Why “dear erin” ?
For so long, I’ve said “I want to write a book/blog/newsletter” about business and all I’ve learned. I blamed my inability to even get started on a combination of busy-ness, imposter syndrome and procrastination. One day it came to me: motivation was my problem, not that I didn’t have anything worth saying.
Like so many goals, the scope overwhelmed and limited me. I couldn’t really get motivated to add my voice to the millions already out there preaching how-to business solutions. I was too worried about whether I could compete for shelf space in the airport bookstore instead of focusing on the only target market I really care about. The only target market that truly would motivate me to get going. Erin and Chris.
Erin and Chris are my amazing, talented, phenomenal children. Both are pursuing arts-based careers, but in industries steeped in business. Erin is more immediately pursuing an entrepreneurial path; Chris may eventually. But either way, I just want them to have the benefit of everything I’ve learned. And we talk about business issues all the time as it is! So why not write it down?
“dear erin” is my family recipe book for business. It is a collection of topics we’ve discussed, are discussing or I want to discuss - trusted advice, if you will, of the kind a mom with a business background would tell her daughter going into business. It’s meant for Erin and Chris, but maybe, just maybe, it might help you too.
And what does Chris have to say?
Despite the blog name, Chris has quite a bit to say and it is pretty intriguing. Chris has an athlete’s mindset and works in hospitality as a chef. He and I tend to talk quite a bit about leadership, while Erin and I talk more about management. Let’s avoid going down the “leadership” vs :”management” rabbit hole right now, but suffice it to say that the leadership learnings Chris and I discuss will factor into our letters to Erin fairly regularly. And while we’re widening the net here, let’s also mention that my husband Scott’s experience in both leadership, management and starting up new programs in healthcare will show up from time to time as well.
And now you have a little insight into Yen family dinner conversations!
A little about me…
When I was little and my parents took the family out to eat, my father invariably would remark on how many people he could see working at the restaurant. He’d challenge us to look at the number of customers versus the number of employees. When we got back in the car after the meal, he’d inevitably make some pronouncement as to how much longer he thought the restaurant would be in business based on that ratio. He was usually right.
Though my four decades of business experience span everything from large corporate to small business to start-up nonprofit, I’ve never stopped wondering about how every business I encounter works and critiquing it based on what I could see and learn. A problem-solver by nature, I find the capitalist system to be a never-ending source of puzzles. How does that work, why is it working and, more often than not, why is it not working? Or, if I was in charge, how would I do that differently? Along the way, I’ve never lost my father’s penchant for observing, counting, measuring and assessing. It’s how he taught me to see the world.
You can read about all the different stops along my professional journey on LinkedIn if you are so inclined. But the best way I can describe myself is to direct you to the climactic scene in the first Matrix movie. Remember when Neo is confronting Smith and two other agents in the hallway and gets up even after he’s presumably dead? All of a sudden clarity reigns. He sees not three men standing in front of him, but the entire Matrix code scrolling across the entirety of his field of vision. I’m no Neo… but I am continually trying to see the code - which in business is more real to me than the image publicly portrayed.
This isn’t my first rodeo, by the way. When I ran the Chamber of Commerce in Oak Park and River Forest, I had the pleasure of writing a weekly blog on small business for the Wednesday Journal from 2014 - 2018. Click here for some (possibly dated) essays that will give you some insight into my point of view.