Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Patricia Baronowski-Schneider of Pristine Advisers On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Believe in yourself — In order to succeed in a man’s world, you have to believe in your own abilities. You can’t let self-doubt creep in and undermine your confidence. Remember that you have just as much to offer as any man in your field, and don’t sell yourself short.
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 Patricia Baronowski-Schneider.
Patricia Baronowski-Schneider is CEO of Pristine Advisers — She is an Investor Relations/Public Relations/ Media Relations and Marketing Expert | Driving Brand Awareness Through Integrated Marketing | 2 x’s Bestselling Author | 30+ years’ experience working with all types of niches around the world | https://www.pristineadvisers.com
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 middle child of 3 girls (I guess that is part of how I was never exposed to being bullied around by boys until I joined the male dominated industry). I was raised in Manhattan by my parents until I was about 12 years old, then I was raised by my mom as a single parent. My mom taught me how to work hard and reach for success, no matter what. I have been working since I was 12 years old, taking on jobs such as a cashier at a local supermarket, to babysitting neighborhood children. I’ve always worked hard for everything that I wanted in life. And being the perfectionist that I am, I graduated high school as Valedictorian, then went on to being a single mom of two small children while putting myself through college, where I graduated with my Masters Degree in Business Management/Marketing with a 4.0 gpa.
Can you tell us the story about what led you to this particular career path?
To be honest, it wasn’t as if I became a Marketing Guru as a planned path. I was a Secretary of an IR/PR/Marketing/Media Relations agency right out of high school. It was just a job to me. I actually grew to love it just by being in the middle of watching everyone around me running all around doing their jobs. It seemed that no one even knew what their day had in store for them until we opened up our emails in the morning.
This agency was a predominantly woman-run office, and these woman truly inspired me. I instantly fell in love with the work and seeing their passion and dedication in the work made me decide to grow my way up the corporate ladder and make this my chosen profession.
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?
I would have to say my 3 characteristics are:
- Never settle. It’s easy to just go with the flow, and take whatever life gives you. Anyone can do that — but if you want more in life — never settle. Go after it. I could have been a single mom back in the day, living off of the system. But that’s not me. I never settle. It wasn’t easy, but I worked my butt off, raising two children alone while putting myself through college and working my way up the corporate ladder. Settling is never an option for me.
- Strive for perfection. Do you want to be “average”? Of course not. Be the best “you” that “you” can be. That’s my motto. I always strive for perfection — in every aspect of my life. I started as a secretary then worked my way up the corporate ladder until I grew and grew and eventually opened my own business. I took a tandem skydive once and then learned and trained and learned more and went on to become a licensed skydiving instructor to teach others how to skydive safely. I always reach for the top in everything that I do.
- Question everything. I’m just a curious person, and always want to learn and understand everything. That’s how we learn. If something is done one way, I want to know why. What was the thinking behind why it is done that way? Maybe I have a different thought. Maybe that is a better way or maybe not, but then I learned why.
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?
Yes indeed. As mentioned, I grew up with sisters, so I was never exposed to being bullied by boys, and being around girls all the time just teaches you to be nice and gentle and compassionate. One would think that that would be a nice trait, but in a male dominated industry, that has not helped me at all.
For example, countless time people in the industry, knowing that I know what I am doing and excel in it, they would ask me to put together a marketing plan to discuss my possibly working for them. I would spend hours doing the research and putting together a great marketing plan, only for them to tell me, “ok — thank you. Bye”. They basically stole my plan, never paid me/hired me, and took my work and left. The ironic part about that is that if they knew how to do the work, I would have seen their names all over the place. Clearly, they don’t know how to do it. Reading about it and having the skill-set and experience to actually do it are two different things. I also used to run a conference where I did not make any money on it. That was never my intention. I ran the conference as a means of providing a venue for the presenters. It consumed 6 months of my time and energy putting the event together and I was very specific about only inviting analysts, brokers, investors and media to the event. If the entire event cost $50k (with a networking sit-down lunch, a cocktail reception at the end) and I had 10 presenters — then each presenter paid only $5k and covered the cost of the venue. I also gave the presenters and sponsors a complete copy of the attendees — all was validated and perfect. Everyone raved about what a successful and beneficial event it was, and that was amazing. Sadly, after a few years of this, people stopped paying to sponsor the event, and would simply just show up to network with the same audience (since there was no admission to attend).
Now, there is a male dominated Company that also hosts similar events. He charges presenters by assets under management (aka — a lot more than the $5k I was charging). He also does not give out the attendees lists. People pay him the higher fee with no questions asked, yet me — who gave more and received nothing for myself, people chose to take advantage of that. What is the difference here? I see only one.
The same with a marketing plan. I know several men in the industry who will not do anything without being paid up front. They simply state that in advance, and people pay them up front. Yet me, I even had a signed contract from a man who hired me to do IR/PR/Marketing for him and after 7 months of working and not making a penny — he simple said, “I just don’t have any money to pay you.” Every month I would invoice him and always believed the story of, “It is coming, my investor is running behind, they are sending me the money soon” and me, being a “nice” female, always just accepted that and did not push it. How did that work out for me? Seven months of work, and it basically cost me money to work for him for free.
This has taught me to have very thick skin and no longer take an BS. People say, “you’ve changed” and sadly, this male dominated industry has made me that way. I can still do all of the work and excel in all that I do, but I will no longer put myself in the position to be taken advantage of the way people have done so in the past.
The ironic part is that when I say, “money up front” or “I will not give you anything until I am paid” people seem shocked by this, yet I don’t know a single male-dominated company who doesn’t function that way, yet they are shocked and turned off when “I” do it? It seems people still want to see the kind, considerate and nice woman — yet will not treat me with the same respect as the male dominated businesses. So how do you find the happy medium?
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?
As mentioned above, I have stopped being the “nice-guy” to an extent. For example, I have a huge database of over 800k people. This is not a purchased database — it consists of people who have opted in via my newsletters, webinars, conferences, etc. and it consists of investors (both retail and institutional), analysts, brokers and media. Everyone wants access to this database, yet it is my business. I have to continuously say “NO”.
I actually took a course called “Boundaries” where it teaches you to set up boundaries so that people stop taking advantage of you. It was a difficult course, but has made my life much easier.
Female co-workers have also had to grow thick skin. It’s a female thing. We like to be nice and understanding and believe everyone — and that usually bites us, so they’ve had to learn the word “no” and use it and never look back.
What do you think male-oriented organizations can do to enhance their recruiting efforts to attract more women?
Well, this is a little tricky. The same we us woman have to learn to “think like a man” to deal with the men, male-oriented men have to “think like a woman” to get them interested as well. However, I think really just expressing how you value the woman workers and how you, not necessary cater to them, but how they are important to your organization and how you include them as part of your team, will go a long way.
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.)
If you’re a woman in a male-dominated industry, you know that it can be tough to thrive and succeed. But with the right mindset and approach, it is possible to not only survive, but thrive in these environments. Here are the five things you need to do to be successful as a woman in a male-dominated industry:
1. Believe in yourself
In order to succeed in a man’s world, you have to believe in your own abilities. You can’t let self-doubt creep in and undermine your confidence. Remember that you have just as much to offer as any man in your field, and don’t sell yourself short.
2. Be assertive
In order to get ahead in a male-dominated industry, you have to be assertive. Don’t be afraid to speak up and make your voice heard. Be confident in your opinions and don’t back down from a challenge.
3. Stay focused
It can be easy to get sidetracked or discouraged in a male-dominated industry. There will be times when you feel like you’re not being taken seriously or that you’re not progressing as quickly as you’d like. But it’s important to stay focused on your goals and keep moving forward.
4. Develop thick skin
In any competitive environment, there will be people who try to bring you down. In a male-dominated industry, there may be an extra level of sexism or discrimination that you have to deal with. But it’s important to develop a thick skin and not let the haters get to you.
5. Support other women
One of the best ways to succeed as a woman in a male-dominated industry is to support other women. Lean on your female colleagues and mentors for advice and guidance, and help lift up other women whenever you can. By working together, we can all achieve success.
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?
That can be a little tricky. Believe it or not, female-dominated businesses are not always the best either. I think that since the woman are constantly taught to raise the bar higher to compete in the male-dominant working world, they expect that from everyone, yet they are also competitive due to this as well. I’ve been in more competition from woman in the industry than I’ve ever been with men. It’s just entirely different personalities. I believe woman feel that they have to prove themselves more, so they get super competitive with other woman.
If there is a job with both, that is the ideal choice I believe, but either way, I could only explain my experiences on both sides. With the male dominated area, you have to prove that you are not a push-over. You have to go the extra mile to be taken seriously, you have to have a “take no BS” attitude in your work, and never back down. You have to see yourself as one of the men. In the female-dominated area, you have to know that there will be competition, whether visible or not. Women will try and steal credit for things, or do whatever is necessary to get ahead. They don’t always see one another as “equal”, so sadly, that applies to both male and female dominant areas.
My best advice is to do the best that you can, have that “take no BS” attitude on bother sides, look out for “you”, strive for perfection, and in the end — if you do all of that — it will outshine all of the nonsense in between.
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?
Well, in this day in age, there are changes everywhere. It is no longer simply a man vs woman. It is now man vs. woman vs. Agender vs. Bigender vs. Cisgender vs. Transgender vs. Nonbinary, and so many more. It’s made even hiring someone a difficult task since you are not even sure how to approach the subject on a job application. I always feel that whoever you are, whatever sexual identity than you align yourself with — shouldn’t matter. The quality of your work should be all that matters. I’m not sure if that is how the rest of the world see it, but I do think that by expanding the reach of “how someone identifies themselves” is opening the door to more widely accepted forms of domination and that is a good thing.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I would have loved to have lunch with Clint Eastwood. I think he is a great actor and being a movie director also, I would love to pick his brain. I have written some books, but my latest book, that I am seeking a publisher for is a Manuscript. Clint Eastwood directed and starred in a movie that entails a lot of what this books is about, what happened to me. I think since he directed and starred in the movie, he obviously can relate to what I endured to an extent. I believe this book would make for a great movie, so I would love to have lunch with him to talk about it and hear his thoughts.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Patricia Baronowski-Schneider of Pristine… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.