As a business and executive coach for women of color helping my clients achieve their aligned legacy and lifestyle, I’ve seen one common theme repeatedly across all my clients’ journeys: the importance of standing up for yourself.
Whether you are a high achieving, career-oriented corporate powerhouse or a high achieving entrepreneur building your own business, at some point in your professional and personal life, you’ll inevitably learn that the ability to create boundaries (and enforce those boundaries) is key to creating your dream legacy.
We are all aware of the societal pressures placed upon women in business (especially women of all colors) to be overly-accommodating, say yes to everyone, and to be available at all times. Most of my clients are entrepreneurs in their late 20s + up, the majority are single women and some are mothers with kids 5 and under. They’re making 6-figures in their careers, or left their jobs and want to go full time in their business.While their lived experiences differ drastically, they all have spoken of a shared experience of feeling burnt out by feeling unable to stand up for themselves and ask for what they want in their professional lives
I know personally that for first generation immigrants and children of immigrants that these pressures are often magnified by our own family values and the internal pressure to always choose the safe and secure professional path. I’ve seen through my own experience and through my coaching clients that until we can become more self reflective and aware of this pressure and its consequences, standing up for ourselves and creating boundaries will hold us back from creating our most aligned professional and personal legacy.
What changes when these females work with me to learn how to stand up for themselves and create boundaries?
By standing up for yourself, you become a better human, business owner, partner, and daughter/son.
When you are burnt out and unhappy, it’s nearly impossible to show up fully in your relationships both professionally and personally. When we begin speaking up when we’ve been wronged or others are not respecting our needs, we create space for valuable conversations with our loved ones. We have more energy to initiate deeper conversations and spend more quality time focused on our relationships rather than on navigating burnout and exhaustion. By letting others know what we need, our professional and personal relationships thrive.
By asking for what you want, you build upon your confidence and self esteem.
Having a confident and strong mindset doesn’t come out of nowhere. In our professional spaces, asking for what we want builds up our confidence to show up for ourselves more often. Once you make a habit of speaking up, you defy things like imposter syndrome and the feeling that you don’t belong. By being committed to taking action, you are also committed to being a more confident and self assured professional. I also find clients who are spiritual or has faith in something bigger than them helps them create aligned action.
By enforcing boundaries, you learn to respect yourself and your legacy.
If you desire a lifestyle where your business and personal identity are healthily intertwined and you have wealth in time, self, and love…start with boundaries. When others try to take advantage of you–sometimes, even unconsciously–and you are too intimidated to enforce a boundary you have communicated, it becomes difficult to respect yourself and your goals. After all, if you aren’t respecting your own boundaries, how will others? Much like building our confidence, standing up for yourself continuously builds your own level of self respect.
If you would like further support in your career, business, or leadership, my team and I would love to support you in creating a sustainable life! You can schedule a 30-minute legacy business or career review call with me to see if it’s a good fit to work together, and you’ll receive 3 action-items from me.
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Just curious where clients I work with live? Majority of people end up being in Southern California but I do have clients in the east coast (New York / DC area). If you happen to live in the LA area, I can meet in person to offer you a complimentary 30 minute session in-person. And if we are a good fit to work together and we decide to work together, I do meet LA based clients in-person. Email me at [email protected] to schedule an in-person session.
