"In my experience, building genuine relationships is the true key to success."
Linda Ngo Tweet
As a serial entrepreneur with a passion for empowering and serving her communities, Linda Ngo’s company encompasses a diverse range of industries, including non-profit work, PR/marketing, consulting, and coaching, fashion, entertainment, cannabis, and authorship.
With a desire to constantly meet new people and learn new things, Linda is dedicated to helping her clients strip away the unnecessary and identify problems in order to find new solutions.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Linda Ngo: I’m a Vietnamese mother of 3, serial entrepreneur with the Passion to Empower, Transform and Serve my communities. My company houses a sprinkle of everything from Nonprofit work, PR/Branding/Marketing, Consulting and Coaching, Fashion/Entertainment/Cannabis and Authorship. I love meeting new people And yearn to learn new things everyday!! I truly help my clients strip the fluff, identify the problem so we can create the solution with a new perspective
In the past year, what is the greatest business achievement you’d like to celebrate with your team? Please share the details of that success.
Linda Ngo: I would love to celebrate a few new contracts we secured in the world of TV/ Entertainment. We’re able to host and produce our first talk show that will focus on empowering our streaming platform with Love, Laughter and thought provoking ideas, substance through the Amazing Conversations with our diversed line up of guests.
I was also excited about the expansion of the private school I currently sit as Board President, offering a few more programs that will truly help the students prepare for their next chapter.
Quiet quitting, The Great Resignation, are an ongoing trend causing many businesses to struggle keeping talent engaged and motivated. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. In your experience, what keeps employees happy? And how are adapting to the current shift we see?
Linda Ngo: It’s simple, employees want to be heard, valued and understood. However, it starts with management and or the leadership team. In my experience, building genuine relationships is the true key to success.
Knowing your staff’s name, background, family dynamics, culture, goals, hobbies, etc is a start to connect and engage with them, creating an environment that shows you care about them as human beings and not some invisible worker bees just there to perform for you.
When you’re able to know their trigger buttons verses their motivational buttons, you then allow yourself to be in position to know how to keep positive momentum in the atmosphere. I’m able to adapt in this current shift because I treat them as my colleagues rather their boss and empower them with opportunities for them to exercise their passion and skill sets.
Online business keeps on surging higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for the year to come and how are you capitalizing on the tidal wave?
Linda Ngo: I think it’s pretty safe to say the “online” platform isn’t going away nor losing any momentum anytime soon as it’s proven to cut a decent percentage of overhead monetarily, physically and by way of convenience and reach.
In order to capitalize on this tidal wave, I’m definitely taking heed to all social media and digital access platforms. In this generation, the world of You Tube and TikTok, there’s so much we can learn in different mental multitudes, yet, most CEOs refuse to partake in certain social media, therefore, leaving a plethora of opportunities to learn new perspectives or engage in the current tidal wave of their respective industry.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as THE real challenge right now?
Linda Ngo: Business truly does have obstacles as well as growing pains throughout each stage of their business growth. To narrow down to THE real challenge is a challenge, lol, so let’s agree to throw out a few that I feel are major challenges:
Customer Service – The lack of Customer Service is becoming such a nuisance whether it be in person, online or thru a 1-800#.. WE MUST take our employees through a refresher course every year so that we can truly measure the value of what a difference in customer service can make.
Leadership – Leadership including management is a huge problem. So often, management is a position gained from within thru skill set and tenure rather than the actual capabilities of actually managing people. Therefore, Leadership training is a must as a reminder of the Company’s vision.
And finally,
Employee Retention – Goodness, this has become a nuisance.. it’s getting a tad ridiculous to go to restaurants in particular and see so many available tables yet the wait is an hour due to staff shortages. I’ve seen it on all platforms, but, the hiring managers are forfeiting quality for anyone with a pulse to serve the missing gap.
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?.
Linda Ngo: This question can be tricky.. if you’re a start up, the underestimated part is choosing the right partnership, corporate team and tax status. So often, folks have an idea and then the immediate desire for instant gratification, so proper structure is often settled for short cuts to feed the immediate hunger to launch. The quick fix to this would be investing in a mentor that will guide one thru the appropriate procedures even when a short cut is desired.
If a company has started, something that tends to be underestimated is the lack of accountability and upholding company visions and standards. So many folks get comfortable over quick wins and tend to forget how competitors stay focused on needing several steps ahead.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Linda Ngo: My Superpower would have to be the ability to multiply myself with the abilities to read minds. That way I would be able to be in multiple places at once so I can solve problems by the masses.
Employees are often scared to speak up due to lack of confidence and fear of recourse actions, so to be able to read one’s fear or thought process, it would help me communicate at the highest level and create a solution to solve their fears without having to make anyone feel uncomfortable. As for cloning myself several times over with that capability, it’s pretty self explanatory. lol
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Linda Ngo for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Linda Ngo or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
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