 Source: Femigrants Another great event hosted by Femigrants, 'Get Business Done on Instagram' training at the Instagram HQ on April 26, 2018.
Event Highlights
Highlighting Female founders Check out the vast diversity of businesses the ladies represented:
My Objectives – why did I attend this event?
Key Insights – what did I learn? Services offered by Femigrants This event was the second Femigrants event I attended. I was amazed to discover the free services Femigrants offers in addition to the valuable community of female immigrants. Femigrants provide key resources for success, free of charge: online marketing services for business owners; professional networking meet-ups; online live interviews to increase exposure for new and aspiring business owners, and a coaching-mentorship program for aspiring professionals. I encourage you to join the community and enjoy the services offered. Instagram for your Business Until I attended the training, I was not aware of how much Instagram can help me grow my business. The statistics shared that 80% of Instagram users follow at least one business convinced me that I need a business page on Instagram. Four useful tools for a business that Instagram provides include:
Tips & Tricks: Using Instagram Stories Instagram stories offer much value for businesses as well as fun features. Stories can help a business gain more customers and bring traffic to their content. It provides a more personable experience with a brand, product or service. For more information take the Bring Your Business Story to Life With Instagram Stories training. Supporting each other's Business It was great to learn more about the other great female-founded businesses. As we shared more about our businesses, we identified different ways we can support one another. Above all the value I got from the training, seeing women support other women was a highlight for me. Let's build a community of businesswomen who support each other's businesses. Sharing our knowledge As female immigrants, we can all benefit from each other's knowledge and experiences. In the training, we had female immigrants who had been in the US for six months to over 40 years. There was a lot of information exchange. Equip yourself with as much information as you can to make your journey more comfortable and share your knowledge. Final Thoughts
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 Attending the Women's global leadership workshop on April 20, 2018, was a highlight of my Events series. I gathered a lot of practical tools and tips for my toolkit. I am excited to share my Insights with you.
Event Highlights
My Objectives – why did I attend this event?
Key Insights – what did I learn? Women supporting women Diana Ruiz kicked off the event with a powerful statement "Equity starts when women support women.” Cristina Trujillo crystalized this point by saying Surround yourself with women supported and allies. Imagine how much stronger we will be with stronger networks. My mission for “Her Perspective” is to build a community of women who support one another on their journey. Encourage the women around you and help them grow. Someone will do the same for you. Know your worth and your contribution Most women don’t know their worth and their investment. Recognizing your worth and your contribution is essential. If you do not believe in yourself and your cause, how can you expect others to believe in you? Start by knowing your strengths and weaknesses. I recently wrote a blog post titled Know your worth! sharing my insights. Knowing what you are worth, and what you bring to the table will help you ask for the pay you deserve. Acknowledging your achievements will make you more fulfilled. Prioritize your self-care Cristina Trujillo hit the nail on the head with this point - "Make self-care a non-negotiable priority." Danielle DeRuiter-Williams shared the importance of taking care of yourself, knowing what you need and asking for it. She shared her experience in one of the most trying times of her life where she reached out to her closest friends for support. I used to be very good about taking care of myself, ensuring I got what I needed intellectually, physically, emotionally and spiritually to feel and be my best. However, in 2017 I got carried away with work and neglected my self-care. This led to me not being my best physically and in my relationship. I decided to prioritize my self-care this year. Whatever self-care means to you, please prioritize your self-care. You need to be whole to do the great things you are destined to do. Simple self-branding Nancy Marmolejo shared a simple way of communicating your strengths to the world through your brand statement. Nancy defined self-branding as a "process of establishing a truthful and authentic image or impression of who you are in the minds of others."
Who are the women you admire and why? Rachel Harrelson took us through an exercise of thinking about why we admire some female leaders. When we were asked to identify women whom we admire, we go to the Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama and so on. Try to list women you know personally. Three things to consider when you chose women you admire:
My Next Steps - What am I going to do?
Final Thoughts
About the Speakers Diana Ruiz - CEO Women's Global Leadership Initiative. Danielle DeRuiter-Williams - Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Specialist and Organizational Development Strategist Cristina Trujillo - Founder & Executive Producer at Reigniting Empowered Expressiveness & Motivation. Nancy Marmolejo - Personal Branding, Leadership, Diversity. Executive Coaching for Executives, Teams, Entrepreneurs.  As part of my orientation plan for 2018, I set a goal to attend more events this year. In the past months, I have worked towards my goal by attending 14 diverse events. Also, I started sharing some of my learnings on my Events blog posts.
After sharing my insights, I got questions about how I find, why I attend and the value I get from these events. I am excited to share my knowledge on how I select, prepare, participate in and wrap-up events. I get great value from events, and I want you to get value too. Phase 1: Selecting an event It is essential to spend time selecting events. I would encourage you to be very intentional about the events you attend as you are investing your valuable time and resources. What is your objective? Be clear on what you want to get from an event before you attend it. Some reasons I attend events include networking, meeting new people, sharing my ideas, learning something new, discovering trends in my industry as well as expanding my perspective. What type of events are you interested in? Know the topic areas that interest you and where you need growth. My focus areas are primarily women in leadership, women in tech, professional development, career advancement, entrepreneurship, social media, client acquisition and financial empowerment. What events are coming up in your area? Start your search on popular platforms for upcoming events that match your objectives and interest areas. Platforms I use regularly include ticket websites such as Eventbrite, company websites, networking websites like meetup and other sources. What is your selection criteria? It is crucial to have simple criteria that help you select events wisely. Personally, I recommend the following selection criteria.
Phase 2: Preparing for an event Personally, I have discovered that I get the most value from an event when I prepare before I attend it. The time spent on preparing for events differs depending on my investment. Some activities I recommend you do in preparation for events include:
Phase 3: Participating in the event You are prepared and want to get value from the event now let's discuss things to do at the event.
Phase 4: Wrapping up after the event As a project manager, I have learned that it is essential to spend time reflecting and wrapping up an event afterwards. My learnings are amplified when I do the following after the events I attend:
Call to action
 Source: http://www.theexpatwoman.com/empowered/ Event Highlights
My Objectives – why did I attend this event?
Key Insights – what did I learn? Let me start by saying the day was packed full of great insights. I paired down my list to highlight my key lessons. 4 Pillars for professional success Sejal Patel shared the four pillars that have brought her professional success as part of her Keynote address.
Keep learning - To win in your profession Maira Benjamin shared great insights on the importance of continuous learning and staying current on developments in your field. To show how important learning is, Sima Patel said: "Gain knowledge to overcome your challenges" and shared her story on how she learned about an area to cross barriers she faced. Power of building your network Meral Arik presented three great points about Networks
Women lift-up women We need to change the narrative of women pulling down other women. The speakers had a theme they mentioned women who helped them on their journey. We were encouraged us to encourage women around us and share our knowledge to support other’s growth. We need a support system In various sessions throughout the day, the speakers inspired us to build a support system of your friends, mentors, and sponsors. You do not have to travel on your journey alone. You will win more with a great community. A good support system will:
My Next Steps - What am I going to do?
Final Thoughts
 Source: http://www.femigrants.org/ What a way to spend my Thursday evening learning from great women at the 'Femigrants of Silicon Valley'- Forum of Female Immigrant Leaders event in San Francisco on March 22, 2018
Event Highlights
My Objectives – why did I attend this event?
Key Insights – what did I learn? Believe in yourself even when others do not believe in you Beate Chelette, a fellow German immigrant, shared her life experience in the keynote. She shared stories of how people doubted her dating back to her years in middle school. How many times have people doubted you and your skills? You will be successful if you persist and continue to believe in yourself even through difficult times, peoples doubt and even self-doubt. Personally, telling me, I cannot do something motivates me to do it and succeed. Don't let others discourage you and kill your dreams. Be bold and take on opportunities "Say hell yes to every opportunity that comes to you" was a phrase that Elena Krasnoperova shared that resonated with me. After listening to Shonda Rhimes TED talk My year of saying yes, I challenged myself to say yes to more things and put myself out there. So, hearing Elena share her insights on saying yes was confirming the journey I am on. I am committed to put myself out there and say yes to things I will typically say no to because I am scared. Trait to succeed - Be organized and visualize your plan Kwanua Robinson's advice on the significant role being organized plays in being successful was very timely. Being organized and having a plan has helped me progress in my own life. Having a plan should become the norm for everything you do in your personal, professional and business life. You will begin to see the outcomes you desire. Entrepreneurs: Test your ideas first Elena Krasnoperova shared great advice on testing your product with real users before you go all in. In the process of developing your product, it is critical to test with real users. Before you make any significant investment in your product, you want to know that you have a user group. General Advice: The panelists and speakers shared some great advice that I would like to share with you.
My Next Steps - What am I going to do?
Final Thoughts
 Source: https://www.wilconference.org/ I am very excited to kick-off my "Event Summary" series. As part of this series of blog posts, I will review events, conferences, round tables that I attend. This year, I decided to follow my advice and attend more events and grow my network. Additionally, to increase the value, I get from visiting these events I will document and share my lessons and key insights from the events as well as my next steps I am committed to taking. Please join me on this great adventure.
Event Highlights On Saturday, March 17th I attended the Women in Leadership (WIL) conference hosted by the Haas School of Business, Berkeley.
My Objectives – why did I attend this event? Going to the conference I had three objectives for attending this event were:
Key Insights – what did I learn? I took so many notes during the sessions and captured great insights. In my quest to focus, I will be sharing the top five lessons that stuck with me. Value the skills you have In her Progress keynote, Larissa Roesch shared a lot of great insights. The largest one that stuck with me was this question: "What else can I do with the skills I already have?" In recent conversations with a lady close to me, we were discussing how much skills we have gathered and don't value. I believe that the value I bring today is a combination of the skills I have. We need to change our perspective on the skills we have and stop feeling like we are not enough. Start telling yourself - "I can do a lot with skills that I have." We need "sponsors" in our professional life "People with sponsors are 23% more like to move up in their career than those without, yet women and far less likely to have Sponsors". Source: WIL 2018 Handout Over the course of the day, various speakers emphasized the importance and value of having a Sponsor for our professional advancement. I learned the great difference between having a "sponsor" vs. "mentor." I did some research and found this definition - “A sponsor is someone in a position of power who uses his or her influence to advocate on your behalf” – Source: Forbes Article. I looked at my own professional life and noticed that I do not have a sponsor that speaks up for me at places that matter like promotion conversations. There a massive gap for Women of color in leadership - We have a lot to do "Women of color are underrepresented in the cooperate pipeline. 8%- Senior Manager/Director, 6% - Vice President, 4% - Senior Vice President, 3% in the C-Suite" (Source: McKinsey Women in the Workplace 2017 ). At the event Chloe Johnson, a McKinsey consultant shared the latest findings from the Women in the Workplace 2017 Study. Only 3% - this is not acceptable. The conversation is mostly around what other's around women in leadership positions can do to raise this number. We (Women of color in leadership positions) have a significant role in increasing the 3%. I am personally committed to identifying the steps I can personally take to be part of the group that raises that number. I am hopeful because the study also says, "And yet: despite facing more pitfalls to advancement, women of color have higher ambitions to be a top executive than white women." (Source: McKinsey Women in the Workplace 2017) On being and becoming a woman in leadership Eve Chaurand shared the following key points on our role and responsibilities as women in leadership:
Connecting dots build our life story Over the course of the day, the Steve Jobs quote “You cannot connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” was mentioned a lot. Larissa Roesch drove this point home for me when she told her story with the help of some key "dots" in her life that formed who she is today. This one spoke to me personally. I have always struggled with telling my story because it felt a little disjointed and complex. From the way Larissa told her story I started identifying key experiences or dots in my life that make me the woman I am today. I did not always understand how they all fit together while I was going through them and some still don't make sense. However, now looking back I am beginning to connect some of my dots. Watch this space for MC's story: Connecting some dots. My Next Steps: What am I going to do? To increase the value of this event for me, I have identified the following action items:
Final Thoughts
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