Ladies, It’s Time to Do What We Can For Our Communities
February 2025
The theme of International Women’s Day this year is “Accelerate Action,” in recognition of women’s achievements while addressing the gender inequality and systemic barriers that continue to hinder our advancement.
Accelerating the advancement of high potential women to senior leadership has been the focus of my firm, Business World Rising, for the past 15+ years.
Fortunately, the evidence now shows we are making great strides. Just look at the list of impressive women recently appointed to US Cabinet-level positions: Pam Bondi, Attorney General; Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Secretary of Labor; Linda McMahon, Secretary of Education; Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security; Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture; Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence; Kelly Loeffler, Administrator of the Small Business Administration; and Elise Stefanick, Representative to the United Nations. Of the 22 Cabinet-level appointments, over 1/3 of those positions went to women.
Whether in the business world, or in government, or in the volunteer sector, every woman who wants to get ahead must take the individual responsibility to accelerate her action. No fairy godmother is going to magically appear and wave her magic wand to make things happen. Even if you are lucky enough to have a Sugar Daddy to open important doors, you’re still the one who must ultimately deliver the goods and prove your mettle.
Let’s be frank. The women who led the way for my generation had few, if any, female role-models to grease the skids for them. Our beloved forebearers had to demonstrate their own worth and tout their own abilities to ensure those in charge took notice of their potential. It was completely up to them to proactively provide the supporting evidence to justify why they, above anyone else, deserved a promotion if they were to have any chance of attaining one.
Do you think any of those women could you have ever imagined the woke ideology that has recently driven some delusional men to pretend to be women to get ahead? Talk about gender inequality and systemic barriers that continue to hinder our advancement! It's beyond time for us to say NO to such nonsense and accelerate action to take back our rightful roles and make our communities OURS again.
One activist woman I greatly admire in this space is the former prosecutor, constitutional attorney and public speaker, KrisAnne Hall. KrisAnne reminds us that labeling our rights as “constitutional” gives the wrong impression. As Americans, we are not granted our rights by the government. Rather, we have “God-given natural rights, enumerated in the Constitution.”
We the People of the United States are sovereign. We each have authority over ourselves. It’s time we start acting as sovereigns and fearlessly accelerate our actions to regain control of our rightful places within our respective communities.
The good news is, doing so is not that difficult. I provided all the guidance you’ll need in my book Strong Suit. For now, here is a short and sweet version:
Be your best at what matters to you. My elders instilled in me, from an early age, the following timeless principles that have served me well throughout my life:
You can do anything you put your mind to
Anything worth doing is worth doing well
Don’t even start something if you aren’t going to give it your best shot.
It’s not possible to do everything we might want to do in life. Therefore, it’s crucial to prioritize what’s important to you. To do your very best work and have a fulfilling life, focus on the things that matter most to you.
Granted, there will always be someone smarter or more talented than you in certain ways. But we each possess special qualities that make us uniquely valuable. To make a meaningful difference within your community, simply involve yourself in what really matters to you.
Leverage your strong suits. These are the things that you love to do, that you naturally do well, and that give you energy when you do them.
A radio host once asked me, “If you could pick the one thing that has made you successful, what would that be?” I immediately responded, “I have always done what I loved to do and did well. If at any point, I wasn’t loving what I was doing, I either redesigned my role or moved on to something else. Life is too short to not love what you do and do well!”
If you lead a team or are part of a team, it’s important to know the strong suits of those you work with so you can bring out their best and inspire them to do even more of what they love and do well. The result will be an infinite win!
Learn from your mistakes. No one is perfect, no matter how hard you try. We’ve all done things that may have seemed like good ideas at the time, but later we thought, “Why did I do that?”
If you take an action that harms someone in some way, own up to it. Admit what you did and apologize as soon as possible. Don’t let things fester.
While a mistake might set you back for a time, don’t let it keep you down. Assess what happened and move on. While this may be easier said than done, the good news is that we learn the most when we err.
One of my favorite mantras is, “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.” We grow wiser as we learn from our mistakes and use the knowledge gained to improve things going forward.
I firmly believe we are put on this planet to learn and do our best to improve the lives of others. Strive to take at least one small step forward every day to do what you can to improve your community. Even the smallest of actions can make significant impacts over time.
Regardless of your stage in life, there is no better time than now to be the courageous Mama Bear that God created you to be. However you might choose to accelerate action in the community in which you live, your actions might make a far bigger and more important difference than you could ever imagine.
One day you might even be one of those impressive women appointed to a Cabinet-level position, just because you took some action….and then another….and another…starting right there in your own community.
You just never know where your actions might lead you. So, take that first step today and then accelerate.