Run it Like a Girl

Lana Paton was a fresh Chartered Professional Accountant, working for another firm, when she received a call from a friend over at Price Waterhouse Cooper asking her to join PwC in tax services... That was over 25 years ago. On this episode of Run It Like a Girl, Lana, who now sits on PwC’s Canadian leadership team tells us, one thing she’s learned is that you don’t need a fancy title to be a leader.

Lana sits on the board of the Make a Wish Foundation, and she was named one of WXN Canada’s 100 most powerful women.  She talks to us about mentorship, something she says is critical to one’s career.

Sherri Stevens took a risk, and it paid off. Her decade long dream of being a flight attendant had fallen flat.  After a couple of years in the industry, Sherri discovered, it was definitely not the profession for her. With no job and no money, Sherri left Toronto to live with her mother in a small apartment in her hometown of Woodstock.

Desperate to find work, Sherri, noticed that there was only one staffing service in the small southwestern Ontario city. Sherri started Stevens Resource group, which eventually evolved into an international workforce training and development company, with offices in Canada and the United States.

Sherri is a two-time recipient of the Women’s Executive Network Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada award, and now she actually owns WXN, an organization that works to advance, develop and recognize professional women in Canada.

On this episode of Run It Like a Girl, Sherri tells us, that as her business took off, some lessons were learned the hard way.

Please note: In the episode we talk about Erica being the first woman from the ranks to become a combat diver. Erica was unaware at the time that another woman (Misty Shearer) received her combat diver coin first.  Erica and Misty connected and it was a good news story. We also featured Misty on our podcast! Be sure to check her out. 

Erica Oliver has been in the Canadian forces for over 20 years and tells us that it wasn’t she who chose the military, but rather the military that chose her. Erica joined the regular forces with the sole goal of becoming a combat diver, which took her six years to accomplish….six years, she says, of being told that there was no way she could do it. 

Erica talks about her 4 international deployments including two to Afghanistan, and says the military does an excellent job of preparing its troops for the physical demands of a war zone.  She says the mental demands, however, are almost impossible to prepare for.

Andrea Cook calls herself a career advertising girl, although she graduated from university as an economist, thinking she might want to be a trader. Following an internship, it became clear to Andrea that stock market trading was not in her cards, and she made a sharp turn towards advertising.

Andrea is now the president of FCB/Six, an award-winning digital advertising agency, with offices in Toronto, Montreal and New York City. In this episode, she tells us about the gains women have made in the ad industry, despite the fact that it has traditionally been a male-dominated business.

Kristina Schwartz started out working with at-risk youth, working the midnight shift so she could spend time at home with her young daughter. When the mental and physical toll became too great, Kristina set in motion, a plan that would allow her to spend time with family, and make a living.  Kristina opened a daycare out of her home. 

After the passing of her grandmother, Kristina realized that she was meant to do more. She formulated a five-year plan to become a daycare licensor and close her own daycare to focus on overseeing others using the philosophy of childcare that she believes in. 

Two years later Kristina has closed her doors and now oversees more than 20 home daycares. Kristina has had mentors along the way, people to help guide her through the paperwork and red tape of being a daycare licensor, but she says, mentorship has always started with her grandmother.

On this episode of Run it Like a Girl, Kristina explains why she isn’t interested in expanding, for the time being,   and she warns potential business owners that work/life balance can be thrown into disarray when first starting out.

Links: Little Lambs Home Daycare: https://www.littlelambshdc.com/

Virginia Brailey originally had visions of a career in high finance, but after taking The Canadian Securities Course to become a stockbroker realized that wasn't the path for her, and found her passion in marketing. Virginia is a strong proponent of collaborative, fun work environments, and spends much of her time bringing in people with diverse backgrounds, and diverse ways of thinking to create teams that do amazing work.

On this episode of Run It Like a Girl, Virginia tells us that she’s an optimist, and believes there has never been a better time to be a woman. Virginia, who’s on the advisory board of Women of Influence discusses mentorship, the importance of being an authentic leader, and  talks about some of her personal inspirations including Michelle Obama, Malala and her mom.

Sarah Kaplan is a professor at Toronto's Rotman School of Management and the director of The Institute for Gender and the Economy. As a professor and author, Dr. Kaplan has also been interested in gender equality issues, and has herself faced barriers and biases since beginning her career.  

It was in 2016, 30 years after Sarah's first day of work that she woke up and realized how little progress has been made. It was at this moment Sarah realized she needed to do this as her day job, not just as something on the side. On this episode, Dr. Kaplan tells us about the serious changes that are needed, and that we all have an obligation to call out discriminatory practices. If we don't we are part of the problem, by actively participating in a society that perpetuates discrimination. 

In this episode Run it like a girl host Bonnie Mouck talks about why she started podcasting, what it means to be an authentic leader, and why she stopped caring about not knowing what she wants to be.

Dr. Ann Marie Vaughan had two challenges as she progressed through student leadership at Memorial University in her home province of Newfoundland. Not only was she female, but Ann Marie was always the youngest. She started university at 16 and ran for student government in her third year.  By the age of 21, Ann Marie had advanced through to president of the largest student union in Atlantic Canada, the third woman to hold that role.

Ann Marie is now the president of Loyalist College in Belleville, Ontario following a 5-year stint as the president and CEO of Newfoundland’s College of the North Atlantic. Her advice to young people:  take opportunities, don’t be afraid of failure, and seek out mentors.

Sevaun Palvetzian heads up Civic Action, an independent organization in Toronto that uses a collaborative approach to come up with solutions to some of the most pressing urban challenges. Civic Action has been around for nearly 15 years, starting as a Toronto-specific city building organization and expanding to cover the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas. CivicAction is considered to be the premier civic engagement organization in the country.

Following her achievement of a Masters in American History, Sevaun left Canada for an internship in Washington DC, where she worked with a program called Presidential Classroom. And what started as a 4-month internship, turned into a four year adventure in the American capital.

On this episode of Run It Like a Girl, Sevaun talks about her very first and most valuable mentors - her parents.  She gives some tips on how to find your voice and make sure you own your seat at the table, whether it be a kitchen table, classroom table or boardroom table.