An entrepreneurial club has emerged at GCC. Lean In For Entrepreneurs, or LIFE, is a club that focuses its objectives around a series of eight workshops that are based around Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg’s book, “Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead.” The club offers students advice on how to brand and market themselves as they network with different groups in cities around Glendale.  

“We are all here to help each other and help ourselves, it’s a jungle not a ladder,” said Hope Brown, who is one of the facilitators of this club.

Hope quotes Sandberg who compares the world of career entrepreneurship as a jungle in which you embrace taking different jobs at different levels in the lifespan of your career. Rather than thinking of your job history as a career ladder, expecting each position you hold to be higher ranked than the previous, individuals should embrace the fact that jobs don’t always work that way. The purpose of this club is to help students, faculty and the community to continue to network outside of GCC. The club offers internships and business tools given to the entrepreneur to create a successful, self-funded business.

The first meeting presented guest speaker Samuel Osborne, a renowned motivational coach, to speak to the club about his book called, “Pack a Bigger Punch,” which shared “seven steps to uncover your real message.” Osborne, who offers a free online course which teaches the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and motivational speaking, advised the club on tools for finding and delivering a message as a speaker or entrepreneur.  He sought to teach the club the importance of revealing a message that hits your audience with skill and strength.

“Spend time by yourself, meditate and journal – really find your message. If you love an entrepreneurial idea, give it time,” advised Osborne.

In the past, LIFE club has hosted entrepreneurs such as the co-owner of Zankou Chicken, Vartkes  Iskenderian. This semester, LIFE club plans to collaborate with Innovate Pasadena to promote networking within the business realm. LIFE club will meet every other Tuesday. The next meeting is on Oct. 10 at 3 p.m. at the Sandbox Lab in the San Rafael building.