We were lucky to catch up with Katya Rich recently and have shared our conversation below.
Katya, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
Impostor syndrome is a phenomenon where a person feels that they are not competent enough and do not deserve the achievements they have. They believe that their success is due to luck and random circumstances.
Doubting your abilities is not always bad. It can drive you towards continuous development and improvement. However, unfortunately, this phenomenon is often characterized by devaluation: the inability to objectively assess your results and accept high praise from others.
What helped me cope with this syndrome:
– Clearly defining my plans and goals. When you follow step-by-step, you see your progress. And when it seems that you didn’t deserve something, go back to your task list and see the path you have taken. Then the result becomes not “random luck” but a logical conclusion of your actions.
– Set realistic and achievable tasks and reward yourself as you accomplish them. For example, if you learned to work with complex programs, definitely buy yourself a gift. Small victories will bring you confidence in yourself.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
My name is Katya Rich, and I am a professional makeup artist and hairstylist. I live permanently in San Francisco, but I work a lot all over America. My projects range from New York to Los Angeles, and I travel frequently for work.
Like many of my colleagues, I started with a simple interest in makeup as a hobby, but for more than five years now, this has been my full-time job, which daily inspires me and provides me with financial independence. Perhaps the most exciting part of my work is the ability to instill energy and confidence in people by revealing their appearance in the most incredible ways. I am not talking about makeup to the point of being unrecognizable.
I mean that the true power of makeup is in the amazing emotions it brings to its wearer: for example, your eyes can become enormous or incredibly elongated, your facial features can change or be enhanced, and you can see a completely new version of yourself. And this applies not only to models but also to ordinary people, because makeup is a luxury accessible to every face.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Perhaps the most important quality for success in any endeavor is determination. Your dreams give rise to a plan, your plan shapes tasks, and tasks create daily goals. If you are confident in your abilities and ready to pursue your goals every second without getting distracted by various circumstances, success will be inevitable.
The second quality is discipline. Discipline will help you get up every morning and learn something new, taking small steps toward your goal. Even if it seems that things are not going according to plan, you must stubbornly act according to your chosen strategy.
And the last quality is flexibility. After all, we are all human and must accept each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Develop a flexible motivation system for your partners and clients and always strive to help them, and they will return to you a thousand times over.
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
My biggest area of growth over the past year has been tackling new challenges in my art. I decided to enter makeup artist competitions to interact with my colleagues, but I also chose to experiment with people who inspire me. For example, we recently received the results of a competition and won, with our model being not a professional model, but a mother of three who had undergone a course of chemotherapy. This project became something special for our entire team. Unfortunately, cancer is not a rare disease, but our project brought strength and inspiration to the whole team, and we hope it will also do so for people who see that this is not the end and that one should never give up.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://katyarich.com
- Instagram: https://katya.rich.makeup
- Facebook: Katya Rich
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ekaterina-rychkova-3753b9270?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
Image Credits
Photographers Michael Meltser, Alex Matt, Apeksha Agarwal
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
