WIL Talk (Women in Leadership Talk)

How often do you think about your impact on the world? We welcome Tonya Dickenson, Founder and Creative Director at Asymmetric by Design to the show where she shares her journey of having a dream at 10 years old and actualizing that 40 years later.

Tonya combined her creative flair with her business acumen from her pharmaceutical career and created Asymmetric by Design, a sustainable, one-of-a-kind jewelry brand. It is recognized for its socially responsible practices, but more importantly for its empowering, bold, and unique designs that captivate with beauty and narrative. Each piece is created to tell a story with its uniqueness. Tonya has travelled to over 100 countries and has witnessed first-hand the inequalities and impacts of climate change, fueling her purpose to make a difference, specifically to empower women and artisans and protect our planet. Her originality and sustainability commitment shine with accolades like being nominated “Coup De Couer Du President” in her first presence at Montreal Fashion Week.

In our conversation, Tonya shares the importance of leaving a legacy not only to her family but for the planet. Her courage has enabled her to impact initiatives such as her sustainability calculator and membership in 1% for the planet showcasing her determination and dedication to raise awareness, change consumer habits, and protect the planet. Her creativity enables her to repurpose, reuse, and recycle many of the treasures of the world. For Tonya, it is important to consistently live her values which enables her freedom, truth, integrity, and sustainability. She could no longer be shackled by the restrictions of corporate and knew it was time for change. Her purpose is commendable, and we invite you to take a look at the work Tonya creates at www.asymmetricbydesign.

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#sustainability #purpose #fashion #wilempowered #wiltalkpodcast

What does it take to make that move from corporate to being a small business owner? Find out now with Susie Dantas, Ex -executive, at L’Oreal International in Paris, Montreal, and most recently PepsiCo where she spent a very successful career in marketing and innovation. During Covid, Susie had an eye-opening experience and realized she needed to have more flexibility and autonomy. She was intrigued by the idea of combining her passion for beauty with her years of experience in the corporate world to build her own business as a franchise owner with #LaserClinicsGroup, the largest cosmetic clinic company in the world.

Susie’s energy and passion are contagious so be warned as you watch this episode, you will be inspired and energized. She shares with us how she took a step back to reflect on her journey and what it was that got her out of bed every day, the common denominator always came back to people and innovation. She loved the work she had been doing for so many years but knew it was time for a change and with the support of her partner, they visited the franchise show. This opened her to new possibilities and the opportunity to start something for her and her family.

She speaks to the importance of slowing down long enough to listen before making changes whether that is with your career, with your teams, etc. She wanted to be part of something to make you feel good, to do better, and to be better which she has done. Her team at the Square One Mall location in Mississauga, ON, works closely to shadow and bring out the best in each other, what is one person's strength might be an opportunity for the next person, so they focus on how to leverage for the best possible outcomes. Moving to owning your own business brings many different challenges and we speak a lot about what skills can actually transfer. There are way more than you realize.

At the end of the day, it is about taking care of yourself and putting yourself first so that you can take care of everyone else. Making you a priority is critical. The WIL Empowered April Newsletter speaks to just this and the importance of how to fill your cup, you can find that on our website at www.wilempowered.com.

If you are curious about your own leadership, visit us at www.wilempowered.com and take our free leadership quiz.

#beauty #selfcare #laserclinics #wilempowered #wiltalkpodcast

Why is male allyship so important especially for female leaders? Join us as we speak with Dr. Anju Virmani who spent many years as Director of Engineering and is passionate about her role as a director for many boards which include Payments Canada, Ontario Power Generation and Ontario Health. She migrated to Canada at the young age of 20 and sadly her education was not recognized. But she knew she had to find a way to build a life and sustain herself in her new country and even after a lot of discouragement, she decided to switch from child education to computer programming, eventually leading her into engineering where her focus was about solving for complexities.

During our conversation, Dr. Virmani shared with us the opportunities and challenges faced when working in male-dominated sectors, and how she is making a difference for both men and women as they navigate the differences in how we lead. She also speaks about the work she has done to encourage and support students (especially women) in those final years of school by helping with scholarships and mentorship. Her influence spreads wide and far with those she leads and is a role model for.

The power distribution belongs to men – so how do we get better at empowering more women? And how do you ignore the male influence? This becomes critical to change the narrative. Understanding the role male allies play and how both men and women leaders have a responsibility and power to make this change. She shared a great story when she was invited to join a celebration for Diwali and out of 40 participants, she was the only female in the room. The men were congratulatory and communicative, and yes there were no other women in the room. She was comfortable highlighting this and encouraging everyone to change that in the future. She also talks about the importance of ensuring our boys are raised with equality in mind. We can’t make changes unless we are all working toward building a pipeline for a more equitable future.

Another wonderful example she shares is when a male ally invited her to a round table discussion with Prime Minister Stephen Harper…to learn what happened and her first experience being on a board, have a listen.

Are you ready to better understand how you show up as a leader? Visit www.wilempowered.com and take our free leadership quiz.

Enjoyed this episode of #WILTalk, please leave us a review and share with your friends and other women looking to have an impact.

#maleallies #womenonboards #changemakers #womenintech #mentorship #sponsorship #wilempowered

What does it take to champion your cause? Find out how with Shannon Walker, the founder of Northwest Battle Buddies. Shannon has been in the non-profit business since 2012 and has embarked on a journey to support Veterans battling PTSD by providing them with professionally trained service dogs and facilitating their path to freedom and independence.

In the face of the bleak reality where 22 Veterans a day, over 8000 annually commit suicide on American soil, she and her team stand at the forefront of transformation. Boasting a 100% success rate and no lives lost to suicide since the introduction of service dogs, and her pursuit of positive change.

Shannon spent over 30 years as a professional dog trainer working with police organizations, and service dogs, both in North America and Internationally. Her father served in the Korean War and her twin boys also served in the military to fight for our freedoms. During our conversation she dives into why and how to champion your cause, the resilience it requires and the determination to succeed.

She is on a mission for no more lives to be lost to suicide and to date has adopted and professionally trained 245 service dogs, and currently has 90 veterans on a waitlist to be paired with a service dog. The positive impact she is making is remarkable. Her level of commitment to educating and making what is invisibly visible is to be commended. She recognizes the courage our veterans require to step forward and not succumb to the statistics. She also shares the obstacles and the importance of truly trained service dogs that there is an abundance of “fake” ones out there and the importance of educating others on the harm that can happen due to the system being polluted and those looking for hope and a new start.

Her motto is “No one lost to Suicide”. You can find Shannon and her team at www.northwestbattlebuddies.com to learn more about their mission and how you can support them.

Want to better understand your own leadership, visit us at www.wilempowered.com and take our free leadership quiz to learn more.

#veterans #northwestbattlebuddies #servicedogs #wilempowered #wiltalk #purpose

How do you overcome ageism in today’s society? Corinne Aumen, Ph.D. joins us for a conversation to talk about ageism and her new book, “Keenagers”. She is the founder of Choice Care Navigators based out of Greensboro, NC, where her company is dedicated to helping families navigate the aging process. Her passion lies in helping us reshape how we perceive older adulthood, a vision she has beautifully encapsulates in her book “Keenagers”. She is on a mission to change the conversation around aging. Especially in a culture where many avoid thinking about older adulthood until the last minute, she urges us to embrace aging in a positive light.

During our conversation, Corrine explained where ageism comes from and how we have the largest demographic of people over 65 years of age with 10,000 people daily turning 65 and the highest number of people wanting or needing to continue to work.

Research shows that those living a powerful and purposeful life gain a longer life by at least 7 ½ years. If we don’t have purpose that is when we start to see that negative downhill effect usually after the 18-month honeymoon phase. Dr. Becca Levy shares a lot of research and stats on ageism and more about the impact of the 7 ½ years. Corinne urges us to get educated and to better understand that living with purpose helps increase our vitality but also how older generations impact business and healthcare.

She speaks with us about stereotypes and how what we say matters.

Some of those stereotypes in business might include things like:

• Older people can’t learn.
• Older workers cost more money.
• Work is too much for them.

But the benefits of keeping older adults include:

• Maintaining a strong knowledge bank.
• The social acumen.
• Etc.

If we take an example like technology, the older generation is being left out and with having the largest population ever in an older demographic, this becomes highly impactful. Especially when a youngster is creating apps and algorithms’ s that are focused on a specific demographic. And with the acceleration of AI (Artificial Intelligence) it’s even more important to influence the knowledge of older generations to help us shape correctly and with fewer biases.

Healthcare is another area that is impacted greatly as we will often hear doctors explain things away because of age versus the actual problem at hand. It becomes imperative that you advocate for yourself or at least have someone with you to help advocate and get the answers you need.

Corinne urges us to educate and arm ourselves for the day that each of us will eventually get to, ageism impacts everyone and we owe it to ourselves to prepare and enter it prepared.

If you have questions for Corinne that we did not answer in this podcast you can find her on her social feeds on IG, FB, and LI.

Want to know who has been on our most recent podcast or want to learn more about our community events, visit us at www.wilempowered.com and sign up for our monthly newsletter. And if you found this episode interesting please do share with your family and friends, and don’t forget to leave us a review.

#ageism #olderadults #wordsmatter #wiltalk #wilempowered

When your career starts to itch, you gotta scratch it, according to Randi Roberts. After spending 30 years in the corporate world in big pharma, Randi had a variety of roles from sales representative to Executive roles. She is a hippie at heart, Ivy League education, an MBA earned from San Diego University, and is now an Executive and Career-Life coach. During her time with Big Pharma, she loved it and yet knew there was something more for her to do.

Randi shared some tips with us to help us start to identify when that itch begins, sometimes its subtle and other times it can be out right smack in the face, but we should pay attention when we start to feel or begin to:

• Hit the snooze button more regularly on workdays.
• Pay attention to how you are reacting to situations.
• Listen to your body talk, what is it trying to show or tell you? How and where are you out of alignment?
• More irritated by projects, team members, etc.
• Energy is low.

These are just a few to pay attention to and recognize that often it can be situational, or maybe your focus and goals have changed. The key here is to pay attention.

We also discuss some of the current trends happening in the workforce. It used to be known as the 7-year itch and now it’s more like every 3 years people change their jobs but remember, “no matter where you go, there you are” so figure out what is making you itchy at this time before you make a big move. And know that it’s not forever. This too shall pass but being intentional and mapping out where you want to get to, is an important exercise to go through and that is often where a coach can help you to figure that out.

Think about how important growth is to you and what that might look like as you navigate your map. What’s next and what is your risk tolerance in all aspects of your life?

If you want to better understand your own leadership, visit our website at www.wilempowered.com and take our free leadership quiz. This gives insight as to where you might want to focus some of your intentions on your own development.

#confidence #wilempowered #careermap #wiltalk #selfawareness

Being intentional about your career roadmap is a must as a woman in today’s world. Rosie Zilinskas, Founder of “ No Woman Left Behind” believes wholeheartedly in the transformative power of confidence and a strategically crafted career roadmap. She experienced a rich tapestry of over thirty years in corporate leadership and shares with us about her journey and why it is imperative for women especially to craft their career roadmap.

During our conversation, Rosie shared some of her best ideas for building your story vault and making sure you are prepared constantly with those Top 5 accomplishments. How at the age of 9, we are at our peak with confidence and the importance of building critical thinking skills, especially for our young people. In addition, she shared her latest read, “Worthy” by Jamie Kern Lima. In this new release, Jamie does an amazing analogy of how to look at confidence, her example is that your worth is like the foundation of your house where you pour the concrete, and rebar, to ensure it is strong enough to hold the house, and confidence is the house on top, and when someone throws a rock through the window it might shatter the window (confidence) but you can patch that up and yet the foundation is still solid and no harm comes to your worth. I loved this example and the simplicity of her explanation.

Rosie also explains why it is up to you to create that roadmap and to not leave it up to someone else to create it for you, you might not like the path it takes you and so when you don’t vocalize the path to others how are they to know where you want your road to take you.

Have you built your career roadmap? Where do you want to go and how are you communicating that with confidence and clarity?

To learn more about your own leadership visit us at www.wilempowered.com and take our free leadership quiz.

#confidence #careerroadmap #selfworth #wilempowered #wiltalk

Each of us has our own individual journey to take and one woman’s journey with Celiac disease and the IVF process has led her on the path to discovering wellness products that are safe for you, your body and your family. Kori Estrada, Co-Founder of Risewell, joins us for a conversation to discuss how she and her partners are disrupting the oral care industry with an all-natural, sustainable brand that prioritizes safe ingredients and transparency.

During our conversation, Kori shared how life’s unexpected turns have prepared her for the innovation and work she does today. From investment banker to entrepreneur and how the 2008 financial crash, her experiences on her food journey to healing Celiac disease, to her experience with the IVF process to understanding what she was ingesting orally and/or topically to the impact that was having on her hormones. All of these stages have forced her to look for other ways to heal and to do so more naturally. We have an in-depth discussion around fluoride and the damage it causes, plus how “natural” doesn’t always mean good for you or truly natural. We discuss the use of hydroxyapatite, which was discovered back in the 70s by NASA when returning astronauts needed to rebuild their enamel, and the fact that 60% of the market in Japan’s oral care products use this ingredient. But why in North America do we not? Listen in to find out. And last but not least we enter the world of microbiome and the importance of what is killing it in our bodies. You don’t want to miss this conversation especially if you have kids or have been using fluoride.

Interested in staying in touch on activities happening at WIL Empowered? Sign up for our monthly newsletters, at www.wilempowered.com, to find out what hot topics we are discussing and what podcast guest you will want to listen to. If this topic has been of interest please do share with a friend and be sure to leave us a review.

#oralcare #safeoralproducts #naturalproducts #IVF #celiacdisease #wilempowered

Imposter syndrome is a very real phenomenon that many individuals encounter so what do you do about it? Irene Sim, founder of the Coaching Alliance Group joins us to share her story where at the young age of 10 she encountered her first experience with having to speak up to the power that could change her and her family's life, then a second time when she migrated to Australia and didn’t feel like she belonged. Always struggling with this pit and ickiness in her stomach and then she realized her power when remembering the courage of her 10-year-old self.

She shares with us how we marinate in social expectations and tend to internalize and make these messages our realities. But we don’t have to. During our conversation, she graciously shares her 4 step method of overcoming. 1) Call it out, 2) Lean into the ABCD process 3) Marvel at what happens and then celebrate it 4) Let your inner champion rise to the call.

You have to listen to the full episode to really capture her ABCD method and I highly encourage it. Practical and informative, a gift that she shares beautifully. Her next mission is to put full attention on the systems we have and by creating her Allies in Leadership Network we can use privilege to make great changes.

Irene spent many years as a Senior Executive Service of Australia Treasury and Taxation Office, now turned Executive Coach supporting others of all stages on their journey to break free from societal biases, set their own terms and thrive as authentic and powerful leaders.

If you want to know you show up as a leader, visit us at www.wilempowered.com to take our free leadership quiz, and learn things about yourself that you might not have been aware of.

#Impostersyndrome #leadership #exerciseyourvoice #power #wilempowered #wiltalk

Building your personal brand is not just a nice to do, it is a must-do. No matter how introverted or against social media you are - building your personal brand is critical on so many levels. During our conversation with Kate Pozeznik, who is a personal branding expert, she shares her views on how, why, and what you need to do to build your personal brand. One of the most important aspects of building your brand is to know that 70% of employers evaluate candidates by watching what you say and how you say it. This is one important way for employers to keep an eye on how you are being inside and outside of your place of employment.

We also discuss how our identity gets tied to our careers and that we are so much more than our careers. We are leaders, moms, sisters, community activists, friends, thought leaders and the list goes on and on. Our identity is not what we do but more about who we are, what are we known for, our values, and to make it personal and yet still professional. So building your brand and being authentically you is more important than ever. Kate shares wonderful tips on how to get started such as updating your LinkedIn profile and using Canva to create a banner for your backdrop. But it’s not just about having a LI profile, it’s about setting yourself up as a thought leader and many of us think “What do I have to share that would interest others?” Chances are if you are thinking that someone else is thinking the same thing you have the opportunity to engage with other like-minded individuals.

She also recommends you google yourself – by conducting a social media audit you ensure that what is online is reflective of who you want the world to see and get to know. These are just a couple of her tips, have a listen to learn more and if you have questions please feel free to reach out. Or if you know someone who would gain from listening to this episode of the WIL Talk podcast please do share with them.

Kate Pozeznik is a personal branding expert and founder of Quirk. She has been cited in Buzzfeed, AARP, and Upworthy. She is also an ADHD and mental health advocate, avid traveller, Salsa and bachata dancer and so many more interests.

If networking is not your thing, maybe it’s time to start loving it. Visit us at www.wilempowered.com to learn about our own demand networking course and move from hating it to loving it. Monthly we host live Q&A sessions where you build your networking skills, ask questions and make new connections.

#personalbranding #networking #connecting #identity #wilempowered #wiltalk