I did a thing. A full-time j-o-b-job thing.

I'm back on my advancing women thing.

Joining the Cru

Last week I announced that I did a thing. Like a big thing. Like a get-a-j-o-b-job-JOB thing. I am thrilled to join Founder and CEO Tiffany Dufu on her mission to advance women at The Cru by joining as their new Chief Operating Officer. Tiffany embodies badassery, and we felt that zing of kinship and energy at our first real conversation. I’m excited to support her vision, and I’m going to learn ton too, which is no small thing.

As my post on LinkedIn explains, it wasn’t a given I’d ever dive back in to start-up life after nine years co-leading BlogHer with my #forevercofounders Lisa Stone and Jory Des Jardins, and another 2.5 years working with our acquiring company to make the integration work.

For one, I felt it was unlikely I could replicate the BlogHer experience. Nor did I feel the need to. I interviewed Sarah Michelle Gellar a couple of times, and I asked her if being part of something so iconic, of really becoming iconic, so young had put undue pressure on all her ensuing life decisions. She replied that it was the opposite. That it was liberating to have created a legacy already that no one could take away from her. (My commentary with hindsight: Not even finding out that creator Joss Whedon is a horrible person.) That if she was remembered only as Buffy, that would be pretty awesome. Later everything she said came back to me and really resonated.

I’ve had two such liberating moments in my life. When I was 25 I decided that the certainty I’d had for a decade that I wanted to move to New York, live there forever, and pursue an acting career was no longer so certain. That, in fact, I was ready to go back to California and apply my energy and talents to other pursuits in addition to, and eventually instead of, acting. When you’re 25, and you’ve only planned for one future, that blank slate can be daunting, no doubt. But I also truly felt I could decide to do anything because every thing would be just as daunting and different than I had planned.

It instilled in me a belief that persists that I can do anything. I first went into the financial sector, including working with numbers after being a math-phobic teenager. And then when I decided to “give tech a try” I figured I could learn that, just like I learned what I needed to be in finance. Turns out I was right. (The fact is that YOU can probably learn entirely new things too. When considering an opportunity that makes you nervous, remember this: It is far more likely that you won’t like doing the thing than that you will be unable to do the thing.)

For a second thing, it was far from certain I could find another mission I would care passionately enough about to give all my time to. Via my consulting and freelance work I got to work with great organizations doing impactful work. There were things I didn’t like about solopreneur life, for sure, but the variety and the people I got to work with were not among those things. There was even a time when I thought maybe the mission of empowering and advancing women didn’t have to remain my thing.

Ha! It’s like the world conspired to tell me “not so fast” amirite?

It’s unfathomable to me that the fight for women’s empowerment, autonomy, liberation, and equality is even more important today than at any time during my last two decades working on those issues.

But here we are. And here is The Cru. Bringing women together into small groups to support one another and hold one another accountable to achieve our biggest life goals and intentions. And bringing women together, as a community, to remind us that woman, individually, are capable, and women, together, are powerful.

More women in power, in every hall of power. More women controlling the levers of not just justice, but economics and capitalism itself. That’s what I want. Without it, that’s what I fear will forever keep us second class citizens. I have talked about women and the halls of power for twenty years. And I’ve worked toward elevating more women to be there.

I’m not done talking, and I’m not done working, and I’m not done doing.

Now is the time, and The Cru is my mission.

LFG.

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Two things you can do right now:

1. Join us on Thursday July 21st for a free, half-day virtual Summit.

2. Join us and get connected to your Cru to start working more deliberately toward your life intentions. Applications are open until July 31 to join Crus being matched for September, and it’s the last time this year we’re doing Cru matches this year. Membership is super affordable, but I even have a special “Elisa got a new job” discount for you…enter “InElisasCru” and get 50% off the annual membership fee.

JOIN ME!!

Last week-ish

Last week was a bear, I’ll admit. We were doing some major team work on objectives and priorities over the week to position ourselves for success in Q3. All while the cloud of American politics hung over us. SCOTUS had an epic week of what I consider the worst kind of unAmerican fanatical corruption of the Court’s theoretical purpose.

This robust article from the Center for American Progress outlines a series of recommendations on how to try to de-radicalize the Court (and more broadly, the judiciary) for now and the future, plus some recommendations on steps that could be taken on a some issues despite the radicalization of this Court.

The article doesn’t have all the answers or even all the solutions I might agree with, but in the spirit of #RoadMap4Revs, what it does have is a list of things for which to advocate and actions on which to focus, and we all just need to pick some, or even just one, if that’s all you can manage, There’s no coming back from this if the majority of us don’t stand up. And speak. And act. So in a completely different tone, I again say: LFG.

Coming this week-ish

I have one thing to recommend you do this week, and it’s tomorrow (Wednesday): The Cru has a partnership with [Bright}, and we’ll be presenting several speakers over the next months. Tomorrow 3PM PT/6PM ET, join Precious Williams to learn about The Perfect Pitch. Precious is a national expert on the art of the Pitch, in all its applications and forms. Whether you need to improve how you pitch your company to investors or your products and services to prospects, Precious is your go-to-resource. The beauty part of this is that your ticket includes the recording, so you have it as an evergreen resource. Sign up here.

In the meantime, please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts on any or all of the above. This is basically my blog now! As always I appreciate a share of this newsletter or my podcast. Finally, you can always check out my LinkedIn Learning Course, Telling Stories That Stick, a 57-minute course on crafting your stories for different audiences (media, investors, prospects, hiring managers) and making sure those stories stick…and convey exactly what you hope to convey.