Female Disruptors: Athena Oanessian of You Squared On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
Listen to your gut. When I was looking for marketing companies, I narrowed my choices down to 3, but one of them just felt “off”. The founder of one of the marketing companies was in a similar space, and though working together could’ve been beneficial, something in my gut was nagging at me. I brought this up to my business coach and he told me to always listen to my gut. Sometimes we know something is wrong intuitively. I chose to listen to mine.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Athena Oanessian.
Athena Oanessian is a young, purpose-driven entrepreneur who inspires people to set and achieve their goals and reach their full potential! She’s also the creator of the life-changing You Squared motivational goal planner! You can get her success bundle and guide on meaningful goals on her website, yousquared.co/.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve questioned all my surroundings. I have a huge curiosity for the world, and how things work and constantly ask “why?”. This interest has carried me my whole life! As of a year ago, I graduated Magna Cum Laude from university, and after lots of curiosity about who I am destined to be and what I want, I discovered my purpose: inspiring over 1 million people to reach their greatest potential! I kept thinking about how to do that, and realized I had used multiple planners in the past, but they all had issues that left me very unsatisfied. I searched high and low to find a perfect planner but couldn’t find it, so I decided to create it!
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Instead of just offering a planner to help people just write down their to-do’s, I created something to help expand people’s personal development and growth. The You Squared planner is also so goal oriented, and helps inspire people to set and achieve their biggest goals, as well as the accountability to stay on track!
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
The funniest mistake I made was not realizing that I didn’t need my website to be ready before I created and started posting on my social media profiles. The marketing company I hired pre-launch didn’t even suggest this, and when the website was ready and launched, the content they posted on my social media profiles wasn’t even product related, it was more just inspirational quotes. We could’ve done this pre website launch, as well as other teasers to gain momentum for launch.
I learned that you could create your social media channels prior to having your website launched. The tease and anticipation is actually great!
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I’ve had several mentors throughout the years, but one of the most notable ones was a VP in Hilton, who taught me a lot about leadership. She said one thing that’s resonated with me all these years and that’s that “great leaders are someone people want to follow”. This has served me well over the years as I’ve made sure to be an inspirational leader and someone who team members want to work with, rather than just listen to because they have to.
I fondly remember working as a Food and Beverage Manager for the prestigious Genesis Invitational (a yearly tournament held by the Tiger Woods Foundation) and there was one team member in particular who absolutely loved working with me. He got moved to another section the following day and came to ask me if I could speak with my manager and get him back to my station. He said he didn’t like working in the other section and really enjoyed working with me and my group. I was able to talk to my manager and I got him back the next day! He worked so hard, he was genuine, kind, and personable, and we were a great team, especially during the high volume, fast paced lunch rushes! Others in my team also knew that if they needed help, they could count on me. They didn’t listen to me because they were afraid of me, they followed because they were inspired.
Another one of my mentors is the General Manager of a huge chain of hotels, We’ve chatted over a delicious cappuccino many times and he would always listen to me, answer my many questions, and give me some direction and advice. He was always upfront and transparent with his answers and didn’t hold back. It was then that I learned the power of transparency and the kindness that goes into helping others with your acquired knowledge and life experience. It taught me to me more giving.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
It really depends on what the intention of the disruption is and how it affects people. For example, Richard Branson did lots of innovative things when he started Virgin Atlantic airlines. He took an industry that hadn’t changed in years, and did something different. He wanted to make the flying experience fun, so he did. If a disruption helps a group of people, without causing harm to others, then it may be positive. It’s about moving forward.
If a disruption helps a group of people while causing harm to another group, that may be negative. For example, a lot of small business owners say that Amazon and Walmart have caused them to go out of business. Some may see this advance as a negative disruption. While I don’t think there should be Walmart in rural areas, this competition should drive small business owners change their ways, and take their businesses online. A big reason why they fail is being resistant to change. So it can also depend on the side of the coin you look at.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
- Listen to your gut. When I was looking for marketing companies, I narrowed my choices down to 3, but one of them just felt “off”. The founder of one of the marketing companies was in a similar space, and though working together could’ve been beneficial, something in my gut was nagging at me. I brought this up to my business coach and he told me to always listen to my gut. Sometimes we know something is wrong intuitively. I chose to listen to mine.
- Skills can be taught, personality cannot. I’ve been taught that when looking to hire employees, it’s best to choose someone with a a great personality, who is teachable, over someone who solely has the skills to do something. Just because someone has the skills doesn’t mean that they’re enjoyable to be around, a good team member to work with or a good fit for the company culture. If the most skilled person has a crappy personality and they’re unbearable to be around, it’s not a good hire.
- Don’t be afraid to delegate. This one is huge for me because I’ve always felt as though if I wanted something done right, I had to do it myself. Delegation was extremely hard for me and I’d often take on a lot more work just so I could make sure it was done up to my standards. I knew it was a problem though and I knew as a business owner I couldn’t do everything myself in the long run, so I had to change.
- One of my mentors taught me the 10–80–10 principle. So if I could find a team member to do the work 80% as good as me, then I should do 10% of the upfront work and lay the foundation, framework, strategy, and expectations, then the team member does 80% of the work in the middle, and I get the outcome back and do the final 10% of the end as a check up and polish what’s needed. I learned to delegate my time consuming work that someone could do 80% as good as me, so that I can free up most of my time to create and do more challenging things. That’s helped save me lots of time and frankly energy.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
I’m going to create more inspirational products, coming soon ;).
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
I believe it’s fear that they can’t do it, or fear of judgement. I believe most male disruptors don’t have the fear, or take action irrespective of it, whereas some women disruptors let fear hold them back.
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
I absolutely love the “How I Built This” podcast and I’m manifesting being on it in the next 3 years! The host, Guy Raz, interviews incredibly successful entrepreneurs and their stories open my eyes and inspire me! There’s a lot to learn from each entrepreneur. Every single episode is packed with lots of great takeaways.
When I was still in school, I would commute twice a week to university. It was was a long drive and sometimes I’d get bored listening to music. So I’d start playing “How I Built This”, and the drive was a lot more enjoyable!
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’d love people to take action! To not stay stagnant. To believe in themselves and to do something great! I want them to be happy and fulfilled!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“People who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do” by Rob Siltanen. I’ve always known I was destined for greatness, and my purpose is huge. Inspiring at least 1 million people is a big feat, but I know I can change the world, so I’m doing it!
How can our readers follow you online?
By visiting my website, https://yousquared.co!
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Female Disruptors: Athena Oanessian of You Squared On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.