We recently connected with Rachel Lee and have shared our conversation below.
Rachel, so great to be with you and I think a lot of folks are going to benefit from hearing your story and lessons and wisdom. Imposter Syndrome is something that we know how words to describe, but it’s something that has held people back forever and so we’re really interested to hear about your story and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
Ahhh my favourite question! I actually struggled with imposter syndrome for a REALLY long time… long before I even started my business. When I was studying design in art school, we had these things called “critiques” where we had to present our projects in front of the class and explain our work. I remember feeling shame and embarrassment every time I saw other people’s projects because I somehow thought that they were better than mine. Many times, I questioned how I even got into art school since I felt that there were so many people who were a lot more talented than me.
Despite the fact that I graduated with a 3.8 GPA in my Bachelors of Communication Design, I had zero confidence in my work, and didn’t even have the guts to APPLY for design jobs after graduation because of my insecurity. Instead, I worked at an animal hospital for 3 years — silently letting my design skills slip away until one fateful day when one of my parent’s friends passed on an an opportunity for me to work as a full-time graphic designer at their marketing company.
Even though I felt severely under-qualified for the job (since the position required me to design packaging for products in a variety of languages that I don’t know), I somehow managed to land the position and worked there for about half a year before I made the decision to start up my own business at the start of 2019… a decision that was born from my desire to stretch my wings as a designer and work on different types of projects in different industries before deciding on “the thing” that I wanted to hang my hat on.
When I jumped into the world of business, it honestly felt like art school all over again where I was surrounded by a bunch of people who felt a lot more experienced than me. I often felt the pressure to look “bigger” than I actually was in order to land clients, and it was something that I struggled a lot with in the earlier years of business when I was figuring things out with my skillset and offerings.
The point where those icky feelings started to go away was only after I had served over a hundred clients and developed a reliable process that I felt confident in. With every client that I worked with, I was always looking for ways to improve my services, whether it was my process, efficiency, or quality of the end product, and I felt my confidence growing with each client that I worked with because I KNEW that I was improving.
While I can now say that I’ve overcome a certain level of imposter syndrome 5 years later, I would say that the feeling never fully goes away since I’m always looking for ways to improve my business and support my clients in different ways… which means that I’m always going to be a beginner at something!
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
As a creative at heart, one of the things I always tell people is that my business was born out of my desire to chase the thing that I love… and somehow figure out a way to do that thing for a living.
When I started my business in 2019, I was honestly using it as a vehicle to explore (1) my skills as a creative, and (2) discover what I actually enjoy doing. In this wayward journey, I learned a LOT about myself, and gained enough skills to be considered a “dangerous unicorn” in the creative / business world.
In this process, I stumbled into the world of personal branding and ended up using it as a vehicle to not only answer questions I had around who I was, and what I brought to the table… but it actually helped me BECOME the person that I wanted to be in a significantly shorter period of time than I had originally anticipated.
I’m excited to share about personal branding from this perspective because I find that people often focus so much on the shiny, surface-level aspect of personal branding that they miss what I consider to be the most important part…
The part where we get to use your personal brand as an opportunity to say, “this is where I’m at, and this is where I want to be”, then construct an identity based on that “cool version of you” that actually supports you in becoming that person in the way you show up every day!
It sounds really abstract when I say it that way, but I honestly wouldn’t be this version of me today if I didn’t say just 2 years ago, “I want to have pink hair, carry myself as a fun but badass creative business owner, be known for my signature style and feel 100% confident in what I do”…. and construct a personal brand that supported me in becoming this version of me, I would probably still be floundering in my imposter syndrome (and have a half-baked business, and half-assed brand) to this day.
That’s why I’m SO excited to share that after 2 years of operating my business under my personal brand, I’m ready to (re)launch my business brand, Neo Genesis, in 2025 as an official personal branding agency to provide a wider range of support for the people I’ve met along this journey who want more support than just the typical, “done for you, brand out of a box” kind of solutions!
At the time of this interview, planning is still underway for my agency, but I can’t wait to share it with you at the start of the new year when it launches! I encourage anyone who’s curious to follow me on Instagram (https://instagram.com/racheltylee/) or LinkedIn (https://linkedin.com/in/racheltylee/) to be the first to know when it launches! 🙂
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Looking back, I can say that the 3 things that have been the cornerstone of my journey (and also the things that have kept me sane) are:
1. Curiosity — If I didn’t ask, “what if I tried doing my own thing…” when I was feeling unfulfilled at my full-time job, I wouldn’t have started my business. If I didn’t ask, “what if I tried working on every single type of project under the sun…” when I first started my business, I wouldn’t have discovered my passion for personal branding, and ruled out all the other things that didn’t work for me. If I didn’t ask, “what if I tried just being ME…” when I was feeling stuck with my stuffy, corporate branding, I wouldn’t have become the person that I am today. If you don’t lead with curiosity, you don’t go anywhere!
2. Authenticity — This is a buzzword that’s been tossed around a lot on the internet in a way that makes my skin crawl, but I believe that it’s SO important to know what feels right to YOU, and sticking to your guns even when no one else is doing the thing you’re doing. It’s unsustainable to show up in business & life any other way, because it’s exhausting when you always need to switch between different “modes” depending on who you’re with. If you’re not careful, you just end up becoming the version of you that everyone else wants to see, and that’s not a good place to be in… because it isn’t YOU!
3. Creativity — Always find fun / different ways to be doing whatever you’re doing, because (1) that’s the only way you’ll ever stand out, and (2) that’s how you keep things fresh when everything starts to feel boring and monotonous! As someone who’s allergic to “boring”, “standard”, and “vanilla” ways of doing things, I find that I’m always finding ways to make the boring parts of my business feel fun by being creative with the way that I do them…. simply because if I find something boring, I stay farrrrrr away from it. By keeping things interesting for myself, not only am I challenging myself to constantly innovate and try new things every day, I actually end up being SUPER efficient because I actually enjoy every part of the work I do!
Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?
Am I allowed to say both? I feel that it’s important to get good in the areas that are negatively impacting you, (like if you suck at talking to people but want to make new friends, or if you’re terrible at staying organized but are starting to miss important dates & deadlines), but I definitely believe that if you’re naturally good in some areas… you should continue to lean into that!
The reason I say this is because I got into the world of business with a specific thing that I was “good at”, which was design. After a short while, I quickly realized there were a LOT of skills I was missing that were required to run a business, such as the ability to do marketing, sales, accounting and systems. If I didn’t immediately put energy towards learning and improving those areas, I wouldn’t have made it past year one.
But at the same time… I never stopped honing my craft and improving the skill that first brought me into the world of business. I took my design skills and added to them, growing them from, “graphic design” to “general branding” to “brand identity design & strategy” and eventually “personal branding”. By always improving on my craft, I’m always finding new ways to support my clients, and that’s something that I never want to stop doing!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://racheltylee.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/racheltylee/
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/racheltylee/
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/racheltylee/
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