We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Emma Poin Du Jour a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Emma, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
When I look back on my journey as an immigrant, I realize that every obstacle I faced mentally prepared me to overcome today’s significant challenges. For example, I spoke English with a heavy French/Caribbean accent that I was very self-conscious of, but I also knew my gift was in my mouth doing public speaking, so self-conscious or not, I opened my mouth and spoke. And little by little, I started gaining confidence.
Being a single mom created a major shift in my mindset. Knowing that an innocent child, who didn’t ask to be brought into this world, depended entirely on me taught me mental and physical resilience.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
A couple of months ago, I decided to start introducing myself as “The Bounce Back Queen” because I had to overcome many obstacles to be where I am today.
I moved to the U.S. when I was 23 years old. It was a culture shock because nothing I saw on TV in Haiti prepared me for the cold weather of Chicago or the American culture. I felt lost and had nobody to give me directions on how to proceed. I think that’s where some families and communities fail a lot of immigrants. They expect us to figure things out independently and succeed, and eventually, most of us do. But if we had proper guidance, it could have expedited our journey to reach our goals.
In my case, after several attempts in various fields, I finally chose to pursue an Associate degree in Legal Studies to become a paralegal, allowing me to improve my quality of life. Then, I obtained a Bachelor’s in Communications because I knew since childhood that my success was tied to my mouth; thus, I had to learn to communicate well.
I started my speaking journey volunteering at church functions as a speaker and a master of ceremonies for social events. But I still felt unfulfilled. It wasn’t until 2020 that I realized that my purpose in life was to motivate people to become the best version of themselves and live the life they were intended to. All this through a mindset shift. So I launched my blogging website: www.emmapoindujour.com, which was initially tailored for a female audience, but when the blog garnered some male subscribers as well, I broadened my target audience. Each week, I publish an article on an area where a mindset shift is necessary to improve the quality of our lives, or I invite a guest contributor to share their knowledge, providing subscribers with valuable insights to aid in their personal growth. I feel fulfilled now!
Last week, I launched my YouTube channel. I cordially invite readers to check it out and subscribe by clicking the link: https://youtube.com/@EmmaPoindujour.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
One of the qualities I had to develop because it does play a vital role in anyone’s success is “CONSISTENCY”. You can’t succeed in life or make any substantial progress without embracing the discipline of consistency. There will be good days and bad days, up and down, but if you stay consistent, little by little, you’ll start seeing the fruits of your labor. Plus, consistency helps build your character. Another quality I had to instill and develop was a warrior mentality. The world is a war zone, and every day, you have to wake up and fight for the materialization of your dreams. And contrary to popular belief, the enemies you have to fight daily are not other people. Trust me; they are the least of your concerns if you overcome the most dangerous ones: your negative or limited mindset, procrastination, and insecurities. Every day, you have to talk to yourself and keep pushing despite what your body or mind might be telling you.
Additionally, too many times, we waste time trying to develop skills we clearly don’t have an aptitude for instead of sharpening our natural ones. This is one of the instances where you need to stay in your lane. I am a speaker, a creator. I suck at understanding Google SEO for my blog or implementing a system. I use a program to do those tasks for me now.
Because I realized I was wasting precious time, I could have used creating content or speaking to try to understand topics my brain wasn’t designed to understand. I stopped doing that and started focusing more on attending masterclasses and reading books to improve my natural skills; I believe you should adopt that same approach.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
When I started my journey as a speaker, most people were reluctant to grant me an opportunity because I wasn’t known. Unfortunately, I still experience that when pitching my services. Platforms would prefer to collaborate with established speakers who can attract large audiences. And while I completely understand their reasoning from a financial point of view, the world is missing out on a lot of incredible talents, including my own, because we are denied the opportunity to demonstrate our potential.
I am open to offering my services to any company whose audience aligns with my profile and purpose. I am looking forward to partnering with others facing similar circumstances, wanting someone to give them an opportunity to showcase their talents or knowledge. This can be done through my blogging website. By joining forces, perhaps we can highlight the brilliance of untapped potential.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.emmapoindujour.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emmapoindujour/
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/poindujouremmanuelle
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@emmapoindujour
