San Francisco Gives Back
Things Every Girl Should Know: San Francisco
Role models from our most recent San Francisco video shoot share advice on finding your path, resilience, the importance of integrity and how to empower yourself.
(5:36 Run Time) In order of appearance: Monica Moya, Nicole Civitello, Ritu Mathur, Abusheri Ohwofasa, Julie Rems Smario, Lauren Spencer, Brenda Darden Wilkerson, Kendra McKinley, Carol Tang, Gracie Mercado, Tanya Peterson, Leiasa Beckham, Christina Nguyen, Marisa Rodriguez, Niki Solis, Julie Soo, Lilan Kane, Lois Vossen, Hydra Mendoza, Louise Cousins, Joanne Pasternack, Amanda Folendorf, Mercedes Gibson, Jessica Buchleitner
Follow your passion in your heart because it’s you who you have to look at at the end of the day. And if you’re happy with what you’re doing, everything else will come.
Try everything. Don’t be afraid to jump into an industry that you know nothing about. Think of it as an opportunity to learn something new.
I think I had about five or six different major changes. If I had never explored it in the first place, I might always wonder in my head like, “Should I have done that?” Chasing after different perspectives or different paths in your life, I think, is great because it eventually will lead you to where you want to go.
Sometimes you have to step out of your comfort zone, and because I did that, that opportunity was there waiting for me. So until you step out of your comfort zone, you may not get those opportunities if you stay in your shell, but just having that smile or saying your name and introducing yourself up front can really go a long way.
Find a job that makes you happy. Every morning when you wake up, you’re thinking about it. Be obsessed with your job because that’s where the passion is.
You know who you are, and you know what you think. That doesn’t mean you don’t learn new things or change your mind. But you know what you want to do, and you know what’s true to you in the moment. And so believe yourself first.
Knock on the doors until they open for you, because they will open. Don’t take the first or second or tenth no as an indication of anything other than, “I’m not there yet, but I’m going to get there.”
No is an answer that you’re going to hear in your life. You have to sort of accept that that’s just going to be a part of the experience and that it’s not a personal attack. Understand it as another notch in your belt.
Trying to understand your core. Finding that little nugget inside you that’s always going to make you strong and make you realize that there’s a reason to get through this, that you have something to contribute. You have to be able to sort of ignore sometimes the inner chatter that goes on, that voice in your head that wants to say, “Well, that’s because you’re not good enough.” And you need to build a resilience to that voice.
You have a strikeout. You miss the soccer goal. It’s just water off your back and continue. And so there will be obstacles in anything you do. Again, sometimes I just say, “Okay, take a breath, wipe it off. Tomorrow’s a new day.”
I worked on more things that have not worked than have worked. I literally will get in front of a whiteboard and map out what I did, figure out what I did wrong, and then I pivot. And it’s within our power to do that.
Don’t give up. Believe in yourself. And if you hear a hundred nos, it’s okay because that yes is going to come.
You develop resiliency when you actually do put yourself out there and you take the risk. If you don’t try, then you’ll never know. And it’s really exciting to see just how far you can get.
Don’t believe in the limitations. When somebody tells you you’re not good enough or you’re not something enough, don’t believe it.