Since leaving my job in late August 2021, I haven't updated articles on my personal website for about a year. Let me share some new achievements from this year:

September 2021 Approved for Taipei City Incentive and Subsidy Program

December 2021 Accepted as one of the fourth batch of resident teams at the Social Innovation Lab

January 2022 The official website of my brand (CrossOver) officially launched, now with one thousand users

March 2022 Signed contract for my second personal book (with Happiness Culture)

May 2022 Selected for the Women Flying Goose Entrepreneurship Accelerator

June 2022 Participated in PitchCamp, made it to finals; began preparing for Hahow online course crowdfunding "Career Sideline Business Management: Complete Guide to Freelancing with Doubled Income"

July 2022 Second personal book officially released 《15 Minutes to Writing a Viral Thousand-Character Post: Deconstructing the Eye-Catching Principles Behind High Views and High Shares, a Personal Practical Guide to Turning Writing Passion into Profit》; joined BNI Business Network.

Other projects in preparation that I cannot yet announce will be kept under wraps for now :)

In the second part, I'll discuss some basic company information—honestly, this is the first time I've written it all out comprehensively. This past year I've spent more time on external business development, company organization, internal exploration, and corporate positioning, plus exchanging ideas with many entrepreneurs and meeting wonderful partners.

  • Company Name "Girl Karen Limited Company" was established on May 12, 2020. The company name comes from my pen name "Girl Karen." Admittedly, I was embarrassed introducing the company at first and worried whether employees could accept it, but fortunately they have. I hope that one day when we grow bigger, I can proudly announce this name!

  • Registered Capital: NT$500,000 | First Year Revenue: NT$2.25 million | Current Year Provisional: NT$2 million (note: revenue, not net profit)

  • Company Brand Projects: Three in total, detailed below with my reflections.

(1) CrossOver: Positioned as a creator accelerator, planned to transition to workplace personal brand consulting in the second half of the year. This project has been selected multiple times for accelerators and received government subsidies. Specifically, the business model is subscription-based—members pay a small monthly fee and gain access to media exposure resources, brand collaboration opportunities, article editing and refinement, unlimited participation in CrossOver reading group meetings, and training courses.

I initiated this project because in 2019 I started a reading group that at its peak had 120 unique participants per month. While still working full-time, it was overwhelming. I designed many mechanisms, solutions, and support systems, then continuously iterated—from reading groups to knowledge communities to now combining media resources as a creator accelerator. Frankly, I'll be more proactively building personal knowledge brands, which means adjusting prices and payment methods.

One achievement I can share now is that in May we hosted a publishing matching event, and 80% of participants received further publishing invitations, suggesting we're truly guiding amateur creators toward more socially impactful paths. :)

This service will eventually extend to B2B.

(2) Expand Circle Media Consulting: Essentially a media PR agency helping clients build brand image, arrange media dinners, media hospitality, organize press conferences, manage social reputation, and release news stories. For deeper clients, we also advise on business models and marketing strategy. This project stems from my nearly ten years of media resources and practical experience. Growing up in the service industry, I naturally think from the client's perspective, so despite our small team size, in 1-3 years we've accumulated over 100 brand projects and signed long-term annual contracts.

What I consider my best result so far: Golden Melody Awards, Disney, May Day All Found Them — Luo Shenjun Designates Them as Successors, Who is Designer Duo MixCode?

Explanation: Although the client previously worked with other agencies on media coverage, they had fewer proactive news placements. Starting this year, knowing in January that they'd need Golden Melody exposure in June and July, we started contacting media in June. On the Golden Melody Awards day, we coordinated online momentum. Subsequently, there were 13 proactive media reports total. ^^

These two projects—one B2C, one B2B—I'm working to find the flywheel between them.

(3) Girl Karen

I personally manage my own brand social media accounts, and through writing, I've gradually received speaking invitations, book deals, and course opportunities. Even while focusing on entrepreneurship, I've maintained my personal brand, signing contracts for four books this year, plus launching online courses with more brand expansion planned for the second half.

Three. The Growing Pains of Entrepreneurship:

(I) There's No Perfect Decision, Only the Most Suitable One

In my first year of focused entrepreneurship, I've had to balance personal content creation while cultivating other creators. Because I built the website from scratch rather than using templates, I even served as product manager for a time—an agonizing process since I understood nothing and frequently lamented to engineer friends, feeling truly stupid. Because of my ignorance, many compromises had to be made. Additionally, setting up legal and financial infrastructure at times made me want to cry on the street.

Beyond that, I had to establish organizational systems and various operational knowledge for CrossOver. Honestly, I didn't do this well because I was too busy, nor did I properly educate team members, so some details aren't maintained as carefully as before—something I need to review. Speaking of what needs reviewing, because we evolved from reading groups and kept iterating, when we opened to new users, we discovered original and new users were two different target audiences, but my flawed decisions and judgment placed them together.

Some aspects should build brand community reputation, others should be revenue-generating, but when these contradictory things coexist, we don't just stagnate—we fail to attract the right audience.

After deep reflection and consulting many reading group organizers-turned-entrepreneurs, each advised me to pause and avoid burnout. I evaluated carefully and realized I currently can't responsibly continue CrossOver reading groups because I have more important tasks. I don't know how long this pause will be, but I remain grateful for organizing two hundred reading groups—incredibly rewarding! However, I'll be honest: my personal growth from them went from substantial to nothing, because I was no longer choosing books I wanted to read, but books the market and readers wanted, reducing my motivation to attend and organize. While everyone else benefited, I experienced depletion... (I owe an apology to longtime members, but we can still be wonderful friends in life ^^)

(II) Accountability: All Problems Come from Myself—Nothing to Complain About

When I was a junior employee, I was difficult, complaining about work, management, salary—constantly breaking organizational rules because I believed my way was fastest and best (and performance confirmed it). I lacked team spirit. Honestly, such employees, despite good performance, have limited advancement because there's no collaborative spirit and no ability to think from the enterprise's perspective.

I wanted to change jobs many times but repeatedly failed because my vision and scope were narrow—I couldn't view problems from broader perspectives or longer timeframes. I obsessed over trivial matters.

After starting my business, those old complaints and worries seem laughable.

Because entrepreneurship brings uncontrollable problems, and these uncontrollable risks stem from my own lack of proactivity and insufficient deliberation.

For instance, financial management. Until early this year, I didn't understand "why" entrepreneurs can only pay themselves fixed monthly salaries plus bonuses. Especially since our company is a sole proprietorship with very flexible finances, occasional financial problems felt manageable. But after many accelerator courses, accounting classes, and discussions with entrepreneurs, I discovered my previous financial concepts were wrong.

Because an entrepreneur's salary is also a monthly operational cost that I easily overlooked, not calculating this expense, deceiving myself that projects were genuinely profitable and sustainable without being too hard. Actually, to cover monthly fixed costs and excessive operational expenses, we'd shift funds from another project to subsidize.

When discussing this with professionals, I learned this is very unhealthy and dangerous—but given my weak financial knowledge, I only recently started seriously managing it. Fortunately, I finally have the capability... (embarrassed)

(III) Being Kind to Yourself: If we cannot provide equivalent value when taking someone's time, we're wasting time.

If you've taken the StrengthsFinder assessment, you know that leveraging strengths aligned with purpose enhances performance across the board. My top StrengthsFinder theme is "Achiever," meaning "this theme explains your inner drive—you constantly seek to accomplish something. Every day feels like starting from zero. By day's end, you need tangible results to feel good. 'Every day' means all days: workdays, weekends, vacations. No matter how much you need rest, an unproductive day disappoints you. There's a fire burning inside driving you to accomplish more."（Original）

In other words, I genuinely love working.

However, my view on loving work has evolved. In June this year, my life underwent unprecedented transformation, changing how I understand and define work. Previously, I loved helping others; now I still enjoy it, but I assess whether it benefits me sufficiently. I want only effective work, not bothering others through wasting time, so I practice only "effective" communication.

This "effective" naturally means real substantial revenue, or growth—intellectually, spiritually, or otherwise. If it's idle chat, complaining, or wasting time, I won't bother much, or only help depending on the relationship—but of course, ensuring the interaction is effective.

Because I choose to be kind to myself.

Everyone has the same amount of time. If we don't provide equivalent value when occupying others' time, one party loses—is that fair?

A year of entrepreneurship has brought me more growth than any previous period. I've become wittier navigating business situations and negotiations. I better empathize with others facing difficulties, understanding what help they need while ensuring mutual benefit. I no longer assess things by whether I like them, but by whether they're meaningful, because I cherish hard-earned time and money, letting each action nourish my life and each investment compound within myself.

Karen (End of July 2022)