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Welcome everyone and welcome to the show. Today I'm here talking to Rachel Mang Brown, who is the c e o and founder of Jen, g e n Agency, formerly Loot agency. She's a full-time consultant of marketing, partnerships, events, and strategy. She has an incredible background. She was awarded N Y C. 20 in their twenties.
She has been recently declared an unsung Hero by ah N'S Unsung Heroes Award, and she has a background I wanted mention as a big 10 student athlete, official TikTok [00:00:30] partner, front office sports staff partner, partnering with brands like Netflix, Kelloggs. Amazon, Coca-Cola worked in front offices of the NY Mets, Rutgers football, and this list goes on P G A tour, US Rowings.
She's partnered with influencers with the combined reach of over 82 million plus followers, and creates incredible viral experiential content for them. Thank you so much for being here today, Rachel. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I should have shortened that intro down a little bit, huh?
No, you deserve every single word of it. This is something I really heard [00:01:00] from a number of different people, and it's the being the only Asian in the room. Especially since you grew up and that wasn't a big part of your own personal identity or culture. Or maybe it is at that time, you haven't, I would say, stepped fully into it or start exploring it.
What was it like being the only Asian person in the room? It was interesting and I think the reason is because, again, my parents are Caucasian and even if I wasn't the only Asian in the room, I was so America. American, my like American name is Rachel Brown. It's a confusing name. Brown isn't always a Caucasian last name too.
So yeah, I would [00:01:30] step other people be like, oh, okay. So I think right from the start, it's always been something that. Is interesting. Yeah. And it's always been something that I feel almost like the need to explain because people do question it pretty often. Really Like people actually bring it up. Yeah.
Even my name, so I actually, I go by Rachel Mang now because even when I was getting recruited to college, it was a talking point at every single official visit I went to, because we were sunglasses when we for rowing, so people never really saw. Yeah, it was always hidden. So when I would get to campus, they'd be like, oh, [00:02:00] and bring it up very lightly along the way.
Sure. But being the only Asian in the room, I think it's different for me because I don't have as much of a tie to my culture or even speak another language that a lot of these other Asian American like executives, startup founders, people, entrepreneurs, that they do, I feel like I am a totally different.
Segment or like subro of an Asian American. And so finding myself in the room, it's not only interesting for me being one of the few Asians in the room and like age, et cetera, [00:02:30] gender, but then also like I am so Americanized that it's even different for me. And I hear this so often, especially with second generation, third generation Asian.
Mm-hmm. You are obviously experiencing. A different name and being an adoptee, am I Asian enough? you don't speak the language like Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, like wherever you're from, I think that is a big sticking point that you don't feel like air quotes Asian enough just because you don't speak the language.
Yeah, and maybe because we live in America, we [00:03:00] celebrate so many holidays that they don't celebrate in that country that you're from or New Year's is different things like that. So if you live in America and you're Asian, There's probably a time that you did not feel Asian enough, which is a ridiculous concept.
'cause what the hell does that even mean? Because it's part of our identity. Like we're Asian you can't change these things. Looking at other generations, like they have a big influence on you too. Totally. If they also feel that you are not Asian enough. Yeah. I see so many different levels of people that are either in touch with their culture.
Or someone like myself trying to become more in touch. Yeah, that it is really nice. But I also know that there are generational [00:03:30] issues or generational judgment per se. Oh, for sure. Generational judgment that look at you a little bit different. I think being Asian American is it is playing a game on hard mode because there is no right answer.
There's so many different, there's Chinatown, Asians, there's fourth, fifth generation, , like my ancestors, built the railroad. Asians, even like your other Asian friends that can read Korean, can read Chinese. Saying, oh, you can't read that. Oh, okay. You judge for it. Oh, like I just, I can't read Korean.
Can I ask a question? I was going through your [00:04:00] Instagram, you have such great content and as a content creator, I noticed that you have this super cool tattoo. Yeah. So it's a dragon. It's a dragon, which is again, a very Asian symbol. Was there any influence around that? Can you share what the story is behind that?
It's stunning by the way. It's so cool. Thank you. So the dragon itself, obviously dragons in different cultures, especially Asian cultures, have different meanings. I actually, I had this as a kind of like a stencil and then I drew and erased parts of it. So there's some Korean influence to it and some Filipino influence to it.
Did you draw that? Not [00:04:30] all of it, there was a stencil and then I erased parts of it. What? Yeah, like specifically. Okay. Can we tail lens specifically with like on his face as well? Just because I'm mixed Asian and I wanted to represent that. One of the times that actually was super apparent to me was during Covid, I think a wake up call that no matter what you do, if you don't think you're Asian enough, like you are Asian, I think that was really like a big moment for me.
And since then I leaned into my culture even more and made a bigger effort into learning like where I'm [00:05:00] from and who I am. So at that point is when I actually got the tattoo was, then it clicked the switch from me in my head that your ethnicity, your race, like you wear it, no one's gonna take that away from you.
So for me, that was like a very powerful moment and I'm big on having like visual representations of moments and pivotal points in my life, have the tattoo from that time. Can just take a moment. I think officially you are now more Asian than I am because I have the dragon. It's also bright red.
Yeah. And which also the red has significance like in my life. It's also like I'm [00:05:30] Korean, so part of the flag, it's also part of the American flag. So it's got like all these different tie-ins then of itself. Like the fact that there's that reclamation. And again I don't think I could draw that if I, even with the, that reclamation of your Korean name behind your ear. What other tattoos or other pivotal moments did you feel like were important to you? I have a sword on my arm. this one's pretty easy. Like on my sleeve. Yeah. I went through a period where I wanted my company to always be about helping people, about educating, about making sure we are taking care of people.
That's what [00:06:00] our influencer agency does, is we're trying to democratize the creator space. So that means helping influencers find brand deals, making sure they're being paid a fair rate and being paid on time. Mm-hmm. Cause there is no union for influencers. For creators. Same thing with athletes. So for the sword, for me, Athena, the goddess, she is the goddess of education, of nurturing, of all the above.
So that was like a big moment for me in realizing like that is a big part of my identity, but also a big goal that I have is that anything I do, any company I start or work for, that's always gonna be something that's [00:06:30] important for me. I love that. I wanna dig into that. So let's go through the questions super quickly.
When you were reading through the questions, were there any questions that you felt like, were there any other victories that kind of like along your journey that was like, that was when everything changed for me. Definitely. One of them was, I got an award in college that kind of solidified.
What I was doing. I think that was big for me. Just starting like jumping out on a row off the cliff and starting a company when I had a full time job. That was fun. Lots of fun conversations around that. Did you always want to start a company, by the way? I think it wasn't, growing [00:07:00] up in my town, we actually were lucky.
We had something called P L T, which was like a. Accelerated science, math and engineering program. R i t I was in that program for engineering and biomedical sciences. So I actually did four years of an accelerated college program in my high school for all four years. I was doing a lot of kind of more college and big level things.
So I always thought I wanted to be a biomedical engineer. I actually went to college and started getting into. A pre-med for biomedical engineering at Rutgers as a student athlete. And it was really about two years in that number one [00:07:30] realized that wasn't for me. And also I was on the rowing team and I also was on the executive board of a lot of clubs and organizations, and I think both of them, rowing being such a time intensive sport, I wasn't going to be able to commit all the time I needed to.
Be a biomedical engineer. I ended up getting all these leadership positions. I was the representative for all student athletes to the university and to our student government. I was leader in a number of other clubs too, and it solidified not only that I always wanted to be a leader, but again, it was always fighting for people and always representing [00:08:00] people and trying to push forward whatever struggles we had going on or whatever we were facing and helping.
Come to a solution and even just be the representing constituent of everyone as a student athlete, as just a student at Rutgers, I think it was. Then it really solidified for me, you wanna help people and where I wanted to go in that time was sports and media and just like that space. So I realized then I need to be an entrepreneur.
What I want is not here and how I wanna do it, and how I don't want to give into someone else's opinion or for the bottom line, for the R O I.[00:08:30] I'm not gonna be able to do it unless I do it outside of the current system. Love it. I would love to dive in and ask a little bit more about, especially because such a big part of what you have done is demonstrated leadership and I think Asian American women in particular, There's just such a massive problem in how few there are, and I think the most recent study done by, I want to say McKinsey, was that they're showing something.
It's like or 1.8% of all CEOs are Asian women. Yeah, it is, and it is going down. Over the past few years, not up. And that is [00:09:00] just a ridiculous travesty. So I would love to talk about leadership and ask a little bit more. And of course we'll talk about how do you promote, because that is a big part of your expertise.
You work with influencers. People really underestimate how hard it is to be an influencer. Like they wake up, they're. Planning content. They're filming content. Yeah, they're editing, like editing People underestimate how difficult it really is. God, it's God so difficult to sit there with a very tiny phone or an iPad and just drag so you can get this perfect clip at captions like the perfect c t a everything.
It's difficult. So people [00:09:30] underestimate how hard it really is. I need to have an offline chat with you about that and I'm so proud of this, like we have 230 something thousand followers now. which took a while. Don't get, yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Like you have what, 80 million to your influencer thing? So I'm not gonna throw that like it's a big number 'cause it's not. But I so appreciate that and I would literally love to learn how it is that you come to connect with that. Because I think a big part is self-promotion and Asian Americans we're not known for our self-promotional skills.
We're not known for being the one to raise our hand first and saying, look at me, I'm awesome. [00:10:00] We culturally have been taught that's a bad thing. So I would love to hear how. How to navigate that as a set of steps. I think that's something I had to overcome too, because ingrained in me, I think that's always something.
I thought even my parents being Caucasian, but also having Asian friends, like they didn't really like self-promote themselves either. And my parents aren't like boisterous people. They're very like normal, calm and I was always like that. I think growing up for a little bit, but then I realized you, you always have to advocate for yourself, but I think overcoming.
Not promoting yourself and not being necessarily like out [00:10:30] there and wanting to just talk about yourself and be honest and open with people so they can connect to you. I think that's something I had to overcome for sure. Because growing up I was always a little bit outspoken, a little bit like of a kid leader, but as I got older, there were times that.
Other people would push you down for trying to be a leader or trying to self promote. There are a lot of influencers that talk about their friends when they first started, like bragging on them for posting so much, or like joking around on social media or posting pictures of themselves. I think there was a recent TikTok of.
A girl taking [00:11:00] pictures at a baseball game and girls behind her were making fun of her. And there was a lot of controversy too about bullying. And how like when people are making fun of you for self-promoting, for trying to be a content creator and influencer or a leader, because you need to put yourself out there to get attention to be put on a platform that you can grow.
So even though it's necessary, you're always gonna face people that are always going to. Maybe not necessarily bully you, but they're gonna have comments. They're gonna say things. Yeah. And that's something that I've always faced. So again, my coworkers, my constituents were pushing on like, why are [00:11:30] you talking to other people?
Like why are you going outside of what you have right now? Like, why are you promoting yourself on social media on LinkedIn? Like, why are you putting your foot in a door that you don't really belong in? And I think that was something I always had to fight, and it's made me more. Comfortable being uncomfortable and also just putting my foot in places I probably should not be, but just feeling confident in that I did it before, I'm gonna do it again.
What's the worst? They can say no. And I love that meant mindset. You're absolutely right. So what would you tell somebody who is, let's say, [00:12:00] feeling a little bit more shy or grew up in an environment where they were taught to keep your head down and work hard and let somebody else notice you first and foremost?
I think the mindset, and then we'll talk about the strategy for how to communicate that self-advocacy. I love that word. What would the mindset. Be of like, I'm not good enough. It's not my place. it's not my right to speak up. I would just say, do it. I think even then, I think I had more hesitation then, or more like imposter syndrome that, oh, maybe I shouldn't do this.
Maybe it's not for me. Maybe I'm like stepping on my own toes or stepping on someone else's toes. I definitely had those thoughts before [00:12:30] and I still had them now. If you really, truly believe that you should do something if you should jump into a different industry, if you should go to a different job, it should explore another career path.
I wholeheartedly think youth should. I think we all know ourselves better than other people know of. If you really want something and you really know that you will work towards it, I think that we should all do it. So how do we know we should, and I think this is a tough question for a lot of people who've been in, especially if they've been in a position for a while where they're like, this is comfortable for me, and that seems like a scary thing for me to challenge the [00:13:00] status quo.
What did I lose my job? What are these kind of things? How do you know an answer? No, you should. Even if it's just that I want that, but I don't know if I should take that leap. Yeah, I think there's definitely an aspect of like preparation, responsibility, the adult things in the room. But I think part of it too is just knowing that it's gonna be uncomfortable and being able to take the step of leaping into faith just doing it.
And I think when you You'll have some sort of calmness or some sort of like satisfaction, like you'll feel a certain way. If you know that it was for you and you're doing it, you'll be [00:13:30] happy. When I started opening up and being a representative, being a leader, like I was so much more happy.
There was such a calmness to it that I could deal with the struggles that I had with how my team was treating me at the time, like I was so happy and I did not care about those. Things. And then when I was in corporate America at my last job at the Mets, when people were talking about me behind my back or just saying, oh, she shouldn't quit her full-time job and start a company, whatever it might be.
Yeah. When I finally decided that I was going to like just jump off the ledge and do it, I was so calm. I did not care about what people were [00:14:00] saying. I didn't care about the doubts people had, it meant absolutely nothing to me. And I was so like satisfied with the work I knew I was gonna do. So I think every time you take that jump, feel something different inside of you that.
Like what you're about to do is right for you. Did you ever experience any imposter syndrome? Oh yeah. think every time you step into a room and you are the only Asian American, you may be the only female. And from myself, I'm also pretty young. So all those things I always get into the room.
I'm like, okay, this is what it's gonna be today. Like, all right. And sometimes like you can [00:14:30] feel the imposter syndrome where you're like, should I really be here when a 20 year C-suite is asking you like 50 questions about like how many views or how many. Dollars you're gonna bring in for them and like you have an answer or you need to step back and collect an answer.
It can be really nerve wracking being put on the spotlight like that almost being tested more often than probably someone who doesn't look like you or isn't the same age as you, and maybe not even the same gender. So I think like you're always gonna have those moments. I think it's about how you handle yourself and also how you talk to yourself.
[00:15:00] In those moments and afterwards and just say, okay, like this is a uncomfortable situation, but it's a situation that like you've worked hard to be in and it's okay to not always know the answer and it's okay to have to send them an email afterwards. But regardless, like you got here for a specific reason, it wasn't just chance.
I wanna dive deeper into that 'cause that, how do you talk to yourself? That got my attention. You know in those kind of experiences when you are in that room talking to a 20 year. C e o who's been like, why should we trust you? As opposed to that [00:15:30] other, whatever company is coming in with big numbers and matching huge amounts of portfolios.
How do you then go, okay, yeah, I hear you. How do you deal with that internal self-doubt? I think I'm still dealing with that today. Even like right now, I'm like daily pitching companies like blue chip companies like Kellogg's, TurboTax, Macy's, like the ones everyone knows. And I'm even right now pitching an event that involves a lot of N B A players and a lot of really big companies.
And it's cool. I think for me, I try to frame it for myself like, This is cool. Like this is actually a cool thing you're doing. I really [00:16:00] enjoy it. And I think the second part of it is, again, like telling myself when you get there, when you get to that place in the room or you're talking to them, just talk about what you know.
And the reason why you're there is because of what you know and because somebody knows you and what you know's. There's a reason why you're in the place that you are. And I think for me, just. Knowing that and presenting the information I have, and half the time when I'm talking to them, I tell them something they don't know.
Whether it's about like how to utilize your social media correctly or about like how many views we assume somebody can get based on their AU [00:16:30] audience, based on their creator demographics. If I'm talking to 'em about running ads, about geofencing, why this will work, why this, everybody doesn't know everything.
I think there's a lot of different reasons to be okay with the room that you're in and still have a level of confidence even if you're not 100% confident. You know what I'm hearing from this, and lemme correct me if I'm wrong, but what I'm hearing from this is that the key takeaway is we tend to go into these kind of rooms or these kind of spaces as in like they're there to evaluate us, the person like us, your expertise.
But the truth is that and this might be a good thing or a bad thing, [00:17:00] depending on how you view it, but very few people actually care about us. yeah, they're not really, I think they definitely have some preconceived notions of, oh, they're really young, and like, how could they possibly know that?
But. The industry I'm in particular, whether it's sports, whether it's specifically collegiate sports or whether it's like influencer marketing, social media marketing, like this is actually something that was not around. Yeah. When they were like in their prime. Yeah, like when they were younger. Yeah. So how could you possibly know a more about this than I know who's been in this?
Their whole. Like career, no other person [00:17:30] can relate to the people that you are working with better than the person who is most closest to them. And I think that's a big part of it too, is like we work off of a lot of relationships and like I have better relationships with the clients that I work with because I've gone through or know a lot of the things that they're struggling with.
So where you're coming in from is. you don't how to trust in, am I good enough? But the expertise I have is right, like the content, the information. I know this to be real. I know this to be good, and I'm here to make an offering. This is something that I've experienced so many times in so many of the coaching clients I've worked with, have experienced time [00:18:00] and time again, anytime it's coming to imposter syndrome, the deepest fear is always, am I good enough?
Am I enough? Am I worthy? It's almost just those two fears coming up over and over again in different wrappings and when it's, am I enough? The question is one. Of course you are not because you've done something or been something, but because you just are you. Yeah. But more importantly, they're not there to evaluate you.
They're there to evaluate the information you provide, and if you know your information that you're there to make an offering of is good, then they won't care because all they care about is. What's my transformation? What [00:18:30] is the transformation I'm gonna go through once I implement your strategies?
And sometimes I've been in those kind of rooms where I'll make a pitch, I'll say something, and it's like just that one sentence changes their entire view of the war. And therefore me. Yeah. And it's not about me. I can just leave that and be like, it's not about me, but here's the work, here's, that's what it's about.
Because at the end of the day, like business is business. Business is business. Yeah. So you don't have to be anything more to it better, different, or more. It's just what is it that you're bringing in? I love this. I could go on for this for ages and talk about all the [00:19:00] struggles of the inner critic, but your expertise really and strategies comes into self-promotion and so many of us are invisible to our superiors and such like that.
How do we create a system where we can be seen without being braggy? Number one is doing it. Second part of. Number one is like doing it professionally in an organized way, because I think that's something that a lot of people don't know about creators is that like they have a content schedule.
Mm-hmm. They like plan out their ideas. When it comes to brands, there's a very strict cadence and schedule. There's [00:19:30] compliance, there's guidelines, there's approval processes. Like it's very complicated, but it is all again, like very scheduled and organized. So I think that's a lot of it. Too is like knowing what you're gonna do, when you're gonna do it, how you're gonna do it, those types of things.
But then there's also a self part to it too, that getting your content out there, it does show people like who you are, gives them the information, like lets you be seen, but it also gives you a level of expertise and gives you something to speak from that. I think people don't think about, like you may be the expert.
Expert in [00:20:00] computer mouses. But if you're not out there talking about like how great your computer mouse is or your knowledge or the things that you can do with this computer mouse, yeah. People don't know that you're the expert. Like you could've won all the awards, but unless somebody saw that you won that award because it was publicized or talked about, they don't know.
But a person, like a genzer is out there talking about. Every computer mouse out there, how that computer mouse can be used, the different tricks that it has, like on the mouse pad, everything like that. People are gonna look to them because they see the content. So you're capturing the audience.
You're actually giving [00:20:30] people something to see and giving them like a piece of content that there is going to find them. But if you didn't show that you had that education, they don't know that you're an expert. And even like when you walk into a room and someone knows that you have all that expertise, 'cause I saw that video, like they're probably not gonna question you as much as they would.
Than someone else. How do you currently get your influencers to create a strategy for consistently creating that? Because that's tough, right? I think we all semi undervalue what we know, and we almost overvalue what everyone else [00:21:00] knows. Only God, just if I just do this is easy for me. Yeah. So it must be easy for everyone.
How do you create a system where you're regularly updating that, how would that apply not just to influencers for just everyday folk, no one was born with all the knowledge of how to be an influencer. So everything is always learned. So if you look at a crater or you look at a professional and think, oh, like they know too much, like I could never get there.
If I try to do it, I won't be successful. They were at some point that you were in time because they did not know what they know now. So you could still learn. And I think that's something that for people who are worried about becoming content creators [00:21:30] or maybe scared off from doing a certain thing because there are so many people doing it or.
So many people doing it successfully, maybe even what you wanna do specifically, like they were at a place that you were where they had to start. They had to learn. So I think that shouldn't scare you off. And when it comes to planning your content, things like that, there are a lot of tools out there that will tell you the best time for you to post is 12 o'clock on Tuesday.
Or there's systems like later. Even Canva, where you can schedule out content. You can create content. There are so many tools out there that can help you be better at [00:22:00] what you do, that a lot of times they're also free, so taking advantage of them What are your favorite free tools? I love beacons.
Right now, beacons has a link in bio, so the link that you see that's clickable on everyone's social media, it has an invoicing tool, it has a media kit. There's community aspect to it. So I love them. Also personally, they're just great people to work with. But also for our student athletes, we suggest that they use it to create their link in bio, but also to create like the invoicing.
'cause a lot of student athletes have never their way pre-learning, while all the influencers already know things [00:22:30] like, oh, how do I invoice someone? I need to send a W nine at the end of the year. I need my 10 99. So they're at that beginner stage. So that's a product that is very like beginner friendly.
So I like them a lot. then our whole company and every company I consult for, we build a database in Notion. So I'm like a huge notion person. Yeah. That notion is great. Can we take a quick left turn here and talk about your role as an Asian female C E O and as a leader, what has it been like as a leader all your life to be in that.
Has anyone ever challenged you in that [00:23:00] experience? I think for me, I have a bit of an inner confidence, so I'm always someone that says I'm just gonna keep working hard. Yeah. Even if I come across these roadblocks, if someone does challenge me or something challenges me, I'm always gonna keep working.
I know that there's never a reason to just stop what you're doing because it's not gonna get better if you just. Stop what you're doing, even if it means pausing and working on something else or pausing and navigating around, that's not stopping. So I think that's always been like a big part of how I worked.
Has anyone like you do have that and that's why I'm so curious about it. Have you ever run to somebody who. And maybe it [00:23:30] is a another c e o who's just come in, who challenges you? There's terms in the industry we talk about like microaggressions and people. Like I've heard of Asian female CEOs who saw that from their own teams, cut them down kind of situations in meetings.
I think it happens when you work with more people as well. Like I had a lot of microaggressions of, oh, like she shouldn't be doing that. Or, oh, she only got this because of this. I think there are a lot of things that people can tear you down. People said that. Oh, definitely. Yeah, and it just happens.
That's always gonna be how it is. Like you're gonna face that whether you are in high school, in college, whether [00:24:00] you're in corporate America or you're 20 plus years in corporate America, people are always going to, how do you deal with that? If somebody said, oh, like you only got there because I'm assuming like race or whatever, d and i or whatever, those kind of things, how do you deal with that?
Do you put it down immediately? Do you address it? Do you let it go and just be zen about it? Honestly, it's. Terrible. But it's also funny because no one knows the things that you go through behind closed doors. So no one knows necessarily how hard you work. They only see the product. So if they're saying like, you only got this because you are Asian to start off with, and like they're just trying to fill like a quota.
It's [00:24:30] why is there a quota? And that quota is there for a reason and like you don't know all the things that I had to do to get to where I am. Same thing with being a woman, or same thing with even like being pretty, like there are a lot of things that happen behind closed doors that people don't know that.
I think because they're uninformed about the process and they're uninformed about the work, they just see the product. They're always gonna have some type of thing to say the idea of Karen's, and like you only see what's on the surface. that's always gonna be something that's gonna happen.
And I think for me, it definitely does affect you, I think because you [00:25:00] want people to, like you, you want people to also appreciate what you've done and like, Where you've come and congratulate you. And when they don't, it does of course stink. But at the same time, like we have to understand that they don't see what's underneath the surface.
I do have another tattoo. It's a rose, and underneath the surface is a lot of roots. I got that because it's the idea that like you grow so much under the surface, what people don't see, and even when you feel that you are like under the ground, you know you're in a hard time. You put in so much work to grow and.
Grow your roots and your like base that people don't even know. [00:25:30] They only see the product. So I think that's always something that I've realized for myself is that like people just don't know and it's okay. They'll get over it. You'll keep succeeding and doing well and working hard and getting to your next goal, but it's just gonna happen.
What would you say were been some of your biggest victories along the way so far in your journey? When I was in college, I got this award called the Bridge Builder Award. So it was actually the first year they started it. So I got the inaugural award and it was our chancellor of the university was awarding like certain students for the work they had done.
And actually, I. I was awarded for bridging [00:26:00] the gap between our students, our student athletes, our university, our student government, like all the constituents basically. And for me, like I had spent that whole year and year prior making friends on other teams and branching out and doing different organizations and like becoming a leader off the water and helping people and doing what I could, volunteering all the above.
And it was almost, validating for me that like I had put in all that work and that it was recognized and appreciated, but also like I went through a lot of stuff, like I said, to get there, like my team criticizing me and not being as [00:26:30] close with them. Or like even maybe like other athletes or coaches, like saying things like, oh, she's not as focused on her team.
Because I might be with like another team asking them like, how could we improve this and then take it back to our university. So for me that was like really validating. And also I think something that helped me as I got older and even where I am now, that was a moment that I. I'm proud of and that validated me so I could continue on what I was doing.
Oh, I gotta call this out, of course. Is that recently you won the Asian Hustle Network's? Unsung Asian [00:27:00] Heroes Award. Congratulations. Thank you. How did it feel to win that? I think getting the Unsung Cures Award for me solidified like how important it was. To continue to push forward, like for people that are also Asian, for women, for young founders, for anyone really that like people see you.
And what you are doing is helping them, whether you're directly helping them or they see you. Just as an awardee or just the work that you've done because. A lot of people don't think they can do things until they can see them. Like not everyone's a visionary, and if they don't see people out there doing those things, [00:27:30] like they don't think or believe that they can do them.
And I think for me, like getting an award specifically for my constituency, like being Asian, that. Almost for me was validating in like the idea that like, I'm not Asian enough because my name is Reju Brown because my parents are Caucasian, because I don't speak Korean because I'm still learning a lot of things about my culture.
Like it's okay, like I'll learn those things. Those are things I can gain, but no one can ever take away the fact that I'm Asian. What were some of the biggest challenges and setbacks you feel like you ran into along this journey? [00:28:00] Again, like when I was in college, like not being as close with my team and them always.
Like separating me from the team because I was getting so close with other teams because I was so focused on being a representative, because I was focused on things other than just being with my team. That was really hard for me. I almost left the university and went to another university to row because of it.
But in the end, like I had decided to stay because I didn't wanna give up. I am not a quitter in any sense. So for me that was like, I think one of the first big moments of, oh, if. they don't [00:28:30] like me, it's okay, but like I know why I'm here. I know what I'm doing and what I wanna do in the future, and this is gonna help me get there along the way.
After that point, getting to the journey I am now, it's been other issues with my team or maybe it was other issues of people I worked with because of jealousy or because of their lack of vision of what. I could do in the future or maybe their thoughts about what they couldn't do in the future too. And then your typical founder stuff of having other co-founders and no longer having those co-founders, like generating just for some context?
What do you mean by that? Yeah, so when [00:29:00] we first started the agency two years ago, there were four co-founders. Wow. About a year in, we separated and then went two and two. I had my co-founder, Joe, we were together for was it just like a difference in vision that caused the separation? Yeah, I think in vision and even just like how we worked, we stopped working well together and I think that's hard because having friendships too that play along with that, sometimes it just happens and like you have to.
Figure out what's best for the company and even best like for yourself and your mental health. I had some like physical and mental health struggles from taking on so much work and anxiety from trying [00:29:30] to make everything work and trying to make everyone work well together. Mental health is real. You can work yourself to death.
Like I was very sick. But also too, like you have to take care of yourself, like you have to find a resolution. So things like that. It sounded like that was a burnout that you went through. Pretty much it was burnout. And it was interesting, like it physically manifested itself like I like had this like infection in my face.
And if you see it, it's on my social media, like it looks like I got kicked by an elephant. And so because of that, it just came from stress of trying to work so hard, traveling constantly to get new clients to [00:30:00] fulfill our influencer counts, all the above. So that was a big lesson I had to learn too. Was that like mental and physical health, taking care of yourself so you can help others.
Very important. I coach people and we have one of the systems that we talk about is the seven patterns that we see particularly commonly with Asian Americans. And one of the patterns that we see is that of the overachievers perfectionist and we're all of the same patterns, right? All of us are multiple versions of ourselves.
But that I definitely see so often coming out and I feel like with entrepreneurs and founders, that's like a whole different level. Yeah. [00:30:30] Overachievers. I think in like corporate nine to fives, like it's like coming in early, staying like working through your lunch, like just doing extra for founders.
It's like my workload is I get up early, I work, I have meetings all day, and then I'm working between those meetings and then I might have to step out for an in-person lunch meeting and then I might have an event or like a premiere that I'm not like, it's not like a party, it's not social, it's networking.
I have people on a paper that I like have to check off that I'm talking with. It's very different and I think even that I am an overachiever. Naturally I am a workaholic, but I love what I do, [00:31:00] which makes it so much easier. Yeah. Which makes it easier to overwork too. I had to get into the habit of like time management and time blocking, so I have a set time.
I start in the morning, a set time. I have meetings. Yeah. I try to end like at a certain time, at least for meetings. Take a break and eat and then we'll start back up. I do still work late, but like I do try to take like at least one day off on the weekend just because like we're so used to overworking and like that being like our norm.
I feel like it's such a big part of our core values almost. I was having a chat with my therapist. few weeks [00:31:30] ago, and I was, honestly, we all have one. So Yeah I'm a big believer in, if you don't, I suggest it. It's great. It's like a third person you can complain to that really can't judge you outside of there 'cause confidentiality a hundred percent.
Like you're paying them to not judge you. So that's, absolutely can't. Yeah. I was reflecting on this I run my own business. I've been, I have a book and everything like that, and it got to a point in which. I'm writing this book and it's become like such a block and I'm like trying to figure it out and my therapist asked, what does it mean for you to write this book?
What would you wanna see happen? In my mind, I'm like, this book has to be [00:32:00] the greatest book ever written, Uhhuh, just full honesty. That was the back of my, story that I was telling my mind was that if it wasn't, then it won't be good enough. If it is not perfect, it's nothing. She took me through a process.
She kinda, okay, so what is that inner child? I love inner child work. What is that inner child saying in that moment? And what my inner child was saying was basically like, I just want a weekend. And if this book is transformational and changes the world and brings transformation to millions of Asian people all over the world, then I get a weekend and I was in this middle of a thing where I [00:32:30] was like, I was laughing, I was crying and laughing at this.
Same time, because that's the most ridiculous thing you ever heard. Oh yeah. And like for me too, I'm like, oh my gosh, if this deal goes well, I am gonna take my morning and I'm going to eat breakfast, like at a restaurant on the beach. Normal people, like I see them like around my apartment complex, like my friends are like, Oh, like all my friends, big travelers, like they go like they're in Cabo.
They're in the Virgin Islands. Yeah. Like they're in Europe. And I'm like, I have literally never done any of that because I've only ever been working and I have been to some of those places. But you know what? I was working too [00:33:00] and I got to write it off of my taxes. Yeah. But it is, just a constant working and like what we want from it is so little, I think but if you enjoy what you do, at the same time it doesn't feel like work.
And I think that's also hard for people to understand too. Yeah. It's finding that balance so that we're not in the hospital and we're not operating as I've, yeah, I haven't been since then. It sucks. So that's really good. I learned a lot from that. Also spoken in a podcast about working yourself to death and that being like a literal thing.
I almost did. Oh my gosh. Yeah, we got it. We gotta check that out. If you wanna send, throw the link on there. I'll put that in the notes. If you go back in [00:33:30] time to where you were five years ago and you were to have a chance to give yourself some advice, what would it be? What would be the same advice that I'm still learning to take now is just do it.
It doesn't matter what other people say. I think every point in my career that, like I've gotten to a point where I worked really hard at something and was able to achieve it. The things that I look back on as challenges, I don't look back at like people saying no, or like me having to reshape how I look at a deal or how I structure, how I pitch it, or even like how I design an event.
I don't think about those things. When I look back, [00:34:00] the things I had to overcome, it was like how other people treated me. Because I was doing those things, or like the self-doubt I may have had because of that, or just because it was such a big task. So if I had to go back all the way to college, all the way to my corporate career, even now.
It's just do what you believe that you need to do and continue working. And it really does not matter what other people think. Love that. Do you have any unconventional types of advice? That you find yourself giving that people go, wait, what Use notion? I like, I don't know how many, [00:34:30] it's not as I could say use notion, but I love Notion, like our whole company database is built out in there.
It's so nice because in the past few years, like I've automated everything. So like we can click a checkbox and it sends off things for other people to do. Like all of our information is in there. I've gotten to a point now where Companies call in asking for assistance on what I built out.
Or even like the public facing, like it's called our creator card or a roster card, like what we have, they look at it and they wanna get to that point, so they'll call in. So unconventional is definitely that. Could we get a peek at what that looks like, the [00:35:00] roster cards and stuff? Oh yeah, definitely.
I'll show that. It's very nice. So Awesome. But also too, I think just like time management. Allowing yourself to take breaks during the day. That's something I learned too, was like working really hard and like knowing when you're doing certain things, but don't forget to eat lunch and don't forget to take time off for dinner.
If you wanna keep working like into the night, that's fine, but have an ending point. You have to still take care of yourself and that's definitely something big I learned in the last five years. When you say something big, taking time for yourself, are you saying scheduling time specifically [00:35:30] out?
create that. Yeah. I have to schedule time to take a lunch, to take a dinner to go work out. Wow. 'cause I've been training daily since I was in college still. I still keep that up now, so I still have to schedule time in for myself, I actually have a schedule block for connecting with my friends and FaceTiming them, checking up with them, checking on my family.
I have to schedule that in because I will work myself so hard that I get to a point like run down where like I'm too tired to talk to them or like I just keep working and I forget, like I'll put the phone on and say, oh, I'll call them later. And then suddenly [00:36:00] it's the weekend, like working that hard.
It's something that like so many of us do, but like you can't forget about those other things if you can't remember them or you can't make time for yourself. You have to schedule it in. Are there any systems, frameworks, or techniques that you've developed sometime along the way? Networking. And I know like everyone says, oh, you should network, you should talk to people.
Every job I've ever had, every connection I have every. Thing that I'm able to do in what I do now for a career just came from networking. It came from being in a room where maybe I was [00:36:30] uncomfortable. I was the only young person, female, or even just, I was like, I had no idea who was in that room. They stem from those interactions or like reaching out to people on LinkedIn who have a similar job or a job you want or even you are just like genuinely interested about them.
Wow, that's great. What tech, do you have a system that you use for networking or do you just come to it on the fly? Yeah, like business networking. It's a combination between they might work at a company that we wanna work with or that I worked with in the past, reaching out on LinkedIn, social media.
I am a member of soho House, so a lot of times like I'll be there and someone will come up [00:37:00] because they have a system on their app where everyone's profile who's in the house at that moment shows up on your screen. So sometimes like I see someone that I recognize and I might say Amazon or I might say TikTok and they'll approach me, or I'll approach them at like networking events in general.
There are so many listservs you can get on. There are people who throw networking events. There's pop-up shops, like all of them have. Places and times where you can meet people and going there and seeing a name tag that says like influencer or like manager or even says like c b s, it's, oh, like I used to work for, or, I know so and so do you know [00:37:30] them?
And you are always gonna find like a mutual point final question, which is, what is a question? Do you wish people will ask you more often? Two things. Whenever I network with someone, I always ask them like, what can I do for you? A lot of times it's something simple. When I ask that of students, it's always very interesting.
'cause if I'm not offering them a job, they don't know what I could do for them. But I always tell them like, if you have a question, send me email. I have free office hours twice a week for students, student athletes, influencers, anyone that needs it like they're free. Anyone can come in and sign up for them.
Students, if they're [00:38:00] asking me to help them network, I'll help them network. If they're asking for, do you know someone at this company or Do you see a job description? If I saw it, I will definitely send it your way. And I think that people don't ask enough, could you help me with this? Because they're scared of something.
Especially like younger adults, especially even like Asians, we just don't ask for people to do things. And I think that's something that. I definitely had to get over was asking people like, Hey, do you know someone here? Or, I'm interested in this. Even like networking, like you don't think about, hey, like I'm talking to them, they know I'm talking about them [00:38:30] for this job.
Like they know I want this, so like just ask for it, but like actually build a relationship in a rapport with them. At the same time, I think like we're so worried that people will say no or be so worried what people might think of us, but in the end, like we all have connections. That people are looking for.
We all have businesses, like whatever it is, we have something that other people need or want, and it's okay to ask as long as you're not demanding or as long as like you have a good intention. I don't think people should not ask the question. Thank you for that. If you wanna find out more, either about your office [00:39:00] hours or just about you or working with you, what's the best way to do that?
You can find it on my social media, which is at Rachel Mang. You can also find it on our agency website, on any of our other agency social media. It's all linked back to the same stuff, so it's all right there. Amazing. Thank you so much for your time today, Rachel. You've been absolutely incredible. Go check out Rachel's stuff.
Yeah. Once again, thank you so much for your time. Yeah. Thank you again for having me.
