Our story is a commonly shared one. We are Asian Americans born in and living in the United States. While we are part of the American culture, we are still balancing the culture of our ethnic origin. We speak English fluently, but because of the differences in how we look, we are often seen as not quite “American” enough and since we are not being raised in our origin country, oftentimes, we are also not “Asian” enough. Throughout this book, we will be using the term Asian Americans to include all individuals of Asian descent but recognize that there are many other terms that can be used to mean the same thing, including Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) and often simply Asian.

Speaking generally, Asian parents teach us that we will succeed if we work hard. However, most of us know that hard work in this day and age is just not enough to succeed. We've learned that working hard usually means getting assigned more work instead of praise, raises, or promotions. We see others who did not put the same hours and dedication into their workload as we did, and they excel and get promoted without a clear explanation as to why. We look around and see those of Asian American descent leaving their corporations and starting their entrepreneurial endeavors because they couldn't work within the established system. Asian Americans are often not given the opportunities they deserve in the workplace, and we are here to break down these stereotypes and myths to help guide you through the challenges you may face along your career journey.

The two of us spent our careers in advertising and media, and we both were faced with the same upward momentum challenges. Through many years of struggling to be seen, we realized that we needed to apply what we knew from our work to ourselves in order to succeed. We realized that the same things that gain brands presence and recognition could also work for us. We found that rather than being passed over for opportunities, by implementing a brand strategy for ourselves, a new world of potential could open up to us, and we wanted to share this realization with others.

We created a nonprofit organization called Asians in Advertising to help advance Asian Americans into the c‐suite. We did this by hosting community networking classes, spotlighting Asian American talent, and creating practical, career‐enhancing lessons based on what we learned from our experiences and industry leaders. As a result, we saw many in our community were using these pointers to get new jobs and advance in their careers. Asian Americans began reaching out to us from many different industries and from all areas of the world.

We quickly realized that career enhancement strategies were useful not only to Asian Americans in the advertising field but also to Asian Americans in all business roles. Our reach had expanded globally, so we decided we needed to share what we had learned and to spread knowledge from others who had figured out tips for visibility. This book lays out many actionable steps to help you become seen in the workplace and to facilitate the opening up of many more opportunities to you, possibilities that would not necessarily have been available to you before. In the beginning of each chapter, you will see that each one is written by one of us as we wanted to include the personal nature of our own experiences that led us to write those specific chapters and integrate our own stories and perspectives.

We created this book as a guide for Asian Americans and see this book being used as a resource in schools, organizations, employee resource groups, book clubs, and friend groups, among others. We want anyone who has felt that they lacked visibility in the workplace to be able to have the tools to be seen. This book will also be an essential guide for employers, managers, and anyone interested in diversity, equity, and inclusion. If you are a non‐Asian reading this book, we appreciate you being an ally to our community. Nothing in this book is the silver bullet, but we have found common issues and shared solutions. Feel free to take as much or as little as you need from it.

Common Myths

Before we go into what we have the potential to do, it is important to understand how we got to where we are and to break down the myths and stereotypes that run across the Asian American community. Asian Americans are too often a tokenized afterthought, getting pulled in when more diverse faces are needed.¹ Asian Americans are often perceived as successful due to the misconceived model minority myth.² On the whole, Asian Americans are sometimes classified on one hand as White and on the other hand as people of color. This complex set of conflicting stereotypes has rendered us invisible in America.³

Creating Visibility

Visibility is not only about the act of being seen by others. It is also about actively seeking opportunities to see ourselves. We are not asking you to change who you are but to create a framework of access and understanding. We believe that by keeping visibility at the forefront of your mind, you will be able to create opportunities for yourself and make sure your employers see you in the roles you desire.

Why did we choose the title The Visibility Mindset? Because Asian Americans are still an invisible minority, and to be visible you must keep an active mindset. In this book, we separate the visibility mindset into three parts: improving yourself, working with others, and redefining the future of the workplace.