Entrepreneurship and Leadership

This Saturday, I had the privilege of attending Dannielle Sakher’s Think Tank on “Entrepreneur and Leadership” as a part of the Associate National Lead program. As an associate national lead, aside from getting to build and host my own conference, I also get to build connections with industry professionals and leaders. Dannielle shared her own personal experience and journey from being a high school student to joining the Junior Achievement Program to who she is today! Through her wonderful speech, I learned a lot about what steps she took and what she learned throughout her journey.

Not only that, Dannielle showed us a few leadership lessons to achieve our future careers:

1. A lot of people know more than you, so ask when needed.

2. Make the most out of our mentorships.

3. Be ready to enter open doors. (prepared to face any unexpected opportunities)

4. You will not know until you give it a try.

5. Sales is a transferable skill and it is very beneficial not only in business but also in many other careers out there.

Aside from her career journey and some leadership advice, Dannielle kindly came up with a pitch competition where we each have a chance to pitch a random object in our room in 20 minutes! This experience was very fun and challenging at the same time. Throughout the challenge, I got to learn from my peers and listen to a lot of amazing sales pitches. I learned a lot of new marketing techniques such as creating an interesting hook, demonstrating the product, including a brief yet detailed description, and keeping the audience engaged.

As for the sales pitch I did for my hair dryer at home, Dannielle and my peers gave me tips on how to improve my speech. I learned how to come up with an interesting hook to attract the audience, as well as improve my descriptions to a target audience.

Overall, my biggest takeaway from today’s think tank was the few leadership lessons. Dannielle truly opened my eyes and showed me how to step out of my comfort zone and be prepared for anything that may come my way in the future.