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The 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022 Vol- 2-by- Success Pitchers
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P T C H E R S VOL 04 | ISSUE 01 | 2022 w w w . s u c c e s s p i t c h e r s . c o m 10 WOMEN LEADERS TO FOLLOW IN 2022 T H E MOST INSPIRING Gwendolyn Gwendolyn Young Young Backing Businesses by Providing them with Virtual Business Management Support
EDITOR’S CHOICE Setting New Norms of Leadership E Men are easily regarded as leaders, but women who run organisations, particularly their own, are viewed with scepticism. A woman must have bravery and determination to take on the job of entrepreneur. ntrepreneurship needs a unique perspective. It's far simpler to work for someone else than it is to be your own boss. Leading a business is far more challenging for women than it is for males. Women's entrepreneurship has been acknowledged as a key untapped source of economic growth during the previous decade. If a woman succeeds in her entrepreneurial enterprise, she will not only increase her own and her organization's wealth, but she will also improve the nation's quality of living and change the world's perception of women as followers rather than doers. In its latest issue "The 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022" Success Pitchers recognises and appreciates such inspiring woman executives' who are leading their organizations to success with their exemplary leadership methods. The cover has Gwendolyn Young, CEO and Founder of Your Virtual Admin Expert, LLC. She ensures that everything the company does and say yes to advances its vision and objective. She is responsible for the company's growth, for establishing long term, sustainable partnerships with clients, and for ensuring that the team has the training and resources they require to provide excellent service to the company's clients. In this special edition, let us share similar, inspirational tales and interviews with many such dedicated leaders in order to raise awareness about their contributions to making the world a better place. Let's Begin! Gavin Smith
Cover Story 08 Gwendolyn Young Backing Businesses by providing them with Virtual Business Management Support 18 Elyse Lupin A Media Maven with Years of Working Experience Jeanniey Walden A Multifunctional Business Expert 22 26 Julianna Yau An Experienced Educator helping Students have the Best Overseas Education
C O N T E N T S 30 34 Karen Mangia Developing Innovative Strategies to Address Customers' Key Business Challenges Kyla Dufresne Bringing Heart and Humour to the Beauty Industry 40 44 Louise Hampton Patient-Centric is the key for Sustainable Health Institutions! Michelle Drolet Protecting Businesses from Cyber Attacks Since 1999 48 52 Nicola Filzmoser Comprising Innovation to Help People with Chronic Pain Tiffany Yu On a Mission to Increase Intersectional Disability Representation Globally
P T C H E R S ABOUT US Demonstrating to be a thorough guide when it comes to the business knowledge, Success Pitchers is leading the way. We want to be the ‘sans pareil’ of industrial knowledge, while transforming and upgrading ourselves with each and every issue. By standing solid as an arc between businesses and clients, we share accomplishments and challenges while also seeking to determine the perspectives of entrepreneurs, C-suite executives, and innovators who drive business throughout the world. As a leading media brand, we are devoted to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and we utilise our numerous platforms to help the world rebuild with equity at the forefront. Our experienced market research and editorial teams ensure that our content and experiences represent the varied populations we serve and allow our clients to access various innovative and creative approaches for creating value in their respective business environments. “We encourage readers and users to think outside the box, to start dialogues, and to shape the future of business.” OUR TEAM EDITOR IN CHIEF Gavin Smith ART & DESIGN DIRECTOR Philip Walker SALES MANAGER Adam Morgan BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Tony Baker FOR EDITORIAL ENQUIRES | editor@successpitchers.com ADDRESS 16192 Coastal Hwy, Lewes, DE 19958, USA
NAME- Gwendolyn Young DESIGNATION- CEO & Founder COMPANY NAME- Your Virtual Admin Expert COMPANY URL- yourvirtualadminexpert.com
Cover Story Gwendolyn Gwendolyn Young Young
Cover Story wendolyn Young's idea for Your Virtual Admin G enjoys. Gwendolyn believes she has always had the talent and the drive to help high-ranking leaders. So she turned her 15+ years of corporate administration and operations experience into Your Virtual Admin Expert. She shares, "I knew that entrepreneurs could benefit greatly from having someone on their team who could understand all the moving parts of their business. I wanted to make an impact behind the scenes, and Your Virtual Admin Expert allowed me to do that.” working from home and realized that there was an entire industry doing what I was good at.” Expert began simply as a solution for her to manage her health while still doing work she Gwendolyn discovered that individuals have been providing administrative and operational help to others online for years. Your Virtual Admin Expert, LLC was founded after much prayer and consultation with a few close friends. Gwendolyn had the opportunity to personally experience how all aspects of a medical facility influenced the patient while working as an administrative support worker in the healthcare industry. She says, "If the front desk didn't do their job well, it affected medical records and the physicians. If medical records didn't do their jobs well, it affected the physicians and the patients, and if the physicians didn't do their jobs well, it affected the patients and billing." This is where Gwendolyn's dreams and passions for ensuring that all the pieces fit together perfectly come to fruition. It was a logical transition for her to become an operations specialist since she enjoys figuring out how to make things operate better together. Gwendolyn was diagnosed with systemic lupus in 2013 and had to leave her corporate career on long-term disability. She decided she didn't want to return to a workplace where she would have to choose between taking care of herself and performing a job she enjoyed after months of barely functioning. Gwendolyn asserts, "I knew that it had to be possible to do both, so I set out to research opportunities Gwendolyn's role as CEO and Founder of Your Virtual Admin Expert, LLC is to ensure that everything we do and say yes to advances our vision and objective. She is responsible for the company's growth, for establishing long- term, sustainable partnerships with clients, and for ensuring that the team has the training and resources they require to provide excellent service to the company's clients. Her time is spent speaking with new potential clients and partners, doing podcast guest speaking to increase visibility, releasing new podcast episodes to maintain the company's authority, meeting with clients to ensure the team understands their goals and the role the team plays in assisting them in achieving them, and developing new programs and/or services. Gwendolyn is heavily involved in tracking metrics and targets to ensure the business stays on course or recognizes when it needs to pivot. Before Becoming an Entrepreneur Gwendolyn would have been regarded as a statistic by most people until she became an entrepreneur. Gwendolyn was born to a 17-year-old single mother and was considered a latchkey child by some. She was in charge of coming home immediately from school, locking the doors, doing her schoolwork, and reading her Bible passages every day. She became a mother at the age of 19, and by the age of 23, she had three children and was married. At the age of 28, Gwendolyn gained her first corporate job, and her affinity for administration and operations began.
Cover Story According to Gwendolyn, she struggled with setting limits and had to learn how to do it properly. She enjoys serving and assisting others, but she quickly realized that doing so may be detrimental to her health and mental abilities if she did not set limits. She mentions, "I overcome challenges by always going back to why I started this business in the first place, and it gives me the right perspective and the renewed strength I need to keep going." Gwendolyn is also a 'solutionist', so she always quickly turns to how she can resolve this, how she can overcome this, and asks what the plan and path forward are. She has learned to get good at not remaining stuck and to keep moving forward, even if it happens to be at a slower pace sometimes. Your Virtual Admin Expert Your Virtual Admin Expert is an online business management support agency for established professional service providers, coaches and consultants who are helping others get the mental, emotional, physical, and financial well-being they deserve. The team is expert at helping them manage the backend of their business, so they can focus on their clients, their growth, and their profits. Gwendolyn shares, "Even before we decide to work with a client; we have a discovery call, where we listen and learn about the client's business, how they work, what's most important to them, and what they are trying to accomplish." She further adds, "We can fully understand if this is a client we can work well with and help them get results." Once the team has chosen to say yes, each account begins with a client call to discuss the customer's vision, goals, and what success looks like in the next 90 days. She feels that this is a vital initial step since the team will not be able to properly help the client until they have a clear understanding of their goals. accelerator providing affordable options for coaching, training and services to help Black women build scalable, sellable models and access the back office support, financial and social capital that they need to play big in business, which is assisting her in charting a path to seven figures. Her long-term goals include continuing to work with a business coach as a mentor, getting the firm certified as a women-owned and minority-owned business so it can do business with the government, and establishing herself as a thought leader in the virtual assistant and operations field. Sharing Success and Words of Advice for Business Leaders Gwendolyn has already achieved most of her ambitions. She describes it as having the freedom and flexibility to take care of herself without asking permission, such as taking Friday afternoons off to spend with her grandson, working from wherever she wants in the world, providing jobs for other women, and sharing her journey with other emerging entrepreneurs, all while earning enough money to support herself and her family. Gwendolyn considers this a huge accomplishment, and her objective is to keep doing all of those things. Gwendolyn's words for aspiring women are, "You matter. Your voice matters. Your gift matters. Feel the fear and go after your dreams anyway; you can do it. I would say connect with other women who are doing what you desire to do; learn from them, sit with them, and use that wisdom to grow yourself and others.” Gwendolyn is presently enrolled in a Service Business Accelerator program sponsored by Sistahbiz, a business
Gwendolyn believes that it is absolutely crucial to have a mentor to grow as a leader. She says, "As individuals, we don't always know or see our blind spots, and we can reduce our learning curve significantly by having a mentor.” She urges company owners to identify exactly who they need on their team and build up that profile; hire for fit, talent, and capacity, trust them to perform their job, and pay them well while being a full-time business leader. She states, "Those who take ownership of their role, have a true vested interest in the agency and client's success, hold themselves to a high standard of accountability, have integrity, and value teamwork." She further adds, "Hire and work with people who like to get results! Nothing else matters if you can't get results!”
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The 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022 Elyse Lupin A Media Maven with Years of Working Experience W acquisition and retention marketing, branding, marketing creative, and social media. Her extensive marketing expertise includes years of experience with well-known companies such as Comcast, The Walt Disney Company, NBC, and New Balance before launching Elysium Marketing Group. ith over 20 years of marketing experience, Elyse Lupin specializes in marketing strategy, product marketing, email and digital marketing, Elysium Marketing Group is a full-service, cross-industry marketing agency with the skills and capabilities of a large firm and the flexibility and personal touch of a boutique agency. She says, "We're happy to be your one-stop shop so we can ensure all parts of your marketing strategy and creative are connected and working efficiently. Our subject matter experts and tried-and-true methodologies will create engagement and drive leads, plus guarantee your brand is on-point and consistent across all channels." Below are the highlights of the interview: What was the idea behind joining the marketing sector? I majored in marketing and minored in psychology in undergrad, so I think I was drawn to marketing because it's about figuring out how to connect with consumers. What would inspire them to take action and buy the product or service? How can you connect with them to make them loyal to a certain brand? How do you assist businesses in connecting with their primary audience? It's all about taking what we know and then testing and learning and then testing and learning again. Changing up messaging, imagery, and tactics to really see what resonates. What gets you up in the morning? What are your responsibilities as the founder of the company? My children get me up in the morning. The excitement of what the day will bring gets me up in the morning. Which client are we going to get a big win for today? Who's going | 18 | APRIL 2022 www.successpitchers.com
Elyse Lupin President and Founder Elysium Marketing Group www.elysiummg.com
to call us to get help with their marketing today? No two days are the same, and it keeps it exciting. As the founder, it's my job to set the vision and lead the team. My team is so talented; they are subject matter experts in their respective areas, so I am really the maestro, making sure it all works as well as possible together. you think you know something, it's time to re-learn it because new information is coming fast and furious. What is the best way to build a great team? The best way to build a great team is to treat the team as you would want to be treated. If you want them to work hard, you should be working hard too. If you want to take a vacation, they should take a vacation. Treat each person as an individual instead of a robot working for your company. What advice would you give to the next generation of female marketing leaders? My biggest piece of advice for women in the workforce is to just go for it. Don't let the inner voice of doubt stop you from pursuing your dreams. My second piece of advice is that if there's an area of marketing that you're interested in, make sure you learn as much as possible and continue learning to ensure you're on top of the latest trends. What does "performance culture" mean to you? Performance culture means if your team is performing, don't sweat the small stuff. Let them have the flexibility to live their lives as well. Attend their kid's event, take a few days off, go to the appointment, etc. It also means setting expectations well from the beginning, so they are set up to succeed. What are your future plans to sustain your and the company's success? My future plans are to continue to grow my team with subject matter experts and people who are hungry to connect with our clients and get them the best results possible. What are the impacts of current digital advancements on the marketing industry? The impact of digital advancements is the need to use data to connect with your target audience in a way that's ethical and valuable to the audience—not just the company. Another impact is that we all have to remain students. Once | 20 | APRIL 2022 www.successpitchers.com
NAME- Jeanniey Walden DESIGNATION- Chief Innovation & Marketing Officer COMPANY NAME- DailyPay COMPANY URL- dailypay.com | 22 | APRIL 2022 www.successpitchers.com
The 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022 Jeanniey Jeanniey Walden Walden A Multifunctional Business Expert A She believes, "To be a successful CIMO, you need to be data-driven, innovative, creative, and understanding. You have to know what consumers are seeking and figure out an effective strategy to reach them." Jeanniey leads her team in the development of marketing strategies for the brand, solutions, and goods to the appropriate target groups. She's always thinking of new methods to close the gap between the company and its customers. s the Chief Innovation and Marketing Officer at DailyPay, Jeanniey Walden's main goal is to drive revenue through innovation and marketing. She was promoted to a marketing position while she was there, and her task was to find a way to wow and attract new clients. "I didn't realize it then, but this opportunity was just the starting point of my marketing career," said Jeanniey. She had a true enthusiasm for leveraging digital media as a platform to generate good customer behaviour as her career progressed, and she rapidly established a unique skill set that allowed her to serve multiple Fortune 100 companies. DailyPay DailyPay is a multi-award-winning technology firm on a mission to create a new financial system that benefits everyone. As a contemporary hypergrowth New York City- based technology company, DailyPay works with enterprises and Fortune 500 companies in just about every industry from healthcare to restaurants. It is always trying to guarantee that money is always in the right place at the right time for employers, merchants, and financial institutions, thanks to its large data network, patented funding model, and links to over 6,000 endpoints in the banking system. Jeanniey is in charge of purpose-driven marketing strategies, which include generating new website pages, pitching reporters with a unique story, and gathering actionable data-driven research. Every choice she makes is backed up by data and procedures designed to help her achieve certain objectives. Jeanniey had intended to become a teacher before starting her career in the business world because she wanted to engage with children and youngsters to develop innovative methods to motivate them to succeed. She earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in education from the University of Pittsburgh. When Jeanniey graduated, there were no teaching positions available. As a result, she had to seek out other options and eventually found herself working part-time at JCPenny. Thanks to their guidance, Jeanniey learned new abilities and discovered a new enthusiasm for a whole different route ahead of her. DailyPay is dedicated to achieving its lofty goal of creating a new financial system that benefits everyone. From product releases to appearances at events, the firm has a lot planned. Internally, the company is expecting to double its headcount over the next year or so. | 23 | APRIL 2022 www.successpitchers.com
everything that you do in an Authentic Manner where you Inspire others and ensure they Relate to your audience. She finds that if you are bold, grateful, and yourself, success will chase after you. She adds that anyone can practise AIR. When she was younger, she struggled with being her authentic self in the workplace. She recalls, "I would hide the fact that I was a mom of two girls, or my love for high heels, because it made me seem too feminine or weak. So, one day, I decided to go in as myself, even if it was scary, and found that people embraced me for who I was." Slowly, she found that authenticity made her an even more effective leader. She opines, "When you value yourself, live authentically and walk with confidence, you will naturally find yourself advancing in your career and creating a path for the next generation of female leaders." Jeanniey will be starting a podcast, SteppingUp, in the near future, in which she will shed a positive light on female leaders and entrepreneurs and participate in meaningful dialogues to encourage the next generation of female entrepreneurs. Each episode has a continuous theme about assisting people in unlocking their own potential, engaging with purpose, rising to the challenge, and beginning to thrive. Adding Values as a Leader and Mother The last two years have been a roller coaster ride. Employees were required to work from home by their employers. The States were placed under lockdown. Employees began to quit their employment. Inflation is currently at 7.5 percent, and gasoline prices are at an all- time high. While change can be unsettling, it also provides opportunities for innovation and digital transformation. DailyPay's staff had to learn to adjust its messaging to meet social interactions and company and employee needs. Jeanniey shares, "We waived our fees at the height of the pandemic and rebranded in 2021 to be more personable yet effective. We were able to use the changing times to our benefit and propel us and our users forward.” A Leader's Perspective Jeanniey recognizes a number of personality traits in people that can help with organizational success as a team leader. The formula, however, is a great blend of hard and soft talents. She says, "Be good at what you do and always strive to learn more and hone your craft." "Also work on developing your relationships with people at the workplace.” Her advice to company executives: gather a group of individuals with a variety of experiences and skillsets, help them envision the wider picture, and work together to accomplish huge changes, is her advice to company executives. Her role as a leader is to help everyone on her team becomes a better version of themselves, as well as to show others how to collaborate to produce high-quality work. She states, "The secret approach, as I mentioned earlier, is 'AIR'- approach everything that you do in an authentic manner where you inspire others and ensure they relate to your audience. Let your team know that you are there for them and with them through everything.” Jeanniey attempts to demonstrate these traits in each situation she is in, and she hopes to encourage others to behave and feel the same way. She is continuously searching for methods for the marketing team to generate new and unique marketing tactics that inspire the target audience in her role as Chief Innovation and Marketing Officer. Even if her children are miles away at college, she is a mother who attempts to impart these ideals on them at home. When she gives a speech in front of an audience, she considers how she may encourage them to be more confident in what they do and to think beyond the box. The Success Secret; AIR Jeanniey shares her success secret is 'AIR'; approach | 24 | APRIL 2022 www.successpitchers.com
Julianna Yau Founder Ampla Education ampla-edu.com
The 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022 An Experienced Educator Helping Students Have the Best Overseas Education W premium education service provider based in Hong Kong, with tutors experienced in local and overseas education systems. ith the vision of fostering, encouraging, and motivating students to think independently, Julianna Yau founded Ampla Education, a methods across the world, offering the perfect blend of knowledge, flexibility, and interaction. Tell us the inception story of Ampla Education. Before founding Ampla, I frequently encountered Hong Kong students with great academic potential but who lacked the opportunity to fully appreciate their skills due to inadequate teaching or attending educational centres with overcrowded classrooms. Hence, I established Ampla Education in 2016 to help children aged 6-18 achieve their academic goals by delivering niche mentorship programmes and high-quality teaching that caters to the individual needs of each child. In addition to our core business, I also lead my team to make quality education widely accessible. By implementing and executing developmental projects, such as free university application workshops for under- resourced students and girls' literacy programmes, Ampla has successfully helped over 1800 students, from early childhood up to young adults, realize their dreams. Julianna mentions, "Working with children inside the workplace has helped me develop into a more patient, compassionate, and understanding person." She further adds that, as an educator, the ability to listen is just as important as the ability to convey. Outside of the workplace, Julianna is a creative and energetic person, devoting much of her free time to sports and music. Julianna Yau recently spoke with Success Pitchers about her vision for amplifying the education system and how she is helping students achieve their academic goals through Ampla Education. Describe your background and what you did before you founded Ampla Education. Having spent my childhood in Canada, adolescence in Hong Kong, and attended boarding school and university in the UK, followed by a teaching course in the US, my unique position helps me to understand student needs. Global exposure allows me to incorporate different teaching What has been your biggest lesson since becoming an entrepreneur? Learn from children. They are not afraid of falling, nor are they afraid to try new things, and their imagination is limitless. All these qualities are very important for an entrepreneur. | 27 | APRIL 2022 www.successpitchers.com
How do you motivate people to go the extra mile? I express my gratitude and encouragement openly. People are more motivated when praised. What are your future plans to sustain Ampla Education? I plan to ensure scientific literacy within our curriculum and make free technology available to students. Through providing online teaching materials in the past few years, we supported girls' literacy classes and mentored girls in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). We strive to reduce gender inequality and encourage girls to follow their dreams. The literacy classes drive sustainable change by helping girls stay in school and supporting them to develop critical skills so that they can advocate for themselves, raise educated children and lead meaningful lives. The significance of our mentorship resulted in over 50% of STEM degree offers being received by our female mentees, compared to a worldwide average of 25% of female STEM graduates. What gets you up in the morning? What motivates you? I believe in the work I do—improve children's education and make a difference in their lives. Kindly describe how you will specifically know what success looks like for you. To me, success means having complete freedom to do what I enjoy. What sort of characteristics in employees contribute to success? Dedication, reliability, and teamwork are crucial characteristics. What is the best way to build a great team? Have clearly defined goals; respect team members as individuals; have diversified skillsets and ensure effective communication. What does performance culture mean to you? Encourage a positive culture and help our team grow. What is some of the advice you give to aspiring women leaders who sees disability as a career barrier? The key is to be yourself and believe in yourself. Build up your confidence and don't let other people define your worth. | 28 | APRIL 2022 www.successpitchers.com
The 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022 Karen Mangia Karen Mangia Developing Innovative Strategies to Address Customers' Key Business Challenges C RM is evolving in a way that makes it possible to provide personalized service at scale. Powerful AI and predictive analytics capabilities have largely replaced the spreadsheets and manual reports of the past, allowing you to know your customers' preferences as well as they do. Organizations can win more mindshare and more market share by regularly refreshing their approach to customer service and customer success, she coaches. Here are the highlights from our conversation: Tell us more about your background and what you did before you joined Salesforce. "There's one voice that matters more than any other: the voice of the customer. Customers are the number one source of your organization's prosperity, profits, and productivity. Great customer experiences—and customer success—are built on listening and designed for engagement," says Karen Mangia. She works with clients all across the world to help them solve complex, strategic business challenges and position themselves for future success. She has a profound grasp of the customer experience, both inside and out, as a result of her expertise in directing worldwide Voice of the Customer portfolios for Fortune 50 organizations and working directly with customers across numerous sectors and segments for more than 20 years. Prior to Salesforce, I held a variety of leadership roles at Cisco in sales leadership and customer experience. One of my most rewarding experiences was leading the transformation of the way we listened to our customers from providing research results to offering our customer listening skills as a service to the organization. We also lead the company through a growth journey to invest more time and money in diverse owned and operated businesses. And I started my career at AT&T, first in project management and then in a variety of sales roles. Customer engagement and advocacy (giving people a platform and helping to amplify their voices) have been constants throughout my career. Karen is currently the VP of Customer and Market Insights at Salesforce, where she engages current and future customers to develop strategies to address their most pressing business issues. Tell us more about Salesforce. Salesforce builds bridges between companies and their customers because businesses succeed when they create meaningful connections. With Customer 360, the world's #1 CRM, we help unite every department to better focus on Best-of-breed companies, Karen says, proceed from deep listening to deep insights to disciplined actions. | 30 | APRIL 2022 www.successpitchers.com
NAME- Karen Mangia DESIGNATION- Vice President COMPANY NAME- Salesforce COMPANY URL- salesforce.com
releases and new initiatives gives our customers a competitive advantage. Equality: Everyone deserves equal opportunities. We believe everyone should be seen, heard, valued, and empowered to succeed. Hearing diverse perspectives fuels innovation, deepens connections between people, and makes us a better company. Sustainability: We are taking bold steps to address the climate crisis. We are committed to bringing the full power of Salesforce to accelerate the world's journey to net zero. • • How do you assist businesses in connecting with their primary audience? We help companies see the world through their customers' eyes. Our solutions enable organizations to get a single, shared view of their customers. And with knowledge of customers' history, interests, and even frustrations, companies can begin to serve up experiences better tailored to customers' needs and elevate how they see your brand. What are your responsibilities as the Vice President of Customer & Market Insights? What gets you up in the morning? My alarm clock if we're speaking candidly. What gets me excited about getting up in the morning is discovery. Each day I'm fortunate to spend time with individuals and organizations all over the world who are changing the world, who are innovating in unlikely ways, who are reworking work and who are redefining success. When I have the opportunity to use my platform to showcase their ingenuity and innovation, I feel excited. Sharing thought leadership is core to my role. And I've been fortunate to write four books, hundreds of articles and blogs, and deliver a myriad of keynotes and workshops. Giving others a platform to share their voices inspires me. I also serve on our company's Racial Equality & Justice Taskforce, Purchasing Subcommittee which is the most meaningful work I'm fortunate to do. customers. We allow everyone, on every team, to share a single source of truth with integrated collaboration capabilities that guide essential conversations and decisions right where people work. And with Tableau, we help companies uncover deep insights and take data-driven actions to better serve their customers. Every product we offer plays a part in building the connections that drive success – and that success can be harnessed to create positive change. Salesforce believes business is the greatest platform for change. We strive to bring out the best in one another, deliver success to our customers, and inspire the entire industry through our actions. Our five core values guide everything we do as a company and as people: Trust: We act as trusted advisors. We earn the trust of our customers, employees, and extended family through transparency, security, compliance, privacy, and performance. And we deliver the industry's most trusted infrastructure. Customer Success: When our customers succeed, we succeed. So, we champion them to achieve extraordinary things. We innovate and expand our business offerings to provide all our stakeholders with new avenues to achieve ever greater success. Innovation: We innovate together. Our customers' input helps us develop products that best serve their business needs. Providing continual technology • What is the best way to build a great team? Leadership is listening. Everyone wants to feel seen, heard, and valued. The three most powerful words in leadership are, "I hear you." When it comes to designing the future of work, customer experience, or employee experience, one size fits none. Discovering success is not about a hybrid model or offering remote work options or surveys versus skip level metrics, or comparing one metric to another. Individuals and organizations are looking for more freedom. The freedom to choose the model that makes the • • | 32 | APRIL 2022 www.successpitchers.com
most sense. The freedom to choose their own values and the freedom to pursue what matters most. Stepping into that freedom begins with listening. What does "performance culture" mean to you? Performance cultures are outcome-oriented. Outcomes are the new experiences. Yes, experience still matters. What's changed is that those experiences must now correlate with customers' desired outcomes. In other words, experience becomes the method by which outcomes are obtained. Shifting your organization's focus from experiences to outcomes—which may seem intuitive—is easier said than done. What separates organizations that acknowledge this inflection point from those organizations that act on this inflection point is full executive sponsorship and support. What advice would you give to the next generation of female leaders? Success is personal, and when you discover and define what success means to you, then you can invite success to show up moment by moment. What I've discovered is that when I'm clear about what success means to me, I'm free of the influence of others' expectations. It's easy to buy into the belief that success is about approval, acceptance, or accolades. Success comes from the inside out. When you accept and approve of yourself, others will too. Or maybe not and you'll still be OK either way. What are your future plans to sustain your and the company's success? Salesforce has over 74,000 employees now, so sustainability and success are not entirely up to me. With that said, I believe success is service. Listening with a beginner's mind is service. Acting with pure intentions in the best interest of our customers, ecosystem, stakeholders, and planet is service. Reconsidering beliefs that may no longer serve us or others is service. And that's the kind of service that leads to sustained success. In alignment with these intentions, I aspire to continue to be of service to others and, in so doing, make it possible for everyone to succeed. "Together we rise" is one of my mantras. | 33 | APRIL 2022 www.successpitchers.com
The 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022 A fter her first waxing experience, Kyla Dufresne fell in love with the art of hair removal. She noticed the lack of online booking and the inability to rebook as a major flaw. On Vancouver Island, Kyla recognized a gaping niche market. She saw a need for a quick, inexpensive, and enjoyable waxing location on the island. Kyla's entrepreneurship journey and the founding of Foxy Box were inspired by this idea. Describe who you are as a person, inside and outside of the workplace. I am a hard-working, self-proclaimed hustler who was destined to carve my own path. I am a step mom of two very intelligent and charismatic boys as well as a full time mom to two giant, drooly bullmastiff beasts. My family and my friends fill my heart. I am a consignment store connoisseur, an explorer of new lands, a nature enthusiast, and I could spend forever getting lost in books. The team at Foxy Box delivers exceptional service and is dedicated to removing the discomfort of hair removal by creating a welcoming and accepting atmosphere. Describe your background and what did you do before you founded Foxy Box Wax Bar. From a young age, I found myself unfocused and unmotivated in a school setting. After dropping out in Grade 10, I entered the workforce as a server and began my journey. I eventually completed the courses I needed to obtain my GED, and they used my work history as credit towards this completion as well. Armed with this in my pocket, I put myself through the Mental Health Worker Certification program at Camosun. I worked with young boys with behavioural disorders for about a year before making the tough decision that this wasn't the path for me. I went back to serving and bartending in the restaurant and nightclub industries, but found myself unfulfilled with having a limit to my successes. I've always been inspired by entrepreneurs, so I decided to start my own business. In her interview with Success Pitchers, Kyla Dufresne shares how she is pouring her heart and soul into building the business and empowering women so they can celebrate their uniqueness. My first attempt at entrepreneurship was a clothing line called LYRIK. I came up with clever designs to put on bright coloured tees and sold them at markets, music festivals and a couple of clothing stores in Victoria. After | 34 | APRIL 2022 www.successpitchers.com
Kyla Dufresne Founder & CEO Foxy Box Wax Bar foxyboxwaxbar.com
two years of hard work and not a lot of payoff, I figured I had no idea how to build and scale a clothing line. workspace, I don't micromanage my team; I delegate to elevate. I found rock stars that excelled in their roles, and I let them fly. I treat my team like my family, and although we can get at each other like siblings at times, it's this freedom and flexibility that makes my team wants to show up and shine. What has been your biggest learning since becoming an entrepreneur? There are too many to count. 1. Trust your gut. You know your business better than anyone, and your gut will never steer you wrong. I lost about 30k by not listening to my gut, but alas, the lessons I learned from that mistake are still probably cheaper than Harvard. 2. Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you. All of my team bring such critical, invaluable pieces to the Foxy Box Support Puzzle, and I have no idea how to do any of them myself. Find your weaknesses and then fill that role with someone who thrives there. What sort of characteristics in employees contribute to success? Loyalty and drive are huge factors in contributing to success. But more importantly, happy, engaged staff members will drive an organization's growth. Treat your team well, show them respect and recognition, allow them to flourish in their areas, and in turn, this will create loyalty and drive. What is the best way to build a great team? First and foremost, find out what your brand DNA is. What makes your organization tick? What is the feeling you want your end user to feel? Once you have these questions How do you motivate people to go the extra mile? By creating and cultivating an awesome culture within the | 36 | APRIL 2022 www.successpitchers.com
answered, you can figure out what qualities in a person leave an end user feeling this way. From here, you can build your team confidently and effortlessly. We dove deep to find out what was important to Foxy Box and to maintain our culture from the ground up. To be a part of Foxy Box, our employees must have 3 qualities: a positive attitude, empathy, and self-responsible. We have ways to test for these attributes in our trial shifts and training processes, and if they don't have any one of these three qualities, they are not a good fit for our organization. What does "performance culture" mean to you? We were featured in BC Business magazine as experts on systemizing culture. Taking the tools from my above answers to find out who you're looking for will make it easy to scale and not lose your culture. Also, creating hell Yes funnels will make decision making seamless as you scale. One of the questions in our decision making funnel is 'does it make us and other people feel good?’ What gets you up in the morning? What motivates you? My mother owned a bakery for about 15 years. I would watch her get up and work 12 hours a day every day for most of her life, only to get by. My mom gave her life to her business, but I'm not fully sure if it fulfilled her. I know it drained her a lot of the time, emotionally and financially. I've always admired business owners like rockstars, and now that I've had the opportunity to run successful businesses of my own, I want to give this recipe and help foster the dream of successful entrepreneurship to women around the globe. Kindly describe how you will specifically know what success looks like for you. Success looks like waking up and loving what you do. Myself and my entire team work so hard, I just said the other day, "I'm exhausted... Can you imagine if we didn't enjoy what we did for a living?" Success, to me, is about being happy in life. I love my family, I love my job, and I go to bed knowing that tomorrow is going to be a good day. What are your future plans to sustain Foxy Box Wax Bar success? “To continue hiring awesome talent.” We are in huge growth mode right now so it's exciting planning for the future and the next hires. We've got 10 stores open with 2 more under construction and the team that I have are all geniuses in their own way that bring an inspirational and critical cog to this mechanism to keep it moving forward and support the infrastructure. | 37 | APRIL 2022 www.successpitchers.com
NAME- Louise Hampton DESIGNATION- Chiropractor COMPANY NAME- Attend2health COMPANY URL- attend2health.co.uk
The 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022 Louise Hampton Patient-Centric is the key for sustainable health Institutions! A lmost every individual residing in the globe tends to liken their emotions to the mutant nature of weather. They view these circumstances as an uncontrollable factor. This analysis not only reflects to us that emotions are controllable but they also possess a strong power to take the reins of our daily emotions and steer ourselves toward building a foundation of better and nurtured physical health. The constant evolvement of encountering and formation of connections that an individual experience with any other similar human being then emerges as a tiny engine that drives the upward spiral between positivity and health. Louise Hampton who is the owner and chiropractor of Attend2Health is on a mission to empower the health industry on a larger scale. She is endeared to provide limitless assistance to every individual through her venture as her strong belief. She believes that everyone is different and not one form of treatment could be sustainable to any. Thus, she ensures to serve different variants of medical assistance under the same umbrella as it is easier to cross-refer and it also assists her to march a step closer towards her vision. night. Upon seeking the boulders that have been as scary as this experience, Louise states that Attend2Health has just expanded into a new premise, bewildering as it seems is as scary as it is lived. In the instance of pandemic wherein the country has been into a lockdown period for an indefinite period of time, it is certainly a pointer to worry about the overhead costs that are knocking the nightmares. However, with the vision of being patient-centric, Louise is embracing the experience of wherewithal. At Attend2health, there are 4 chiropractors, 3 osteopaths, 4 massage therapists, 2 podiatrists, 3 physiotherapists at present and Louise is hoping to get an acupuncturist, hypnotherapist, and nutritionist starting soon. Prevention is better than cure: It is often chided to not keep away from individuals who attempt to belittle your emotions. Major small business owners do fall into the trap of demotivating themselves but when they deter, they become a greater version of themselves. Louise states that the core values of her venture are foremost to look after her patients in the best manner possible. She believes that as long as you are investing to make your patients make feel better and comfortable, you tend not to think about your competitors in a stress zone. However, she is also in a state of pessimism that her venture is able to assist the local NHS by recognizing her facility and by addressing all the patient's aches and developing pains in a furious manner so as to prevent them by taking precautions before the evolvement of a chronic or larger variant of concerns. The expression of obeisance: Being an entrepreneur is certainly not a job, it's a contemplating lifestyle that builds the foundation of what you do. You need to sacrifice vacations, going home in the evening after the job is finished as in full-time employment and be that someone who is hitting the send buttons of e- mails before closing their eyelid at the end of the day and you are also the first one to read the e-mails as you wake up, provided you being awake hastily in the middle of the | 41 | APRIL 2022 www.successpitchers.com
The dynamics of expansion: There is nothing that can stop the power of committed and determined individuals to make a difference in society because human beings are the most dynamic link to the divine on this planet. But these committed individuals are certainly inevitable to encounter boulders. So far, it has been a bumpy ride for Louise, she expresses the journey by revisiting her past moments when her children were young and she was very worried about the bills to pay in her personal as well as professional life. On the contrary, over the years of her dedication and commitment, her health care institution has had grown and have had attained a reputable stand. This then allowed her to expand her mission and vision altogether wherein she invested in a much larger expanded premise but again, this came as a boulder for overhead expenses along with the unwelcomed pandemic in the country. Reminiscing about her future roadmaps post the pandemic, Louise is looking forward to being able to come out of lockdown and make proper utilization of her fresh investment in terms of expansion and add variants of fitness classes such as yoga, pilates, tai chi, etc. Attend2Health in 2007. In 2019, she has bagged the Best Business Woman Award in Health and Wellness and also the Zenith Global Health Award. Attaching further to her accolades, she has also written a book on how to help eliminate low back pain. Louise spends 4 days a week at her clinic and invests her rest of the productive time frame on promoting the clinic activities, taking steps towards maintaining her health and safety measures and having an eye on the accounting books. It is often said that if you want to become a successful leader, then you will have to cut the pie yourselves. 40% of the time should be focused on the arena of time management revolving around ethics, character, principles, purpose, motivation, and conduct. Other than that, you need to invest the other 30% of the pie in managing the segments of authority that are lingering over you, the other 15% shall always be dived in to manage your peers who are working endlessly with you to step towards your mission and vision without minimalistic error for failure. In her last pearl of wisdom, Louise chalks out her blueprint to us by sharing her future vision that over the years, she is planning to expand the offerings on offer and adding 6 treatment rooms where she is marching ahead more towards being a patient-centric institution. The worth of every day: How to sail and reach soundly towards the island without dying is more important than reaching the island at all. Louise has had graduated from her university in 2004 after pursuing her academic pursuit in Chiropractor and associated herself in a partnership firm in Birmingham before moving back to Hertfordshire and setting up | 42 | APRIL 2022 www.successpitchers.com
The 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022 Michelle Drolet Protecting Businesses from Cyber Attacks Since 1999 ichelle Drolet Founder & CEO of M cybersecurity service and solution provider in the industry. She shares her journey with inspiring insights. Towerwall , The company grew well and was taken over by a public company. Michelle stayed with the new company but grew disenchanted by the direction, so took a leap of faith and decided to buy back the company and relaunched it as 'Towerwall'. She adds, “That was my proudest moment in business. For 25 years I've worked closely with many SMBs, mid-market, and enterprise companies providing highly specialized cybersecurity technology and services.” Inc. has led her company to great heights with passion and excellence. Towerwall is a leading Taking a Leap of Faith Michelle was an army brat and like most military families, her family too was always on the move. Although born in Ohio she has lived in 13 states and changed several schools. This made her more outgoing and more adaptable to change. Market Leader within the IT Cybersecurity Industry – Towerwall Michelle has a wealth of knowledge and 25 years of network and cybersecurity experience. She has leveraged that knowledge and experience to make Towerwall the industry's leading cybersecurity preparedness partner. “We are highly focused and specialized in protecting our client's critical assets. We take great pride in being our client's trusted security partner in addressing the daily challenges they face in securing key data as well as keeping them abreast of the evolving legal and regulatory requirements. We build security user awareness programs that take their employees from 'weakest link' to 'strongest asset', which is a winning combination,” she states. She pursued a degree in Political Science and Criminal Justice. Although she dreamt of being in the FBI she did end up protecting people from the 'bad guys' — identity fraud, targeted cyber-attacks, social engineering (phishing) and ransomware scams. By 1993 she was running the US operation of CDG Technologies, growing the IT consulting and VAR business exponentially. She is grateful to a gentleman called Nizar Huddani, who realized her potential and mentored her for years. She states, “He saw something in me that I didn't see in myself at that time. Nizar mentored and guided me for a number of years and then asked me to run the US Operations for his IT consulting business. It was his leadership coupled with my faith that enabled me to successfully grow the business.” According to Michelle “Security is not a destination, but a journey,” she adds, “Keeping up with the growing list of regulatory mandates and upcoming data privacy laws can be challenging. A great example is of a client who came to us to help answer a seemingly simple governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) security questionnaire from one of their | 44 | APRIL 2022 www.successpitchers.com
NAME- Michelle Drolet DESIGNATION- Founder & CEO COMPANY NAME- Towerwall COMPANY URL- towerwall.com
customers. In doing so we discovered they needed an entire information security infrastructure to protect not only their own intellectual property but their customers as well. The big challenge was getting a plan in place in a very short time span to ensure they could continue doing business.” She is focused on the core mission of the organization and being highly service-oriented in solving customer needs. She states, “You can't take your eye off the ball when it comes to cybersecurity, helping our customers select the right technology for their environment and fully deployed is one of our goals. As I said before, 'programatize' everything and make it repeatable.” Making A Difference 'Programatize’ Meg Whitman said, “Do what you love and success will follow” and Michelle loves what she does and has climbed the ladder of success. She has received many awards and recognitions throughout her professional career but she is extremely proud of founding the annual Information Security Summit hosted by Mass Bay Community College, which is now in its 9th year. Michelle truly believes in giving back to the community. She is very passionate about community service and has received citations from the former State Senators, Karen Spilka and David Magnani for her social welfare work. She has received a Cyber Citizenship award twice for community advocacy. She is also involved with the School-to-Career program, the Women's Independent Network, Young Women and Minorities in Science and Technology, and Athena, a girl's mentorship program. 'Programatize' is a word coined by Michelle. It stands for the repeatable process she has created to help their customers from fire-fighting. It's a process that integrates People (user awareness), Process (policies/procedures), and Technology (MDR: Managed Detection, Response). She has found this to be a best practice to protect companies and best battle the bad guys. She and her team spend countless hours educating the various levels of an organization including the Board and C-level so they can best understand the threat landscape and how best to protect not only their company but their customers' data as well. Commitmentis an Act, not a Word As a business, it is important to listen to customers and improve customers' experience. Understanding their needs and providing effective solutions is the key and Michelle is determined to provide only the best by working closely with their customers. To help protect companies and fuel their growth, customers are seeking Towerwall's Virtual Chief Information Security Officers or vCISO. These professional virtual roles work onsite providing a great balance and full-time protection at a fraction of the full- time employee cost. “We call it our 5th Wall of Information Security,” she adds. Message to Aspiring Leaders For aspiring leaders, her message is simple: Focus, determination, and compassion. She says, “We all face challenges in our personal and business life, but the ability to persevere is the difference between success and failure. Particularly in business, it's being highly focused on solving your customer's needs. Information Security is what we do so our entire team is focused on just that.They are highly experienced and versed in the key challenges that the CIO, CISO, ISO, and DPO face.Our company often competes and wins against the “big guys” because our team has a 'run through the wall' attitude when we are maturing our customers' security programs.” Although the Company continues to evolve by expanding their capabilities and team growth, they have never lost focus nor wavered on their commitment to their customers. | 46 | APRIL 2022 www.successpitchers.com
Nicola Filzmoser Co-Founder & CPO Happyr Health happyrhealth.com