Smashing the Glass Ceiling #FearlessFriday by Susie Black

FEARLESS FRIDAY

Please welcome Susie Black back to Discover... Her Fearless Friday tale is for sure fearless, and I'm happy to say successful. It's a great story, so read on! And be sure to read to the end where the link to a free swimwear fit guide is just for you.

My maternalgrandmother had two favorite expressions: Man plans and God laughs, and nothingturns out the way you think it will. She believed things happen for a reason,even if we don’t always understand why. She warned me to be careful what Iwished for since I might get it. That sometimes God punishes us by granting usour wishes, and other times God saves us by not granting them. And that Godhelps those who help themselves. As I’d come to learn, my wise nana had thesecret of life down pat. 

At the end of mycollege freshman year, my dad, a ladies' apparel sales rep, got a hugeopportunity and moved my family from Los Angeles to Miami. Relocating from hipLA to “God’s waiting room” failed to excite me, and I chose not to go. 

Three years later,armed with my journalism degree and a blind idealism only the young cansustain, I dreamed of being a writer, but fate had other plans. A family crisisthrew me into an improbable situation. During an Atlanta trade show, my dadneeded to leave to attend to the crisis and reached out to me to take over thetrade show in his place. I pointed out the obvious to my dad…that the onlyexperience I had with ladies’ apparel is that I wore it. Nonetheless, this wasmy father…so how could I turn him down? Of course, I couldn’t. 

After only an hourof apparel sales lessons, my dad left me to run the tradeshow for three days.Miraculously, I wrote a huge number of orders and my dad offered me a job as asub rep. Graduate school wasn’t appealing, so I accepted my dad’s offer. 

Baptism by firegot me into the rag biz. My life veered off in a completely different directionthan I intended, and it would never be the same. Despite not knowing a soulthere, I moved from Los Angeles to Atlanta. After a week of training, I becamea manufacturer’s sales representative and traveled a territory comprised offour states in the deep south. 

While the majorityof people were friendly, nothing could have prepared this California kidfor the culture shock of living in Dixie. Completely foreign social mores- includinganti-Semitism and countless acts of racial discrimination- different cuisine,and a stifling hot and humid climate I never got used to made it seem as thoughI had moved to another country, and not just another state. 

Schlepping sixcanvass garment bags filled with heavy samples in and out of numerous storeseveryday…it was a tough way to make a buck, and I earned every plug nickel withmy sweat, tears, and aching back. 

As a woman workingin a traditionally male-dominated industry, I had to prove myself every day.When I started my apparel sales career, no other woman did what I did inthe deep southern states. Depending upon who you spoke with, I was eitherfamous or infamous-but one thing was certain: I was the talk of the garmentindustry. No one-except my mentor father and me- thought I’d last aseason. 

Grit and stubbornperseverance to prove them all wrong kept me going, no matter how daunting the
challenge. And prove them wrong I did- and succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.I took a sledgehammer to every glass ceiling I encountered and smashed it tosmithereens. And the bonus? I opened many doors for the next generation ofwomen executives to succeed in male-dominated industries. 

But if it wasn’tfor my nana urging me to “Keep a journal. Get all your experiences down onpaper. Maybe this is the reason you’re in the rag biz. This must be the storyyou’re destined to write,” I doubt if I ever would have leveraged mysuccessful ladies’ apparel sales career into a writing gig. 

It was my dailyjournal entries chronicling the interesting, quirky, and often challengingcharacters I encountered and the crazy situations I got myself into and out ofthat gave me the stories I’d ultimately write and thanks to Nana, my lifecompleted the destiny of its circle.

Link for Swimwear Fit Guide

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7lerp4cy1al2j0l/CHOOSING%20THE%20RIGHT%20%20SWIMSUIT.pdf?dl=0

Susie's latest great book released November 15.  CLICK HERE

Holly Schlivnik dreams of being a writer, but fate has other plans. A family crisis throws her into an improbable situation and her life will never be the same. Determined to make her own luck when things don’t happen the way she plans, the irrepressible young woman takes a sledgehammer to the glass ceiling and shatters it to smithereens. The wise-cracking, irreverent transplanted Californian goes on a raucous, rollicking rollercoaster ride of hysterical adventures as a ladies' apparel sales rep traveling in the deep South and finds herself along the way.

Susie Black biography

Named Best USAuthor of the Year by N. N. Lights Book Heaven, award-winning cozy mysteryauthor Susie Black was born in the Big Apple but now calls sunny SouthernCalifornia home. Like the protagonist in her Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series,Susie is a successful apparel sales executive. Susie began telling stories assoon as she learned to talk. Now she’s telling all the stories from her garmentindustry experiences in humorous mysteries.

She reads, writes,and speaks Spanish, albeit with an accent that
sounds like Mildred fromMichigan went on a Mexican vacation and is trying to fit in with the locals.Since life without pizza and ice cream as her core food groups wouldn’t beworth living, she’s a dedicated walker to keep her girlish figure. A voraciousreader, she’s also an avid stamp collector. Susie lives with a highlyintelligent man and has one incredibly brainy but smart-aleck adult son whoinexplicably blames his sarcasm on an inherited genetic defect.

Looking for more?Contact Susie at:

Website: www.authorsusieblack.com

E-mail: mysteries_@authorsusieblack.com