The Global League of Women

You can’t always control what happens to you, but you can always control how you react to it. This is the power of mental reframing. If you want to change something, be it how you feel, how you do things, or what you believe, begin by intentionally changing your thoughts and choosing to reframe how you see your reality. Your thoughts about any situation that happens to you are always more powerful than the situation itself. Morgan Mercer has been able to reframe her reality in order to stay grounded in the face of sexism, ageism, and racism as a young minority female CEO. After spending years caring too much about external validation and other people’s opinions, Morgan discusses how she built up the confidence within herself by acknowledging her own power, and surrounding herself with other powerful female allies and mentors. Today, she is using her power to help others understand diverse perspectives. She is the Founder and CEO of Vantage Point, an innovative Virtual Reality training platform designed to build empathy and help companies prevent harassment and bullying. We also discuss: How to have productive and open conversations around hard topics like #BlackLivesMatter How to own your mistakes without giving up your power The importance of building powerful female communities Join a tribe of powerful female leaders. Apply to The Global League of Women at TheGLOW.org

Navroop Sahdev is the Founder and CEO of The Digital Economist, a global impact organization with the mission to drive technological convergence for a human-centered Digital Economy. She grew up in India surrounded by poverty wondering how she could help. After studying liberal arts, she transitioned into studying economics because she realized that money makes the world go round, and wanted the tools to affect change. Today, she is a renowned economist and technology futurist. She co-authored “Blockchain Economics” and Hyperledger’s "Blockchain for Business" online course which has trained over 160,000 entrepreneurs globally, and counting. You will learn why constraints are important for innovation, Navroop’s take on COVID-19s impact on our economy, and why it’s more important than ever to focus on building an equitable and sustainable world.

We typically only hear news about startups successfully raising venture capital or getting acquired, but what about the ones that fail? No entrepreneur ever starts a company expecting to fail, yet over 80% of them do. Fear of failure is widespread and causes people a lot of anxiety and stress. But what if we learned to celebrate failure more? On a personal level, failure can be liberating and empowering. A learning experience and a compass for future self-development. Today’s guest Sapna Shah co-founded a startup that ultimately failed in 2013 causing her deep insecurity about her next career steps. After a serendipitous conversation advising a friend about a potential investment, she soon found herself becoming more interested in investing in startups. Today, she is a professional angel investor and founder of Retail X, an event series and community supporting retail founders. Sapna’s journey is a reminder that our failures can result in many unexpected benefits. She now has even more empathy for founders, and knows what it takes to support a successful company.

Modern society has told us to be very selective in seeking romantic partners. We’re told to be our authentic selves, and swipe through quickly until we find someone who will be our perfect fit. As a result, dating apps have grown exponentially over the last few years. Unfortunately, this level of support has not transferred over to our careers even though we spend so much of our lives working. Frida Polli, CEO of pymetrics, is on a mission to help you find your perfect career fit in today’s job market. While getting her MBA at Harvard University, Frida had a front row seat to her peers’ career struggles and her own experiences of hiring bias as a 38-year-old single mother. However, instead of becoming a victim to the system, she decided to do something about it. Using her decades of experience in academic neuroscience, she founded Pymetrics, an artificial-intelligence driven tech platform to match job candidates with their perfect job fit, while removing hiring and career development biases. They currently work with over 100 enterprise clients and job-seekers globally.

For many women, there is a deeply rooted fear of aging and everything that comes with it - wrinkles, grey hair, weight gain. Instead of viewing the aging process as something natural, society's obsession with women’s youth and beauty creates a mindset of scarcity that makes us acutely aware of our body’s ticking time bomb, yet continually afraid to discuss it. Menopause is one such topic that we rarely discuss. The lack of knowledge around the natural evolution of our cycles means that many women are unprepared, both mentally and physically, for the physical change and the ensuing difficulty of adjusting to their body’s new normal. Michelle Aspinwall is a coach who works with women to help them embrace a mindset of “aging timelessly.” She encourages listening to our bodies and using monthly menstrual cycles as an “internal GPS system” to live more authentically. If you are interested in discovering how to truly love your body, this episode is for you. To dive deeper, join The GLOW Self-Love Challenge this month at theglow.org/selflove with code HERLOVE

10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every single day, and 20% of the US population will be 65 or older by 2030. Yet society and young entrepreneurial companies tend to overlook this demographic when creating new technologies. But like anything else that’s overlooked, that means there’s also an opportunity. Our guest today is Monique Woodard, an angel investor based in San Francisco, focused on investing at the intersection of technology and newly powerful consumer groups as a result of demographic shifts - Women, people of color, and the elderly. She recently published a 65-page report called Gray New World detailing this demographic sea change and the types of opportunities she sees as an investor. Personally, she has started two companies and is currently raising her first fund, so she has experienced the difficulties in raising outside capital of all forms, especially as a minority woman. You will hear how she has learned to deal with this by having great long-standing friends to support her throughout her journey.

It has been said that more than 50% of people are currently in a toxic relationship. When we are, we become blind and numb to the stress and strain it causes on us. Unfortunately, this emotional damage is compounded when we rely on the other person for financial and parental support. Alyssa Hall was in a hot and cold relationship for ten years. When she learned that her partner was cheating on her, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. This decision led to additional hardships for her -- less resources, forced debt, single motherhood all while trying to set up her new business. She reads from a journal entry about her daily emotional and psychological struggles during all of this. If you have experienced toxic relationships, are a single mother, or struggle with guilt and prioritizing yourself, this episode will be a source of strength for you

70% of people are estimated to experience imposter syndrome, which leads to self-doubt and inaction. We get so wrapped up in what society says success should look like, that we forget to take a moment and ask ourselves, what we actually want to do. This disconnect between external expectations and our true selves can often leave us feeling at odds with the world, we can feel like we don’t fit in, like there’s something wrong with us. Dheerja Kaur has worked at two high-profile companies, ESPN and theSkimm. She was able to land a job at ESPN, despite not being qualified “on paper.” She shares her early experiences dealing with imposter syndrome, and ultimately overcoming it by finding the right mentors and embracing her creative side to step into her full power as a leader. She recently left her role as Chief Product Officer at theSkimm to embark on new professional challenges. She publicly shares talks about this transition for the first time and how she is reprioritizing her professional and personal life going forward.

The Catholic Church in the United States received 1,051 credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor by priests and other clergy from 2017 through 2018, according to a report commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. In this episode, Kristen Harness opens up about her own experience of abuse within The Church at a time in her life when she was most vulnerable and desperate for love. She had turned to religion to find a safe space, but what she found instead was the exact opposite. You will hear her read a journal entry from October 2018 about an abusive experience in the church that nearly destroyed her, and then how she ultimately turned it into a source of strength.

Too often, we are the ones responsible for creating our own greatest limitations. So many of our dreams never see the light of day because we allow ourselves to become wrapped up in the logistical details, instead of simply saying “Yes,” and trusting in our own abilities. This linear thinking often prevents us from reaching our potential. Tricia Brouk has three decades of saying “Yes” and figuring out the “How?” afterwards. As the Executive Producer of Speakers Who Dare and the former Executive Producer of TEDxLincolnSquare in New York City, she’s now empowering others to say “Yes” to themselves to share their stories on the big stage. In October 2018, she had a transformational revelation about needing to move physically to a new city to support her new, bigger ambitions. She had been living in New York City for three decades with tremendous success, even having worked with the late James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Christopher Walken, to name a few. However, she felt an unexplained urge to go after much more. We start the episode with Tricia reading a never before shared story and experience.

Feelings of inadequacy can arise at every stage in your career. Even if your resume is full of impressive accomplishments, it doesn’t make you immune to the wrath of imposter syndrome. Beth Comstock was GE’s first ever female Vice Chair and former CMO. She is now the author of the book, Imagine It Forward: Courage, Creativity, and the Power of Change. where she shares what she’s had to do throughout her career to overcome self-doubt and how women in particular can get comfortable with being more ambitious.

Ask any entrepreneur, starting a startup is one of the hardest paths you can take. As a female founder there are even more challenges to overcome, especially when it comes to raising funds. Eliza Blank, Founder and CEO of The Sill, a direct-to-consumer plant delivery startup, bootstrapped her company for 5 years before deciding to raise outside venture capital money. In this episode, she shares how she successfully raised money as a solo founder, how the fundraising process is different (and harder) for women than for men, and provides specific tactics to improve your fundraising process.

Loss of loved ones, fear of public speaking, anxiety about the future - these are things we all experience, but often struggle to overcome. Amy Morin lost her mother when she was 23, she lost her husband when she was 26. When another tragedy struck, instead of feeling sorry for herself, Amy wrote a personal letter about what mentally strong people don't do. She decided to share it online and unexpectedly, it went viral with 50 million views. Her life has never been the same since. Amy’s TEDx talk has been seen over 11 million times and her international best-selling book, 13 Things Mentally Strong Women Don't Do has been translated into 33 languages.

Despite women influencing 85% of all consumer purchases, the majority of businesses and products have been designed and created for men. Today’s guest, Danielle Kayembe, believes this paradigm is changing with the rise of women-centered innovation: products and services designed for women by women. In her whitepaper “The Silent Rise Of The Female-Driven Economy,” Danielle Kayembe discusses why women are the single largest opportunity in the market today, becuase they’ve been  overlooked, and underfunded. Indeed, when a population influences 85% of consumer spending, but only receives 2% of venture funding, there is a fundamental disconnect at the leadership level that will inevitably be corrected. In addition to her work on inclusive product design, Danielle shares how she has mastered the design of her internal world through cultivating her authentic voice, positive self-talk, and mediation. She provides tactical exercises on how to take up more space and create boundaries so you can step into your full Power. Danielle is founder of GreyFire Impact, an advisory firm that provides capital and resources to female business owners particularly in Africa.

No matter how carefully you plan your life, it always seems to have plans of its own. Despite a flourishing career as a recognized holistic health coach making national appearances on the likes of The Dr. Oz Show and Oprah Magazine, Beth Nydick found her personal life completely upended by a string of unexpected tragedies. The sickness of a child, the death of a parent, the feeling of complete and utter lack of control - these are some of the things Beth has had to grapple with, and vulnerability is the first step towards healing. This is the first time that Beth publicly shares her story. If you have a story that you would like to share, please go to www.theglow.org/share.

There are many reasons why people stay at jobs they don’t like - fear of failure, fear of trying something new, fear of making less money, laziness, burnout, or just complacency. Julia Steele found herself working in a corporate consulting role and wanted to leave, but stayed anyway for three and a half years. This episode is about her quitting her job even without a clear back-up plan in sight. This is a story about how she got off the corporate hamster wheel to finally align with purpose and impact. She is now the Director of Marketing and Communications at iFundWomen, empowering female founders with funding programs and resources.

99% of people experience financial anxiety. 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Eight in ten Women do not feel highly confident in their financial decisions. Today, we are joined by Shannon McLay, Founder and CEO of The Financial Gym, a startup with a mission to improve the financial health of millions of Americans by putting the “personal” back in personal finance. Today, we hear about her arduous fundraising journey and how it almost left her in personal financial ruin.

Sex, orgasms, masturbation… These are things that many people find uncomfortable, even outright shameful to talk about in public. Not for Lora Haddock. She’s The Founder & CEO of Lora DiCarlo, a sextech company that launched with a revolutionary women’s sex product called Osé, a robotic massager for hands free blended orgasms. Lora discovered that 35% of the female population never experienced an orgasm, and after finishing medical school, set out to create a company to gave women the fundamental right to explore, understand, and love their own bodies.

Today’s episode is inspired by an unusually progressive gift given to Lisa Carmen Wang by her immigrant parents on Christmas Day that gave her the biggest blessing she never knew she needed. After years of pressure to fulfill expectations, she is given the rare gift to prioritize herself, her career, and her own decision around marriage and kids.

This is a coming-of-age story and The Manifesto of why The GLOW exists. Founder & CEO Lisa Carmen Wang shares her life story of how her self-doubt, inadequacy, limiting beliefs, expectations almost got the best of her. This is a story of how inequality, injustice, and sexism ultimately gave her the fire she needed to find her purpose and #HERPOWER The ability to face and share the things you are most afraid of within yourself is ultimately the only thing that will set you free.