Meet Elena Yang

We were lucky to catch up with Elena Yang recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Elena, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

I grew up in a family where work came before holidays, socializing, or anything else. My mom really instilled that mindset in me from a young age. I remember her sitting down with me on the weekend to practice writing the English alphabet when I was four years old, then driving me to my gymnastics lesson. As I watched my mom grow her business through persistent hard work while raising me, I carried those values with me in my pursuits. I practiced chess for six years before I won my first trophy, placing third in the Canadian Youth Chess Championship. Twelve years after I first picked up the game, I represented Canada at the World Youth Chess Championship in 2022.

As I’ve grown older, my work ethic has also been shaped by people I admire — like Naval Ravikant and the Yes Theory team. I pay attention to the habits, mindsets, and belief systems of people I look up to, and try to apply those patterns to my own life. That mindset led me to learn Python every day for a year straight and take a gap semester to focus on establishing my personal brand through YouTube, Twitter, and Substack.

At the same time, I also love spontaneous and meaningful adventures. While I’d willingly take no days off work for months, I’ll always make time for spontaneous trips to enrich my life experience, such as taking a solo trip to Japan. My mantra is: Work hard, play harder.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

My content creation journey started during my gap semester after high school. I wanted to document and share my growth with authenticity. When I got to college, I noticed a small but important gap on YouTube – no one was making videos about Babson College. Even though it’s been ranked #1 in entrepreneurship in the U.S. for twenty-eight consecutive years, there was little content on the internet capturing the academic or social life there. I want to become the kind of person who inspires others since I take so much inspiration from people around me. From videos like “Should You Choose Babson College?”, I’ve been able to provide incoming students and parents with an authentic perspective on what college life is like here. A year and a half later, I have an ongoing partnership with Babson’s official Instagram and YouTube accounts.

The internet enables scalable impact because it leaves a permanent mark. Once you put something out there, it stays. This made me think like an entrepreneur: how can I grow my influence through content creation and turn this skill into a business?

I leaned into my network in the tech startup space and began working with early-stage, technical founders; a lot of them needed help marketing their products. I now create User Generated Content (UGC) for consumer-app brands.

Entrepreneurship is what you make of it. I internalized the notion from my billionaire professor, Len Green, that there’s an abundance of niche, underrepresented markets. Innovating solutions and taking roads less travelled are the way to stand out.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

– Believe in the power of compounding. In Atomic Habits, James Clear writes about how repeating a small action daily helps shape identity. When I began content creation, I lacked video ideas and professional equipment. Still, I committed to showing up. After a full day of classes, extracurriculars, and the gym, I would record a short form video on my iPhone then upload to YouTube. I realized that long-term goals foster discipline, while short-term ones often rely on bursts of motivation that may not be sustainable. It took over 800 videos and over one year of posting content before I reached my first 100,000 views on a video. A week after that, another video gained 300,000 views. Rather than linear growth, compounding experience and building an intuition overtime helps obtain results exponentially, but we must believe in this effect before we see the outcome. In other words, the process of going from zero to one is always the most difficult, but the most worthwhile endeavor.

– Network with others and form connections. I believe in the value of learning from people with complementary strengths. Conversations with those who think differently, not just those who seem similar on the surface can open us to entirely new viewpoints. Many of my most pivotal opportunities came from the professional connections I have. The 80/20 rule suggests that 80% of outcomes come from 20% of actions, and for me, networking has been the most asymmetric lever. For example, my first user-generated content deal came from replying to a Twitter thread. Positioning yourself to meet new people expands your surface area for luck: It’s not just what you know; it’s who you know.

– Contrary to my second point, spend time in solitude. While expanding perspectives outwards is important, depth is cultivated alone. I spent two months by myself in San Francisco last summer to pursue content creation. Without a defined schedule and constant social interaction, my days of working, exercising, and sleeping blurred into the same memory. This period of solitude helped redefine my self-perception as a separate entity from my parents, the school I go to, and any familiar environments around me. I encourage everyone to normalize doing activities independently, such as going to a restaurant alone or visiting an art gallery, even if it feels uncomfortable at first. Sitting with your own thoughts isn’t always easy, but it’s crucial for us to learn to digest our own emotions and explore the underlying purposes behind our desires, which is something I’m still working on.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

I’m currently looking for mentors and collaborators. For mentorship, the most important “criteria” is resonance – I hope someone can see a version of their younger self in me. That shared understanding helps create the kind of guidance that’s rooted in experience. I’m seeking mentors whose life paths and stories can offer insight into the ways I can better navigate my own journey.

I’m also open to connecting with internet creatives, especially those in the user-generated content space. If you’re someone who’s creating content or building products that need social media marketing, do reach out through my socials! I’m down for a chat.

Contact Info:

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems,
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Productivity
Where do you get your work ethic from?

We’ve all heard the phrase “work hard, play hard,” but where does our work ethic

Productivity
Tactics & Strategies for Keeping Your Creativity Strong

With the rapid improvements in AI, it’s more important than ever to keep your creativity

Productivity
From Burnout to Balance: The Role of Self-Care

Burning out is one of the primary risks you face as you work towards your