We were lucky to catch up with Pearl Chang Esau recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Pearl Chang , thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

Shàn is the mandarin word meaning to “do good” in the world or to “make better.” Shàn Strategies has one purpose – to help our partners do the greatest good possible.

I love the African proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Addressing community challenges like increasing educational and economic opportunity, accelerating clean energy, or addressing healthy equity requires adept leadership, strategic thinking, and the collaboration of the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. Whether it’s scaling up a non-profit organization’s mission, helping a business or philanthropy hone its strategy for impact, or facilitating a collaborative effort that will improve lives, Shàn Strategies is a valuable ally to boost purpose-driven work so that our communities flourish. When purpose-driven initiatives thrive, lives get better, communities get stronger, and we all benefit.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Shan Strategies helps its clients with leadership development, leveling up organizational strategy and impact, collaborative partnership development and community engagement, all in the service of making lives better. We view our clients as a team and when we come on board we are all in. We tailor our approach to best serve the clients’ desired outcomes; no templates here. Examples of how we partner include:

Executive coaching

Non-profit board development & governance

Strategic planning, fundraising & sustainability

Corporate social responsibility and community relations

Strategic philanthropy

Cross-sector collaboration/collective impact initiatives

Education initiatives, public policy & programming

Issue advocacy and communications

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Our struggles shape who we become. My family immigrated to California from Taiwan right around the same time I was born, to pursue my father’s post-doctoral work in engineering at UCLA. Although it was a scary decision to make, moving across the globe with no family, he decided to put down his roots in a brand new country in the hopes that our family would have more freedom and opportunity. I developed the type of resilience that one does when growing up as a minority, with English as a second language, and generally striving to “fit in” to a new culture. I attribute my ability to understand different perspectives and work with diverse clients to my immigrant upbringing where I honed the skill of observation and listening. I enjoy building bridges and cultivating collaboration, which is critical to the success of any complex social issue.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

After fifteen years in the field of non-profit leadership and education, I made a decision to leave my CEO role, take some time for reflection and start my own small business. There were many factors that contributed to this decision. One of them was that I had recently welcomed my third child who was struggling with concerning health issues. It felt like a huge leap of faith at the time, as I worried that I would lose my relevance by leaving a prominent community position or that I would no longer be able to make as great of an impact. That turned out to be untrue. Today, I have a thriving consulting firm and partner with amazing clients who are making significant economic, educational and environmental impact in Arizona. Additionally, I have time to volunteer on boards I care about and be present for my family.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.shanstrategies.com
• Linkedin: Pearl Chang Esau
• Twitter: @esaupearl