Local Profile's annual Women in Business summit is an incredible experience that brings together women in all walks of their careers, to inspire and build them up.
In this recap, Yasmeen Tadia, CEO/founder of Make Your Life Sweeter, shares valuable advice for women leaders in business, broken down into five steps just for you!
It's all in her brand's name: Make Your Life Sweeter.
Yasmeen Tadia founded the gourmet candy brand with a vision of making the most luxe, gorgeous, healthier-for-you, "every day is a celebration" sweets (have you seen their artisan chocolate truffles?). But she also saw a whole mode of doing business in that vision; one that values the worth of every person, customer or employee.
She started in corporate HR for 10 years, and became a single mom to her son Zane when he was six months old. When her son turned three, Yasmeen decided to start the women-owned, women-led company of her dreams that works with the likes of clients from Ferrari to Oprah.
She had some incredible advice to share on being a successful woman leader full of purpose and passion at our 2021 Women in Business Summit.
Here are her tips on becoming a true leader in business.
Tip #1: Remember those who support you through it all.
Like almost every other company, the pandemic really things back at Make Your Life Sweeter. Although the entirety of the last year was spent adjusting to having a storefront, coming up with creative ways to get their product out, and doing only a single event, Yasmeen says that through it all she is so incredibly grateful for for the companies and people that supported her company during the pandemic.
"I will forever forever be grateful for them for literally checking up on me and saying 'Yasmeen, are you okay? Can we come to your store? What can we do?' Those are the people that we will never forget. It's those people that take took care of us when times were really tough. Those are the people that will always be here to support you."
Tip #2: Have a passion? Follow it and commit to it.
Yasmeen says the same thing when it comes to starting out on a new endeavor: necessity is the mother of invention.
"When you're in a situation where you really, really want to do something... you have something, there's something there, and you have the support of your family and friends, you can do it,"
Yasmeen remembers putting everything she had into her Make Your Life Sweeter dream.
"When I came up with the idea, I said, Look, I'm going to do 100% of everything for three months. If it doesn't work, I'll go back to corporate. Totally fine... But for three months, I'm putting this amount of money away, and I'm going to see what happens. I think it was meant to be. I really worked really, really hard to get here. And now I have an amazing team that helps us grow the business going forward."
Tip #3: Establish client relationships based on trust.
Hand-in-hand with knowing the market, for Yasmeen, is knowing her clients... and building relationships with them based on trust.
"I would be building meaningful relationships on trust with clients with anybody that I would meet. When I traveled, my team always dressed up no matter what. Even if our flight was at 5 am, we'd all dress professional, get on a plane and we make relationships. I love getting to know everybody, I love being able to make a difference and put a smile on people's faces, whether or not they buy for me."
Tip #4: Never underestimate the power of great mentors.
Emotional intelligence, as Yasmeen has seen it play out in her career, is often grown through life experience, or having great mentors that can guide you and give you positive feedback.
"It's the power of influence in your life; you become like the people you spend the most amount of time with... I have mentors in every aspect of my life."
Tip #5: Life is not a dress rehearsal - so make it count!
Yasmeen stressed a powerful statement that she lives by: "Life is not a dress rehearsal."
"We dress up everywhere we go; my team is always on point. You don't get a second impression. People look at you the first time and unfortunately -- or fortunately -- they have that first impression of you. How can you do a better job of making sure that you're really putting your best foot forward always?"
Watch the Yasmeen's whole story and more sweet advice below:
