Thrive in 25: Transform Your Life and Career at the Ultimate Women's Conference

0:00 The topics and opinions express in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability explicitor implies shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W FOURCY Radio. What's working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their highest potential. Business can be such a force for good in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we all want working on Purpose. Now here's your host, doctor Elise Cortes.

1:04 Welcome back to the Working and Purpose Program, which has been brought to you with passion and pride since February of twenty fifteen. Thanks for turning again this week. Great to have you. I'm your host, doctor Elis Cortes. If we have not met before and you don't know me, I'm an organizational psychologist and logo therapist, speaker and author. My team and I at Gusto and Now help companies enliven and fortify their operations by building a dynamic, high performance culture and inspirational leadership activated by meaning and purpose. You can learn more about us and how we can work together at Gusto dshnew dot com or my personal site at Leiscortes dot com. Getting in today's program we have with us today. Jennifer pstikas an executive with over twenty years of experience in the financial services industry. She is currently the senior vice president of business Development of a Chicago Land financial institution. In addition to her corporate work, Jenna is now leveraging her experience with her personal company, Brave Women at Work. At Brave Women at Work, she offers career and leadership coaching for women. Helps your clients better identify their strengths, what they want, what is holding the back, and how to remove those barriers. So they can take better hold and be braver in action and their careers. She is also part of the team bringing a brand new conference for women to the four called Thrive in twenty five, which we're talking about today. It takes place in June of twenty twenty five, and she judged it today from Chicago, Land. Jennifer, welcome back to Working on Purpose.

2:25 Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, I'm such a fan, as you know. Thank you. Very happy to have you back, A big fan of who you are and what you're doing in the world. Because our listeners and viewers maybe don't know you as well as I do. Let's talk a bit about your background and how it is that you found your way first into financial services that you've been doing for a good twenty years now. Yeah, So it's an interesting journey and I hope it inspires people because I didn't know that I wanted to be in banking or financial services. I actually was a double foreign language major in college, so thought I was going to be a college professor, and then lived overseas for about a year and realized that I wanted to have kind of like a bigger life experience rather than just going into one particular subject. I studied literature, I studied poems, I studied all that kind of stuff in college and was like, no, I want a bigger like scope.

3:19 And so I ended up in business and you know, in banking and did well there. So yeah, that's how it came to be. I understand that whole idea of getting that kind of exposure. And you and I, of course sure our love of languages. I too love languages, so should a romance language. But why is the work in financial services important to you? Why not architecture? Why not? I don't know marketing as well? I do that, Yeah, so I do the marketing, but why financial services? So this one does hit a little bit closer to home and that My father actually passed away from kidney cancer that moved to the bone when I was eighteen years old, and so I saw my family struggle financially. We were solid middle class and my parents both worked two jobs. Even my dad worked two jobs up until he got very ill. So he was diagnosed with cancer when I was twelve, and then he made it six years in quite the hero in his fight against cancer. And then we didn't have enough life insurance for him and so my mom had to kind of like bootstrap and do two jobs even towards the end of her career when she was in her early sixties.

4:29 And so I wanted to make sure that I had enough financial knowledge as a woman that was entering the world and just to like spread that knowledge to other people. And so that's why being in the banking and the financial services sphere is important to me. So important to be able to leverage those life experiences, right, is that's so incredible. I heard a lot of stories like that about what somebody has personally gone through that's helped shape their path forward. So no, Price, I don't think I remember that part of your journey. So thank you for sharing that. I lost my dad and one much later in life, So I really appreciate that that happened for you early. For yourself, that's it's a different road. Well, then on top of all that is, if you aren't busy enough, my friend, you also are doing work with her C suite, and of course, brave women at work tell us a little bit about each of those things, those endeavors.

5:20 So her c suite, the founder and the CEO is Natalie Benamu, and Natalie has been a partner for me with the last three plus years, and I've done coaching with her community and so that's why it is on my LinkedIn profile and speaking and things like that. So we've loved partnering together and so that's how I help her is through that. And then we've also done some side projects together website for entrepreneurs, and we're also going to be working together or are working together on the Thrive and twenty twenty five conference. And I do have to give her a shout out because when I started my podcast and I know that you obviously have deep roots in this area, she introduced me to so many amazing yests and so she's a wonderful connector and I just wanted to thank her again because so many people have asked when I started the podcast, like how are you going to get guests? I'm like, I don't know, It's just going to happen, and so it did.

6:14 Mm hmm. No, Nottalie, she's been on the podcast as well. Of course, I'm happy to be partnering collaborating with her as well for the conference, so yes, also shout out with her for me as well. But speaking of that, we'll get to more of the conference in just a second, but let's first peel back the idea of why you believe in empowering and developing women. Well, so I started, you know, like I said, the banking sphere, but I really started my roots in investment services. And if anyone has roots on the investment services side, you know that it's a predominantly male industry. And so for you know, and I'm throwing out you know, rough statistics here, but you know, for every at least when I started, you know, for every ten advisors, it would be like one to two successful female advice and it was a real boys club, doctor Elise, I'm not going to pull any bud this year. And it was really hard to see a path forward on how I could advance and then moving through my career. And there there, this is public knowledge. It's in some of the Brave Women at Work women's anthologies that I've written, especially the second one. I wrote a chapter called Imposter. I've struggled in this area. I struggled, admittedly and humbly in this area where I wasn't I was told that I wasn't leadership material, or that I wasn't considered as a leader.

7:32 I was the head down, work hard type of gal and was hoping and praying and wishing that people would see my my. You use the word shine, and you know what I could bring to the table, and I didn't until like I had to figure out how to do this on my own. And so I feel very passionate about helping other women do the same. I remember that now that you bring up about about your history. Thank you again for sharing that. I think so many women can relate to that of feeling like well, the imposter syndrome, but also the idea that the mistaken notion that if I took my head down and do good work, then I'll be recognized and promoted and my career will be just great. And it's just not true. And so I coach several women as well too, men for that matter as well, but I coach both. But particularly with women, what I see is that they don't know what they don't know, and they haven't learned to really ask for help. And so even just this morning, I had a great conversation with a woman that I've been coaching for just about a year and a half, and just she's making amazing strides, She's learning and has been putting forth the notion of being much more proactive about how she asks for opportunities for advancement and when she has given feedback about you know, whether or not she gets doing forward, she's having very direct but respectful conversations about why wasn't I chosen? What's missing here? And just really and she's and she's you know, really stewarding her journey on compensation and really managing that path, not just accepting what has been given, but managing that path.

9:01 And I know these are all some of the things we'll be talking about, you know, in our conference here in next June. But I want to present those things because I think so many women who might be listening are not even present to the need to have some help outside advice to be able to navigate those really important topics. Agreed, absolutely, So now, well. Let's talk about Thrive in twenty five, that the brand new conference for women. I am delighted to get to serve as the MC for that conference, and I just know we have so many special things. Getting to meet the speakers has been phenomenal, Jennifer, looking at some of the topics we'll be serving up phenomenal, but let's first talk about where did it come from? Was it what was the impetus for this and how was it actually birthed.

9:50 Yeah, so another interesting story. So as part of it, and again through her C suite and Natalie giving her credit where credit is due, she's a great connector and that's what she does, is she's building women's networks, opportunity for women to grow and shine and you know, be on the move as leaders. She has that program as well. So she introduced me to Hope Mueller, who you've had on the show as well. And Hope is a pharmaceutical executive and just bottom line, a real powerhouse. So we have partnered together through her company's Hunter Street press and Climb conferences. And so I have the coaching arm and I have the Brave woman at Work brand and then you know, we've done a lot of amazing work together.

10:31 And so the moral of the story is, Doctor Elies, I have to be really careful what I tell Hope because Hope is a big manifestor. And so I came up with Thrive in twenty twenty five. I told her. I told Hope specifically, I'm like, hey, I think we need to do a women's leadership conference. We've done retreats on a small scale. Are you willing to give it a shot to do a women's leadership event at a large, larger scale. And she's like, Yeah, let's do this, And so we put it on the list for twenty twenty five, thinking and I thought, well, you know, is that really going to happen? Well, here we are, here, we are You're are MC. We have like eighteen speakers I believe, of just amazing background, and we're going to do this thing.

11:12 It is amazing, you know. I don't know if we talked about this or not before, Jennifer, but I think it was back in twenty eighteen. I too wanted to put on a conference really around the world of work. But what I really discovered very quickly is you can do that alone. You need a full team to help you make that happen. And I'm very grateful to be part of that team. Obviously. I know Hope that I first met her years ago. I was moderating a panel that she was on and immediately recognized her greatness. Had her on my podcast talking about her book, Hopey, which was how I really got to know her. She is a powerhouse. She does know how to make things happen. So I love the idea that you were the idea of person on this and she was part of the crew to help bring it forth to action. I'll never forget when I got the email saying, Hey, you know, Lee's are putting together this, this conference for women would love to talk to you about UM seeing immediate is like, I'm in let's talk about this.

12:08 Of course, Yes, we're so excited to have you. You know what I love about that is getting to MC means that I get to know all of the presenters. I get to intro. That means I need to know them to be able to present them and introduce them. I really will get to understand much more fully and deeply all of the topics that we'll get to be introducing for the women. And I love the idea that it's in as you say, Chicago Land. I never had heard about Chicago being described as Chicago Land before this conference, but I do think it's really Once it's the middle of country for me, you know, AMD for all intents and purposes. But two, there's something about the energy of Chicago that seems to be pretty compelling to me.

12:54 Oh good, I'm glad. So you might be wondering, like why Chicago Land, right, So I mean, I'm from Chicago, So I said to Hope. We had tossed around her area, which is the Las Vegas area, which many conferences are at. So who knows, it might flip in different parts of the country or maybe we'll have multiple Hope, don't get too many ideas if you're listening to that. But I just I told her, I'm like, I really feel like this needs to be in my neck of the woods, right, Like, I feel like it needs to be here. So we have something more central for speakers and attendees to go for. And we picked Chicago Land versus downtown Chicago. It's because we wanted people flying in because most people will fly into O'Hare International Airport, so we literally doctor Eli's We're like really close to the airports. We wanted people to have that accessibility and that flexibility because we know getting to downtown Chicago if you've if you've had that experience, it can be quite the crapshoot and how long it's going to take you to get there. So we wanted it to be accessible. We wanted it to be affordable and attainable for people. So that's why we pick that location.

14:02 I appreciate that. And while we're on the subject of geography and location, before we talk about some of the speakers, I also know that you chose the hotel venue very very carefully. Talk to us a little bit about that. Yeah, so we did also choose a hotel that was right by, pretty close to the airport fifteen it's away from the airport. We chose something that is not, i would say, not necessarily the norm, because we didn't want everyone to have like shiny objects syndrome where they're like, oh, I'm going to go shopping or I'm going to go to the movies or oh, you know. We wanted people to be really immersed and really in the experience at the hotel. And the hotel's got a really cool I you know, hope to stay there. I have done many tours.

14:47 It is a really cool vibe. And so I'm not going to say anymore about the hotel. I think you just have to experience it for yourself. I so appreciate that. I'm very much allured by the whole th experience, and I know our prospective women joining us will be as well. Let's take our first break. I'm your host, doctor Relie Cortes. We are on your Jennifer Pastikas. She's an executive with over twenty years of experience in the financial services industry and it was helping bring to the for the brand new conference for women called Thrive in twenty five. I'm talking a bit about where it came from and her own background of what she's contributing. After the break, we're going to get into a few of the speakers and just some of the topics we'll be covering. We'll be right back.

15:43 Doctor Elise Courtez is a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps companies visioneer for a greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the word workforce. To learn more or to invite a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her at Elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or to open a conversation with Elise. Send an email to Alise A Lisee at Elisecortes dot com. Now back to working on Purpose.

16:35 Thanks for setting with us and welcome back to working on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes As. I'm dedicated to help them create a world where people realize their potential at work, are led by inspirational leaders that help them find and contribute their greatness, and we do business at Betters the World. I continue to research and write my books, so the last one came out in Marsha twenty twenty three. It's called The Great Revitalization. How activating a meeting and purpose can radically enlagen your business. I wrote it to help leaders under stand just the nature of today's workforce, which is very discerning. What do they want and need to stay with you? And then I offer twenty two best practices to help you create a culture to provide that for them. You can learn more about my books on Amazon or my personal site at least quretest dot com if you are just now joining me. My guest is Jennifer Pestikas, who, in addition to her long career in the financial services industry, also offers career and leadership coaching for women through her personal company, Brave Women at Work. So before the work we were talking a bit about just kind of the location and the thought behind the Thrive at twenty five conference. Let's talk a bit about just some of the speakers. Can you share just maybe introduced a couple of them that are really stand out for you?

17:43 Oh, it's it's kind of tough. It's kind of tough. So I've got the site up here as I'm talking, So I would say a couple that come to mind. Or Bobby Carlton. So Bobby is a ted X speaker. She is, you know, she's a speaking maven, and she's going to talk about public speaking and getting that kind of as part of your repertoire because so many of us we sit behind the desk, you know, we might be executives, but we're not presenting or we don't have that as part of our offering. So she's got a presentation on public speaking and then one because this is her personality, you know, no excuses, how to get yourself on stage. So I'm really excited about learning what she has to share about getting in front of others and honing speaking as part of what you do.

18:27 Okay, before you go on, let me just chime into that because this is so so important right in your coaching and my coaching. It is so important to be able to one own your brand. And then two related to the work that I'm doing, is that more that you're comfortable speaking on stage, the more effective you're going to be as an inspirational leader. Being able to cast a vision that people want to be part of can step into is so so important. So I really I'm glad you started with that one because I think it's so so important and many many people, as you know, are frightened, silly of speaking, like they are more afraid. The statistic is people are more afraid to speak in public than they are to die. Wow. Did you not know that? No, that's true. That is a solid statistic.

19:10 Wow. Okay, well let's get them a little less afraid. Let's do that. So just a couple more and I'm picking these out on purpose. So one of the reasons when Hope and I were talking about this conference, we're like, how do we make this different? You know, we say leadership conference, And we talked about our experiences with going to leadership conferences, and we wanted to look at the whole woman and by by home and I'm saying the whole person. So we want to look at their mindset, We wanted to look at their health and wellbeing. We wanted to look at of course the leadership chops, like how do we give them the education and then the accountability support. So we thought that was unique because we've never been to a conference like that before that has all of those components. So another two speakers I just want to call out. The first one is more on that wellness piece and the next one will be also on the wellness is Doc Susan Lavelle, and she works on Her two presentations are the first one is from Busy to Balanced, three Secrets to Harmonize your life and work.

20:11 So she's into hormones and from that Busy to Balance piece, and her second one is the Executive Edge Harnessing Hormones. This is where hormones comes in and habits for peak performance. And I don't know about you, and I don't know if I shared on the show last time, but I've gone through burnout myself and as I'm entering those middle years, right, we'll just throughout the word perimenopause, like, hormones are becoming a lot more important to me, and I want to make sure that I'm taking care of myself and I am in peak performance so that I can give what I want at work and I don't feel kind of hamstrung from a health condition perspective, because, like we say, if we don't put our oxygen mask on first, who's going to do it for us?

20:53 I so appreciate that, Jennifer. I can't count the number of women that I've encountered over the years who are saying things like, I'm constantly exhausted, but I don't know why I'm doing all these things, et cetera, et cetera. And oftentimes we might find that one it is an over extension into too many activities, and sometimes, of course they're just not resting enough, but very often there is the physical element in that, which might actually be the hormonal piece. So I really appreciate very much the holistic nature of what this conference is providing to women. We're not just talking about leadership. We were talking about the whole woman who is being that leader. And I really and that's one of the major reasons that I said, yeah, I will be happy to m see this conference.

21:38 Yes. And so the last one or two I just want to mention, So Jackie Sittera who owns her own business, Jay and C Innovations, she's doing actually a vision boarding exercise. So how cool is that that we get to take something tangible away and you know, kind of tap into our creative flow. Oh and then on a last one that I just want to highlight for me, and it is Nicole Smith Leavey, who is a somatic coach, and so she's going to teach us how to breathe right, because I don't know about you, but I've had situations where I get stressed and then I forget how to breathe. I'm a chest breather versus like a diaphramat a diaphragm breather. So she's going to actually help us with that. So I'm very excited about those and all of them.

22:21 I am too. And just to add in another piece that I think is really important that I also think is critical for the whole being development is I know, we have some planned content around really embracing nature and also more also into the space of really cultivating art as a space for passion and creativity, and of course you know when I do. I have a whole program that I'm doing on helping people to create feerceful full of goals for the new year. I bucket them across nine different dimensions, and a couple of them, you know, one is creativity and passion, also adventure and travel, etc. So just so important that it goes beyond just professional financial family, right, There's just so much more that we can really cultivate. So I'm so excited for us. Yeah.

23:08 Likewise, Yeah, and that was doctor Vasu is going to do the Artful Mind, and I'm really excited. She's bringing the scientific and the art together. So it's going to be a really cool presentation. Mm hmm. Yeah, you know. And again because I really feel like I've got the coveted role here since I get you really hard too and everything, right, why choose when you could just cover it all? I think that I think Hope really understand understands me well enough that when she reached out, she knew that I was I was the right that was the right fit for me for sure. Well yeah, she said right away, She's like, go doctor Elise, She's our MC. We got to get doctor Elise and I love that. It was so delightful. I'm just I'm so excited. So then if we could, I just wanted to talk a little bit about, you know, sort of the arrangement, some of the thinking behind you know, what it is that we are intentionally developing in this conference, and you know, starting off with just really understanding one's personal attributes. Could you speak a little bit to what's behind that particular focus of the conference.

24:07 Yes, So that's about you know, those key pieces of self knowledge, right, So that's why we're doing the vision boarding. We're going to be talking about values like that key self knowledge because as a leader, we understand you know, me being twenty plus years hoping twenty to twenty five plus years, like many of the women that are speaking have so many years. We actually need to I need to do the math to see what the collective years of leadership experience are that would be powerful for me to share in the future. But we know that you have to know thyself right as a leader, So understanding your attributes, understanding your strengths, understanding what's important to you is why that is going to be a key component of the conference. I really appreciate that. I am amazed, Jennifer. You know, when I'm out doing work, either for my public workshops or for work that I do inside companies, I am amazed.

24:56 Like I was just actually taking a course last week on listening well, and I would say the average age and there was, I don't know, early fifties, and I was amazed by how many people have these major AHAs about themselves, you know, about which we had taken the DISK assessment for that for that particular workshop. But anyway, the point that I'm making is that you know, what I always tell people is that you are going to spend the rest of your life really knowing yourself. There's that much to know. And so I love that we also have this these pieces in here built in to help people women to understand their personal attributes so so so important, motivates you, what distinguishes you, all those things.

25:39 Then we go on to the next book at which is a personal development and mindset. Tell us a bit about that one. So you can know yourself, but you also need to know how to manage your mindset too. As a leader, I think it's absolutely critical because they're you know, people think, oh, you know things will be better when I write well, when I become a leader, well, I'm here to report. You know, being a realists, you're going to have tough days, right, and so how do you manage that mindset so that your career trajectory is going in the way and the spaces and the places that you want it to go. And you can read so many books. You can read all the books, listen to all the podcasts. At the end of the day and you're going to hear this as a refrain that you have to take that responsibility for your mindset. You can get those tools, you actually have to use them. And so we want women to walk away with solid tools on how they can manage that mindset because you know, your mindset has a direct ripperal effect on your team and you know in your leadership initiative, So managing the mindset is critical.

26:38 Yes, And to that end, what I find fascinating and precious about part of the work that I get to do is helping to reveal people's mindsets to them. You know, we don't know that it's like right water we swim in right So think about that, just as salmon really realized that they're actually swimming in a body of water. Probably not that's you know, that's their it's it's their environment. And so one the careful and important work of revealing that mindset, and then we can decide to the extent to which how is that actually working for us or against us? And then of course unlearning these mindsets is just as important as learning new better ones or ones that will serve us better, just as important.

27:18 And many of the people or the women that I work with or that probably will attend, you know, they might have like a sense of they're disenfranchised, or they're like, why can't I get ahead? Or there's a little frustration, But like you said, doctor e Lees, they they may not know that part of it is their mindset. You know. They may think, oh, well, you know what, I'll never get the promotion or I'll never get the opportunity, and they don't know that that in itself is stopping them. Absolutely, thank you, that was extremely well said. Perfect. Okay. Now, the third element that I think is really critical is the supportive community that's part of this conference. So Hope and I are so invested in building a community of women, whether it's through in twenty twenty five or through climb conferences or through Brave Women at work, and if you talk to any of our former authors or anyone that we have done work with so you can fact check this doctor release, It's like becomes like a family of women and kind of a community where we are not often one and done where we're like, oh, that was great and we'll just see you later. And we are actually physically building a community via the Hersey Suite platform currently, so we have all of the women join a community and they can share kind of their struggles, their successes, their wins together and that's really important for us.

28:38 So if they you know, if a woman is listening, does attend, know that you have a community behind you. It's not like a one and done conference experience. Oh this is so critical because you know, when I'm working at organizations or with women one on one, is they there is even if you're in an organization, especially the higher you go in your career, the more lonely it feels. I really talk to about these really critical things in my life. Or I don't know, I've just been promoted, I don't know how to do this job. I just got promoted. I don't know what's going on. But yet I know that I have to perform. So being able to connect with other people who have had similar experiences can give a different perspective about what's going on and help encourage and empower and motivate her. It's just so so important. And also this what I always tell people is that I want you to develop your network inside your organization and outside your organization. Why outside, because that is part of your safety net in case you do need to make a change, or you lose your job or whatever. You need other people outside your current organization to help steward that transition. And many, many people, men and women, make the mistake of only having a network inside their company, and then when they get let go, they're really in trouble.

29:52 Agreed. And so we have Natalie Benamou talking about LinkedIn and building your brand on LinkedIn, and I always challenge clients cay spend ten to fifteen minutes a day building that network because you won't be disappointed. So important. And then one of the next pillar is a strategic action and accountability. You know, as a business owner myself, that accountability piece is so so important because I'm gonna set goals all day long and get really excited about them that if I don't have someone that keeps me accountable toward my goals, it is so easy to kind of backstroke and go, we do I get to it next quarter kind of thing. M yeah, so this one's a hot button for me. So when we were forming the conference, I actually am in the process of forming something called the Brave Circle.

30:36 So at the end of this conference, women will have the option to join a coaching accountability group with me monthly where they get that one on one support. They get that accountability support totally optional, and then we'll have semi annual planning sessions and they'll have access to a private podcast called the Brave Circle. So I wanted to give women an option, which you don't see that very often, and you know, you get like the list of all the things like I'm so jazzed about, but then like you know, two months later, ask you know, ask me, or ask other women or anyone, right, did you you know do that? And typically you don't because you go back into your old habits and patterns. It is so easy to get so excited and then before you know what, six months has gone by and you've done nothing about that goal. And then you were demoralized and you feel bad about yourself and you kind of give up. And so yes, that accountability is so so important. And then of course the last pillar, you know, the crux of everything, you know, leadership, development and resources.

31:34 Yeah, so in that we're really giving you women female speakers from all different like walks of life. So they're going to talk about sponsorship and mentorship and setting yourself up for the next stage of your career. We have a speaker talking about she's a CEO. She's say, hey, this is you know, my perspective from the C suite, So like really the arc of the career, right, and like bringing all of those strategy, all those pillars that you know, often we're put in management and then we get you know, we do good right like doctor Lees, and then we keep growing, but we don't have like all of those pieces put together to keep advancing and really understand how we grow our leadership muscles. And I promise you you will have that with this conference.

32:21 So excited all right, listen, listeners and viewers kind of chew on this, and listeners and viewers, I as we go on this next break, I want you to be thinking about how this conference can help you personally. Who can you bring along, Who do you want to invite and share this podcast with that you want to come with you, or who you just think needs this. We'll be right back. I'm your host, doctor Relis Cortes, moving on with Jennifer Pastikas, an executive with over twenty years of experience in the financial services industry and who is now helping to bring to the fore the brand new conference for women called Thrive in twenty five. We'll be right back.

33:07 Doctor Elise Cortes is a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps companies visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her at Elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to Elise A. L Se at Elisecortes dot com. Now back to Working on Purpose.

33:59 It's with us and welcome back to Working on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Eli Scortees. I mentioned in the last break that my last book came out in March of twenty three. It's called The Great Vitalization. How activaty MENI Purpose can radically in liven your business. What I did for you is I created a three page assessment that you can find on my website gustodeshnaw dot com. Download it. It's free and when you go through that assessment, it will help you understand the extent to it your current culture is meeting then discerning needs of today's workforce if you are just now joining us. My guest is Jennifer Pastikas, who is, in addition to her long career in the financial services industry, also offering career and leadership coaching for women through her personal company, Brave Women at Work.

34:41 So for this next segment here, Jennifer, what I wanted to do is is one I wanted to have you articulate from your vantage point, who do you think needs to come to this conference? Who's it really for? So I would say any woman that feels like Hey, there's a lack of that spark need to have leadership resources I need or I want to learn how to take care of my whole person. So that's that first piece. More specifically, anyone that might be in that mid career segment and they don't have to be a VP, they don't have to be a CEO or anything like that, but they're in that mid career and they need community, they need accountability, which is so many of us. So we've talked about all what I would say, all of the pieces of the conference. So if you're in mid career, you're looking for community, you're looking for accountability, you're looking for leadership resources, and you are willing to travel to the Midwest when actually the weather is nice, I think this would be would be really good for you. And i'd say the last pieces, we're really making this female geared, so you're going to have a lot of exposure to networking and female led companies. So if you two have a female side hustle, like a female lead side hustle, or if you want to get a network with other women that let's just say like they're rock stars. Like I would say that this is for you.

36:05 I love that I would add too. I want to invite through these lines and others to anybody that feels stuck like I, just like I think I should be further along than I am. I want to be further along than I am. I don't know why I'm not being promoted to your point earlier. Maybe you have lost my luster here and want to understand and know how I can better activate that. Again, I think those are all other really compelling reasons for women to attend. And again, as always right, it's not just you listening. I mean, you're fantastic you anybody other side of this thing, but whoever you know, you know a handful of people who probably are feeling this way or need some help, and so this is something. This is We're all evangelizing this together as a community of women around the world. So let's do this next, Jennifer, I would love for you to tell a story or two about a woman that you know who has blossomed in large parts due to embracing conferences like ours and or investing in her own ongoing development. I'll maybe share one or two myself.

37:08 So I'm actually going to use I was thinking about this doctor Elise and I'm going to share a couple from our speaker set. So the first one is doctor Renika Brisco. So doctor Renika went to a conference. She's in she was formerly in academia, has many many awards in the New Orleans area, another powerhouse, and she went to a conference and she met Sheila Higgs Burke Culter, who's another one of our our conference speakers and keynote speakers. And they hit it off and so I just want to like, you listen to the ripple effect here. So they meet and Sheila or Shiggs as she she loves to be called she they hit it off and she says, you know what you need to think about getting your brand bigger. And this is to doctor Renika, and she said, hey, can you consider being an author in one of the Brave Women at Work anthology in the anthology series. And then she then goes on from there and she takes kind of kind of the learnings and the relationship and the network from that conference, and then she became an author and now she's like, you know, kind of dominating, and now she's a speaker, and she's actually decided to part from academia and now she's you know, building an entire business under her name, and so I just want you to know that you never know what's going to happen when you build relationships at these conferences. So that shows the power of community, the power of self accountability,

38:42 the power and the magic of being at these types of events. I will share another one and we can maybe kind of do a tennis match on this as we as we share. I remember distinctly, you know, when I was going through my own leadership development program here in Dallas, Take Little with Texas into the fourteen, and that was a program that was really designed to help women get to better understand the issues of Texas and how they might be able to give themselves over to help for that. And I remember sitting on the bus. It was like a two and a half day sort of deal for three times a year, and I was sitting on the bus next to doctor Chara Joji and at the time she was a professor of astronomy at the University of Texas and Hengy were sitting there on the bus at eight o'clock in the morning ready to take off for the day, and she goes, that's it, I'm just going to do it, and I'm like, what is it. What are we doing? Are we getting ice cream? We're robbing a bank. She goes, I am going to put my name into the hat to be the chair of the department.

39:41 I have two young kids. I've been saying I can do this. I don't have time and I'm busy, et cetera. But if I don't put my name in the hat, I won't get the position, and I won't to be able. I won't get to shape the department the way that I want to. And of course she did go for it, and guess what she did get the job. She's the first woman to had that that department, and I had her on my program as well talking about this. And you know what she gets to do to shape that department and really make it accessible for other beings that would otherwise never entertain that field because of her unique stand is so incredible. But she wouldn't have done it. If she wasn't at this conference where she got inspired and excited by what other women were doing with their lives and their careers, she would have stayed under the radar.

40:25 So that's one example that I have. Oh that's great, you know you've got me kind of thinking my juice is flowing now, so I have one for myself that's not listed on the website. So this is kind of a sneak peek behind how things have come to be with brave women at work. So I don't even know the year. I think it might have been twenty thirteen or so. I went to this very large Salesforce conference. If people don't know what salesforces, I think it might be the world's largest CRM or client relationship management system now in San Francisco, and there were about one hundred and forty thousand people there and it was just overwhelming, Doctor Elise, and I was like, Okay, what can I take from this? What can I take from this? Because sometimes conferences just like are almost overwhelming, right, But I had the opportunity, and I wouldn't have had this opportunity, so it was perfect timing. So Cheryl Sandberg, who was the former CEO of Meta Facebook at the time, was the keynote speaker, and every person got a hard copy, which I thought was so snazzy, a hard copy of her book Lean in There and it had just come out, and how cool well for me that I was in the audience as it was just coming out, and she gave this beautiful keynote, and so I got so on fire after that presentation, completely devoured the book from you know, when I from San Francisco to Chicago, I proposed a leadership group. So you know, the first quote unquote lean in circle of our organization, which became the leadership group in my actual corporate organization. And since that time, we've

41:59 taken half of our organization through that experience. And I would not have actually gotten the gusto to ask or gotten the gusto without being at that conference. I love that you said, gusto, I know right, that's mine. It's my damn. I had to wait, I had to weave it in. I love that. I appreciate that. I'll give you a spiff later. And another another example that I'll share. I was working with a healthcare organization on the West Coast for a good long year and so I was working in part with the chief nursing officer, and she was really ambitious and really wanted to develop her career and that was an important part of her life, and she was having a hard time getting up to getting past that.

42:46 She wanted to move on to either you know, the COO or the CEO role, and so we got to work together, and I kept telling her go to conferences. Go to conferences. Go to conferences who get exposed to new ideas. You'll meet other people who can help sponsor you, champion you, and give you advice and perspective that will be important. And sure enough she did. She started going to conferences. And I get this text from her after her first or second one, maybe the first one that that I told her to go to encourage her to go to. She's like, Alicia, You'll never believe what happened because I was in the company of all of these other really you know, amazing people, you know, going all with their lives, their men and women. I just got invited to take a private jet onto this one of our other hospital sites. And I wrote back, your going right, and she said, I'm on the plane and it was so great, right. And she's you know, because she's in ladies and gentlemen. This is really important, especially if you're an introvert like she is. She's an introvert. It's uncomfortable for her to be around a lot of people. Takes a lot of energy for her. So if you are introverted, and you think the idea of a conference sounds overwhelming.

43:57 You're just selective about who you're actually spending a lot of time with. That's all that is. And that's what she did, right. She just found there was a couple of people that she could have a meaningful conversation with, ended up socializing with them, and then here she found herself on this plane and guess what you know, spoiler alert, she did become the CEO of this organization. Wow. And that also is really good because you just said an introvert can be a CEO, so that I think there's a misnomer that, oh, you have to be an extrovert, and that's not true. No, it isn't, not at all. In fact, here's what I love to champion along that line, Jennifer. I'm sure you can appreciate this and probably aligned with it. Is you know, as an organizational psychologist, if we look at the introversion extroversion spectrum, you know, one extreme the extroverts, so there nobody's safe, they'll talk to anybody, and the other extreme, the extreme introvert, where they really don't want to leave the house and it's very nice in their own mind, et cetera, everyone somewhere along that spectrum. And what we find is that the introverts are exceptional conversationalists.

44:57 Why because they're listening, they're listening with the other person is saying. They're not waiting to get in a word in for what they want to say, and that makes them really fantastic, memorable human beings that make a really sticky connection, Whereas the extrovert might meet a whole lot of people and that's great, but it's a little bit more of a you know, of a spot fire, if you will. So I want to be able to encourage you know where you are on the spectrum, there's something for you in a conference. I love it. Well, when you think about this coming up here, I know we're about here to close, and I'm going to send them to the site when we close. I don't worry about that, but I do know we are offering an early bird discount, which I think finishes December fifteenth, that's correct, And it's a fifteen percent discount.

45:46 Correct, Yes, that's correct. Okay, So we want to be sure and evangelize that. So I would just say I would encourage people to consider this as a gift for yourself. I personally invest in something for myself every single year, if not twice a year, to keep myself growing and learning. So even if your employer doesn't cover this for you, think about this for yourself. And you know, if you're a gentleman, if you're a man listening to this and you're connected to a woman, give her this conference. She will never forget you. Yes, And I want to just jump i'mp in here and say that we're trying to make this accessible for everyone. So we have like multiple payment options, you know, we have the painful two payments and then we just opened a four payment option too. So please please look at this because I agree with you, doctor A. Le's like invest in your development.

46:38 It's so important. I mean, otherwise, you know, you can find yourself in a job for ten years and the world has passed you by. And that's not the world we live in today, is it is moving on without you. If you don't, you know, hitch a ride to that train and it'll it will leave you behind. And that's not a scare tactic, it's just the way. It's just a you know, the statement of what we're living in today. So really want to encourage anyone that's listened and whoever you're connected to, who do you care about. Obviously you can see both Jennifer and I are slightly passionate about this conference and we are committed to it and it's you know, it's really something special. So let me give you a chance to close. Jennifer, you know this show is listened to by people around the globe who generally care about elevating their connection to their experience of work, becoming a better leader, finding ways to do business within their own organization that betters the world. What would you like to leave them with?

47:30 Well, I just want to thank them for their time today and I appreciate doctor Lys being a guest. And what I would say is, you know, the idea of investing in yourself not only from a time perspective, but also from a monetary or get your company to pay for it. Right. That's also what I say about being a brave woman or a brave man right at work, is you know, advocating for yourself because at the end of the day, and I want to just like underscore this is that you are responsible. You are ultimately responsible for the trajectory of your career as we kind of started with. And it is in those decisions and in that advocacy for yourself that you can become a better leader and do great things. And so please take a look at the website, please really consider it or gift it.

48:12 Like you said to someone else. I want to echo something that you said there about asking for support from your employer. Many people have the belief this is back to that mindset again that they just their company just won't cover it. Let me tell let me share something with you. When my five year old daughter said to me when I picture up from camp many years ago, she said, Mama, I learned something today. Put a little hands on her hips. She said, you don't ask, you don't get. That's right, And I said, oh, sugar, if you just keep that in mind the rest of your life, you'll be just fine. So, listeners and viewers, you don't ask, you don't get, So ask you to want to learn more about Jennifer Pistiquez, the work she does at Brave Women at Work and also the Thriving twenty five conference we're both spearheading. So start by visiting her own site, which is Bravewomen at Work dot com. Again, Bravewomen at Work dot com for her personal coaching and then also come visit the conference that we're part of.

49:09 It's thrive in twenty five dot com. The way that's spelled is it's thrive Dash. I n the number twenty five dot com Thrive dash in twenty five dot com. To learn more about this conference. You can also use my promo code, which is of course Gusto all in caps to access the additional getaways. I'll be a warning to participants. See you next week for another inspiring and educational conversation on working on purpose and remember work is one of the best adventures and means of realizing our potential and making the impact we crave. So let's work on Purpose. We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to tune into Working on Purpose featuring your host, doctor Elise Cortes, each week on W four CY. Together we'll create a world where business operates conscientiously, Leadership inspires and passion, performance and employee are fulfilled in work that provides the meaning and purpose they crave. See you there, Let's work on Purpose.