I am ready for the next big change!

It has been a while since I started blogging, and this has become my opening statement in every blog:) Pardon me for that. I do determine to make it regular tho.

Last weekend, we were very busy setting up for back to back events, and while doing so, a long serving manager of a venue made a comment when she saw me : "Hannah, how have you been? I want to share something that will encourage you. Do you know whenever I asked the young and new planners, who they are inspired by. Your name is the name they mentioned." I paused and pondered : Am I really happy to hear that? Or is there something I can do for the industry with my voice to the next generation? Looking back, I started personal instagram in recent year not because I love to share about my private life, in fact no one really knows the people that I love much, and I guarded this very closely.

But I instagram because I know my young adults and the next generation are listening. I have a group of youths that have been watching my life since I started Heaven's Gift. They knew me since I led worship in my younger days, and many still called me : Auntie Hannah.
I used to blog a lot because it is my way of therapy all along, and interestingly I drew a group of amazing clients and fans who actually read my blog. Then I merged with Kim for HW, and she was not comfortable to me initially being so open in the public media, and I restrained for a while.
But then I also realised, Hannah is who she is, bcos I am as real as it gets. I don't like to flatter, I learnt that if you want people to learn and excel, you need to tell them the truth even the hard truth, if not they will assume they are already there and often they ended up complacent and disillusioned. And I give compliments to those deserving. Maybe my method is not the best method, but that was how our generations were trained. We don't take short cuts, we don't allow ourselves to be complacent. We work hard, we discipline our body and brain, we work smart. We don't over promise, we always over deliver. And we learn not to assume or take at face value, we inspect before we expect, because we believe in excellence and not compromise.

That was my training as a student and the business world for first 10 years of my career before I went into creating my own business - i.e. Heaven's Gift. Now 14 years have passed as the founder of Heaven's Gift, and I looked back. I am very grateful that God has given me amazing clients who truly believe in me as a person, before my works. Every amazing creation you have seen, show you who I am, and who my clients are. They maybe well to do but they are often private, all they want is a good invested time for their friends. They have a style of elegance and sophistication that further inspire me to excel even better. And till today, they are still my fans and encouragers.
My Clients then are my today's supporting Fans and Encouragers. I am grateful!
Beginning of this year, I wrote a post that mentioned I am in a new journey of business growth. Last year, we launched Leap Inspire 2016, it was truly a very steep journey. We learnt and have seen more challenges in the wedding industry, and we knew 2016 and 2017 will be a tough time for many. So we decide to change path to make our team stronger. I came back from a sabbatical leave learning more about our own weaknesses and team dependency on me as the owner and founder. That makes me determined that I have to restructure my team and our processes, bcos we will not make it when the wave of crisis came. It was another steep learning, bcos as a captain, when you change your course for your ship, it always take time.. and thankfully we are a small ship.

Looking back, I am glad 2017 opens a new path. And I have also discovered the very thing I want for my life and my team. I don't want to create a business that is dependent on me, I don't want to own every business ideas that I have. In fact, I want a life that I can always call beautiful because I truly want to spend more time with the people I care about and love. Yet I know I am uniquely different, and God has raised me up to a time like this, to give me a platform that I can share, impart and empower. Not everyone has the opportunity of such, and as much as I am private, I learn again and again to be open about my business and how I have run it to where it is today.

Today, half of Heaven's Gift business is corporate consultation beyond weddings. And I am glad to say, Heaven's Gift Academy has been birthed. It was something I know I have to do, because it is about time to train the next generations the real skills of creating a business idea, and more importantly to make it work. And we are so glad, the regional market is open, and we travelled and speak. I always remind Kim and team : Just because we have an idea, doesn't guarantee that we will have a successful business model. We need to put in as much focus and determination to refine it to a model that will sustain in the long run. The lazy team will take shortcut and expects business to suddenly become uber overnight, but even then uber has also been struggling to sustain.

The saying goes : Passion begets Passion, Faith begets Faith.
So for those creative entrepreneurs and the Aspiring to be, if you truly want to be trained under a discipline that I have gone thru, write to us to enrol in our Academy, because we are in for something real.
Every Wow Creation comes with a Discipline and Training that is as intensive

Comments

sara said…
You have never failed to inspire me Hannah as a person and with your work - and words too. It is a great step that you took. I used to live in Singapore earlier and have been following you since then. One of your quiet admirers. Please let me know if there is any opportunity for people like us sitting overseas for online course or something.
Hannah Chong said…
Thank you Sara for the kind words. In fact Heaven's Gift Academy is not setup for local audience primarily, we have been speaking to regional audience, and it was them that have asked for HG Academy to be established. So yes, our courses are designed for overseas students. Write to us, and we will furnish you with more details. We have already have 2 Malaysians that join with our local participants in June, and I am meeting them soon to see their progress.
sara said…
Thank you for your prompt reply Hannah. I will sure write to you by today and look forward to details from your end.

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