Beate Chelette's Blog: The Women's Code, page 32

Can Achievement Be Broken Down Into Steps?

This is the question that I will be answering live during an interview with Ika and Aygun, both of whom are trailblazers and Femigrants.

Ika works at Facebook and she asked me if I would share my story on Facebook Live straight from their headquarters in Menlo Park. Of course I would! So, I am flying in for the day to be interviewed and hang with those two powerhouses.

Most of us Femigrants left our native cities and countries to make a bigger impact somewhere else. We felt deep in our souls that we no longer belonged where we grew up, or we saw an opportunity that we just couldn’t pass up. Some of us made the move with families or a partner, and some of us embarked on this journey solo.

The incredible thing about Femigrants is that no matter how we got to where we are now, we all face some of the same issues.

We want to preserve our native culture, adapt to our new hometowns, and understand our place in this world well enough to make a satisfying life for ourselves.

I feel I have achieved all that. I failed—a lot—along the way, and I also gained some pretty big wins. As you know, part of my mission in The Women’s Code is to share what I did and how I did it. My hope in doing so is for many more Femigrants to follow a proven and tested path.

It would be an honor for me to connect live and in person with you (Facebook Live is interactive) to have a conversation about the steps you need to take to achieve your goals. We’ll also discuss if it is even realistic to think you can turn your dreams into your reality. It’s not an easy road and I know I certainly could have used some guidance.

Step 1: Like the Femigrants Facebook page (so that you get notified when we start)

Step 2: Be online on Friday, August 18th at 5:30 p.m. PST

I can’t wait to meet you there!

Let’s grow!

Beate

 

At her lowest point, Beate Chelette was $135,000 in debt, a single mother, and forced to leave her home. Only 18 months later, she sold her image licensing business to Bill Gates in a multimillion dollar deal. Chelette is a nationally known ‘gender decoder’ who has appeared in over 60 radio shows, respected speaker, career coach, consummate creative entrepreneur, and author of Happy Woman Happy World. Beate is also the founder of The Women’s Code, a unique guide to women leadership and personal and career success that offers a new code of conduct for today’s business, private, and digital worlds. Determined to build a community of women supporting each other, she took her life-changing formula documented it all in a book Brian Tracy calls “an amazing handbook for every woman who wants health, happiness, love and success!”

Through her corporate initiative “Why Acting Like a Girl Is Good For Business” she helps companies with gender diversification training, and to develop and retain women.

If you’d like to book Beate as a speaker on New Leadership Balance or Creative Entrepreneurship for your next event please connect with me.

The post Can Achievement Be Broken Down Into Steps? appeared first on The Women's Code.

The Google Guy Went Nuts—But He Has A Point

It’s been all over the news. The Google engineer who got so fed up after a diversity training session that he published an extensive manifesto. Two of his conclusions, amongst many, are that women on average do not have as high IQ are more prone to anxiety than men, and can’t handle certain jobs.

My first response was what you’d expect from the founder of The Women’s Code, an organization dedicated to bringing Balanced Leadership to companies and teams. I was furious. Another white guy….

Then I sat down and read the manifesto carefully, which I encourage you to do as well.

I believe that something of value can be found in everything. In this instance, I will say the Google guy went nuts—but he has a point.

Reading the manifesto, I pictured a brilliant man with a masters degree from Harvard sitting through training that addressed unconscious and conscious bias, diversity, and inclusion—and becoming mad as hell about it. It seems what he heard was: most men are doing it wrong.

So he sat down and did what smart guys do. He stated his case in the form of a manifesto (yup, it feels like a college paper) against diversity, inclusion, and sexism all while acknowledging that they do exist. It feels like his major problem is that those words are being used to stop someone like him from doing what he does.

He doesn’t want to be told how to act or that he has any advantage over others. The manifesto oozes with the sentiment that he wants to get rid of these problems by making a point.

I Had to Take a Deep Breath

Calm was needed to stop the urge to slap this privileged little so-and-so…

And then I thought about it. His paper is not bad. He presented some food for thought. He comes to the wrong conclusions because he only searches for facts that support his claim. He even acknowledges as much. Fair enough. He intended to provoke us.

Let’s look at the facts.

We all have opinions that we deeply and truly believe. A person’s culture, education, and ten thousand other factors shape what we believe in. We move in circles that agree with us, we watch the type of news that interests us, we like people who are like us. Why do you think he is giving interviews only to the right and conservative outlets?

Put yourself in his shoes.

What if you were in an environment that is contradictory to your beliefs, given information you do not agree with, and told that what you are doing is wrong, no matter whether you do it consciously or not?

I’d bet you would get pretty angry. Manifesto man James Damore certainly did.

Our culture breeds these guys. White men created a culture that perpetuates white man thinking. He is simply the result of his environment. Imagine the author as a guy who is relatively young, probably pretty geeky, with extraordinary intelligence who knows how to research and understands complex problems. He is most likely been told his entire life how smart and extraordinary he is. That’s what got him into Harvard and (I assume) it attracted the attention of Google as well. It’s white elitism all the way. He is all of that. He is used to it. He believes he deserves special treatment.

And then tell him he’s not doing enough, not doing it right, that he has to divert his attention to something beneath him, like supporting others who are different so they can rise to his level.

I think that’s what happened in this case.

He wasn’t having any of it. He aimed to warn Google that discrimination against the brilliance of men like him has to stop. Victimization of white men must stop. That gender diversity, inclusion, and all that good stuff shouldn’t affect what make men like him good and valuable. And that men like him are entitled to their competitiveness, their narcissism, and their elitism because they contribute a disproportionate value to the company.

This brilliant man does not want to feel held back because of some low-level cause, like a woman buckling under the pressure of finding a way to conceive, carry, and raise children while having a career.

Still, He Has a Point

Since I founded The Women’s Code, I’ve been searching for ways to bring balanced leadership into organizations. I am woman who catapulted into the top 10% by selling my business to Bill Gates. I put myself in service of women because I know firsthand as a single mom immigrant how hard it is to rise when you do not come from privilege or are not part of an established family with money and connections.

The problem we have with bias and inequality and lack of diversity stems from the people who built and own the systems. Because those people are mostly white men. They understand the numbers that show diversity is good for teams, they just don’t believe those numbers tell the truth. Just another example of blazing ignorance in the workplace.

True Colors on Display

In the age of Trump, people who feel they are entitled to this privilege are coming forward and telling us what they really think.

This is real. The facade of let’s hold hands and we are all the same has been pulled away. He says it in his manifesto—and he is right—we are not the same.

Equality, diversity, and inclusion have never meant that we, in my case women want the exact same.

We want what is equal.

We have a lot of work to do because this is far from over. It means our programs need to better address men and their strongly-held beliefs. Make context more relatable to men and less like calling them out for bad behavior. Without buy-in from men, equality will never happen.

Equality cannot come at the expense of men because that breeds contempt, as Google guy aptly demonstrates. Equality must include men and programs need to be developed that manage their fears and objections. This is the path to balance. This is the path of The Women’s Code.

 

At her lowest point, Beate Chelette was $135,000 in debt, a single mother, and forced to leave her home. Only 18 months later, she sold her image licensing business to Bill Gates in a multimillion dollar deal. Chelette is a nationally known ‘gender decoder’ who has appeared in over 60 radio shows, respected speaker, career coach, consummate creative entrepreneur, and author of Happy Woman Happy World. Beate is also the founder of The Women’s Code, a unique guide to women leadership and personal and career success that offers a new code of conduct for today’s business, private, and digital worlds. Determined to build a community of women supporting each other, she took her life-changing formula documented it all in a book Brian Tracy calls “an amazing handbook for every woman who wants health, happiness, love and success!”

Through her corporate initiative “Why Acting Like a Girl Is Good For Business” she helps companies with gender diversification training, and to develop and retain women.

If you’d like to book Beate as a speaker on New Leadership Balance or Creative Entrepreneurship for your next event please connect with me.

The post The Google Guy Went Nuts—But He Has A Point appeared first on The Women's Code.

The Power of Femigrants

Women—one of my favorite subjects! Yet, even I will admit that it wasn’t always this way. I certainly didn’t grow up liking other women much, and in the early days of my career I avoided women as much as I could.

Women are Complicated

Or so I thought. Over the years, I’ve realized the power of girlfriends and how important woman-to-woman connections are. I read the studies that say men live longer when they have wives and women live longer when they have… girlfriends. Yes, it’s funny!

Meet Femigrants

The future will be women. And I mean all kinds of women, especially Femigrants. These are diverse women who gave up everything in their home countries because they believe the American Dream is possible. We came here to kick ass—and many of us are doing just that.

Statistics show that immigrants work harder. They are happier, more grateful, and often more successful. Why? Because we don’t take anything for granted. We had to start from zero and knew it was going to take A LOT of work. And then we worked our butts off. At the very least, we want to make sure everyone who doubted us is proven wrong.

Because we are the colorful fabric from every corner of the world speaking with every imaginable accent, we don’t merely understand equality, diversity and inclusion…

We ARE Equal and Diverse

I first learned about Femigrants from femigrant Aygun Suleymanova who works at Salesforce in San Francisco. We met at the Women of Silicon Valley conference where we both had speaking engagements. She’s everything I like. Interesting, smart, charming, dedicated not just to her work but to a bigger cause. Like me, Aygun is big on women’s advancement.

Femigrants is a movement for female immigrants that was founded by Ika Aliyeva. How much did I love it when both Ika and Aygun asked me to share some of my wisdom with the next generation of Femigrants? Both powerhouses will be interviewing me live from Facebook headquarters on August 18th at 4 p.m. via Facebook Live. Please join the conversation.

Are You a Femigrant?

If you are a Femigrant, please do two things:

Go to the Facebook page and like it. That way you be notified about events.
Check out the website (Femigrants.org) and read my interview. Please comment and share with your tribes.

If you are (or know) an awesome Femigrant, please tell me! There is a lot of room to share the information and many who need to hear it.

 

At her lowest point, Beate Chelette was $135,000 in debt, a single mother, and forced to leave her home. Only 18 months later, she sold her image licensing business to Bill Gates in a multimillion dollar deal. Chelette is a nationally known ‘gender decoder’ who has appeared in over 60 radio shows, respected speaker, career coach, consummate creative entrepreneur, and author of Happy Woman Happy World. Beate is also the founder of The Women’s Code, a unique guide to women leadership and personal and career success that offers a new code of conduct for today’s business, private, and digital worlds. Determined to build a community of women supporting each other, she took her life-changing formula documented it all in a book Brian Tracy calls “an amazing handbook for every woman who wants health, happiness, love and success!”

Through her corporate initiative “Why Acting Like a Girl Is Good For Business” she helps companies with gender diversification training, and to develop and retain women.

If you’d like to book Beate as a speaker on New Leadership Balance or Creative Entrepreneurship for your next event please connect with me.

The post The Power of Femigrants appeared first on The Women's Code.

The Blazing Ignorance Of Men and Women In The Workplace

Yesterday, a 72-year-old successful surgeon told me he’s a capitalist and the notion of an imbalance between men and women in the workplace has never even crossed his mind. He’s been the boss all along and believes anything but capitalism is socialism, which in his eyes is women asking for what they haven’t earned.  

Deloitte made a shocking announcement when they revealed that Millennials expect equality and diversity to be a core value of any workplace. Millennials also believe programs that support small minority groups within their organizations are being dismantled because they are unnecessary.  

An article in the New York Times sheds light on why some men, famously including Vice President Mike Pence, won’t be alone in a room with a woman unless she is his wife. The article evaluates a survey by Morning Consult that sheds light on how people feel about Men and Women, Alone Together. Allow me to go through the survey…

Questions were along the lines of whether the participants felt it is appropriate or not for women and men to do certain activities (such has having a drink or lunch, or being in a car) alone with a person of the opposite gender who is not their spouse. 

Brace yourself for the responses. 

Having a drink 

Women: 29% believe it is appropriate to have a drink with a man and 60% disagree.  

Men: 41% think it’s okay and 48% do not.  

It gets weirder… 

Having lunch  

Women: 43% believe it is okay to have lunch with a man and 44% of women think it is inappropriate. 

Men: 53% of men say it’s fine and 36% say it is inappropriate. 

The article also states that conservative and religious respondents tend to think one-on-one interactions are inappropriate for people of opposite genders.  

Are men and women afraid of each other? 

These numbers are shocking for many reasons. The hot debate of feminism has always been about equality. Meaning, women want the same rights, the ability to make the same choices, and to have the same career and money opportunities.  

Feminism got a bad reputation because the perception somehow morphed into demanding women asking for what is not rightfully theirs, or asking for something that we didn’t earn—just like the surgeon believes.

This is why men are fed up with feminism. 

And now we have 75 million Millennials who, according to a survey by Nielsen, feel that equality will be achieved naturally. Does this mean it’s back to business as usual? Not so fast.  

Reading between the lines 

It pains me to say that the crucial numbers remain largely unchanged. The number of women CEOs is not changing. The number of women in C-level positions is not changing. And, overall, the inroads we are making are not that great.  

Study after study says the same thing. I could bore you to death with all the stats I’ve read recently. Remember the blind study of people who code that showed negative bias toward women? Their code was considered “better” when the gender of the programmer was a mystery, but the same code was somehow judged to be “inferior” when gender was revealed. 

Progress happens when we raise awareness and cause opinions and actions to change based on this new knowledge.  

Ignorance is when companies like Deloitte dismantle programs because someone ‘believes’ the problems don’t exist because they are simply too young in the workforce to have ever experienced them. Millennials have not yet hit the management ceiling that we know begins at manager level and only gets more restrictive from there. That’s why we see the huge gap where men advance quickly while women stay stagnant.  

It is up to us whether we are happy to relish in wishful thinking, or want to make a difference by facing the facts. What do you choose?

 

At her lowest point, Beate Chelette was $135,000 in debt, a single mother, and forced to leave her home. Only 18 months later, she sold her image licensing business to Bill Gates in a multimillion dollar deal. Chelette is a nationally known ‘gender decoder’ who has appeared in over 60 radio shows, respected speaker, career coach, consummate creative entrepreneur, and author of Happy Woman Happy World. Beate is also the founder of The Women’s Code, a unique guide to women leadership and personal and career success that offers a new code of conduct for today’s business, private, and digital worlds. Determined to build a community of women supporting each other, she took her life-changing formula documented it all in a book Brian Tracy calls “an amazing handbook for every woman who wants health, happiness, love and success!”

Through her corporate initiative “Why Acting Like a Girl Is Good For Business” she helps companies with gender diversification training, and to develop and retain women.

If you’d like to book Beate as a speaker on New Leadership Balance or Creative Entrepreneurship for your next event please connect with me.

The post The Blazing Ignorance Of Men and Women In The Workplace  appeared first on The Women's Code.

Equality Is Not A Belief, It’s An Action

Yes, you read that right. Equality is not a belief, it’s an action.

The road to equality is bumpy. Most of us know it’s the right thing to do, but why then is it so difficult to get there? 

In my previous article I examined some of the obvious conscious and unconscious biases we are up against when pushing equality forward. Today, I want to go deeper and address some of the organizational issues that are to blame when diversity, inclusion, and equality directives don’t take off. 

Equality Does Not Happen by Wishing Alone 

Let me give you a set of scenarios to ponder upon:

Organization A

Let’s say Organization A decides to add diversity, inclusion, and equality to its core values. The leadership team agrees it sounds good. And since it was your idea, you are rewarded by being in charge of the initiative. Tag—you’re IT! You are left to make it happen with no direction, no resources, and no money. Leadership wishes you luck and says, “Please MAKE US look good and report your successes.” Pretty clever if you ask me. Now the company can say it is making inroads and that it has a program.  

During a recent speaking engagement, I spoke to a wonderful and brilliant woman who shared that she alone IS the equality initiative at her workplace. Her company doesn’t spend a dime on any program or training, although they do allow her to speak on stages about how supportive they are of women. Well, that’s one way of doing it. Estimated date to arrive at goal? Never.  

Organization B

Organization B is willing to put some resources behind equality and provides time and space to put a mentorship, sponsorship, or roundtable program in place. Leadership here has read some of the numbers on the gamut of studies that declare balanced leadership is good for business. With that awareness, their goal is to identify and advance high potentials. However, leadership is not convinced they can get behind this initiative 100% so they go safe and slow.  

In the Organization B scenario, there are aware male leaders who are behind the idea and want to offer mentorship and sponsorship to women in the organization who have been identified as high potentials. Something is better than nothing. The company wants to do something and starts with the obvious—its own internal resources. I see this example most often play out in very large companies.  

The problem is that most male leaders have not been trained in coaching and there is a complete lack of structure, measurables, deliverables, outlines etc.

It is not wise to start an initiative like this without having a plan.

Who will do it, how it will be done, and what will make it successful all need to be considered at the start. Sure, they put forth a commendable effort, but still the initiative lands on the shoulders of those who believe in the idea of equality. It is added to their workload with no outside resources.  

Organization C

At Organization C things are… well, let’s call them the denial company. Founded by white men with big aspirations asking for seed money from other white men, following a white male culture and going after white male targets. This is the beloved start-up with the hot idea and all they need to do is raise money, nail a successful IPO, and deliver shareholder value again and again. The pressure to perform and be the next big thing is huge. 

While all that chasing and intense churning might look good on the spreadsheet, this type of business is in grave danger. We often see a lack of culture development and planning because the organization is built on the flashy personality of the CEO. Who cares about the people? Because this is self-bravado culture at its very worst, think of it as stepping back into Mad Men advertising culture where men could do no wrong. Until, that is, the first muttering that there is an issue with equality, diversity and inclusion here.  

We see this in countless examples, especially in the high-pressure world of Silicon Valley. My prediction is that equality will continue to be the most expensive problem faced by successful tech companies.

It’s only when the problem affects the bottom line that shareholders suddenly become much more amicable to changing the culture.  

Once you or your organization is called out for being sexist, you are buried deep in damage control for years to come. Claims like that follow you like a curse. And now the cost to your business are staggering. From bad publicity, users creating hashtag movements to delete your app, lawsuits, to strained investor/shareholder relationships the damage catalog is broad.  

 Über was caught with its hand in the cookie jar, proverbially speaking. What we suspected all along turned out to be true (“Where are the women?” was finally answered) and the avalanche of sexism, crude comments, and sexual harassment accusations started rolling. In any unbalanced organization, once the first woman opens up about its sexist culture, more will join her. Sexism is rooted so deeply in white male culture that unless there is awareness training, most men don’t even know that a well-meaning compliment could be sexist.  

Drum Roll Please! 

 Here’s THE BEST example, and please roll your eyes with me… 

The President of the United States said to the French President’s wife, “You’re in such good shape.”  

 Lesson: If our own leadership can’t decide whether it’s a compliment or sexism, how can the rest of us figure this out? 

So, What Can Be Done? 

When you turn on the news channel, one thing is clear—the responsibility to create the changes we want to see relies entirely on us. No mandates, no rules, no regulations, nothing matters but what you personally believe in and what you are willing to do to make it happen. 

“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi 

 Personally, I am so over rolling my eyes. I am ready for action. My team and I have created pilot programs ranging from 2 hours to 2 days and we offer a yearlong follow up. We are ready when you are.  

Equality is not a belief, it’s an action. Let’s get moving!

 

At her lowest point, Beate Chelette was $135,000 in debt, a single mother, and forced to leave her home. Only 18 months later, she sold her image licensing business to Bill Gates in a multimillion dollar deal. Chelette is a nationally known ‘gender decoder’ who has appeared in over 60 radio shows, respected speaker, career coach, consummate creative entrepreneur, and author of Happy Woman Happy World. Beate is also the founder of The Women’s Code, a unique guide to women leadership and personal and career success that offers a new code of conduct for today’s business, private, and digital worlds. Determined to build a community of women supporting each other, she took her life-changing formula documented it all in a book Brian Tracy calls “an amazing handbook for every woman who wants health, happiness, love and success!”

Through her corporate initiative “Why Acting Like a Girl Is Good For Business” she helps companies with gender diversification training, and to develop and retain women.

If you’d like to book Beate as a speaker on New Leadership Balance or Creative Entrepreneurship for your next event please connect with me.

 

The post Equality Is Not A Belief, It’s An Action appeared first on The Women's Code.

How Lack of Equality Contributes to Declining Employee Engagement

Just mentioning the word “equality” gets people going. Some men roll their eyes and moan, “Here comes another feminist to tell me what I’m doing wrong.” Some women (especially Millennial women) insist that inequality doesn’t affect their careers. Some Baby Boomer women remark that it’s only real if you let it be. Why such a range of opinions?

The levels of misinformation coupled with blissful ignorance, vehement denial, or frustrated surrender have brought us to this point. We are seeing an unengaged workforce at its peak while opposing views are angrily shouted from both sides. I am declaring that our current rates of equality, diversity, and inclusion are reasons why there is declining employee engagement.

My Experience

Although my background is primarily Entrepreneurial, I did work three separate stints at large corporations. What I found fascinating about the corporate world is that the very thing you are hired for (in my case it was for being “like a fresh breath of air”) is the first thing you are scolded for. We want your new ideas and we want you to bring yourself fully into the fold, and then we will beat your uniqueness out of you as quickly as we can.

I remember when I first learned that lesson. It was a result of NOT spending the entire budget for the current fiscal year within the first six weeks after I started, so my next-year budget was cut accordingly. Just stupid. So wait, I need to spend money even though we don’t have a plan because being fiscally responsible results in punishment?

Corporations beat independent thinking out of you through regulations and employee handbooks, and by desperately trying to be politically correct because they need to reduce risk exposure and arrive at a baseline (which often resembles a flat line).

Why Does Declining Employee Engagement Exist?

Declining employee engagement has a lot to do with employees not feeling seen, heard, or valued.  Too often, the response to this scenario is to get by with doing the minimum.

Because if you can’t see me for who I am in all my colors, why should I invest all of myself only to get shut down?

When we are evaluated against, and forced to follow, the tried and proven way, it’s a continuation of the dreaded school system that most of us didn’t fit and couldn’t wait to leave behind. Now we are back in the same situation and we still don’t like it.

For the company, it means getting only more of the same. The entire system is set up to have the same type of people hire the same type of people (who are just like them) to get the same everything, advance the same way, with the end result of the completely “normal” brotherhood of white men ruling corporations and politics.

How Can It Change?

IT IS SO SIMPLE. The numbers are in. We know engagement is down and we know that with all the effort we are putting toward diversity, inclusion, and equality most companies are barely making a dent. The needle is not moving. It’s stagnant out there.

Yet some organizations, like my client Merck and Co. Inc., and companies like Chevron are trailblazers in equality, inclusion, and diversity. They have put many programs in place and invest a lot of time and money to keep things moving toward balance. I am thrilled to tell you that speaking to the IT group of Merck was very encouraging because there really was a diverse and balanced group in the room. They get it. They understand it is critical for innovation to lead and not follow and be an ongoing continuous effort.

If you have not yet read and understood what equality means for a business, please download this Insights Paper now. It gives you nine reasons why acting like a girl matters.

The numbers are indisputable. And the more numbers and data that come in, the clearer the image emerges. There is no way around getting on board with equality. And really, there is no way around embracing inclusion and diversity, too. The fabric of our times is mixed. Our clients are mixed. Our businesses serve everybody, so it’s only fair to ensure the people who provide our services are diverse as well.

Balanced Leadership is designed to provide the structure for balanced teams through our Sliding Scale of Leadership Attributes. Ultimately, our goal is to remove the labels Female, Male, and Diverse and let the contributions of an individual matter most. But until we reach that maturity, we have to first establish a balance. It’s a challenge I am delighted to take on.

What Should You Do?

Imagine your organization is a luxury cruise ship. Before you leave the dock to start the journey, you must prepare the ship, stock supplies, sell cabins, chart the course, and hire crew.

You WANT a plan and you must put time, resources, and money behind it. Frankly, I am just about exploding with happiness energy seeing some companies push the issue as hard as they are (Salesforce immediately comes to mind). And sometimes, I just shake my head when I hear of a “program” that has no structure, no measurables, no outside facilitator, no money, and is just dumped on the few who championed the idea.

Make a plan and put money and resources behind your initiative before you throw bodies at the problem, because they won’t stay long if the culture remains as it always has been.

The Women’s Code aims to educate women through our grassroots movement and through my book Happy Woman Happy World (as of this week my book is a #1 Amazon Bestseller in USA, UK, France, Germany, Australia). We also offer a corporate training program to bring the message of equality to the workplace. Why not invite us to do a pilot program for your organization?

You Want To Explore

Equality, diversity, and inclusion training are buzzwords. Many will wait for the tried-and-tested way to achieve better engagement (you see how we get back to the same baseline again) because they want proof that it works before they do it.  By that time, the ship may already have left the harbor without you.

Yet, the great explorers we learnt about in school didn’t have proof their ideas would result in anything significant. If you want to be an explorer and discover uncharted territory, you’d better get that ship ready and take a risk. Otherwise, someone else will get all the glory for pushing boundaries.

Call me.

 

At her lowest point, Beate Chelette was $135,000 in debt, a single mother, and forced to leave her home. Only 18 months later, she sold her image licensing business to Bill Gates in a multimillion dollar deal. Chelette is a nationally known ‘gender decoder’ who has appeared in over 60 radio shows, respected speaker, career coach, consummate creative entrepreneur, and author of Happy Woman Happy World. Beate is also the founder of The Women’s Code, a unique guide to women leadership and personal and career success that offers a new code of conduct for today’s business, private, and digital worlds. Determined to build a community of women supporting each other, she took her life-changing formula documented it all in a book Brian Tracy calls “an amazing handbook for every woman who wants health, happiness, love and success!”

Through her corporate initiative “Why Acting Like a Girl Is Good For Business” she helps companies with gender diversification training, and to develop and retain women.

If you’d like to book Beate as a speaker on New Leadership Balance or Creative Entrepreneurship for your next event please connect with me.

 

The post How Lack of Equality Contributes to Declining Employee Engagement appeared first on The Women's Code.

Celebrating Happy Woman Happy World

Our Amazon Bestseller campaign for Happy Woman Happy World started on July 12th. We watched as the rankings went up and Up and UP. By midday we achieved #1 Bestseller status in two countries and we added a couple more countries by the end of the day.

As nothing ever seems to happen without the unexpected curveballs, we started to receive a few frustrated emails from people wondering why I said the book was free when it didn’t look to be free on the site. When I checked it out, the issue was that Amazon displayed the book in a confusing way. It seemed that the book was only free in Kindle Unlimited (which is a paid subscription model). Only if you took a magnifying glass—I am not kidding—could you see a tiny, tiny spot that said $0.00 to buy.

Quickly, I decided to extend the free campaign for another day to offer everyone the opportunity to download the book. I wrote a second email and attached a screenshot to show where the free download option was hiding. That kept us on the Bestseller lists for a second day as hundreds more downloaded Happy Woman Happy World.

Amazon bases the start and finish time of the promotion on where the author is located. In my case, it’s the US West Coast. That means some people in the various time zones where my emails landed weren’t aware of the extended promotion to access the free download.

Because I am committed to supporting you in any way I can, it was an easy decision to continue a greatly discounted promotion. Happy Woman Happy World is available for only $2.99 instead of $9.99 until July 31st. If you couldn’t get your copy earlier, please get the book NOW before it goes up to full price again. It makes for good summer reading.

Some Positive Feedback About the Book

“Thank you for the awesome response! I will be promoting this amongst my friends.” ~ Santhini, Sydney, Australia

 

“Thank you, Beate. I’m really enjoying your book. I’m a nurse in a mostly female environment with some very strong personalities and it’s starting to make sense the way some people behave.” ~ Rhona, USA

Happy Woman Happy World Bestseller Campaign Results

The results of the campaign are phenomenal and I couldn’t be happier. Happy Woman Happy World reached #1 Amazon Bestseller status in:

Australia
Canada
France
Germany
UK
US

In some countries we reached #1 Bestseller multiple times. Yeah, I know it’s strange. Amazon counts the status per category, and Happy Woman Happy World is listed in two different categories per country.

Additionally, we reached Bestseller status (top 100 downloaded books) in India and the Netherlands.

The sum of the effort is that Happy Woman Happy World is a #1 National and International Bestseller on Amazon.

Thank you again for your wonderful support!

P.S. Will you please do me a big favor and review Happy Woman Happy World on Goodreads or Amazon? Let’s share the information. Sharing information is a critical element of The Women’s Code!

At her lowest point, Beate Chelette was $135,000 in debt, a single mother, and forced to leave her home. Only 18 months later, she sold her image licensing business to Bill Gates in a multimillion dollar deal. Chelette is a nationally known ‘gender decoder’ who has appeared in over 60 radio shows, respected speaker, career coach, consummate creative entrepreneur, and author of Happy Woman Happy World. Beate is also the founder of The Women’s Code, a unique guide to women leadership and personal and career success that offers a new code of conduct for today’s business, private, and digital worlds. Determined to build a community of women supporting each other, she took her life-changing formula documented it all in a book Brian Tracy calls “an amazing handbook for every woman who wants health, happiness, love and success!”

Through her corporate initiative “Why Acting Like a Girl Is Good For Business” she helps companies with gender diversification training, and to develop and retain women.

If you’d like to book Beate as a speaker on New Leadership Balance or Creative Entrepreneurship for your next event please connect with me.

 

The post Celebrating Happy Woman Happy World appeared first on The Women's Code.

Shhh… There Is A Surprise For You Waiting on July 12th

It’s time to get your summer reading list together and I want you to add Happy Woman Happy World at the top. To make this decision a no-brainer, I am giving you the book for only 99 cents! But, this price is available for ONE DAY ONLY, on July 12th.

Happy Woman Happy World has a 4.5 star review on Amazon. Our readers have called it a game changer, a must-read, inspirational and hopeful, and said they wished they had read it earlier.

“I wish this book was available when I was just starting out in business.”

“This book inspired me by giving me a new outlook on how women need other women to succeed.”

“Beate’s words are inspirational for any woman that dares to reinvent herself.”

“Brilliant and easy to read.”

My mission is to define women leadership and to take as many women with me to the top as I can. And I sure hope that you are going to be one of them.

Get Happy Woman Happy World today for only 99 cents (eBook only) and allow me to share what I learned in my decade of bad luck, and how I dug myself out of $135,000 in debt. My story has a happy ending. I was able to crack the code and sold my business 18 months after my darkest point to Bill Gates for millions.

We’ve been working around the clock to strengthen our commitment, clarify our message, and laser focus on supporting women like you. Because I know true leaders unite, not divide.

At 99 cents this is an easy decision to make. And here is my promise to you: if you don’t find anything useful in my book, I’ll give you your money back. We know this book has hit a nerve and now we want you to take advantage of our 24-hour 99 cent bargain.

If you’d like us to remind you on the 12th, please go to this page: www.thewomenscode.com/want-it-all and download our free gift to sweeten the wait time. We’ll let you know when the Happy Woman Happy World special promotion goes live.

At her lowest point, Beate Chelette was $135,000 in debt, a single mother, and forced to leave her home. Only 18 months later, she sold her image licensing business to Bill Gates in a multimillion dollar deal. Chelette is a nationally known ‘gender decoder’ who has appeared in over 60 radio shows, respected speaker, career coach, consummate creative entrepreneur, and author of Happy Woman Happy World. Beate is also the founder of The Women’s Code, a unique guide to women leadership and personal and career success that offers a new code of conduct for today’s business, private, and digital worlds. Determined to build a community of women supporting each other, she took her life-changing formula documented it all in a book Brian Tracy calls “an amazing handbook for every woman who wants health, happiness, love and success!”

Through her corporate initiative “Why Acting Like a Girl Is Good For Business” she helps companies with gender diversification training, and to develop and retain women.

If you’d like to book Beate as a speaker on New Leadership Balance or Creative Entrepreneurship for your next event please connect with me.

The post Shhh… There Is A Surprise For You Waiting on July 12th appeared first on The Women's Code.

Quick Question For You – Can you help?

Today I had a great interview with Jaimie, a fabulous single mom who writes for . If you are a single mom, you’ll want to get familiar with that site because it contains so much great information. I will let you know when my interview is up so you can check it out.

Here is what I need help with. During the interview Jaimie asked about one of my blog posts where I discuss using your Super Skill to get noticed. We talked about how women often do not value our own contributions, and some of us don’t even know what our contributions are! (And there are those among us who keep fingers crossed hoping that others will eventually notice how dedicated and good we are.)

I told Jaimie that most women don’t know how to talk about ourselves because, frankly, we’ve been told not to brag. We were just never taught the skills to speak about ourselves in a confident way! Unfortunately, we have mostly been taught to sit down and be quiet.

For that very reason, I teach a breakout session for my women corporate clients that is called: How to find your super skill and create a Professional Value Proposition (PVP).

It starts with a simple idea…

Teach women how to talk about ourselves in a professional manner so that we get noticed, but don’t come across as egomaniacs.

My first question to you is: Do you believe it would be helpful if I were to create an online course with live coaching to teach ALL professional women how to do this?

To convert my materials into an online course, I would design four training modules of about 45 minutes each. The course would include an official Myers-Briggs Personality Assessment through the official MBTI portal. (I usually offer this as a stand-alone for $400 or as part of my VIP Days.)

My second question is: If you could learn in a few hours how to get noticed and tell others what you are really good at without the discomfort of feeling like you are selling your soul—what would that be worth to you? I am looking for a number between $197 and $697 because of the costs associated with a membership site, development, and third party support.

Please comment and share:

a.) If you believe this type of course would be helpful for you.

b.) The dollar value (between $197 and $697) you feel is appropriate considering that this is a professional tool and it will have a real impact on your career.

Thank you, I appreciate your help. Before I develop this I wanted to get your input first.  And your replies are coming to my personal email and I will read and respond.

At her lowest point, Beate Chelette was $135,000 in debt, a single mother, and forced to leave her home. Only 18 months later, she sold her image licensing business to Bill Gates in a multimillion dollar deal. Chelette is a nationally known ‘gender decoder’ who has appeared in over 60 radio shows, respected speaker, career coach, consummate creative entrepreneur, and author of Happy Woman Happy World. Beate is also the founder of The Women’s Code, a unique guide to women leadership and personal and career success that offers a new code of conduct for today’s business, private, and digital worlds. Determined to build a community of women supporting each other, she took her life-changing formula documented it all in a book Brian Tracy calls “an amazing handbook for every woman who wants health, happiness, love and success!”

Through her corporate initiative “Why Acting Like a Girl Is Good For Business” she helps companies with gender diversification training, and to develop and retain women.

If you’d like to book Beate as a speaker on New Leadership Balance or Creative Entrepreneurship for your next event please connect with me.

 

The post Quick Question For You – Can you help? appeared first on The Women's Code.

Sit Down, Be Quiet!

Is This Unconscious or Conscious Bias?

Susan Chira’s article certainly hit a nerve. The Universal Phenomenon of Men Interrupting Women concludes that “academic studies and countless anecdotes make it clear that being interrupted, talked over, shut down or penalized for speaking out is nearly a universal experience for women when they are outnumbered by men.” This must-read article will cause your jaw to hang open as you read story after story of women being interrupted and spoken over by men.

Why are women not taken seriously and why is our input downplayed, ridiculed, or simply ignored?

I wonder, is this bias unconscious or conscious? Is talking over women something that exists today only because it always has? Perhaps this behavior is so deeply ingrained that we don’t even know it is happening. Is this embedded DNA? The men’s code that causes men to stick together and willingly target women as the object of their displeasure? Or, is it a reflex of feeling threatened that makes men deliberately attempt to diminish women’s contribution until women are regarded as small and insignificant? Is this for self-bravado or due to a fear of breaking the brotherhood bond? I’m at a loss. If you have insights, please share them.

Women who speak up and ask questions are NOT admired as daring, bold, and fierce. When we raise our voices to be heard, we are called difficult to deal with, opinionated, disruptive, the b* word—or worse. Jokes are made about our emotional or hormonal state. Our right to our opinion is challenged and we are often considered incompetent or not knowledgeable. All because we have something important to say. This is a big reason why women need other women!

Don’t believe me? Here are some recent public examples:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell objected to Elizabeth Warren’s choice of quoting a letter that was written by Coretta Scott King. Warren was told, “the Senator is to take her seat” when the content of that letter was perceived as violating Rule 19, which basically states that no senator should use words to impute another senator.

During a recent Uber board meeting, Arianne Huffington remarked that more women need to be brought onto the Uber board. Board member David Bonderman said in response, “actually, what it shows is that it’s much more likely to be more talking.” That alone would be bad enough publicity for Uber. But it leaves you speechless when you remember the board members were meeting to address the hostile sexist culture of Uber. Seriously. Bonderman resigned under much public pressure—and that’s how a bad joke can cost you a board position.

Here in California, we elected former prosecutor and outspoken woman, Kamala Harris, to ask hard questions and get answers. Jason Miller, a former adviser to President Trump’s campaign described Senator Harris as “hysterical” and said she was shouting during her questioning of Mr. Sessions.

The problem is pervasive

I wrote about this phenomenon in my book Happy Woman Happy World. I believe this behavior in modern-day men is a leftover from the caveman days where everything revolved around survival. Men sought out other men with the highest skill levels. They tolerated the biggest jerk, even supported him, if it meant survival. Does this remind you of something? Men still do this TODAY!

Women, however, evolved. And history shows that every time women try to make leaps forward, the same men who still believe the same old stuff put us in our place. Literally and virtually.

So, what are we going to do about it? How do we react to being told to be quiet and sit down?

The good news is there are great men out there who have shed their caveman ways and evolved into respectful men of the 21st century. They figured out that the tides have shifted, and they know supporting women is the right thing to do. These men encourage women to speak up and stand up in their organizations so together we can discover new and better ways of doing things.

Turn on your TV and tell me if you think that it’s working out well for the desperate white males who are holding onto their power behavior. Data shows conclusively that we are better together. That means nothing but 50-50% is acceptable.

In the words of an executive at a public company, “When I hire white men I know what the outcome will be. The same as it’s always been.”

I am ready for change. Are you?

At her lowest point, Beate Chelette was $135,000 in debt, a single mother, and forced to leave her home. Only 18 months later, she sold her image licensing business to Bill Gates in a multimillion dollar deal. Chelette is a nationally known ‘gender decoder’ who has appeared in over 60 radio shows, respected speaker, career coach, consummate creative entrepreneur, and author of Happy Woman Happy World. Beate is also the founder of The Women’s Code, a unique guide to women leadership and personal and career success that offers a new code of conduct for today’s business, private, and digital worlds. Determined to build a community of women supporting each other, she took her life-changing formula documented it all in a book Brian Tracy calls “an amazing handbook for every woman who wants health, happiness, love and success!”

Through her corporate initiative “Why Acting Like a Girl Is Good For Business” she helps companies with gender diversification training, and to develop and retain women.

If you’d like to book Beate as a speaker on New Leadership Balance or Creative Entrepreneurship for your next event please connect with me.

The post Sit Down, Be Quiet! appeared first on The Women's Code.