New Year, New You!

We’ve all made promises, said the words, and probably even wrote down our resolutions for a new year telling ourselves that 2011 was going to be THE year for change!! ….But was it? It is important to set goals and actively monitor them to keep yourself on track but if you’ve found that your method isn’t providing results don’t give up, try another approach!

Recalling POP (Place of Possibility), an event hosted by YWiB in 2011, we wanted to share our insights collected over the year from some highly motivated goal setters to ensure 2012 is YOUR best year yet!!

Consider your goals, in detail, and then put them down on paper or if a goal of yours is to save paper, type them into an electronic document.

When setting your goals be SPECIFIC! If one of your personal goals is to save more money make note of HOW you plan to save that money. Ask yourself: Where will the saved funds come from? What will I cut out of my life to create this excess cash? And, how am I going to monitor my savings? For example, “By June 10, 2012 I plan to have saved $2,500 in a building block GIC account. I’ll save this money by dining out once a week and buying coffee once a week instead of daily.”

And if your goal is to be more physically active ask yourself in what ways do you want to be more active. “I plan to run the 10K Vancouver Sun Run on April 15th in less than 50 minutes.” OR “Not only will I set aside 3-4 hours a week to commit to my gym membership this year but I am going to register for spin classes twice a week to keep me on track.”

Consider goals that may seem “out of reach”. A goal wouldn’t be worth setting if you didn’t have to work hard to achieve it. Keeping that in mind, push yourself by setting goals that are barely attainable so that you are challenging yourself!

Focus on timelines. Setting short-term (0-6 months or even 1 year) goals are critical to ensuring long-term (1 – 5+ years) goal achievement. Because you are setting specific goals for yourself deadline dates shouldn’t be a surprise. “I will host my first art showing on July 15, 2011.” OR “I will participate in my first competitive half-marathon in August 2012 and full marathon by October 30th, 2012.” (Of course if you are a runner it would be best to choose specific races you wish to qualify for.)

Categorize your goals. “Personal/Health”, “Professional”, “Financial”, etc. This will help you to remain organized as well as focused on your objectives.

Add to your goals throughout the year. Goal setting shouldn’t be an annual thing you make yourself do, make it part of your routine. Keep a journal or agenda that is specific to your goals and put it somewhere that will remind you of them regularly.

Forget fear and don’t let failures get in your way! The most successful people in the world have ALL failed it’s no secret. The secret is that their failures taught them wonderful lessons and those lessons encouraged them to continue striving for their dreams. For those times when you feel like you’ve failed at something read this blog post. Bookmark it, it’s worth it!

Find a format that works for you and use it. There are a lot of goal-setting structures (and Apps) out there so find your favorite and use it. I have yet to find a great App for me but I like to write my goals down. If you find a good one please share it with me but until then, Lululemon Athletica is the creator of my personal favorite, I love the colours!

Final tip, accountability is key! Consider someone you can appoint to hold you accountable to your goals. A friend? A partner? A parent? Find someone you trust and can be honest with. It may be easiest to find someone who’s willing to make the same commitment to goal setting so you can support one another. We’ll call it “Goal Setting Anonymous”.

So if you only make one New Years Resolution this January make the best resolution for you, SET GOALS IN 2012!! “If you want something, go get it. Period.” Good luck and feel free to share some of those goals with us via @ywib.

And if all this hasn’t convinced you to stop making excuses – check out Matt Scott’s “No Excuses” Commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obdd31Q9PqA

 

Happy Holidays from the Ladies at YWiB!!

We wanted to take a moment to touch base with everyone who has taken the time to connect with us throughout 2011. Your support has been the most significant aspect of our year and we’d like to thank you for making it one of the most exciting and challenging years at YWiB! We look forward to more events, speaker series and conferences to come in 2012! Also, we wanted to take the time to encourage you to remember to connect with your network this holiday season. Sending a holiday greeting can go a long way. The holiday season is an excellent opportunity to lay the groundwork for your networking circle in 2012! The best part is that it’s quick, inexpensive and easy to do, you’ll also feel like you’re giving a little extra in the well-wishes department this year. Like any great networker will tell you, be selfless. It’s not what that connection can do for you but what you can do for them so reach out to remind them you’re thinking about them during the busiest time of the year (if you’re in accounting, the second busiest time of the year). Never underestimate the power of a simple “Happy Holidays & All the Best in 2012!”, we promise it will go a long way.

Alternative methods to keep you connected this time of year could be e-cards, paper cards, a small token of appreciation (everyone loves chocolate) or even if you have zero time, a short and sweet “Merry Christmakkah” email. It’s not the size of the message but the thought of the message itself that will go a long way in solidifying that professional relationship and leave you fresh in their mind all season long. Not to mention they’ll know you are a networking pro for reaching out to them before they had a chance to reach out to you.

So, from the bottom of our YWiB-y hearts….

~ Wishing You Happiest of Holidays & the Greatest Success in the Year to Come!!

YWiB's Miss Representation screening featured in National Post & Huffington Post!

Jane Macdougall, National Post, attended YWiB's screening of Miss Representation and shared:

The Vancouver organization Young Women In Business hosted Monday’s screening. They’re the ones on the battlefield right now and they get it. Miss Representation asks, “How can you become what you cannot see?” and it dawned on me: It’s hard to see past the cookie aisle these days.

For more, visit the full article here.

Amy Chan, Huffington Post, joined YWiB as a panelist for Miss Representation. Visit the story and experiences she shared here.

Miss Representation: The Issues

Post by ywib marketing team member - @MeganRendell Think about it…. Women make up a mere:

  • 3% of clout positions in the mainstream media,
  • 3% of Fortune 500 CEO’s,
  • 7% of mainstream film directors,
  • 16% of film protagonists,
  • Canadian women earn $0.72 or every $1 a man earns

yet our gender is representative of 51% of the population.

On Monday December 5th, YWiB, in collaboration with NetworkinginVan.com, Vancouver YWCA, and PeaceGeeks, hosted a screening of the powerful documentary “Miss Representation” written, directed and produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom.  This 90-min documentary unveils the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in North America as well as the limited portrayal of women and girls in mainstream media.

Along with the documentary screening, a panel of speakers were assembled to facilitate an interactive conversation regarding the probable causes of this misrepresentation of women in leadership positions. Moderated by Janet Austin, CEO @YWCAVAN, the panel consisted of 4 distinguished Vancouverites: Pamela Martin, former CTV News anchor and current Director of Outreach in the Premier’s Office @Pamelamartin_bc; Amy Chan, columnist for 24 Hours Newspaper and The Huffington Post @amyfabulous; our male Kirk LaPointe, Ombudsman at CBC, themediamanager.com and UBC School of Journalism adjunct professor @kirklapointe; and Carolyn Jacks, National Vice-Chair of Equal Voice and journalist.

The dialogue of the evening began with some Canadian statistics that offered contrast to the American data supplied by the film. The documentary stated that on average women in the US earn salaries equal to $0.77 on the dollar in comparison to the same positions held by a man. In comparison, Canadian women are earning less at a mere $0.72 on the dollar. Progressively, Canada shows some promise with regard to female political leaders when stacked up against our US counterparts with Canadian women comprising 25% of MPs, 23% of municipal councilors and 33% of MLAs. Considering women represent roughly 51% of the population of our country relatively, these numbers are still low.

Following introductions, the panel was faced with a variety of topics which included the effect media has had on the participation of women engaging in politics professionally, the extent to which the media can be held responsible for the (sexualized) portrayals of women and what we, as a whole society can do individually to support young people in general with overcoming these challenges.

Topic # 1: The under-representation of women, young women, in Canadian Politics

Diving into the topic Kirk LaPointe shared that his belief is that the largest deterrent for women is the job itself as ”it’s grueling and not truly fit for anyone.” Pamela Martin agreed and shared that although she’s covered politics the past 30 years she never realized how long and trying it is to be in the public eye calling it a true “blood-sport”. Understandably, she went on its easy to see why many women, or anyone, decide they do not need or want that type of attention. “It’s more than a 10-hour day, every single day, 7 days a week. That’s true if you are the premier or if you are an MLA.” Carolyn Jacks weighed in pointing towards the 3-stage process of getting elected as the largest deterrent for anyone.  Step 1: Individual nominates themselves to run; Step 2: Party has to elect her/him to run for them; Step 3: Public votes for their representative.  Equal Voice finds that Canadians are not particularly bias to whether they elect a male or female, it’s the party that doesn’t tend to nominate women in “winnable-ridings.”  She also suggested that the confrontational way politics is discussed needs to change and can help the popularity of the profession as a whole.

Probable solutions to these issues, Martin suggests that services such as childcare assistance for families involved in politics would help well-balanced people get involved. “After all isn’t that who we want to be leading us, well balanced human beings who are in touch with what people’s lives are like?”

Topic #2: The role the media plays in the demoralization of females and discouraging women to become leaders

Kirk quickly argued that media cannot fully be held accountable, even though he agrees that they are a large contributor; “everyone must accept that we are individually responsible.” He elaborated, “We are in this era of abundance where conventional media no longer controls their ability to sell an audience to an advertiser. The advertising business model is beginning to shake pretty badly and until new models emerge to somewhat salvage some of this there will be a race to the bottom in order to secure a rather temporary, transient audience that will fill the bucket today financially.” Agreeing with Kirk, Pamela brought up the fragmentation of the media market as another source of the elevated exploitation of women and celebrity.  “I think it’s forced all the media to veer away from the things we used to have on television, including really great journalism…the media in general is pushed to an extreme to try to win audience share… To me that is why the sexualization has gotten so extreme as well as the violence.”

A better understanding of society’s infatuation with celebrity could lead to solutions of this issue as Kirk explained.  “Every piece of research I’ve seen inside media demonstrates no matter how old you are, how much education, income, or gender, you are fascinated with celebrity culture. It’s important to understand that and not belittle it. What we need is a better treatment of celebrity culture so that we can understand how it illustrates human condition in some respect or how it can be used to mobilize politically and socially in society.” It’s not a matter of shutting off the TV but about supporting the channels that “tell the stories you want hear and reinforcing that. Advertisers will in turn respond if you begin to vote with your feet and your remote.” ‘Amy Fabulous’ (Chan) weighed in saying that if we “wait for media to change its going to take a very long time but if we change the lens in which we absorb and see the media, thus understanding what creates self-worth and women’s empowerment, the way that we see and absorb media will be different.”

On this note Kirk expressed the importance of (social) media to be used correctly to “bring forward the best of the shift in society.” He also discussed that he has always felt that music leads the world to change and highlighted the fact that this past year women have been well represented on the top charts creating some of the most inspirational music. Naming specifically Adele, Kelly Clarkson and Florence Welch as excellent role models. “I see great hope in that women, young women in particular, are seeing themselves in the spotlight.”

Reflecting on local media coverage Kirk expressed a serious concern he has, “there is one huge hiccup I cannot understand and I ran a newsroom for a long time...I do not understand how it is that we’ve staged an Olympics in this city yet we do not have women in the sports section of our paper or on television.” On this note, Janet Austin explained that she had read a report written by the American Psychological Association, regarding the increased trend to sexualize female athletes and after reading it went to review a newsstand. She “found 5 sport magazines; 4 of them were of men who were actively engaging in sport and 1 of them was a woman who was wearing a bikini and just passively standing there.” Up until this point she had never thought too much of this and was surprised at how desensitized to this she had become.

Following the panel discussion was a Q & A session that raised questions regarding the ability to frame a society of men and women working together to create a gender equal society, how to best engage men in this dialogue and how to find positive male role models that are capable of leading by example.

Carolyn immediately pointed out that men are engaged and discussed employers who’ve developed programs that have specifically focused on increasing women’s roles in decision-making capacities in newsroom. These programs were developed by her male leaders. “Men need to recognize the privileged position from which they can speak and that if they don’t take that humbly, then they’re missing a real opportunity,” Kirk urged. He went on to point out that although the hostility is wearing down in newsrooms, he wouldn’t necessarily vouch for corporate offices.  Adding to both points, Pamela mention that although today “local news is largely represented by women, one of the reasons is that women are generally willing to be paid less money, therefore, less men are seeking local television jobs.”

The final question of the evening came from a young man seeking guidance to find better role models in today’s society. He stated that it’s hard to find “strong male role models that are sensitive to gender issues and can discuss these issues in a social context in a way that is cool or comfortable with other men.” The panelists didn’t immediately have an answer to this but after a few short moments, Pamela suggested that they are out there. When you come across these men in today's society hold tightly to that relationship she urged.  Look to your peers, co-workers, and family and start this conversation. We all have the ability to stimulate change if we so choose.

For more information about the documentary “Miss Representation” please visit  http://missrepresentation.org/ and check back for information regarding additional screenings brought to you by YWiB in the new year. In the meantime, start the conversation.

20 influential female leaders + 20 emerging young women = 40 inspired women

Guest post by Jocelyn Ling “Stories set the inner life into motion, and this is particularly important where the inner life is frightened, wedged, or cornered. Story greases the hoists and pulleys, it causes adrenaline to surge, shows us the way out, down, or up, and for our trouble, cuts for us fine wide doors in previously blank walls, openings that lead to the dreamland, that lead to love and learning, that lead us back to our own real lives as knowing wildish women.”

—Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Stories are how people make sense of their worlds. As a child, we spontaneously play out stories on who we hope to become and how people relate to one another. As teenagers, we continuously explore our own stories and others in order to understand our ever-expanding world. As adults, the stories that we tell and fall in love with are the ones we value most in this world. In a very real sense, stories are a window into how we perceive the world around us and ultimately, influences our humanity.

It is through the power of stories that Young Women in Business (YWiB) brought together 20 influential women leaders and 20 upcoming young women for an evening of shared values, fears and hopes in Vancouver, Canada this past weekend.

The 40 women came from a myriad of backgrounds: high profile Canadian politicians. Mothers. Partners of legal and financial firms. Trail-blazers. Successful social entrepreneurs. Aspiring young professionals. And above all, lifelong learners. The vision for the evening was to connect those who have paved the opportunities facing young women today, with those who have the eagerness to make a difference in their communities.

Questions posed to the both generational ends of the conversation included:

  • What has been one of your most vulnerable moments?
  • What do you not like being stereotyped as?
  • In one sentence, what would you wish most for your future self?
  • What do you look for in a business partner? how about a personal relationship?
  • What are components of a healthy relationship? (business, mentorship, romantic relationship)
  • What will be different in your life in exactly 1 year?

As the night started, each women shared genuinely her story and how she got to where she is. Several key trends and themes emerged:

1) On work and leading a balanced life

“Our (older) generation overdid it. We overcompensated for our weaknesses and gender when we should have been owning it. We pounded away and sacrificed too many things. Please be smart on how you work.”

“Work with people who have a value base.”

“Your why is more important than your fear. Women have to think bigger and take more risks.”

2) On health

“Watching someone die is one of the best and worst things in life. It puts everything into perspective. Being alive and healthy is a privilege. Cherish it while you can.”

“ Do not ever ever give up on a balanced life.”

3) On inter-generational sharing and mentoring

“My whole life has been spent being spotted and mentored by other intelligent men and women. It’s not being a man or a woman, it’s about being presentable, intelligent and knowing what you’re talking about.”

“Decisions that are complemented by men AND women are better. Include men in conversations and remember to make sure your that voice is heard.”

As attendees left for the night, each walked out a little more courageous, a little more humbled and a little more inspired by the stories that were shared over last the previous two hours. The salon was particularly a beautiful reminder on the strength of inter-generational relationships. When we start sharing from a place that is vulnerable, we start to see each generation’s defining moments – making us listen closely to people around us and more importantly, to ourselves.

 

-- originally posted at Levo League

announcing... My {YWiB} Idea

You must be wondering where we’ve been lately. No noise from YWiB in the last few months almost at all! We’re still here, just on an extended pow-wow session if you will. You see, we’re constantly asking ourselves “how can we make this better for our members?” and “how can we achieve our goal of creating a platform for young women to connect, share and access resources, grow, meet people, inspire, and get inspired?”

We’ve been researching. We’ve been brainstorming. But most importantly, we’ve been listening.

To take you to where we’re going, we have to remind you of where we’ve been…

We started as a conference of 250 diverse women from all walks of life sharing stories and getting inspired. Beyond Pink is now a prestigious annual conference attracting 200+ women and men from across the lower mainland for a weekend of personal and professional development.

We branched out to reach an even younger demographic of women who were yearning for a place to grow and for mentors to look up to. Our University Chapters have expanded from UBC up to SFU and most recently over to UVic – with interest from schools across the nation coming in each day.

From small scale conversations to larger scale legacy events like our panel sessions, we’re constantly experimenting, innovating and adapting as we get closer and closer to understanding how we can best serve you, our members.

So what have we learned? We’ve learned that what you want is an opportunity to contribute. Women are innately giving and the best way we know how to grow and challenge ourselves is to give of our time, energy and talent. And to work with other women who push our boundaries on each of these levels.

This is why YWiB is excited to introduce our new program – a way for you to get involved and contribute in a way we’ve never offered before: My Idea.

We're so excited about this new program that we created a video just for you! Enjoy the video below and then follow this link for detailed information. We can't wait to hear your ideas!!

http://vimeo.com/33088776