“I’ve always had a “plan B,” but there are so many others who weren’t prepared for their lives to change in such a way [during the pandemic].”
Q: What are you passionate about?
A: One of my biggest passions in life is helping others. I’m a licensed financial advisor. I love what I do simply because I’m able to educate my potential clients on ways to create generational wealth for themselves and their families.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: I grew up in a very close-knit family. Education and religion were two things that were at the top list of importance. I’m grateful for all the lessons learned because it helped me to become a better person and who I am today.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: 2020 was a huge wake-up call for me, and I’m sure for a lot more families as well. I was laid off from my job of 15 years. Luckily for me, I’ve always had a “plan B,” but there are so many others who weren’t prepared for their lives to change in such a way. My advice would be to never solely depend on one stream of income. Keep multiple streams coming in in order to keep your family afloat.
Q:What does feminism mean to you?
A: Being a woman, I think, is about being strong. It’s about continuing to move forward in all of life’s endeavors. I definitely have to keep a positive mindset and stay 100% committed to making all my life dreams a reality. I have two daughters that look up to me, and I want them to grow up stronger and better than I am. I love to see my ladies succeed! There was once a time when women were told we couldn’t do certain jobs or we couldn’t make a certain amount of money, but look at us now! Kudos Ladies! Let’s keep it up! God Bless.
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“To fail simply means, to me, first attempt in learning.”
Q: What are you passionate about?
A: I have found myself with a great passion for the beauty industry and making others feel more confident in themselves. Especially with semipermanent makeup for the ladies who have lost their eyebrows over time; some of the reactions after treatment truly are amazing and make it worth while.
During the pandemic and my business being hit drastically, I then started a few other projects to keep myself busy, but to also connect with other women. I started a Facebook group for women wanting to grow in their careers or run their own business to connect and network. There are a few groups online already; however, I found them filled with a lot of spam and very hard to find value in most of the posts. So, I set out to fill the group with educational posts.
My aim was to inspire, motivate, and educate. Around this same idea, I have also cowritten a book. Me and my team want to release a series of books aimed toward women in business. This first one is to help women grow their leadership skills.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: Growing up, I was always fairly good at school; I tested well and I never failed any class, but I knew I lacked the motivation to continue with academic education.
I always knew deep down I needed to work for myself, but the ’system’ always wanted the student to go to university/college and aim toward an academic education.
I went back to education a little later in life, around 23 years old. I did open university, which is online based, to pursue a psychology degree; however, I again dropped out after the first year knowing it wasn’t for me.
I couldn’t see a future in working for anyone else. Which then whilst working part-time in a job I hated, I stumbled into beauty treatments, which made me money fast, and I loved my clients. I’m lucky to call many of them friends now. I found a passion in making them feel great. Which makes me feel valued.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: After speaking to many many women, one of the main topics was they are scared of failure. Which really upsets me!
As children, we are always finding our way and never get it right the first time! Why is it we’re expected now as adults to be perfect [the] first time. We never stop learning, which means we will never stop making mistakes!
Some of my biggest breakthroughs were learning from mistakes! We throw around the saying “learn from your mistakes,” but I don’t think people truly resonate with this. To fail simply means, to me, first attempt in learning.
Q:What does feminism mean to you?
A: I want equality for women in business. Only 7% of CEOs are women. Only 17% of the new businesses set up in 2019 were by women.
Now, a lot of this can be reasoned to the inequality and subconscious biased that still exists against women, but it is also the consequences from the years of inequality women have had to face; most of us have lost the confidence.
So, I want to bring back that confidence for women. I think the pandemic has been profound for women who work full-time office-based jobs, since they were able to prove they can work effectively from home.
Which I think is incredible that now, finally, women are able to maybe manage that work/family life more and keep their careers instead of having to step down from their positions to start a family.
MORE FROM JEMMA: I love collaborating with other women and do believe that we need to work together if anyone resonates with this also, you can find me on:
“Cherish every moment with loved ones as much as possible and also go for the dreams, feel through the fears, and make moves anyways.”
Q: What are you passionate about?
A: Great question! I am most passionate about the inspirations all around us and through us in this life experience.
I’ve come to a point in my life that it doesn’t matter where I’m physically at, whether that be at home, at work, at a business event, in traffic, at a social event, et cetera; that I have the opportunity to inspire others through pure gratefulness of being alive in that moment.
The thing that most ignites my passion is music.
When I hear music, my heart gets excited and my body just wants to move. I often remind myself of pain and suffering around the world and of my own trials and tribulations to keep me humbled and grateful to keep moving forward.
I’m consistently working on creative projects simultaneously that can inspire people from all walks of life to keep moving forward themselves.
It’s crazy to think all of these were ideas or suggestions I’d heard to “try out” and then I did and that’s how it all came into existence.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: I think the best way to describe my younger years is to say that it was unpredictable. My mom was a free spirit, a gypsy woman, a dreamer, and a fighter.
She raised five kids on her own when she fled my abusive dad. My dad was a drinker, party animal, very strict, but also a teacher in his own way.
Although there was much suffering and pain in my childhood, both my mom and dad played a vital role in my belief system.
I dropped out of high school, got married, and had a baby.
I eventually realized how important school was and got my diploma.
My education really came from my love for books. Self-learning and self-study have been my education for life.
The first time I ever finished a program from beginning to end without dropping out was Yoga Teacher Training in 2015.
Yoga definitely was the tipping point for me.
I was already in the process of writing my book and even included a whole chapter of the challenges I faced while in the program.
I have now combined my personal experiences, rituals, and yoga practices by leading retreats in tribal yoga, warrior awakening, and self-development.
Q: What is something valuable you’ve learned that you’d like others to know?
A: I’ve learned that everyone has their shit.
Everyone has an ego.
Everyone has intentions, desires, and choices.
It was a valuable lesson to suffer because it taught me how to be truly thankful for love around me and how easily it can be taken away.
Therefore, cherish every moment with loved ones as much as possible and also go for the dreams, feel through the fears, and make moves anyways.
My full story is written in my book, Nothing Sexier Than Freedom. I hope it continues to inspire as it has been, for people to live courageously sexy, wild, and free.
Q: What does feminism mean to you?
A: I think the best way to explain what feminism means to me is more in visual action than in words and the best visual I can give is my mother.
She was molested, she was beaten, she was a single mother of five kids, though she fell, she got back up and kept moving forward.
Two years ago, my only brother took his life and I watched my mother take the biggest heartbreak of her life.
Once again, though she fall, she got back up…this time on her Harley Davidson bike, at 60 years young, she rides long distance into the wind as the wild free gypsy spirit she has always been.
She is courageously uplifted, self motivated, and determined to live her life the way she chooses no matter what anyone has to say about it.
To me, my mother is and has always encompassed what feminism means—freedom.
For more information about me:
Helen Edwards, International Author & Entrepreneur
“One thing I’ve learned is this: You cannot control what happens in your life, but you can control how you react to it. I think if I continued to sulk and think negatively, nothing significantly positive would’ve happened in my life. Changing my perspective and immersing myself in hope and positive thinking only resulted in positive changes in my life.”
Q: What are you passionate about?
A: It would be exceptionally hard to pinpoint one thing I am passionate about because I am passionate about everything I do. I currently work as a communications coordinator for a company that promotes financial stability in underdeveloped countries.
Luckily, I found this position by accident, and I am proud to say that I am a part of a project that helps those in need in someway somehow. One of my passions is definitely helping others.
Aside from my full-time job, I am the founder of the subscription box business “Petite Princess Box,” and I have to say building, creating, and executing my own ideas and seeing it all come to life is one thing I will always be passionate about. I think I have always been an entrepreneur at heart.
Pictured: One of Kelly’s customers enjoying her Petite Princess Box!
Q: What is something valuable you’ve learned that you’d like others to know?
A: A year ago, I lost my dad suddenly from a heart attack. I had such a stable life and everything was going great for me. I just got into my master’s program, had a growing business, and my family was happy and healthy, and then my world just changed dramatically with his death.
You can say I had to grow up quick. I had my hands fully immersed in everything after his death. I guess you can say I became the “new man” in the house. After his death, I lost a lot of motivation. He passed away two weeks before my master’s program would begin, and I could barely focus.
I felt like the quality in my work was slowly diminishing. I also stopped focusing on my subscription box business, and I could see it literally sinking. I ended up picking myself up and telling myself that I have to really immerse myself in positive thinking and to focus on finishing the goals my father wanted me to complete. And so I did that, and a year later, my whole life has changed (for the better).
I graduated with my degree, found a close and loyal tribe of friends and loved ones, got my very first “big girl” job, and rebranded my entire subscription box business, and it is growing very quickly.
One thing I’ve learned is this: You cannot control what happens in your life, but you can control how you react to it. I think if I continued to sulk and think negatively, nothing significantly positive would’ve happened in my life. Changing my perspective and immersing myself in hope and positive thinking only resulted in positive changes in my life.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: My childhood was nothing but great! We lived a pretty modest life in the suburbs. I grew up with my parents who immigrated from Palestine and my younger sister. My parents have always been supportive and always pushed us to be our best.
Growing up, I struggled in school—all the way up to my high school years. I was never able to maintain exceptionally good grades and as many tutors as I had to assist me in my studies, there was still this struggle I had in obtaining a single “A” on my report card. Before starting my last year of high school, I told my guidance counselor that I wanted to get into university after I graduate. She told me that based on my grades from my previous years, attending a university would not be a realistic goal unless I managed to maintain an 80% average in my final year.
I remember going home to tell my parents how angry I was at the lack of encouragement my guidance counselor had for me, and I promised myself and my parents that I would work hard enough to get accepted into a university program. In my last year of high school, I ended up maintaining an 87% average and got accepted into the highest ranked university in Canada.
Fast forward to my last year of university—I had maintained a substantial GPA and ended up getting accepted into a very competitive program for a master’s degree in communications. You can say that these experiences in school really impacted my life to where I am today. If you were to ask me if I’m still upset that my guidance counsellor for discouraging me, I would say no. If she didn’t discourage me, I wouldn’t have pushed myself as hard as I did to prove her wrong and prove myself right.
Q and A with Maria T., Entrepreneur Coach, Philippines
“True abundance isn’t about what you have. It’s how comfortable you arebeing you, doing you, and staying you.”
Q: What are you passionate about?
A: I love making the impossible possible—turning “crazy ideas” into reality.
Born into an entrepreneurial, immigrant Chinese family, I was wired into the “work hard, stay in your place, be practical” mentality.
Pictured: We had the “work hard” mentality, but humor was a big part of our lives! Here I am in my early twenties with my parents and siblings.
Anything outside the norm wasn’t accepted, and everything that had to do with dreaming differently wasn’t encouraged. Hobbies, passions, interests that didn’t result in direct payout/profit were kept as such. Little effort would be put into something “frivolous” like playing the piano or theater arts. As a result, I grew up with such a scarcity mindset and lots of self-limiting beliefs.
What’s curious though, I inherited my ancestors’ entrepreneurial skills and was making money from the age of 6 by buying and selling stationery and confectionary items, dried foods, and other things I could sell. Later, I was selling my services as a teacher and consultant. For someone so “young,” I had my choice of clients and was paid above the market rate.
Pictured: Me facilitating a communications workshop in Taipei, Taiwan.
But I felt something was missing. I needed to BE MORE and think beyond what to sell next and how to make more money. I talked to my mom about the meaning of life and she pretty much dismissed my question as something frivolous and overreaching. I can’t blame her though—she comes from a generation where having a white picket fence was the dream). After that talk, I went even deeper into depression. I was living my life void of any life. I would go from one task to the next and have no memory of doing so.
I was honestly contemplating to end my life, but something in me said: “I can’t give up on myself—life has got to be better than this.” I went full-on into exploring my spiritual gifts and somehow I embraced being an empath. When I talked to people, I just knew which buttons to push to help them talk about what really mattered to them. Today, I am able to combine that spiritual gift with my talent in teaching, consulting, and seeing the big picture.
I now coach “Misfits,” aka people who feel like they can’t conform to the norm and what’s expected of them, to turn their “deepest desires” and “crazy impossible dream” into reality. I help elevate their lives by guiding them in creating an eco-system around who they are and what they offer.
Q: What is something valuable you’ve learned that you’d like others to know?
A: True abundance isn’t about what you have. It’s how comfortable you are being you, doing you, and staying you.
I’ve made money from an extremely young age. In fact, making money comes easy to me because I’m good with people and I can sell lots of things. When I was selling my products and services to anyone who wanted to buy, I was working day and night. The money came in fast. But my scarcity mindset back then simply drove me to doing more and feeling disconnected with the part of me that knew I was meant for more.
I couldn’t enjoy the money I made and was so concerned about how other people saw me and my means. I made monetary decisions out of the fear that people would look down on me and think I couldn’t afford something. What should be a blessing became a burden. Only after I embraced my spiritual self and embodied a more abundant state of being did I fully appreciate life and find joy in my existence.
This may sound like a cliche, but the moment you embrace the totality of who you are, the money will come anyway. So be you, stay you, do you. There is no one like you and the moment you appreciate that about you, the rest of the world will!
Pictured: This was a big milestone in my life. Since 2013, I sat on different boards and committees of non-profit organizations (Rotary Club and the International Women’s Club). But nothing brought me more honor than being part of an education foundation in 2018. I was a recipient of scholarship since I was 11 until about my college years. To be part of this education foundation was me paying it forward.
Q: What does feminism mean to you?
A: I was actually brought up in a matriarchal society. Even within my extended families, women are held in high regard. In fact, women can be so strong and as capable as the men in my family, but they wouldn’t be dressed down for “failure” as a male would.
When I left my home country (the Philippines) to pursue my tertiary education is when I saw the favorable treatment to men. I was harassed by a male professor and when I asked an administrator where I could file a complaint, I was strongly suggested not to. The reason was simply “You’re female and you’re from the Philippines. In this country, people listen to males, especially those that came from a developed country.”
I never felt more violated than the moment I heard that. And I vowed since then never to let my nationality or my gender get in the way of empowerment. Feminism, for me, isn’t about equal rights. It’s about mutual respect and compassion. That country had “equal rights” but the societal beliefs then were programmed against women.
The way I was brought up, women are heard. When a woman isn’t happy, the entire family walks on eggshells. Women are loved for being caring and nurturing, for thinking of everyone’s needs, and for being non-linear in their thinking. Women are respected because they make life easier.
That, for me, is feminism.
Connect with me! I’d love to chat with you!
Maria Tan is an Entrepreneur Coach for Misfits (people who don’t like to conform to the norm), Multipassionates (people who are extremely multifaceted and multitalented), and Millennials (people born between 1981-1996). She helps her clients create an eco-system around who they are and what they offer. She’s taught more than 1000 people from all over the world! Connect with her on her website (www.maria-tan.com).
