The end of any year provides a time for reflection. What did I learn last year? How do I put these lessons into action this year?
This year, we were lucky enough to talk to twelve strong business women who found themselves embroiled in breakdowns—only to rise victoriously from them. Season one of The Femails saw an entrepreneur pivoting into a massively disruptive blowdry empire, an anonymous Twitter account turned social media sensation, and the high profile firing of the first female executive editor of The New York Times, among others.
This season of The Femails begs this question—when facing life’s most challenging obstacles, how do we come out on the other side?
Each of these interviewees has had the experience of a major life disruption. While these 12 women don’t have industry, job title, or age in common, they do have this in common—they all came out spectacularly on top.
Big thank you to the twelve amazing women from season one of The Femails. Listen to season one now and stay tuned for season two, coming in 2019.
1. Autumn Reeser: Actions Always Speak Louder
“I learned to look at actions and what is actually happening in front of me versus what somebody tells me.”
Listen to Autumn's episode here.
2. Alli Webb: Build the Perfect Team
"I didn't have a strong business background. I didn't know anything about branding...The three of us coming together was pretty magical...I say this all the time, you have to surround yourself with good people who know things that you don't.
Listen to Alli's episode here.
3. Zelana Montminy: What’s Happiness?
"We are so obsessed with happiness in our culture, that it's actually making us really unhappy."
Listen to Zelana's episode here.
4. Ann Shoket: Scratch The Itch
Pay attention to the itch. That feeling, that there's something else bigger out there for you, that you should be doing something else better for you—that is a feeling that you have to pay attention to you can't ignore it. You can't brush it off. It is a signal that you should go. And that you should start thinking about where you're going to how you're going to scratch that itch, to be honest."
Listen to Ann's episode here.
5. Farnoosh Torabi: Stay Hungry
"I had come from this kind of startup be made almost like an underdog mentality and here I was at this legendary brand. I really held onto that scrappy startup mentality because...the minute that you start to feel like you deserve to have two million readers or that like you just deserve to be the in the top...that's when you're in trouble. That's when you stop innovating...If you're constantly feeling like you're a little bit of the underdog and you've got something to prove and that you want to make your mark in the world, it keeps you hungry."
Listen to Farnoosh's episode here.
6. Aditi Javeri Gokhale: Treasure Failure
"Failure, especially in this world of marketing, should be part of your DNA. You shouldn't be afraid to fail, because if you don't make a mistake, you're never going to learn. If you fail, you fail fast...start taking some calculated risks. So we run, [thousands] of experiments when it comes to marketing, but many of them don't work. And it's okay if they don't work. What are we learning? How do we refine it? We've got a mantra within the team of test, learn, and modify. And that's something that I encourage my leadership to implement."
Listen to Aditi's episode here.
7. Jennifer Romolini: Success is Messy
"I did not feel slick. I did not feel polished. I still felt awkward and sensitive—and you know, before I went up and talked to 13,000 people, I was crying in the bathroom...I wanted to show that success is messy, and that in order to be successful, you didn't need to change your fundamental being. I was successful and I was still almost exactly who I'd always been...I still had stains on my pants."
Listen to Jennifer's episode here.
8. Aliza Licht: Say No
"When I say no, I don't mean that if someone asks me to do something, I was like, 'No I'm not doing that.' That's not what I mean at all. It's not about deflecting workload or any of that. It was more about being strong enough in meetings, or to creative directors, or to CEOs and being able to say, 'I don't agree with doing that and here's why.' As opposed to being a 'yes' person because you're scared to be the opinion that's going against what senior management wants to do."
Listen to Aliza's episode here.
9. Christine Hassler: Recognize the difference between Selfishness & Boundaries
"...That's what we're most afraid of, the other person's reaction. Boundaries are a very self-honoring choice that a lot of women confuse with being selfish. Not selfish. Self-honoring. There's a way to set boundaries in a truthful way. You don't have to rip the other person to shreds. You don't have to be a bitch. You don't have to be mean. However, you’ve got to be honest."
Listen to Christine's episode here.
10. Jill Abramson: Female Mentorship > Everything Else
"I felt supported by you know, so many women in the workplace who weren't journalists and who you know, I never knew and would never know in my life, but they really rallied behind me, which was very meaningful and made that period not as painful—at all—as it otherwise would have been."
Listen to Jill's episode here.
11. Amanda Enayati: Not All Stress is Created Equal
"I think we need to learn to see stress across a spectrum. We need to differentiate between good stress, toxic stress, and tolerable stress. We have to stop painting every kind of stressor with the same brush of toxicity like, 'Oh my God—I'm so stressed. This is so bad' when really, it's just exciting."
Listen to Amanda's episode here.
12. Paige Adams-Geller: Balance Research & Gut
"I do my homework. I try to take in as much knowledge as I can before making a decision. And that sounds contradictory to being instinctive, but I'm both. I'm instinctive and [a thoughtful] decision-maker, once I've done my homework. Then I'll go, 'Okay. I see everything that's happening around me. But gutturally, this is what I think rings true for me' and that's tapping into authenticity."
Listen to Paige's episode here.
