Coach Purnima

“There are tee shirts that say, ‘Underestimate me. This’ll be fun,’ and that was exactly how I approached life.”

This snippet is just one of many learnings we gained from our conversation with Julie Roehm, the Chief Marketing and Experience Officer at Party City. Julie is no stranger to adversity and has been a fierce competitor and determined power female ever since a young age. Calculated yet adventurous risk taking throughout her career has shown her that things don’t change if you aren’t willing to do something different.

Julie shares her perspectives on workplace culture, dealing with adversity, jumping into new industries with confidence and poise, asking questions and listening, and building a successful team. Her experience in industries as varied as automotive, big box retail, services, and consulting have laddered up as she helps companies stand out in a beneficial way and push themselves through their marketing.

Exuding an air of confidence while also maintaining humility is a difficult task to achieve, and Julie does just that. We encourage you to learn from her insightful commentary on her previous experience and advice to women!

It’s so easy to get bogged down in your day job and repeat mindless tasks just to get the job done. But what will take you to the next level in your career, and also in your personal life, is maintaining a growth mindset in everything that you do.

Anne-Fleur Vaartjes, a Risk Analyst at Morgan Stanley, is living an adventurous, travel-filled, curious life and she seeks out opportunities to enrich her growth mindset wherever possible. She shares with us that having a growth mindset is important for your career but also to live your life to the fullest and make the biggest possible impact on other people.

A simple way to maintain a growth mindset in the workplace is to listen and observe others around you - not only what they’re saying, but how they’re saying it, communicating, displaying body language, and emphasizing tone, explained Anne-Fleur. This will help you to build relationships, learn new skills, deepen your knowledge of your industry, and progress in your career - without even taking any extra time out of your day!

We hope that you enjoy learning from Anne-Fleur’s career advice as much as we did, and remember - always maintain a growth mindset!

Becoming a lawyer or a doctor are two of the career paths that require the highest level of education, persistence, drive, and motivation. Imagine becoming both a lawyer AND a doctor... Aretha Delight Davis has done both with poise and grace in order to give back to her community.
It’s easy to get caught up in everyday life and become stuck in a career rut, focusing on your everyday job instead of thinking big picture about your goals and aspirations. For Aretha, the decision to transition from her law firm to medical school was not clear cut, but she knew it was her calling and she decided to pursue her passion.
In this episode of Empowered Women Series, we talk to Aretha about her nonlinear career journey and how it led to her co-founding a Boston-based nonprofit called ACP Decisions in order to help inform medical patients through videos. Her ties to the company are deeply personal, and she shares her inspiring and emotional story of creating the company with us.
Aretha’s dedication to pursuing her dreams showcases not only her incredible intelligence and skillset, but also the importance of knowing herself. We can all learn from Aretha in order to become the best versions of ourselves!

What do Forbes 30 Under 30: Science, MIT Tech Review 35 Innovators Under 35, and L’Oreal USA for Women in Science all have in common? They’ve all spotlighted Ritu Raman for her incredible accomplishments in STEM. And now Empowered Women Series has joined the club!

Ritu Raman is a biohybrid engineer and a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Langer Lab at MIT, and she brings a fresh new perspective to the typically male-dominated STEM field of biology. Ritu’s innovation and critical thinking have set her apart in her field, and we here at EWS are particularly impressed by Ritu’s self-branding and powerful presence.

This intelligent and well-spoken scientist discusses her background in STEM, how she grew up immersed in science and research, and how she would love to see more females in STEM. She also gets candid with us, sharing barriers and why she feels there are fewer females in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields.

Having strong female proponents within STEM is one of the first steps towards achieving equality in the field, and we extend a huge thank you and congratulations to Ritu for all that she has accomplished. She’s definitely someone to keep your eye on and learn from... she’s working hard to continue her successful career path!

Ever had trouble putting on your bra? You just couldn't clip it correctly, or it dug into your rib the whole day? Now, think if you had a disability and there was absolutely design consideration given to designing your bra... how would you manage?

Inclusivity isn't a box to check on a corporation's must-have list. It is a mentality, it is the way you think about and perceive those around you. Let's improve our perception and help others improve theirs. If we want to succeed as a humanity we need to promote inclusivity in all parts of life.

Emma Butler, the CEO of Intimately.co, is doing it better than the rest of us. She created a company that designs lingerie for female-identifying people with disabilities, focusing on functionality as well as fashion. In last week’s episode of Empowered Women Live, Emma shared with us what inclusivity looks and feels like for real and what we can do to be 100% inclusive ourselves.

She explained the inspiration behind founding Intimately.co and how she is motivated by customers’ stories of feeling comfortable and confident in their new lingerie. Emma’s powerful dedication to inclusivity as well as her empathy for all make her a strong woman to learn from, and we highly recommend that you check out her company’s website, Intimately.co, where “Getting dressed has never been easier.”