Stout Takeaways From The Ellevate Austin “It’s Up To Us” Panel

Stout Takeaways From The Ellevate Austin “It’s Up To Us” Panel

Find out how women today are stepping up in unprecedented ways to end inequality and to tackle our world’s biggest challenges.

We’ve got the #StoutTakeaways from the dynamic panel of change-makers at the Ellevate Austin It’s Up To Us event moderated by Kim Barnes of Barnes Team Media:
Tequila Brinson – Personal & Career Coach Google
• Kim Carpenter – Founder, World Changing Women
Denise Hamilton – Founder, Watch Her Work
Kathy Terry – inLieu.com
Janet Zaretsky – Master Professional Executive Coach

 

In honor of International Women’s Day, The Austin Chapter of Ellevate (a national networking organization for women) kicked off their It’s Up to Us panel series. A group of dedicated change makers, enterprising entrepreneurs and business women gathered to do what they do best, step up to solve problems and continue the dialogue on advancing, empowering and elevating women. Here are some of our favorite #Stouttakeaways from the panel. For an even deeper dive, You can watch to the panel in its entirety here.


Tequila Brinson
Google Internship Programs Recruiting Diversity & Inclusion Specialist

Tequila is a specialist in building and diversifying the internship pipeline for underrepresented talent for Software Engineering roles. She is committed to the work of making sure Representation for all backgrounds and ethnicities is Equitable at Google.

We are capable of so much more that we THINK we are.

On Facing A Challenge

Brinson’s daughter faced an illness, pushed herself through it and taught herself to do everything she needed to support the career she wanted. So now when Brinson faces a challenge and finds herself questioning her ability she say “Is this really harder than that? That thing I know someone else faced and came through? The answer is usually NO, so I say OK then solider up – you CAN do it.”



Kim Carpenter, Founder of World Changing Women

Kim Carpenter
Founder of World Changing Women

Kim is a marketing/branding expert, executive coach and Founder of World Changing Women, where she helps women stand out, scale up and make an impact. Kim has mentored hundreds of entrepreneurial women in how to know themselves as the world-changers they are so they can make their greatest contribution to humanity. Her career began in 1996, leading accounts in New York City’s top marketing agencies where her client roster included The United Nations, MasterCard, Blue Shield, Nike, Pepsi and Office Max.

Believe that your are a badass.

On Knocking Down Doors

Carpenter stressed that it’s crucial to let go of the tendency to feel it’s wrong to focus on looking out for yourself. Don’t let “wanting to be liked” stop you from taking charge and doing the things that will get you noticed and move you up. Don’t wait hopefully behind the door for opportunity to come to you – knock down the door and show everyone why you belong there.



Denise Hamilton, Founder and CEO of WatchHerWork

Denise Hamilton
Founder and CEO of WatchHerWork

Denise Hamilton is the founder and CEO of WatchHerWork, a learning platform for professional women and the leaders who support inclusion. Denise is a highly requested speaker, consultant and media personality who has presented to Fortune 500 companies, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions and professional organizations all over the US. She is currently the host of Lifetime’s “Project Comeback.”

Master yourself and you’ll master the world.

On The Importance of Finding A Trusted Tribe

Hamilton’s advice was two fold – It’s important to have a network of like-minded support but while you are building that tribe, be sure to ask yourself “What happens if you don’t do great today?”. As Hamilton says “Watch where you bleed- don’t cry to everybody.”. Everyone has setbacks, everyone has triumphs- be sure the group you build will be strong for each other through good and bad.



Kathy Terry, CEO, inLieu

Kathy Terry
CEO, inLieu

Kathy Terry is the co-founder of P.Terry’s Restaurant in Austin. She and her husband, Patrick, have a heart for philanthropy, and through their stewardship, the restaurant chain has donated over $1MM to date, all benefiting local nonprofits. But Kathy didn’t stop there – in 2018 she launched an all-new mobile app called inLieu: the first social giving app where users can make donations and share a personal message with a friend, anytime, anywhere.

We have way more in common than we think-we need to share our experience and access.

On Expanding Your Viewpoint

Terry said backpacking at 24 for 6 months helped her see how lucky she was to have the advantages of a loving family and ability to get an education and how much we need to share that access and change the language that excludes, marginalizes or block opportunities for people on the basis of inherent bias- such as sex or ethnicity – that distorts perception of ability.



Janet Zaretsky, Founder Empowered Women Enterprises and Co-Founder Impact Speaking Lab

Janet Zaretsky
Founder Empowered Women Enterprises and Co-Founder Impact Speaking Lab

Janet is a master professional executive coach, trainer, author, and speaker that helps people unleash their brilliance, confidence and visibility in the world. Janet has worked with over 33,000 people in the past 24 years. She is a two-time TEDX and Keynote Speaker, a corporate trainer and expert in communication and leadership, an International Coach Federation member, Certified Conversational Intelligence Coach, Certified in Behavioral Style Instruments, graduate of Coach U, former senior program leader for Landmark Worldwide and Co-founder of Impact Speaking Lab.

It’s YOUR life. You should do what you want to do…and if you’re not fulfilled change it.

On Retraining Your Brain

Zaretsky talked about how brain patterns that were often set when we were young are not serving us now. If we can discover and pay attention to them, we can retrain ourselves to stop the negative loops they put us into. For instance if you have “imposter syndrome” find examples of where you have performed positively and reinforce those to yourself daily. Look for and train yourself to believe the evidence of how great you really are!

Want more?

Watch the entire Ellevate Austin “It’s Up to Us” panel for more female forward empowerment moments. And visit our Stoutways archives for in-depth insights from other women entrepreneurs and thought leaders.