Intrepid Women: Beverly Robinson, Client Service Consultant Abbot Downing

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Beverly RobinsonBeverly Robinson, Client Service Consultant Abbot Downing is a woman both of influence and advocacy.

“I’ve learned to “code-switch” conversationally, in order to convey diverse philosophies and concepts. This tactic allows me to circumvent being profiled and misinterpreted as “angry or aggressive”, and in that way, my voice for diversity and inclusion, and ideas for advocacy are heard more clearly. As an African American woman in Corporate America, I’ve learned that I cannot afford to be thin-skinned when my ideas are usurped, re-mixed or claimed by others. There’s an art to being a woman of diversity, inclusion and advocacy.

My banking career is a means to my economic well-being. However, support of the disenfranchised and marginalized is where I have the greatest impact, and receive heartfelt, profound fulfillment.

As a survivor of childhood molestation, it’s imperative that I fight for those whose voices are often stifled by domestic violence, fear, stigma and even death. I spend priceless time at our local Family Services and Rape Crisis Centers, talking with mothers, hearing their stories of survival, and offering my time and resources. Organizing programs for the national “Domestic Abuse Awareness Month”, to assist the families in moving to the next level, empowers these families and creates hope for a brighter future. In addition, I spend time on college campuses, speaking for the National “Take Back the Night” campaign, and have met and formed friendships with students who have opened up and come forward with their own stories of abuse. Many of these students have graduated to become powerful advocates. Pushing my corporation to provide professional opportunities for students of color who attend Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’s) is an ongoing passion, resulting in graduates achieving internships and careers and even becoming entrepreneurs. Several of my colleagues have volunteered to become guest lecturers at those HBCU’s, forming an alliance with the faculty and students, helping to power an enduring and ever growing partnership, focused on providing opportunities for a rising generation of talent and leaders.

Because of the confluence of all the above, I became an author, sharing my story and life experiences, presenting workshops and seminars, and traveling nationally doing book tours. My audience is diverse, broad and varied.

Growing up, my upbringing was a bit eclectic. My childhood was not unusual, but not necessarily normal. I began school in Ft. Riley, Kansas where my step-dad was stationed in the Army, in an integrated environment including students who were children of soldiers. Our neighborhood was fully integrated, and by all accounts, civility and unity ruled the day. Being a leader in class both scholastically and athletically, I made friends easily. I clearly remember my first bold act of advocacy on behalf of my classmate, my little blonde, blue-eyed friend named Donna, who, when called on by our teacher to give answers to pop quizzes, was paralyzed with fear, unable to raise her hand to answer the questions asked in rapid fire succession.

As all of our hands were upstretched in excitement, wanting to be picked to answer the questions, our teacher continued to purposely call on her, making my classmate cry uncontrollably, in embarrassment.

The discomfort I felt for her compelled me to yell out the answer each time our teacher berated her, which angered and frustrated the teacher. I spoke up and answered the questions out of turn, knowing I would get in trouble. Donna’s feelings mattered to me. I didn’t appreciate the mistreatment and bullying of my friend. Conversely, my teacher didn’t appreciate my interjections, with my yelling out the answers, so she hastily took me out of the classroom, and in the presence of another teacher as the “witness”, I received corporal punishment. The other teacher seemed irritated that the punishment did not fit the crime, but did not interfere, nor raise opposition. I remained defiant. After this episode,  the teacher tapered her verbal assaults directed at my classmate, all but ignoring her. I remained prepared to yell out answers on her behalf. I learned about getting into “good trouble” early on.

My step-dad’s military career was cut short due to his poor physical health. The normality of my childhood was disrupted because he was also unhealthy mentally. He was an incestuous pedophile. We left Ft. Riley, and moved back to my hometown, where I began a new school. A segregated school. The anomaly of transferring from an integrated school to a segregated school and neighborhood wasn’t earth shattering in my young eyes, as I felt comfortable in both settings. My new school was all-Black. All of the teachers, faculty and staff were Black, and the students were treated like family. The women wore dresses, pearls and heals, and all the men wore suits and ties every single day. The pride they carried washed over us as students. They believed strongly in instilling in us a solid education. They believed in excellence and wouldn’t allow any of us to settle for less. Integration and busing came to our school four years later. Our fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Tanner, who was beautiful and brilliant, prepared us for the integration process that was to happen the following year. She gave us “the talk”, and drilled in us that although the books, equipment and educational materials that we used for study were old and dated, compared to the ones of our white peers whose schools were on the more prominent side of town, we were just as smart and capable. I believed Mrs. Tanner, and her words regarding capability settled in my consciousness to this day. I graduated from college and obtained my MBA.

From corporate boardrooms to college campuses, and from church pulpits to women’s empowerment conferences, my sphere of influence has allowed me the esteemed opportunity to listen with compassion, create viable diversity programming, to serve as mentor and trusted advisor to executive management, share life experiences, and to empower and affirm those seeking answers to life’s challenges. I learn and grow with each interaction. Advocacy isn’t the path of least resistance, and often, fighting for others while girding oneself mentally and emotionally is typically the road less
traveled. At times, my resolve and tenacity has been shaken when I’ve seen clear paths and pipelines to inclusion, but met with non-cooperation, deflection, indifference and lack of enthusiasm. It’s always a challenge understanding those who are not willing to work hard on behalf of others, unless they receive accolades – self-aggrandizement. But I’ve learned that to push forward to accomplish goals, ideologies and dreams, sometimes obstacles have to be sidestepped, and rerouting and recalibrating is necessary in order to accomplish the objectives of unity and inclusion.

I’m enjoying my journey, paying keen and sincere attention to the needs of those requiring a voice. I relish being able to push, pull and convince others to work on behalf of those in need. All of our lives improve markedly when we serve l.o[0others. I shall continue to advocate for those within our company structure, and for those outside of our corporation. And, as I say often, “courage takes courage”.

Abbot Downing, a Wells Fargo business, and Wells Fargo Private Bank offer products and services through Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. and its various affiliates and subsidiaries. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. is a bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company

By Aimee Hansen

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Intrepid Woman: Liz Elting, Founder and CEO of the Elizabeth Elting Foundation

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Liz Eltingby Cathie Ericson

“Those who can help, should help.”

That’s the impetus behind Liz Elting’s mission, as founder and CEO of the Elizabeth Elting Foundation, which lifts up women and marginalized populations in education, health and other ways.

Using Her Success to Help Others

Elting’s philanthropic ability comes from previous work success. She always loved languages—learning four of them while living, studying and working in five countries. After graduating from college with a degree in world languages, she worked at a translation company in production and sales which prompted her to realize the practice could likely be done better. After three years she decided to go back to school and earned her MBA from NYU; shortly after graduating, she held a finance position in a French bank and quickly realized it wasn’t for her. “As the only woman professional there, whenever the phone rang, they would call for me,” she says.

That led her to strike out on her own, where she started her own translation company. Over the next 26 years she grew TransPerfect into the world’s largest language solutions company, with over $600 million in revenue, more than 5,000 employees and 11,000 clients and offices in more than 90 cities worldwide.

In 2018 she sold her half of the company in order to focus full time on philanthropy, launching the Elizabeth Elting Foundation, which revolves around pure philanthropy, but also supporting entrepreneurs.

A Wide-Ranging Mission

The foundation has recently launched the Halo Project to meet the needs of those affected by COVID-19. “It’s a public health and economic catastrophe unlike anything we’ve seen; not only did it spread like wildfire faster than we could understand, but it painfully underscored structural inequalities,” she says. The foundation aims to identify areas where they can have the best impact, and it was an easy pivot to focus on women since they are often on the front lines.

Other important areas the foundation services include public health, such as the International Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia Foundation, designed to help research and treat a rare kind of lymphoma, which Elting’s father has. He had been told he had five years to live and now the common diagnosis has expanded to 18 years, signifying satisfying and rewarding progress.

She also does work with the American Heart Association, helping to raise awareness of women’s heart issues, an important need given that most heart research is directed toward men. Thanks to her work with Go Red for Women and her participation with the board, she’s become connected with other groups to help spread the word about heart disease prevention. For example, the foundation has installed a blood pressure kiosk at the Campaign Against Hunger’s sites to help those populations get their blood pressure checked. She also has supplied Susan’s Place, a women’s shelter in Harlem, with equipment like blood pressure cuffs.

Other work includes donating to the National Organization for Women and helping support “Leftover Cuisine,” which takes extra restaurant meals directly to food banks. She was able to connect a friend who works with auto dealers to help supply the cars and drivers as a win-win to keep the dealerships’ teams employed while delivering much-needed food to the food banks.

In addition, Elting is active with her alma maters, including Trinity College where she attended undergraduate school and the NYU Business School. Her foundation gives four annual MBA scholarships for high-performing women, along with investing in two entrepreneurs a year.

As she considers areas where she can make a difference, Elting prioritizes research to make sure the money is going to the right causes and confirm exactly where the funds are going. So, for example, when she makes a cash donation to the food bank, she wants to make sure that every dollar goes to food. With the AHA, she made sure the donation directly funds the blood pressure station drive rather than being directed to a more general fund, and at NYU, she directly gives to the scholarships.

“It’s important to clarify where your money is going, which makes it more rewarding and fulfilling,” Elting notes.

In her spare time, Elting loves to read and is a self-described “news junkie.” With two teen sons, she loves to indulge in outdoorsy hobbies, like skiing and the beach, and looks forward to resuming travel when the time is right.

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Intrepid Women: Carol Evans, CEO, SHARE

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“Failure will help you advance in your career if you examine it carefully and accept it as an important teacher. Failure never lets up. It’s not about doing things wrong. It’s about learning and re-learning all the lessons that a challenging career offers.”

Carol Evans, Intrepid Woman, Pioneer and Advocate for working women shares her insights on what she wished she knew early on in  her career journey. She continues, “Failure will always be with you. Be not afraid of it.”

Carol started her career in advertising in 1976 and worked on the test issue of a new magazine called Working Mother. Evans loved the idea of this  magazine because her own mom went back to work when she was 12. “ It was the best thing that ever happened to my mom and to us, her children! Working mothers were the fastest growing segment of the workforce, and I knew how to help this new demographic because of my own mom’s career.” In her 10 years as publisher Evans took Working Mother magazine  from a test issue to a full blown  success with over 2 million readers.   Ready to move forward in her career, she left Working Mother to join Stagebill magazine for the performing arts in a bigger role as President.

“Stagebill was amazing: Lots of opera and Phantom of the Opera, meeting famous singers, dancers and actors.  I was a partner to the executive directors in the challenge to print programs nightly for 110 arts organizations.”

In 1996 Evans joined  Chief Executive magazine as COO.  “Meeting all these Fortune 500 CEOs made me feel that I could take on that role. They were just people–not gods!  They were almost all men, which made me mad!”

Six years later Working Mother magazine came up for sale and Carol decided to put her career to the test.  She went to 35 possible funders to acquire Working Mother, getting turned down 35 times. Then she met the CEO of MCG Capital and made a deal to buy the magazine and form Working Mother Media. It was August, 2001.  Evans relays how the first order of business was to survive the terrible days after 9/11. She adds,

“We then built Working Mother Media into a powerful for-profit advocacy organization that took on the advancement of women as our guiding cause. We focused our magazine and websites, conferences and research  on the needs of working moms, women lawyers, women of color, executive women, hourly workers and other segments of the female workforce. “

In 2015, Evans  retired from Working Mother Media to co-found Executive Women for Hillary, which grew to a force of 2400 women nationwide working on Hillary’s primary and then presidential campaigns.

In late 2019, after 38 years in the media business, she joined the non-profit sector as CEO of SHARE, an organization started in 1976 by breast cancer survivors that now helps 200,000 women every year. SHARE brings women newly diagnosed with breast, ovarian, uterine and metastatic cancer together with women who have survived or are living with these cancers. Through group meetings, helplines and webinars SHARE  creates a giving circle of support, knowledge sharing and community. She states,

“I’m excited about starting a new career!  Leading a non-profit focused on the women who are so often overlooked in the battle against cancer as money flows to research but not to human beings is deeply meaningful to me.”

She continues that the non-profit world is new and fascinating to her..

“ The sense of purpose is exhilarating and the work is rigorous. Non-profits have had to navigate the digital revolution as much as for profits, and have come out stronger in most cases. SHARE combines digital savvy with face to face support for women who have entered a club that no one wants to join.Many of the volunteers at SHARE had big careers that they had to or chose to leave because of their cancer. SHARE gives them a challenging and deeply healing way to give back to new members of the terrible cancer club.”

The new thing  she is working on now is fundraising on Facebook through individuals taking up SHARE’s cause on their birthday or their mother’s birthday.  “We are excited to reach out to the millions of women whose lives have been touched by female cancers to support our organization.”

Risk, Reward and Achievements

When asked about achievements that she is most proud of she cites her new job as well as saving Working Mother magazine from certain death in 2001.

“Launching it (the magazine) in 1979 and being a successful CEO in a world where few CEOs are women is a great source of pride to me.   Having the foresight to launch Best Companies for Working Mothers in 1986 and the bravery to launch Best Companies for Women of Color in 2002 is my most enduring contribution to women.”

Carol has certainly taken calculated risks and she recalls that when she left her very wonderful job as VP Publisher of Working Mother in 1989 to work for an entrepreneur it was because she wanted to become an entrepreneur. She states,

“ It was a gamble but it paid off when 12 years and 2 jobs later I was able to acquire Working Mother and form my own company, Working Mother Media.”

Outside of Work

Carol states, “My family is everything to me. Robert was born 9 years after we launched Working Mother and Julia was born just after I joined Stagebill.  I loved being a working mother, with all the challenges and all the ups and downs.  My husband Bob made it all work by encouraging my career at every twist and turn. He still doesn’t fold laundry the way I like but he’s been a great dad and partner.”

We congratulate Carol in her new venture and proudly bestow her theglasshammer mantle of being an Intrepid Woman.

 

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Intrepid Woman: Adrienne Rubin, Author and Entrepreneur

Adrienne Rubin “Don’t think too hard about your next career step; try whatever is your fancy and give it a go. That’s how you will find success in both your personal and professional life,” says Adrienne Rubin.

In fact, the first page of her soon-to-be-released book Diamonds and Scoundrels: My Life in the Jewelry Business is a poem with the first line, “Somebody said that it couldn’t be done.” But it can, Rubin says. “Whatever you want to do, make it happen. You have it within you.”

From Teaching to Business Building

Rubin started as a French teacher in the ‘60s and ‘70s; even though she had thought about law school, most women in that era didn’t tackle that sort of career—instead, if women worked at all, it was mostly either teaching or stenography as the breadth of careers available.

After Rubin’s second child was born, she became a substitute teacher, but quickly found that they weren’t respected, unlike her attorney husband, which caused frustration. She turned her attention to volunteer work, but she soon learned that volunteer work also wasn’t for her. On vacation she was offered the opportunity to be an importer of silver jewelry, and she jumped at the chance finding that business offered both money and respect.

However, Rubin soon found that silver wasn’t the top seller she had expected….instead, gold was the trend, and women were even buying it for themselves. She pivoted to gold and soon added rubies, sapphires and other gems to her line. “I learned on the road, taking my merchandise to jewelry stores, where I would listen to their advice about what they needed from suppliers and manufacturers.” After more research, Rubin became a supplier for charms, charm holders and chains, and expanded her marketing by attending industry conferences where she connected to gift stores, which became a large part of her selling success.

“What drove me wasn’t a passion for jewelry itself, but for helping other people make money; I found that if I had the right product and could sell it to the retailer for the right price, they would prosper as well,” Rubin said.  For that reason she traveled extensively to find new products each and every season.

One of her biggest challenges was to avoid being taken advantage of as a businesswomen, and in hindsight, she realizes she wasn’t always strict enough in whom she sold to, which meant she often wasn’t paid. In fact, that’s the impetus behind the “scoundrels” reference in her book’s title. For example, one of her early clients was a gambler who took diamonds on loan and gambled them away. It required determination to get out of that situation—and others she encountered along the way—but she was able to do so with ingenuity.

Of course, trends change, and Rubin soon found herself working against a wide variety of factors. First of all, today’s younger generation isn’t as interested in jewelry, as they have turned to other priorities. “When it comes down to getting a new computer or a gold bracelet, they are apt to turn to the prospect of a new tech gadget,” she points out. In addition, gold prices have skyrocketed, necessitating a large amount of capital, and there is fierce competition from the internet. For this and other reasons, her attention now has turned to real estate, often refurbishing properties, which is her current way to stay in the business game.

Advice for Women, No Matter What the Business

“Be your own boss if you can,” Rubin recommends, and take equal care with those you hire and those you sell to. “It’s vital to vet both parties,” she says. “In any business you will run across unethical people, so you have to be business-minded to make sure they aren’t taking advantage of you or using poor judgement that could reflect on your own success.”

And to really go full steam ahead, don’t be afraid to make bold decisions, such as borrowing money as needed to get your business to the next level.

Finally, she recommends realizing that you need to find balance to be content. “Business can become a 24/7 proposition if you let it, particularly at the beginning when you want to be successful and get your career on the ground.” But that can lead to neglecting other parts of your life unless you pay attention and vow to keep things balanced. Rubin, for example, focused on making sure to have uninterrupted family time on an annual vacation to balance her other travel.

Today she is an active volunteer with Cedars Sinai Hospital and the Arthritis Foundation. In addition, she became an avid cyclist and for many years has participated in the “California Coast Classic,” biking from San Francisco to Los Angeles. While she initially wasn’t a bike rider per se, she equates acquiring the skill to learning many aspects of business. “You have to commit to learning in order to succeed.”

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Intrepid Woman: Stephanie Sandberg, Executive Director, Team LPAC

Stephanie SandbergStephanie Sandberg is a fan of bringing your whole self to the lunch table, or anywhere.

“There’s so much energy that is consumed by not saying the things you are thinking,” she says. So right up front when she was at a business lunch and someone would ask what her husband does, she would blurt out early that she was with a woman. “It helped ease the conversation and provided me a sense of wholeness,” she says, in urging young gay people to be open with their reality.

A Career in Media As the Foundation for Her Current Work

Sandberg spent the first 25 years of her career in magazine publishing, working on marketing for titles like the L.A. Times, Newsweek and the New Yorker before becoming president and publisher of the New Republic and, later, executive publisher of the Columbia Journalism Review. Then she pivoted to consultant work.

After dabbling in a variety of projects, she realized she wanted to focus on one area and became interested in women’s leadership and the barriers to advancement women faced at the top echelons. Sandberg joined Out Leadership on a project basis, which aligned with her interests in diversity and inclusion.

But, she found, “inclusion” was often male-dominated.

“Lesbians are underrepresented, underleveraged and don’t have a voice at the table,” she says. “The gay world is very similar to the straight world in how gendered it is.”

So she helped the organization launch OutWOMEN, running discussion dinners to get people around the table.

“We realized that women don’t come together as intentionally around professional matters,” Sandberg notes, so they launched both formal and informal events. The satisfaction she derived from this work pointed her consulting in that direction, and she ended up at a holiday party for LPAC in 2018, where she learned they were looking for an executive director.

Leveraging the Voices of Gay Women

Today Sandberg heads LPAC as a political voice for the LGBTQ+ community. One of her first moves was officially shortening the name from “Lesbian Political Action Committee” to its acronym, as she found the name wasn’t embraced by everyone.

Then she began leveraging what she learned at OUTWomen about how women come together. Just as she had previously discovered that women prefer to socialize differently, she learned in her early days with LPAC that LGBTQ women’s political concerns are different, but rarely discussed as such. “Gay women don’t always have the same priorities as gay men,” she points out, adding that healthcare, choice and women’s equality are paramount to gay women. “We needed to carve out a place and build a voice for this subset from the LGBTQ community and address inequalities by championing candidates who support us.”

Right now her mission is to make sure the community knows about LPAC, particularly people who have the financial capacity to support the group. The biggest challenge, she finds, is building the group out to where potential donors not only know about it, but also choose it as a priority among so many worthy causes.

“If they understand that their investment is an investment in strengthening this community, and then convert that enthusiasm and awareness by including us in their giving, I will have done my job,” she says.

Sandberg believes that will come as they build empirical data about how they have amplified the effect for the candidates they endorse. To that end, they launched a nonprofit group Project LPAC and have a fundraising event—Levity and Justice for All –scheduled for June 25, the only official World Pride event specifically for women.

Sandberg has the benefit of knowing the work she does will benefit her personal life, too, including for her wife of 20 years and two daughters, ages 16 and 12, but she also knows the importance of making them the focal point of her life aside from work.

“While my work is important, a broader wholeness comes from have a balance; a lot of career people find themselves too deep in the work, and while it matters, it can’t at the expense of family,” she says. “You have to treasure being able to have family experiences at the end of the day; my main goal is to spend that time with my girls.”

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Intrepid Woman: Noha Waibsnaider, Founder & CEO, GatheringUs

Noha WaibsnaiderWhen one of Noha Waibsnaider’s loved ones passed away, she was overwhelmed by grief—which made the logistical hurdles of coordination and communication that much more challenging during an already difficult time.

She yearned for a simpler way to find support, conduct all the necessary tasks and purposefully commemorate a life. That was the catalyst for the website GatheringUs, a lasting online space that brings communities together after a death to support each other and celebrate the life of their loved ones.

As part of a large family, she has organized many memorials and funerals, and so knew firsthand the challenges of coordinating family and friends—trying to keep everyone in the loop while planning multiple events and logistics, and doing it all through the emotional roller coaster of mourning.“I was grateful for the outpouring of support from my community, and I realized many wanted to help, yet struggled to find ways to be supportive. I created GatheringUs to provide resources and a simpler way to mobilize everyone and commemorate loved ones,” Waibsnaider explains.

The need is so clear, she says, noting that after launching the site just three months ago, they have already had 30,000 visitors and memorials from all over the world, representing diverse groups of different ethnicities, religions and generations.

“Death scares people, and they don’t want to talk about it, and then you add in the preconceived notions about how funerals are supposed to be. Our goal is to empower people to celebrate and honor their loved ones in a meaningful and personal way that helps them process the loss.”

An Impressive Pedigree

This latest venture sprang from a personal, relatable need, but Waibsnaider already possessed the business acumen that has allowed her to build it so successfully. A serial social entrepreneur and brand builder, she holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and started her career in brand management at Unilever for consumer staples such as Ragu and Lipton. She parlayed that success into a new venture and founded Peeled Snacks, an organic food company, in 2004. She grew and ran the brand for 13 years—vaulting it into the upper echelon by raising $20 million in equity financing and bringing healthy fruit and vegetable snacks to millions of consumers nationwide.

“When I started my last company, I was in a rush to grow and sell within a very short time. I wish in retrospect that I had set my sights on a longer-term horizon,” she says, which would have made it easier to ride the highs and lows and put less pressure on immediate results. Nevertheless, even with that perspective, there’s no denying the impact she made on the business world with her ambition and ingenuity.

Along the way Waibsnaider has been honored with numerous awards, having been recognized as a White House Champion of Change; one of the “Women to Watch,” from Jewish Women International; named to the list of “50 Fastest-Growing Women-Led Companies” by the Women Presidents’ Organization; recognized as a Columbia Business School Distinguished Alumna; and received the Ecademy Award for Entrepreneurship, also from Columbia Business School.

She advises other would-be entrepreneurs to identify a cause or void that they are passionate about, which will allow you to sustain meaning and purpose over time. However, you also have to make sure it has a viable financial model because you can only keep doing it if you can support the business. In addition, she urges entrepreneurs to ask for help from their community. “They want to be there to support you and be part of your success story,” Waibsnaider says.

While she builds her new company, she is in a mode of continuous education and outreach. Notably, she is a 360° Council Member of Reimagine, a nonprofit that hosts a public conversation around death and life celebrations, including a week-long festival in various cities on the topic. The festival in New York in October included 350 events that ranged from presentations by end-of-life doulas and palliative care physicians to art, music, comedians and more, in an inspiring collaboration designed to help others in their stages of grief.

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Intrepid Woman: Nikki Barua, CEO, BeyondCurious

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Fear is imaginary, says entrepreneur Nikki Barua. “The more you focus on it, the more it grows, and the only way to overcome fear is to replace it with faith. I have always had faith in myself, my team and my purpose and that’s what fuels my confidence.”Nicki B

She finds that most people go through their lives worrying about losing love, money or job security. “That fear can keep you from taking risks. Imagine the life you could create if you weren’t gripped by fear. Imagine doing what you love and not worrying about how people view you or not being defined by other people’s expectations of you.”

A Career Built on Helping Companies Thrive in Disruption

Barua knows all too well the importance of moving past those fears. An immigrant from India, she came to America in 1997 for business school. After graduation, she built her career first in management consulting, and then in digital marketing, honing her skills as a digital innovator and a business leader in the corporate world.

As she helped global brands transform their business with digital solutions, she noticed that many clients struggled with the pace of change in technology, competition and customer expectations. Big brands needed to be more agile and adapt quickly to change and needed to think and act with the agility of a startup, she found. “They needed an entrepreneurial culture designed for change. That challenge fascinated me, and I was obsessed with a singular question, ‘How do you make elephants run?’”

That question led to her entrepreneurial journey: She left her corporate career and the prestige and security that accompanies that territory and started her business with no clients, no case studies and barely any capital.

“All I had was a clear purpose — to unlock the limitless potential of people and organizations. That clarity gave me the courage to take the steps forward despite my fears, learning to navigate through unknown territory,” she says.

Although she had managed P&Ls and led people, she nevertheless felt unprepared for the challenges of building a business from scratch. As she describes it, each day was filled with untold challenges and gut- wrenching setbacks, followed by big successes and unexpected victories. As she kept learning and adapting, BeyondCurious soon became a successful business, and Barua reveled in her successful transition from corporate leader to entrepreneur.

Along the way, she discovered an important truth that has been the foundation of her success: Whether you work in a big corporation or run your own business, the fundamentals are the same — delight your customer, inspire your team and keep innovating.

Bold Dreams Will Define Your Success

Barua remembers daydreaming about her future as a young girl in India, and how big the dreams seemed at the time. But eventually those dreams came true so she dreamed bigger and bigger. “The lesson I learned is that you only achieve what you dream of, so if your dreams aren’t big, your achievements won’t be either,” Barua notes. “When you dream big, your creativity is unleashed; your confidence grows; your potential is unlocked; and you break barriers of what you thought was possible for yourself and for the world.”

As her company has succeeded, she has found that her biggest challenge is growing herself along with the organization. She advises other entrepreneurs to stay hungry, keep learning and get comfortable being uncomfortable. “When you embrace the discomfort of not knowing, you are able to learn at an exponential rate,” she says.

Along with dreams comes action, and Barua believes firmly you have to stand for what you believe in. “Be authentic in your culture and leadership, and build a tribe of believers that have a shared sense of purpose and core values,” she says. “A movement is more powerful than any organization.”

Proving Herself as a Change Agent

Today’s world is experiencing disruption across the board — in society, government, technology and culture. “When the things we believed in and the rules we lived by no longer hold true, it presents an opportunity to create something better and more meaningful,” Barua says, adding that leaders have the privilege and the responsibility of shaping the world the way they wish it to be.

That’s why it’s so important not to just be business leaders or entrepreneurs, but to be inspiring role models and purpose-driven change agents.

She believes the ultimate purpose of leadership is to unlock the potential in others by giving people a platform to be their best and creating an environment where people thrive because they are constantly learning, growing and breaking barriers. She has found that when people are aligned around shared values and connections, they are more fulfilled.

She herself has a mission to unlock the potential of a billion people – talk about dreaming big!

“I believe we are all limitless, but we are held back when we lack the clarity, courage or conviction to go beyond our barriers,” she says.

“I am deeply passionate about being a catalyst that helps people unlock that limitless potential. It’s what I love to do above all else and what has fueled all my career success,” she says.

“As an entrepreneur, educator, public speaker, author and social activist, everything I do is aligned to that singular mission. Every day is about taking courageous action, learning, adapting and never giving up.”

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Intrepid Woman: Marie Heron, Executive Director at On-Track Career and Employment Services

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As part of disability awareness month, we are giving a platform to women to tell their stories. Marie Heron

Successful, career oriented, and a visionary, Marie Heron has transformed her $100,000 funded agency into multiple delivery sites and more than 1.5 million dollars in funding. Over the years, she has been an adult educator, career counsellor and eventually an Executive Director. Heron’s career path, however, was far from barrier free.

At the age of 24, Heron worked as a sales representative for an International Personnel Agency. A self described over achiever, Heron strived to climb the career ladder to become a site manager. Her life, however, was about to take an unexpected turn, beginning with an emergency visit to St. Michael’s Hospital. After three days of testing, Heron was diagnosed as having the chronic illness Multiple Sclerosis.

Left with more questions than answers, Heron returned to work, where she quickly learned that life was not what it was before. ”After the initial diagnosis, I had three successive relapses, which required time off of work,” said Heron. “My employer had to let me go because I was taking so much time off work.”

Taking a Step Back to Move Forward

Not wanting to repeat this experience, Heron made the decision to take on shorter-term contracts while she adapted to life with a chronic illness. Although, it was a choice that resulted in significantly less money, it was a necessary step to gain a better understanding of her illness and what she would need to do to adapt. Over time, Heron realized that she could either sit and wallow in self pity or proceed forward with her dreams. And so, she moved forward, determined to construct her own career path. “Physically I was having periodic episodes of vertigo, vision loss and falls, intermixed with periods of remission,” said Heron. “I recognized that I was the only one responsible for my career, so I took control.” The answer for Heron was to start her own business, the Art of Reception, a training company for receptionists.   The business started out small, with a few key staff members that she could trust to take the lead during periods of relapse.

After a few years, Heron recognized the company’s potential for growth, but to do so she would require additional capital. “I went to a local politician’s office, every week, for a year and half, with the hopes of obtaining federal funding,” said Heron. Her perseverance paid off. “I was the youngest and first woman to get that much federal funding,” said Heron. “But it was what my contact said when the funding was received that was both surprising and inspiring.” The politician shared that he had helped to knock down the doors, but what Heron did beyond the doors was up to her.

And that is exactly what she did, continuing to break down barriers and expand her company. With the growth of the company, Heron became less forthcoming about her illness to her staff. “When people heard that I had multiple sclerosis, immediately they started to research and develop biases that impacted our interactions,” said Heron. “And so, I made the decisions to not tell people about my illness, as it did not define who I was.”

Strange Side Effects of the Illness

Navigating a career with a chronic illness, equipped Heron with both a positive attitude and perseverance that helped to both inspire and motivate her clients. Because she had such high expectations for herself, she, found herself expecting her staff to follow her example. “Because I had done so much myself, “said Heron. “I found that I had developed extremely high expectations for my employees.” To help manage her expectations, Heron hired a human resources consultant to assist her with both management techniques and to develop policies and procedures for her company.

Over the years, Heron has learned a lot about growing her career and the importance of self-care, but this wasn’t always the case. In her twenties and thirties, Heron, would often find herself working overtime, including weekends, to get in documents days before the deadline. Today, she’s learned to take things a bit slower, still ensuring that the deadline is met, but also taking the time to rest and rejuvenate.

“I recently read an article by Jack Osborne, who shared that there is a silver lining with being diagnosed“, said Heron. “He said, that if you can maintain your positivity, you can steer your progression. It resonated with me because I’ve always tried to be positive.” Although, multiple sclerosis does not define Heron, there is no question that it has helped evolve her to the person that she is today.

About Marie-Heron

Marie Heron, Executive Director at On-Track Career & Employment Services, was diagnosed with M.S. at 24. She has created a new podcast, “Truth Be Told” so that young people living with M.S. can find a safe resource for hope, inspiration, and advocacy.

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Intrepid Woman: Dr. Marilyn Fraser, CEO, Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health (AAIUH)

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By Cathie EricsonDr Fraser

Dr. Marilyn Fraser has always had a passion for patient education and talking to people about health, considering it one of her favorite aspects of medicine. That’s why when she was facing a crossroads regarding career direction after completing medical school, she was delighted to hear of the opportunity at the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health (AAIUH), located at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. The more she went into the community to talk about health, the more she realized it was a career path where she would stay.

The Institute was founded by Arthur Ashe, an activist, tennis champion and humanitarian interested in addressing health inequities, including the underrepresentation of people of color in the health profession, and implementing innovative community outreach programs. The Institute has a stated long-term goal of reducing morbidity and mortality by improving health knowledge, facilitating behavior change and expanding access to care among the most vulnerable populations in urban areas.

A central component of the mission is to create partnerships and research the needs of communities, then develop best practices or make policy recommendations to address the issues, she adds. The Brooklyn Health Disparities Center, a key collaboration of the Institute with SUNY Downstate and the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President, is a great example of such a partnership.

Tackling Challenges to Advance the Mission

From growing up in the West Indies to her time living in Brooklyn, Fraser knows firsthand that there are communities that are underserved, with limited access to care. In addition, education is sorely needed as some people are not aware of resources that are available. “We try to link them to those resources because sometimes they can’t afford the care they need or lack access to care,” she points out.

In addition, groups like AAIUH play a key role in dispelling myths about health and disease. “We want people to be aware of what’s going on in their bodies and not be afraid,” she says, adding that they are realizing that even simple conversations can provide clues to social issues that might be coming into play and hampering the ability of the community to access healthcare.

“One of our biggest challenges is funding and how to conduct effective programs, including research as budgets are often cut with no warning,” she says.

Recently, the AAIUH, under Dr. Fraser’s leadership, was awarded a grant to lead a consortium to develop a strategic plan for community-based organizations (CBOs) to share their knowledge. The program, part of Delivery Systems Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) program received a $2.5 million dollar grant to work with community-based organizations to lead a consortium to build the capacity of CBOs to address the DSRIP deliverables focused on improving health outcomes .

They are currently a little more than halfway through the one-year grant, which they hope will promote sustainability and also create systems to address healthcare inequalities. “The award recognized the Institute’s leadership, and I personally found that being acknowledged by peers and selected to carry out this important mission is one of the greatest honors anyone could have,” Fraser says.

Relationships Are the Key

Fraser has helped keep her passion alive by building relationships within communities. But she adds, “It’s important to realize that we must stay mindful of the fact that the people who live these experiences are the experts, and you can’t come in with preconceived notions. In medical school they taught us to listen to our patients because it can be all too easy to rely on our own ideas and discount what is actually being said.”

She acknowledges that nothing is done overnight and that it takes time to foster relationships, especially while also handling administrative needs. “You have to find a balance between the many relationships and create and maintain a culture that speaks to people with varying needs, priorities and agendas,” she says. While she knew that politics would play a big role, she has come to realize just how important it is – and how much time is needed to devote to political issues, compared to her former deputy role.

As the years go by, Fraser says she finds that the general public isn’t as aware of Ashe and his mission, which is why they work to keep his legacy in the forefront. “If we are cognizant of making sure that we maintain the essence of who he was and why he created the Institute, I am confident we will do the work in the same vein that it was intended and sustain it, which is the important factor,” she says. She particularly appreciates how her role is made easier because of the support she is offered from her entire team, including the board.

Dr. Fraser carries her love of cultures over into a passion for travel, always wanting to experience new places and people. One of the Institute’s programs has been replicated in Trinidad & Tobago, in collaboration with the University of the West Indies. In addition, she notes that a big part of everything she does is spurred on by her faith, and she finds that her family, including her nieces and nephews, keep her grounded. Friends play a key role too. “In addition to prayer, cooking is my stress reliever and I love to invite groups over to join me,” she says.

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Intrepid Woman: Linda Davies, Banker to Bestselling Author

Linda DavisNew York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author Linda Davies wrote this guest article for theglasshammer.com about how she succeeded as an investment banker and then made the leap from corporate life into full-time self employment as a novelist. This is surely a dream that many people share, but is it really that easy?

The GH: Linda, tell us about your career in finance in the city of London?

Linda: When I first stepped into the hallowed streets of the City of London as a callow twenty one year old graduate fresh out of Oxford, I only ever intended to stay for a few years.From when I was a little girl, I had always wanted to be a writer.Corporate life was a means to that end.

In the City, I had two objectives: one was to make as much money as I could legally in as short space of time as possible, and the second was to prove a point to myself and whoever I fancied might be watching.

The City lured you in with the promise of money but it had another USP that appealed to my young and foolish ego: it prided itself on its hair-cloth-shirt toughness, insinuating that you had to be something of a superhero to survive let alone thrive.

There weren’t any super heroines back then in the American investment bank I went to work for.I was the first woman they employed in European corporate finance.Back then, the glass ceiling was at entry-level and I was thrilled to have smashed it.
The work was an intellectual challenge, but the environment was not a fit for me..

Dealing in astronomical sums of money and being lavishly rewarded can be very corrupting, can lead you to think that you deserve the money, that you are entitled to the money, and that you need that amount of money to live a satisfactory life.

I had a plan and I stuck to it. I deviated occasionally and allowed myself indulgences, but the greatest indulgence of all is time and money buys time in my opinion. After seven years as a leveraged buyout and high-risk specialist, it was time to leave.

I had for several years been searching for a plot, and then, one day, I was sitting at my desk, feeling particularly annoyed with my boss, and wondering idly how much trouble I could cause financially, when the bare bones of a story leapt into my head.

It was a totally illegal plan, it would have made a lot of money, but I like to sleep easy at night, and so instead of doing it, I wrote about it. After six months, I knew that this plot could turn into a book.

I was young, free, and single. After seven years I had saved up enough money. It was time to take a risk, to turn my back on my large six-figure salary and bonus, and the status and security that went with it.
I remember the day I handed in my notice. I felt as if I had jumped out of an airplane without a parachute. It seemed like I was in freefall for weeks afterwards. It was a gloriously heady feeling.

The GH: Ok, so that is definitely a moment that some people would consider scary, possibly even risky! How did you go from quitting your day job to realizing your dream?

I wrote for 18 months, refining the plot until it was time to test the reality of my dream. Through a friend of a friend I was introduced to a literary agent. I went to see him, handed over my manuscript. It was a Thursday.

Then in some strange feat of serendipity, a kind of fortune favors the brave moment, a bizarre thing happened over the weekend.

About four months earlier, I had written a speculative letter to the Sunday Times, where I suggested writing an article about my experiences in the City. I was contacted a few weeks later by the editor of the Sunday Times Magazine who said absolutely, yes please, do write an article for us about what it is like to be a woman in that extremely testosterone-fuelled environment.

I had no idea when the article would appear, but, as luck would have it, it came out, covering six pages, on the Sunday immediately following my Thursday meeting with the literary agent.

This produced two rather wonderful and wholly anticipated results: one, an auction ensued amongst a number of publishing houses to buy my novel and two, I was contacted by about six different highly prestigious and successful financial boutiques and offered jobs (I have to say at this point, nothing in my article suggested that I wished to return to finance.)

This was 20 years ago.The book was Nest of Vipers – an adrenaline fuelled insight into the life of an investment banker, Sarah Jensen, who was recruited by the Governor of the Bank of England to go undercover in her investment bank to investigate an insider-trading ring that stretched from a central bank to the Mafia. Unbeknownst to her, she was also working for MI6.The novel went on to be published in over thirty territories and to be optioned three times for movies.

I am now on book number 13. Jumping out of my investment banking career had been a risk worth taking on every level.

The GH: What advice would you give our readers today?

I suspect that a number of you reading this are contemplating or have contemplated leaving the corporate system and so my advice to you would go along the following lines:

* While you are inside the system, be wary of buying into it and into the lifestyle to match it if you are intending to leave it, particularly in highly paid professions such as investment banking. Investment banking is a great way to amass money, but only if you do not spend like an investment banker.

* Many women in corporate life can still in some ways feel like outsiders. As the first woman employed by Bankers Trust’s European corporate finance department, I was patently and obviously an outsider and always felt like one. That was a real advantage. Relish and use that feeling. It gives you perspective, the ability to stand aside and look at your position and your broader options in the outside world and gives you greater flexibility in terms of the choices you might go on to make. There is no wonderfully set career path stretching out ahead of you. You have far greater freedom to make it up as you go along.

It’s been shown in personality tests/behavioral profiles that entrepreneurs are overwhelmingly outsiders. Being too wedded to corporate life can blunt your desire and ability to take risks with your career. Being an able quantifier of risk for your organization often does not extend to being able to quantify risk as regards your own life.

I’m a contrarian by nature and it’s led to some odd but potentially beneficial opportunities: the first was my Sunday Times article which I had thought was a very public exercise in boat-burning, in deliberately removing any fallback position, any hint of a Plan B should Plan A fail.I believed that the very absence of a Plan B would make me work harder to ensure Plan A worked!

How contrary was it then that my article and my attitude produced all these offers. I’m sure had I gone knocking on their doors the week before those same doors would have remained closed to me.

Being an author these days really means that you are an entrepreneur so a lot of my experiences and the lessons I have drawn from them can be applied across the spectrum to different areas of entrepreneurship besides writing.I hope some of these above might be of help.For those of you who are budding writers here are a few tips that have helped me.

* Write a whole draft before you begin editing.Writing and editing at the same time is a dispiriting and inhibiting process.Just get the first draft down and then you can play around with it.

* Make use of the most current technology to help you.I don’t type really well or very quickly but I have always typed out my novels on my desktop computer.However, just over a year ago, an old friend of mine who is an investigative journalist told me I was mad not to write about the story of my kidnap and detention in Iran.I started to think about it, suggested it to my agent who leapt at the idea.He said, look if you can write it in the next two months, we can publish it at the same time as your latest thriller, Ark Storm, which was due to be published nine months later.

Two months is a tight deadline, especially for someone who cannot type very well.So I did something I had been contemplating for a while.I installed Dragon Dictate voice recognition software on my computer.And I dictated the book, the memoir, which would go on to be called Hostage, Kidnapped on high seas, the true story my captivity in Iran.And I discovered a very welcome side benefit.I had wanted this memoir to sound much more intimate than my novels. I wanted it to read as if it were a tale being told at a dinner party perhaps to someone I had just met, one of those rare and special human beings who manage to elicit the most candid of confessionals.

And it worked. The act of dictating bypassed the overthinking intellectual part of my brain and turned out to be some of the best writing I have ever done. Instead of having to do my customary ten drafts I did only three.

If you are writing Instead of dictating, still read your work aloud. You will pick up many infelicities and awkwardnesses in the writing that silent reading and editing just will not detect.

We all know the maxim, write what you know, but also research and use what you know. Dictate great snatches of fabulous dialogue that you have heard in the workplace into your phone and then email them to yourself to save them and use them.This hones your ear for dialogue and also keeps fresh the characterizing lexicon of whatever workplace you happen to be in and will render your book much more immediate and real to readers.

Remember, everything is material. As I found during my seven years in the City, there’s always a silver lining.

Linda Davies’ latest book, Longbowgirl, a novel for children and Young Adults, is published on September 3rd by Chicken House Books.

To find out more about Linda and her novels and her memoir, Hostage, please see: www.lindadavies.com
www.longbowgirl.com

You can also find her on Twitter @LindaDaviesAuth

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