Ok, everyone. Well, thank you so much and welcome. Um Welcome to the conference and uh again, appreciate your time and your attention today. Um I'm not sure how much time we're gonna have to answer questions. So I did put my linked in.Um the second one that I put in is, is the correct link. So I should put that into the chat box. So, um but I again wanted to welcome you today and just to give you a little bit of background about myself. Um a little over 10 years ago, I was working for a Wall Street firm here in the United States and, you know, I've been in, in mortgage banking for many years and then things, you know, got a little complicated. You know, this is our last major economic downturn in the world and the mortgage market melted down. Uh They shut our division. I was 8.5 months pregnant with my son and my mom at the same time, had a brain aneurysm that left her paraplegic. So within three months, I lost my job. Uh I had a brand new baby and I almost lost my mom. So as you can imagine, it was a, um, an extremely challenging time but I knew I had to do something. Um, I knew I had to re invent myself. So I, uh, I went to all my old brokers and asked them what I could do and they said that they wanted their websites to rank on the first page of Google.

And I thought, well, gee, how hard is that? Right. Well, turns out it's pretty hard, especially when I knew nothing about the internet at all or coding or any of that stuff. So I set out to learn and um I taught myself seo and then after that, uh social media and I set up a very uh successful consultancy. I wrote nine books on social media and um and relationship marketing. And I've also uh been pivoted a bit and I worked in the tech sector for a while. I ran uh sales for a software company. So, you know, and I've been working with entrepreneurs, um mentored my share of people in the corporate world. And now I founded my own tech start up called Wise Her. We offer on-demand expert advice for women to uh to provide them with advice for their business career or life. And again, this is one of my favorite topics because I want to talk to you about being comfortable making yourself more visible and online and why it's important if you want to get out, get hired, get some new, um you know, get some new folks to, to new opportunities you really need to stand out.

So here just quickly first a story. So this is a post I made um congratulating a friend of mine, uh Tracy on an award she received and I did get her permission to share this with you, but, you know, it was written up in a very well known tech publication and um I really wanted her to, you know, get the credit and, and, and really uh highlight her accomplishment.

So I shared it on linkedin and you know, this was her response, you know, this actually happened in March. But you know, press is press and you know what, I, I don't know what that says to you, but what that says to me is, you know, um don't look at me, right? It was really no big deal, but it actually was a really big deal. So, you know, in fact, I checked and this award wasn't even posted on her own profile, not even back in March when she said it first happened and you know, part of me thought, you know, wow, you know, how dare you not step into your brilliance and claim your space and, and, and how dare you hide your accomplishments from the world.

And I messaged her privately and I said you really have to stop hiding. It's important for you to stand out. And she said, you know, I have a hard time accepting, you know, praise and I have a hard time, you know, really promoting myself online. But what's interesting about Tracy is that she's also the founder of a nonprofit called Tech Girls that is um aims to get more girls in, in, in STEM and technology. And I thought, you know, is she really helping further that mission? So she actually wasn't right because she's hiding. So I said, look at it this way, you know, let's reframe it. You need to stand up and stand out. Not because it's about you, right. But it's about helping others. It's about helping the people around you. It's about them. It's about women in front of you, women behind you women, you know, next to you, it's about showing them that it's possible, it's possible to stand up. It's possible to stand out and it's ok to do that. It's our responsibility to make sure that that happens. Someone once told me you can't be what you can't see. So we really do ourselves and all others around us a disservice when we downplay or hide our accomplishments. And I had another, um, I had another friend who's a high level executive in a fortune 100 company. And a bit ago, she and I were speaking and she was talking about finding a new job and I asked her why, you know, she'd been at this company for years and she really loved it, but she said she felt invisible that she was getting passed over for roles in her company.

And I told her, you know, take a look around who are these people that you're getting passed over for, you know, they're visible, they speak at events, they're visible online on, you know, conferences like this and virtual summits like this. And they've positioned themselves as a thought leader in their industry. In fact, standing up is also a way to cultivate your personal brand, which not only helps you if you have a business but also in your career. So if you're looking to rise higher in your career, you know, you've probably heard a lot about the importance of mentors and sponsors and research shows that cultivating your personal brand is one of the best ways to attract sponsors and professionals with sponsors are 23% more likely than their peers to be promoted or hired.

And, you know, one of the things I was mentioned too is your personal brand can also lend some semblance of professional career security. So in this uncertain times that we're in right now, you know, if there are layoffs or cutbacks at your company being recognized in your field, makes it far more likely that you'll be snack snapped up quickly by another firm. But I realize it is a hard thing right to stand up and stand out. You know, we all worried about being judged and this is a challenge for. So many, particularly for women, you know, when you post about yourself or your business, you, you know, you're a shameless self promoter, right? And again, for women, even more challenges than the fact that we're constantly relentlessly judged on our looks, our weight, our age and our clothes, all sorts of things. Right. But, you know, experts call this a double bind, right? Knowing that you need to do something like standing up and standing out. But also know that you're going to be judged and sometimes harshly for it. We also know it is the damned if you do and damned if you don't. Right.

And I admit it in 2007 when my Wall Street job disappeared into the, you know, into the, the craziness of that mortgage meltdown era. Um You know, and I had just had my new baby and my mom had the brain aneurysm. You know, I was completely lost. I knew I had to do something and fast. But what and I started looking around and, and, and marketing in the online world and I immediately became very uncomfortable because all I saw were all these people talking about themselves and their accomplishments all the time. And I thought, how could, how would they do that? Right. Because I had that double bind too. You know, I, I wanted my life to be private. I didn't want to be judged. I didn't want trolls and all the other things that go along. With standing up. But I also wanted abundance and I wanted a life for my family in a way to help others. And, you know, I had successfully reinvented myself. I had come through a really challenging time. I worked really hard. I wrote nine books. So, why not me? Right. So I started to embrace it and I started sending out online press releases on talks I was giving, you know, even though there were only five people there and you know, that did happen by the way, um and posting regularly online about me, my business, you know, at any post that would draw attention to what I was doing professionally.

And, you know, when people commented, congratulations or good job, I really had to resist that urge to downplay things like my friend Tracy did and be like, oh, well, you know, there's only five people there. Um You know, I simply said thank you or I thanked them for the retweet or the share and maybe I Reshad it again and the more visible I became, the more business and opportunities I was able to win. It's not all roses though. You know, when I went back into corporate sales because of the books I had written and, and the uh reputation that I had established, I was asked to speak at a lot of high profile industry conferences. And I thought, hey, you know, this is great. The company I'm working for gets credit for you know, being up on stage, we can sell more. Um, I'll make more money. The company makes more money. You know, it's really a win win. Unfortunately, it wasn't actually to them. Um, the CEO got very upset because he felt I was too visible, um, more visible than he was. And so I was sat down by another member of the, uh, of the executive team in the company and literally walked through a slide deck. I know it's crazy, but it's true. I was literally walked through the slide deck that explained to me that the CEO was the head of the company and our job was to make him more visible and not ourselves.

And, you know, I really was thinking about it and, um, you know, I, I really took a step back and I, and I really had to think because I, I really love this job. But then, you know, after everything I had been through, I had this aha moment I decided that no matter what I did, it wasn't going to be right. So if I stepped back that I wouldn't have abundance, you know, if I stepped forward, then I was in trouble in my job. So I said, you know what, forget it. And I did what was best for me and my family. I wanted to stay visible not only for my own abundance, but just like I said to you earlier and to Tracy, um my, my friend that, that kind of downplayed her accomplishments. I wanted to show others and especially other women that it was possible. Right. That was important for you to stand up. So I ended up, uh deciding to leave, I was recruited heavily by other firms and I did end up leaving the company and ended up getting even more visible and rising even higher. And when I say stand up, you know, do I do, I mean standing up on stage, you know, while I do think that's a very fast way to get yourself visibility or, you know, even being on these virtual conferences.

Now, um what I really mean is that we all have a voice, we have something that we can contribute to the world and we have an important role to play. So if you're not comfortable being a solo or keynote speaker, you know, what about starting up? You know, being on panels, event organizers are always looking for great panelists, even uh virtual summits like this one. Facebook Lives are, are important, are um you know, becoming popular, linkedin Lives and things like that. So, um you know, it's important not only for visibility, but also you never know what you're going to say is going to have an impact on someone else. I had an experience recently in a panel with four other top women in the sales profession and one of the audience members posed a question about work life integration and that's a huge challenge overall. But clearly now it's even more challenging. And you know, uh she was mentioning that her company really didn't seem to have it, you know, together with respect to the challenges she was facing, trying to homeschool and take care of her family and also now working from home and things. So I told her, um you know what something that my father used to say to me and what I say to my kids all the time, go where you're celebrated, not where you're tolerated.

In other words, find your place, you want to find some place where they feel that they get you right? That they get your challenges that they're willing to uh to make adjustments um for you and for your, for your family and and for the things that you need and you're going to thrive there, right? And in the meantime, you're not obligated to stay anywhere, you're not celebrated, you know, especially in this, these times in the tech field, there are so many opportunities for all of you. So do not feel like you have to stay somewhere that you are not celebrated. And then about a week later, I received this on my um on my linkedin profile and she uh sent me a recommendation saying that, you know, the that she recently took a job offer and the push she needed was something that I said on that panel and it was literally 30 seconds that I, that I, that I said that, but obviously, it had an impact.

So it's really important for you to think about not only standing up to be visible for yourself, but also the fact that you could have such an impact on others. But if you're still not comfortable, you know, getting on any stage, even a virtual one at all, there are other ways to stand up and social media is, you know, is, is, is a great invention for us to really amplify our, our online presence. And you know, take linkedin, for example, I'll tell you another personal example. So last year, a friend of mine sent me an article that um was posted on a very popular business website. And what it did was it highlighted the supposed day in the life of this banking executive who wakes up at 530 in the morning and drinks smoothies and takes 90 minute lunches, right? And so many people were up in arms about it. It was a huge thing. You, you can look it up afterwards, but you could see it was a huge blow up. Um because it really isn't reality, right? So I printed the article out and I shared it with my family and I told my husband and my kids, I have a son that's 12 and a daughter and that's eight.

And I said, you know, I want to do a spoof on this because it was that ridiculous. And they were all in and about 45 minutes, we planned the entire spoof. So I changed the headline to, you know, a real day in the life of a founder of a start up company. Wakes up at 430 hardly has time to eat and has no free time. And then I proceeded to take pictures of different aspects of my day. And obviously, you know, it was, you know, a little bit embellished, but it's often times true, unfortunately. But, um, you know, for me waking up first thing in the morning to work with my tech team to, you know, shoving food in my kids' mouth so we can get to hockey practice or whatever else we're doing. And, you know, I just wanted it to be funny and be light. But, you know, what happened, the then CEO of linkedin saw it and he shared it and it gets and wound up getting something like 100,000 views and 12,000 comments and, you know, at first it was funny and whatever.

But then I thought, oh my gosh, you know, I certainly wasn't a professional photo shoot. You know, I wasn't all made up. Um, I even wore my bathroom from one of the pictures, but it was fun and it gave me a ton of visibility, not only for myself but for my, my company and the interesting thing that happened again is 99% of all of the the comments and everything were possible or excuse me were positive there were, you know, there were a few trolls and things, but what I realized was this is a U and people from all over the world, this was a universal challenge that so many people were facing.

And the fact that I was able to, you know, with that spoof, make them feel like they weren't alone was so important, right? So let's talk about the steps to standing up and standing out things that you can do right now that will help you get more visibility. So first you need to find your voice. You know, it's really important. What's the goal of your online actions? Are you looking for a new job opportunity? Are you um looking to, to start a new business? Do you just want your voice heard in the, in the interesting things that you have and the different perspectives that you have to be heard out there? So you can really start with defining your person, vision and mission and I'm sure you've probably heard of a corporate vision and mission. But what are the ones for you and your personal brand? So, for me, right? So I created this, this vision. It's an outward facing things into the future. I want to create an empire where women are celebrated, supported and lifted up by other women, right? We need this. Um And then my personal mission is really um to use my experience to help create a world where women can rise. I'm not going to hide from the challenges that I've had. I want others to know that it's OK.

We, we, you know, everyone has challenges, some are way more uh you know, uh difficult than others, but there are options, right? And, but what about this differentiates me? There's a lot of people out there that, that have this experience. And for me, it's just that I am so comfortable now, after, after, you know, really kind of uh embracing and forcing myself to stand up, I'm very comfortable sharing my personal challenges. And that makes me more relatable. That makes me show, show people that I walk my talk, I'm always supporting women, you know, and I, and I know that there are so many people still today who want to see women take a backseat and it's important to talk about those things. But I also want to show that I'm continuing on in spite of it and how we can go and rise in spite of the challenges. That's what I'm all about. That's what wise her is about and that's what makes us different. So what is that for you next? You want to create what I call your intro, Marcial. Actually, it was my friend Robin Hatcher who kind of coined the term. But, you know, when you talk about corporate, would it be your elevator pitch about your business? What's your elevator pitch about you. What do you want to be known for? What's your ultimate goal?

So, for me, you know, if I'm, if I'm introducing myself, I'm the founding CEO of Wise her, I'm a proud mom, a start up founder, that's on a mission to help women rise one answer at a time. So when I look at that, all of the posts and shares and things that I do in the conferences that I talk a talk, you know, the the audiences that I talk to all fit in with that mission and that's why it's important to have it. Next, we want to figure out how we can share with the world, our vision and our passion. You know, when I consulted in social media, I would always ask my business clients, what platforms are most relevant to your clients? Where do the people that you want to uh attract live online? That is where you want to be and it's the same exact thing in the career and business space, you know, are the recruiters maybe hanging around a little bit on Instagram perhaps. But if you really want to get known and you really want to stand out and you really want to get hired, guess where they are, they're on linkedin, right? So it's super important for you to embrace the idea that, you know, you can be on other platforms, but make sure that whatever it is that you're you're doing in your interactions online are um are aligned with and able to target the people that you want to target much more easily.

So you wanna share content, write content, you know, and like it or not being, being visible online is the best way to get noticed. It just is what it is and it's going to help you get hired. I had a friend recently who was laid off, you know, like so many folks. um and she set her sights of working at a large technology company and a technical team. So I coached her and I said, you know, do the research on their, on their products, taught, you know, any invasions that they're doing and things like that. And so between jobs, she researched their, their, their technology and wrote about different nuances and approaches that that company was taking versus other people. She spent a ton of time on linkedin. She, she did a lot of linkedin articles. She tagged the CEO of the company in these posts that she was writing and you know what, she ended up getting the job. It's all because she took the time to show up and stand up. But so many times when I, when I talk to folks, especially that person too, she's like, well, I don't have anything to say, you know, everyone's already said this stuff.

But the fact is, is that you all have something to say to the world, you have a contribution to make each one of us has ideas that can reshape the world that we live in. You know, it might be developing a new business process, creating a new product, rethinking ways of doing things or finding other ways to help folks, you know, out there, whatever you can think about, you can write about, you know, and if you really want to make an impact and again, if you don't want to do it for you do it for other women, do it for me.

I love, you know, reading all the, the the articles and things that, that, that the new generation of business leaders is, is really, um you know, is really thinking about and promoting, right? It's important for your voice to be heard. You know, so many of us will shrink back and when it comes to finding or sharing our ideas, because, you know, we assume that these leading experts or gurus or whatever must have some unique talent or insight, you know, some special genius. But that's not true. I'm telling you, I've been, I've been around and I've, I've watched all the rise of these gurus and everything and sure, you know, they have more expertise in certain things and maybe they are super smart, but at the end of the day, right, most recognized experts achieve success, not because of some special genius, but because they learned how to put disparate elements together and present ideas in a new and meaningful way.

Let me give you a practical example. The weight loss industry, how many different times have you read things out there about how to lose belly fat or do whatever? Right. It's all the same stuff. Just somebody says it differently. That's what I want you to think about. It doesn't matter if someone's already said it, it didn't come from you in your perspective. So this is a skill that anyone with a little hard work and sometimes what it takes is just following people that you admire and, and learning from them, right? You can practice it and you can learn it yourself, but let's face it right there is risk, especially in the global um you know, economy and the challenges we're facing around the globe today. And I'm not just talking about COVID, right? This is what I always say, what happens in Vegas, Lives on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The fact is, unless it's part of your personal brand, right? Unless it's something that you really wanna be known for, don't talk about politics or religion or any other hot button issues.

Um Even a retweet is an implied endorsement. So you just have to, it's ok. You know, if you want to share things that, that, that, that are deeply ingrained in, in moral values and things just know that any of those kinds of political or, or, or hot button issues, those those posts could potentially harm you in the future. If someone went to look at your social profiles and they do so just make sure, you know, and again, you know, we always say like haters gonna hate, right? There's always gonna be people out there who thrive on making comments that are not helpful, right? Because it's easy to do that behind the screen. But if we don't stand up and stand out, how are other women going to know it's OK to do it? And how are we going to build the next generation of business leaders? If we all sit back and say, oh, I don't need to do this because she's doing it right? How are we all going to get our voices heard and build that next generation? So I want you to decide right now today, every person on this, on this call that you're going to take these steps to stand up and stand up for yourself and for those who believe now that they can see.

So find your voice, write down your vision and your mission, decide what networks are right for you to reach your audience and then fly. This is my little girl and I wanna leave you with this. You know, people always say what if I fail, what if I fall down? But you know what, what if you don't? What if you fly? So let's fly together and stand up and stand out. Thank you very much. I don't know how much time we have to take some questions. OK. Some questions. OK. So I did want to address one of the things that I saw in the pre oh, I don't know why my video went out. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Everybody, I did not see that. My video went out. Hi, I'm here. So just really quick before I don't know how much time we have left. But um, ok, so somebody asked, does that, um, does that imply even if we believe in diversity causes that happen to intersect with current affairs? We should be wary about sharing our views. No, I'm saying I said earlier, like, if you have things that you're very passionate about that um that you want to share about, absolutely do that. I'm talking more about like maybe political things.

Um You know, because uh you don't, you don't know who your hiring manager is going to be. I do think it's important that we all have a voice. Um You know, it says, how can you separate politics from women's inclusion? Well, you know, I, you know, my company does it very well. You know, we, we um we don't call out specific people or parties or politics. We focus on what we're doing and what um the research shows about the challenges of women in business and the challenges of women in careers and we end up creating solutions for those. We talk about our solutions and not about the problems. So that's just one way to look at it. Um Just trying to see if there's anything else. Ok. Well, please feel free. I think there's a couple more. I'm gonna put my um I'm gonna put my um linkedin back in here. Oops, and please feel free to um to connect with me on linkedin. I can type today and for those of you who said, you know, um it was inspiring. Thank you. I really appreciate your time today and you know what I am so looking forward to seeing all of you rise.

This is so inspiring for me to be, to be here today to be on this um on this, this uh this presentation and be on the summit and I hope you all have a wonderful day. Thank you.