Allow Me to Re-Introduce Myself

🎶 Cue Jay-Z’s song Public Service Announcement🎶

Welcome to 2023! A new year filled with new beginnings, hope, and possibilities.

After a year of discovering my truth, owning my purpose wholeheartedly, and working on my confidence, it feels timely to re-introduce myself. I’ve been working really hard to align my goals, vision, and purpose. It’s still a work in progress and never really done. But I think that’s what makes it exciting! There is always space to grow and evolve.

In the spirit of the new energy this year brings, I wanted to share a bit more about my mission and vision for 2023. I’m going to start with my “Why”. Figuring out my why was a major focus for me in 2022. I dug really deep, got really frustrated, and picked myself back up to try again. Over and over. It’s HARD work. But when I reflected on my passions, where I’ve been, where I want to go, who I want to help, and how I want to help, Challenge The Status Quo said it all.

To me, Challenging the Status Quo means doing things differently, innovating new ideas, and questioning the way things have always been done. That is so me! It’s why I’ve always taken on new roles or opportunities where I was challenged to do something new or different. It’s why I’ve always championed change for women and girls throughout my career. It’s why I see opportunity where others see barriers. And it’s why I’ve always gone down my own path instead of the traditional one.

But Challenging the Status Quo isn’t an easy phrase to own as your personal mission and it isn’t an easy ethos to have. When you look up the definition and synonyms of Challenge the Status Quo, it’s really interesting to see the words associated with this term. Words like cause trouble, complain, disturb, and stir things up are associated with it. These words are all really negative and it made me wonder why that is. I know I've certainly been perceived in a negative way because of my approach and my drive to create real change.

And then, I thought about one of the most fundamental lessons that I learned last year. We’re all hardwired to avoid uncertainty and risk. And that’s what Challenging the Status Quo asks us to do. It requires us to take risks, shake things up, to not just go through the motions, and to uncover the whys of the world without knowing what will need to happen next. When you Challenge the Status Quo, maybe it does cause trouble, maybe it sounds like complaining, and maybe it is a disruption. And quite frankly, I’m ok with that. Because I believe in the power of social change. And I know that to achieve any kind of real change in the world, you need to shake things up and get uncomfortable. Particularly when it comes to empowering women and girls.

Now more than ever before, the importance of empowering women in leadership and the next generation of girls is critical. We know that when women and girls rise up, they lift up entire communities. Businesses are more profitable; the family unit is strengthened. I could go on about the benefits. And yet, women and girls are consistently underinvested, undervalued, and underserved. It constantly feels like when we make progress in one area, we take several steps backwards and widen the inequality gaps in other areas.

That’s why I want to focus ALL of my work on helping women in leadership thrive and helping girl and women serving organizations achieve transformational growth. Because I know that helping even just one woman or one girl flourish will create a ripple effect of positive change.

This leads me to the second point of my re-introduction. I’m bringing everything I do under one intention and common thread of helping women and girls Challenge the Status Quo. After working within the nonprofit sector for over 15 years, I discovered my unique ability to raise capital and help organizations achieve significant revenue growth and impact results. I want to leverage my knowledge and expertise to tackle what I call the “Less than 2% Problem”. Women and girl serving organizations receive less than 2% of all philanthropic dollars. This statistic is the same for investments made in women led startups on the for profit and VC funding side as well.

I want to be part of changing that. That’s why starting this year, I want to work with women in leadership by providing business coaching and fundraising consulting services so that they can create and lead bold change in their communities. I'll also work with women and girl serving organizations to ensure they have the tools, resources, and strategies they need to be successful and sustainable in the long run.

And this brings me to the last part of my re-introduction. Last year, I got more vulnerable than I’ve ever been about my own journey and story. I didn’t really expect to do that. But I am so glad that I did. It was another personal growth point for me and gave me a deep understanding of why I chose the path that I did in my career. I experienced a lot of childhood trauma and adverse experiences. Statistically speaking, I should not be anywhere near where I am today. I credit where I am today to my journey of healing through positive impact. Because I was able to help people whose stories resonated with me, I was able to heal a piece of myself that I didn’t even know was broken. What I thought was a weakness has actually been an incredible strength. I’m able to tap into a deeply personal place of empathy and create an endless source of creativity and innovation to create solutions for people in need. Turning my adversity into impact saved me and helped me become the person I am today. It’s become part of my identity and will continue to be represented in my work.

So, that’s me in a nutshell! The disruptor of the existing, the champion of change and gender equality for women and girls, and the rising underdog that gets it done.

This is me, re-introducing myself. I hope you’ll continue on this journey with me and feel inspired to re-introduce yourself to the world this year too.