Editor’s Note: As Anne Hidalgo kicked off her presidential campaign over the weekend, seeking to become France’s first female leader, we are sharing again this 2017 interview. 

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo isn’t just turning the City of Light green. Elected in 2014 with the support of environmentalists, she has become an international advocate for more resilient cities and a leader among the world’s mayors.

As chair of the C40, a network of 91 megacities committed to addressing climate change, Mayor Hidalgo has emerged as a forceful champion of cities as the most agile and effective implementers of the Paris Agreement. They can and will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and safeguard the environment, even if national leaders like President Donald Trump decide to bow out.

In the first interview in our series, Women Mayors Talk Climate Change, we speak with Mayor Hidalgo about reducing air pollution in Paris through restrictions on cars, expanded clean public transportation and reclaimed space for pedestrians — and how she’s going global with what her city has learned.

She also explains how and why climate change and environmental problems impact women disproportionately — and what she’s doing to empower the next generation of women leaders, in business and beyond, to join her in stepping up to the global challenge.

What are the greatest environmental challenges facing your city? And, as mayor, how are you addressing them? 

One of the most urgent challenges that Paris and all major cities worldwide are facing is air pollution. Air pollution kills more than 3 million people worldwide every year, according to the World Health Organization, and the majority of these deaths occur in cities. The toxic emissions released by both petrol and particularly diesel vehicles are poisoning the air that we breathe, while also contributing to global warming.

To protect the most vulnerable in our communities, our oldest and youngest citizens, and to deliver on our commitments to implement the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, we must tackle air pollution.

In Paris, we have restricted the oldest, most polluting vehicles from entering the city thanks to the creation of a low-emission zone and the implementation of Crit’Air stickers, combined with the development of clean public transportation. By pedestrianizing the right bank of the river Seine, we have created a wonderful new space for Parisians and those who love Paris, to enjoy.

Related

How Greta Thunberg, AOC and 10 Women Entrepreneurs Are Battling Climate Change

Paris and London have recently announced plans to make data available on the real world emission of new cars to help consumers make informed choices about their impact on air pollution and climate change. We have also committed, with Mexico City and Madrid, to ban diesel vehicles by 2025, which cause the most damage to public health, from entering the city altogether.

The impact of climate change is already being felt in every city worldwide. It is our duty as mayors to prepare for the changing climate in the years ahead. In Paris, we must prepare for warmer summers, wetter winters and more extreme events like heat waves or flooding.

Paris’ Adaptation Strategy, which was recognized with a prestigious C40 Award in 2016, is building the city’s resilience to the challenges posed by climate change and future resource scarcity. By 2020, we will have planted more than 20,000 trees, and 1 million square meters of green roofs and walls, which all help to combat the “urban heat island effect” experienced by big cities. We are also ensuring the resilience of Paris’ food supply by rolling out 33 hectares of urban agriculture in Paris by 2020, and setting the goal that 25 percent of food consumed in Paris will be locally produced by 2050. 

Climate change hurts women and children disproportionately. Why is that, and how does it play out in your city?  

Women disproportionately suffer the impacts of natural disasters and severe weather events because of sexist social structures and the unequal distribution of resources and power. As climate change makes these natural disasters more frequent and more intense, it is women, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, that will suffer the most. Ninety percent of the 150,000 people killed in the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone were women. Surveys suggest four times as many women than men died in the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.

European cities like Paris are not immune to these risks. A prolonged heat wave that affected much of Western Europe in 2003 was one of the most deadly in recent memory. Studies suggest that 65 percent of the French casualties during that heatwave were women.

Women are bearing the brunt of the impacts of climate change. Women are also massively under-represented in the political spaces where decisions are made on climate policies. If nothing changes, then women will inevitably suffer the most in the years ahead as the effects of a warming planet become more extreme.

While there is plenty of research on the effects of climate change on women in developing countries, there is a major gap in the research around the effects of climate change on women in cities. One of the key objectives of the Women4Climate initiative will be to carry out that first-of-its-kind research.

Was there an incident or moment in your life that drove you to focus on climate and the environment? 

When I was a deputy mayor between 2001 and 2008, I was in charge of the first Climate Action Plan for Paris, which in 2007 was probably one of the most ambitious of this kind in any major city. Today, thanks to organisations like C40 — a network of 91 of the world’s great cities committed to tackling climate change and a group that I chair — ambitious Climate Action plans are becoming commonplace in cities.

Back in 2007, Paris was a genuine leader in the scale of our ambition with this plan. I have never looked back from that desire to lead a green transformation of Paris and to share our knowledge and experiences with all the other cities worldwide.

What role can local business — and women entrepreneurs in particular — play in addressing your city’s environmental challenges? 

The urgency of the climate crisis means that we need every part of society to play their part, including mayors, national politicians, citizens and business leaders. Fortunately, the private sector is absolutely stepping up and committing to urgent action, just as cities are. Just look at the hundreds of CEO’s who have publicly criticized President Trump for his decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement.

A key part of the Women4Climate initiative will be a mentoring scheme for the next generation of young women leaders in climate change. We have already launched our first call for applications for young women in Paris to join our Women4Climate Brigade. The successful participants are likely to include young women entrepreneurs and startup founders. They will receive support advice and mentoring from some inspirational women leaders, including Alexandra Palt, chief sustainability officer at L’Oréal, which is the founding sponsor of the Women4Climate initiative.

What do women leaders like you bring to the table that’s different and important? 

The fact is that women have to work ten times more to get the same opportunities as men. And they have then ten times less the right to fail. It is a fact that every woman has experienced in her life. That is why it is so important for successful women to empower the next generation of women leaders, supporting and mentoring them. I am convinced they will be better than us, and our responsibility is then to help remove some of the obstacles they will face. It is our duty to face the future.

As a C40 chair, I believe that climate crisis will force us to change the world, as we can’t keep on burying our heads in the sand. With the Women4Climate initiative, we want to anticipate and prepare the better tomorrows our children deserve. And these tomorrows will only be better if they consider gender equality as an undeniable point of equilibrium. The Women4Climate initiative will help to deliver that better tomorrow.

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Now that President Trump has decided to exit the Paris accord, what is your message to Americans who want to take action on climate change?

I’d like to send a message to all of the inspirational young women in America, who feel their current president doesn’t represent their views on climate change and so many other issues. If you are concerned about the future and you want to see transformation in your community, you can’t afford to wait for someone else to make it happen.

As chair of the C40 Cities, I know that the mayors of 91 of the world’s greatest cities are committed to action on climate change, but there are also forces and politicians out there who would deny the science and hold back our progress.

We can only deliver the bold, ambitious change that is needed with the support of the millions of citizens who share our concerns. So young women, and men, who care about this issue need to speak out, whether through joining a local environmental group, writing to your elected officials to tell them your views, or running for public office. Your voice is key and the moment to act is now.

(This interview was originally published on June 29, 2017.)

The post Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo on Resilient Cities and Resilient Women appeared first on The Story Exchange.

Debra Haaland, New Mexico’s former Democratic Party chairwoman, aims to become the first Native American woman to have a voice in Congress.

She’s running for an open seat in the U.S. House representing District 1, which includes Albuquerque. It’s considered safely Democratic, but with no incumbent on the ballot — Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham is running for governor — a half dozen hopefuls are competing in the Democratic primary set for June 5.

Haaland stands out, though, having served as Party chairwoman and in leadership positions within the Native community. She also gained a crucial network and important campaign experience by working for a host of candidates, including former President Barack Obama, and running an earlier (albeit unsuccessful) race for lieutenant governor.

We spoke with Haaland, an alumna of the Emerge America candidate training program, about why she’s running and why it’s important to have a Native voice in Washington. Excerpts from our conversation, below, have been edited for length and clarity.

Why did you decide to run for Congress this year?

I was finishing up my term as chairwoman of the state Democratic Party. We won back our state health, we increased our seats in the Senate, and we won two out of three statewide elections. So I was leaving on a high note, and Michelle announced that she was running for governor in February. I thought, I really want to continue to serve the people in New Mexico.

The country has suffered under the Trump win, and so that fueled me also. I had already worked very hard to hold Trump and the Republicans accountable.

How does having been state party chair help you?

It’s always helpful when you can work hard to create a really good network of people anywhere, and that’s what campaigning does for you. That’s what being in a position like state chair does for you as well. Plus, you are talking to voters across the state. I had interaction with many voters, many Democrats right here in Albuquerque. So, you get to know what peoples’ issues are.

What are the driving issues in your district?

We have a governor who has not done the work of the people. She has not created jobs. People are moving out. She was at war with the education system. We have suffered under this governor and her administration.

In District 1, one of the huge issues is jobs, of course. We have a renewable-energy industry that needs to move forward at a fast pace, and I believe that it can create many sustainable jobs as well as fight climate change. So jobs and our environment are extremely important to me. Of course, healthcare is a big issue, and a lot of people from New Mexico benefited greatly from the Medicaid expansion. At every turn, the Republicans are working hard to diminish that.

You always have our social issues also. During my campaign, I have stood up very strongly for transgender students and military members and women’s reproductive rights. I’ll be ready to be on the front lines fighting for those things as well.

You would become the first Native American woman in Congress. How does it affect your policy agenda?

I have certain values because of the way I was raised. My dad is a 30-year career Marine. My mom is a Navy veteran and worked in Indian education for 25 years. I was raised by my grandparents, who had been affected by the assimilation policies of the United States, but they preserved my culture for me. I have and practice my traditional ceremonies to this day.

The way I was raised gave me these values I have toward the environment, toward social justice and equality. I can’t say that being a Native woman will shape my agenda, but it will inform the decisions I make and the way I fight for things.

What would it mean for you personally to be the first?

I think it’s important in this day and age to have every voice at the table, There’s obviously not enough women of color in Congress. There’s not enough women of color in any elected office. There’s not enough women of color CEOs or chairwomen of boards.

I hope I can help our elected and appointed officials in D.C. really to know and understand that Indian issues are important issues. Sometimes I feel like folks don’t have enough knowledge or understand the history of what Native people have endured in this country. Maybe they need somebody to help them to understand some of those things.

How has the “Me Too” moment influenced your race?

I’m so thrilled with the number of women who have stepped up to run for office, and I am very appreciative and honored to live in this time where so many brave women are coming out and telling their stories about abuse and assault. It’s a hard thing, and I think it’s just showing our strength.

It’s an important moment, and I think we should seize it. We should be making sure that every eligible woman is registered to vote and that she gets out and votes. Because I think, if we activate all of our women, that it could have a profound effect on the outcome of every single election in this country.

What kind of role has Emerge New Mexico played for you? I gather your training with them was some 10 years ago.

I graduated from the Emerge class of 2007. Emerge New Mexico gave me the tools I needed to run. And even though I didn’t run right away, I knew I could help. So I helped a lot of candidates between then and now to win races.

It also helped me gain a place with the 2008 Obama campaign. I was a full-time volunteer for that campaign for 4 months. Then I was able to be Native American Vote Director in 2012. Once I finished working for the 2012 Obama reelection campaign — I had never worked so hard in my entire life, and we won — I felt very empowered. So that’s when I decided to run for lieutenant governor.  

You’ve held leadership roles in the Native community. Tell me a little bit about that.

I was the very first chairwoman of my tribe’s economic development corporation, the Laguna Development Corporation. I was proud of that. During that time, I learned a lot. Then I was a tribal administrator for Pueblo here in New Mexico, and I managed the state and federal governmental relations with the tribe. It was all very rewarding.

I understand you were also involved in writing some legislation providing in-state tuition for tribe members?

Yes, I was in law school. It was 2005. Previously, I had gone to California to do a graduate program there [and became] a California resident. When I returned to New Mexico, they charged me out-of-state tuition. I thought: How discouraging, since my family had been in the Southwest and in New Mexico since the late 1200s. We had been paying taxes and contributing to the economy for a long, long time. And as a tribal member, I never lose my residency with my tribe.

I decided to find a champion, and I worked on a bill that would give members of New Mexico tribes in-state tuition regardless of their residency. It passed, and Governor Richardson signed it. That has helped a number of Native Americans come back home, go to graduate school.

You’ve had your fair share of struggles.

I’m a single mom. My daughter is now 23. She graduated from the University of New Mexico this past August. My daughter and I, we kind of just navigated all this together. I had to apply for food stamps one Thanksgiving, and I tried to get the emergency food stamps because I didn’t have anything to cook for Thanksgiving, and I got denied that time. I got them at a later date, which was super helpful to us.

I was able to send her to preschool because I volunteered at the preschool, and they gave me a cut in tuition so that I could afford it. I know that’s not an option for every parent. We’ve been working for the longest time here in New Mexico to have preschool for every child.

I’d really love to see us do more for single moms, single dads, even two-parent families who don’t make a lot of money. Every child should look forward to a bright future.

This interview was originally published in February 2018.

The post Deb Haaland on Bringing a Native American Voice to Washington appeared first on The Story Exchange.

All successful leaders inspire, motivate, mentor and direct others toward a higher goal. But let’s be honest, if you’re a woman leader in our male-dominated business world, you’ll have to do more than that.

According to a study by talent-management consulting firm Calpers, successful women leaders possess the universal qualities present in all good leaders — among them, assertiveness, action-mindedness, risk-taking and problem-solving skills. But they also have to marshall other qualities to be successful and overcome the many obstacles, at home and in the office, that have long held many women back.

A growing number of women are reaching the top echelons of business and politics. Today, women lead successful startups like 23andMe, Glossier and Maven, and once again Nancy Pelosi is speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. But progress is slow, and the gender gap in leadership remains stubbornly large. A key reason, experts say, is unconscious bias that causes people to react differently to male and female leaders — for instance, among both men and women, male ambition is generally lauded, while female ambition often provokes hostility. Meanwhile, women leaders are expected to be more compassionate, ethical and better at forging compromises than men.

The good news is women do have some important strengths that come with being society’s nurturers. While research shows men more often are top-down, “command-and-control” leaders, women tend to have a more democratic, participative leadership style that experts consider more effective, particularly as collaboration and innovation become more important to competitiveness.

So what are the most important leadership traits women entrepreneurs need to be successful in a male-dominated business world? We asked a group of more than 30 women entrepreneurs from around the world. Here’s what they told us:

1. Honesty and integrity

Integrity — adhering to moral or ethical principles and staying true to your word and commitments — is foundational to effective leadership. That’s because it builds valuable trust with people, from the employees you lead to the partners and investors you bring in to the customers you serve.

“You can only truly succeed if you are true to yourself and your values,” says Jenna Kerner, who is co-founder with Jane Fisher of online bra company Harper Wilde. “You must be clear on your values to be able to make decisions quickly and not worry if you made the wrong choice.”

[Related: Read about Harper Wilde’s startup story.]

People want to follow a leader who’s ethical and acts with integrity, because they can be more confident that they’ll be treated well and fairly, and that their leader will do what’s best for the business. Moreover, ethical behavior, honesty and respect that starts at the top is key to creating a company culture with those same values. So make sure your words, actions and decisions reflect the company you want to build.

Sarah Walsh, the owner of Caffè d’Amore Coffee Co. in Pittsburg, calls integrity the most important quality to success. “Integrity. Doing what you say. Being the same person in private that I am in public,” she says. “We don’t have to be perfect, but I must model integrity.”

[Read more: This Cafe Owner Created a Community Haven Where Harassment Has No Home]

Indeed, integrity requires humility and the strength of character to hold yourself accountable, take responsibility for whatever happens, learn from mistakes and strive to improve. And be quick to give praise and credit to others where it is due.

2. Confidence

Many of the women entrepreneurs we polled named confidence as the single most important trait needed for success, which is unsurprising since it is also a singular struggle for many women in business.

“Confidence. Hands down. You need to be confident in yourself, confident in your mission, and confident in your worth,” says Alexa Carlin of Women Empower Expo, an annual event for female leaders. “Don’t ever change or alter your femininity to fit in to the ‘boys club.’ You can be just as successful (or even more successful) by being yourself and being confident in who you are.”

Believe in yourself and what you bring to the table, several women advised. Cultivate a “belief that you are good enough,” said Martha Silcott, founder of U.K.-based FabLittleBag, a maker of eco-friendly tampon and pad disposal bags. “Good enough to meet your own targets and goals. Good enough to compete with the status quo. Good enough to be yourself and be successful. Good enough to excel.”

[Read more about Silcott: One Woman’s Mission to Make Menstruation Taboos a Thing of the Past]

Many women over-prepare or feel they have to know everything before they can move into new territory. But with confidence in yourself and your skills and abilities, you’ll be “able to say ‘I don’t know the answer to that, but I will find out,’” Walsh says. And you’ll move forward step by step.

When you know the value of what you have to say and that you’re worthy of being listened to, you’ll have the confidence to speak your mind. And, says Dr. Uma Gautam, founder of HeadPro Consulting LLP, a women-centric executive headhunting firm in Bangalore, you’ll have the “confidence to walk into the executive board room and take the center chair!”

3. Resilience and persistence

Entrepreneurship is tough and full of uncertainty, no matter your gender. Add the heavier domestic and family responsibilities that many women shoulder — not to mention the career momentum slowdown that often comes with childbirth and raising infants — and it only gets tougher. Yet, millions of women push through and succeed in building businesses due to resilience and dogged persistence.

[Related: How to Stay Inspired When You Really Need a Boost]

“These extra responsibilities are not justification for setting aside businesswomen under some pretense that they are delicate or distracted,” Kelly Woo of Profectus Financial told Forbes. “Rather, they serve as testaments to the weight we can carry and our ability to act as leaders in all facets of life.”

Be purposeful in achieving the goals you set, and don’t give up without a fight, female entrepreneurs we spoke with advise. That’s the attitude of Dr. Sophia Yen, the CEO and founder of Pandia Health, an online portal that prescribes and delivers low-cost birth control pills. “I won’t stop until this company succeeds and we accomplish our goal of bringing birth control to women who need and want it and making women’s lives easier,” she says.

[Read more: Sophia Yen is on a Mission to Bring Birth Control to the Masses]

Success takes both resilience in the face of setbacks and fierce persistence to push ahead. “I’ve been knocked down more times than I can count. That’s come from sexism, from bad luck, and from a number of other factors. But the confidence to move forward in the face of all odds is essential for success,” says Anna Haotanto of The New Savvy, a personal finance and career platform for women in Asia.

“The most important leadership trait, particularly for entrepreneurs, is to not readily accept ‘no,’” says Kirsten Curry, founder of Leading Retirement Solutions, which helps small businesses set up retirement plans. “If I had a dollar for every time someone has told me I wouldn’t succeed, I couldn’t do something in a more creative manner and more, I would be rich!”

[Read Curry’s startup story: Why an Ex-Fisherwoman Cares That Women Business Owners Are Ill-Prepared for Retirement]

4. Strength and courage

Being a female leader in a business world dominated by men requires the strength and boldness to not only deal with naysayers, biases, obstacles and setbacks, but to keep taking risks, learn from failures and fight for what you believe in.

“Hold your ground. Don’t let anyone let you feel inferior,” says Anjali Shah of Mumbai-based Pifa Foundation for the Benefit of Sport, which provides soccer training to underprivileged boys and girls. “Not letting anyone dominate you will ensure that your opinion counts, and you will definitely come out a winner.”

Women often struggle to stand up and ask for what they want and what they need to be successful. Don’t wait for someone to give it to you — whether that’s a mentor’s advice, a higher fee, a business opportunity or an investor’s dollars. Take charge and ask.

[Explore more articles with advice and tips about becoming a leader.]

5. Focus

In a world with constant distractions and endless demands, great leaders know that success requires that they and their enterprise focus on what’s most important to the business. They are able to think strategically, prioritize goals and be responsible for achieving them, including by eliminating non-essential work that takes team members off track.

“I think we need to keep our eyes and ears open, but focus on what we are doing,” says Allison Blust-Zang, owner of Absolute Pilates, a Pennsylvania company with five Pilates studios. “Do what you do well. We do not need to be doing what others are doing.”

[Read more: Weathering Sickness and Staff Issues While Building a Thriving Pilates Venture]

Effective leaders are able to keep themselves focused and manage their time, attention and emotions. They play to their strengths, and know and accept their weaknesses, either delegating in areas where they are weak or choosing a different path.

6. Commitment to excellence

When you’re excited about what you’re doing and using your strengths, you’ll go that extra mile to develop and deliver your products and services. And your offerings will stand out for being excellent or innovative, giving you an edge against more complacent competition.

“As a leader, I don’t focus on my gender or if I am a female. To me, my role is to ensure that I do my job well and to produce consistent and quality work, each and every time,” says Haotanto of The New Savvy. “I always believe that we should let our work speak for itself and let its quality demand respect.”

Enthusiasm and passion are contagious, drawing talented people to you and helping you see market gaps and innovate. Just be careful about taking the drive for excellence too far. Many women get trapped in perfectionism that stops them from delegating to others and getting new products to market quickly, which can hurt the business.

[Related: Successful Women Entrepreneurs Do These 7 Things. The Last One May Surprise You]

7. The ability to listen, learn and adapt

While it’s important to take charge, action ought to be rooted in a solid understanding of your customers, your industry and the marketplace. The best leaders are curious and open to taking in new information.

Vanessa Rende, a Florida-based success coach and public speaker, argues the most important leadership success trait is listening. “God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason,” she quips.

Kia Simon of Sneaky Little Sister Films, a San Francisco motion graphics company, agrees. “It’s important to be genuine, and to be engaged and interested. My clients want to be listened to… So if I’m paying attention and delivering what they need, they’re going to keep hiring us.”

Good listening enables us to see changes on the way for the business, which is especially vital in our tech-driven world of high-speed change. Visionary leaders are always trying to spot shifts and new trends, so they can position their companies to adapt and to seize on opportunities that arise from those changes. And they continually update their skills and knowledge, and that of their employees, so they stay competitive and can make the best business decisions.

[Related: 3 Leadership Qualities Entrepreneurs Should Strive For in 2019]

“Know your stuff. Be educated and be able to clearly articulate what you know. Everyone respects intelligence and confidence,” says Brittany Rose, owner of More Than Cheer, which teaches girls leadership through cheerleading.

Tayo Dada, owner of T.D.T. Logistics Ltd. in Kaduna, Nigeria, which moves the products of women farmers, had to learn a lot about trucks and related risks. Getting familiar with the performance and durability of various vehicles has been vital to “meeting the demands of my clients and coping with the various terrains we ply.” Her success has also required monitoring “the driving habits of our drivers, ensuring that they do not put their or the lives of their passengers at risk.”

8. Communication skills

Powerful leaders know both when to listen and when to talk. And when they talk, they are straightforward, confident and persuasive communicators who are able to inspire others, build strong teams and networks, and motivate people to help achieve the company’s goals.

Communication is one of the most important leadership-success traits, says Rachel O’Neill, founder of the Michigan-based nonprofit Little Dresses for Africa, which includes “knowing when and where to draw a line in the sand without becoming mean or hateful.”

Indeed, successful leadership is literally built on the people around you — you simply aren’t a leader if you don’t have followers. Good leaders trust their ability to develop employees and are willing to empower them to act. They do not hesitate to clarify expectations and nip problems in the bud. And they are able to maintain harmony within teams and with partners and others, knowing that interpersonal dysfunction kills progress toward business goals.

9. Empathy

Yes, it’s a buzzword, but empathy is important in fostering trust and loyalty. If you talk regularly with your employees and partners to understand their fears and desires, you’ll be able to put yourself in their shoes and empathize. You will also be able to make sure you’re giving employees what they need to do their jobs well. And when you standing up for them in times of crisis, you’ll increase their desire to perform.

[Related: How Kindness in Business Pays Off for Leaders]

Empathy, resilience and energy — typically considered “feminine” attributes — appear to offer an added benefit for female leaders, according to the Calpers women leaders report. “These personality traits allow them to better understand their subordinates and colleagues, bounce back after failures or rejection, and persevere with their efforts for long periods of time,” its researchers say.

Female bosses are often perceived to be emotional, but Haotanto of The New Savvy asks: “Is that a bad thing? Being in tune with your feelings can mean that you are an empathetic leader. I think society is slowly embracing different kinds of leadership styles.”

Successful women leaders are not overly bothered by pressures to conform to female stereotypes, or to follow the rules in general, according to Calpers. But it’s wise to embrace “female” qualities like empathy and kindness — they will help you read and respond to the needs of your team.

And use your empathy for the challenges women face to create a gender-equal workplace where talented women thrive and become future leaders. Then encourage those women to block out the noise and focus on achieving those higher goals.

[Explore more articles offering advice and tips for women entrepreneurs all along the entrepreneurial journey.]

The post Lead Like a Woman: 9 Qualities to Drive Your Success as an Entrepreneur appeared first on The Story Exchange.

When the going gets tough, the tough dig into a toolbox of tactics to keep them inspired and motivated to keep building their business.

We know it well: Entrepreneurship is a journey — a hard, lonely, crazymaking (and rewarding and fulfilling!) journey with many highs and lows. In fact, the lows can be especially frequent for women entrepreneurs. We still often face resistance to our leadership, whether from employees, suppliers or investors. We receive less funding than men and have less access to personal and professional networks to tap to drive growth.

Many women struggle to own their accomplishments, feel confident about their abilities and push past their comfort zones.

“There are a lot of tough days,” says Alexa Carlin of Women Empower Expo, an annual event for female entrepreneurs and leaders held in North America. But it’s worth it “because I’m doing something meaningful to me. Anything worth doing is going to be hard work.” On particularly rough days, she tries to remind herself of the bigger picture. “I envision what I’m working towards and know it is all within reach if I persevere.”

While you may feel like turning to drink, TV binge-watching or binge eating when you’re in the pits, resist! None of that will help you realize the big dreams you have for your business.

We asked our global network of women entrepreneurs to tell us how they pick themselves back up and move ahead. Here are their eight essential recommendations:

1. Be kind to yourself. Practice self-care.

On tough days, “I tune in more into what’s going on inside. Lack of inspiration, motivation, etc. is usually a sign that we are dealing with something else,” says Vanessa Rende, a Florida-based success coach and public speaker. Maybe you are afraid. Maybe you are exhausted. Maybe someone got under your skin. “Then do something to change your state [of mind]. Something that you know makes you happy, creative, inspired.”

[Explore more articles offering advice and tips for women entrepreneurs all along the entrepreneurial journey.]

Many of the women entrepreneurs we surveyed recommended mediating, doing yoga or Pilates, or even just taking deep breaths — whatever creates a sense of peace for you. You could take a bath or get a massage. You could go for a walk in the woods.

“I nap when necessary, because a good nap is sometimes just the boost I need to keep fighting,” says Jacqueline V. Twillie, founder of ZeroGap, a Dallas company that teaches leadership skills to women in male-dominated industries.

“Recently, I’ve had more bad days than good ones,” admits Kristin Marquet of FemFounder.co, a New York creative and business development agency that works with women. “So the way that I stayed inspired was to take a few days off to rest and recharge. It was the best way for me to clear my head and find the inspiration to continue growing.”

2. Recognize what you’ve already accomplished.

Give yourself a pat on the back. Entrepreneurship is hard. Take look at the road you have already travelled, recommends Radhika Shrivastava Adholeya, a gynecologist whose New Delhi telehealth company, Uniworld Health Solutions, delivers services to women in rural India. You’ll undoubtedly find much to be proud of.

Remember the recognition others have bestowed. “My appointment on the executive committee of the highest governing body of Indian football is my greatest inspiration,” says Anjali Shah of Mumbai-based Pifa Foundation for the Benefit of Sport, which provides soccer training to underprivileged boys and girls. Football in India, as elsewhere, is male-dominated. “I feel I can give women’s football in India so much more.”

[Related: Lead Like a Woman: 9 Qualities to Drive Your Success as an Entrepreneur]

Look at what you have contributed. Sharon Levy of Taking Tea InStyle, a New Jersey company that caters and hosts tea parties, reminds herself that she is “providing services to so many people that make them feel special, loved and empowered.”

Twillie of ZeroGap has a “gratitude jar” where she puts thank you notes she receives. “On days when I deal with trolls or just feel like it’s an overwhelming task, I pull out my gratitude jar and read notes or emails from clients that encourage me to keep going.

3. Remember that struggles are part of the journey, and a learning opportunity.

“I pacify myself by saying you win some and the other times you learn,” says Shah of Pifa Foundation, the Indian youth soccer training organization. “Just like you can’t win every game, you need to face tough days and learn from them. Then you can try to avoid making the same mistakes and let yourself move on to what’s next.”

4. Be thankful for what — and who — you have.

Martha Silcott, founder of U.K.-based FabLittleBag, a maker of eco-friendly tampon and pad disposal bags, keeps a list of what she’s grateful for. She also writes down on a Post-it Note “anything significant that is fab when it happens” and then puts it in a “good things that happen” box on her desk. On those inevitable rainy days, she has a look inside.

Other women say they stop for a moment to be grateful for the important people in their lives, at home and at work, who support them. “I count my blessings — my husband, kids, extended family … and my friends and my employees who have joined me in this journey,” says Dr. Sophia Yen, the CEO and founder of Pandia Health, an online portal that prescribes and delivers low-cost birth control pills.

[Read more: Sophia Yen is on a Mission to Bring Birth Control to the Masses]

And it can be surprisingly helpful to give back. Try directing some attention to your people. Employee development, “giving them feedback on their projects and introducing them to new skills keeps me engaged,” says Kia Simon of Sneaky Little Sister Films, a San Francisco motion graphics company that makes an effort to employ women graphic artists.

5. Reach out to people for support.

Tribes, of one sort or another, have been central to human survival for millennia. When times get tough, lean on your friends and family. Reconnect with your business partner. Reach out to a mentor or other women entrepreneurs.

[Explore more articles about finding support and guidance for your entrepreneurial journey.]

“I surround myself with people who believe in me: my boyfriend, advisors, best friends and some investors. I call them. Literally, they’re on speed dial,” says Allison Monaghan McGuire, who owns two New York companies, Walc, which makes a mapping app, and Monaghan McGuire, a consulting firm serving female entrepreneurs. “They are able to hold up a mirror to show me what I’m doing, to help stop me from beating myself up, and to put things in context. They all have startup experience so they know how commonly my experiences occur with other startups.”

“On rough days, Jane and I will take 20 to 30 minutes to go for a walk and talk through any challenges,” says Jenna Kerner, who is co-founder with Jane Fisher of online bra company Harper Wilde. “Typically when one of us is struggling, the other can help put things into perspective and pull back to see the bigger picture.”

[Related: Read about Harper Wilde’s startup story.]

“I reach out to the fierce women in my women business owner peer group (WPO), I reach out to individual mentors and I even connect with my 10,000 Small Business Goldman Sachs at Babson peers,” say Kirsten Curry, founder of Leading Retirement Solutions, which helps small businesses set up retirement plans. “I ask for their advice and guidance. I engage in brainstorming with them, seeking creative solutions to sticky issues. The collaboration that I get to engage in with my peers and mentors is one of the most fulfilling aspects of being a business owner.”

6. Reconnect with your purpose and goals.

Most of the women we spoke with counseled taking a step back when times get tough and remembering why you chose the path you chose. If you’re like Dr. Uma Gautam, founder of HeadPro Consulting LLP, “women-centric” executive headhunting firm in Bangalore, you’ve used tools like vision boards and goal-setting exercises to clarify your business goals and how you’ll achieve them. Now’s the time to revisit them to reconnect with the purpose and specific goals that drove you in the first place.

Or find your center by stepping into the heart of the business. “I spend time working as bar staff, as a barista, at my own shop. It keeps me focused on our goals: serving others with excellence in coffee and customer service,” says Sarah Walsh of Caffè d’Amore Coffee Co. in Pittsburgh. She has worked hard to run a cafe that’s become a cozy community hub, where regulars stop by to yak with friends. “It’s pretty special. It’s the only thing I want to do with my life. Being able to employ others and invite them into modeling hospitality by loving coffee and people is profound.”

[Read more: This Cafe Owner Created a Community Haven Where Harassment Has No Home]

Quite a few of the women find meaning and purpose in work that improves the lives of other women. “I go into the community and see our members helping each other, and it definitely leaves me inspired and reminded why I do this,” says Paula Clark of Punky Moms, which organizes meetups for “alternative” parents and provides “parenting and raising hell” advice on its website.

“I think about why I built this company: to make women’s lives easier. I think about the women who we are helping who would otherwise not get birth control,” says Yen of Pandia Health. “I love that I am helping people, women, in becoming more financially conscious. Sometimes things get tough but… I look at all the women we’ve helped,” adds Anna Haotanto of The New Savvy, a financial, investments and career platform for women in Asia.

7. Read something good. Learn something new.

Find new inspiration from outside, many women advise. Learn something new about business or your field by reading or going to industry events. Indulge in inspiring books, articles, videos and podcasts, especially those that feature women who are thriving.

“When things are tough, I read books that inspire me to challenge the status quo,” says Rita Robert Otu of Beau Haven Farms, which empowers women in rural Nigeria by teaching them to grow, harvest and sell vitamin-rich cassava.

Brittany Rose, who calls her Virginia girl-focused business, More Than Cheer, “a personal-development company disguised as cheerleading,” responds by “drowning myself in personal development content and constant education. I am always listening to and reading material that will help me become a better business owner and person.”

“I read as much as I can about women leaders and business leaders — #girlboss and #mompreneur draws me in anytime. I also listen to as many podcasts as I can when I am around my house or driving,” adds Allison Blust-Zang of Absolute Pilates. “I love hearing stories of other female entrepreneurs.”

[Listen and subscribe to The Story Exchange Podcast dedicated to stories of inspiring women.]

One place to find out about good books for entrepreneurs, is the Read With Entrepreneurs Facebook group. Here at The Story Exchange, we have a huge archive of inspiring success stories of women entrepreneurs of every age and background, working in every industry and living all around the world.

8. Practice positive thinking, and look ahead.

Carlin of Women Empower Expo likes to binge on “positivity” by, say, watching motivational videos and visiting upbeat Instagram accounts. “It’s very important to continue to feed your mind with positive thoughts and messages, especially on rough days,” she says.

The alternative is demoralizing and doesn’t get you anywhere. “I tell myself, never to focus on negativity. The moment you focus on all the bad things, you lose power,” says Haotanto of The New Savvy. “Instead stay focused on your goals and dreams.”

At least three mornings a week, JuliAnne Murphy, a self-employed writer living on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, sits quietly and breathes. ”Then I visualize myself ‘arriving’ or ‘feeling’ on the other side of whatever my current goal is, and I see myself celebrating that success.”

The post How to Stay Inspired When You Really Need a Boost appeared first on The Story Exchange.

Since the #MeToo movement began about a year ago with exposes of media mogul Harvey Weinstein’s abuse of Hollywood stars, we’ve been inundated with troubling stories of workplace harassment in many industries, particularly the sexual harassment of women by powerful men.

But as the sad depths of this entrenched problem have become more visible, we have begun to look more closely at solutions, too. Implementing them is ultimately the work of business owners and managers. Are you onboard?

Business leaders are responsible for creating workplaces that are safe from assault, abuse and emotional harm. They also have an obvious interest in avoiding potentially significant legal costs, not to mention decreased productivity, talent exoduses and reputational harm. Nevertheless, we’ve seen abundant bad examples of how to deal with claims of sexual harassment at work and with the harassers, especially serial offenders in positions of power or influence. Men like Les Moonves of CBS and Andy Rubin of Google abused underlings for years, while their employers hid or buried the problem, at least until intense media attention made that no longer possible.

But many other companies, large and small, are rising to the occasion, revisiting policies and procedures to improve what they’re doing. They are responding to equally obvious incentives to create great workplaces — ones infused with respect, fairness and goodwill — that attract talented people and enable them to flourish and drive business success.

This is work that women entrepreneurs can rightly lead. That’s why we asked more than 30 from around the world how best to deal with harassment and inappropriate behavior in the workplace. Here’s their sage advice for other business owners:

1. Set clear workplace harassment policies.

The starting point is clear anti-harassment policies. This means determining and laying out what behavior is not acceptable at work — and what the consequences will be for unacceptable behavior. You should also devise a process for enforcing your policy, including who inside your organization will take the lead.

Sarah Walsh, the owner of Caffè d’Amore Coffee Company in Pittsburgh, has had to develop and enforce policies and procedures that protect both employees and cafe customers. She recommends business owners write down their policies and run them by a lawyer, mentor or human resources professional.

[Read about the incidents that prompted Walsh’s policies: This Cafe Owner Created a Community Haven Where Harassment Has No Home]

Standard policies prohibit both verbal and physical harassment, whether sexual or related to a person’s race, gender, sexual orientation or disability, that create a hostile work environment. Several of the women entrepreneurs we polled argued passionately for a zero-tolerance policy that leads to termination of offenders. But consequences often include, or begin with, reprimand and suspension.

You may well iterate on your policies and procedures, refining them as you face real world situations. “If there is no process to deal with the specific behavior, that’s okay. It’s an opportunity to develop one.” Walsh says.

2. Communicate anti-harassment policies early and often.

The women entrepreneurs we surveyed also advocate clear communication of anti-harassment policies, both when bringing on new employees and periodically to all staff. You might even want employees to sign an agreement to abide by your policy or include it in employment contracts.

“Put a strict contract in place where it clearly states that harassment will lead to immediate dismissal,” advises Jennifer Glodik, the owner of Diva Slimming and Aesthetics Centre, a South African salon business with locations in Johannesburg and Pretoria.

Sit-down conversations with new employees laying out your expectations and explaining the culture you’re looking to create are worthwhile. “I always start with each team member when they come onboard,” says Allison Blust-Zang of Absolute Pilates, who has five studios in Pennsylvania and a large cast of teachers. “They need to think carefully before they say negative things to clients and other staff members.”

[Explore more articles offering advice and tips for women entrepreneurs all along the entrepreneurial journey.]

3. Create safe, trusted channels for reporting inappropriate behavior.

All of your policies and procedures will be for nothing, if people who experience or witness troubling situations don’t tell you about them. Indeed, you want to encourage reporting of incidents right away, so you can ensure problems don’t fester and grow.

Unfortunately, however, silence is the norm — the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission estimates that three-quarters of people who experience harassment don’t tell superiors or others in a position to intervene. The primary reasons are fear that they won’t be believed, no action will be taken, they’ll be blamed or they’ll face social or professional retaliation.

To encourage open communication, devise a process that makes it clear where employees should go to file complaints or report incidents. Let them know how harassment claims will be handled and how they will learn what actions are taken as a result. And make it clear they can report incidents without rebuke or repercussion.

Create “safe spaces for reporting,” says Brittany Rose, founder of More Than Cheer, a Virginia company that uses cheerleading to empower girls. “Your employees must feel like they are protected and cared for.”

[Related: This Former Ravens Cheerleader is Using Her Sport to Teach Leadership to Girls]

In one example at a large company, John Deere, the farm equipment maker, created a grievance system that lets people anonymously track the progress of their cases of reported harassment. The firm also shares information about cases, with names left out, in a quarterly newsletter. This is educational for all employees and shows there’s accountability.

“Have open and honest conversations within teams to ensure people are not only comfortable with reporting something they see or hear, but also are comfortable speaking up on behalf of their colleagues and peers,” says Jenna Kerner, the co-founder of Los Angeles bra company Harper Wilde. “We must cultivate an environment in which the expectation is to address behavior when it happens and to act as an ally for anyone who may find him or herself in a compromising position.”

[Related: Read about Harper Wilde’s startup story.]

4. Investigate and address complaints right away.

Virtually all of the women we spoke to advised business owners to take swift action — both to demonstrate you take the matter seriously and to nip any problems in the bud.

“Confront the situation right away. Do not put it to the side. If you do, it shows you are not respecting the person coming forward or counting it as important,” says Alexa Carlin of Women Empower Expo, an annual event for female entrepreneurs and leaders held in North America. “Even if it’s a situation where you do not know how to handle it right away, always make sure you are communicating properly and let them know you are taking it seriously.”

Then hear out both parties, the accuser and the accused, to find out what happened. You may also want to interview co-workers. If necessary, hire a trained investigator to get to the bottom of the problem.

[Related: Lead Like a Woman: 9 Qualities to Drive Your Success as an Entrepreneur]

5. Stop abusive behavior in its tracks.

It’s often appropriate to give warnings about unacceptable behavior and try to change that behavior before taking the grave step of firing someone. In this case, you may want to invoke a probationary period, during which you actively monitor for any additional infractions that might lead to disciplinary escalation.

Though protecting the person harassed is clearly the top priority of women entrepreneurs we spoke to, several also encourage concern for the alleged harasser. “Find out what’s going on with the accused, see if they have social and life issues. Maybe they need counseling, maybe they were not taught to respect others,” says Sharon Levy of Taking Tea InStyle, a New Jersey service that caters and hosts tea parties. But if that doesn’t end the problem, she adds, “then whatever is appropriate for that company to maintain a safe working environment must be done.”

“As a person who has personally been a victim of a senior coworker’s inappropriate behavior, I believe that a strong stand must be taken,” says Anisha Chaudhari, owner of Threads & Shirts, a made-to-measure clothing company in Mumbai, India. “If a women feels uncomfortable and objectified, she should be heard … and strict appropriate action must be taken to serve as an example.”

[Related: This Nonprofit is Using Talk and Technology to End Harassment]

When clear, “unacceptable behavior must be addressed as soon as possible and as safely as possible,” says Walsh of Caffè d’Amore. She recommends having a neutral third party present during actions like firings or asking customers to leave. “In the case of criminal behavior, call the police, always. We have no responsibility to protect others from the consequences of their criminal decisions, and it hurts the business if it is not addressed.”

6. Let employees know you took action.

“In my view, the best way to deal with harassment and inappropriate behavior in any office is to call out that behavior,” says Jacqueline V. Twillie, founder of ZeroGap, a Dallas company that teaches leadership skills to women in male-dominated industries. “It takes each person looking out for the other person and saying wrong is wrong.”

In fact, the outcomes of harassment cases should be disclosed publicly, argues Anita Hill, the Brandeis professor who famously testified about her sexual harassment in the 1991 confirmation hearings of Justice Clarence Thomas. She currently heads the Hollywood Commission on Eliminating Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality. Although companies typically want to protect employee privacy, transparency is needed “to build trust and prevent violators from being passed off to other workplaces,” Hill told the The New York Times.

Google is pledging greater transparency to rebuild trust, after thousands of employees walked off the job amid news that Andy Rubin was quietly ousted 2 years ago and given a $90 million golden parachute. The company says it will now publicly report data on sexual harassment and assault, including the number of substantiated and partly substantiated claims.

Your end goal: a safe place, culture of respect and focus on work.

Stopping unwanted behavior will not just protect your business, it will make it stronger, when paired with efforts to create a culture of respect and kindness.

[Related: How Kindness in Business Pays Off for Leaders]

Allison Monaghan McGuire owns two New York companies, Walc, which makes a mapping app, and Monaghan McGuire, a consulting firm serving female entrepreneurs. She advocates “establishing a culture that values all voices and doesn’t embolden frat activities” like heavy drinking and playing foosball and, instead, “thinks about adult needs” like healthy food and pumping rooms.

Several women emphasize the elevation of women in the workplace — something that many family businesses have proved adept at — as a vital means to a workplace culture where women and men are respected. After all, since harassment is a form of abuse of power, shifting the power dynamics can eliminate the behavior.

“Today’s leaders must make a personal commitment to increase women’s presence in decision-making — not just in their numbers, but in their contributions,” says Anna Haotanto of The New Savvy, a financial, investments and career platform for women in Asia. “Managers must learn to welcome women’s input and contribution in order to create an environment where male and female members of the team are considered equally and there is no place for harassment or inappropriate behavior within the culture of the business.”

The post Dealing With Harassment in the Workplace: A Guide for Business Owners appeared first on The Story Exchange.

Three final nailbiter races for women candidates in our Running Women project — all Democrats running ambitious campaigns for executive offices in red states — have reached quite different ends.

The two women on the Democratic ticket to lead the state of Georgia, governor candidate Stacey Abrams and running mate Sarah Riggs Amico, who sought the lieutenant governorship, both lost in a close and bitterly fought election marred by claims of vote rigging. Meanwhile, Democrat Katie Hobbs won her race to become Arizona’s next secretary of state, putting her in position to fix an election system that has been beset by multiple problems and that she has also claimed was used by Republicans to suppress votes.

Bitterness in Georgia

For more than a week, the Georgia races were too close to call, although the Republican candidates, Brian Kemp and Geoff Duncan, respectively, retained small leads throughout. Abrams’ race was especially closely watched, since she was within striking distance of becoming the country’s first African-American woman governor. Her well-funded, aggressive voter turnout effort focused on getting minorities, women and young people out to the polls, many for the first time, and helped drive record turnout for a non-presidential year of more than 3.9 million voters.

At the same time, Abrams’ campaign repeatedly and bitterly accused Kemp, who as secretary of state was in charge of the election, of using his office to suppress Democratic votes, especially those of minorities and students. Behind in the tally by a razor-thin margin, her team mounted a spirited legal and public relations effort to try to force the counties to count all eligible votes and spotlighted evidence of voting mismanagement and irregularities.

[Related Q&A: Stacey Abrams on Turning Georgia Blue]

But in the end it wasn’t enough. On Friday, Abrams was still about 17,000 votes from a runoff that would have given her one more shot. She ended her campaign, acknowledging that she could not prevail in the certified vote due that day — officially, Kemp had 50.2 percent of the vote to Abrams’ 48.8 percent — and that there were no more viable ways to challenge the outcome.

But she refused to concede or call Kemp’s election legitimate. Watching Kemp “baldly pin his hopes for election on the suppression of the people’s democratic right to vote – has been truly appalling,” she said in a speech. “I will not concede because the erosion of our democracy is not right.”

Abrams said she would launch an effort to seek accountability and integrity in Georgia’s elections and voting rolls, dubbed Fair Fight Georgia. “In the coming days, we will be filing a major federal lawsuit against the state of Georgia for the gross mismanagement of this election and to protect future elections from unconstitutional actions,” she said in the speech. While she may again run for office in the future, her immediate focus will be fighting to “fix what is broken” in Georgia’s election system, she said in a television interview with 11Alive.

Meanwhile, Riggs Amico, after a long silence, made a public statement on Monday on Facebook. She struck a gracious, sunny tone that praised Georgians for coming out in droves in a renewed embrace of civic engagement and support of her first-time candidacy, which called for a return to bipartisan cooperation and civility in politics. Riggs Amico lost to Duncan 51.6 percent to 48.4 percent, according to the final tally.

But she also acknowledged the painful controversy swirling in Georgia. “For all of the success we enjoyed, this election also demonstrated there is still much work to do in Georgia to ensure every vote counts, every voice is heard, and every eligible voter can exercise their constitutional right to vote,” she wrote. And she urged supporters to vote for the Democratic candidate, John Barrow, who aims to succeed Kemp as secretary of state and will be on the ballot of a runoff election on Dec. 4.

An Arizona Win

Meanwhile in Arizona, Katie Hobbs won her race to become the next secretary of state, putting her in charge of statewide elections that have faced multiple glitches under a Republican who lost her primary contest amid dogged criticism from all sides. The win puts Hobbs second in line to the governor, since Arizona does not have a lieutenant governor.

Hobbs, the minority leader in the Arizona Senate, focused her campaign on proposals to improve voting access and clean up those well-publicized election-system problems as well as remove barriers to voting in front of eligible Arizonans.

[Related Q&A: Katie Hobbs is Itching to Fight Voter Suppression]

“As Secretary of State, I will work to ensure that every eligible voter — Republican, Democrat, Independent, Green, Libertarian — can cast your ballot with the confidence that your vote counts and your voice matters, and do so in a way that is meaningful and convenient for you,” she said in a statement.

Hobbs declared victory Friday night, when she was ahead of Gaynor by more than 15,000 votes and additional results from Democrat-leaning Maricopa County were still due in over the weekend. She had been behind in the election night tally, and the Associated Press called the race for her opponent. But with hundreds of thousands of votes yet to be counted, Hobbs refused to concede. And by last Monday she was in the lead by about 5,000 votes, and the AP retracted its call. The latest tally has Hobbs ahead by 20,251 votes with 50.4 percent of more than 2.3 million votes cast.

Hobbs won in a state with more registered Republicans by striking a moderate tone that won over independents and moderate Republican women in the state’s suburbs, analysts said. The state’s new Democratic senator, Kyrsten Simena, pursued a similar winning strategy.

[Related: Women Running for Office in 2018 Achieve Record-Breaking Wins]

The post In Close Races for Women Democrats in Red States, Very Different Outcomes appeared first on The Story Exchange.

As a young woman, Donna Karan had no intention of working in fashion, she recently told a rapt crowd of women entrepreneurs and corporate strivers gathered for the S.H.E Summit in New York City. She wanted to be an illustrator.

But she came from a fashion family — her mother was a model and her father, who died when she was 3, had been a tailor — and they shuttled her off to Parsons School of Design (where she failed draping, she says). By age 24, she was pregnant with a daughter, unhappily working in Paris designing a new collection for Anne Klein, and looking for an out, she said. Then Klein was hospitalized unexpectedly and died from breast cancer. Karan felt compelled to finish the collection herself and to take on a leadership role.

Karan became both a mother and a fabulously successful fashion designer, who not only carried on Anne Klein’s legacy but created her own. Designing clothing for the American working woman, she turned the Donna Karan and DKNY brands into household names. Now, at age 70, Karan is building Urban Zen, a fashion, beauty and home decor lifestyle brand that reflects her embrace of Eastern philosophies and combines her passions for commerce and philanthropy.

Those passions had me especially eager to speak with Karan after her appearance onstage at the 92nd Street Y. The Story Exchange has for several years now profiled women entrepreneurs pursuing solutions to social problems. So I went to the summit intending to grab a one-on-one interview with this legend and capture her lessons for women starting out.

[Related: Explore our profiles of women social entrepreneurs and nonprofit founders]

Don’t think you know what your path is going to be, was Karan’s central advice onstage, where she riffed like a jazz musician and was barely contained by her interviewer and friend, the author and humanitarian Zainab Salbi. “You have to find that energy that’s guiding you … not by doing, doing, doing, but by being.”

More than ever, Karan, who has practiced yoga and meditation for most of her life, feels guided in her work at Urban Zen and the higher mission of “conscious consumerism.” The New York company provides income opportunities to artisans, particularly in Haiti and Bali, who help make products that are sold in its own stores and at high-end retailers like Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman. Sales help support the work of the Urban Zen Foundation, which has initiatives in three primary areas: preserving cultures and integrating “mind, body and spirit” into healthcare and into children’s education.

Embrace Your Gifts, Connect to Where You’re Guided

After the onstage “fireside chat,” I hurried to find Karan and the summit publicist. “Come to the step and repeat now,” the publicist had texted. “It has to be quick!” Soon, Karan and Salbi appeared from backstage. Karan stopped for chit-chat, a few photos and to scrawl on a giant “commitment board” the actions she promises to take to advance women’s equality. Then, finally, we all walked to a spacious speaker and press room, where Karan and I sat on hard chairs for an easy conversation.

“I never wanted to be a big designer,” she told me, looking every bit the fashion icon behind big sunglasses and dressed in a dark Urban Zen ensemble, her hair pulled sleekly back. “I wanted to design for me and my friends, and I was good at it. But I loved selling clothes in stores, because I loved working with other people and showing them what they could do.”

[Related: This luxury T-shirt company founder gives second chances to women released from prison]

Keeping an eye on the future, recognizing her larger abilities — her “gifts” — and following their lead has been vital to achieving career success that has spanned a lifetime, she said. “People think I’m a little cuckoo. But I do a lot, I feel a lot,” she added, speaking with a New Yorker’s frankness and in a far more directed and concise way than on stage. “I don’t believe this is about me, it’s about something that I’ve been gifted.”

Karan said she has done years of “inward work” with an array of teachers and through spiritual practice to be able to understand her path. Every day, she wakes up early to do a daily morning practice that includes yoga, Pilates and mediation. “Everything is for me in the morning. I don’t start my [work] day before ten thirty. And then once I’m out there, everybody else has me,” often until after midnight.

But following her inner compass has not always made life easy. She founded Donna Karan International in 1984 with her late husband Stephan Weiss and built it into an empire. The French conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton bought it in 2001, and she stepped down as CEO, though remained chief designer. That same year, Weiss died of cancer, transforming Karan’s life and ultimately inspiring her 2007 founding of Urban Zen and its healthcare mission. Eventually LVMH and Karan’s visions for Donna Karan did not align, and she became dissatisfied. In 2015, in a move that shocked many, Karan stepped away from her namesake company.

“That was a failure for me. I wasn’t able to do what I wanted to do,” she told me. But “I had seen the future was Urban Zen,” and it was as if the universe had intervened: “I basically was thrown out of Donna Karan to do what I do now.”

Building Urban Zen is the hardest thing she has ever done in business, Karan said. She is frustrated that it hasn’t grown as quickly as her earlier enterprises. “I think it’s scary because I am getting older, and I have a vision that’s very, very large. So I want it to happen.”

Many people are not yet ready for her vision — in particular, for her advocacy of “integrative” healthcare modalities, such as yoga, Reiki and mindfulness. Through them, she wants to put more “care in healthcare,” whether for the patient, loved one or medical practitioner. The need to raise awareness makes the work harder and slower.

[Related: When Pain Derailed This Doctor’s Career, She Started a $5 Million Nonprofit That Saves Pregnant Women’s Lives Around the World]

Find Collaborators, Create a Movement

Asked for the greatest lesson she would impart to other women starting their own businesses, Karan urged finding collaborators. Trying to build something substantial solo doesn’t work. “You, yourself, cannot do it, so let’s forget that. So how do you build a group that can help you do that?” Her answer: Find like-minded people who share your interests, who bring to the table their own gifts, and with whom there is a frisson of excitement, energy and ideas when you talk about what you can create together.

But you have to be patient. “Believe me, the way you find your husband is the way you find a collaborator,” she said, turning on her Queens-born Jewish mother self. “If you’re ready, it will happen. Don’t push it. It comes to you.”

Among Karan’s collaborators for Urban Zen have been Bill Clinton and the Clinton Global Initiative, which led to her work with Haitian artisans. After Haiti’s 2010 earthquake, Karan worked with the Clinton Global Initiative to develop sustainable work opportunities for artisans there. And in 2015, she collaborated with her alma mater, Parsons, to open a vocational education center in Haiti called Design Organization Training.

With great collaborators on your team, you gain the ability to ability to build something big with outsized impact. You need “to create a community, to collaborate and help other women,” she said. “You need a movement.”

“And that’s why I do Urban Zen now,” she added. “It’s about creating something that will make a difference in the world. We’re in the most troubled times ever, on every single level. So we have to create communities to create the change that’s needed in the world.”

Karan was beckoned toward a video crew that had her next. She stepped in front of the camera, sat down and removed her sunglasses — and prepared to explain the Urban Zen mission yet again.

The post Donna Karan Opens Up About Fashion, Failure and the Force That Drives Her appeared first on The Story Exchange.

Brittany Rose has no time for dismissive stereotypes about cheerleaders as mean girls, unintelligent or objects be ogled by men who watch “real” sports.

In fact, she asserts, cheerleaders are amazing athletes, ace students and graceful leaders who stand up for other people. That’s who the four-time All American and former Baltimore Raven cheerleader has always strived to be. And that’s what she’s grooming hundreds of girls to become through her growing business, More Than Cheer of Ashburn, Va.

More Than Cheer offers classes, summer camps, after-school programs and opportunities to compete on cheerleading teams to about 200 students a week — and soon many more, thanks to a new and bigger gym and plans for regional expansion. But its mission, Rose says, is to develop perseverance, confidence and leadership skills in girls.

“My company is a personal development company disguised as cheerleading,” she says. “I’ve taken an activity used to trivialize women and girls, and turned it into an opportunity to empower the next generation of girls who will lead their communities into a brighter future.”

From Pro-Cheerleader to Businesswoman

Rose, who is 30, started More Than Cheer in 2007 as a sophomore at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she cheered competitively and for the basketball team. (She was named All American four times in high school and her team’s captain.) After college, she tried out for the Ravens and spent the 2013 season cheering for the National Football League team. The experience was “awesome,” she says, but, ultimately, not as as enticing as the possibility of growing More Than Cheer.

NFL cheerleaders often aren’t paid well or given respect for the hard-working athletes they are, Rose says. Some have reported troubling #MeToo moments. But for Rose, the decision was largely a business calculation. As she weighed her career options, she recalls thinking: “Do I want to sit here and build someone else’s brand, or do I want to build my own?”

[Related: Meet 7 Female Founders Taking #MeToo and #TimesUp to the Next Level]

So she shifted to focus full time on More Than Cheer. Today, the company has between eight and 16 employees, depending on the season (fall is high season, summer is low). Rose declined to disclose annual revenue but says it’s growing. To scale up, last year More Than Cheer moved into a larger space to accommodate more students. And now she’s pursuing a plan to offer franchises, initially to employees already steeped in the business and culture. The first franchise will open next year in a neighboring Virginia town, she says. She intends to open 25 in 5 years.

The business is a “four-legged stool” of classes, after-school programs, summer camps and competitive cheerleading teams, and students are recruited from local school systems. “Our goal was to build a business model that… could withstand recession and provide a suite of services to parents and kids,” she says.

Rose does not consider her operation a cheer gym, which doesn’t generally offer the childcare component that her company provides. Rather, More Than Cheer combines multiple kids-sports business models, she says. Its after-school programs and summer camps draw from martial arts schools. It has recreational classes that feed teams, an approach pulled from gymnastics. Its performance teams, which travel and perform at events, were inspired by the performance opportunities dance schools provide. And from All Star cheerleading, it takes “the rhinestones and lights and competitions.”

Those cheerleading competitions provide a special vehicle for teaching students life lessons, she believes. “Our society is all about me, me, me, me,” she says. But in cheerleading, “it’s not about the individual. It’s about your teammates, and how you can serve them and do your best for them and for yourself.”

[Related: Read about former competitive cheerleader who’s remaking the menswear business]

Busting Bias and Stereotypes

But Rose faces a huge challenge. Cheerleading is often discounted as a real sport by the public, which mainly sees pretty girls cheering men’s sports teams in tight uniforms and assumes they’re vapid or happy sex objects.

“Cheering for other sports is only a small piece of cheerleading,” Rose says. “Outsiders looking in just have a complete lack of respect for the athletes that participate in this sport.”

Cheer practices are as physically hard, if not harder, than many other sports, she argues. The team aspect, with its synchronized dance, gymnastics and complicated lifts, requires intense mental focus. Competitive cheerleading routines are extremely intricate, and participants do tricks at great heights that, if botched, can lead to falls and serious injuries. Cheerleaders display “an amazing level of athletic ability.”

Yet society is obsessed with their uniforms. “Adults look at what cheerleaders wear” — at exposed midriffs and short skirts — and “use that as a reason why our sport is not a legitimate sport,” Rose says. Outfits too often determine “the level of respect you’re given as an athlete and a person…. It’s a hard pill to swallow.”

Cheerleading’s Leadership Opportunities

Rose’s uniform choices tend to be sparkly and fun, rather than sexy. “I love the rhinestones. That’s definitely my favorite part,” she says. One of her biggest challenges is helping young girls navigate body-image pressures and media messages. ”In 2nd grade, we have kids calling themselves fat. Sometimes is very heartbreaking,” she says. “But we’re part of the solution, and that’s what makes it all worth it.”

More Than Cheer works to showcase talent and encourages self-acceptance and self-love. It teaches girls to lead gracefully and stand up for people. In school settings, cheerleaders are often put “front and center” with lots of eyes on them, Rose says. She makes sure her students understand their responsibility and “opportunity to set the tone.”

“One of the reasons I chose this business and to serve girls is because cheerleaders are in a unique position to uplift their school and their community,” she says. Empowered, confident girls grow up to be strong, nurturing women. who influence everyone around them. “What I do is make better people,” Rose says. “It’s really not about who can throw the best tumbling pass…. It’s about being an example and a role model.”

Read about the six other status-quo busting women on The Story Exchange’s 2018 Resist List

The post This Former Ravens Cheerleader is Using Her Sport to Teach Leadership to Girls appeared first on The Story Exchange.

Sarah Walsh’s Caffe d’Amore is a haven in the Pittsburgh community of Upper Lawrenceville — a sunny shop where regulars sidle up to its coffee bar to share a laugh or a story, while sipping one of her well-loved espressos.

But creating a welcoming, happy vibe and keeping it that way hasn’t always been easy. After all, wherever people gather, unwelcome behavior is sure to follow. And Walsh, 41, has had to manage her fair share.

Stalker-types have harassed a regular customer and a female employee, causing disruption, discomfort and even fear. And Walsh herself was menaced by a milk vendor who, in front of customers and employees, crudely suggested she pay for a refrigerator with a sexual act. When she returned his fridge, which didn’t work, he forced his way into the cafe and refused to leave until she summoned the cops. Then he harassed her online, she says.

Though these #MeToo incidents were both challenging and dispiriting, Walsh has used them to make Caffe d’Amore stronger. She began asking herself a vital question, she says: “What does it mean to be a thriving business first, and a place that is simultaneously safe for other people?”

Her answers helped her become a better business owner, employee manager and neighborhood host. They also show the way for other women entrepreneurs who want to create a post-#MeToo workplace where harassment has no home.

[Related: Meet 7 Female Founders Taking #MeToo and #TimesUp to the Next Level]

A Thriving Small Business

Walsh started her company in June 2010 as a solo coffee catering business. By May 2012, she had secured a full-time space in a public market, hired her first employee and soon started visiting farmers markets. A few years later, aiming to generate more sustainable income and become “a little more rooted,” she opened her Upper Lawrenceville storefront. For about 6 months, she juggled the cafe and the market location, until the market closed down.

Today, Caffe d’Amore has three employees, a contract event coordinator and part-time staff who serve coffee at events like receptions, parties, baby showers and fundraising dinners. Walsh is also making growth moves into wholesale tapped cold-brew coffee, which she first developed a year ago for cafe regulars who own a local beer brewery. She now distributes it to the brewery and a restaurant and is working on more deals. Between the shop, catering and wholesale, annual revenue is about $120,000 to $150,000, she says, “and every year it’s more.”

But with the cafe accounting for some 80 percent of her small business’ revenue, it remains Walsh’s top priority — and maintaining its special atmosphere is all-important. “Our customers really make it in a lot of ways,” Walsh says. An L-shaped bar encourages people to come in solo and yammer with baristas and strangers.

Every day, a regular customer named “Ed comes in with a joke, and it’s a dad joke… He has Star Wars jokes on him at all times,” she says. “Ed also likes to make big batches of soup and brings in soup. How lucky are we?!”

Saying ‘No’ to Harassment in the Workplace

But there’s a darker side to that openness, she says. When last summer the ex-girlfriend of a regular kept appearing to look for him, Walsh had to tell the woman she would not be served anymore. That customer ”came in a couple times every single day,” Walsh says. “It was like: You can’t stalk somebody here.”

[Related: Will Voters Favor Women Who Fight Sexual Harassment? Candidates in Michigan Will Find Out]

And when that spring the female employee became distracted trying to avoid her male harasser, who insisted on having personal conversations while she worked, Walsh got concerned. “He has undermined her feeling of safety,” she recalls thinking. “I need my employees to be comfortable everywhere” in the shop. So Walsh, with her self-defense coach there as a “neutral party,” attempted to reason with the man. “He started making a scene,” she says. So she banned him.

“I don’t want everybody’s money,” she says.

Walsh also stood up to her own bully. Thanks to multiple witnesses to the milk vendor’s behavior in September 2016, prosecutors believed they had a case they could win in court. Indeed, they won a first bench trial; her alleged harasser was found guilty, and Walsh received an order of protection. However, he was later found not guilty of all charges in a third trial neither Walsh nor the district attorney was informed of, and Walsh is now contemplating a civil rights suit.

“When I became a crime victim, it changed me. It’s still changing me,” she says. “It really affected my unwillingness to accept unacceptable behavior in the business setting.”

It also pushed her to partner with women-owned vendors, who she believes are more professional. To make her affrigatos, Walsh pours espresso over high-end vanilla ice cream she buys from Leona’s Ice Cream, Pittsburgh’s only female-owned ice cream maker. “I consider them my soul sisters in business. We’re just trying to take no sh** in these male-dominated industries.”

[Related: How One Nonprofit Is Using Talk and Technology to Stop Harassment]

To Be Both Safe and ‘Deeply Hospitable’

Walsh spent 9 years working for a campus ministry and has long found meaning and purpose in being a compassionate host. And she’s determined to hold on to that, despite the difficult experiences.

In a world that now feels more unsafe, “what does it mean to be deeply hospitable to all people?” she asks. The answer has been to assert boundaries. She has learned to “put steel rods in,” she says, adding, “I’m still learning to walk with these things.”

The unfolding #MeToo movement, which began in late 2017, has helped. “I felt less alone,” she says. In affronts ranging from coercion to harassment to assault, she identified a “constant thread,” she says: “people’s inability to hear the word ‘no.’”

These days, Walsh’s “no” is firmer. In the past, she might have watched and waited when someone became problematic for staff or customers. Now when there’s a harassment complaint or she witnesses unwelcome conduct she thinks: “I’m going to need to make a decision.”

She also established an anti-harassment policy for her shop. To protect the place she has worked so hard to create, Walsh has hung a sign. It reads: “House Policy: We’re committed to providing a hospitable and safe coffee shop environment for all. Unruly or disrespectful guests will be asked to leave. Respect one another. We got this.”

Read about the six other status-quo busting women on The Story Exchange’s 2018 Resist List

The post This Cafe Owner Created a Community Haven Where Harassment Has No Home appeared first on The Story Exchange.

Some are calling 2018 the “Year of the Woman.” A historic number of number of female candidates are running for office. The #MeToo movement has sparked an international conversation on sexual assault and gender inequality. And many are becoming newly outspoken and feeling a keen urgency to — finally — change the status quo.

Against that backdrop, The Story Exchange has named seven outstanding entrepreneurs to The Resist List — a list that spotlights a diverse group of women whose products or services are designed to help other women, or whose workplaces go above and beyond to support women’s success.

As a nonprofit media company dedicated to women entrepreneurs, we believe women helping women can lead the way to a more inclusive future. When we put out our call for entries in April, we heard from scores of women around the world who are resisting social mores that have so often held women back. We made our final selections based on the strength and impact of the entrepreneur’s mission, as well as the sustainability of the business itself.

We hope this list inspires anyone, regardless of gender, to use the power of business to make a positive change in the world. Be sure to check our special page for The Resist List as we unveil a new profile each day over the next 2 weeks.

Sarah Walsh, Caffe d’Amore Coffee Company: Schooled by tough experiences, Pittsburgh coffee shop owner Walsh has created a post-#MeToo workplace where everyone is welcome and mutual respect is a way of life.

Martha Silcott, FabLittleBag: Silcott’s London-based business FabLittleBag aims to eradicate period embarrassment, selling purse-friendly biodegradable bags for disposing sanitary products.

Brittany Rose, More Than Cheer: A former NFL cheerleader, Rose of Ashburn, Va., is on a mission to dismantle disparaging stereotypes about cheerleading and make it a tool for empowering girls.

Paula Clark, Punky Moms: From her home in the U.K., Clark runs an alternative parenting group for intersectional feminists who are interested in baby food, onesies and overthrowing the patriarchy.

Rita Robert Otu, Beau Haven Farms: Otu is helping rural women in Southern Nigeria grow and sell vitamin A-rich cassava — and showing them a path to economic independence in the process.

Uma Gautam, HeadPro Consulting LLP: Bangalore-based Gautam’s “women-centric” headhunting firm is making a difference for working women in India — and, soon, in other Asian countries as well.

Kirsten Curry, Leading Retirement Solutions: A former fisherwoman, Curry runs a Seattle retirement-planning firm that aims to raise an alarm about how many women are ill-prepared for retirement.

Check out our past lists of exceptional female founders:

The Passionate & Purposeful (2017)

Three Good Women (2016)

The Power List (2015)

Young Women to Watch (2014)

The post The Resist List: Meet 7 Female Founders Taking #MeToo and #TimesUp to the Next Level appeared first on The Story Exchange.