Priyanca Rao Pays it Forward to Help Other South Asian Women Entrepreneurs
“As women, we often set invisible barriers to achieving our personal goals – we may hesitate to not inconvenience others, we fear asking for help, or we feel like we have to prove ourselves…Instead share your dreams and talk about your challenges in a genuine way.”
-Priyanca Rao
Artistic documentary style wedding and portrait photography in New York City
As featured in last week’s Forbes article, “How One Female Entrepreneur Is Focusing The Lens On Successful South Asian Women,” Jia Rizvi spotlights Priyanca Rao’s commitment to lifting up her fellow women entrepreneurs by way of collaboration and mentorship. Through knowledge sharing, communication, and vulnerability with her peers in the photography industry, Rao has seamlessly developed a booming business to the point where she can put effort towards helping other members of her community do the same.
One way in which Rao set out to display the accomplishments and notoriety of other South Asian women was through her own craft of photography. She describes this feat,
“I thought a compelling project would be to photograph 30 to 40 revolutionary women of South Asian origin and showcase their stories – the adversities they face in their life and career, the paths they carve for themselves, and the ways they advocate for themselves. It was important to me to include a range of unique stories to inspire others. I used photography as a medium to bring it all together and make it powerful by showing women’s personalities, their scars, their colorful heritage, and who they are.”
Showcasing the stories of other South Asian women for the world to admire and learn from was a commendable achievement, to say the least, and Rao goes on to share other lessons that she had to learn the hard way. These key takeaways include work/life balance, knowing when to say “no” to projects, and the power of mentorship. wegg® is built on a foundation of mentorship, and the importance of fostering such relationships cannot be overstated, as “75% of executives credit their success to mentorship, and 90% of employees with a career mentor are happy at work. 84% of U.S. Fortune 500 firms leverage mentoring programs.” Working together and paving the way for those behind you are never wasted efforts.