Last year when I was struggling in my Account Management role at the peak of the pandemic, I saw a LinkedIn virtual event, hosted by a group called WISE (Women in Sales Everywhere) and I thought, “umm maybe I will check this out, I have nothing to lose” and I ended up meeting a ton of incredible women through that zoom session. It was so refreshing to hear from other women in sales who were also anxious about not hitting their number, living at home with their parents working out of their childhood bedroom, having clients churn as a result of the pandemic, and struggling with all the uncertainty in the world. It was like a breath of fresh air – I was alone physically but, felt more connected than I had in a while. Since that one session with WISE, I have been an active member for a little over a year now and 100% recommend joining if you are a woman in sales. I actually got this “board member” idea from a member and have met several of my board members through WISE!
I can’t recall who exactly gave me this personal board member idea but I remember it happened during one of our WISE “pod sessions”. The idea of your own personal board is to treat yourself as a business – you are your own brand and like every business, you should have your own board to test or bounce ideas off of prior to going live with them. I thought for this post I would talk about what my own personal board looks like and how I use my members to navigate “my business” aka my life.
Cym’s Board of Directors
WISE Mentors – I have been fortunate to be assigned to two wonderful women in Customer Success roles through WISE to mentor me. These women challenge me and advise me on my Customer Success career. Earlier in the year, I had some doubts about if I had made the right decision to leave Account Management to go into Customer Success and brought these feelings up to a director at WISE. She was able to connect me to my now mentor who was able to talk me through her experience with switching from a career in sales to CS. She walked me through what she loves about her current role and so much of it aligned with my values which provided me with the confidence that I had made the right choice. I also love that these two women are both working in the tech space like myself, as it allows me to implement many of their tactics and strategies that they have seen be successful with their own teams. These two women and I meet quarterly but through the WISE slack group, I feel like I can reach out if something comes up! Having outside career mentors is so critical to me and I am so thankful for the ability to be connected to two such inspiring and incredibly driven women!
Therapist – I only recently started working with a therapist but, I cannot recommend it enough. Having a non-bias soundboard to work through challenges with work, life, relationships, friendships, and family is so helpful. My therapist is on my “board” and helps me keep my mental health in check. I am a strong believer that our mental health is and should be treated and valued in the same way our physical health is. There is such a strong stigma about getting help for your brain that it prevents so many people from ever reaching out. I lost a friend due to this fear, so if do you ever feel stuck mentally, please get help. You are not alone!
Career Coach – 3 Months ago, I invested in getting a career coach (one of my WISE mentors actually recommended it & I met my coach through WISE). Just to give you an idea of how this is going, 3 months ago my goal at the end of the program was: I want to be promoted to manager and feel confident that I not only deserve this role but can take on the responsibilities even though I haven’t had management experience before. My new goal is, “I want to be confident and comfortable to show up as my authentic self as often as I can in both work and life and empower those around me to do the same.” Talk about growth… I struggle with people-pleasing and being a hyper achiever and with the work that I have been doing with the coach I have been able to become more aware of when these self-sabotaging voices appear and when I need to take a step back and listen to my heart vs head.
Colleagues – I recommend having some trusted colleagues at work that you can go to. You are going to want these colleagues to be ones you feel comfortable talking about “the real stuff” not just the basic, “how was your weekend?” type. I have been lucky to have a handful of colleagues that I feel comfortable with who I can chat about, promotions & raises, how to navigate tough conversations internally and externally, practice giving feedback with, and overall career progression thoughts and ideas. These colleagues can also become some of your closest friends (speaking from experience)! I have had colleagues come and go from my current job and for the ones who have left I feel like I can still call them up when I need work advice and because they know the “inside politics” of my current place of work they can usually provide some great insight and ideas. Find these people and hold them close – they are important to have and retain!
Friends – I personally have one friend (not a colleague friend) that I consider both a friend and a board member. They actually work in a non-corporate outdoor job which allows me to have great and valuable conversations with them because their view on work is so different from mine. I am someone who loves to work and sometimes I get stuck in this void of putting work before everything else in my life which isn’t healthy. She reminds me constantly of the importance of play and fun! This week, I was talking to her about how I haven’t been able to walk in the mornings due to the rain, and when I sit all day at my desk working without my daily walk, I end up feeling pretty depressed. She didn’t even hesitate, sent me two links to rain pants and said get these and if you throw these on over some sweats, toss on a rain jacket, a pair of rain boots, and a baseball hat so the rain can easily roll off your raincoat hood you will be able to walk in the rain without getting wet! Find people like this – who think differently than you and use them when you feel stuck.
While writing this post, I realized how privileged and lucky I am to have these wonderful people in my network and a lot of these people are here on this list due to investments I have been able to make towards myself. So my takeaway thoughts are…
Don’t feel like you need to build a full board overnight – this board above has taken me almost 2 years to build and it has taken me 5 years to confidently put myself out there to network.
Your board should change and be dynamic as you grow!
Don’t fear networking. There is so much value in talking to people about their experiences especially if their path is one you admire. For example, last week I noticed someone commented on a post that one of my mentors had shared who had a similar career path as the one I would like to have and she went to the same college as me. I sent her a message on LinkedIn and the next thing you know, we are having a Zoom chat and I am learning new ways that I can better my skills today in my current role to prepare me for management which is ultimately is my next goal.
If anyone has any questions or wants to chat more about how to get started on building your own personal board please reach out to me – I love talking about this stuff!
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