Meet Jennifer Ho

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jennifer Ho a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jennifer, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
My confidence and self esteem has come from learning that my mistakes are most often times the catapult to my next level of greatness. They are truly our greatest teachers. Once I learned to trust myself to handle the outcome of my choices, whether they be seen as positive or negative at the time, I could muster the bravery to act on what I wanted.

The self talk will always be there telling you you’re crazy, not enough and ridiculous for thinking that you can. Let it talk while you still go for it keeping in mind “what the BEST that could happen?”

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
After being in the marketing and business consulting world for over 15 years, I decided to join the ranks of podcast early adopters in 2009 to open Hangar Studios, the first woman of color owned podcast production company. Today, I focus on client acquisitions, operations, growth and client onboarding. I also host and produce two podcasts: Big Girl Panties and Stripped. I am a proud associate member of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences (IADAS) and Webby Award judge.

On my days off, she is on the advisory board for We Care, a public speaker on topics pertaining to podcasting and leadership, coaches others to speak freely in their lives, refinishes furniture and, best of all, a mom and friend to her 5 kids.

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?
I talk about this quite a bit so can I give 10?

1. Integrity is your biggest ongoing asset. Be your word to YOURSELF and others. Keep your word, especially to yourself. It is ok to say no! The importance is on keeping your word not how much you can handle. How many of you are people pleasers? Stop it. It serves no one and while you’re at it, stop asking for permission. If you don’t know something, it’s ok to say you don’t know. You can always come back with an answer.

2. Always look for the win/wins. Zero sum game: a situation where each participant’s gain or loss is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the other participants so the balance becomes Zero. What occurs from a zero sum game? War, poverty, crime, etc.

Choose the path of doing something that enriches other’s lives. Whether for your clients, family, partnerships and/or community.

3. Fail…then fail again. My best lessons were through “failures” and not successes. Most successes happened because of the failures before them. Look for the holes on your boat and fill them. Failures provide much needed information. Look for those valuable lessons and insights.

4. Be honest with yourself. Focus on your strengths and be aware of what you are not gifted at. Finding what you are gifted at may be difficult for some but most likely is because it comes so easy to you. Look to have others that are gifted in those sectors do what they love for you (win/win)! Set up your business to work for your habits both “good” and “bad”. Not good at following up? Create alarms or reminders, for example.

5. Build relationships with everyone you can. Leadership is teamwork and partnership. Who makes their own toilet paper? None of us are truly independent. You never know when or how you can collaborate in life, not just business. Do not disregard ANYONE’S importance. Never shove your stuff down people’s throat without inquiry or prompting…if you have a relationship first you won’t feel the need to.

6. Be afraid then do it anyway. Fear is a powerful motivator to either do something or do nothing. Either way, you are making a choice. Channel the energy that fear gives you to bring you towards your goals. Being fearless is a farce. Fear is always present in our lives and we can learn how to use it, wield it like a lightsaber. The only way most times to get to the other side is to push through the fear. Acknowledge it for trying to protect you and do the damn thing anyway.

That brings me to another point “Can’t” and “won’t” are two very distinct words. How many of you use can’t and won’t interchangeably. There are really very few things you actually “can’t” do. Most of the things you can’t do are because you simply won’t.

Think in terms of quality in both your physical/emotional/mental health, your work and clientele. I’ve turned down potential clients that based on their bad attitude we wouldn’t be a good fit. I chose not to work with them, not that I couldn’t.

7. Be deliberate. Desperation will cause more issues. Urgency will be your best friend. Handle emails ASAP even if it’s to respond “received”. Set up meetings immediately and put them on your calendar. Start that project today even if it’s a micro baby step. These things tend to bite you in the butt when kicked down the road. Your calendar will be your best friend for this.

8. Be responsible for what happens (or doesn’t). When speaking to difficult situations take responsibility for your portion of what or what didn’t occur. Then fix it. Taking responsibility creates and empowered stance as opposed to a victim mentality. Get comfortable with apologizing. It actually gets easier to do when you stop beating yourself up over what happened. Here’s a great 5 part apology:
• Take the first step to reach out and rectify. This can be the hardest part. Get over yourself and make the move. Difficult conversations are always had at some point. If you care about the relationship look to clear the air and create a new possibility for that relationship.
• Acknowledge what or what didn’t happen (I realized I didn’t keep my work and call you back when I said I would)
• Apologize
• What are you going to do differently from a responsible standpoint (I will make it a point to make notes to remind myself)
• What can I do to correct this?

9. Commitment and passion are the fuel that will get you to your goal. Your passion will be felt by all around you, especially your clients. If you ever find yourself questioning your path, ask yourself why you are choosing to do what you do and for whom?

10. Trust Yourself. Life is a windy loopy crazy path. Sometimes you feel on top of the world and other times you question what you are meant to be on this planet. Deem yourself an explorer.

Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?
Going all in on our strengths AND allowing room for growth are essential. Personally, I don’t like either/ors but I do love both/ands. I had to get brutally honest with myself about what it was I was great at, what I was ok at and what I actually loved doing. My goal was to be able to do what I enjoyed at least 80-90% of the time. I found that most jobs/careers/life came with a bit of unwanted energy spent in my “can’t stand to do” list. This is where it was helpful to invest effort in areas I was just ok at.

At the beginning, in my 20s and part of my 30s, there was a lot of learning, grinding and growing. I wanted all the tools I could get on my belt. Once I had the tools, I could regroup and then figure out how I was going to find the intersection of “liked to do” and “good at”. Then, I would leave the rest to people who liked to do those things by hiring an incredible team to do them. Win win.

Contact Info:

  • Website: thehangarstudios.com
  • Instagram: @thehangarstudios
  • Facebook: @thehangarstudios
  • Linkedin: @thehangarstudios

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