What is your name, age, and location?
Suzanne Bates, Boston, MA – United States.
What is your profession?
CEO, Bates Communications, Inc.
What did you study in school and what degrees do you have?
BS Journalism, University of Illinois.
What was your first job?
In high school? I was a lifeguard. First professional job: television reporter, Rockford Illinois.
Who or what inspired you to break into your current line of work?
My father who told me you can be whatever you want to be. He was an attorney. I had planned to go to law school. But after college I wanted to take a break, and landed a job reporting the news. I loved it and my dad encouraged me to follow my passion.
Name/describe what has been your most rewarding project so far?
Writing three best-selling business books has been a wonderful journey. I’ve learned so much by interviewing and writing about leaders. Speak Like a CEO is now in its 11th printing and published in five languages. My new book, Discover Your CEO Brand, has already hit three business best-seller lists on Amazon.com.
Name/describe one incident when being a woman has helped your career?
In television, being the first woman to walk in the door of several newsrooms was an advantage because I stood out. It’s almost unimaginable but it was only a little over two decades ago when women were still a novelty in television news. Today I’m delighted to see so many women rising to the top of that profession. And television was a tremendous launching pad for a successful business.
Name/describe one incident when being a woman has hindered your career?
I can’t think of a single time in my life when I’ve felt that being a woman was a disadvantage. I think women can get trapped in that kind of thinking. In my work with women leaders I have seen how women who know who they are and what they stand for build strong brands and rise to the top.
Please say a few words about your experience with the work-life balance.
You have to make choices. For a period in my life I was a single mother so I chose not to take a network news reporting job because it would mean weeks at a time away from my daughter. Although it had been a long time dream, I realize now, that as I connect the dots backward it opened the door to starting a business and becoming an entrepreneur, and I would have missed my calling in the second half of my career.
Who is your role model or mentor (alive or dead)?
Without question my father who was a remarkable force in my life. As an attorney in a small town, he modeled the values that are important to me and told me I could be anything I wanted to be.
If you could give one piece of advice to a woman starting out in your field, what would it be?
Starting out as an entrepreneur is something you can do at any point in your life, but if you’re starting a business as a second career, I would say do it sooner than later. Be confident, work hard, believe in yourself, follow your instincts, and know that you will learn as you go.
Links:
Follow Suzanne on Twitter: @CEOCoachBates
– Interview by Elena Rossini
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There’s only one real sin, and that is to persuade oneself that the second-best is anything but the second-best.
– Doris Lessing
(b. 1919) British writer. In 2007 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
What is your name, age, and location?
Sally Kohn, 34, Brooklyn, NY – United States.
What is your profession?
Community organizer turned pundit.
What did you study in school and what degrees do you have?
Would I seem like a bad influence if I say it’s irrelevant? I majored in psychology as an undergrad because it was the most interesting course my freshman year. Then I went to grad school and got a dual masters in nonprofit management and a law degree. I guess law school taught me how to argue better, and all learning sharpens your analysis – but really, I’m not doing anything related to what I studied.
What was your first job?
Since I’m guessing you’re not interested in babysitting, let’s jump to college. My first job was an internship at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. For the first year I was there, my main task was to cut news articles out of the newspaper and arrange them nicely with headlines, etc., on a blank piece of paper so that they could be photocopied to create nice looking clip archives.This was post-mimeograph but pre-desktop publishing.
Who or what inspired you to break into your current line of work?
I became an organizer because I wanted to change the world. I was raised to recoil at the deep injustices throughout our society. When I came out in high school, some of the reactions (not from my adoring and supportive parents but from the surrounding universe) brought the sting of injustice too close to home. I think that experience instilled in me a gut need to fight for equality and justice for all. Everything I’ve done has been toward that end.
Name/describe what has been your most rewarding project so far?
Parenthood. It’s humbling in a way I never imagined and puts the rest of existence in perspective.
Name/describe one incident when being a woman has helped your career?
Being not only a woman but a proud feminist activist has connected me to a community of amazing, strong, inspiring women leaders who have mentored and supported me throughout my career. I couldn’t be where I am without that community!
Name/describe one incident when being a woman has hindered your career?
Oh, gee, we got rid of sexism when Reagan was president, right? Any woman who thinks her career has NOT been hindered by sexism must have eyes that are glued shut.
Please say a few words about your experience with the work-life balance.
One of the most encouraging things I’ve seen in the last decade or so is evidence (anecdotal as well as research) that young men are increasingly struggling with the work/life balance thing, too. Which means the next generation can suffer miserably together! Honestly, the term is mis-leading. You can never achieve balance. You are constantly trying. It should be called work/life balancing.
Who is your role model or mentor (alive or dead)?
I have so many I wouldn’t know where to begin, but let me give two extraordinary examples. Early on in my career, the great radical activist and scholar Urvashi Vaid, who when I was still in college graciously took me under her wing and taught me not only to see the world through a sharper lens but showed me how I could make a career trying to make a difference. More recently, the phenomenal media pioneer Geraldine Laybourne has taught me how to translate political organizing into the media sphere and given me enormous encouragement and support to experiment and try on new roles.
If you could give one piece of advice to a woman starting out in your field, what would it be?
I think the key to everything is balance. On the one hand, you want to be angry at the injustice all around us. On the other hand, you have to keep a sense of humor and perspective or you’ll be paralyzed. On the one hand, you don’t want to change yourself to conform with the status quo and the expectations others have of you. On the other hand, you certainly need to be listening and adapting to the environment in which you’re working so you can maximize your influence and impact. On the one hand, you want to advocate for yourself and your ambitions. On the other hand, you want to be part of a community, part of building up and lifting up other women and leaders around you so we can make our bigger, broader goals of change ultimately possible. Like I said above, you never achieve balance – but hopefully you’re always striving for it.
Links:
Follow Sally on Twitter: @sallykohn
– Interview by Madeleine Gyory
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