Female Founders: Nina Meehan of Bay Area Children’s Theatre On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
It Takes a Village-It’s so critical to help yourself by collecting your support network. Story — When I hired my first Executive Assistant, a very smart board member told me, “Nina, have your EA do everything possible including booking your hair appointments.” I pushed back because I was so worried that the EA would be upset about doing “personal” errands. My board members pointed out that getting your haircut part of how I do my job well…I do a lot of public speaking, I need to look good and presentable.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nina Meehan.
Nina Meehan inspires the broader community as a skilled theatre producer, award-winning director, and dedicated arts educator, with expertise in youth development.
Nina’s award-winning theatrical work for young people as CEO and Founder of Bay Area Children’s Theatre has reached more than 1 million kids and adults and has toured nationally and internationally. Nina speaks and writes frequently about creativity, arts education, nonprofit management, and theatre for young audiences (TYA).
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 path began at age 7 when I was in a school production of “The Jolly Postman.” I played an alligator. As a kid, school was very challenging for me because I am dyslexic. So class time was a constant struggle, but being on stage always felt comfortable.
Fast forward to my college years at Northwestern University where I studied theatre with an emphasis in Children’s Theatre and Education. I started my career as an actor and arts educator and within a few years, I was looking around the San Francisco Bay Area and asking, why isn’t there a TYA (Theatre for Young Audiences) company here like there is in Seattle and Minneapolis and Phoenix and all these other places. So, I found four friends and we started a company! The first few years we were volunteers while I was working three other jobs and getting my Masters in Nonprofit Administration.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
Bay Area Children’s Theatre is a nonprofit organization. Early on, I did my first big “ask,” meaning I was asking a potential donor for a specific dollar amount. This particular ask was $6,000 and I was SHAKING as I sat at that table and invited the donor to support our upcoming production. He went away to discuss with his family and came back with a check for $10,000…BUT his stipulation was that I used the extra $4,000 to start giving myself a salary. He knew that I would never make that leap myself, but that it was critical for the growth and maturity of the organization to have paid staff. I learned so much from that experience.
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?
Oh wow…I made so many mistakes!!! I think my favorite one was a production of “Junie B. Jones, the Musical” that we did very early on. We were partnering with an organization that had a stage for our performance venue. This particular partner had lots of different performances coming through and they would make flyers and posters that advertised multiple events as part of the agreement. This was before I learned how important it is to clarify exactly WHO our audience is and what is appropriate for them.
So, I show up at the theatre and I look up at the big poster at the front of the theatre and in HUGE letters right next to our “Junie B. Jones” logo is a proud advertisement for “The Clitoris Festival” and a helpful illustration next to the words!
Definitely learned that I need to be in charge of our messaging and always aware of protecting the brand. And…no…I did not attend the “Clitoris Festival” but maybe my life would be different if I had?
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 had a professor in college, Rives Collins, who has influenced an entire generation of TYA artists and leaders. Rives taught Creative Drama, Storytelling and Children’s Theatre. And in each of those classes, I found my home. I was so aware of how he created classrooms that inspired creativity, inclusion and imagination.
In fun news, I have had the opportunity to go back to campus and be a resource for his students and now, I am the Board President of TYA/USA (The national organization for Theatre for Young Audiences) and I see him at all of our conferences!
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?
So, I am a nonprofit founder which means that we didn’t get “investment” in the traditional sense. I built the company one dollar at a time with very little Angel funding even in the form of donations. And, I will say that being a founder takes this weird combination of grit, determination and humility. Our society has so many narratives for women around “perfection” and at the same time, “saviour complex,” so we have this terrible combination of young women being afraid to fail and not being perfect and, also this compelling narrative that a man needs to swoop in and “save the day.” Being a female founder requires you to fail over and over again and learn from each failure. And, it requires you to be your own Knight in Shining Armor…if the toilet floods at midnight, you might be the one with the plunger…it’s just part of the job!
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?
It’s critical for us to support young women in their early teens to see themselves as leaders — giving them opportunities in school to be validated by their desire to take risks, not necessarily just getting the right answers and celebrating making mistakes and learning from those mistakes.
We also need to have a way to support women who have young kids with affordable childcare. It should not be a requirement to assume that women will postpone having children in order to found a company. If a woman wants to be a founder and have children, they need to have access to daycare, preschool and a flexible work environment to accommodate the reality of being a mom and working.
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 incredible leaders! If you look at the skills that current leaders need — empathy, collaboration, de-escalation of conflict, flexibility — these are all skills that women tend to have as super powers. As a female leader, I have had so many young women who have worked with us talk about how they see me as a role model. If we don’t have female leaders now, we won’t have them in the future either.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
We cannot do it all.
I am a mom of three. I run a nonprofit that has reached over 1 million people with our shows and classes. I also really like to exercise, go camping, read, watch dumb reality TV shows. But, when I am asked “How do you do it all?” I find myself without words (which is weird for me). I can’t and don’t do it all. I need help to make it happen and even then, there are days that I barely get the kids to school with their shoes on or dinner on the table. I have childcare help, I have an amazing staff, I have a husband and parents who are very active. The myth of the woman who does it all is damaging and plays directly into the story about “perfection” that plagues so many women in our society.
My job is always fun.
I run a Children’s Theatre. I LOVE my job. I am so proud of the work that we do. But, I am often told things like, “You must just have fun all day long.” Nope. Leadership is leadership. I have to make really hard decisions. I am often not liked. I spend a lot of time thinking about budgets and strategy. Just because you are in leadership in a field like education or entertainment and you are a women does not mean that your job isn’t serious or real.
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 think everyone could potentially be a founder, but you definitely have to want to be the one in charge. Three traits that come to mind are passion, drive and empathy. I do know that there are some folks that at different phases in their lives really want to be in support of others….these people are CRITICAL because they can be amazing number twos and that support is critical for any founder.
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 Woman Founder?” (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Make the Cold Call — Cold calling feels really uncomfortable and we, as women, are trained to “not bother” other people, but cold calls work!!! Story-I cold called Chelsea Clinton’s office and ended up landing the opportunity to adapt her book “She Persisted” into a musical. That show is now available to license nationwide.
- It Takes a Village-It’s so critical to help yourself by collecting your support network. Story — When I hired my first Executive Assistant, a very smart board member told me, “Nina, have your EA do everything possible including booking your hair appointments.” I pushed back because I was so worried that the EA would be upset about doing “personal” errands. My board members pointed out that getting your haircut part of how I do my job well…I do a lot of public speaking, I need to look good and presentable.
- Take Your Space — Men are trained from a very early age to take up space in a room and we, as women are taught to take up as little space as possible, so push against this and take your space whenever possible. Story-I can remember being at a bar at the end of a conference day in conversation with 6 other colleagues, all male, all over 6 feet tall. I am 5’3”…I am standing around with these guys and the conversation is literally going over my head. So, I looked around, grabbed a table and waved over the guys. Once we were sitting, I could talk eye to eye. That night, we all left with an agreement to do a seven theatre co-commission.
- Love Every “Beautiful Oops” — Barney Saltzberg wrote this incredible booked called “Beautiful Oops” which is about the idea that every mistake is an opportunity to make something beautiful. I had the honor of commissioning and directing an original musical based on this book. And, since doing that show, my entire organization has adapted the concept as a mantra. Something goes wrong and we CELEBRATE the beautiful oops! (for the record, I also use this in my parenting).
- Your Needs Matter-As a female founder, it can often feel like we need to be taking care of everyone and everything around us, but if you are not taking care of you, I guarantee, your leadership will suffer. Story-I spent a year with our amazing Producer, Christina kicking me out of the office every day at 4:40pm so I could get to a 5pm hot yoga class. She had it on her calendar and every day, starting at 4:30, she would quietly say, “Nina, it’s time to go…yoga…” To be fair, some days, I just needed to stay at the office, but most of the time, I went. And Christina would be the first to tell you that I was a better person the next day if I left and did the class.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I sure do hope I do! I am so proud of bringing the joy and magic of live theatre to a million people across the globe. I believe that theatre has the power to inspire imagination, create empathy and ignite a love of story. If I’ve helped even one child connect to their own ability to dream and create, I’ve done my job.
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.
We need creative play! Adults and kids alike are becoming increasingly isolated and sucked into our tiny little screens. If there is one thing I could inspire, it would be 10 minutes per day of CREATIVE PLAY for all people…this could be anything…music, dance, games, stories, visual art…whatever encourages self-expression and playfulness.
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.
Brene Brown, if you are reading this…I want to go on one of your daily 5 mile walks with you to deep dive on creative play and how it connects with “Wholehearted Living.” Your book, “The Gifts of Imperfection” had a profound impact on my life.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Nina Meehan of Bay Area Children’s Theatre On The Five Things You Need To Thrive… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.