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When a professional in my online forum spoke about feeling imposter syndrome , it turned out she had company .

By Hannah J . Moore

“ I have a college degree in accounting and financial management , volunteer experience in personal finance , and just generally have always been interested in personal finance and ‘ money savvy .’ But for the last 16 years , I ’ ve mostly been a trailing military spouse with small odd jobs , and ‘ Mom ’ for the last 10 years . The imposter syndrome is real , lately .”

Her name was Shannon , and she was one of the 1,175 “ externs ” participating in my eight-week program , which is designed for new and aspiring financial planners . Shannon ’ s post started a conversation that continued throughout the summer as other externs weighed in .

People with imposter syndrome struggle with persistent doubt about their abilities . To have this syndrome means to feel like a fraud and wonder if your past successes were flukes or just good luck .

The Michael Scotts in the room who bank on their gregarious personalities while they bungle through their workdays — you know , the actual imposters — aren ’ t always the people who suffer this affliction . In some twisted turn of fate , it ’ s actually the people who have what it takes who doubt that they do .

I ’ ve wrestled with my fair share of it myself . Here ’ s what I ’ ve learned along the way .

Do It Scared

I vividly remember the moment I signed on the dotted line and purchased two financial planning practices before the age of 30 . I was terrified .

I always viewed myself as the helper , the one who others could rely on to get their work done . The thought of me being the lead planner , deciding how to get work done , felt wrong . That ’ s not who I was . I so vividly remember the thoughts running through my head : Who am I to be a leader ? Who am I to be the one running a meeting ? Who am I to be the one helping someone who ’ s had more financial success than me ?

But I signed anyway . Was there a learning curve ? Yes . Did I make mistakes ? Of course . Did I let the voices telling me I wasn ’ t good enough or old enough or experienced enough or smart enough stop me ? I did not .

This year , imposter syndrome came calling again . In October of 2024 , I officially launched the Residency , a teaching-hospital style program for a cohort of financial planners ready to launch their

28 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | OCTOBER 2024 WWW . FA-MAG . COM