BOSS LADIES GO BOLD-LY
A bunch of boss ladies gathered at the Be BOLD Conference to explain what it takes to become a beast in the business world — mostly to the younger gals trying to work it out there.
“What are all these LinkedIn messages about peoples’ two-year plans?” said Cindy Stumpo, CEO of C. Stumpo Development and star of the former HGTV show “Tough as Nails.”
“What the (expletive) is a twoyear plan?” she continued in front of the crowd at the Boston Business Women event. “Get out there and just keep doing it.”
In addition to Stumpo, women who took to the stage at the Sheraton Boston included Melanie Whelan, CEO of SoulCycle; Elizabeth Goodman Artis, editor in chief of Shape magazine; Melanie Platten, correspondent for NBC Boston; Sarah Hodkinson, vice president of marketing at TripAdvisor; Liz Brunner, CEO of Brunner Communications and a former WCVB-TV anchor; Suzy Batiz, founder and CEO of Poo-Pourri; and Candice Huffine, an international model who is on this month’s cover of Elle magazine.
And as the name of the conference implies, all of these female speakers honed in on what it takes to be bold.
“Honestly, it’s about making decisions,” Goodman Artis said.
“What has helped me is being aware when an opportunity is circling and not being afraid to go for it. ... There will be a time when — as my mom says — you have to show your teeth. Choose it wisely. You have to recognize when it’s time to gather your strengths and go for it.”
That sense of self-awareness isn’t only about detecting rainbows and butterflies on your resume, Goodman Artis cautioned. It also applies to situations where you’ve done messed up.
“You have to realize when to say, ‘I am going to walk into the CEO’s office and take ownership of what I did wrong,’” the magazine exec said. “I actually did that. It wasn’t a good conversation and it wasn’t a good day. But it got me the job I have today.”
Then there are those very not good days when women come to the gut-wrenching realization that they’ve failed. But, as cycling studio maven Whelan stresses, failure is key to success.
“You’re going to fail,” Whelan said. “You have to think, ‘We’re going to figure this out.”
“Resilience comes from cultivated practice.”