About Michelle De Klerk

Michelle De Klerk is the founder of The Women’s Chapter, a movement for women in business to connect, inspire, and thrive. An entrepreneur herself, she’s also built careers as a journalist, marketing director, and business development consultant. 

About this episode

Listen to Michelle discuss her inspiration and reason for founding The Women’s Chapter. She covers the validation for the work and the need for women in high-impact careers to support each other.

Michelle De Klerk talks about how her various career roles influenced the entrepreneur she is today. Michelle touch on what it’s like being a parent, managing a career, and starting a business. She discusses how parenthood enhances the entrepreneurial service mindset.

In this episode, we talk about:

• 00:00 - Introducing guest Michelle De Klerk
• 1:15 - How Zeze and Michelle first met
• 3:06 - The history behind The Women’s Chapter, a platform for supporting and showcasing women-led businesses
• 8:09 - How Michelle saw the need for a women’s platform and figuring out how to scale in a way that made sense
• 11:27 - What is validation for her Women’s Chapter work
• 15:01 - The challenges behind supporting women in business
• 19:12 - Michelle’s early career in journalism, marketing, and business development
• 20:04 - The influence of her Mom and Dad’s work ethic
• 23:33 - Back to the evolution of her career, the SARS epidemic impact, landing in commodities, and circling around journalism
• 27:34 - Discussion on how entrepreneur have a service mindset
• 29:11 - The demands of running a business and motherhood
• 31:57- Facing work discrimination as a new mother
• 33:57 - How becoming a mother enhances career aspirations, not detracts, and the role entrepreneur plays in finding a system that works
• 35:59 - Meeting Mother Teresa
• 37:05 - Circling back around to Michelle’s professional evolution
• 40:02-42:30: Thoughts about fear being a good thing and tackling fears first
• 42:31 - The recent “aha” moment
• 44:33 - Name pronunciation segment
• 46:07 - How to find Michelle and the Women’s Chapter online

Mentioned Resources

• The Women’s Chapter
• Malée