If you have been to a grocery store recently, including Whole Foods (AMZN), Target (TGT), and Sprouts (SFM), you may have seen the packaged Asian food startup brand, Omsom, on the shelves. The company, created by daughters of Vietnamese refugees, launched during the pandemic in May of 2020. The younger daughter, and current CEO of the brand, Vanessa Pham, was only 24 years old when the pair began the business.
Yahoo Finance Senior Reporter Brooke DiPalma sat down with Pham for a deeper dive into what it takes to lead a new company at such a young age. The CEO offers three tips for new entrepreneurs.
“The first one is to lean into your strengths instead of focusing on your gaps,” says Pham.
Lead This Way is an interview series that features frank conversations with today’s leaders. The series gives consumers and investors an inside look into the innovative thinking and diverse life experiences of some of the biggest players in business to find out how they lead through change, and how they define success for themselves and their organizations.
For more of our conversation with Pham, click here. For more of our Lead This Way series, click here, and tune in to Yahoo Finance Live for more expert insight and the latest market action, Monday through Friday.
Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Brooks.
Video Transcript
BROOKE DIPALMA: What are three tips that you have for maybe a new entrepreneur or someone who's looking to make a big break like you?
VANESSA PHAM: One, the first one I think is to lean into your strengths instead of focusing on your gaps. I think where we really unlock the deepest power and potential is actually lean into what we're best at. The second piece I would say is understand that this is going to be an incredibly challenging personal journey and normalize that and be ready for that. Like be ready to build self-knowledge, to interrogate narratives inside you that aren't working.
Then the last piece is be willing to be moved as a leader. Keeping your heart open, being inspired and feeling whether that's the highs or the lows. And so I really try not to Harden as a leader. And I think that's so much of how you can unlock the power to give energy to other people.
