Women need to start realizing that they may be the ones holding themselves back from their true potential. No women left behind! That is the mission of host Rosie Zilinskas with this podcast. She wants to eradicate the gender gap in the corporate world by empowering women in their careers. Stay tuned and learn so many things – from confidence-boosting tips to the corporate experience from the eyes of a Millennial. Stop holding yourself back today. Join Rosie on her quest to help women advance in their careers!
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Welcome to the No Woman Left Behind Show. I am Rosie Zilinskas. I am so excited that this show is finally being released out into the universe. It has been a long-time coming passion project and it is finally here. You’re probably wondering who this show is for. This show is geared toward women in corporate that are seeking to advance in their careers. They are trying to get a seat at the table or move up the corporate ladder, but they feel stuck and don’t know why. It may be a situation where you may be holding yourself back and you may not even be aware that you’re holding yourself back. I will explain that in a little bit.
One thing that I would like to start with is when you think about your career, are you clear with what you want to do? Are you clear with what you aspire to be? That could maybe be you’re in a position where you’re looking to stay in the position and do the best work that you can do there. That’s great, but you could also be in a position where you want to become a team lead or you want to get that next seniority level within that same job that you’re doing. You could want to step into a management position. You could also aspire to become an executive at some point down the line. These are all things that you can aspire to do in your career.
You may be stuck, but you don’t know why. You may be doing all the right things or so you think that you’re doing all the right things and nothing is happening and you’re not sure what is going wrong. I can tell you that that is completely understandable, but it may be that you’re not engaged in the work that you’re doing as much as you think you are.
What do I mean by that? According to the Gallup World Poll, 70% of people are not engaged in the work that they do. Seventy percent of the workforce is a lot of unhappy people. That’s unfortunate because if you’re not engaged in the work that you do, then you’re bored. The days are long. That means you’re more than likely not volunteering to do extra projects. You may not be providing ideas to your manager on how to improve processes if your team is drowning in work. You’re probably like, “I don’t really care.” All of those things are ways that you may not be engaged in the work that you do.
Not having a focus strategy is like flying a plane with no place to land. – Rosie Zilinskas Click To Tweet
The problem there is that there are some serious consequences by you not being engaged in the work that you do. First of all, you’re not advancing in your career, and if you’re not advancing in your career, then that means that you’re not getting salary increases. Your production is not going up. Also, with salary increases, you’re not able to take care of yourself or your family the way you would want to take care of them if you had those continual salary increases. When you start becoming engaged or making an effort, things start changing, and that’s when you’re going to be getting those promotions and advancing in your career.
I do know that a lot of women were so hard on themselves and they may not believe or trust that they deserve that position. It’s almost like a lack of self-belief and self-trust, and because you don’t believe in yourself, it’s difficult for you to apply for that position. You have to work on your mindset. That’s part of your mindset and what you think about yourself and what you think others think about you. It’s not that it matters, but these are all different ways of you holding yourself back.
The truth is that you are deserving of an amazing career. When you are engaged and happy in the work that you do, you are fulfilled and things start moving in your career at that time, but if you’re not, then it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy of you thinking, “I don’t qualify for that job, so I’m not going to get it.” It’s one of those things that you need to be clear on what you want.
One of the things that I also encourage you to think about is, are you in the right line of business? Meaning that if you’re an accountant, are you happy with accounting? If you’re an attorney, are you happy with that law job? If you’re an insurance professional, are you happy in that type of position? If you’re not, then you need to figure out why you’re not happy with that position. It’s important that you are happy with the line of business that you chose.
From there, it’s about getting to that next promotion, that’s just the process, but if you’re completely in the wrong line of business, then that’s a completely different story. If you’re in the wrong line of business, I’m going to tell you that you need to go back to the drawing board and ask yourself what makes you happy and what are some of the skills that you love to do. If you can marry the skills you love to do with a paying position, you’re going to be much happier both in your career and your life.
Everybody knows that if someone is miserable in their jobs, it’s more than likely they’re going to be miserable in their home life as well because your work life bleeds into your personal life. It’s important for you to be clear on the type of position that you want to do. If you are clear on the type of position that you want to do and know that you want to continue to advance in that line of business, then another thing that we’re going to talk about down the line is, do you have a focus strategy?
If you don’t have a focus strategy, it’s like you’re getting on a plane and flying around the sky, not having anywhere to land because you don’t have a strategy, a destination, or a plan. All of that is critically important for you to get to that next level in your career. If you are stuck in your job and feeling unaccomplished in your position, you are in the right place because we will be talking a lot about how you’re stuck, why you’re stuck, and what you can do to get unstuck.
I can relate to you because I was where you are. Many years ago, I was stuck in the position that I was in because, at the time, I was working really hard. I was doing all the things. I did volunteering. I was engaged. I was also backing up my manager. I had this thought that any day now, my manager is going to notice my hard work or someone is going to come and tap me on the shoulder and say, “Do you want to become a manager? Do you want to move into a corner office as a manager?” However, nobody ever came.
It wasn’t until I had the foresight or the inkling to speak up and say something like, “I’m interested in the management position,” that they were like, “Really?” I was like, “Yeah.” It turns out that I was holding myself back at the time because I didn’t say anything. I didn’t communicate to my manager that I wanted to continue to advance in my career.
When talking about confidence, a girls' confidence peaks at age nine! – Rosie Zilinskas Click To Tweet
My mission is to eradicate the gender gap in the corporate world by empowering women in their careers. I want to help women realize, to become aware that they may be holding themselves back and they may not even have a clue that they’re holding themselves back. The reality is that I have a lot of knowledge to share and I truly want to give, serve, and help you figure out how you are holding yourself back.
What does the format of the show look like? I am going to be releasing weekly episodes, and it’s not always going to be just me talking to you. It’s going to be me giving you some valuable content through interviews. I have interviewed some amazing women for future episodes that you will read about. I’m making really great connections with women that are phenomenal, and all of these women are willing to come and share their knowledge with you as well.
I’m also thinking that I might have a series of episodes. For example, I have Heather Bennett. We already have an episode recorded on branding, but that was just one episode. There is so much information that Heather and I could talk about that I could see having a series of 3 or 4 branding episodes. Heather doesn’t know this, so this will be news to her when she sees this episode, but she might come back and we can unpack each of the components of branding in a shorter episode. I’m thinking that we’ll have a series of episodes on a specific topic as time goes on.
I also have Lisa Thompson. Lisa Thompson is a confidence expert. I love everything that Lisa and I talked about, but one thing that I specifically remember from her episode is she said, “When you are trying to get that position or when you’re trying to get a promotion and you don’t get it, give yourself 24 hours to sit in the suck.” That’s one of my favorite phrases now because when I’m having a bad day, I’m like, “It’s okay to sit in the suck.” Lisa is going to be talking about confidence. I can also see inviting Lisa back for another couple of episodes to talk about confidence because I will tell you ladies that I found out that girls’ confidence peaks at age nine, which I think is ridiculous.
We’re also going to have a few Millennials on the show. We’re going to have Krista Scott, Claire Bossong, and Brittany McLaughlin. They are all Millennials navigating the workforce and they’re going to be talking about Millennial expectations as well as corporate culture as a Millennial. It has been many years since I started my career and I can tell you. The expectations of Millennials now are very different and I applaud their assertiveness.
We’re going to hear from Margaret Graziano. She’s going to give us some amazing tips to boost your performance. Rachel O’Shea is going to be here. She’s going to be talking about what it’s like to work in a male-dominated organization and about challenging the status quo. I love Rachel. She’s amazing. She’s going to be talking about really great ways to carry yourself when it comes to being in a meeting and how you can be more assertive.
We’re also going to have a couple of episodes on the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. That’s going to be Laurie Battaglia and Kim Pipkin. They’re going to be talking about the importance of DEI work and how it translates into the importance of leaders being savvy and knowledgeable in diversity, equity and inclusion. All of that is going to be coming down the line for you. We have some amazing episodes and amazing conversations coming your way.
One thing that I think is important is you guys need to tell me what works and what doesn’t work. I would love to hear your feedback. We are going to also have a blog that goes along with the show. We’re going to have the show in audio and video, and then the third component is going to be the blog. We are going to put all of the information about each episode, and it’s going to be jam-packed with resources and contact information for every guest that’s on the episode. You’re going to find the blog on NoWomanLeftBehind.com. All of that is going to be contained.
This is going to be a fantastic menu. We’re going to have some amazing conversations, and more than anything, I want this show to be a resource for you to be able to continue to advance in your career so that you can have the career and the life of your dreams. Thank you for being here. Thank you for reading. I will always end my episode by telling you to be brave, be bold, and take action. Until next time.
Rosie Zilinskas is a leadership coach and expert in “Career Progression.” She is an executive vice president specializing in high-net-worth personal insurance, with just under 30 years of experience climbing the corporate ladder.
Rosie is an international bilingual speaker, executive career coach, podcast host, author, and corporate trainer. She appeared on podcasts, such as “Bravehearts Radio,” “The Driven Entrepreneur,” and “Lead at any Level.” She was also a featured storyteller at “The People Tree.”
Rosie is the creator of the Corporate Ladder Kickstart Formula, which helps individuals take command of their profession. She has helped dozens of people obtain the promotion they sought to shred the frustration of a dead-end position. Rosie is a first-generation Mexican American and fluent in Spanish. She is living proof that you really can have it all and move up the ladder of success despite the odds.
