085: Your Challenge is Your Gift | Sandy Dang

  What do you do with the tough things in your past?  Do you ignore or embrace them?  What if your painful memories hold the key to helping you identify your unique contribution?  This possibility is what my guest Sandy Dang opens your mind to as you listen to this episode.  Years after struggling to adjust to life in America as a refugee, Sandy uncovered a powerful truth.  Her challenges weren't just difficulties she had been through.   Her challenge was her gift.  And this gift is what sets her apart and makes her uniquely suited to serve her world.  As you listen in you'll learn why this is true not just for Sandy but for you too.  You'll learn how you can use this knowledge to create something that you're uniquely made to create and use to serve your world.   Reference: Episode 76 - When Your Job and Mission Align | Josephine Garnem   About my guest:  Sandy Hoa Dang is a social entrepreneur, inspiring speaker, experienced executive, and leadership trainer. She is the Co-founder and Principal of CoInnovate Consulting, a company that provides leadership training and capacity building to governmental agencies, foundations, and nonprofit organizations. In 2010, Sandy was appointed by former President Obama to serve on the Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF) board, an U.S. federal government agency with a goal to reconcile the wounds of war through education.  Later, the board appointed her to serve as the Executive Director of VEF. Prior to VEF, she served as Founder and Executive Director of Asian American Leadership, Empowerment, and Development (AALEAD), an organization that supports immigrant and refugee families through a broad array of educational and social services. Sandy has received numerous awards for her outstanding public leadership, including being named as an Outstanding American by Choice in 2021 by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. Ms. Dang earned a bachelor's degree from Duke University and a master's degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.  Sandy co-founded Inspire Leadership School and you can learn more about her on her LinkedIn profile.    About: The Reframe to Create podcast is hosted by Joy Spencer, an Executive Leadership and Storytelling Coach, Speaker, and Organizational Development Consultant working with professionals and leaders at all levels within organizations.  Joy leverages over 17 years of experience she gained while working to champion change in social justice movements, including those related to global access to essential medicines and consumer advocacy for online privacy.  This work required a dogged commitment to not merely challenging the status quo, but to reimagining and working towards creating an ideal future.  It is this commitment to creating that has shaped Joy's coaching philosophy and approach today. Using her signature C.R.E.A.T.E. framework, Joy guides her clients through a process to become incomparable in work so they can get paid to be themselves.     Follow Joy on LinkedIn  - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joy-spencer/