The Nudge Series #8: 20 Best Tips from Women Entrepreneurs And CEOs

Happy 2020!

I hope you all have had a great start to the year and have put your goals into fast-gear. I would like to dedicate my first blog post of 2020 to share the top tips I have found from some fierce businesswomen. The smartest way for a career-minded, entrepreneurial woman to get to her highest level is to learn from all the girl bosses that came before her.  

I hope that these tips will serve as guidance to help you all reach success.

 1. “Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life, because you become what you believe.” — Oprah Winfrey

2. “Working out is a great way to network with current friends and meet new ones. It’s also the perfect way to get my endorphins up to take on the day.” — Jenny Fleiss, co-founder of Rent the Runway

3. “ […] I learned that with a company, if you’re not there every day, it’s never going to be done the way that you want.” — Sarah Michelle Gellar, co-founder of Foodstirs

4. “Show up in every single moment like you’re meant to be there.” – Marie Forleo, author of Everything is Figureoutable 

5. “‘Trust the process!’ Building a company is full of ups and downs and lots of mistakes. It’s important to not get discouraged from the downs, learn from mistakes and stay focused on that end goal.” — Nicole Gibbons, founder of Clare Paint

6. “Whatever it is that you think you want to do, and whatever it is that you think stands between you and that, stop making excuses. You can do anything.” — Katia Beauchamp, co-founder and CEO of Birchbox

7. “I think the most important thing I want people to know is that if you love it, then you should do it, which really speaks to everything in life.” — Leanne Ford, star of HGTV’s Restored by the Fords

8. “I never really like to see myself as the queen. I’m not playing queen, I don’t want to be the queen. I’m the boss. I’m the mother, I’m the boss, I’m in charge of my decisions with my team. I try to make the best of myself, to accomplish something, to always put the bar as high as I can.” — Celine Dion

9. “Define success in your own terms, achieve it by your own rules, and build a life you’re proud to live.” — Anne Sweeney, co-chair of Disney Media Networks

10. “Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know. That can be your greatest strength and ensure that you do things differently from everyone else.” — Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx

11. “Women still represent only 5 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs. And more worrisome is that the number has been stagnant for a decade. What hasn’t changed fast enough is our acceptance and encouragement of female leadership. That’s goes for all of us—parents, teachers, managers, society, everyone.” — Sheryl Sandberg

12. “You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all — in which case, you fail by default.” — J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter creator and author

13. “We’re all born with innate qualities to lead, but it takes a lot of practice.” — Anna Maria Chávez

14. “What has always made our country special is that it doesn’t matter where you come from; it matters where you’re going. Our job is to make certain the pathways are open to both our boys and our girls.” — Condoleezza Rice

15. “The power lunch is no longer just for men. We all deserve a seat at the table.” — Whitney Wolfe Herd, CEO of Bumble

16. “If you want to be successful, and you want to have kids, hopefully you find a partner that believes in your success and wants to distribute that weight across the household.” — Lindsay Kaplan, co-founder of Chief

17. “When you’re coming up to the starting line of a really big race, I feel a lot of anxiety—and it’s a very similar feeling when walking into a big meeting and you’re hearing all of that self talk. Things like, ‘I’m not sure that I can do this.’ Your palms are starting to sweat, your heart is starting to rate. I just always tell myself, ‘I can do anything for 10 minutes, I can get through the next 10 minutes.’ And the reality is, you get into that big meeting and that 10 minutes go by and you’re in the groove, you’re calm, and you’re realizing you can handle it and you can just keep going. So I really talk to myself about getting through that first 10 minutes—whether it’s a meeting or a race.” — Naomi Furgiuele, founder of Nuria Beauty 

18. “Be unwavering in the space you take up, and unapologetic about how you present yourself. We don’t all look the same, talk the same, or even share the same nationality, so be wary of anyone who tries to put you in a box. Embrace your uniqueness because that is ultimately why others will follow you.” — Emerald Pellot, founder of intersectional feminist accessories line GRL TRBL

19. “Many of us are very ambitious and it’s easy to overlook your personal life and to forget how important it is.” — Lisa Ling, reporter

20. “The icon and activist Dolores Huerta once gave me the best piece of advice: Know your story. When we are rooted in who we are,  and truth of our own experience, then we can proudly tell our own stories and own our narrative instead of having others tell us who we are.” — Robyn Moreno, co-president @Latina, Emmy-nominated TV host, author and blogger at robynmoreno.com