Day: October 31, 2022

Power Women: Carla Castro of Botoplace On How To Successfully Navigate Work, Love and Life As A…

Power Women: Carla Castro of Botoplace On How To Successfully Navigate Work, Love and Life As A Powerful Woman

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

The first is discipline, because without consistency there are no results. Discipline accompanied me throughout my professional trajectory, I have always dedicated myself to everything I do.

As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Carla Castro of Botoplace.

Carla Castro is a Brazilian entrepreneur, beauty expert, and CEO of Botoplace. After 20 years of running her own multinational communication agency in Brazil, Covid brought life to a halt and provided room for big changes. Carla took the opportunity to follow a new dream, opening a specialized medspa in the United States. In 2022, with co-founder Fabiola Letterman, Carla opened the doors of Botoplace in SouthWest Florida and created the first of its kind walk-in, botox-only, flat-fee clinic. Believing beauty aesthetics should be accessible to all, Carla’s vision was to create a place that had no hidden fees, and empowered women to feel their best. “Beauty is self-esteem, and self-esteem influences your physical and mental health, your attitude at work, the way people see you, everything. And that’s what Botoplace seeks to offer people, the rescue of self-esteem, of looking in the mirror and feeling good, empowered, and reflecting that.

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 Northeast Brazil. It’s a region with an extremely rich and effervescent culture, filled with very happy people. But the area also suffers a lot from economic problems. I’m middle class, I know my privileges and I’ve had more opportunities than most people who were born in the same place as me. This dynamic influenced me as a young woman and especially now. I seek, through my work and everything I do, to help build a more equal society.

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

When I was working in marketing, I watched several small companies become big, successful businesses. It shed a light into the business world and I fell in love with entrepreneurship and the whole process that it involves.

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

Covid was definitely one of the most interesting moments in my career. After 20 years of building a career in Brazil in marketing and public relations, 2020 hit. With the pandemic and economic crash, I saw an opportunity for a change. I followed my heart and, as a Botox lover, I came to the USA and focused on stepping into the beauty industry by creating Botoplace, a Botox-only walk-in clinic, with flat rates and premium services.

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?

Over more than 20 years of work, I have had many successes, but also some failures.

One character trait that was critical to my success was learning not to give up in the face of defeat. For example, I was producing a huge Carnival party in Brazil, which was sponsored by one of the biggest beverage brands in the country. This brand backed out of sponsoring the party last minute which was a major loss, but I was able to quickly get the support of other brands and the party became one of the biggest in the Brazilian Northeast, becoming a tourist destination. It was something that helped me learn and strengthen my skills.

I also think it’s fundamental that businesses have a purpose, that they serve to improve society, and that they give back to the people who help for it to exist. So, being altruistic is an important character trait to have as a business owner. In my hometown (Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil), I helped raise around US$100,000 in partnership with Cow Parade for the renovation of a hospital for children with cancer.

Another very important thing is to never stop learning: always research and study. The world evolves at every moment, and it is necessary to follow these evolutions, both in general and in your niche. At the moment, I’ve been studying a lot about the botox market, American consumption habits, and much more. I’m always open to learning.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. The premise of this series assumes that our society still feels uncomfortable with strong women. Why do you think this is so?

I think this is cultural. For many years the creation of laws, positions of power, and politics, were almost exclusively in the hands of men. People are not used to seeing women in charge. We still have a long way to go, but this is slowly changing.

Without saying any names, can you share a story from your own experience that illustrates this idea?

There have been several times where I have had to masculinize my image to be heard and respected. It’s as if the more “feminine” a woman is in a management role, the less capable she is seen. I often found that I had to wear less makeup, dress in more masculine clothes, and speak louder to get my ideas heard.

What should a powerful woman do in a context where she feels that people are uneasy around her?

You have to have emotional intelligence. Being machismo can make interactions difficult. While some people feel that what I’m doing isn’t good enough simply because I’m a woman, you don’t have to become abrasive–kindness also works. It takes patience and showing good results to change these scenarios.

What do we need to do as a society to change the unease around powerful women?

Women who achieve positions where their voices are heard need to educate other women on how to climb the ladder, too. And again, we need to practice patience, perseverance, and give great results. This builds trust. Unfortunately, we need to emphasize this more than our male counterparts, but it pays off. We have a long way to go, and things are changing, but as women we need to help each other.

In my own experience, I have observed that often women have to endure ridiculous or uncomfortable situations to achieve the success that men don’t have to endure. Do you have a story like this from your own experience? Can you share it with us?

As I said before, I often needed to dull my feminine side to achieve success. A man doesn’t need to dull his masculine side, he can just be who he is. Many times I had to be very firm and even rude when I was harassed, heard jokes, or received dinner invitations. The rules are just so different for men and women, it truly can be ridiculous and uncomfortable at times.

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

Mistrust of womens’ ability. They wonder if a woman will be able to handle the work, or if family and motherhood will get in the way, taking the focus off the profession. Often in job interviews, women are asked if she has or wants to have children, if she has someone to leave them with, and what she would do if they got sick. Men don’t go through that kind of questioning.

Let’s now shift our discussion to a slightly different direction. This is a question that nearly everyone with a job has to contend with. Was it difficult to fit your personal and family life into your business and career? For the benefit of our readers, can you articulate precisely what the struggle was?

It was very difficult, but I have no regrets. As a single mother, I chose to invest in my career to provide my son with a comfortable life. But for that, I had to travel a lot, give up holidays, and special dates many times. It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it.

What was a tipping point that helped you achieve a greater balance or greater equilibrium between your work life and personal life? What did you do to reach this equilibrium?*

The tip is you can’t feel guilty. Not when you give up family moments to dedicate yourself to work, nor when you need to miss work to dedicate yourself to family. Do what needs to be done without beating yourself up about it, every area of your life needs a little more attention at some point, and that’s okay.

I work in the beauty tech industry, so I am very interested to hear your philosophy or perspective about beauty. In your role as a powerful woman and leader, how much of an emphasis do you place on your appearance? Do you see beauty as something that is superficial, or is it something that has inherent value for a leader in a public context? Can you explain what you mean?*

Beauty is the kindness, grace, and respect someone encompasses for another and themselves.

It means feeling good about yourself, whether it is because of makeup or nice clothes or exercising, it is having confidence in yourself. Beauty even means loving yourself for who you are and accepting others for who they are. It comes from within and reflects on the outside — but, sometimes, we can use what comes from the outside to ignite our inner beauty. Beauty is knowing who you are, what you can offer to the world, and what the world can offer to you.

Beauty is self-esteem, and self-esteem influences your physical and mental health, your attitude at work, the way people see you, everything. And that’s what Botoplace seeks to offer people, the rescue of self-esteem, of looking in the mirror and feeling good, empowered, and reflecting that.

How is this similar or different for men?*

Self-esteem is very important for women and men. But the search for self-esteem through the possibilities that medicine and cosmetics offer is still something new for the male audience. Only 10% of Botoplace’s customers today are men. But that number is slowly growing, and I see more men looking to feel good about their appearance and about themselves.

Ok super. 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 Powerful Woman?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

The first is discipline, because without consistency there are no results. Discipline accompanied me throughout my professional trajectory, I have always dedicated myself to everything I do.

Self-care is also fundamental, taking care of your skin, food, physical, and mental health. We need to feel good to do our best, and that’s why I created Botoplace, to help other people feel good.

Always study and research. I have many years of experience in marketing, but when I arrived in the United States, I had to learn about the behavior of American culture and about the local consumption and living habits, since each community has its particularities.

Being flexible and sympathetic is also essential in understanding others and dealing with day-to-day problems in the best possible way.

Lastly, having the best team. Working with a team of people who believe in what you believe in and who have the same goals makes all the difference. Nobody is powerful alone.

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.

Lori Greiner (American television personality and entrepreneur. She is an investor on the reality ABC TV series Shark Tank). She represents a lot of what I believe, understands a lot about marketing, products, and female entrepreneurship. I would love for her to know my business, and I’m sure we’d get along very well.

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

Power Women: Carla Castro of Botoplace On How To Successfully Navigate Work, Love and Life As A… 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: Jill Tietjen of Technically Speaking On The Five…

Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Jill Tietjen of Technically Speaking On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Never give up. When I was working on one of my books, my co-author told me that she had a project she was working on and she needed to do some tasks in a spreadsheet. But, she couldn’t figure it out so she stopped. This was before Google and before smart phones and before YouTube. I was flabbergasted. What do you mean, you stopped? I never even envisioned that as an option! When you have a task to do you figure it out — if that requires asking everyone you know, you ask, but you have to get the task done and you don’t give up, you get it done.

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 Jill Tietjen.

Author, international speaker, and electrical engineer Jill Tietjen has spent more than 45 years in the electric utility business as a consultant and expert witness and is now an advocate for women worldwide. She has authored or co-authored twelve books to date include the award-winning and bestselling books, Her Story: A Timeline of the Women Who Changed America and Hollywood: Her Story, An Illustrated History of Women and the Movies. Her latest award-winning book (Fulcrum, 2022), Over, Under, Around, and Through: How Hall of Famers Surmount Obstacles, has been called inspirational and uplifting.

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 am the oldest of four children of an aerospace engineer and an elementary school teacher. I played the violin starting at age 8 and although my friends today consider me athletic, my K-12 education was before Title IX and athletic opportunities weren’t open to girls. I did play tennis. I started working in the public library at age 14 — with a special permit allowing me to work because I wasn’t yet 16. I was active in extracurricular activities throughout school and rose to leadership positions in many organizations.

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

Growing up, we were always told how important education was and that we would be going to college. My heart was set on attending the University of Virginia (UVA). Fortunately for me, UVA admitted women as undergraduates for the first time in the Fall of 1970. I entered in the Fall of 1972 as a math major — not in the engineering school because no one, not even my PhD engineer father, said I should study engineering. But I was lucky, I quickly discovered that engineering was for me and worked with the engineering school dean to transfer in. I graduated with a degree in applied mathematics and a minor in electrical engineering and went to work in the electric utility industry at Duke Power (today Duke Energy) because they wanted my fiancé (who was a nuclear engineer) and they got me in the bargain. Planning work in the electric utility industry was a perfect fit for me. After Duke I worked at other firms and launched my consulting business in 2001. I have sat on the board of directors of Georgia Transmission Corporation of Tucker, Georgia since 1997 and was on the board of directors of Merrick & Company of Greenwood Village, Colorado from 2010 to 2021.

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

There are so many stories — I will share two.

1. My first week on my first job out of college, my supervisor at Duke Power decided that I needed to visit power plants to get some real-world knowledge. At one of the coal-fired power plants, we walked around the turbine floor to see the turbine-generators. Then we took the elevator up to see the control room. When we exited the elevator, I realized we were in the men’s locker room! One man was there, but thankfully for me he was fully dressed. This demonstrated to me for maybe the first time the dearth of women in the electric utility industry.

2. I did a lot of expert witness work during my career, primarily before public utility commissions. This particular story occurred before the Wyoming Public Service Commission. I was testifying on behalf of Black Hills Power, based in Rapid City, South Dakota, in their case requesting the certificate needed to construct a coal-fired power plant in Gillette, Wyoming. During my testimony, I stated that the analysis that had been completed demonstrated that the power plant proposed was the best choice to provide safe, economic and reliable power. The Deputy Commissioner, really, just to be obnoxious, said to me, Ms. Tietjen, are you saying the other options aren’t safe? I stumbled through my answer. Black Hills Power got the certificate.

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?

Since I have been inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame, the Colorado Authors’ Hall of Fame and the National Academy of Construction, it appears that others believe I am successful. I feel there is so much more for me to do. With that caveat, here are three traits and stories.

1. Never give up. When I was working on one of my books, my co-author told me that she had a project she was working on and she needed to do some tasks in a spreadsheet. But, she couldn’t figure it out so she stopped. This was before Google and before smart phones and before YouTube. I was flabbergasted. What do you mean, you stopped? I never even envisioned that as an option! When you have a task to do you figure it out — if that requires asking everyone you know, you ask, but you have to get the task done and you don’t give up, you get it done.

2. Find a way. When someone tells me I can’t do it, or women can’t do it, that just stiffens my backbone and makes me try harder. In fact, the 50 successful women profiled in my book Over, Under, Around, and Through: How Hall of Famers Surmount Obstacles found a way — they went over, under, around, or through the obstacles that were in their way. They used mental intelligence, emotional intelligence, social support, moral compass — spirituality, determination — perseverance — persistence, creativity, optimism, resilience, action-orientation, and passion either singly or in combination to overcome the obstacles. We each have these abilities, too.

3. Prepare for the worst thing that you think could happen. The worst thing almost never happens, but if it does, you are ready for it as well as every other lesser worse thing. Do not obsess about it. Look calmly at the actions that you would take if it did happen. For me, the worst thing did happen. Nine months after my first husband and I were married, his parents died in a murder-suicide. We were 22 years old. His 14-year-old and 18-year-old brothers came to live with us. We got them both through high school, college, and the younger one through law school. And we continued working full time, got our MBAs at night, and I continued my extracurricular activities including playing my violin in the community orchestra and playing tennis. We kept putting one foot in front of the other, taking one step at a time.

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?

Being a small woman in a male-dominated industry has led to many challenges. I will focus on credibility and invisibility. Many years ago, I heard Dr. Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf speak at a Society of Women Engineers’ (SWE) National Convention. During her remarks, she referred to the Yoda Syndrome — which basically means if you don’t look like the expectation (tall, white, male) then people walk right past you or don’t listen to you or don’t value your opinion. In the movie Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, our hero Luke Skywalker is ready to learn how to use his Jedi skills and goes to the planet where the Jedi master, Yoda, resides. Luke walks right past Yoda because in Luke’s eyes, the squat green creature can’t be a Jedi master. Small women experience the Yoda syndrome. We have to demonstrate our competence and credibility over and over — in fact, in every new situation, with every new client, constantly!

And like Yoda, small women are invisible. Luke Skywalker walked right past him. We have to learn to be excellent in what we do and find our voice. A story — let me set the scene. New York City, July 1990. Hot and humid. There has just been a huge thunderstorm that dumped a lot of rain in a short period of time. Three of us are leaving the SWE National Convention hotel in a cab to LaGuardia Airport. There is a lot of standing water on FDR Drive. We pass a cab on the side of the road that has overheated. Then, the temperature indicator in our cab starts to rise. Gina, almost 6 feet tall, is sitting in the front seat of the cab. She tells the male cab driver to turn the heat on. He looks at her like she has lost her mind. I am in the back seat — I trust Gina, I don’t know why the heat needs to be turned on — but she’s an engineer. So, in my “big” voice (my second husband says I am not intimidating until I open my mouth), I say “TURN THE HEAT ON!!” The cab driver turns the heat on, the taxi does not overheat, and we make it to LaGuardia Airport.

In summary — my biggest challenges or obstacles are credibility and invisibility.

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?

I have worked as hard as I can to be competent. I am always learning — you have to be a lifelong learner in the engineering profession. For my board seats, I read business publications as well as trade publications to understand the business, economic and technical trends and happenings in the world and in my industry. I participated in many volunteer organizations within the engineering community and rose to leadership positions in most. I did learn to play golf — but I’m terrible and after getting tendonitis in both wrists, I stopped. At times along the way, it has been very helpful to have golf knowledge. I got involved in the professional trade association, breaking many barriers and paving the way for other women. I also broke barriers for other women on my corporate boards. I did all of this with a sense of humor — I do have two brothers so I learned a lot while growing up about how to handle male-dominated environments.

Early in my years on the Merrick board (when I was the only woman), we were asked to review a particular employee handbook. Being a writer — and a very good editor — I read the handbook. I was fairly outraged by the tone and approach. I also made edits in the document. When I completed my review, I emailed the Chair of the Board and the Corporate Secretary and told them I had concerns. Neither responded to the email. The day of the board meeting dawned. Twelve men and me. The Chair starts the discussion at 8:30 am on the handbook — going in a circle around the table — I am thus next to last. Comments are received from the other board members as well as outside counsel “Great.” “Good Job.” “I Like It.” My turn. I say — I don’t like the tone of the document. It reads to me as very elitist. And I explain why. Throughout the rest of the meeting, which lasts until noon, each man on the board finds a way to use the word “elitist” in his comment on other items of business. They are “hazing” me but also accepting me.

I joined the Georgia Transmission Corporation board in 1997; one other woman was on the 13-member board. The men are somewhat remote, friendly but not warm. In about year 3, it is the time of year to take a picture of the board for the Annual Report. The photographer has put three high stools in the area where the photo shoot will take place. The board chair is instructed to sit in the middle of the three stools. The other woman and I are instructed to sit on the other two seats on either side of him. The Board Chair says he is a thorn between two roses. And then he says, he doesn’t know where to put his hands. Finally, the dam of propriety was broken and we could develop warm and lasting relationships on the board. Humor led the way — again.

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

I’m not sure the issue is recruiting women as much as it is retaining and ensuring women have the opportunities to reach their potential. The 1999 MIT School of Science study is instructive. Women were so optimistic when they joined the faculty at MIT but at mid to late career, they had been systematically marginalized. When Dr. Nancy Hopkins told MIT President Charles Vest that, he did not believe her. He said, we’re MIT, show me the data. She got the data. Inequitable distributions were found involving space, amount of 9-month salary paid from individual research grants, teaching assignments, awards and distinctions, and inclusion on important committees and assignments within the department. In addition, women were believed to be seriously underpaid. Changes were made.

When companies say they don’t have a gender pay gap, or gender disparity in promotions, training, mentorship, whatever — see what the data show — if it is ever available (mostly, not available). How many women are on their board? The same issues, by the way, will exist with people of color.

Many changes can be made but first there has to be a recognition that the unconscious and affinity biases are at work.

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.)

How do you thrive and succeed as a woman in a male-dominated industry?

First, you have to have more than thick skin — one of my friends calls it rhino skin. The arrows and pellets aimed at you have to roll off. You have to learn not to take things personally. I wrote an article years ago titled “Snappy Responses to Obnoxious Comments.” Here are a few examples:

Obnoxious Comment: You don’t look like an engineer. OR You really look like an engineer.

Snappy Response: Thank you. OR Why would you make a comment like that? OR I use a lot of makeup.

Obnoxious Comment: Must be that time or the month. OR You must be on the rag.

Snappy Response: What a rude thing to say. OR Would you want someone saying that to your wife (daughter, sister)? OR I can’t believe you would be crude enough to say that OR You’re obviously not addressing me.

And my all-time favorite exchange which is between Sir Winston Churchill and a woman of high society:

Woman: Sir Winston, I believe you’re drunk!

Sir Winston Churchill: Yes, Madam. But in the morning, I will be sober. And you will still be ugly.

Second, you must be excellent technically in your job. Work hard. Be good at what you do. Become an expert — invited to speak at industry conferences. If your company has internal awards, make sure that you are nominated for the appropriate ones. Check out awards at your alma mater and get nominated for appropriate awards there. And check out professional and community organization awards and get nominated for the appropriate awards there as well. Become like my friend, Jackie, whose nickname was “Do Most” because she could do most whatever she was asked. Complete a major power plant construction project on time and on budget. Check. Oversee the studies needed and the preparation of the application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity for a new power plant. Check. Supervise the entire process from issuance of a request for proposals to project construction and completion of a power plant. Check. Always deliver. Always follow through on your commitments. Be reliable. Be dependable.

Third, hone that sense of humor. You will need it constantly. Learn to laugh at situations. Learn to laugh at yourself. I am in a client meeting — 13 men and me. Two of the men are developers who want to develop a power plant. During the meeting it becomes obvious that they really don’t know what they are doing. They don’t know where the power plant will be located — haven’t even decided which state. Don’t know how big it will be. Don’t know when it would become operational. As the President of the utility (Bob) and others ask them questions — the answers keep changing. Bob gets frustrated and finally says, “Will you make up your mind? Or are you going to continue to be as fickle as a . . .?” Then Bob turns beet red, looks at me, and I say, “What are you going to do now, Bob?” And he completes the sentence “a woman.” A keen sense of humor, used often, is imperative.

Fourth, emotional intelligence is not optional. Emotional intelligence includes the ability to handle one’s own emotions and to relate appropriately and empathetically with others. The four categories of emotional intelligence are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. When you have high emotional intelligence, you not only know how you feel but you also know how others feel and you are able to adjust your behavior as the situation warrants. Use your intuition often — trust it. It will serve you well. Two of my male colleagues and I are in New York in January 1991. We are arranging the financing of a major power plant with New York bankers and attorneys. We are in the conference room of the attorney’s office at 7 pm at night. Someone calls into the conference room — turn on the radio. The Kuwait War has started. I watch the banker we are with. He has a different color pen for each topic area. He is putting the caps on all the pens and putting them away. I say to my two male colleagues, “This meeting is over.” They said, “How do you know?” And I said, “Because David just put all of his pens away.” Use your eyes, your ears, your heart, and your intuition.

Fifth, cultivate your social support network. As we learned in spades during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are social animals and we need contact with other people. We need people who care about us and our physical and emotional well being. We need a network of people who encourage us. If you don’t have a social support network, get one. My primary support structure for years and years has been the Society of Women Engineers. A place where I was accepted. A place where I did not have to prove myself. A place where others understood and had similar experiences. A place where others could relate to me and tell me I wasn’t crazy.

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 have spent more than forty years encouraging other women to enter science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields and pursue STEM careers. I can’t imagine a better career for me than what I’ve had in the electric utility industry. I would tell her that it isn’t all roses — but life isn’t all roses — all of us face obstacles constantly (or as Sister Lydia Peña said in my book Over, Under, Around, and Through: How Hall of Famers Surmount Obstacles — For, without obstacles, there is no life). I am reminded of the IBM advertisement in magazines from the 1980s which featured two sets of baby booties — a blue pair and a pink pair. The thrust of the ad is this: the blue baby booties are encouraged to pursue STEM careers and the pink baby booties are not. But what if the cure for cancer is in the pink baby booties and she is not encouraged? How can we not take advantage of the potential of everyone to solve the many technological challenges facing the world today?

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?

Societal change is slow but there are more women pursuing STEM careers now versus when I started. I worked with the National Academy of Engineering from 1997 to 1999 on a Celebration of Women in Engineering task force that culminated in a symposium. Our theme for that symposium was “50–50 by 2020”. We were quite overly optimistic. So was the Society of Women Engineers which when founded in 1949–1950 envisioned parity in the not-too-distant future and here we are 70 years out and not close to parity. But where would we be if we didn’t at least have a goal?

Melinda Gates. We share a common mission to advocate for women worldwide.

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

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

Joel Freund of Fluex Media On How to Use LinkedIn To Dramatically Improve Your Business

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Open communication is not complicated. It’s just very hard. We try to avoid hardship, and end up complicating everything in the process. Business owners tell me all the time: “You don’t understand. This situation is so complicated.” Once we dig deeper, it’s clear that it’s actually very simple — you need to tell the employee this or that. Ah, but that’s hard.

As part of our series of interviews about “How to Use LinkedIn To Dramatically Improve Your Business”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Joel Freund.

After quickly climbing the corporate ladder into management positions, Joel was hired as CEO at a telecom company, where he used LinkedIn organically to bring the product to market. After leaving that role, Joel founded Fluex Media (https://fluexmedia.com), which currently manages some of the largest personal brands on LinkedIn. His team uses Fluex Media’s unique, trailblazing process to build a consistent, authentic, and lucrative LinkedIn presence for executives at B2Bs. When he’s not working, you’ll find him playing music, listening to audiobooks (favorite topic: company culture), and donating kidneys.

LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joefreund/.

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

When I was hired as CEO of a national telecom company, my task was to bring the product to market. I wasn’t told one thing: the company’s entire budget had been spent on product development. The budget for marketing was a total of… $0. I turned to LinkedIn as a free marketing tool. 3 months in: nothing doing. 6 months: starting to gain some traction. 9 months: this is working! Companies I hadn’t managed to open a conversation with, people I couldn’t talk to — they were seeking me out at trade shows all over the country, taking my calls, trusting me, and giving me serious consideration. My LinkedIn presence put the telecom company on the map as a legitimate player, and I was the face of it. All this was done organically, without a cent in ad spend: just posting, engaging, and connecting consistently and strategically.

Friends with their own businesses followed my journey and asked, “What’s the secret?” I freely provided tips and advice. When I left my role, one company asked me to help them with LinkedIn in an official capacity. Then another asked the same.

I realized that while countless companies are offering LinkedIn services such as lead gen, automation, ghostwriting, or paid ads, nobody was offering an authentic, organic, all-inclusive service run by real people. As I built out my services and process, I started charging. Soon after, I hired an assistant, and then a copywriter. My little side gig was starting to look like a real business!

I could never have foreseen this journey, and never expected to have grown into the company Fluex Media is today. I was thinking small until one very interesting drive from New Jersey to Virginia…

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

There was a prospect I was convinced could become a leader on LinkedIn, but his whole company was very against the whole idea of social media and personal branding. I had many conversations with the business owner but he wasn’t open to it. We ended up working on a different project together and needed to do some real brainstorming, so decided to go away for a day or two. We set out on the 7–8 hour drive to Virginia Beach.

During the drive, I was busy with my couple of clients. Back then I was still writing up all the posts myself. He listened in to the conversations and started asking: How does it work? Why did you write this instead of that? What is this person’s goal? This guy said something much longer — why are you writing it this way?

He said he wants to do LinkedIn. Right now.

I asked him a couple of questions and created some posts. We put up a profile picture and put out the first post. It got a lot of engagement. He was so excited. His account had 7 followers then.

On the way back, I had a call with a great writer I was considering hiring full-time. She suggested a partnership, with her running the creative side and me doing the business aspect. I said, Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Next to me, this business owner is gesturing wildly at me. When I hung up, he asked if I was crazy. I couldn’t see the problem.

Him: How many clients can 1 writer handle?

Me: 10 accounts, max.

Him: Okay, so what happens when you get your 11th client? 20th? Every time you need another writer you give them a partnership?

Me: I don’t know. I never thought of having more than 10 clients.

Him: You’re crazy! This is a real business. Do you know how many business owners like me have no idea what LinkedIn is all about? If they would understand the power of it, you’ll have hundreds of clients!

Me: You’re thinking like a visionary. I’m not a visionary. I don’t need a writer as a partner; I can hire writers. I need a visionary partner. I would make stupid decisions like this every day if I don’t have a visionary.

Him: You know what I need? An integrator. I have all those great ideas, but to make it happen — I don’t know how to do that.

By the end of that drive, we shook hands on a partnership that turned out to be the foundation of what later became Fluex Media. I’ve never looked back.

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?

One of the biggest mistakes I made was thinking small. Even funnier was that a die-hard social media skeptic was the person who believed in my little business even more than I did — he became my partner and the visionary at Fluex Media!

One of my takeaways from this experience was that as much as we tend to think we need to have everything planned out — goals, prospects, partnerships, investors — in reality, despite our efforts, often you just need to work on building relationships, and good things happen from there. It’s not always clear which action will lead to which outcome, so get out of the box and be open to unexpected results.

My second lesson was about making smart partnership decisions. I was about to take the wrong business partner, and for all the wrong reasons. Many business partnerships happen for the wrong reasons: out of fear, or because of a specific pain point you’re dealing with right now.

Let’s say you start a business and need money. Along comes somebody offering you $200,000 for a 50% partnership. As soon as the company starts making money, you start wondering: why am I doing all the work and forever after giving away 50%? It doesn’t make any sense.

You need money? You need a business loan, not a partner.

Or you need help managing the business. Along comes somebody offering to share the workload, for a percentage of the business. Soon the business grows and you need to hire more help — but that person is still getting a huge share of your profits.

Need help running the business? You need an assistant or COO, not a partner.

Don’t go into a partnership for short-term fixes. It creates the biggest problems in business. Go into partnerships because of self-awareness. Know your strengths, identify the gap in your skills, and find the right person to fill them. When you’re both on the same page about what each of you brings to the business, that value never goes away and it’s always a fair deal.

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?

The life of a business owner is a series of decision-making — and a lot of the time, those are hard decisions. When you have two good options, making the decision is easy. It’s when you have two bad options that it gets tough. That’s when business owners stall, and it stops the business from moving forward. Leaders need to be able to make decisions quickly, even without enough information.

A hard decision I had to make: a prospect at a larger company than our typical target market reached out. They were going public shortly and investing in their PR. Would we be able to help them with LinkedIn? We met the CEO and he seemed to be an excellent fit: articulate, outgoing, and with a great story. They gave us a sizeable deposit and we were ready to go. As soon as the first batch of content was ready, lots of other people at their company started getting involved: the publicist, the marketing team, and the investors. At that time, we were still working primarily with smaller companies where there weren’t so many people involved, so this became complicated. We tried in many ways to make this work, but it came to a point where everybody picked at the content until there was either nothing left, it didn’t reflect the CEO’s authentic voice, or it was very technical and unengaging.

I had two options: keep on taking their money (which we desperately needed at the time as a startup) to produce underperforming content that they were happy with but would not bring results; or I could say, “This was a mistake. We’re not on the same page about the best way to help you achieve your goals. We’ll refund you and we wish you all the best.”

Both options were unappealing. Keeping going and fighting every step of the way was bad for team morale, and knowing their money was not being well spent felt wrong — yet giving up that money and admitting this wasn’t working wasn’t easy to swallow either. Clearly, we had presented enough of a professional image to get this company to reach out and sign on in the first place; now we would be taking a step back.

Ultimately, after a few days, I made the call to go with option two. The main reason was that this account was dragging our team down — they knew the content wouldn’t perform, communication was challenging, and the overall feeling was confrontational and frustrating. The best interests of your team always have to come first.

We let the client go and took full responsibility for being unprepared to work with their team. The CEO was grateful for our open and honest approach. We refunded the entire amount and moved on. It’s hard to choose the lesser of the two evils, but it’s important to make that decision and keep moving forward.

Which social media platform have you found to be most effective to use to increase business revenues? Can you share a story from your experience?

There is no ‘most effective’ platform. Every business has different goals and target markets, and you need to choose where to invest accordingly. That being said, you need a bit of diversity — don’t invest everything in one place. The trap is trying to be everywhere at once. It takes time to build a strong presence on any social media platform, so focus on one to start with, and then slowly add more once that first one is well established.

For us, as a B2B, LinkedIn is where we invest the most time and effort, and it’s the same for our clients, who are also all in the B2B space. LinkedIn has proven to increase business revenues for B2B when used consistently and strategically. One of our clients actually had to leave LinkedIn for a while to hire more staff and increase his capacity to handle the influx of new business directly from organic LinkedIn! His LinkedIn presence built brand awareness, trust, and authority, and made him likable and memorable — plus it attracted two best-fit salespeople to reach out to him, get hired, and drastically grow his business. Full case study here: https://fluexmedia.com/case-studies/power-7-group/.

Let’s talk about LinkedIn specifically, now. Can you share 5 ways to leverage LinkedIn to dramatically improve your business? Please share a story or example for each.

Sure. One thing to bear in mind though is the timeframe for these benefits. You will immediately see increased engagement and profile views, but the real results — the lucrative connections and conversations — are earned with consistency and patience. At Fluex Media, we advise clients to expect it to take 9–12 months, depending on their industry, personality, and LinkedIn starting point. but the results are well worth waiting for:

Legitimacy: The first thing anyone does when they hear about you — you cold call them, send them an email pitch, or they get referred to you — is search your name online. The first result will be your website; the second is your LinkedIn profile. If that profile is well-developed and you’re maintaining an active presence (so it’s clearly not a dummy account), you’ve proved your legitimacy and the connection is ready to move forward. When I was CEO of the telecom company, very few prospects had heard of us. I’d spend time on LinkedIn finding qualified people to call — it was interesting to see how many times — as I was on the call — I’d get a LinkedIn notification that the person was viewing my profile!
Even if you have an excellent website, your LinkedIn profile is very different. The website gives a more technical overview of the company, while your LinkedIn profile is where prospects get to see the way you think and work, what you’ve been up to recently, and helps them get to know, like, and trust you.
To dramatically improve your business: Set up a fully optimized LinkedIn profile and keep it updated.
Authority: When you post industry news, commentary, and insights; and display your expertise and willingness to help, your audience slowly starts to view you as an industry authority. That makes your whole sales and marketing process and strategy so much easier, as building authority is one of the most important aspects of any campaign. I’ve landed several PR opportunities — interviews, features, podcasts — because my LinkedIn activity positions me as an authority on LinkedIn marketing and leadership, and my large following enhances that image. Those opportunities further build my authority, which leads to more followers and then more PR opportunities… and the cycle continues.
To dramatically improve your business: Focus on a niche, provide real value, consistently engage with your target business community, and build relationships with other experts in your niche.
Nurturing relationships: It’s becoming increasingly harder to reach decision-makers using the phone or email. LinkedIn is a powerful tool to be in front of the right people in a way that’s not salesy, pushy, or aggressive. Over time, your audience is getting to know, like, and trust you — especially if you engage insightfully with their content at the same time. Prospects may reach out o their terms when they’re ready, or even if they don’t — if you message them after a few weeks of interaction, they will likely be open to listening, as you’re not coming out of the blue and have already built a level of trust. It’s a longer — but more effective — sales process built on education, value, and familiarity.
Trade shows, networking events, cold calling — clients tell us all the time how their results have improved with a strong LinkedIn presence. Every conversation becomes a warm conversation; even if you’ve never interacted directly on LinkedIn, it feels like you’re continuing the conversation from there.
To dramatically improve your business: Using clearly defined search terms for your target market, build a ‘nurture list’ of people and companies you want to get noticed by. Send them a connection request with a custom note. Consistently engage with their content, or if they don’t post, add your thoughts to posts they’ve engaged with. After a few weeks, open a conversation in the messages.
Recruitment: LinkedIn was originally created for this purpose, and it’s still one of the best places to find talent, though the method has changed. It’s no longer about reading resumes — now, it’s about showcasing your company culture, mindset, growth, opportunities, and core values so that you attract the right people. several of our clients have businesses with an agent structure — such as mortgages or insurance — and their primary purpose for being on LinkedIn is to attract best-fit candidates, which is a far more big-thinking way of growing their business compared to aiming to land one more client and then one more. At Fluex Media, we’ve also been fortunate to hire an amazing team — several already had their own successful businesses! — largely because the culture, mission, and growth we exhibited in our posts appealed to them. And this was during Covid when everybody was complaining about hard it was to hire!
Equally importantly, a strong, consistent LinkedIn presence deters the wrong people and thereby avoids a lot of hiring problems. For example, for us, being open and honest is a very important factor. Not everyone likes that kind of environment. If someone like would end up at our company, it would create a lot of problems. By demonstrating your core values all the time, you have a lot less of a chance to fall in with people who are not a good fit.
To dramatically improve your business: Define your core values and give potential candidates a peek inside your business: the people, the culture, the growth, and the opportunities. Think of it as a business journal.
Branding: People have many different interpretations of ‘branding’ and don’t know exactly what it is. Is it a logo? A color? A font? A tagline? The word originates from when we used horses to get around. Their owners would use a hot iron to brand a symbol onto the horse’s flesh to mark it as theirs. It would stay there for life. Branding in business means imprinting a certain image and association in the minds of your audience. LinkedIn is an exceptionally effective tool for branding in the B2B space. With clear goals, a defined target market, and a good content strategy, you can put out information that cultivates a specific, carefully curated image of your company. Before social media, you had to compete with the big brands and their huge budgets to achieve this. Today, it’s so much easier. You build your niche audience and then consistently feed them information. It’s an unbelievable opportunity. Clients tell us all the time that after being with us for a year or two, people are recognizing them and excited to meet them — at networking events, the airport, anywhere.

I went to a conference a couple of months ago. I didn’t know a single person there, but the weirdest thing happened. From all over the room, people were calling out, “Joel!” and coming over to meet me. They ‘knew’ me from LinkedIn. One of the sessions at the conference was about social media. There were four presenters on the stage and I was in the audience. In the middle of the panel, one of the presenters threw a question at me: “Hey, Joel at Fluex Media — what do you think? Is that the same on LinkedIn?” I’d never interacted with this person before. That’s branding. In their minds, they know me, and they know me as the LinkedIn expert. In their brain, they think they know me, they feel like they know me, because they see my content. True, it’s not widespread — most of your readers probably haven’t heard of me. That’s fine; I don’t need that. I have a niche audience, and those are the people I speak to and want to be known by. Social media allows you to do that, and because so few executives are exploiting this opportunity (according to FTI, only 26% of FTSE 100 CEOs are posting regularly on at least one of LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram), consistent content creators have an excellent chance of standing out and building a following.

To dramatically improve your business: Define your target market. Consistently connect and engage with them, and feed them information that makes you memorable and authoritative.

Because of the position that you are in, 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 have a dream in which every workplace operates in a truly open and honest way. Open communication avoids all problems and conflicts in business and our personal lives. We need to get used to saying it the way it is. Too often, we hold back, and then resentment builds and eventually erupts. We see this in partnerships, marriages, between managers and teams, between siblings, in politics — it’s everywhere.

Open communication is not complicated. It’s just very hard. We try to avoid hardship, and end up complicating everything in the process. Business owners tell me all the time: “You don’t understand. This situation is so complicated.” Once we dig deeper, it’s clear that it’s actually very simple — you need to tell the employee this or that. Ah, but that’s hard.

I’ve rarely fired anyone. That’s because by the time it would reach that point, it was already so clear to the employee that they weren’t cut out for the role. I didn’t string them along with false assurances and excuses, and then have no choice but to spring the bad news on them when I’d tried everything else. I was open and honest from the start if things weren’t working well. I want people to be the same with me — don’t ‘be nice’ and tell me I’m doing well if I’m not.

I was very musical when I was young. I played several instruments (just placed my hands on the piano keys and started to play!) and sang really well. I expected to be a singer or musician when I grew up. Then, at 15 or 16, my passion dissipated completely. What happened? I used to sing at school events and received great feedback — and then a new student joined. He said he could sing and promised to compete with me. at the next event, he took the microphone… and made a real fool of himself. Everyone was snickering — but afterward, when he got off the stage, there was back-slapping, cheering, and enthusiastic compliments. Of course, he took the opportunity to sing again and again, believing he was doing a fantastic job.

I started doubting myself. Maybe it was the same with me. maybe I was also a joke.

Years later, I met this classmate at an event. Guess what? He took the microphone. His singing had not improved. In 40 years, nobody had told him the truth, and he was still making a fool of himself.

We’re not doing anyone a favor by not being upfront with them. If they’re not really good at something, don’t tell them they are. We all know people who think they’re good at something and they’re just not. How does it happen? Because people like to make other people feel good — and we hurt them in the process.

Be open and honest. Communication is the most important thing. Don’t say things that are not aligned, deep down, with what you really think.

I’d love to meet Chris Gardner, who overcame extreme hardships one after the next and eventually founded Gardner Rich, an investment firm, and became a multi-millionaire. His perseverance, endurance, and tenacity are unbelievable. His story is an inspiration. My main question to him would be, “How did you keep going? How did you not despair and give up?” Meeting him would be an honor and a privilege.

Thank you so much for these great insights. This was very enlightening!

Joel Freund of Fluex Media On How to Use LinkedIn To Dramatically Improve Your Business 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: Ineke McMahon of Path to Promotion On The Five…

Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Ineke McMahon of Path to Promotion On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Be less agreeable. Agreeableness is the trait that comes with the most significant negative and positive aspects. It’s associated with compassion and typically women are higher in agreeableness — I’m not advising that you become less compassionate, but you do need to stand up for yourself.

Ineke McMahon has two decades of executive recruitment experience, and a large portion of her work has been in typically male-dominated industries such as property, infrastructure, construction and government. Ineke was last year awarded the National Association of Women in Construction Businesswoman of the year award for her commitment to diversity outcomes with 56% of her placements being female over the last three years.

Ineke is the co-founder of the Path to Promotion — an online learning development academy which helps people at all levels to accelerate their careers.

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”?

My bachelor degrees in psychology and human resources have assisted me in the career path that I have chosen. I have always been passionate about seeing women succeed in their chosen industries. I am not sure why I have always been attracted to male dominated sectors, but I do enjoy them!

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

I have always had a strong interest in people. I kind of “fell” into recruitment early in my career, but was lucky enough to start in an organisation that specialised in executive recruitment, in the fields of Construction, Engineering, Building Products and Electrical. Being a young female in these industries provided an extra level of challenge! I found it rewarding to succeed in a space that had mostly middle-aged men as my competitors.

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

Interviewing people always come with really interesting stories! I have been blessed to be able to recruit some of the country’s leading roles including CEO roles, Board members and Panels for governments. I remember one of the most interesting roles that I recruited was for a CEO of a consortium that was delivering billions of dollars of infrastructure (specifically light rail). What I love about my job is that I am constantly learning. Every time that I take a brief, I learn about all of the challenges facing the organisation, the strategies and what’s happening in that industry. Then I get to interview the best people in the country and learn about why they made the decisions they made and what made them successful. It’s like doing a life MBA! This experience is what was the ignition for starting the Path to Promotion because I wanted all of the information that I have learned from the most successful people in their industries to be available to everyone.

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?

Accountability. One of my favorite sayings that a previous Chairman of ours used to say all the time was “If it is to be, it’s up to me.” I have always taken responsibility for my own learning, for achieving the outcomes that I wanted and for my self-development. You are never going to be perfect, and you should be investing in your skills each and every day. Constantly ask yourself “what do the best do differently” and make sure you are investing in yourself. Warren Buffett is one of the world’s best investors, but he says: “Investing in yourself is the best thing you can do. Anything that improves your own talents.” I have been a lifelong learner. I invest in myself with courses, reading, lectures, pod casts….. this was another reason for starting the Path to Promotion!
Initiative. Being prepared to go the extra mile, to think ahead, to do the over and above things are what set you apart from your competitors and peers. Don’t be happy with average performance! Constantly seek feedback on what you could be doing better or differently and implement those things.
Hard-working. I have never been afraid of working harder, or longer than anyone else. I might not be the smartest, I might not be the most talented, but if I am getting on a treadmill against someone else, I know damn well that they are getting off before I do! Go the extra mile.

My general rule for recruitment is that the best performers have the following characteristics — they are competent, they show initiative, they are hard working and they have great team skills. Don’t neglect the softer skills when you are investing in your own personal development!

I think the biggest obstacle to overcome as a woman is often in our own heads. As soon as we focus on competence and confidence, we will see ourselves just as successful. One of the things that I come up against a lot as an executive recruiter is a lack of confidence in amazing women. I committed to diverse shortlists many years ago, but receive over 90% of my applications are male.

My main role in the industry is as a champion for women, but especially in the area of confidence. The Harvard Business Review has repeatedly reported that a man will apply for a role if he holds 40–50% of the skills, but a woman will hold off unless she has 80–90% of the skills. This is definitely my lived experience. In 2015 I personally committed to delivering diverse shortlists, which means that the majority of my role is “headhunting” women and convincing them that they have the skills for a particular role that I am recruiting. Often, the women that I “headhunt” are surprised when they get the role, but it often involves me doing a fair bit of “pushing”, or what I like to call “encouragement”. In our Path to Promotion business, our success accelerator course has had incredible success with women. So far, 42% of our graduates have received a promotion in the 12 months after completing the course, and a whopping 72% of our female graduates have received a pay rise.

I have personally championed several women into roles that had never had a woman in it before. I am proud of the fact that I deliver close to 50% women on my shortlists (I am currently sitting at 48.9% for the last 12 months — so close!) in industries that are typically male dominated.

Definitely just getting amongst it! The property industry is one of my areas of expertise, and I started going to industry functions where there would often be up to 500 men, and only one or two women. Personally, I like to wear bright colors to stand out a little bit more! It is a LOT better now!

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

Wording in advertising is important. You don’t want to exclude the best talent by saying things like “must have five years of experience” because a woman with four-and-a-bit years of experience is less likely to apply. In your advertising you should emphasize opportunities and minimize the requirements.

Focus on competence. Being good at your job is really important in a male-dominated industry.
Be less agreeable. Agreeableness is the trait that comes with the most significant negative and positive aspects. It’s associated with compassion and typically women are higher in agreeableness — I’m not advising that you become less compassionate, but you do need to stand up for yourself.
Work on your confidence. It’s essential that you understand your strengths and play to them. Remember that your male counterparts will feel confident enough to put themselves forward for a role when they have 60% of the skills — be prepared to do the same.
Don’t be afraid of a little bit of competition. Put yourself forward for opportunities. Be prepared to put your hand up for projects where you know there might be a stretch for you.
Surround yourself with great mentors and a tribe. It’s important to have mentors for your skill gaps, mentors who will champion you within your organisation and mentors who can challenge and develop you. In addition, you need a network of great women in your space who you can turn to for advice and support.

I have done this recently! Commercial leasing in the property space is typically very male dominated and I recently encouraged a friend to leave her highly successful career to join this space. I will make sure that I support her and give her everything she needs to be successful!

Definitely! We are seeing increases in women in many typically male-dominated industries, and women continuing to support women will just see this increase.

Jordan Peterson, Simon Sinek or Shawn Achor.

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

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