LeadingShe

Donna Carlson leads in a unique way, as she works toward bringing awareness of the importance of recognizing mental health, burnout, and depression in the workplace. Her childhood was characterized by an alcoholic and abusive mother, and she realized that she was often on her own when it came to emotional support. In her book,  Crazy, As Usual  she profiles a wonderful story of two women, a young executive and a retired CEO which outlines some great advice for women leaders. Donna began a movement for women to model the women in the book through her group: Fridays at Five She experienced her own depression and learned that embracing good sleep, joy, play, gratitude, and meditation has transformed her life. Donna urges corporations to shift their focus toward recognizing the need to integrate the whole person, one who might need flexibility and respect around personal life challenges to experience better mental health---which will pay off with higher morale and higher profits! What great messages from a fantastic leader! http://LeadingShe.com Instagram.com/LeadingShe Facebook.com/LeadingShe https://www.linkedin.com/company/leadingshe/

Dean Lillian Mills is the first woman female dean of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas, Austin, and is an internationally renowned expert in tax and accounting. Her responsibilities with the college include teaching, publishing, and serving the college locally and nationally. She urges career women to determine what they excel at, and pursue this, and says then the passion will follow.  Dean Mills wishes she had volunteered to take on more responsibilities earlier in her career versus waiting to be asked. She advocates for herself and her accomplishments within her current position and asks to be considered for future opportunities. She says it's important to create a circle of advisors for ourselves, a “kitchen cabinet” of trusted people we can call to obtain excellent advice about important decisions and to encourage us.  Dean Lillian Mills has learned to say ‘no’ to requests for which she does not have the time to devote and delaying these decisions has proven useful. What an inspiring leader with great wisdom for future leaders!  LeadingShe.com Instagram.com/LeadingShe Facebook.com/LeadingShe https://www.linkedin.com/company/leadingshe/

Judy Mackey is a partner in five companies and an owner of Garden of the Gods Resort and Club in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Her journey began in her 20s after a serious medical diagnosis as she healed through holistic Eastern medicine and her passion and purpose began. In this episode, she provides much advice about starting and growing businesses.  Judy credits her success to determination and ambition, focusing on vision and strategy while surrounding herself with excellent partners. She built relationships through listening closely to her clients and tapping into her intuition to meet and exceed their needs. Judy Mackey deals with business challenges by using meditation, journaling, tapping into forgiveness and gratitude and empowering herself. What an inspiring entrepreneur!   LeadingShe.com Instagram.com/LeadingShe Facebook.com/LeadingShe https://www.linkedin.com/company/leadingshe/

As founder and CEO of Empowered Engagement, Kelley O’Keeffe is one of the youngest leaders we have hosted on LeadingShe. Having had a very successful 15-year career in sales with several large tech companies such as IBM, she is prepared to coach women toward success.  An ambitious, high-energy and hard-working leader, Kelley gives wonderful advice based upon her experience along with research data which allows women to become more strategic and tactical in their careers with a focus on sales and entrepreneurship. She recommends women use their gifts and talents to advance their careers and advises women to make sure they have advocates and sponsors in their companies. Kelley had humble beginnings which she overcame through sheer determination and the drive to succeed. She provides great networking tips to women in this episode and discusses different gender styles. Microaggressions, perfectionism, resilience----it’s all in the episode—Listen in!  https://empoweredengagement.com/ Empowered Engagement website https://empoweredengagement.com/the-scale-school The Scale School

Joanie Bily, President of RemX, an accomplished executive with two of the world’s largest employment companies, wrote a Book: Dive in D.E.E.P.: Strategies to Advance Your Career, Find Balance, and Live Your Best Life (https://www.amazon.com/Dive-D-P-Strategies-Advance/dp/1956914846/ref=sr_1_1?crid=W40PUM7SLXFR&keywords=dive+in+deep+joanie&qid=1695829107&s=books&sprefix=dive+in+deep+joanie%2Cstripbooks%2C91&sr=1-1) in which she tells many stories and gives great advice about enjoying career success. A frequent contributor to many networks as an expert on the job market, she tells the story about how she began doing this by filling in for an executive at her company. She discovered her gift for speaking to the media and despite her fears….she said ‘Yes’! Ambitious and driven even as a child, she believes strongly in goal-setting each year along with reviewing how she did reaching the set goals at the end of the year. She says it is important to know who our influential ambassadors are, who are speaking positively about us when we are not in the room.  Joanie says women have a hard time giving themselves kudos for our accomplishments but need to do so. What an inspiring leader Joanie Bily is!  Joanie Bily website https://joaniebily.com/ LeadingShe.com Instagram.com/LeadingShe Facebook.com/LeadingShe https://www.linkedin.com/company/leadingshe/

In 2022 Mary Miller’s company Jancoa celebrated its 50th anniversary and today she and her husband Tony have achieved the succession plan of their dreams by turning the company leadership over to their children. Mary continues to chair the board and her daughter has stepped into Mary’s shoes as CEO. The company began with just two office workers and 63 part-time cleaning employees and today Jancoa has 85 percent of the cleaning market in Cincinnati with over 500 employees. Her early life was filled with financial and personal struggles yet she is highly positive and a born entrepreneur and learned to take big risks to achieve success in her company and have a great life. Part of her success came from her gift of being able to read, connect with and develop relationships with people.   To distinguish her company to employees from other companies, she and Tony created a culture of caring and developed a program called Dream Engineer to help her employees enjoy better lives. She wrote a book:  Changing Direction: 10 Choices That Impact Your Dreams and plans to write another one soon. What a positive and inspiring leader Mary Miller is on this podcast! LeadingShe.com Instagram.com/LeadingShe Facebook.com/LeadingShe https://www.linkedin.com/company/leadingshe/

As president and CEO of Eric Mower & Associates, Stephanie Crockett leads a mid-size, independent marketing agency with 150 employees. She recommends that as we seek career success, we must first get clear about what drives us, what is our purpose, and understand our values. Once they understand what drives them, women then make career choices around what they want, and not perhaps what they are being expected to do.  Stephanie says that women don’t need to behave, dress, or communicate like men to be successful and says that we should bring our own unique and authentic workstyle. She has had wonderful experiences being in women’s networking organizations yet at times found that women can be competitive with one another.  One of the biggest keys to her success has been to remember she is not alone and to ask for help if she needs it. LeadingShe.com Instagram.com/LeadingShe Facebook.com/LeadingShe https://www.linkedin.com/company/leadingshe/

Kathy Boe, founder of Boecore, Inc., is an award-winning entrepreneur, engineer, and leader who has worked in support of the Department of Defense for over 25 years. Having begun her career at Hughes Aircraft, she has enjoyed a long career in a very male-dominated industry having founded Boecore over 22 years ago. We discuss topics like confidence, facing fear, and crying in the workplace. Kathy donates her time to several initiatives including non-profit work, and is the Founder and President of her family foundation. She encourages women to consider careers in STEM fields. What an inspiring leader and entrepreneur Kathy Boe is! LeadingShe.com Instagram.com/LeadingShe Facebook.com/LeadingShe https://www.linkedin.com/company/leadingshe/

Sonita Lontoh has been an entrepreneur as well as an executive with several large companies including HP and Siemens, and serves on corporate boards. Her advice to women is to be patient and realize their career journeys are long and moves may not be linear. Sonita’s leadership style has changed over her career and she says that while she has always had a technology-focused approach, she has become more customer-focused. Sonita urges companies to truly integrate their female employee resource groups with more involvement by the company CEOs and the corporate boards which will lead to more opportunities for women. LeadingShe.com Instagram.com/LeadingShe Facebook.com/LeadingShe https://www.linkedin.com/company/leadingshe/

Kathy Courtney, is COO of GreenState Credit Union, one of the largest credit unions in the country, and is a strong leader.  During her long career, she worked with large financial institutions in big cities in the U.S. and internationally yet returned to her home state of Iowa to work with GreenState Credit Union.  https://www.greenstate.org/. Kathy talks about calling out gender bias treatment in a non-confrontational yet direct way.  She recommends women take the next level up positions offered and though there may be fear, career growth is likely. After her husband’s serious health diagnosis, she reorganized her priorities placing more emphasis on family and not working quite as hard.  Kathy says offering flexible work options to employees builds strong company loyalty.  What a great LeadingShe episode and wonderful leader! LeadingShe.com Instagram.com/LeadingShe Facebook.com/LeadingShe https://www.linkedin.com/company/leadingshe/