Smart, Not Loud

Early in her career, Emmy Award–winning video journalist Jessica Chen pushed herself to be the best she could be, yet she was repeatedly passed over for plum assignments, and she began to feel overlooked. She traced the problem to a culture clash. The daughter of Taiwanese immigrants who owned a Chinese restaurant in California, Chen had been raised to work diligently, listen more than she spoke, and shy away from attention and praise.

Chen found success not by abandoning the values of her “Quiet Culture” but by finding ways to embrace and honor them within the “Loud Culture” of broadcast media. Today, Chen now heads her own business communication training agency and is a keynote speaker who has shared her ideas at organizations including Google, Microsoft, and the United Nations.