Women in STEM: “Successful leaders are those who inspire and influence people to take positive actions.” with Jonha Richman and Fotis Georgiadis

Leadership is one’s ability to turn visions into actions, inspirations into concrete sets of executions. Successful leaders are those who inspire and influence people to take positive actions.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Jonha Richman who has over a decade of partnerships and PR experience working with global innovative tech and Blockchain firms helping them scale their global marketing operations. She is also a venture partner at JJRichman, a private investment fund investing in diversified assets around the globe including real estate, cryptocurrencies, stock market, among others.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! What is your “backstory”?

I started working at the age 17 where I juggled between studies and work. Such experience earlier on in my life has helped me appreciate the importance of hard work and persistence.

I then found my calling in public relations and partnerships as I’ve worked with traditional advertising companies with digital transformation campaigns and influencer marketing. I’ve worked on global marketing and partnerships campaigns for the US, Europe, and Asia.

While most of the companies I work with currently tap into my expertise and network in the media and PR industries, I also advice companies in business development & partnerships.

I’ve helped put together the strategy and implementation that helped achieve having IKEA reach 35,000 stories written about the brand and reach 3.7 million in a span of 9 days in Singapore and Malaysia.

I’ve also advised Athena Network on Twitter engagement strategy that won the Diageo contest — a $10 million strategy to empower 2 million women in the Asia Pacific in 2017. The strategy resulted in the campaign reaching an audience of 4.18 million in Southeast Asia (SEA).

I currently work with hyper-growth tech and Blockchain firms in scaling their global operations.

Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

I work with cross-functional and globally distributed teams and companies so the challenge does not only lie on the fact that I have to lead people of different personalities but also different cultures and different time zones.

I enjoy learning about the psychology behind people’s behaviour. This has allowed me to expand my understanding of what motivates people to do certain things at certain periods of time.

This has also helped me to better assemble and empower people I lead them. I subscribe to the idea of putting ‘aces on their best places’.

What does leadership mean to you and how do you best inspire others to lead?

Leadership is one’s ability to turn visions into actions, inspirations into concrete set of executions.

Successful leaders are those who inspire and influence people to take positive actions.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

I have two great mentors:

1. My mum — who believed in me before anyone else did.
2. My grade school teacher — who told me that I would never amount to anything.

I dedicate all my successes towards proving the former that she is right and that the latter is wrong.

Was it difficult to fit your life into your business/career and how did you do that?

Most people live their adult lives living someone else’s life and making other people’s dreams come true. As soon as such realisation hit me, I refused to dance to the same tune.

It’s tough at first. However, the key is finding the intersection between the things you’re naturally good at, and what other people are willing to pay for.

Source: Human Business EU

Did you find that as your success grew it became more difficult to focus on the other areas of your life?

As I have been trained by life earlier on to do both equally important and impactful activities such as studying and working at the same time, I find such training to be crucial as I strive to advance both my personal and professional developments.

While it’s still challenging at times, I simply look back at the younger, hungrier, and a lot less privileged version of myself. Then the task at hand tends to become a lot more bearable and the lofty goals become more achievable.

Sometimes all it takes is to be reminded that all the seemingly difficult things in front of us become smaller and easier to tackle compared to the grand scheme of things.

Can you share five pieces of advice to other leaders about how to achieve the best balance between work and personal life?

1. You don’t have to choose just one. You can succeed both personally and professionally. The answers are just not as obvious.
2. Strive to live each day until you find the balance and intersection between your goals.
3. Take necessary breaks to recharge and refocus. But, don’t you ever stop.
4. List the things you want to achieve on the left corner. Compare that with your daily activities on the right. You will soon realize that you spend most of your times on activities that don’t necessarily bring you towards the reality of the items on the left.
5. Learn to let go of things, emotions, and people who can’t help you achieve the best version of you. You owe that to yourself.

What gives you the greatest sense of accomplishment and pride?

Success is relative for most people. For some, it’s about battling the inner demons that constantly try to distract us from achieving our goals.

For others, it’s closing that much-coveted sale. For me, whenever I’m able to connect two talented people to reach a common goal — that for me is the epitome of collaboration and success.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I would encourage more people to explore the things that they are naturally good at.

Then find people who could help them improve or complement the things that they seem to lack in. That way, we will not walk about in life thinking we’re never enough.

By finding people who can help you at things you don’t necessarily excel in, you can focus on developing and strengthening key areas that come naturally to you.

What is the best way for people to connect with you on social media?

@JonhaRichman

Thank you for all of these great insights!

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Women in STEM: “Successful leaders are those who inspire and influence people to take positive… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.