Day: October 27, 2022

Female Disruptors: Fiona Kong OF Home Sweet Homes Journal On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up…

Female Disruptors: Fiona Kong OF Home Sweet Homes Journal On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Believe in yourself. This seems so basic, but nobody will be a bigger advocate of your business than you! If I didn’t believe in my mission and that I am capable of doing this, I certainly would not have gotten to this point.

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

After becoming a single mom and being laid off from her job as an analyst at Verizon Media/Yahoo!, Fiona Kong founded the Home Sweet Homes Journal in 2020 in pursuit of helping co-parenting families, specifically focused on the needs of the child. Home Sweet Homes Journal is a one-of-a-kind tool that empowers kids to process big feelings, better navigate and share their two home experiences in a safe and loving way.

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 am a first-generation Chinese-American, born and raised in Maryland. My parents immigrated to the states in the 80’s and growing up, I remember them not being around much as they worked a lot to provide for our family. Our household/culture was one where we did not freely communicate feelings or express love and I remember wishing my family could be like the fun and happy ones I saw on TV.

I was raised with the expectation to study hard and get good grades. And that’s what I did. I graduated college with a business degree, and entered the workforce, ultimately working as an analyst at Yahoo. It was during this time I met my son’s father and welcomed my son in 2016.

In early 2019, my son’s father and I decided to separate and later that year, my job was eliminated. The pandemic hit and all of a sudden, the whole world paused. This time was a gift in many ways as it allowed me to really think about my passions and what I wanted to do with my life. One of those things was to find a way to better support my son as he navigated life between two homes.

The idea for Home Sweet Homes Journey began in June 2020 as a way just to help my own family. I’d been co-parenting for about a year and when my son was at his father’s home, I felt disconnected from him, wondering what he was doing, eating, and how he was feeling and coping emotionally.

I wanted a way to make sure my son always felt supported and loved despite our separation. It was a purchase of a $2 dollar store planner that led me to create Home Sweet Homes, my co-parenting journal business.

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

Parental separation is considered to be one of the ten ACES (Adverse Childhood Experiences), a potentially traumatic event that occurs in children (0–17 years of age). The higher number of ACEs a child experiences is often correlated to chronic health problems, mental illness, and substance use problems in adolescence and adulthood.

What makes Home Sweet Homes Journal unique, is that up until now, there hasn’t been a tool that approaches supporting children of divorce in this manner. When creating it, I set out to solve a multitude of issues kids often experience due to parental separation including helping them identify and manage difficult emotions, providing a method to navigate their dual lives and schedules, and a way to still feel like a united family.

I didn’t grow up feeling connected to my parents, but I truly believe a strong relationship with one’s parents plays an important role in a child’s mental and emotional wellbeing. I’m here to change the way co-parenting is approached, to do so in a way that really focuses on the child’s needs and supports them in a compassionate and loving way. We’re providing families peace of mind and empowering kids in a way that has never been done before. With Home Sweet Home Journals, we’re helping co-parenting families create that bonding experience that can often be missed when children are living in two households. With our journal, we’re giving co-parenting families a chance to reinvent and redefine how to be a family.

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?

I wouldn’t say this is funny in the traditional sense but it really helps to find the humor in making mistakes. When I first went to hire a graphic designer for my journal, I turned to Fiver. I found a designer who had an excellent style and aesthetic based on the photos in her portfolio. However, she had no experience creating a journal but I still decided to hire her. When I got the first design round back, I was shocked! The graphics and style were all over the place, nothing matched or felt cohesive.

I feel like hiring good help is hard to find in general. As an entrepreneur, you’ll encounter a lot of things you have no experience doing such as hiring. The next time I hire, I’d certainly take the time to do my due diligence. There are lots of things I could have done better such as write out a formal job description and get designers to submit a sample journal page design. Also, I’d definitely recommend asking friends, family and others in your network for recommendations as this ended up being an expensive mistake!

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?

When I started my business, I didn’t have anybody within my social or professional network that was also an entrepreneur that I could lean into for their expertise. I’ve always heard you should surround yourself with the folks you aspire to be like. Since I didn’t have actual people in my life to turn to, I joined a community for founders, have utilized resources such as podcasts to help guide me, and began following and learning about how other entrepreneurs such as Sarah Blakely have achieved success.

Luckily, there are so many resources available in this day and age available to all. I’m consistently networking and always passively on the lookout for a mentor that’d be a good match for me.

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?

The funny thing is, disruptive doesn’t sound positive. It sounds, well, disruptive. But it truly depends on what the term “disruptive” is referring to. Being disruptive is absolutely not a good thing when it can be harmful to someone or something. However, I like to think that when you’re causing a positive change that has yet to take effect, that can be disruptive.

I am trying to “disrupt” the way we view co-parenting and create a united front for co-parenting families. That’s disruptive because it hasn’t been done. Up until now, co-parenting hasn’t been approached in a truly cohesive and child-focused way. But I’m now “disrupting” that idea and showing that with Home Sweet Homes Journal, co-parenting families can work and bond together to create a positive future for their children.

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

Take action! Don’t wait till it’s perfect… 80% done is good enough. This is a piece of advice most entrepreneurs such as Jay Shetty have said. Many of us tend to spend so much time perfecting something that in the end, you miss out on moving yourself forward.
To be most effective, plan your day and work activity and tasks around your energy levels. This requires you to pay close attention to yourself and your rhythms. I am the most creative and do my best writing in the early hours of the morning so when I get up, I’ll plan that time for all tasks that require those skills.
Believe in yourself. This seems so basic, but nobody will be a bigger advocate of your business than you! If I didn’t believe in my mission and that I am capable of doing this, I certainly would not have gotten to this point.

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

I have a few ideas brewing that are a tangent to my journal idea but can only handle one thing at a time! Funny thing, I started a TikTok account and one evening when my son was with his dad, I was eating dinner alone. I threw out a concept for a virtual dinner for co-parents when our kids were away. My video took off and hit over 1M views. There was so much interest that I ran with it, organized a dinner and folks want to keep them going! It’s been such a welcome and needed support group and a way for co-parents to connect socially on days where our kids are away. This goes to show you that life as an entrepreneur can be quite unpredictable and exciting to pivot as you never know where you’ll end up.

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

I think males often automatically perceive each other as peers whereas females tend to be scrutinized more harshly and have to prove they belong or deserve to have a seat at the table. Having worked in corporate for 15 years, it was commonplace to feel like there was an exclusive “all boys club” when it came to executive level decisions and conversations.

Being a woman disruptor, specifically a single mom comes along with certain biases and a double standard that I feel a single dad would never face such as whether one can handle work/parent life, have tough enough skin to be an entrepreneur or possess the needed leadership qualities to succeed. Sometimes I feel the odds are so stacked against me, but I believe women, single moms especially, are some of the toughest people out there — we’re driven and fully capable of achieving success.

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

There are so many, but Eddie Pinero’s Your World Within is one of my favorite podcasts. In fact, I listen to it nearly every morning as a way to get my day started and help my head get in the right place because being an entrepreneur requires you to be mentally strong. Your World Within is a great combination of life motivation and inspiration and is very relevant to those who are an entrepreneur.

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. 🙂

I think healing from our childhood wounds and trauma is one of the single most important things we can do toward making strides for a more peaceful and harmonious society. I don’t think people realize how much of our past we bring into our future, even unintentionally. Trauma can and is often passed down from one generation to the next and unless we really address these issues and do the work to heal, we can’t be the best versions of ourselves. Becoming self-aware allows us to be more understanding, gentle and empathetic toward one another and I think that in itself could change the world.

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

One quote that’s really made an impact on me is “Everything worthwhile is uphill” by John Maxwell. Inherently, we all want the end result whether it be a happy and fulfilling relationship, to be in great shape, or have a successful business, but few are willing to do the hard work to get it.

Being a single mom and entrepreneur has been the most challenging, grueling and most mentally taxing and exhausting period in my life. I know I have to be committed, consistent, and relentless toward my pursuit as there are no shortcuts.

How can our readers follow you online?

Readers can take a look at our Home Sweet Homes Journal site, here. Be sure to also follow our journey on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn.

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

Female Disruptors: Fiona Kong OF Home Sweet Homes Journal 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.

Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Erica Colon of The Perecman Firm On The Five…

Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Erica Colon of The Perecman Firm On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Mindset matters — positivity and confidence don’t always come naturally, but it is important to try and keep a positive mindset. Confidence will come with time.

In the United States in 2022, fields such as Aircraft piloting, Agriculture, Architecture, Construction, Finance, and Information technology, are still male-dominated industries. For a woman who is working in a male-dominated environment, what exactly does it take to thrive and succeed? In this interview series, we are talking to successful women who work in a Male-Dominated Industry who can share their stories and experiences about navigating work and life as strong women in a male-dominated industry. As a part of this series, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Erica Colon, Trial Lawyer at The Perecman Firm, P.L.L.C.

Erica Colon takes pride in representing and advocating for workers, children, families and other individuals who have been wrongfully injured.

As a plaintiff’s trial attorney at The Perecman Firm, P.L.L.C., she concentrates her legal practice in all aspects of personal injury law, including car accidents, workplace injuries, premises liability and construction accidents. Over the course of her career, Erica has obtained numerous multi-million-dollar verdicts and settlements on behalf of her clients, helping them recover the compensation they deserve.

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 childhood “backstory”?

I grew up in a small suburb of Rochester, NY, with my parents and siblings. As one of 4 children, it was always chaotic, but in the best way. Summer family vacations were some of the best memories growing up. I played sports from a young age through college and loved the challenge, growth, and competition that came with it. My parents worked hard to provide for us and set the example that we had to work hard for what we wanted, and nothing was going to be handed to us. I started working as early as I could and worked extremely hard to get to where I am now in my career.

Can you tell us the story about what led you to this particular career path?

I always excelled in school and loved learning, both in and out of the classroom. The law always intrigued me, and at some point during college, I made the commitment to pursue law school. I found my way into personal injury litigation during a summer associate position and loved the experience and work. Most of my work now is representing injured workers, and I have a real appreciation for the dangers people face every day going to work. I love advocating for people and making an impact.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Integrity — your name precedes you. Let it do so in a good way.

Being self-aware — there is always room for growth and an opportunity to learn something.

Staying positive — Keeping a positive perspective, especially in stressful situations, helps to navigate challenges that come up in work and personal life.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Can you help articulate a few of the biggest obstacles or challenges you’ve had to overcome while working in a male-dominated industry?

For me, one of the biggest obstacles early in my career was the feeling of walking into a room, knowing that you have to prove yourself. With that, it’s easy to let imposter syndrome sneak in. Reminding myself how hard I worked to get to where I am and how capable I am at doing the job and doing it well has helped to grow my confidence in time. That, and always showing up prepared, have been critical to overcoming those challenges.

Most recently, one of the biggest challenges after becoming a mom is setting boundaries while proving to my peers and myself that I am still capable and thriving at work. The reality is that becoming a mom has made me more efficient in my working hours — a lot of the skills you gain as a new mom translate into strengths in the workplace.

Can you share a few of the things you have done to gain acceptance among your male peers and the general work community? What did your female co-workers do? Can you share some stories or examples?

Advocate for yourself. Say yes to new opportunities when they present themselves. Demand respect, but also be respectful. I learned from a young age that no one owes you anything. Always prepare for the task at hand and show up equipped for the challenge so that you can rise to the occasion. Acceptance will come without hesitation if you show up from a place of hard work and integrity.

Share experiences with colleagues and peers and be each other’s support system. Also, don’t take the work or yourself too seriously. There is always something to learn. One of my friends and mentors often reminds me that it’s the practice of law, not the perfection of law. It’s important to remember that we’re all human.

What do you think male-oriented organizations can do to enhance their recruiting efforts to attract more women?

I think that, ultimately, a workplace that encourages collaboration and offers opportunities to both women and men would help attract women in their recruiting efforts.

Ok thank you for all of that. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

Challenge yourself — There is always something to learn, and taking risks often presents opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t have come up.
Steer clear of judgment — of yourself and others.
Don’t take things too personal (or too serious) — we’re our own worst critics. Welcoming constructive feedback has always helped me grow. It’s important to stay humble and be willing to learn.
Mindset matters — positivity and confidence don’t always come naturally, but it is important to try and keep a positive mindset. Confidence will come with time.
Collaborate — Ask questions, be a team player, and collaborate. Most of the best ideas and problem-solving come from a few people putting their heads together. No one has all of the answers. Be open and willing to work with others.

If you had a close woman friend who came to you with a choice of entering a field that is male-dominated or female-dominated, what would you advise her? Would you advise a woman friend to start a career in a field or industry that’s traditionally been mostly men? Can you explain what you mean?

I would tell her to pick the career that she wanted based on her skill set and aspirations, not on whether the industry is male- or female-dominated. Ultimately, if you work hard and show up prepared, you can break through any stereotypes or glass ceilings that might exist. The challenges that sometimes presented themselves in a male-dominated career were often the moments that offered the most opportunity for growth and success. In the same breath, some of my male colleagues have been my biggest advocates and mentors throughout the years. Understand that both men and women can be allies for each other. As long as you have the right work ethic and confidence, the room should not control your decision on whether or not to enter it.

Have you seen things change for women working in male-dominated industries, over the past ten years? How do you anticipate that it might improve in the future? Can you please explain what you mean?

I think it continues to improve. When I graduated from law school almost 10 years ago, there were fewer law firms with female lawyers. I see more women becoming lawyers and entering the courtroom, and thriving in this (and other) male-dominated industries. It’s great to see. I think it will continue to improve as we continue to welcome equal opportunities and advocate for ourselves and each other.

Where you work also makes a difference. I have worked in firms that have a diverse or supportive culture, and I’ve worked in firms that did not. With my current employer, I feel I am respected, as are my other female peers. It’s both motivating and encouraging to come to a workplace day in and out where I feel respected and that my input is valued.

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 Mariska Hargitay. I’ve always loved watching her acting career and think it is admirable the philanthropist work she does off the screen with her non-profit “Joyful Heart Foundation,” which she created to help survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse. I respect her tenacity, admire her talents, and love how she has thrived and broke the mold in another male-dominated industry.

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

Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Erica Colon of The Perecman Firm On The Five… 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: Rosalind Lee On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Exe

Women Of The C-Suite: Rosalind Lee of ROLA.ai On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Executive

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Doing nothing is the hardest yet the most important thing to do. Sometimes we want to accomplish a goal too badly and we push too hard. It almost feels like we have not tried enough. But it turns out, the more we push the more likely it would fail. Once, I wanted to close a deal so much that I kept on pushing both sides. I made sure all details were flawless and made a lot of notes and reports to make sure they got all the information and analysis. It turned out, my supervisor back then thought there must be something fishy as I was pushing too hard, whilst the other side also felt it was too perfectly handled and too good to be true. I learned that just trying your best effort, doing nothing too deliberate, and letting it ride when things are out of your hand will be the smoothest way to achieve your goal.

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

Rosalind Lee is the Chief Product Officer and the creative lead of ROLA.ai. She has designed various products and solutions with top-tier corporations from multiple industries, including blockchain, gaming, algo trading, payment, and card products.

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?

If you meant crypto, I went into crypto because of my dog (he is a Shiba, the mascot of crypto). You heard right.

Back in 2020, after working on some projects on fintech and payments, I realized I have a talent for solution engineering and product design. I decided to venture into payment solutions, just when I invested most of my savings into it, he got Lymphoma again. I was quite in debt from his chemotherapy and needed to get more cash and I remembered my adventure with Bitcoin in 2017.

As the story goes, I kept making the same mistakes and losing money, but I started to become curious about why I have been losing money and kept exploring, reading, and learning about this industry.

But still, I am very grateful that I loselost money, if I hadn’t lost money, I wouldn’t have learned so much about blockchain and crypto.

The whole technology and culture became very interesting to me, I just enjoy so much being in the crypto industry. Then I worked on several in-house blockchain projects at a listed fintech company in Hong Kong and eventually got approached with the idea of ROLA.

In general, I guess I just love adventures and hate the idea of being boring. And that’s why I didn’t pursue a career in traditional banking like most of my classmates did upon graduating from Imperial College.

P.S. My Shiba is now doing well, 2023 marks the 4th year of his first therapy on Lymphoma. He has always reminded me to stay strong.

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

I started getting a lot more insomnia messages from friends in multiple time zones. My friends would text me in the middle of the night in their time zones and say “I can’t sleep. I know you are always online, and you don’t sleep, so talk to me.” It is true that I have a very quick response time because project and product management are extremely time critical. I am always online, but I do sleep, quite well and a lot.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. 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?

I am a direct person who doesn’t like guessing or wasting time beating around the bush. When I first started my career, I worked at a company with a very ambiguous and “dodgy” bonus calculating system. One time I had a connection who could bring in a significant amount of revenue to the company. So, I went into the CEO’s room and asked directly “What is the bonus % going to be for me on this?” At first, he tried to give me an ambiguous answer, but I insisted on confronting him and getting the exact answer. Then he said, “I would rather not do it if the profit margin would be this little after giving you the bonus” I replied, “OK, I rather not do it if I don’t get the bonus”. The next thing I knew, I was picked on by the executives, especially after the CEO spread the rumor about me demanding for “illegal commission”. I have learned that sometimes you must fight smarter and adopt different strategies and approaches for different people.

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 idol, Chen Kun, a famous actor, is also my mentor. He has inspired me to embrace my creativity, follow my heart, and trust my instinct.

Ever since I was a kid, I fell in love with literature and drama by watching his performance, and somehow, we bumped into each other in London. I was asking for an autograph but bothneither of us didn’t havehad a pen with us. So, he invited me over to have breakfast at his hotel the next day (You can’t imagine how starstruck I was). He encouraged me to follow my heart and that was also the first time I truly learned about the philosophy of Buddhism and about compassion, these shaped my own thoughts, and aesthetics. Later, we went on a 10-day trekking trip together to the Tibetan plateau, during which he was making fun with me like how your elder brother would, he was spanking my head, doing pranks, and making jokes with me. He did all these just because he could see that I was a very tense person. I have always tried to climb to the highest point and tried so hard to be the best and perfect…but he told me to stay relaxed, and to embrace my own inner child. He is the first person to have ever noticed my inner child as I have always been hiding it to portray the “professional” me. Embracing and being open with my childish side helps me to unlock all my creativity.

Now I am no longer pretending to be a person that I am not. I can confirm that this helps me to do product design, especially with all the creative features you can see in ROLA.

Learning to trust my instinct helps me to respond fast and stay calm when I need to improvise.

Leadership often entails making difficult decisions or hard choices between two apparently good paths. Can you share a story with us about a hard decision or choice you had to make as a leader?

I had to decide whether to continue working with a service provider or whether should we cut loss and switch to another. This was an example of being decisive in handling sunk cost fallacy. We spent months and development fees on a vendor who turned out to be not delivering and “blackmailing” for more payments. Our team had divided views, as “money and time were already invested”. I understood fully that there might be a chance that the provider just needed a little push to deliver but on the other hand, it might just be an endless hole. In the end, I decided to move on and replace them with a new service provider who actually delivered far better work within a shorter time period.

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?

Make decisions spontaneously and without hesitation. I think the main difference lies in decision-making and the pace of it.

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

It’s not sitting in a fancy room with a glass of whisky in hand as depicted on TV. It is about constant problem-solving and meditating on new ideas 24/7, there’s no actual office hourhours. You just have to be prepared to do anything and to be able to fill up the responsibilities and work when required, no matter how small and trivial they seem.

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

I would like to use my experience in the cigar lounge to demonstrate this. I am a person who loves to enjoy a cigar occasionally to relax, but usually, when I am in a cigar lounge, the men inside would walk away or stare at me with strange gazes. One time I even received comments like” Are you a gold digger just coming to get to a rich man?” It feels the same being a female executive in the crypto industry. In the crypto community, we see a lot of macho male influencers and traders flexing hard with their designer watches and supercars, whilst female influencers are deemed as trolls, incapable, and worse still, being made fun of. I remember one time when I was talking to a business partner and he said “Is there a Mr something who can actually make the decision, that we can talk to?” I think the stereotype of women executives isn’t at the decision-making level, is the same as “women don’t know how to enjoy a cigar”.

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

I think I kind of expected what I had to do. But the number of spontaneous decisions and instances that required quick problem-solving skills did exceed my imagination. Still, I enjoy all of it.

Is everyone 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?

In my opinion, the most helpful traits will be curiosity, flexibility, and the willingness to learn; whilst if you are a person with an easy faint of heart and hesitant to make a decision, then most probably you should avoid aspiring to be an executive. Curiosity and the willingness to learn will allow you to accept new ideas whilst not being afraid to embrace new approaches. Being flexible allows you to respond to rapid changes with calmness and make the decision to solve the problem with ease. However, if you are a person with awho is faint of heart and hesitant to make a decision, then you may end up stalling and hindering the progress of your team and miss the correct timing.

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

Doing nothing is the hardest yet the most important thing to do. Sometimes we want to accomplish a goal too badly and we push too hard. It almost feels like we have not tried enough. But it turns out, the more we push the more likely it would fail. Once, I wanted to close a deal so much that I kept on pushing both sides. I made sure all details were flawless and made a lot of notes and reports to make sure they got all the information and analysis. It turned out, my supervisor back then thought there must be something fishy as I was pushing too hard, whilst the other side also felt it was too perfectly handled and too good to be true. I learned that just trying your best effort, doing nothing too deliberate, and letting it ride when things are out of your hand will be the smoothest way to achieve your goal.
Don’t ever make your friend your business partner. Several years ago, I referred a friend to be the business partner of the company I worked at. The company ended up not making the committed payment and my friend blamed me for being misleading. On the other hand, I was unhappy about my friend being inconsiderate. Friendship can be quite unexpectedly fragile when it involves money. Unless you are 100% in control, don’t ever make your friend your business partner if you cherish the friendship. I regret making this decision a lot.
You can’t please everyone. There are always “Karens” in the world and they pick on people for ridiculous reasons or no reason at all. I used to work with an executive, being one of the “Karens”, just kept shouting at people across the office for pleasure. Initially, I got shouted at for simply walking near her. I thought it was my fault and that I should try to play nice, and hopefully, she would stop just yelling at me. In the end, I realized it wasn’t personal. She was just being “Karen” and I don’t have to give a light.
There are no “enough” passion and knowledge. Being passionate helps me from procrastinating. I procrastinate a lot on tasks that I share no interest or passion in, andin and being able to identify the slightest ounce of passion in tasks enables fun and efficient solutions. Always be ready to learn new knowledge as it improves your conversation with people and helps you to be respected by them.
Be water. Adapt to changes but don’t lose your own nature. Uncertainty is the only certainty there is. There isn’t real “planning” as the situation develops and changes rapidly. Especially in product design and development, the grand plan may not work out due to sudden changes in regulation or the market response. Being flexible and being able to adapt is key to survival. However, don’t bend your way just to fit it, it doesn’t work as it may not fit the branding. I just had too many incidents where the grand plan didn’t work 100%…

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.

Mindfulness, for the workplace and for the crypto industry.

I used to volunteer and teach mindfulness, and I did an academic discussion and experiment to demonstrate how mindfulness has improved people’s financial decisions.

I think the rapid changes and volatility in this market require people to stay calm, not just on loss, but I also see many people get too carried away with gains. During the $LUNA fiasco, I was saddened to see people commit suicide and the “nonsense” people talked about when they made a profit. It was so polarized, and I see the need for a more compassionate and mindful community.

Florence Pugh. She is the most inspiring woman in the entertainment industry. Her way of being herself is truly a beacon to me. Whenever I hesitate “Should I wear this? Am I not good enough?” I would just think: If Florence can do it, I can be confident to do and wear whatever I want!

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

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

Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Gaby Koren of Glassbox On The Five Things You…

Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Gaby Koren of Glassbox On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Always be on time: Being mindful of your time as well as the time of others is the basis of respect between humans. Your punctuality is how you create a first impression, it is also how you balance your schedule and avoid rushing from one meeting to another. People who work for me know that I start meetings on time. I’ve learned to lead by example, which has driven mindful, respectful, and punctual behavior in others.

With over 20 years of sales and leadership experience, Glassbox Chief Revenue Officer Gabriela (Gaby) Koren pilots her team in growing the organization in emerging markets and optimizing operations. Since joining the team in 2019, she has significantly expanded business in the Americas by cultivating new customers, partners, and employees. Her vast experience in leading organizations with various go-to-market methodologies and introducing new solutions into several markets, geographies, and segments, has led businesses to scale and grow.

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 childhood “backstory”? Can you tell us the story about what led you to this particular career path?

Before I became involved in the tech industry, I was a captain in the Israel Defense Forces. I had a clear path to finish my military service, complete my psychology studies, devote myself to the subject, and open a practice. Of course, my life did not follow this path.

Before I could dive into the psychology field, someone I knew from the military mentioned to me that they were looking for a part-time sales representative at a technology company. They described it as an easy role in which I could make some extra money while studying. Needless to say, I fell in love with sales, with the tech industry, and with growth strategies. The rest is history.

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

I was doing business internationally and I was very upset at our representative due to a deal that wasn’t progressing well. I was harsh in the meeting and laid down the reasons why we required adjustments- I put together a clear strategy.

When I finished, the three men in the meeting spoke in the local language that I didn’t understand. I asked for a translation and the answer was, “We are not used to a woman talking to us this way”. I took a few deep breaths so I could think of how to respond, and calmly said, “Do you agree with the facts?”. They answered, “Yes,” and a great business result came after. This led me to learn a lesson and instilled a guiding principle: I can’t change my gender, but I can certainly affect the outcome of the deal.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

This is an excellent question. The three character traits I would choose:

Planning: The ability to understand what tasks are the most important for that day or week allows me to plan accordingly and have clear priorities.

Trusting your intuition, but verifying: My success is in large part owed to surrounding myself with the best talent — people that push the entire organization forward and are not afraid to challenge ideas. However, that doesn’t mean that I can detach myself from operations. As a leader, it is important to trust your intuition and business acumen while also checking it against the opinions and expertise of your team. Being able to empower and delegate, while also being open and keeping in constant communication, is key.

Pragmatic decision-making: My role as a leader is to “clean the road” so my people can do their job. This requires me to reprioritize and make decisions multiple times a day. I learn to be pragmatic and decisive — not to over-debate.

Over my two decades of working for enterprise organizations, I’ve encountered many different obstacles and challenges as a woman. When I worked in certain international countries, I was firmly advised to never mention my age — I was in my thirties at the time. I learned that being a woman is a challenge in some of the countries with traditionally patriarchal societies, and to add my relatively young age would make things harder within the workplace.

Throughout my career, I’ve truly discovered what it means to stretch oneself. I’ve had to deftly juggle my advancement and responsibilities at work with raising a family. I learned about prioritization and balance, but to also rely on my family, friends, and support system in order to make it all work. Trying to do it all alone is not realistic.

As a woman with a majority of male peers, I often find myself having an extra drive to prove my worth and succeed. It feels like you are on a stage under the spotlight and everybody is watching, ready to criticize you. Some are even waiting for you to fail.

Over time, I learned that I got to where I am regardless of my gender because of my skills, passion, and willingness to work hard and give my best. Acceptance came when I let my experience and track record speak for themselves.

One of the best pieces of advice I received from a former boss was to refrain from expecting everybody to like me. The perception that males are tough and women are leading with softness is often wrong and overly stereotypical. In reality, those lines are blurred. To gain success in work and to earn widespread respect, I learned to lead with “tough but fair”, pushing traditional gender considerations out of the way.

What do you think male-oriented organizations can do to enhance their recruiting efforts to attract more women?

Depending on the industry and the roles they are trying to fill, there are many things these organizations can do. I would start by encouraging executives at male-dominated businesses to learn what the women that currently work at their company like and dislike about the organization’s culture.

Leaders should work to identify what is important for women within their company and the wider industry and understand what their organization is missing. By creating a dialogue and a female-led council, businesses can gather the best ideas and use them to improve recruiting efforts targeting women.

Additionally, organizations should always monitor gender diversity ratios, tracking workforce metrics and setting goals. If ratios fall below business expectations, executives must immediately take corrective measures by working with additional or different recruiters, offering incentives, implementing new benefits to aid retention, and more.

Organizations must also learn to celebrate their diversity and find ways to make female employees feel recognized and valued.

Ok, thank you for all of that. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

A few years ago I created the “5 principles by which I live my life”. Each of these principles has helped me thrive and succeed as a woman in a male-dominated industry. I developed these principles after a lot of thought and self-searching, and after a career spent navigating a series of challenges. I’ve shared these with my children, colleagues, peers and more.

These five guideposts have kept me centered and focused in work and in life, helping to advance my career:

Always be on time: Being mindful of your time as well as the time of others is the basis of respect between humans. Your punctuality is how you create a first impression, it is also how you balance your schedule and avoid rushing from one meeting to another. People who work for me know that I start meetings on time. I’ve learned to lead by example, which has driven mindful, respectful, and punctual behavior in others.

As women, we tend to keep more balls in the air; being on time helps us maintain balance and prioritization. When we’re on time at work, we can also make sure we’re carving out time for ourselves, which is crucial for sustaining productivity and innovation.

Be humble: Humility for me doesn’t mean being insecure. Instead, staying humble reminds me that I can always learn from others, from every interaction and every experience. Being humble means that I take time to listen and process information. I’ve seen women in male-dominated industries and organizations afraid to ask questions or voice their opinion for fear of how they are perceived. Humility can help them find their voice.

Within my teams at Glassbox, we’ve started a process in which we do peer-to-peer post-mortem analysis. We evaluate won or lost business by asking team members at random to run an analysis of what worked and what didn’t. Knowing that today someone may analyze your case and tomorrow you may analyze someone else eliminated ego, enabling everyone to approach the process with humility. This has allowed us to improve and capitalize on what we do well.

Be optimistic: Maintaining optimism is not to be mistaken with always seeing a rosy picture and not acknowledging realities. Especially being a minority woman, consistent discrimination and hardships can become a burden that impact one’s overall demeanor leading to a lack of confidence. I always remind my kids and the people that report to me to find a bright spot, a happy thought, a profound quote to help them gain perspective. One of my favorite quotes is from Nelson Mandela: “I never lose, I either win or I learn.”

Optimism is crucial to success- we must keep our heads up and believe in a brighter future if we are going to continue to thrive.

Never burn a bridge: The world is a small village and the relationships you build today may serve you tomorrow. Learning to never burn a bridge, even in adversarial situations, will pay in arrears in the future. Learning how to manage conflict is among the most valuable lessons to master, especially as a woman in a male-dominated setting.

We recently celebrated a major business win with an organization in which the main stakeholder and the account executive had encountered each other in previous roles at other companies. While this doesnt shorten the sales cycle, nor does it replace the hard work required, by not burning that bridge our team was able to secure significant new business, increasing organizational revenue. Maintaining relationships is a science and an art!

Always have a Plan B: Constantly running “what if” scenarios and learning to play ‘corporate strategy chess’ by always envisioning all possible next steps is key to success. I’ve seen too many women afraid to make a move, nervous to ask for a raise or a new position. When you envision all outcomes, it decreases the number of surprises you might face, which lets you plan ahead and think things through calmly. More often than not, this reduces stress and ensures you are making the right decisions.

As an executive, I work to train my employees to think ahead by always asking “what is your plan” and “what if”. This forces all of us to develop multiple forward-looking plans and ask the right questions to decrease surprises and increase preparedness.

When thinking about this question, I tried to think of different scenarios and what advice I would give. For starters, I would encourage my friend to go with her heart and choose a field in which she would find passion and purpose. Entering a field based on what you’re excited about is far more important than choosing a career path based on the ratio of men to women within the industry. Passion and heart will lead to a much longer and happier career.

In a way, long-term success and advancement in your field of choice relates to how much competition you have around you. A woman in a male-dominated field can find herself being unique, standing out, bringing perspectives that otherwise may be missed. On the other hand, a field predominantly dominated by women may provide more work-life balance, better benefits, more flexibility, less office politics. The question to my friend would be: what is the most important for you, what are your ambitions?

There is no doubt that over a span of 10 years a lot has changed for women in male-dominated industries. Not enough, but certainly changed for the better. Things are changing from 2 perspectives that create this “perfect storm” for women: barriers are breaking for women. We are now able to do every role and are allowed to aspire to fill every position across industries. Additionally, women now have access to increased support from their families and society, which are enabling them to pursue careers more freely than ever before.

Looking ahead, the way to make lasting change requires both a top-down and a bottom-up approach. When the military changes its policies, when the entertainment industry decreases the salary gap, when women run for president and a woman is elected Vice President, it sends a message to future generations that powerful, driven, accomplished women are the norm and that anything is possible regardless of gender. For those that enter the workforce after glass ceilings have been shattered, it will be easier. Then the ratios will start to even, once male-dominated industries will see a gender balance among employees, and female leaders will become more prevalent and more accepted by society.

There are so many inspiring women in prominent and major roles across industries, sectors and roles that I would be thrilled to speak with. Every opportunity I have to interact with executives, I’m honored! If I could wish for a private breakfast or lunch with anyone, I would dream of sitting down with Billie Jean King. I hope she’s reading this interview. She not only changed the world of tennis, but her activism and leadership created a butterfly effect that opened doors for women in many other sports and business areas. She was (and is) a trailblazer, achieving progress with every hard-earned step she took. If not lunch, maybe Billie would take me up on a match?

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

Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Gaby Koren of Glassbox On The Five Things You… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women In Wellness: Christina Pack of Resurgens Postpartum On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will…

Women In Wellness: Christina Pack of Resurgens Postpartum On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

It never hurts to ask. Because, the answer is always no unless you ask. I’ve gotten so many clients through referrals just by asking people if they had someone to refer to me. I’ve hosted events in spaces for free just because I asked if I could. I mean sure, I’ve gotten plenty of no’s along the way, but asking is free and it never hurts!

As a part of my series about women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Christina Pack of Resurgens Postpartum.

Christina is a Mom Coach in Atlanta who specializes in working with pregnant and postpartum moms to help them feel confident as they transition into motherhood. She connects moms to resources they need around the city, educates them on what to expect postpartum and how to navigate the fourth trimester (both from a baby care and self-care standpoint), and provides coaching as moms explore their identity in motherhood. Christina desires for all moms to feel empowered and confident so that they can experience a life in balance with their kids.

<a href="https://medium.com/media/984ca8ee180ecd718e99909d18352195/href">https://medium.com/media/984ca8ee180ecd718e99909d18352195/href</a>

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

I actually came to this work because of what I observed was missing when I had my own children. When I had my first son I had a really hard time. I had a tough time recovering physically, establishing boundaries with friends and family, and learning to care for him. I felt very lost and was headed to a kind of dark place if I’m honest. I realized that my experience was pretty common, but moms just don’t talk about it. I also learned that there really aren’t enough supports for new moms, especially those who don’t have family close by to help.

When I had my second I felt much more equipped to manage and the experience was so much better. It made me realize how hard a time I had with my first and I knew I had to figure out a way to support moms so they wouldn’t experience what I did the first time around.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?

I think this might be less of a story and more of an experience, but we’ll go with it! As I’ve been networking and getting to know other providers in the area, I’ve been slowly realizing that the huge city I live in is actually quite small when you think about the circles you run in. I’ve made connections with people that seemed to be complete strangers, but I realized that we have all of these friends in common from various other parts of our lives — whether it’s the gym, church, or previous careers! I am learning that putting myself out there, reaching out to people and sharing what I do with them, is way less scary than I expected, even for an introvert like me! When you are passionate about something, like I am about moms being prepared for postpartum and getting better postpartum support, it’s easy to talk to people about your passion. And typically, when people you are with see your passion and can feel it, they get excited about it too!

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about a mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When I first started on this path I thought I’d be able to fill my client load really quickly.

I launched my business in April of 2022. When I first started I had a ton of optimism and thought that clients would just kind of appear and that everyone would want to sign with me. Because of that I stepped back and reduced my hours from the job I was working in education at the time. I truly had no idea what it meant to build a brand from scratch and get my name out there. I definitely thought if I created a website, the clients would come. Ha! The optimism in that was great, but it was far from what I experienced.

I realized I had to shift my mindset to instead focus on networking and making connections with like-minded providers to get my name out there. That has been my biggest lesson probably, to build a business you don’t get to start off right away doing what you love — in my case supporting pregnant and new moms. You have to start by learning accounting and marketing and how to network. I didn’t learn any of that in college with my Elementary Education degree. It truly is a grind to start a business. I knew that, but I thought I’d be the exception somehow.

But, I’ve honestly learned so much about myself and the grit I have. There have been some hard days and weeks, but I am still grinding and big things are happening!

Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?

As a Mom Coach, I focus on mostly pregnant and postpartum women. My desire is that every new mom feels prepared and confident before she gives birth so that she can heal and recover knowing that she is capable and has the support system she needs to care for her baby.

In that, I help moms prepare by thinking through four areas that I’ve noticed are pain points for new moms — preparing their mind, body, home, and support system. So many moms prepare the perfect Instagram-worth nursery, or take a birthing class and think they’re set. They forget that having a baby is more than the fun baby showers and labor and delivery. In order to be well-prepared to have a baby you need to prepare for the life you’ve have once baby is here. I compare it to preparing for a wedding vs preparing for a marriage. The marriage is the rest of your life!

As I’ve worked with moms the key thing I can say is making the biggest impact, is the level of confidence and support they feel. When moms feel confident and supported and cared for, they can experience fewer instances of depression and anxiety, which is critical to a mom finding balance.

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.

I love this! I think that sometimes we don’t realize how much each individual thought we have and action we take can impact our overall well-being.

1-Set realistic expectations. When I work with new moms and couples as they prepare to bring home their baby, I love to give them an expectation reality check. It’s easy to expect maternity/paternity leave to be a bit of a vacation. Parents think they’ll have so much time to do fun things. Honestly, you will have more time in some ways, but also your time will be dictated by a tiny human that doesn’t speak English yet. So, I like to talk about expectations — how it will feel to operate on less sleep, how to support each other to get more sleep, how to live your life in 3-hour chunks since babies eat about every 3 hours. I find that laying it all out there helps new parents understand what they’re getting themselves into.

2-Intentionally Move your body every day! You probably hear this a lot. I feel like it is important to name, especially with the population I serve, that moving your body doesn’t have to be an intense, hour-long workout. It doesn’t have to be much more than 5–10 minutes if that’s all you can give to it. And moving your body intentionally can be a rather still activity if it needs to be. I tell mamas to try to stick to the 5–5–5 rule. So, after delivery, that’s 5 days in bed, 5 days on the bed, and 5 days near the bed. That’s two weeks of mostly staying home, resting, and recovering. But, I also do CrossFit and work with a lot of moms who are athletes, so I recognize how hard that rule can be. You can STILL move intentionally while following that rule. Deep belly breathing is intentional movement. Slow stretching is intentional movement. A walk to the stop sign and back is intentional movement. We put so much pressure on ourselves to do an “all or nothing” approach, when something is always better than nothing!

3-Embrace where you are. By that, I don’t necessarily mean the physical place you are, like your home or whatever. I mean embrace where you are on your journey in life. Social Media is such a mind-trick. It can make you feel like you should be further along than you are and that’s just ridiculous. You have no idea what is going on on the other side of that camera. Instead, embrace your current phase. For me, that’s embracing that I’m in the early stage of starting my business. When I compare my beginning to someone else’s middle, of course I’ll feel like I don’t measure up. But when I embrace where I am and look how far I’ve come, I can find contentment and joy in the process.

4-Drink A Lot of Water. I can’t tell you how many people I know who don’t get enough water in daily. You’re supposed to drink half of your body weight in ounces daily (ex: 120lb person should drink at least 60oz a day). It’s definitely a task you have to spend time thinking about to accomplish. But, being well hydrated will help all of your systems work better. It improves skin, focus, alertness, bowel movements, the list goes on! Drink your water, y’all!

5-Try Softer. Y’all, when things get tough, it is so easy to be hard on ourselves. “I should’ve tried harder.” “I should’ve worked harder.” I’m here to tell you, try softer! Instead of beating yourself up when things go wrong or when things get hard, how about being gentle with yourself. Allow yourself the grace you wish others would give you. Chances are if you made a mistake, it wasn’t so big that it can’t be fixed. You deserve a soft spot to land when things get tough, and if you don’t have that, BE that for yourself!

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

Oh wow, well, I immerse myself in the pregnancy and postpartum space, so I would definitely lean in there. I think my movement would be, well, intentional, well-planned leave. The first thing that comes to mind, naturally, is maternity leave. But it doesn’t just have to be that, since lots of people take leaves from work at various stages of their life. I think the challenge is that when we take a leave from work, we tend to go into it without a plan. This can honestly make the leave less enjoyable. For moms, when they aren’t prepared and planned, they can spiral into a dark place. But for others, when they don’t plan how to spend their leave, they may slip into some bad habits that don’t benefit them and actually counteract the break they’re getting from the daily grind of life.

I believe that if we plan for and prepare for any season of life, really, that we can find joy, be balanced, and have contentment.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

https://youtu.be/JmWoC94I3Hg

It never hurts to ask. Because, the answer is always no unless you ask. I’ve gotten so many clients through referrals just by asking people if they had someone to refer to me. I’ve hosted events in spaces for free just because I asked if I could. I mean sure, I’ve gotten plenty of no’s along the way, but asking is free and it never hurts!
On your hardest days, remember your why. When you start something new, you’ll have hard days. It’s a given. It’s easy to let those hard days defeat you. But, instead, if you focus on your why, you will keep your passion burning. That is critical to combat feelings of inadequacy and doubt.
Find your cheerleaders. We aren’t meant to do things alone. Humans were designed for community. Starting a business is lonely. You have to build your community of cheerleaders so that you have people to celebrate with, cry to, and navigate the uncharted waters with.
Don’t sweat the small stuff. No really, they don’t matter. I spend months focused on creating the perfect logo, the perfect website, the perfect mission and vision statement. They matter, but they’re not set in stone. They can be changed. Honestly, just start, let it be messy, grow through it, and come out on the other side stronger!
You can build a business without an office. I thought I had to have the perfect home office to be a legit business owner. But, here I am, sitting on my couch, running a business. You don’t need as much as you think to make it happen!

Sustainability, veganism, mental health, and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?

For me personally, mental health is HUGE! Maternal Mental Health Disorders are so prevalent in developed countries because we don’t support one another the way people in less developed countries do. Building that support network is crucial to combat these challenges. And, honestly, being open and honest about our struggles. There is so much help out there if we are just willing to be vulnerable about our challenges.

What is the best way for our readers to further follow your work online?

Check out my website www.resurgenspostpartum.com. I post weekly blogs and also have an email list you can sign up for there. You can follow me on Instagram @resurgens_postpartum. There you’ll find pregnancy and motherhood tips, self-care strategies, and so much more!

Thank you for these fantastic insights! We wish you continued success and good health.

Women In Wellness: Christina Pack of Resurgens Postpartum On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.