May 3rd, 2011 
I attended the wonderful Ladies DC and United Nations Foundation Women’s Leading the Future Conference on Saturday at the US Naval Memorial & Naval Heritage Center near Penn Quarter. It was headed by high-energy and awesome Lindsey Mask who is the founder of Ladies DC and attended by a large crowd of female attendees.
Stephanie Abraham, Jennifer Harlow, Nichole Devolites, and Jeannemarie Davis. Photo by Walter Grio
Upon arrival we were given a bag with all kinds of goodies in it like a book on personal growth, an itinerary of the events, Popchips and coupons to services around DC. The itinerary included opening remarks by Lindsey Mask and UN Foundation’s Elizabeth Gore; session with Executive Life Coach Margie Warrell on “How to be a Woman Who Changes the World”; session with Katherine Tallmadge on “Transformational Diet and Lifestyle Solutions for Super Woman in a Super-Charged World”; and a session with Noura Salman and Jessie Hrivnak on “Financial Stability & Independence.” Breakway panels featured Women Entrepreneurs and State of Women and Girls Globally. The last two speakers were Joan Amble, Executive Vice President and Corporate Comptroller for the American Express and Pat Mitchell, former CEO of PBS and now CEO of The Paley Center for Media.
I attended the Think Bigger, Live Bolder seminar led by executive life coach and best-selling author Margie Warrell. She is fantastic and I loved her beautiful Australian accent and enthusiasm. She talked about moving to the US without knowing a soul. She got her start in life coaching by asking a friend to be her guinea pig and having five sessions with her. Her friend loved the experience and introduced her to other people and from there her network grew. Maggie has worked with Fortune 500 companies.
Lindsay Mask and Pat Mitchell. Photo by Walter Grio.
In the beginning of her career, Margie didn’t know what direction she was headed, just that she liked helping people be happy. She got a degree in psychology as well. She talked about her hardships. How she worked at KPMG and another large company and how unhappy she was. Instead of speaking up about her unhappiness she quit the company. In the exit interview the manager expressed remorse she hadn’t spoken up because they would have worked to fix the situation. So the take home lesson is.. be brave, speak up, and ask for help!
Margie told an inspiring yet sad story about her brother having a motorcyle accident in the Middle East driving over sand dunes. He was flying over a sand dune and then he realized it was a dead drop onto gravel below. He had a C-8 break in his vertebrae and is paralyzed from the waist down. Instead of giving up he learned to adjust and now he still drives motorbikes, he just learned how to play tennis and he skis. She said it hasn’t been easy for him, but it’s all about focusing on what you can do. Margie said emotional intelligence is much more important than IQ. Those with higher emotional intelligence are those that get ahead. She talked about being brave. Ask for what you want. Ask questions. Having a clear vision of what you want and where you want to be.
We had a short break and I quickly ate a delicious chocolate chip cookie and some strawberries dipped in homemade chocolate.. yum! I decided to take the session on women entrepreneurs next.
The Women Entrepreneurs seminar was moderate by DC Entrepreneur Week Charles Paret. There were four women who spoke: Liz Chadderon, CEO, Chadderon Group (PR); Paula Jagemann, CEO, Someone With (Health and Tech); Hope Gibbs, Author; Joanna Robinson, CEO, Lunar Massage.
One entrepreneur talked about how she doesn’t use facebook or twitter as it is a way to get in trouble. She had too much to drink one night and using the facebook app on her phone made an inappropriate remark on facebook that caused her clients to make comments on it later. She said she knows she is probably losing business by not being on facebook, but it is not worth the professional risk. She deleted the facebook app from her phone and stays off facebook and twitter. She said she works nonstop, even weekends and she expects her four employees to do that as well.
The founder of Lunar Massage talked about how she does it all. She cleans toilets, she installs internet vpn, etc. She has grown substantially in 4 years. She said the main thing is you start out doing it all, but then gradually you try to find ways to fire yourself from the tasks and hopefully can delegate it or pass it on.
I also attended the speech by American Express Executive Vice President and Corporate Comptroller Joan Amble. She is a proud mother of two daugthers and a new grandmother. She talked about the importance of women helping each other and not holding grudges. She told a story of male children complaining how they hated playing with this one boy. The next day the boys went to go play with the said hated boy. When questioned why, they answered simply, “We need a catcher!” She talked about how important your network is over how good a job you do. When she first started her job at AMEX, several different leaders at AMEX gave her a list of people she needed to have coffee to network with. Her list grew and grew. She joked, “Is all that you do at AMEX is have coffee?” However she found these coffees and contacts invaluable and brought her to the level of success she enjoys today.
Great conference overall! I highly recommend attending events like these and joining Ladies DC. It’s all about the networking and taking care of one another.
