What compelling advantage of yours can you sell?

What is your compelling advantage?

I recently hopped on a consulting call with a French engineer who wanted to move abroad to Asia. We spoke for 30 minutes which I charge $100 USD for consulting. He was unconfident, unsure how to market himself, and felt paralyzed.

After chatting with him, I knew what his advantages are: his bilinguality, his niche startup experiences in France in a certain industry vertical, and his technical projects he worked on in the past. He was good at coding, loved being technical, and found that there are French micro-communities based in Asia.

By looking at his outstanding qualities, we aligned them with potential opportunities he wanted to pursue, which countries would align with his goal, and where he’d had the best chance of winning. Then I pushed him to the right community groups, resources, and contacts I had.

Back then, I didn’t know someone would pay to speak to me. Sometimes, we look at ourselves and think we’re like everyone else, but we are not the same and we all have our compelling advantages.

I hate numbers and won’t, can’t do taxes for the life of me.
My accounting friend says she could never be on YouTube and publicly speak. We’re different.

But our experiences, our thoughts, and our network is what makes us compelling.

While I’m navigating this solopreneur journey, I realize the hardest part is doing it alone. After securing paid event partnerships and brand deals, I understand how hard it is to play the game unless you have people who see your blind spots. That, and you are constantly selling your brand, your reputation, your product, your media, and probably undermining yourself.

And that’s why many people drop off this journey because they can’t see their blindspots or are uncomfortable selling themselves.

For me, I’m launching a private membership with a small curated cohort for accountability, knowledge exchange, and business growth. In a mastermind, you also both give and receive advice, whereas in mentoring, you’re on the receiving end. I currently have no travel plans this year and am focusing on leveling up in money and health.

There’s limited spots. If interested, respond EM to this email and I’ll get you looped in. See you in the next newsletter! - Emily

📚 What we’re reading

We love this piece Navigating Adult Friendships by Rachel Bonifacio and how it uncovers the reality of adult friendships.

“We start to draw up our plans: maybe career, finances, relationships, family, business, lifestyle. We create a personal identity based on these choices, as well as social circles around it. Friends who cannot support these plans or identity start to fade away, and those whom we benefit from become our support group.”

Has anyone else felt their identities evolve as they venture into new places, try out new businesses, or pick up different hobbies? It feels like a shedding of yourself when you begin to change. What happens to friendships when you’re changing and another is not?

🌎 AWW Business & Travel Summit Recap

One of our OKRs got checked off earlier this March! Our 4 day summit was held in Taipei, Taiwan where we hosted women from around the world to connect on a professional and deeper level through discussions and travel. You can also get the recap on YouTube on how it came to be.

🎤 Here are the five lessons we heard from Tue’s Talk

1. Claim your voice and your space - own your space and always throw your voice into the room. When you've earned the center seat, take it.

2. Never. Ever. Lose your culture. Lead with it - while we've had to assimilate out of survival, we should never forget it.

3. We can because of our culture, not despite of - our culture is not a handicap, it's a bonus and we should lean into what makes us strong.

4. Show up for other marginalized groups - be the voice for others, not just our own. When they win, we all win together.

5. Create your own definition of happiness - pause at every fork in the road. if you're battling with a decision for 3 days, it's not for you.

We heard feedback from AWWs:

This was incredibly healing for my younger self when I didn’t have a girl friend group growing up. I felt so welcomed and connected here.

Beautiful sense of belonging. Being in community with and being surrounded by such lovely, caring, and wonderful peeps!! I would feel safe meeting any of attendees around the world.

Making new friends who share the same passions and experiences. It was nice to be with people who really understand you without judgements.

We’re in discussions to host more retreats down the line, as well as another summit next year in Asia. Stay tuned through our newsletter for summit updates!

📚 Brain Bites We Enjoyed

• Growing your business through the smallest viable audience by Seth Godin -  If you can find an audience of people who, if they were to care about you, if they were to embrace you, if they were to dance with you, it would be sufficient to propel you to the next step, begin there.

• Being successful in Business & Life as an Asian Woman Entrepreneur by Cheryl Lau - how to balance what your Asian immigrant parents want versus what you truly want

💜 Featured AWW: Karolyn Wong

I'm a Holistic Life Coach for Creatives & Entrepreneurs and I'm also searching for people who are interested in receiving free coaching support in exchange for input into an offering I'm creating specifically for Asian Women & LGBTQ+ Creatives and Entrepreneurs. Much of my career was spent in nonprofits and social justice   organizing, before being called to tap into my abilities as a healer and facilitator of shared healing, transformation, and liberation in our communities. Connect with me!

🥟 Upcoming Events

Dumplings and Calligraphy Hangout
June 2nd, 2024 from 11am-4pm PST
📍 San Francisco, CA
Join us for a delightful gathering in the Bay Area as we come together to bond over dumplings and calligraphy. In our busy lives, we often find ourselves caught up in our thoughts and worries. This event aims to create an opportunity for us to step away from our hectic minds and instead focus on creating with our hands. Please RSVP in advance.

Interested in running your own city event or creative hangouts for AAPI Heritage Month? Email [email protected].

We’re also looking for the following volunteers:
- community moderators
- online hosts for social mixers