A glass ceiling is a political term used to describe “the unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements.” Well that’s the definition according to Wikipedia.

My glass ceiling consists of a hell of a lot more than that.

After 30 years in the corporate world I have bumped into my fair share of glass ceilings, fought through some of them, and helped colleagues shatter their own. It’s challenging, it’s rewarding, and it’s exhausting.

It wasn’t until I started dreaming of my own entrepreneurial debut that I realized… it didn’t have to be that way at all.

I could just walk right around that barrier like it didn’t even exist.

It’s true! I could walk around it like I was strolling down the lane. Well ok… maybe not strolling exactly, but walk around it while building my new business, learning how to become a successful entrepreneur and finally stepping away from my corporate gig to focus on KarenYankovich.com full time.

More importantly, what I realized through this entire process: if working in someone else’s world is making you bump up against glass ceiling then create your own world!

[Tweet “If working in someone else’s world has you bumping up against glass ceiling, create your own world!”]

  • Create your own world and your own experience.
  • Completely ignore any glass ceiling that appears to pop up.
  • Build your business to go around, over or above any “version” of what people believe your business should look like.

Most of all, position yourself like the rockstar you are using the tools I talk about every week on this blog and basically every day of my life!

5 Areas You Can Build To Rocket Yourself Past Any Ceiling

My dear entrepreneurs, here are 5 areas you can build upon using your passion to rocket yourself past any ceiling, glass or otherwise, in your way!

  1. Your own website: Showcase your passion here. Be authentic and build content through blogging, testimonials, videos, and online resources that are valuable and full of your business WHY. Tell us who you are and how you came to be, remind us that you are a real person passionate about this one great thing in life, and why you are the one we should trust. Bumping up against another barrier here? Nah, just save the money and hire someone to help. Money for someone whose passion IS website building is money well spent and you will zoom past any learning curve obstacle in record time.
  1. LinkedIn: Establish your expert status here. Here you prove why you have the chops to be in business. You’ve heard me say this again and again: make sure you have a polished and pretty profile that sets you apart from others in your field, skills and endorsements that tell of your talents, groups that connect you with prospects and mine for research, and connections that expand your reach. There is no limit to who you can find on LinkedIn, so if it truly is “who you know”, you are primed for success without a barrier when you use LinkedIn to its fullest potential.
  1. Facebook: Use Facebook to build your fan base from the loyal first crew, aka friends, family and colleagues, to a robust following made up of people who want what you’ve got. Advertising has never been cheaper nor easier to do. There is no need to have millions in revenue and an ad team standing by, you can make your own personal business ad in minutes and see results faster still. You are in control to create your own success – no longer do you have to wait for approval from a boss or teammate to create what you know will work. If it doesn’t, who cares! Just try again and test another. It’s all part of the process.
  1. Twitter: Ahhh Twitter. That honest, real time, news feed is so valuable for us! You can reach anyone you want, no matter how famous or how unreachable, they are bound to be there. This is my favorite platform by far to engage, follow, and connect with people I never would have had the opportunity to before, and this connection often comes with business rewards that include more visibility and more clients. The invention of Twitter helped me to be able to say, “Screw the glass ceiling!” and I love this platform even more because of it.
  1. Instagram, YouTube, Google+ (etc): Social media in general gives us a thousand more ways to adapt and overcome, to ignore any ceiling put in front of us, to build our business the way we want to build it and position ourselves as business owners who deserve to be here. Welcome to a level playing field folks, business just got interesting.

For the last few months I have been diving deep into a new side of my business called Portraits and Profits. Through P&P days at our beautiful New York venues, I’ve had the opportunity to work with strong women and each day I’ve been able to see these women really step into their power.

The more I see this happen the more I realize… we are rockstars of our own design. We DO have the ability to ignore the glass ceiling and create our own reality!

Who’s with me?

Here’s how to get started. Check out my free video series: The first three things you need to do on LinkedIn. AND, of course, comment below and tell me YOUR glass ceiling stories. I’m here to support you!