Tag Archive for: Intrepid Women

Intrepid Woman: Kat Gordon, Founder, 3% Conference

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Kat Gordon“Diversity + creativity = profitability. There is no downside to increasing the number of women in creative director positions.”

That’s the philosophy of Kat Gordon, who began her copywriting career in the magazine world, working for titles such as USA Today, Cosmo and Sports Illustrated. She found the work fun and dynamic, and anticipated that she would eventually rise to the position of promotions director for a magazine. However, fate intervened, and when her husband was transferred to the west coast, she joined him in San Francisco. What followed was a major career re-invention, which she calls the best thing that ever happened to her.

After taking night classes in advertising copywriting, Gordon realized how much she loved working that part of her creative muscle, and joined the ad world, landing positions with several large agencies.

She left agency life when she had kids, and quickly discovered a niche as a freelance copywriter. At that time, everyone needed websites written so Gordon was able to work at home with the help of a nanny. In 2008, she started her own agency, Maternal Instinct. It was a reflection of the work I was getting from so many brands that hired me to write for them because so few creatives knew how to speak to one of their key audiences — moms.”

As time went on, Gordon began to increasingly wonder why the female influence was not being reflected in the ad world. “I was living in this entrepreneurial area with tons of startups, and yet this huge issue was not being addressed,” she said.

“I was living in this entrepreneurial area with tons of startups, and yet this huge issue was not being addressed,”

When Gordon realized that only 3% of creative directors were women, The 3% Conference began, a social movement that now consumes the majority of her professional time.

Where are the Women Creative Directors?

Since Gordon began her research five years ago, the group has held three conferences and nine traveling events, and she has become an in-demand speaker and thought leader. In August 2014 they recreated the study that had unearthed the 3% number and found that the number of female creative directors is now up to 11 percent – “out of the single digits at least,” she notes, wryly.

According to Gordon, the industry has a lot at stake: the vast majority of purchasers in every consumer category are women, and companies are losing sales by not reaching them. “It is a business imperative to change this because brands are leaving rich ground for creative exploration untapped,” she says.

Unlike STEM and other fields, adverting doesn’t have a recruitment problem at entry levels, but it does have a retention problem. “In some ways, our situation is worse,” Gordon says, because women have expressed a desire to train in the field and want to work in it, but then they lifestyle out when they would be the most productive. She calls it “death by 1,000 paper cuts” – all the little annoyances and issues eventually become so untenable that women give up.

So while the bad news is that there lots of small things impacting the industry, the good news is that they don’t have to reinvent the entire world. Rather, the industry needs to identify the pitfalls and side step them to keep women in.

The 3% Conference website identifies 50 small things that can make a difference – such as changing hiring practices and increasing maternity leaves — and just recently they ran a breakout session where they identified 50 more. Much of the retention problem relates to crazy and unpredictable hours and, as Gordon notes, making allowances that would create a workplace friendlier to women would do the same for men.

Lighting the Fire

Gordon’s interest in the topic was fueled by her disgust for how women were being marketed to — how despite the unbelievable power of the female consumer, they were being ignored and stereotyped.

“I started this as a passion project and didn’t realize how much the message would resonate and how many corners of the world would want to get involved,” Gordon says, adding that she feels an enormous sense of responsibility to the women in her industry.

“I started this as a passion project and didn’t realize how much the message would resonate and how many corners of the world would want to get involved,”

“Unlike with some missions, I don’t run into people who are naysayers, but rather it’s a battle that people want to talk about. I’m motivated and love it and I feel blessed to have this responsibility. I am eager to get more women involved to help carry it forward.”

One recent endeavor was holding a Tweetup on Super Bowl Sunday where ad women around the world were live tweeting their reaction to the ads, complete with the brand and ad agency Twitter handles. Using hashtags like “#3percentSB,” “#mediawelike” and “#notbuyingit,” the group garnered 59 million impressions. The consensus was that the loser by far was Carl’s Jr., while the NFL’s domestic violence and the #LikeAGirl campaign received high marks.

Personal Sales Skills Crucial

Gordon encourages women in the industry to remember that it’s key to be a persuasive sales presenter — most women spend time training on the creative aspects, without ample attention on how to sell the work. She urges women to take a class if they’re not confident speakers and seek out low-stakes opportunities to speak out so they will be ready when it does matter.

“I believe this is the best time ever to be a woman in advertising because agencies and brands are realizing the unbelievable value women have due to their insight into the female experience. It’s an asset,” she says. “The field is starving for that work, and the superstars will be the ones who are bold enough to tap into their whole life experience…”

And she says it’s the responsibility of all women – not just those in advertising — to speak up as part of the 3% commitment. Since all consumers are exposed to 3,000 ads daily, we want all women to be aware of the 3% movement and how we’re working hard to up the quality and effectiveness of those messages. “We need women to cheerlead for us and tell us what they like and don’t like.”

On the Court and In the Kitchen

Gordon loves spending time with her two sons, especially cooking and baking with her younger one. She also makes time to play tennis: “It’s so important to find something physical you do that brings you joy,” she says.
An active supporter of early childhood literacy, Gordon says, “It’s such an important gift to give to your child, to read to them from when they’re babies.” Nurturing the future class of creative directors should come early!

By Cathie Ericson

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Intrepid Women: Moira Forbes, EVP of Forbes Media

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Moira ForbesMoira Forbes, EVP of Forbes Media, grew up in a family with almost a century of experience in the publishing industry as part of the Forbes family. She clearly bears the wisdom of her ancestors yet has the incisiveness and insight of a woman who knows how to make her own way.

Forbes says, “We were always involved in the business from the time we were young.”

After graduating from Princeton and the Harvard Business School’s Program for Leadership Development, she joined the marketing team of Forbes Europe in 2001. After a few years in London, she returned to New York in 2013 where she had the opportunity to work with Forbes Life, a division of the magazine that has more to do with the best ways to spend your money, rather than how to make it. Forbes comments,

“It was really important for me to start on the sales side of the business. It allowed me to get to know my clients and understand why our brand was so compelling to business leaders from around the world.”

After proving herself as more than competent in the cut and dry game of sales’ quotas where “success is evident in a very transparent way”, Forbes was named the Associate Publisher of Forbes Life. In 2008, she helped launch ForbesWoman, a section of the online magazine meant to look at the experiences of female leaders.

Forbes talks of the mission of ForbesWoman. She adds,

“The stories weren’t always about women, but I think women were looking for community with other people who had taken a similar path. Now, ForbesWoman is one of the highest traffic sections of the site.”

In addition, Ms. Forbes serves as the EVP of Forbes Media, helping to build new strategies to grow Forbes Life.

Redefining power as a pathway to change

2013 saw the first time occurrence of one of Forbes’ proudest accomplishments: the Forbes Women’s Summit. There are many conferences that can pass like weddings. People gather—in this case, 250 of the most extraordinary female businesswomen, scientists, artists and groundbreakers from around the world—for a couple of days. They make new friends and reconnect with forgotten loved ones. There are hugs when it’s time to depart and promises to get together again, but those promises are rarely kept. Moira Forbes did not want to plan a wedding; she wanted to ensure this Summit would plant seeds that could grow conversations forceful enough to last 365 days a year.The summit seeks to find lasting solutions to the most critical issues facing the world today. Forbes asked herself how she would scale the conversation beyond the 250 women in the room when she found herself thinking about power. She has come to the following conclusion,

“Power is the ability to shape dialogue, and use our influence to effect change in all areas of our lives. When you define power as influence, you must look outside of your industry and approach the issues from unique vantage points.”

The summit strives to represent women from a variety of backgrounds in order to bring together as many different eclectic ideas as possible. When asked who she invites, she comments that she tries to find the people who are doing extraordinary things in their field, and ‘those who would be really cool to talk to’ she adds with a smile.

Perspective is everything

With all of the pressure, and excitement, of surviving and growing in the publishing industry today, Forbes feels that it is important to stay as relaxed as possible by trying not to worry about the small things. On success she comments,

“We are our own toughest critics. If we are lucky we will have many chapters and experiences. There will be bumps along the way, but you will get through them.”

Forbes acknowledges that social media and the online media landscape brings an exciting opportunity for the publishing industry that comes with many challenges and even a few “sleepless nights”. But the ability to “feel the pulse of the audience, in real time, through social media is a powerful opportunity to create relationships with our readers.” Despite the fast rate of change and disruption, the strength of the brand anchors her work in a strong sense of purpose.

Goals and benchmarks are useful for achieving more than we think

Forbes has a somewhat unique vantage point for considering the different barriers that face women in the business world today, as her own work allows her to interact with women from several different industries.

“I think women are challenged to really plan and think about their careers. We set benchmarks and define indicators of success in our professional lives, but we fail to do it in our personal lives. I talk to so many women who are afraid to set a plan and say, ‘This is where I want to be in 3 years’, and then back track from there to figure out what they need and how they might get there.”

For this reason, she is a strong believer in helping women develop career plans—and that this is something that needs to be hardwired into the company culture. There are many times women will assume they have to hit the pause button because they just aren’t sure how to navigate the dual obligations of work and family.

“The cost of losing such high potential talent is too high. Transparent conversations about how the organization can help bring their employees to the point they are looking to get can remove the stress that sometimes leads women to taking themselves out.”

It is easy to see that Forbes is a product of her own good advice.

She says, “Nobody else is thinking about you twenty-four hours a day. You are the only one who knows what you want. People aren’t mind readers. If you don’t ask for what you want, you won’t get it.”

She encourages women to raise their hand when it’s time for a promotion or a project lead, even when they don’t feel 100% ready.

“There are so many lessons that are learned on the job; experience is the greatest teacher.”

By Rebecca S. Caum

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Intrepid Woman: Patricia Kozu, Executive Director, Ascend

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Patricia Kozu“My career would appear to be random but in reality it is not; the common thread is leveraging strengths,” says Patricia Kozu, executive director for Ascend, a membership organization that serves 60,000 pan Asian members through 17 professional chapters and 30 student chapters.

After studying math and quantitative analysis, Kozu pursued a job in technology, which she followed up with stints covering a diverse landscape of functions — operations, finance, marketing, product management and business development. And not only were the functions diverse, so were the industries — from telecommunications to consumer packaged goods to financial service. Now she is in the world of nonprofits, which had been her ultimate goal, joining Ascend November 2014.

“I wanted to have the most well-rounded background possible when I entered the nonprofit world where generally we need to wear many different hats,” Kozu says, describing her path.

Ascend’s goal is to help Pan Asians at all phases of their career develop and achieve their leadership potential. According to Kozu, “From students looking for their first job to executives who want to be on corporate boards, we make it easier for them to get involved and benefit from our programs and give back to the community.”

Having just joined the organization, Kozu has a plan in place. “I’ve always been proud when I implement new ideas or find new ways to do things,” she says, adding that her technique is to find the low-hanging fruit to start off with immediate results, then look for opportunities farther out. So, for example, she knows that Ascend, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, wants to grow its reach but first they have to make sure the infrastructure is up to speed, that the databases and what they use to support members are in place and are strong.

Culture and Gender are Not Invisible

As a third-generation Japanese Asian American, Kozu began her career assuming her gender and ethnicity weren’t relevant, because of her education and experience. “Since I’d worked at brand name companies and had always been focused on professional development, I saw myself as a competent executive. But I soon learned that others bring their own narrative to my story and might see me first as Asian or as a woman. Now, I see that my Asian heritage is an important part of who I am and others can benefit when I share my experience.”

Right now, she’s proud to be releasing results of Ascend’s latest research project called Hidden in Plain Sight, which sheds light on culture and gender. The results are derived from data from six Silicon Valley companies that made their data public. The final analysis was that race has an even bigger impact than gender. She says they found that white men and women have a higher ratio of leadership roles than Asian men, and Asian women have the fewest. She also notes that less than 2 percent of Fortune 100 board seats are held by Pan Asians, and less than ½ of 1 percent of philanthropic dollars go to Asian organizations, even though Asians are the fastest-growing segment of the United States.

“Ascend is shining a light on important issues and providing recommendations,” Kozu says. “We want to continue to move the needle and demonstrate the value of embracing diversity and inclusion. When there’s diversity at the decision-making table, both in gender and culture, the decisions are better.”

Celebrate the Differences

For women beginning their careers, Kozu advises that they make an effort not to blend in; but rather to leverage their differences. She cites Madeleine Albright and her penchant for colorful pins that would spark conversation. “I’ll see a group of young women all dressed in their black suits and I want them to know it’s ok to celebrate your own individuality.” And, of course, she adds, it’s not just about appearances. Speaking up with that different voice is beneficial for the individual and the organization.

Along with Ascend, women-focused organizations can help. Kozu joined the well-established Financial Women’s Association in the 1980s but believes that an organization like Ascend is very relevant and knows it would have been beneficial earlier in her career.

She urges women to consider using volunteer work at nonprofits as an excellent way to develop their skills and leadership techniques.

Each Ascend chapter has officers and committees so there are myriad ways to try something new, whether it’s learning more about marketing or fundraising. “There is always something to learn, and you never know how your volunteer work can help in your business life,” she says.

Kozu notes that she was able to make the move from the corporate to the nonprofit world by honing her skills as a volunteer providing mentoring, tutoring and then as a board member at a variety of nonprofits.

Mentoring also helped make her a better manager, since the questions her mentees ask offer insight into their perspective as young people entering the work force.

“The message I like to give is that it’s not a one-way street. I’ve learned so much from the women I have mentored, and stay in touch as they move on in their careers.”

Diversity includes age, of course, as well. “I am inspired when I see men and women reaching across generations to share their stories.”

Currently, Kozu continues her volunteer work as a member of the steering committee for the Asian Women Giving Circle, where they fund art projects devoted to social justice issues, such as violence and bias.

“We can talk about these issues all day, but that only appeals to the head. Having an arts project that shines light on these issues and appeals to the heart as well can be so powerful.”

By Cathie Ericson

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