Tag: hannah faust

Mid-Year Reflections on Playing BIG

by Chantal Pierrat

At the beginning of the year, in a letter from Emerging Women’s founder, Chantal, she asks the community, “How Big is your BIG?”

In that letter, Chantal illustrates the exciting possibilities of the New Year and sets an intention to dream BIG in 2015. She also reminds us that not everything has to be big, big, BIG all the time in terms of business.

“Sometimes “big” simply means “in alignment with our desires.” Sometimes just asking for what we want is big in and of itself.” ~ Chantal Pierrat

In times of adversity, Chantal also says to (re)inspire and nourish ourselves with the power of the feminine by circling with the important women in our lives.

It was a beautiful, motivating letter, rich with wisdom. And it’s an important message to revisit now that it’s summer and the midway mark of the year.

I don’t know about you, but I went BIG in 2015. New paths have unfolded and I have taken on exciting, challenging endeavors. I am pursuing the projects that I dreamt about at the beginning of the year and I’ve made huge strides in achieving them, along with other goals, both professional and personal.

We’re halfway through 2015 (how can it be June already?!) and I’ll be honest, despite the wins, I feel like I need a tune-up. I look back at where I was in January and I feel accomplished, but also fatigued.

So, in effort to maintain enthusiasm for my goals and work, I’ve taken some time these past few weeks to check in with myself. I evaluated my “BIG” so I can finish off the year by being the very best version of myself at this point in my life.

In this time of reflection, I’ve (re)learned 3 important things.

1) Sometimes creating your best life has more to do with what you remove from it than what you add to it.

I set a goal at the beginning of the year to diversify my portfolio of clients (I do digital marketing). I wanted to be more dynamic and marketable. But during the past few weeks, I’ve realized that although I’ve been performing great at juggling numerous projects with different clients, I need to focus on quality work over quantity to be at the level I want to be.

I made the decision to streamline my portfolio, focusing my work solely on a few companies, making my “BIG” – well, still big, just a better BIG… a more efficient BIG… one that can dig deeper with clients and better help them.

Bonus side-effect: My schedule has freed up, giving me more time to enjoy the outdoors and spend time with friends and family (something that we all know is significant). I realize there will be times in my life where this is the opposite – times when I need to “add” in things – but right now, in my work life, less is more. And I’m OK with that.

2) We’ve got to channel our feminine power to play big. But which flavor of feminine power do we need right now?

As mentioned above, Chantal reminds us to rejuvenate with the power of the feminine. I’m blessed to have wonderful and wildly accomplished women in my life, scattered all across the world. I love these women with every ounce of my being, so it’s difficult coming to the realization that I need more feminine power in my life. But it’s true! I need feminine power right here, in my own community.

AND, as much as I am nourished by my soul sisters, I’m realizing I need a different type of feminine power at this moment in my life. I need it in the professional realm, from women who’ve been in my shoes, who’ve made it through this chapter of emergence in their late 20s. Women in the midst of making their own big, BIG.

I’m making efforts to cultivate new friendships to inspire and help me in my everyday life. With the change in my workload, I’m taking the opportunity to get to know the women behind the brands I work with – feeding off their brilliance, humor, and strength. I’m also taking time this summer to chase after a few inspiring women in my community that I’d love to connect with on a deeper level.

I’m (re)learning that female friends are very important to me. When I’m surrounded by good women, I feel good, my soul feels good, and life is good.

3) Don’t get too attached to timelines. Any time spent towards playing BIG is fluid, and always valuable.

Lastly, assessing my “BIG” reminds me that reaching our goals, even if they are goals that seem obtainable in a year, is a journey in itself, and sometimes requires more than 12 months. Circumstances, and the way we react to circumstances, plays a huge role in the timing and timeline of those goals.

I’m consciously reminding myself during this reflection that the energy exerted and the trajectories I’ve pursued this year in going BIG are all relevant and valid, even when some things proved to be failures. And if I’m still working on achieving the same things in 2016… so what?! I’ll have 365 days of experience to look back on and learn from. Who knows – maybe “my BIG” will be reimagined into something even more meaningful.

We want to know: How is your BIG doing? Are you taking time to reflect during this mid-year mark?

We’d love to hear from you in the comments below. You never know who you’ll connect with in the tribe if you just put yourself out there. Thank you for contributing your unique voice!

Are you ready to take your BIG to the next level? Join the game-changers at Emerging Women Live 2015 in San Francisco to ignite the trajectory of your personal and professional journey.

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Why I Had to Elope, and Would Do It Again

by Chantal Pierrat

On Instagram, #weddingplanning boasts nearly 500,000 posts. Pinterest has thousands of boards dedicated to “wedding inspiration.” You’ve seen them, right?

Have you seen how a quick Google search reveals countless articles on the average cost of a wedding last year and how the more expensive a wedding is the higher chance of divorce?

My husband, Aaron, and I skipped the bridal magazines and eloped a few weeks ago, in a tiny ceremony officiated by a close friend with just a handful of witnesses. There was little planning, no hashtagging (we decided to unplug for the weekend), and no disappointments, as we had set no expectations. There was laughter and authentic connection amongst the few friends invited, and it was easy and very inexpensive.

As the bride, and as a young woman who is emerging, my desire to elope stems from a strong disagreement with the gendered notions of what a bride should be, and the patriarchal, consumerist framework of which weddings are built upon.

I wanted to direct the time, energy, and money that goes into a wedding to things that actually matter to me in life. At this point in time, that means starting my own business with my husband and best friend from college, working for a few start-ups and supporting the expansion of a Bolivian NGO. My husband’s reply is: “Ain’t nobody got time to get married when they’re busy changing the world!” I couldn’t agree more.

“Ain’t nobody got time to get married when they’re busy changing the world!”

When I said “yes,” the course we set as a couple was intentional. As conscious millennials, we both knew we wanted something simple and fun. We didn’t want anything with a fiscal note that would hinder our entrepreneurial dreams (which had yet to come to fruition at the time of our engagement, but ideas were swirling around in our heads).

Blissfully engaged, we carried on with our lives. In efforts to solidify our entrepreneurial desires, and quench our wanderlust (we both are avid travelers), we quit our jobs and took off for South America for some much needed soul-searching and change of scenery. As we traveled, we casually shrugged off questions about marriage from friends and family, stating, “We’re too busy traveling to plan anything.” Which was true. We were busy learning Spanish, making friends, exploring, volunteering and dreaming up business ideas.

Spending time together abroad was critical for us as a couple. Our consciousness and understanding of the world were challenged, tested, and transformed.

When we returned to the US, we were even more inspired to start our own business, so we channeled all energy into replenishing our bank accounts. We also became consumed by  helping expand a Bolivian NGO we had worked with, and began to plant the seeds for a small social enterprise endeavor. We explored new areas of interest. We confronted fears about finances and business plans, and comforted each other in times of post-travel anxiety (like when I had a full-on consumerist meltdown in a big box store in Chicago).

When we decided to actually elope, we kept it secret to avoid getting distracted from our work. In planning it, we used the same values as when we took the plunge into starting our own business – we focused on community, human connection and supporting the local.

We leveraged our favorite resources that have continually enriched our lives here in the US and abroad. We rented a venue from Airbnb that would host us and 6 of our best friends for a long relaxing weekend. We found a young, aspiring, local photographer on Craigslist who wanted to build his portfolio to capture our event, and Siri helped us find a local bakery to get a cake the day of. We wrote the ceremony and our respective vows on a shared Google doc a few weeks out (in between meetings), and found the perfect spot for our ceremony on the edge of a cliff by simply asking the Airbnb hosts for a suggestion upon our arrival.

I never once stepped foot into a bridal shop. Time was never wasted picking out placemats, organizing a seating arrangement or trolling the endless pages of theknot.com (which I had never heard of before writing this). I simply didn’t want an entire year of my life to be consumed by one day. We exchanged vows with ease and smiles, our hearts happy and full.

At the end of the day, any day, I want to be part of something bigger and more important than wearing an expensive dress and doing the electric slide.

Hannah Faust is the social media manager for Emerging Women, a digital marketer, emerging entrepreneur, and helps run Cochabamba Pedal Project with her husband. She is a graduate of the University of Colorado.

Come connect with Hannah and the rest of the Emerging Women inner circle at Emerging Women Live 2015:

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