December 2018 Newsletter

Handling Setbacks and Building ‘Resilient Muscle’

10 December 2018

By Patricia F. Brown, VP Underwriting Global Retail Markets, Liberty Mutual Insurance

I am often asked two questions: “What has led to your success in the commercial insurance industry?” and “How have you overcome setbacks/challenges?

My personal experience of growing up in the South, having parents and siblings who experienced Jim Crow and being the daughter of a Tuskegee Airmen set the foundation of who I am today. The richness of my childhood experiences and my belief systems have had an undeniable impact on me both personally and professionally. Moreover, my professional journey as an African-American woman has included both lows and highs. Read More →

5 Ways to Find Your Spark in 2019

10 December 2018

Portrait of Kim Read, RetailMeNotBy Kim Read, SVP, Operations, RetailMeNot 

All too often, we start the year with clarity only to lose our focus and intention in the “go, go, go” of everyday life. So as this year draws to a close and you pause and reflect with an eye toward 2019, it’s a good idea also to think about how you’re going to stay directed and energized. Here is what has worked for me. Read More →

Podcast | Make 2019 Your Year to Be Fearless

10 December 2018

Woman jumping over abyss in front of mountain background.Click Play below to listen. 

If someone, with the track record to prove it, offered to share the five principles of fearlessness with you in 30 minutes—in a conversation you could listen to anywhere—would you tune in? Well, here’s your chance. We’re launching a new podcast series this month, with our first episode: a conversation on fearlessness—or really how fearlessness is not the lack of fear, but the courage to overcome it. The segment will feature Jean Case, Chairman of the National Geographic Society and CEO of the Case Foundation, and author of Be Fearless: 5 Principles for a Life of Breakthroughs and Purpose. You’ll learn about the surprising traits Case discovered great change-makers have in common. (Hint: They aren’t wealth, privilege, or even genius.) Case will share how to put the five fearless principles to work in your own life or organization so that you, too, can change the world.

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Holiday Survival Tips from Simple Habit’s Founder

10 December 2018

Yunha Kim meditating in a white roomA Stanford B school dropout, Yunha Kim is on her second startup—and like most things that meet a real need, it’s genius. Called Simple Habit, the app is a “Spotify” for meditation, meaning it’s a platform for different experts to share their bite-size meditations and audio therapy sessions.

Kim had her Eureka moment after turning to meditation apps to cope with the stress of running her first company. “I got pretty tired of hearing the same voice over and over again,” she recalls. “It occurred to me that to listen to a new singer, I don’t go to another app. I go to a platform like Spotify, where I can find new artists as well as my favorites.”

Flash forward less than three years, and Kim has a huge hit on her hands. “Simple Habit has helped more than 2.8 million people relieve stress and anxiety, with an average of 30,000 new users joining the platform every week,” she says. What’s more, she just closed $10 million in her series A, after raising $2.8 million from seed investors.

Her advice for newbie entrepreneurs? “Taking care of yourself is critical,” Kim says. “When you’re building a business from scratch, you are the number one resource you have. You will work long days, and stress is inevitable, so it’s important to take a little time each day to step away, breathe and reset.”

Here, Kim’s four tips—and her Simple Habit audio recommendations—for surviving the holidays: Read More →

Real Advice for Women Seeking Mentors and Allies

10 December 2018

If your mentors all look like you, you have a mentor problem. Same goes if they all have similar backgrounds and work histories or if you have only one—or none.

“Your mentors should be a diverse network,” says David Smith, an expert on gender workplace issues and co-author of Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women. “If they’re not, you’re missing out on key perspectives and information, and you’re probably not being challenged enough in your thinking.”

Of course, for women in male-dominated fields such as the military (Smith’s background), the problem isn’t having too many mentors who look like you (i.e., female). The problem is having a mentor, period. Read More →

Reese Witherspoon Empowers Women to Be the Hero of Their Own Story

10 December 2018

Reese Witherspoon doesn’t dislike the word likable. The actress who started making movies when she was 14 and won an Oscar when she was 29 just considers herself to have closed the door on roles where she is mostly sunny and likable.

“I felt very lucky to be in the room and to be in control to a certain degree of the characters I was playing,” Reese, now 42, told the audience of 7,500 at the Texas Conference for Women in November. “But as I got older, I had enough of staying in my lane, in a place that felt comfortable for everybody and was someone else’s definition of what makes a woman likable. Women are complicated. They’re complex. They’re dynamic. Those are the women I want to see on the screen.” Read More →

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