Hello beautiful friends! Happy International Women’s Day! On this special day, I wanted to share a bit more personal way of how I bring back to the community and focus on building a positive future for other women, men … and our planet too. One step at a time. With great like-minded people by my side. Maybe it will inspire someone to take a bigger leap towards making more impact!
“Don’t be black and white, no one is perfect. If you want to change something, offer possible solutions and suggest some alternatives. We all should support each other, support local businesses, or start our own movements because that is what can really make the positive change and create the difference”Alex Ikonn
Let’s start!
Project No.1 – Re#!nk Leadership
Ret#!nk Leadership is a project I have been working on together with 4 inspiring women: Founder Katja, and 3 amazing partners-in-crime: Kim, Gul, and Anja. We all believed that leadership is not just a job title. We all believe that anyone can be a leader in their own unique way, that’s why we have started exchanging the knowledge and experiences as we Ret#!nk the leadership together. We started building a self-empowerment platform, organizing events, talks and starting one-on-one conversations around personal leadership.
That’s why I want to give special Kudos to everyone in this project:
Katja Kolmetz – is a co-founder of the Experience Design Studio Human Deluxe and a founder of the Female Leadership Program, which helps women accelerate their careers with techniques from Entrepreneurship, Psychology, Design. Katja loves to see humans grow, discover their personal leadership style, and encourage them to own their way of leading. Thank you for inspiring this change Katja and also connecting us to Ret#!nk Leadership project!
Gül Yesiltas – is currently pivoting her career into the startup space by mastering Scrum and Product Owner skills! She also is a mentor at a non-profit organization to support young adults who are the first ones in their families to study. This inspired the idea of not only supporting women but also other “underdog leaders” who lack immediate role models and need to create their own paths.Thank you Gül for your energy in driving this forward and continuously finding new initiatives, conversations, people and ideas.
Anja Lukic has recently graduated from the university and believes that everyone is the leader of their own life, and as with many things, helping others may often start by helping yourself. Having studied personal leadership in Canada, she realized how many professionals get this type of education only when they are already managers – which is too late. Thank you Anja for bringing lots of fresh ideas to this project and creative content that will inspire many!
Kim Zagarske has been facilitating a Female Leadership Program with Katja – guiding women about personal leadership, self reflection and influencing others around you by being your true self! Thank you Kim, for always questioning the norms, stereotypes, gender biases and sharing it with the community.
Heads up: We have just hosted a first online event about overcoming imposter syndrome, but many more news are coming up soon! Stay tuned and follow the community on LinkedInLinkedIn and Instagram!
Project No.2 – Mentoring at ADP List
ADPList is a community based on connection and inclusivity — a platform where people can find, book and meet mentors around the world and have a conversation or a continuous mentorship. At ADPList, designers believe in inspiring meaningful conversations led by the mentors.
It’s where conversations are shared.Cultures are exchanged beyond borders. Knowledges shared without barriers. Helping others achieve their dreams.Felix Lee
I have joined ADP List since the beginning of pandemic to help many UX designers who lost their job due to pandemic and mentor them by providing feedback on portfolios, resumes, interviews and connecting with people or companies as well. It is super gratifying for me to have conversations with people in my field and not only help them, but learn from their experience as well. I made new friends, I connected junior designers with companies, I was lucky enough to take some of them for a walk in Stockholm and have a continous friendship.
I had a chance to meet many great mentors by joining this community and will continue to mentor and advocate for it continuously! Design has always been a voyage and in this time, we all hold on to hope and believe in a brighter future. And this will inspire the future generations of designers; so let’s journey on.
That’s why I want to give special Kudos to Felix Lee and James Badour for creating the community:
Thank you for believing in this community and building it! Your hard work, continuous improvement in the platform and that together we can do more than any of us alone. Together is better.
Project No.3 -Elephant Ambassador for Karen Tribe in Thailand
Many things have changed since last year. No matter how much I get involved in professional projects, one area that is very important to me is the environment and our impact on nature and other species (not only humans). That’s why I continuously support and help the Karen Elephant Tribe in Thailand to raise funds for their 7-elephant family.
While politicians, media, celebrities are sharing the news about how COVID-19 is impacting thousands of people worldwide, I wanted to draw a bit of attention to forgotten ones, to our big-hearted elephants. How does the virus affect the lives of elephants in the Karen tribe? And most importantly – what can we do to help? So this year I have also been focusing on raising funds for the elephants – by helping with digital channels. Feeding one elephant a day might cost around 15 euros, feeding 7 elephants a day equals to 105 euros a day. That might be little for someone in Europe, but a lot of money for a family in Thailand. Just a simple math.
If you want to help and know more, let me know! I am currently rebuilding the website to set up easier donations and will share a few more updates in the future!
The world is beautiful when it’s unified in diversity, not as a gigantic lump of gray mass. We need you to lead by example and pioneer change by being your authentic self unapologetically.
Your life is your message. Go and write one!