Being Geek Chic is a blog about one woman navigating the male-dominated industries of production and tech. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi, Founder, CEO and Director of Mighteor - one of the world's first internet video production companies. Learn more about Mighteor here.
Here’s a thing I hate about business consultants: They always behave as if there is some big magic secret to being successful. And if you only HAD THIS SECRET THAT WE’VE PACKAGED INTO A $2,000 WEBINAR - you’d be successful.
That’s just not true.
In the last month, I’ve had several conversations with mentors, meetup participants and friends about the exact details of “how” my business went from solopreneur venture to a company with a few employees, vendors and contractors on the books. Perhaps more importantly, the real questions was how we built a client base and continue to work to build it to support that kind of infrastructure. It’s not something you’ll find in our business plan or an enterprise software I picked up. It was something quite simple.
It really just comes down to one big thing I always, always do: I put a great deal of thought into my follow-up.
We all do it. We set up countless networking meetings. We attend dozens of meetups and “get to know you” coffees every month. But have you ever thought about what comes out of those conversations? I am constantly amazed at how few people I meet with as a favor or for a casual conversation never reach out ever again. And you know, that bothers me. Because it communicates clearly that because I wasn’t immediately helpful to them - I wasn’t worth continuing a conversation with. I have put a ridiculous amount of thought into what I want to achieve out of these meet and greets. And here is what I’ve learned:
1. Have an internal agenda for every meeting, even if it’s just a casual coffee.
It is never stated out loud, but in my mind, I go into every networking event or meeting with a clear internal agenda about what I want to accomplish. Usually it’s that I want to talk to a specific person OR I want to make a connection with someone in a new industry or potential client space. If it’s a one-on-one meeting, my agenda is usually to figure out how we can help each other succeed. It’s not printed on paper, but it’s present in my mind.
2. Leave every meeting with a REASON to follow-up.
Sometimes I just want to make a new industry connection. Other times I am looking for a new client or partnership. Which is why people who have spent time with me in these settings know: I end every one of these meetings with a clear list of things I’m going to do after that meeting. Oftentimes it is something as simple as: I’m going to introduce you to another helpful person in the industry OR share an article with you that reminds me of our conversation. In the best case scenario, I am following up with a project proposal for future video work together. Whatever it is, I always say to that person: “I’m going to follow up with you about x, y or z.”
3. Follow up! Follow up! Follow up!
You know what my clients have told me again and again? That they have met with countless people who have never bothered to follow up with them. This actually amazes me. It takes 2 minutes to write a thoughtful email. Five minutes to put together a thank you card and throw a stamp on it. If you value people and the connections you’re making, you’ll show them with these simple gestures.
4. Be strategically helpful.
There is making introductions and connections because they are valuable and there is making introductions because you want to appear to be helpful. Be the first person. Find ways to add value and before you know it, you’ll have the reputation of being the kind of person that makes things happen.
5. Be open to change and feedback.
When a project doesn’t happen after we put together a proposal at Mighteor, I used to get frustrated. Now, I view it as a learning opportunity. I’m not afraid to follow up with our potential client and ask specifically what we failed to deliver in the proposal and what they would have liked to see that was different. Sometimes, people are too shy to be honest. But, I do think that it has made me better at personally developing plans for our future proposals that results in a higher success rate.
As we work to hire our summer interns, I’m shocked at how many people seem really excited about the job when they come in for the interview, but when I actually follow up with them with more questions or information - it takes days to get answers back. On top of that, so few people actually follow up with questions about why they didn’t get the job, that it’s actually disappointing to me. We can ALL be better about how we approach our lives and our business.
The most important part of all of this? Don’t treat business like it’s about some magic secret clue hidden in a temple behind a web server in TRON. We ALL want to succeed. Helping each other do that is the key to fruitful relationships inside and outside your business.
When I was growing up, I always remember my mom saying: Have an attitude of gratitude and you’ll always be happy. I know my mom was not the first person to come up with this, but I’ve been acutely aware of it this week. Over the last two months, I’ve been thrown into a washing machine of intensity between my grief and my growing business.
In many ways, it’s been a blessing. Having work to do in beautiful locations like Evergreen, Colorado and West Palm Beach, Florida makes it really hard to feel sad. The mountains and the oceans have a calming effect, even when you’re hauling massive gear bags through the sand and woods. And the work is beyond gratifying.
But if you’re an entrepreneur who has had to keep your nose to the ground and get mounds of work done over several weeks, resulting in giving up weekends and long nights in the office - you know that it’s hard to feel that grace. You know that it’s hard to feel at peace with that insanity. And you long for it like a sweet from your childhood that’s no longer in production.
You just keep working. And you forget to check in with yourself.
Here’s a theory: Emotional things happen when on airplanes. (Amy Poehler explores this thoroughly in her book, so I know I’m not alone!)
As I made my descent home on Wednesday night from our latest shoot, I was disconnected from my phone and my immediate technology. This is such a gift. It refocuses my mind away from: WHAT MUST GET DONE RIGHT NOW and allows me to focus on: WHAT I’M FEELING RIGHT NOW. I was struck by two feelings:
1. I love what I do. When I think back to my days of working in a cubicle and compare that to holding a $10,000 rig on the beach, I almost can’t believe there was a day when I did the former.
2. I have successfully built a life I’m really proud to live. When I think about the people in my life, the circles I’m a part of, the work that has my name on it and the legacy I am trying to build, I’m proud of that.
And letting those feelings in is not something that I allow very often. Maybe it’s my Midwestern humility or maybe it’s fear of being considered shallow or egotistical. Or at my worst moments, I think it’s my fear that it will all go away if I don’t keep my nose down and my fingers typing furiously. Either way, this was an important thing to feel, because since I started my business three years ago, I’ve NEVER felt it this profoundly. An intense sense of peace that has not existed in 39 months washed over me and I slept better on Wednesday night than I’ve slept in years.
On Thursday, I walked into the office with joy in my veins. I was so happy to sit down and edit and work with clients. And in the middle of a music selection, I just started tearing up. Now, I am a firm believer in not crying at work, but these were tears of joy. I turned to my colleague Chase and said: I’m so grateful that this business journey has worked out. And I really hope that it continues to work out.
He laughed. Because he often knows what I forget: We work really hard and do amazing work.
For the last three days, I’ve allowed myself to bask in gratitude bombs. Because that’s how it feels. The shockwaves of finally, finally allowing myself to feel a shred of joy about what I’m building and the success we’ve experienced to date has given me whiplash from the peace that settled in the air around me.
If you’ve been working your ass off like me, I recommend you allow yourself to feel a sense of joy for the journey, because it’s all your own. And it’s worth celebrating.
“U.S. CTO Megan Smith and the co-authors of “The Elephant in the Valley” survey on women in tech talk about their goals for a better work environment for women in technology at SXSW’s Girls Lounge.”
This headline is hilarious to me. Inclusion is for women, you guys.
From CES to SXSW, the small, local events to the international conferences - there is an obsession with making women feel included in tech right now. Walk into SXSW this week and you’ll discover that there’s a “Girls’ Lounge” for the ladies. At CES in January, there was a Chic Getaway for “women only” where we could get our hands on free lipsticks and jewelry. As well-meaning as these pop-up homages to being a female may be, it’s hard for me to see them as anything other than a passive aggressive attempt at placating the real problem. “You belong here!” is what they’re trying to say, but what they don’t realize is that by cordoning women off to a corner in a fancy hotel conference center they are essentially saying: “You belong here! In the room with the makeup!”
Inherently, you could argue that this is a positive step in the right direction because for far too long, women have been excluded altogether. Until recently, it wasn’t uncommon to go hours at these conferences and events without seeing a woman at all. The problem is that the approach taken by all these major events and hallmark brands in response to the outcry is just silly. They’ve designed a solution that allows them to check off the “women” box in their list of concerns and move on. It’s a pragmatic and strategic solution, but it fails to make any improvements with regards to the most important measure: inclusion.
Let’s define inclusion.
Inclusion means women and people of color are invited to be keynote speakers.
Inclusion means women and people of color are invited to be part of panels.
Inclusion means women and people of color are invited to host demos.
Inclusion means women and people of color are invited to be featured in the exhibitor space.
Inclusion means women and people of color are just seen. Everywhere.
For a long time, I’ve avoided talking about my problem with this phenomena, because it could easily be interpreted as whining. “But we’ve given you a lounge!” However, the very fact that I feel I don’t have the right to criticize the industry without it being perceived as an emotional reaction is the exact result of this kind of treatment. Our experiences are expected to be controlled and reserved. And believe me, the irony of that is not lost on me. With a closer examination of why I loathe it so much, these lounges and makeup gift bags are virtually a mirror for how I feel about my treatment as a woman in leadership in technology and film.
So often, I’m reminded that I’m a woman first and a CEO second. I am consistently told: “Oh wow, you’re a FEMALE director.” To some extent, I wear these identities with pride, because starting my own company and successfully growing it over the last three years has been a huge challenge, but doing it in an industry where women are largely not present has been remarkably more challenging because of the isolation I often experience. As a result, my success often feels like it has two very fractured paths: my success as the outlier AND my success as a business person and creative. I would so much rather be praised for my success in my work and my art than for my success for doing it despite having a set of boobs. But this is my reality.
I acknowledge that I bear some responsibility for my own internal narrative, but if we look at the cultural narrative about women’s success, it’s not much different. And while women are clearly involved in all the programming, organization and development of these Lounges, you have to wonder why this is the job they’re being given.
There’s not a day that goes by on the campaign trail where Hillary Clinton isn’t reminded that she’s a woman. And this is the problem with tokenism. When we constantly remind women and people of color that they are the “other” in the situation, it can be overwhelmingly challenging to see yourself in the role that you are trying desperately to earn. It begins to feel like a challenge you must overcome. Let me be clear: being a woman should NEVER be a challenge we need to overcome. And yet it is. I’m sure if we could ask Hillary Clinton what she wants, she would say that she wants to be the President of the United States, not the Female President of the United States of America.
And ask any woman what her first thought is in the morning and I guarantee you, it’s not: “Oh, I’m a woman again today.” But you can bet your ass she wakes up thinking about the 50 tasks she has to tackle on her to do list. And that’s important because when she achieves those things, I am certain she doesn’t think: “Wow, I can’t believe my lady brain got all that done!”
It would be easy to minimize this entire thing to a question of semantics. But to be frank: being a woman shouldn’t be a qualifier to your field, your work, your accomplishments and your title. And it shouldn’t be the reason you are given access to an event or given a seat at the table. Your hard work, success and accomplishments should be. We all have the right to define our selves. We have a right to be who we are first - and be our gender or our race or our sexual orientation - second.
I am tired of being reminded that I am a “female” director. I am tired of having my work qualified as something that is specific to my status as an XY chromosome set. I am tired of seeing the look in people’s eyes when they find out what I do. I am tired of being cordoned off to random rooms in 3 star hotels. And I’m tired of brands attempting to buy me with cosmetics. This job is hard enough without having to point out what seems so blatantly obvious to me all the damn time: women are just people. People like to be invited to things. Invite the people to be part of the things.
Is it really that much easier to find a rental company with a giant pink tent?
One of the unexpected ways becoming a girl boss has changed my world view is how I interact with the badass women in my life. Before starting my business, I was always cognizant of helping young women that worked around me achieve their goals, but I never really thought about it much beyond that.
However, since getting deeply involved in the startup community and working near and around women who have beat the odds to raise the money, build the company, navigate the buy out and more - I’ve become aware of this idea of “Squad Goals” - a concept that is almost never uttered in day to day life. Thanks to Bustle we have a definition:
Squad Goal (skwäd/ɡōl) (noun) (plural noun: squad goals): an aspirational term for what you’d like your group of friends to be or accomplish.
This is about more than mentorship. This is about more than group instagram pictures. This is about more than holding your work meetings over group manis. This is about seeing the best in the women around you and eagerly working together to lift each other up, because indeed, we’re all on this ship together. And the tides are rising.
I promise this is a valuable exercise. I promise this will change your life. Why? Because I have been the lucky recipient of the professional value of achieving #squadgoals. Here are some verified ways to achieve your squad’s goals:
1. Copy edit all your resumes together. Offer suggestions. One of you a designer? Make design tweaks. One of you a copyeditor? Get that copy tight.
2. When networking, don’t just look for jobs for yourself. Be on the hunt for jobs that might be a good fit for your squad members. Often you’ll find that people REALLY appreciate being given an amazing candidate and remember it later.
3. Take part in faux interviews to prep before big meetings. Be encouraging and thoughtful.
4. Send pump up texts. My squad always sends me texts that essentially read: “Go Kick Ass today!” when they know I have big meetings ahead.
5. Praise each other on social media.
6. Does anyone care about LinkedIn endorsements? It takes five minutes. Ask your squad members what areas they would like to have more recommendations on and go do that for them.
7. Make introductions to potential mentors. Share your mentors.
8. Go shopping together at Ann Taylor Loft and Banana Republic and helpfully point out what looks great. Never lie about ill fitting work dresses. But be obnoxiously kind when your squad looks hot.
9. Cry together. Sometimes shit is hard. Being vulnerable and real is helpful.
10. Share your resources. Have a great attorney? Share their contact. Have a great accountant? Share their contact.
11. Ask hard questions. Find out what your squad really wants to do. What is your dream job? Where do you want to be professionally next year? In ten years? What jobs would you hate?
12. Just listen. Really listen.
13. Make it easy to ask for help. Make time for the squad. Schedule regular get togethers to ensure there are opportunities to make those asks person to person.
14. Write recommendation letters before it is even necessary. This way it’s ready to go the moment your squad is applying for new jobs.
15. Encourage the dream. No matter how big. Don’t ever, ever, ever suggest your friend be more realistic. More practical, indeed. Practicality breeds actionable steps. But leave the dream in tact.
16. Be honest. Does your squad need to do more and talk less? Be honest. Does your squad need to move to get the job they really want? Be honest.
17. Share links to positive news of success. A little aspiration and affirmation never hurt anyone.
18. Nominate each other for things. Awards. Media mentions. Lists. Help each other get noticed.
19. Share books that are actually helpful. Don’t horde the knowledge. And be sure to point out all your favorite quotes in the books.
20. Send flowers when they get the big job, promotion, win the business and celebrate anniversaries.
21. Stand up for your squad. If anyone has anything bad to say, you make sure you articulately and professionally shut that shit down.
22. Take pictures. This moment in time will never come back.
23. And hug each other once in a while. Really hug. None of that weak arm bullshit.
24. Don’t forget to celebrate the big wins. And don’t be stingy with praise. It’s important to make those hallmark moments last and really give them a toast worthy of remembering.
25. Be an example. Always be positive. Don’t shame the squad.
Special thanks to EverKings for letting me steal the picture I took of her gorgeous face to illustrate the point.
I’m a female CEO. In production. That caters to tech companies. This intersection of tech + production means I’m rare. Add the fact that I’m the boss onto all this and I’m like a pigeon with peacock tails. As a result, I hear a lot of weird shit. Weird shit I don’t want to hear anymore. So I thought I’d helpfully create a list.
1. Are you the Founder?
*This is almost always after I have introduced myself to them as, “Hi, I’m Liz, the founder of Mighteor.” I don’t know how to make it more clear that I am, in fact, the founder of my company.
2. Do you want to have a family?
*Most humans do. Did you ask the male founder over there that question?
3. Do you have men on your team?
*Yes. Of course I do. I also have women.
4. Do you have a technical counterpart?
*I operate cameras and edit and animate. I am technical. What is the counterpart to that? Production is a technical thing.
5. So is this a female empowerment thing?
*Seriously?
6. Are you the makeup artist?
*Fun fact: I know just as many male makeup artists as female makeup artists. They are are tremendously talented at their job. Their gender has nothing to do with it.
7. Oh no, you’re the hairdresser?
*See above. Same thing applies.
8. Do you want to get someone who can help me with this shot?
*I am the director. I approve shots. I will help you with the shot.
9. When will you have a family?
*See number 2.
10. How long do you want to do this startup thing?
*This one almost always comes on the tails of questions 2 or 9. I assume it’s because people think I will quit when I want to have a family.
That’s just my very quick list of things I’ve been asked in the last 6 months. I’d be curious to know if other women out there can add onto the list. I think we should. Consider this our PSA: things you don’t need to say to women in tech. Or production. Or tech production! Or in entrepreneurship!
Some people have asked why this is even a thing: It’s a thing because this is coded language. In the strictest sense: when you look at it as a series of words and punctuation, it doesn’t read as any kind of sexist or inflammatory language. But when taken in context with the larger questions at hand, it becomes clear that I’m being asked these questions BECAUSE I am a woman.
Together, we can make the world a little less ignorant.
