Romy Newman — We Can All Do So Much More Than We Think We Can Do
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Romy Newman is the co-founder of Fairygodboss, a free, anonymous employer review site for women by women. Romy was the Head of Digital Advertising for The Wall Street Journal before she became an entrepreneur. Romy shares her tips on how to make the leap into becoming an entrepreneur, sell yourself without being icky, and making conscious networking efforts even if you’ve been out of the workforce for 20-plus years!

Key takeaways:

• Romy’s co-founder found out she was two months pregnant after she got let go from her job. That sparked a search in trying to find the best places to work for working moms.
• Better decisions are made by diverse groups of decision-makers.
• The United States is the only developed country in the world that doesn’t have a federally-mandated maternity leave program.
• How did Romy go from being an executive to an entrepreneur?
• When she gave birth to her son, things changed drastically for her. Could she do both?
• Romy felt incredibly guilty, despite her company being completely accommodating to Romy having a child.
• You can do so much more than what you went to school for. At first, Romy didn’t think she could!
• It all boils down to your network. Ask them for coffee and be prepared to get rejected. Don’t take it personally!
• How do you stop putting limitations on yourself?
• If you were trying to sell your best friend, how would you approach it?
• How does Fairygodboss work?
• What’s next for the future of work?

Resources:

Fairygodboss.com)

Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead,) by Sheryl Sandberg and Neil Scovell)

Quotes:

“What you see is large companies do set the standard and raise the bar around paid maternity leave. By positioning more women in leadership roles, it’ll hopefully start to influence our country towards more gender-equal policies and programs.”

“There is a real benefit, there’s a lot your children will benefit from by seeing you work.”

“We can all do so much more than we think we can do.”