All right, let's get started. If you have any questions, please be sure to drop them in the chat today. I wanna talk about leveling up your career in business as well as in technology and career advancement and women empowerment.As women oftentimes, as I mentioned, we are the only women in the room, but that doesn't have to always be the case. Let's talk about some key components when you are developing your career within business or tech and key things to keep in mind. I was trying to share screens with you guys, but I'm not sure I'm able to let me just try really quickly. Um And you let me know if you can see this. Can you all see my screen? Perfect. All right. So for today's conversation, we're gonna talk about those obstacles and challenges that women in tech experience within the corporate environment and in business ownership. I want to empower all of you to be confident in your ability as a woman and as a boss and shout out to our allies that may be in the chat as well. Some key things that are super important for us to keep in mind as we venture on this career advancement journey, competency, inner strength, the journey and the process and aptitude competency. What does that mean in any job in any industry that we're entering into?

We have to make sure that one, we have the competence, we have the credentials and the skills to perform the task. And all of you amazing people in this chat and in this um session have that competence. You have the degrees, you have the certifications, you have the experience. They say oftentimes a woman feels that she has to have 100% of the items listed on the job description before she applies. I want to encourage you all to know that many times. Our male counterpart parts may only have five or six of them and they still apply for the job. We are competent, have the confidence, don't be afraid to apply for that job. In addition to that, um One of my favorite quotes is the future belongs to those who prepare for it. That means that by getting our degrees, by getting our work experiences and our certifications, we have what it takes. We're prepared for the future. We're prepared to have that amazing journey that we know is possible for ourselves. So I want to empower you to apply for that job, apply for that promotion and do not be afraid to level up in business or tech inner strength, know yourself and know your worth. Oftentimes we question ourselves. I don't know if you guys have heard of something called imposture syndrome. What that is, is being in an environment and wondering, do you belong there? I'm here to tell you. Yes, you do. You belong in that room, you belong at that table.

You deserve a seat at that table. Know yourself and know your worth. Self-worth is so important in the journey of rising as a business and technology leader Because oftentimes you have to self motivate in addition for others to believe in you. Yes, you will have supporters and allies as well. But the first inner belief within yourself is irreplaceable. So I encourage you all to know yourself and know your worth and have that self-confidence in the chat. Please drop self-confidence. All right, moving forward, remain true to who you are and be authentic when you're entering into these environments. Whether there are, you know, mostly males within the environment or um where you may be the only woman of color. Um or the only woman, please understand that you have to remain authentic to. You don't feel that you have to be something different or someone different. As I mentioned, you have that competence, you have those skills and you have that experience. You belong there, loneliness, the phenomenon of loneliness. What does that mean? I remember being on Wall street and walking the hallways of a large corporation that I was in and I didn't really see too many women leaders and sometimes it's super hard to be what you can't see.

But as I mentioned earlier in our chat, someone has to be the first. We may find ourselves feeling alone or the only one in a room, whether that's women, whether that's LGBT Q, whether that's um a woman of color, whatever that may be, but it's ok to be the only one, but it's not ok to remain that one. We must lift as we climb, as you climb that corporate ladder or you know, grow your business, lift another woman along, encourage sponsor, mentor another woman as well so that we no longer have to be the only ones. Find your voice, find your voice. What does that mean? Finding your voice means owning your voice as well when you're in a meeting and you have a great opinion, you understand what's happening in the meeting and you want to voice your thoughts, you want to voice your strategies and someone else jumps in and says what you were gonna say and you kind of just shy away and instead decide you're not gonna say anything.

I'm here to encourage you to say. In addition to that, I wanted to also say, I believe Xy and Z own your voice. This is how we get promoted. This is how we get to that next level. This is how we shine as women and business leaders own your voice and don't ever be afraid to speak up in meetings, journey and the process. Let's move forward, get your tribe together. What does that mean? Get your tribe together? It takes, I know many of you have probably heard it takes a village to raise a child. What does that mean? It takes more than one person to raise a child and a business is often like a child. It takes more than just yourself to grow the business. Don't be afraid to have a team, team up with others. Collaborate, I always say collaboration over competition, collaborate with other women, collaborate with others in your industry and in your field, look for strategic partnerships as well. Own your tribe. Look for those who are your supporters, whether those are family friends, even customers. I've had many customers become my friends as well. Many of my career clients that I've coached, they've also become great friends of mine because we've helped them land 1020 even $50,000 more, which dramatically changes a person's life. So get your tribe together, sponsors and mentors. Next. What are sponsors and mentors?

Sponsors are mentors are those people who speak up for you. When you are not in the room. When it comes to a promotion, you're going to need people to advocate for you. And that may be people in senior leadership that may be executives. But if you're just doing your work heads down and you never network with anyone across or up or or below, no one knows what you're doing, advocate for yourself. Let people know the great work you're doing. Let your sponsors know the great work you're doing. So when it comes time for promotion and your name goes up, everyone knows what you have done. You have advocates in the room that you're not even in. When it comes to business opportunities, you have people who are vouching for your services and your products. Mentors, mentors are crucial. We all need mentors. Doesn't matter our age, our stage, we need people to be there for us to lift us up. I always have this saying, why learn it all when I can learn it from someone else, why make all the mistakes when I can learn from someone else's mistakes? Yeah, we're, we're also gonna have to do our own path and our own journey. But it's great to be able to learn from someone else's sort of strategies, things that they learn tips and tricks and you take what you, you know, makes most sense to you and you leave what you don't need. All right.

Next relationships, many of you have heard that relationships are key. It's not what you know, it's who you know, OK, I'm here to tell you relationships are everything, whether that's relationships with your clients, whether that's relationships with your partners. Um As far as your business partners, whether that's relationships with your coworkers at work, relationships are key. People need to feel like they like working with you, they like being around you. You are amazing, they feel um comfortable in your energy, they feel empowered in your energy.

They have nothing but good things to say about now. None of us is perfect. So I don't want to make it seem that way, but I do want to encourage you all to build those relationships. There are many times that I have gotten job opportunities, business opportunities and even clients just from being a relation, just from being a relationship oriented, person. Relationships are key. If you feel that relationships are key as well. T type in the chat, that's the key. All right.

Next, moving forward, own your journey and trust the process, trust your process, you have everything it takes to get to the next step. And the next level oftentimes the only thing holding us back is us. You may want a new job, but you're not applying to it. You may want a promotion but you're not speaking up. You may want to grow your business, but you're not marketing it, trust your process, own your journey. You have what it takes. This is an empowerment session. And if you feel empowered, I want you to say, remain ambitious in the chat. I want all of you to remain ambitious as you trust your process, the things that you know, you need to do. I want you to write it down, set those goals and let's take action for this 2022. All right. Next up, surround yourself with those on the same mission as you. Wow, that is powerful. They often say that many times if you hang out with five people who are broke, you'll become the sixth person. So what does that mean? Do we just forget people who are not on our level? No, that's not what it means. It means that you can have circle of friends, circle of people and put people into different groups. And I always love this practice where I have a group of people. So they're on the same mission as me.

They want to rise as business and corporate leaders, venture capitalists and angel investors, technologists and business owners. That's my business circle and I have my friend circle that I hang out with have a good time with and people may be in both circles. But that is the way to really help yourself. Get to the next level, understand who you are around, who's lifting you up and who's probably draining you and take key insight into who you feel more energized around, who actually supports you and helps you with your business and who is kind of pulling you back. You have to be able to be aware of that. All right, we're almost at time. So let's move forward, aptitude, believe in yourself, mindset and confidence is key. Your mindset is everything I talked a lot about self worth and self empowerment because it's so critical. If we don't feel good, it often affects everything else, working out, doing your uh meditations, doing your affirmations, these things are important. It helps us to level up and not just our lives, but also in business, in tech and in general with our families, with our friends, the better we feel, the more we shine. I encourage all of you to shine, challenge yourself to level up.

You got this and don't ever doubt yourself again. Um If that was a good chat, I want you to say young ambitious one. That is what I want you to say. I wanted to talk a little bit about, we had such a great session a while ago, just a little bit about young ambitious one and what I do. Um As I mentioned, I'm a technologist. I'm a career advisor and business strategist. My company, young ambitious one, we focus on helping people to book a career and get that career support. All of those confidence items we talked about that is super help you helpful for you to um you know, really advance your career, you may not be able to do it on your own. So booking a career coach can really support you with that. Um We're truly dedicated to empowering students, professionals and organizations for success in business tech and entrepreneurship. We're working to bridge that opportunity gap by empowering women and diverse talent in these high growth industries. And as I mentioned. We do so through career advisory, we also work with schools and organizations to provide interactive sessions, whether that's entrepreneurship programs or career accelerators. And you can also access jobs and opportunities by signing up for our platform. All right, here are some resources for you.

Ladies, here are some amazing books that I've read that have really helped me to level up as well. Um I want you to kind of take note uh anyone that stands out to you and research it a little bit more on Google. Um Reading is amazing. It helps us to really learn to really um you go learn and really navigate and see what others have went through as well. So take note of any of those books. Um Any questions that you ladies may have, um or gentlemen, please drop them in the chat. Uh Finally, as I mentioned, advance your career with young ambitious one. I thank you all so much for having me. As I mentioned, my name is Unique Williams and it's been such a joy and a pleasure to be here with you. Um And if you wanna keep in contact with me, please feel free to add me on linkedin at Unique Williams uh at linkedin and you'll see me pop up. And in addition, if you want to learn more about young ambitious one, please go to young ambitious one.com. If you enjoyed this session, right in the chat. Trust your process. Thank you. All for joining so much. I really appreciate it. It's been amazing being with you. I look forward to seeing your linkedin ads and I look forward to some of you joining as clients. Let's level up. Let's trust our process and remember the future belongs to those who prepare for it. You have what it takes. Let's get it. Thanks everyone. Thank you so much for joining. If there are any questions, please drop them in the chat.

I'm super open and happy to address any of those. Um Someone wrote how to not overthink. Um oftentimes we're in our head and we think about so much before we actually make a step or a move. Let's let's stop that. Let's write all the scenarios down. Let's weigh the pros and cons but those who really achieve are the ones who are able to execute. We have to move past just the planning phase, the overthinking phase, the analyzing phase, we have to move towards execution and that is where um the game changer is. That is what really sometimes separates the good from the greats and I want all of you to be great. So let's um try not to overthink and overanalyze everything, but let's move towards execution, trust your process. Amazing. Any other questions that you may have? Um I saw a question talking about cybersecurity, information security. Um As I talked about earlier in the chat, I know we might cut off pretty soon. Um but cybersecurity information security, those are some of my specialty areas and that is such a crucial industry. What does it even mean? I'll give you a quick summary. What I do is I help banks as a technologist to understand how can they best protect us our customer data from hackers, from scammers. Um and that is by looking at their policies, their procedures by understanding what are the controls they have in place to protect our data. And that is such a crucial job and a crucial industry because as you know, data is king, data is queen, data is key.

And if someone is not out there in the background, holding financial institutions, companies, firms, organizations to the standards of protecting us, then who will? That's a part of my job as a technologist working in data privacy, cybersecurity and information security. If you're also interested in that, feel free to reach out to me on linkedin, let's talk more about all the information security and cybersecurity items. All right. Uh Anything else any other questions that you have? I see you guys writing some amazing feedback. I'm so happy that you found this session helpful. Um It, it means so much to me. Uh I'm looking at some of you adding me currently on linkedin. So that's super awesome. Thank you so much. Um As I mentioned, join our young ambitious one network, add me on linkedin. I am here for you. Any other questions? Just taking a quick view to see anything that we have. All right, I don't see anything else coming up, but I thank all of you for joining with me. I look forward to staying in touch. I look forward to some of you joining. Thank you so much. I appreciate you and go out there and be great. Remain ambitious always.