What if you could reframe every failure as a stepping stone to impending success and growth? What if you could view every no as yes that just hasn’t happened yet? In today’s show, I’m introducing you to the ultimate growth mindset in human form – Tiffany Pham. Her inspiring story of a relentless work ethic and a never-give-up attitude will leave you with a whopping dose of motivation to go out and do something great.
Tiffany Pham is founder and CEO of Mogul, one of the largest platforms for women worldwide. As a coder, she developed the first version of Mogul and soon reached more than 18 million women weekly across 196 countries and over 33,000 cities. Tiffany has been named to Forbes’ “30 Under 30,” Business Insider’s “30 Most Important Women Under 30” In Technology, and ELLE magazine’s “30 Women Under 30 Who are Changing the World.” A judge on the TLC show, Girl Starter, Tiffany is a graduate of Yale and Harvard Business School. In this episode, Tiffany Pham shares the importance of pinpointing your purpose, how she was able to get some big names to give her a shot despite not having experience early on in her career, and her secret sauce to building an audience and community on a global level.
A background of inspiration
Tiffany Pham’s journey began with her family and the inspiration she drew from them, especially from her grandmother, who was a business mogul pioneer among women in Asia. After growing up in Paris, Tiffany moved to Plano, Texas, where she learned to speak English by watching TV shows as a 10-year-old. She saw firsthand how powerful and instrumental media can be for learning and education and she never forgot that feeling. Tiffany’s life changed forever at age 14 when her grandmother passed away; Tiffany remembers promising to follow in her footsteps, and she has become a strong, capable woman because of her grandmother’s influence.
An amalgamation of cultures
Tiffany’s life is truly an amalgamation of cultures. After being raised in France by Vietnamese/Chinese parents, she moved to Texas and then attended college at Yale University. The only things she knew about Yale were what she had seen on Gilmore Girls but she got a scholarship and headed to the northeastern US. It’s no wonder she has been so driven to connect women all over the world through the Mogul platform, which spans cities, countries, and languages.
Pinpointing your purpose
When you pinpoint your purpose, your life and career become integrated into one and the same. When you find your passion and know what drives you, then every step you take contributes toward that goal. As a result, you’ll never feel burnout. Why would you want to do a job that you don’t love?
Over-perform and over-deliver
Tiffany Pham set a pattern early in her career of working different jobs to learn a wide variety of skills and develop an array of abilities. She would contact her role models and offer to volunteer on their projects, contributing and giving support in whatever way possible, just so she could learn from them. She would do whatever it took to over-perform and over-deliver in every role until she was entrusted with more and more responsibility. Soon she came into partnership and collaboration with these role models on their projects, learning valuable skills along the way. She was happy to start out with small gigs that were not paying jobs, just to gain the experience.
Managing commitments and setting priorities
You might think that Tiffany Pham was spreading herself too thin, but she learned to prioritize her side hustles so that she could still over-perform at each one. She was committed to doing the quality of work she began to expect of herself–and would settle for nothing less. She often worked with the same people over and over again, in different places and on different projects. Many of these were people she cared about personally as friends, family, or colleagues who brought valuable skill sets to the table. Tiffany Pham says staying present in the moment allows her to switch gears between the personal and professional in these relationships.
Learning from failure
As strange as it sounds, Tiffany loves and celebrates failure! Something she learned from her father is that a failure is actually succeeding when you learn and move forward. With this philosophy, she learned early to try everything and figure it out. When Mogul first launched, it was a platform run by a one-person team. Obviously, not everything ran perfectly and there were failures, but those were the steps that moved them forward with the growth that has put them where they are today.
The secret sauce
Take a moment to think about the magnitude of Tiffany’s global audience: 18 million women in 196 countries each and every week! She identifies three components to her “secret sauce.” She shared a lot of herself with users by becoming a super-user of the site. She used valuable content to enable the connection with others. The third part is that she mentioned Mogul’s mission to anyone who would listen. As a result, she learned the importance of being who you are and allowing yourself to be vulnerable.
Overcoming the odds
If you look at the statistics, then you’ll see that the odds are against women-led companies. Tiffany Pham identified investors who would align with Mogul’s mission and invited them to visit the offices to see the Mogul team in action. This led to a fast yes or a fast no, but it helped Tiffany find those who were “in it for the long haul.” It meant that they could be selective about who they brought on board. One of Tiffany’s favorite fundraising tips is to search for “Angel Investors” on LinkedIn and contact them directly or through mutual connections to reach out. One of Tiffany’s fundraising philosophies that she lives by is that a no is a “not right now” that will turn into a yes.
Highlights of the Episode:
- 2:27 – An amalgamation of different cultures
- 4:27 – Being an advocate before it became mainstream
- 5:45 – Pinpointing your purpose
- 7:13 – Learning different skill sets in different jobs
- 11:08 – Getting people to trust you when you’re young
- 13:11 – Showing your credibility
- 16:37 – Managing commitments and prioritizing
- 20:53 – Wearing different hats
- 22:57 – Failing forward with growth
- 28:51 – The secret sauce
- 33:30 – The balance between being vulnerable and professional
- 34:59 – Overcoming the odds
- 33:30 – A no is a yes . . .
- 41:30 – The Fem Five
Resources Mentioned:
- Mogul Website
- Free gift for NextFem nation: For 25% the retail price of Tiffany’s book, You Are A Mogul: How to Do the Impossible, Do It Yourself, and Do It Now, email [email protected].
- Find Tiffany on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter
The Fem Five:
1. Favorite book for women?
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins
2. Favorite self-care hack?
“Drinking green tea throughout the day”
3. Best piece of advice and who gave it to you?
“My father said, ‘It’s OK to try something. If you fail, fail forward’. Another piece I’ve lived by came from something Dale Carnegie said when I was a kid. He said to look at any stress in your life and ask yourself if it will impact your life five years from now.”
4. Female thought leader or CEO you’re into right now?
5. One piece of advice you’d give your five years younger self?
“Always believe in yourself and don’t have imposter syndrome so often. You have a right to have a seat at the table.”
Last Time on The NextFem Podcast
Cultivate Executive Presence to Enhance Your Leadership Influence – with Suzanne Bates
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