IAM1323 – CEO Prepares Young Women for Success in Entrepreneurial Careers

Author Sylvia R.J. Scott has dedicated her career to empowering up-and-coming female professionals all over the world. She is the founder of Girls’ C.E.O Connection and the creator of numerous educational initiatives designed to teach, motivate, and prepare young women for successful entrepreneurial careers. Through her book, mentoring programs, presentations, and events, Sylvia shares stories, advice and skill-building pearls women everywhere can use to build their futures.

A natural-born connector with a keen talent for bringing out the best in others, Sylvia was named one of DataBird Business Journal’s most Inspiring Female Entrepreneurs in 2019. She served as an e-Mentor with the Institute for Economic Empowerment (Kabul, Afghanistan) and as a virtual business consultant for the Coachella Women’s Business Center (California).

• CEO Story: Started in 1997 with Self-Empowering women turned into entrepreneurship. Seeing the potential of young women during a Leadership Conference in 2003 they were asking for more. Sylvia developed a mentoring and coaching program with her team.
• Business Service: Entrepreneurial career, leadership, coaching, mentoring.
• Secret Sauce: Turning passion into a business, with real stories and advice.
• CEO Hack: Learning to look at how you react to things. Listening more and asking more questions. Take notes.
• CEO Nugget: Mastering your mind. Especially with social media that are not so great. Not taking everything so personally.
• CEO Defined: Faith, courage, and power to motivate others to accomplish the vision for your business. Engaging and empowering. Find the gems within your team and develop them.

Website: www.girlsceoconnection.com

Book: Realizing a Vision, Your Toolkit for Success. Words of Wisdom for Young Female Entrepreneurs

LinkedIn: sylviarjscott

Facebook: GirlsCEOConnection

Twitter: GirlsCEOConnect

YouTube: bit.ly/2HTgkAG

Pinterest: GrlsCEOConnect

Instagram: girlsceoconnection

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Full Interview:

Transcription

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00:18 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:45 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest back on the show. I have Sylvia Scott of Girls CEO Connections. Sylvia, always a pleasure to have you on the show.

00:55 – Sylvia Scott

Oh, thank you, Gresh. I'm excited to be here. I'm always excited to be talking to you. And I'm especially excited this time because this is Women's Entrepreneurship Month and my book is coming out.

01:06 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, absolutely. Definitely an action-packed month, to say the least. There are so many great things that I know that you do for women entrepreneurs and of course your book and all the awesome things that we're gonna cover a little bit on the show. And before we do that, of course, I want to read a little bit more about Sylvia so I can hear about some of those awesome things. And Sylvia R.J. Scott has dedicated her career to empowering up-and-coming female professionals all over the world. She is the founder of Girls CEO Connection and a creator of numerous educational initiatives designed to teach, motivate, and prepare young women for successful entrepreneurial careers.

Through her book, realizing a Vision, Your Toolkit for Success words of wisdom for young female entrepreneurs, mentoring programs, presentations, and events. Sylvia shares stories, advice, and skill-building pearls women everywhere can use to build their futures. A natural born connector with a keen talent for bringing out the best in others, Sylvia was named one of Data Bird's business journals' most inspiring female entrepreneurs in 2019.

She served as an e-mentor with the Institute for Economic Empowerment in Kabul, Afghanistan, and as a virtual business consultant for Coachella's Women's Business Center in California. And of course, she was a guest on episode number 1209 of our podcast as well too. So Sylvia, love having you back on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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02:26 – Sylvia Scott

Really I am. Thank you.

02:28 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely, well, let's do it then. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. I know it's Heshauna, but hear a little bit more about what you've been able to do and what you have definitely packed in your book as well.

02:39 – Sylvia Scott

Okay. This idea actually came for self-empowering young women back in 1997, but I turned it into entrepreneurship. After I had been in the, like 2003, when I was conference manager for the Women's Leadership Exchange. And I saw how dynamic and how strong women entrepreneurs were and the self-commonness they had. And I could see that in young women. And that by being an entrepreneur, that really made a difference in the young women that I met. So I thought the great thing was I was going to start with a conference, which was fine.

But then after we did a couple of them and the girls wanted more and I developed a team board, we decided to change it from just not only doing conferences but doing mentoring, coaching, interviewing women, or now it's younger women entrepreneurs on YouTube, putting them on their website so girls can hear what they have to say about starting and growing their businesses. And then we turn those into podcasts. I have a team board of which I'm looking for new young women ambassadors now because the others have graduated from my school, they're in college and it's always great to have them.

In fact, I had a great editorial team of girls from Chicago that helped edit the book, Realizing a Vision, Your Toolkit for Success. And so they really got in helping over like 2 years actually of working with me on the book. I had girls in California that helped with it. So what I've done with the business is try to get as many young females that are interested in entrepreneurship or involved in entrepreneurship now involved into what they would like to learn or see expand on. And we're going more, we're gonna be doing a little bit more with coaching on communication skills. So that's where we're headed.

And now that the pandemic is over, I'm hoping to get back to doing live conferences because you know how much teenagers don't like Zoom. Zoom conferences are not for teenagers. So I want to get back to the real-life conferences that we do at a university that is appealing or you want the girls to go to if they want to go to college. So hopefully in the next couple of cases, about 3 or 4 months to plan it, get a new conference going. And that's where we bring in entrepreneurs that girls get a chance to meet, that they become role models, but we talk about specific topics, all of the soft skills. And that's what the book is about, soft skills that make women famous.

And that's what they've told me. Their soft skills. They may have a great business plan, know how to negotiate, they know how to watch their financials. But I'll tell you something, Gresham, especially for women if you don't have your soft skills down, that can throw you totally off. You cannot act like a man in business. When you're a woman entrepreneur, there are skills that you need to develop that will take your business further than you ever expected, as well as yourself in the community.

05:57 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. So I want us to drill down a little bit more into your book. I know we touched on a little bit. I think, you know, you mentioned some of the things that were there. Can you tell us a little bit more about what we can find in your book and all the awesomeness that you have there?

06:09 – Sylvia Scott

So the book has 10 chapters, and it's broken down to starting with your passion and the importance of passion and taking your passion and turning it into a business. Some of the examples I use are girls that did take their passion and turned it into a business. They didn't let somebody change it. They didn't let somebody say, well, that's nice, but this is what I think you should be doing. And then there's a couple of stories about girls that came up, they had a great passion, but then they weren't able to take that, say, exact passion, say, to be a ballet dancer, that exact passion because of something that happened.

So what could they take as far as a passion for ballet and turn it into a business, developing the leadership within and not being afraid? And so I have a chapter on mastering your mind because you can't master your mind, you can't master your business or your life. And as I wrote that chapter about not losing your temper, stepping back, and digging.

07:13 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, yeah, I love that. And especially your ability, and it might even be part of the secret sauce, I guess of the book is being able to kind of blend each of those aspects because it's not just, sounds like it's not just the, you know, the words of wisdom, the nuggets as I like to call them, but you also have activities. It sounds like you have real stories. So it's not just you saying these things. It actually has things that have manifested itself in interactions that you've had or been able to do. It sounds like you've been able to kind of blend all of those aspects into the book so that people can, of course, the young women can of course hit the ground running.

07:46 – Sylvia Scott

Right, that's it. Because I do, I interviewed and interviewed some of the young, women entrepreneurs. And then the women that started the alternative hair color company, Manic Panic, you know, Their crazy colors back in the days of the 70s are still in business. And they come up with, you know, they're in the story about, you know, being persistent and not giving up and just keeping moving forward.

08:15 – Gresham Harkless

Right. That makes sense. And so I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

08:29 – Sylvia Scott

I think now after writing the book, and I'm looking at everything that I put in it, it's making me really look at how I act, how I respond. And by taking those nuggets out of the book and applying it to myself, that's really made a difference. As well as realizing, you know, you always say you can't do it by yourself. I think too many women try to do things by themselves. Well, this is what I learned and what I will hold on to. I had a teen editorial board, the girls from Chicago, and having them involved and listening to them.

And this is what I've really gotten into more that I'd like to say is listening more and hearing what other people had to say in their input and asking more questions and keeping precise notes. That's making me more efficient. And I've just run into that again, too. It's like, I have to pay attention and listen and not let my mind wander and take notes and then ask more questions so that I know that I'm on top of things.

And that means I have fewer problems with having to run back and look at my emails and say, wait, wait, somebody said this, wait, wait, wait, you know, stop wasting time and putting it all in a notebook now. I learned this from writing the book, But listening to what the girls had to say and what other people knew and taking precise notes, that's keeping me more productive. And I would say that for anybody, listen, listen, listen, and ask, ask, ask.

10:13 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I love that, you know, those actions because so many times we can fall in love with the things that we create, whether it be books or products or services, but it's so important to kind of listen and remember why we're ultimately doing what we're doing is often to be able to serve a community. So it's so important to listen to ask questions and drill down more so that we can of course be of service as best as possible. And so I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this is a little bit more of a word of wisdom or piece of advice. I would love it if it's something, a chapter, or maybe your top nugget that you feel like you have written in your book that we can all learn from or even young women can learn from. But do you have a CEO nugget that will be extremely impactful that you've covered in your book?

10:56 – Sylvia Scott

I think mastering your mind. That to me, I think, is so key anymore because we have so much stuff going on and so many things happening on social media that aren't so great, people cutting each other down, people doing this, doing that. But thinking to myself, just mastering what's happening in my mind and not taking everything so personal and stepping back from like what's happened on social media, what's happening around the world, and not taking everything so personal because it's not your fault.

A lot of these things just aren't your fault. They're not my fault. And I had finally learned that it's not my fault all the time. And so by writing a book, but laying that mastering your mind, and not jumping off the edge all at once, because somebody says something to me that hits me the wrong way, boy, I used to just jump at everything. And now it's just step back and think, okay, what does this mean? Or should I even care about it? Maybe it's just there, it's taking my mind away from something I should be paying attention to. And so mastering my mind, mastering your mind is something I think is really important.

12:23 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show, but from the Girls Connections CEO founder, I wanted to ask you what being a CEO means to you, Sylvia.

12:37 – Sylvia Scott

To gauge, empower, encourage, and motivate others to accomplish the vision for your business or the vision for themselves or your vision yourself, But then also means independence and responsibility. And I think it goes along with engaging and the empowering, but then with the responsibility is when you look at your team as a CEO, instead of saying, oh, I need another person for this, or we need this, or we need that, look within your team and see what nuggets are there. What 10 gems are in your team members? When you find those, develop them, and motivate your team members before you go outside, because chances are there are people there who have the talents and the skills that you need, you just haven't seen them yet.

Being a CEO means to find them bring them out and help them develop them. And that way you still have your team but they're expanding into new areas. So that's one thing that I think of being a CEO and creating that environment where you can find that, where they can learn and where they can grow together no matter how long they've been together. But finding those little hidden gems of expertise in your team members and then the environment to help it grow. That's to me being a CEO.

14:07 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Well Sylvia, truly appreciate that definition. I, of course, appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do now was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people can get on view, find out about the organization, get a copy of the book, and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

14:27 – Sylvia Scott

The book will be on Amazon. I will put it on the link to Amazon will also be on the website on my website girlsceoconnection.com. There's a page about realizing a vision, there's a page on the book. And the girl's CEO connection is https://www.girlsceoconnection.com. And we're on Instagram, Facebook group, and Pinterest. I'm gonna start doing more. Well, we've got several videos and doing more videos.

So one thing, If you know a young entrepreneur, or a young woman entrepreneur that you would like me to know about, please send me an email at sylvia@girlceoconnection.com and send me their website. And even if it's you, Go ahead and do that because I'm looking for you more young women entrepreneurs to interview. They go on YouTube, they go on our website video page, and we turn it into a podcast. A lot of times I'll do blog posts on it, But it's a great way for others to learn from them.

15:37 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, very, very exciting. No, I definitely appreciate all the awesome work that you're doing. Obviously, the time that you took today, we will have the links and information in the show notes. But I love how you're creating that environment so that the women entrepreneurs, the young women entrepreneurs, all the people that are involved with the organization as well too can be successful and have that environment of success because I think so many times realizing a vision is about sometimes hearing that it is even a possibility. So I love that you created that environment and continue to do that in so many different ways. I appreciate you and I hope you have a phenomenal day.

16:08 – Sylvia Scott

Thank you. Thank you so much, Gresham. I really appreciate being on the show today as always, but this is especially great with Women's Entrepreneurship Month.

16:16 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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