Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling: Living A Thousand Lives In One

You can’t make this up… “I consider myself a glass-ceiling breaker. As a Filipino American woman, I am also determined to break through the bamboo ceiling. I did not possess this kind of determination until I became a mother to my daughter, who was born with a heart defect and kidney disease.?

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My mom transformation journey into a software engineer, data scientist, writer, wellness coach, homeschooler, and Instagram micro influencer didn’t happen all at once. It happened in waves. In each wave, I learned how to manage my time, how to rise despite the worst odds, and how to feel fulfilled as a single mother. My success from $75 in my account to making six figures is largely due to my ability to make the most out of my time.

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My time management skills are built on 10 years of critical care nursing. A nurse has to make time management decisions on the fly to handle the unexpected, patients in cardiac arrest and short staffing, while constantly monitoring vitals, adjusting IV medications and managing machines (ventilators, hemodialysis, and intra aortic balloon pumps.)

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In my software career, I learned agile development, an iterative and incremental method to software development. I applied these principles of planning, small goal setting, and evaluation to other parts of my life. This has been useful in my writing business, enabling me to publish 150+ romance books. I have taken critical time management skills out of the hospital and the agile development practices from software development to build the life I dreamed of. “ Imee Cuison

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Your children are your greatest teachers in life. And I thought I was done with school! But the moment I became a mom, I realized that I still had so much to learn about life, business, humans, the universe… because of them, I have learned lessons that have served me in my career. If you’re a mom struggling to find your next career move or business strategy, I have one piece of advice: listen to your kids. Their brilliance is still completely unadulterated.?

Have you ever felt like you were trying to dig yourself out of a hole, but with every scoop of dirt you only headed deeper into the earth? This week, we hear from Imee Cuison and Stacy Flax as they discuss what it takes to lift yourself out of the hardest of places and find the light at the end of the tunnel!?

“It’s funny how sometimes a sh*tty situation leads you to an awesome place that you never even imagined … that’s my story.

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I had never talked much publicly about why I left my first career in the corporate world. I left because I was burned out beyond belief - like those pieces of crumbs sitting at the bottom of a toaster. I didn’t have the energy or the courage then to talk about what I went through. But I do now! And I want to because the more we all talk about things like workplace burnout and mental health in general, the faster we can get rid of the absurd stigma surrounding them.?

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I did lots of things to dig myself out of that not-so-fun place. At first, the idea of starting a business (or doing pretty much anything other than watching Netflix) seemed unimaginable. But something cool happened to me along the way. I discovered my passion for graphic design. And that led me to wonder why my husband’s boxer shorts always had fun designs on them and his undershirts, in stark comparison, were always plain and boring. My company was born at that moment...with me in my bathroom…staring at my husband’s underwear that he leaves on the bathroom floor. Every. Single. Day. I named my company Bored Rebel - and it is my second act in life. It is what got me through the last remnants of my burnout fog. It’s become my extreme passion, my daily dose of medicine and my small platform to put some empathy (and humor!) out into the world.” -Stacy Flax, founder of Bored Rebel

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Oh man, have I had my fill of sh*tty situations that somehow led me to the most beautiful of places. I think this is one of those sage pieces of wisdom that most people believe “comes with age.”?

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Not me. I think it simply comes with life experience. Put yourself out there. Take risks. Make moves you never thought you would make. I promise you, with every single one of them, even the crappiest ones, you will be lifted to the most amazing of places - ones that you could have never imagined in your wildest dreams.?

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P.S.: Want your glass-ceiling breaking story featured in our You Can’t Make This Sh*T Up newsletter? We want that, too! Send an email to [email protected] with your best “oh sh*t” moment in? business for the chance to get your name, brand, and story in front of hundreds of thousands of women in business.?