E31 - Making Time to Change the World

You are a woman pursuing an impressive career in male dominated industry – don’t let fear or frustration deter you from your dreams. 

In this episode Gillian Muessig, the CEO of Outlines Venture Group and co-founder of Moz, shares how she constructed an impressive career in the Venture Capital industry, and how you can do the same. 

“Be unabashed, unapologetic, and unafraid.” Gillian gives advice to all female entrepreneurs, not just those working in the VC industry. She recounts her personal experiences, and invites you to learn from her mistakes. Gillian touches on important topics like working alongside those who understand and share your goals and investing in women led, gender diverse companies and teams, and how these decisions impact the workplace for the better. 

While the gender imbalance in the workplace might be a fact, it certainly is not what dictates the outcome of your career! The keys to being a successful female entrepreneur reside in self-confidence and crafting meaningful connections in the workplace, and Gillian teaches us the power in striving for both. 

Being human means that we feel a wide range of emotions, and the most sought after emotion is happiness. We all yearn for happiness, but we don’t often think about how we can actively put in effort to increase happiness in our day to day lives.

Michelle Wax founded the American Happiness Project, a country-wide movement to capture and share how everyday people from all walks of life are creating their own happiness, regardless of external factors. In 2019, Michelle took to the road, traveling across the United States interviewing ordinary people and learning about how they created happiness. Her findings, in conjunction with scientific research, inform her interactive seminars, virtual team workshops, and a video series called American Goodness.

During her travels and interviews, Michelle found a common theme - there was a point that these individuals reached in their lives where they decided to make a shift or change. Maybe they suffered a tragedy, or they were stuck in the monotony of day to day life, but each one of them actively decided to be happy. Michelle pulls from this theme to create resources, tools, and workshops helping people to actively create their own happiness.

This shift is already occurring in those who have heard about the American Happiness Project already, and Michelle is working to make a movement of happiness. For more information on the American Happiness Project, check out https://american-happiness.com/.

Most people open up their Instagram app to see what their friends and family are up to. Reshmi Menon goes on Instagram to learn about brands’ marketing strategies.

Reshmi Menon, the Head Of Marketing at Suta, is a self-proclaimed “girl next door” who wants to make an impact and change consumers’ perspectives. She’s always loved marketing and has her master’s in the subject, and her habit of messaging brands on social media platforms regarding their marketing strategies ended up paying off when she moved from agency-side to client-side, now heading up marketing at Suta. 

Reshmi’s energetic and positive attitude has taken her far in her career, and she is not afraid to voice her opinion when it comes to marketing. When it comes to her career, she trusts her intuition and truly cares about being passionate about her work.

We can all take note of Reshmi’s work ethic, spunky storytelling, and upward career path. 

“There are tee shirts that say, ‘Underestimate me. This’ll be fun,’ and that was exactly how I approached life.”

This snippet is just one of many learnings we gained from our conversation with Julie Roehm, the Chief Marketing and Experience Officer at Party City. Julie is no stranger to adversity and has been a fierce competitor and determined power female ever since a young age. Calculated yet adventurous risk taking throughout her career has shown her that things don’t change if you aren’t willing to do something different.

Julie shares her perspectives on workplace culture, dealing with adversity, jumping into new industries with confidence and poise, asking questions and listening, and building a successful team. Her experience in industries as varied as automotive, big box retail, services, and consulting have laddered up as she helps companies stand out in a beneficial way and push themselves through their marketing.

Exuding an air of confidence while also maintaining humility is a difficult task to achieve, and Julie does just that. We encourage you to learn from her insightful commentary on her previous experience and advice to women!

Whoever came up with the saying that “Fashion is Pain” should learn from Suta. Fashion can be comfortable, practical, easy to move in, and absolutely beautiful designs! 

Sujata and Taniya Biswas are entrepreneurs, change-makers, visionaries, and… sisters! These two fashion powerhouses are the Co-Founders of Suta, a fashion brand that combines India’s weaving traditions with contemporary style. 

Sujata and Taniya discuss their views on sustainability, changing the perception of wearing saris, and using their platforms of fashion and social media presence to bring impactful change to the world. They aim to increase the confidence of women worldwide while also supporting their vendors and workers as much as possible and instilling a mindset of sustainability. 

If you haven’t been following Suta before this, now’s your chance to learn about the empowering fashion brand. Take a look at their gorgeous designs and now you’ll get an insight into the incredibly thoughtful, passionate brains that back up the business!

It’s so easy to get bogged down in your day job and repeat mindless tasks just to get the job done. But what will take you to the next level in your career, and also in your personal life, is maintaining a growth mindset in everything that you do. 

Anne-Fleur Vaartjes, a Risk Analyst at Morgan Stanley, is living an adventurous, travel-filled, curious life and she seeks out opportunities to enrich her growth mindset wherever possible. She shares with us that having a growth mindset is important for your career but also to live your life to the fullest and make the biggest possible impact on other people. 

A simple way to maintain a growth mindset in the workplace is to listen and observe others around you - not only what they’re saying, but how they’re saying it, communicating, displaying body language, and emphasizing tone, explained Anne-Fleur. This will help you to build relationships, learn new skills, deepen your knowledge of your industry, and progress in your career - without even taking any extra time out of your day!

We hope that you enjoy learning from Anne-Fleur’s career advice as much as we did, and remember - always maintain a growth mindset!

What do Forbes 30 Under 30: Science, MIT Tech Review 35 Innovators Under 35, and L’Oreal USA for Women in Science all have in common? They’ve all spotlighted Ritu Raman for her incredible accomplishments in STEM. And now Empowered Women Series has joined the club! 

Ritu Raman is a biohybrid engineer and a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Langer Lab at MIT, and she brings a fresh new perspective to the typically male-dominated STEM field of biology. Ritu’s innovation and critical thinking have set her apart in her field, and we here at EWS are particularly impressed by Ritu’s self-branding and powerful presence. 

This intelligent and well-spoken scientist discusses her background in STEM, how she grew up immersed in science and research, and how she would love to see more females in STEM. She also gets candid with us, sharing barriers and why she feels there are fewer females in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields.

Having strong female proponents within STEM is one of the first steps towards achieving equality in the field, and we extend a huge thank you and congratulations to Ritu for all that she has accomplished. She’s definitely someone to keep your eye on and learn from… she’s working hard to continue her successful career path! 

Ever had trouble putting on your bra? You just couldn't clip it correctly, or it dug into your rib the whole day? Now, think if you had a disability and there was absolutely design consideration given to designing your bra... how would you manage? 

Inclusivity isn't a box to check on a corporation's must-have list. It is a mentality, it is the way you think about and perceive those around you. Let's improve our perception and help others improve theirs. If we want to succeed as a humanity we need to promote inclusivity in all parts of life. 

Emma Butler, the CEO of Intimately.co, is doing it better than the rest of us. She created a company that designs lingerie for female-identifying people with disabilities, focusing on functionality as well as fashion. In last week’s episode of Empowered Women Live, Emma shared with us what inclusivity looks and feels like for real and what we can do to be 100% inclusive ourselves.

She explained the inspiration behind founding Intimately.co and how she is motivated by customers’ stories of feeling comfortable and confident in their new lingerie. Emma’s powerful dedication to inclusivity as well as her empathy for all make her a strong woman to learn from, and we highly recommend that you check out her company’s website, Intimately.co, where “Getting dressed has never been easier.” 

There’s only so much time in the day to accomplish what you want to accomplish, whether that be advancing your career, growing a family, pursuing a passion, or whatever else. But sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own lives that we forget to make time to change the world.

Anu Chitrapu is one of those rare women who has achieved immense success in her career as well as changing the world. This Bank of America SVP finds time after her 9-to-5 to volunteer with a number of global nonprofits, and she points out that learnings can be taken from both spaces to improve both corporate America and the nonprofit sector. Anu’s passion for volunteerism stems from her childhood, when her mother used to bring her to volunteer at a local orphanage. She didn’t even view it as volunteering; she was just making friends and building human connections! 

Anu shares three impactful volunteer experiences that she will treasure forever, showing the widespread reach of her efforts. She also discusses her perspective on empowering women and what being an empowered woman means to her. Nonprofits that Anu is deeply involved in are TiE Boston, Nyrvaana, American India Foundation, and Direct Action for Women Now. We highly recommend that you check them out and support at least one of them. 

Anu’s thoughtful and intelligent perspective on balancing her passion for growing nonprofits with corporate America demonstrates that it is possible to change the world, no matter how much else you have going on day-to-day. She exudes a personal culture of volunteerism that serves as an inspiration for all!

Here at Empowered Women Series, we believe that all women are strong women. Our inner strength and grit allow us to move mountains (metaphorically, at least). But for Empowered Women Series’ first ever live event, we brought you a Master Class from a woman who is literally stronger than almost everybody.

We had the opportunity to partake in a Master Class in Coaching from Brittany Diamond. Brittany is the 3x 3rd Strongest Woman in the World as well as the founder of BDimez Training LLC and a sponsored athlete who has been coaching others around the globe for several years. She has been able to turn her incredible work ethic and passion into a coaching business to help others achieve their own fitness and personal goals. 

Brittany answered questions for all of you, Empowered Women Series members and followers, about her experience developing her own virtual coaching business. She also discussed her own personal learning journey as she discovered that motivation has to come from within and that she’s not able to encourage her clients through babysitting, but instead through personalized communication. Brittany talked about the pros and cons of running a virtual business in 2020, exploring the necessity for boundaries and time limits.

Brittany’s high level of fitness and warm, personable manner have led her to be a successful coach, and her attitude of caring deeply about her community shines through in the teaching of her Master Class. We hope that you are just as inspired by her can-do attitude as we were!