Our friend Amy Nelson wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post about her experience with the “maternal wall,” the barrier that both openly and subtly discriminates against mothers in the workplace. Amy points out that women are 15% less likely than men to be promoted– and a mother is even less likely to be promoted as a childless woman.
“We sent women to work in this country decades ago as we embraced feminism. History pretends that we invited them to the table. But actually, we let them into the room without giving them a seat, let alone a chance to sit down. This tightrope walk is nearly impossible: Forty-three percent of highly trained professional women with children leave the workforce at some point in their careers. The system is broken, and we know it. Yet we do nothing. Instead, we celebrate the woman who can juggle a career and children with grace, as if this is some sort of achievement. It shouldn’t have to be.”
Congrats Amy for writing so honestly about your experiences and we encourage our members tell us about when they hit the “maternal wall.” It’s something we all know about and the reason why many of our members join The Second Shift.
You can’t argue with facts: a new study in Harvard Business Review this week shows a direct correlation between women’s participation in the workforce with an increase in wages for women and men!
“However, the female labor force participation rate in the U.S. has been stagnating since 2000. It peaked in 1999 at 60%, but has since declined to about 57%…. This suggests that women’s attitudes about work are changing, perhaps as women in the U.S. find it increasingly difficult to balance both work and family. Paid parental leave policies, affordable child care policies, and more flexible work schedules may help more women stay in the labor force during and after their childbearing years.”
How do companies access top female talent and thereby increase profits? The Second Shift! Our members are executive level professionals available on-demand for project-based/ part-time/ consultative work. #makeworkworkforyou #ondemandtalent #thesecondshift
Employee engagement is necessary for today’s workplace environment to keep personnel happy, motivated, and in turn, delight clients. However, staff commitment is declining worldwide – less than one-quarter of employees are highly engaged and 39% are moderately engaged, according to a study featured in Forbes. Even considering these statistics, what if there is a way to employ a continuously focused and motivated team who needs little to no engagement?
Enter the always-engaged freelancer: a skilled and experienced professional who makes their living based on how hard they work, so when they’re burning the midnight oil, they’re making it count. These members of the “gig economy” are laser-focused when it comes to creating, crafting, strategizing, or developing deliverables.
Many freelancers exit the corporate 9 – 5 world to find a working solution that better fits their needs, often craving more creative projects, requiring flexibility in their schedule, or following an entrepreneurial spirit, to name a few. They’ve already developed a workday they find fulfilling, so their customers are not responsible for helping them to feel engaged.
Additionally, freelancers are often hungrier than a full-time employee and tend to spend more than 40 hours per week working, sometimes early in the morning, late at night, or on the weekends – whatever it takes to get the job done. Their schedule is more fluid because they are committed to producing excellent work when their creative juices are flowing. Plus, they’re always hustling to earn repeat business and referrals, so naturally, their work reflects that drive.
Think of freelancers as extended members of your team. They can fill a skillset gap, provide niche expertise, and bring fresh ideas to the group. So, for your next project, consider partnering with a talented member of The Second Shift to get the job done. You can work with a skilled professional without having to provide the perfect cultural fit or engagement-boosting programs to keep this member of the gig economy dedicated. So get to work– hire a Second Shift member today!
God Save the Queen! Medieval Times restaurant has re-written its script and cast a queen in the main role for the first time in the restaurant chain’s 35 year history. The Queen must fight off male throne usurpers to keep hold of her rightful place in on the thone. If only the present times were as progressive…. Read the article here:
Second Shift member and LinkedIn Reboot expert Katie Fogarty has tips for landing jobs and a special offer only for our member community.
How to Land Any Job, Open Any Door and If You’re Really Lucky – Work in Italy
Still working on your 2018 career plans? Forget the tsunami of “new year, new you” job hunting tips. Focus on the only step that really matters – have an awesome answer to the question – why you?
As Second Shift members, you have the skills, the experience, the smarts to be a game changer for a who’s who of companies and organizations. But the key to bridging the chasm between your amazing self and an open job position is the ability to convey a killer personal brand.
I know. I know. “Personal brand.” Eye roll. But stick with me.
Everyone has a personal brand. It’s what you are known for – your reputation. But is your brand strong enough to get you noticed? Powerful personal brands share brand value — what you offer to others. Take Martha Stewart. Martha’s brand is clear – she’s a domestic goddess who can bake a cake, arrange flowers, decorate a home and throw a wedding better than anyone. But her brand value? She offers a better domestic life to the rest of us as well. “Be like Martha” – and you too can have a happier, cozier, more gracious home life.
People with strong brands are memorable, persuasive and compelling because they go beyond simply communicating what they do – they clearly share the value they offer to others. We know Martha, not because she inhabits her own perfect sphere, but because she can improve our own domestic life.
So how does this translate to work?
To walk into a job interview, create a strong LinkedIn profile, effectively woo clients, develop a larger network, and grow your professional influence – you must have a clear idea of what you do AND the value you offer to others, and you need to communicate that value clearly, cogently, powerfully.
Put your audience first, connect the dots between your value and their needs, and – boom! – you catapult success at work, job hunting, and answering that horrible cocktail party question, “So, what do you do?”
I learned how important it is to own your personal brand the hard way.
My 20-year career is in communications. I wrote the morning news in New York City. I ran campaigns for big brands at global and boutique PR firms. I even have a Masters in Journalism – hello credentials! – but it wasn’t until I bombed sharing my “elevator pitch” at a work dinner that I decided to get serious about nailing down my own professional story.
And here it is: “I help clients create powerful professional identities.”
Seven simple words that have opened more doors than I can walk through. Including a work trip to Italy (more on that in a minute.)
Begin to take ownership of your personal brand messaging today with these easy steps:
Power Your LinkedIn Headline: Go beyond your job title. Think of your headline as your “elevator pitch” – a chance to hook a viewer, share what you do, the value you offer, and entice the viewer to “click” open your profile.
Practice Your Pitch: Create a pitch that leaves your audience wanting more. Hone your professional story to no more than four simple sentences. Skip the jargon. And practice saying it out loud. A lot. Record yourself with your phone until you look and feel comfortable.
Poll Your People: Suss out your brand value by asking those who know you best. Poll former colleagues, industry peers, clients, friends and family for their perspective on your professional value. Then fold their feedback into your messaging.
Your professional story is your currency. And when yours shines a light on all you offer, it can take you amazing places. Like Italy.
A former client, and now friend, Michelle DiBenedetto Capobianco, recently approached me about collaborating on a travel experience for women wanting more than a vacation. Michelle is a former corporate lawyer turned private chef in New York, and she also leads small group tours of Italy through her company Majella Home Cooking & Abruzzo Tours. She is the epitome of The Second Shift mantra – “make work work for you.” I think I said yes before she could even finish her sentence. Hello gelato!
Interested in coming with us? We are offering Second Shift members a $300 discount off the program rate if you book by February 15th with the promo code SECOND SHIFT FRIENDS.
But whether or not you work on your professional story in Italy or New York, make 2018 the year you nail your personal brand – and see how far it takes you.
Katie Fogarty joined The Second Shift when it launched. She runs Reboot, a personal branding and career consultancy. Her client roster includes executives from: American Express, Condé Nast, FleishmanHillard, Fox News, Morgan Stanley, NBC Universal, Oath, Turner, and numerous private equity, law & fashion firms, and start-ups.Learn more at www.katiefogartyreboot.com.
We are still riding high from the 2nd annual Women’s March this past Saturday. Last year the Second Shift team chartered a bus to bring a group to march on DC and it was an amazing moment of peaceful protest and unity. This year we stayed closer to home but it was just as energizing and cathartic to see thousands of women and their allies coming together to change the present and the future. Bringing our own children to march alongside us was especially moving as we teach the importance of raising your voices and showing up to protest injustice and demand equality. We are going to use this energy boost to make 2018 a year of strength, change, growth and empowerment.
In 2017 Amy Nelson was a successful corporate attorney when she decided to change career course and open The Riveter, a women-focused co-working space; she was also pregnant with her third child. Amy now has two locations, has given birth, and is in the middle of raising money to open her third location. When Gina and I met with Amy last month she showed up to our coffee fresh from a meeting with a venture capital firm and toting her breast pump—she is clearly a woman who is defying the image of what a start-up founder “looks like.”
In fact, instead of family and pregnancy being a hindrance, Amy says it’s been a blessing:
“I had a few advisors tell me that I should “hide” my pregnancy because it would be difficult to raise capital. I opted for a wholly different approach. The Riveter is built to change the landscape for women business owners and freelancers. If we want to make real change, we have to lead the way. I told every potential investor that I was expecting, and also explained how my experience as a mother has made me a much better CEO. “
A recent story in Harvard Business Review focused on women like Amy who are breaking the mold of traditional start-up entrepreneurship and creating businesses in their likenesses. The truth is that not all start-ups start in a garage and not all start-up founders are young men in hoodies working 30 hours a day. This concept mirrors what Gina and I built with The Second Shift–we created the business we wished existed for ourselves and we practice what we preach: flexibility, personal responsibility, empowerment through work.
In fact, women entrepreneurs are successfully building companies that incorporate principles often cited as the core reasons women leave the full-time workforce: work/life balance, paid maternity leave, wage imbalance. The HBR story makes the connection that in some ways working for a start-up is easier for young families, “the startup life can be even more amenable to raising young children than can life at a large corporation, with its more rigid rules and long-established culture.”
As Amy says, “I wanted to build The Riveter, but at the same time my husband and I wanted to grow our family. We decided that if we put the right village in place, we could make it happen.” Gina and I can definitely attest to that—starting our own business, fundraising, traveling while raising children is not easy and some weeks are a planning and logistical nightmare, but it is a thrilling ride and with good help, patience, late nights, and lots of coffee we’ve learned how to build in bandwidth to be good parents and good leaders.
Breaking a mold, disrupting the disrupters—that is what women who found and grow start-ups are doing. It’s why it is so important for women to stay engaged in the workforce and support each other and why The Second Shift is the tool to do so!
Take it from Oprah…she knows all. What a moment for women claiming power and calling out abuse and disparity. Oprah’s Golden Globe speech had us weeping bittersweet tears of joy, sadness, and hope. From Hoda Kotb and Christiane Amanpour in media to Tina Smith in politics, women are replacing the men ousted from their jobs because of sexual misconduct allegations. A recent story in Time magazine highlights the way this is swift justice and should not be perceived as companies trying to save face.
“But it’s a mistake to think of this as a revolution, or even as women pulling off a bloodless coup against the patriarchy–and not just because those rarely end well. These now disgraced men are not being replaced by women as an act of revenge, but because the women are the best candidates for the job. It’s promotion of the fittest. It’s evolution.”
2018 is already starting out strong for women and we are proud to be part of the conversation and a tool to empower women through work. Keep at it ladies– this is gonna be a good year!
She’s worked for entertainment giants, MTV and HBO, and the digital customer experience leader, MCD, but today Jeri Ziegler is successfully calling her own shots. Read on to learn how she partnered with the Second Shift to establish a flexible and fulfilling career.
You transitioned from a full-time executive at an advertising agency to a full-time consultant. Tell me about that journey.
Jeri: I started my career as an in-house marketer at HBO and them moved on to MTV. After several years, I jumped over to the agency side where I focused on strategy and had the opportunity to work with a greater variety of clients. I loved what I was doing, but I made the decision to leave the corporate world during my first maternity leave. I wanted the ability to work in a more flexible way, and as a new mom, I was looking to have better control of my time.
It was a little scary, but just knowing that the Second Shift existed gave me the confidence to take the leap. Having access to a resource that could help me find work that was interesting and challenging took the hard work out of getting started and made me believe that it was possible to work this way.
What’s the benefit of working the way you currently work?
Jeri: First and foremost is the flexibility. I work full time and I still work as many hours in a week as I did before, but I do it more on my own schedule now. I enjoy getting to spend a little extra time with my kids in the morning and then putting in a few extra hours after I put them to sleep.
I also love the range of work I’m doing. I really like being exposed to different industries and challenges, as it helps me grow. With each project I take on, 95 percent of the work is stuff I know really well, and 5 percent of it is something new. It’s great to be continually learning.
In your opinion, what makes a good client?
Jeri: I’ve found that the best clients know what they want and need, but are open to working collaboratively to adjust that and develop solutions together.
What type of interesting projects have you landed via the Second Shift?
Jeri: I’ve been a member of the Second Shift for close to three years, and I’ve taken on a variety of projects during that time. I’ve served as a temporary in-house marketing resource, I’ve developed case studies and other content for clients, and I’m currently engaged in a large-scale marketing and branding initiative. The range of work has been really awesome.
What excites you most about being a member of this community?
Jeri: The Second Shift really curates opportunities. I’m excited when I get an email with a potential match from them, because I know that the work will be interesting and challenging. The Second Shift does a lot of the heavy lifting by bringing only really good opportunities forward, and I appreciate that.
What advice do you have for members just starting out?
Jeri: Be a bit patient! One month, I may not get many matches and the next I will get 20. The opportunities are there and they will come. When they do and it it’s time to pitch, which can feel intimidating at first, my advice is to just be really honest about who you are and why you are interested in the role. From there, take the time to figure out if the fit is right. And remember, it’s okay to be picky about where you will spend your time.
You have two small children and you work full time. What tips can you share on maximizing time?
Jeri: Time management isn’t something that necessarily comes easy for me, as I’m naturally a very spontaneous person. But, I have found that logging my time down to the half hour is a game changer! I come from a digital world, but I recently switched over to an analog planner where I record what I am doing or what I need to do by the half hour. I log everything in there – including the time I plan to spend with my family and the time I need to dedicate to my work. Without sounding too dramatic, this approach has been life changing! It’s allowed me to fit in a lot more and feel good about how I am spending my time—for example: I’m also writing a science fiction novel – it’s a total departure from my day-to-day reality!
Whether you are new to the Second Shift or a seasoned member of the community,Jeri shares a few key takeaways we can all benefit from:
1) Track your time: Whether you choose a digital or analog approach, plan your time down to the half hour. “It’s a game changer!”
2) Be yourself: When it comes to pitching, “be honest about who you are and why you are interested in the role” and let things evolve from there.
3) Don’t be afraid to be picky: You only have so much time to devote to your business, so choose your engagements wisely. “It’s the luxury of working this way!”
Do you know any all-star professional women like Jeri who should join The Second Shift expert network? Send them our way!
Our Co-Founder Gina published a new story on Thrive Global about how shutting off her computer on the weekends is her work/life balance hack. What’s your life hack? Read it here: https://www.thriveglobal.com/stories/15235-shut-it-down
