Your Transformation Station - 117. Harnessing Your Strengths: A Deep Dive into Self-Branding

Episode Date: December 15, 2023

Join us for a deep dive into the world of personal branding and career development with none other than the exceptional Annie Margarita Yang. Recognize your unique abilities and learn how to leverage them to become an irresistible prospect for potential employers and clients. EPISODE LINKS: Annie's Website: https://www.annieyangfinancial.com/appearances/your-transformation-station-with-greg-favazza Annie's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AnnieMargaritaYang OUTLINE: The episode's timestamps are shown here. You should be able to jump to that time by clicking the timestamp on certain podcast players. (00:00) - Discovering Your Strengths and Personal Branding (05:11) - Unique Abilities, Build Online Presence (15:59) - The Imposter Syndrome and Building Confidence (30:51) - Women's Problems and Personal Branding PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com⁠⁠⁠ Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/apple⁠⁠⁠ Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/spotify⁠⁠⁠ RSS: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/rss⁠⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/youtube⁠⁠⁠ SUPPORT & CONNECT: - Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/facebook⁠⁠⁠ - Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/instagram⁠⁠⁠ - TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/tiktok⁠⁠⁠ - Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/x⁠⁠⁠ - Pinterest: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/pinterest⁠⁠⁠ - Linkedin: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.ytsthepodcast.com/linkedin⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

to why is this so important to you? Why do you need to keep watching, right? And then why you have to listen to me in particular, not somebody else, why I'm the person who's qualified to talk about this. And then if you keep watching, this is what you're going to find out, one, two, and three. And then I give them the one, two, and three, and then I conclude. I always follow that former.

Beautiful. Well, can you explain to us the why factor with you? Why should we continue listening to what you have to say? Because I'm... You're listening to a podcast. that encourages you to embrace your vulnerabilities and authentic self. This is your transformation station, and this is your host, Greg Favaza. Oosh, okay, Annie Margarita Yang?

Margarita Yang. Annie Margarita Yang. So it is just like the drink. The drink, yes. Do you have this a lot? I don't drink, actually. That's good. That's good.

I try to avoid it myself. I definitely am trying to stick towards growth and development so that can be overwhelming for people. Yeah. So anyways, welcome to your transformation station. How are you? Wonderful. Yeah. I'm fantastic.

It's great to have you on today's show. And I've been doing a lot of work looking into your background. And it is fascinating because. What I see is self-concept and career development. Now, understanding that for people who want to become a knowledge expert, who want to appear as an authority, what are some guidance that you could give them, as well as painting a little snapshot of who you are? Well, there's two parts to this, right? One is you have to be highly competent at what you do. And the other thing is personal branding, so like the outside packaging so that you're more attractive to employ.

employers and to potential clients. So like I like to think of people like this. You are a gift to the world. You know, we are born with special talents and gifts that God has given us. But like that's the reason why it's also called gift. You're meant to give it away. Right. But the personal branding aspect of it, I think of that like the wrapping paper, you know, making it like more pretty, wrapping it up with nice paper and putting a bow on it so that people are like, oh, what's this? What's this present? And then they want to open the present. I think of it like this. I like that. Now, we're all in different life stages trying to build our skill set and develop ourselves and where we belong, whether it's a career, a business, or honing in on a specific skill. Now, for people that are

focusing on what they should develop. Should they go after their strengths or they should they go after their weaknesses first or just go after something completely new they never thought they were capable of? I always encourage people to go after the things that they are good at. It's your job to figure out first what your strengths even are. A lot of people are lost, especially if they have just started out in the work world. But like, you know, after you get a job that can pay your bills, I think at that point you have to have to discover what your calling is. That's something that Oprah Winfrey has repeated over and over again. Like after you get a job that you can pay your bills and be more secure, that your next job after that isn't to go up the corporate ladder. Rather,

is to figure out what you're really born to do. What's your life purpose? What are you really here for? What's your passion? Right. And usually when you're passionate about something, because you're so passionate and obsessive about it, you also get really good at. at it. That becomes your strength, right? But there is a trick to figuring out what your particular strength or your unique ability is. And I actually got this from the book. It's called Unique Ability by Catherine Nomura. I followed the advice in her book. And she was also this advocate like, you strengthen your strengths. Don't try to be as well-rounded and strengthen your weaknesses because you'll never get ahead that way. You focus in on your strength so that you're irreplaceable

in this regard. And she recommended that you, You contact people from like various aspects of your life, like family, friends, coworkers, classmates, neighbors, you know, like from all aspects because people all see you from a different perspective. And you simply ask them like, what do you think is my strength? What do you think is my unique ability? Something that I seem to do so naturally and better than anybody else. And it doesn't have to be like a hard skill, right? It can be a skill that's like translatable to any area, any industry. I did this exercise and people were coming back telling me, you know, Annie, when you go after something, when you do something,

you go all in and anything. And it's so inspiring watching you do that. And it makes me want to do it as well. We watch you do public speaking. We want to learn public speaking. We watch you write a book. We want to write a book, right? Yes.

So I actually take advantage of this. This is influence. Right. So that's why I stepped into doing more influence-related stuff because that's my strength. Interesting. Now, would it be advantageous for someone who already knows that they're an expert to continue down their strengths or vice versa? Yeah, I think it's advantageous if you're an expert as something to continue down your strength. But if it doesn't bring you joy, then you know, you should also pursue what brings you joy as well. because what is a life where all day long you're working and you're just bored out of your mind, right? But like I also think like this expert thing, that's a technical skill that you can learn.

This unique ability thing is something completely different. It's more about it's this unexplainable thing that you come into this world. You're just good at it. You know, like personal finance, I had to learn. I wasn't just good at it. I had to learn personal finance in order to become at it. but the influence part where people are like, wow, you go after what you want. That makes us want to go after what we want.

That's something that's not explainable, not teachable, right? My other friend that I met a couple months ago, I found out her unique ability. I had her do the same exercise, that's why. And I found out her unique ability was that she has, I actually figured this out from the beginning when I first met her because I was texting her asking for her resume. and she gave me her resume in 10 minutes and she was like, I'm so sorry I took so long to give you your resume.

And then I was like, you gave it to me in 10 minutes. Why are you apologizing? She's like, I don't know. I felt like I had to do it in one minute. And then every time I texted back and forth with her, like she would respond in less than an hour. She's like, sorry, I took so long to get back to you. I was like, what are you talking about? Like most people don't even get back to me within 24 hours, right?

And I asked her to do this exercise. her friends said the same. And then I was like, you know what? I feel like your unique ability is like, if you had to organize this large conference with thousands of attendees or something like that, something that requires that level of logistics and planning and scheduling, you would be that point person to organize it all because you would get back to people right away and you'd be the thing that keeps it all moving.

And then she revealed to me, which I didn't know this before that, she was like, oh yeah, I single-handedly managed to schedule 300 nurses. I was like, what? You know, that's, that's a, that's a unique strength that other people can't do, right? She's like, what are you talking about? It's so easy. And then I was like, no, if I, if I asked my husband to do this, he would fail. He can't do that. Well, I think it's like, I mean, it's her, a learned skill on the job. So like, it's developmental roles that we take on and don't realize that it is a skill until we move on to something else. that becomes transferable. So how can we recognize that we do have these unique skills that are, that are unique?

Well, that is a hard question because it took me to, it had to ask other people what they thought I was good at, right? Sometimes I feel like we are too close to ourselves to really know ourselves. We are very judgmental. Like I always was like, well, what I'm doing is easy. And then I realized, no, other people find it difficult.

So usually it's that thing that you're like, oh, but this is so easy. It's too easy, too good to be true kind of thing. It's probably in that direction because another person that I know, like, whatever she goes after, she comes up with a plan. Like she's like, oh yeah, I want to like do a photography business. And I'm like, great, can you make a plan? And then she comes back to me in less than 24 hours with a very thorough plan. And then I was like, you know, not everyone can do that plan. Right?

She's like, what are you talking about? Making the plan is so easy. I was like, no, no, no, no. She didn't understand because it came, it came so naturally for her. So usually it's that thing. That's what she should be doing is making that the business rather than the photography business. I think so. Yeah.

No, but that's fascinating is we need to be able to step outside of our comfort zone and ask those around us to say, hey, what do you know that? what do you see or perceive me as an expert? Because I might hold high expectations of myself. And I think everybody is better than me. So it's like, I got to work harder. And then you realize that you've just surpassed everybody. That's right. Yeah.

So with becoming an authority, one must focus on a niche. So choosing the right channels to provide real value, be consistent, and be engaged with the community. How did you choose in your experience with social media sites that work best for the post of curated content? For me in particular, I have a voice. I like to speak. You know, like I feel like I need a platform where I can actually use my voice because that's my biggest strength. It's my ability when I speak, people say you're so articulate.

You make you change my mind about certain things. the way you have your paradigm, your worldview, I never thought of seeing the world through that lens. So if I just had like a Twitter, it wouldn't work. I can't somehow, you know, I cannot change someone's paradigm with 160 characters, right? If I have Instagram, how can I change someone's paradigm with pictures? I feel like I can't. That's why I never, I made those accounts just to take those username handles, but I've never made a single post on Twitter or on Instagram. I just cannot figure out a way.

So like I went with YouTube because I can actually speak in front of the camera. I feel like a lot of my success. My employee actually told me this two weeks ago. She's like, Annie, I watched through some of your old videos versus the ones today. Today you're very professional and polished. But I actually, I'll be very honest, I liked those videos where you were sitting in your bedroom on your bed. You know, like talking to the audience. I kind of felt like you're the older sister that I wish I always had.

Oh, wow. That is really nice. Yeah. And it feels more authentic when you're like on the bed versus in a professional like, I mean, the background's all black microphone and everything. So I understand that. But with the see, I really want to go deeper. Like how would you hook somebody to getting them to listen? I mean, looking at it from a content strategy to just getting people to notice you at the beginning. Like, you only have so many seconds to grab the audience attention.

So what did you find that was favorable for you to get people's attention? I always follow the same format. Now, I'm not as successful as other YouTubers. You know, I'm my 18K subscribers, so I'm not like the million that they go crazy with their production values. And then these crazy hooks that hook you in, not even a second in, right? I'm not at that level, okay? You can say what's worked for me. I've always followed the same kind of script format.

At one, I start with an attention getter. So that could be like a story that's just a little outrageous. You know, it could be a quote from somebody. It could be a statistic that other people didn't know. You can look up a list on Google or Ask Chat TPT. What are some examples of attention getters that you can always use to start a video off, right? But then the next thing after that is relating that attention getter to the audience. So who is the audience, right?

The audience for me was like low-income people who have. had no idea how to save money. You know, they live paycheck to paycheck. They're constantly broke. They're wondering why they can't get ahead. I kind of audience, millennials in particular, because they complain about finances all the time, about how baby boomers had it better.

Right? So I think of that person in my head, and I have to relate that hook to why is this so important to you? Why do you need to keep watching? Right. And then why you have to listen to me in particular, not somebody else? why I'm the person who's qualified to talk about this.

And then if you keep watching, this is what you're going to find out. One, two, and three. And then I give them the one, two, and three. And then I conclude. I always follow that former. Beautiful. Well, can you explain to us the why factor with you? Why should we continue listening to what you have to say?

Because I... Did you like that? That wasn't a disrespect model. Yeah. I like it. I like it. No, it's because I have lived it. Right?

Like, the reason is because I have worked. a whole string of minimum wage jobs. Like from right after high school graduation, I was always told that I'll never be successful. So I always thought like, okay, if my guidance counselor says, I can't make more than minimum wage or go beyond working at McDonald's,

then I figure, okay, but I better play a good defense if I can't play the good offense financially. So I got really good at saving. And at some point, I was working at Domino's Pizza. I always bring this story up because if I say like this mom and pop grocery store,

nobody recognizes it. But if I say Domino's Pizza, You know, that's what I worked right after graduating college. Hell yeah. And people were like, oh, oh my gosh, she gets it. You know, she's not this person who grew up wealthy or upper middle class, middle class, went to a college. Her parents paid for her college degree. She came out and then she worked this cushy office job that had AC and everything, right?

No. So that's why I always say I'm credible because I'm like, I literally have experienced it myself. And that's what makes you relatable. And that's where it draws people in that are meeting your avatar. Now, what are some other strategies that you took into account to becoming this authority? I know you just, you got to have some strength in what you're talking about. And I believe, like, there's a certain point where we face this, what is it called? It's, uh, God, it's.

It's this fear of being found out. I don't remember what it is. Impostia syndrome? Thank you. Thank you so much. Fear of being found out. Thank you. Go ahead.

The imposter syndrome, what about it? Like when you get on, like for people that are starting out and they want to become this authority, there's, I mean, if you just type in something in Google, you'll find a whole, bunch of people saying a whole bunch of different shit. And it's great because it offers different viewpoints, different lenses from cultural, different geopolitical area. So you get a whole bunch of information, but why should we listen to you? Now, is that because it's a self-confidence issue and they lack the self-expiration to understand and value themselves? Or is it something else? For me personally, I am competent. You know, I actually do know,

what I'm doing. I do a lot of reading. I have spent years, one hour per day, improving myself by reading books, taking courses, whatever I could get my hands on. So the competency was already there. All right. So if it depends on what's the cause of someone's imposter syndrome because even with all of that competency and expertise, I still had imposter syndrome. I'm like, when are they going to find out? I'm just like a 28 year old, you know, that like I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just making it up as I go along. And then, but then people are still like, no, no, no, no, we want you. We want you. I'm like, but why? I don't understand. You know, I don't even have the accounting degree.

So it depends, right? If you have the imposter syndrome because you actually, you genuinely are not competent, then you close that gap by getting competent. But if you're already competent, but you still have this imposter syndrome, what flipped the switch for me in particular was, I see all of these super 30, super famous like 30 under 30, you know, highly valued individuals in our society, who were like came from middle class or something and then now they own this crazy company that's valued a billion dollars so therefore a self-made billionaire

because of the value, right? And then I watched them fall. So something that goes up quickly falls down just as quickly. Right? Me, I came from nothing, but I build it slow. I don't take on debt to build what I am building.

I take a few steps. I build the foundation. So it takes time. I build this foundation that nobody sees and I'm building it so slow, but I'm going to make sure whatever I'm building will last 300 years, not three years, right? So that's why I'm like, okay, I have imposter syndrome because like, why is what I'm building so slow compared to someone else? And then I see, what was her name, Elizabeth Holmes?

Yes. Elizabeth Holmes. I saw her rise to the top. And then we find out she's a total sham and I watch her fall, right? Sam Bankman Freed Watch him rise to the top Oh, the nicest, most generous Youngest Self-made billionaire, right?

And then you watch him fall. I saw Netflix. There's this Netflix documentary called the Tinder Swindler. This guy goes around With his little Ponzi scheme Dating woman And using that woman's money

To pay for the next woman's money. What the fuck? Like he's he pretends he's like this rich guy. He's got this whole Instagram, you know, like influencer kind of thing. A wealthy son of like some oil person, you know. And then and then he dates women. Of course, women love men with money, right? And he buys some stuff like, oh, buy your first class ticket there.

We'll stay at this nice five star hotel. You know, you can get on my yacht and stuff. And then after some point, he goes like, I don't have money. I need money, you know, because I'm in some financial trouble. can you give me like 50,000, 75,000 and stuff like that? You don't have money? Can you get a personal loan? Can we charge it to your credit card?

And then he will date the next woman and have that other woman's money pay for the next woman. And it just goes to keep going to. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. A lot of women fell for this. They lost a lot of money. And I'm like, and he's still on Instagram, even after all of this being exposed,

he just goes like, sometimes you still got to keep singing your song. And then I was like, he has so much confidence. Yeah. But is an empty shell. I said to my husband, I was like, this is ridiculous story after story of these people. I deserve to have that confidence. Yes. And I feel like you build that through experience and taking accountability and your roles that you already established in life.

Now, you said something earlier that people jumped up very quickly. and then falling down just as fast. Now, understanding your philosophy, go big or go home, what's the difference between those two? So go big or go home is actually completely different. It's not about rising to the top quickly and then falling. It's about how many knows can you take, how much rejection can you take? Right. So, like, for example, for me to, you're an author, so I'm sure you understand the business of traditional publishing versus self-publishing,

but either way you go, how many books you sell, how many reviews you get for your book, it's all on you, right? It's not about who published you, right? And then having a successful book launch in the first week of launching your book is also in your control, something that a lot of successful authors do is they have a launch team. So it doesn't just go crazy in the first week. You compile a whole team of people who will help you buy your book

when it's free on Amazon for five days, and then they will leave reviews for your book, genuine or not, but you ask them for their help. So I had to message, you know, think of all the people that you've met in your entire life. I message 2,000 people one by one. Wow. Going all the way back to high school years, you know? I was like, hey, sorry, I know I haven't spoken to you for 10 years, but I really need your help. I'm launching this book.

Could you just kindly write me a review on Amazon and I'll give you a copy as a as a gift, you know, assigned copy. Was it copied and paste message or was it all personal for each one? It was copy and paste, but high insert name here, comma, and then. Okay. Yeah. I appreciate your honesty there. But yeah, so I had to message 2,000 people one by one over the course of like eight

weeks in pre for launch. 300 had said yes. Okay. But out of that 300, only 150 of them actually followed through and giving me their mailing address for the book. So I mailed out 150 books with my own money. And then I had, you know, included with a letter, like, please remember to write a review and stuff. And an 81 out of the 150 followed through.

So can you imagine like 81 out of 2,000 people followed through to write me a review on Amazon? So that's my philosophy of go big or go home. Like I don't care how many people say no to me. Like look how many people actually ended up saying yes to me. Interesting. Okay. I like that. And now, what just getting started, you have to balance these demands to establishing your brand. That's something I really want to dissect, but also before we go towards that one, with getting people to write the reviews, I feel like you have to almost pay for people, pay people to write reviews. So when other people look at your book,

like, oh, you already have reviews. So maybe it's a lot of, so maybe it's, It's worth my time to look into it and give you a review. Because if they're the first person, I feel like they're not even going to do it. What do you think? It's true. It's true. If your book launched with zero reviews, it's really hard to get people to want to write your review. Reviews build on reviews.

It's almost like it's the same concept of the more money you have, the easier it is to make more money. Well, the more reviews you have, the easier it is to make and get more reviews, you know? Even with the review thing, a lot of people, when I texted them for the launch, I was like, listen, if you don't want to read the book to write like an actual review, it's okay. I understand. You're busy. And I know you want to help me just because you're my friend. So if you want something to copy and paste, just ask me.

And then I will give you something that you can just copy and paste. A lot of people said, yeah, just give me something to copy and paste. I really appreciate it. Thank you. And they actually did just copy it straight what I gave them. So, yeah. Some people only left a rating, no actual review. But that was also, that's also a help, you know, just the rating without a review helps as well.

And that's, that's like you've just given them that way out that, hey, if you want this template to make your life easier, all yeah, all you got to do is say, you just got to ask me. And I feel like what people love that substance for people who are the knowledge expert is to have that humility and say, I am this way. and I know other people like this. It's relatable. You got to make it easy for people. I'll be very honest. Yes. Now, when you're in the spotlight

and you're faced with ethical questions, what do you, how do you handle that? There is no amount of money that can pay, you know, pay me to compromise on my values. Like,

it's hard for me to say how I handle it. I can just share the story of like, why I'm this way. So when I was 19, you know, straight after high school, I had this very abusive, manipulative boyfriend at the time. And he was telling me, hey, look, you know, it's much easier if you just become a foot fetish model and go to these parties and let men touch and lick your feet and earn money this way than it is to work a minimum wage job that pays you only $8 an hour. So I said no. many times I was like, well, I'm really like uncomfortable with this idea. But finally, like he push and push and push. I was like, okay, fine, you know, I'll consider it. You know, I'll give it a try.

Well, let's see, right? You're telling me it's not sexual at all. The website also says there's no sex involved at all. So I mean, if it's just letting men touch my feet and just my feet, okay, fine. So I did that. The pay was like $40 for 10 minutes. And then I went to the first party. This one guy went all the way up to just grazing, you know. And then, and I felt really uncomfortable, but I was like, okay, maybe this is just the exception because I was told they're not supposed to go above the knee. So I went to the second party. No one showed up because it was a big sports night that night.

And then the third one was this like huge party. Lots of drinking, lots of smoking, very dark, loud music, can't even hear the guy next to me kind of thing. Apparently this party had a back room. The guy, you know, one of these men, like he's the age of my father, took me to the back room and it was it went beyond feet in there all right oh man yeah and then i thought that was also just the exception i didn't know that this was common so i went in the back room again with another guy also the age of my father which also went beyond feet um so i realized that this whole

thing was like just a sham for prostitution it really was like people were having sex in the back room you know um so i i was so broken i was so depressed i was was literally, like I mentally couldn't handle what I went through. But I came out of it. I was like, I'm never going to make money for my body. I'm going to make money from my brain. You know, like I want to be known as someone who's intelligent, capable, creative.

Like I want to be known in society for that, not for what I look like from my body, what my body can do. You know, that's not what I want to do. So I realized from that point, I was like, did I really just compromise my own personal values for $40. Yeah. Or more like $80.80 that night. Did I really just do that for $80?

And then I was like, it's not worth it, you know? So I've decided like even if someone wanted to pay me a million dollars, a hundred million dollars for something that I'm totally against, I'm just going to turn it down because the kind of like brokenness that I feel inside, it will never recover. And then that person that you counted on to support you and have your back only just encouraged in. Yeah. That's upsetting to hear.

And what was the worst part is that night after it happened, you know, I couldn't sleep. I went home at like 4 a.m. on the train by myself. You know, he finally picked up, my ex-boyfriend picked up at like 7 a.m. The phone, I explained to him what happened. And his first reaction was like, we got to get you tested for STDs. And then I was like, where's the sympathy at least from you, the empathy of what just happened to me? He's like, no, no, no.

What matters is like whether you have STDs or not. There was like no emotion to it whatsoever. I was like, oh my God. You know. Yeah. Yeah. That is, I'm sorry to hear that and I really do appreciate you sharing that with us. It's okay.

You know, I'm over it. You know, I come from a position of strength at this point. I like that. Now, which brings me to another question with honing our past, our history, but not becoming a victim to it. How do we approach that? in light of everyone to help people grow, but not to illustrate as a way to handicap ourselves.

Listen, I'm not a therapist, so I can't really help in this regard. I can only simply say, like, from my own personal experience of going through really, like, traumatic things, you know, what I, what I had to do was I had to meditate. I went to therapy. I did all sorts of things to try to see what would help. And finally, what really got me to stop complaining was like, you know what? There is someone out there who has it way worse than me. You know, there's, there's so much goodness to life.

What, what is a good life if you don't have the bad? How would I know what happy is if I don't know what is sad? How would I really honestly be able to relate to people and go like, hey, I know what you're going through. I know how it feels, you know, and you can pick yourself back up. How can I genuinely say that to somebody unless I've been through it myself? Yeah. There's just no replacement. You know, I've come to realize that.

So it's because of this, understanding this, that like I can shine my light only if I've gone through it myself as well, that other people can also grow and be strong. Because they, you know, like when people come to you with their problems. Yes. And then, no, especially men. Men in particular, the way they respond to women complaining about. their problems is like, well, I know the solution for you. The solution is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then the woman just goes like, I just wanted to complain. I just wanted somebody to understand and tell me that they know how I feel. I can solve my own problem. I just wanted to relate, you know, a lot of the issues that

we have, normally, if you can just get someone to feel like, you know, you're not alone. I'm right there with you, right? They can usually solve their own problems. You cannot solve people's problems for them. It's beautiful. No, I completely understand. And I am the, I guess, the unique male that tries to be empathetic and understanding, I guess, because I'm an empath or an introvert or all the above. Who knows? But it's just a really fascinating topic that I always like to bring up to somehow we got into. But going back to creating a brand, there's so many. key aspects that you have to take into account. What are the main focuses that you would recommend to people that they should apply before anything else? The number one thing before anything else is you need a great looking head. That headshot will leave a great, memorable lasting impression on potential employers and clients.

And the reason I say this is because like before you speak, people would judge you based how you look. I hate this. You know, I've always been like this huge proponent for a large share of my 20s. I was like, but what should really matter is my expertise, my competency, my experience, like my actual character. People should care more about my character than what's on the outside. But then at some point I had to really question this about what's fair, what's right, and say, well, you know, before I open my mouth, you're going to judge me, right? So why don't I make it as easy as possible for someone to have like a good relationship with me by working on my appearance. I have to start putting money into my appearance as well. That headshot, that for your personal

branding is really important because it's just this one picture that you take that you use consistently all across the internet. I like to think of the internet more like this gigantic town hall. I like that. That is what it is though. People think they're so anonymous on the internet, right? But but it is just gigantic. town town hall where, you know, there's building A, building B, building C. And then like, you can meet the same person in building A, building C, you know, and all these different places. But you notice, like, people have different pictures across their platforms. Yes. They might have a picture that's five years old on Facebook. They might have a more recent

picture on their Twitter. And then on their LinkedIn, they might have a picture where they're smiling. And then another one where they're looking to the right side, you know, like, and then you kind of question, is this the same person? I cannot tell. I really want to say hi. But, uh, you know, so that's why you get one picture and you use the same one across all the platforms. See, I was always skeptical about doing that. I thought I have, have different ones that are still recent because I felt like, oh, it's all the same picture.

This is guys boring because it's the same picture. I don't know. I thought there's more to it. I thought so, too, but it's not like that. You have to think of it like, yeah, I remember when I lived in a small town like, the kind of middle of nowhere kind of thing. I would run into the same people at church. Then I would run into them at the grocery store.

I'd go to a social event and they're there as well. And I'm like, how do you know so and so? We have this mutual connection, you know? It's like when you live in a small place like that, everyone knows everyone and you just run into them over and over again. It's the same kind of thing with the internet. You run into people on the internet, right? But you cannot tell if you just happen to run into the same person,

again, if the pictures are different across their platforms, even if they're more recent, because like we're bombarded with so much information and distraction, it's kind of hard to pay attention. But if you just make it easy for people with the same picture, that's okay. Because like, you all, you ask the thing, in real life, it's 3D. You see all angles of somebody, right? But on the internet, the picture is 2D. So you only see one angle. Fascinating.

That's definitely something to take into account. Now, we have to wrap things up, but if I were to give you the floor, is there anything you would like to cover before I let you go? Yeah, I just want to cover more of the go big or go home mindset. You know, I talked about the book launch, but this applies to job searches as well. Like, let's say you need to look for a job. I was helping people looking for jobs, and they're applying to like maybe one job to five jobs a day. And they think anything more than 10 is like asking for too much. and I think to succeed,

you need to apply to 50 jobs a day. Really? 50 jobs a day, yeah, because these days you can upload a highly-trile resume to Indeed or ZipRecruiter or LinkedIn, just one highly targeted resume

for the job title you're going for, and then you can hit the easy apply button. And if you just do that for like 50 jobs, that's like a one-hour search per day. I think do that for a week, and you'll start getting multiple calls and emails for you. an interview. Beautiful. No, I love that. Uh, there's one more question I wanted to ask. I'm going to say

it. Do you have like a morning routine, um, like a little ritual that you apply and what does it look like if you do? Um, it that's kind of hard because my husband and I were, we were long, in a long distance marriage and then he just came back and then, you know, routine was all messed up. But, uh, ideally I would wake up in the morning, you know, put on my makeup, eat and then go for a walk and then practice piano. I like that. And then that's actually exactly what I did today, right before hopping on this interview,

I was practicing piano. Beautiful. No, I like that. It centers you. It allows for growth and discovery and it gets you centered and you approach whatever is coming next. That's beautiful.

Annie, how can our audience get in touch with you if they want to learn more or pick up your book? The best way to get in touch with me is to head over to www. annie yang financial.com. That's A-N-N-N-I-E-Y-A-N-G Financial.com. To get the audio book of the five-day job search for free, actually, you can also go to Annie-Yanfinancial.com. At the top of the page, there's this link. It says audiobook. Just put in your name, your email address, and you can download the five-hour book. And also, I think, follow me on TikTok. That's the best platform right now,

because I will spend 2024 focusing on making more TikTok videos, even though I have a bigger YouTube following. So the username handle is Annie Yang Financial. Beautiful. Is that you reading the book on the audio version? Yeah, I narrated it myself. Wonderful. I'll be sure to link that in the show notes and let you know when everything's all done.

All right. Thanks. Perfect. Thank you. Thanks for joining us on this adventure of growth and discovery. If you're ready to achieve a sustainable transformation, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And hey, if you've enjoyed the show and want to support it, take a moment to leave a podcast review on Apple or your favorite podcast platform.

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