Female Founders: Bridgitt Haarsgaard of The GAARD Group On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Use your superpowers. Each of us have natural talents. You will be the most successful when you focus on utilizing your strengths. My strength is working with clients and being strategic. My weakness is organization and budgeting. I quickly learned to hire talent and resources to focus on the activities that I was not good at or did not enjoy so that I could align work to my talents.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Bridgitt Haarsgaard.
Bridgitt is the CEO & Founder of The GAARD Group, a team of executive coaches and facilitators known for their outstanding work with the Fortune 500 and executives worldwide. The GAARD Team believes that leaders are forged from the inside out and utilize the GAARD Method to create actionable and lasting behavioral change in the business world and beyond. Bridgitt specializes in leadership, strategy, change management, individual and team effectiveness and women’s leadership. She uses her Clinical Psychology education to prepare professionals — from entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 executives — for the challenges of today’s business environment.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
My career has taken many twists and turns. I started my career as a clinical psychologist. I wanted to help improve the lives of children. Unfortunately, compartmentalizing the work was a challenge. I found it very difficult to separate my work from my life, and I knew I had to switch gears. I built a career in sales and sales management. As I faced the challenges of leadership, I realized that I could blend my background in psychology with my business skills and a lightbulb went off, which led me to take this entirely new path. I began my career as an executive coach, leadership expert, and development facilitator in 2002. I worked with small and large consultancies until 2006, when I launched my first business, Point Consulting Group. Then in 2020, we expanded to The GAARD Group. Each step has been a learning opportunity for which I am grateful.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
There will always be people who will challenge your ideas, criticize your approach, or tell you that you are just plain wrong. For years, I would listen to them and delay my decision-making or stop in my tracks. As I was creating the business plan for The GAARD Group, people told me that using video to teach core skills was overrated, and the market was saturated. Even my board felt that between platforms like LinkedIn Learning and YouTube, building an online network of courses would be a waste of time and money. My gut said otherwise. I was paying attention to the generation shift in the workplace, the movement toward hybrid working, and what my clients were saying. I strongly believed that I was on the right track. Once I started trusting my instincts, I found that the business flourished, my confidence soared, and seeing how this work significantly impacted the lives of others made me even more motivated.
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?
Haha. I am chuckling at that question! There have been many mistakes and many, many learning opportunities along the way — that is the life of a founder! The funniest mistake was during our very first filming session for the Emotional Intelligence course. In one day, I filmed seven video segments and was feeling proud and excited about what we had accomplished. Then, I watched the footage. We captured all this brilliant content, and I wore a white sweater with navy undergarments. Haha! The outfit looked great in regular lighting but not under the studio’s bright lights. What I learned — your undergarments must match your outfit!
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?
I have been blessed with a strong network that has guided me on my entrepreneurial journey. My own personal Board of Directors has been critical to my success. They are a group of exceptional and brilliant women who have given me advice, made connections, and shared knowledge that allowed me to build The GAARD Group. My biggest cheerleader and my most prominent board member is my mother. My mom was a special education teacher who struggled to raise my sister and I on a teacher’s salary. She taught school during the day, went to law school at night, and raised us both without skipping a beat. Her strength, determination, and focus have always been and will always be an inspiration to me. She taught me to keep going no matter the challenges in front of me and to always put one foot in front of the other. Thank you, Mom!
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
Several factors hold women back from founding companies, and I experienced many of them myself. One factor is the pull between family and founding. There is a pull between being there for your family, specifically your children, and being there for your other baby — your business. For many women, it feels like you must choose one or the other because it will be impossible to do both with excellence. The truth is — you can! As women, we need to embrace and learn to navigate the gray space. Things are not always black and white.
Another factor is belief in self and our personal confidence level. Many women experience imposter syndrome and have an inner critic that is loud! The inner critic says, “You can’t start a company. You’ll never be successful. You don’t have what it takes! When you fail everyone will say ‘I told you so!’” Women need to learn to defeat the inner critic, embrace a growth mindset, and accept mistakes and failures as learning opportunities. Shut down that inner critic!
Other factors like societal pressures, access to funding, and lack of training also play a role in the number of women founders.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
Support each other! Woman to woman — we can offer guidance, make introductions, share insights, and help each other to succeed. Individuals can be proactive — shop at women-owned businesses and promote brands led by women.
At the corporate level, companies could expand community programs, invest capital in women-owned businesses, and connect women with mentors that can help guide women as they build their businesses.
As a society, we still have work to do as we reframe what it means to be a woman. Many remarkable women have worked hard to help the women of today have options and breakthrough narrowly defined roles, only to have society turn those choices into stereotypes that pit us against one another, like the working woman vs. the stay-at-home mom. This creates that pull between family and founding that I talked about earlier. It makes it seem like we can have one or the other. Women are rockstars! We can have both. We can have more. With the right mindset, women can be successful on any path they choose.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
Women are resourceful and can figure out the answer to any problem, often through innovation. When speaking to large groups of women, I remind them what they have accomplished before they begin their workday. Women will exercise, meditate, clean the kitchen, pack school lunches, return emails, update calendars, and walk the dogs all before 8 am. This level of accomplishment takes resourcefulness, planning, and innovation.
Women are empathetic and creative. Women are gifted at understanding different perspectives, concerns, and needs. Women founders understand the needs of their customers and create products and services to fulfill those needs. Empathy is a foundational skill and a greatly needed leadership skill too.
Women build good teams and have a knack for finding talent. Women use their creativity and people skills to find talent in unexpected places. They may hire someone with no technical skills to do the job. Why? Because they see potential and often choose to hire for soft skills and attitude instead of just the hard skills.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
There is this belief that you must have everything figured out before you start. Many people feel like they must have all their t’s crossed and all their i’s dotted. This is simply not true. As a founder, you are building the plane as you are flying it. You will face unexpected problems and have to make decisions daily. As a founder, nothing ever goes 100% to plan. As my friend and colleague, Lisa says, “Go early. Go ugly. Just go.”
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
I wish the answer to this question was “yes” because I think the world needs more founders. Unfortunately, not everyone is cut out to start a business. To be a founder, you must take risks, be flexible, and be willing to make sacrifices. To be successful, you have to take risks, and if they don’t pan out, you have to understand that mistakes and failures happen and that the only way to grow is to learn from the consequences. Also, things move fast, and building a business is complex, uncertain, and ambiguous. You wear a lot of hats, and expectations change from day to day. Sometimes you have to choose your company over your comfort and sacrifice in the short-term for your long-term success. If you hate taking risks, prefer a predictable environment, and are unwilling to give up your creature comforts, being a founder may not be for you.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
1. Use your superpowers. Each of us have natural talents. You will be the most successful when you focus on utilizing your strengths. My strength is working with clients and being strategic. My weakness is organization and budgeting. I quickly learned to hire talent and resources to focus on the activities that I was not good at or did not enjoy so that I could align work to my talents.
2. Leverage your network. The old saying “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” is absolutely true! Look to your network to help guide you and your business. Your network can be a source of support, information, introductions or even funding. Keep your network updated on what you are doing. My personal Board of Directors introduced me to many of the resources I currently use in my business.
3. Learn how to say “no”. As a founder, you get pulled in many directions. Prioritize your activities. For me, I had to fight my urge to please people. On the personal side, I had to say “no” to nights out with friends. On the business side, I had to say “no” to partnerships that would have been good financially but did not align with our mission. Get good at saying “no” and do not feel guilty about it.
4. Know the numbers. The key to running a successful business is knowing the numbers. Early on, I did not have my arms around our production costs. I was underpricing our products and services and ultimately leaving money on the table.
5. Ask for help. You will feel overwhelmed. It’s a guarantee. When this happens, be vulnerable and reach out for help. There have been many times when I felt like I was drowning and had to reach for a lifeline. Last year, I experienced a very difficult situation with a client. Very difficult. I reached out to a trusted advisor for support. Having someone listen, ask good questions, and ultimately help you to make a thoughtful decision is invaluable. Fight your ego and ask for help!
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
We know that when people feel respected, appreciated, and seen they become unstoppable. A lot of that feeling starts from the inside. The GAARD Group strives to make a difference and help people become and present the best versions of themselves.
It’s easy to help people once you know that everyone wants to feel those things. I use the same tactics I teach throughout my day in my work. I focus on the positive. People spend so much time focusing on what’s wrong, which is just exhausting! The world would be a better place if we focused on what is going right vs. what is going wrong. I look for opportunities to give compliments. I want to make their day, flash a smile, say “good morning”, hold the elevator door, and have fun. A positive attitude makes a difference inwardly and outwardly.
I am always happy to lend a helping hand to neighbors, schools, hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages, communities, etc. and I have partnered with my “little” from Big Brother/Big Sisters for 27 years. I helped him grow, and he has taught me lessons that will last a lifetime.
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.
Our greatest asset is our children. I’d want to invest in our next generation of founders. We need to teach our children to be accountable for their actions, to lead with emotional intelligence, to have empathy for others, and grant them the courage to be themselves. Kids are our future, and I cannot suggest a greater movement than making our kids feel safe and empowered.
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.
That is an easy one. For the last 30 years, I have been in awe of Richard Branson. I admire his courage, intelligence, creativity, and his wit. Sir Richard pushes the envelope and always has his pulse on the needs of the customer. He works tirelessly to make things better for the 3 C’s — customers, companies, and communities. He is one of a kind. He has always been my dream dinner date.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Bridgitt Haarsgaard of The GAARD Group On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.