She’s Talking Back: An Introduction

I want to give a shout out to The Mavens. Yes, the Maven community. We have been together since 2015 and it’s been a while. If you’ve found me over here, thank you. Thank you for coming on over and supporting us. I have missed you. I was looking back at the calendar and realized that it has been years since I was behind the mic and we were having a chat and I’m so thrilled to be back. The singing has increased. That’s just a fair warning. Beautiful lady, if you are new here, if you have just found us, welcome to the community. I have, with great intention, worked to create a space, a cozy corner where you and I can get to know one another, where we can have conversations about what it’s like to be a gal, a lady in the workforce now as a rising entrepreneur, as a mom, as a sister, as a friend, colleague.

This is a place where you and I get to have the opportunity to get to know some amazing women. Women who are at the top of their game and begin to understand that the things that they’re facing are the exact same things that you and I have faced or facing. I can’t wait to continue to open that conversation and widen the lens for you. If there’s one thing at this stage that I’ve taken away, and I’ve done quite a number of interviews before, the one overarching theme so far in the beautiful women that I’ve talked to is that they’re struggling. Struggling probably isn’t the right word, but they’re experiencing the same challenges that you and I are.

They’re hitting ceilings, hitting barriers that they need to break through for themselves. The difference is, and there is a clear difference, it’s how they see it, reflect upon it, get curious about it and then how they attack it. That essence, no matter what the topic is that we’re talking about, the issue, just pay attention to that. If I could give you one thing, that is the one thing. Pay attention to how they’re talking about these issues. They come at these things in their lives with a much different lens and a much different approach. If you’re looking for that pixie dust, that, “What is it that they’re doing or that I can’t see for myself to get to the next level?” it’s here. She’s here and she’s talking back.

Who can you expect to read about here? First and foremost, as we get to know each other, you need to know it’s going to evolve. I am all about evolution. When I was reaching out to my community of amazing women and asking them, “Who do you know? I am looking to interview,” the description that I offered was rock star women, women at the top of their game, CEOs of companies, national organizations, maybe even an entrepreneur or two who are just killing it, moving well into the seven-figure mark in a short amount of time. There’s a big but. They can’t be ego-driven. The women need to be interested in self-reflection, conversations around self-sabotaging behavior, challenges that they’ve faced, exhibit self-awareness and able to and open enough and confident enough to share it with you. I think about this, especially when I’ve seen for myself, the more notoriety you have, you’ve created a persona for yourself and people see and expect and whatever, fill in the blank. I don’t like holding up those personas. I like breaking them down a bit and being you and being me and the opportunity to be vulnerable no matter what level of success you are at. Success is defined for you.

I found some amazing women. They’ve come from all different industries at this point. We have telecommunications, technology, finance, film industry, mining, a wide variety for this first go, first round, first season, first segment, whatever. A very wide variety of women CEOs, young CEO entrepreneurs, and a little bit everything in between, even a producer that had her work featured at Sundance. Literally, a wide spectrum of women. The challenges are very similar. I can’t stress that enough. Maybe an example would be appropriate here. A perfect example of this is imposter syndrome. As you’re reading and getting to know each of these women, look for their perspective. First of all, they’re challenged. Their self-awareness to say, “Here’s the challenge around imposter syndrome for me. It’s still happening, but here’s how I’m managing that. Here’s how I’m handling that for myself. Here’s the behavior that I exhibit that doesn’t allow it to stop me.”

Besides imposter syndrome and besides being wildly successful in their own right, there are other common factors that you’re going to read in the interviews. A lot of the women have had significant pivot points in their careers. They are huge into back, supporting and raising other women up through mentorship and other ways, thus why I now believe they said yes to these interviews. They have legacy on their mind. They’re thinking about legacy. They have created their own alignment in finding that balance between personal and professional because it’s very clear to me that these women think about and value family. A few other commonalities that I experienced in chatting with them is the underlying theme, now that I’m sharing it with you, is that they appreciate people. They’re passionate about people, which makes total sense because they are strong, amazing and powerful leaders. That’s how I see them. You can see it. It’s just not in the way they value family and giving back and mentorship.

You can notice it in how they talk about their teams, their colleagues, their organizations. They’re very protective in a good way of their organization and their teams. That’s something I definitely admired and stood out for me. With the legacy piece, I also noticed that these women have not stopped wanting to learn. They are constant learners and they’re visionary. They’re thinking forward into what could be in 1, 5, 10 years from now and focused on doing and being better no matter what stage they’re at or how far in their career they’ve gone. It’s totally amazing.

Besides women who are leading organizations, I also have sprinkled in, and I believe I’ll continue to sprinkle in, conversations with women. A lot of them have a strong corporate leadership backstory, but they’ve taken a pivot and they’ve become experts in other areas. For example, a couple of different topics I’ve sprinkled in for this first round is a chat with helping women to get on corporate boards. The reason this is important is I want to have conversations and bring conversations to you around topics from experts that I believe are on your mind. Women on corporate boards are very timely right now. Another example of a subject that we dive into is creativity in the workplace, another timely topic. You can definitely expect as you’re coming here and joining me week after week conversations with top leaders, but also subject matter experts on areas that are relevant to you.

The reason I wanted to mention it now is to reach out to me if there is a specific topic that you want to know more about and I haven’t invited a guest in. Let’s curate this together. This space was always meant in my mind, and now it’s coming out into the world, to be a place where you and I and the other amazing women in our community can have conversations and be vulnerable about these topics and be honest and see the commonalities amongst all of us, how we are so much the same. Sure, new levels, new devils, but at the end of the day, when you distill it down, we’re all just having a human experience. I’d like to have a human experience together and have a conversation and create a space in a community where we can support one another around that.

The intention for me was always to find a safe space. I don’t know about your experience, but my experience as a young lady was one of feeling challenged in speaking up, feeling challenged in asking for what I wanted, feeling challenged in expressing myself, my emotions, needs, wants, desires. It is no coincidence that we are now here together. I have created a space where I want to be vulnerable with you, ask you to be vulnerable with me and have conversations with amazing, powerful, successful women about what they’re thinking and feeling. The way to continue to do that is not one-sided. It’s not just me always asking the questions. It’s you sharing your experience with me and with this community.

It’s you raising your hand and saying, “There’s a topic I’d love to know more on,” or “I have a question on that,” or “Me too, Michelle.” Sometimes, when you sit behind the mic and you lay it out there and sometimes you’re thinking, “Is anybody listening?” It’s the same when I send out an email and it is my pleasure to receive your reply. That lights me up all day long because I know you’re reading. I know what’s on your mind and I feel more connected. Beautiful lady, I’ve been revving my engine working towards this, working to get this concept, this idea and to create this community for us out into the world. I cannot believe it is finally here. Without further ado, let’s get started.