SmallBizResource Blog -- Women in Business

Much To Admire About Wednesday's Women

Posted by Gayle Kesten Wednesday, Dec 24, 2008, 08:06 AM ET

Working women share many of the same challenges: growing our businesses, supporting ourselves, supporting our families, parenting our children through their many stages of life, finding downtime ... the list goes on.

I don't meant to imply working men don't share these challenges, as well. They absolutely do. Still, no one truly "gets" a working woman like another working woman.

The women I have profiled since starting the Wednesday's Woman series in May all had compelling stories to tell -- stories that have motivated me to change a thought pattern that (knowingly or unknowingly) was holding me back. Often it was something so simple they said, but with a unique twist. My hope is that somewhere along the line, you experienced a few revelations, too. Here's a look back at some of the standout women I had the pleasure to interview.

First Job, Lasting Skill Sets
Selling newspaper subscriptions by phone may very well have been my worst jobs ever, but for Rachael Herrscher -- TodaysMama CEO and SBR's inaugural Wednesday's Woman -- the experience was invaluable and gave her the chops to later run her own business. "Trying to catch someone on the phone, keep them from hanging up and then trying to sell them something refines your communications skills-- I thought it was great," she told me.

The takeaway was similar for Cyndee Sugra, lead guitarist of indie rock band ElectroSonic. The skill set Sugra honed in her early music days -- marketing, promotion, and the value of her own creativity -- came in handy when she launched Studio 7 Media, a Web design and development firm whose clients include 20th Century Fox, Fisher Price, Nike, and Disney.

Age: Just A State Of Mind
Youth is not wasted on Galia Ben-Artzi, the 25-year-old cofounder and marketing director of Mytopia, who impressed me with her poise, maturity and confidence. Those traits shine through her ability to consciously push herself past her comfort level, as well as embracing all of the things that could intimidate other entrepreneurial newbies. "The feelings of being a startup, of being 25, of being a girl--you realize you can do anything you want to do," she said. "I'm constantly amazed that the sky is the limit. It's unique to be on the younger side of the spectrum."

Fast-forward two-and-a-half decades and, guess what, the experience is just as unique. Jill Boehler spent the bulk of her career as a speech therapist before the idea for the Chilly Jilly lightweight wrap occurred to her while shivering in an air-conditioned restaurant. Interestingly, Boehler -- who described her startup struggles with incredible honestly -- doesn't think she could have started her business when she was younger. "[In the beginning] I worked way into the night and I started really early in the day," she said. "I know people do it. There are a lot of women who are in this position, and I see them struggling more when they have little kids."

True Trailblazers
Anne Wallace began her career at a time women were first able to apply for credit without a man's signature. There she was, fresh out of Boston University law School and employed by the Federal Reserve Board, writing regulations for the Equal Credit Opportunity Act -- and explaining them to a male-dominated workforce of bankers. "I don't think women today have any sense of what it was like for a woman, whether you were single or divorced or married, to get credit in the '60s and early '70s," she told me. "For a woman business owner, it was just very difficult." These days, Wallace is executive director of the Identity Theft Assistance Center, a nonprofit trade association of financial services companies that has helped more than 45,000 people recover from identity theft.

Marilyn Carlson Nelson has also seen a lot of change during her decades-long career. In her book, "How We Lead Matters: Reflections On a Life of Leadership," the chairman and former CEO of Carlson Companies (holdings include T.G.I. Friday's, Regent, and the Radisson) recalls having to sign her name "M.C. Nelson" to disguise the fact that she was a she, and being given a coveted office only to learn it was to keep her pregnancy out of sight. Carlson Nelson took the company reigns from her (old-fashioned) father in 1998, then went on to grow the company from $22 billion to nearly $40 billion less than a decade later. In addition, women now comprise close to 40 percent of the company's executives.

Refreshing Perspectives
If an introvert can teach herself how to be outgoing, then there's hope for the rest of us. From devising "snippet starters" to approaching networking events as if you were training for a marathon, Jodi Smith, president of Mannersmith Etiquette Consulting, offered tons of tips about how to successfully make small talk. Ironically, her advice that most resonated with me was to think like a journalist when heading into a network event, telling myself I'm on a fact-finding mission. "I think there's something about the 7th grade lunchroom that goes through people's heads that when they walk into a room filled with people," she said.

Julie Watson-Smith also has a great spin for the stressors in working women's lives. Her message: Drop the notion of work-life balance and, instead, get your two worlds into alignment. "Balancing implies everything is equal and in a static mode of activity. I know my life is in constant motion. Alignment honors that life is in motion and is not equal," said Watson Smith, who runs a coaching business called Inspired Imaginations. Best of all, when you're aligning rather than balancing, you're coming from a place of compassion -- for yourself, Watson Smith said.

What have Wednesday's Women taught you? Share your realizations in the comments area below.

• Time To Refashion The Hourglass
  
• Hard Times, Creative Measures
  
• Identity Theft Assistance Center's Anne Wallace
  
• Four Female Ex-Dell Execs Sue For Discrimination
  
• Shades Of Serendipity
  
• Archives

Women in Business