It may be a first for me to delve into the life of a professional lady on this blog – however now is as good of a time as any!

Today, I participated in the Women’s Leadership Initiative event for the Urban Land Institute of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Of course now I am here writing this post from Zingerman’s Deli– the mecca of sandwiches.  Urban Land Institute (ULI), a non-profit, whose mission is “to provide leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide”.  ULI is growing it’s women’s leadership initiative locally in Michigan.  The speaker today was CEO & Founder Denise Hamilton of WatchHerWork  ! OMG if you don’t know about her, she is unreal girl boss leader – it’s kind of funny as I recently came across WatchHerWork and then leave it to my life to have an open invitation within in weeks of discovery to hear the founder speak.   Being a girl boss leader, oneself constantly feels a sense of pressure to be a mentor and provide mentorship for ALL other girls to follow. Having 12+ coffee dates a day while maintain your boss lady status making things happen is just just not efficient.  This is one of the reason leading  Denise to create Watch Her Work – an online platform for female mentorship and how to best handle situations in the workplace.

Her powerful presentation left me with the following take aways:

1. “Don’t ask an amateur for expert testimony” – sometimes we tend to ask our close network of ties for advice, when it actuality we should not just turn to those who we feel comfortable discussing but those who truly can speak on the topic your seeking advice on.  Just this week I was seeking advisement from those who I trust but not those who had a valued level of expertise on the topic –  I found this extremely related ! Luckily the person I trust told me to ask an expert in the field.
2. “Step over laundry” – Which I do, do. I stay lazered focus on the prominent and important tasks.
3. “Stop networking and build a network” – active your relationships, find people that add value to you!  Go deep with your relationships and not as wide –  welcome new friends who would be there to drive the getaway car.  This year I recognized the truth strength in this statement, more so on a personal level vs professional but both can be applicable. Trues are Trues.
4. ” Stop renovating your cocoon ” – Move through your cocoon, that is its purpose. Grow, use opportunity to build building blocks, stand on them and grow.  If you are feeling stale where you are at, pivot.  Don’t just add drapes and a rug to get more comfortable.
5.  “Channel your inner JLO”  –  set the environment to perform and be your most optimal self. Have the courage to create this condition to be the best you can! Get that manicure if it makes you feel better and walk into the room like a million bucks.
6. “Being Ready “ – this is total bullshit, don’t wait to be ready for something, just go do it !! Ie. A  women and a man are both applying for a job, a women feels like perhaps she only has 11/12 traits to fulfill the job description, where the guy has 3/12 traits. The guy just says he is going to go for it because why not!  Girls – let’s be confident in ourselves and go after what we want !!

Basically, you are to solve your own problems and you need to take ownership of your life.  When speaking about other women and introducing them don’t preach on how lovely they are but that this professional women is a warrior whose going to get the job done and you can’t go with any other person for your team!  We need to speak more powerfully about one another.

Let’s make it happen!! for ourselves and others.

Xo Professional Linz