Brief Introduction
Vivian Tan is a social entrepreneur and a public speaker who helps aspiring young individuals create a personalized "drink" for wellbeing and success through her creative and meaningful content.
Brilliant Achievements
* Impacted over 15,000+ people through content creation & public speaking
* Founder of YOUth of BC (Founded in May 2019; Over 2000 followers on Instagram, 1500 Facebook Group members)
* Suicide survivor & mental health advocate, diagnosed with ADHD
* Public Speaker (25+ speaking engagements, 4x TEDx speaker)
The Beginning Of YOUth Of BC
Back in grade nine when she had to choose her future courses, she felt unprepared and lost because it was overwhelming to make the right choice. One single misstep could greatly impact her future path. When she asked her classmates, she noticed that everyone felt the same as well, which made her realize that there was a problem with the current education system. Within her community, she found like-minded individuals who were able to assist her in broadening her plans in building an organization. Thus, she decided to start YOUth of BC to provide a solution to support students to chase their aspirations.
Overcoming Obstacles
One obstacle that she faced was when her confidence to present herself as an empowered leader greatly dwindled, which hindered her ability to take the initiative to transition to a non-profit organization. Her journey towards success started when she started her organization as a social media platform while gathering excellent team members before applying as a non-profit initiative. Fortunately, she was able to gradually overcome her fears by accepting that it’s okay to make mistakes as a leader since not everyone is perfect. She learned that making mistakes is the journey for an entrepreneur to become successful.
The Importance Of Public Speaking
According to Vivian, public speaking is imperative not just when you're speaking to a group of talented individuals but also in everyday life because when you speak, you communicate. Through skillful public speaking, you are able to communicate your ideas and opinions clearly and organize your thoughts logically. Public speaking is also an important soft skill that people would love to see in a resume, and may provide one with a higher chance of being hired by prestigious businesses. Lastly, this skill allows you to have better relationships with your friends and your family, thus improving your confidence.
Providing Advice
One major piece of advice that she would give to those aspiring to become a public speaker is to have a strong mindset. According to Vivian, mindset determines how confident you are as a speaker and how you can combat stage fright or mistakes. When you don't have a strong mindset, your confidence can be negatively impacted when you make mistakes or experience failures. One way to develop this mentality is to catch those negative thoughts and say, “ I'm feeling nervous right now but I can do this. It's okay to make mistakes.” After that, you can feel more confident in yourself and start priming your mindset towards being a confident public speaker.
Passion And Advocacies
Vivian is extremely passionate about helping others find their own success, through her assistance, whether it be personal development, professional development, public speaking, or improving their mental well-being.
One of her advocacies is to stand up for herself whenever possible, and to ensure that her voice is being heard and listened to. According to Vivian, this is vital because if you do not advocate for yourself then other people can take easily manipulate or take advantage of you, which may prevent you from confidently representing yourself to become the person you want to be. Aside from that, she also likes to advocate for finding success and improving mental well-being because she believes that these can help you feel fulfilled in life and help you find your purpose. Most of the time, these aspects in life are overlooked because everyone is constantly busy having others define their worth, which is definitely not the right path towards chasing success.
Becoming A Changemaker
Problems are everywhere no matter where you look and no matter where you go. And when you look deeper and when you think critically, you see that some problems are far from being addressed. If you're inspired to fix that problem that you see, then you can start taking action within the community to become a changemaker. In Vivian’s case, the problem she saw was within the education system. Even though school is supposed to educate students to face their future lives, she believes school does not adequately provide individuals with the skills, support, and tools necessary to help them succeed in their careers after high school. Because of her frustration with feeling lost and unprepared, along with other peers, she felt inspired to create an organization to combat this problem and better society.
The motivation behind why she still continues to aspire to become a changemaker is that she can see the impact that she creates with other people in a butterfly effect. Even if it's a small act of change, it can consequently portray an impact that can influence other people to do the same. Furthermore, her experiences and the inspiration she derives from other changemakers motivated her to take action within her community.
Personal And Professional Goals In 2021
-- Social: Maintain and strengthen relationships, while expanding her personal network to form a community.
-- Financial: Start learning financial literacy to achieve financial freedom and not worry about money.
-- Health and fitness: Exercise at least 30 minutes a day and try meditation for 5 minutes a day to improve wellbeing.
-- Career: Kickstart her personal branding and map out the career path.
-- Life vision: Reflect on her mission and values, and create the person she wants to be five years from now.
-- Spiritual: Find at least 5 things in life that she wants to live for
-- Character: Advocate more proactively to gain self-confidence
-- Parenting: Help her parents improve their parenting skills, and learn how to become a good mentor and parent in the future.
-- Love: Envision the ideal relationship with her significant other and educate herself on what makes a healthy relationship.
-- Intellectual: To form and maintain a routine for lifelong learning and self-improvement for not just school, but in life as well.
-- Quality of life: Tidy up and maintain the ideal workspace every 2 weeks for a good quality of life.
-- Emotional: Try cognitive behavioral therapy to combat negative thoughts, anxiety, and insecurities.
Resources To Recommend
1. CMANXT will help you get the transferable skills you need to succeed in your professional career.
2. The League of Innovators has a free course and accelerator to help you start your initiative, whether it be a business or nonprofit.
3. Speech Dojo offers public speaking skills accessible to every student with their resources and free course.
4. Samdemma is a self-leadership program to gain clarity, create structure, organize your life, and reach your goals.
5. Wear Eflik is a platform & community connecting female leaders and students across the world via meaningful apprenticeships.
6. Acadium helps you find an apprenticeship and get the mentorship, experience, and connections you need to start your digital marketing career.
Contact Information
1. Website
2. Instagram
3. LinkedIn
4. Email
Final Words
“Life feels like an ocean. You can't seem to know everything, and you can easily get lost in its depths. You can only see so far into it, as the truth cannot shine on everything. You may feel that there's no direction because there is no set path on where you can go. It can suddenly change before your eyes every day. There are many monsters hidden in the darkness, waiting to drag you down to consume you. However,there are also many secret treasures, a magical, marvelous, and mysterious world you will enjoy.
You are the boat. Push through, and it will make way for you. Become who you are, and be happy with it, no matter what others say. No one can steer your boat. Steer it in the right direction, and you will discover your purpose and your treasure.”
- Vivian Tan
