How To Be A Multi-Hyphenate, According To Kami Navarro, Danie Laurel, Rep. Sarah Elago, And Gretchen Ho

It was an inspiring afternoon for everyone at the recently-concluded "Tribe Meet-Up: The Toolkit for Every Multi-Hyphenate" with molecular biologist and educator Kami Navarro, finance expert and business journalist Danie Laurel, youngest female lawmaker Rep. Sarah Elago, and athlete and TV host Gretchen Ho. These four inspiring women talked about how they manage to pull off a multi-faceted life.

Made possible by a special tie-up between She Talks Asia and Céleteque, the event empowered women to counter gender stereotypes as they thrive in different paths, giving birth to the modern-day term "multi-hyphenate."

It's never easy to stand out in more than one field. Below, we list some helpful tips that the featured panelists shared:

Remind yourself of the essence of time. “Yesterday is not yours anymore and tomorrow may never come. That’s how important this moment is to make a great deal of a difference,” said Sarah. If you think of time as a blessing, you would learn to make every minute count.

Sarah is a member of the House of Representatives in the 17th Congress of the Philippines, representing youth party Kabataan Partylist. Aside from being a politician, she's an activist, too.

Manage not just your time, but also your energy. Gretchen stressed the importance of knowing when to rest and give your all. “If you’re in it for the long run, you have to pace yourself,” she declared, adding that such realization came after an anxiety attack she experienced earlier this year due to work. “Puyat na puyat ako, jet lag, sobrang pressured sa work, and then I realized, I wouldn’t want to just, one day, drop down.”

Gretchen was initially known as a professional volleyball player for the Ateneo Lady Eagles. Eventually, she found a job that marries her background (double degree in management engineering and communications) and interest (sports): a TV host on Gameday Weekend, a sports magazine show on Balls and ABS-CBN Sports+Action. Now, she's a regular host on the ABS-CBN morning show Umagang Kay Ganda. She also dabbles in car racing. 

Always find a group of people to look up to. “I got smarter over time because of my curiosity, because I entered different fields, plus I had amazing mentors,” shares Danie. Apart from the people you surround yourself with, this also applies to the ones you follow on social media.

Danie is a business journalist who specializes in corporate finance, financial markets, and social issues in finance—plus, a financial literacy advocate! She is likewise a TV news anchor-producer, writer, researcher and lecturer. She's an anchor at One News Network Philippines. As if those aren't enough to keep her busy, she also currently holds adjunct teaching faculty positions at IESEG School of Management in Paris and the Ateneo de Manila University.

If you want to take on other paths, just go for it. “You have nothing to lose and everything to gain,” Kami said. “There are life lessons you can take in the process. Build up on that.”

Kami is a magna cum laude graduate of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from the University of the Philippines Diliman and Master of Science Communication graduate from Australian National University. She's a molecular biologist and a science communication lecturer.