For many, entrepreneurship is the dream. But while the glitzy road to girl boss can be a glamorous one, it’s also a journey that will test your integrity, challenge your strength, and make you question your life path.
In her beauty-and-business book Read My Lips: What It Takes to Build a World-class Homegrown Brand, Rissa Mananquil Trillo got real about these unspoken, gritty realities. And in the 2023 Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, she’ll pass on these lessons to a whole new global audience.
Read My Lips: What It Takes to Build a World-class Homegrown Brand, P450, RISSA MANANQUIL TRILLO, Lazada and Shopee
LOOK: Catch Beauty Expert and Entrepreneur Rissa Mananquil Trillo at The 2023 Emirates Airline Festival of Literature
Rissa will guest in two panels in the prestigious literary festival that’s hosted by the Emirates Literature Foundation. The first is a one-hour solo session moderated by American Muslim fashion journalist Hafsa Lodi, who’s written for The Independent, Business Insider, Refinery29, and Teen Vogue. So expect Rissa to field some really tough questions about her book, her career, and her life.
In the second panel, she’ll be joined by Silicon Valley veteran and Bet On Yourself author Ann Hiatt, as well as the founder of luxury ecommerce platform The Modist, Ghizlan Guenez. On stage, this girl boss trio will talk candidly about their thoughts on the realities of female-friendly workplaces and what the looming economic crisis means for working-class women.
The entrepreneurship lessons from Rissa Mananquil Trillo stay evergreen
Ahead of the literary festival, Rissa sat down with Entrepreneur Middle East to talk about the writing of the book, which was released a year before the pandemic.
But even though the global crisis upended businesses throughout the world, the author and entrepreneur is happy that the book still served as a guidepost for entrepreneurs, especially during that difficult time.
"In the Philippines, the pandemic triggered a new wave of home businesses and micro enterprises, and there were people who reached out to me through social media to share how my book helped them get started," she said to Entrepreneur. She also mentioned how there were some people who followed her book like a step-by-step guide and how she was thankful that the principles in her book stayed evergreen.
The 2023 Emirates Airline Festival of Literature—the fifteenth edition of the global gathering of authors and publishers—will kick off on Wednesday, February 1. Rissa’s solo session will be held on Saturday, February 4, at 10:00 a.m. (UAE standard time), while her panel with fellow entrepreneurs commences the next day at noon.
If you’re in Dubai, you can register for tickets to the Festival here. Fans can also pick up a copy of the book on site!
And while there is no way to livestream the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature for fans in the Philippines, you can pick up a copy of Read My Lips on Lazada and Shopee to read all about what Rissa learned in her journey to become an entrepreneur.
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