Headshots for Female Finance Executive
In November, I had the incredible honor of photographing Wendy Palacios.
Wendy shared how for the last two years she’s been on a road of self-reflection and self-development.
“I took a class called ‘Mindful Self-Compassion’ to build my inner strength and calm the inner self-critic that was so loud in my head at the time. It was loud because, during COVID, it was challenging for me to build relationships with peers and colleagues in the virtual world we were living in. I had taken on a new role leading a big initiative at my company and it was really difficult to connect without that face-to-face interaction,” Wendy shared.
Wendy took this class as the first step in her journey to calming that inner voice and it helped her have more confidence in herself and jump-started her meditation practice.
Recently, Wendy completed a course with the Wharton School called “Executive Presence and Influence: Persuasive Leadership Development.”
“For where I want to be in my career, this class encapsulated everything I had been learning through books, ted talks, and lectures over the years. I realized it’s not about me anymore. If I really want to be a leader, it’s about how I can start inspiring others. Like Maya Angelou said, ‘I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.’”
“As a leader, that’s what I want to be. It’s not just about how good I am from a technical standpoint, it’s how I can make people feel and grow better. I want to focus on inspiring people and teams and honoring everyone’s voice and diversity of thought. As a hispanic latina, I want to be an inspiration to others and bring them along with me – to be a strong promoter and advocate across ethnicities, and genders. As part of this journey, earlier this year I became co-chair of the women’s leadership network at my company. I can become that advocate for women and women of diversity. I am stretching myself to be in positions where I can help be a voice and help provide inspiration. This photoshoot was part of that journey.”