This was not the blog post that was supposed to go live today. I have another one written, that I’ll edit and post some other time.
Yesterday, I attended the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards for the Ohio Valley (Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana). I was 100% sure I wasn’t going to win, so I had a blog post drafted about what I learned throughout the intense process.
But, then everything changed when they called my name as the winner in the professional services category.
Whaaaaat?!
I was floored. I had no remarks prepared, no list of people to thank, no preparation. (I would never let a client do that. Clearly, I should take my own advice!) But, as I was walking up to the stage, I realized I was the only woman who would be winning an award that night. I was one of only two female finalists, which was crazy to me.
So, if you know me, you probably have a good idea of what happened next. If someone gives me a microphone in a room overwhelmingly male, I’m going to seize the opportunity to advocate for women!
After thanking my parents and explaining that the trophy has little to do with me and everything to do with our amazing team at Geben, I said this (see full remarks here):
I’m so blessed to to get to work with them. They’re these insanely, incredibly smart people who could get a job anywhere … and I think the thing that keeps all of us coming to work at Geben every day is that Geben isn’t just a PR agency. It’s become this platform for us to do good in the world. So, we give a voice to the voiceless through our advocacy for women and girls, or our work in prisons, or supporting nonprofits for girls getting bullied. We’re really intentional about giving back to the community. Geben for me over the past couple months especially, has been this platform where I can show how I think small businesses should operate, so we rolled out our Geben Loves Families policy. We give 10 weeks paid leave to all new moms and new dads, whether it’s through adoption or birth. I think we have the opportunity to show that small businesses can lead the way on important issues like paid leave. So, I’m just so thankful to have this company that allows me to do this good in the world.
Thank you to EY for this. One thing that I’d be remiss if I didn’t say before getting off this stage: There are not nearly enough women on this stage tonight. So, I would strongly encourage every single one of you — go find a woman in your community, encourage her to apply, help her through that process. There are amazing women in our communities and there need to be more of them on this stage.
Afterward, I can’t tell you how many women thanked me for advocating for women. From heads of Chamber of Commerces … to young women just graduating college. I’m thankful to EY for the recognition, but I’m even more inspired by the conversations I had after the event about the need to recognize and celebrate more women business owners. If you have a platform — big or small … microphone or not — use it. Use your voice to advocate for the things you believe in.