The Tea

Just like how I stumbled my way into establishing myself as a bookkeeping entrepreneur, I fell into establishing an inclusive brand.

“It all started when this girl met this boy, and they fell in love…”

My husband is Chinese Malay American. And I always felt like folks in my professional life only saw me as white. Which I am, but I felt like this other part of myself was overlooked, hidden, and needed to remain hidden. I didn’t feel whole because I didn’t feel like I could show up as myself in my professional life. I didn’t fully fit into spaces that were dominated by white culture.

This was most apparent right before I left my business partnership and established Phoenix Growth Systems. My business partner was a racist. (Something I should have made myself aware of before going into business with her, but you live and you learn.) I wanted to create a space where I would feel comfortable being myself. And I wanted that space to be safe for other folks that felt the way that I did. But my business partner was very much against this. To the point that we had a very unprofessional unquiet argument in a coffee shop - Excellent publicity by the way.

So I did what any reasonable, angry woman would do. I took my ball and went home. I created the structure for Phoenix Growth Systems and moved all of my clients to the new business. (Score a point for not having a partnership agreement. I highly recommend having one, but I made it work in my favor.) Three days later, I was giving notice that I was no longer working for the business and negotiating my way out of the partnership.

Here came the hard part: I had a lot to learn and unlearn. I needed to learn how to navigate unfamiliar spaces. I had to learn how to craft my messaging. I had to unlearn networking the way my dad did it and relearn to do it the way that I would do it. I identified where my cultural competencies lay, areas where I lacked cultural competency and how to improve where I was lacking.

So many folks patiently shared their knowledge and experiences with me. I made mistakes, but I also grew and built the space I was looking for.

One thing that surprised me was how established I have become in queer communities. I recognised early on that this was an area that I needed to improve. I needed to build relationships with folks in the LGBTQ community and make PGS inviting for them. And I shouldn’t have been surprised by this, but the level of acceptance and love that I have received from the LGBTQ community has been overwhelming and is something I greatly appreciate.

There’s more to it; things I’m overlooking and forgetting. And I still have a ways to go. But I’m very grateful to be building something that provides space for nontraditional entrepreneurs from historically excluded communities. We’ve come a long way together. We have further to go, but we’ll get there together too.