Wonder Woman in Business, Patrice Tanaka

Susan Freeman

November 13, 2020

Communications, Empathy, Executive Coaching, Keynote Speaker, Team Building, Thought Leadership, Women Leaders

Patrice Tanaka, Founder + Chief Joy Officer, Joyful Planet LLC.jpg — Patrice Tanaka

Joyful Planet

Patrice Tanaka is a best-selling author, public speaker on business and life purpose, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of three award-winning, PR & Marketing agencies and the consultancy, Joyful Planet, focused on helping individuals and organizations discover and actively live their purpose to unleash greater success, fulfillment and joy in their personal lives, workplaces and communities. Life and organizational purpose are the subjects of Patrice’s best-selling books, Beat the Curve and Performance360. Patrice has been honored by PRWeek (Hall of Fame inductee), PRSA Foundation (Paladin Award), PRSA (Paul M. Lund Award for Public Service), New York Women in Communications (Matrix Award), Working Mother magazine (“Mothering that Works” Award), Girl Scouts of Greater New York (“Women of Distinction” Award), University of Hawaii (“Distinguished Alumni Award), among others. Patrice has lived in New York City for most of her adult life, but calls Hawaii “home” and she is committed to living her life with the “Aloha Spirit.”

Patrice was born and raised in Hawaii then moved to NYC in her early 20’s. She considers NYC home, but even FAR AWAY from Hawaii tries to live her life with the ALOHA SPIRIT. After a 35+ year career in PR, co-founding 3 award-winning agencies she started her consultancy, Joyful Planet LLC. She is very involved in different “communities,” including Girl Scouts GNY, Dancing Classrooms, Phelophepa Train of Hope in South Africa, Diversity Action Alliance, NY Women in Communications, Women’s Forum NY

One of her favorite professional accomplishments is having lead a group of colleagues in a management buyback to start an employee-owned PR agency, PT&Co. and building it by focusing on our “business purpose” – to create GREAT WORK, GREAT WORKPLACE, GREAT COMMUNITIES THAT WORK. This business purpose-focused and drove our start-up agency to be recognized WITHIN 8 YEARS as…#1 MOST CREATIVE AND #2 BEST WORKPLACE among all PR agencies in the U.S.

Over the past 5 years, her proudest accomplishment has been:

Helping thousands of people gain greater clarity about their life and leadership purpose so they can leverage their talent, expertise, and passion in service of other people and our planet.
My vision is 7.7 BILLION PEOPLE living their life purpose and helping to create a more joyful planet. Joyful Planet is both my vision and the name of my consultancy
Because discovering and living your life purpose is a “competitive advantage” in business and life, I’m focused on helping groups that could REALLY BENEFIT from having a competitive advantage like WOMEN, GIRLS, COLLEGE STUDENTS, PEOPLE OF COLOR, YOUNG PEOPLE STARTING OUT IN THEIR JOBS/CAREERS.

Patrice considers Desmond Tutu, an Anglican cleric who won a Nobel Peace Prize as one of her greatest inspirations for his tireless work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. She had the pleasure of meeting him through my work for the Phelophepa Train of Hope in SA. Desmond Tutu and his wife Leah are Honorary Patrons for the Phelophepa, two 19-car trains that travel throughout SA delivering primary health care to REMOTE, underserved areas of the country. What she didn’t know until she met Desmond Tutu is how “overflowing with joy” he is as a human. He is the embodiment of JOY! He inspires me because although he’s EXPERIENCED AND fought AGAINST the brutality of Apartheid he is a bubbling, GURGLING fountain of JOY!

Patrice personally has the strongly held belief that women should lift each other up and believes that achieving GENDER EQUITY is the GREATEST CHALLENGE OF OUR LIFETIME. We must SEAT MORE women at every LEADERSHIP TABLE. We can best achieve this by creating a STRONG SISTERHOOD of WOMEN, helping one other obtain seats at these leadership tables. She is a big believer in “sisterhood” – women helping women to succeed. That is why she has always been involved in women’s organizations to foster a “sisterhood.”

Patrice belongs to the following organizations that lift women:
- Girl Scouts (she has been a Girl Scout since she was 5 years old!)
- Women’s Forum NY
- New York Women in Communications
- Asian Pacific American Women’s Leadership Institute/CAPAW

One of Patrice’s biggest challenges in starting and growing a business involved successfully winning new business. However, she has succeeded. She believes you can make this happen in two mutually reinforcing ways:

Building a reputation for doing great work and, at the same time
Building your network of support – and always be contributing to that network so when you reach out, support will be there for you. Most of the business she won at her PR agencies was through one and often BOTH of these MUTUAL REINFORCING strategies. She won some of our BIGGEST CLIENTS THIS WAY: Avon, Charles Schwab & Co., Dyson, Godiva, Liz Claiborne, Microsoft, Target, Wyndham Hotels, Wines from Rioja (Spain)

FUN FACTS: a ballroom dancer and has won championships and she wrote a book about this called, “Becoming Ginger Rogers.”