Today's Spotlight on Success is on May Nguyen, who is based in New York City.
May Nguyen grew up in an entrepreneurial family of small business owners. When it was time to choose a career, she decided to venture away from what was familiar. She attended New York University at the Tisch School of Arts and studied film and television production. Following graduation, she worked in the entertainment industry in numerous high profiled projects that were national and international in scope. She's worked on the Comedy Central sitcom Strangers with Candy, the CBS Early Show and a number of media events covering the Rolling Stones, Janet Jackson, Prince, Tommy Hilfiger and Pepsi. After a number of years in the entertainment industry, she decided to change course in pursuit of a more balanced life. She was seeking challenge but also desiring a high quality of life.
She found her niche in the dot-com world, in sales. Her journey has almost taken her full circle, as currently Nguyen finds herself most at home in the entrepreneurial spirit of small- to mid-sized dot coms. Currently May works for LinkExperts, a company that specializes in link building strategies as a way to optimize organic search results. Established in 2004, LinkExperts has well over 260 well-known and emerging clients.
1) Where did you get started in your business? My first .com experience was with RichFX. I found the job listing on the online bulletin board at NYU. I took a junior position as part of my career transitioning with the goal that I would work myself back up to a mid/senior level in a couple of years.
2) What values do you try to live by? One of the most important values for me is honesty. I think its incredibly important to really know and be honest with yourself. In being honest, you are then able to identify what your wants and needs are, allowing you to achieve them and find happiness. Everyday, my goal is to be a decent human being and to positively contribute to society even if it's with the smallest action of helping someone cross the street.
3) Who do you consider to be a role model? My mother is my role model. She uprooted her life from Vietnam and came to America to establish a new one. The challenges she's overcome, professionally and personally, taught me that however difficult the obstacle, you keep going. The mindset to continue on no matter what life has dealt you is one of the most valuable lessons she's given me.
4) Name one of your biggest challenges and how you learned from that situation. When I first started in sales, I worked in a black hole of my own making. I was so focused on making the numbers that I didn't take the time to really get to know my peers. Two months later, I was the top sales person to book meetings but my meetings were not closing at the same ratio as theirs. From this, I had to take a step back and be self critical. I learned I needed to open myself up and really get to know my colleagues. Going out to lunch, scheduling meetings with my them, being more aware of what was happening in the social environment of the office allowed me to foster friendship that allowed me to learn from their experiences. Their shared wisdom helped me to close. I learned no matter what the job. You can not operate as if you are on your own island.
5) When was your most successful moment to date? My most successful moment to date has been my career change. Film and television production had been such an ingrained component of my self identity. It was incredibly difficult and painful to part from it. It was what was familiar to me and where I had garnered much success. My process for self reflection, identifying the next chapter in my life was a long and challenging one. Identifying what was important to me, and the things I would need to be happy has thankfully lead me to my current carreer in which I feel incredibly fortunate to truly enjoy what I do.
Comment Preview