Last Week Today: My Sister Jean
July 15, 2024 ❤️
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” - Albert Einstein
Welcome to my Substack where I share the best of my week. Think of this as a catch-up between friends with life hacks & advice sprinkled in. Grab a coffee or matcha and let's get started ☕️
Highlight of the Week🔥
Introducing my sister, Jean to YouTube! We launched our video series where we talk about all things business, career, and life. I just graduated from Stanford GSB last month and she graduated from Harvard Business School 7 years ago. It sounds great now, but behind every achievement were tears, confusion, and struggle - major struggle. In every new period of our lives (school, professional life, career transitions, etc.), we’ve felt like fish out of water. We want to ensure our struggles weren’t for nothing.
We’re sharing our ups and downs and what we’ve learned through it all. We’ve made the mistakes so you don’t have to. We hope you enjoy this first video. Please let us know in the video comments what other questions you want us to answer or topics we should discuss next. This is a learning process for us — so feel free to chime in!
What I’m Writing 📚👀
OOOOH she’s an author now! I’m officially a Forbes contributor; I published my first article last week. My “beat” (what the industry calls a topic area) is the creator economy. I have a unique perspective on the creator economy, viewing it through the lenses of a creator, product builder, and investor.
This is a new chapter for me as I explore more written form; I’m very comfortable on camera and it’s more challenging for me to sit down to distill my thoughts. If you’re reading this and thinking “BUT YOU WRITE THIS NEWSLETTER!”, yes, that’s true. But let’s be real: I feel more at ease writing my inner thoughts to all of you reading Last Week Today than I do writing for Forbes. It’a big change and I’m here to embrace it.
If you’re interested in becoming a Forbes contributor, you need to put your writing and thoughts out there. I’ve been writing this newsletter for the last year and have published articles on Medium. A Forbes employee saw my writing and contacted me about joining their contributor program.
I firmly believe that the more you put out in this world, the more the world amplifies and brings back to you. So start posting and sharing your thoughts today!
If you’d like to read my article, you can find it here: The Truth About AI Tools: Are We Losing Our Creative Souls?
As always, I’d love to hear from you. Let me know what you think about the piece and what other topics I should cover within the creator economy.
Senior Leaders, Presidents, Your Boss… They’re Just Like Us
When I started working in the professional world after college, I put executives and senior leaders on a pedestal. Like, OMG they’re my boss’ boss’ boss… how can I sound smart in front of them? Will I say something dumb? I wanted to *impress*… but the reality is that they’re regular people too. They have families they care about, kids to pick up from school, problems outside of work, etc. They’re normal.
I remember when a senior executive at LinkedIn publicly shared a photo of his heart rate monitor, which spiked at the beginning of his presentation to the entire company. That’s normal.
I also remember when a senior leader shared a story of when they thought they might get fired because of a work mistake. That’s normal.
Why does this matter? These stories humanize senior leadership roles and make them seem more achievable. It's a reminder that success is within reach for all of us.
Have you seen senior leaders and execs sharing stories of vulnerable moments? How did you react?
From First Job to Business School
Emily and I started at LinkedIn together, in our first role right out of undergrad. We were in LinkedIn’s Associate Product Manager program. We truly experienced and navigated so much of the professional world together; we laughed and cried together. Emily came on the podcast and opened up about her experience at Harvard Business School and what she learned from working in big tech at LinkedIn. I hope you enjoy!
In Case You Missed It: What I posted on IG 💅🏻
🗓️ What it’s actually like to make plans in business school
✈️ Every work conference I go to
💌 Writing cold emails that get responses
Meme Reminder
I hope you have the best week my friends!
XO, Cherie