MTV’s longevity and success, in an industry known for ever-changing tastes―ah, boybands!―and an audience that’s a moving target, can be credited to its willingness to adapt. Not one for forcing a square peg into a round hole, MTV’s ability to innovate and match their audiences’ interests across multiple platforms is impressive. And while some may mourn the days of when MTV was an all-music, all-the-time station, I know that this reporter both respects the creativity MTV employs to stay profitable and appreciates the diverse―albeit often ‘guilty pleasure’―programming. Today I’d like to introduce you to the woman is responsible for guiding MTV through the ever changing landscapes of TV, web, social and mobile: Kristin Frank. 

Since taking the position of General Manager of Digital Media in 2009, Kristin has increased traffic to MTV’s sites at an astounding rate. Her commitment to cross-platform content creation has sent the number of MTV’s Facebook “Likes” soaring beyond the 100 million mark. Recently she helped pioneer two apps that have revolutionized the way MTV and VH1 viewers watch TV. Launched in the summer of 2011, WatchWith and CoStar connect viewers in real time to the stars and fans of their favorite shows during the debut of each episode.

You can follow this busy mother of two young boys on Twitter @kristin_frank or check out her full biography on MTV.com. Now it’s time for Kristin to explain in her own words how she stays motivated to push the envelope and what it takes to be a successful woman in the media world.

LB: When the MTV and VH1 Digital was put under your control, it experienced a 200% year-over-year uptick in visitors to its online properties. What has been the strategy that has driven these results? What role have you played?

KF: Our overarching strategy has been to move away from thinking of ourselves as “digital” and instead to focus on creating, distributing, marketing and selling content. We’ve embraced the notion of storytelling without borders and are now harnessing the power of all of our screens to extend show narratives and characters, as well as our audience’s passions like music and pop culture. We’ve led the industry in pioneering and innovating around social media and as a result, we’ve seen viewer engagement soar to an all time high. Instead of spending millions on acquisitions, we’ve been able to grow our audience and ad revenue by forging strategic alliances. We’ve also worked closely with our ad partners to creatively implement them into our content in ways that have helped them grow their own brand equity and reach.

My role is to create and implement the vision and strategy for how MTV and VH1 maintain leadership in today’s hyper connected world ― while simultaneously contributing to and helping evolve our core television businesses.

I am fortunate to lead one of the best teams in the industry, who continually surprise me with their ability to innovate and lead in the space.

LB: While most brands are celebrating hitting one million fans on Facebook (and even a few are celebrating hitting over ten million fans), you have surpassed the 100 million mark across all of your Facebook pages. That’s hugely impressive. What do attribute the staggering numbers to?

KF: Since MTV and VH1’s inceptions, we’ve been fully committed to providing our audiences with a voice across all our screens. Really early on, everyone, from the Viacom leadership down, saw the enormous potential social media platforms would have in helping us create two-way dialog with audiences. Unlike many of our competitors, we’ve avoided using social platforms to simply output marketing messages and instead, work to put great content on these platforms and to develop an authentic voice that resonates with our audiences. We invest in talented people and developed a flexible organizational structure that allows for simultaneous content creation and audience dialog. At MTV and VH1, content is now created, products are developed, news is broken, shows are premiered and tent-pole events are planned with social platforms in mind. This large ecosystem of television, web, social and mobile has contributed to our record levels of engagement and ratings.

LB: Working for MTV and VH1, there must be a few perks. What is the best part of your job?

KF: There are definitely daily benefits to working at MTV and VH1. You never know who you are going to meet in the elevators (Adele, Jay-Z, Tyler Posey and Big Ang are recent favorites), or what talented new artist is performing on the floor. Who else has a job where you get to provide fans with direct access to shows like Teen Wolf and Mob Wives as well as VH1 Divas, MTV VMAs, VH1 Storytellers and the iconic Unplugged?

Hands down, the best part of my job is leading a talented team as we pioneer the MTV and VH1 brands in the ever-changing digital space.

LB: If I told you 20 years ago that today you would be working on digital media for MTV and VH1, would you believe me?  Why or why not?

KF: Twenty years ago I distinctly remember geeking out in a grad school statistics class listening to REM’s Losing My Religion, compliments of my favorite professor who would play REM constantly during class (geek chic was cool back then too!). REM was one of my favorite bands in college and MTV brought them mainstream around that time. I would have believed you, given my love of music, math, REM and MTV/VH1 ― four passions that still remain strong today.

LB: Over your career, have you personally seen increases in the amount of women working in digital media and those who have reached leadership roles in the field?

KF: Absolutely ― at MTV and VH1, I am honored to work with an extremely talented group of senior executive women in leadership roles. In my team specifically, we have many types of roles led by strong women ― editors, designers, producers, business development and sales professionals.

Diversity beyond gender is also critically important to a business and contributes to the creativity and success of our brands.

LB: Do you have any career advice for someone thinking about entering the digital media field? Or working for a company like MTV? What are you looking for in a new hire?

KF: Both a creative and a business mind; with the lines between new and traditional media blurring at a rapid pace, you really need to have a strong understanding of media in general. The business is no longer nascent. To succeed, you must have superb vision and an innovative spirit, as well as strong business acumen to evolve these businesses into the next generation.

I am specifically looking for well rounded people with minds for business and creative spirits who are capable of developing their own POV but who can still contribute generously to support the ideas of others. The ability to think creatively while appreciating that MTV\VH1 are vibrant, growing and diverse businesses is critical.

LB: How has MTV transformed from the days when you used to watch it as a consumer to now? Do you recognize the company or is it completely different?

KF: MTV and VH1 have continually evolved and re-shaped themselves to fit the needs and passion points of their audiences. This progress and change in tandem with our audience is key to our long-term success and relevancy.

LB: Have you ever observed or encountered the glass ceiling? If so, in what ways did you overcome this?

KF: While the glass ceiling still exists in other organizations and business sectors, the bigger problem facing women today are life dilemmas ― can I be a mother and an executive? Women face excruciatingly hard choices when it comes to juggling work and home life. Time and time again, I’ve seen women who should be C-level executives, self-impose breaks on their career and stay firmly put in middle management or leave, because they felt they couldn’t lead a company and be the parent they want to be at the same time. Most women I know struggle with this each and every day.

As a mother of two young boys, now 6 and 4, I have had days where I am back and forth to school and work no less than three times to each location. This intense juggling between family and work can be exhausting and trying and leads to 1 am mornings to finish everything. I think the biggest issue women face is the ‘internal’ environment ― the way women speak to themselves. I have learned to turn off those negative notions in my head that say you can’t do it.  I have learned to work hard, to work smart and to laugh at myself even harder when things are close to, but not totally perfect. My advice to women is to seek advice and support from other female executives in their company and if you are raising a child with a partner, have an open and ongoing dialog with them about equally sharing the responsibility so both careers can be prioritized. In the end, you can have what you want. You must be able to determine what that means for you.

LB: You’ve clearly made a lot of the right moves at the right time. But tell me about some of the missteps. What are some mistakes have you made in your career? What were some of the key lessons learned?

KF: In digital, we are tasked to be the next generation of thinkers, and our most common missteps are bringing something to market that the consumers are not ready for yet. For example, when I was COO of Logo, we launched a virtual DJ dance party experience in 2007, that floundered and eventually sunset. Fast forward six years and experiences like TurntableFM have launched and are doing quite well. The bitter irony of perfect timing.

LB: What drives you? What motivates you to get out of bed, stay late and / or work on the weekends?

KF: I’ve always had a passion for numbers and solving puzzles. I’m fortunate in this role to take that and extend it into developing and launching new products, experiences, and getting the numbers to work.

I’m lucky in that my role also allows for me to embrace my creative and innovative sides, including encouraging and coaching my team to push the boundaries of content creation and storytelling. This constant state of innovation and working alongside the most amazing team in the industry are my key motivators.

LB: What are three pieces of advice you would give to a young woman interested in leading a large media company someday?

KF: First, I would recommend that women strive to develop a broad base of work experience in order to build a strong tool kit of skills. Second, and this is more a mental exercise, but believe you deserve your success and never stop negotiating for yourself. And third, hire well ― create a flexible organizational chart and never stop advocating for your employees.

Learn more about Kristin:

Name: Kristin Frank

Current City: New York City

Employer & Job Title: General Manager of Digital Media at MTV and VH1

Educational Background: Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, University of Iowa

Previous Work Experience: Senior Vice President, Multiplatform Distribution and COO for Logo

Disclosure: Leslie’s company, JESS3, has worked with MTV in the past.

In a lot of ways, the “under forty” crowd in DC is not only young, but we are also restless. We are restless about where we, as individuals, are in relation to other hustlers in our field. We, as a community, are restless about where we are in relation to other centers of innovation and disruption (namely: Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley). And we, as a city, are restless about where things will net out following the 2012 elections.

Flipping through Washington Life’s 2012 “Young and The Guest List,” is as much about WL’s glossy “who’s who” signature spreads as it is about looking at the leaders — and next generation of leaders — that DC has in its midst.

Jesse and I view our inclusion as not only recognition for years of hard work and participation, but also as a responsibility to this community to continue to support up-and-comers, while also continuing to serve as a shining example of what DC has become. This isn’t your father’s DC (where cigars, back room deals and talking points were the norm). The young, restless and guest-listed are about transparency, innovation and efficiency. We are active in the national debates that impact the areas of technology and privacy. We are also competing with Madison Avenue (and winning) when it comes to servicing some of the biggest brands in the world, boasting clients that range from Google, Intel and Microsoft, to Nike and NBC.

What’s more, many of the guest-listed are innovating in and advancing their fields, from fellow founders Aaron Battalion (Living Social), Jen Consalvo + Frank Gruber (Tech Cocktail), David All (David All Group), Shana Glickfield (Beekeeper Group), Svetlana Legetic (Brightest Young Things) and Steve Ressler (GovLoop) to media powerhouses like Patrick Gavin (POLITICO), Amos Snead (FamousDC), Katharine Zaleski (Washington Post) and Peter Cherukuri (Huffington Post) to social tech powerhouse Andrew Noyes (Facebook), Macon Phillips (The Executive Office of the President) and Mark Drapeau (Microsoft). And a special shout-out to Nicole Siobal, whom I was fortunate enough to meet through one of Jesse’s high school friends almost five years ago — she’s as kind and involved as she is stunning.

And in true awards-season fashion, my acceptance speech must absolutely include the following: I’d like to thank the JESS3 team for all of the hard work and dedication that has helped bring the JESS3 dream to life. It is an honor and pleasure leading such an amazing group of talented and intense people. I’d also like to thank the DC community for fostering an environment of collaboration, frequent gatherings and creativity. And to my family, thank you for teaching me the value of not just hard work, but also teamwork — and for putting up with not hearing from me for weeks on end while Jesse and I were building in the early days, and again in the later days when things started to catch fire. And to Washington Life, thank you for putting such a diverse list together and for giving Jesse and me the excuse to dress up and have such a handsome set of pictures to look back on in fifty years and smile.

In recent interviews, we’ve talked about the lack of women in the technology world, but we haven’t yet touched on the need for more women in leadership roles in academia. In 2009 The White House Project found that women hold just 23% of the leadership roles in academia, this despite the fact that for over a decade women have outnumbered men in college enrollment. My interview today focuses on an individual who is making waves in both pools: tech and academia.

Perry Hewitt is part of the small but impressive club of female Chief Digital Officers (other members include Rachel Sterne and Angela Wei). You may not be familiar with the title of CDO: it’s a relatively new role created to help organizations navigate the world of digital media. Given the complexity of the job, and the whole tool box of skills it requires, it’s a safe bet that anyone carrying around the title is uniquely talented. And if you’re the CDO of Harvard University? There are few higher and more challenging posts out there for a digital strategist.

What’s more, Perry is an incredibly accomplished individual — and one whom I’ve come to look to for modeling JESS3 given her roles at a disruptive agency (Razorfish), a data-driven startup (Crimson Hexagon) and now one of the world’s leading universities (Harvard).

Since joining Harvard nearly three years ago, she has played a key role in some monumental changes at this prestigious school. She oversaw the recent redesign of Harvard’s website, which earned the school an Interactive Media Award—with a perfect score, no less! She has also helped to develop Harvard-related images for alumni and fans on Facebook—of which there are more than one million—to use with the new Timeline layout.

Helping a nearly 400-year-old institution create and maintain an impressive social media presence is no easy task. Not to mention establishing the new role of CDO within the organization. Let’s hear more on this from her…

LB: In a discussion on social media at Harvard, you spoke about the effects of social media on story-telling. How are you and your team telling the story of Harvard? What are you wanting to tell, but haven’t found the right way yet?

PH: Our belief is that individual voices can resonate more than institutional ones — even and perhaps especially for organizations with global reach. Social is an ideal way to share these individual voices, and we use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube EDU to “show, don’t tell.” From a content perspective, we’re doing much more multimedia with projects like Harvard Stories to surface individual experiences of the University. This year, for the first time, President’s Faust’s opening message to the University was delivered as a video — and elicited a lot of positive response, especially from students. Our belief is that social stories allow us to shift the balance from only heavily curated narratives of Harvard to a plethora of personal ones. We do try to “shape” stories by organizing them into categories that we think are important to emphasize. But beyond that, we’re applying good cooking advice: fresh and diverse ingredients, minimal processing.

In terms of where we’d like to go, there’s certainly room for growth around event-based social stories. University-wide events like commencement are fertile ground for social content in a world where everyone is independently creating media around shared experiences.

LB: In the same interview, you discuss the concept of “writing yourself into being.” Can you talk about this process and how you use it in shaping Harvard’s online presence?

PH:The concept of “writing yourself into being” comes from Danah Boyd‘s compelling work on teens and social networks; how teens use public social personae in part to shape who they are or may become. Harvard, like many institutions, had an opportunity to use social tools to surface information from across this large and busy university to tell its story. Rather than funnel through a central communications office in an effort to control all University-wide social content, we chose an approach of aggregating content, syndicating it out through owned channels like our social dashboard or outposts like Twitter and YouTube, and reaping the benefits of amplification.

LB: Can you speak a little bit about how have you navigated Harvard’s nearly 400-year legacy to incorporate social media in its communications and engagement strategies?

PH: Well, frankly it helped that the legacy was in offline and analog channels. Our digital presences were largely a reflection of their analog corollaries just a few years back, and presented an opportunity for us take advantage of the digital-first and social-fueled approaches. At the same time, we of course had and have many faculty, students, and alumni far ahead in these new competencies, so it wasn’t a question of whether we would go there, but how. We benefited from forward-thinking communications approaches from leadership like Christine Heenan that supported experimentation, and research from leaders at places like the Berkman Center. There’s also tremendous advantage conferred by that legacy: 375 years of content. From Harvard’s substantial archive to groundbreaking faculty research, there is a treasure trove of knowledge and ideas to feature and drive engagement through digital, mobile, and social channels.

LB: As the Chief Digital Officer of Harvard, you sit at the table in a position few women hold. Other than you and New York City’s Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne, what other women do you know of that hold the CDO title? What is needed to have more women fill these types of roles?

PH: CDO is a new role with not many people in it, period. The position requires a balance of traditional marketing communications skills and technical experience, and presents a tremendous opportunity for women who are marketing communications leaders with a digital bent. I’ve been fortunate in my prior roles to work with some incredible software engineers, from whom I’ve learned a great deal. I’d strongly recommend that there’s no substitute for hands-on experience in building that balance—it’s a knowledge mix you get in the trenches, not from a lateral move in the C-Suite.

LB: There is a lot of talk about the dearth of women in technology — whether it be through the White House’s recent focus on getting more women and girls in STEM fields or through various discussions and conflicts in the conference, start-up, funding and founder circuit. What do you make of all of it?

PH: It’s no secret that women are underrepresented in technology. In part, it’s a matter of time and mentoring, just as it’s been in lots of other fields. Mentors are invaluable for setting a career on course—and for periodic course correction. Women also have both an opportunity and and obligation to “get under the hood” with any technology they manage—whether that involves problem sets, requirements documents, or personal social accounts. That hands-on experience engenders confidence — and the ability to discern where digital can impart real value rather than be technology for technology’s sake. At Harvard there are many women in leadership roles from President Faust to deans to faculty, and that’s advanced opportunities for others by showing what’s possible.

LB: You’ve worked in the agency world (Razorfish), then you went to a startup (Crimson Hexagon) and now you are in academia at one of the premiere universities in the world (Harvard). How and why did you make the career moves that you did?

PH: I’ve been very fortunate in the opportunities I’ve had, which have enabled me to work with forward-thinking professional services teams, groundbreaking algorithms, and now to be at a world-class university steeped in innovation and tradition. Maintaining a balance of client-side and vendor side experience has been critical—it affords a far deeper understanding of challenges faced on both sides of the table. I’ve tried to always be challenging myself and learning—and most importantly, to do good work with good people. John Lilly from Greylock had a great blog post that summarized this career thread perfectly: “Figure out the people around you that you want to work with for the rest of your life. Figure out the people who are smart & awesome, who share your values, who get things done—and maybe most important, who you like to be with and who you want to help win. And treat them right, always.”

More About Perry:

Name: Perry Hewitt

Online at: @PerryHewitt and PerryHewitt.com

Current City: Boston, MA

Employer & Job Title: Chief Digital Officer for Harvard University

Educational Background: A.B. from Harvard University in Russian and Soviet Studies

Previous Work Experience: VP of Marketing at Crimson Hexagon, Principal at Colechurch Consulting LLC, VP of marketing Razorfish, Company Director of Marketing at ArsDigita, Editor-in-Chief and Director of UX at Harcourt Online, Editor-in-Chief of lotus.com for Lotus Development and Senior Editor at Pearsons, Editorial at Houghton Mifflin.

Disclosure: My company and I are honored to not only call Perry and Harvard friends, but also clients.

In a recent post, I discussed the dearth of women in venture capital and returned to the question of which industry “power seats” need more women. To help steer the conversation in this direction, I’m pleased to introduce you to Donna Wells, the president and CEO of Mindflash.com. She knows first-hand what it takes to be a successful woman in the tech sector, and has spent a lot of time thinking about how the absence of women leaders in venture capital impacts female entrepreneurs and startups. I’ve admired her various leadership roles from afar, but haven’t yet had the opportunity to meet her, still she was gracious enough to share some of her time and insight with me.

This March she’s scheduled to appear on the SXSW panel Becoming a CEO: Lessons From Four Techette Leaders,(and a quick, related plug for my panel on Tech Superwomen: Mentors and Mentees, FTW) but if a trip to Austin isn’t in your near future, read on! Below, she shares why women are naturally primed to be successful in today’s business world, how we should really gauge the success of women in the workforce and what we can do about the lack of female entrepreneurs. Without further ado…

LB: If you were to name a sector or two in which you believe women need more seats, which would they be and why?

DW: Women need more seats in venture capital.  But I’m really suggesting this as a means to the end of getting more female entrepreneurs funded.  A recent study by Global Insight, a leading economic analysis and forecasting firm confirmed what I’ve always believed: VC firms with (at least) one woman partner are 75% more likely to invest in a female founder.

Frankly though, I’ve found female entrepreneurs to be an incredibly resourceful and persistent group. So much so that, until there are more female VC’s, they will simply continue to work around the industry. I see a disproportionate percentage of female founders opting out of the VC route. They’re getting funding from angels and private equity firms or bootstrapping their businesses. Lisa Stone and her co-founders bootstrapped BlogHer, Gina Bianchini bootstrapped Ning, as did Victoria Ransom at Wildfire. Wendy Lea, CEO of GetSatisfaction, bootstrapped her first few startups.

LB: What, if any, distinct traits have you seen fellow female coworkers bring to the workplace? Do you yourself exhibit them? (Why or why not?)

DW: Neuroscientists tell us that women’s brains are wired differently than men’s, and I believe that. Women are network thinkers, they see patterns and connect the dots more readily than men. I think I do that, and I think the women I work with do that. Those skills are very helpful in the world of software. If you’re thinking holistically about your product experience you say, “Hey, we could change our product in this way, but then the second-order effect is X – it will change our marketing, customer service, cost of goods sold in these ways.” I think women are uniquely great at this type of network thinking.

LB: Did you make assumptions when you first started your career that subsequently proved to be wrong? What sort of insights did you gain?

DW: In my twenties, it literally never would have occurred to me that I’d be CEO of a startup software company. Starting out in my career, I assumed that I’d work for one, maybe two, large companies in my entire career.

Growing up, my role models were men who had worked in very large organizations over very long periods of time. My father and grandfather were successful and senior guys at AT&T and Sears Roebuck, respectively. For people of their generation, success meant leading larger and larger teams and budgets. My first job out of business school was with American Express (150,000 employees) and I thought I’d make a career there. What I learned at AmEx, and at the large companies I’ve worked for since (like Charles Schwab and Expedia) is that the challenges that interest me – creating and launching new products – were typically found in the small, out-of-the-main-stream departments. Probably not surprising, then, that I’ve been able to move between large and small companies throughout my career. I’ve been employee #4 and I was employee #9 at Mint.com. So, early in my career, I thought success would be defined by having a huge staff and budget. But my personal experience has been the opposite. I’ve learned more, done more and had more fun while working in small teams with limited resources … and tackling big challenges.

LB: How do you give credit where credit is due?

DW: I think everyone knows the management adage that you should praise publicly. I definitely agree. I’ll give you an example: We recently promoted one of our remote employees. When she became a remote worker nine months ago it wasn’t clear how well she was going to make the transition. She ended up doing a brilliant job. When we decided to promote her I made sure we announced this news to the whole company. Doing so sent several clear messages to the whole team, remote and local, in a way that people really hear and internalize. 1. Watch what she’s doing, that’s what we’re looking for. 2. People who perform at her level get recognized and rewarded. 3. Whether you are working at HQ or remotely, you have the same opportunities at this organization.

And with public recognition, management also gets the benefit of seeing how others react. Whether, after the fact, a manager is approached by someone complaining “It should have been me”, or announcing that they’ll be upping their game to “Be the next one promoted”, s/he now has a unique opportunity to understand that employee’s job satisfaction and career vision … and a rapt audience for a discussion on how their performance could be improved to get to the next level.

LB: Only 6% of Fortune 100 CEOs are women. Have you ever encountered the “Glass Ceiling”? Was it possible to overcome it? How?

DW: I can’t say that I have encountered the glass ceiling in my career. But I’d challenge the assumption that the number of female CEO’s is the right measure of women’s success in the workforce.

There’s a ton of attention paid to who occupies the CEO seat. In part, rightfully so – it’s a tough job. But a significant part of our national focus on who occupies the big chair is just cultural. Americans put an outsized premium on individual achievements. My favorite recent example? The American media’s reaction to the team of Navy Seals who killed Osama Bin Laden.

Here’s a team of 24 men who were on the ground on the day of the operation, supported by hundreds of military and intelligence professionals working over a decade to flush this guy out. Epic, quintessential, and successful teamwork, in anyone’s estimation. What does the American media want to know when President Obama meets with the Seal Team? “Which guy actually shot Osama?” and ”Did the President get to shake his hand?” That is the American bias – we see individuals as heroes, not teams.

I think the better metrics for us to track are:

1. The percentage of Fortune 100 management teams that are women. Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook), Safra Catz (Oracle), Padmasree Warrior (Cisco), Susan Wojcicki, Marissa Mayer and Stephanie Tilenius (Google), Katie Cotton and Jen Bailey (Apple) are all drivers of their company’s strategy and success.  None happen to be CEO’s, but we should not discount their impact or influence just because they don’t hold that title.

Typically, the CEO leads the company’s Vision, Strategy, Financing, Board, and serves as the public face of the company. These are key functions … but not ones that everyone wants to take on. Moreover, these roles are necessary, but not sufficient, to ensure organizational success. If the majority of our most senior female executive talent excels in executional functions (as I suspect they do), then the key metric we should be tracking is their success in rising to the top of their area of excellence and interest … be it Operations, Finance, Administration, Marketing or (dare we say it) Human Resources.

So, if only 6% of Fortune 100 CEOs are women, but 50% of their management teams are women – we’re good. I think we should be less concerned about the “glass ceiling” blocking women’s path to the CEO chair than we are about it’s blocking women from getting into top management roles that leverage their unique capabilities.

2. The percentage of technology startups that are led by women. Here, the gender of the Founder/CEO matters, as it drives the investors’ decision to invest. That number is currently just 8%, and IMO that’s a clear signal that we have barriers to entry for female entrepreneurs. Technology startups are the primordial ooze for innovation and job creation in any economy. If women are not equally represented in this critical sector, then we are sub-optimizing our national resources and dramatically under-leveraging our national capabilities. As I mentioned earlier, the single most important place where women need “more seats” is in the VC industry… in order to increase the number of gifted female entrepreneurs who are able to secure the funding necessary to bring their genius to reality

LB: What’s the worst business advice you’ve ever received?

DW: “Don’t’ join Mint” and “Don’t join Mindflash.com.”  I’m delighted to say I ignored both.

Friends that advised me against joining Mint in 2007 were certain that Americans were not ready to give their online banking credentials to a website (and the eight whole employees behind it) that was neither a household name nor FDIC insured. In contrast, I thought there were enough 20- and 30-somethings stressed about their money … and comfortable sharing much more than their bank balances on the web … that we could build a large user base by simply providing them peace of mind and control via intelligent and mobile access to their finances. In this case, I was right. 2 million users registered for our free service within 2 years. We were earning $3 per user when we sold the company for $100 per user to our major competitor, Intuit, in 2009.

In 2009 a number of Sand Hill Road VC’s, Super Angels and Silicon Valley lawyers advised me to walk away from what I instinctively knew to be an extraordinary opportunity at  Mindflash.com.  They couldn’t get beyond the company’s unusual financing structure.  Eighteen months in, the fact that the same people are coming back to me asking to invest in Mindflash.com, already tells me that I might have been right to ignore their advice.

LB: What key mistakes have you made in your career? What were some of the key lessons learned?

DW: The biggest mistakes I’ve made are in hiring and firing.  And I’d challenge any exec that says otherwise.

A bad hire is not just a drain on your time and productivity, but demotivating to your best performers. It’s cancerous and a drain on the entire organization. I wish I’d fired half a dozen bad hires faster throughout my career.

Hiring too slowly is equally bad. My most painful memory? In the first year I was at Mint, content was a big part of our on-the-cheap marketing strategy and there wasn’t a blog post we put out that I didn’t write or edit. I was doing my CMO job during the day, and spending nights and weekends as our blogger. Initially, I thought that was the only solution. Heck, we even earned Webby accolades. But, after 6 months, I realized it wasn’t scalable and I started looking for a Blog Master. Once I hired Lee Sherman, it was like going from black-and-white Kansas to TechniColor Munchkinland. Overnight, the blog ran so much better and was so much more efficient. He knew how to hire writers, manage content and edit – all of which I didn’t – and he introduced infographics and tools that took the blog to a different level.

The lesson there is that if you work longer and harder you might get there, but it’s more likely that you won’t. Now I’m now always looking for opportunities where spending more money vs. more of my time will have a disproportionate effect on the success of my company.

LB: What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again?

DW: Nothing.  I’m having a great ride. I’ve had bad days and jobs I wish I hadn’t taken, but looking back, it’s only because of every job and every experience I’ve had that I’m where I am right now.

LB: Only 8% of technology startups are led by women. What steps can women take to close this gap?

DW: Go to engineering school. If you can’t go to engineering school, get into product management so you’re as close to the engineers as you can be.

Whatever your passion is, be on the bleeding edge of technology in that space.  If you’re into market research, get into automated usability research. If you’re into customer service, be the company’s expert on community platforms.  If you’re an artist, get into web design and UX.  We’re on a one-way street and we’re going 100 miles an hour.  Get onboard and put your foot on the gas.  Rip off the rear view mirror and throw it out the window.  Commit.

Learn more about Donna:

Name: Donna Wells

Hometown: San Diego, CA

Current City: Portola Valley, CA

Employer & Job Title: President and CEO, Mindflash.com

Educational Background: BS from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business

Previous Work Experience: CMO at Mint.com, SVP of Marketing at Expedia, VP of Marketing at Intuit, CMO at myCFO, VP of Marketing at Charles Schwab, and various roles at American Express.

Leslie is the President, COO and Co-Founder of JESS3. LinkIn with her here or follow her @lesliebradshaw.

Amy Jo Martin, another fabulous woman I met through my work with Nike Women’s Make Yourself Movement, believes in one thing above all else: INNOVATION.

By refusing to accept the adage “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”, she’s been able to bring innovation to her career. In her personal life, she’s innovated by taking a more business-minded approach to assessing her performance. (Something you can hear more about in her TEDx talk.) And she’s working to create innovations in social media that can create lasting good.

Given this effort it makes sense that she was involved in the recent unveiling of Nike’s new FuelBand, a product designed to revolutionize the way people work out and connect with others. You can follow her on Twitter, where she has a cool 1.2 million followers, or read about Amy’s company, Digital Royalty, plus her thoughts on social media and sports, at her blog.

Let’s hear her explain the importance of innovation in her own words…

LB: Did you have any female role models / mentors when growing up? Do you currently have any female role models / mentors?

AJM: I’ve never isolated role models based on gender. I have more male role models due to the mere fact that I’ve done business with more of them and they’re leaders within the verticals I work. Of those, Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com is an entrepreneur and personal friend that I have a great deal of respect for. Tony has innovated the way business can be done, by focusing on his employees and building a dynamic company culture. Another visionary role model and personal friend is Shannon Lee. Through her passion she’s been able to innovate her father’s legacy and keep his spirit alive. She continues to evolve the way his inspiration is delivered. I also keep a close eye on Sheryl Sandberg and Cathie Black, because they are always making strides in the business world.

LB: Who has influenced you most?

AJM: My father. His drive and work ethic is undoubtedly the main influence that has driven my results. Thank goodness I inherited those traits. My father has an unmatched ability to focus and stay focused.

LB: What drives you? What motivates you to get out of bed, stay late and / or work on the weekends?

AJM: I’m addicted to change and therefore I get bored easily. Results have always motivated me, which has led me to developing ways to measure things that historically have not been measurable.

Innovation is another motivator. I’ve never understood why people do things simply because “that’s the way they’ve always been done.” More times than not, I’ve found there’s a better method if the situation is approached with a free, fearless and nontraditional mindset. Building something truly unique has always motivated me, whether that was a fort in my backyard or my company today.

I’ve always believed that great innovation and good ideas naturally spawn from a passion in doing what you enjoy most. For me, my schedule has always been hectic and may never be not-hectic but that’s ok because I’m doing what I love. Sometimes my most creative ideas come during strides on the treadmill or sprints to a gate at the airport. It’s because of this that I ignore the typical “work week” time frames. The same excitement that allows me to be creative is the same enthusiasm that has me welcoming a busy schedule and running a business. Having a love for what you do will get you going faster in the morning than any cup of coffee or morning alarm.

LB: What key personal characteristics do you see in yourself that you’ve found especially critical in achieving success?

AJM: I’ve personally found that I succeed when my passion, purpose and skill collide. After managing a team of people at my company, I believe this formula works with almost anyone. Where those three critical things collide, freedom and happiness resides. People generate their best results when they feel free and happy.

I tend to ask forgiveness, versus permission. However, I bring my results with me when asking forgiveness. I was once (or twice) referred to as a renegade but I prefer to call it “coloring outside the lines”. However, rarely do I cross the line. (In my opinion.)

You need a ton of energy to do well. I find that one’s ability to keep going when most would take a break or give up is the differentiating factor. Life is all about pushing yourself one step further than you think you’re capable of.

Simple hard work and focus. Someone once told me, “Don’t let anything rent space in your mind for free.” It makes perfect sense. There’s limited square footage up there. It’s valuable real estate. The more I learn to control my thoughts, the more free I feel.

LB: How would you describe your approach to the world?

AJM: Your personality, confidence and the way you conduct yourself defines your brand. It can always be improved. I believe the way we live our days, is the way we live our lives. Some people say they have a thirst for life. They’re excited about every day and they’re prepared to look the bad and the good straight in the face and greet it all with a smile. I like to think I’m one of those people. I value the daily moments and appreciate when I have the opportunity to meet new people and embark on spontaneous entrepreneurial adventures.

LB: What values are you committed to?

AJM: My personal mission statement: To inspire people to think differently about the way they live their lives.

I’m committed to being an advocate for innovation, from business to personal innovation. I’ve recently started to wonder why we don’t run our lives more like a business. In business, nearly everything is accountable and measurable. If a company stops making money, it will go out of business. If a person loses passion or purpose, they will stop making progress toward their own goals. What’s the ROI on your day? We have to show up for life each day like we show up for work. After spending the past several years innovating other people’s lives and brands, I decided to apply my process of innovation to my own life by conducting a Personal Brand Audit, establishing a Personal Board of Directors and identifying Key Performance Indicators for all aspects of my life. I look forward to sharing my quarterly and annual reports as I journey down the road of innovating my life one day at a time.

LB: What do you like most about what you do?

AJM: Building a company culture with my team that’s like nothing else out there. Defying the work “norm” is refreshing and freeing.

Being an entrepreneur also has its perks. You have the ability to design your own day. Owning your own business also means that work never stops, specifically within the social media  industry. You owe it to yourself to Innovate Your Day, even if that means taking conference calls at the top of a mountain after a morning hike. You either learn to innovate your lifestyle and adapt or life won’t be as fulfilling. I write and speak about this quite often and it’s so inspiring when people provide feedback and tell me they’ve adopted a similar mentality.

LB: How do you inspire the people you work with / work for you?

AJM: Daily, I’m exposing my faults and weaknesses to my team but I try to share what I have learned along the way and lead by example. Everyone on my team knows they are personally responsible for the culture we’re building and for teaching each other. They’re encouraged to create an environment that will allow them to easily inspire themselves, because everyone is busy.

LB: What does empowerment mean to you?

AJM: Confidence and empowerment are cousins in my opinion. Empowerment comes from within and typically it’s stemmed and fostered by self-assurance. To feel empowered is to feel free and that’s when people do their best work. You can’t fake confidence or empowerment.

LB: What, if anything, drives you nuts about male coworkers?

AJM: It’s not a specific male coworker trait but I’ve noticed many successful businessmen have a sense of entitlement. However, the people around them have to enable this and play along in an effort for entitlement to surface.

I believe there are things called Innovation Allergies. “We can’t do that because it’s not the way we’ve always done it.” Or “what if it doesn’t work?” These allergies have been banned in my office and are often determining factors for who we chose to work with.

LB: Have you ever encountered the “Glass Ceiling” ? Was it possible to overcome it? How?

AJM: I’ve definitely seen a male-dominated work world coming from a background in sports as a young professional female. I didn’t let this detail sink in or dictate my actions. I figured it was a lot better for me to use my time thinking about ways I could positively add to the equation or ways I could reinvent, than it would have been for me to sit back and wonder why more males than females were sitting in boardroom meetings. Ironically, Digital Royalty is opposite of what I faced in the corporate world. We have a predominantly female group. It’s not because we have any other sort of bias, but because we don’t hire on the grounds of gender.

LB: How do you manage work / life balance? Do you find this balance more difficult as a woman?

AJM: In 2011, I flew on 210 flights and was averaging about 4 ½ hours of sleep each night. I constantly had people telling me I needed to find “balance” in my life and slow down, which to me, was like nails on a chalkboard. I am allergic to slowing down. I believe that the infamous “balance baseline” means that you have to get back to a place where you were before. As human beings, we are constantly changing and evolving, and our point of “balance” is always shifting. In order to innovate your personal life and business, you must always be moving forward, not backwards. In a way, I find “balance” too regressive versus progressive. “Balance” is overrated.

Rather than trying to achieve “balance” I focus on my intent and working toward purpose in my life. I call this combination of skill, passion and purpose, “Orthogonal Bliss.” Orthogonal thinking leads to innovation. To innovate, you must inspire others to see the value so they embrace their own lives with passion/purpose and share it with others.

I’m not sure that it’s harder to balance work with life as a woman because 1) we’ve been innately gifted to multi-task and 2) there are many men who have found themselves in the same teeter-totter situation.

LB: How do you deal with uncertainty? How do you approach the unknown?

AJM: With innovation and social media, the unknown is the only known. I thrive when navigating through uncharted waters because there are no rules. Experimenting leads to best practices. You can bank on your past results for confidence but never expect the past to reach out and magically deliver you to your future goals.

LB: What key mistakes have you made in your career? What were some of the key lessons learned?

AJM: For the past two years I’ve been so focused on helping brands and people increase their own influence. Little did I know at the time, that I was neglecting my own purpose and passion. It soon became very apparent that I had a purpose problem. Which led me to wonder why we don’t run our personal lives more like a business. If a business isn’t profitable, it will fail. If a person loses passion and purpose, they will stop making progress toward their own goals and will be left unfulfilled.

At this point, I decided I was going to treat my own life just as I did my business, and focus on Innovating my own Life. I conducted a Personal Brand Audit, established a Personal Board of Directors and identified Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for all aspects of my life, from family to health, community, friends and my career. My metric of measurement is Return on Innovation (ROI). I am still a work in progress and only a few months into this new-life formula, but moving in the right direction.

LB: What do you enjoy most about social media?

AJM: I have a social dream that one day we rise up and embrace social communication channels to make social good more scalable. We need to remove our marketing hats, put our entertaining hashtags and attempts at building viral campaigns aside and start taking these new communication channels, which reach more than a billion people, more seriously. Then, we can change the world. That’s what should happen next. I see progress in this direction everyday but it all starts with education.

I believe that social media allows for making the act of good scalable in unprecedented ways. First off, the rate of committing acts of good is only bound by the speed of technology. Also, accountability and transparency spin narcissistic acts into selfless acts. The peer-to-peer nature of the open network pushes value to the top and it’s a truly open market of ideas. Consensus is the only authority. The accessibility and lack of boundaries that social channels offer, create an equal opportunity space. Gatekeepers (editors, authority figures, governments) and physical boundaries (distance) have lost their relevancy to a network where, if you show value, you and your ideas are granted global access.

Storytelling. What made me initially fall in love with social media from the very beginning was the ability to tell stories. Social media provides fans exclusive access, behind the velvet red ropes, to their favorite celebrities, athletes and brands. Most recently, I had the unique opportunity to be invited by Nike to attend the exclusive launch of the Nike FuelBand in [entity display="New York" type="place" active="true" key="ny/new-york"]New York[/entity]. My mission was: to leverage my influence of more than 1.2 million Twitter followers and tell the story virtually, as it unfolded. While in attendance with media from around the world and A-list athletes and celebrities including Lance Armstrong, I was armed with my laptop and my iPhone and through exclusive tweet-by-tweet coverage, I did my best to give my followers virtual front-row seats to the unveiling event. This isn’t the first time Nike made a full-court press for an announcement or epic sporting event, as I was also grateful to have the opportunity to tell the virtual story at the Women’s World Cup Finals in Germany and the announcement of the Nike Mag shoe back in September last year.

It’s moments like these that really get me passionate about social media. Going back to the roots of what social media is designed for- to share a story and make an emotional connection.

LB: What are you doing to defy the norm?

AJM: I am in the process of writing my first book, which is slatted to hit bookshelves late summer. For the past two years, I’ve shared my story virtually, tweet-by-tweet via social media. Lucky you! Ha. With this book, I plan to share the valuable lessons I’ve learned about business, social media, the process of innovation and life in general. What makes this book different than the typical social media book is that it’s more about innovation and I am conducting a social experiment, by encouraging my followers to contribute and create the content within my book. Stay tuned for further direction and I truly look forward to this next chapter of my life.

LB: What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again?

AJM: I wouldn’t do anything differently because then I wouldn’t be at this exact point in my journey and I’m pretty happy being right here at the moment.

LB: What three pieces of advice would you offer young women looking to create a career similar to yours?

AJM: Integrity with yourself is the basis of your integrity in the world. This is something my life coach tells me all the time. The key is: don’t fall out of integrity with yourself.

Being an entrepreneur is like the Chicago weather. If you don’t like the way your business day is going, wait 15 minutes.

There are major ups and downs, just roll with them and learn from both.

I’d tell them to learn to push their own buttons and motivate themselves. You have to figure out what makes you tick because everyone is busy and you can’t rely on others to inspire you.

If you believe you are inferior, you will be. Many women still subscribe to the idea that the playing field isn’t level and they think they’re helping the perception but in fact they’re actually substantiating the mentality.

Being a woman isn’t a business handicap. At the end of the day, we’re all graded by a performance card. If you believe you have a disadvantage you will. The path of performance is the only path that gets you places. Nothing else.

Learn more about Amy:

Name: Amy Jo Martin

Hometown: Green River, Wyoming

Current City: Phoenix, Arizona

Employer & Job Title: Speaker, Author, CEO and Founder, Digital Royalty

Educational Background: Graduate from Arizona State University – Business and Marketing. Full ride academic scholarship.

Previous Work Experience: Before founding Digital Royalty, Director of Digital Media & Research for the NBA’s Phoenix Suns

As fearless women go, Tara Hunt is hard to beat. Years ago, at the end of a relationship and after losing her job, Tara chose not to see anguish and defeat, but instead saw an opportunity to create her own future. Her decision to start her first business, Rogue Strategies, set her career in motion. While her career has developed over the years, one thing has remained the same: Tara has retained her unique way of viewing not only herself, but also the world. For the past few years, she’s been sharing these views on her blog at tarahunt.com (formerly HPC).

Her most recent endeavor is as CEO of Buyosphere.com, an online shopping community she co-founded in 2011. Originally created as a way to keep track of your online shopping history, Buyosphere has recently gained attention for making some big changes, which she explained in her interview with Fast Company last week. This “new-again” service is now a place for online shoppers to ask and answer shopping and product questions. It’s a forum for the shopping savvy, and those who need their help.

I was lucky enough to cross paths with her at the FOWA conference in London in 2007 and later had the chance to work with her on the Nike Women “Make Yourself Movement” (just like last week’s featured More Seat’er, Amy Jo Martin). Having admired her since the day we met, I was thrilled to have a chance to pick her brain. In my conversation with her, she opens up about the challenges she has faced in the past, the uncertainty she feels about the future and the importance of finding a champion.

LB: For nearly a decade, you’ve started a number of your own ventures — from consulting, to software. What about your background gave you the experience and courage to go after starting your own companies?

TH: If there is anything in my background that I could attribute to the courage to do my own thing it is my father. He was raised with nothing in a small town in Alberta and worked his own way through vet school then moved back to that small town and started his own practice. With nothing. No venture capital. No trust fund. He just knew what he wanted to do and made sacrifices and worked hard to get there.

I remember the first time I set out on my own. I was laid off from my job in advertising and had to figure out what I would do next. I had just gone through a break-up, had a young son and bought my first condo. I strapped on my rollerblades and took to the trails until I couldn’t move. I laid in the grass in the park and thought to myself, “This is my opportunity to define my own future.” I had a moment of clarity where I realized that being employed by someone else’s business was no more stable than starting my own. That day I ceased to be able to put my career in someone else’s hands.

LB: What has been the biggest challenge of working in the male-dominated technology industry and how do you overcome it?

TH: The biggest challenge is also my greatest strength: I don’t think “like a guy”. When I moved to San Francisco in 2005 the term Web 2.0 had just been coined to describe a second wave of growth in online business (as well as consumer interest). I saw this new wave as an opportunity for the web to really become a platform for human growth as much as business and I wrote about it extensively.

I was accused of being a “digital utopian” for it and have been told over the years that my theories and approaches are too “touchy feely”. But in a sea of voices where everyone was talking about business return on investment (ROI) and campaigns and targets, I stood out and gained a great following because I was talking about creating relationships and building social capital. Now practically everyone uses the “touchy feely” language, so I feel proud that I am identified as one of the early advocates for this.

LB: What advice do you have for young women who would like to start careers in the tech startup world?

TH: Do it. But do it knowing that you are still paving the way and it isn’t going to be easy. And don’t do that mentor thing that people talk about. Get champions. Enlist people who have clout in the startup world to advocate for you. That’s how the boys get ahead – strong connections to people who will go to bat for them. We need to do the same. It isn’t about advice (though that is good too), it’s about advocacy.

LB: What do women in the tech startup world need to do more of? Less of?

TH: As I hinted at above, we need more advocates. We need champions. We need less of people talking about all of the reasons that women aren’t getting funded and getting ahead in tech and actually take responsibility for it. One of my amazing champions (who is also a mentor) is Nilofer Merchant. She puts time into my growth, but she also puts time into championing me. She put money into my company and introduces me to important people in her contacts that I could never get in front of on my own. We need more of that. Nilofer had a great idea: every (usually male) angel/VC/influencer in tech who has written a blog post or spoken about their commitment to this matter should commit to championing 5 women each year. I love that idea. I bet everyone would benefit.

LB: Your SlideShare decks are infamous for being awesome and having lots of honest content. What have you found resonates most with your audience? What motivates you to produce them?

TH: My first foray into this extreme openness was with a TEDx talk I did in February. I was scared out of my mind. I called the 18 minute talk “The Unclear Path” and decided that I would just take a huge risk and talk about all of the fear that I’m feeling and why I continue down this path even though I think it is killing me. Mostly I wrote this talk because I couldn’t talk about anything else. The feeling was all-consuming. It was a bit cathartic.

But something interesting happened. It struck a chord. I started to get oodles of emails from entrepreneurs, artists, academics and everyone else who has taken a path not sanctioned by the 9-to-5 job with benefits world we live in. They thanked me and told me their stories. And so I decided I’d tell the next iteration at another conference I was asked to speak at. This one was called “So, you wanna do a startup, eh?” and was tailored for a Canadian audience.

This one was quickly passed around the startup community and I not only received emails, but invitations and questions and lots of kudos. It was less about my own fear and overcoming it and more about what I’ve learnt and how the lies they tell us about startups are damaging to our psyches as entrepreneurs (for example, very few startups get funding at all, but if you read the tech blogs, you’d think everyone gets money thrown at them). So many people wrote to thank me for exposing this so they no longer felt like they were doing everything wrong.

My most recent one is another iteration – one that talks about the mistakes I’ve personally made along the way. I started by talking about facing the fear, moved onto illustrating the reality of startup life and then talked about how I have stumbled and grown from it. And the latest presentation had over 250,000 views in less than a week. I’m still getting messages about a month later.

I think it resonates with people because we are taught in business to keep a strong facade alive, so nobody talks about the mistakes and pains and fear. I stuck my neck out and talked about it (my greatest strength as my biggest challenge again), which opened up the conversation and made so many others feel validated. I’m not alone. The whole process has been incredibly cathartic for me. More than I ever thought it would.

LB: Women clearly need “More Seats” in the tech startup world. What do you see as the main barriers and the main steps needed to get there?

TH: I still question whether we really want to get more seats or whether, as Cindy Gallop talks about, we actually want to make our own table.

I have to change the majority of my approach and way of thinking to be “successful” in the tech startup world. I just picked up a bunch of sales books to retrain my brain to think in a “getting to yes” sort of way. I was reading one of these books on the train the other day and thought to myself, “WTH am I doing?”

I don’t know. Ask me this again in a few years when I have a distanced perspective on it. I’d like to say that we need to balance femininity and masculinity to get there and that the business world is changing to embrace more feminine approaches. But I really don’t experience the same level of commitment from the business world on changing values as I’m putting into changing mine.

(On a sidenote, I’m not bitter about this. I’m just trying to figure out the actual answer to this for my own peace of mind.)

LB: Have you ever encountered the “Glass Ceiling”? Was it possible to overcome it? How?

TH: I can’t say I have. I haven’t had enough patience to stay within a large organization long enough to advance in ranks. That’s the beauty of working for myself. There are no false hierarchies.

LB: What, if any, distinct traits have you seen fellow female coworkers bring to the workplace?

TH: I am one of those people that believe that women and men DO have different approaches and perspectives on the world. I also believe this is due to a mix of socialized and inherent qualities. But there are many shades of grey here.

In general, women bring an honest and thought out approach to work. We are more risk-averse. There are many studies that show that women bring a more conservative outlook to a business plan. It’s probably why more women-led businesses survive and thrive over the years. But I’m sure that without some “cowboy” attitudes, we aren’t pushing our ideas far enough.

Another trait I’ve witnessed over and over again is the ability to empathize with the customer. When everyone is talking about the business needs, it’s usually the woman who asks, “How will this effect the customer’s experience?” It’s important to balance the needs of the customer and the needs of the business.

LB: What do you like most about what you do?

TH: I used to answer this question saying, “The ability to sleep in,” but that luxury is long gone. LOL. I think what I like most is my ability to control my own future. Of course there are tons of unknowns and external forces at work, but at least I can control how much input and the direction of that input. And I learn from this every single day.

LB: What’s the worst business advice you’ve ever received?

TH: Fund yourself with credit cards. I got myself into incredible debt years ago that took me 6 years to climb out of because of this. I should have listened to my father instead, who said, “If you can’t pay your credit card balance at the end of the month, don’t use it.”

LB: What values are you committed to?

TH: Openness. Honesty. And fairness. I still believe in a non-zero sum world even though most evidence points towards it being an unreasonable desire.

LB: What key mistakes have you made in your career? What were some of the key lessons learned?

TH: I mentioned one earlier. I spent too much money up front and racked up credit card debt that crippled my growth for many years going forward. It’s behind me now, but to this day I keep 1 credit card with a $1000 limit. Everything else is cash. Lesson learned.

Another one is not to wait until YOU think the time is right. The time will never be right. The time is whenever you decide it will be. I’ve missed way too many windows waiting for the right time to do things.

LB: Like many other women, including my mother, you and I have both have started a venture with our significant others at some point. For those in the middle of it or about to jump in, what advice do you have around dos / don’ts?

TH: Funny enough, even though things didn’t end well for my co-founded with significant other venture (Citizen Agency), I would do it again someday. But what I’d do different is that I’d definitely make more time for my own personal needs. I wasn’t doing ANYTHING on my own when I was working with my SO. I didn’t exercise. I didn’t hang out with my friends enough. I certainly didn’t take care of my own mental health. You also need to sit down and talk about separating work from personal as much as possible. Never take work disagreements personally (or take them home). And never bring personal disagreements into the workplace. I’d also advise having some sort of separation at work. If you can, work on different projects and in different departments. If you are both in charge of the overall business, take on different responsibilities and define them well. This advice also works for any partnership.

LB: Advice for women wanting to start their own technology company?

TH: The only thing that matters at the end of the day is finding product/market fit. The only thing. And it is your job to get your company to that point. Raising money, hiring people, marketing, user experience, etc. – all of the other stuff is what helps you get to product/market fit.

LB: Advice for women seeking venture funding?

TH: Learn to “speak VC”. I still don’t know exactly what that means but I know that I don’t speak it fluently and a big part of it is because I’m not sales trained. I’m too emotionally wound up in my own company. I’m working on that right now, but it’s really difficult.

And find a champion. I can’t stress that enough.

Learn more about Tara:

Name: Tara Hunt

Hometown: Sundre, Alberta, Canada

Current City: Montreal, Quebec

Employer & Job Title: Buyosphere.com, Co-Founder & CEO

Educational Background: B.A. Communications & Cultural Studies

Previous Work Experience: Intuit, Citizen Agency, Riya.com (Like.com), Human Resources Professionals Association, Rogue Strategies, MGM Communications, Maxx Petroleum

We are coming back strong heading into the holidays here at More Seats with one of the industry’s most involved and tenacious web hosts, Shira Lazar. Not only is Shira a powerhouse in her own right, but she is also a pioneer in the field. Many have dabbled in vlogging, but few have stuck it out and brought immense value along the way. When I think of the modern correspondent, I think of Shira.

Like early More Seats interviewee Svetlana Legetic, Shira is building her own media company and reporting on the way media continues to evolve all at the same time. Just days ago, TIME named a woman as their CEO (Laura Lang) and MDC named a woman as their first managing director (Anne Bologna); just over a month ago IBM named a woman as their CEO (Virginia Rometty). I see Shira as not the next class of media / tech executives, but as a young woman inspiring future generations of women in their field. Let’s learn about how she’s making it happen.

Background Information:

Name: Shira Lazar

Hometown: Montreal, Quebec

Current City: Los Angeles, CA

Employer & Job Title: Host/ EP WhatsTrending.com – Co-founder Disrupt/Group

Educational Background: BA Communications (TV/Video Production), Emerson College

Previous Work Experience: Online host/vlogger/blogger extraordinaire including the Grammy Live 2010/2011 and Oscars 2011 digital experience

LB: What is up next for you?

SL: We’re busy continuing to build What’s Trending into a bigger platform and show. We want to own the mindshare around the stories and topics everyone is sharing online with a layer of editorial from influencers and celebs we follow around those subjects. Beyond the blog, we are continuing the show I host, What’s Trending, live every Tuesday at 1pm et/10am pt. We would love to go daily at a certain point, and build shows and blogs around other verticals including politics, tech, music, fashion, etc.

I also host a weekly show called Partners Project, which is like “Inside the Actors Studio” for YouTube stars. We’ve shot practically 50 episodes over the past year. As YouTube becomes a bigger platform for content creators big and small, we want to become the place where people can discover who’s hot and who they should be subscribing to.

LB: What has been the most meaningful project you’ve done in the last six months?

SL: Definitely What’s Trending has been the biggest project I’ve ever taken on as talent and an entrepreneur. I now have employees and people who work hard and are just as passionate as me to see this grow. That reminds me of how special it is every single day. We built the entire HD live streaming studio from scratch ourselves in April and launched the show and blog over one month. The entire project is very much our baby! Whether it be through our weekly live show, specials like #StopBullying in October or events with the Webby’s and the Emmy’s, we want to be a hub on and offline that engages in a real way with the community and creates a global impact. One of our viewers described us as “CNN meets MTV”. There’s definitely a gap in media and broadcasting right now that we are filling. Now it’s just about working hard to grow it into something bigger.

LB: What have been the most memorable interviews you’ve done and why?

SL: One of my favorite things to do is interview people. Through my “work” I’ve had the opportunity to interview everyone from YouTube stars to entrepreneurs, musicians and movie stars. One of my favorites on What’s Trending was rapper, Lupe Fiasco. He’s passionate about his music and its message. He basically said on our show that he thought Obama was the biggest terrorist in America. That created a firestorm of media response around the interview. He was even brought on O’Reilly to talk about the statement he made on our show. Snoop Dogg was also a highlight. He was so cool and thoughtful about where music is headed and engaging with his fans using social media. He even had his 12-year old daughter, Cori B, perform for the first time on our show. When Perez Hilton picked up the video, he said it was her first “TV appearance”. That was a big deal for us. In the future you won’t know or be able to distinguish what content was made primarily for the web, mobile or TV. It will be platform agnostic. Good content is good content!

LB: Who do you look to in the field for inspiration and mentorship? Is there a gender trend in who you look up to?

SL: I didn’t necessarily look towards role models based on whether they were male or female. My father, step-dad and step-brother who created American Apparel, were all entrepreneurs. They all created their own job titles and companies from scratch. Being around that growing up, definitely gave me an entrepreneurial edge. When I’m passionate and feel that instinct to move forward on a project, I listen and learn but don’t take no for an answer. My mother was always a big influence on my life as well. She still works full time as a coordinator for children with special needs. She always emphasized the importance of learning and adventure no matter what stage you’re at. My parents divorced when I was very young, and she would always remind me to do my own thing and follow my own path (independently as a woman as well).

There are some incredible women who I follow consistently, look up to and sometimes even get to reach out to for advice right now in my life: Porter Gale (former Virgin America CMO), Debbie Landa (founder, Dealmaker Media) Suzanne Stefanac (Founder/curator, AFI DigiFest), Randi Zuckerberg (founder R to Z media), Amanda Rose (social good online guru, founder of Twestival), Amy Jo Martin (social media/marketing expert), Leslie Bradshaw (co-founder, JESS3 nothing to do with this post!), Claire Diaz-Ortiz (Social Innovation at Twitter), Maggie Doyne (Blink Now Foundation) and Kara Swisher (co-founder AllThingsD.com) among so many others!

LB: Who has influenced you most?

SL: Professionally, I’ve been influenced by a myriad of people. There are definitely individuals like Oprah, Barbara Walters, Katie Couric and more recently Ryan Seacrest who have become the great broadcasters and storytellers of my generation.  They also used their voice to evolve into bigger brands and a platform for other talent. I’m also inspired by leaders and entrepreneurs like Arianna Huffington, Richard Branson, Tim O’Reilly, Zappos.com‘s Tony Hseih who have changed industries and created movements and communities through their work.

LB: What drives you? What motivates you to get out of bed, stay late and / or work on the weekends?

SL: There’s this deeply connected passion and oneness I have with what I do. It’s how I express myself. It’s my art. When you take that away from someone, they aren’t whole. When I do what I do, I feel whole. That fire is what keeps me doing what I do no matter the ups or downs. Before I became friends with Tony Hsieh, I saw his keynote at SXSW in 2009. Connectedness and being part of something bigger than yourself was featured on one of his slides based on frameworks of happiness. That really resonated with me. I don’t do what I do necessarily for myself, but to hopefully inspire, entertain and make someone feel good or happy. Using video and words to do that is awesome and powerful. Technology now allows me to tell stories and connect with people in so many different ways- that constant evolution is something that excites and inspires me to continue challenging the medium and industry.

LB: What values are you committed to?

SL: Hard work, patience, endurance, openness, integrity, empathy, loyalty, smiles and fun!

LB: Where do you turn to for insights? Any particular pieces of content resonate with you?

SL: Fast Company, Harvard Business Journal, TheDailyLove.com, Mashable, AllThingsD.com, Seth Godin, Malcolm Gladwell, New York Times, The Wallstreet Journal and Time.

Videos from awesome women everyone woman should watch and because I’m a TED junkie:

How to succeed? Get more sleep by Arianna Huffington

Make love, not porn by Cindy Gallop

We have too few female leaders by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg

LB: What, if any, distinct traits have you seen fellow female coworkers bring to the workplace? Do you yourself exhibit them? (Why or why not?)

SL: There are recent reports that more women are on social media than men.  I believe that’s because women are inherently communicators and social media plays perfectly to that. We’re also naturally inclined to multi-task, having to take care of family, home life and work as well. I like to say I exhibit those skills. While some may call it DADD (digital attention deficit disorder), I call it multi-tasking!

I think it’s a responsibility once you’re in a decision-making position to give advice and be a mentor to other women who have questions and need help. The fact is, that currently there are more men making those decisions and signing the checks. Arianna Huffington and Sheryl Sandberg has really broken that mold. I want to see more women there. When I’m looking for investment for my next project, it would be awesome to say that I spoke to a lot of female VC’s and entrepreneurs who helped me get to that next step. Right now, unfortunately that’s not the case.

LB: What was your first job? What did it teach you that remains with you today?

SL: Way back when I was 15, I was an “animator” for parties, like Bar and Bat Mitzvah’s. I had to get people to have fun and get on the dance floor. People laugh when I tell them that. I had to be able to connect with people of all ages and get them motivated to be engaged and have fun. You can say I do that a lot now too!

LB: Did you make assumptions when you first started your career that subsequently proved to be wrong? What sort of insights did you gain?

SL: At every point, you think there’s a certain path or strategy to take. Whenever you reach that certain goal, you look back and realize you would have never predicted that path necessarily. It happens time and time again. You need to go into situations and strive for the best with a goal in mind, but be open to whatever may does come your way. My good friend Duke Stump, who was the CMO for Seventh Generation, taught me the whole concept of putting things through your own personal filter, which allows you to easily say yes or no to certain opportunities and decide which fit your overall vision. He has also describes the people and businesses that really connect as Bonfire Brands—a brand that has soul, builds community and draws people in, like a bonfire, encouraging them to sit around that fire to discuss their shared experiences, values and desires.

LB: Have you ever encountered the “Glass Ceiling”? Was it possible to overcome it? How?

SL: There have definitely been so many highs and lows. The social media community and my own staff who support my original vision every single day, remind me how important what we’re doing is. No leader has ever accomplished or innovated without hearing no’s and hitting adversity. You need to feel that, let go, move on and push forward. The aha moment doesn’t come when you’re sitting back waiting, it comes while you’ve allowed yourself to embrace where you are and do what you love.

LB: What’s the worst business advice you’ve ever received?

SL: Be patient is the worst and best business advice I’ve ever received!

LB: What three pieces of advice would you offer young women looking to create a career similar to yours?

SL: Work hard! Keep learning. Be a constant student of your craft. Hustle and stand up for what you believe in.

To keep in touch with Shira, follow her @shiralazar

Today More Seats welcomes guest writer Natasha Murashev to talk about the psychological hurdles that we women face when it comes to advancement in our careers. First, her background. And then: her write up. Now, we dance!

Background Information:

Name: Natasha Murashev

Employer & Job Title: Co-founder and Director of Operations for Holler, Inc, a mobile application that helps you quickly organize activities with nearby people in your networks

Educational Background: Bachelors in Psychology from Northwestern University in 2008

Previous Work Experience: Sales Operations Coordinator at Google and a Staff Operations Specialist at the FBI

Several psychology studies have shown that in general, women tend to attribute their success to good luck while men attribute their success to their own skill. Conversely, women tend to attribute their failure to their own (lack of) skill while men attribute their failure to bad luck. While these are controversial and still debated findings (since some psychology studies were not able to confirm these results), I see these gender differences play out in the real world every day.

Photo By: codinghorror.com

One result of this, in my opinion, is that women are not good at bragging or shamelessly “selling themselves” like men are. Well, if you believe that you got a big promotion because of luck, you’re probably not going to feel right bragging about how much your deserved the promotion and how awesome you are – instead, you’re going to feel like a scam artist who got lucky and you’d be “lying” if you said you deserved it. A man, in contrast, will feel like he deserved the same promotion through his own intelligence and hard work, and guess what, that’s worth bragging about.

And this type of thinking does not just apply to how we think of our own successes and failures. In another psychology study, researchers found that we attribute the success of other men to their internal abilities, while we attribute the success of other women to external factors such as good luck. And, conversely, we attribute men’s failures to bad luck and women’s failures to lack of skill and ability.

So basically, today’s successful women leaders are considered by the rest of us to be in some way “lucky” to have gotten to where they are. That is because they might tell a story of how they became successful because of “luck” (remember, women tend to attribute their own success to luck) and the rest of us see them as lucky (because we attribute a woman’s success to luck).

I attended an amazing event last week, where one of the successful women on the panel was Marissa Mayer, VP of Location and Local Services at Google and someone I personally look up to. Marissa told the women in the audience a story of how she had 14 job offers from start-ups after graduating Stanford University with a masters degree in Computer Science, and she chose to join Google as employee #8. When mentioning Google, she reflected that a lot of smart people worked ridiculously hard to make Google a success, but part of Google’s success also came from luck, being at the right place at the right time.

That got me thinking, would Marissa Mayer still be the success she is today if she chose a start-up that perhaps wasn’t that “lucky”? I personally believe that the answer is yes, Marissa Mayer would be as successful as she is today no matter what company she first worked at. But including an element of “luck” in her own success story somewhat discredits her own incredible abilities and shows the other women in the room that some type of luck is still needed for success, even when you’re a genius. Yet, some might even argue, Google was actually late in its timing – there were a few other search engines (Yahoo, AskJeeves, etc) who were around and successful before Google came along.

In order to get more seats at the table, this discourse of “luck” needs to disappear from how we, as women, think of our own and others success. We need to attribute our own successes to our own abilities and be proud of our well-deserved accomplishments. And we need to attribute other women’s successes to their abilities and well-deserved accomplishments.

The truth is, there will always be an element of what seems like “luck” in every success story. The more we get out and live life and try new things, the more likely it is (statistically) that we will “serendipitously” bump into someone or something that will lead us on our path to success. We just need to realize that serendipity is normal and happens to everyone, but it takes real skill to notice that you finally found that one opportunity you were looking for and turn that into a success story. And when you tell that success story to others, you need to focus on how you used your own skills to find opportunities for success rather than focusing on just that one moment of pure luck that led to your success.

To keep in touch with Natasha, follow her @NatashaMurashev

Diane and I first met when she came across my first post here on More Seats and have since exchanged a number of emails. Inspired by her story and spunk, I am delighted that she was able to sit down and talk about getting more seats (and we are not talking about the ones creepy old guys offer you) and liking the “grizzly mama” mantra that Sarah Palin has made popular. Grrr!

Photo By: Stephen Wood

Background Information:

Name: Diane Russell

Hometown: Bryant Pond, ME (Known for having the last crank phone in the nation; I remember them!) 

Current City: Portland, ME

Employer & Job Title: Maine State Representative 

Educational Background: BS, University of Southern Maine, 2005 (Media Criticism) 

Previous Work Experience: Conference planner, social media guru, PR gal and general political organizer

LB: As of June 2009, women constituted fewer than 17% of the US House of Representatives, only up 4% from the last decade. Why do you believe there is such a slow growth rate in politics versus other professions?

DR: I believe it has to do with how we are cultured. Women often must be asked to run for office because 1. they don’t believe they are qualified or 2. we are cultured not to “toot our own horn,” a prominent necessity in running for office. While women tend to run for office to solve a problem or address an issue, men often run because it’s the next step in their career. This demonstrates how political office feels like the natural “next step” for men whereas it takes a concrete reason for a woman to run for office ~ an extra barrier if you will. Interestingly enough, I ran because I wanted to make sure Mainers could heat their homes and have become a fierce advocate of energy efficiency and renewable energy. Emerge America is working to educate Democratic women interested in politics and foster a mentorship program to help move women into elected office and it is working. Many of the House Democratic women in Maine are Emerge alumna as is Jessica King, Senator-Elect in the WI State Senate.

LB: On a global scale the US ranks 71st out of 189 countries in terms of proportion of women in national legislatures. What do you think the US can do to increase their ranking and bring more women into legislature?

DR: We need mentoring programs. Women need to take better ownership over the career ladders. It’s not enough to simply leave the ladder there, we have to be sending new ladders (even rope ladders!) back down when we get up there. Also, the halls of government should be more open to women once they get there. One older male legislator once joked that if I ever needed a seat, I was more than welcome to sit on his lap. Another said (on mic!) “let me take the only opportunity I have to openly flirt with you” and yet another has a habit of staring openly at my legs “because they’re just so nice.” In what other profession would this be tolerated in this day and age? This did not happen when there were women running the state house in Maine.

LB: Of 2,250 Americans surveyed, about 21% say men make better leaders. What do you think about this statistic? What actions do you think can be taken to reverse this mindset?

DR: Well, thankfully that means 79% don’t! Despite the fact that I categorically disagree with her, Sarah Palin has begun to turn this perceived “weakness” of women around by reminding people of the “mama grizzly.” Women have traditionally been responsible for the raising ~ and protecting ~ of the children. The idea that we are also fierce protectors is important, as is the fact that we are cultured to be the glue that holds a family together. This latter is equally important because true leaders don’t simply look at the immediate issue, they see that issue holistically. Leaders must know when to stand up and when to collaborate; women are cultured to be uniquely adept at both.

LB: Can you tell us about your work with Opportunity Maine?

DR: My favorite work! I was a founding board member of Opportunity Maine, an organization that develops and advocates for smart economic policy. We began as a bunch of young upstarts tired of collapsing under the burden of student loan debt. We developed our own policy ~ the Opportunity Maine Program ~ that guarantees every student who graduates from a Maine college a dollar-for-dollar income tax credit against their student loan payments for every year they stay and work in Maine. We used the citizens initiative process which meant we stood on street corners in the middle of winter collecting signatures to get it on the ballot. Once we earned the signatures, we managed to lobby it straight through the state house with the first unanimous vote from the House of Representatives for a citizen’s initiative in Maine’s history.

It was such a remarkable (and hard!!) initiative because young people, college students, parents and educators worked together to collect the signatures and lobby legislators. It demonstrated first and foremost that indeed, big ideas can be dreamed and executed, but also that young people have power to advocate for change if they choose to do so. Many of our young leaders have since moved into leadership roles across the state. Our next big policy focused on developing jobs through energy efficiency, a policy project that led to the creation of the Efficiency Maine Trust, a government agency solely tasked with helping businesses and homeowners reduce their energy costs.

LB: You’ve changed your Twitter avatar to display the ‘Support the Occupy Movement’ banner. Talk to me more about your take on the movement itself, why you support it and how it impacts women.

DR: The #Occupy movement has finally brought together disparate groups under one “roof” as it were. For too long, groups of people with less representation have been marginalized or worse ~ fighting amongst themselves for an ever shrinking piece of the pie. Many of the economic issues being brought to light through the #Occupy movement disproportionately impact women.

In 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported “About 7 percent of women paid hourly rates had wages at or below the prevailing Federal minimum, compared with about 5 percent of men.” These are federal minimum wage figures; keep in mind many states have higher minimum wages which means the disparity could be larger in the states.

Because women earn less and because two-earner households have higher earnings, families headed by women have far less income than do married-couple families reports the White House in its “Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being” report. While women are dramatically increasing their education attainment, they continue to be paid less than men. This impacts children through fewer opportunities.

All these issues are coming to light through #Occupy. Interestingly enough, though there is another side of #Occupy that is a bit disconcerting. I attended a women’s caucus in a major city recently where women shared their concerns about safety in the encampments. While I’ve not stayed overnight in any of them, these women expressed deep concern over the way they were treated. Sexual harassment was rampant and even a young high school student noted she had been “hit on” by three men who were significantly older. The women began work on a plan to create a safer, more inclusive space where women could participate openly and safely. It got me to thinking about why I had chosen not to camp out. While I had rationalized it in my head that it was the “cold” that had prevented me from doing so, once I started thinking about it I realized it was a concern for safety that was really driving my decision not to camp out. It just goes to show that regardless of what new system people create to try and make the world a better place, there are real issues with gender and safety.

Not only do women attain higher education levels and carry the lion’s share of family responsibility, we earn less money for the privilege, are still discriminated against for being of child-bearing age and must always remain vigilant about our safety. If we’re to build a new American Dream, we should start at the heart stone of our society and change the culture around women.

LB: Did you have any female role models / mentors when growing up? Do you currently have any female role models / mentors?

DR: Oh yes! My first role model was Samantha Smith. She was a 10-year old girl from Maine who sent a letter to the USSR asking why our two countries were in the midst of the Cold War. That letter broke a political impasse and ultimately provided enough space for the political leaders to meet, save face and end the Cold War. She died in a plane crash with her dad at the age of 12, having finished what she came to the Earth to do, but being just a few years younger than her I learned that indeed a young gal from Maine can make a difference on the world.

Since then, I have had myriad role models including my mother, grandmothers, and women who at important times in life took me under their wings and taught me how to fly. My only hope is that I have done the same for others.  Who has influenced you most? My best friend taught me to believe in myself and trust my voice. I will always be grateful.

LB: What drives you? What motivates you to get out of bed, stay late and / or work on the weekends?

DR: People. The stories I hear drive me most. The little old lady who told me when I got elected, “You give em HELL up there, don’t settle for nothin’!” and who I saw today on the bus as she was on her way to see her ailing husband in the hospital. Or, the woman who lost her health insurance at work for her and her husband, only to have her husband have a heart attack five months later (after being insured their whole life). Or the Anthem lawyer who kept saying “I object” at their rate increase hearings after listening to the heart-wrenching stories from people suffering with lack of health insurance. He objected because they were not “members.”

The other thing that keeps me going is the inherent kindness I find every day with people. I was stunned by the number of people who came this summer to pick up petitions to stop the repeal of Election Day Registration, a time honored tradition in our state. “I just have to do something.” No one asked them, called them or even sent them a Facebook note. They just showed up. That’s what democracy looks like.  What key personal characteristics do you see in yourself that you’ve found especially critical in achieving success?
I’m from Maine; we make do with what we have. That’s the best quality anyone can have.

LB: How would you describe your approach to the world?

DR: I hope.

LB: What magazines, books, newspapers, and/or information sources do you study?

DR: I read voraciously online and off, paying close attention to political web sites, Jezebel (they helped me find the right shoes!), the Nation, HuffPost, Talking Points Memo, etc. I also read historical books. New favorite book book: The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins. You’ll cry, you’ll cheer and you’ll “get it.”

LB: What, if any, distinct traits have you seen fellow female coworkers bring to the workplace? Do you yourself exhibit them? (Why or why not?)

DR: Grace under fire, and no. I don’t have a poker face, but I’m working on it.

LB: What was your first job? What did it teach you that remains with you today?

DR: My first real job was as an administrative assistant at a PR firm in Portland. We dealt with many of the major corporate clients. I was terrible (only 21!), but I learned how to write news releases in AP style, edit, ghost write, copy write ~ all before email was taking off. My boss was hard on me, but kind, thorough and she taught me the core essence of what distinguishes PR from marketing. Everything I write and say has been through that lens ever since. I almost learned something that isn’t really taught these days and I’m so grateful for it.

LB: Did you make assumptions when you first started your career that subsequently proved to be wrong? What sort of insights did you gain?

DR: Oh yes! I believed that if I worked hard, excelled and presented myself professionally that I’d be noticed and move up the ranks. Without mentors to fight for you and guide you, that work could be lost. Many people leave their jobs because their talents were simply not utilized properly or appreciated. I’ve since carved my own path.

LB: What do you like most about what you do?

DR: I love taking a common sense, populist issue and challenging the status quo with it. For instance, I introduced a bill to regulate, tax and legalize marijuana. The science, data and populist sentiment is all there, yet it has been perceived as a “fringe issue.” I turned that on its head and fought for a rational approach to drug regulation. I lost the battle, but I’m still fighting the war.

LB: How do you inspire the people you work with/work for you?

DR: I see them. Too often we overlook people or we don’t validate their contributions. People will walk the ends of the earth with you if you believe in them.

LB: What’s the worst business advice you’ve ever received?

DR: Play by the rules.

LB: What have been the main challenges have you had to overcome in your career? Has gender and / or being a mom been played a role?

DR: I’m unconventional and outspoken. That is not welcome in the traditional patriarchal business environment. As a woman, you’re expected to go with the flow and not rock the boat which means you’ll never climb any ladder. But, if you speak up, call a spade a spade, etc., you’re labeled “difficult,” or “abrasive.” (Often by other women, too!) I never fit into that sort of a box so I found my own path. I now work for a communications company owned by a woman. She loves how I skip the frivolties and get straight to the heart of the matter, and we’re doing quite well adding new clients as a result. Oh, and I can work from home when I want.

LB: What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again?

DR: I’d fall in love more.

LB: What three pieces of advice would you offer young women looking to create a career similar to yours?

1. Don’t play by the rules, they weren’t developed for you.

2. Trust your instincts and your voice. If you start a new job and hate it, move on as soon as possible.

3. Become an expert on something and write like hell about it. It’s so SO easy to get published and it builds remarkable credibility while also opening doors to new opportunities. Don’t be afraid you’re not “smart” enough; just do it.

To keep in touch with Diane, follow her @MissWrite

Photo By: Stephen Wood

Leslie is the President, COO and Co-Founder of JESS3. LinkIn with her here or follow her @lesliebradshaw.

Not only has Stephanie been an incredible co-conspirator and mentor, but she has also been an advocate for and living proof of getting more women in the aerospace field. Talk about an incredible place to get more women, more seats. Let’s blast off.

Background Information:

Name: Stephanie L. Schierholz

Hometown: Colorado native, born in Ft. Collins and raised in Colorado Springs.

Current City: Washington, D.C.

Employer & Job Title: Social Media Manager and Public Affairs Specialist at NASA Headquarters

Educational Background: MBA from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business; undergraduate degrees in English and Business Administration (with a concentration in Public Relations)

Previous Work Experience: Before coming to NASA, I was the director of communications for the Space Foundation

LB: What kind of impact has Women in Aerospace had on the advancement, mentorship and recruitment of women? Any qualitative or quantitative insights you can share?

SLS: I’ve asked WIA if they have any sort of report or data to answer your first question. Broadly, I can tell you that for 25 years, Women in Aerospace has been dedicated to expanding women’s opportunities for leadership and increasing their visibility in the aerospace community. They incorporated the WIA Foundation in 2009 to provide financial assistance in the form of scholarships to eligible college seniors or rising juniors and have now given two scholarships. The membership consists of 600+ individuals and more than 50 corporate members. WIA provides its members with professional development opportunities, networking events, high-profile speakers and events, annual awards to recognize outstanding women leaders, and career resources.

LB: The White House released a STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) fact sheet about women and girls on Friday. In it, there were major opportunities begging to be acted on by women. You also mentioned that if you had to do it again, you would go after being an engineer (for the record, I’ve had that thought too). What do we need to do for the next generation of Stephanies and Leslies so this gap in women having more seats in STEM educational fields and jobs is eliminated?

SLS: Girls need to see women in those roles. I believe it’s getting better, as we have more role models than our mothers did, but I also believe that we must take personal responsibility for making it better. My sister is a fifth grade school teacher. Whenever I’m home, I visit her class and talk to her students about working at NASA. It’s why I’m involved with WIA, trying to encourage those who are in the field to stay and to increase the opportunities for them. It is our responsibility to make these fields accessible and realistic places for girls to want to work. We need to be recruiters. From the fact sheet, the thing that jumped out to me was the note about income parity. Maybe we just need to tell girls they’ll make more money. There’s an article I read that really stuck with me about how it is our responsibility to monitor how we *talk* to young girls, e.g. instead of telling them they’re pretty, ask them which book they’re reading and talk about it. Make the conversations we have with girls about their minds and their intellects, not about their clothes and appearances.

LB: NASA is highly active in social media and in fact has been touted as having on of — if not the — highest “digital IQ.” Are women driving this in any significant way (strategically, through participation, etc.), is it more driven by men, or is it egalitarian?

SLS: NASA is honored to be recognized as a leader in its digital IQ. I’m the social media manager at NASA Headquarters, responsible for overseeing our social media activities across all ten NASA centers. We have a social media lead at each center, with whom I coordinate on a regular basis. At eight of the ten NASA centers plus one additional facility, women are the social media leads (that doesn’t count me, so 10 of 12 with me). So it is accurate to say that women are driving NASA’s leadership in social media.When we look more broadly at participation and contribution to any particular social media account, it is much more egalitarian. Additionally, when you look more broadly at web, mobile, apps, etc., then it definitely is more balanced.

LB: When you think of female role models and mentors, who comes to mind?

SLS: The strongest female role model I had growing up was my mother. My mom was a single parent raising four children. She accomplished everything from baking gorgeous, delicious cakes to installing ceiling fans. She modeled independence and perseverance. I still believe there’s nothing my mom can’t do or isn’t willing to try. Because she modeled those characteristics, I grew up with a strong sense that I could do anything – or at least try.

I have had many fabulous mentors and role models, both male and female. I feel very lucky to be an active member of Women in Aerospace, where I have the opportunity to forge closer relationships with amazing women in leadership roles as well as learn from their lifetimes of experience.

I’m very lucky to have gotten to meet and speak with some of my female heroes, including astronauts Eileen Collins, Peggy Whitson, Pam Melroy, and Sandy Magnus.

LB: Who has influenced you most?

SLS: In my professional life, one of the people who has had the greatest influence is Steve Eisenhart at the Space Foundation. Steve hired me as an intern, then hired me after I graduated, then hired me back after I left for the better part of a year to participate in an exchange program in Germany. Steve was an incredible boss who struck just the right balance between teaching and mentoring a young employee and giving me room to be autonomous, grow, try new things, and fail and learn from my mistakes.

LB: What drives you? What motivates you to get out of bed, stay late and / or work on the weekends?

SLS: My parents instilled in me a very good work ethic, created a family in which learning was valued, and had high expectations for a job well done. I grew up relatively poor and had to earn any money I wanted to spend. Nothing was ever handed to me, and that made me appreciate everything I have earned. It also gives me the drive to go out and earn the things I want in life. Both my parents are sticklers for quality, teaching me to do the job well and with pride, not just get it done. That’s what keeps me at work late and on the weekends. I do a job I love, working in the space industry. It’s a privilege to get to support human spaceflight. Six people are always orbiting Earth, 220+ miles above us on the space station. If they’re on duty, I can be too, even on nights and weekends.

LB: What key personal characteristics do you see in yourself that you’ve found especially critical in achieving success?

SLS: Persistence, passion and diligence are key to achieving success. Sticking with it and asking (and asking again) are important. Being there also is important. Some opportunities in life are only available to those who have stuck around. Pursuing your passion or finding something in your work to love (even if you don’t love all of it) will keep you going when you might otherwise want to quit. And being diligent about doing the work is critical. Your end product is a reflection of the inputs along the way.

Learning how to handle criticism also is key. It’s important really to listen to what people are saying when they criticize. Take what they have to say, examine it to see if it is true. If it is true, what adjustments need to be made? If it isn’t true, then you can set it aside. People always will criticize; let the work you do speak louder than the critics.

LB: How would you describe your approach to the world?

SLS: The world fascinates me. My desire is to experience and learn as much as I can. So, I work hard, I try to pursue things I love and in which I’m interested, but keep my mind open to new experiences and ways of doing things.

LB: What magazines, books, newspapers, and/or information sources do you study?

SLS: My favorites are the New York Times and New Yorker. I try to rotate books I read between novels, biographies/histories and science. I just finished “The Disappearing Spoon,” which is a really great book about chemistry and the world around us framed through the device of the periodic table of the elements. I also am a huge fan of Shakespeare, so I work him in where I can as well.

LB: What values are you committed to?

SLS: I’m committed to doing the job well, with commitment and passion, and treating people professionally and with respect.

LB: What, if any, distinct traits have you seen fellow female coworkers bring to the workplace? Do you yourself exhibit them? (Why or why not?)

SLS: My observation is women are more likely to be very good listeners and to consider a more holistic approach. That is, they tend to really attempt to hear what is being communicated and ask probing questions to get to the bottom of the real concerns. Of course, I was taught how to do this well by a male professor (thanks, Dr. Miller!). Coupled with that, they are more likely to look at the big picture and the whole process, rather than just an individual part of the process. Men are better at compartmentalizing, but then they don’t always step back to see the whole.

LB: What was your first job? What did it teach you that remains with you today?

SLS: My very first job was babysitting, at age 11. My next job was waiting tables at restaurants. My first intern job was as an (unpaid) reporter-in-training at our local ABC Television affiliate. My first job after earning my bachelor’s degree was as the manager of Space Awareness and Policy Initiatives at the Space Foundation. I was responsible for two programs – the Space Technology Hall of Fame and Space Certification Program – whose goal was to raise the level of awareness about how many ways our lives on Earth have been improved by technologies originally developed for the space program. As the manager of an awards program with a panel of judges who were luminaries in the aerospace industry, I learned as a very young person how to interact with senior leaders. I learned to think critically about what I was about to say before opening my mouth in front of people who had so much experience and could teach me. I learned to ask questions to gain a bigger picture perspective before just making a comment.

LB: Did you make assumptions when you first started your career that subsequently proved to be wrong? What sort of insights did you gain?

SLS: I’ve learned that assumptions can be very self-limiting. I always was interested in working at NASA, but I assumed I couldn’t, so I didn’t even look into it, much less apply, until someone at the agency suggested I should. I applied four times before I was hired, but it was amazing how just having the idea that I could inspired me to pursue it.

When I came to NASA, I had built a reputation of excellence at the Space Foundation. Not all my new colleagues had worked with me before, so although I assumed people would choose to work with me or not based on my quality of work, many times politics or their personal feelings about me shaped how they worked with me. I assumed you could rise above office politics if you simply did a good job. I was wrong. Sometimes the office politics dominate, regardless of how good you are. An important realization was that I don’t like everyone, so why should I expect everyone to like me? That said, I still believe it’s important to treat everyone professionally, even if they don’t.

LB: What do you like most about what you do?

SLS: I honestly believe we all are better off because of what we achieve through exploration of the universe around us, and I feel very honored to get to play a small role in the nation’s space program.

LB: How do you give credit where credit is due?

SLS: Teams are important, and recognizing each person’s contribution is important. When recognized for my work, I strive to recognize the work of the team and those who supported me to make it possible. Sometimes just a verbal or written thank you is all someone needs. It’s important to pass along kind words and credit. When I get words of thanks or recognition for team work, I pass those along to the team. Early in my career, a few people wrote letters to my boss when I did a job well, and I think that is a great way to recognize people and give them credit. I also look for bigger ways of recognition, such as nominating deserving individuals or teams for awards.

LB: What, if anything, drives you nuts about male coworkers?

SLS: The most frustrating attitude I encounter from male coworkers is the persistent idea that if you are a strong, independent, rational, driven woman, you also are unfeeling. The same characteristics admired in male colleagues turn me into a cold-hearted, uncompassionate person in their minds. Yet, if you are a woman who shows emotion, you quickly can be dismissed as not fit for leadership.

It drives me crazy that if I want to be taken seriously, it is more important for me to pay close attention to my appearance than it is for my male colleagues to do so.

LB: Have you ever encountered the “Glass Ceiling”? Was it possible to overcome it? How?

SLS: I work in a very male-dominated industry. While I haven’t yet encountered a position I cannot have because I am a woman, I definitely have encountered sexism and demeaning comments related to being a woman. I’ve also been the recipient of off-color humor and innuendo. Depending on the situation, I’ve found it most effective either to call it out and state that I find such “jokes” inappropriate or to ignore it.

LB: How do you deal with uncertainty? How do you approach the unknown?

SLS: The first step in dealing with uncertainty is to identify what parts (if any), you can learn about to gain some certainty and which parts will remain uncertain and why. Then I try to analyze what the consequences of the uncertainty are and what, if anything, I can do to mitigate them. Recognizing that you’ve done what you can do, and the rest is out of your hands is a really important place to get to with uncertainty. Being a DC metro rider has helped me achieve some level of zen I didn’t have before. If a train is delayed or breaks down unexpectedly, there’s not much I can do about it if I am stuck somewhere. So just accept it and focus on what I can do in the meantime.

LB: What has been the main challenge you’ve had to overcome in your career at NASA?

SLS: When I came to NASA, many of my new colleagues assumed I was a political appointee of the Bush administration (I am a civil servant) or that I just got the job because I knew the hiring official, not because I was qualified. Neither was true. However, as a result, many of my colleagues were quite icy toward me. The best way to overcome it was just to do the best job I could and be patient and honest with them.

LB: What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again?

SLS: If I could do things differently, I would get a science or engineering degree. I wanted to be an astronaut but knew my poor eyesight would prevent me from becoming a pilot, a common career path for astronauts. As a result, I pursued a different path, but the more I am around scientists and engineers, the more I respect and admire them and wish I had gotten a science or engineering degree.

LB: What three pieces of advice would you offer young women looking to create a career similar to yours?

1. Don’t let anyone – yourself included – tell you that you can’t. Believe in yourself.
2. Cultivate relationships with a diverse group of people who inspire you. One of the most valuable things about my MBA program was the relationships I formed with my classmates who are from many walks of life and professions. They are a valuable resource for me, not only as friends, but in subject areas in which I am not an expert.
3. It’s okay to not know. There is no world in which I could have told you three years ago that I would be, or even want to be, a social media manager. Be willing to try and learn new things.

To keep in touch with Stephanie, follow her @schierholz

Photo By: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Leslie is the President, COO and Co-Founder of JESS3. LinkIn with her here or follow her @lesliebradshaw.