaveats below include no sharing or importing. And Ive noted a bunch of strong alternatives. But mymind remains a superb example of a design-focused service thats a pleasure to use. Since I last wrote about it, mymind has improved the way it shows visuals, Read on for an update of my previous post to learn what its most useful for and how to use it. 6 ways to use mymind I like using mymind to save remarkable visuals, thought-provoking charts, amazing videos, beautiful poems, and memorable articles. I also use it to collect AI-related links to scan through. Create an inspiration moodboard. Save stunning photographs, brilliant art, your favorite interior designs, cool clothing, yummy food, pictures of homes youd love to live in someday, or whatever else catches your eye. Then the next time youre staring at a blank page, open your moodboard for a spark. Collect project ideas. Save links, quotes, or screenshots to inform a project. Highlight articles to save specific passages. Curate quotes & graphics for presentations. Use the one-click save button whenever you stumble on notable material to add to a slide deck or handout. Save articles and videos for later. The distraction-free mymind interface makes it a nice place to read long articles or watch YouTube videos. Clip recipes. I was surprised by how helpfully mymind strips out the cruft in online recipes. It shows just the ingredients and instructions, though you can easily return to the original recipe page. Organize shower thoughts. You can write text notes or to-do lists. Jot a few words or an essay outline. mymind is clean and simple No ads. No data tracking. No vanity metrics or likes. No social sharing or collaboration. Read myminds manifesto & promise for their philosophy. No complex menus or manuals to read. How to start using mymind Go to mymind.com and create a free account with your Google or Apple ID. Download a browser extension and/or the iOS, Android or Mac app. Save a few interesting sites by pressing the browser button. See an image you want to save? Right-click it. Or highlight text in an article and right-click that text to save it as a quote. You can add a note if you want to. I often save a short phrase as a reminder of what caught my attention. Return to mymind online or on your mobile device anytime you want to see what youve saved. Browse your collection. Try a search term (like book, pizza, video, or quote) to surface whatever youre looking for. Collections: You can optionally create custom spacesbasically smart searchesif you like organizing your finds into sub-categories. Serendipity mode lets you focus on one saved item at a time, enabling minimalistic deep thinking. Pricing: Its free to save up to 100 items or cards. To collect more, pay $8/month ($79/year) for unlimited cards and some advanced features, or $13/month ($129/year) for the Mastermind plan with more advanced AI, reading mode, and article backups. Videos from mymind are a useful easy way to learn more. And myminds newsletter is well-curated and gorgeously-designed. AI-enhanced: mymind uses AI to classify everything you save. That makes it easy to find anything, even after you accumulate a large library. Caveats No sharing. mymind is designed for privacy, not sharing. I end up saving my most valuable finds in multiple places to give my future self options. mymind is great for visual exploration, but I need other services, like Raindrop, to share my collections. If you want to share your library, consider an alternative below. Limited flexibility. myminds design, while gorgeous, isnt flexible. Its not meant for you to rearrange, though you can pin cards. If you want to manually resize items or drag things around on a canvas, consider Milanote or a whiteboard like Miro, Mural, Lucid or Figjam. No import. You cant easily bring in items youve saved on other servicesheres why mymind discourages thisnor can you email things in or develop automations as you can with other clipping tools. No Firefox bookmark button. If thats your browser, this might not be for you. Limited free plan. To save more than 100 items, you have to pick a paid plan. Alternatives Sublime is a cool new service Im trying out for collecting online inspiration. Unlike mymind, you can use Sublime to hare finds, see others related discoveries, and use its canvas to move from curation to creation. Compare it w/ other tools like Notion, Apple Notes, Readwise & Raindrop. Pricing is free for up to 50 cards, $75/year unlimited. $100/year for premium+ subscription to The Sublime on Substack. Raindrop is my favorite bookmark-saving service. It replaced delicio.us and Google bookmarks for me. Why Raindrop is so useful. Best for helping you save and organize links and share them publicly. Works on all platforms & integrates free with 2,600 other services. Less ideal for calmly exploring your collection of visuals or quotes. Pricing: Free for almost all features. $28/annually for full-text search, backups, AI tag suggestions & other extras. I pay to help preserve the robust free tier. Readwise is excellent if youre mainly saving articles and videos to read and watch later. How and why I use Readwise. Best for reading and highlighting saved articles and newsletters online or offline in great Web and mobile apps. Less ideal for saving images or collecting links because its designed for reading and video viewing. Pricing: Free for 30 days then $5.59 or $10/month for full access. Eagle is useful as a tool for organizing all your screenshots and any files on your computer. Why I like Eagle so much. Milanote is one of the few apps thats as elegantly designed as mymind. It lets you organize ideas and saved items on visual boards. Best for creating your own visual collections with a variety of images, links, documents and annotations. Less ideal for simply saving or storing images, quotes and material you encounter online. It works best for creating project-specific boards. Pricing: Free for up to 100 notes, then $10/month billed annually for unliimited notes. A team version is $49/month. This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here.
Category:
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