December 3, 2024 • 50 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The topics and opinions express in the following show are
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(00:21):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
What's working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the
answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose
at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their
lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization
that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their
highest potential. Business can be such a force for good
in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide
(00:51):
guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we
all want working on Purpose. Now here's your host, doctor
Elise Cortes.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Welcome back to the Working and Purpose Program, which has
been brought to you with passion and pride since February
of twenty fifteen. Thanks for turning again this week. Great
to have you. I'm your host, doctor Elis Cortes. If
we have not met before and you don't know me,
I'm an organizational psychologist and logo therapist, speaker and author.
My team and I at Gusto and Now help companies
enliven and fortify their operations by building a dynamic, high
performance culture and inspirational leadership activated by meaning and purpose.
(01:28):
You can learn more about us and how we can
work together at Gusto dshnew dot com or my personal
site at Leiscortes dot com. Getting in today's program we
have with us today. Jennifer pstikas an executive with over
twenty years of experience in the financial services industry. She
is currently the senior vice president of business Development of
a Chicago Land financial institution. In addition to her corporate work,
(01:50):
Jenna is now leveraging her experience with her personal company,
Brave Women at Work. At Brave Women at Work, she
offers career and leadership coaching for women. Helps your clients
better identify their strengths, what they want, what is holding
the back, and how to remove those barriers. So they
can take better hold and be braver in action and
(02:11):
their careers. She is also part of the team bringing
a brand new conference for women to the four called
Thrive in twenty five, which we're talking about today. It
takes place in June of twenty twenty five, and she
judged it today from Chicago, Land. Jennifer, welcome back to
Working on Purpose.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yeah, I'm such a fan, as you know.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Very happy to have you back, A big fan of
who you are and what you're doing in the world.
Because our listeners and viewers maybe don't know you as
well as I do. Let's talk a bit about your
background and how it is that you found your way
first into financial services that you've been doing for a
good twenty years now.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Yeah, So it's an interesting journey and I hope it
inspires people because I didn't know that I wanted to
be in banking or financial services. I actually was a
double foreign language major in college, so thought I was
going to be a college professor, and then lived overseas
for about a year and realized that I wanted to
have kind of like a bigger life experience rather than
(03:09):
just going into one particular subject. I studied literature, I
studied poems, I studied all that kind of stuff in
college and was like, no, I want a bigger like scope.
And so I ended up in business and you know,
in banking and did well there. So yeah, that's how
it came to be.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
I understand that whole idea of getting that kind of exposure.
And you and I, of course sure our love of languages.
I too love languages, so should a romance language. But
why is the work in financial services important to you?
Why not architecture? Why not? I don't know marketing as well?
Speaker 4 (03:45):
I do that, Yeah, so I do the marketing, but
why financial services? So this one does hit a little
bit closer to home and that My father actually passed
away from kidney cancer that moved to the bone when
I was eighteen years old, and so I saw my
family struggle financially. We were solid middle class and my
parents both worked two jobs. Even my dad worked two
(04:07):
jobs up until he got very ill. So he was
diagnosed with cancer when I was twelve, and then he
made it six years in quite the hero in his
fight against cancer. And then we didn't have enough life
insurance for him and so my mom had to kind
of like bootstrap and do two jobs even towards the
end of her career when she was in her early sixties.
(04:29):
And so I wanted to make sure that I had
enough financial knowledge as a woman that was entering the
world and just to like spread that knowledge to other people.
And so that's why being in the banking and the
financial services sphere is important to me.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
So important to be able to leverage those life experiences, right,
is that's so incredible. I heard a lot of stories
like that about what somebody has personally gone through that's
helped shape their path forward. So no, Price, I don't
think I remember that part of your journey. So thank
you for sharing that. I lost my dad and one
much later in life, So I really appreciate that that
happened for you early. For yourself, that's it's a different road. Well,
(05:08):
then on top of all that is, if you aren't
busy enough, my friend, you also are doing work with
her C suite, and of course, brave women at work
tell us a little bit about each of those things,
those endeavors.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
So her c suite, the founder and the CEO is
Natalie Benamu, and Natalie has been a partner for me
with the last three plus years, and I've done coaching
with her community and so that's why it is on
my LinkedIn profile and speaking and things like that. So
we've loved partnering together and so that's how I help
(05:42):
her is through that. And then we've also done some
side projects together website for entrepreneurs, and we're also going
to be working together or are working together on the
Thrive and twenty twenty five conference. And I do have
to give her a shout out because when I started
my podcast and I know that you obviously have deep
roots in this area, she introduced me to so many
(06:02):
amazing yests and so she's a wonderful connector and I
just wanted to thank her again because so many people
have asked when I started the podcast, like how are
you going to get guests? I'm like, I don't know,
It's just going to happen, and so it did.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Mm hmm. No, Nottalie, she's been on the podcast as well.
Of course, I'm happy to be partnering collaborating with her
as well for the conference, so yes, also shout out
with her for me as well. But speaking of that,
we'll get to more of the conference in just a second,
but let's first peel back the idea of why you
believe in empowering and developing women.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Well, so I started, you know, like I said, the
banking sphere, but I really started my roots in investment services.
And if anyone has roots on the investment services side,
you know that it's a predominantly male industry. And so
for you know, and I'm throwing out you know, rough
statistics here, but you know, for every at least when
I started, you know, for every ten advisors, it would
(06:57):
be like one to two successful female advice and it
was a real boys club, doctor Elise, I'm not going
to pull any bud this year. And it was really
hard to see a path forward on how I could
advance and then moving through my career. And there there,
this is public knowledge. It's in some of the Brave
Women at Work women's anthologies that I've written, especially the
(07:18):
second one. I wrote a chapter called Imposter. I've struggled
in this area. I struggled, admittedly and humbly in this
area where I wasn't I was told that I wasn't
leadership material, or that I wasn't considered as a leader.
I was the head down, work hard type of gal
and was hoping and praying and wishing that people would
see my my. You use the word shine, and you
(07:40):
know what I could bring to the table, and I
didn't until like I had to figure out how to
do this on my own. And so I feel very
passionate about helping other women do the same.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I remember that now that you bring up about about
your history. Thank you again for sharing that. I think
so many women can relate to that of feeling like well,
the imposter syndrome, but also the idea that the mistaken
notion that if I took my head down and do
good work, then I'll be recognized and promoted and my
career will be just great. And it's just not true.
And so I coach several women as well too, men
(08:14):
for that matter as well, but I coach both. But
particularly with women, what I see is that they don't
know what they don't know, and they haven't learned to
really ask for help. And so even just this morning,
I had a great conversation with a woman that I've
been coaching for just about a year and a half,
and just she's making amazing strides, She's learning and has
been putting forth the notion of being much more proactive
(08:36):
about how she asks for opportunities for advancement and when
she has given feedback about you know, whether or not
she gets doing forward, she's having very direct but respectful
conversations about why wasn't I chosen? What's missing here? And
just really and she's and she's you know, really stewarding
her journey on compensation and really managing that path, not
(08:58):
just accepting what has been given, but managing that path.
And I know these are all some of the things
we'll be talking about, you know, in our conference here
in next June. But I want to present those things
because I think so many women who might be listening
are not even present to the need to have some
help outside advice to be able to navigate those really
(09:19):
important topics.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Agreed, absolutely, So now, well.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Let's talk about Thrive in twenty five, that the brand
new conference for women. I am delighted to get to
serve as the MC for that conference, and I just
know we have so many special things. Getting to meet
the speakers has been phenomenal, Jennifer, looking at some of
the topics we'll be serving up phenomenal, but let's first
talk about where did it come from? Was it what
(09:46):
was the impetus for this and how was it actually birthed.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Yeah, so another interesting story. So as part of it,
and again through her C suite and Natalie giving her
credit where credit is due, she's a great connector and
that's what she does, is she's building women's networks, opportunity
for women to grow and shine and you know, be
on the move as leaders. She has that program as well.
So she introduced me to Hope Mueller, who you've had
(10:12):
on the show as well. And Hope is a pharmaceutical
executive and just bottom line, a real powerhouse. So we
have partnered together through her company's Hunter Street press and
Climb conferences. And so I have the coaching arm and
I have the Brave woman at Work brand and then
you know, we've done a lot of amazing work together.
And so the moral of the story is, Doctor Elies,
(10:34):
I have to be really careful what I tell Hope
because Hope is a big manifestor. And so I came
up with Thrive in twenty twenty five. I told her.
I told Hope specifically, I'm like, hey, I think we
need to do a women's leadership conference. We've done retreats
on a small scale. Are you willing to give it
a shot to do a women's leadership event at a large,
(10:56):
larger scale. And she's like, Yeah, let's do this, And
so we put it on the list for twenty twenty five,
thinking and I thought, well, you know, is that really
going to happen? Well, here we are, here, we are
You're are MC. We have like eighteen speakers I believe,
of just amazing background, and we're going to do this thing.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
It is amazing, you know. I don't know if we
talked about this or not before, Jennifer, but I think
it was back in twenty eighteen. I too wanted to
put on a conference really around the world of work.
But what I really discovered very quickly is you can
do that alone. You need a full team to help
you make that happen. And I'm very grateful to be
part of that team. Obviously. I know Hope that I
(11:34):
first met her years ago. I was moderating a panel
that she was on and immediately recognized her greatness. Had
her on my podcast talking about her book, Hopey, which
was how I really got to know her. She is
a powerhouse. She does know how to make things happen.
So I love the idea that you were the idea
of person on this and she was part of the
(11:55):
crew to help bring it forth to action. I'll never
forget when I got the email saying, Hey, you know,
Lee's are putting together this, this conference for women would
love to talk to you about UM seeing immediate is like,
I'm in let's talk about this.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Of course, Yes, we're so excited to have you.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
You know what I love about that is getting to
MC means that I get to know all of the presenters.
I get to intro. That means I need to know
them to be able to present them and introduce them.
I really will get to understand much more fully and
deeply all of the topics that we'll get to be
introducing for the women. And I love the idea that
it's in as you say, Chicago Land. I never had
(12:34):
heard about Chicago being described as Chicago Land before this conference,
but I do think it's really Once it's the middle
of country for me, you know, AMD for all intents
and purposes. But two, there's something about the energy of
Chicago that seems to be pretty compelling to me.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
Oh good, I'm glad. So you might be wondering, like
why Chicago Land, right, So I mean, I'm from Chicago,
So I said to Hope. We had tossed around her area,
which is the Las Vegas area, which many conferences are at.
So who knows, it might flip in different parts of
the country or maybe we'll have multiple Hope, don't get
too many ideas if you're listening to that. But I
(13:16):
just I told her, I'm like, I really feel like
this needs to be in my neck of the woods, right, Like,
I feel like it needs to be here. So we
have something more central for speakers and attendees to go for.
And we picked Chicago Land versus downtown Chicago. It's because
we wanted people flying in because most people will fly
into O'Hare International Airport, so we literally doctor Eli's We're
(13:39):
like really close to the airports. We wanted people to
have that accessibility and that flexibility because we know getting
to downtown Chicago if you've if you've had that experience,
it can be quite the crapshoot and how long it's
going to take you to get there. So we wanted
it to be accessible. We wanted it to be affordable
and attainable for people. So that's why we pick that location.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
I appreciate that. And while we're on the subject of
geography and location, before we talk about some of the speakers,
I also know that you chose the hotel venue very
very carefully. Talk to us a little bit about that.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
Yeah, so we did also choose a hotel that was
right by, pretty close to the airport fifteen it's away
from the airport. We chose something that is not, i
would say, not necessarily the norm, because we didn't want
everyone to have like shiny objects syndrome where they're like, oh,
I'm going to go shopping or I'm going to go
(14:35):
to the movies or oh, you know. We wanted people
to be really immersed and really in the experience at
the hotel. And the hotel's got a really cool I
you know, hope to stay there. I have done many tours.
It is a really cool vibe. And so I'm not
going to say anymore about the hotel. I think you
just have to experience it for yourself.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
I so appreciate that. I'm very much allured by the
whole th experience, and I know our prospective women joining
us will be as well. Let's take our first break.
I'm your host, doctor Relie Cortes. We are on your
Jennifer Pastikas. She's an executive with over twenty years of
experience in the financial services industry and it was helping
bring to the for the brand new conference for women
(15:17):
called Thrive in twenty five. I'm talking a bit about
where it came from and her own background of what
she's contributing. After the break, we're going to get into
a few of the speakers and just some of the
topics we'll be covering. We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Doctor Elise Courtez is a management consultant specializing in meaning
and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps companies
visioneer for a greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose
inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance,
and commitment within the word workforce. To learn more or
to invite a lease to speak to your organization, please
(16:04):
visit her at Elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how
to get your employees working on purpose. This is working
on purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program
today or to open a conversation with Elise. Send an
email to Alise A Lisee at Elisecortes dot com. Now
(16:28):
back to working on Purpose.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Thanks for setting with us and welcome back to working
on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes As. I'm
dedicated to help them create a world where people realize
their potential at work, are led by inspirational leaders that
help them find and contribute their greatness, and we do
business at Betters the World. I continue to research and
write my books, so the last one came out in
Marsha twenty twenty three. It's called The Great Revitalization. How
(16:55):
activating a meeting and purpose can radically enlagen your business.
I wrote it to help leaders under stand just the
nature of today's workforce, which is very discerning. What do
they want and need to stay with you? And then
I offer twenty two best practices to help you create
a culture to provide that for them. You can learn
more about my books on Amazon or my personal site
at least quretest dot com if you are just now
(17:16):
joining me. My guest is Jennifer Pestikas, who, in addition
to her long career in the financial services industry, also
offers career and leadership coaching for women through her personal company,
Brave Women at Work. So before the work we were
talking a bit about just kind of the location and
the thought behind the Thrive at twenty five conference. Let's
talk a bit about just some of the speakers. Can
(17:38):
you share just maybe introduced a couple of them that
are really stand out for you?
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Oh, it's it's kind of tough. It's kind of tough.
So I've got the site up here as I'm talking,
So I would say a couple that come to mind.
Or Bobby Carlton. So Bobby is a ted X speaker.
She is, you know, she's a speaking maven, and she's
going to talk about public speaking and getting that kind
of as part of your repertoire because so many of
(18:04):
us we sit behind the desk, you know, we might
be executives, but we're not presenting or we don't have
that as part of our offering. So she's got a
presentation on public speaking and then one because this is
her personality, you know, no excuses, how to get yourself
on stage. So I'm really excited about learning what she
has to share about getting in front of others and
honing speaking as part of what you do.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Okay, before you go on, let me just chime into
that because this is so so important right in your
coaching and my coaching. It is so important to be
able to one own your brand. And then two related
to the work that I'm doing, is that more that
you're comfortable speaking on stage, the more effective you're going
to be as an inspirational leader. Being able to cast
a vision that people want to be part of can
(18:48):
step into is so so important. So I really I'm
glad you started with that one because I think it's
so so important and many many people, as you know,
are frightened, silly of speaking, like they are more afraid.
The statistic is people are more afraid to speak in
public than they are to die.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Did you not know that? No, that's true. That is
a solid statistic.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
Wow. Okay, well let's get them a little less afraid.
Let's do that. So just a couple more and I'm
picking these out on purpose. So one of the reasons
when Hope and I were talking about this conference, we're like,
how do we make this different? You know, we say
leadership conference, And we talked about our experiences with going
to leadership conferences, and we wanted to look at the
(19:30):
whole woman and by by home and I'm saying the
whole person. So we want to look at their mindset,
We wanted to look at their health and wellbeing. We
wanted to look at of course the leadership chops, like
how do we give them the education and then the
accountability support. So we thought that was unique because we've
never been to a conference like that before that has
all of those components. So another two speakers I just
(19:52):
want to call out. The first one is more on
that wellness piece and the next one will be also
on the wellness is Doc Susan Lavelle, and she works
on Her two presentations are the first one is from
Busy to Balanced, three Secrets to Harmonize your life and work.
So she's into hormones and from that Busy to Balance piece,
(20:15):
and her second one is the Executive Edge Harnessing Hormones.
This is where hormones comes in and habits for peak performance.
And I don't know about you, and I don't know
if I shared on the show last time, but I've
gone through burnout myself and as I'm entering those middle years, right,
we'll just throughout the word perimenopause, like, hormones are becoming
a lot more important to me, and I want to
(20:37):
make sure that I'm taking care of myself and I
am in peak performance so that I can give what
I want at work and I don't feel kind of
hamstrung from a health condition perspective, because, like we say,
if we don't put our oxygen mask on first, who's
going to do it for us?
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I so appreciate that, Jennifer. I can't count the number
of women that I've encountered over the years who are
saying things like, I'm constantly exhausted, but I don't know
why I'm doing all these things, et cetera, et cetera.
And oftentimes we might find that one it is an
over extension into too many activities, and sometimes, of course
(21:16):
they're just not resting enough, but very often there is
the physical element in that, which might actually be the
hormonal piece. So I really appreciate very much the holistic
nature of what this conference is providing to women. We're
not just talking about leadership. We were talking about the
whole woman who is being that leader. And I really
and that's one of the major reasons that I said, yeah,
I will be happy to m see this conference.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Yes. And so the last one or two I just
want to mention, So Jackie Sittera who owns her own business,
Jay and C Innovations, she's doing actually a vision boarding exercise.
So how cool is that that we get to take
something tangible away and you know, kind of tap into
our creative flow. Oh and then on a last one
(21:58):
that I just want to highlight for me, and it
is Nicole Smith Leavey, who is a somatic coach, and
so she's going to teach us how to breathe right,
because I don't know about you, but I've had situations
where I get stressed and then I forget how to breathe.
I'm a chest breather versus like a diaphramat a diaphragm breather.
So she's going to actually help us with that. So
I'm very excited about those and all of them.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
I am too. And just to add in another piece
that I think is really important that I also think
is critical for the whole being development is I know,
we have some planned content around really embracing nature and
also more also into the space of really cultivating art
as a space for passion and creativity, and of course
(22:43):
you know when I do. I have a whole program
that I'm doing on helping people to create feerceful full
of goals for the new year. I bucket them across
nine different dimensions, and a couple of them, you know,
one is creativity and passion, also adventure and travel, etc.
So just so important that it goes beyond just professional
financial family, right, There's just so much more that we
(23:03):
can really cultivate. So I'm so excited for us. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Likewise, Yeah, and that was doctor Vasu is going to
do the Artful Mind, and I'm really excited. She's bringing
the scientific and the art together. So it's going to
be a really cool presentation.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Mm hmm. Yeah, you know. And again because I really
feel like I've got the coveted role here since I
get you really hard too and everything, right, why choose
when you could just cover it all? I think that
I think Hope really understand understands me well enough that
when she reached out, she knew that I was I
was the right that was the right fit for me
for sure.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
Well yeah, she said right away, She's like, go doctor Elise,
She's our MC. We got to get doctor Elise and
I love that.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
It was so delightful. I'm just I'm so excited. So
then if we could, I just wanted to talk a
little bit about, you know, sort of the arrangement, some
of the thinking behind you know, what it is that
we are intentionally developing in this conference, and you know,
starting off with just really understanding one's personal attributes. Could
you speak a little bit to what's behind that particular
(24:06):
focus of the conference.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Yes, So that's about you know, those key pieces of
self knowledge, right, So that's why we're doing the vision boarding.
We're going to be talking about values like that key
self knowledge because as a leader, we understand you know,
me being twenty plus years hoping twenty to twenty five
plus years, like many of the women that are speaking
have so many years. We actually need to I need
(24:29):
to do the math to see what the collective years
of leadership experience are that would be powerful for me
to share in the future. But we know that you
have to know thyself right as a leader, So understanding
your attributes, understanding your strengths, understanding what's important to you
is why that is going to be a key component
of the conference.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
I really appreciate that. I am amazed, Jennifer. You know,
when I'm out doing work, either for my public workshops
or for work that I do inside companies, I am amazed.
Like I was just actually taking a course last week
on listening well, and I would say the average age
and there was, I don't know, early fifties, and I
(25:08):
was amazed by how many people have these major AHAs
about themselves, you know, about which we had taken the
DISK assessment for that for that particular workshop. But anyway,
the point that I'm making is that you know, what
I always tell people is that you are going to
spend the rest of your life really knowing yourself. There's
that much to know. And so I love that we
also have this these pieces in here built in to
(25:30):
help people women to understand their personal attributes so so
so important, motivates you, what distinguishes you, all those things.
Then we go on to the next book at which
is a personal development and mindset. Tell us a bit
about that one.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
So you can know yourself, but you also need to
know how to manage your mindset too. As a leader,
I think it's absolutely critical because they're you know, people think, oh,
you know things will be better when I write well,
when I become a leader, well, I'm here to report.
You know, being a realists, you're going to have tough days, right,
and so how do you manage that mindset so that
your career trajectory is going in the way and the
(26:08):
spaces and the places that you want it to go.
And you can read so many books. You can read
all the books, listen to all the podcasts. At the
end of the day and you're going to hear this
as a refrain that you have to take that responsibility
for your mindset. You can get those tools, you actually
have to use them. And so we want women to
walk away with solid tools on how they can manage
that mindset because you know, your mindset has a direct
(26:30):
ripperal effect on your team and you know in your
leadership initiative, So managing the mindset is critical.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Yes, And to that end, what I find fascinating and
precious about part of the work that I get to
do is helping to reveal people's mindsets to them. You know,
we don't know that it's like right water we swim
in right So think about that, just as salmon really
realized that they're actually swimming in a body of water.
Probably not that's you know, that's their it's it's their environment.
(26:58):
And so one the careful and important work of revealing
that mindset, and then we can decide to the extent
to which how is that actually working for us or
against us? And then of course unlearning these mindsets is
just as important as learning new better ones or ones
that will serve us better, just as important.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
And many of the people or the women that I
work with or that probably will attend, you know, they
might have like a sense of they're disenfranchised, or they're like,
why can't I get ahead? Or there's a little frustration,
But like you said, doctor e Lees, they they may
not know that part of it is their mindset.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
You know.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
They may think, oh, well, you know what, I'll never
get the promotion or I'll never get the opportunity, and
they don't know that that in itself is stopping them.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Absolutely, thank you, that was extremely well said. Perfect. Okay. Now,
the third element that I think is really critical is
the supportive community that's part of this conference.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
So Hope and I are so invested in building a
community of women, whether it's through in twenty twenty five
or through climb conferences or through Brave Women at work,
and if you talk to any of our former authors
or anyone that we have done work with so you
can fact check this doctor release, It's like becomes like
(28:14):
a family of women and kind of a community where
we are not often one and done where we're like, oh,
that was great and we'll just see you later. And
we are actually physically building a community via the Hersey
Suite platform currently, so we have all of the women
join a community and they can share kind of their struggles,
their successes, their wins together and that's really important for us.
(28:38):
So if they you know, if a woman is listening,
does attend, know that you have a community behind you.
It's not like a one and done conference experience.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Oh this is so critical because you know, when I'm
working at organizations or with women one on one, is
they there is even if you're in an organization, especially
the higher you go in your career, the more lonely
it feels. I really talk to about these really critical
things in my life. Or I don't know, I've just
been promoted, I don't know how to do this job.
I just got promoted. I don't know what's going on.
(29:07):
But yet I know that I have to perform. So
being able to connect with other people who have had
similar experiences can give a different perspective about what's going
on and help encourage and empower and motivate her. It's
just so so important. And also this what I always
tell people is that I want you to develop your
(29:27):
network inside your organization and outside your organization. Why outside,
because that is part of your safety net in case
you do need to make a change, or you lose
your job or whatever. You need other people outside your
current organization to help steward that transition. And many, many people,
men and women, make the mistake of only having a
(29:47):
network inside their company, and then when they get let go,
they're really in trouble.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
Agreed. And so we have Natalie Benamou talking about LinkedIn
and building your brand on LinkedIn, and I always challenge
clients cay spend ten to fifteen minutes a day building
that network because you won't be disappointed.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
So important. And then one of the next pillar is
a strategic action and accountability. You know, as a business
owner myself, that accountability piece is so so important because
I'm gonna set goals all day long and get really
excited about them that if I don't have someone that
keeps me accountable toward my goals, it is so easy
to kind of backstroke and go, we do I get
to it next quarter kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
M yeah, so this one's a hot button for me.
So when we were forming the conference, I actually am
in the process of forming something called the Brave Circle.
So at the end of this conference, women will have
the option to join a coaching accountability group with me
monthly where they get that one on one support. They
get that accountability support totally optional, and then we'll have
(30:50):
semi annual planning sessions and they'll have access to a
private podcast called the Brave Circle. So I wanted to
give women an option, which you don't see that very often,
and you know, you get like the list of all
the things like I'm so jazzed about, but then like
you know, two months later, ask you know, ask me,
or ask other women or anyone, right, did you you
know do that? And typically you don't because you go
(31:11):
back into your old habits and patterns.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
It is so easy to get so excited and then
before you know what, six months has gone by and
you've done nothing about that goal. And then you were
demoralized and you feel bad about yourself and you kind
of give up. And so yes, that accountability is so
so important. And then of course the last pillar, you know,
the crux of everything, you know, leadership, development and resources.
Speaker 4 (31:34):
Yeah, so in that we're really giving you women female
speakers from all different like walks of life. So they're
going to talk about sponsorship and mentorship and setting yourself
up for the next stage of your career. We have
a speaker talking about she's a CEO. She's say, hey,
this is you know, my perspective from the C suite,
(31:55):
So like really the arc of the career, right, and
like bringing all of those strategy, all those pillars that
you know, often we're put in management and then we
get you know, we do good right like doctor Lees,
and then we keep growing, but we don't have like
all of those pieces put together to keep advancing and
really understand how we grow our leadership muscles. And I
(32:17):
promise you you will have that with this conference.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
So excited all right, listen, listeners and viewers kind of
chew on this, and listeners and viewers, I as we
go on this next break, I want you to be
thinking about how this conference can help you personally. Who
can you bring along, Who do you want to invite
and share this podcast with that you want to come
with you, or who you just think needs this. We'll
be right back. I'm your host, doctor Relis Cortes, moving
on with Jennifer Pastikas, an executive with over twenty years
(32:43):
of experience in the financial services industry and who is
now helping to bring to the fore the brand new
conference for women called Thrive in twenty five. We'll be
right back.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Doctor Elise Cortes is a management consultant specializing in meaning
and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps companies
visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired
leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and
commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite
a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her
(33:29):
at Elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get
your employees working on purpose. This is working on purpose
with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or
to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to
Elise A. L Se at Elisecortes dot com. Now back
(33:52):
to Working on Purpose.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
It's with us and welcome back to Working on Purpose.
I'm your host, doctor Eli Scortees. I mentioned in the
last break that my last book came out in March
of twenty three. It's called The Great Vitalization. How activaty
MENI Purpose can radically in liven your business. What I
did for you is I created a three page assessment
that you can find on my website gustodeshnaw dot com.
Download it. It's free and when you go through that assessment,
(34:21):
it will help you understand the extent to it your
current culture is meeting then discerning needs of today's workforce
if you are just now joining us. My guest is
Jennifer Pastikas, who is, in addition to her long career
in the financial services industry, also offering career and leadership
coaching for women through her personal company, Brave Women at Work.
So for this next segment here, Jennifer, what I wanted
(34:43):
to do is is one I wanted to have you
articulate from your vantage point, who do you think needs
to come to this conference? Who's it really for?
Speaker 4 (34:54):
So I would say any woman that feels like Hey,
there's a lack of that spark need to have leadership
resources I need or I want to learn how to
take care of my whole person. So that's that first piece.
More specifically, anyone that might be in that mid career
segment and they don't have to be a VP, they
(35:15):
don't have to be a CEO or anything like that,
but they're in that mid career and they need community,
they need accountability, which is so many of us. So
we've talked about all what I would say, all of
the pieces of the conference. So if you're in mid career,
you're looking for community, you're looking for accountability, you're looking
for leadership resources, and you are willing to travel to
(35:37):
the Midwest when actually the weather is nice, I think
this would be would be really good for you. And
i'd say the last pieces, we're really making this female geared,
so you're going to have a lot of exposure to
networking and female led companies. So if you two have
a female side hustle, like a female lead side hustle,
or if you want to get a network with other
(35:58):
women that let's just say like they're rock stars. Like
I would say that this is for you.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
I love that I would add too. I want to
invite through these lines and others to anybody that feels
stuck like I, just like I think I should be
further along than I am. I want to be further
along than I am. I don't know why I'm not
being promoted to your point earlier. Maybe you have lost
my luster here and want to understand and know how
I can better activate that. Again, I think those are
(36:28):
all other really compelling reasons for women to attend. And again,
as always right, it's not just you listening. I mean,
you're fantastic you anybody other side of this thing, but
whoever you know, you know a handful of people who
probably are feeling this way or need some help, and
so this is something. This is We're all evangelizing this
together as a community of women around the world. So
(36:53):
let's do this next, Jennifer, I would love for you
to tell a story or two about a woman that
you know who has blossomed in large parts due to
embracing conferences like ours and or investing in her own
ongoing development. I'll maybe share one or two myself.
Speaker 4 (37:08):
So I'm actually going to use I was thinking about
this doctor Elise and I'm going to share a couple
from our speaker set. So the first one is doctor
Renika Brisco. So doctor Renika went to a conference. She's
in she was formerly in academia, has many many awards
(37:28):
in the New Orleans area, another powerhouse, and she went
to a conference and she met Sheila Higgs Burke Culter,
who's another one of our our conference speakers and keynote speakers.
And they hit it off and so I just want
to like, you listen to the ripple effect here. So
they meet and Sheila or Shiggs as she she loves
(37:50):
to be called she they hit it off and she says,
you know what you need to think about getting your
brand bigger. And this is to doctor Renika, and she said, hey,
can you consider being an author in one of the
Brave Women at Work anthology in the anthology series. And
then she then goes on from there and she takes
(38:12):
kind of kind of the learnings and the relationship and
the network from that conference, and then she became an
author and now she's like, you know, kind of dominating,
and now she's a speaker, and she's actually decided to
part from academia and now she's you know, building an
entire business under her name, and so I just want
you to know that you never know what's going to
(38:34):
happen when you build relationships at these conferences. So that
shows the power of community, the power of self accountability,
the power and the magic of being at these types
of events.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
I will share another one and we can maybe kind
of do a tennis match on this as we as
we share. I remember distinctly, you know, when I was
going through my own leadership development program here in Dallas,
Take Little with Texas into the fourteen, and that was
a program that was really designed to help women get
to better understand the issues of Texas and how they
(39:07):
might be able to give themselves over to help for that.
And I remember sitting on the bus. It was like
a two and a half day sort of deal for
three times a year, and I was sitting on the
bus next to doctor Chara Joji and at the time
she was a professor of astronomy at the University of
Texas and Hengy were sitting there on the bus at
eight o'clock in the morning ready to take off for
the day, and she goes, that's it, I'm just going
(39:30):
to do it, and I'm like, what is it. What
are we doing? Are we getting ice cream? We're robbing
a bank. She goes, I am going to put my
name into the hat to be the chair of the department.
I have two young kids. I've been saying I can
do this. I don't have time and I'm busy, et cetera.
But if I don't put my name in the hat,
I won't get the position, and I won't to be able.
I won't get to shape the department the way that
(39:51):
I want to. And of course she did go for it,
and guess what she did get the job. She's the
first woman to had that that department, and I had
her on my program as well talking about this. And
you know what she gets to do to shape that
department and really make it accessible for other beings that
would otherwise never entertain that field because of her unique
(40:13):
stand is so incredible. But she wouldn't have done it.
If she wasn't at this conference where she got inspired
and excited by what other women were doing with their
lives and their careers, she would have stayed under the radar.
So that's one example that I have.
Speaker 4 (40:27):
Oh that's great, you know you've got me kind of
thinking my juice is flowing now, so I have one
for myself that's not listed on the website. So this
is kind of a sneak peek behind how things have
come to be with brave women at work. So I
don't even know the year. I think it might have
been twenty thirteen or so. I went to this very
large Salesforce conference. If people don't know what salesforces, I
(40:50):
think it might be the world's largest CRM or client
relationship management system now in San Francisco, and there were
about one hundred and forty thousand people there and it
was just overwhelming, Doctor Elise, and I was like, Okay,
what can I take from this? What can I take
from this? Because sometimes conferences just like are almost overwhelming, right,
But I had the opportunity, and I wouldn't have had
(41:11):
this opportunity, so it was perfect timing. So Cheryl Sandberg,
who was the former CEO of Meta Facebook at the time,
was the keynote speaker, and every person got a hard copy,
which I thought was so snazzy, a hard copy of
her book Lean in There and it had just come out,
and how cool well for me that I was in
(41:34):
the audience as it was just coming out, and she
gave this beautiful keynote, and so I got so on
fire after that presentation, completely devoured the book from you know,
when I from San Francisco to Chicago, I proposed a
leadership group. So you know, the first quote unquote lean
in circle of our organization, which became the leadership group
(41:55):
in my actual corporate organization. And since that time, we've
taken half of our organization through that experience. And I
would not have actually gotten the gusto to ask or
gotten the gusto without being at that conference.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
I love that you said, gusto, I know right, that's mine.
It's my damn.
Speaker 4 (42:16):
I had to wait, I had to weave it in.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
I love that. I appreciate that. I'll give you a
spiff later. And another another example that I'll share. I
was working with a healthcare organization on the West Coast
for a good long year and so I was working
in part with the chief nursing officer, and she was
really ambitious and really wanted to develop her career and
(42:39):
that was an important part of her life, and she
was having a hard time getting up to getting past that.
She wanted to move on to either you know, the
COO or the CEO role, and so we got to
work together, and I kept telling her go to conferences.
Go to conferences. Go to conferences who get exposed to
new ideas. You'll meet other people who can help sponsor you,
(43:00):
champion you, and give you advice and perspective that will
be important. And sure enough she did. She started going
to conferences. And I get this text from her after
her first or second one, maybe the first one that
that I told her to go to encourage her to
go to. She's like, Alicia, You'll never believe what happened
because I was in the company of all of these
(43:22):
other really you know, amazing people, you know, going all
with their lives, their men and women. I just got
invited to take a private jet onto this one of
our other hospital sites. And I wrote back, your going right,
and she said, I'm on the plane and it was
so great, right. And she's you know, because she's in
(43:44):
ladies and gentlemen. This is really important, especially if you're
an introvert like she is. She's an introvert. It's uncomfortable
for her to be around a lot of people. Takes
a lot of energy for her. So if you are introverted,
and you think the idea of a conference sounds overwhelming.
You're just selective about who you're actually spending a lot
of time with. That's all that is. And that's what
she did, right. She just found there was a couple
(44:05):
of people that she could have a meaningful conversation with,
ended up socializing with them, and then here she found
herself on this plane and guess what you know, spoiler alert,
she did become the CEO of this organization.
Speaker 4 (44:16):
Wow. And that also is really good because you just
said an introvert can be a CEO, so that I
think there's a misnomer that, oh, you have to be
an extrovert, and that's not true.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
No, it isn't, not at all. In fact, here's what
I love to champion along that line, Jennifer. I'm sure
you can appreciate this and probably aligned with it. Is
you know, as an organizational psychologist, if we look at
the introversion extroversion spectrum, you know, one extreme the extroverts,
so there nobody's safe, they'll talk to anybody, and the
other extreme, the extreme introvert, where they really don't want
(44:46):
to leave the house and it's very nice in their
own mind, et cetera, everyone somewhere along that spectrum. And
what we find is that the introverts are exceptional conversationalists.
Why because they're listening, they're listening with the other person
is saying. They're not waiting to get in a word
in for what they want to say, and that makes
them really fantastic, memorable human beings that make a really
(45:09):
sticky connection, Whereas the extrovert might meet a whole lot
of people and that's great, but it's a little bit
more of a you know, of a spot fire, if
you will. So I want to be able to encourage
you know where you are on the spectrum, there's something
for you in a conference.
Speaker 4 (45:27):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
Well, when you think about this coming up here, I
know we're about here to close, and I'm going to
send them to the site when we close. I don't
worry about that, but I do know we are offering
an early bird discount, which I think finishes December fifteenth,
that's correct, And it's a fifteen percent discount.
Speaker 4 (45:46):
Correct, Yes, that's correct.
Speaker 3 (45:48):
Okay, So we want to be sure and evangelize that.
So I would just say I would encourage people to
consider this as a gift for yourself. I personally invest
in something for myself every single year, if not twice
a year, to keep myself growing and learning. So even
if your employer doesn't cover this for you, think about
this for yourself. And you know, if you're a gentleman,
(46:08):
if you're a man listening to this and you're connected
to a woman, give her this conference. She will never
forget you.
Speaker 4 (46:19):
Yes, And I want to just jump i'mp in here
and say that we're trying to make this accessible for everyone.
So we have like multiple payment options, you know, we
have the painful two payments and then we just opened
a four payment option too. So please please look at
this because I agree with you, doctor A. Le's like
invest in your development.
Speaker 3 (46:38):
It's so important. I mean, otherwise, you know, you can
find yourself in a job for ten years and the
world has passed you by. And that's not the world
we live in today, is it is moving on without you.
If you don't, you know, hitch a ride to that
train and it'll it will leave you behind. And that's
not a scare tactic, it's just the way. It's just
a you know, the statement of what we're living in today.
So really want to encourage anyone that's listened and whoever
(47:00):
you're connected to, who do you care about. Obviously you
can see both Jennifer and I are slightly passionate about
this conference and we are committed to it and it's
you know, it's really something special. So let me give
you a chance to close. Jennifer, you know this show
is listened to by people around the globe who generally
care about elevating their connection to their experience of work,
(47:21):
becoming a better leader, finding ways to do business within
their own organization that betters the world. What would you
like to leave them with?
Speaker 4 (47:30):
Well, I just want to thank them for their time
today and I appreciate doctor Lys being a guest. And
what I would say is, you know, the idea of
investing in yourself not only from a time perspective, but
also from a monetary or get your company to pay
for it. Right. That's also what I say about being
a brave woman or a brave man right at work,
is you know, advocating for yourself because at the end
(47:50):
of the day, and I want to just like underscore
this is that you are responsible. You are ultimately responsible
for the trajectory of your career as we kind of
started with. And it is in those decisions and in
that advocacy for yourself that you can become a better
leader and do great things. And so please take a
look at the website, please really consider it or gift it.
(48:12):
Like you said to someone else.
Speaker 3 (48:15):
I want to echo something that you said there about
asking for support from your employer. Many people have the
belief this is back to that mindset again that they
just their company just won't cover it. Let me tell
let me share something with you. When my five year
old daughter said to me when I picture up from
camp many years ago, she said, Mama, I learned something today.
Put a little hands on her hips. She said, you
(48:36):
don't ask, you don't get. That's right, And I said, oh, sugar,
if you just keep that in mind the rest of
your life, you'll be just fine. So, listeners and viewers,
you don't ask, you don't get, So ask you to
want to learn more about Jennifer Pistiquez, the work she
does at Brave Women at Work and also the Thriving
twenty five conference we're both spearheading. So start by visiting
(48:58):
her own site, which is Bravewomen at Work dot com. Again,
Bravewomen at Work dot com for her personal coaching and
then also come visit the conference that we're part of.
It's thrive in twenty five dot com. The way that's
spelled is it's thrive Dash. I n the number twenty
five dot com Thrive dash in twenty five dot com.
(49:21):
To learn more about this conference. You can also use
my promo code, which is of course Gusto all in
caps to access the additional getaways. I'll be a warning
to participants. See you next week for another inspiring and
educational conversation on working on purpose and remember work is
one of the best adventures and means of realizing our
potential and making the impact we crave. So let's work
(49:41):
on Purpose.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to
tune into Working on Purpose featuring your host, doctor Elise Cortes,
each week on W four CY. Together we'll create a
world where business operates conscientiously, Leadership inspires and passion, performance
and employee are fulfilled in work that provides the meaning
and purpose they crave. See you there, Let's work on Purpose.
The topics and opinions express in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
liability explicitor implies shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio
or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should
be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
(00:21):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
What's working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the
answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose
at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their
lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization
that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their
highest potential. Business can be such a force for good
in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide
(00:51):
guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we
all want working on Purpose. Now here's your host, doctor
Elise Cortes.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Welcome back to the Working and Purpose Program, which has
been brought to you with passion and pride since February
of twenty fifteen. Thanks for turning again this week. Great
to have you. I'm your host, doctor Elis Cortes. If
we have not met before and you don't know me,
I'm an organizational psychologist and logo therapist, speaker and author.
My team and I at Gusto and Now help companies
enliven and fortify their operations by building a dynamic, high
performance culture and inspirational leadership activated by meaning and purpose.
(01:28):
You can learn more about us and how we can
work together at Gusto dshnew dot com or my personal
site at Leiscortes dot com. Getting in today's program we
have with us today. Jennifer pstikas an executive with over
twenty years of experience in the financial services industry. She
is currently the senior vice president of business Development of
a Chicago Land financial institution. In addition to her corporate work,
(01:50):
Jenna is now leveraging her experience with her personal company,
Brave Women at Work. At Brave Women at Work, she
offers career and leadership coaching for women. Helps your clients
better identify their strengths, what they want, what is holding
the back, and how to remove those barriers. So they
can take better hold and be braver in action and
(02:11):
their careers. She is also part of the team bringing
a brand new conference for women to the four called
Thrive in twenty five, which we're talking about today. It
takes place in June of twenty twenty five, and she
judged it today from Chicago, Land. Jennifer, welcome back to
Working on Purpose.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yeah, I'm such a fan, as you know.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Very happy to have you back, A big fan of
who you are and what you're doing in the world.
Because our listeners and viewers maybe don't know you as
well as I do. Let's talk a bit about your
background and how it is that you found your way
first into financial services that you've been doing for a
good twenty years now.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Yeah, So it's an interesting journey and I hope it
inspires people because I didn't know that I wanted to
be in banking or financial services. I actually was a
double foreign language major in college, so thought I was
going to be a college professor, and then lived overseas
for about a year and realized that I wanted to
have kind of like a bigger life experience rather than
(03:09):
just going into one particular subject. I studied literature, I
studied poems, I studied all that kind of stuff in
college and was like, no, I want a bigger like scope.
And so I ended up in business and you know,
in banking and did well there. So yeah, that's how
it came to be.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
I understand that whole idea of getting that kind of exposure.
And you and I, of course sure our love of languages.
I too love languages, so should a romance language. But
why is the work in financial services important to you?
Why not architecture? Why not? I don't know marketing as well?
Speaker 4 (03:45):
I do that, Yeah, so I do the marketing, but
why financial services? So this one does hit a little
bit closer to home and that My father actually passed
away from kidney cancer that moved to the bone when
I was eighteen years old, and so I saw my
family struggle financially. We were solid middle class and my
parents both worked two jobs. Even my dad worked two
(04:07):
jobs up until he got very ill. So he was
diagnosed with cancer when I was twelve, and then he
made it six years in quite the hero in his
fight against cancer. And then we didn't have enough life
insurance for him and so my mom had to kind
of like bootstrap and do two jobs even towards the
end of her career when she was in her early sixties.
(04:29):
And so I wanted to make sure that I had
enough financial knowledge as a woman that was entering the
world and just to like spread that knowledge to other people.
And so that's why being in the banking and the
financial services sphere is important to me.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
So important to be able to leverage those life experiences, right,
is that's so incredible. I heard a lot of stories
like that about what somebody has personally gone through that's
helped shape their path forward. So no, Price, I don't
think I remember that part of your journey. So thank
you for sharing that. I lost my dad and one
much later in life, So I really appreciate that that
happened for you early. For yourself, that's it's a different road. Well,
(05:08):
then on top of all that is, if you aren't
busy enough, my friend, you also are doing work with
her C suite, and of course, brave women at work
tell us a little bit about each of those things,
those endeavors.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
So her c suite, the founder and the CEO is
Natalie Benamu, and Natalie has been a partner for me
with the last three plus years, and I've done coaching
with her community and so that's why it is on
my LinkedIn profile and speaking and things like that. So
we've loved partnering together and so that's how I help
(05:42):
her is through that. And then we've also done some
side projects together website for entrepreneurs, and we're also going
to be working together or are working together on the
Thrive and twenty twenty five conference. And I do have
to give her a shout out because when I started
my podcast and I know that you obviously have deep
roots in this area, she introduced me to so many
(06:02):
amazing yests and so she's a wonderful connector and I
just wanted to thank her again because so many people
have asked when I started the podcast, like how are
you going to get guests? I'm like, I don't know,
It's just going to happen, and so it did.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Mm hmm. No, Nottalie, she's been on the podcast as well.
Of course, I'm happy to be partnering collaborating with her
as well for the conference, so yes, also shout out
with her for me as well. But speaking of that,
we'll get to more of the conference in just a second,
but let's first peel back the idea of why you
believe in empowering and developing women.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Well, so I started, you know, like I said, the
banking sphere, but I really started my roots in investment services.
And if anyone has roots on the investment services side,
you know that it's a predominantly male industry. And so
for you know, and I'm throwing out you know, rough
statistics here, but you know, for every at least when
I started, you know, for every ten advisors, it would
(06:57):
be like one to two successful female advice and it
was a real boys club, doctor Elise, I'm not going
to pull any bud this year. And it was really
hard to see a path forward on how I could
advance and then moving through my career. And there there,
this is public knowledge. It's in some of the Brave
Women at Work women's anthologies that I've written, especially the
(07:18):
second one. I wrote a chapter called Imposter. I've struggled
in this area. I struggled, admittedly and humbly in this
area where I wasn't I was told that I wasn't
leadership material, or that I wasn't considered as a leader.
I was the head down, work hard type of gal
and was hoping and praying and wishing that people would
see my my. You use the word shine, and you
(07:40):
know what I could bring to the table, and I
didn't until like I had to figure out how to
do this on my own. And so I feel very
passionate about helping other women do the same.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I remember that now that you bring up about about
your history. Thank you again for sharing that. I think
so many women can relate to that of feeling like well,
the imposter syndrome, but also the idea that the mistaken
notion that if I took my head down and do
good work, then I'll be recognized and promoted and my
career will be just great. And it's just not true.
And so I coach several women as well too, men
(08:14):
for that matter as well, but I coach both. But
particularly with women, what I see is that they don't
know what they don't know, and they haven't learned to
really ask for help. And so even just this morning,
I had a great conversation with a woman that I've
been coaching for just about a year and a half,
and just she's making amazing strides, She's learning and has
been putting forth the notion of being much more proactive
(08:36):
about how she asks for opportunities for advancement and when
she has given feedback about you know, whether or not
she gets doing forward, she's having very direct but respectful
conversations about why wasn't I chosen? What's missing here? And
just really and she's and she's you know, really stewarding
her journey on compensation and really managing that path, not
(08:58):
just accepting what has been given, but managing that path.
And I know these are all some of the things
we'll be talking about, you know, in our conference here
in next June. But I want to present those things
because I think so many women who might be listening
are not even present to the need to have some
help outside advice to be able to navigate those really
(09:19):
important topics.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Agreed, absolutely, So now, well.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Let's talk about Thrive in twenty five, that the brand
new conference for women. I am delighted to get to
serve as the MC for that conference, and I just
know we have so many special things. Getting to meet
the speakers has been phenomenal, Jennifer, looking at some of
the topics we'll be serving up phenomenal, but let's first
talk about where did it come from? Was it what
(09:46):
was the impetus for this and how was it actually birthed.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Yeah, so another interesting story. So as part of it,
and again through her C suite and Natalie giving her
credit where credit is due, she's a great connector and
that's what she does, is she's building women's networks, opportunity
for women to grow and shine and you know, be
on the move as leaders. She has that program as well.
So she introduced me to Hope Mueller, who you've had
(10:12):
on the show as well. And Hope is a pharmaceutical
executive and just bottom line, a real powerhouse. So we
have partnered together through her company's Hunter Street press and
Climb conferences. And so I have the coaching arm and
I have the Brave woman at Work brand and then
you know, we've done a lot of amazing work together.
And so the moral of the story is, Doctor Elies,
(10:34):
I have to be really careful what I tell Hope
because Hope is a big manifestor. And so I came
up with Thrive in twenty twenty five. I told her.
I told Hope specifically, I'm like, hey, I think we
need to do a women's leadership conference. We've done retreats
on a small scale. Are you willing to give it
a shot to do a women's leadership event at a large,
(10:56):
larger scale. And she's like, Yeah, let's do this, And
so we put it on the list for twenty twenty five,
thinking and I thought, well, you know, is that really
going to happen? Well, here we are, here, we are
You're are MC. We have like eighteen speakers I believe,
of just amazing background, and we're going to do this thing.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
It is amazing, you know. I don't know if we
talked about this or not before, Jennifer, but I think
it was back in twenty eighteen. I too wanted to
put on a conference really around the world of work.
But what I really discovered very quickly is you can
do that alone. You need a full team to help
you make that happen. And I'm very grateful to be
part of that team. Obviously. I know Hope that I
(11:34):
first met her years ago. I was moderating a panel
that she was on and immediately recognized her greatness. Had
her on my podcast talking about her book, Hopey, which
was how I really got to know her. She is
a powerhouse. She does know how to make things happen.
So I love the idea that you were the idea
of person on this and she was part of the
(11:55):
crew to help bring it forth to action. I'll never
forget when I got the email saying, Hey, you know,
Lee's are putting together this, this conference for women would
love to talk to you about UM seeing immediate is like,
I'm in let's talk about this.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Of course, Yes, we're so excited to have you.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
You know what I love about that is getting to
MC means that I get to know all of the presenters.
I get to intro. That means I need to know
them to be able to present them and introduce them.
I really will get to understand much more fully and
deeply all of the topics that we'll get to be
introducing for the women. And I love the idea that
it's in as you say, Chicago Land. I never had
(12:34):
heard about Chicago being described as Chicago Land before this conference,
but I do think it's really Once it's the middle
of country for me, you know, AMD for all intents
and purposes. But two, there's something about the energy of
Chicago that seems to be pretty compelling to me.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
Oh good, I'm glad. So you might be wondering, like
why Chicago Land, right, So I mean, I'm from Chicago,
So I said to Hope. We had tossed around her area,
which is the Las Vegas area, which many conferences are at.
So who knows, it might flip in different parts of
the country or maybe we'll have multiple Hope, don't get
too many ideas if you're listening to that. But I
(13:16):
just I told her, I'm like, I really feel like
this needs to be in my neck of the woods, right, Like,
I feel like it needs to be here. So we
have something more central for speakers and attendees to go for.
And we picked Chicago Land versus downtown Chicago. It's because
we wanted people flying in because most people will fly
into O'Hare International Airport, so we literally doctor Eli's We're
(13:39):
like really close to the airports. We wanted people to
have that accessibility and that flexibility because we know getting
to downtown Chicago if you've if you've had that experience,
it can be quite the crapshoot and how long it's
going to take you to get there. So we wanted
it to be accessible. We wanted it to be affordable
and attainable for people. So that's why we pick that location.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
I appreciate that. And while we're on the subject of
geography and location, before we talk about some of the speakers,
I also know that you chose the hotel venue very
very carefully. Talk to us a little bit about that.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
Yeah, so we did also choose a hotel that was
right by, pretty close to the airport fifteen it's away
from the airport. We chose something that is not, i
would say, not necessarily the norm, because we didn't want
everyone to have like shiny objects syndrome where they're like, oh,
I'm going to go shopping or I'm going to go
(14:35):
to the movies or oh, you know. We wanted people
to be really immersed and really in the experience at
the hotel. And the hotel's got a really cool I
you know, hope to stay there. I have done many tours.
It is a really cool vibe. And so I'm not
going to say anymore about the hotel. I think you
just have to experience it for yourself.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
I so appreciate that. I'm very much allured by the
whole th experience, and I know our prospective women joining
us will be as well. Let's take our first break.
I'm your host, doctor Relie Cortes. We are on your
Jennifer Pastikas. She's an executive with over twenty years of
experience in the financial services industry and it was helping
bring to the for the brand new conference for women
(15:17):
called Thrive in twenty five. I'm talking a bit about
where it came from and her own background of what
she's contributing. After the break, we're going to get into
a few of the speakers and just some of the
topics we'll be covering. We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Doctor Elise Courtez is a management consultant specializing in meaning
and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps companies
visioneer for a greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose
inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance,
and commitment within the word workforce. To learn more or
to invite a lease to speak to your organization, please
(16:04):
visit her at Elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how
to get your employees working on purpose. This is working
on purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program
today or to open a conversation with Elise. Send an
email to Alise A Lisee at Elisecortes dot com. Now
(16:28):
back to working on Purpose.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Thanks for setting with us and welcome back to working
on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes As. I'm
dedicated to help them create a world where people realize
their potential at work, are led by inspirational leaders that
help them find and contribute their greatness, and we do
business at Betters the World. I continue to research and
write my books, so the last one came out in
Marsha twenty twenty three. It's called The Great Revitalization. How
(16:55):
activating a meeting and purpose can radically enlagen your business.
I wrote it to help leaders under stand just the
nature of today's workforce, which is very discerning. What do
they want and need to stay with you? And then
I offer twenty two best practices to help you create
a culture to provide that for them. You can learn
more about my books on Amazon or my personal site
at least quretest dot com if you are just now
(17:16):
joining me. My guest is Jennifer Pestikas, who, in addition
to her long career in the financial services industry, also
offers career and leadership coaching for women through her personal company,
Brave Women at Work. So before the work we were
talking a bit about just kind of the location and
the thought behind the Thrive at twenty five conference. Let's
talk a bit about just some of the speakers. Can
(17:38):
you share just maybe introduced a couple of them that
are really stand out for you?
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Oh, it's it's kind of tough. It's kind of tough.
So I've got the site up here as I'm talking,
So I would say a couple that come to mind.
Or Bobby Carlton. So Bobby is a ted X speaker.
She is, you know, she's a speaking maven, and she's
going to talk about public speaking and getting that kind
of as part of your repertoire because so many of
(18:04):
us we sit behind the desk, you know, we might
be executives, but we're not presenting or we don't have
that as part of our offering. So she's got a
presentation on public speaking and then one because this is
her personality, you know, no excuses, how to get yourself
on stage. So I'm really excited about learning what she
has to share about getting in front of others and
honing speaking as part of what you do.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Okay, before you go on, let me just chime into
that because this is so so important right in your
coaching and my coaching. It is so important to be
able to one own your brand. And then two related
to the work that I'm doing, is that more that
you're comfortable speaking on stage, the more effective you're going
to be as an inspirational leader. Being able to cast
a vision that people want to be part of can
(18:48):
step into is so so important. So I really I'm
glad you started with that one because I think it's
so so important and many many people, as you know,
are frightened, silly of speaking, like they are more afraid.
The statistic is people are more afraid to speak in
public than they are to die.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Did you not know that? No, that's true. That is
a solid statistic.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
Wow. Okay, well let's get them a little less afraid.
Let's do that. So just a couple more and I'm
picking these out on purpose. So one of the reasons
when Hope and I were talking about this conference, we're like,
how do we make this different? You know, we say
leadership conference, And we talked about our experiences with going
to leadership conferences, and we wanted to look at the
(19:30):
whole woman and by by home and I'm saying the
whole person. So we want to look at their mindset,
We wanted to look at their health and wellbeing. We
wanted to look at of course the leadership chops, like
how do we give them the education and then the
accountability support. So we thought that was unique because we've
never been to a conference like that before that has
all of those components. So another two speakers I just
(19:52):
want to call out. The first one is more on
that wellness piece and the next one will be also
on the wellness is Doc Susan Lavelle, and she works
on Her two presentations are the first one is from
Busy to Balanced, three Secrets to Harmonize your life and work.
So she's into hormones and from that Busy to Balance piece,
(20:15):
and her second one is the Executive Edge Harnessing Hormones.
This is where hormones comes in and habits for peak performance.
And I don't know about you, and I don't know
if I shared on the show last time, but I've
gone through burnout myself and as I'm entering those middle years, right,
we'll just throughout the word perimenopause, like, hormones are becoming
a lot more important to me, and I want to
(20:37):
make sure that I'm taking care of myself and I
am in peak performance so that I can give what
I want at work and I don't feel kind of
hamstrung from a health condition perspective, because, like we say,
if we don't put our oxygen mask on first, who's
going to do it for us?
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I so appreciate that, Jennifer. I can't count the number
of women that I've encountered over the years who are
saying things like, I'm constantly exhausted, but I don't know
why I'm doing all these things, et cetera, et cetera.
And oftentimes we might find that one it is an
over extension into too many activities, and sometimes, of course
(21:16):
they're just not resting enough, but very often there is
the physical element in that, which might actually be the
hormonal piece. So I really appreciate very much the holistic
nature of what this conference is providing to women. We're
not just talking about leadership. We were talking about the
whole woman who is being that leader. And I really
and that's one of the major reasons that I said, yeah,
I will be happy to m see this conference.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Yes. And so the last one or two I just
want to mention, So Jackie Sittera who owns her own business,
Jay and C Innovations, she's doing actually a vision boarding exercise.
So how cool is that that we get to take
something tangible away and you know, kind of tap into
our creative flow. Oh and then on a last one
(21:58):
that I just want to highlight for me, and it
is Nicole Smith Leavey, who is a somatic coach, and
so she's going to teach us how to breathe right,
because I don't know about you, but I've had situations
where I get stressed and then I forget how to breathe.
I'm a chest breather versus like a diaphramat a diaphragm breather.
So she's going to actually help us with that. So
I'm very excited about those and all of them.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
I am too. And just to add in another piece
that I think is really important that I also think
is critical for the whole being development is I know,
we have some planned content around really embracing nature and
also more also into the space of really cultivating art
as a space for passion and creativity, and of course
(22:43):
you know when I do. I have a whole program
that I'm doing on helping people to create feerceful full
of goals for the new year. I bucket them across
nine different dimensions, and a couple of them, you know,
one is creativity and passion, also adventure and travel, etc.
So just so important that it goes beyond just professional
financial family, right, There's just so much more that we
(23:03):
can really cultivate. So I'm so excited for us. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Likewise, Yeah, and that was doctor Vasu is going to
do the Artful Mind, and I'm really excited. She's bringing
the scientific and the art together. So it's going to
be a really cool presentation.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Mm hmm. Yeah, you know. And again because I really
feel like I've got the coveted role here since I
get you really hard too and everything, right, why choose
when you could just cover it all? I think that
I think Hope really understand understands me well enough that
when she reached out, she knew that I was I
was the right that was the right fit for me
for sure.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
Well yeah, she said right away, She's like, go doctor Elise,
She's our MC. We got to get doctor Elise and
I love that.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
It was so delightful. I'm just I'm so excited. So
then if we could, I just wanted to talk a
little bit about, you know, sort of the arrangement, some
of the thinking behind you know, what it is that
we are intentionally developing in this conference, and you know,
starting off with just really understanding one's personal attributes. Could
you speak a little bit to what's behind that particular
(24:06):
focus of the conference.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Yes, So that's about you know, those key pieces of
self knowledge, right, So that's why we're doing the vision boarding.
We're going to be talking about values like that key
self knowledge because as a leader, we understand you know,
me being twenty plus years hoping twenty to twenty five
plus years, like many of the women that are speaking
have so many years. We actually need to I need
(24:29):
to do the math to see what the collective years
of leadership experience are that would be powerful for me
to share in the future. But we know that you
have to know thyself right as a leader, So understanding
your attributes, understanding your strengths, understanding what's important to you
is why that is going to be a key component
of the conference.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
I really appreciate that. I am amazed, Jennifer. You know,
when I'm out doing work, either for my public workshops
or for work that I do inside companies, I am amazed.
Like I was just actually taking a course last week
on listening well, and I would say the average age
and there was, I don't know, early fifties, and I
(25:08):
was amazed by how many people have these major AHAs
about themselves, you know, about which we had taken the
DISK assessment for that for that particular workshop. But anyway,
the point that I'm making is that you know, what
I always tell people is that you are going to
spend the rest of your life really knowing yourself. There's
that much to know. And so I love that we
also have this these pieces in here built in to
(25:30):
help people women to understand their personal attributes so so
so important, motivates you, what distinguishes you, all those things.
Then we go on to the next book at which
is a personal development and mindset. Tell us a bit
about that one.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
So you can know yourself, but you also need to
know how to manage your mindset too. As a leader,
I think it's absolutely critical because they're you know, people think, oh,
you know things will be better when I write well,
when I become a leader, well, I'm here to report.
You know, being a realists, you're going to have tough days, right,
and so how do you manage that mindset so that
your career trajectory is going in the way and the
(26:08):
spaces and the places that you want it to go.
And you can read so many books. You can read
all the books, listen to all the podcasts. At the
end of the day and you're going to hear this
as a refrain that you have to take that responsibility
for your mindset. You can get those tools, you actually
have to use them. And so we want women to
walk away with solid tools on how they can manage
that mindset because you know, your mindset has a direct
(26:30):
ripperal effect on your team and you know in your
leadership initiative, So managing the mindset is critical.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Yes, And to that end, what I find fascinating and
precious about part of the work that I get to
do is helping to reveal people's mindsets to them. You know,
we don't know that it's like right water we swim
in right So think about that, just as salmon really
realized that they're actually swimming in a body of water.
Probably not that's you know, that's their it's it's their environment.
(26:58):
And so one the careful and important work of revealing
that mindset, and then we can decide to the extent
to which how is that actually working for us or
against us? And then of course unlearning these mindsets is
just as important as learning new better ones or ones
that will serve us better, just as important.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
And many of the people or the women that I
work with or that probably will attend, you know, they
might have like a sense of they're disenfranchised, or they're like,
why can't I get ahead? Or there's a little frustration,
But like you said, doctor e Lees, they they may
not know that part of it is their mindset.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
You know.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
They may think, oh, well, you know what, I'll never
get the promotion or I'll never get the opportunity, and
they don't know that that in itself is stopping them.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Absolutely, thank you, that was extremely well said. Perfect. Okay. Now,
the third element that I think is really critical is
the supportive community that's part of this conference.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
So Hope and I are so invested in building a
community of women, whether it's through in twenty twenty five
or through climb conferences or through Brave Women at work,
and if you talk to any of our former authors
or anyone that we have done work with so you
can fact check this doctor release, It's like becomes like
(28:14):
a family of women and kind of a community where
we are not often one and done where we're like, oh,
that was great and we'll just see you later. And
we are actually physically building a community via the Hersey
Suite platform currently, so we have all of the women
join a community and they can share kind of their struggles,
their successes, their wins together and that's really important for us.
(28:38):
So if they you know, if a woman is listening,
does attend, know that you have a community behind you.
It's not like a one and done conference experience.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Oh this is so critical because you know, when I'm
working at organizations or with women one on one, is
they there is even if you're in an organization, especially
the higher you go in your career, the more lonely
it feels. I really talk to about these really critical
things in my life. Or I don't know, I've just
been promoted, I don't know how to do this job.
I just got promoted. I don't know what's going on.
(29:07):
But yet I know that I have to perform. So
being able to connect with other people who have had
similar experiences can give a different perspective about what's going
on and help encourage and empower and motivate her. It's
just so so important. And also this what I always
tell people is that I want you to develop your
(29:27):
network inside your organization and outside your organization. Why outside,
because that is part of your safety net in case
you do need to make a change, or you lose
your job or whatever. You need other people outside your
current organization to help steward that transition. And many, many people,
men and women, make the mistake of only having a
(29:47):
network inside their company, and then when they get let go,
they're really in trouble.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
Agreed. And so we have Natalie Benamou talking about LinkedIn
and building your brand on LinkedIn, and I always challenge
clients cay spend ten to fifteen minutes a day building
that network because you won't be disappointed.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
So important. And then one of the next pillar is
a strategic action and accountability. You know, as a business
owner myself, that accountability piece is so so important because
I'm gonna set goals all day long and get really
excited about them that if I don't have someone that
keeps me accountable toward my goals, it is so easy
to kind of backstroke and go, we do I get
to it next quarter kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
M yeah, so this one's a hot button for me.
So when we were forming the conference, I actually am
in the process of forming something called the Brave Circle.
So at the end of this conference, women will have
the option to join a coaching accountability group with me
monthly where they get that one on one support. They
get that accountability support totally optional, and then we'll have
(30:50):
semi annual planning sessions and they'll have access to a
private podcast called the Brave Circle. So I wanted to
give women an option, which you don't see that very often,
and you know, you get like the list of all
the things like I'm so jazzed about, but then like
you know, two months later, ask you know, ask me,
or ask other women or anyone, right, did you you
know do that? And typically you don't because you go
(31:11):
back into your old habits and patterns.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
It is so easy to get so excited and then
before you know what, six months has gone by and
you've done nothing about that goal. And then you were
demoralized and you feel bad about yourself and you kind
of give up. And so yes, that accountability is so
so important. And then of course the last pillar, you know,
the crux of everything, you know, leadership, development and resources.
Speaker 4 (31:34):
Yeah, so in that we're really giving you women female
speakers from all different like walks of life. So they're
going to talk about sponsorship and mentorship and setting yourself
up for the next stage of your career. We have
a speaker talking about she's a CEO. She's say, hey,
this is you know, my perspective from the C suite,
(31:55):
So like really the arc of the career, right, and
like bringing all of those strategy, all those pillars that
you know, often we're put in management and then we
get you know, we do good right like doctor Lees,
and then we keep growing, but we don't have like
all of those pieces put together to keep advancing and
really understand how we grow our leadership muscles. And I
(32:17):
promise you you will have that with this conference.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
So excited all right, listen, listeners and viewers kind of
chew on this, and listeners and viewers, I as we
go on this next break, I want you to be
thinking about how this conference can help you personally. Who
can you bring along, Who do you want to invite
and share this podcast with that you want to come
with you, or who you just think needs this. We'll
be right back. I'm your host, doctor Relis Cortes, moving
on with Jennifer Pastikas, an executive with over twenty years
(32:43):
of experience in the financial services industry and who is
now helping to bring to the fore the brand new
conference for women called Thrive in twenty five. We'll be
right back.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Doctor Elise Cortes is a management consultant specializing in meaning
and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps companies
visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired
leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and
commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite
a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her
(33:29):
at Elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get
your employees working on purpose. This is working on purpose
with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or
to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to
Elise A. L Se at Elisecortes dot com. Now back
(33:52):
to Working on Purpose.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
It's with us and welcome back to Working on Purpose.
I'm your host, doctor Eli Scortees. I mentioned in the
last break that my last book came out in March
of twenty three. It's called The Great Vitalization. How activaty
MENI Purpose can radically in liven your business. What I
did for you is I created a three page assessment
that you can find on my website gustodeshnaw dot com.
Download it. It's free and when you go through that assessment,
(34:21):
it will help you understand the extent to it your
current culture is meeting then discerning needs of today's workforce
if you are just now joining us. My guest is
Jennifer Pastikas, who is, in addition to her long career
in the financial services industry, also offering career and leadership
coaching for women through her personal company, Brave Women at Work.
So for this next segment here, Jennifer, what I wanted
(34:43):
to do is is one I wanted to have you
articulate from your vantage point, who do you think needs
to come to this conference? Who's it really for?
Speaker 4 (34:54):
So I would say any woman that feels like Hey,
there's a lack of that spark need to have leadership
resources I need or I want to learn how to
take care of my whole person. So that's that first piece.
More specifically, anyone that might be in that mid career
segment and they don't have to be a VP, they
(35:15):
don't have to be a CEO or anything like that,
but they're in that mid career and they need community,
they need accountability, which is so many of us. So
we've talked about all what I would say, all of
the pieces of the conference. So if you're in mid career,
you're looking for community, you're looking for accountability, you're looking
for leadership resources, and you are willing to travel to
(35:37):
the Midwest when actually the weather is nice, I think
this would be would be really good for you. And
i'd say the last pieces, we're really making this female geared,
so you're going to have a lot of exposure to
networking and female led companies. So if you two have
a female side hustle, like a female lead side hustle,
or if you want to get a network with other
(35:58):
women that let's just say like they're rock stars. Like
I would say that this is for you.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
I love that I would add too. I want to
invite through these lines and others to anybody that feels
stuck like I, just like I think I should be
further along than I am. I want to be further
along than I am. I don't know why I'm not
being promoted to your point earlier. Maybe you have lost
my luster here and want to understand and know how
I can better activate that. Again, I think those are
(36:28):
all other really compelling reasons for women to attend. And again,
as always right, it's not just you listening. I mean,
you're fantastic you anybody other side of this thing, but
whoever you know, you know a handful of people who
probably are feeling this way or need some help, and
so this is something. This is We're all evangelizing this
together as a community of women around the world. So
(36:53):
let's do this next, Jennifer, I would love for you
to tell a story or two about a woman that
you know who has blossomed in large parts due to
embracing conferences like ours and or investing in her own
ongoing development. I'll maybe share one or two myself.
Speaker 4 (37:08):
So I'm actually going to use I was thinking about
this doctor Elise and I'm going to share a couple
from our speaker set. So the first one is doctor
Renika Brisco. So doctor Renika went to a conference. She's
in she was formerly in academia, has many many awards
(37:28):
in the New Orleans area, another powerhouse, and she went
to a conference and she met Sheila Higgs Burke Culter,
who's another one of our our conference speakers and keynote speakers.
And they hit it off and so I just want
to like, you listen to the ripple effect here. So
they meet and Sheila or Shiggs as she she loves
(37:50):
to be called she they hit it off and she says,
you know what you need to think about getting your
brand bigger. And this is to doctor Renika, and she said, hey,
can you consider being an author in one of the
Brave Women at Work anthology in the anthology series. And
then she then goes on from there and she takes
(38:12):
kind of kind of the learnings and the relationship and
the network from that conference, and then she became an
author and now she's like, you know, kind of dominating,
and now she's a speaker, and she's actually decided to
part from academia and now she's you know, building an
entire business under her name, and so I just want
you to know that you never know what's going to
(38:34):
happen when you build relationships at these conferences. So that
shows the power of community, the power of self accountability,
the power and the magic of being at these types
of events.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
I will share another one and we can maybe kind
of do a tennis match on this as we as
we share. I remember distinctly, you know, when I was
going through my own leadership development program here in Dallas,
Take Little with Texas into the fourteen, and that was
a program that was really designed to help women get
to better understand the issues of Texas and how they
(39:07):
might be able to give themselves over to help for that.
And I remember sitting on the bus. It was like
a two and a half day sort of deal for
three times a year, and I was sitting on the
bus next to doctor Chara Joji and at the time
she was a professor of astronomy at the University of
Texas and Hengy were sitting there on the bus at
eight o'clock in the morning ready to take off for
the day, and she goes, that's it, I'm just going
(39:30):
to do it, and I'm like, what is it. What
are we doing? Are we getting ice cream? We're robbing
a bank. She goes, I am going to put my
name into the hat to be the chair of the department.
I have two young kids. I've been saying I can
do this. I don't have time and I'm busy, et cetera.
But if I don't put my name in the hat,
I won't get the position, and I won't to be able.
I won't get to shape the department the way that
(39:51):
I want to. And of course she did go for it,
and guess what she did get the job. She's the
first woman to had that that department, and I had
her on my program as well talking about this. And
you know what she gets to do to shape that
department and really make it accessible for other beings that
would otherwise never entertain that field because of her unique
(40:13):
stand is so incredible. But she wouldn't have done it.
If she wasn't at this conference where she got inspired
and excited by what other women were doing with their
lives and their careers, she would have stayed under the radar.
So that's one example that I have.
Speaker 4 (40:27):
Oh that's great, you know you've got me kind of
thinking my juice is flowing now, so I have one
for myself that's not listed on the website. So this
is kind of a sneak peek behind how things have
come to be with brave women at work. So I
don't even know the year. I think it might have
been twenty thirteen or so. I went to this very
large Salesforce conference. If people don't know what salesforces, I
(40:50):
think it might be the world's largest CRM or client
relationship management system now in San Francisco, and there were
about one hundred and forty thousand people there and it
was just overwhelming, Doctor Elise, and I was like, Okay,
what can I take from this? What can I take
from this? Because sometimes conferences just like are almost overwhelming, right,
But I had the opportunity, and I wouldn't have had
(41:11):
this opportunity, so it was perfect timing. So Cheryl Sandberg,
who was the former CEO of Meta Facebook at the time,
was the keynote speaker, and every person got a hard copy,
which I thought was so snazzy, a hard copy of
her book Lean in There and it had just come out,
and how cool well for me that I was in
(41:34):
the audience as it was just coming out, and she
gave this beautiful keynote, and so I got so on
fire after that presentation, completely devoured the book from you know,
when I from San Francisco to Chicago, I proposed a
leadership group. So you know, the first quote unquote lean
in circle of our organization, which became the leadership group
(41:55):
in my actual corporate organization. And since that time, we've
taken half of our organization through that experience. And I
would not have actually gotten the gusto to ask or
gotten the gusto without being at that conference.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
I love that you said, gusto, I know right, that's mine.
It's my damn.
Speaker 4 (42:16):
I had to wait, I had to weave it in.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
I love that. I appreciate that. I'll give you a
spiff later. And another another example that I'll share. I
was working with a healthcare organization on the West Coast
for a good long year and so I was working
in part with the chief nursing officer, and she was
really ambitious and really wanted to develop her career and
(42:39):
that was an important part of her life, and she
was having a hard time getting up to getting past that.
She wanted to move on to either you know, the
COO or the CEO role, and so we got to
work together, and I kept telling her go to conferences.
Go to conferences. Go to conferences who get exposed to
new ideas. You'll meet other people who can help sponsor you,
(43:00):
champion you, and give you advice and perspective that will
be important. And sure enough she did. She started going
to conferences. And I get this text from her after
her first or second one, maybe the first one that
that I told her to go to encourage her to
go to. She's like, Alicia, You'll never believe what happened
because I was in the company of all of these
(43:22):
other really you know, amazing people, you know, going all
with their lives, their men and women. I just got
invited to take a private jet onto this one of
our other hospital sites. And I wrote back, your going right,
and she said, I'm on the plane and it was
so great, right. And she's you know, because she's in
(43:44):
ladies and gentlemen. This is really important, especially if you're
an introvert like she is. She's an introvert. It's uncomfortable
for her to be around a lot of people. Takes
a lot of energy for her. So if you are introverted,
and you think the idea of a conference sounds overwhelming.
You're just selective about who you're actually spending a lot
of time with. That's all that is. And that's what
she did, right. She just found there was a couple
(44:05):
of people that she could have a meaningful conversation with,
ended up socializing with them, and then here she found
herself on this plane and guess what you know, spoiler alert,
she did become the CEO of this organization.
Speaker 4 (44:16):
Wow. And that also is really good because you just
said an introvert can be a CEO, so that I
think there's a misnomer that, oh, you have to be
an extrovert, and that's not true.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
No, it isn't, not at all. In fact, here's what
I love to champion along that line, Jennifer. I'm sure
you can appreciate this and probably aligned with it. Is
you know, as an organizational psychologist, if we look at
the introversion extroversion spectrum, you know, one extreme the extroverts,
so there nobody's safe, they'll talk to anybody, and the
other extreme, the extreme introvert, where they really don't want
(44:46):
to leave the house and it's very nice in their
own mind, et cetera, everyone somewhere along that spectrum. And
what we find is that the introverts are exceptional conversationalists.
Why because they're listening, they're listening with the other person
is saying. They're not waiting to get in a word
in for what they want to say, and that makes
them really fantastic, memorable human beings that make a really
(45:09):
sticky connection, Whereas the extrovert might meet a whole lot
of people and that's great, but it's a little bit
more of a you know, of a spot fire, if
you will. So I want to be able to encourage
you know where you are on the spectrum, there's something
for you in a conference.
Speaker 4 (45:27):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
Well, when you think about this coming up here, I
know we're about here to close, and I'm going to
send them to the site when we close. I don't
worry about that, but I do know we are offering
an early bird discount, which I think finishes December fifteenth,
that's correct, And it's a fifteen percent discount.
Speaker 4 (45:46):
Correct, Yes, that's correct.
Speaker 3 (45:48):
Okay, So we want to be sure and evangelize that.
So I would just say I would encourage people to
consider this as a gift for yourself. I personally invest
in something for myself every single year, if not twice
a year, to keep myself growing and learning. So even
if your employer doesn't cover this for you, think about
this for yourself. And you know, if you're a gentleman,
(46:08):
if you're a man listening to this and you're connected
to a woman, give her this conference. She will never
forget you.
Speaker 4 (46:19):
Yes, And I want to just jump i'mp in here
and say that we're trying to make this accessible for everyone.
So we have like multiple payment options, you know, we
have the painful two payments and then we just opened
a four payment option too. So please please look at
this because I agree with you, doctor A. Le's like
invest in your development.
Speaker 3 (46:38):
It's so important. I mean, otherwise, you know, you can
find yourself in a job for ten years and the
world has passed you by. And that's not the world
we live in today, is it is moving on without you.
If you don't, you know, hitch a ride to that
train and it'll it will leave you behind. And that's
not a scare tactic, it's just the way. It's just
a you know, the statement of what we're living in today.
So really want to encourage anyone that's listened and whoever
(47:00):
you're connected to, who do you care about. Obviously you
can see both Jennifer and I are slightly passionate about
this conference and we are committed to it and it's
you know, it's really something special. So let me give
you a chance to close. Jennifer, you know this show
is listened to by people around the globe who generally
care about elevating their connection to their experience of work,
(47:21):
becoming a better leader, finding ways to do business within
their own organization that betters the world. What would you
like to leave them with?
Speaker 4 (47:30):
Well, I just want to thank them for their time
today and I appreciate doctor Lys being a guest. And
what I would say is, you know, the idea of
investing in yourself not only from a time perspective, but
also from a monetary or get your company to pay
for it. Right. That's also what I say about being
a brave woman or a brave man right at work,
is you know, advocating for yourself because at the end
(47:50):
of the day, and I want to just like underscore
this is that you are responsible. You are ultimately responsible
for the trajectory of your career as we kind of
started with. And it is in those decisions and in
that advocacy for yourself that you can become a better
leader and do great things. And so please take a
look at the website, please really consider it or gift it.
(48:12):
Like you said to someone else.
Speaker 3 (48:15):
I want to echo something that you said there about
asking for support from your employer. Many people have the
belief this is back to that mindset again that they
just their company just won't cover it. Let me tell
let me share something with you. When my five year
old daughter said to me when I picture up from
camp many years ago, she said, Mama, I learned something today.
Put a little hands on her hips. She said, you
(48:36):
don't ask, you don't get. That's right, And I said, oh, sugar,
if you just keep that in mind the rest of
your life, you'll be just fine. So, listeners and viewers,
you don't ask, you don't get, So ask you to
want to learn more about Jennifer Pistiquez, the work she
does at Brave Women at Work and also the Thriving
twenty five conference we're both spearheading. So start by visiting
(48:58):
her own site, which is Bravewomen at Work dot com. Again,
Bravewomen at Work dot com for her personal coaching and
then also come visit the conference that we're part of.
It's thrive in twenty five dot com. The way that's
spelled is it's thrive Dash. I n the number twenty
five dot com Thrive dash in twenty five dot com.
(49:21):
To learn more about this conference. You can also use
my promo code, which is of course Gusto all in
caps to access the additional getaways. I'll be a warning
to participants. See you next week for another inspiring and
educational conversation on working on purpose and remember work is
one of the best adventures and means of realizing our
potential and making the impact we crave. So let's work
(49:41):
on Purpose.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to
tune into Working on Purpose featuring your host, doctor Elise Cortes,
each week on W four CY. Together we'll create a
world where business operates conscientiously, Leadership inspires and passion, performance
and employee are fulfilled in work that provides the meaning
and purpose they crave. See you there, Let's work on Purpose.
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