Being Geek Chic is a blog about one woman navigating the male-dominated industries of production and tech. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi, Founder, CEO and Director of Mighteor - one of the world's first internet video production companies. Learn more about Mighteor here.
It’s Saturday morning and I’ve been working for a few hours. Trying to write up new proposals, review legal and make sure I have a solid shot list for my shoots next week. And it doesn’t bother me. In all of my career, work ethic has never been a problem. I sort of get a high from knowing that I have maximized every hour of the week. The problem is that when you own your own business, you discover really quickly: Working does NOT always equal Winning.
This is perhaps the hardest part of being a CEO and business owner. When you have a normal job, the relationship between working hard and feeling a sense of achieving wins are connected:
You work extra hours for your company, maybe you get paid overtime.
You finish a project early, you celebrate with your team.
You land a new piece of business, you get an incentive or a bonus.
You put in extra efforts to improve a system or project, you get a promotion.
You make a great hire, you get kudos from HR or the boss.
When you own your business, working extra hours is part of the job description. You finish a project early and all that means is you have to go onto the next project. When you land a new piece of business, you are just doing the job you’ve decided to take. You put in extra efforts because you know that it’s the point of deciding to go on this adventure. And when you put in the extra time, it’s because you absolutely have to put in the time if you have hope of finishing all the projects you’ve got on your to do list.
So what do you do? You start wishing for wins. Wins that come out of the clear blue sky. Little bits of luck and serendipity that swoop in at a random moment to remind you that your business has a little bit of life of it’s own. A moment when the clouds break at just the right moment so you can get that lens flare on the shot that will make it really special. A client referring you to a perfect piece of business. A thank you gesture from a client to brighten up your day and your office so you can keep going.
But you know what’s crazy?
Most entrepreneurs I know aren’t wishers and waiters. They’re logical strategists. Always making connections and seeing lines where other people only see air. So those wins? They aren’t luck at all.
They are seeds that you’ve planted just finally reaching the topsoil after years of growing below the surface. You thought they’d bloom seasons ago, but in fact, they just needed a little more patience. And that’s not luck. And I hope you don’t need to be a gardener to understand this metaphor.
So instead, I’m trying to change my frame of mind on wishing and winning. Instead, I’m trying to think about planting. Planting more. Planting often. And being more patient.
Less wishing on wins.
And more patience on plantings.
When I decided to start my company, I had already spent a lot of time on the traditional path. I had been working in different parts of media, marketing and communications for 8 years before the glimmer of entrepreneurship even caught my eye and I can still remember thinking: “Really? Me?” So imagine being four years into your college experience and already knowing that the path we’re sold and told to follow isn’t for you. That’s what happened to Erin Winik, Founder and CEO of Sci Chic and our guest blogger for today.
From day one of college as an engineering student, you are told repeatedly to get leadership experience, hands-on practice in engineering, and internships as soon as possible. Get your resume in tip-top shape for recruiters. Network with large engineering firms at career showcase. Get leadership titles. Inundate your resume.
I have always been someone who has striven to please the teachers and people around me, and therefore I dove into my classes and my school’s chapter of the Society of Women Engineers headfirst to work to fill up my resume with exactly what these companies wanted. I worked my way up through the organization and took any opportunity someone would give me.
As I entered my 4th year of college, I was struggling to find the exact company that fit me and my personality. My resume was full to the brim of what everyone else thought I should be, not what I wanted to be. I can now easily get offers for jobs, but they are not the ones I want. I have passions for writing, photography, business, making, sewing, and so much more past the technical experience that I can fit on the front side of one sheet of paper.
At this moment I had a thought, why I am I following this path? Sure, it is the path that college most easily funnels you towards, but forget company name recognition. Forget stable jobs. Forget the normal path. Is this my dream?
Why not make the company for which I am so longing to work?
If the company is not out there, I could be filling a gap both in the market and in my life by creating it. Thomas Edison once said, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work”. I decided that the work was worth it, and what better time to take a chance than my senior year of college. This led me to creating Sci Chic in October 2015.
The biggest lesson I have learned in college is that you do not have to wait for someone else to deem you worthy to get experience. You can make those situations yourself.
At Sci Chic we used advanced technologies like 3D printing and laser cutting to create customizable science inspired jewelry. I am able to get experience learning about finances, business, manufacturing technologies, marketing, and so many more things that would have taken years for me to get a chance to experience waiting for someone else to give me the opportunity.
However, starting your own company does not come without risks or difficulties, and the difficulties of a senior year of college compounded with this caused some issues. Company deadlines and group project deadlines can often interfere. Needing to study for a midterm can get in the way of the ten emails you really need to send. Add this onto the fact that I am already a minority in mechanical engineering as a woman, and a now a minority as a female entrepreneur/business owner. I somehow seem to always pick the paths where I am a minority, but am happy to do so. I am proud to represent women in an area where we are still so underrepresented.
Strangely though, the thing I have struggled with the most is publicly selling myself as an entrepreneur. Up until starting my own company I have stayed on a traditional college leadership path that didn’t draw any attention for being different. Breaking into entrepreneurship has had to be very public for me since I am trying to draw on many of my college and social media connections to support my business. This makes both my successes and failures within the business very public and open judgement of my choices is not something to which I am accustomed.
But then I hear a story of a little girl wearing our jewelry every day to school. I 3D print a new jewelry design. I go out and meet people who are excited about what we are creating and realize I could not get this experience anywhere but with what I have created and I am grateful for making myself balance classes with this company. I realize that this is where I am meant to be and that all the struggles that come with it are worth it.
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Erin Winick is a 4th year mechanical engineering student at the University of Florida and the founder of Sci Chic. Erin can be found on Twitter @bcofengineering.
I’m a female CEO. In production. That caters to tech companies. This intersection of tech + production means I’m rare. Add the fact that I’m the boss onto all this and I’m like a pigeon with peacock tails. As a result, I hear a lot of weird shit. Weird shit I don’t want to hear anymore. So I thought I’d helpfully create a list.
1. Are you the Founder?
*This is almost always after I have introduced myself to them as, “Hi, I’m Liz, the founder of Mighteor.” I don’t know how to make it more clear that I am, in fact, the founder of my company.
2. Do you want to have a family?
*Most humans do. Did you ask the male founder over there that question?
3. Do you have men on your team?
*Yes. Of course I do. I also have women.
4. Do you have a technical counterpart?
*I operate cameras and edit and animate. I am technical. What is the counterpart to that? Production is a technical thing.
5. So is this a female empowerment thing?
*Seriously?
6. Are you the makeup artist?
*Fun fact: I know just as many male makeup artists as female makeup artists. They are are tremendously talented at their job. Their gender has nothing to do with it.
7. Oh no, you’re the hairdresser?
*See above. Same thing applies.
8. Do you want to get someone who can help me with this shot?
*I am the director. I approve shots. I will help you with the shot.
9. When will you have a family?
*See number 2.
10. How long do you want to do this startup thing?
*This one almost always comes on the tails of questions 2 or 9. I assume it’s because people think I will quit when I want to have a family.
That’s just my very quick list of things I’ve been asked in the last 6 months. I’d be curious to know if other women out there can add onto the list. I think we should. Consider this our PSA: things you don’t need to say to women in tech. Or production. Or tech production! Or in entrepreneurship!
Some people have asked why this is even a thing: It’s a thing because this is coded language. In the strictest sense: when you look at it as a series of words and punctuation, it doesn’t read as any kind of sexist or inflammatory language. But when taken in context with the larger questions at hand, it becomes clear that I’m being asked these questions BECAUSE I am a woman.
Together, we can make the world a little less ignorant.
This isn’t a conspiracy theory. It’s not a well-researched study. And it certainly isn’t an exercise in finger pointing. This is just a reflection on something I hear talked about a lot that I have yet to actually witness.
The narrative goes like this: “Women don’t feel welcome in (insert male dominated industry of choice) because other women don’t lift each other up. Women are actually harder on women then men.”
Words like these get regurgitated to me in all kinds of settings: at meetings, mentorship events, with clients and yes, I read it all over the web too. It’s a weird and insidious narrative that we have to reframe because I think it comes from something that is inherently programmed into women early on in our lives: it’s this notion that there’s only room for one. When we look at that hard, I think most of us don’t feel this way. But it’s projected onto us. And so we accept it and don’t argue with it.
It doesn’t matter that most of us (or none of us) don’t feel that way. When you work in a male dominated industry and you’re the only woman, a second woman being added means a microscope turns onto the two of you. Your actions and interactions are analyzed and if you’re not best friends, suddenly you’re enemies.
We all know this isn’t true. We all know this is bullshit. We all know that there is room for professionalism and cordiality and camaraderie without close friendship in the workplace. Yet this is the standard women are held to. Men are not held to this standard.
To put it simply: two women who work well together, but aren’t best friends, aren’t considered to be supporting one another.
Two men who work well together, but aren’t best friends, are considered to be colleagues.
See my point?
Women are expected to be kind, friendly and cordial in all settings. Women are expected to be peacekeepers and team builders. Women are expected to have “soft skills” - and so we take these things on. We allow them to become our narrative. And we don’t reevaluate it.
So how do we fix this? I think we start by cheerleading neutrally. Being excited when other women are brought into the room. Lifting each other up in front of bosses and clients and colleagues for purely fact based reasons that don’t have an emotional connection. And I think we fix it by talking about it more. By forcing ourselves to face that we have probably not done enough to shut this kind of thinking down.
This doesn’t mean changing how we behave. It just means changing how we perceive and process our workplaces and being proactive about how we talk about each other. I have been really fortunate in my career to have a wealth of incredible male and female mentors. I have worked in environments where I was the only woman on the team and in others where there was only one or two men. It was amazing how each group perceived two or more women’s relationships as fodder for discussion when the men’s relationships were never up for debate. It’s because it’s just not interesting. We need to get to that point where women’s interpersonal dynamics in their careers are just not an interesting subject of conversation.
In one job early in my career, I was the only woman on a team of 8. When another woman was brought on, we weren’t friends and we never became friends. She and I just weren’t going to get drinks together after work - but that didn’t meant that we weren’t great colleagues. At first, I noticed my own weird biases and tried to shut it down. If I’m being brutally honest, I liked the dynamic of being the girl that got in with the boys and earned their respect. That was not the right attitude and I think it happens more often than we care to admit. BUT, this doesn’t mean I didn’t want more women in the field. It didn’t mean I didn’t want to be a team player. I did my best to welcome her, be kind to her and even point out to others when she was doing good work. This paid off. The gossip about in-fighting between women never existed at that job, and I’m proud of that.
I should say that it sucks that I had to be so over the top about it, but it helped to prevent any kind of ideas brewing that may cause others to believe there was any sort of beef there. But I’m glad I was aware of my own behavior. Because guess what: if we support each other in non-emotional, purely professional ways, we’re all going to win.
Meet Vaishali Rana (@facesbyvaish). She’s a Lady Geek powerhouse currently thriving in Silicon Valley. Her areas of expertise? Global marketing strategies, product design, operational process optimization, retention management programs, and commanding a formerly male dominated profession: the world of big data.
Currently, Rana is a Customer Success Specialist at Talend, a data-driven organizations with creative solutions to help clients gather insights from their data and analytics. Rana develops processes and strategies that will help her customers’ growing businesses. Cool, right? To check out Rana’s entire professional background, find her on LinkedIn here.
Rana’s advice for fellow lady geeks working in tech? Lean in, take the plunge, and speak up. Read on for more!
Q: How did you discover your passion for working in data?
A: I actually fell into the Big Data space, so it was a case of the passion growing the more I came to understand the market and appreciate just how pervasive data was becoming. For example, being an avid social media enthusiast I became fascinated with how what might otherwise considered random and frivolous hashtags, Tweets, LinkedIn posts and Facebook status updates, can actually be converted into highly valuable insights that can be used to help improved a customer’s experience or even define a new product line.
Q: Where do you find your inspiration in life?
A: So this is a pretty deep question! My inspiration in life comes from being inspired by the people around me. When I’m at work I’m surrounded by some of the most brilliant individuals I have ever met, and they inspire me to learn a little more, or listen a little more intently every day so I can offer my best to my clients. When I’m around my loved ones, friends and family, their sheer determination and motivation inspires me to be more like them. Whether they’re playing basketball in a spring league, photographing artists around the world or revolutionizing the Big Data space within their well-known tech companies, failure is never seems to be an option, and that pushes me to always go one step further.
Q: In cultivating your own career in technology, what challenges did you overcome and what is your advice for women tackling those same issues?
A: Being a woman in an evolving tech space that used to be dominated by men is pretty interesting. Over the past 5 or so years, I’ve watched an increasing amount of men and woman starting to ‘lean in’, and I have to admit it’s helped to fuel my desire to leave a lasting impact on Silicon Valley. To all the women who are thinking about going into the elusive ‘tech space’ I say “take the plunge!” It’s an enthralling space that is constantly changing and evolving and if you have a thirst for knowledge you will always be satisfied. For women who are in the space and may be feeling as though they’re not a part of the important conversations that are happening in the office I would say speak up – ask the questions out loud, talk to different teams and learn where you could be of some help to others, and most importantly, find a mentor that you can talk to.
Q: If you could take any fictional character out for a drink, whom would you choose and what would you drink?
A: As a child my favorite book was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so my fictional character of choice would be Willy Wonka. The man was a genius who hid himself so that he could create the best candies for all the world’s children. He changed the lives of these kids as they waited for the newest treat from Willy Wonka, but he was so engrossed in making candy that he didn’t have his own family, until one day he needed an heir to his throne. I would love to pick his brain, one oompa loompa at a time, perhaps over chocolate martinis.
Q: What would you tell your 13-year-old self?
A: I would tell myself that failure is not an option. There will be a lot of times where things will not go as planned, but these are all learning experiences and you should embrace them openly because in these moments you will learn the most. I would also tell my younger self to look in the mirror and ask, “Why fit in when you were born to stand out?”
Emma Bauer is a Being Geek Chic Contributor. Clearly, she’s got great taste. She is a PR enthusiast, dog lover, tea drinker, art appreciator, and of course, aspires to Be Geek Chic. Follow her on Twitter: @emmalynnbauer
