March is Celebrating Women’s History Month
As we celebrate the contributions of women to history and contemporary society, we also need to celebrate women entrepreneurs who have been contributing to the history of blazing trails for the next generation of women.
As I am reflecting on myself as a woman entrepreneur, women in my circles and community, a burning question runs through my head: What are the top 5 challenges that women entrepreneurs continue to face today?
I asked “Claude” my question and it responded with these insights:
- Access to funding and capital
- Gender bias and discrimination
- Work-life balance and caregiving responsibilities
- Limited professional networks and mentorship
- Confidence and imposter syndrome
Of these 5, #3 and #5 resonate with me the most, because I’ve gone through these challenges myself. I would love to share some perspectives on how I have overcome them. Freeing women from feeling overwhelmed or trapped in these two areas are important to lift them up, and give them strengths to overcome these barriers.
First, on work-life balance and caregiving responsibilities:
I used to believe that work-life balance can be achieved if I make a conscious effort in balancing my workload and life events. However, I didn’t realize that I was trying to find work-balance on my own, without a strong support system.
I’ve also failed to realize in the process of giving my energy to care for others that I also need to get energy back to take care of myself. Self-care was not in my vocabulary because I didn’t give myself the permission to have time offs.
After experiencing continuous burnouts and having heart-to-heart talk with my psychologist to ease my pains, I found my ways out by going through them.
My struggles have taught me these valuable tips:
- Setting boundaries on work and personal priorities
- Letting go of being “the driver” in all situations, and allowing someone to take over
- Allotting time for myself to unplug, calm and stabilize my nervous system, and
- Building a support system on caregiving responsibilities
 When I allow myself to see work-life balance and caregiving from a different perspective, I feel free and weighs were lifted off from my shoulders. I was able to focus on spending energy to be better in my craft — that I haven’t fully expanded it; seeking out work that’s meaningful and impactful – yet fun and challenging; and aligning my work with my vision closely to stay grounded.
The result of seeing myself in this light gave me confidence to take bigger risks in exploring new ideas and being creative in my work, taking on collaboration and exploring advisory board opportunities. Now I feel more calm, confident, and intuitively aligned with my ability as a woman entrepreneur.
Second, on confidence and imposter syndrome:
I see confidence as a trust in our own abilities and potentials to succeed in what we set our minds to do. Confidence comes with a sense knowing that you aren’t being held back by fears of failures or judgement from others. Confidence means that we know deep from within, that we’ve the resilience to overcome hurdles and relationship hardships.
Some tips that I’ve learned from building my own confidence:
- Investing time to learn deeply about yourself as a person
- Taking time to do reflections and learning from them
- Tapping into your struggles and translating them into knowledge that you can teach others, and
- Recalibrating your belief system from negative energy fueled by fear and scarcity to positive energy fueled by abundance and optimism.
When you’ve eliminated self-doubts about yourself, you’ll emerge stronger and feel more confident about your voice, your presence, your intuition, and your ability to help yourself and others.
I am proud that you have read this far. Let’s go make history for women entrepreneurs today!
I am a climate advocate.
This year, I’ve recalibrated my intention. When sharing blogs that are not directly about my product or brand, I would love to give spotlights to companies and organizations that do good for the planet, combating climate change using natural or non-invasive means.
Amswell is a carbon-neutral hotel in Mountain View that I came across when I was reading my favorite local newspaper: the Los Altos Town Crier.
They joined an international non-profit, Seatrees.org, in restoring coastal ecosystems by donating money for the planting of mangrove trees in Kenya. For every carbon credit they’ll receive, 3 mangrove trees are planted.
On top of Amswell’s efforts, I read more about Seatrees’ efforts on coastal ecosystem restoration. I’ve learned so much about various types of plants that can contribute to carbon sequestration and help reverse climate change.
A few of their projects include:
*Coral Reefs in Indonesia, Fiji, and Florida
*Kelp Forests in California, Portugal, and Australia
*Mangrove Forests in Indonesia, Mexico, and Kenya
Congrats Amswell for making a smart choice in your carbon-positive efforts and receiving the “Ocean Positive” badge that speaks volume about your commitment to sustainability and climate change advocacy. You are making a lasting mark for your brand!
I look forward to sharing more tidbits like these when I find great stories to share.
PC: Vivek Vg from Unsplash
Catapulting Your Career and Journey with Human Connection and Authentic Personal Branding
Sam Doying and I had a blast last December in launching our first ever executive workshop, focusing on leading with human connection and authentic personal branding to catapult your career and journey.
Attendees reaped benefits from our experiences as business and marketing coaches. We each bring values that complemented each other.
Some big takeaways from our attendees:
Storytelling is powerful. Attendees agreed that the stories we told in our workshop created an “ah-ha” moment that resonated with them deeply. Because when you are sharing a story, you are being creative. Being creative shows vulnerability from you.
A story is an articulation of your thoughts, perspectives, and raw emotions that come together, fully expressed, when you are given a safe space to let others into your world.
When high efforts are put into creating powerful stories that are being told authentically, you will attract your tribes and make it worthwhile for people to follow you.
Authenticity is a pillar for trust. In this world of AI, fake news and false narratives could run rampant if you don’t pay attention to the source or take control of your own. In order to break through the clutters of false narratives, you need to show up being authentic.
Authentic means at times you are being at the natural state of who you are, without pretense or putting on a mask.
It means speaking the truth, not being afraid to share your thoughts, having the courage to share your mistakes and learning from them, and letting go of others’ judgement and freeing yourself from being perfect.
People trust people who are real and candid. Like Zig Ziglar said: “If they like you, they will follow you. If they trust you, they will do business with you.”
Executive presence always being tested in the virtual realm. We have all been on Zoom or virtual calls where at times, we get distracted by someone’s screen background, the lighting, or the behaviors that they are exhibiting that made them look less authoritative or professional than they would like to project.
Making slight changes to improve your executive presence on Zoom or any virtual platform gives your viewers the confidence of who you are, and they will connect with you based on how relatable you are with them.
For examples:
Do you smile when they say something funny?
Do you ask relevant questions to show that you are paying attention to what they have said?
Do you participate in activities to show that you are engaged?
Do you reciprocate and show your own vulnerability when they had shared theirs?
All these elements of human connection project your executive presence that’s crucial for your leadership posture that will influence your career and journey.
All in all, Sam and I enjoyed giving our first, collaborated executive workshop together. We hope to offer additional executive workshops focusing on human connection and authentic personal branding in 2025. So stay tuned…
Catapult Your Career with Genuine Human Connections & Authentic Personal Branding is the first of its kind in Executive Presence and Leadership Training, deeply rooted in genuine human connection and authentic personal branding.
Led by Sam Doying, Executive Coach; Jenny Huang, Marketing and Branding Coach
Join us at our Dec 11, 2024 Introductory Session, 12 noon – 1pm PST
Free, register here to get Zoom link.
Why Authentic Leadership Is Important for Catapulting Your Career or Journey?
Authentic leadership in the digital era requires a different skill set to lead, thrive, and inspire others.
If you are at a turning-point in your career or entrepreneurial journey where you want to move up and have a bigger impact, you will need to amplify your executive presence and build your reputation.
Executive presence is all about genuine human connection…with individuals, teams, and the organization overall.
Authentic personal branding is all about knowing who you are and aligning it closely with your authentic self. Your leadership reputation is one of the outcomes by developing your authentic personal brand that aligns with your vision and story that resonates with your audience.
Those who embrace both executive presence and authentic personal branding will come out on top and be differentiated from the crowd.
Sam Doying, an executive veteran with 30 years of coaching experience, will guide you using his proprietary model.
He will show you how to:
- Inspire people to want to follow you
- Make it safe for people to follow you
- Make it worthwhile for people to continue following you by creating an enduring presence.
Jenny Huang, a marketing and branding veteran with 30 years of consulting, advising and coaching experience, will help you leverage your executive presence and dive deeper into building your authentic personal brand.
She will show you how to:
- Defining who you are and your human story
- Building a framework to develop and articulate your authentic personal brand
- Developing initial content cadence to amplify your authenticity
Let’s harness the wisdom and experiences from Sam and Jenny to catapult your career or entrepreneurial journey, embracing your authentic leadership and personal brand with confidence, creativity, and unwavering commitment.
Contact info:
Jenny Huang, Founder & CEO
Jenny Huang Marketing
Jenny@jennyhuangmarketing.com
Sam Doying, Leadership Coach
Enduring Presence
sam@enduringpresence.NET
Like you, back in July, I did a mid-year progress review, assessing my original business and personal goals and priorities for 2024, and tuning my marketing plan to reflect shifts and follow-up actions in realizing my goals.
Valuable Learning
One big learning is that I need to dial in more by integrating AI into certain aspects of my marketing and coaching work.
A second big learning is that for certain marketing activities, I want to maintain the human touch and connection to make it authentic and personable.
Embracing AI’s Benefits and Drawbacks
Now, I’ve begun to use AI more when I need to brainstorm alone, without any team input. Often, it’s for my own marketing.
Other times, I used it to create initial framework for my coaching sessions, where I can then modify based on my experience and know-how for client consumption.
I found it fascinating with AI-based brainstorming notes that come with full of ideas, because it hasn’t taken into consideration that I can fully implement what it suggested. I need to pared those ideas down to align with my objectives, pace, and where I want to spend my energy while enjoying the execution elements and experience.
The tricky part is that if you don’t have direct experiences in what AI has recommended for you to do, yet they are critical, consider getting expert help so you are not second guessing, or get distracted from doing other important things that are essential for your business’ success.
Human Connection is A Non-Negotiable
Maintaining human touch is essential to keep things balanced. Activities like collaboration with your human friends and business colleague is a non-negotiable. Never use AI to replace human collaboration because you’ll lose that muscle where humans normally excel by doing more of it.
It’s rewarding to be able to maintain a sense of closeness and connectedness with your friends, colleagues and family.
So, on things that you love to do and can do effortlessly than AI, go do it! Don’t over-think and analyze if the task can be delegated to AI.
Chances are, it’ll probably take more efforts translating an AI answer into something more practical, authentic, and personable.
Contact us if you would like to learn how to embrace AI in your marketing work.
Connection Leading to Amazing Opportunity
People often say that an opportunity can only be as good as you make it to be.
I would have to say that I’ve done just that.
I was connected to Claudine J., Program Director @ Summer Springboard, through a business colleague, Jerry.
From Jerry and Claudine, I’ve learned more about Summer Springboard and its pre-college summer education program, offered through many prestigious college campuses, including UC Berkeley, my alma mater.
Inspiration Leading to Commitment
I was inspired by Summer Springboard, its purpose, and how the program helps middle and high schoolers in increasing their self-awareness. So they can make decisions about college selection, academic majors, and career planning that reflect their personal vision for success.
I offered to Claudine that I would do a Brown Bag Q&A with students attending their June session.
Claudine came back and offered me something even better — an opportunity to be a pitch panel judge — with students from their Business and Entrepreneurship track pitching their start-up products/companies to us.
Commitment Came to Life
I invited my business colleagues, Ann Height and Sam Doying to join me on this little venture.
Our experience came to life on June 27.
We were judges for 4 student teams, led by instructor Mike Mitchell, a Berkeley alum. We were impressed by the students’ caliber and thoughtful approaches to solving real-world problems.
We had so much fun in contributing our insights and sharing our thoughts that we all decided to offer further guidance to every company/team that had pitched.
It was a great venture being back on the UC Berkeley campus. For me, this was an opportunity that knocks at the right time, and I could not be more thrilled that it was realized through working with awesome people and teams!
A Teaching Moment
Next time, when an opportunity crosses your path that feels like a speed boat, don’t let fear stop you from considering it. Making the decision to take the opportunity has a lot to do with how much it aligns with what your passion, your values, and how it will energize you.
Being a pitch panel judge did exactly that for me. It was worth the time and energy that I put into it, and I was ready for it!
What A Feeling!
Imagine if you can stop…
…Feeling stuck without a good direction to move your business forward
…Feeling unconfident about your brand and personal story
…Feeling misaligned with your messaging that articulates your vison and purpose
Now, imagine if you can start…
…Having clarity of your big vision and a meaningful path going forward
…Feeling confident because you’ve fully aligned your vision with your passion to do great work that’s worth doing
…Feeling alive because you’ve breathed life into your brand and personal story with authenticity, and sharing your messages more powerfully than ever.
These are the feelings and transformative experience when client worked with me in 1:1 private coaching.
Ask Debbie Drennan, MSW. She’ll share with you her total awe, her journey, and the outcome of her efforts in doing the work, by taking part in our Purposeful Transformation coaching program.
I’m grateful for Debbie’s testimonial:
“Love working with you, Jenny! You’re thoughtful, organized and helped me take a step back to really evaluate my brand and my business, in a human, authentic way. Thank you!”
The net, you can see how it’s reflected on Debbie’s website, and how she is leading her business and life abundantly today.
Thank you, Debbie, for the opportunity to work with you. It was incredibly fun working together!
With Gratitude, Coach Jen
.
.
PC: Northern Light by Nicholas Huang
AT Is Inclusion photos by Rhee Bevere Photography
Hey there! Got some great tips to share!
Spring is great time to launch new products. It’s after tax season and we are over our holiday blues.
In today’s marketing landscape, one of the biggest challenges is getting your customers’ attention. Getting attention doesn’t need to be loud or bombard your customers with lots of emails.
You can, get your customers’ attention by being intentional with your messages, producing content that wake people up, and creating visuals that exude your mood.
If you plan to focus on being more strategic in your marketing campaign strategy, consider implementing these tips:
- Know your target audience’s pain points and address in your content
- Design your program based on those pain points
- Give your program a name that’s true to its form
- Have a one liner or succinct paragraph that compelling speaks about your program’s values
- Develop your content cadence a few weeks before your campaign
- Vary your content with text, audio, and short video clips, or something least expected
- Decide on mood of your campaign and pair with appropriate visuals
- Engage actively with those who “liked,” “commented,” or “re-shared” your posts
- Have reasonable metrics that help you measure progress over wins
If you can choose a combination of tips that works with you, then you have developed your own model that works to your business’ advantage.
If you want help in designing content cadence for your marketing campaign, don’t forget to give us a jingle. We will be in touch!
My Personal Invitation
If you’re a former corporate warrior turned entrepreneur, a high-achieving or resilient woman business owner, and your business has reached a plateau, where…
…Your creativity is stalled
…Your energy is sapped
…Your direction is fuzzy
…Your love for your best work no long inspires you
…You don’t have a story that energizes your people
…You don’t feel that you and your business are thriving at where it should be
I invite you to join my “Purposeful Transformation” business and marketing coaching program.
You’ll get to work with me, 1:1, in private coaching sessions that will inspire, energize, and transform your journey.
In 8 weeks, we’ll go on an amazing journey together.
We’ll take you through:
💦 Freeing from limiters that have kept you from thriving and reaching your goals
🌻 Connecting you with your big vision
⚡Diving deep into your personal story and extracting its most potent form
🌞 Re-aligning with your energy compass to do your best work
🎯 Having clarity on your business strategy and marketing roadmap
🎉Amplifying your authentic personal brand, and
🌈 Feeling transformative, liberated, and fully expressed
Does this sound good to you?
I am looking for 3 committed women business owners who are willing to do the work, and create amazing progress towards real transformation for your business and your life’s happiness, with purpose and intention.
Enrollment application for limited spots starts on May 20.
DM me if you’ve interested in learning more. I will follow up with details.
Letting Go and Transforming
 Growing up, I have always been a high achiever, from elementary school through college.
As a middle child in the family, I followed the footsteps of my two older brothers, who were high achievers themselves in their own lights.
I wanted to measure up to them, meaning I needed to ace in everything that I do.
Getting A’s in school means success; C’s means failures.
When I got my first “C” in writing, I felt my world crumbled.
I was going for “perfection” in my academic success, and that later permeated into my professional success.
Over the years, as I walk my own journey, from being a successful marketing leader in the corporate world to leading my own path as a minority, woman business owner, my definition of perfection has lost its edges.
Perfection was softened by failures that I’ve come to learn as lessons in smoothing out my edges and calming my anxieties.
I’ve learned to stop worrying about judgement from people who continue to look for perfection in me.
The shift from appreciating myself as the “imperfect” gives me the permission to transform and refine who I am…
…I started to let go of doing things that no longer serve me; instead, I’ve embraced doing things that give me energy, make me feel aligned, inspired, loved, and respected.
…I started to recognize perfection equals to highest efforts than measure by a perfect “10.”
…I started to smooth out my rough edges with love and compassion and celebrate who I am.
I’ve grown into a real person who holds a space of my own: being authentic, kind, thoughtful, resilient, and trusting my creativity and instinct more than ever before.
I’m on the path of letting go and transforming…and I’m darn proud about it!
|
|
|
