Have you ever wondered what motivates a Woman of Insight? Or how she defines success? Me too, so we asked the five successful and influential speakers from our upcoming Sept 21st Woman’s Advantage® Retreat in the City to share their insights.

Here’s what Natacha Beim, founder of CEFA Early Learning Schools, had to say!

What is your definition of success?
Doing what you love, having great friends and family, and having enough money and time to enjoy life with them

Has your definition of success changed from when you began to today?
No, always the same

What motivates you to keep going on?
I know I can make a difference

How do you keep going when the going gets tough?
I just put my head down and work. I can do that because I always have clear goals every year, so it’s just a matter of getting from A to B really

What rewards are important to you as a successful business owner?  This can encompass everything from money onwards…
My biggest reward is that I’ve always been able to spend every minute before and after school with my boys. Even now that they are 14 and 16, I love picking them up from school and sharing those moments with them: listening to music together, going for coffee, going out, having friends over…

Other rewards that are important to me are having time for myself and my friends and family; having the flexibility to travel; having the luxury of working from my laptop, at home, in my pjs; working with people I like respect; and having enough money to support myself and my family, even as a single woman.

In your opinion, who is a great  female business role model? 
I think every woman who has managed to grow a business independently and have a family or a life outside of work is a role model

Why?
It is much more difficult for women than for men to compartmentalize, I believe. You can’t just stay late at work every night when you have children, and you don’t often have “stay at home husbands” to help you grow a large business, which sometimes helps 😉

We asked and they delivered! We asked the five incredible speakers from our upcoming Sept 21st Woman’s Advantage® Retreat in the City to offer insights into what has propelled them through their successful careers. We’d like to share their thoughts (on success, motivation & more) with you.

Here’s what Diane Thomson, of Vancouver’s famed Diane’s Lingerie, shared with us!

What is your definition of success?
Dream big and live your dream! Having a feeling of contentment within my heart and mind with a sense of satisfaction for achieving my life goals.

Has your definition of success changed from when you began to today?
Not really, your learn from falling flat picking yourself up and carrying on.  To quote Maya Angelou “if you don’t like something change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it”

What motivates you to keep going on?
Changing women’s lives by helping them look and feel their best. Continuing to create opportunities for women to grow beyond what they think their capabilities are.  I do know how it feels to be “stuck”

How do you keep going when the going gets tough?
Having my own support network works for me.  Women really are resilient and want to help each other break through the glass ceiling.

What rewards are important to you as a successful business owner?  This can encompass everything from money onwards…
Remaining authentic as well as happiness, contentment, satisfaction, health and family, are all way more important than any financial gains.  Of course money does help achieve some of our successes but has never been the focus in my life.

In your opinion, who is a great  female business role model?  Why?
Judy Caldwell, founder of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, BC Chapter.  After personally surviving breast cancer Judy gathered together a group of women around her kitchen table to decide what they could do to help fight breast cancer.  What unfolded was the BC Chapter of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

What makes a Woman of Insight tick? We asked the five amazing speakers from our upcoming Sept 21st Woman’s Advantage® Retreat in the City to give their thoughts on success, motivation, the rewards of being an entrepreneur, and more.

Here’s what Robyn Hardy and Lorraine Pond (a.k.a. Bobs & LoLo, the award-winning children’s entertainers) had to say!

What is your definition of success?
Success to us is closely related to balance. Success is the ability to balance a career we love in music and arts with the required business acumen to exploit our creative identities alongside the opportunity to nurture our roles as mothers, wives and friends. Our relationship began when we first met at a summer camp as children. We have never lost sight of the value of these roots and the fact that our friendship strengthens our business partnership. Any conflict on the business side is balanced with acknowledgment of our individual goals and challenges and trust in our mutual values. We align our need to balance our business opportunities with the needs of our families and our friendship. As such, we have put processes and systems in place to enable our success – personally and professionally.

Has your definition of success changed from when you began to today?
Our definition of success has never completely revolved around traditional criteria like monetization, brand familiarity and growth. Our business has always had more emotive roots through arts and education. In the early days, our ambition and drive to turn our passion into a career did define benchmarks for success differently than we would evaluate our success today. We now have processes in place to help manage a lot of the areas of our business that at one point required much more of our time (bookings admin, accounting, distribution etc.). The support of our management team, talent agency and legal and accounting counsel also allows us to focus our energies on the things we now recognize as most important for our brand which includes creative development, project management and audience engagement – public relations, live performing and social media strategies.

What motivates you to keep going on?
Our belief that we are truly creating meaningful content and media for young audiences is a driving source of motivation for both of us. One of our main goals is to find innovative ways to inspire kids to care about the world around them. We use the tools of music, movement and make-believe to connect children with positive messaging about the natural world and at the same time show them that their actions can make a difference for themselves, the people around them and the planet. We find inspiration in our own childhoods, the young audiences we connect with on a daily basis and now our own children.

How do you keep going when the going gets tough?
Like any company, we have faced periods where we felt a plateau in business growth. For us, these periods generally fall during a time of decreased creative development and/or live touring. Our demographic is double-sided in that we see a fast turnover with our audience meaning there are always new little ones to reach, but we have to balance this with keeping a strong public presence in order to maintain brand awareness with new families. In our world, losing traction for even a few months can prove challenging. With our recent baby boom (4 children under 5 years between the two of us!), we have developed strategies to mitigate these challenges. Caffeine and a sense of humour help too.

What rewards are important to you as a successful business owner?  This can encompass everything from money onwards…
Once again we would return to the theme of balance. While running a successful business requires passion, commitment, drive and more hours in a week than we likely want to admit, we also feel that we are granted a flexibility that we wouldn’t necessarily find working for someone else’s company. We set our own schedules, determine targets and define our measurements for success. There is a freedom in this, which is both rewarding and motivating. We also feel the reward and impact through the interactions with our audiences. From kind and thoughtful notes from parents to personal interactions with children at live appearances to hearing from fan “alumni” who are now young adults and pursuing their own careers in arts or education, all of these things fill our hearts.

In your opinion, who is a great female business role model?  Why?
The first person that jumps to mind for us is Traci Costa, Founder and CEO of Peekaboo Beans. Traci has built an immensely successful children’s playwear clothing company based on family values, community and sustainability. We admire her commitment in supporting women in business, her authenticity both in person and through her social media networks and her passion for philanthropy via her work with non-profit organizations like Playground Builders. Traci truly epitomizes a great female business role model!

We asked and they answered! Our five amazing speakers from the upcoming Sept 21st Woman’s Advantage® Retreat in the City offered their insights on success, what motivates them who their role models are, and more.

Here’s what Mary Cantando, founder of the Woman’s Advantage® Forums, told us!

What is your definition of success?
I have different definitions of success for the various roles that I play in life.

• As a mother, my definition of success was that all three of my children grow up to be happy and contributing members of society. To achieve this, I made all major decisions based around that goal.  I didn’t care if they graduated from university, got married or had a great career (BTW: All three did all three.), but that they be satisfied with the lives the lead and make positive contributions to society.
• As a spouse, I believe my husband and I are each tasked with pushing each other to become the best people we can be. So I have a responsibility to make him great, and he likewise, me. So my definition of success as a spouse/partner is reflected in the difference he makes.
• As a business owner, I want my offerings to make a difference in the lives of others. I want to either help people MAKE or SAVE money by using my offerings. I want to enhance their lives. At the same time, I want to enhance the lives of my employees and contractors. And, I want to make as much money as possible doing these things for my customers and employees. So my definition of success as a business owner relates to customers, employees and profitability.
• As a human being, I want to impact as many people as possible both during and after my lifespan. These may be people I know and those I will never even meet. People who wait on me in a restaurant and people who read my books. I have been gifted with many capabilities and it is my responsibility and DELIGHT to be able to make a positive difference in the lives of others.

Has your definition of success changed from when you began to today?
My definition of success in business has evolved greatly from when I first started. Initially, my focus was on how to make the most money possible. Then I learned that you can’t make money without happy customers and employees, so I began to focus more and more on those two things. And I found when I focused on enriching the experience that others around me were having—by either using our offerings or working as a part of our team—the money just naturally flowed in my direction. So the more I help others, the more I personally gain and the greater my success.

What motivates you to keep going on?
I get really jazzed by the fact that The Woman’s Advantage® Forum, books and other products make a huge difference in the businesses and lives of women I’ll never even meet. Whenever I get tired or am working against a deadline that I’d like to push out, I think about women in Vancouver or Tucson or Chicago who NEED me to finish that project so they can grow their businesses and hire that one guy who needs a job and his kid can have a new pair of shoes or set of Legos or winter coat. So, I think of the trickle down effect of what I’m doing and the potential is tremendous. When I go to speak in a city like Vancouver, I wake up that morning thinking, “Today, I’m going to change the economy of Vancouver.” Now that may sound grandiose or egotistical to some, but I really feel that way. I believe that the more wisdom I can share with women business owners, the greater impact I can have on the local economy. If I’ve got the capability to make a difference and I don’t do that, then that space will go unfilled…and that kid will have to use her winter coat from last year that’s a bit too small. If you come to hear me speak in September, I’ll tell you a story about a new pair of shoes that you’ll find hard to believe.

How do you keep going when the going gets tough?
Think I answered this in the question above.

What rewards are important to you as a successful business owner?  This can encompass everything from money onwards…
Of course, money…because it all kind of starts there…money allows me to live without worrying where my next mortgage payment will come from. But even more so, it allows me the time and wherewithal to experience things I never dreamed of as a child, like international travel and sitting on boards and supporting non-profits that are doing things I believe in. Beyond money, I’m always honored to receive awards as they are an indication that some segment of society believes what I am doing has value. This goes back to that goal I had for my kids of being happy and contributing to society. And, I get great pleasure from receiving emails, letters, and cards from women I’ve never even met who tell me about the difference I’ve made in their businesses and their lives. That really turns me on!

In your opinion, who is a great  female business role model?  Why?
I’m old enough to remember when women had three basic paths in life: stay-at-home wife, nurse or teacher. So I’m always excited to see women doing BIG things with their lives. I think Indra Nooyi, CEO and Chair of the Board of Pepsico is an amazing woman. She was born in India and was able to overcome a tremendous cultural learning curve to become arguably the most prominent businesswoman in the world.

But I’m equally impressed by women like Sheila Hale Ogle, who never attended college, worked her way up as the secretary to the CEO of a large advertising agency. When she realized that she was doing 80% of his job, she quit and started her own, successful, ad agency. She has built, bought and sold several businesses and now, in her late 70s is still running two businesses and holds important roles on multiple boards.

Another friend of mine, Van Eure, owns one of the largest restaurants in the southeastern US. She has the largest wine cellar south of New York City and people fly in from all over to eat a meal at her Angus Barn. But the thing she’s most proud of is her low rate of employee turnover in an industry that is notorious for high turnover. So she doesn’t judge her success in dollars or bottles of wine sold, but how long that sous chef or waitperson has been a part of her team.

And, each of YOU serves as a sparkling role model, not only to women just starting their businesses, but to women like me, who receive daily encouragement from knowing you’re out there working hard, working smart, working to make a difference in your local economy and your industry as a whole. You inspire me!