Female Disruptors: Katey Jo Gordon of The Ultimate Cowboy Showdown On The Three Things You Need To…

Female Disruptors: Katey Jo Gordon of The Ultimate Cowboy Showdown On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

There are a lot of tasks in the ranching industry that involve heavy lifting and long days. As a woman, you have to be strategic around it. It’s hard, but you have to figure out how to get the job done. Even when I was competing on Ultimate Cowboy Showdown, I had to be strategic with the challenges. There was one challenge where I had to hold down a calf that was much heavier than me. I had to plan ahead in order to figure out how to hold him down. I knew I couldn’t quit, and I continued with that mindset throughout the competition.

As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Katey Jo Gordon.

From the tender age of two, fifth-generation cowboy Katey Jo Gordon has competed in rodeos and won her first competition when she was only five years old. Over the years, she earned a rodeo scholarship, and her triumphs riding on the rodeo circuit have reached the hundreds, with no signs of slowing down. Originally from New Mexico, she now resides in Ryan, Oklahoma, and works alongside her husband and father on the family’s cattle ranch. She’s a competitor in season 2 of “Ultimate Cowboy Showdown.”

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this career path?

I’m a fifth-generation rancher; my whole family has worked in the ranching industry. I grew up in it, so it’s something that has always been in my blood. I don’t know any different.

Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

I would say that nine out of ten times I am the only female on the job, but I still show up and hold my own.

In general, I think our industry is evolving, but the Western world does seem a bit behind. However, there are more and more females stepping up and taking chances.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When I was younger, I used to fall off my horse all the time because I was riding too loose. I would go out for a ride and my horse would show up without me. People would have to come find me. In the end, it taught me to be a better horseman. I learned to pay attention and be more aware of my surroundings.

We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?

My dad was my biggest mentor growing up. He gave me my work ethic, and I wouldn’t be able to do what I do now if he hadn’t taken the time to teach me every day. He was taught by a lot of cowboys in West Texas, and they also took me under their wing. They didn’t look at me different because I was a girl. It was priceless to learn from the same men that taught my dad.

In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?

In our situation, I think disruption is positive right now. If you have a passion for this industry, whether male or female, you should be able to pursue it. If you want to work in the ranching industry, why not? Being a woman should not limit you. I think it is only bad when you don’t do the tasks you are given and say you can do something and then don’t.

For example, after our recent winter storm, I was capable of taking care of the tasks around the ranch by myself. I think it’s positive for young girls and women to know that they can be independent, and they don’t always have to depend on a man in the house. In general, I think it’s a positive thing to disrupt the ranching industry.

Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.

My first word of advice is “when working cows, always follow your man.” My dad taught me to ride your position and man your hole. My next two words of advice are to “never give up,” and “if you have a job to do, do it, no matter what.”

There are a lot of tasks in the ranching industry that involve heavy lifting and long days. As a woman, you have to be strategic around it. It’s hard, but you have to figure out how to get the job done. Even when I was competing on Ultimate Cowboy Showdown, I had to be strategic with the challenges. There was one challenge where I had to hold down a calf that was much heavier than me. I had to plan ahead in order to figure out how to hold him down. I knew I couldn’t quit, and I continued with that mindset throughout the competition.

We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?

I hope to keep growing in this space, but I would love to become the most successful female rancher in Oklahoma one day. It will be hard since there are so many already, but you have to aim high!

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

In my opinion the biggest challenges I face are when I am told I can’t do something or that I’m not handy enough or that I’m too weak. Even if it’s not said outright, it is still insinuated. Most men never hear that in their lifetime. As women, I think our abilities get taken for granted a lot.

Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?

The book Mind Gym has helped sharpen my mind and get ready for rodeo competitions. I also like to listen to motivational videos on YouTube when I get ready in the morning. They help me get me ready for the day.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

There isn’t enough kindness; everyone is so judgmental. If I could inspire anyone to be anything it would be to be a kind human. Don’t take for granted the battles other people may be fighting that you don’t know about. You don’t know the impact you may have by simply smiling at someone or telling someone to have a good day.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I’m not sure who said it, but my favorite life lesson quote is “An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. When life is dragging you back with difficulties, it means it’s going to launch you into something great. So just focus and keep aiming.”

My sister introduced that quote to me a few months before she passed away, and her passing was a big knock back in my life, so that quote is something that has always stuck with me. I even have a tattoo of an arrow on my wrist.

How can our readers follow you online?

Instagram: @KateyJo_11, Facebook: Katey Jo Gordon, TikTok: @KateyG2


Female Disruptors: Katey Jo Gordon of The Ultimate Cowboy Showdown On The Three Things You Need To… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Publicist Rockstars: “A few meaningful relations are far better than 1000 media contacts” With…

Publicist Rockstars: “A few meaningful relations are far better than 1000 media contacts” With Rumana Lokhandwala of PromoteHour

PR is not about how strong your media list is on your excel sheet — No matter how strong your contact list is on your sheet, it means nothing if you are unable to convert it into a real-time relationship. The PR — Journalists dynamic is unique yet simple. It is a give & take relationship. There were times where I was disheartened for not receiving expected responses from the journalists. With time I realised how difficult and irritating it would be to receive 1000 pitch emails in a day. The first step to build a relationship is to understand and respect their schedule. Once you form a strong connection with them, you will realise that a few meaningful relations are far better and beneficial than 1000 media contacts.

As a part of my series about the things you need to know to excel in the modern PR industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Rumana Lokhandwala.

Rumana Lokhandwala is a PR expert with 5+ years of experience. She started PR at a very young age and worked for leading names in the industry. She believes in result oriented work and is focused on achieving maximum outputs for her clients. She is currently working with Promotehour as a PR Specialist. She primarily represents US based Tech Startups.

Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

To be honest, PR was never a career option when I opted for Mass Media studies. I wanted to be a journalist and cover women issues on a global level. After my graduation, I was desperate enough to get an internship within big media houses but fortunately or unfortunately I couldn’t get in. So, I decided to give PR a shot by trying out an internship in a small agency. PR was a challenge but I enjoyed it. This is when I discovered a knack for PR and Communications. 5 years down the line, I am still in the same industry and it turned out to be perfect for me!

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company?

I doubt if it’s an interesting story but it’s surely a memorable one. My boss asked me to make my first pitch call to a top newspaper editor. I was dead scared, I prepared a short pitch note. I wrote every single word down in my diary so I don’t mess it up. She received my call on the third attempt, asked me sternly if this is urgent. Before I could reply, she disconnected! Thats it! I was heartbroken and in tears. Moments later, she texted me that she was sorry. She was busy and my constant calls irritated her and this is how I cracked my first big story!

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Well, this is embarrassing. During my early days as an intern, while disseminating a press release, I CC’ed it to my contact list instead of BCC’ing it. My senior, who is a sweetheart came to me and laughed on my stupidity. I will never forget it.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

Presently, I am working on some very interesting and innovative Tech startups, Mobile apps, EduTech platforms, Dating Apps, etc.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)

  1. PR is not about how strong your media list is on your excel sheet — No matter how strong your contact list is on your sheet, it means nothing if you are unable to convert it into a real-time relationship. The PR — Journalists dynamic is unique yet simple. It is a give & take relationship. There were times where I was disheartened for not receiving expected responses from the journalists. With time I realised how difficult and irritating it would be to receive 1000 pitch emails in a day. The first step to build a relationship is to understand and respect their schedule. Once you form a strong connection with them, you will realise that a few meaningful relations are far better and beneficial than 1000 media contacts.
  2. Always look for different angles rather than using the same pitch note — This is the most important part of our job — to make your ordinary content stand out. If a pitch isn’t working, one should try out another approach. Make it more interesting, connect it with the ongoing or upcoming trend as so it compels the journalist. Never send a same email twice!
  3. A big no to mass dissemination — Not only it increases the chances that your mails are going to the spam box, it creates a very bad impression that you sending a completely irrelevant pitch to a journalist. This ruins your chance of connecting with the journalist in near future. There is a good chance that they might block you too. Hence, it’s very important to do your research before starting a campaign. Every client needs a customised target media list to achieve the expected results.
  4. Don’t try too hard — Sometimes it just doesn’t work, even if you have bang on contacts, great content and what not! So, don’t be hard on yourself.
  5. PR is may not be a 9 to 5 job, CREATE your work life balance — It took me a while to understand this and I still find myself struggling between my personal and professional life. It is very difficult to find a balance, I know if a journalist will respond to my pitch in the middle of a family dinner or say around 2 am, I will reply them at that moment. Sometimes, your client will have a query or need an update even after work hours. You just can’t go on like this. Maintaining a balance, spending quality time with your family holds the same importance. You have to follow strict ground rules while it comes to PR.

You are known as a master networker. Can you share some tips on great networking?

When it comes to networking or what I call — Relationship building, being warm, and welcoming tops the list. You should research about the journalist before approaching them, what kind of stories they work on, topics they are interested in, maybe follow them on twitter and understand their stance on the current issues. I don’t want to sound like a stalker but it’s very important to find a common or a strong ground to start a conversation.

Lead generation is one of the most important aspects of any business. Can you share some of the strategies you use to generate good, qualified leads?

Research is the key. It requires time, commitment and brainstorming.

Is there a particular book that you read, or podcast you listened to that really helped you in your career? Can you explain?

Yes, I have attended many online classes, webminars and I still do. I believe there is no limit to learning. With new trends and technologies emerging every single day, one should be updated to be well rooted in the market.

Because of the role you play, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

Equal Pay & Equal Opportunities for Women. If I could influence a number of people, I would be honoured to start this moment to institute the much needed change in our society.


Publicist Rockstars: “A few meaningful relations are far better than 1000 media contacts” With… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Disruptors: Aubrie Fennecken of Women in Innovation On The Three Things You Need To Shake…

Female Disruptors: Aubrie Fennecken of Women in Innovation On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

Generally, people are too worried about what’s going on in their own lives to be thinking about you. Since we are all the hero of our own stories, it’s easy to ruminate over something we said or did. Nine times out of ten though, you’re more worried about it than anyone else. That said, if someone gives you feedback and lets you know that your behavior impacted them negatively, hear that with an open mind and an open heart.

As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Aubrie Fennecken.

Aubrie Fennecken is an experienced and entrepreneurial nonprofit leader with a track record of successfully setting, managing-to, and meeting ambitious revenue goals for nonprofit organizations across diverse fields. As the Global Executive Director of WIN: Women in Innovation, her passions lie in connecting excellent organizations with the resources they need to increase their impact. Aubrie holds an MFA in Performing Arts Management from CUNY Brooklyn College and a BA in Psychology & Performing Arts — Musical Theatre from American University.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I never had a 5-year game plan of working at a nonprofit. When I moved to New York City the goal was to work in theatre as a Broadway producer. This trajectory began with working at a small children’s theatre but while I was there, I realized that these incredibly talented artists and the organization behind them were in a very financially precarious position. They were literally duct-taping sets together to get the shows up and running. That’s when I became interested in fundraising and how it works. Through this process, I fell in love with connecting passionate people and meaningful organizations with the resources that would unlock the ability to create impact.

Today, I work with WIN: Women in Innovation, a global non-profit organization that aims to close the gender gap in the innovation industries: innovation roles at Fortune 500 companies, innovation consultancies, and the start-up ecosystem (both within the start-ups as well as venture capital companies, etc). I came across WIN through the programming that the organization does right when COVID broke out. I was very impressed with how quickly this global, decentralized, volunteer-based organization was able to go from hosting innovation programming in-person to a digital offering and completely enticed by the quality of what they put out. Coincidentally, there was an executive director job posting around the same time and I was eager to apply.

I’m most passionate about seeing the impact that we make, whether that is on a junior woman who is just starting out in her innovation career, seeing a mid-level manager go to a Fortune 500 VP, or a senior woman who already “made it” continue rising up (and rising the wave with her!).

Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

At its core, I believe that my work enables disruption, versus having me at the center of the disruption. Innovation is inherently the practice of disruption, the practice of creating something novel and new. Yet what we are seeing is that innovation consultancies, innovation departments, and venture-backed start-ups are primarily led by men. Less than 2% of all funding to VC’s went to women last year. There isn’t a single Top 25 innovation bestseller written by a woman in the Amazon Innovation category.

I work with a team of more than 40 volunteers — professional innovators who are literally creating the future in their day to day work. And yet, none of them is satisfied to stop where they are. They bring their time and talents to WIN because they know that a better future is created when more voices and perspectives are part of the innovation process. My role is to make sure they have the tools and resources they need to make that happen.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When I was first starting out, I was so averse to making mistakes that I never found much humor in them. I would agonize over my failure or get defensive. It took me years to see failures as opportunities for growth, and not indication of my fundamental incompetence. I heavily credit one of my managers for helping me to flip that script. She ran a very successful department and had very high expectations, but she also created an environment where it was safe to make mistakes. She made me want to do my best work, but was always compassionate and constructive when something went wrong. It’s a good thing too, because at one point I sent out a merged email to hundreds of our patrons with tracked changes on. Our internal editing process was on display in the inboxes of the people who donated to our organization! As soon as I realized it, I was mortified, but I wasn’t paralyzed. Instead, I jumped into action, alerted my manager to the mistake, took steps to remedy it, and we moved on. I have made MANY mistakes since that day — but you can bet I haven’t sent another mass merge email with tracked changes.

More importantly, today, I’m very comfortable owning my mistakes, and confident that I can course correct when I make them.

We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?

I have been so lucky to have amazing mentors, sponsors, and role models throughout my career! It’s hard to pick a single example: the manager in my last story, the graduate school dean who worked tirelessly to connect all of her students (myself included) with professional opportunities, the colleagues who collaborated on big projects that seemed insurmountable at first. They say it takes a village to raise a child, but it also takes a village to forge a career path.

Today, I am surrounded by a community that exists to give women the opportunity to be role models, sponsors, and mentors to one another. I am learning every single day. Something I’ve learned this year is the importance of Sponsorship (as opposed to mentorship) in closing the gender gap. Through interviews with leading women in innovation as part of WIN: Pioneers, a thought leadership report we created with EY, a team of WIN volunteer leaders surfaced themes that have a significant impact on a woman’s success in innovation. Sponsorship was a key component. A sponsor is someone who spends their political and social capital on you. Women tend to be over-mentored and under-sponsored.

In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?

For disruption, context is everything. There were times that the world got disrupted, such as in the Industrial Revolution, which brought about immensely positive change but also didn’t account for or benefit a range of marginalized groups. This truly raises the question of progress (and disruption) being positive and for whom? That’s why our mission is and will always remain critical: innovate, disrupt, but make sure that you are doing so in a way that includes the people who will be impacted to ensure that they are helping forge a future that considers everyone.

Recently, Zoia Kozakov, the host of our own “WIN/WIN: Women in Innovation” podcast, highlighted how Google is approaching its “Next Billion Users” initiative. They are thinking through what it means to acquire the next billion users as well as who these people are. For example, India has close to 700 million people who do not have access to the internet — but it is just a matter of time until they do. There are others who do not use the internet because it is built in a way that is physically inaccessible to them, as it was built for people with certain physical abilities such as the ability to see color and different sized fonts, etc. If Google (or any company, for that matter) wants to continue to disrupt, not accounting for all potential users — especially those that may already be part of a marginalized group — is simply not going to work, and is far from positive.

What I am really excited to see is a shift of focus from disruption for disruption’s sake, to instead designing futures that raise everyone with the wave. That means shifting from “imagining” your users, to actually including them in the process.

Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.

While it helps to have advocates who are further along on their journeys, those who will be with us the longest and have the greatest impact on our careers/lives are those who come up with us. Our peers are hugely influential. Throughout my career, those colleagues who were at a similar place in their professional lives have been my greatest advocates and confidantes.

Generally, people are too worried about what’s going on in their own lives to be thinking about you. Since we are all the hero of our own stories, it’s easy to ruminate over something we said or did. Nine times out of ten though, you’re more worried about it than anyone else. That said, if someone gives you feedback and lets you know that your behavior impacted them negatively, hear that with an open mind and an open heart.

If you are lucky enough to have it, use your PTO. All of it!

We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?

Just getting started. We just celebrated WIN’s 5-year anniversary through the “Rise to Raise” campaign. Our goal for March was all about showing the many ways you can raise the women that are innovating and collaborating with us all. Fundraising was just one of them, but we are excited to use those resources to create more and different kinds of programming, continue supporting thought leadership projects such as reports and the podcast, as well as cultivating a robust fellowship program for junior women who are looking to break into this field.

There is still so much growth to be seen — more markets and continents to bring WIN to, as well as different audiences that we are hoping to reach, specifically focusing on underrepresented groups as we positively disrupt!

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

Innovation and disruption, in themselves, are genderless. It is about creating the best possible outcome to serve the needs of all. Unfortunately, we cannot ignore the fact that the outcome isn’t built for those that it ignores or includes, and that means women, women, and people of color, those that are differently-abled, and others. Once a woman makes it into the room where innovation happens, after overcoming the adversity and the inherent biases against her, she then is “an only” (the only woman, and, likely, the only person of color).

The road to promotion is steeper, the road to getting your voice heard is steeper, and the entire experience becomes a constant uphill battle, which gets in the way of getting the work done, and getting it done well. Emotionally, there is also a challenge of allocating will power and social capital in order to ensure that change actually takes place and that while you may be the first, you aren’t the last. Oh, and of course, doing the actual disrupting.

Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?

I would be doing you a disservice by not bringing up the “WIN/WIN: Women in Innovation” podcast first 🙂 Personally, I was really excited to see a project flourish and grow so quickly out of a passion that Zoia has had for this space and giving different perspectives and diverse women opportunities to share their stories. As someone who is new to the innovation space specifically, I’ve really enjoyed getting to learn from the women that are changing the world and understanding their thinking about innovation. Some past speakers have included Emily Heyward (Chief Brand Officer at Red Antler), Jenny Danzi (Sr. Direct, New Platforms at PepsiCo), and Enshalla Anderson (Head of Google Cloud Marketing) and as a sports fan, I’m very excited to see Amy Brooks, Head of Innovation at the NBA coming on Season 3!

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

Inspired by the learnings of the WIN Pioneers Report, I would say sponsor someone who is different from you! A sponsor has power or influence, and uses it to advocate for you. Sponsorship is hugely impactful on a person’s career. Unfortunately, there has been a tendency for leaders to sponsor those who are similar to them, perpetuating inequity. If every leader were to make a concerted effort to sponsor someone who looks different, has a different background and different life experiences, we would very quickly end up with leaders who are more reflective of the world we live in.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

This is so profound. We are all going to make mistakes. We are all going to put our proverbial foot in our mouths at some point. But, when we consistently treat one another with kindness and respect, we create trust and safety that enables great work to flourish, space for constructive feedback, and progress.

How can our readers follow you online?

WIN: Women in Innovation is on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/company/womenininnovation), Facebook, and Instagram. You can also sign up to be a member for free by going to www.womenininnovation.co and clicking on “Join Us.” We have a robust community with frequent programming and other inspirational innovation resources.


Female Disruptors: Aubrie Fennecken of Women in Innovation On The Three Things You Need To Shake… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Disruptors: McKenna Reitz of Challenge Coaching On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up…

Female Disruptors: McKenna Reitz of Challenge Coaching On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

God gives the strongest people the toughest challenges. At the beginning of my hair loss journey, my mom repeated this statement to me weekly. It was so difficult to understand and kept asking, “why me?” Don’t we all ask that? Once I was able to change my mindset about my hair loss my purpose was much clearer and I began to understand WHY I was chosen and I couldn’t imagine my life any other way. Alopecia has blessed me with my true purpose in life.

As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing McKenna Reitz.

McKenna Reitz is an inspirational speaker and a Challenge Coach who works with men and women to reframe life’s challenges into gifts and opportunities so they can pursue their purpose with clarity and confidence. After losing all her hair due to Alopecia, McKenna uses her journey of having this autoimmune disease to help others overcome the loss in their life by resetting the mindset of their “loss” into growth and opportunities in their lives. Teaching AP Psychology and coaching varsity volleyball for the past 16 years, McKenna resides in Toledo, OH with her husband Greg, and two beautiful daughters Karsen (9) and Maddox (5).

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

My entire life growing up I knew I wanted to empower and inspire others through teaching and coaching. I had many teachers and coaches in my life including my mother who empowered me beyond measures that strengthened me mentally, physically, and emotionally to be exactly where I am today. I never imagined being a high school AP Psychology teacher and varsity volleyball coach have such an impact on me and my life let alone my students. I checked all my boxes before I turned 33 . . . I graduated from Hope College, I was hired for my dream teaching and coaching position, I obtained my master’s degree, got married to the love of my life, bought a house started a family. I was living the American Dream. I remember saying to myself, “Now what?”

Little did I know that in just a few months my life would forever change in November 2015 when every single hair on my entire body fell out as I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called Alopecia. Alopecia attacks your hair follicles causing your hair to fall out affecting 7.1 million Americans and does not discriminate towards age, gender or race.

Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

I am disrupting society by being authentically me. I am embracing a physical characteristic that is not common for women within our society. I stand tall and proud having no hair on my entire body due to an autoimmune disease called Alopecia. I have stopped comparing myself to other women wishing I looked just like them and started to be inspired by them instead.

We have been told subconsciously from such a young age from our society how we must look, think, and act based upon our physical characteristics and we create these unrealistic expectations for ourselves because we begin comparing our journey to someone else’s journey. And then the imposter syndrome starts to come into play as we begin to doubt our own abilities and find it difficult to accept our accomplishments.

Alopecia has taught me that there are so many things that are out of our control and we need to stop putting so much energy into what we can’t control rather put our focus on what we CAN control and that is our mindset about a situation, challenge or problem. As women, we define our identity by our hair. I am here to tell you that our hair does NOT identify us, it is our character and how we show up every single day is that truly defines us!

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

After I lost all my hair, it was amazing how conscious I was of conversations of others about their hair. I felt surrounded by only people that loved talking about their hair! I will never forget when I was sitting at my desk as my students were working on an assignment and I heard a couple of teenage girls complaining about what a bad hair day they were having. I turned to them and said, “You think you’re having a bad hair day?” as I was pointing to my head. The girls looked at me with disbelief that 1. I said that and 2. How awful they felt for talking about having a bad hair day. I immediately started to laugh and told them that if you can’t laugh at yourself then life is going to miserable. At the time I still wasn’t fully accepting of myself, but it was moments like this that made me realize that I can empower a lot of people with my story and help change negativity into positivity!

We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?

All of the women in my life have been my biggest inspirations, especially my mom. My mom is the strongest woman I know who loves me unconditionally and has taught me how to be resilient in the face of adversity. Watching her every move and the lives she has impacted of her life have inspired me beyond measure. I strive to be half the woman and mother she is for my daughters. When 90% of my hair fell out in a matter of weeks and every day since, my mother has been my rock and shoulder to cry. She refused to allow me to ever quit on myself and empowered me to show up every day not just for my daughters and family, but for me. My mom is the reason I stand tall every day being authentically me and knowing I am enough with hair or no hair.

In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?

When you are looking to ‘disrupt’ the industry you need to first understand your intentions. They MUST be positive intentions. WHY is this so important for you to put so much energy towards? What is your end goal? If you do not have the right intentions and your why does not drive you every single day then you are doing it all for the wrong reasons. Disrupting the industry means inspiring and empowering a much-needed change within society. If you are not going to inspire or empower while you are disrupting then don’t waste your time. Be the change you want to see.

Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.

  1. God gives the strongest people the toughest challenges. At the beginning of my hair loss journey, my mom repeated this statement to me weekly. It was so difficult to understand and kept asking, “why me?” Don’t we all ask that? Once I was able to change my mindset about my hair loss my purpose was much clearer and I began to understand WHY I was chosen and I couldn’t imagine my life any other way. Alopecia has blessed me with my true purpose in life.
  2. Trust the process. As the great Tony Robbins states, “Life doesn’t happen to us, it happens for us.” I hated when people told me that good things take time and to trust the process. I prayed every night that I would wake up with a full head of hair again or have the confidence to rock the bald head like Demi Moore in G.I. Jane. Neither happened. Looking back on the past five years I wouldn’t change a single thing as every step, every tear has challenged and motivated me to get to the mindset I have now called resiliency.
  3. There is always Plan B. I focused for eight straight months on doing everything in my power to grow my hair back and nothing was working. My mom kept telling me ‘there is always Plan B’ and I refused to focus on Plan B because I was solely focused on Plan A working. When I finally realized that Plan A was not working, I started to focus on Plan B. And guess what?! I LOVE Plan B. It is WAY better than Plan A!

We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?

I have only just begun. I will be empowering others to transform their life challenges into gifts and opportunities to allow them to pursue their purpose with so much more clarity and confidence. Person by person will start to embrace their authentic self and it will be contagious creating this beautiful ripple effect throughout our society. We will see so much more positivity and productivity because of it.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

Honestly, I truly believe we are our biggest challenges. As women, we MUST believe in ourselves, our purpose, and our mission in life and understand the only thing that is standing in our way is ourselves. Always has been and always will be. We so frequently talk about the comfort zone, the one that we created ourselves. Before we can even think about stepping outside of the comfort zone we must embrace the person that is in the comfort zone. Once you fully embrace yourself, the possibilities are endless.

Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?

Honestly, I would have to say the podcast that my husband, Greg, and I just launched in January 2021 called Challenge Yourself: Coaching + Leadership Podcast. We have spoken with some phenomenal leaders in their field that are incredibly inspiring and continue to empower me through their words in every interview we have. They challenge me to dive deep into my own thought process and how I lead throughout my daily life. The gold nuggets I have taken with me from each and every interview have truly made me a better mom, wife, teacher, coach, and person.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

The movement I hope I am just in the beginning stage of as I am building my name as a brand is being “Authentically You.” Show up every day as your beautiful self, for you. When you show up for yourself, you will in turn show up for others more authentically and see the positivity in others rather than the innate instant judgment of others. See the good in others, and that will empower them to see the good in themselves.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem.” -Captain Jack Sparrow

When I lost all my hair, I was focused on doing anything and everything in order to grow hair again from topical creams to medicines that compromised my immune system to weekly steroid injections into my scalp for six months. Nothing was working. That is when I realized that I was focusing all my energy on something that I could not control and what I needed to do was to put all my energy into my mindset about the problem. It completely changed my point of view and little by little I started to begin to accept my hair loss. Not only did it transform my thoughts about hair loss but about my entire life.

How can our readers follow you online?

I would love to connect with readers on Instagram: @mckennareitz or at www.mckennareitz.com where readers can download my ‘5 Day Reset Your Mindset’ freebie, connect with me and you will also find our Challenge Yourself: Coaching + Leadership Podcast!

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Thank you for this amazing opportunity!


Female Disruptors: McKenna Reitz of Challenge Coaching On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Disruptors: Author Dr Caitlin O’Connell of Harvard Medical School On The Three Things You Ne

Female Disruptors: Author Dr. Caitlin O’Connell of Harvard Medical School On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

It was during one of my classes that my professor, Rick Mills imparted this word of advice that has stuck with me ever since. -“Invest in yourself, because if you don’t, how can you expect others to?” If that wasn’t the most important statement and guiding principle of my life as a scientist, author and artist…thanks, Rick!

As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Caitlin O’Connell.

Caitlin O’Connell is on the faculty at Harvard Medical School and has studied elephants in the wild for the past 30 years. She has written numerous books about her scientific research including both fiction and nonfiction for children and adults. Her new book, Wild Rituals, highlights the importance of ritual in our lives and how nonhuman animals engage in rituals for the same reasons that we do.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I grew up spending a lot of time outside in a natural environment, whether in my backyard that had a pond, stream and woods, or on family camping trips. In the summers, I spent a lot of time underwater, wishing I had been a mermaid. I loved animals — frogs and horses being my two favorites — and this love of animals and passion for nature led me down the path of becoming a field biologist. My curiosity about how other animals communicate with each other led me get both my M.S. and Ph.D. in the area of behavioral ecology and animal communication.

Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

It isn’t easy to be disruptive in a field that is similar to law, where advances in science are based on precedence, building off of what had come before. Early in my career, I was trying to establish that elephants had a way of communicating that hadn’t been thought of before — by detecting vibrations through the ground. Because I couldn’t reference previous papers in this area, it took almost a decade to build the body of research necessary to prove my discovery. It was exciting but also an exhausting process that fortunately had a happy ending.

It takes a lot of confidence, persistence, and even endurance to disrupt the norm. In my case, it took believing in myself and my experience of a repeated pattern to carry me through the drudgery of repeated experiments in order to show that the pattern was real. Having done this once gave me the confidence to do it again, most recently with my book, Wild Rituals. I had spent years watching how other animals engage in rituals and decided to sit down and draw the often surprising parallels between human and nonhuman animal rituals and how we engage in ritual for the very same reasons that nonhuman animals do — even down to the most basic act, such as greeting in order to keep the peace. Or, just as the saying “fences make good neighbors,” — and even better if you build that fence together — the ritualized roaring of lion prides at dawn and dusk create an acoustic barrier between prides on the open African savannah for the same reason — to ensure that their neighbors will not invade their territory. This is true for the howler monkey in the jungle as well.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

In the early days of my elephant field research within Etosha National Park, Namibia, I was told that I had to protect my very expensive low-frequency microphone from being stolen by lions. At the time, it seemed like an incredible prospect that a lion would have any interest whatsoever in a microphone, but I trusted our field technician. Having grown up in the national park, he was never wrong in his predictions of how animals might react to certain foreign elements placed in their environment. The black fuzzy windsock would be irresistible to a lion. So, as to his first suggestion, I purchased a plumbing T-junction and placed the microphone and windsock within it, cutting out either side of the arm of the junction to allow sound in, while protecting the whole apparatus from the jaws of a wily lion. Next, we found dead thorn bushes in the area and piled them on top of the rock cairn, within which our microphone rested — all further instructions from our technician that we secretly thought were perhaps overly cautious. He did the final placements of thorns as he knew how expensive our microphone was and had been worried for us.

Everything was going well with our sound recordings of elephant vocalizations over the next few weeks, while the resident lioness and her cubs enjoyed frolicking around the waterhole showing no interest in our recording set up next to the waterhole. One morning, I noticed that the battery that ran the microphone was running low after a long night of recording and needed to be swapped out. My husband Tim and I drove out to the microphone set up after breakfast and before elephants tended to start showing up.

We carefully removed the thorn bushes and lifted off the rock that covered the microphone cairn and replaced the battery. All the while the lioness and her cubs eyed us from across the clearing with great curiosity. When everything had been replaced, we rearranged the thorn bushes, making sure that there were no gaps that a lioness could fit her paw into, and returned to camp.

Late that same afternoon, as a large group of elephants were leaving the waterhole, we noticed the return of our resident lioness. She was approaching the microphone recording station with particular purpose. At first, we thought that she must have been attracted to our scent, and she that was coming to inspect the new smells near the waterhole. Very quickly, it became clear that that was not the case. She lay down next to the pile of thorns, rolled onto her side and deftly stuck a paw through a small hole in the thorn bushes. We couldn’t believe our eyes. From that position, she fished around with her paw, somehow loosening the wires and releasing the black fuzzy windsock from its protection from within the rock cairn.

Within seconds, she held her price in her jaws and ran off to present her cubs with their new toy. As the cubs batted our microphone around the waterhole, we engaged our research volunteers to bang pots from our tower in the hope of distracting the pride from playing with their coveted new gift from mom. Meanwhile, Tim jumped into the truck to retrieve our single-most important scientific instrument.

As Tim approached the pride in the truck, the lioness took action. She snatched the microphone away from the cubs and ran off, disappearing into the forest. Tim was determined that this not be the end of our recording device and pursued her into the forest. We heard the banging of shovels that were left on top of the truck after some recent digging of trenches to lay more recording wires, then loud scratching of branches down the sides of the truck, as Tim kept the lioness in his path. After we lost sight of him, we could still hear the cursing all the way from the tower and couldn’t help but laugh at the lioness’s determination, despite the horrible implications for the rest of the field season without a recording device. But Tim’s persistence paid off. The lioness eventually dropped the microphone and circled back to retrieve her cubs and disappeared into the bush as Tim returned with his prize.

Lessons learned? 1. Never arrive in the field without a duplicate of everything, no matter the expense. 2. Expect the unexpected (or even the anticipated but unlikely) at every turn and have five backup plans for when the previous back up plan fails. 2. Never underestimate the addictive properties that a windsock has on a lioness and the lengths she will go to steal it — and covet it!

We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?

One storytelling mentor in particular, Margaret French Issac, helped my husband and I develop our amazing science fiction time travel television series, and after several heady meetings, the pitch for the show was gaining serious traction in television circles. Just as we were about to go out with her agent to pitch to networks and streamers, it was the week of Upfronts — where networks unveil their pilots for the upcoming season. It just so happened that four networks had commissioned shows involving time travel. Overnight, ours was dead in the water. It was a moment of terribly timing and bad luck. Undeterred, Margaret quickly helped us regroup and develop a second pilot, and from there, a feature project that we are currently developing. The moral of this story is to never give up and to constantly move and shift and run with the prevailing wind, wherever it may take you, because you never know when the wind might blow again and holding on to something in the doldrums, waiting for the wind to return, isn’t going to get you where you need to be. Margaret’s confidence in us as storytellers and her perseverance, positivity and determination to see things through has been a huge source of inspiration.

In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?

This question made me think about classic storytelling, and the ritual of passing along information through stories, as many traditional societies had done, and some still do for generations. There is something about the structure of a story, particularly a hero’s journey, that has withstood the test of time. The protagonist has to face themselves and enter the belly of the beast to face down their darkest fears, and then come out the other side stronger for it. No matter the particular details of a particular version of the tale, if that classic story arc is not there, the audience will most likely come away feeling dissatisfied. So, being disruptive in storytelling means needing to find that new twist on a classic theme. Shortcuts won’t work. The journey must be undertaken and must be felt and endured. The writer is tasked with finding ever new and disruptive ways to tell that classic tale.

Can you share the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example.

Invest in yourself, because if you don’t, how can you expect others to?” When I was getting my M.S. degree at the University of Hawaii in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology, I took a glassblowing class — having minored in art in college, I always looked for opportunities to keep the creative side of my brain challenged. The only problem was that I absolutely loved sculpture and three-dimensional art to the point of distraction. I had a hard time managing my time with such an addictive medium of expression — time that was supposed to have been dedicated to finishing the writing of my thesis so that my boyfriend (now husband) and I could take a year off between degrees to travel in Africa. I did manage to finish my thesis in time, but I also spent a heck of a lot of time in the glass lab, blowing glass. It was during one of my classes that my professor, Rick Mills imparted this word of advice that has stuck with me ever since. -“Invest in yourself, because if you don’t, how can you expect others to?” If that wasn’t the most important statement and guiding principle of my life as a scientist, author and artist…thanks, Rick!

We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?

There are many more patterns in nature to reveal. I just need to keep my eyes opened to the possibilities. Biomimetics is application of nature to human solutions. I am confident that more natural solutions to human problems in engineering, medicine and physics will emerge. For myself, those solutions may come in the realm of improving human hearing aids, or elsewhere, depending on where my research journey takes me. In my writing, I enjoy finding a new way to approach scientific understanding through fictional characters and nonfiction narratives. I look forward to discovering new ways to educate the public through entertaining science narratives.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

If you do a search on why it’s harder for women to get ahead in business, there are a number of Harvard Business Review articles describing studies showing how the “old boys network” is alive and well and how women don’t have the same access to these networks. This is partly because they have responsibilities at home after work when a lot of the networking happens, especially with senior-level management. HBR highlights another study indicating that women managers are not doing as well at supporting female employees in getting ahead as men do for other men. All of the factors that go into why it’s harder for women to get ahead in business are at play for women disruptors. I would say that they face a bigger hurdle due to the fact that their networks are not as strong, and therefore there isn’t as much trust, and as such, their ideas are less likely to be taken up at the onset. Women don’t have as much of a history of forging and maintain strong relationships and teams, which is why it was particularly exciting to see Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna win the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on the technology of genome editing.

If you think about it, we are coming out of a long period in history, where, not only was it harder, but sometimes not even possible for women to become celebrated artists, scientists or authors — the disruptors of the past were almost exclusively men — or in a few cases, women taking on a male pseudonym in order to publish their work. Fortunately, it is not like that today, but there are still lingering biases from those dark days for women and we still have a long way to go toward breaking down the barriers that would make it possible for women to be leaders in their fields, much less disruptors.

What are the solutions? Today, although the number of women in positions of power is growing, there are still only 5% at the CEO level within the U.S., according to a 2019 study of women in the workplace. However, I learned recently from a very successful fund-raising entity that many women are or will be coming into large amounts of wealth over the next decade — wealth that could partially facilitate promoting other women and building stronger female networks based on trust and a commitment to seeing more women disruptors across all fields. Women investors need to demand that more women be placed in C-level positions. Women donors need to seek out female-led nonprofits and support entity that help empower women and female networks. We need more female mentors to take the next generation under their wing. This is certainly happening, but we have a lot of catching up to do, especially considering that women tend to shoulder more of the burden at home and are not as free to give additional time in their schedules to support others. This just means that we have to find more creative ways be mentors, perhaps in ways we hadn’t previously considered. We need to find ways to be disruptive at supporting women disruptors. During the pandemic, I found myself supporting young female scientists between degrees through my nonprofit intern program, where they have been able to build their resume of elephant research at a time when there have been very few job opportunities to help them be more competitive to enter graduate level science programs. In this way, we all helped each other. Coming out of the pandemic, we will all have more publications under our belts, so it was a win-win.

In general, when I go into the field to conduct my elephant research, I try to select as many young female scientists that I can. It is hard for young women in science to gain field experiences, particularly in a remote African setting with many logistical, environmental and cultural challenges. Providing them with an experience that is somewhat “protected” in the sense that I am there to manage all of those challenges, allows them to have an experience that will expose them to the challenges without making them responsible for them, which would then allow them to compete for other such experiences and eventually run their own field studies in the future, if that was their goal. Other female leaders should be making the same conscious effort to provide female mentees with such opportunities to learn from them.

Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?

My husband and I go to a lot of art and science museums for inspiration. We have developed several of our science narrative storylines based on these experiences. There was a quote that I read at one of these exhibitions a few years back that I found particularly inspiring. It was buried within a modern art exhibit at the National Museum of Modern Art in the Pompidou Center in Paris by Pierre Soulages for one of his exhibitions. The simplicity of the quote struck me, then the complexity of its meaning snuck up on me and has stuck with me ever since. “It is in doing that we realize what it is that we are looking for.” I think there is an incredibly powerful message in these few words — i.e. don’t wait for inspiration to strike. We make our own inspiration by getting out there and doing things.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-).

Stronger female mentor programs that have real impact and accountability. I was involved in a female CEO mentor program as a mentee, at a time when I was trying to raise money for my nonprofit in order to take it to the next level a few years back. The mentor that was assigned to me never had enough time to even schedule a phone call with me and the whole thing collapsed. Well, to be fair, one phone call had been scheduled after much back and forth, but then she couldn’t make it, and then never responded to my follow up queries to reschedule. That was a disappointing demonstration of the fact that women have so much more responsibility in their lives, juggling family and profession that it is always going to be harder for them. That was my generous explanation at the time. It was especially disappointing, however, considering that this woman actually signed up and committed to being a mentor within the program and then just bailed. I since heard that this had happened to others in the program as well. How can we hope to afford change if we don’t invest in it ourselves? Seriously, women in positions of power need to step up to the plate!

I had another interaction with a woman who headed a foundation and promised to fund my nonprofit after seeing the documentary ELEPHANT KING about my research on male elephant society. She was so impressed with the film that she invited me out to lunch, saying that I shouldn’t be shy about my programmatic needs, and that I should expect a check within a week. Then, she disappeared from my life — no check, no word — radio silence. I was left wondering whether it was because the waiter had forgotten to remove the goat cheese from my salad and I had eaten a little of it (she was a devout vegan). I spent a number of years thinking that that was the most expensive few crumbs of goat cheese I will ever eat, only to learn from another nonprofit friend that said person had found herself in a terrible divorce and left the country within a few short days of our memorable lunch. I tell this story because it speaks to the vulnerability of women in every aspect of their lives, even those who may have substantial positions of power, and how that vulnerability can also impact the women that interact with her within that position of power. We need to build stronger infrastructure to support women, including those in power, so that they can remain in power.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

My favorite life lesson quote is from Henry David Thoreau — “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” This says everything to me. It speaks to preconceived notions that we might have about others. It’s a reminder that even though you think you understand something, there could be an entirely different meaning or interpretation. It’s a reminder to try to see a situation from all angles to make sure that you really understand it. It’s a reminder to seek the opinion of as many as you can in order to formulate an opinion. It’s also a reminder to pinch myself when I’m out in nature experiencing a particular elephant behavior, to make sure that I am taking in as many parameters that I can in order to really understand the influences and motivations surrounding a particular behavior. And even then, I can’t rely on my own experience without informing it with the data that I collect and the video recording to revisit to see if there was anything that I had missed in the moment.

How can our readers follow you online?

www.caitlinoconnell.com

ElephantSkinny-twitter

@elephant_skinny-instagram

Like Caitlin’s Facebook author page: caitlineoconnell

elephant skinny-Tumblr

www.utopiascientific.org


Female Disruptors: Author Dr Caitlin O’Connell of Harvard Medical School On The Three Things You Ne was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women Of The C-Suite: Dena Mayne of Ergotron On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior…

Women Of The C-Suite: Dena Mayne of Ergotron On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Executive

Don’t take things personally. People just communicate differently, and this mindset shift will spare you a ton of unnecessary stress. This continues to be my biggest area for improvement and something that is a work in process.

As a part of our series about strong women leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dena Mayne.

Dena Mayne joined Ergotron in July 2020 as executive vice president and chief marketing officer. An accomplished, results-focused strategist, Mayne oversees strategy development and execution of Ergotron’s global marketing and innovation initiatives.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I was raised in a small town — on a dairy farm in rural Wisconsin. We didn’t have a ton of resources growing up and it certainly wasn’t a given, or even expected, that I’d go to college. The career opportunities for a kid in a small town in Wisconsin were limited, and I knew from a young age that I wanted to do something different.

At 19 years old, I got my first job at 3M as a secretary. My manager there was an inspiring leader and mentor who encouraged me to go to college. He said that I participated in his team meetings as if I was one of his managers and having a degree would likely help both myself and others see me the way he did — as a leader. That was a huge turning point for me. I went back to school and got my degree in business administration with an emphasis in marketing. While I was in school and working at 3M, I became more and more enamored with business. I was particularly fascinated by the ways that companies succeed (or fail) to keep their focus on the customer, and that passion for customer intimacy has made my career in marketing an exciting and ever-evolving adventure.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

Joining a new company in the middle of a pandemic was an interesting challenge. When I started working at Ergotron in July of 2020, most of the company had been working remotely for months. I had to build relationships with Ergotron’s senior leadership team, the marketing team and my other colleagues virtually. And, of course, the pandemic has created unique challenges for the business and has been stressful for everyone.

However, rich connections can happen virtually, and we’ve experienced it. For example, we held a day-long virtual “offsite” at the end of last year, and it was an overwhelming success. With some thoughtful planning, we were able to create a day that helped to foster connections among the team and prioritized fun while still working on the problems we need to solve.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

While many of us are currently working from home, when I first started at Ergotron I went into the office a few days a week. While I was setting up my office space, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why my monitor was not working. Before asking for help from IT, I spent hours working on it myself, calling my husband and asking a friend. I finally had to call IT and to my surprise, it wasn’t plugged in correctly. Not my brightest moment.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

My grandma had a big impact on my life. She grew up during the Great Depression and was shaped by that experience. She was fiercely independent and as an adult, she always had a job and was the breadwinner in her family, which was uncommon during that time. She taught me the value of self-sufficiency, and that wife and mother are not the only roles women can aspire to. While I was in high school, I lived with my grandma and I was also a teller at the local bank. I would go to her house during lunch and her first question always was, “How hard have you worked today and what did you accomplish?” She instilled in me a sense of pride in working hard.

Additionally, throughout my career, I have been incredibly fortunate to have been mentored by several colleagues. The generous coaching, honest feedback and encouragement I’ve received over the years has been invaluable.

In my work, I often talk about how to release and relieve stress. As a busy leader, what do you do to prepare your mind and body before a stressful or high stakes meeting, talk, or decision? Can you share a story or some examples?

In the virtual world we’re all currently living in, it has become harder to step away from work. I think it’s so vitally important for all of us to give our brains a chance to slow down. For me, journaling is an important practice. It helps me get all the thoughts that are swirling around out of my head and down on paper, and that helps me tremendously with clarity.

Good physical health can also encourage good mental health. I’m a big proponent of exercise — anything from taking a walk to a vigorous workout. It is so helpful when your brain quiets down and your body takes over. My biggest win was adding a laptop holder to my treadmill so that I can walk while I work or participate in meetings. I have found this to be an effective way to focus while relieving tension or stress.

I also get tremendous value from discussing what’s going on with trusted family or friends. Being able to bounce my ideas off people helps me formulate my thoughts and gain clarity.

As you know, the United States is currently facing a very important self-reckoning about race, diversity, equality and inclusion. This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have a diverse executive team?

Diversity is vital at all levels of an organization and the executive team is no exception. It’s difficult for a homogenous group of any type to have the different backgrounds, personalities and experiences needed to see and understand all the different ways to solve problems. When members of leadership teams come from a similar background or have similar personalities, it can be easy to fall into “group think,” which can lead to missed opportunities and a resistance to challenging the status quo. Furthermore, if leaders don’t have a clear understanding of the day-to-day experiences of the team responsible for moving the business forward, that disconnect can have a real impact on employee engagement, retention and overall business success. We all have much to learn from the life experiences of others and that exchange of knowledge makes all of us so much more powerful. Additionally, our customer base is diverse, so the more diverse our employees and leadership team are, the more we’re able to understand and connect with our customers.

As a business leader, can you please share a few steps we must take to truly create an inclusive, representative, and equitable society? Kindly share a story or example for each.

Embracing the differences we all have as people is where it starts. The more we understand that we all benefit by honoring the different life experiences of others, and that we all have something to learn from and teach each other, the better off we’ll be. For example, fostering a diverse employee base has clear benefits to the customer. Different employees might have perspectives that closely align to various customer profiles. When we’re able to better see the world from the point of view of the customer, we’ll be able to create better solutions for them.

This came to life for me when I started traveling and spending a significant amount of time in other countries. Being immersed in another culture quickly taught me how sheltered my point of view and life experiences truly were. Once I started traveling, I saw the world through an entirely different set of eyes and started to recognize how much bigger the world was. It was through this realization that my passion to spend more time in different countries, cultures and communities grew. Being curious and seeking to understand others became core to who I am and something that I think is vital for any leader.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what a CEO or executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what an executive does that is different from the responsibilities of the other leaders?

Early in my career, there was a flood in the corporate center and we had to take the stairs to our floor instead of using the elevator. My cube was on the 12th floor which made for a long climb. One morning, as I started my daily climb, I realized that the CEO was right in front of me. He sensed my presence behind him, slowed his pace and said, “walk with me.” During our walk, he initiated a conversation and asked who I was, what was my role, what did I think of the company direction, and what did I think of his leadership. He truly wanted my opinions. During that climb, he encouraged me to share my ideas with my own leader, to trust my instincts and voice my opinions. This is the role of an executive: to inspire, encourage, and listen. And, of course, to deliver business results.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive. Can you explain what you mean?

Many executives are assumed to be only financially motivated and lack genuine concern for teams and individuals. This is not the case. Many leaders spend their days focused on their teams by helping remove barriers and creating spaces for success. Currently, our team is working on a massive initiative to merge a store and website into one experience and capability. This is a large undertaking and the team is up against many obstacles. I make sure to spend time in workshops and individual meetings to understand their challenges and help build the case for resources or help navigate needs from other functions and teams that will enable success. My role is to listen, encourage and remove barriers.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women executives that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

It is tricky to generalize too much on this topic, but if we look at the way women and men have historically been socialized, these two groups are encouraged to adopt different behaviors and characteristics. As adults, this translates into different perceptions of the same actions. For example, a man who communicates directly and pushes decisively toward a vision or goal is seen as a strong leader. He’s praised for being aggressive. A woman who behaves similarly may also be seen as aggressive, but it works against her. She’s viewed as difficult or hard to work with. Male leaders who are fired up about a topic are perceived as passionate. Fired up women are seen as being emotional. Assigning these narrow windows of acceptable behavior for women and men costs all of us. Neither group is permitted to fully express, or even develop, the full spectrum of human emotions or to show up in their lives as their full, authentic selves.

Certainly, not everyone is cut out to be an executive. In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful executive and what type of person should avoid aspiring to be an executive? Can you explain what you mean?

I’ll go back to the story of the CEO who slowed his pace to walk and talk with me in the staircase. It was at that moment that I said to myself, I want to be like him, and to have the wisdom, charisma and care to lead and encourage others. Over time, that desire continued to grow and was reinforced by other inspirational leaders and mentors. It comes back to the passion to want to listen, encourage and remove barriers. This might sound easy, but it’s not, and it requires perseverance, patience, confidence in knowing you can make an impact.

What advice would you give to other women leaders to help their team to thrive?

As I started to grow in my career, there was a point where I thought the only way to succeed or win was to mimic the characteristics of those around me — mostly men, mostly well educated.

One day my boss (and one of my greatest mentors) called me into his office and asked, “Dena, why do you pretend to be someone else when in groups? I spend time with you one-on-one and think, there is someone who knows what to do, then I see you in group meetings and you are someone else entirely. The reason I hired you is because you bring something special, unique — something that will leave an impact on the team and business. Don’t lose that by trying to be someone you aren’t.”

It took me a while to digest what he was saying. I wasn’t being me and he was telling me it was okay to be me. In fact, it was better than okay — it was needed. Often, as leaders and as women, I think it’s vital that we avoid the pressure to show up as someone we’re not. In the corporate world, women may see more men leading and start to believe that the only way to succeed is to adopt what are perceived to be more masculine traits. It’s crucial for women to see other women succeeding while being true to themselves.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I wouldn’t be where I am today without the impact of those who took the time to coach and encourage me. I want to pay that back by doing the same for others. I really enjoy connecting one-on-one with people and helping them see what they didn’t know was possible, particularly within themselves.

I volunteer with a local organization called Women Venture that helps female entrepreneurs succeed, and I really enjoy coaching and mentoring women in that program. I also helped my husband build a business from the ground up. I strongly believe that more women building businesses, running companies and leading teams will have a powerful positive impact on the world.

What are some things you wish you’d been told before you started your career and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

No one has all the answers. Earlier in my career, I assumed that senior leaders and their smart teams knew everything. Now I understand that we’re all constantly learning and growing.

Seek out mentors — they’re invaluable. My first mentor encouraged me to go to college and that was a pivotal moment in the start of my career. Everyone needs a mentor, no matter what their title is.

Don’t take things personally. People just communicate differently, and this mindset shift will spare you a ton of unnecessary stress. This continues to be my biggest area for improvement and something that is a work in process.

Share your authentic self and what makes you uniquely you. I truly believe in the impact of authenticity — it’s a superpower.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

The beauty of our world today is that you don’t have to travel great distances to be exposed to different cultures, communities and lifestyles. By embracing the power of technology you can broaden your views and social network. This alone could create opportunities to see the world through someone else’s eyes and understand that we all wish to be valued and appreciated for who we are.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I believe that compassion and empathy are vital for skillful leadership. Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, stated this clearly:

“One of the criticisms I’ve faced over the years is that I’m not aggressive enough or assertive enough or maybe somehow, because I’m empathetic, it means I’m weak. I totally rebel against that. I refuse to believe that you cannot be both compassionate and strong.”

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them

I would love to meet other executive women who have their own stories of trials and successes as they’ve become leaders in the corporate world — a traditionally male-dominated space. I have always had a dream of putting together a book that highlights these stories, to give our male colleagues deeper insight into our experiences and to help future women leaders learn from our successes and mistakes.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.


Women Of The C-Suite: Dena Mayne of Ergotron On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Henna Wang of Gesso On The Future Of Travel In The Post COVID World

Sustainable Tourism. Remember in April at the height of lockdowns, we saw signs of nature repairing itself especially in the most touristy places. While COVID reminded us of our own mortality, we realized just how fragile our planet is and the role we play in destroying it. As travel rebounds, there will be increasing awareness around the tourism industry’s footprint, and businesses that are taking sustainability seriously will be rewarded.

As part of my series about “developments in the travel industry over the next five years”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Henna Wang.

Henna Wang is a co-founder of Gesso, an audio AR platform for exploring the world. Their purpose is to inspire empathy and to celebrate human creativity by exploring physical spaces and tangible objects that embody our collective heritage, history and wisdom.

Prior to launching Gesso, Henna has worked across the arts and social impact sectors at organizations such as Sotheby’s, Phillips, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Smithsonian’s Freer | Sackler. Henna is especially passionate about women’s economic empowerment and has worked closely with artisan groups through her roles at ByHand Consulting, the Alliance for Artisan Enterprise, and the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women. Henna holds a BA in Art History and Economics from Bucknell University, and an MSc in Culture and Society from the London School of Economics. Currently based in Brooklyn, she has also lived in Pittsburgh, Taipei, Washington DC, London, Paris and Ouagadougou.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

My mother came of age during the Cultural Revolution in China. Because of her radical lack of access to education and culture at a critical age, she made up for the lost time as a young adult and especially when it came to raising me. I was fortunate to grow up frequenting museums, libraries and traveling to new places. Our family moved from Pittsburgh to Taipei, then back to the States again. Growing up between two cultures was at times confusing, but mostly thrilling. Each move challenged me to adapt quickly to new cultures. Travel has always been essential to our family, instead of giving each other gifts at Christmas, we’d take a trip and the gift of these memories keeps on giving. I remember my father writing a letter to my 4th grade teacher in Taiwan asking for permission to take me out of class for a few weeks so we could join a segment of a Semester at Sea voyage. In his appeal, he quoted 16th Century Chinese scholar Dong Qichang’s words 讀萬卷書,不如行萬里路 which means the knowledge one gains from walking 10,000 miles eclipses what one can gain from reading 10,000 books. When it came time to decide on what to major in college, it’s no surprise that I landed on Art History and International Relations (later switched to Economics — I do have Asian parents after all!)

Perhaps many of my fellow millennials could relate, I changed jobs a lot in my 20s, from an auction house, to multiple museums, to a jewelry brand, to a think tank, to a nonprofit fighting for gender equality. All those jobs have undoubtedly shaped my most important role yet — as co-CEO of Gesso.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

The first time I understood and really appreciated contemporary art was during a visit to the New Museum. When they became our pilot for launching our museum guide product, I was thrilled. Their motto “new art, new ideas” couldn’t be more true and also is evident in their approach to incubating future-defining ideas by bringing artists and technologists together and experimenting. Now that Gesso is the platform that further enables the public to draw connections to the works on view and reflect on the radical concepts the art within their walls challenge us with is extremely rewarding. I love this sense of coming full circle, and how even a museum visit from 20 years ago could be life changing.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”? Can you share a story about that?

Frankly this is something I’m still working on, not burning out. As an entrepreneur, my fingerprints are on every aspect of our business. Especially when my co-CEO is also my husband, the boundary between work and life is even more amorphous. Our response to the perils of 2020 was to go into hyperdrive, to push ourselves to the limits. What’s been a helpful respite for me, is to make things! Even though my work is deeply creative, I found it’s been essential to make room for other forms of creative expression. It could be as easy as picking up your favorite pen and just filling a blank page with scribbles with no premeditation, or as intentional as setting up for a weekend of painting. I made this vanitas (a still life rife with symbolism celebrating the ephemeral beauty of life) over the holidays which reveal a key insight I’m excited to carry with me into years to come: that real art is not just mimicking the real world, but interpreting it. As an art historian, I knew this on paper, but never truly felt it until I made room for my own creativity. Through the act of making this painting, I learned to trust my intuition more, which is something I’m trying on this year.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

There are so many! Akin to blurting out an acceptance speech and having that feeling that you might have left someone out.

Thank you for that. Let’s jump to the core of our discussion. Can you share with our readers about the innovations that you are bringing to the travel and hospitality industries?

Today’s traveler is spontaneous and digitally native, they expect to lean on mobile apps for booking, wayfinding and experiences. They are intellectually curious but don’t want to out themselves as tourists by joining a tour bus, flipping through a guidebook, or following the flag of a tour guide. What Gesso does is layer audio stories upon physical location, so you can walk around as if a friend were letting you in on a secret about where you are. Because it’s self-guided, you can walk at your own pace and on your schedule. The majority of guide apps port existing content and cram it into a mobile app. We started with a blank canvas, really thinking about what is most important to travelers- being able to focus on their surroundings without constantly referring to their phone screens. The power of audio AR is that the technology can disappear into the background and allow listeners to turn their attention back at the delightful details that are in front of them hidden in plain sight. Imagine walking past that building you’ve always wondered about, Gesso chimes in with a cool 1-minute story that’s packed with insight. Whether it’s following your curiosity and looking for the last eccentrics of Greenwich Village or taking a meditative guided walk through the pastoral paradise that is Prospect Park, we leverage the evocative power of audio storytelling and cutting edge technology to deliver a seamless user experience.

Which “pain point” are you trying to address by introducing this innovation?

Typical options for exploring a city are hit or miss, I’ve taken a fair share of walking tours where you get rushed along and end up not being able to spend more time in places that truly pique your interest. They also require pre-planning and are only offered at certain times. We are avid podcast listeners, but the podcasts you’re listening to have no idea where you are, what if it could? Gesso offers a way for our listeners to explore where they are and where they want to be. Listeners have described our audio walks as “a well produced podcast meets scavenger hunt.” While exploring with Gesso, you can expect to be inspired and to have some fun.

How do you envision that this might disrupt the status quo?

Gesso sees itself making both educational content and entertaining content. On the educational side, we see ourselves working with subject experts and tour guides to provide great walking documentaries. On the entertainment side, we are starting to work with trailblazing creators that want to use the city as a canvas for cinematic experiences that aren’t rooted in nonfiction. These can be thought of as walking movies where the city is a changeable dynamic backward backdrop for a really engaging thriller story.

When we decide what to watch tonight on Netflix, we know documentaries are good for us, but we might not opt for it each night. We might gravitate towards something escapist, thrilling or silly. Audio AR extends far beyond the tourism use case, our audio walks don’t always have to be purely educational. We have an opportunity to create really cinematic experiences, a movie for your ears, where you unlock the next scene with your own movement, whether by walking; biking or driving. Gesso is defining a new category of media and entertainment.

As you know, COVID19 changed the world as we know it. Can you share 5 examples of how travel and hospitality companies will be adjusting over the next five years to the new ways that consumers will prefer to travel?

  1. Experiences over things rings even more true in a post-COVID world.
  2. Sustainable Tourism. Remember in April at the height of lockdowns, we saw signs of nature repairing itself especially in the most touristy places. While COVID reminded us of our own mortality, we realized just how fragile our planet is and the role we play in destroying it. As travel rebounds, there will be increasing awareness around the tourism industry’s footprint, and businesses that are taking sustainability seriously will be rewarded.
  3. Mobile Guides. Prior to the pandemic, one third of travelers were already using mobile apps that act as tour guides in-destination (Skift 2018). As we emerge from the pandemic in phases, this move toward digital will accelerate.
  4. AR and VR will continue to play a big role in pre-trip planning but will never replace the in person experience, it’ll only make people want to experience the real thing more.
  5. Travelers will expect contactless processes at various touchpoints

You are a “travel insider”. How would you describe your “perfect vacation experience”?

I think back so fondly on the last transatlantic trip I took, which happened to be while the world was going into lockdown. In March 2020, my co-founder Michael and I got married at City Hall in New York. We went on a short “businessmoon” to Paris where we were testing an early version of our app. The monuments and boulevards were empty, it was the perfect backdrop for slow looking. We walked and biked all over the city, each wearing discrete earbuds so we can hear stories from our app chime in based on what we were looking at…it was magical. What I loved so much about those days was more than seeing an early version of our app in action, but the surprise and delight we got from the exploration of the in-between. I grow when I travel, I get my best ideas when I travel, and I wanted to replicate the feeling of travel for fellow New Yorkers when we got home.

Can you share with our readers how have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

That’s so kind, thank you. I wouldn’t say I’m successful yet but I’m certainly not waiting to be successful before bringing goodness to the world. Because of my mother’s upbringing, I realize there are so many stories in parts of the world that cannot be told. We happen to be operating in a country that promotes ‘free speech’, yet the history we learn in schools is very white-washed and one dimensional. We created Gesso to be the scaffolding that elevates people to express their point of view from their vantage point. Gesso is that primer layer that makes a blank canvas, we empower the next generation of storytellers to tell the world about the places and people who’ve defined them. We started this work when we built our platform for museums, realizing that inequality was rampant in the museum world. One way we could help level the playing field was to make a digital guide platform accessible to museums of all sizes. So that museums that don’t have massive budgets and dedicated digital staff can leverage the most up-to-date technology designed for their visitors in mind.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

Empathy is at the heart of all movements. We’re in the business of creating empathy, inspiring people to see the world through a new lens, to create their own emotional maps of the world by discovering the layers of history defined by trailblazers from a different era.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Follow me @hmyw and Gesso @gesso.app on instagram where we share a visual diary of art and exploration, with a heavy sprinkling of hidden gems.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!


Henna Wang of Gesso On The Future Of Travel In The Post COVID World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Veerle Beelen of Unpackbyveer On The Future of Travel in The Post Covid World

Slow Travel will become more popular — In a world in which everyone is connected 24/7 and nothing ever stops, travel is the perfect way to tune out and reset. Slow travel means a focus on quality instead of quantity. Slowing down to really get to know one place and have a deeper travel experience there while connecting with the local culture. People will be looking for quieter, less touristy places for these types of experiences. There is an opportunity for the travel and hospitality industry here to promote mindfulness experiences, like wellness retreats and spas. Traveling slower makes sure that you can have a more meaningful, energizing experience of which you will feel that you don’t need a vacation after your vacation is over!

As part of my series about “developments in the travel industry over the next five years”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Veerle Beelen.

Veerle Beelen is an Internationally Certified Travel Coach. As a Travel Coach she empowers travellers to have transformative travel experiences and to focus on their “Travel Mindset”. Her goal is to help expats and other travellers transform their personal lives and careers through their travel experiences, guide them through the preparation process of moving abroad and coach them through the transition process of living in a new country. Besides that, she inspires people to use travel as a tool for personal growth, self-awareness, reflection and to boost their overall wellbeing. You can learn more about Veerle Beelen and her Travel Coaching at https://unpackbyveer.com

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

As an expat and after living in 4 different countries over the past ten years, I found that there was a gap between the services that were offered to expats, like relocation and visa support, and the support they actually need when moving countries. I often felt that it would have been great and accommodating to have a coach to support me during the trialing times of moving and adapting to a new country. I felt like I lacked someone to help me stay on track with both personal and professional goals. I needed that to feel grounded and energized during the journey. Since I couldn’t find that, I spent a lot of time focusing on my own self-growth. I realized that by concentrating on having the right mindset I could make my time abroad as beautiful and successful as I wanted it to be and I could attract the things I want in my life.

Working on my mindset and personal development helped me so much, and I believed it could help others too. I had been looking for something that could help me and couldn’t find it, so I realized I could create it myself and that’s how I became a Travel Coach!

As a Travel Coach I assist others who dream of moving to a new country to make that dream become a reality. In my framework I coach that preparation and mindset are the key aspects of a successful move and of a fulfilling travel experience in general.

Besides that, I love to inspire others to use travel as a tool for self-growth and reflection, instead of just having an escape from daily life. To feel energized after a trip instead of more exhausted! It’s beautiful when you realise how impactful travel can become a boost to your overall wellbeing. I have experienced this during my own travels and I’m grateful that I can now spread this message to other travellers and to my clients.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

Once I started this journey of becoming a certified Travel Coach so many things started to fall into place. I believe that everything that happens in our life brings us a lesson. If we are open to learning from the bad things that happen to us and take them as experience, it gives us an opportunity for growth. Due to the pandemic, I lost my job and visa and had to leave Australia where I had been living the expat life for almost 3 years. At first, I was devastated and in shock and didn’t know what my next steps in life would be. Therefore, I tried to figure out which lessons I had to learn from this. Right now, I feel that this life event happened so that a new door would open for me to pursue my dream of having my own business. Most likely I wouldn’t have had the courage to take this step if I had stayed in my comfort zone. Since I made the decision to follow my own path, I have met beautiful people and interesting opportunities crossed my path that I would have never thought about before, like doing this interview! I can’t wait to meet great people to work with and to see what else is coming my way in the near future.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When I first started, I was so excited about what I had to offer that I felt like the whole world was waiting for me and that I would be very busy from the start. However, in the beginning I heard crickets! So very soon I realized that building a business with a solid foundation takes time! I had to take a step back and focus on how to reach my ideal audience better. I focused on learning new skills, like marketing, advertisement and finding my own authentic voice. It’s sometimes easy to believe all the ads that promise you that you can build a 6-figure business within 3 months. However, I have learned to have patience and not to rush myself but to trust that everything happens at the right timing. Also, it’s important for me to do things in my own authentic way and find ways of running a business that match with my personality and lifestyle. That mindset shift helped me to attract beautiful people and to feel inspired to guide them on their transformative travel journeys.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”? Can you share a story about that?

First of all, I think it’s very important to take your time and to work in your own flow. What I mean with this is that you can’t be productive every day and that’s okay. If you push yourself too hard, you will not only stop enjoying your work but you will also burn out quickly. To avoid burn out I think it’s very important to feel inspired and empowered by what you do. This will keep your energy high, which will not only improve your productivity but most of all your overall happiness.

In my case, I have to step on the brake often so that I can continue to thrive. For me this means having enough me-time, offline time and spending time in nature to de-stress (and of course travel whenever that is possible!). These things help me to slow down when I want to do too many things at the same time.

By finding my own flow, taking time for things to develop and by trusting in my own journey, I learned that slowing down in the short-term actually helps you to speed up in the long-term!

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

Absolutely! I’m grateful for my business mentor and coach Sahara Rose de Vore, who is the founder of the Travel Coach Network. The network consists of a beautiful group of ambitious people who are all passionate travelers and certified travel coaches. Even though there are so many different niches in the travel industry and every Travel Coach is specialized in something different, we all find ways to support and empower each other. Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely process sometimes and that’s why I believe that it is very helpful to have a support group of like-minded individuals around you to connect with regularly.

Thank you for that. Let’s jump to the core of our discussion. Can you share with our readers about the innovations that you are bringing to the travel and hospitality industries?

Everyone has heard of travel agents that help you with booking your trip, but Travel Coaches are still relatively new in the travel and hospitality industry. Travel coaches focus more on the experience, goals and mindset of a traveller and giving the power back to the traveller in terms of travel planning. With the support of a Travel Coach a traveller will become more confident and self-aware to plan a trip that aligns with that person’s purpose and life goals. This new Travel Coach approach is very powerful and I’m very excited to call myself one of the ICF accredited Travel Coaches in the industry!

Which “pain point” are you trying to address by introducing this innovation?

As a Travel Coach I help my clients making their travel experiences purposeful and lifechanging. Instead of using travel as an escape from daily life, travel will be used as a tool for self-reflection, a deeper connection, finding clarity on life goals, a time to reset and learn. I empower my clients to think about ‘why’ they want to travel first instead of focusing on ‘what’ or ‘where’. Through a reflection and planning process they come up with a travel plan that aligns with their deeper life goals.

In my coaching approach I focus on preparation and mindset. This combination helps people not to overwhelm themselves during the travel planning process, but to stay organized and reflect on what they are looking for in their travels and life in general. Part of this is also about managing expectations and being flexible and open-minded to whatever comes your way.

For example, in the case of moving to a new country, this is not only a beautiful adventure but also has its challenges. Think about having to learn a new language, finding your way in a different culture and a new city, dealing with common ‘expat problems’ like homesickness and culture shock and the list goes on. In my coaching sessions I help my clients to gain new perspectives on these challenges and give them tools to feel more confident and excited about their move. After all, I want them to make the most out of their journey!

How do you envision that this might disrupt the status quo?

Research has shown that in the future people will be looking for more purposeful and intuitive travel experiences. During the pandemic many people realised how important travelling is for their personal life and wellbeing when travel suddenly became limited. Spending more time at home gave us the opportunity to reflect on what is important in life and what truly makes us happy. Therefore, when talking about the Future of Travel, hospitality and travel companies will have to adjust to people wanting to have more meaningful travel experiences, not just an escape from their daily routine but travel experiences for personal growth, wellbeing and purpose. That is where I step in as a Travel Coach to guide travelers to have transformative and intuitive travel experiences that align with their life goals, career, wellness and overall happiness.

As you know, COVID19 changed the world as we know it. Can you share 5 examples of how travel and hospitality companies will be adjusting over the next five years to the new ways that consumers will prefer to travel?

Although travel shut down during Covid19 and the travel and hospitality companies have been hit hard by this, we need to be hopeful towards the future. One of the things that this pandemic has shown is how important travel is for people. You sometimes don’t really know how important something is to you until you don’t have it anymore. This was definitely the case for travel for many people. Even though we cannot predict the future, upcoming trends in the travel industry have shown that there are new ways that consumers will prefer to travel in the future. Here are 5 examples of how travel and hospitality companies will be adjusting to this shift.

1 ) The focus will be more on the experience instead of the destination. People will be looking for more fulfilling travel experiences and don’t want to just use travel as an escape from daily life anymore. Instead of just sitting on the beach, people are looking for experiences to be inspired, to learn something, to connect with the local culture and to feel some sort of transformation. The travel and hospitality industry can tap into this trend by focusing on what experience they can offer to their consumers. It’s about providing new opportunities for consumers for connection and inspiration. For example are there opportunities to connect with the local culture? Or is the destination known for a natural wonder that will surprise the consumer? Are there opportunities for relaxation and reflection etc?

2 ) Slow Travel will become more popular. In a world in which everyone is connected 24/7 and nothing ever stops, travel is the perfect way to tune out and reset. Slow travel means a focus on quality instead of quantity. Slowing down to really get to know one place and have a deeper travel experience there while connecting with the local culture. People will be looking for quieter, less touristy places for these types of experiences. There is an opportunity for the travel and hospitality industry here to promote mindfulness experiences, like wellness retreats and spas. Travelling slower makes sure that you can have a more meaningful, energizing experience of which you will feel that you don’t need a vacation after your vacation is over!

3 ) Travellers are looking for more personalised experiences to boost their wellbeing. Due to the pandemic there is an increased focus on health and safety for travelers, but besides that the overall wellbeing of travelers will become more important as well. This means that people will be looking for more personalised travel experiences that align with their desires. The travel and hospitality industry will adjust to this trend by providing services to travellers that are more tailored to their personal needs. For example providing personalised programs and travel packages designed for a specific type of traveller. People want to feel supported and cared for during their travels and will be looking for experiences that boost their wellbeing. Besides that people are, now more than ever, looking for connection. Travel and hospitality companies will therefore find new ways to create more personal experiences for their customers and for example focus more on authenticity, personality and local connection in their services.

4 ) There is more choice and control in the hands of the consumer. Travel and hospitality companies will support consumers with more elaborated digital tools so that they have more choice and control over their travel planning. This will give consumers more flexibility and certainty for their itinerary and specific needs during their journey, making it easier to adjust their planned trips when plans change last-minute. The further digitalization of the travel industry will also give consumers the opportunities to have more personalized solutions which enhance their overall customer experience.

5 ) People would like support from a Travel Coach. As I mentioned previously, people will be looking for more personalised experiences that not only boost their wellbeing, but also give them more fulfillment in terms of inspiration, empowerment and connection.

Travel Coaches will be playing a more important role to fulfill this need, since they are the travel experts who can support travellers to focus on wellbeing, mindset and individualized, transformative travel experiences. Depending on the niche a Travel Coach is specialized in, for example solo travel, wellness travel, sustainable travel, female travel etc., travel and hospitality companies will use the services of a Travel Coach to gain a better understanding of how they can boost their offers to align with what consumers are looking for. By working with a Travel Coach people will find out what the deeper purpose of their travels are. Whether they want to use their next trip to gain clarity on their next steps in life, whether they want to re-connect with family and friends or spend quality time with their partner, or use travel to heal from a traumatic life event or travel for self-empowerment. The travel and hospitality industry can provide solutions for any type of trip by tapping into what the underlying reason is that people seek to travel.

Even though Covid-19 has had a destructive impact on the travel and hospitality industry, there is hope for the future because people will always want to continue travelling. It’s part of our human nature. Now more than ever people are looking for the positive transformations that travel can give them. They want to explore to be inspired and empowered, and to feel motivated to deal with the challenges of daily life. The upcoming trends in the travel industry post the pandemic will give many new opportunities for travel companies to redefine the value they offer to their consumers and to make sure that travellers can have transformative experiences.

You are a “travel insider”. How would you describe your “perfect vacation experience”?

Before I plan a new trip, I always ask myself what my goal or reason for this trip is. By asking myself this ‘why’ of travel, I’m more certain that I will get the desired outcomes after my vacation and create the ‘perfect vacation experience’. Usually what I’m looking for in ‘the perfect vacation’ is to make sure that I’m feeling more energized after my vacation as before I left! This usually means a combination of preparing myself for my trip but also making sure that there is enough time for spontaneity, relaxation and reflection.

Besides that, I love to learn something new during my vacation. This is often linked to experiencing a new culture, connecting with locals and coming home with lots of stories to tell. It can also be trying out new activities in nature and stepping out of my comfort zone.

I try to create transformative travel experiences for myself and that’s why I also always take a journal with me during my vacation. Often when I’m at a new destination and tune off from daily distractions and triggers, I receive lots of inspiration and creative ideas! I love to write them all down in my journal. This is not only an enjoyable experience during my vacation, but it’s also a beautiful way to reflect on my trip once I’m back home again.

Summarized, I can say that my ‘perfect vacation experience’ is a combination of wellness, feeling inspired, feeling connected and learning about new cultures, trying out new things, stepping out of my comfort zone, and last but not least, spending quality time with myself and my travel companions.

Can you share with our readers how have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

It’s my mission to empower and inspire others to make the most out of their travels and living abroad experiences. Therefore, I love to make connections with people on social media or in person, hear from their experiences and share my own travel stories and lessons. I also enjoy providing lots of insights and tips in my weekly online videos and on my blog. I believe that we are all students and teachers at the same time, who can learn from each other and can inspire each other as well!

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

Within my expertise as a Travel Coach I want to create a ripple effect and inspire my clients to turn the lessons they learn during their time abroad into something positive, not only in their own personal life and career but also for the places they travel to. If we could all make a positive change in the places, we travel to by having a positive mindset, being open minded and by making meaningful connections with others and giving back to local communities, I believe that there would be more empathy and understanding in the world.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

It would be lovely to connect with your readers! You can find me on:

Instagram: www.instagram.com/unpackbyveer

Facebook: www.facebook.com/unpackbyveer

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!


Veerle Beelen of Unpackbyveer On The Future of Travel in The Post Covid World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women Of The C-Suite: Buffy McCoy Kelly of Tattoo Projects On The Five Things You Need To Succeed…

Women Of The C-Suite: Buffy McCoy Kelly of Tattoo Projects On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Executive

There is enough success for everyone. When I started, I was conditioned to be in fierce competition with my teammates. I am competitive by nature, so this was very unhealthy for me. It wasn’t until years into my career (and when I became a yogi) that I truly felt and embraced the power of lifting others up rather than only competing with them.

As a part of our interview series called “Women Of The C-Suite” , we had the pleasure of interviewing Buffy McCoy Kelly.

As both Chief Executive Officer and Chief Creative Officer, Buffy is the driving force behind Tattoo Projects. With a staff of highly skilled experts spanning both the arts and sciences, and a culture that celebrates independence, talent and hard work, the agency is a dynamic marketing partner to some of the world’s leading brands.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

Believe it or not, it was actually a love of junk mail. I come from a very rural background, and it was a monumental thing when the mail would come. I would compete with my brothers and sisters for who got to go down the hill and get the mail from the mailbox. For me, it was so exciting to get all of the catalogues and direct mail pieces, they felt almost magical.

The idea that this was someone’s job — creating make-believe with pictures and colors seemed so cool to me. I loved all advertising. TV ads, too. I especially remember the Tidy Bowl man and the Purina Chuck Wagon commercial with puppets.

Even as a kid I knew in some way that what advertising did was influential in people’s lives and I wanted to be a part of it. I would make my own commercials and draw my own ads all the time. I even wrote to the mail order company Hang Ten once and sent them a sketch of what I thought was a better layout for their catalogue. They wrote back and thanked me and told me that I should reach out to them for a job when I was older.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

Well, I am not sure if this is the most interesting, but it really struck me as it reminded me how important it is to be empathetic to others and that what feels insignificant to one person, can feel overwhelming to another. And, oftentimes, it does not take much to fix.

We had a client who was going to be in a series of videos. On the day of the shoot, we brought in wardrobe based on the size she had told us she was. But it quickly became apparent that in fact she was not that size, as the outfits, one after another, did not fit. When the clothes didn’t fit, everything changed. It created a huge shift in her mood and the overall mood of the shoot and she decided she no longer wanted to participate at all.

I knew that would not be best and I also knew that feeling. In fact, I don’t think there are many women that have not had their mood completely deflated by trying on something they thought would look great on them, only to find out it does not fit.

So, I told her that it was the cut of the brand and please give us a few hours and we would get this straightened out. We brought in a new batch of clothes and actually swapped out the labels, so the clothes appeared to be the size that she had told us.

She came back, tried on the clothes, looked and felt terrific, and the shoot continued. This seemingly small thing hit home as it was a reminder of the need for empathy.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

It certainly didn’t feel funny at the time, but I completely screwed up one of my first big client presentations. I come from a background of public speaking, theater, and dance where everything is choreographed, staged, and rehearsed in advance. So, it seemed to make sense to memorize my first big presentation. Which I did. Word for word. The client flew me out to their offices, and there I was, presenting in a big room full of people. It started out great. I felt like I was killing it. I’m smiling, thinking I’m a badass. And then, maybe ten minutes in, someone shows up late and the client interrupts me and asks if I could just quickly fill this person in on what they missed. And I froze. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t summarize what I had just said, so I essentially rewound and started from the beginning exactly the same way. Only this time it was clear I was not a bad ass.

It was humiliating, but because I’d memorized words, I really couldn’t just tell them the information in a casual and palatable way. I realized then that I’m a good actress but that’s not what is needed in this industry. You need to be organic and flexible and most importantly, you have to know the material from all angles and be able to authentically talk about it.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

There are so many people who have helped me along the way, but the person that I’m most grateful for is my current business partner B. Scott Smith. He has a wealth of experience leading large companies, and when we became partners, he was able to look at our agency with a completely different lens and help guide me in positioning the agency for now and for the future.

I also really admire him on a personal level. He’s been extremely successful in his career and he’s very driven. At the same time, he has an enormous amount of integrity and always puts his family first. This is what I want for everyone at Tattoo Projects. To know that they can be driven and passionate and do great work without ever compromising their values or giving up on having a life outside the office. Some of the agencies I worked at early in my career made us feel like we had to choose between work and family, and I never want anyone here to feel that way. Scott has helped me set up a business where not only can we consistently do great work for our clients, all of our employees can thrive.

In my work, I often talk about how to release and relieve stress. As a busy leader, what do you do to prepare your mind and body before a stressful or high stakes meeting, talk, or decision? Can you share a story or some examples?

I’m really glad you asked me this. I am passionate about yoga and in fact I am a Yoga Alliance certified yoga teacher (E-RYT 200, YACEP). For me, practicing yoga is how I relax and also how I best focus. When I have something big going on, I specifically do back bending practices. In yoga this opens up the Anahata chakra. If you think about it, whenever we feel scared or vulnerable, the body’s natural reaction is to curl inwards into a fetal position. It’s protective. Bending backwards generates the completely opposite energy. It helps you open yourself so you can give and receive more freely.

Once, right before a big new business presentation, I went into a client’s ladies’ room and did a full on, hands-to-the-probably-dirty-tile-floor back bend. If anyone had walked in, they would probably have thought I was bananas, but it really worked for me and the presentation went amazingly well.

As you know, the United States is currently facing a very important self-reckoning about race, diversity, equality and inclusion. This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have a diverse executive team?

As creative problem solvers, diversity in thinking is what fuels any company’s success in advertising. We have to look at things from all angles and you can’t do that if everyone is the same. It’s really important to have different kinds of people at the table who come from different backgrounds and cultures. They naturally bring different ways of thinking. I think the advertising industry was slow to realize this and spent too many years not engaging in a deep enough conversation around diversity. It’s our job to shake trees and rattle people and we need a diversity of thinking to do that.

As a business leader, can you please share a few steps we must take to truly create an inclusive, representative, and equitable society? Kindly share a story or example for each.

It comes down to the simple rule of treating everyone the way you want to be treated. In yoga, a big part of the practice is recognizing that we are all one being, part of one mass humanity. I know it sounds hokey, but when you sit with it and bring it into the practice, and you apply the breath, you really start to feel that connectivity. We need to teach this type of unity in order to have a more inclusive and equitable society. We need to teach that we are all deserving of the same rights, the same justice, the same respect and that if we deny it to one person, one group of people, we’re denying it to everyone because we are all connected. It’s really about empathy, which has always been part of our job — stepping into someone else’s shoes to see what it’s like to be them.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what a CEO or executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what an executive does that is different from the responsibilities of the other leaders?

A good CEO sets the path and direction for their company and then helps ensure that everyone both understands and moves in that direction. Since the buck stops with me, my role is different from other leaders at the agency, as mine is the final word. I’ve found that in the end, I have to trust my intuition. No amount of groupthink and no spreadsheets can ensure the right thing or the right direction for the company. Especially in a creative industry like mine. I have to make room for other leadership styles and other opinions, take it all in, and then get quiet and trust my own ability to move us forward.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive. Can you explain what you mean?

I think one of the myths is that when you become the CEO, you don’t have to do the dirty work. I suppose there are bigger companies where that may be true, but I’m still rolling up my sleeves and digging into what has to be done every day. If that means writing a radio spot or social post with my teams one day, I do it; if it means changing the toilet paper in the bathroom, I do that too. I feel like the title lends itself to an image of someone who is not in the trenches, and that is not my experience at all.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women executives that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

We all know that it takes a lot more work for women to be assertive and confident and still be seen as acceptable and make sure that people like you. That’s not something men worry about. I’m from the South which means it was deeply ingrained in me that women need to appear to be agreeable and be support players to men. And incidentally, that’s different than actually being support players. I grew up surrounded by really strong, really smart women and saw that they were absolutely running the show. But they were also putting so much energy into making it look and feel like the men around them were really the ones in charge. The message was that you’re going to run the show when you grow up, but you’re also going have to make sure that he (whoever he is) still feels big and strong and that you are not overpowering him.

What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?

I knew when I started the agency that as CEO, I would be the ultimate decisionmaker. And while that is true, I actually spend much more of my time as the ultimate listener and orchestrator, which means really connecting with my employees all the time. I think it’s important for me to listen as much as possible. We’re all in this together, and showing that is a much more powerful way for us to get where we need to go than me just calling all the shots and making it happen. I mean, I can do that, easily, but listening and getting everyone’s input is a much bigger part of my job than I expected.

Certainly, not everyone is cut out to be an executive. In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful executive and what type of person should avoid aspiring to be an executive? Can you explain what you mean?

I think the people who are best at this job are the ones who just innately love challenge and competition. You have to be a little fearless because you’re going to jump in sometimes and there’s not going to be a net. If you’re too busy overthinking whether to jump in the first place, it’s never going to work out. You have to be able to take the heat and carry a heavy load. At the same time, you have to be a really good listener and not do that thing where you have a glass fishbowl over your head and you look like you’re listening, but you’re really just formulating your own answers. That’s why I think this is the perfect job for a mother (like me) who spends years listening and caring but, ultimately, making decisions without overthinking.

As for who shouldn’t do this, I think if you don’t have the capacity or real insight to have created your own happiness, you should probably avoid this role. People who don’t have their feet under them and aren’t solid in their own well-being may crumble in a role where they are responsible for the well-being of so many others.

What advice would you give to other women leaders to help their team to thrive?

My number one piece of advice to any leader is to treat others as you would want to be treated yourself. After that, I would say take risks and be prepared to mess up. Go ahead and plan for messing up and also plan for how you’re going to give yourself some grace when it happens. And rest. We all need to rest and recharge. Women are trained to just go, go, go, and put everyone else’s needs above their own, but you can’t be an effective leader if you burn out. Cultivating your own happiness actually translates into how you lead the people around you.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

As an agency we do a lot of pro bono work for important organizations like Girls on the Run and Ronald McDonald House. But I feel like that’s just the price of entry. Our power as an agency is our creative talent and it’s our job to use it to help organizations and people who are doing the more direct work of making the world a better place.

Outside of the agency, I am in the process of setting up a nonprofit for young women in Appalachia. The goal is to use yoga to teach self-esteem. I grew up in that part of the country and I’m not sure exactly how to explain it, but that area cultivates this thing in young girls of not feeling good about their bodies. It’s more than just body image though, it’s a deep discomfort in their own skin. I’m working to create a breathwork and yoga program that helps young girls practice self-love and confidence. I actually finished the pilot curriculum right when the pandemic hit, so we haven’t been able to launch yet, but we will once it’s safe, which is something that I am really looking forward to.

I think it’s also important to recognize that you don’t have to do big things like create pro-bono ad campaigns or start non-profits to make the world a better place. You just have to make a difference in someone’s life every day. I feel that with my employees when I create a place they want to work and give them the opportunity to have a life outside of work. And I feel it when I lead my yoga classes and see people who keep showing up and can do a little bit more each time. I watch them do something they didn’t think they could do and then take that positive energy and feeling of power and accomplishment with them when they leave class. I just get so lit up from that and feel good that I can bring that to people.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

I wish someone would’ve told me:

• There is enough success for everyone. When I started, I was conditioned to be in fierce competition with my teammates. I am competitive by nature, so this was very unhealthy for me. It wasn’t until years into my career (and when I became a yogi) that I truly felt and embraced the power of lifting others up rather than only competing with them.

• Draw a hard line on putting your family first. For real. This really hit me hard one time when I found myself far away from my family for a tv shoot. I didn’t want to be away for this job, and I knew it could have been done without me there. However, I felt pressure to be there, and I gave in to this pressure against my better judgment. Ironically, we were shooting a tv spot about fatherhood, and the shoot took place over Father’s Day weekend. It was very difficult to do a project that was all about “being there” as a parent when I was literally doing the opposite. I wish someone would’ve told me to stick to my guns when it comes to being there for my family.

• You don’t have to work so late!! I spent at least the first decade of my career working into the double-digits of the evening and pulling more all-nighters than I can count. I know enough about myself to know that my best work is done in the early morning. Anything after dinnertime was a slope of diminishing returns for my work, and it was havoc on my personal life. I wish someone would’ve told me that all those late nights would NOT make the work better. Later in my career, I heard a rumor in my office that everyone was expected to stay until 7pm every day. This was very disturbing to me because it was not only untrue, but it was also a very disempowering sentiment that went against the culture I was striving to build. I talked to team members and learned that this idea had taken root in some portions of the agency, but nobody knew exactly why or how. I took the opportunity to address the team and share my position on this. I also had all team members share the time of day they feel most creative and most energized. Now, all team members know who’s a morning person and who’s a night owl, and we respect one another’s most productive times.

• You’ll get some really bad advice from really good people. Even when the advice is coming from someone you trust or look up to, if it doesn’t feel right to you, don’t take it. I once had a businesswoman I looked up to tell me with certainty that I needed to change my name if I wanted to be taken seriously in business. She also told me that I shouldn’t wear high heels and should invest in a pair of Bass loafers instead. It was very confusing and worrisome for me because my heart and gut told me this was not right for me, but she was someone I admired and she seemed to know what she was talking about. Ultimately, I decided to listen to my gut, and to take my chances with my name and stick with my heels. I wish someone would have told me that your gut is never wrong — and just because someone seems to know the answers doesn’t mean they really do.

• Don’t say Yes when you need to say No. I said yes to a project that I knew was going to be a real stretch for my team to handle. At the time, I felt it was the right thing to do for the client, even though it was going to be very difficult. As you can probably guess, it didn’t go so well. At the end of the project, we had a super stressed out team and a less-than-impressed client. Now, I am very careful about what I say yes to on behalf of my team. Choosing to fire our longest-standing client in 2020 was my biggest and most important NO for my team. By relieving my team of a relationship that no longer served us to our best and highest purpose, space was created for us to take on new work that is better aligned with our culture and values. I wish someone would’ve told me to not wait so long to embrace the power of NO for my team.

• Keep things in perspective: your job is important, but not THAT important. I remember one time when I was telling my mom and sisters about all the important, arduous work I had been doing — making a campaign for milkshakes. When I finished elaborating on the dramatic details of this life-changing project, I asked my sister what she’d been working on lately. My sister, a doctor, humbly shared her joy in the success of a skin graft and wound treatment that she had conducted, which saved her patient from an impending limb amputation. For my sister, this was just another day at the office. It hit me hard that making ads for milkshakes was seemingly so much more complicated than saving a person’s limb. I wish someone had told me to remind myself every day that there are bigger, much more important things in the world, and to not lose sight of the forest for the trees.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

It’s been getting more attention in recent years, but I think mindfulness, stillness, and meditation should be a mandatory part of the elementary school curriculum. So many adults just don’t know how it feels to truly get quiet and breathe. It’s a hard practice, especially for people who are really driven, including me. Every time I get on that yoga mat, I’m a beginner. We need to support this practice by making it part of our culture and I think we should start by teaching kids how to breathe. There’s a reason why, when you get upset, everyone tells you to take a deep breath. In the time it takes to take a breath and let it go, you can change your body’s physiological responses to stress and you can change your mind. If we all learned to take this pause before reacting, I believe we would be more open and understanding of each other and there would be less conflict across the board.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

There are actually two that come to mind:

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!”
Hunter S. Thompson

This is my all-time favorite life lesson quote. I have this written on a small piece of paper and I keep it in my wallet. I don’t like to be “safe.” It’s always way too easy to take the safe route, go with the safe design, be more conservative, tone it down, and all that kind of stuff. I’m a maker, a writer, a creator, a story-teller — and the best material comes from taking the adventurous route. In my work, I feel it’s important to lead my clients, my team, my yoga students, and my kids to take the chance that they think they can’t take!

“Floor it, Bitty!”

Love, Mom

When I gave my daughter the keys to her first car, I had this engraved on a very dainty, elegant silver key chain for her. I believe in living BIG, taking chances, and going all out. As a mom, I want my daughter to feel that the world is nothing but wide-open opportunities for her. It’s important to me to cheer others on, to inspire them to take the chance, to push their boundaries, to do the thing that’s scary.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Oh, that’s easy. RuPaul. The guts that it has taken all these years for RuPaul to be authentic, and then widely encourage so many other people to do their own thing, and the unapologetic and loving nature with which he approaches the world just blows me away. Plus, he is really light-hearted and fun. I love that whole combination and respect him immensely. I would love to have one of RuPaul’s famous Tic-Tac lunches. I don’t even care that there’d be no real food.


Women Of The C-Suite: Buffy McCoy Kelly of Tattoo Projects On The Five Things You Need To Succeed… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.