This week’s episode of Good Girls Get Rich is brought to you by Uplevel Media CEO and LinkedIn expert, Karen Yankovich. In this episode, Karen interviews Monica Kang and discusses having the courage to be creative.
Monica Kang is the founder and CEO of InnovatorsBox where she is transforming today’s workforce through the power of creativity. She’s also the author of Rethink Creativity: How to Innovate, Inspire, and Thrive at Work.
#GoodGirlsGetRich
We want to hear your thoughts on this episode! Leave us a message on Speakpipe or email us at info@karenyankovich.com.
About the Episode:
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed all of our lives. We’re learning a new way of interacting with others, our routines have been interrupted, and some of us have lost our jobs. Now is the time to be creative and reimagine who we are – and that takes courage.
Being Creative Takes Courage
Creativity takes courage. We as people get used to routines and ways of doing things that it actually limits what we can achieve. Taking the time to reimagine how we do things can be hard and scary. But welcoming creativity into your life can help you achieve more.
How to Be Creative
How can you be creative? Let’s start simple. Think about how you email co-workers and customers. Do you say a lot to get your point across? If so, think of ways you can simplify the communication and use as few emails as possible.
The more creative you become in smaller aspects of your life, the easier it will become to be creative in bigger ways. Maybe you want to change your routine, change your perspective, or break from the mold and change how others perceive you.
Creativity starts with just one step that can snowball into unlimited potential that you might not have realized you ever had.
Episode Spotlights:
- Where to find everything for this week’s episode: karenyankovich.com/119
- Introducing this episode’s guest, Monica Kang (3:46)
- Monica’s journey (6:00)
- Creativity amid uncertainty (11:10)
- Examples of how to be creative (13:10)
- The importance of measuring your progress (14:06)
- Creativity takes prep-work (15:59)
- Building a reimagined future (19:37)
- The Eye of Curiosity (23:41)
- How to find out more about Monica (33:30)
Resources Mentioned in the Episode:
- Where you can find Monica Kang
- Watch my video interview with Monica Kang
- Join the Free LinkedIn Workshop
- Sign up for the She’s LinkedUp Masterclass
- Book a mastermind session with Karen and receive a free consultation plan at karenyankovich.com/apply
- Join my free Facebook Group if you have any questions about today’s episode
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Read the Transcript
Karen Yankovich 0:00
You’re listening to the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast Episode 119.
Intro 0:06
Welcome to the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast with your host, Karen Yankovich. This is where we embrace how good you are, girl. Stop being the best kept secret in town, learn how to use simple LinkedIn and social media strategies, and make the big bucks.
Karen Yankovich 0:24
Hello, I’m your host, Karen Yankovich. And this is Episode 119 of the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast where you learn simple, heart-based relationship marketing techniques that get you on the phone consistently with your perfect people. We talk a lot about LinkedIn around here but LinkedIn is the tool that we use or that I like to use to build those relationships, relationships that are even more important today than they’ve ever been before. I want you to have a calendar full of phone calls booked with people that you can’t wait to have the opportunity to chat with people that can change the the course of your business, in your career in your life forever, digital marketing with the human touch. One of the things I love about being a speaker, one of things I love about, you know, having a business that takes me on the road to meet all to speak at all kinds of events is that I get to meet so many cool people. And one of those people is Monica Kang, who you’re going to hear today. Monica and I were both speakers at an event A few months ago. And I sat and watched First of all, I had massive PowerPoint envy of her slides, because her presentation was just awesome. She was engaging and dynamic. And she just really had a lot of great examples. I was really impressed with her speaker skills and her PowerPoint skills. So she is she’s awesome. And I can’t wait for you to meet her here today. I really I told her know that I didn’t really get a chance to talk to her too much at the event because we’re both just running around and doing a million things. But I did get a chance to chat with her long enough to say I really want to have you on my podcast. So thankfully she agreed to do that and you’re going to get to meet Monica In a little bit, so I hope that you love her as much as I do. And I’m just grateful that that my business allows me to meet really cool people like Monica because she is a really smart, cool person that you’re going to want to learn from. So of course, you know what I want now, right? I think if you’re listening, if you’ve heard this show before, I want you to take a quick screenshot of your, of your phone or wherever you’re listening to this on, share on social media that you’re watching, you’re listening to this podcast, and tell your followers that you can’t wait to hear what we’ve got in store for you this week on Good Girls Get Rich. Tag me tag, Monica. If you’re new, you know, you certainly can listen in for a little bit before you do that, or looking forward to hearing what Karen’s got to say. You know, when when you do that, it gets me more visibility and I am so grateful for that, that I will share it with my audience. So that gets you more visibility. So share it in your Instagram stories on Twitter, on Instagram, on Facebook, wherever on LinkedIn, right, wherever you are hanging out today. And make sure you tag me I’m @karenyankovich. you can use the hashtag #goodgirlsgetrich, and I’ll be sure to get you as much visibility as I can in return in the show notes for this episode, which you can check it out at karenyankovich.com/119. There’s a link for Speakpipe where you can leave us audio messages you can leave us a review or maybe just something that you know an idea of our guests you want to have or a topic you want to hear from us. Check out that link. We love to hear your voice. So just again, go to karenyankovich.com/119. You’ll see the blog for this episode, you’ll see the link to Speakpipe and any links we talked about on the show today. So you know that’s where you can find all that good stuff. So I am now gonna let you introduce one of my cool new friends Monica Kang. So we are here today with Monica Kang who is the creative educator who’s transforming today’s workforce through the power of creativity. She is the founder and CEO of InnovatorsBox, and she teaches creativity in a tangible practice. And relatable way, regardless of your industry or your job title. She’s worked with clients worldwide, including fortune 500 companies, higher education, government and nonprofits. Her work has been awarded across numerous platforms, including the White House, a Shaka changemakers, national minority supplier Development Council and Women’s Business Enterprise National Council. She’s the author of rethink creativity, how to innovate, inspire and thrive at work. She’s got a lifelong love of knowledge. And I can go on and on. But Monica, I’m so glad to have you here. Thanks so much for being with us today.
Monica Kang 4:35
Thank you for having me.
Karen Yankovich 4:37
So Monica and I met a few months ago at an event in New Jersey, where Monica was the keynote speaker, and it was one of our Regional Chamber of Commerce event and I was… I used to live in that area. I don’t anymore but I was a member of that chamber years ago. So it’s a I am really I know the people that run that conference really well. And when they were sharing with me, who was the keynotes were, I was looking at your your bios and your website I was, you know, it was it was really impressive. And it was really a lot of fun and your talk was so good that I thought I have to have Monica on the podcast because she is a strong, fun empowering woman. And that’s who we love to have here.
Monica Kang 5:18
Thank you. And I love the two word choices, because that’s what I really value, both.
Karen Yankovich 5:23
Awesome, strong, fun, and empowerin? Okay, cool.
Monica Kang 5:26
If you’re doing and you’re not fun. I mean, I think you’re also not making the most out of your life.
Karen Yankovich 5:30
Gotta have Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. And you know, since then we are we were just saying how lucky we are that that event happened before we were all self quarantined at our house. We’re recording this in April. I don’t even know what day month it is. Everyone would say it is April 2020. So life has shifted a little bit but I think there’s a lot of things that we really want to talk about. Have not but I think they’re even more important today than they were when I wanted to initially have you on the show. So tell everybody a little bit about your journey. I mean, I want to hear a little bit about your journey. What were you know, how did you get to this place where you’re helping people with creativity? And then of course, I want to hear a little bit about InnovatorsBox.
Monica Kang 6:11
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, first, Thank you, Karen again, and vice versa. I loved your talk, as you were there as well. That’s why I was super pumped to connect and be part of your story and, you know, be part of this community. I would, I would say, I would start with sharing that, you know, the whole business and the work of creativity and wanting to understand that really stemmed from because I was really depressed and stuck in a job I loved.
Karen Yankovich 6:37
Oh, so that’s interesting, depressed and stuck in a job that you loved, which has happened to me, right? I had I had a great job that I quit when I went onto my plan. I would say I heard it was golden handcuffs. It was a great job but it there was so many… and I got paid really great money, but I just didn’t want to be there.
Monica Kang 6:55
And what I got me realizing was what helped me learn to re-love my job was unlocking my creative mindset. And I didn’t know it at that time it was that I just knew I did something that helped me because I was now really loving my job. And people kept asking me, so I had to figure out what it was. And that’s where I found it was creativity. And for me, it played a really big role in kind of reshaping and rethinking about the important and because, I mean, for those who are just listening and having seen me, you know, I one of the things that I was sharing with Karen during that story is that, you know, I’m type a I’m a perfectionist, I have like, like, perfect plan kind of type of girl like type of like, that’s why I said the word strong, like, Yes, I relate to that, because like, I like to thrive on those situations. But what I quickly find is that even though that’s a part of who I was, and still am, I realized that if I’m only doing that, but not bringing any fun, not bringing any aspects of me just being open and did being comfortable with like, uncertainty and flexible and being more creative with it. I feel like I’m actually not living my full potential. And I realized that whether it was that moment of realizing I just wanted to stop crying to work and wanted to find a different way to live my life to really realizing that you know what bothers me the most is that I don’t like being boxed in a job title I don’t want to be box that nuclear security expert Monaco right only box. Like Monica the author, I don’t want to be box Monica, who’s a friend who just happens to smile and hang out. Like, I’m so much more than just any job title or any frame of work. And I found that I in hindsight, that was always something that bothered me, I just didn’t know that until I kind of understood once you kind of connect that to creativity and how that was actually stem from our mindset and learning how to reframe that. And so that kind of led me to if I know how that works and how it was at least helpful for me, could I help le some other people whether that’s in the workplace or around and I chose the workplace because that’s where I know most of us are and struggle the most because it’s we’ve been conformed to think and work in a certain way. Which is not authentically part of who we can be, and could be. And so why we I got into the mission of, you know, wanting to unlock creativity in the workplace for all.
Karen Yankovich 9:12
So what did that look like for you? Like, what did it look like when you were unlocking creativity for yourself? Like what changed in your day and in your work life?
Monica Kang 9:20
For… I’m a visual person. So the way I would describe to people is a couple ways. One, you know how that feeling where you know, for those who wear glasses, where you have the wrong dose, you wear glasses, but you can’t really see it well, but when you wear the right glass, it’s like, oh, everything’s crystal clear. That clarity gives you so much confidence. That clarity gives you so much more curiosity was like, Oh, you know what, I just never knew the bed was red. I just thought it was a dark color. But, you know, I wonder if I wonder why the red and the white sheet you know, when you start asking these different questions because you see things with more clarity You get more curious you you want to understand more. And that’s what a creative glass looks like when we can find that for ourselves. Before that it’s almost like trying to navigate everything in black and white and haze without colors and kind of feeling really confused. Of course, it’s confusing because everything’s blurry. We don’t know what this this thing is in front of us because we can’t see it well. And I realized that that’s only possible if we treat it more like how we do exercise and health. So like our physical muscle, it’s not just me going to the gym tomorrow for one day and be perfect for the rest of the year. It’s me exercising every day thinking about what I eat, when I sleep, how much I sleep, how I keep positive thoughts, that’s what actually helps me healthy. And if that’s how much effort it takes that we know with science with physical muscle, don’t you think science also has tried to think about what it means for a mental muscle. And that’s where it realized the gap was if I really wanted to think about how I am what my full potential of being More than just one title and label for myself. I wanted to exercise how I can be more creative and be beyond label. That’s fabulous. That’s a secret.
Karen Yankovich 11:10
I love that. So but here’s the thing. So I totally can understand what you’re saying with that. I, too, am type A and also rule follower. So if I have a paycheck, and let’s say it’s a big paycheck, and I really want to stay there, but I and again, a job I love that I that I frustrated at there’s we’re living through a time of uncertainty right now. So how, you know, how can I get comfortable with infusing creativity when I’m uncertain about my future at this job or whatever might be at the other side of all of what we’re living through right now?
Monica Kang 11:47
Excellent question. And I would say it is the perfect time because creativity does not mean just arts. Arts is one of the many forms of how you express creativity. But the essence of Creativity is the being able to think differently. Think of opportunities, see things in unfamiliar ways. And hey, what better time? Should we not think of see new ways, when things the way we’ve done before, it’s not possible to do.
Karen Yankovich 12:15
It takes a little courage to do that. Right? It takes a little courage to do that. Because we are we are worried, you know, we have, like, here’s what we’re told to do. Right? And if we’re, if we do what we’re told to do, we’re safe. But if we infuse maybe some creativity that might be outside of the box, like, yeah, it’s 100% makes sense to do that. But it is, you do have to have a little courage I think.
Monica Kang 12:40
You do. And so that’s why I tell people, creativity doesn’t happen from our vacuum. It starts and that’s where I think the mindset focus, creativity is the true secret sauce to actually honing your creative skills. It’s not just learning how to do a fancy Photoshop skill, or like how to do excels in one day. Your waste, that’s just a short term. And that’s why like, for instance, Henri Matisse, I have a quote right here says creativity takes courage. And, you know, for folks who are listening to think of like, Well, okay, give me another tangible example, if I have a job, let’s say we’ll break down some examples. Let’s say I have a job some great I want to think about, you know, where I can be creative. Well take a look at what are your knowns, then you can try doing something different. Okay. Well, I have three meetings coming up. I have these tasks that I have to do. Okay, well, can you challenge yourself to do those three meetings in a less stressful way? Can you start there? How can you do those tasks with less email exchanges? That’s all how you start. I like low about the art of learning how to think differently, but you taking the courage to explore where that starting point is, and you choosing how to start opening your mind with it. And what I hope you’re hearing that as an example is that it’s really important to make it happen. For wherever you are, so that you feel the courage to take those steps, but to finding ways that you can consistently challenge yourself and see measurable progress, as a human being, there’s a reason why we always like to measure things. And it’s because then if we know that I could change from get a to b, we feel motivated, we feel encouraged, but then we also know what doesn’t work. So let’s say that you tried those things. And now you walk away like Geez, you know, what? That approach that I thought was going to take less emails turned out, I had to send 10 more emails. Hey, you know what, you just now learned a way that you will not do next time.
Karen Yankovich 14:38
Right, right. Right. Right. I like it. I like it. It’s interesting. It is it’s interesting because because I guess I guess I’m just kind of processing this in my own head with what I’m seeing and hearing in the news and what’s happening and you know, I live in New in New Jersey. So we’re in the not in the eye of the hurricane right now. And, you know, one of the standout people I think throughout this has been Governor Cuomo and One of the things that he’s doing is injecting creativity into his talks. People were talking just as much about him, his brother, the conversations between himself and his brother, his meatball Converse, I didn’t even hear that. But something you must have started talking about meatballs or something on one of his broadcasts. So he is not afraid to be confident that he knows what he’s doing, but injecting some creativity. So people he’s engaging people and, and people are paying attention. And you know, so so how can he be standing up talking about things that are just unbelievably that he’s talking about them? yet? He’s finding ways to be creative with this to help us all, and that’s helping everybody that’s listening to him. So that’s such a sign of a great leader, and it’s because he injected the creativity into it, I think.
Monica Kang 15:45
Absolutely. And while I haven’t seen those talks, just to add to what you’ve been describing, what I probably pursued he the reason why he could do it is because he know that he takes a lot of courage and to take that Courage, it takes actually a lot of prep work. So real thoughtful, creative innovation. If you really look at the back end, it’s actually great for type a people like us, because it does take a lot of prep work you can I eat and walk through it like that’s actually why my organizational part of my analytic brain is such actually a perfect fit. Because I love creating chaos in an organized system, I can let my mind wander off go crazy, but I know where my borders or lines are. And then that’s where my play time ends. And then I from that, then I bring that to execution. But if I don’t have that, then it might just end up in a, you know, it might just in a different type of innovation and creativity where you know, it might not be relatable to search an audience is which is audience people like me. And I found that was part of the reason why I knew there was a need for the type of work that I was needing to create, which is addressing that gap. Like I felt like there was a lot of creativity innovation work, but it was still very hard for people like myself to understand like how do I still make that tangible like hi How do I actually quantify that from my analytic brain and typing, and actually make it relatable no matter what age and background, and I was tired of showing up to events where I was that nuclear friend, like, I’m just, I should be just Monica, who happens to love nuclear and creativity and all these other things. Like you don’t be called that. Oh, that friend who likes Thai food? That friend who always wears t shirts, like, No, you just caught him as a friend. And I think that reframing the reason why the reframing is important, and so to going back to that speech as an example, it’s even more critical at times like that, especially for leaders who are listening right now and wondering, you know, how in the world would I okay, courage is one thing, but like, what can I actually do differently other than like, yeah, meeting and test that simple, but like, what else? Well, that speech is a powerful example. Because when you’re actually in a creative headspace, you cannot be stressed. Mentally…
Karen Yankovich 17:54
I didn’t know that.
Monica Kang 17:55
That’s why it takes a lot of courage and so for you to get comfortable Being able to iterate and creatively create means you learned and also how to rethink about your strengths and embrace that and use that as a different channel. But to add to that, as you have just shared when it’s done in a thoughtful way, it has a powerful impact it is having this whole conversation even being reminded of that. Because if Karen, as an individual did not feel this, you would have not even brought it up. That’s how powerful that message can be because of that creative angle. And right now, leaders need to think of that aspect even more because actually humor, thoughtful humor and connectivity is one of the human elements that would actually help us really manage stress. And when we tackle difficult moments, and so, yeah, a couple thoughts to add to that.
Karen Yankovich 18:47
Yeah, that’s so cool. So you know, one of the, I mean, if I’m going to just stick with Governor Cuomo for 10 more seconds, he’s using the word like, we’re hearing a lot about the word pivot. And I have I have no I have no problem with that word, but I love the word here. He’s using and he’s using the word reimagining, you know that what we’re moving into is not going back to the way we were with that we are going to be reimagining what, what our world are. And in his case, he’s talking about the world. But in our case, we’re talking about our lives, our careers, our you know, reimagining what that looks like. And I love the word reimagining, because to me, that opens up possibilities if that sounds like fun, and it sounds creative, right? So we might have people listening now, and I’m sure we do have people listening now that are reimagining what is going to be happening to them in May and June and July and maybe even January of 2021. Right. So now we’ve got to learn how to build a reimagined future. Right? So tell me a little bit about your thoughts on that.
Monica Kang 19:44
So first, I know they can’t see my video but I have a product.
Karen Yankovich 19:47
Oh my gosh, I did not know that. So you have a product called Reimagine. what is your product? What is it?
Monica Kang 19:55
The product is actually prop cards on small things you can do differently in your daily routine to make space for creative thinking to so I said, I chose the word reimagine. Because by reimagining your daily routine, you can practice thinking differently because I, I know one of the reason why people struggle to find more creativity and innovation is because the starting point is hard. An exercise is a good example. People always want to live healthier, whatever we are. We just don’t know where to start. So, here…
Karen Yankovich 20:33
We’ll have to put a link to them in the show notes for this. So okay, so then, okay, so, so how do we start to reimagine with creativity, what our futures might look like? I mean, again, we and and we talked about this before he came on, in many cases, we are creating our future without knowing what it is we’re creating, if that makes sense. Right? Like we we know there’s something different for us. We don’t actually know what that is yet. But now we’ve got this space that we didn’t know we were going to have that maybe can help us get there. So, so help us help me figure out like what how do we start? Besides your cards, after your cards?
Monica Kang 21:11
Well, I just share that because I had some thoughts but before…
Karen Yankovich 21:14
I love them, I love them. I can’t wait. Did you are those? Are those the cards you gave away at the talk that I…? You have a lot of props, Monica. I love that thing. Okay.
Monica Kang 21:27
Well, first, I want to acknowledge that one of the things that Karen has already pointed out is the power of word choice. In the creative process. It is very important to note how certain words are making us feel for some people pivot is absolutely the right word. And for others, if it’s not, it’s important to know why it’s not. And that is part of, I would say, exploring how you reimagine what that feature is from small moments like that is just a single word choice you start to use is also implying how that feels. Future and current moments are shaped. Another thing to two other lens to put into perspective, I’ll pull that together as a takeaway is that you know, when honesty everyday actually never goes the way we ever anticipate even without the current crisis that we have. Think about any past days like you, yes, you will go to certain meetings, you have certain tests, but it doesn’t go exactly the minute to second. Right anticipate. And I think because of that, and probably a lot of entrepreneurs and leaders here who is listening, you’re already actually used to that. So you have that resilience skill already in your test bucket. But what you might not have realized how to reutilize that into this other way of dealing with uncertainty. And so what I hope to also hit through that is that something that you’re saying that you want to do more is probably actually already at home with you. It just hasn’t been used in a certain way. And so it’s all about reframing that another word that I love using to your existing toolkit to utilize in a different way how you read translate how you can be imagined the possibility. And now after that the third piece is like, Okay, then where do I start?
Karen Yankovich 23:06
I wish… I need something tangible here now.
Monica Kang 23:11
Well, the frameworks and the thinking is really, really important though, because I think sometimes in our rush and again, I start this as somebody who is equally type in a one solutions is that we focus too much on wanting to get that something concrete, that we actually missed the whole point on how many different ways you get to that point. And so, what I’ve been telling folks now to kind of take that a little bit more grounded step. We don’t have a visual example here, but I’m going to share with people is like, really work on your eye of curiosity. And what I mean by the eye of curiosity is these three different layers of where we know uncertainty and certainty always lies. And first circle is ourselves. The more we actually know who we are and where we are. It makes it easier to deal with the things we don’t No. So for instance, if I know that I am a morning person, if I know that I am an extrovert I know that I thrive from Skype like or I know that I hate when schedules change last minute, the more things you are aware, it actually becomes easier for you to navigate when those moments happen, because you know, why certain things make you uncomfortable as well as how to recourse or readjust windows and reframe moments faster. So you are prepared, you get comfortable with uncomfortable because you know how to deal with it. And the SEC and then that brings down to the second piece, which as a leader, of course, once you now know how to take care of yourself and your self awareness, then you want to think about your team care. And I call that now the psychological safety of your team. But you can’t do that unless you do it for yourself. So you need to absolutely start with where you are. And after you do that you go through the routine was like Okay, do you know your team strength? What is the words actually do you know their trigger words? Do you Know what excites them? Do you know actually what upsets them? Do you know what makes them creative? Do you know what makes them shut down? Do you know what their weakness and strength beyond just their tactical, technical expertise? And I think understanding that and knowing how they equally collaborate and build on each other is hugely empowering. Because when you have a safe space, mentally and psychologically, you were more encouraged to share and disagree openly, which, where innovation happens. ideas come to mind.
Karen Yankovich 25:34
That’s so powerful.
Monica Kang 25:35
It builds on that.
Karen Yankovich 25:37
Yes.
Monica Kang 25:38
And that’s where now you got to take it to the third level because key leaders here, right? We just, we’re not just strong because we care about our team. We care about a whole community out there. And that’s the third layer of the eye. where I talk about now you think about how your team and yourself together, bring your strengths to help support others, or were you actually providing them and that goes back to understanding empathy. Like You know, it wouldn’t make sense even let’s say, you know, there’s 10s of millions marketer out there. But you know, maybe the marketing skill that your team provides in particular, is unique because you understand how to translate that, that you know, tick, heavy language of legal affairs to a very fun engaging audience who really need that, but they don’t, they don’t really have interest reading heavy text. I just made that one up. But, you know, the context is that everyone has a niche. And so there’s actually no as a team, you can actually serve your community better your community feel empowered it amplified by you, but it has to be done from the I have empathy. And so to simplify all of that, and I have a visual where I show the these three circles and it shows that little eye.
Karen Yankovich 26:42
Is there something you can share? Because we can attach it.
Monica Kang 26:45
Absolutely. Well, I think that for me, it constantly reminds me that that’s where I start and that’s what helps me be grounded. And often I think we are so tempted as problems over And I admit I’m guilty of the many that we want to start immediately helping and problem solving. We got to do something to help the community. Oh, we got to create this solution that right?
Karen Yankovich 27:08
Yeah.
Monica Kang 27:09
But by not centering from the start and from ourselves, going that way, we might create a solution that actually doesn’t make sense that doesn’t actually serve our community. Not even creative. And because of that, because we’re grounded when we start, it makes it easier and more comfortable to face uncomfortableness, because we know nothing is ever actually ever in our control.
Karen Yankovich 27:36
Well, yeah. And I feel like I feel I love that because here’s what i think i think that what we can control, we can control more of what we do ourselves, right? I can control how I’m showing up right now. I can’t control what other people are doing. I can’t control. You know what’s going on around me. I can control what I’m doing. So I think that the time is perfect to really Be reimagining what what you have control over and what you want to have control over and what you want in your life. Like now’s the time to be doing that, because that is what we have control over right now. And those of us that aren’t like I am, you know, I’m not even a recovering control freak, I am just a control freak, right. And I know I like this and I know where I need to I know where I don’t I know where I need to not be and I try to not be in those places, but, but I think that, you know, that’s why it’s so important right now to really kind of show up for yourself, but I love the three ports for yourself, for your team and for the community. And I think that is, you know, it doesn’t you don’t it’s not just for the corporate person listening, because, you know, your team might be your family, your team might be your virtual assistant, your team might, you know, and your community might be your neighborhood, you know, um, I mean, I can give you an example right now I have a neighbor who I I’ve met, but I didn’t know that was teacher Zumba. And so her commute her team is all her students and her co workers But what she’s doing now is she’s doing them on her driveway. And she’s doing it. So now she’s involved the community because now the community needs to be moving more needs to get out of their house more. So she’s got all these people social distance all over the street. And she’s got her speakers out there. So she’s now serving herself, because she’s showing up. And then she’s serving her team, because there’s people that miss being able to come to her classes, but also the community. Now there’s all these other people, right. So that is maybe how and who knows what that will reimagine for her on the other side of all of this. Maybe it’ll be maybe it’ll go back to the way it was. It used to be, but maybe it won’t. Right. And that’s, I don’t know, that’s just what I’m thinking of doesn’t have to be somebody like a corporate leader that is doing this. It could be any of us in whatever we’re doing. However, we’re showing up right now.
Monica Kang 29:48
Absolutely. Absolutely. To add to that. That’s the reason why I have focused on empowering people on the creative mindset and unlocking that because what that means is First, knowing what your creative strengths are, right, knowing that you have an unlimited potential. everything that you’ve done so far is just one of the many million things that you could do more. And you can choose to hone in more. And one of the quotes I love from Oscar Wilde is to define is to limit.
Karen Yankovich 30:23
Ooh, yeah. And that certainly speaks to your, your, because you’ve mentioned a few times that you don’t want to be defined by a description, you know? Yeah.
Monica Kang 30:32
And how often do we let that job title define us? I’m pretty sure we made decisions where they’re, you know, you know, this is not probably executive appropriate, I shouldn’t do this, or, you know, I shouldn’t send that email. And probably that’s along the way, you’ve, you know, adjusted course, to limit what else you could have actually done. And in a funny way, what it’s been really inspiring to hear as I’ve been I’ve been doing some interview collections to keep myself grounded because, you know, hey, I’m human. I have my back. days, you know, I’m not just a crazy only optimist, I have my open and downs. But what has helped me be grounded, I say speak with my friends around the world and just, you know, be learning how they’re coping it with it was just sharing how, because in a crazy way, and unfortunately it has led people to, you know, lose jobs lose where their traditional way of defining who they were has been. It’s pushing people to say more, you know what, I want to choose to live the way I show up, I’m going to then choose the way how to bring my full self and bring more of what I wanted to do. I’ve always wanted to learn this, I’ve always wanted to test this different way to serve my community.
Karen Yankovich 31:41
Right, and, and that comes back down to trusting your gut, right? That comes back down to trusting your own instincts. Were what is what this is giving us is a little bit of space to remember. It’s not even to relearn, it’s almost to remember the person that that we’ve almost maybe forgotten. We weren’t Because we get so busy, and now that we don’t have the business anymore, maybe it’s even a little bit of remembering what we wanted out of our lives and what we wanted out of our careers and maybe now taking the time to to build from there.
Monica Kang 32:14
And it starts with also recognizing that If your answer is right now, Monica, Karen, that sounds great, but hey, I’m at a terrible spot, then that’s where you stay for a little bit. Just know that you find the resources around you that will help you get back up. But bring your sadness, because there’s a reason why we are as a human being allowed to feel that emotion i think is absolutely wrong to ignore. And I absolutely don’t need to sugarcoat any terrible… but being creative equally means being equally vulnerable to all those emotions, because that’s how you’re getting comfortable with uncomfortable and then exploring ways how do you grow and build from it and have the courage to take more risk and not become risk averse? It If you feel that way, what are the ways how you can rebuild it up where the people who could help you encourage? And who are people that you just need to sit with right now and be where you are. That’s self awareness.
Karen Yankovich 33:11
That is that I’m so glad you brought that up. Because I feel the same way we and you know, I don’t have good days and bad days, I have good hours and bad hours. You know, like, sometimes it’s a day sometimes it’s within one day, you’re, you know, you’re having a little bit of a roller coaster. So we have, you know, there’s nobody’s ever lived through this before. So however you’re feeling it’s okay. But so one of the things you mentioned is to get to to involve your community and to get support, how can people learn more about you? And have you in their world so that they, you know, because I think what you bring to this is so valuable. So how can people learn more about you and, and get some support from you.
Monica Kang 33:46
Thank you. And thank you for all these questions. Because it’s is really timely one, I am a big LinkedIn user. So please do reach me out on LinkedIn.
Karen Yankovich 33:57
I know everybody here is connected. Everybody that’s listening is on LinkedIn. All right, I’m just I’m saying right to the news. Right? You’re on LInkedIn, right?
Monica Kang 34:06
So I would love to connect with you there. I do have a newsletter and some social media. We’re building out actually YouTube channel. For those who are video users who like to hear stories, if you want audio, you can just play the video and then put it on the slide and listen to audio. That’s actually one of my friends do.
Karen Yankovich 34:20
So. So let me just tell you this, if you are on you, if you are on Monica’s YouTube channel, you want to watch her videos, because I one of the things I don’t have the creativity in the slides that you have, and I was watching when she did her presentation, like this is so good. And it was the visuals that she brought with a two so sure you can listen to the audio but you want to watch our videos.
Monica Kang 34:41
Thank you. And I would love to connect so you know if you want to connect further just send me an email Monica innovators box, you know, I’m an open book, just mentioned that you heard it from our story with Karen and you know, if there’s anything I can be of help, please let me know.
Karen Yankovich 34:58
Awesome, awesome and tell us about little bit about your book.
Monica Kang 35:01
Yes, well, that’s another thing and easy set, you can get it on Amazon and especially at times like this as we need to rethink about our day to day and have confidence, Rethink Creativity. I think you’ll be a great start, especially for those who are now listening like great. Like, where can I start to then understand my creativity and my potential? I really broke it down, share some personal stories, but really reframing and how do you reframe about that as a person within your teams, and then also in your culture, because I found that a lot of it is theory and storytelling, but like I found it also hard to relate how to make that in a reflective way. So I hope you enjoy the book. Rethink creativity on Amazon, and you know, if you have additional questions reach out and like I said, I have also some card game prompts that I hope could help with your team building and fun, but…
Karen Yankovich 35:50
Wwesome. Monica, thank you so much for being here. This has been such an important conversation. You know, there was a we met a few months ago and we talked about doing this and there was we put it off and I guess now we know the reason why We put it off because this was the time to have this conversation. So thanks so much for being here. It was great to have you.
Monica Kang 36:06
Thank you, Karen, for having me.
Karen Yankovich 36:08
I loved this episode and having a chance to chat with Monica so much. Monica talked about her YouTube channel, which I highly recommend you check out and you subscribe to Monica and I had a follow up conversation to this where she interviewed me for her YouTube channel. So you can find that there we’ll put the link will be on the show notes on the blog page for this for that as well. you absolutely want to stay connected to Monica. She’s doing some really really cool things. Her stories are amazing. And if you want to learn a little bit more about how to be connecting with really cool people like Monica, in this world where we’re feeling so disconnected, we are doing a regular workshop you can go to sheslinkedup.com/masterclass and check out the masterclass that we’re running. You will get a you can either join us live if we’re still doing them live or you You can get an immediate access to an on demand version of it, where you can listen to a 45 ish minute training on how you can be using this time to really solidify your personal brand really solidify the relationships that you’re building. These are things that you do have control over. There’s so many things we don’t have control over. As we’re living through this pandemic world we’re living through in the spring of 2020. You have control over your personal brand you have control over the people that you’re connecting with and meeting with and developing relationships with. So I would love to have you take advantage of the masterclass that we’re running right now. And check it out. You can get that at sheslinkedup.com/masterclass. And, of course the link to that is on the in the show notes here as well. So I hope that this was as enjoyable for you as it was for me, and I look forward to seeing you again next week for another episode of the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast.