Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Yen.
Hi Jessica, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m an executive coach and the founder of Daily Work Journal, a journal planner notebook designed to help working professionals thrive in their careers. Before becoming an entrepreneur, I was a Senior Data Analyst specializing in people analytics. I am an alumna of Salesforce, Yelp, Deloitte Consulting, and Cruise. And I consider myself a native of Taiwan, Malaysia, and California and currently live in West LA.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The biggest struggle was building the business while balancing my career, mental health, and other priorities in life, all while in a pandemic! I officially launched the product in July 2021 while going through a very devastating and traumatizing break-up from my then-boyfriend. Thankfully, a lot of my network of friends came together to help me launch and support my entrepreneurship journey: whether it’s by reviewing my pitch competition scripts, helping me think through different business plans, or sharing the word on social media. They were also crucial with helping me through that difficult time in general. I’m proud of how I pulled through with my business in those early days.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
The story of Daily Work Journal really started from when I was going to college. As a first-generation Taiwanese-American, I was expected by my parents to pursue a career that could weather all economic downturns (such as a career in medicine). So they were dismayed when I told them that I would rather major in Economics and Global Studies instead. As a result, my career choice came to define me from college through my early and mid-twenties. Not only was I trying to prove to my parents, but I was also trying to prove to myself that I had made the right decision to pursue a career in technology consulting and had everything under control.
I started keeping a journal in 2016 when I quit my technology consulting job and started my first data analytics job in Big Tech. Because I had my identity wrapped up in pursuing technology consulting, I was feeling lost about why I wanted to leave that job after only 1 year. In addition, I wasn’t thrilled at my new job and was starting to feel disillusioned about working in tech in general. I started to document what I was noticing in my day-to-day at work so that I could better pinpoint why I was feeling unhappy. Keeping a work journal became one of my work routines.
Fast forward to 2020, I had a meltdown in the pandemic and leveraged my discontent as an impetus to quit tech and become a full-time executive coach. As I did that, I started noticing that (1) a lot of prospective clients couldn’t afford to pay my rates for coaching (2) they wanted help and clarity in their careers that keeping a work journal could help them solve. Thus, I started to look into creating this work journal product – which does not exist on the market. The most popular journal planners on the market are gratitude journals, followed by goal-planning journals. I wanted to create a product that combines career coaching, work reflection, and work accomplishments to become the ultimate companion to one’s daily work lives. As a result, I created Daily Work Journal.
I felt especially compelled to pursue this because I know first-hand how powerful keeping a work journal can be. Furthermore, it is a relatively simple practice: I thought people just needed a little bit of help to get started on their work journaling practice. In the most current iteration of the journals, all of the worksheets and reflection pages come with a QR code that includes a video tutorial that walks them through how to complete each section. I’m really invested in making Daily Work Journal as easy to use and as useful as possible while being at an affordable price point.
I’m most proud of listening to my customers and making sure Daily Work Journal brings them value. I still personally email all my customers to check in with them on how they like the journal and what product feedback they would give me.
My focus next year is to expand into corporate gifting and gift boxes with the new sizes of journals that I’ve launched last month. There is still a lot of potentials for Daily Work Journal to grow and reach new customers.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
Huberman Lab Podcast is my current favorite! Andrew Huberman is a professor of neurobiology and psychiatry at Stanford and he talks about neuroscience and science-based tools in his podcast. The topics are fascinating and shared in a highly accessible way, I highly recommend it.
Pricing:
- Daily Work Journal Quarterly Undated is $35
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dailyworkjournal.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/dailyworkjournal
