Soft Launch, Loud Voice

New Year (kinda?), New Writer. Welcome to the 2025/2026 Women in Business Blog!

My name is Halen (He-len), and I’m super excited to have inherited this space from WIB’s previous blog writer, Camryn, who did a brilliant job over the past year. I encourage you to check out my personal favourites, including her Women in Wealth piece, as well as ChatGPT could never. 

You’re probably wondering about where I came from, why I italicize every other word, who gave me access to this page, (why I use so many parentheses); don’t fret, I intend to delve into all of that soon.

To borrow the words of poet Dominique Christina, “words make worlds.” I love my creative side because it forces me to be brave. From as far back as I can remember, writing taught me that I get to choose what's meaningful. What counts. What success is. But confidence didn’t come to me as a complete and perfect narrative. I built it, word by word, slowly shaping a version of myself that felt true, not impressive.

But writing matters as more than an art form or mode of self expression. It helps us communicate not only our hearts, but our minds. So why on earth am I a marketing major? Well, marketing is the perfect intersection between critical analysis and creative thinking. That’s the plan for this year: to take big ideas or wide topics and make them more digestible for the average university student. I hope you’ll stick around to see if something resonates with you!

I’m also here because I did the thing that scared me, and applied for the position. Simple, right? In theory, yes, very much so. Practically? No, very much not. If you’re anything like me, you spend time pouring over your skillset and résumé. Is my writing good enough? Will I be able to be compelling enough, engaging enough, entertaining enough? What about the interview process? What happens when I get tongue tied or don’t have an adequate response because I’m caught off guard? We spend so much time asking ourselves questions, relevant or not, to sidestep what we don’t want to confront. Fear of judgement. Fear of rejection. Fear of inadequacy. We might even settle for refining our know-how, because practicing something is easier than learning-by-actually-doing. Exposure risks failure. 

If there's anything that I’ve learned in my 20 years of existence, it's to do precisely the thing that scares you. Apply for the role. Ask for the raise. Advocate for your needs. Protect your boundaries. Walk into the room that you feel like you don’t belong in. 

But before you do, I want to circle back to our initial conversation. I write because my words actively contribute to the world I wake up to. Confidence is not as much a mindset as it is a habit. It's the practice of showing up before you’re ready because you know you’re qualified and you trust that voice & vision. Confidence is often mistaken for certainty, but that’s far too simplistic. True confidence is consistency. 

By the end of my first semester as a commerce student, I felt like I was eons behind. I had wrapped up my five courses, sure, but I had no clue about case competitions, hadn’t joined any of the clubs from the fair, attended one, albeit mandatory, networking event, and perhaps my worst moral failing of all, hadn’t set up a LinkedIn account. My to-do list was only growing, and I quickly felt like I was on the outside of some secret society where everyone was using the same words to speak a different language. It all went over my head and I was more than happy to duck down and let it. The last thing I wanted was to feel discomfort. My first finals season was challenging enough.

The full transformation story is a blog post for another day. But suffice it to say that I’m lucky to be part of a team that’s seen me through the messy middle, and out to the other side. Women in Business has, over the last year of me being a general member, empowered my voice professionally and otherwise. 

I’m excited to write for the club because conversations like these are the ones I wish I’d heard sooner. It's an honor, pleasure, and privilege to carry our passion forward through prose. Community. Empowerment. Confidence. The very things that drew me in are what I’ll keep writing about.

Remember, you have permission to show up to the table you’re hesitating about, even if your hands are a bit shaky as you pull up the chair. 

Keep the heels high & the goals higher (or maybe you don't even wear those, I don't know),

Halen