Bridget, I am so excited to have you here today with me, and I’ve known you for many years. Yeah. And one characteristic that really sticks out in my mind about you is you’re a great connector and network of people, actually women. You’re really good at networking with men, women. So can you tell us how you develop this passion for helping others, especially women?

Yeah, I mean, I think that, um, I think you know a little bit about my background and thank you so much for having me, um, having me on your podcast. But, um, I think, you know that I grew up in a, in a family and a, with a life that did not have a ton of privilege. I didn’t, I. Like actually know people who had professions, like the professions we have.

And when I finished college, I very quickly realized that the way I was going to make it in this world was through meeting people and connecting with them. And I was very lucky. My first job out of college was through a connection of a friend of a friend who, somebody who very generous and really down with me, talked background and

Um, what the opportunities for me within his company might be. And I have forever been grateful to him for that experience. And one of the things that I took from that was, this is how the world works. Like I quickly figured out after college that that was the thing that was really gonna help me set myself apart from other people because I didn’t have a, you know, amazing pedigree.

I didn’t have a family that had connections. Um, I really like am up from my bootstraps as I think, you know, and, um, it’s the thing that I just sort of started my career with and I’ve kept with it, both with men and with women. I have, you know, an incredible network of women friends and professional colleagues, but also with men.

Like, I think it’s super important that you network across the board and that your network really reflects the, the world that you wanna live in. Thank you so much for that. I mean, when we look back on your career, it’s been this kind of winding odyssey of retail and tech and now your founder and CEO of your own business, which is very exciting to and from.

But there’s really not enough female leaders in retail or specifically the tech space for sure. And so they’re, they’re not, we’re not able to elevate women in those higher ranks. The road can be difficult and challenging. So can you tell us a little bit about maybe some of the significant challenges you faced on your path to leadership and how you overcame them?

Yeah. I mean, I don’t think anyone’s ever referred to my career as an odyssey, but, um, I’ll take it.

The thing for me, and I’m sure for many other women in retail is when I went to college, I was a first generation college student when I went to college, the thing I wanted to do when I got out of college was make sure I did not work in retail. I worked in retail my entire life, like high school, college, so I paid for college, and I just thought that it wasn’t like a real career.

And man, was I wrong. I started working in an investment bank and doing equity research and I was like, this is actually really boring and I missed, I actually missed retail, so I went to business school to go back, back into retail, and I just didn’t know that it was a path. Even then when recruiters would come onto campus, and at the time it was when like Ann Taylor and The Gap and all these retailers had great training programs, but even the marketing of those programs felt like they were training you to work in a store.

And of course, there’s nothing wrong with working in a store. Store is a great path. Like I’ve spent so much of my career in stores physically. But at the time it just like the marketing of it wasn’t, and if you look at like the work that people like Ron Thurston are doing around like elevating the path of the professional career that you can have outta retail, it’s really incredible and I think it is like a very different time now.

And, but even when I was working in retail, when I was working, you know, for, for brands like L’Oreal and Ralph Lauren and Tiffany and Co, I still didn’t know that you could then make this jump to technology A, there wasn’t a playbook. So I think it’s like one of the things that I always encourage.

Encourage young people who are coming outta college that I’m talking to about what their jobs are going to be like. I always encourage them to look at retail as a like really legitimate, amazing career because it has been for me and I know it has been for you as well, saying, uh, I love what you said about trying to holds female leaders back and what can we do to pave that road for young women or students that are embarking on this leadership path in retail or retail tech or FinTech.

I mean, I think across the board there are a couple of things that hold women back. First is fear. Like I think we are, as women, we are, the thing that I see is that women are just a little more conservative than men. Um, not to be like grossly generalizing, but I think that, you know, you see it in data and statistics all of the time.

Like a woman’s gonna apply for a job. If she has 80% of a skill, a man will apply for. And, um, I think that is partly because of like the, the, the conservative nature of being a, you know, a wife and a mother and like being the person in your family that is like really concerned about the stability of your home life, maybe more than career advancement.

So like I definitely think that that’s part of it. Um, and part of it’s just like the, the social constructs of the world we live in are not set up really for women in a very generalist, in very generalist terms. Like we don’t have great childcare access to childcare. It’s very expensive. We don’t have great like family leave policies, we don’t have great maternity leave.

And, um, while. In my career and in my lifetime, we’ve made progress. We’re still well behind the rest of the developing world. And I think that, you know, that plays into it. It’s why you see women step off of the career path when their children are young because they feel like they can’t hold it all together.

And um, like that’s the biggest. Like the biggest shame to me is when I’ve had really good colleagues who are so smart, brilliant at what they do. They’re like, oh, I’m gonna take time off to spend with my family. Totally respect that decision. And I think it’s like amazing that you can take that time with your kids, but then it’s harder to come back into the workforce at the same level or at the same place.

So then you have this like big disruption of skill. Um, maybe that’s more than you were asking for, but that’s, that’s like how I, how I think about it. I think you’re spot on with that and I do think, uh, our society has, doesn’t set us up for the success that women should be enjoying in their careers. So I agree with that.

Um, let’s switch gears here and talk about role modeling, mentoring. One of your favorite things, I know you love to mentor. So our mission in doing this podcast is really to provide inspiration for future female leaders, but also to help any existing leaders that are out there, you know, in our industry to succeed.

So how do you actively mentor and support the development of future female leaders, and how do you incorporate mentorship into your everyday life? Yeah, I mean, I would say that I don’t, um, discriminate on my mentorship. Uh, if anything, I really focus on try. I’ve always tried to really focus on mentoring, mentoring young people in their careers when I see something of myself in them.

So, um, I’ve had a lot of mentees who are, um, like first generation college students or maybe first generation American. That wasn’t my experience, but I think a lot of the same. A lot of the same access to experiences and information happens when you don’t grow up in. In the same kind of like family that my child is growing up in.

You know, I didn’t have access to people who had these interesting careers and, um, I didn’t know that I needed to like, find an internship when I was in high school and in college. And it just, that that flow of information wasn’t the same. Of course, it was a different time, but. That’s where I really try to lean in with mentorship is to help expose, um, young people and people early in their career to all of the opportunities that are out there and really to help share my network with them to help, um, give some of that opportunity that they might not natively, um, have access to.

That’s great. The other question I have is, you are very good about listening to people, and you really are great about listening to different perspectives. So can you share with us a little bit about how you make sure that you are listening to diverse perspectives, that those perspectives are valued and integrated into the decision making process?

Yeah, I mean, I think you have, and especially. Now in today’s world, you have to make sure that you have diverse perspectives, and the data shows that diverse perspectives everywhere from a small decision to the boardroom, um, help make for better, better decisions. Like the data is very clear that when you have diversity in a discussion or in a conversation that you’re.

Objectively and subjectively, I think that you need to do this and you need to build this into the way you think about your career and decisions that you’re going to make. And one of those things is just being intentional about it, like being intentional. Like when we started building the advisory board for, to and from the company that, um, that I started a couple of years ago, it was very intentional that I wanted a good representation, both of age diversity.

Experiences because you need all of those inputs to make the best decisions. So I think like being intentional about it is not to, not to overuse that word, but I do think that you have to set out with some intentionality because if you don’t, then you’re going to lean on your closest networks that may or may not be, that may or may not have that diversity that you need.

That’s a good point. You rely on that comfort zone of your inner circle. Yeah. So, um, the other thing is, you mentioned earlier, I wanna go back to something you said about women and how, you know, they will take time off. Um, I’m hearing more and more especially coming out of the pandemic about, you know, this kind of burnout.

This we’ve heard about quiet, quitting, all these things. You know what, what do you do to maintain a better, well-balanced and avoid burnout? Or can you give advice to future leaders about, you know, you said something about trying to do it all. Uh, and we do feel like we have to try to do it all. Yeah. How do you balance your work and or I like to say life work balance.

Yeah, I mean, honestly I don’t know that I do it very well, so I don’t know that I’m the best person to give this advice, but there are a few things that, um, I try to try to dial into. One is just recognizing when you are approaching that burnout moment and giving yourself permission to step back. I think just allowing yourself that permission and understanding that just because you’re gonna.

Step back from a project or, or a, um, responsibility doesn’t mean that you’re going to lose your job or that you’re gonna be thought less of or whatever. Um, but the thing that goes alongside of that, I think that’s really important. And the thing I really try to do, and you know this about me, is transparency.

Like, I think if you have transparency in what’s happening in your life and you say to your team or you say to your boss. I’m feeling really burnt out. I’m gonna take Friday off or, um, you know, I feel like, like especially this year coming outta the holiday season, we were just like, I mean, it was a great problem to have, but I was incredibly busy every day.

I was really like, you know, like I start my morning really early at like five 30 and I was going five 30 to eight every night, and it was just too much. And at the end of the holidays I was like, I’m done. Like I can’t actually do anymore. And like you can tell that you’re. Your thinking and your thought process and your productivity starts to dip, at least for me.

And then I’m like, I have to, you know, I have to go lean into something else. But I think when you have transparency with, um, with your team and with your family, it gives you the permission to be able to, to throttle back and forth. Because I’ll say to my son, who’s 12, I’ll say, Hey. This week I’m going to be super, super busy at work, but it’s because we’re going on vacation next week and I wanna be able to be like really present with you at the time.

So don’t give me a hard time this week when I am like full on work next week, I’m yours. And that seems to work for me. Oh, that’s great advice. I love that. Um, is there like a motto or a mantra or something that’s really guided you throughout your leadership journey? I. Yeah, I mean I think it changes over time, but like the two things that I always say is one is a rising tide lifts all boats, and I really believe that, like I really, I use that all the time because I think that, you know, you can get into these like competitive situations where maybe you’re talking to a competitor or you’re talking to.

Um, somebody who like you, feel personal co competition with. And I really try to, um, live up to that and share knowledge and believe that everyone, especially in retail, is working towards a better retail environment for everyone. Um, let’s share a secrets and let’s like help each other out with what’s working.

And then the other quote that I love, I don’t know who said this, but um, and there are several variations of it, but the quote that I love is, like, everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear or like interesting fear is the thing. Holding you back from greatness is the other thing that I say all the time.

And like letting go of that fear and feeling like, okay, this is really scary. It’s really hard, but when I break through it, I’m going to get what I am looking for. Those are great. I love both of those. Yeah, thanks. I think I, I think fear does hold a lot of us back. I know. For me, for sure. I’m always, you know, there’s that worry

So that’s great advice. Um, okay, so now we’re in our rapid fire questions. So these are questions I’m just gonna ask that you bang, bang, bang, and then you just answer ’em real quick. Okay. Are you ready? Okay. Yeah, sure. All right. Here’s the first one. What one piece of advice would you give to female leaders that are currently working?

I think, um, the biggest thing is to keep your network fresh all the time. I see a lot of female leaders who, um, when they’re in a job switch, then they’ll start to really like, try to, um, refresh their network. And I think you just, you have to, it has to be an intentional part of your work practice, and you have to think about people in your network all the time.

Excellent. What three tips would you give students? Our emerging leaders? Yeah. Um, get some sales experience, even if it’s an internship, even if it’s like a cold calling internship, like being able to pick up the phone and ask somebody for a meeting, for their time, for their money, um, will serve you the rest of your career even if you have no desire to do sales.

And, and even if, and especially if you think you’re bad at it. Get some sales experience, get used to people telling, you know, ’cause that that will help you through your career. I think the second thing is don’t be shy with your ideas. I think more established leaders are looking for like the freshness of the input from, um, young, new grads, less experienced, um, people coming into the workplace, especially with how quickly technology is changing and, um, all of the tools that are emerging.

I really believe that you have to, um, bring those ideas to the table. And then I think the third thing for young students is spend a lot of time in real life, like go to meetups, go in person, go to conferences. So when there’s a, I know, uh, your work at FIT Shelly, you have a lot of like people who come in person and sometimes it’s optional to go.

Students should go to those events and take those opportunities because you’re gonna meet people, you’re gonna build your network. You’re never going to be able to have the same relationship with somebody if you meet them over Zoom as if you meet them in real life. So I think those would be my three.

Those are excellent. Great advice. So what do you want to leave behind for the next generation, or what do you want your legacy to be? Yeah, I don’t know. My legacy, this is really hard. I don’t, I don’t know that this is something that I’ve thought a lot about, but, um, the thing that I would say and, and the thing that guides me in a lot of my, like big decision making is.

I really try to be selfless in my pursuit of success. Like I really think like staying humble and um, doing some of the things I’ve talked about, like sharing your network with people in your people who you come across in your life and who ask for help. Um, being generous with your time to people who have questions that maybe you have the answer to, like really helping to guide younger careers.

I think like taking the time to do all of those things is something that’s very important to me and I hope that, um, I am, you know, thought of in that light. That’s an excellent, uh. Goal to have your legacy be that. So my last, my last question’s a really fun one. It can be anything. Okay. It can be work related or not work related, but what’s your secret power

My secret power? I think my secret power has to be, um, staying calm under pressure. I’m a very, like, I can be very level and sometimes it comes across as not having like enough emotion about something, but really it’s because like those little duck legs are just like swimming under the water. Um, and um, I think I can present as being like super calm and in control even though it’s not how I feel.

That’s an excellent secret power. I love it. And it’s so true. I’ve seen that in action with you. That’s great. Do you have any closing thoughts you’d like to share? No, I mean, I think that, um, the work that you do to really help, um, lift up and empower younger people, like across, you know, across the spectrum.

Both men and women is really impressive and I think that you should be commended for that. Um, I think you know that like we’re in the process of hiring a summer intern and one of our intern candidates as somebody who was, um, in your class being interviewed by somebody who also had been in your class, who we hired.

And, um, it just, it comes across when people talk about you, they light up and like, I think that the work that you do with your students is like really incredible. Well thank you so much for that and thank you for coming to FIT. You’ve spoken at several of my classes. You did a big event at FIT Women.

Always happy Women leadership events, so we appreciate that so much and thank you so much for being here today. Yeah, no problem. Thank you, Shelley.